Triple Impact

[cardenio1611]

Three women encountered Fate that day
Sad is the tale that we must tell
One was richened and one was hanged
And one was slowly sent to hell.

Linda Dunnington drove her red 1949 Cadillac Fleetwood slowly up the Tenwood County Road three miles from the train station, actively looking for a female hitchhiker. She had seen more than a dozen in the morning, mostly students from the women's college, and that had led her to develop her plan. She was getting anxious because she knew Tim was looking for her and the money. But so far, no one was walking along the road, man or woman.

Then, she saw one, a tall, slim brunette dressed in a white blouse, tan slacks, and black riding boots. She was the right size. "Can I give you a lift?" Linda asked as she rolled down the passenger’s window and pulled up to the woman.
"No," the walker said distractedly, trying to keep her eyes forward. "I live just over there," she gestured with a nod of her head in a northeasterly direction. "I'm looking for my white stallion that broke lose a few minutes ago. It’s just me because my hands walked off. Don't suppose you've seen him?"

"No, but I have the time. I'll drive you around," Linda offered as she put the car in park. “Or I can drive you into town where you can find help." All Linda wanted was to get the right type of body into the car, and her offer seemed likely to do that.
"All right, thanks," the woman said, still looking ahead, as she opened the passenger-side door and got in. "We can cover more ground--."

Linda brought the tire iron down onto the woman's head. Her head dropped back against the head rest, and her mouth popped open as a trickle of blood seeped from under her scalp line. Linda reached into her purse, pushing aside the thousand-dollar bills and took out a handkerchief that she immediately pressed against the woman's wound. "Now, now, can't let you bloody your clothes. I'll be needing those."

Putting the car in drive, Linda navigated onto a side road that led them down a hill and out of view of the highway. She walked around the passenger side, opened the door, and watched as the young woman fell out and lay flat on her bad in a patch of clover. Linda stooped and patted the woman's legs down, finding a wallet in the side pocket. "Diane Child," she read from the woman's driver's license. "And you do live over there." She tore the paper license into three pieces and tossed them into the bushes. "You won't be needing this. And I will be picking up my new identification and train ticket once I walk to town." Standing, Linda took off her black top and unzipped the matching dress, letting it fall to her feet. With her thumb, she pulled down her lace panties, unhooked the companion brassiere, unfastened the garter belt, and slid both stockings down and off her. She knelt down naked. unbuttoned Diane's blouse, and slid it off her, revealing a less expensive white bra and a taut, bare midriff. She reached down and yanked off the boots and white socks, finally pulling the slacks down and off. Linda appreciatively ran her hand up and down Diane's bare legs and arms. She turned, gathered up her underwear, and pulled the panties over Diane's feet. "Now we're going to make you look very wealthy. Everything's from Bonwit Teller," Linda said as she slid the dress over Diane's legs. She brought her bra up to Diane's full, firm breast and discovered it fit nicely.

Soon, Diane was completely dressed in Linda's outfit and lay like a very snazzy fallen soldier. Still naked, Linda knelt beside Diane, removed her engagement and wedding rings and her diamond pendant, and placed them on Diane. "Don't get excited," Linda informed the unconscious woman. "The stones are fake. I hocked the originals years ago. I’m giving them to you for identification purposes only." Linda rose and put on Diane's cheaper panties and bra, blouse, slacks, and boots. She reached into her purse again and removed a pint of cheap rye. Yanking Diane up by her sleeves into a sitting position, she pulled her head up by the hair and poured the liquor down her open mouth. "That's in case they find any of your stomach left and check it for alcohol." She poured the remainder of the bottle all over Diane’s hair, back, and front. "It'll help you burn beyond recognition as well as stink up the car to convince them you—I—was drunk. 'Linda Dunnington, Madcap Heiress Dies in Drunken Crash After Embezzling Father's Money,'" she quoted an imaginary future headline.

Linda dragged Diane back to the car and put her back in the passenger seat, "In case you're wondering, I'll drive the next part and pull you over just before the crash." She piloted the car back to the highway and steered with her left hand while holding onto the limp, drooling, and head flopping Diane with her right, looking for the place where the stone cliffs on the left disappeared and she could jump out while aiming car off the road and down the side of the mountain. Just then, a white stallion raced across the road heading for the same opening for which Linda was aiming. She jammed on the brakes, the horse raced by unharmed, but Diane’s boots, which Linda was unused to, slipped under the brake, the Cadillac spun in a complete circle causing the passenger door to fly open and off. Diana was thrown from the car, hit the asphalt, and rolled down the embankment while the car spun and slammed front first into the rock face, crushing the hood. Flames began to spread up the windshield while Linda, who was pinned, screaming, between the steering wheel and the seat, was burning, even without the aid of the cheap rye she had poured over Diane. The screaming stopped as her charred remains disappeared into flame and smoke.

