Phobias

by Ryan Horvath

  ~~9~~

  Chad wanted nothing more than to return home, strip off his clothes, and fall into bed with the TV on and a bottle of bourbon in his grip. At this point, he was starting to feel the withdrawal setting in. He wasn’t thinking about Marcia. He wasn’t concerned with Calvin Vale. And he wasn’t bothered by the link Terry seemed to think was between the two of them.

  All he could think about was how good the bite of the bourbon was when it hit his tongue; how the warmth spread out from his core to his extremities as the amber liquid raced down his throat; about how he could get away from Walt and Terry to get something to drink and take the edge off of the bizarre day.

  Chad was about to open his mouth and ask to be taken home, but he didn’t get the chance.

  Terry pulled his phone from his inside jacket pocket and quickly entered a number. His call was answered almost immediately. “Yeah. Hey, Braxton. Got a favor to call in.” A pause. “Yeah. I need you to look into something… A drug… it may be a medication.” He rattled off the spelling for the drug Walt said Calvin took… the dream drug. “Tell me what you can find on it and find out who in the area has prescribed it. Think you can do that?” Another pause. “Great. Yeah. I’m on my cell so don’t try me at the desk. Thanks, Braxton.” Terry ended the call and set the phone on the seat between his legs.

  “How long will it be ‘til you hear something back?” Walt said from the back seat of the car.

  “Oh, Braxton is pretty good. I use him when I really need quick answers. Mostly cuz he’s not on the police force and knows some really creative ways to get information,” Terry said.

  “So he’s a hacker?” Chad blurted from the passenger seat beside Terry.

  Terry tilted his head and let his eyes roll a little. “You might say that but, near as I can tell, he does everything legally. He says there are always loopholes in computer systems and programs. Once he’s got his loophole, he’s in.”

  “Yeah,” Chad said and cocked an eyebrow. “Your supervisors wouldn’t like him at all.” He paused. “But I know a guy or two like that myself.”

  “Braxton has helped me solve more than one case in my career. If he can find anything out there about that drug and who prescribed it, he will… and fast,” Terry affirmed.

  “Well, do you think you could start up this car and take me home?” Chad said as he looked out the window at the dark Vale residence.

  “Probably not the best idea to be alone, right?” Terry asked. “I mean… your wife and Calvin Vale. Both afflicted with phobias. One dead and one presumed kidnapped. You’re a phobic too. You could be a target.”

  Chad sighed and pressed back harder into his seat. “Great. From suspect to target all in one day. If I was a target, why didn’t he just take me when he took Marcia? I was fucking bombed and passed out in bed. It would have been easy.”

  “You can’t begin to know how the minds of people like this work,” Terry started. “There could be a dozen reasons why he didn’t take you when he took your wife. It could have been something as simple as there not being enough space in his vehicle to something as stupid as him not even knowing you were there.”

  “Or,” Walt joined in. “It could be he has other plans for you…”

  Chad turned to face Walt. “Thanks,” he said sarcastically. “That makes me feel really good.”

  “Yeah, but the kid’s right,” Terry said, looking in the rearview mirror at Walt. “So like I said… Probably not a good idea to be alone.”

  “Well, can we at least go get something to eat then… and maybe a beer? I’m hungry,” Chad suggested. Even the word beer made him salivate.

  “We should get the boy back to his house,” Terry said.

  “Hey! I’m not a boy!” Walt countered. “I’m a man now. Eighteen. Plus I really want to find my friend.”

  But Chad lost focus on Terry and Walt then and he turned back to the Vale house. His investigative mind began to work. After a moment he interrupted the other two in the car. “Hey, Walt? You said you invited Cal over to help you paint on a whim right? You guys didn’t have that planned, did you?”

  “Walt shifted his gaze from Terry to Chad. “Yeah. That’s right. Because Cal’s mom wasn’t home yet. He couldn’t be alone.”

  “So how, then did the kidnapper know where Cal would be?” Chad said looking back and forth between Terry and Walt.

  “He would’ve had to have been following us,” Walt said with nervous excitement in his voice.

