by Selena Black
After surveying the place for a few minutes, he turned his attention to his whisky. There were still almost two hours to go before the meeting, so he paced himself to make sure that his head was clear for what was to come. The minutes ticked by slowly as he sat and considered what the outcome of the evening would be. He remembered telling Gloria that things would be over soon and hoped that really would be the case. The whisky tasted delicious, but the urge to tip up the glass and empty it was one he ignored. Forty-five minutes passed before he finished his drink and he made the second one he ordered last just as long.
It was now five o’clock and there were a few more people in the bar, but the booths were still empty. He ordered another whisky then walked across to the second to last booth and sat down. It meant the door wasn’t visible, but he kept his gaze in its general direction to watch for anyone coming in. When he saw the man walk inside a few steps then stop to cast his gaze around the place, he was sure it was who he wanted. The man walked across to buy a drink then walked towards the booths.
An almost imperceptible nod passed between them as the man walked by and sat in the very last booth. That showed it definitely was who he was expecting to turn up. Everything was now in place and all it needed was for Karen to show her face. Mark could sense his pulse racing faster as five thirty approached and it was five minutes after when he saw her come inside the bar. She stopped to look in the direction of the booths and it was then that he caught sight of Jack moving beside her. They saw him just at that point and moved across the bar towards him.
“What the hell is that piece of shit doing here?” Mark demanded to play out the game although Jack being there didn’t come as a big surprise to him.
Karen just smiled as she dropped down on the seat and edged along it to let her companion sit beside her.
“Jack told me a very interesting story,” Karen replied. “I’m sure you know what I’m talking about.”
“I thought this was supposed to be an amicable discussion about the divorce settlement,” Mark went on.
“Oh, you can be sure I’m here to take about the settlement,” Karen told him and smiled. “How amicable our discussion is will be down to you entirely.”
Mark just glared across the table and let her go on talking.
“As I just told you,” she said. “Your friend Jack came to me with some news that I was amazed to hear.”
“He’s no friend of mine,” Mark spat out.
“Whatever,” Karen replied haughtily. “From what he tells me, you’ve found yourself a pretty new girlfriend. Well, stole his girl away from him I should say and that’s not the end of it. I hear that you haven’t been very sensible when it comes to protection, if you know what I mean.”
“Get to the point Karen,” Mark barked.
“The point is I know how much you want a family,” Karen went on. “And I’m sure that now you have your girlfriend pregnant you won’t want her being cited as the other woman in our divorce case.”
“She has nothing to do with what’s happening between us,” Mark said.
“Hmm …, well I disagree with that,” Karen went on. “I think she has everything to do with it. What would a judge think when I tell him the sorry story of how you tossed me aside for your pregnant girlfriend. I’m not sure it would go down too well and I’m certain that Gloria wouldn’t be too happy with you as her reputation is being ripped to shreds by my attorney. It will make some great copy for the tabloids, don’t you think? Then again, I’m sure you know that with your media experience.”
“Are you threatening me?” Mark demanded.
“Oh, don’t be so dramatic,” Karen said and laughed. “I’m merely pointing out the facts of the situation to you.”
“Which are what?” Mark went on.
“Which are …,” Karen said then paused. “If you don’t want trouble for your girlfriend and baby then I better get what I want. Or should I say, we better get what we want. Jack shouldn’t be left out of the deal.”
“And that would be?”
“Haven’t you been listening to my attorney during the meetings at his office,” Karen said and laughed. “The deal I was prepared to sign up to was that I get forty-five percent of your wealth. I’ve said to Jack that I’ll up that to forty-six percent and give him the difference.”
Mark glanced at the jazz trumpet player sitting across from him and saw the smug expression before returning his attention to Karen.
“You’re being very generous with my money,” he said.
“Our money don’t you mean, so let’s cut the crap,” Karen snapped as she failed to contain a growing annoyance. “You fucking tell your lawyer that you’ll sign up to what I want and we can walk away from this without any trouble.”
“And if I don’t?” Mark asked.
Karen lowered her voice although it retained a hard edge as it came out.
“Then you’ll find out how much of a bitch I can really be when I don’t get my own way,” she hissed. “I’ll make Gloria’s life so fucking miserable that you’ll be lucky if she and the baby want to be anywhere near you after I’ve finished with them. I’ll instruct my attorney to string out this divorce case for as long as he can and we’ll see how your new relationship copes under the stress of it. All I am suggesting is that you do the right thing to avoid some unnecessary hassle.”
“You’re blackmailing me then,” Mark said.
