The Fix-It Man

by Donald Wells

  My cell phone rang. I let it. After a dozen rings or more, I felt better and took a look at the phone. The caller I.D. identified the call as coming from my phone at home. When I went to answer it, it stopped ringing.

  “Somebody’s in my apartment; that call was from my landline.”

  Bill’s face suddenly brightened with hope.

  “Call it back John, quick!”

  I called. After two rings, the phone was answered.

  “John, where are you? I come back to you and you’re not even home.”

  “…Tori?”

  “John, what’s wrong? You sound so weird.”

  I lost it then, I started blubbering too hard to even breathe, much less talk. I gave the phone to Bill.

  “Tori… is that you?”

  32

  Four hours later, I was back in Castle Ridge, in my apartment, in my bed, with Tori safely enfolded in my arms.

  Marta had been murdered, not Tori.

  Who was the other woman that left the apartment after the killing? No one knows.

  A raincoat was found in a trash can a block away, its lining streaked with Marta’s blood, and an ATM camera caught a flash of a woman wearing a raincoat and kerchief at about the time of the murder, but her face was turned away.

  Tori had arrived back in Castle Ridge while I was being rushed to Philly. When she was halfway home, she went to give me a call and then realized she had left her phone in her apartment. She later arrived home to find me gone.

  After noticing the damage to the downstairs doorframe and the wounded range hood in the kitchen, she began to wonder if there had been trouble while she was away, and called me on my cell to find out where I was.

  As far as the police go, they are now totally baffled by the killing. An autopsy performed on Marta points to the knife work done on her to be consistent with that of PLATINUM. However, every profiling expert ever to look at the PLATINUM case agrees that the murderer must be a man.

  Bill said that they were now rushing through an F.D.R.T test to determine if the weapon used is that of PLATINUM, if it is, then the investigation is back at square one.

  I didn’t know what to make of any of it. All I knew is that I was being given a second chance with Tori.

  * * *

  Tori and I were spooned together, naked. I kissed her on the cheek, as I held her a little tighter.

  “I’m never going to let you go, ever again.”

  “You really thought I was dead?”

  “Yes, and I kept thinking, ‘She’ll never know how much I loved her.”

  Tori turned in my arms, facing me now.

  “I know you love me, it’s just that you love someone else too.”

  “Felicia and I are over. My life is with you now. I meant what I said the other day; I want us to get married. Will you do it honey? Will you marry me?”

  “I gave us a lot of thought while I was away, and it came down to this, I love you. I love you and I want to spend my life with you, so yes, baby I’ll marry you.”

  I kissed her hard on the lips. “Thank you, oh God thank you, you know I thought I might have lost you, and I don’t mean what happened to poor Marta, I mean I thought you might not come back to me.”

  “I’m back, but if you ever so much as kiss your ex again I’m history. I love you more than I’ve ever loved anyone, but I do have a breaking point, and it’s infidelity. I won’t be cheated on. I forgive you for the other night, the kiss you say you shared with her, but you’ve got to put Felicia in the past or we’re through.”

  “I understand. By the way, did David Thorne contact you?”

  “Thorne? No, why?”

  I relayed Thorne’s visit to Tori, along with his threat to steal her away.

  “Maybe he thought I’d sleep with him out of revenge.”

  “He’s twisted. If he ever comes near you, let me know.”

  “If his wife ever comes near you again, let me know. I don’t want any secrets John. I just want to get married and live a long, happy life.”

  I guided Tori onto her back. “Let’s work on the happy right now.”

  We were well into the groove of it when the phone rang. Tori reached over to the nightstand and put her hand on it.

  I grunted, “Let it ring.” and continued doing… what I was doing.

  In the last few hours I had gone from thinking Tori might be leaving me, to believing her to be dead, to finding her not only mercifully alive, but back home and in my life. I didn’t care who was calling or for what reason.

  Tori gasped out. “It could be about Marta.”

  I sighed, “Make it quick.” but I didn’t stop what I was doing.

  “John, they’ll hear.”

  I said, “All right,” while sliding down past her waist and grasping her hips.

  “Hello?” Tori said, sounding as if she had just run a mile.

  “Yes, this is Tori Jameson.” Two miles,

  “Who?” Three miles, straight up,

  “No, no don’t come here, I’ll come there.” Her voice sounded as if she weren’t getting enough oxygen.

  “One o’clock tomorrow, No, I’ll find it.”

  She was sounding so tense now that I wondered if she was going to moan right into the phone.

  “Yes, goodbye,” She hung up and I moved back up along her body until I was in my former position, hovering above her, kissing her beautiful face, her neck, the tops of her breasts.

  “I have a lunch date tomorrow… in New York City.” She said.

  I barely heard her though; things were climbing higher, higher. Things were definitely peaking.

  “That was Felicia, John. She says that she and I need to talk.”

  From that point on, things took a decided dip.

  33

  The next morning, I walked outside in my robe with a mug of coffee for Dave Carlson.

  He was one of Bill’s men and had been on guard duty all night, since we still didn’t know if the murder was random or if Tori or Marta had been the killer’s intended victim.

