The Vanished
Page 25
”Hello, Mary. Are you busy?” said a man's voice. Richard did not recognize it.
The fact that a man he didn’t know was talking to Mary on the phone wasn’t suspicious in and of itself. This guy might be a coworker, or a friend, or a relative. And the question the man had asked was quite innocent.
“No, I’m not busy,” Mary replied. “What are you doing? Where are you?”
“I’m home. I miss you so much.”
Now that was suspicious.
”But it's only been two days.”
It would be nice if Mary called this asshole by name.
Richard swiveled his chair to face the door. He didn’t want Mary to enter the study unnoticed.
”Every day away from you is torture. We should have met yesterday. Why didn’t we meet yesterday? I feel so empty without you.”
This son of a bitch was talking like a character from a soap opera.
By the way, Mary was an attractive woman, but she wasn’t hot enough to warrant all this melodramatic exaggeration. Every day away from you is torture. Really?
“I told you I was very busy.” Mary sighed. “Besides, we need to be careful. I don’t want Richard to get suspicious.”
Name. Say the name, you whore! Richard clenched his right hand into a fist.
”All I want is for you to be happy. It kills me that I can't be with you every minute of every day.”
Well, it was official now: Mary was really cheating on him. John had told him the truth.
Richard smiled. It took him less than a day to find proof of Mary’s infidelity.
”We will be together, I promise. You know that I love you.”
Say his name, dammit! What's his name?
Richard pressed his lips tightly together. He couldn’t wait to go online and perform a reverse search on Mary’s lover’s phone number. Since the phone call was being recorded, Richard didn’t have to listen to it live; however, he found it extremely hard to take his focus off the conversation. For some reason, he was mesmerized by this lovey-dovey exchange.
”I wish we could meet more often. I can't live without you, Mary.”
They were silent for a few seconds. Then the lover asked, “What about our plan?”
”What about it? Did you change your mind?”
”No... Does your husband know about the plan? Does he suspect anything?”
Mary didn't answer for such a long time Richard began to think the call had gotten dropped. At last she said, “No. He doesn’t suspect anything.” Mary breathed a sigh. “To tell you the truth, I'm afraid.”
”Afraid of what?”
There was another pause.
”I think Richard will kill me if he finds out about us,” Mary said in a low voice. “I mean he’ll actually kill me.”
”Kill you? Did he threaten you? Mary, tell me.”
”No, he didn’t threaten me. I just feel it.”
”Calm down, honey. You’re exaggerating. It must be stress. Why would he do that? Is he violent?”
”No. It's hard to explain. Call it intuition.”
”I think you should relax and forget all your fears. You'll be free very soon.”
”I’ll try.”
“So are you ready? Do you remember what you have to do?”
”Yes, I do.”
Was Mary deliberately avoiding calling this moron by name? Richard did not rule that out.
“Preparation is the key to success.”
“I understand that.”
”Do you have any doubts?”
”No.”
”He’s not going to feel any pain. If you have second thoughts or are scared, tell me. It's not too late to pull the plug.”
”I said I'm in. Let's not talk about it on the phone.”
“Okay.”
“I’m about to enter my house. I’ll call you later.”
“Is your husband home?”
“Yes.”
“Can you come over tonight?”
“Maybe. I’ll do my best. Goodbye, honey.”
“Goodbye.”
Mary hung up.
Richard stared at the laptop screen for a moment and then removed the earphones. When he closed the laptop, the door opened, and Mary entered the room.
“Are you busy?” She stood behind his chair and put her hands on his shoulders.
“I’ve been checking the markets.” He pointed at the computer monitor on his desk, on which the Dow Jones chart was displayed.
“Are they up?”
“Slightly.” He turned his face to Mary, and they kissed.
“Good. Did you do anything fun today?”
“No.”
“Okay. I’ll leave you be.” Mary headed for the door.
After Mary left, Richard went on the Internet and did a reverse search on Mary’s lover’s phone number. The search came up empty. He did not find the lover’s number in the unlisted number directory, either. It appeared that the guy was using one of those prepaid disposable cellphones.
Disposable cells were very popular among drug dealers. Was Mary’s lover a drug dealer? It was certainly possible. Drug dealers usually had a lot of money, and women loved rich men.
He would ask John what Mary’s lover did for a living.
THE END OF SAMPLE
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