“Probably not, but will you try?”
Parker nodded.
“I’ll stop by the bar this afternoon, okay?”
“Thank you, Rick,”
“Yeah,”
Rachel stood and gave Parker a kiss on the cheek, and then she looked over at the ring on Heather’s hand.
“The diamond he gave me was bigger than that.”
“Your point?” Heather said.
Rachel looked surprised by the question, and then left the diner without another word.
***
Later that day, Timothy Hearn closed his front door as the last of the cleaning crew left.
He took a deep breath, and was satisfied that the foul odor of death had been eradicated. All of the carpeting had been cleaned along with the drapes and the blinds, and he had kept the windows open to air things out.
As he prepared to leave for the bar, he went about locking every window, and after that was done, he retrieved his baseball bat from the hall closet.
After donning gloves, he wiped the bat free of prints and sat on the sofa with the bat across his knees. He then wrapped a towel around the bat’s fattest end and secured it in place by using duct tape.
Afterward, he stood up and gave the arm of the sofa a whack. The towel cushioned the blow significantly, but still sounded as if it would deliver enough force to do harm.
He didn’t want to kill Nico, in truth, he knew that he couldn’t kill Nico, he was not the type, but he wanted to beat him so badly that he would finally fear him. He was also going to supplement the literal stick with a metaphoric carrot, by giving him five-thousand in cash.
He nodded to himself. This will work,
Nico wasn’t dumb, he would see that there was no future in harassing him further and he would leave.
Hearn carried the bat outside and tossed it in his trunk along with the gloves, after slamming the lid shut, he looked up to see Rick Parker pulling to the curb across the street.
As Parker approached him, he spoke.
“If you’re here to see my wife, she’s at the bar.”
“I’ve already seen her; she’s the one who told me you were here.”
“You’ve come to see me, why?”
“Maybe we should go in the house, hmm?”
“Whatever you have to say, you can say it right here.”
“All right, I’ve come to tell you that if you’re looking to take on Nico Umbria it’s a bad idea. The man will eat you alive.”
Hearn laughed.
“You obviously haven’t seen him lately; he’s little more than an invalid. The man can barely walk.”
“How many fights have you been in?”
“I’ve had my share, mostly bar fights in college,”
“Bar fights in college, against other college kids? Nico has never been to college. As far as we can tell, he grew up in a gang. If Nico thinks you’re gunning for him he won’t put up his dukes, he’ll pull out a knife, maybe even the same knife he used on Charles Woolley.”
“Rachel sent you here to talk to me, didn’t she?”
“She’s worried about you.”
“Maybe so, but you sure as hell aren’t, you’ve just come here to ask me to change my statement about the night Woolley died.”
“I know you were lying for Nico, that you were the one who hired him to harass the Taggarts into selling you the bar, well, now it looks as if you’re getting a taste of your own medicine.”
“Get out of here, Parker. I’ve got nothing to say to you.”
“I’ll leave, but stay away from Nico, Hearn. He’s more than you can handle.”
After Parker left, Hearn returned to the house to lock up. He was just about to set the alarm when he remembered something. He went back to the closet and grabbed a ski mask from the shelf, after locking up, he tossed the mask next to the bat in his trunk and drove to the bar.
As he motored along, he assured himself that he was ready for Nico, and tried his best to ignore the pit of fear in his stomach.
9
Hearn parked his car by the stairs that led to Taggart’s office, as Nico gave his horn a little, Toot! in order to get his attention.
Hearn approached Nico’s beat-up Chevy with trepidation, while reminding himself to act beaten and scared. The scared part didn’t require much acting ability at all.
“That trick with the cat was nasty, even for you.”
“But it got the point across, didn’t it?”
Hearn sighed.
“Two-thousand a week and you’ll leave us alone, right?”
“Absolutely,”
Hearn reached into his jacket pocket and took out a white envelope, while taking care not to grab the other one he kept there. The other one contained the five-thousand dollar consolation prize he planned to give Nico later, after he had beaten him to a pulp.
Nico took his time and counted the money. When he was satisfied, he sent Hearn a little salute.
“See ya next week,”
Hearn nodded, appearing dejected, and then he turned and headed for the office. As he climbed the steps, Nico drove away, and when he left the parking lot and turned left onto the access road, Hearn rushed back to his car and began following him.
Five minutes later, Nico made a traffic light that Hearn caught red, and he thought that he would lose him, but then he saw that Nico had caught a red light farther up the road, and he was able to stay with him.
When Nico parked in the Highway Motel and went into room twelve, Hearn knew he had tracked him to his lair.
He drove back towards the bar, smiling, and knowing that the next time he left the motel lot, Nico would be bloody, and all his problems would be over.
***
Parker filled Jo in about his meetings with Rachel and Hearn, and saw a look of disapproval.
“You need to stay out of this, Rick. You’re too close to the case.”
“I know, but Rachel needed help, and ex-wife or not I couldn’t abandon her, not that I did any good.”
“You’d better tell Heather about that meeting. If she hears about it from someone else she may begin imaging the worst.”
“I don’t have to tell her, she was there. I figured her presence would keep Rachel from playing games.”
