by Mark Lukens
Victor only nodded at Carol. He couldn’t believe any of this. Somehow Carol had things mixed up. This couldn’t be real.
“Cutter’s coming back soon,” Carol whispered to Victor in the darkness. It had grown much darker now, and he could barely make out the items in the suitcase and he was happy about that – he didn’t want to see that face floating in the yellowish liquid again.
“You and Tom need to go,” Carol whispered. She still hadn’t let go of his arm and her fingers dug into his flesh. It hurt a little, but he was too afraid to tear his arm away from her. “Go find somewhere to stay for the night.”
“We should call the police,” Victor said.
“No,” Carol hissed. “They won’t understand. I brought Cutter here and I have to send him back. It’s the only way.”
Victor finally nodded. “Okay. No police. I’ll go get Tom.”
“Thank you, Victor,” she said and surprised him with a quick kiss on his cheek.
He nodded and left the bedroom and headed down the hall for Tom’s bedroom door – but he wasn’t going to leave with Tom; he had a different plan.
2.
Ryan sped down the streets of Edrington as the rain began to pour down from the night sky.
Amber looked at him. “What’s going to happen to Gary?”
Ryan drove in silence for a moment. “I guess they’ll question him,” he said.
“Are they going to hurt him?”
Ryan didn’t answer.
“Are they going to kill him?”
Her voice was calm, almost detached, like she wasn’t talking about her own brother.
“I don’t know,” Ryan finally answered.
“I brought this to him,” Amber said and looked out the window, and now Ryan could hear emotion in her voice. Even though her brother was a monster, she still cared about him somewhere deep inside of her. And that’s why Ryan was sure that he loved her.
“You had no way of knowing,” Ryan told her.
She looked at Ryan. “Pull the car in there.” She pointed at a spot next to a building not too far from Main Street.
Ryan looked at her. For a moment he wasn’t going to pull the car over – they needed to get to Carol’s house, but he slowed the car down and pulled up next to the building.
“Go around back,” she told him. “We won’t be seen from the street if those guys are looking for us.”
Ryan drove around to the back of the building and put the car in park. He didn’t turn off the engine. The motor rumbled as the rain poured down on the car.
“I’m not going to Carol’s house with you until you tell me everything,” she said.
She waited for Ryan to argue that he’d already told her everything. But he didn’t argue. Instead, he looked out at the rain for a moment, thinking. Then he looked back at her.
Ryan unbuttoned the front of his shirt and opened it up. She could see his muscular torso, but she saw what he wanted her to see, the three round scars, one on his abdomen, and two on his chest.
“I know I should’ve told you about this before,” he said. “But if you’ll go with me to Carol’s house, I’ll tell you everything you want to know. I swear.”
3.
Carol closed the suitcase back up and slipped the small padlocks through the gold loops in the straps. But she didn’t close the padlocks. And she didn’t slide the suitcase back underneath Ryan’s bed. She grabbed the suitcase by the handle and carried it out of the room into the hall. She didn’t bother locking Ryan’s door; the time for sneaking around was over now.
She glanced down the hall and saw Victor standing in front of Tom’s door. She wasn’t sure if he had knocked on Tom’s door yet, and she didn’t care. She had warned Victor to take Tom and leave – and that’s all she could do.
Carol went downstairs and carried the suitcase into her den. She shut the door nearly all the way. It was very dark in the room with the curtains and blinds drawn shut, but she could feel her way around. She set the suitcase down carefully on the floor; she wanted to be very careful with the contents inside. She grabbed the lighter from the desk and lit the few candles around the room with a trembling hand, the same candles she lit when she prayed. The flickering light pushed back the darkness, but in the corners the shadows danced and moved.
The rug was still rolled up and out of the way, revealing the pentagram painted in white on the floor. She picked up the suitcase and laid it down flat at the top of the pentagram. She pulled the padlocks off and tossed them away into the shadows in the corner of the room. She opened the suitcase and took out the jar with her husband’s head floating inside. Tears threatened as she set the jar down in front of the suitcase.
And she began to pray.
4.
Victor knocked on Tom’s door.
Tom answered and he was instantly concerned when he saw the expression on Victor’s face. “What’s wrong, Victor?”
“I need a huge favor from you.”
“Yeah, sure. What is it?”
Victor pulled out his wallet and plucked out three one hundred dollar bills and handed them to Tom.
“What’s this?”
“I need you to stay somewhere else tonight. A motel. Just for the night. Take the best room.”
Tom looked a little confused, but then a realization dawned on him. “Oh wow. I know what’s going on here.”
Victor was a little shocked by Tom’s reaction. “You do?”
Tom gave Victor a sly smile and nudged him. “I knew it was going to happen eventually.”
Victor shook his head, not sure what Tom was talking about.
“I’ve seen the way you two look at each other,” Tom said and smirked at him.
Victor was beginning to understand.
“You two finally hooked up,” Tom said and slapped at Victor’s arm playfully.
Victor managed a fake smile and nodded his head. “Yes, that’s it. That’s exactly it. So, will you please leave so we can have some time alone?”
