by Matt Hilton
Villere withdrew the knife and stepped away.
Dom also gained some strategic space between them and turned to face him. Temperance scowled and her hand twitched as if she should go for her weapon. Villere only raised an eyebrow at her and turned his blade so that it caught the overhead lights.
‘Leave it, Tempe,’ Dom cautioned. He knew she was good with a blade, but he suspected that the rangy-built Villere was better.
‘Good advice,’ said Villere. He aimed the knife at Dom. ‘That way we all live to meet another day.’
‘We’ll meet again, sure enough,’ Dom confirmed.
‘You can bet on it. Coupla things you said to my friend in there that are unforgivable. I’d like to cut out your tongue, bra, but I’m not the impatient type.’
‘Judging by your accent you’re a southerner too. Wouldn’t have taken you for a nigger lover.’
‘That’s three strikes I owe you.’ Villere dipped and secreted his knife in a boot sheath. As he stood, he folded his arms across his chest. ‘Now, you’d best git. I can hear sirens coming.’
On the landing, Dom couldn’t hear much above the roar of the storm outside. Maybe Villere’s ears were sharper than his. Temperance had taken Villere’s word for it, and had already begun a quick descent of the stairs. He held Villere’s gaze a moment longer, feigning unconcern of the imminent arrival of the police or of their promised rematch, then he backed away slowly, turned and went down. He found his pistol at the foot of the stairs – Temperance had deliberately left it for him to discover – and he gathered it up.
The rain assaulted him the instant he was outside. Bent over, pelting raindrops bouncing off his shaved head, he ran for where they’d left the van. Temperance was already in the driver’s seat when he dragged open the passenger door.
‘Come on,’ she urged, ‘we’ve no time to spare.’
‘Haven’t we?’ The wind keened and thunder rolled, but he still didn’t get any hint of a police siren.
‘I’d rather not risk it. Get in, or you’re walking home.’ Temperance started the engine and was reversing out across the railway tracks before he was settled in the seat. As they peeled away towards the underpass, Dom strained for a look back over his shoulder at the apartment building, before switching his view to the side mirror. Nicolas Villere had followed them outside to check they left.
‘See you soon, asshole,’ Dom muttered.
Shrouded by the pouring rain, the tall southerner watched them go. He appeared unmoved by Dom’s promise.
NINETEEN
‘Who do you think you are, just barging into my place like this?’ Tess didn’t answer the girl’s pointless question. Maddie’s face was bleached of color, and there was hardly any strength behind her anger. Really she was in shock, and her brain overwhelmed by what had just occurred. Faced by two separate parties of invaders it was possible she illogically saw them as the same problem. There was more to her rant too; even bewildered, it hadn’t escaped her that Tess was on the side of the law and her scheme was in peril of discovery. She tried to pull away from her dad, to go and close the door to her home office.
Pinky got in her way. ‘Stop being so ungrateful, you. If we hadn’t intervened, who knows what might’ve happened. Those two weren’t playing around here.’
‘Nothing would have happened. They were about to leave.’
Pinky rolled down an eyelid. ‘You see any green in here, girl?’
She pulled a face at him, not quite understanding his meaning.
‘I didn’t just fall off a coconut tree,’ Pinky went on. ‘In other words, I’m not naïve, me. Those computers in there, you’ve got something illegal going on with them, right, some sort of flim-flam scheme? Which makes you feel like badass criminals. But you’re really amateurs, you’re the ones who are cabbage green, and you just got visited by genuine badass criminals, you. Take a hint from your dad, girl, does he look upset that we intervened when we did?’
Mike Toner required stitches. Blood painted an expanding Rorschach design on the front of his sweater where he kept wiping his hands. He was as shocked as his daughter, but also relieved that no further harm had been done. Across the room Hayley and Jacob were struck dumb.
‘Make yourself useful,’ Tess snapped at Hayley. ‘Go and fetch a wet cloth for Mr Toner. See if you can find something to use as a dressing while you’re at it.’