  “Or…,” Chad said and trailed off. He shifted back to the house. “Or maybe someone was listening or watching while you guys were in the house.”

  “Bugged?” Terry gasped. Why didn’t I think of that? his mind asked. He leaned over from his seat and looked out the same window as Chad and saw the Vale house.

  “Certainly could be,” Chad said.

  “Should we go check it out?” Walt suggested.

  There was silence among the three in the vehicle.

  “If we go back in looking for microphones and cameras, and they are there, whoever put them there is going to know we found them,” Chad said.

  “What would be wrong with that?” Walt said.

  Chad and Terry exchanged a look.

  “It could upset the criminal’s plans. They don’t like it when their plans get messed with,” Terry answered. “Sometimes the perp gets pretty pissed and starts killing his victims.”

  “And he might already be a little pissed since my wife…” Chad couldn’t finish his sentence.

  “I could just go in alone,” Walt offered. “I can look discretely. If someone’s watching, they might just think I came looking for the dream drugs again.”

  Chad looked expectantly at Terry who chewed his lower lip in consideration.

  “Fine,” Terry ultimately said. “You have five minutes. Just look. Nothing else. Got it?”

  “Yes, sir!” Walt said. He scrambled out of the car and let himself back into the Vale residence.

  Chad and Terry sat in silence and watched the house as various lights were turned on and off. When the end of the five minutes approached, the house went dark and Walt slipped out of the front door. As he relocked the door, he turned and looked above him at the porch light.

  When Walt was back in the car, Terry immediately said, “Anything?”

  “Uh… there’s a lot of fucking cameras in that house. Stashed in vents, hidden on book shelves and in the kitchen cabinets. In the bathroom and the showers. The front porch is monitored too.” Walt paused. “Fuck! They’re everywhere and there’re probably even more than I could see.” He paused as a tear slipped out of his eye. “I don’t think Cal and his mom have had a moment’s privacy.”

  Terry thought for a moment. “We sit tight. Wait for Mrs. Vale to come home. And wait for Braxton to call me back.”

  ~*~0~0~*~

  But Mrs. Vale wasn’t going to be coming home. She’d had so much to drink after work that she made the poor decision to leave with a stranger who was kind enough to help her as she stumbled out of the bar. He helped her right into his car, right into his apartment, right into his bed, and right out of her clothes. She was in such a drunken haze that she didn’t care that he was using her for his own pleasure while she could barely stay conscious.

  ~*~0~0~*~

  Braxton, who was a twenty-four year old programmer with an unheard-of aptitude for mathematics, engineering, and computer science, sat at his desk at home in front of his display of seven computer monitors.

  The drug the detective asked him to research was quite fascinating but there was very little information available about it.

  Braxton gnawed on a pretzel rod while he considered ways to access more information about tryptophol.

  There was a knock on the front door.

  Braxton pushed back from the desk and got out of his chair. He crossed to the door and peered through the peephole.

  What’s he doing here? Braxton asked himself. He unlocked the three deadbolts on his door and opened i
t.

  “Strange time for a house call, isn’t it?” Braxton said.

  His visitor nodded and stepped inside. He pushed the door closed behind him. “It is. And I apologize. We just needed to talk about some things.” He took off his jacket revealing a holstered pistol.

  Braxton saw the pistol and felt a sinking in his stomach that sent shudders down to his toes. What’s a guy like that doing with a gun? “Hey! I paid my bill. In full. And I’m feeling so much better,” Braxton blurted.

  “I know. I know,” the visitor returned. “But I’m not here for money. And I couldn’t give a shit about your health anymore.” He expertly extracted the pistol from its holster.

  Braxton saw the pistol was equipped with a silencer and felt his bowels loosen. He struggled to hold onto their contents. “Then… then… then… why…why… are you … h…h…here?” he stammered through chattering teeth.

  “I can’t have you helping the detective,” the visitor said. He pointed the pistol at Braxton’s face and fired three quick shots.

