Bone of Contention: A Medical Thriller With Heart (The Gina Mazzio Series Book 4)

by Bette Golden Lamb

  Gina twisted her face away from Marvin’s hand. “Let me go,” she yelled. “I won’t tell anyone about this.”

  “Do you believe her, Thelma?”

  “Not in a heartbeat.”

  “See there? If Thelma don’t believe you, how can I.” He bellowed out another laugh that made Gina’s ears hurt; he dragged her farther inside.

  The room once had a large window that now showed nothing but spikes of glass sticking out of the frame; the roof was caved in at one corner, allowing the rain to blow into the room. Water also flowed freely in and around the bottom of the rotted and splintered wood siding.

  Without warning, Marvin flung Gina to the floor. She was instantly covered in filthy, sucking mud. He gave Thelma the backpack to hold while he unzipped the top. Unraveling strands of clothesline popped out over the upper edge of the bag.

  Marvin pulled out a few lengths, then a few more and then shook his head angrily. “Shit!” he shouted. “Planned on hog-tying the bitch, but I cut the rope too damn short.”

  Gina knew her eyes were wide with terror as he grabbed her arms and tied them behind her. She was sloshing around in the muddy water, trying to get a hold on something solid, trying to get away from him. He roughly rolled her onto her stomach; her face went down and was buried in the muck. She tried to scream, but couldn’t breathe past the ooze.

  He grabbed her by the neck and yanked her up.

  “Oh, no! You don’t get off that easy, nursie. You’re gonna die in this room all right, but you’re gonna see it coming as you lie here and rot.” He grabbed her ankles, tied them together, and dragged her closer to the outer wall. He used a finger to swipe the mud away from her nose and mouth. “I feel kinda mean spirited about you, since you were supposed to be finished business, only it turns out not to be so finished after all.” He smiled at her. “Know what I mean?”

  Thelma, listening to him, was hysterical, laughing so hard she bent over and clutched her middle.

  Suddenly, Marvin grabbed his wife by the neck, yanked her close, and punched her in the face over and over until one roundhouse right broke her nose. Blood flowed like a river.

  “What are you doing,” Thelma cried out, her words bubbling through the blood. “We were going ... going to run away together. What—”

  “Run away with you?”

  “Yes!”

  “You’re old, Thelma. Your boobs are ugly ... and you can’t give me a son, the son you were supposed to give me years ago. I want a son! You hear me? I want a son!”

  Thelma could barely croak out one word, “Who?”

  He ignored her while he took more rope from the backpack, tied two long lengths together, and hogtied her, wrists to ankles.

  “Who?”

  “Oh, yeah, who? You’ve seen her, Thelma ... it’s that pretty little filly in number two-o-three. Oh, man, we’ve been going at it for months. And would you believe it? She’s pregnant. With a boy. A goddam son!”

  “Marvin, please don’t. We had our babies ... we’ve had a life together.”

  “Yes, bitch, had is the word. Had!”

  His face turned flint hard as he flipped Thelma onto her stomach. “Hey, Thelma, I’m gonna leave it up to you. – you’ll last as long as you can keep your face out of the water and mud.”

  Gina curled into a ball. Tried to make herself smaller and smaller.

  Chapter 56

  “They’re still not back,” Harry said after breaking his cell connection with Taneka.

  “And they’ve been out touch now for what, nearly four hours?” Vinnie said. “What the hell’s going on?”

  Mulzini was still ignoring Vinnie and Harry, who were sitting in the back of the plain-Jane police sedan outside Gina and Harry’s apartment. He hadn’t spoken a word to them since he started tapping away at the keyboard of his dashboard computer.

  “Inspector, why are we just sitting here?” Harry said.

  “We’ll never find Gina this way,” Vinnie chimed in, his voice coming out very loud in the closed vehicle.

  The Inspector kept at his typing. “Hmpf!” he grunted and turned back to face them.

  “I Got a GPS location for Gina’s cell. We’re headed for Sausalito.”

  “Anything on Karsh's truck?" Harry asked.

  “Not yet.”

  “What do you think that means?”

