When
no one answered Barb’s question, Su Le went to investigate. Perhaps she had a
customer. Barb and Penny turned their attention to their projects and Aggie
closed the door on the restroom.
Suddenly,
Malcolm burst into the studio, his big arm wrapped around Su so her upper body
almost disappeared in his grip. In the other hand, he held a small gun.
“Oh, my God,” Penny said.
“What the—” Barb jumped to her feet.
“Sit down and shut up!” Malcolm said in a
gruff voice.
“No way, you bum.” Barb lunged across the
table. Malcolm tightened his grip on Su and met Barb’s forehead with his gun.
“No, please, no!” Su said. “Just take the
money and go.”
“You! Take that tape over there and tape that
bitch’s mouth shut.” Malcolm pushed Su in the direction of a roll of duct tape
sitting atop the boxes of clay. Barb
locked eyes with the determined man and saw a spark of madness that made her
step back.
“I’ll be quiet,” she said.
“Tape her mouth,” Malcolm repeated. “And her
arms, too. Over here, sit over here.” He tapped the back of one of the metal
folding chairs with his gun.
Su
pulled a little bit of tape off the roll, then told Malcolm she needed to get
the scissors. She walked to the cabinet by the back door and Malcolm followed
her. When she opened the drawer a little, he yanked it from her hand and sent
the contents spilling across the floor. She screamed and jumped away from him.
“Pick up the scissors,” he said pointing to a
pair in the middle of the floor. “Just don’t try anything stupid.”
“No, no,” Su said, holding her hands up. “We
not do anything stupid. You take the money now. You go.”
“Tape up your friends first,” Malcolm said
motioning with his gun.
Su did
as she was told, first Barb and then Penny, a strip of tape across the mouth, a
couple of bands around the arms and the
back of the chair. Penny was whimpering.
“We mothers,” Su said. “She has little ones.
You no hurt mothers.”
“No one’s going to get hurt if you do as I
say,” Malcolm said, his voice rising.
“Now bring me the purses.”
Su
picked up the two purses on the floor by Penny. Suddenly she remembered Aggie
in the restroom. Her eyes caught Penny’s.
“Bring ’em here, and that one, too.” Malcolm
indicated Barb’s small purse hanging on the back of the chair. Su took the three purses to Malcolm. Hers was
in the front room, under the cash register, but maybe he wasn’t counting.
Malcolm
hung the small purse over his neck and opened up one of the bigger ones.
“Okay, let’s empty that cash register into
here,” he said, handing the purse to Su. She was walking forward hesitantly to
take the outstretched purse when the restroom door opened.
Lightning
fast, Malcolm spun and shot toward the unexpected sound. The bullet hit Aggie
smack in the middle of the splotch of green paint on her forehead. The force
blew her body back into the tiny restroom.
‘Now, look what you made me do,” he grumbled.
What
happened next seemed in slow motion, each reaction, each movement seeming
separate and yet somehow all happening at once.
Penny
jumped up with so much adrenalin that she fell, chair and all, across the
table, sending a half-painted Christmas tree crashing to the floor. Su took advantage of the distraction to lurch
into the aisles of greenware.
“Damn bitches,” Malcolm shouted, turning to
chase after Su. His big arm reached out and grabbed her long ponytail. She
screamed as he pulled her to the ground.
“Stupid, stupid,” he said with an evil
chuckle. He yanked Su up until her face
was just under his goatee and looked her in the eye. Pulling a switchblade from his pocket, he
slashed her throat with such force that he almost severed her head.
Violence
seemed to feed him like stoking a flame, and he roared with delight. Penny was rolling helplessly about amid the
soft clay pieces on the table and couldn’t see what had happened to Su, but
Barb could see and started pushing herself backward in the chair, trying to get
away.
Malcolm
grabbed Penny by the hair.
“Look
at the mess you’re making,” he chided, and slit her throat, too.
“Now,
who’s going to clean this up?” he said, as he headed toward Barb.
