She’d learned something important though that would change her behavior from now on. She realized that nothing was certain with the luck thing, that once freed, she no longer had complete control of what came next.

This meant she needed to keep her anger in check because otherwise she was to blame for the bad things that happened. Bad things that shouldn’t have happened. Like Lacy dying.

From this grew a determination to stick to one rule she would now create. If she was ever to use the diary again, she needed to be certain of one fact. That the person deserved their fate.

26

Morris Usher shouldn’t have died. His death wasn’t part of the plan. Well, it was, but William had changed his mind. He’d admit, sometimes he had wished his ex-agent’s demise. He realized too late, wishing someone dead and the person actually dying, felt very different.

Not to say, once the dust settled, he didn’t derive satisfaction that the man who’d besmirched his work had received his due. But, as he did in life, Morris in death would cause him hell. Instead, if he had died in a far-flung exotic place like a brothel in Thailand or by shark attack in Australia, William might have enjoyed the irony. This close to home though, meant he found himself in the peculiar position of wishing Morris had survived.

In hindsight, he should have gone to the police. That idea entered his mind for twenty seconds, then panic kicked in and he ran.

Well, not ran exactly, because that would make him look suspicious. So he walked as fast as you’d walk if partaking in mild exercise and not walking away from a crime scene. Despite the slower pace he arrived back in his room breathless, as if he’d completed a marathon.

To kill somebody was tiring work.

The killing bit wasn’t cut and dry. Maybe partial killing?

No, he was pretty sure his actions would be called contributing factors.

The terrible man had abandoned him in his moment of need in his career. Now in death, the nasty creep hitched himself forever to William, like a parasite embedded in his skin.

His first plan had been to approach his ex-agent, explain that Orelia was a witch sucking him dry and, if he was being perfectly honest, he might have thought to kill Morris. That’s what he’d written in his note book. Yes, recording your murderous plans would seem foolish, but William was a writer. What he’d written could be just a simple plot outline. He had used alternate names for that very reason.

Morris was Micky, an unscrupulous insurance salesman, who preyed on innocent, elderly folk with no use for his services. Orelia, aka Orange Blossom, a surgeon, who is in hiding since killing a beloved hip-hop artist. His gang won’t rest until she ends up the same way

The outline wasn’t his best work, but his imagination spun a plot around the two, and with every second the idea grew more interesting. And do-able.