by David Carter
“Yeah, I have some unfinished business I need to attend to.”
“I don’t even want to know...”
“Good, so we’re on the same page then.”
“It would seem so,” said Franks as he started changing Blaze’s dressing, “but we need to trust each other and work together if we both wanna get out of here.”
“Agreed.”
“Okay, well, you had better tell me your crazy plan then. And give it to me straight, so I can give you a straight answer.”
Blaze gathered his thoughts. “It’s quite simple really. I only need three things: a weapon, preferably my knife, copies of those movies from in The Wolves’ Den, and you to get me alone with Archer even if it’s just for five minutes. In return, I’ll wire you the money as promised, and guarantee that Archer will accept your resignation.”
“How can I be sure you’ll get him to let me go?”
“If you put the videos on a memory stick, I’ll send them to someone I trust, forcing him to do as I tell him. Then I’ll bargain for Danny to be exonerated, and I’ll let him decide on what grounds he wants to release me. With all the dodgy connections he’s got, I’m sure he can make it happen.”
Franks slowly nodded as he listened, then said, “What’s plan B if he refuses to do what you ask?”
“It’s simple. I’ll make sure the videos are leaked to the authorities. And if all else fails, I’ll kill him.”
Franks carefully considered his proposal. And after much deliberation, he finally said, “I can get you the videos without any trouble. I’m no computer-whiz, but I have full access to Archer’s office. He has everything networked to his computer—to which I know the password. I’ll get right on it when I’m finished with you. He’s gone off-site for the morning. I think your knife is in the top drawer of his desk, too, so I’ll sneak it out while I’m in there.”
“Sounds good. When will you arrange for me to get into his office with him?”
“Tonight, at eight o’clock, right before I finish my shift. He always stays late, so be prepared.”
“Don’t worry; I live for this shit.”
As Franks finished applying the new dressing, Blaze noticed a computer in the corner of the room. “Hey, Frankie, does that computer connect to the internet?” he asked.
“Yeah, it should do, why?”
“Got a bank account number for me?”
Blaze remembered what Franks had said to him when he had first escorted him to The Wolves’ Den, and cheekily replied, “I think if you ask around, you’ll find that I’m a man of my word.”
Franks logged into the computer and gave Blaze his account number. After the tapping of a few keys, he sent the whole eighty grand to his account as promised. Franks stood silently, stunned as he saw his bank balance grow exponentially in a matter of seconds. He said, “Thanks, Blaze. I appreciate this—more than you could ever imagine. But now you seriously have to make this work or we are both as good as dead.”
“Don’t worry. Like I said, either we all go free with Archer’s blessing, or that pen-pushing prick will be drowning in a pool of his own blood.”
Franks escorted Blaze back to his cell, and as he locked him up, he whispered, “Don’t forget; eight o’clock,” and hurried off to Archer’s office.
Danny caught wind of Franks’ whisper, and discreetly asked Blaze, “So, what’s happening at eight o’clock?”
Blaze slowly formed a grin on his face, and quietly said, “Pack your bags, Danny-boy, we’re getting out of this dump.”
“Are you serious?”
“Damn right I am, but only if you can answer me one question.”
Danny suddenly went quiet, and after a moment of staring at Blaze, he said, “What the question?”
“You already know what it is.”
“I know, but ask me anyway.”
Blaze got straight to the point. “What really happened with your wife and daughter?—and I want the truth.”
“Shit, I was wondering when you were going to ask me about that.”
“I need to know what I’m risking my neck for. I’m sure you can understand that.”
“Fair enough,” he relented with a sigh. “Come sit over here on the floor—if you can.”
“Frankie doped me up with painkillers. I’ll be right.”
They sat together on the floor, face to face, man to man, friend to friend. Danny started telling his story. “I was a happily married man with a beautiful five-year-old daughter, and everything was going fine until my wife got breast cancer. She wasn’t diagnosed as terminal, so she quit her job and we spent every dime we had to get her the best treatment available, but eventually she had both her breasts removed.”
“Dude, I’m so sorry to hear that,” said Blaze sympathetically.
“As the story goes, my wife beat the cancer, but it broke us financially. I tried to find a second job so we didn’t lose the house, and eventually I did, but it wasn’t exactly—legal.”
Blaze grinned. “Please, do elaborate...”
“Well, I dunno if you’ve heard of it, but we lived way down south in a large town called Summit Lake. I was a painter by trade, and the work was steady, and one day while on the job, I could smell someone smoking marijuana in the back yard of the house I was redecorating.”
“Sounds like my kind of job.” Blaze grinned.
“It was an expensive house on a lifestyle block—just out of town, so I figured, what’s the harm? I’ll go see if he wants to share. I walked around the back and saw the owner of the house relaxing on the deck with a cold beer in one hand, and a big fat joint in the other. I startled him by saying, ‘Nice day for a cold one—certainly beats the shit outta painting!’
“He took off his sunglasses and smiled, then said, ‘Put down your brush and join me.’ So I sat next to him on one of those nice deck chairs that you see by hotel swimming pools, you know- the ones where you’re virtually lying down—enjoying an ice-cold beer and a rather potent smoke.”