Aghast at the instruction, Hayley shook her head. She apparently viewed herself as a strong, empowered young woman: but her strength trickled from her in the face of so much blood. Her face drained of all color and she verged on falling over. Jacob grabbed at her, steered her around the couch so he could sit her down. Hayley flopped her head between her knees. Tess exhaled in frustration. ‘Make sure she’s OK,’ she told Jacob, then scanned the room for something to use. Another open door led to a kitchen.
She checked that Pinky had the Toners under his control, then moved quickly for the kitchen. Apparently Maddie wasn’t much of a homemaker; the kitchen was almost pristine. She dug in drawers and cupboards and found a stack of brand-new tea towels tied in a ribbon. One of them she ran under a faucet, the others she kept dry. She returned to the sitting room, and found the tableau slightly altered.
Hayley was bent over a wastebasket, throwing up, while Jacob fluttered over her … if her hair was longer he would have been holding it back as she heaved and spluttered. Mike Toner was still where he’d practically collapsed on the chair but Maddie and Pinky contested over the open door to the office. Maddie was frustrated by Pinky’s size; he almost filled the doorway, and she called him a few unkind names. Pinky had heard much worse.
Tess handed over the wet towel to Toner. ‘Clean yourself up,’ she advised, ‘then use one of the dry towels to apply pressure to the cut.’
‘Yeah, yeah, I know all about it.’ This was the second time Toner had been beaten that day. He’d already made an attempt at cleaning up after his first assault and had changed into fresh jeans. These were now darkened with splotches of his blood.
She left him to it, and approached Maddie. She glanced at Hayley, who was pitifully vomiting still, and caught a look of abstract dismay from Jacob. From his expression he’d fallen into trouble way beyond his expectation and was desperate for a way out.
‘The best thing for you two is to get yourselves home to Portland,’ she said.
Jacob nodded in agreement. Hayley gurgled and spat, then made a noise of misery that echoed from the wastebasket.
Maddie again tried to force past Pinky, and he merely used his left hip to block her. He was careful about avoiding laying hands on the young woman. Tess wasn’t similarly concerned. She grabbed Maddie’s arm and pulled her away. Maddie rounded on her, but she saw Tess wasn’t in a mood for any more dramatics.
‘What is it you don’t want us to see in there?’ Tess demanded.
‘It’s none of your business. You just saved us, thanks for that, but you can leave now. Go on. Get out or I’ll …’ Maddie shut up, while she winced furtively towards the hall. Fearfully she glanced over at her dad.
‘The police aren’t coming,’ Tess assured her. ‘That was a bluff to get those thugs out of here. But if you prefer, I’ll call the police. Let’s get them here and we’ll tell them you are being extorted by threats and violence to hand over half your takings from your business. Pinky and I are your independent witnesses. The police will have to take your complaint seriously. Of course, they’ll also want to know what you’ve got going on here that makes you a target of those criminals.’
Maddie shook her head in denial. She was not about to spill the details of her scheme. Behind her Pinky had entered the home office, but he only offered Tess a blank expression and shake of his head. Whatever Maddie and her dad were up to, it was a computer-based scheme, and Maddie would be the last person to log on and show them.
‘Whatever it is you’re up to, you should stop it now,’ Tess said.
Maddie snorted.
‘It’s wrong,’ Te
ss stressed. ‘In the beginning you probably thought it was easy money. Now you know otherwise. There’s no such thing when it’s through criminal gain. Somebody always gets hurt.’ She drew Maddie’s attention to her dad. ‘Is it really worth it, Maddie? What about next time when we aren’t around to help; will you still think you’re onto a good thing when it’s you who is scarred for life, or worse?’
‘It won’t come to that.’
‘It could. You have absolutely no control over the matter now. When they return to shake you down again, do you think they’re going to be gentle with you … after they were made to run away this time?’
In denial, Maddie turned her back and spotted Pinky in her office. ‘Hey! Get out of there.’
Pinky complied. There was nothing obvious to see. Maddie pulled the door shut with a resounding bang. She folded her arms and set her face in concrete. Tess turned from her to regard Hayley and Jacob. Red-eyed and miserable, Hayley was again seated on the settee, Jacob’s arm around her shoulders. Tess said, ‘There’s no need for either of you to get further wrapped up in this. Hayley, your best move is to go home. Speak with your mom and straighten out your differences. Stay here and you’ll get in too deep. Next time, it could be you who’s the target of violence. Such a shame, considering Maddie doesn’t care one bit about you. She claims she’s your friend, but look at her. All she’s interested in is protecting her cash cow.’
