The Messenger: A Novel

by Burke, Jan

  Rebecca paced, arms folded, and scowled at Amanda as she walked in one direction, at Alex on the return.

  Brad arrived, and Rebecca watched as he moved slowly and stiffly into the room. He eyed a big soft chair with misgiving. Tyler said, “Would you prefer a wooden chair?”

  “Yes, thanks. That one looks as if it would be wonderful until I tried to get up out of it.”

  Tyler stood up and moved a wooden chair forward, and helped Brad ease himself carefully into it.

  Rebecca, back to looking more worried than angry, brought Brad a cushion for his back and pulled up a second chair to be at his side.

  Amanda asked for some notebook paper, which Tyler brought to her before returning to sit beside her, again not quite touching her, as if he was determined to concentrate on what Brad was saying without distraction.

  So she took notes, as did Alex. While Brad told his story of meeting a man named Eduardo Leblanc, getting help with his gambling debts, and all that followed, no one interrupted him. But when he described the bizarre events in the basement, Rebecca tried to convince him that he must have hallucinated all of that as a result of the drugs he had been given.

  Amanda wasn’t so sure. Brad’s terror about that was certainly real—at one point he had grown very white faced and started shaking. When he refused Tyler’s offer to discuss this another time, saying that he wanted them to know what they were up against, Amanda began to think that she had underestimated her cousin in a number of ways.

  “What did this man in the basement want?” Tyler asked.

  “I’m not sure it was a man. Human, I mean.” Brad shut his eyes tightly.

  “Oh for—”

  “Let him tell it as he experienced it, Rebecca,” Tyler said, and she subsided.

  “I don’t know how he did it. With his mind, it seemed to me—as if he could get inside my head! I never felt him touch me, but—my God, the pain…”

  He started shaking.

  “Let’s move on to something else,” Amanda pleaded. “He can tell us more about that later.”

  “Tell me more about this Eduardo,” Alex said.

  “Everyone knows Eduardo,” Rebecca said before Brad could reply. “He can’t have any connection to this. He’s fabulously wealthy. He’s always at parties.”

  “Was he at yours?” Tyler asked.

  “No,” she said, pouting a little.

  “He hasn’t been around lately,” Brad said. “And his cell phone is disconnected.”

  “When was the last time either of you saw him?” Alex asked.

  They thought for a moment. “A week or so before we met you, Tyler,” Brad said. “After that, I only had contact with Daniel and Evan.”

  “So you never discussed Tyler with Eduardo, but Evan and Daniel asked you for information about him?” Alex asked.

  “Right. The first time, all I was supposed to do was to call them when Tyler was out of town.”

  “The break-in!” Amanda said.

  “They robbed your house?” Brad asked in dismay.

  “No,” Tyler said quickly. “They did break in, but nothing was taken.”

  “I was so stupid! I’m—I’m so, so sorry.”

  “Apology accepted,” Tyler said. “It was really not a problem. So forgive yourself for that.”

  “Not so easy,” Brad murmured.

  “What else did they ask you to do?” Alex asked.

  “Just one other thing—it had to do with the party. I was supposed to try to make sure Tyler came to it, to let them know when he got there, and to call if he left before they showed up.”

  “Do you know that they tried to killed Tyler that night, and almost killed Amanda, too?” Ron asked. “There was an accident—”

  Brad’s face showed shock. “What?”

  “We’re both okay,” Tyler said, shooting a warning look at Ron. “Please don’t add that to your worries, Brad. I think we should probably thank you, really.”

  “Thank me? For almost getting you killed?”

  “But we weren’t killed and we’re both fine,” he said. “We got to know each other because of that accident, so yes, thank you.”

  Brad seemed to withdraw into his own thoughts. Amanda could see that Rebecca was both unhappy and curious. Fortunately, she stayed silent.

  “This Evan and Daniel weren’t participating in the party itself, right?” Alex asked.

  “Right.”

  “Tell me what went on right before they took you.”

  He described going out for a walk around the grounds on the evening of the party.

  “Is there anyone else who might have seen the men who took you?”

  “Only Colby.”

  “Colby…,” Amanda said, and looked at Tyler, who was frowning.

  “Yeah,” Brad went on. “He was out by the guesthouse, smoking a cig. He was getting ready to leave.”

  “You and Amanda know this Colby?” Alex asked Tyler, not having missed the exchange of glances between the two of them.