Blaze laughed. “Tough day at work, huh?”
Danny chuckled. “Yeah, well, after all the shit I’d been through with my wife’s cancer and all the money problems, it was nice to just chill out and not give a fuck for five minutes. Anyway, we got talking. He said his name was Saul Gunnerman, but everyone knew him as Gunner. He was filthy rich, had a luxurious house, a big black Hummer, a giant boat, and literally dozens of different women at his disposal to quench every desire and need you could possibly think of. He also happened to be the boss of the southern drug empire. I was at his house for three days that week, and by the end of the third day, he had gotten to know about my wife and my money troubles, so he offered me a job.”
“I see, so this is where it all gets interesting, isn’t it?”
“You guessed it.”
“What did you say?”
“I told him I’d have to think about it. But he said he needed an answer then and there, or I could go pack up my shit and leave.”
“That’s a little rough.”
“Yeah, well, I desperately needed the money, so I accepted his offer. I started out small, earning his trust and loyalty, doing the easy jobs: driving him around, delivering product, picking up money. After a little while, I was promoted. My new job was to send warning messages—you know, busting noses, breaking fingers, thrashing anyone who didn’t pay what they owed on time. Eventually I became his number one employee. He treated me well, and paid me even better. He told me he loved me as if I were his own brother.”
“Well you do have a certain fucking charm about you,” teased Blaze.
“My wife started getting suspicious after a while. And eventually I couldn’t keep up with the lies over my whereabouts and crazy hours I was working. I came clean and told her the truth. And man, was she fucking pissed off at me for taking the easy way out after all the suffering she had been through.”
“Can’t really blame her when you put it like that, I suppose.”
“I explained how the wh
ole situation had started, and convinced her I had taken the job with the best of intentions, but she wouldn’t have a bar of it. When she got over her initial outrage, she gave me an ultimatum: either get out of the drug world, or get out of the house—which was mortgage-free, by the way, thanks to me. Long-story-short, I promised her I would give it up and settle down with her and my daughter.
“I approached Gunner and told him about my situation. He didn’t give two shits about the ultimatum my wife had given me. He turned nasty, and said, ‘There is only one way out of this business, which is on the day you meet your maker. You are in my family now, so you need to decide which family you belong to before I personally put a bullet in your skull!’
“Needless to say, I wanted out after that, so we packed one suitcase each that night, and went on the run.”
“Shit, man...”
“We travelled north, taking as many back roads as possible, until we ended up in Woodridge. We felt safe enough, as I had an old high school friend that lived there, who happened to be an insanely-gifted computer geek. He gave us new identities, new Inland Revenue numbers; the works. It cost me fifty grand, but it was worth it.”
“Handy friend to have.”
“So all was fine for about six months after I managed to arrange for our house to be sold, which meant we were flush with cash and happily settled. It all turned to shit one day when I saw a black Hummer slowly cruising down the main street of Woodridge with a personalised license plate that read, Gunner, on the rear bumper.”
“How did he track you down?”
“I don’t know. I figure he was tipped off, or he got incredibly lucky. I know he has endless contacts and virtually unlimited resources, so it didn’t surprise me that he had found us. I told my wife and daughter to stay at home and lie low until he gave up searching, which seemed to do the trick. Once I was sure Gunner and his entire posse had left town, we cautiously resumed our lives, and were finally able to let our guard down—”
Danny suddenly stopped talking, and sat there, gazing into space.
“Are you all right, man?” Blaze asked him.
“Sorry, this is where the story really fucks with my head,” he replied, before cupping his hands over his face as he breathed in, and wiped a few stray tears from his eyes as he exhaled. “I came home from work one day, and found the front door had been left wide open with glass scattered all over the front doorstep from where the window had been smashed. I walked inside to find my wife and daughter lying on the floor with their hands and feet bound together...and their insides hacked out and left strewn all over the fucking carpet.”
Blaze reached out and touched Danny’s trembling hands, comforting him. And after a minute’s silence, he let go, and softly asked, “What happened next?”
“I called the cops, and after examining the crime scene, they arrested me later on that day. Whoever murdered them used my bowie knife, which had my fingerprints all over it. I used it for my own protection and when I was out debt-collecting for Gunner. They must have rummaged through the house, or made my wife tell them where it was hidden, so they could use it to gut my wife and daughter like pigs. The knife was conveniently buried at the bottom of the rubbish bin in the kitchen for the detectives to find. I was convicted and given life without parole for at least 37 years. The Judge told me that he ‘didn’t take kindly to men who slaughtered their own wife and daughter for no apparent reason’. I figured that if I told the truth about why they were murdered, I would still be doing serious jail time—or even worse, Gunner would settle the score and come for me personally, which means prison was by far the better option.”
“Why’s that?”
“Gunner’s ruthless. I’ve heard the screams of his enemies and drug-fucked gangsters who couldn’t pay their debts as he slowly tortured the life out of them, enjoying every second of it.”
“Sounds just like Archer.”
“I arrived at Winterhill prison, and had the same little sparring match with the governor that you did, and the rest is history.”