  “Haven’t the slightest.”

  “This is bad. Really bad ... I know it,” Vinnie said to Harry.

  Harry wanted to reassure him but couldn’t. Fear was clenching his gut and he knew if he spoke he would heave all over the back seat.

  “Knock off the friggin’ whining! I mean, cut it out right now!” Mulzini turned back to the front, slapped the steering wheel. “Damn! No good deed ever goes unpunished.”

  Harry and Vinnie stared at Mulzini’s scowl in the rear view mirror.

  “I swear, I’ll throw you both off the Golden Gate Bridge if you keep talking that gloom and doom crap.” He slapped the seat beside him. “Another example why we don’t like ride-along civilians.”

  “I’m sorry, Inspector,” Harry said. “We’re more than just a little worried here.”

  “Well, hell, Harry,” Mulzini’s voice getting louder to match Harry and Vinnie’s. “I’m worried, too. I’ve come to like that little scamp from the Bronx.” He looked at Harry in the mirror. “We’ll get Gina ... ya hear me? We’ll get her!”

  Yeah, Inspector, I know you will. But will she still be in one piece?

  * * *

  “According to our IT, this is the spot where Gina’s phone should be,” Mulzini said.

  The Inspector pulled off to the side of Bridgeway. The three of them got out of the car.

  “It’s got to be right around here, probably on the ground somewhere since there aren’t any trash cans in sight.” He started walking in ever-increasing circles, his eyes always looking down. Now and then he would kick at a candy wrapper, soda can, or other piece of trash.

  Harry and Vinnie started doing the same thing.

  “Criminals are pretty damn smart today,” Mulzini mumbled. “It’s a wonder we pick up anyone.” He shook his head. “Technology, technology.” He looked through the weeds and under scraggly bushes. “Whoever has her, probably ditched her cell so we couldn’t find her.”

  Harry walked a little farther away, toed something, then picked it up. “Found it!” He brushed the dirt off a battered smart phone. “It’s Gina’s, her new one,” he yelped. “I’d know it anywhere by the case.” Vinnie moved in next to him and took the cell from his hand.

  The Inspector smiled at them for the first time. “Maybe the two of you are good for something after all.”

  Chapter 57

  Marvin’s boots were ankle deep in mud and the water was rising fast. It came down like a waterfall from the caved-in roof; the glassless window and disintegrating wood beneath it contributed their part by allowing the cold rain to blow in through the opening and flow under the rotted siding.

  “Well now, ladies, it’s time for me to trot along. Me and my sweetie and our little baby boy plan on traveling down the road a piece. Maybe San Diego. Nice and warm and,” he laughed, “dry.”

  He moved up to the vertical slats under the window frame – one kick was all it took for a couple of pieces of wood to drop. With less obstruction, runoff from the back side of the building streamed in faster.

  He looked at Gina for several seconds; she guessed he was making sure the ropes around her wrists and ankles were still holding. Then he toe-nudged Thelma’s shoulder, which was now half buried in the watery muck. It looked like he was going to say something to her, but instead, he turned and sloshed through the mud and on out through the door.

  “Marv...” Thelma tried to call out. “Ma...” But the words were garbled; Gina could barely make them out.

  He never looked back.

  * * *l

  “Based on the cellular info we got from Karsh’s tenant,” Mulzini said, “I now have his truck license numb
er and a positive GPS fix on his location. He’s about three blocks from us, traveling in the opposite direction, back toward the bridge.”

  Harry wanted to say something, anything, but his throat was too dry, he couldn’t utter a word. He turned to Vinnie and saw him sitting on the edge of the seat, his neck tensed like a coiled spring.

  Mulzini clamped his portable, flashing red light onto the roof of the sedan and flipped the switch for the siren as they hit the main thoroughfare. Traffic started pulling over, getting out of their way. He made a screeching turn that took them through downtown Sausalito and to the bypass road leading to the Golden Gate Bridge.

  “There’s our fine, upstanding Mr. Karsh ahead of us,” Mulzini called out. “He’s about to drive onto the bridge.”

  Harry could see the white pickup about a half-dozen car-lengths in front of them.

