by Donald Wells
“I’m damn sorry he got away John.”
“Don’t be, you’ll find him.”
“I will, goodbye,”
* * *
More months passed with no further word on Thorne.
I awoke early one Sunday morning, after hearing Hannah singing to herself on the baby monitor. She did that upon awakening, just bubbling incoherent sounds of joy.
We had celebrated her first birthday a few weeks ago, along with our first anniversary.
I eased myself out from under Felicia’s arm and went into the nursery, through the connecting door.
Hannah was standing up in her crib and smiling.
“Daddy!”
“Good morning baby girl, how’s daddy’s little angel?”
I picked her up and kissed her and she hugged me back. After changing her, I sat in the rocker.
Someone used a key and entered from the hall door. I looked over and saw that it was Sam Bowen, one of the security guards. He appeared nervous and had his weapon drawn.
I stood with Hannah. “Sam, is there a problem?”
He raised the gun and pointed it at me; that’s when I noticed that it had an ugly homemade silencer attached to its end.
“I’m sorry Mr. Faron, but they’re paying me a million.”
“Thorne?”
He shrugged. “I guess, the man didn’t say who he worked for.”
“Sam, I’m begging you, let me put Hannah in her crib first.”
He nodded very fast. “Sure, sure, I don’t want to hurt the baby, it’s just that I noticed you never carried your gun when you came in here.”
He was right. My gun was sitting in the side table near the bed. I sat Hannah in her crib and laid her on her stomach, but she bounced back up and looked at both of us.
“Take me somewhere else. I don’t want my daughter to see this.”
He glanced at the hallway door and then looked back at me.
“Can’t do it, it’s too dangerous, but she’s young, she won’t know what’s happening.”
I said, “You’re right.” as I picked Hannah back up and cradled her.
Sam chuckled. “You think I won’t shoot you just because you’re holding a baby? You’re wrong. For a million bucks I’d kill everyone in this house.”
“I’m holding her because the noise will frighten her.”
“There won’t be any noise; my gun has a silencer.”
I peered beyond his shoulder.
“Yes, but hers doesn’t,”
His eyes widened an instant before the first bullet struck him. Felicia shot him five more times and then dropped the gun and ran to Hannah and me.
I had watched her slip quietly into the room, holding my gun straight out at arm’s length, and had absolutely no doubt that she would shoot him. The look on her face was the untainted countenance of a mother protecting her child, of a wife defending her husband.
She cried against my chest, as she trembled.
“I heard him on the monitor and all I could think was that I had to save you, thank God I found your gun.”
Bill ran into the room an instant later, gun in hand, wearing only his boxer shorts. A moment later, Sophie followed, still fastening her robe.
Bill looked at the dead man on the floor. “What happened?”
“Bowen, he said someone paid him a million to kill me.”
“Thorne?”
“That would be my bet.”
Ms. Lee arrived and gasped after spotting the body. I asked her to go call the police, I then handed a crying Hannah to Sophie.
“Please take her away from this.”
“Are you all right John?” Sophie asked.
“I’m fine.”
Sophie took Hannah away, as Bill bent down and looked at the body.
“Nice grouping of shots John,”
“I think Felicia’s a natural.”
His head shot up. “You mean she…”
“Felicia saved me Bill.”
Bill walked over, to place a gentle hand on Felicia’s arm.
“Are you all right honey? Something like this could be very traumatic.”
Felicia sent him a reassuring smile, as her body still trembled. “I’m fine Bill.” She said, and then she turned in my arms, eyes ablaze. “You find David, you find him and you kill him.”
I nodded, saddened by the fierce look in her beautiful eyes.
“I will baby, I will.”
* * *
The police had investigated and taken the body away and now we were alone again.
Ms. Lee was graciously keeping an eye on Hannah upstairs, while in the kitchen, I was having coffee with Felicia, Sophie and Bill. We sat around the table amid a palpable mood of gloom.
I sent Felicia a wink and stared over at Sophie.
“Mrs. Thorne,”
“Yes John?”
I let loose a sad sigh. “Something has come to my attention.”
“Yes?”
“It concerns you and Bill. How should I put this, your sleeping arrangements.”
“Our sleeping arrangements?”
“Yes, I’m raising a daughter here; I can’t have her around sordid behavior.”
“You mean Bill and me? But, it’s not sordid; we have feelings for each other.”
“Sophie, I don’t know what things were like in your home, but in this house young lady, boyfriends and girlfriends do not sleep together.”
“But, I, I mean I know you have every right to set the rules but… Bill?”
Bill took her hand. “He’s kidding Sophie.”
“Oh John, that was cruel, for a moment I thought you were serious.”
“Sorry, just a little payback,”
Sophie sent me a smile, but an instant later, I watched as her face collapsed and she started to cry.
I stood to walk over to her and she met me halfway, throwing herself upon me in a desperate hug.
“Oh God we almost lost you. If Felicia… if she hadn’t had the strength to shoot that man, you might be dead right now.”