“Oh Mark,” Gloria said. “You’re being dramatic again. I never said anything about blackmail.”
“But you have,” he replied and made his move. He reached in his pocket to bring out the small cassette that was delivered in the package to him that morning. “You talk about it on this.”
Doubt clouded Karen’s eyes for a second before she shrugged it away and laughed.
“You’re bluffing,” she said.
“If you say so,” Mark said.
He reached down for his bag to bring it up on the table then got out a small tape recorder. The two people sitting opposite him turned to glace at each other then returned their attention to what he was doing. He slotted the cassette in the device and pressed play. The sound of a voice came from it and Karen recognized the words as those Jack said to her the evening before.
“You’ll blackmail him with the information?”
“Damn right I’ll blackmail him with it. If he doesn’t give me the divorce settlement I want now, I’ll make sure his precious new family suffers the consequences. I’m sure his girlfriend won’t want to spend the nine months of her pregnancy regularly visiting a court room to be trashed by my attorney and having her name and picture splashed on the front pages ….”
The words ended as Mark switched off the tape recorder.
“I think you mentioned blackmail there,” he said. “And from what I heard you did it a few other times on that recording. I’m sure the police would find it interesting if I were to pass it on to them.”
Karen’s anger welled up.
“You bugged my apart ….” Her words stopped when she realized what she was saying and she quickly changed her tune. “That could be anyone on that recording. You’ve no proof it’s me.
“I didn’t need to bug your apartment, as you started to say,” Mark went on. “I arranged for someone to record it and they would be quite happy to confirm that the people speaking are you and Jack.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Karen demanded.
“Come out,” Mark said in a louder voice over his shoulder.
The man from the last booth got to his feet and moved to show his face.
“Alain,” Jack let out.
“I told you I’d be around,” Alain replied.
“What the hell is going on?” Jack asked.
“He fucking set us up,” Karen spat out as she glared at the other man that came to her home the previous evening.
“But he was at the apartment with us,” Jack said. “He’ll be on the cassette too.”
Karen let out a bitter
laugh as she remembered the discussion.
“He didn’t say one fucking word last night as far as I recall,” she went on. “He let you do all the talking and now we know why. The bastard was taping us.”
“But …, if this falls apart then he gets nothing,” Jack let out.
“Don’t you get it,” Karen said in a disbelieving voice. “He set us up and to use your phrase from last night, he didn’t do it out of the fucking goodness of his heart.”
“No I didn’t,” Alain said and let out a quiet laugh. “Candice came to me a couple of days ago with an offer from Mr. Godfrey that was too good to refuse.”
“But we were talking about millions,” Jack said.
Alain’s laughter was harsher.
“When have your schemes ever worked, Jack,” he spat out harshly. “I got an offer for money in my bank account right away and I already have it. That’s a whole lot better than fucking around with another one of your plans that was destined to turn to shit like everything else you touch. I knew you would be at Gloria’s apartment last night and that you would come out of the place empty handed. All I needed to do was make you go through with the threat to tell Karen the story and get the pair of you on tape talking about blackmailing Mark. It wasn’t exactly difficult to do.”
“So …, here we are,” Mark cut in to the conversation and stared at his wife. “I have hard evidence of you and Jack plotting to blackmail me and a witness that will back me up if needed.”
“Nobody is going to believe him,” Karen snapped.
“Why not?” Mark said and it was his voice that was hard edged now. “What you don’t know is that Jack tried to blackmail me into giving him money to stop him from telling you about my new relationship and baby. I said no and hired a known associate of his to help me avoid problems when he carried out his threat to go to you. I’m sure the police will understand that I was just trying to protect myself.”
“You think you’ve got it all worked out don’t you,” Karen said in an angry voice.
“Well you can always take your chances and tell me to fuck off,” Mark replied. “We’ll find out what the police think about it when I hand them the cassette. Just say the word and I’ll get my attorney to set the wheels in motion.”
Karen lowered her gaze to the table and remained quiet.
“Nothing to say,” he taunted her. “In that case we’ll do things my way.” He reached in his bag to bring out a form and slid it across the table to her.
“What’s that?” she asked in a morose tone.
“That …,” Mark said, “… is a written statement that you will abide by the terms of the prenuptial agreement and that you no longer intend to contest the divorce. I’m not as hard-hearted as you, so you can sign it, take the money and get the hell out of my life. I’ll store the cassette in a nice, safe bank vault, from where it can easily be retrieved in case you have any crazy notions to try and get back at me.”
“This is fucking shit,” Karen let out.
“Yeah, well that’s just your opinion,” Mark told her and held out a pen.