‘That’s a lie!’ Maddie snapped.
Hayley gave her friend a pathetic shake of her head. Jacob whispered to her, urging her to listen to Tess.
‘I gave you somewhere to stay,’ Maddie reminded her. ‘I took you in. I’ve—’
‘I … I want to go home,’ Hayley croaked.
‘No. You agreed to help me with—’
‘Maddie?’ Hayley’s voice was a high-pitched plea. ‘Tess is right. Those people will be back. Don’t you get it? They’ll hurt you and for what? So you can hand them half of everything? If you’re not hurt you could still go to prison!’
Gawping at her friend, Maddie took a couple of stumbling steps backwards. She threw up her arms to halt Hayley. ‘Shut up! Goddamnit, shut up, Hales! In fact, no! Why don’t you just blab everything to everyone? Go on. Abandon me when I need you, and while you’re at it, make sure I go to jail. It wasn’t like that when I—’
‘Maddie!’ Mike Toner’s shout was unexpected, so held more force. He’d pushed up out of the chair, a wadded towel scrunched to his face. He strained forward to add to the impact of his warning. ‘You’ve said enough. Get ahold of yourself and think about things before opening your mouth again. If Hayley wants to go home, she should.’
Too incensed to listen though, Maddie continued to bluster and squawk about betrayal of friendship. Her father dropped the bloody towel and grabbed her by both biceps. He shook her, his face close enough that the open wound was directly in her sight. ‘Everyone should go back to Portland,’ he said, emphasizing his point, ‘before those assholes come back.’
His message held double meaning, and finally Maddie got the subtext. She nodded dumbly, then turned to throw a harsh slash of her arm in Hayley’s direction. ‘Yeah, you should leave. Go home, Hales. Just don’t say one word about what I had you doing here.’
‘I won’t. I promise, Maddie. I’m sorry … I hope this isn’t an end to our friendship?’
Maddie exhaled sharply and went to her dad. He wrapped a supportive arm around her.
Crestfallen, still shaky and nauseous, Hayley muttered something unintelligible to Tess for Jacob’s ears only. He supported her as he steered her towards the hall. They came to a dead stop, Hayley croaking in fright.
It was only Po.
He blocked the doorway from the landing. He looked beyond the youths, seeking Tess. She moved so he could see her, raising her fingers and directing him to stall Hayley and Jacob for a minute.
‘Those punks have left in the van,’ he called to her. ‘I ensured they’ll think twice about coming back.’
She nodded, but returned her attention to the Toners. ‘We came here looking for Hayley, to get her to go home, and we’ve done that. If you want, we can help you get out of this mess, but that means you both stopping whatever the hell it is you’re up to.’
‘We don’t want your help.’ Maddie pouted. ‘Just go.’
Mike Toner though wasn’t as certain. ‘I don’t see how we can give up. Not without attracting worse trouble.’
‘Believe me,’ Tess warned, with a knowing nod towards Maddie’s home office, ‘continue down whatever path you’re on and it is guaranteed to get rockier. You’ve got some scam or another on the go. I haven’t figured it out yet, and am not sure I really want to know. But it’s drawing good cash, otherwise you wouldn’t be worth extorting for half of it. You’re the parent here and should know better: end it now, Mr Toner, and we’ll ensure those people don’t trouble you again.’
Toner checked with Maddie, who aimed a sour expression at him. He shrugged at Tess. ‘I can’t promise anything, but look, once you’re out of here I will speak with my daughter and decide what we’re going to do next. If things look as if they’re getting out of hand, well I’ll be in touch.’
‘Let’s hope,’ said Tess gravely, ‘that by then it isn’t too late for us to help.’
