Helga Magnusson sat in the back seat of the cream-colored sedan with Celene Forrester while their mutual friend, Dr. Peirce Johnson chauffeured them about town.
The car belonged to Celene, or to her father to be precise, the notorious Colonel Forrester who was the most powerful man in Saint Anthony. The three of them had spent the afternoon together, primping and preparing for a night on the town, smoking opium and ingesting various other substances apart from the alcohol that Celene appeared to drink like water.
Helga covertly hid the scant amount of substances that she actually imbibed, while giving Celene and Dr. Johnson the impression that she was keeping up with them.
Helga had an agenda.
She was in Saint Anthony pretending to be her twin sister. It was a game she had played with Ingrid many times before, and they were good at it; she was getting away with it. Helga was certain that neither the foppish Pierce Johnson, who seemed to be preoccupied with something else entirely, nor the reckless drunken debutant suspected a thing.
She and Celene had dressed themselves like ladies of the night, wearing nothing but scanty lingerie, while donning clear plastic raincoats to keep them dry through the storm. They left Pierce’s house just as it was beginning to rain, together they visited a couple of speakeasies where wealthy people met anonymously to explore their hedonism.
She and Celene danced like lovers as Dr. Johnson watched and fretted, but Helga was only killing time until she would be able to rendezvous with her husband, the crime boss Karl Thorrson.
Karl had no idea that she was here in Saint Anthony. Karl had no idea that she had tricked her sister into leaving town for the day. Karl had no idea that Helga was posturing as her Ingrid, and he had no idea that she intended to kill him.
Helga left her companions to make a phone call, by which she confirmed that Karl would be on his way to Ingird’s Studio, and that he should be there soon. With little time to spare she corralled her companions, suggesting that they go to the warehouse for more fun. She was not surprised that the two of them were eager to go with her.
On the ride from the Bohemian Café at Jewett’s Park to the studio off Lake Street Helga became fixed on her desire for vengeance, as such the illusion she had been casting for her friends began to crack.
When they pulled up to the loading dock and she saw that Karl had already arrived, her heart began to pound with a heady mixture of bloodlust and fear.
His end was near!
She had come to hate the monster she was married to, the man who had turned into a grostesque thing, and she was intent on seeing him dead.