  Dave greeted me with an odd look as I handed him the coffee, he’d been reading my newspaper when I walked up to him.

  “Thanks John, say… is it true?”

  “What’s that?”

  Dave pointed to the first page of the business section.

  PENNSYLVANIA MAN INVENTS WONDER ENGINE

  The article mentioned my name, the town’s name and had sketchy details about my deal with Universal Motors.

  The cat was now out of the bag. By tomorrow, the Faron Engine would be front page news.

  “It’s true.” I said.

  “Damn, you’re like Thomas Edison!”

  “Edison invented hundreds of things; I’m probably a one trick pony.”

  “It’s a hell of a trick though.”

  “Just leave that cup in the hall when you’re done with it Dave, we’ll grab it later.”

  “Okay, by the way, the Captain wants you to give him a call.”

  I said, “Will do,” and went back upstairs, where I phoned Bill. As I was hanging up, Tori came out of the bedroom and poured herself coffee. I laid the newspaper in front of her and pointed to the article.

  “Things are going to get hectic around here.” She said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “The press, you’re about to become a media sensation.”

  “Maybe we’ll stay in New York for a while, just until it blows over.”

  “What do you mean we? You’re not coming to New York with me.”

  “You’re not going alone, not with Marta’s murder unsolved. Besides, I just talked to Bill and he wants us to meet him later, he’ll be in New York too, something about the Task Force looking for those missing women.”

  Tori stared at me. “You’re not coming to the restaurant.”

  “I don’t want to. I do wonder what Felicia wants to talk to you about though.”

  “You John, she wants to talk about you. She probably wants you back and is puttin
g me on notice.”

  “I doubt it, but just in case.” I held up a finger to indicate that I would be right back and then I went into the bedroom and grabbed the box from my sock drawer. When I returned to the kitchen, I got down on bended knee. “I bet you thought I forgot, didn’t you?”

  I opened the ring box and showed her the diamond.

  Tori gasped. “Oh my God, when did you buy this?”

  “Two days ago, if we’re getting married we’re doing it in style.”

  The salesman said the ring was three carats, all I knew was that it was bigger than the one I had seen on Felicia’s finger and that it ate up a nice chunk of the earnest money that I had gotten from Universal Motors.

  “I know I asked already, but will you marry me?”

  Tori wiped at tears. “Yes, yes I will, and thank you, I’ll feel much better meeting Felicia with this on my finger.”

  “She doesn’t want me back.”

  Tori said, “I don’t care what she wants.” then she slid out of the chair and pushed me down onto the kitchen floor, to lie on top of me.

  I looked around. “We haven’t done it here in a while.”

  “I love you John, and I swear I’ll make you a good wife.”

  “You already have, for years; I’ve just been too damn stupid to make it legal.”

  “Do you want children? You never say.”

  “Dozens,” I said, and unfastened the belt on her robe.

  “How about two or three?”

  “How about we start right now?”

  * * *

  We got to New York around twelve-thirty. The plan was for me to meet Bill while Tori had her lunch with Felicia, then, Tori would join us later at Police Plaza.

  The restaurant was only a few blocks from my meeting with Bill. I parked the car in a garage and walked Tori to the restaurant, we arrived ten minutes early and I kissed Tori goodbye.

  “Don’t you mean good luck?” She said.

  “With the look I see in your eye? Maybe I should say happy hunting instead.”

  “Do I look angry?”

  I kissed her. “You look beautiful, you look like my wife.”

  She held up the ring. “I am your wife, remember that.”

  “I will, and don’t forget, Bill needs you to be at Police Plaza by two.”

  “Oh darn, and I was going to ask Felicia to make a day of it, you know, a little shopping, maybe a movie, get our nails done.”

  I smiled. “I would love it if you two somehow became friends, but I won’t hold my breath.”

  “You’d be blue as a Smurf if you did, now go see Bill while I find out what your ex wants.”

  “I called ahead and asked the waiter to only supply spoons, no knives.”

  “Ha ha,”

  “Tori?”

  “Yes?”

  “I love you.”

  “I love you too big boy.”

  * * *

  I was a few blocks away when I spotted her, Felicia.

  She was just coming up out of the subway exit across the street, carrying a newspaper and a purse.

  She looked beautiful, and my heart, my confused, schizoid heart beat faster upon seeing her.

  She walked toward the restaurant without spotting me and I let her walk on. What was there left to say? Whatever it was, Tori would say it.

  Before I realized I was doing it, I started following her, keeping half a block back, just watching her walk along.

  My God but the woman was beautiful.

  I loved Tori. I was going to marry Tori and spend the rest of my life with her. Tori without a doubt, was a ten. But Felicia, Felicia transcended numbers. There was a something about her that set me on fire; it was sexual in nature, yes, but it wasn’t confined to the sexual. Perhaps I simply loved her without reservation, perhaps I always had.

  As I watched the woman Felicia, I remembered the girl.

  * * *

  We were together in the shop one day, only a few weeks after we met, and I was at the workbench, fixing the turntable on an old record player. Felicia was sweeping up the shop and telling me about a boy in her class.

  “He keeps trying to kiss me and I don’t want him to.”