  “Yes. He will be difficult to contact.”

  “Could he have something against you?”

  “We’ve known each other a long time,” Tyler said evasively. “This isn’t his style. Brad, is there any way he would have known you would be walking around outside just then?”

  Brad thought, then shook his head. “No, I didn’t tell anyone I was going outside, and he couldn’t have followed me from the main house because he wasn’t there when I left it. I don’t think he had been standing there that long. He had been busy with some ladies in the guesthouse.”

  “I still don’t like it,” Alex said.

  “I’ll pursue Colby on my own,” Tyler said. “Brad and Rebecca, do either of you know Eduardo’s address?”

  Brad and Rebecca exchanged a look. “No,” Brad said. “I haven’t been to his place. But—well, you know, you see someone at one party, and invite them to the next, or you text or call or e-mail.”

  “Who introduced you to him?”

  “I’m sure someone must have,” Brad said, but he couldn’t remember who it might have been.

  “Brad, you borrowed thousands of dollars from someone you didn’t know any better than that?” Amanda said. “What if he was some sort of criminal? And why didn’t you come to me? I would have helped you.”

  “Well, obviously he is some kind of criminal. But I didn’t go to him, he offered it to me. And it was just until my next payment from the trust came through,” Brad said. “And as for borrowing from you, I figured you were having similar problems.”

  “What! Gambling?”

  “No, but—but your clothes! And you drive an old car and—”

  “Not because I can’t afford a new one! And some of us are not shopaholics.”

  “Let’s get back to this Eduardo,” Ron said quickly. “You haven’t seen him for a while?”

  “No. Like I said, I last saw him just before I met Tyler. That’s when I met Daniel and Evan.” He shifted uneasily in his chair.

  “Are you all right, Brad?” Amanda asked. “Do you need to lie down again?”

  “No, I’m okay,” he said, but she thought he looked uncomfortable, and not just at the reminder of the robbery.

  “Maybe whoever hurt Brad did the same to Eduardo,” Rebecca said.

  “Perhaps,” Tyler said. “But if he introduced you to Evan and Daniel, I have my doubts. Alex, what do you think?”

  “Hard to say. He paid your debt in cash, Brad?”

  “Yes.”

  “Let me get that cell phone number from you and I’ll see what I can do. Also—if you and your sister can give me the names and numbers of other people who knew him—”

  “Certainly not!” Rebecca said. “I don’t think our friends would appreciate it very much if I gave out their numbers to a snooping—”

  “I’ll help you with that,” Ron interrupted. “I know most of their friends, and I couldn’t care less about what they'd ‘appreciate.’”

  “Thanks, Ron,” Alex said
, smiling at him.

  “I’ll ask around, too,” Brad said.

  “Thanks,” Alex said, “but I think you should lie low for the time being. It will help us to protect you while you’re recovering. Tell me again what you were supposed to do if the kidnapping had gone better.”

  Amanda could see Brad blush under his bruises. “I was supposed to make Amanda drive. We were supposed to get on the freeway heading toward the Valley. He—the thing in the basement—said when we got to the freeway, to call to get instructions on how to get to the next place. He said Tyler had something that belonged to him.” He glanced uneasily at Tyler.

  “Did he say what that was?” Tyler asked.

  “No. I asked and—he said I was ‘impertinent.’” He shivered. “He punished me for asking. That was the worst—the worst I’ve ever felt. So I didn’t ask anything more, and then—I don’t know, I remember Daniel came back to the cellar, and the thing gave him some orders, and he mixed something up, and made me drink it. Mostly what the thing in the basement wanted was for me to bring Tyler to him. And he wanted to know if Tyler and Amanda were in love.”

  “What?” Amanda said.

  “I told him I thought you were fighting, you know, because you left the party and all. That seemed to amuse him.” He shivered again.

  “You say he gave you a phone number to call,” Alex said “Tell me that number, too.”

  He did. Brad was clearly tiring, and this time when Amanda suggested that they let him sleep for a while, Tyler quickly agreed that it would be best. Brad made a token protest but allowed Rebecca to talk him into taking a break.

  “I’ll sit with you, if you’d like,” she said.

  Amanda wasn’t sure that would be restful, but Brad seemed happy to know he wouldn’t be alone.

  “He’s still afraid,” Ron said when they had left the room.