“I’m okay Sophie, everything’s okay.”
I hugged her back, in genuine affection. We had been living in the same house for over a year and I had grown very fond of her. Sophie treated Bill like a king and the two of them were good together.
Under Bill’s pleading, Sophie had reluctantly agreed to accompany him to a local homeless shelter, where Bill occasionally volunteered his time. Sophie took to the children there immediately, and Bill found he practically had to drag her away from the place that night. Nowadays, Sophie, a woman who had never held a job in her life, routinely put in twelve hour days at the shelter for no pay, no monetary pay that is. She had once confided to me that at the shelter she felt needed, and that it made her feel better than any trinket or fur ever could.
Sophie slowly released me and dried her eyes.
“Do you really think David was behind this?”
“Yes.”
“Bill has told me that you plan to kill David.”
“Yes.”
“He must be mad, to do the hideous things he’s done, nothing more than a mad dog.”
“And you know what they do to mad dogs, don’t you?”
Sophie stared at me. “They put them down John.”
“That’s right.”
“I don’t think I could ever do it, kill someone.”
“David is also trying to kill me, so I guess it’s kill or be killed.”
Sophie’s eyes began to mist again. “You be careful. Felicia, Hannah, Bill and I, I don’t know what we’d do without you.”
“I will be careful, and about David, I’m sorry. I know at one time you two were like family.”
Sophie stretched up and pecked me on the lips.
“To hell with David,”
* * *
Later that day, I called McCarthy from my study and told him about the attempt on my life.
He said he would search for a connection between Thorne and Bowen on his end,
and then gave me some news about the eight dead women found at Thorne’s home in Hong Kong.
“They were all reported missing over the last three years. Six of the eight autopsies showed signs that they may have been working as prostitutes.”
“So, Thorne’s targeting hookers now?”
“No John, all eight of these girls had stable backgrounds before they went missing. My instincts tell me that we’re looking for a white slaver. I think Thorne simply purchased the girls, I’m working that angle now.”
I felt my stomach churn.
“You mean someone is not only abducting these women to use as sex slaves, but then selling them to Thorne so he can murder them?”
“That’s my belief.”
“Richard, it sounds like we’re looking for two monsters now.”
“We are, and the second monster, the slaver, will lead us to the first monster, Thorne.”
“This slaver, what will you do with him once he gives you Thorne?”
“I won’t say over the phone, but I think you can guess. Any objections?”
I looked over at Hannah’s picture on my desk.
“Not a one.”
63
Over the next year, McCarthy tracked Thorne down twice, but failed to get close enough to apprehend him. He did however succeed in damaging Thorne financially by discovering the name of one of his aliases.
This led to authorities confiscating over eight million dollars in funds that Thorne had stashed away under that identity. Thorne may have been winning the battles, but McCarthy and I would win the war. Little by little, Thorne’s resources were being eaten up by trying to stay a step ahead of McCarthy and the law.
There was also another attempt on my life, but it was feeble.
The man contracted to kill me was actually an undercover agent of Interpol, who not only warned us of the attempt on my life but also eventually arrested the man that Thorne had been using as a go-between.
McCarthy said that Thorne was weakening, and that it was just a matter of time before he found him, or the white slaver that supplied him with women to kill. Tragically, five more bodies were found on sites that Thorne had been living in.
* * *
I was sitting out behind the house with Bobby Owens.
Ostensibly, his daughter Maria was here for a play date with Hannah, actually it just gave their dads a chance to drink beer and talk about cars. Bobby’s home was only a short distance away in a new development. Tori and I had bought the house for him and his wife Wanda as a wedding present. It was also my way of thanking him for saving my life the night that Thorne threatened to kill me.
I had also offered him a job with Faron Engines, but Bobby decided to stay on at the garage instead. He said he loved working on cars and couldn’t imagine being stuck in an office all day.
So Bobby still works at the garage, and is basically his own boss, any profit the business makes is his to keep and Bobby sets his own hours.
There are times I envy him. Although I love running Faron Engines, the challenge of it, the excitement and prestige, there are times when in the middle of a management crisis, when I have ten different people telling me about twenty different problems, at those times, I often find myself wishing I only had a simple brake job to worry about.
More than one person has told me that I’m a natural at business, that I’m a gifted manager and problem solver. I’ve smiled at these people and thanked them for their compliments, but inside I know the truth.
I’m no businessman, not really, I just like to fix things.
Hannah had just entered the terrible two’s, but there was nothing terrible about her. She was perfect. Although, I will admit, at times she did seem a tad less perfect than at other times.
I looked over to my left at the tennis courts and watched Felicia volleying with Ms. Lee. They played often when the weather was good and had become jogging partners as well.
Bobby gestured over toward the court.
“Your wife stopped by the garage last week.”
“She did? Did she go upstairs?”
“Yeah, I hope it was all right?”
I nodded. “It’s not like it’s a secret or anything, but I guess it’s a little weird though.”