  Mulzini used his radio to request assistance from any nearby cruisers, the bridge police, and the California Highway Patrol.

  Harry didn’t catch all of it but he did hear the words “kidnapper” and “possibly armed and dangerous.” It left no doubt that Mulzini fully intended to catch Karsh.

  When they got close enough to the pickup to see inside, Harry’s breath caught — only the driver was visible.

  “Where the hell’s Gina?” Vinnie moaned.

  The Inspector held up a hand. “Hold on. Let’s wait and see what’s in the crew cab, or the bed of the truck.”

  Marvin made no attempt to pull over, even though they were close enough for him to see the red lights reflecting in the truck’s rearview mirrors.

  Bridge drivers were honking horns and rubber-necking as Mulzini worked his way up alongside the truck, flipped on his microphone, and shouted, “Pull over, Mr. Karsh ... you’re not going anywhere.”

  The truck kept moving.

  “Ram the bastard,” Vinnie yelled.

  “Not in the middle of the bridge,” Mulzini said, then held the microphone to his mouth again.

  “Karsh! Pull over! Now!”

  Marvin finally veered over to the far right, slowed to a halt.

  Mulzini cut in front of the pickup and stopped just as a Sausalito police cruiser, its rack of lights flashing, blocked the truck from the rear. Before anyone could open a door, two CHP cars were on the scene also.

  Mulzini and two other officers jumped out of their vehicles into the heavy rain and positioned themselves behind car doors, weapons at the ready. Mulzini, pistol held out in front of him with two hands, approached the driver’s door of the truck.

  Karsh was sitting inside, both hands on the steering wheel in the three and nine o’clock positions. Mulzini motioned for him to roll down the window, then rose up on his toes to peer inside the back of the crewcab. He couldn’t see all the way to the floorboards, but it was obvious there was no one inside the cab except Karsh. He looked to where Harry and Vinnie sat waiting and shook his head negatively.

  “Where’s Gina Mazzio?” he asked through the now open window.

  Karsh’s unblinking eyes looked straight at Mulzini. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, sir. And just who is Gina Mazzio?” He rested an elbow on the window ledge and pushed out a hand. He watched the rain wash away the accumulated dirt on his palm. “Horrible weather we’re having.”

  One of the CHP officers opened the passenger-side door. “Open up the glove box, sir.”

  Marvin took his time, making great pantomime of stretching across the cab to open the box. The officer directed his flash inside the small compartment.

  “Nothing here,” he said. Then he crawled into the crew cab and pulled out a Remington .30-06 carbine from under a blanket. The four–round magazine was fully loaded.

  “You’re right, Mr. Karsh – weather’s certainly too horrible today for game-hunting,” Mulzini said.

  Marvin looked away from the Inspector. “Never know when you might see a coyote. More and more of them around these parts lately.”

  “Where’s your wife, Thelma?” Mulzini demanded. “Has she taken Gina Mazzio someplace?”

  Karsh shrugged.

  That slight movement set Mulzini off. “You piece of shit!” He grabbed Karsh by his extended arm and pulled him part way out the door window. “We know from the GPS in Mazzio’s cell that you probably stashed her someplace in Sausalito.”

  Marvin neither moved nor changed expressions.

  “We also know that your wife went to lunch with Ms. Mazzio, and that neither of them returned to work. My guess is that if we find your wife, we’ll find Gina Mazzio as well.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I can’t help you when I don’t know squat ... Inspector.”

  “I doubt that. And whatever is going down here, we’re pretty damn sure you’re in on it.”

  “In on what? I just took a little trip to Sausalito. Is that a crime?” He shrugged his shoulders again. “I’m an American citizen, Inspector, and I can go anywhere I damn well please. This isn’t a police state ... at least not yet.”

  “Right now, you’re suspected of aiding and abetting the kidnapping of Gina Mazzio. You could save yourself a lot of grief by simply cooperating.”

  “Kinda hard to offer any help when I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Mulzini turned and asked one of the CHP officers if he’d be willing to haul Karsh to a holding cell. The patrolman checked with his dispatcher, said it was okay. They loaded Marvin into the CHP cruiser.

