Chapter 32

The Whisperer took the van to the 24 hour car wash and cleaned the inside and outside, as was his routine. He drove back to his house and parked the van in the garage as per usual. After he replaced the seats and ensured the inside held no clue to his earlier activities, he walked around the van to make certain that there was nothing out of place. He was taking his wife out to the botanical garden tomorrow so she could see all the beauty the world had. A very contradictory act to what he was a part of earlier. The Whisperer changed his overalls for his casual clothes and went upstairs to see his beautiful ailing wife. When he opened the door he heard the machines pumping and whining. He walked toward the love of his life. There wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do for her. She never needed to ask him to do anything or get anything for her, it was just done. He loved anticipating her needs, her wants, her every desire and whim. He leaned down and kissed his wife. She opened her emerald green eyes and smiled at her husband.

“How was your day my love?” She whispered in his ear as he leaned over and hugged her.

“The same as always sweetheart. You know the work is always the same. And that is why I am so good at my job.” He smiled as he spoke to her. “Are you looking forward to tomorrow Vivian? I hope so; I am looking forward to spending the day looking at flowers that fade in your beauty.”

She smiled and he saw that her beauty lit the room, even after what the cancer had taken from her, she was still beautiful.

“You are so good to me! As are your brothers. Whatever would I do without you all?”

The Whisperer stood silently stunned. He had never caught on that she knew what the three brothers had been doing their entire adult lives. The three identical triplets had stopped being seen in public the day their father was buried. They had been careful not to overlap their lives in any way. They all had the same profession and only one of them had married. Their vehicles all had the same license plate personalization. No one had known there were three brothers - not even their protégé. Yet somehow Vivian had picked up on it. He would ask more casually tomorrow while they were walking around the gardens. For now, he would say nothing. He grasped Vivian’s hand and rubbed the back side with his thumb.

“You didn’t think I knew did you William?”

“No my love, I didn’t. Rather we didn’t.”

“It’s no matter, I love each of you and I know that it was you, dear William, who stood with me and took my hand as your wife that day, not your brothers. The adventure has been wonderful and each of you have made my life so much richer for it. Although in the beginning I was confused and angry. The first year was the most difficult time. After that first time with each of your siblings I wouldn’t let either of your brothers lay with me. Only you. That is how I knew. When I was angry with one of you, I would write my anger out and see how things transpired. When I discovered that there were three of you, I had to make a choice, STAY or LEAVE.”

“I remember that time.” William said quietly.

“I refused to break our vows and I told the other two that it was God’s will that I was married to you. I would stay that way. In time Andrew and Thompson agreed and I made them promise me not to let you know that I knew.”

Vivian was close to passing out from her pain medication. The Whisperer held her hand until she had drifted into a deep, deep sleep. He watched as her chest rose and fell with each breath. His head was a cacophony of noise and thoughts. He was going to have to journal every detail, like always, except with the addition of “she knows about us.” As he wrote about the kills, the daily work, who did what to whom on the street , at the office and what nurse was which, his thoughts became sentences which poured out into paragraphs on page after page. When he was finished writing he went and got the first journal that was started 23 years ago. He felt the leather, soft and supple under his touch. He put the book up to his nose and inhaled. The book had a somewhat acidic smell to it that made the Whisperer take it away from his face. As he un-latched the strap, the book opened up to the first page.

April 30, 1989

We buried Father today. We put the plan into action the moment he died. Now only one of us will be visible from this point forward. We have only one complication and that is Williams’ girlfriend Vivian. She doesn’t know that there are three of us, nor will she ever know. We three have devised the perfect operation. Andrew will stay first January to May; Thompson will go to El Salvador and will come back at the end of August. William will come in May from Norway. Our plan is simple. We each enjoy inducing pain in others, this way we can do it separate yet together. We are many yet only one. Each fulfilling our needs.

We will keep journals in each place so we can keep up on the worlds we will be traipsing through so easily. We will live three separate lies, trading every four months. From this day forward we are only one person, no one will know our secrets. NO ONE.

The Whisperer read on into the journal. Page after page of everyday mundane things that if one didn’t pay attention to, would be a red flag and the plan would have to end in the agreed upon manner. The Whisperer stopped reading, lifted his head and heard a wheeze. He waited and listened and just as he was about to get up and investigate, he saw the night nurse walk by with her iPod plugged in and turned up. She walked by the semi-open door on her way to the kitchen, not even noticing the open door or the light.

The Whisperer got up, gently closed the door and turned on the soft reading light and clicked the overhead light off. He picked up the journal and continued to read. When he got to a transition page, he thought of all the day’s excitement. As he relived the two kills, he didn’t notice that his member was throbbing and engorged. As he went through each action, his left hand automatically started rubbing himself. It had been such a thrill to kill one girl as the other watched. It had been close to two years since he had had sex with Vivian. He missed her smell and her touch and especially how she felt on him, and how he felt inside her. He thought of the last time they had intercourse and now he felt the throbbing and needed relief. He undid his zipper and let his fully erect penis feel the air in the little office. As he rubbed and coerced his member to relieve the pressure he thought of all the murders he had committed in his life time. His seed exploded all over his pants and as he sat in the chair thinking of the kills, he knew that soon he would have to kill the protégé. She knew too much.

When he was done cleaning up and had replaced the journals, he went upstairs, checked on his wife and then crawled into bed himself. Without too much effort, the Whisperer fell asleep and dreamt of his wedding day.