Bobby shook his head. “I don’t know John. There are a few parts of my past I’d like to have frozen in time too.”
“Frozen in time? Yeah, I guess that’s what it is.”
We were talking about the fix-it shop and the apartment above it.
After Tori died, I closed the shop while keeping everything that was in it and reimbursing the customers whose property was there to be repaired. I also left the apartment above just as it was that last morning before Tori and I flew out to Monterey.
Tori’s office was just as she had left it, Tori’s coffee mug still sat in the kitchen sink drain and Tori’s clothing still hung in the closets. In the early days after Tori’s death I went there quite often, it almost gave me a sense of hope.
The apartment seemed so normal that I could almost hear Tori’s footfalls on the stairs. But Tori was never coming home again and I soon stopped torturing myself by going there. Still, I couldn’t bear to change a thing, and so the apartment sits as it was when I lived there with Tori in my oh, so ignorant bliss.
The fix-it shop also held memories, memories of my grandfather, and memories of Felicia, of the girl Felicia, the Felicia before David Thorne, of the John Faron before David Thorne, of my life before David Thorne, before the Faron Engine and before the nigh all-consuming urge to place a bullet in the center of David Thorne’s face.
Felicia looked over from the court and smiled and waved at me and I waved back.
“Did Felicia seem upset?”
“No, she just spent a few minutes looking around the shop and the apartment and then she left.”
“She never said a word to me.”
Bobby gave a shrug. “I guess she understands.”
Hannah came running over with Maria and the two girls jumped up into their daddies’ arms.
“Hello baby girl, are you having a good time?”
“I want swings daddy.” Hannah said.
“Swings it is.” I said. Bobby and I carried our daughters over to the swing set. As we pushed the girls, I asked Bobby a question.
“Have you ever loved anyone other than Wanda?”
“No man, one look and I knew, you know what I mean?”
“Love’s great isn’t it? Best thing that ever happened to you right?”
“Absolutely, that and Maria,”
“Now imagine that it happened twice.”
“In love with two women? Sounds like paradise doesn’t it?”
“Yeah, it does.” I said.
“But it ain’t, is it?”
“No Bobby, no it sure as hell ain’t.”
64
I gave Felicia a lingering kiss, and then she climbed into the back of a limo along with Janey Roberts. The two were off on one of their spa trips.
About once a year, they went up to a spa in Vermont for a week. They had been best friends since kindergarten and probably always would be.
I hated the spa trips, hated being separated from Felicia for even a day, but, invariably, she would come back looking renewed in some way, and so I kept my selfish mouth shut and told her to have a good time.
Felicia lowered the mirrored glass on the limo. “I’ll be back in a week, take care of Hannah.”
I leaned over so Hannah could give her mother a kiss goodbye.
“Bye bye mommy, I love you.”
“Bye bye precious, I love you too.”
Felicia waved goodbye, and then the limo drifted off through the gates.
Sophie held out her hands for Hannah. “Let me take her.”
“Thanks Sophie.”
Bill walked over to me with a serious look on his face.
“I need to talk to you about something.”
“A security problem?”
He gestured at
the house. “Let’s talk in the study.”
* * *
After we sat across from each other at the desk, Bill handed me a sheaf of papers.
“What’s this?”
“Bank records, Krebbs came to me and told me that Felicia had withdrawn a hundred thousand dollars from your joint account. He was simply following my security protocols by reporting it to me.”
“A hundred K? Why would she need that kind of money?”
“I have an idea, but look at the records, every month she electronically sends two thousand to an account at another bank.”
I read the name on the account.
“Who’s Tyler Denton?”
Bill gave a heavy sigh and handed me an envelope, inside was an 8″x10″ blow-up of what looked like a photo from a driver’s license, it was of a man in his early thirties; the man was white, apparently in good shape and looked enough like me to be a brother.
“This is Tyler Denton?”
Bill nodded, and suddenly I felt as if my life were slipping away.
“You think she’s having an affair with this guy?”
“I think it’s a little more complicated than that.”
“Bill, just tell me what the hell you think is going on.”
“John, I love Felicia, you know I do, but yes, I think she and Denton may be having an affair, but I also think it started while she was still with David Thorne. Think about it. She didn’t love Thorne, you were with Tori, and along comes Denton, who must have reminded her of you.”
“But why would she be giving him money?”
“I thought about that, that maybe it was blackmail of some kind, but I discarded that theory. She’s the wife of a billionaire. Two thousand dollars a month isn’t blackmail, it’s more like a gift, a stipend.”
“And the hundred thousand, what about that?”
“Denton is a mechanic, married with four kids, the oldest child, a girl, she has Muscular Dystrophy. Medical expenses must run very high.”
“He’s a mechanic too?”
“He just recently went to school for it, before that he just pumped gas and held a few warehouse jobs.”
“This is why Felicia stayed with Thorne. It was for money, money she gave to Denton to help with the medical expenses.” I threw the photo on the desk. “Where’s Denton live, New York?”