  “We’ll go back to where we picked up that signal from his GPS and see what we can find,” Mulzini said.

  “How well do you know the town?” the Sausalito officer asked.

  “Not much better than the average tourist, I suppose.” He indicated the backseat with a nod of his head and added, “And I’m not expecting too much help from these two.”

  “I’ll follow along behind and when you get to the location, I’ll do what I can to help you.”

  “Great.”

  As they pulled away, the bridge police were directing a tow truck to haul Karsh’s pickup, and the CHP was getting traffic moving again.

  Chapter 58

  “Lift your head, Thelma!” Gina shouted. “You’ve got to keep your face out of the water!”

  Using her butt and the heels of her bound feet, Gina scooted and slithered backwards through the muck toward Thelma, not sure if the woman was even conscious.

  Almost there, her heels lost their grip, sending her backwards with a violent lurch. Bolts of pain shot up into her neck. She screamed, the sound bouncing off the dilapidated walls. She twisted her torso, tried to relieve the tension in her arms before she dislocated one or both of her shoulders. She tumbled over to land face-first in the flood water and mud. She fought to lift her head, but it wouldn’t budge.

  No air got through. Her lungs screamed to exhale and pull in more oxygen. She strained, tried to rock her body, pushed in every direction. She remained stuck in that position. When the last of her air exploded with a sickening burble, she made one more effort. There was a loud sucking sound and her head broke free.

  Her heart pounded violently as she snorted and coughed out the mud jammed in her mouth and throat.

  Thelma!

  Not a sign of movement. She was either still unconscious, or had given up.

  Gina squirmed up against her, used her forehead to nudge Thelma’s head up high enough to see her face. What looked back was an apparition of coal-black eyes, an exposed crusted tongue, and a drooping mouth. Her hair was an eerie mass of coiled Medusa-like strands.

  “Thelma?”

  “Go wa.”

  “Let me try to help you.”

  Thelma gurgled an “Oo” and drove her face back into the muddy water.

  Gina shivered and her teeth chattered. Both she and Thelma were now deeper in the still-rising flood of rain water.

  Need to stand.

  She looked again at Thelma and knew that if she lost her footing, she would be finished also.

  She tried for th
e third time to force her tightly-bound hands into the pocket where she carried her bandage scissors. She pushed and pushed until her arms and hips were set in a near-dislocating position. Then her fingertips caught the slim edge of material, which she gathered bit by bit until she was far enough into the pocket to grab one loop of the scissors. She pulled slowly, slowly until it almost lifted out. It slipped away and fell back into the drenched, mud-slick pocket.

  Her shoulders shook; her sobs filled the cavernous room.

  Harry! Where are you? I’m so cold ... cold.

  Thelma knew how this would end. Made it all happen on her terms.

  Cold, tired.

  Gina’s eyelids sank shut.

  Her mind drifted. Sleep was closing in, along with a deep chill that left her breathless.

  Rainbows. Splotches of blue, yellow, purple, and orange surrounded her.

  “Have to stop breaking the glass, Vinnie,” she mumbled. “You break the glass, you kill the beautiful rainbow.”

  Silly kid. Loved rainbows. Never figured it out. Just a small lie for my ornery little brother. Only way to keep him from breaking the neighbors’ windows just for the hell of it. Silly, silly, silly.

  A loud bang jolted her. Her eyes popped open. The caved-in roof at the corner of the shed had collapsed, fell within a couple of feet of her.

  I’m going to die here. Die here without ever seeing Harry again.

  So sleepy.

  Her eyes closed.

  Beautiful rainbows. Vinnie, remember the beautiful rainbows?

  A germ of a thought got through the exhaustion. Her eyes snapped open.

  Rainbows! Broken glass! The window!

  It was such a long way to go. She couldn’t feel her arms, and her legs didn’t want to respond as she scrabbled toward the window. The rain was still blowing in, tap-tap-tapping against her mud-caked face. She could barely move her cheeks, open her mouth. Gust-blown water hit her tongue, slipped down her throat.