Diane came to rest out of sight of the highway. Consequently, the ambulances and police cars didn’t see her, nor did their lights and sirens arouse her. Three hours later, her head throbbing, she struggled up. She was dazed and confused and didn’t notice that her fashionable clothes were muddied nor that they weren’t her clothes. As she rose, the purse that had become wound around her wrist in the car dangled from her arm. In a reflex, she flung it over her shoulder and began to walk, aimlessly, although her instinct directed her to walk in the direction of her house. She shuffled along, and her lack of awareness allowed her to slowly walk for an hour through bushes and briars without stopping.

Mary Lou was walking without purpose as well, although she was very self-aware. She was from the hill family known as the Kramdens who survived by selling moonshine, performing odd jobs for the townsfolk, and occasionally robbing them. She was blonde and buxom, especially seeming so because she usually wore her brothers’ shirts tied at the middle with her midriff bared and their jeans cut at half-thigh. Mary Lou wanted to go into town but had no money. And then she saw a well-dressed woman with a full purse hanging from her shoulder.

Mary Lou found a large rock on the ground, crept up behind Diane, and bounced it off the back of he head. Diane’s half-closed eyes popped over, glazed, and shut as she pitched forward, landing face first on the dry forest floor. Mary Lou turned over and stood up to appreciate the woman’s clothes. Muddied they were, but, if she thought that if she took them, she would wash them in the creek and dry them on tree branches. She didn’t debate the matter long as she quickly stripped Diane, leaving her naked again. The jewelry stood out on Diane’s bare skin. Mary Lou eagerly yanked them off and put them on. “This is my lucky day!” she decided aloud, banging her open hands on Diane's belly as if it were a drum. Disrobing herself in three seconds, she pulled on the stockings, garter belt and bra. She’d wait until the dress and jacket were cleaned and dried before she put them on, she decided and started to walk away. She then noticed the purse on the ground, casually opened it, and dropped it at the sight of all those thousand-dollar bills, causing some of them to fall on the dirt and leaves. “I am rich!” she shouted to no one in particular. Quickly, she calculated in her mind that she’d probably have to give half to her Pa but that she’d still have beautiful clothes and more money than she ever imagined she’d have. Walking away once more, she looked back at the naked woman and scoffed, “And you’ve got nothing.” As she headed to the creek, she wondered if she should go back to the woman and bash her head in. And yet, what could she do to me, having nothing, she smirked.

Diane lay there all night. There was a passing shower that didn’t wake her. It wasn’t until the rays of the half-day sun dried and warmed her that she stirred. She tried to sit up but ended up resting on her elbows. Looking down at her bare body, she moaned, “What the hell!” Scrambling up to a kneeling position, she tried to figure out where she was and how she had gotten there. But the last thing she remembered was looking for her horse. She recalled someone talking to her but had never turned to look at the person. On the ground, she spotted a man’s shirt torn at the midriff and shorts. Given the alternative, she put them on. It was then she noticed on the ground recently dried currency. There were six of them totaling $6,000. What on earth happened? she wondered, but she had no memory. She only had to walk a bit as her house was just ten minutes away, even on bare feet. Diane reached her house and saw that the stallion had returned to the barn on its own, walking right into his stall and staying there. She undressed from the little she wore to shower and in the mirror saw the matted blood on her hair.

It was about 10 when she walked into town, trying to decide whether she’d see the doctor first or go to the bank. Her friend Alice ran up to her and asked if she had heard the news. Linda Dunnington had died in a fiery crash not five minutes away the afternoon before. The body was badly burned, but the overall size of the woman, the fact that Linda Dunnington owned the car, and the additional discovery that the corpse had gold fillings, something no one local could afford, sealed the identification. The initial assessment was that it was a case of drunk driving. But that morning Mary Lou had been arrested once she was seen wearing expensive New York clothes and jewelry and trying to buy a ticket north with a $1,000 bill. The sheriff had already formed a theory. Linda had given Mary Lou a ride, Mary Lou had killed her, stolen her clothes, jewels, and the $60,000 Linda had taken from her father. Mary Lou was caught with the clothes, the jewels, and the money. She admitted to assaulting and robbing the woman but denied having anything to do with the car. “She told some wild tale that didn’t make sense,” Alice explained to Diane excitedly without going into detail.

As Diane walked away, she reasoned that all she knew was that she remembered nothing after she got into someone’s car. Maybe the money was part of the $60,000, but then how did it end up in the forest next to her. Yes, she had been mugged for her clothes, but that had nothing to do with Mary Lou having Linda’s clothes, jewels, and money. Diane decided to go to the bank first and fibbed when she told them she had borrowed the money from a relative. Diane was one of the community, helpful to others, and above suspicion as far as everyone was concerned. She paid off the $3,000 mortgage, deposited $2,500, and took $500 in cash to pay back wages and get her men back. As an afterthought, she went to Doc Henry, telling him she probably fell looking for her horse. He said she was likely concussed but that it would pass with rest.

Mary Lou was tried in the county seat an hour away where the death sentence was ultimately carried out. Diane didn’t go to the trial, having convinced herself that the fact her accident and what went on with Linda Carrington occurred on the same day was just a coincidence. As for finding the money, Diane decided that sometimes good things happen to good people.

[esercito sconfitto]

delightful short story!

welcome back old friend!