  Braxton’s face collapsed inward with the impact of the bullets and the back of his skull exploded blood, brain, and bone onto the bank of computer monitors. His corpse fell heavily to the floor.

  Miedo put the gun back in its holster and stepped to the computer’s CPU. From his pocket, he took out a small simple device. A magnetic drive eraser. He switched the device on and swept it around the CPU. One by one, the gore streaked computer monitors either switched to a snowy display or blinked out altogether.

  Miedo smiled and left Braxton’s corpse and residence behind him.

  ~*~0~0~*~

  After almost another hour of waiting, Terry was getting more than antsy. And Chad was all but climbing the walls of the car.

  “Alright. I give up on this for now,” Terry said and started the car. “Let’s go get something to eat.”

  “About fucking time,” Chad said. A small measure of relief came over him as he thought about how good the beer he was sure to be drinking in less than fifteen minutes would taste.

  Terry pulled the car from the curb. He got to the end of the block before his phone came to life on the seat between his legs. He scooped it up and answered it.

  “Holly? You got something?” Terry said.

  “I just got the tox screen results on Marcia Dean,” Holly said in his ear. “You had better come see this.”

  “We’ll be right there,” Terry replied and ended the call.

  “What is it?” Walt said.

  “Looks like eating is going to have to wait,” Terry said. “We’ve gotta go back to the morgue.”

  Chad’s alcohol-deprived body screamed in protest.

  ~~10~~

  Miedo was back in his home. While he unscrewed the silencer from his pistol he heard a buzzing on the nearby counter. His phone was ringing. He moved to it and looked at the display. He recognized the number.

  “Interesting,” he quietly said with a measure of intrigue. He fully extracted the silencer, set it and the pistol on the counter, and pushed ACCEPT on the phone view screen. “Hello?” he said, trying to sound as if he had no idea who was on the other end of the line.

  “Status?” the caller said in a militant tone.

  The tone didn’t bother Miedo. The caller, a man Miedo had taken as a sort of assistant, liked to think he was the one calling all of the shots. But that was only because he was the one coming up with the money for Miedo’s drug creations, tools of sexual degradation, and other various items of torture. Miedo let the man believe that, because he was the financier, he was in charge, but the truth was Miedo had manipulated the man right into the position he wanted him in.

  “Mr. Star,” Miedo said into the phone with a smile. “How good it is to hear from you.”

  “I said status, damn it!” Mr. Star fired back.

  “Right where we should be,” Miedo returned coolly.

  “Except the Dean woman is dead,” Mr. Star responded acrimoniously.

  “I know. I know. Too bad, so sad. Right?” Miedo said. His smile stretched exposing more of his teeth, some of which were stained at the gum line. “But the plan is still in place. Even though they put it together about the drugs.”

  “Huh? Which drugs? You’ve got so many flying around,” Mr. Star blurted.

  “Actually, it’s the only drugs I didn’t have anything to do with,” Miedo calmly replied. “You were the one who made this particular change. To Calvin Vale’s medication. Someone figured it out.”

  “Impossible!” Mr. Star hissed. “Who?”

  “Calvin and his best friend discovered it. But now the cop and the drunk know too,” Miedo offered.

  “My license!” Mr. Star gasped.

  “Relax,” Miedo assured. “I extracted the evidence. And not a moment too soon. The best friend came looking for it right after I left. But that didn’t stop him from telling the cop the name of the drug he was getting.”

  “They’ll find nothing,” Mr. Star said confidently.

  “Probably true, but the cop sent someone looking nonetheless. I had to take care of that someone,” Miedo said with anger creeping into his voice. “I barely made it back with the phobic before he woke up from my sedative. And had he, well, Calvin Vale may be young but he’s quite strong and would likely pose a challenge even for me if he was uninhibited.”

  There was silence for a moment.

  “So you’ve got him then?” Mr. Star said.

  “Of course. Was there ever any doubt?” Miedo answered.

  “Does it bother you that he knows who you are?” Mr. Star asked.

