Later that night the Gadget Man realized he had one more thing to do before he hopefully met up with his father at midnight in the church parking lot. How could he possibly leave the country without saying goodbye to his fiance?
It was just a little after 10pm and he knew his little farewell had to be quick if he wanted to meet his father on time. Mark knew that Vinny was always punctual, always. He had only been to Bridget's trailer park a few times and couldn't understand how those trailer trash people could live so close together. If he had to live in a trailer park and had to listen to his neighbors making noise and blaring music, no questions asked, he'd light their trailer on fire.
Fortunately for him, Bridget's double wide trailer was all the way in the back and sequestered from the others. This was terrific because he didn't need any nosy neighbors calling the police. Those stupid pigs. Who did they think they were? God? Vincent had been to Bridget's bedroom enough times to know what bedroom window was hers.
Dressed in black like a ninja, Vinny slinked through the edge of a cornfield that connected to Bridget's backyard so he could take a peek through her window. "Scouting" he liked to call it.
Bridget lay sound asleep on her queen sized bed letting off a slight snore. She had five patients to see tomorrow which was way more than usual. Among one of the patients was a creepy 60 year old war vet who used to run her around in circles with war stories he probably made up. She needed a lot of rest to be able to put up with that old goat that constantly hit on her when he wasn't talking about war.
It was 10:10pm and Bridget's tender lips vibrated like a hummingbird's wings as she took little breaths making a soft snore. Nobody knows what she was dreaming about, not even the author of this book.
Suddenly there was a ruckus from Bun-Bun's cage. Just enough to wake her up from her slumber. She rubbed her eyes and looked over at Bun-Bun's cage.
"Bun-Bun, what is it boy?" She said in a croaky voice. Bun- Bun ran around in little circles of the cage purposely banging along the sides of it. Something had definitely startled Bun- Bun. Bridget turned her head and looked out the window.
She could've sworn she saw a shadowy figure duck below the window. A figment of her imagination? It was too dark to know for sure. That's when it finally dawned on her. Vinny!
Had he figured out that she snitched on him? Wasn't he supposed to be dead? All the ideas she picked up from reading Sue Grafton books came back to her. She knew just what to do. She gathered up loose blankets and heaped them up under her comforter making it look like she was sleeping under the blankets.
Bridget stood next to her bed for a brief second and admired her handiwork. Wait just a minute. She was a big girl. Vinny would never buy it. She had to think of something else. She quickly rushed over to her bedroom closet and found a beach ball still blown up. Perfect. Shapely just like her. She stuffed the beach ball under the comforter with the blankets. Her cellphone was left in her car so she picked up the cordless home phone to dial 9-1-1. The phone was completely dead. Nothing. What was this? A freaky Halloween movie?
Her heart did a buck ninety as she frantically raced around the trailer in search of a weapon to defend herself. All she could find was a long, sharp, pointy pair of scissors. Better than nothing right?
She could hear someone snooping around in the kitchen so she hid behind her bedroom door and waited. An intruder was definitely inside the trailer. Probably the infamous Gadget Man.
Bridget squeezed the handle of the shears tightly in her hand and stood perfectly still behind her bedroom door while trying to listen to the oncoming footsteps above the noise of her beating heart.
The footsteps down the hallway got closer and closer and she thought that she could already smell Vinny's body odor. This was a ridiculous plan. How well could she possibly defend herself with a pair of scissors? How did Vinny find out she squealed on him?
By the footsteps and the pungent odor, Bridget knew Vinny was just a hairs breadth away. Vinny walked into her bedroom as if he belonged there and she immediately recognized his voice.
"Goodbye Bridget Jones." He whispered softly and fired 3 shots from a 9mm equipped with a silencer into the heaping pile of blankets.
Bridget lunged at him from behind while she had the chance. She tried to stab him in the back but got his right shoulder instead. The gun dropped to the floor and he brayed like a hyena.
He squirmed around on the floor and Bridget quickly picked up the piece and pointed it at him as if she's handled a gun once before. She had stabbed his already wounded shoulder and didn't even realize it.
Vinny taunted her. "Go ahead and do it! They're going to kill me anyway. Do it you wuss! Put me out of my misery."
Bridget started crying. She didn't know what to do. What if those punk kids had never ruined his life? What kind of man would he have turned out to be?
She could almost see the innocence in his defeated blood shot eye. Is this how the story ends? Bridget takes out the Gadget Man and collects the reward money?
Adages ran through her mind in addition to the thing she learned about Karma. Vinny was a killer but how could she blame him? Ten years in jail is a pretty nice size bid. Not to mention all the defamation of character he had to endure when the media labeled him as a pedophile.
The gun in her hand jiggled like a flag in the wind as these thoughts ran through her mind.
The Gadget Man caught onto this. "What are you thinking about? Just do it for bloody sake! I don't want to live anymore. I love you Bridget." Cried Vinny.
Vinny's words ate away at her heart and she lowered the gun but held onto it. Tears raced down her bulbous cheeks like they were having a soap box derby contest.
Bridget began to shout. "I can't take this anymore! Guys think that I'm a fricken nurses station! They get what they want and then take off!"
She said waving her arms frantically as she spoke to put more emotion into it. "Just get out of here! Leave now! I don't ever want to see you again!" She said and threw the 9mm at the window as hard as she could. The gun shattered the window and went right through the glass.
And that's just what Vinny did. Like the coward he had evolved into, Vinny ran out of the trailer and into the night.