  “What’s his name?” I asked.

  “Ronny Burkett,”

  “You tell Ronny Burkett that if he doesn’t stop bothering you, you have a friend that will knock his teeth out, okay?”

  She leaned on her broom and grinned at me.

  “Okay, I’ll tell him.”

  I went back to work and had just put the casing back on the machine, when I realized that Felicia was standing beside me at the workbench.

  “What’s up?”

  “Johnny,”

  “Yeah?”

  “How come you never try to kiss me?”

  For a moment, I didn’t know what to say, and then I put down the tool I’d been using and swiveled my stool around to face her.

  “I’m almost three years older than you. I mean, you’re only thirteen and I’m sixteen. I think thirteen is a little young for me, you know?”

  “Oh,” She said, and went back to her sweeping.

  Moments later, I finished the repair and turned to look at her, she was quietly crying as she swept.

  “Hey baby, what’s wrong?”

  She glared over at me. “I’m not a baby!”

  I laughed. “I didn’t mean it that way.” I walked over and lifted her chin with a gentle finger. “Tell me what’s wrong.”

  She sniffled as more tears fell. “I’m always gonna be three years younger than you, that’s what’s wrong.”

  I leaned over and kissed her on the tip of her nose.

  “Hey baby?”

  “Yeah?”

  “You’re not always gonna be thirteen.”

  She smiled at me then, a big one that lit up the shop, and I walked back to the bench to put away my tools.

  * * *

  As she trekked along, Felicia left a sea of turned male heads in her wake; some did double takes, doubting that such beauty could be real. Tori too, elicited this reaction from men.

  Felicia was a block from the restaurant when I realized that I wasn’t the only one following her. She had another admirer. This one was female. The woman stayed back about twenty feet, but kept pace with Felicia’s purposeful stride. I couldn’t see a face, she was wearing a black leather jacket with the fleece-trimmed hood pulled up; she also wore a black skirt that fell to mid-thigh and a pair of stylish white boots.

  The woman tailed Felicia to the restaurant while I tailed the woman and the three of us arrived there in minutes.

  I watched from across the street as Tori and Felicia were seated by a window. Neither one appeared to be brandishing a weapon, so far, so good.

  The woman that had been following Felicia suddenly dashed across the street, headed my way.

  The shop I’d been standing in front of was a bookstore and I ducked inside so as not to be seen.

  The weather had turned a bit cool overnight, but now the sun was reflecting brilliantly off the bookshop windows, and I doubted that I could be seen clearly through the glass. The restaurant across the street however, was still in shadow, and I and the mystery woman had a clear view of Tori and Felicia.

  I looked over at their table and saw Felicia smiling at Tori.

  Perhaps Tori had told her a joke to lighten things up, but somehow, I doubted it.

  I moved to the history section and got a better look at the mystery woman as she leaned back against the bookstore’s window and gazed across the street with a confused look upon her face, she was wearing lipstick, mascara and blush.

  A sense of familiarity came over me and I suddenly realized I knew that face, had seen it only two days earlier sitting at my kitchen table.

  My mystery woman was David Thorne.

  34

  A cross dresser?

  I stared at the woman David Thorne and forced myself not to laugh out loud in the crowded bookstore. I had assumed the pictures of Fe
licia and I kissing were taken by a PI he had hired to follow her. Now I wondered if he himself had taken them, perhaps he had been lurking across the street clicking away with his camera, while wearing a Girl Scout uniform.

  I stood there, dumbfounded, not knowing what to make of it, when my phone rang. Several of the bookstore’s customers sent me dirty looks, but I answered it on the first ring and then ducked into an empty aisle to talk.

  It was Bill, and he sounded anxious. “Are you on your way?”

  “Yeah, I’ll be there in a few minutes, and do I have a story for you.”

  “I’ve got news for you too, the F.D.R.T test confirms that Marta was killed by PLATINUM. That means the missing woman may be a witness.”

  “Jesus, this guy’s everywhere.”

  “I’ve sent a car to pick Tori up at the restaurant when she’s done. When I hang up with you, I’ll call her and let her know the car’s there.”

  As Bill spoke, a patrol car park in front of the restaurant.

  “Thanks Bill, and I’ll see you soon.”

  As I placed my phone back in my pocket, I watched as David hailed a taxi and headed uptown.

  A moment later, Tori answered her cell phone, probably Bill telling her about her police escort. Tori kept the call brief and then went back to her conversation with Felicia.

  Tori was leaning forward, chin resting on her entwined fingers as she listened attentively to Felicia, who seemed to be doing most of the talking.

  I let out a soft moan. The two people I loved most in this world were sitting across the street and, presumably, were discussing how to cut one of them out of my life forever.

  I left the bookstore by a side exit and headed off to see Bill.

  35

  When I arrived at One Police Plaza, they performed everything but a cavity search before allowing me to enter the PLATINUM Command Center on the fourth floor. Even then, I was only allowed access to the outer area.

  Yet, true to the contrary nature of bureaucratic intelligence, the inner sanctum of the command center could be clearly observed through a large glass window, and, if the command center had been a hive, it would surely have been abuzz that day.