by Donald Wells
“No, Denton lives in a town called Doyleston; it’s, it’s only about a ten minute drive from the spa in Vermont.”
“Jesus Bill!”
“I know John, and I’m sick to have to tell you all of this.”
“These spa trips, every year, just so she can be with him?”
“Apparently,”
“Goddamn it. Janey Roberts, Janey’s part of this, years ago she was trying to tell me something, but she said she promised Felicia she wouldn’t.”
“I guess now you know what it was.”
“And I thought Janey was a friend; she just named her second son after me.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Who knows about this?”
“You and I, that’s it,”
“What about the men guarding Felicia while she’s away?”
“Jack and Marcus, both ex-Navy Seals, their job is to get Felicia to the spa and back safely, once she’s there, the spa’s security takes over. It’s world-class, the spa caters to a lot of celebrities and dignitaries.”
I took in several deep breaths, as I fought to hold back tears.
“I never thought she’d cheat on me again Bill.”
“I would bet my life that she loves you.”
“Oh, no, no, I don’t doubt that. I also don’t doubt that she loves Denton also, to do all this, to risk us, she would have to love him.”
“So what are you going to do?”
“I don’t know, but I guess I have a week to think about it.”
* * *
The week went by agonizingly slow and throughout all of it, my mind was filled with thoughts of Felicia in Denton’s arms.
At one point, I had resolved to fly up there and confront her, but thought better of that idea and instead waited for her to return. When the limo pulled into the driveway, I steeled myself for a confrontation. Felicia emerged from the car and ran to me as if she’d been gone for a year instead of a week.
After a long kiss, she spoke. “Umm, I missed you so much.”
“Did you now?”
“Where’s Hannah?”
“Off to the zoo with Sophie and Bill.”
Felicia grinned. “I think someone wanted time alone with me.”
“I did want to be alone, we need to talk.”
Her face clouded as she stepped back to take me in, as if she were checking me for injuries.
“Is something wrong, something serious?”
She looked so scared, so worried that someone may have tried to harm me again. I gazed into her eyes and saw only love and concern looking back. She loved me. She loved me and at last, we were together and happy.
Fuck Tyler Denton,
I smiled, “No, no baby, everything’s fine, how was your trip?”
“Very restful, and I want to thank you, not every man would put up with his wife going away for a week like this.”
I stared into her eyes.
“As long as you’ll always come back to me, please promise me that you’ll always come back.”
“Of course… is everything all right?”
“I just missed you, that’s all, and I don’t sleep well when you’re gone.”
She kissed me deeply. “Maybe we should get you to bed.”
“Felicia?”
“Yes?”
“Bobby told me that you went by the shop, into the apartment. I’m sorry I never told you about it.”
“Don’t be, I know what Tori meant to you, and I’ll share you with her if I have to. Do you understand what I mean?”
I hugged her. “More than you’ll ever know.”
65
The next time Felicia went on one of her, “Spa trips,” I took a trip of my own. I was in Indonesia, the city of Jakarta.
Richard McCarthy had just had another near miss at Thorne, and I decided it would be a good time to have a face to face with him. Although we spoke frequently, I had not seen the man in years and wanted to let him know that my commitment to hunting down Thorne had not waned one iota.
Bill was at my side, Ms. Lee had also been with us on the trip, but, while at a stop in Pune, India for a meeting with Universal’s Asian division, she mentioned that she had not been home to Japan in eight years. I then insisted that she take this opportunity to visit her family and she thanked me and jumped at the chance.
I really missed having her along though, that woman always seemed to have just the answer I needed.
McCarthy greeted Bill and me at the Soekarno-Hatta Airport. As we got off the private jet, he shook our hands.
“Gentlemen, how was your trip?”
We assured him it was good and then I watched as he searched behind me.
“Where’s Ms. Lee? I was looking forward to meeting her.”
I told him of Ms. Lee’s change of plans and saw a look of disappointment come over him.
“That woman’s a gem. I can’t tell you what a help she’s been in finding me resources.”
I smiled. “You’re preaching to the choir Richard, she’s both my right and my left arm. I don’t know how I’d run Faron without her.”
* * *
We rode into the city and settled into our suite. Over lunch, Richard, Bill and I talked.
“I had the bastard by the neck John, but then three of his men dragged me off of him and he got away.”
“And you say this happened at a drug buy?”
“Yes, Thorne’s trafficking in narcotics now, probably out of necessity; his funds must have been running low. A colleague of mine, my best friend really, named Trent, arranged to sell Thorne heroin. I was posing as one of Trent’s bodyguards when the meeting took place. Thorne showed up with a small army and all hell broke loose. I lost another two men this time but I did learn that Thorne fled to Queensland. After our meeting I’m flying there to find him.”
“Thorne’s in Australia now? What about women, is he still killing?”
“Yes, a body was found two days after the drug buy, it was that of a blond woman. She had been stabbed numerous times and her face had been sliced away.”