Tom nodded his head knowingly. “Sure, Victor. I understand.”
Victor handed his car keys to Tom. “Here, take my car.”
“Your car? You sure about that?”
“Yes. Please, I need you to leave right now.”
“In a hurry?” Tom snickered. “Medication starting to kick in?” Tom asked and winked at him.
For a second Victor didn’t get what he was saying, but then it hit him. He nodded his head yes. “I only have a few hours until it doesn’t work again,” he told Tom with a grin. “So could you please hurry?”
Tom nodded.
Victor knew he should call the police, but the more he thought about it, the more he thought it might make Carol look bad. Ryan would just say the suitcase wasn’t his. And Carol would be stuck with a jar with her husband’s head in it.
But how did Ryan get Carol’s husband’s head in the first place? Carol said her husband was buried with his head and that his grave hadn’t been disturbed. He couldn’t think about that right now. All he needed to concern himself with was that Ryan was a dangerous man and Carol needed to be protected.
Victor hurried back inside his bedroom and shut the door. He went to the end table next to his bed and opened the drawer. Inside was a pistol – a .38 revolver. He checked to make sure it was fully loaded.
5.
Jake set his gun on the countertop that separated the living room from the kitchen. He studied the kitchen: the garbage had been taken out and the dishes had been done, but the kitchen was dilapidated and falling apart. There were holes punched into many of the cabinet doors and one of the doors was completely off, revealing canned and boxed food. There was a big dent in the freezer door on top of the old refrigerator that hummed along loudly. On top of the refrigerator was a case of warm beer. There was another case of beer beside the refrigerator – Gary had stocked up on beer.
Lita waited near the front door with her gun pointed at Gary. She glanced at Jake as he wandered around in the kitchen like
he was looking for something.
“I don’t know where she went to,” Gary sobbed. He sat on the lumpy couch now; Jake had ordered him to sit down, relax, and try to concentrate on where Ryan and Amber might have gone.
Jake opened a drawer in the kitchen and rummaged around inside of it.
Lita knew what he was looking for.
“Please,” Gary continued to beg. “I don’t know what that bitch does. I hate her; she’s nothing but a whore. If she’s sleeping with your friend, I can’t help that. I don’t even know him …”
“Shut up,” Lita said with her gun still aimed at him.
Gary shut up.
“Ah,” Jake said from the kitchen.
He found what he was looking for, Lita thought.
Jake came back into the living room with a hammer in one gloved hand and a dish towel in the other. He hefted the hammer like he was testing its weight. He turned it and studied it for a moment, and then he looked up and smiled. This hammer would definitely do the job, his eyes said.
“What … what’s that?” Gary mumbled; his eyes as big as dinner plates.
“This?” Jake asked, glancing down at the hammer in his hand. “This is a hammer, you idiot. You don’t know what a hammer is?”
Gary didn’t answer.
Jake stood in front of Gary. “Now, I’m going to ask you some questions. And I want answers.”
Gary’s face crumbled and tears flowed down his cheeks. He shook his head no. “Please. I don’t understand what’s going on here.”
“I’m sure you want to get on with your night,” Jake said. “Get on with drinking your cheap beer. Watching some TV. Maybe some internet porn. You like porn, Gary?”
Gary was crying too much to answer.
“Well, you can get back to your evening, and you can still have your knee caps in their proper places. All you have to do is tell us what we need to know.”
Lita moved closer to them, her gun aimed at Gary’s head, her gloved finger on the trigger.
“Ryan took something from us and we want it back,” Jake said. “It’s that simple. And he and Amber went somewhere and we want to know where.”
“I’m sorry,” Gary sobbed. “I … I don’t know.”
Jake glanced at Lita and shook his head and clucked his tongue. “That’s not good,” Jake said.
He threw the dish towel down onto Gary’s lap.
“Pick up the dish towel, Gary.”
“Why?”
“Pick it up,” Jake snapped.
Gary picked it up with a trembling hand.
“Now when I don’t get an answer that I like, then I want you to put that dish towel in your mouth.”
Gary cried some more.
“You understand me?” Jake asked. “We don’t want your screams to be heard.”
Gary nodded, still crying.
“Now, one more time. Where did they go?”
“I’m sorry … I don’t … know …”
“That’s too bad,” Jake said. “Now put the dish towel in your mouth.”
Gary did as he was told.
“Shove it all the way in there,” Jake said.
Gary shoved the dish towel deep into his mouth. He sobbed into it.
Jake brought the hammer down on Gary’s kneecap.
CHAPTER TWENTY
1.
The rain pelted the Impala as Ryan stared at Amber with his shirt open. He showed her his scars.
“These are bullet hole scars,” he told her. “At some point in my past, I was shot. I don’t remember being shot, but I think those people back at your house did it to me. They are after something, and I should’ve told you, but I didn’t want you to get involved with this part of it.”
“I’m already involved now,” she told him in a dry tone.
Ryan nodded and sighed. He needed to tell her everything now.