“Smart move,”
“Thanks, but what do you make of all this?”
“It looks like Nico is putting the squeeze on the Hearn by using the only tactic he knows, intimidation.”
“And because Hearn has tied himself to Nico by providing an Alibi for Woolley’s murder, they can’t come in and ask for police protection, fearing that Nico will drag them down with him.”
“Exactly,”
“Rachel’s really gotten herself into a mess.”
“My guess is that Nico wants money, maybe Hearn will pay him off.”
“No, Hearn doesn’t seem to be taking Nico seriously; he thinks his injuries have made him less dangerous.”
“Do you think he’ll try and outmuscle Nico?”
“Yeah, that’s what I’m afraid of,”
***
After the bar closed in the early morning hours, Rachel paced back and forth in the office as Hearn stood to go pay his visit to Nico.
“I don’t want you to do this; it’s dangerous,”
“I’ll be fine. I’m going to kick the door in on him while he’s asleep. It’ll all be over before he knows it.”
“What if you’re caught?”
“I won’t be. I’ll be in and out before the cops can get there.”
“Don’t do it yourself. Why not find someone and pay them to take the chance?”
“That’s how I got into this mess in the first place, by hiring Nico to do my dirty work. I don’t want to trade one thug for another.”
Rachel kissed him.
“Don’t go; I have a very bad feeling about this.”
“Would you tell Parker that?”
“Rick is trained to handle men like Nico, you’re not,”
&
nbsp; “I’ll be all right; hell, the whole thing should take less than an hour.”
Hearn sent her a wink and left the office. He got to Nico’s motel within minutes and found it quiet. Even the office was dark, but he could see a blue flicker come from a back room, where the night clerk was likely watching TV.
He backed into a space several doors down from Nico’s room and popped the latch on his trunk. After donning the ski mask, he slipped on the gloves and grabbed the bat.
It actually took three hard kicks to force the door open, but then he entered the dark room and began rushing towards the bed.
Someone yanked the ski mask off, and when the stun gun blasted him from behind, Hearn dropped the bat and fell atop the mattress.
Nico gave him one more hit for good measure, and then went back to the door to close it.
Four doors down, a bearded man came out into the parking lot and looked around. He was only wearing a pair of blue boxer shorts and his feet were bare. When he saw nothing amiss, he shrugged and went back into his motel room.
Nico turned on the light by the bed, and saw Hearn struggling to sit up.
“Relax Timmy; the fun is just beginning.”
Nico duct taped Hearn’s ankles together, but when he went to tape his wrists, he found that Hearn had recovered enough to push him away. A third shot from the stun gun remedied the situation, and caused Hearn to drool so much that Nico had to dry his mouth with a corner of the pillowcase in order to get the duct tape to adhere properly over his lips.
Nico rested in a chair as he waited for Hearn to fully recover from the blasts, the exertion of taping Hearn’s ankles and wrists had made him sweat, but he felt good knowing that even in his weakened state that he was not someone to mess with. Timothy Hearn was about to learn that lesson the hard way.
“Feeling better yet, Timmy?”
Hearn grunted behind the tape, his eyes alternating between fear and anger.
“Look at you, a stiff like you thought you could take me because I’m not my old self? Hell, Timmy, you would have had trouble when I was still in the coma.”
Hearn was tapping his chin against his chest, even as he kept casting his eyes downward. Nico gazed at him curiously.
“What the hell are you trying to tell me?”
Nico removed one side of the tape and Hearn took a deep breath before speaking.
“Five thousand... there’s five thousand in my jacket... all, all yours, just let me go.”
Nico reached in and plucked the envelope free.
“I’ll consider this a bonus, but I still want the two large every week, of course, while you’re in the hospital your wife will have to make the payments. I’ll have her come here to make them, then maybe she’ll give me a different type of bonus.”
“I’m sorry I tried this, Nico, and I swear I’ll pay you from now on; just let me go, please? Just let me go?”
“No Timmy, you still have a lesson to learn.”
Hearn opened his mouth wide to shout for help, and Nico slapped his face shut, before putting the duct tape back over his mouth. Afterward, he reached down and picked up Hearn’s modified bat.
“I see you wrapped it in a nice fluffy towel. Well hell, I bet being smacked with this won’t hurt a bit, but let’s find out, huh?”
Using his right arm, Nico raised the bat high and brought it crashing down on the side of Hearn’s leg, just above the knee.
Hearn’s eyes bulged, and a muffled scream slipped out from the tape covering his mouth.
Then, Nico hit him again, and again, and kept hitting him until he dropped the bat and reeled backwards in exhaustion, his shirt soaked in sweat, his mouth gasping for breath, as he fell into the scarred wooden seat of the motel chair.
Atop the bed, Hearn was whimpering. He had one eye closed, both lips split open, and his scalp had a deep laceration. There were several broken bones in each hand, and beneath his clothes, numerous bruises were forming.
It took a while for Nico to recover from his exertion, but when he finally did, he picked up the bat and smiled at Hearn.
“Okay, that’s enough warming up. Now the fun really starts.”
With the first fresh swing of the bat, Hearn’s right arm broke in two places.
