One chased him from home to the doctor’s office thirty miles. “How have you managed to become so rich so quickly? What’s your secret? Did you break the law? Are you worried about going to prison?”
His reply was always, “I do an honest day’s work.” Or, “Let it play out in the court system.” Nothing he said seemed to satisfy the media vultures. He wanted to be left alone.
Marty sat down on the nearby chair. He jimmied the tracking device off of his ankle. After setting it off twice in the past, he had become an expert at removing and putting it back on. He slipped it off and placed it on the robotic butler. A timer would set in motion programmed activity ten minutes later. No one would suspect he wasn’t in the house. He even programmed it to spend time in the living room ‘watching TV’ or in the den ‘working on the computer’. Its program included sleep and wake times that mimicked his usual pattern.
He looked out the window one more time and then stepped into the closet. He took the full body stocking from the hook behind the door. He pulled it up and zipped over his head. Then added a maid’s uniform and slipped the necklace with cloaking device over his neck. Once activated, the controller changed his appearance and voice. He looked in the full-length mirror on the closet door. A gray-haired maid named Cora looked back at him. She was stout, about fifty pounds too heavy.
“Good-bye, Mr. Beem,” Cora said out loud as she walked out the front door.
As she passed through the gate and past the crowd of reporters gathered at the gate. “When can we speak to Marty Beem?” someone shouted.
Cora turned in their direction and said, “Guess that depends on Mr. Beem.” She returned to walking towards the nearby city bus stop.
A man already waiting there looked over his glasses and studied her. “A strange time for a maid to leave Mr. Beem’s home, don’t you think?”
“Not if he’s giving me the afternoon off. What business is Mr. Beem’s or his staff to you anyways?” Cora said.
The man puffed his cheeks and pushed his glasses up. “None. Only an observation.”
The bus heading into downtown pulled up. He motioned for Cora to board first and then followed. The bus wound through one-way streets. The neighborhoods progressed from the well-heeled to run down in the downtown area. Cora something felt wrong about the man that got on with her. Being around him made the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. She let the bus pass several stops beyond her usual, waiting for him reach his stop. He never did.
Cora pressed the button signaling she wanted off at the next corner. As the bus slowed, she glanced back at him. He seemed to be asleep. She sighed and got off the bus. Maybe I’m suspicious for no reason, she thought.
She approached a twelve-story building that spanned an entire city block. It held a rundown studio apartment that provided refuge to make a switch again. She glanced over her shoulder as she opened the security door with her coded key. A chill ran up the back of her neck while she waited for the elevator. Cora looked around, but saw no one. The elevator arrived and she stepped inside. The doors shut, closing the world out. The tightness in her shoulders eased.
The hallway leading to the tenth-floor apartment was quiet. Yet, she was wary. Developing a guilty conscious, Marty, she thought. The thickly painted apartment door stuck slightly as Cora pushed it open.
The apartment was quiet, yet she held her breath and palms sweated. Wasn’t the closet door closed the last time she was here? She stepped softly towards the closet, reached inside, and flicked the light on. Cora checked the bathroom. Her heart raced as she looked around the little nook in the kitchen. No one there, nothing looked out of place.
Cora watched in the bathroom mirror as she tapped the controller on the pendant. The image of Cora disappeared leaving the blank body stocking with a maid’s uniform over it. Marty reached behind his head and unzipped the body stocking. He pulled down the covering from his head and let it rest on his chest. He rubbed his face and stepped into the kitchen. He pulled left over takeout from last week from the freezer and warmed it in the microwave.
“Now, who are we going to be tomorrow and where are we going?” Marty asked aloud. He flipped through the different ‘people’ listed in the pendant’s menu. Should I be an elderly man, a twentyish man, or an overweight middle-aged woman? They were all inconspicuous choices. He preferred the overweight persona because people gave him more space. This way they wouldn’t accidentally discover the image’s size didn’t match reality.
He retrieved his meal and stood in the closet eating it while he looked over the wardrobe choices. To fit in with the neighborhood he chose a dumpy middle-aged woman. He dressed her in a t-shirt and stretched out sweatpants. The perfect look to visit the nearby grocery store. With little food in the apartment, he would have to make a trip today.
After he finished eating, he zipped himself up into the body stocking again. Then changed into t-shirt and sweatpants before putting on the cloaking pendant. He pushed the button. Then watched the transformation through the thin fabric covering his face. The image of an overweight, middle-aged woman shimmered over him and became opaque. Lisa was the name he’d given her.
This new persona would use Cora’s purse and the cash that he had tucked into it before leaving Mr. Beem’s house. While waiting for the elevator, she saw no one, but felt like she was being watched. She walked the six blocks with her two-wheeled cart to the small family run grocery store. They had a nice deli and added a small cafeteria recently.
SShe walked up and down the aisle placing snacks in the cart before heading to the deli and then the cafeteria. The hair on her neck stood on end again. A man had been in each aisle as she. Coincidence, she told herself.
She boxed up several of Marty’s favorite meals at the cafeteria. At a table near the cashier sat the man from the bus. He pulled his glasses down and peered over them to watch Lisa. “Looks like you’re feeding an army,” he said to her.
Lisa looked up at the man and stammered. “Yeah, taking it back to feed the kids. Growing boys, you know.”
“You want some help taking that to your car?”
Keep your head, Marty, she thought. “Oh, that is so sweet, but I have my little wheeled cart. I’ll be fine on my own,” said Lisa.
“You live nearby then? Why don’t you let me give you a ride? I’m heading out now myself,” said the man.
Is this man a pervert? Lisa felt her cheeks grow hot and pulse quicken. “You are too kind. Really, look at me. I could use the exercise. Never can seem to lose any weight.”
“Have it your way, Mar… I mean ma’am.” He hurried away.
The cashier looked up at Lisa. “You sort of look like a Maria. Hmm…are you related to the Wilson’s?”
“Uh, no. Sorry, I have hungry kids waiting on their dinner.” Lisa hurried to the front to pay for the rest of groceries. Sweat trickled down her back as she waited in line. She looked around for the man in the glasses and the other man. Sweat rolled down her back and heart pounded. After paying for her purchases, she walked out a different door than she had entered through.
Lisa had entered through the door near the vegetables. She used the exit on the other side of the lobby. She walked past the docks along the back of the store. If either man was watching for me, they likely wouldn’t look for me back here, she thought. She took a zigzag path back to the apartment, constantly looking over her shoulder. She never saw either man the entire walk.
Inside the elevator she leaned on a wall, closed her eyes, and rested her head against the wall. That was too close, she thought. As she exited the elevator on the tenth floor, both men approached her.
“Told you I could drop you off, Marty,” said the man in the glasses.
“Pardon? I believe you have mistaken me for someone else.”
The other man finally spoke. “Your cloaking device has a flaw. Everyone’s gait has a unique signature. Marty Beem’s, his maid’s, and yours match. Officer Miller’s glasses are quite advanced.” Then he placed a pair of hand cuffs on Lisa. He delicately pulled the cloaking pendant away from Lisa, rubbing the front of it until he found a button. Lisa’s image shimmered and disappeared.
The man in the glasses said, “Don’t worry. We can bring the food with us. The guys at the station might be hungry, too. Thanks for thinking of us.”
J K Metz 