TWENTY
The driving conditions were atrocious, but it had been decided that it would be safer if Hayley and Jacob were returned home to Portland, rather than them having another encounter with the people threatening the Toners. Tess wanted Hayley to travel back in the Mustang with them, but the girl refused, demanding that Jacob be allowed to take her back or not at all. The ulterior motive of Tess’s plan was to learn more about what Maddie was up to, because she had more than a feeling in her bones that Mike Toner would be calling for help sooner rather than later. Also, she’d have liked to have spoken with Hayley about her adoptive mom, and further smoothen the way to reuniting them. Hayley, for all it had been made out to Tess was supposedly a bad influence, was in reality as much a pawn of Maddie Toner as Jacob was of his girlfriend. She seriously doubted if Maddie hadn’t coaxed her away with promises of easy money, then Hayley’s reaction to learning the truth of her adoption wouldn’t have been half as dramatic. It was unlikely that Hayley would have left home, and there wouldn’t have been any need for Tess to seek her out.
Tess should be happy with the end result. Hayley was going home. She’d more than achieved her end of the bargain agreed with Jessie Cameron, so didn’t feel guilt at taking her payment now. It should be a satisfying ending to an otherwise frustrating day, but Tess couldn’t help feeling that she’d abandoned those truly in need of her when she left Maddie’s apartment. Maddie was too mixed-up to think straight: she was reacting to powerful stimuli – fear, anger, confusion, desperation, greed – each of them vying for dominance, and lashing out in response. Pinky was correct when calling her an amateur criminal, and Tess was even struggling to think of her in those terms. In her opinion, Maddie was like many people who stepped over a line by making a wrong decision, who then found it difficult finding a way back to the straight and narrow. Sometimes a mistake, a slip-up, was enough for an otherwise lawful person to be drawn into the murky word of criminality, after which they next engineered the accident to work in their favor. Soon their transgressions became their norm, and often where cash was concerned, the extra reward their misdeeds brought them became their norm too, and soon after not enough. Greed, avarice and need took over then, and usually it was too late to return to their previous lives because how would they then maintain what they’d grown used to?
Maddie had embroiled her father in her ‘get rich scheme’, and apparently she’d worked on Hayley to get her on board too, and it was an easy bet that Jacob would’ve been next to be recruited if Tess hadn’t intervened that evening. Maddie was the brains behind the scam, and had likely by now grown used to the extra money and feared giving it up, but hopefully she wasn’t beyond redemption yet. Alas, dangerous peop
le had decided she’d now work for them, and once a person fell into that depth of criminality there was rarely a safe way out. Maddie was a defenseless young woman being terrorized, and driving away and leaving her to her fate left Tess feeling nauseous.
Tess asked to travel to Portland in Jacob’s Chrysler, but Hayley resisted the idea, so she was again relegated to the back seat of Po’s car. It was decided that Jacob should take the lead and Po follow – whether Hayley liked the idea or not – and that Jacob should return directly to Jessie Cameron’s house. The storm had passed over Bangor by the time they reached the city limits, but it trailed heavy showers and blustery winds. There was fallen detritus on the roads and the pavement was slick with run-off, and here and there large puddles were traps for the unwary. Jacob drove with the trepidation of inexperience, and the journey took the best part of an hour longer than on the drive up. At no time did Po show any impatience at being forced to crawl along behind the old Chrysler. He and Pinky joked and bantered, told silly stories, and gave Tess time to brood in the back. She really would have liked to have been a fly on the windshield of the Chrysler, and eavesdropped Hayley and Jacob’s discussion on the road home, but had to make do with her lot. Reuniting Hayley with her mom was the main thing, she reminded herself, though she knew she’d never be satisfied with that.
Before arriving in her neighborhood, Tess called Jessie’s cellphone and warned her of Hayley’s imminent return. Jessie almost went into a state of panic, before devolving into floods of tears. Thankfully her tears were of relief, so Tess doubted there’d be a show of recrimination once Hayley was back in the family fold: she didn’t want to deliver Hayley home only for mother and daughter to fight, and the girl to run away again. She had Po flash his headlights, attracting Jacob’s attention. Po powered down his window and waved the youth over to the side of the road. Once the two cars were stationary Tess got out and approached Jacob’s side. Jacob wound down his window, looked up at her with moon-sized eyes, perhaps expecting another berating. Tess could sense the overheated atmosphere inside the car, and supposed Jacob had been on the receiving end of Hayley’s unfair woes most of the drive back from Bangor, and that illogically he’d been deemed responsible for most of them.