I stood up and paced. “We’ve got to stop him Richard, my loss aside, we can’t just let him go on killing.”
Bill caught McCarthy’s eye. “The next time you get close enough to grab Thorne, shoot him instead.”
“He was just following my orders Bill; I want Thorne alive.”
“Yes, but only long enough so that you can personally kill him.”
I sighed at Bill. We’d had this conversation before. I think he believed that if I killed Thorne, I would be crossing a line that I could not come back from.
I looked over at McCarthy. “Kill Thorne if you get the chance, but then I’ll fly to wherever you are and see him dead for myself. But Richard, I need to see this man dead.”
McCarthy nodded. “I understand.”
* * *
The three of us spent most of that day talking about strategy. At nightfall, Richard and I carried our drinks out onto the suite’s balcony to have a private word. The weather was humid, and I immediately felt my shirt begin sticking to my skin.
“How are you Richard, really?”
“The same John, all I have is my work, but I see you’re married now and have a child, that’s good.”
“Overall, yes.” I said, while thinking of Felicia on her “Spa trip”, wondering why I’ve never been enough for her.
“The child, Hannah right?”
“Yes.”
“She’s not yours, is she?”
I stared into his intense eyes. “How do you know that?”
“Just a guess, having come to know you, but you love her as if she were, don’t you?”
I grinned. “I thought I loved her mother madly, but Hannah, she’s on a whole different level. I couldn’t love her more if she were my own.”
“You’re a good man John. Go back and live your life and let me worry about Thorne.”
“I will Richard, but after you find Thorne, go find a life for yourse
lf.”
“My wife’s been dead for ten years, but I still love her, and I seriously doubt God made another like her.”
I raised my drink in a toast.
“May God surprise you someday my friend.”
66
When Hannah was four, she began getting listless, nothing serious, just a noticeable lack of energy in a child that was always a ball of fire.
We took her to her pediatrician and then to the pediatric specialist he recommended in New York City.
At this point, it became serious and Felicia and I feared our baby might not see five.
Hannah was suffering from a rare genetic blood disorder.
Dr. Ramsey, the specialist, said that only about six in 800,000 people suffered from the disease, which would eventually end in death, but that there was a cure that could eradicate the disease.
Felicia and I sighed with relief in unison.
“What’s the cure doctor?” I asked.
“You are Mr. Faron, as the child’s father you possess a gene in your liver which will reverse the disease and eradicate it.”
Felicia sent me a sick look of fear.
“Doctor,” I said, “Could this gene be found in another donor, say Felicia, or another relative such as her Aunt Sophie?”
“No Mr. Faron, the odds of finding a match among the general population, even among close relatives is astronomically high, conversely though, it would be genetically impossible for you as her father to not possess this gene, so we have no worries.”
Felicia whispered, “Oh dear God,” as blood drained from my face.
Ramsey sat back in his chair and stared at us.
“Mr. and Mrs. Faron… is there something I should know?”
“I’m not Hannah’s biological father doctor… David Michael Thorne is.”
“Oh my sweet lord,”
“Yes, I’ve had people looking for him for years and they are closing in, but there’s no way to know when they’ll catch him. How long, how long does Hannah have?”
Ramsey hung his head in despair.
“I would say, no more than six months. Over time she’ll weaken, and at the end, she’ll slip into a coma.”
“Would Thorne have to consent to this procedure?”
The doctor looked up and stared into my eyes. “Legally… yes,”
I studied him carefully, sensing something unsaid. “And… illegally?”
The doctor’s gaze shifted downward, while he mulled something over, after a moment, he spun a picture around on his desk to face us. The picture was of a blond woman in her early twenties.
“That’s a picture of my goddaughter. Her name was Angelica Simon. Does that name mean anything to you?”
Felicia put a hand to her mouth. “Johnny, she was one of David’s victims… she didn’t make it out of that house.”
Ramsey nodded. “That’s right. Her father, Stu Simon, he’s one of the leading hematologists and surgeons on the planet. If you find David Thorne, Mr. Faron, I will need his signed legal consent to remove part of his liver. I assure you, Stu Simon would feel no such constraint.”
“How do I get in touch with Dr. Simon?”
Ramsey wrote down a number and handed it across the desk.
“I wish you the best of luck, and in the meantime, I’d like to stay on as Hannah’s doctor.”
I shook his hand. “Of course doctor, and thank you.”
* * *
When we returned to our suite in the hotel on Fifth Avenue, I called Richard McCarthy.
Luck was with me and I got him in person. I explained Hannah’s predicament and he gave me a ray of hope.
“You’ve found the slaver?”
“I have. In fact, I’m meeting with him under the pretense of buying five women for a brothel I own in Tijuana, Mexico.”
“Richard, I need this man to lead me to Thorne, we’re talking about my daughter’s life here, please, I’m begging you, do not let him get away. If you need a hundred men you’ve got them.”