“When I woke up in the motel room with no memory of my past, I saw these scars on my chest. And there was a duffel bag full of money under my bed. Lots of money. And obviously the money must be what those two are after.”
“So give it to them,” she said.
“Even if I give it to them, they won’t let me live. Not these kind of people.”
Amber was silent for a moment.
“What are you going to do?” she finally asked.
“I want to go to Carol’s house. I want you to go with me. I want to give that money to you and I want you to get out of this town. I want you to make your dreams come true. I want you to be happy.”
Amber couldn’t say anything for a moment as a wave of emotion washed over her. He wanted to give her all of his money. He wanted her to be happy.
But then a thought occurred to her.
“If you give me the money, then they’ll be after me.”
“I won’t let that happen,” Ryan said in a low and menacing voice. He didn’t sound like the Ryan that she’d known so far, this man in front of her was a different Ryan, the new Ryan.
“How?” she asked.
But Ryan didn’t answer, and Amber had a feeling she didn’t want to know.
“If I take the money,” she finally said, “then I want you to go with me.”
Ryan smiled and nodded. “Yeah, I can do that.”
But Amber couldn’t help believing that Ryan was lying to her again. She looked out her passenger window at the pouring rain, at the darkness.
Ryan touched her arm and she looked back at him. Ryan stared straight into her eyes, his deep blue eyes focused on her like laser beams. “I’ll go with you,” he said again. “I love you.”
Amber felt her stomach drop and the blood rush to her face. She felt her throat constrict. She smiled and couldn’t help the tears that slipped from her eyes. “I love you too,” she told him.
They kissed each other.
He pulled away from her and put the car in drive. He looked at her again. “Will you go with me to Carol’s house?”
“Yes.”
“We need to hurry,” Ryan said as he pulled his car out onto the street.
2.
Gary moaned on the couch. The knees of his pants were dark with blood. He held onto them with his trembling hands, and he could tell that the bones weren’t right anymore; they had moved and fractured from the hits from the hammer. He still had the dish towel in his mouth from the last hit of the hammer and he sobbed into it. He just wished they would stop hitting him.
Jake paced back and forth with the blood-stained hammer in his gloved hand. He glanced at Lita who still held her gun aimed at Gary. Jake looked down at his watch, they couldn’t waste too much more time here.
“Well, I guess he doesn’t know anything,” Jake said to Lita. “We don’t need him anymore.”
Lita nodded and moved closer to Gary. She aimed the gun at the side of his head, ready to pull the trigger.
Gary yanked the dish towel out of his mouth that was stained with blood and screamed at Lita. “Wait! Don’t shoot! Please, let me just … just think for a second.”
“We’ve given you time to think,” Lita said.
“No, I remember something. I … I think Amber met this guy you’re after at the pub she works at. I remember now that she said he worked for Buddy McCrae. I know a guy who works for Buddy, his name is John. John would know where Ryan is staying. And John would help me, he hates that guy you’re after. I don’t know why, but he does.”
Lita looked at Jake who walked to the kitchen and grabbed the cordless phone. He threw the phone at Gary who caught it in his lap.
“Hope this works,” Jake said.
Gary dialed John’s phone number and listened to the ringing on the other end. He was good friends with John; they had just played paintball this afternoon together. He remembered now that John had said something about Ryan only a few hours ago, about how he didn’t trust him. Gary told John that Ryan was sniffing around his sister, and John warned Gary to keep her away from him. John believed that Ryan was bad news, and Gary could see now with these tw
o pointing guns at him, and with his broken knees, that John was right.
John’s phone rang. And rang and rang.
Please pick up, Gary prayed. He didn’t think these two were going to give him any more chances.
Lita glanced at Jake; she was ready to pull the trigger at any second.
“What’s up?” John said into Gary’s ear and Gary almost felt like sobbing with relief. Instead, he babbled into the phone. “John, I really need your help.” He glanced up at Jake and Lita and thought better of mentioning them in any way. “You know that guy who was working with you, that guy Ryan?”
“Yeah,” John said in a wary voice.
“I need to know where he’s staying?”
“Why?”
“Please,” Gary practically sobbed into the phone. “I can’t tell you right now, I just need to know where he’s staying.”
Jake grabbed a writing pad from the kitchen and a pen. He threw them at Gary who caught the pad and then had to find the pen which slipped down between some seat cushions. He held the pen in his trembling fingers and scribbled down the address as he listened on the phone.
“You’re absolutely sure this is where he’s staying?”
“Yes,” John said. “That’s what he wrote down on his application.”
“Thanks, man. You’ve been a big help.”
Gary hung up and smiled at them as he handed the notepad to Jake.
Jake looked down at the pad, then at Gary. “What’s the fastest way to get there?” he asked.
“Fourth Street is right off Main Street.”
Jake already had an idea of where this street was – he’d memorized the town that much already. They could swing by the motel, pick up Mr. Murdock, and be at the house in less than fifteen minutes.
“You did real well,” Jake said.
Gary smiled. “I’m sorry. I wish I would’ve thought of this earlier. I swear, I just couldn’t remember. You guys had me so nervous.”