  “I think the only reason you’re asking me that is because it bothers you that he knows who I am,” Miedo said. “Isn’t that the case? Calvin Vale knows me as… a small part of his life.” Miedo chuckled, a sound no one would have thought pleasant. “You know? It seems like you’re seeking absolution for what we’re about to do to these people… what we’ve already set in motion. I can’t give you that absolution. Do you understand me?”

  “I… I… I understand,” Mr. Star said with mild resignation. “And you’re right. I don’t want absolution. I just want fucking revenge.”

  Miedo laughed heartily. “That’s much better, Mr. Star.” He paused and said, “Now, I’m going to need the next payment…” Miedo certainly did not need Mr. Star’s money; money the poor lucky fool had acquired after his messy divorce; money the dope had no Idea how to manage. But Miedo had no intention of using his own funds to finance this project. He intended to get as much cash out of Mr. Star as he could before leaving a nice, neat trail of evidence to the man’s doorstep. Men driven by revenge make such easy stooges Miedo thought as he listened to Mr. Star give him the details of the next cash drop.

  When they were finished settling that, Mr. Star spoke again. “So you’ve really got Vale?”

  “Of course I do,” Miedo confirmed again.

  “Did you… did you… strip him?” Mr. Star asked.

  “That is my custom,” Miedo said, sounding a little bored.

  “Then… Then… you saw it?” Mr. Star said enviously. “Kid’s got the biggest fucking….”

  “Yes…,” Miedo interrupted. “It’s could be a contestant for the record books.”

  Mr. Star was quiet though Miedo thought he could hear the other man running his tongue over his lips.

  “Heather’s not gonna like it. Is she?” Mr. Star said with rising excitement.

  “No,” Miedo said matter-of-factly. He recalled his own brief encounter with her and how she quaked in fear. “No, I don’t think she will like it at all.”

  “I… I can’t wait to see it… to be there when she breaks,” Mr. Star blurted.

  “In due time,” Miedo said.

  “How… How are you gonna get Vale to… to… to do it to her?” Mr. Star said.

  “Oh for crying out loud!” Miedo shouted. “Why are you pussy-footing? Talk like a man! Talk like the killer you are! You are now, you know? A killer? You had a hand in Marcia Dean�
��s death and that makes you a killer, so man up and say what you mean to say!”

  “Alright, fine!” Mr. Star conceded. “How are you gonna get Vale to rape her?”

  Miedo smiled, stretching thin pink lips across his teeth. He relished how easy it was to manipulate this pawn in his game. “Well, as luck would have it, you’ll have a hand in that too.” He laughed silently and in his mind said Of course you will, my little scapegoat! “I’m ready to… amplify Vale’s dream drugs. I need one more ingredient to do so. And you will get it for me. It should be easy enough for you to procure.” He told Mr. Star what he needed.

  “Yes, of course I can get that,” Mr. Star affirmed. “Can I… Can I see Heather before Vale starts on her?”

  Miedo was taken aback by the request. Mr. Star had no idea where Heather was being held. Miedo had only ever intended to allow Mr. Star one chance to watch Vale use the girl before he collapsed the house of cards on Mr. Star just when he was reaping the ultimate pleasure of a revenge motivated by impotence. “Why would you want to see her before her violation?”

  Hesitation was on the other end of the line as Mr. Star clearly moved the phone from one ear to the other.

  “You want to talk to her, don’t you?” Miedo said mockingly.

  “No!” Mr. Star countered. But there was no real argument he had ready.

  “Mr. Star?” Miedo said in a hushed voice. “We… are… way… beyond… fucking… talking… now.” Miedo increased the emphasis on each word until he was through. With irritation he added, “Now get me the money and the other item I require and do it quickly. Because the sooner you get it to me, the sooner you’ll get to Heather. But trust me. There will be no talking.” He paused, thought, and the irritation left him. “Unless it’s her begging for her life… maybe even a fast death.”

  Miedo terminated the call.

  He left his house and went quickly to the space where Heather, and now Calvin Vale, were both held. Calvin was secured to a table with thick wrist and ankle clamps in a small room not far from where Heather hung. Miedo could easily see her while he stood by the football player.