“I understand your anxiety, but this man takes every precaution not to be caught, it’s why it’s taken so long to contact him. When I told you he believes I’m buying women for a brothel I own in Tijuana, I meant it. I own a brothel in Tijuana; I have for the past year. This man would spot a fake a mile away; in order to get to him I have to be like him.”
“My God,”
“I know, but it’s what I had to do. The point is, when I meet this man I will be blindfolded and most likely checked head to toe for electronic tracking devices; after that, I’ll be taken to a secure location. If everything goes well with this meeting and buy, then the next time, maybe they’ll leave off the blindfold. Eventually, I would just meet him in a public place, but that kind of trust takes time.”
“I don’t have that kind of time Richard.”
“I understand John, and I’ll do whatever it takes, I promise.”
“When’s your meeting?”
“In a month,”
“Oh my God, you have to move it up, that’s a month Hannah may not have.”
“I can’t. It would send up a red flag, please trust me.”
“I do, it’s just hard.”
“John, I’ll do everything in my power to find Thorne before the worst happens to your daughter.”
“If you don’t, then you can stop looking, because I’ll no longer care if he kills me or not.”
“That my friend is a sentiment I know only too well. Goodbye John.”
67
Dr. Stu Simon was in his early-sixties, average sized, with a genius I.Q.
I had done research and found that he had been conducting his own hunt for Thorne. His surrogates had produced far fewer results than McCarthy had; but like McCarthy, they were still plucking away. I met him at his home on 59th street and suggested that we combine efforts.
Dr. Simon was a man of books and it showed. He had a library to rival my own, and like my collection, the books ran the gamut from philosophy to engineering to fiction. Behind his desk was a wide window that offered a view of the city’s skyline.
On both sides of the window were rectangular glass cases fastened atop of marble pedestals. The right case held a first edition of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, while the left one held a three volume, first printing of Melville’s Moby-Dick. I found their presence in the room with us to be both ironic and fitting.
Stu Simon leaned back in his seat and pointed his cigar at me.
“Why do you want Thorne?”
“I am going to kill him.”
“And then you’ll rip out his liver and hand it to me of course.”
“That goes without saying.”
“We could both go to prison if we do what you plan.”
“I think there’s a small chance of that doctor, but even so, it’s one I’m willing to take.”
Simon and I had been feeling each other out, after all, what we were planning was illegal. After a few minutes, I felt at ease and disclosed to him my full plans for Thorne. I then asked him if they were medically feasible.
“Mr. Faron, medical science has come a long way. Did you know that it is now possible to store organs, tissues, hell, even blood, almost interminably?”
“I didn’t know that, but I find it very useful knowledge.”
“I thought you might.”
“Doctor, to do what I’m proposing I’ll need your help, both supervisory and hands on, are you willing?”
Simon stood up from behind his desk and offered me his hand. “I’m in Mr. Faron. You write the checks and I’ll make it happen, but tell me, where exactly are we going to do this?”
I smiled without a trace of warmth.
“I’m going to take a page out of the monster’s own playbook.”
Simon blanched a bit. “I get your meaning, now all we have to do is find Thorne.”
* * *
I returned to the hotel room to discover a visitor, Ms. Lee.
She and Felicia were deep in conversation over s
omething and it looked serious.
“What’s going on?”
Felicia held up papers. “We’re being sued.”
“By who?” I asked.
“Miriam Thorne.” Ms. Lee said.
“Thorne’s mother? What could she be suing us for?”
“It’s for the custody of Hannah, John.” Ms. Lee said. “Our lawyers believe she’s being used by Thorne to harass you.”
“Johnny what are we going to do? She’s suing on the basis of David’s paternity; her lawyers are asking that you take a DNA test.”
I looked at Ms. Lee. “I suppose you know that I’m not Hannah’s biological father.”
“I didn’t know, but I suspected. I always had trouble believing that you would have cheated on Tori, even with Felicia.”
“Thank you for that, and tell the lawyers to drag this out.”
“They will, but you may eventually have to take a DNA test.”
Felicia looked at Ms. Lee with pleading eyes.
“If it was legally determined that David is Hannah’s father, would the courts really allow Miriam Thorne to have shared custody?”
Ms. Lee took Felicia’s hands in her own.
“Felicia, this is just harassment by Thorne, there’s not a judge in the world that would give Hannah over to that woman; she’s spent most of her life in mental institutions. You won’t lose Hannah.”
Felicia began to cry.
“But she’ll know the truth, she’ll know that her biological father was a monster, and the world won’t ever let her forget.”
Ms. Lee took Felicia in her arms then and simply held her.
Moments later, Felicia composed herself and smiled at Ms. Lee.
“You know, you’ve really become a good friend.”
Ms. Lee smiled back and gave her hand a squeeze.
“This is more than a job to me; you’re like family.”
I thanked Ms. Lee and then she said she was going to her own suite to work. Felicia and I then moved to the loveseat and held each other.
“Oh God Johnny, first the illness and now this, our poor little girl,”
“We’ll get through it baby, first I’ll find the son, and then I’ll deal with the mother.”