“It looks like we’ve both been fucked-over in life. The good news is, though, is that this time tomorrow we will be out of this goddamn nightmare.”
“I hope so, man,” said Danny. “I can’t take much more of this shit.”
“Tell you what, when we’re out of here, I’ll help you avenge your wife and daughter if you help me find the fucker that destroyed my childhood. And when we’re done, I’ll be proud to call you my brother.”
Strong emotions brewed within Danny as Blaze showed a glimpse of his vulnerable side. He looked him in the eye, and said, “Do you really think you can pull this off?”
“Care to ask Nugget, Bulldog, or Poochie for their opinion on that?”
Danny couldn’t help grinning. “In that case, you have got yourself a deal, Brother.”
Chapter 36
Sharon was missing Ryan, so she picked up the phone to call him. As it rang in her ear, she anticipated the sound of his husky voice. Finally, as he drove along the undulating, country road, he picked up. “Detective Ryan.”
“Hey, you, how’s your day going?” she asked.
He smiled as he heard her voice. “To be honest, it’s been rough, and now I’m on my way to Winterhill prison with Elizabeth Blaise. I assume you two know each other?”
“Of course we do. She’s like a mother to me. What’s happening, Cam? Is she okay?”
“Not exactly. I’ll fill you in tonight, I promise.”
“All right, I can’t wait to see you.”
“Me, too. I’ll come over as soon as I can. I know you like to go to bed reasonably early with your early starts, so is somewhere between eight and nine o’clock okay?”
“It’s never too late to see you,” she said sweetly. “I’ll be waiting upstairs, in my black silk bathrobe.”
Jesus Christ, he thought as blood rushed straight to his manhood. “Don’t you go falling asleep on me before I get there!”
They said their goodbyes, before Ryan clicked off, and saw Elizabeth staring at him with a wry grin on her face. “You love her, don’t you?” she asked him.
“I’ve honestly never believed in love at first sight. But I do now,” he replied.
“Well I think that’s very sweet...”
“But?”
She hesitated, then said, “I just want you to know that everyone in Glendale loves that girl. If you break her heart or hurt her in any way that isn’t honourable, you had better leave town in a hurry. She’s like a daughter to me, and she deserves the best—”
Ryan cut her off. “I appreciate what you’re trying to say, and if I were you, I’d probably be doing the same thing. She did just mention that you and she are close, so I can understand you being protective of her. But trust me when I say, I think she could be the one for me. I’d never hurt her; never.”
Elizabeth pressed him a little harder. “Assuming you’re serious about her, would you make her move to the city? It’s not fair on her to give up her business that she’s worked so hard to build up all by herself.”
Ryan kept his cool, and calmly replied, “It’s a bit soon to be talking about that kind of thing, but assuming we get to that point in our relationship, I’m sure I can travel to work. It’s only half-an-hour’s drive. It’s not like we’re planning on skipping the country.”
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I just love that girl to pieces. You really don’t know how lucky you are.”
“Actually, I think I do.”
She smiled at him, then said, “Just so you know, detective, she’s crazy about you, and I think you’re a perfect match for her, too.”
They carried on driving until they reached the unwelcoming walls of Winterhill. “Are you going to be okay?” Ryan asked her. “I realise this can’t be easy for you.”
“I am not afraid of my son. If anything, I’d like the opportunity to talk to him and start the healing process. I have so many things I want to say to him, but today I’ll start small with an a
pology. Even if he doesn’t accept it, which is highly likely, ultimately, I just want him to agree to your terms so we can rescue Trinity.”
“Do you think he will agree to them?”
“He isn’t fond of anyone working for the law, but for Trinity he might make an exception; they were quite close as children.”
Ryan drove up the road until they reached the administration block, and parked the car. Elizabeth gazed up at the cold, intimidating walls, picturing her son somewhere on the other side.
Ryan blipped the alarm on his car, then said, “Are you ready, Elizabeth?”
She hesitated a moment, before she said, “As ready as I’ll ever be.”
He gave her a reassuring smile. “Good. Let’s go get our boy.”
Chapter 37
“We’ve got a serious problem,” said Franks, deeply concerned as he was unexpectedly escorting Blaze over to the visitation room.
“What the fuck is this?” Blaze demanded. “I thought you said eight o’clock tonight?”
“Some big-shot detective just arrived at the main gate with a woman, and they are here to see you. Not only that, the governor just informed me that he’s been ordered to draw up documents for your immediate, temporary release.”
Blaze was dumbfounded. “What do you mean, immediate release? As in—I’m leaving right now?”
Franks let out a frustrated sigh. “I’m afraid so, which means our plans for tonight are on hold.”
“For fuck’s sake!” cursed Blaze as he racked his brain for the reason why he was being summoned. “What’s changed since our conversation earlier?” he fumed.
“I don’t know. It’s all happened rather suddenly.”
“This is bullshit! I was so close to getting a shot at Archer!”
“I’m sorry, Blaze, I don’t know what to say. I was ready to start a new life after tonight, too. Now it looks like I’m stuck here indefinitely. I’ll make sure you get your money back, though.”
“Keep it. This ain’t over yet.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means we need a new plan.”
