Week 34: Annah Kim Nelson- Feeney- Midnight Daydream

Full Prompt: “Midnight daydream”

Story:He held his revolver straight out. His grip firm, his arm strong. He couldn’t quite make out what was in front of him but he knew it to be a threat. He squinted his eyes, trying to force the haze to dissipate, force the threat to light. His weapon was warm in his hand. The trigger ablaze. Sweat broke across his brow as he struggled to hold on. “Gah!” He woke covered in sweat and immediately extinguished the cigarette that had burned down to his fingertips. With the blackout curtains in his room he sometimes couldn’t tell what time of day it was, if it was day at all. A feature of the establishment he took issue with. He sat a while longer wrestling with coming back from the dream that had just gripped him- it took him a minute. But most of his dreams had been of this variety since he’d moved into Shaded Palms. His clock shown brightly in the dark room, midnight on the dot. He chuckled to himself. In his younger days, private investigator, Dirk Marlowe had come to life at midnight. Now as he aged, his sleeping patterns had become even more unreliable. He pulled himself from his old leather chair and hobbled to his bed. “What was I aiming at?” He thought to himself as he laid down for the rest of the evening.

Dirk Marlowe had always refused a wheelchair. The man was determined if nothing else. Determined to do things on his own steam, two legs or just the one. He capably made his way to the cafeteria- something he referred to as the Mess Hall. Dirk had only been an early riser in his youth if the case had necessitated it. Nothing in this place necessitated anything, but he still managed to make it for the tail end of breakfast most days.

“Coffee Mr. Marlowe?”

“Black, please, ma’am. Thank you.”

He sat down at a small circular table near a window with his back to a corner. All exits were in full view, a habit he had never let go of. He sipped his mug of coffee and while he examined his grapefruit utensil.

“Stumpy.” A man said, in affectionate greeting as he sat down next to Dirk at the table.

“Cardio.” Dirk acknowledged his new guest.

“Haha, well, now they’re sayin’ the old ticker’s only got about two weeks left. Then, if you don’t hear from me, don’t come lookin’.”

“If we don’t hear from you in two weeks, huh?…”

Dirks eyes glazed over as he stared at the deformed reflection in the concave surface of his spoon. The phrase his friend uttered had just triggered a memory. He closed his eyes as it clawed its way forward from the back of his mind.

***

I help Gloria to lie down on the couch. The color is coming back to her face as I get her a glass of water and exchange it for the note she’s got crumpled in her fist. The shipping magnate’s office has got a wall of windows with a view of the pier out to endless sea. I flatten out the paper in order to read what had gotten Harry’s assistant so worked up she almost fainted.

“If you don’t hear further instructions in the next two weeks, there’ll be no point in looking for me. There’s a safety deposit box at Wernstrom & Gates: G7652- Everything you need will be in there. Truly, Harry.”

At the bottom of the note there were two tears in the paper. Something had been taped to it. Undoubtedly the key. Did I think Gloria had overreacted to what was written on this note? Maybe. Did I ‘truly’ know the extent of the relationship between her and my old friend? No.

“Can you walk, kid. We need to do some banking.”

Twenty minutes later we’re leaving the lobby of one of the smallest banks in the city that still offers safety deposit boxes.

“Dirk, that was simply marvelous. Of course you must of deduced that Harry would have approved my ID to access the box- he left me that letter. But where did you learn to pick locks that quickly? AND that discretely? Marvelous Just Marvelous. I thought we were sunk the minute we walked in. Okay, Come now. Let me see what was in the box.”

I had pulled from the box one single item. A photograph. It had taken every ounce of my composure to remain calm and act as if it’s what I expected. It was far from it. Gloria’s chattering abruptly ceased before she stated in hushed and worried tone:

“Dirk, did you see that?”

“What’s that?”

“Someone is following us.”

I’ve made it a habit of checking most reflective surfaces I walk past- it’s nice to know when you’ve got a tail, hell I do it in my sleep. It’s a reflex. No one is following us.

“Gloria, no one is following us.”

“I saw him outside the bank before we went in and just now again…”

::BANG::

A familiar but unwelcome sensation takes hold of me. Lead forces itself through my flesh, sending my nervous system into high alert. Shock begins to take hold as I fall to my knees. I hear Gloria scream just before I pass out.

***

“Mr. Marlowe…”

“Gloria? Are you okay?” He offered to the feminine voice before he looked up.

“Mr. Marlowe, my name is Patricia. You know that.” The orderly kindly corrected the aged man sitting before her.

He had been pulled back to the present from his memory. From his daydream. From his memory of a daydream?

“Yes, of course. Patricia, thank you.” He hazily replied.

“It’s time for your pills”

“Yeah… my meds…They don’t seem to be doing anything.”

“Now Mr. Marlowe, of course they are. This is what your doctor has prescribed- It’s keeping your mind as stable as it is. With your episodes- could you imagine how it would be without proper medication?”

“I can imagine a lot. But fact. Facts are what I believe in.”

He slugged down the two, large, blue pills and flashed his customary grizzled smile at the orderly. Something was knocking at a door in his mind patiently waiting to be let in. Dirk Marlowe sat back in the chair at his breakfast table as the slightest smile crept across his face. “That’s it.”