She snatched it from his hand and inked her name on the dotted line. Mark put the signed document in his bag.
“I’ll pass it on to my lawyer tomorrow,” he told her. “He’ll give a copy to your attorney and we can get this fucking divorce over and done with as quickly as possible.”
Jack dropped his gaze to the table as the attention turned to him, but looked up as Mark spoke.
“My advice to you is to get out of New Orleans as soon as you possibly can. I’d happily see you behind bars and might just put the full force of my attorney on arranging that if I ever see you again. Mind you, from the stories I’ve heard about you and Mr. Ledoux, I’m sure he’ll be happy to convince you that it’s in your best interests to leave and not return.”
The grip on Jack’s collar hauled him to his feet and his fear rose.
“Let’s go somewhere private and have a chat,” Alain said.
The vice-like grip that now seized his arm led him towards the door of the Rosewood Bar. He wanted to run, but there was no escape from him. The small alley he was taken to behind the bar was deserted and the punch to his gut dropped him to his knees. His hair was grasped to make him look up.
“You heard the man,” Alain said. “Your life in New Orleans is over, so you better take your fucking chance and get out before things really go bad for you. Do you understand me?”
“Yes.”
Alain’s hand smacked across Jack’s face to knock him to the ground and the kick to the gut left him curled up in pain.
“You know I have plenty of contacts in New Orleans,” Alain went on. “I’ll be putting the word out for them to let me know if you are spotted anywhere in the city, so do the smart thing for once in your life.”
Jack curled up tighter as another kick was aimed at him, but it was the last of the violence and he watched from where he was lying as Alain walked away. He closed his eyes as he tried to cope with the pain and waited for a while to let it wear off a bit before trying to get to his feet.
“Fuck,” he groaned as he leant against the wall.
He looked around his dingy surroundings and knew he didn’t want to take a beating in a deserted alley again or risk the wrath of Mark Godfrey crashing down on him. It was time to get out, so he slowly made his way to his room to collect his belongings then went to the bus station and got on the first service that was leaving.
Chapter 14
Gloria frowned and shook her head when she saw the van come to a halt outside her bookstore. She knew what it was straight away and wasn’t surprised to see the man approaching the door with a large bunch of flowers. It was over a month since a bouquet was last delivered, however, and that was before things came to a head with Jack and Karen. She still wasn’t sure exactly what happened with them, but as far as she knew the threat they posed was gone and she’d got back to some semblance of a normal life afterwards.
Her relationship with Mark was growing stronger and the fact that she moved in with him allowed her to see him every evening. That meant there was no need for flowers as a sign they were going to meet, which was usually what happened on the days they were delivered to the store previously.
“I’m looking for a …,” the man started when he entered and looked down at the slip of paper in his hand. “… Gloria Godfrey.”
His words made her frown and she was silent for a few seconds as she contemplated the name.
“Umm …, that would be me I guess,” she eventually said and reached out to take the flowers.
“Have a nice day,” the delivery man said before walking to the door and leaving.
“Gloria Godfrey,” she murmured under her breath. It was a name she hoped she would be using eventually although it was premature to be calling her it that day
She brought the blooms to her nose to take in the scent and saw that the card amongst them looked bigger than she remembered. It was obvious why when she reached for it and let out a laugh when she saw it was a ticket for a jazz cruise on the Mississippi at eight o’clock. She turned it over and saw the message written on it for her to be there on time.
“Crazy idiot,” she let out.
She went to get her phone to call Mark, but there was no answer and she guessed he was busy at work. It was only four o’clock, so she carried on working in the store until it got to around seven. She then closed up and hailed a taxi.
“Do you know this place?” she asked and showed him the ticket.
“Yeah, it’s a popular spot,” he replied and returned it to her. He rejoined the traffic before speaking again. “Have you been on the cruise before?”
“Just once,” she replied.
“It’s a great way to see some of the city from the river,” he went on. “And perfect if you are a jazz fan.”
“Yeah, my boyfriend is treating me,” Gloria went on. “I’m looking forward to it.”
She looked out of the window at the passing scen
e as the conversation dried up. The journey lasted around thirty-five minutes and it was nearing quarter to eight when the taxi came to a stop.
“Enjoy yourself,” the driver said after she paid the fare.
“Thanks,” Gloria replied and got out.
She walked towards the mooring point and wondered if she should wait or get on board. There was still fifteen minutes before the steamboat set sail, so she just decided to hang around and see if Mark turned up. It was five minutes before eight when she finally spotted him and he smiled as he came up to her.