10
At 4: 47 a.m., Rick Parker entered the hospital with Heather at his side.
They met Jo by the nurse’s station, and she told them that Rachel was in the trauma unit, speaking with the doctor.
“Nico put Hearn in a world of pain, Rick. It’s one of the worst beatings I’ve ever seen.”
“What did he use?”
“A bat wrapped in a white towel, although the towel is red with blood now and the bat broke during the beating. The bat actually belonged to Hearn. He brought it to Nico’s motel and Nico turned the tables on him. He also claims it was self-defense, but there are ligature marks on Hearn’s wrists and ankles. The doctors also found glue on his skin; I’m thinking that Nico used duct tape to bind him.”
Heather made a face.
“You’re saying he taped him up and then beat him?”
“It looks that way.”
“Well, then it couldn’t be self-defense,”
“Nico claims those marks were there before he beat Hearn, said that Hearn and Rachel must be into kinky bondage games, but those marks are fresh.”
“How bad is he, Jo?” Parker said.
“Both arms are broken, all but one finger, several ribs cracked, a shattered collarbone, and deep lacerations on his scalp and face. His nose is particularly bad, and the doctors say he swallowed several teeth.”
Heather shivered. “I don’t like Timothy Hearn, but my God, he didn’t deserve that.”
“Did you get a statement?”
“No, he was too banged up, and now he’s zonked out on morphine. I’ll return later in the day and try and talk to him.”
“What about Nico, did you arrest him?”
“No, I’m waiting until I get a statement from Hearn, one that will hopefully include his earlier dealings with Nico. I doubt he’s still willing to offer him an alibi for the Woolley murder after this.”
“Don’t be so sure, he may now fear Nico so much that he’ll never talk.”
Rachel walked around a corner at the end of the hallway. When she spotted Parker, she ran into his arms, weeping.
“I told him not to go after Nico, but he wouldn’t listen.”
Parker eased her off and led her to a set of chairs, as Heather stayed behind with Jo.
“I’m sorry you have to go through this, sorry for you and Hearn.”
“The doctors say it will take months for him to recover, and that he’ll need plastic surgery too.”
“Nico Umbria plays in a different league. I told Hearn that.”
“Rick, I’m scared, what if he comes after me too?”
“He won’t. Don’t worry,”
Rachel moaned.
“Oh Tim, I... I love him, Rick, not as much as I love you, but I do love him.”
“I know, Rachel,”
After talking a little longer, Rachel left to return to Hearn’s side and Parker walked over to speak with Jo.
“I can’t work this case, only you can,”
“I know.”
“I told Rachel she was safe, but we both know that Nico is capable of anything.”
He leaned closer and both Jo and Heather saw the hate in his eyes.
“Ex-wife or not, if he harms her I will kill him.”
Jo reached out and gripped his arm.
“I’ll get him, Rick. One way or another, I’ll put him away.”
Parker exhaled loudly,
“Thank you,”
Heather took his hand.
“Let’s go home, baby, Jo will handle this,”
Parker nodded in agreement, and then he and Heather went home.
***
They arrived at Heather’s house at noon. Parker was taking a scheduled day off and the two of them were going to spend the time
planning their wedding.
Heather’s mother was working, but Heather wanted to check the mail, hoping to receive her acceptance letter into the research program, however, when the mail came, she received disappointing news.
“I didn’t get in,” she said in a dispirited voice.
Parker took her in his arms.
“I’m sorry, baby; I know how much you wanted it.”
Heather sniffled, as she fought back tears.
“This would have meant so much to us financially, now I’ll be burdened with student loan payments until retirement.”
Parker kissed her.
“You won’t be burdened by anything. We’ll just have a debt to whittle down, and the two of us will pay it off together.”
“It’s just so much money, Rick, and it’ll be years before I make a good salary. How will we handle it?”
Parker led her to the sofa, where he snuggled with her.
“We’ll handle it; we’ll take it day by day, live simply and get to where we want to go. We’ll just handle it. People do it every day while earning even less than we do. All I care about is you. I have you and life is good.”
Heather stared at him, a look of wonder lighting her face.
“I love you so much.”
“I love you too, baby, and we’re going to have a great life together,”
Heather balled up the rejection notice and tossed it onto the coffee table.
She smiled. “Let’s plan our wedding,”
***
Hours later, Nico Umbria sat in one of the white interrogation rooms at police headquarters.
He had slept the day away, and after teaching Hearn a lesson, some of the old cockiness was back, so much so, that he had decided not to ask for a lawyer.
Nico held up a hand to Joanna Knight, who sat across from him.
“Before we start, has Tim Hearn pressed charges?”
“No, Mr. Hearn has remained silent on the matter.”
“And that hot wife of his?”
“Mrs. Hearn has made a statement. Would you like to read it?”
Nico looked surprised by the offer.
“Sure, I’ll read it.”
Jo slipped a sheet of paper out of a manila folder and passed it across the table to Nico.
As Nico read it, a smile formed on his lips.
“She just backs up what I told you, that Hearn hit me first when I visited their office.”
Game Over! (Parker & Knight Book 3) Page 5