  “He probably will be for some time,” Alex said. “They really worked him over.”

  “He didn’t owe them all that much,” Ron said.

  “Oh, I don’t think this ever had anything to do with money,” Alex said. She looked at Amanda and Tyler. “I’m just trying to figure out if these guys are really after Tyler or Amanda, or both of you—and why.”

  36

  Daniel put the broom away and took out the mop and bucket. He filled the bucket with a pine-scented cleaner and hot water, and went to work on the kitchen floor he had just swept. He repeated the process three times before he felt there was a slim possibility that he might eat in this room again.

  The night after the small beetles arrived, it had been cockroaches. They were bigger than the other beetles—and faster. They had made a rattling sound, like a thousand castanets, as they surged together toward the cellar door.

  Last night, he would have welcomed the cockroaches back. Crickets had been called to the house. Multiplied thousands of times over, their high-pitched chirps maddened Daniel and Evan. Cleaning up a big load of cricket frass was not the worst thing he had ever been assigned, but he wished his lordship would stop bringing insects into the house.

  Daniel thought nearly constantly of escape, without being able to bring himself to make the attempt. Still, as each night went by, he knew “Mr. Adrian” was growing stronger. If he didn’t leave now, would he ever be able to evade his lordship?

  He thought of Eduardo, who had been destroyed by the dog. Many times, Daniel wondered if Eduardo had intended it to happen.

  The day of the attack, Eduardo had told Daniel a story, confided in him as never before. He spoke of being hired on to the dive crew of a ship that worked mostly in the Caribbean. Treasure hunters.

  He told him what had been discovered in the wreckage of the Morgan Bray, that the voice in the chest he’d recovered had ordered him to travel to the Turks and Caicos Islands.

  The voice continued to speak to him, a voice he knew only he could hear. It said it was the spirit of a man who had been a pirate for a time, and sailed those seas. It guided him to a place on one of the Caicos and told him to dig. Just as the voice had said, he found a cache of jewelry and gold coins.

  His discovery made him a wealthy man, and the voice led him to even greater wealth. But soon he began to realize that leaving was not an option. Any attempt to leave “his lordship” resulted in a crippling pain that ran down his spine like a rod of fire. If he was foolish enough to attempt further resistance, within seconds his testicles would feel as if they were being crushed by an iron hand, a vicelike pressure would be felt at his temples, and his throat would constrict. In less than half a minute, his lordship would easily have Eduardo on his knees, begging forgiveness.

  So Eduardo did all he could to make his own life comfortable. He learned that if he was complacent and obedient, he could live in luxury. Although the tuition was often painful, his lordship taught him how to behave in a way that made him an acceptable guest in any household. In effect, he became a jet-setter.

  For nearly a decade, his lordship urged him to travel, seeking a certain man who might or might not be calling himself “Tyler Hawthorne.” They began in England, researching old records, and then moved on to the United States. Eduardo spent a great deal of time describing the world around him, as if to a blind man, a blind man who had slept for two hundred years.

  They searched for any mention of anyone named Tyler Hawthorne, and found many persons with that name, but none was the one his lordship sought. Eduardo found several graves bearing such a name, but his lordship insisted this man would be alive.

  In the ninth year of their searches, they learned of a Tyler Hawthorne who had bought an expensive property in Los Angeles.

  His lordship commanded that they move nearby. “Not too close, mind you—he may be able to sense my presence, and I want this to be something of a surprise.”

  His lordship also required a basement, so it took Eduardo even more time to find a home that would suit his needs, because not many homes in Los Angeles had rooms belowground. Finally, though, they had found this house.

  His lordship then told Eduardo to recruit two helpers, and described to him his necessities. These must be men who were strong in body but weak in integrity. They must be both desperate and greedy. They must be utterly unattached to family or friends. They must be able to fight, but also be capable of living peaceably in close quarters with others. They should be ignorant, but not stupid. They would, in fact, be much like Eduardo, he said, with one exception. They should have skills as burglars.

  When Eduardo told him this part of his story, Daniel had felt angry. But by that time, all the fight had gone out of Eduardo; he took no offense at being called such names. A decade in his lordship’s company had left Eduardo as little more than a smiling, obedient husk.

  A handsome husk, though, and able by then to make himself at home among the wealthiest in Los Angeles. He was still in his twenties and welcomed at parties. He befriended a young man who was visiting the house nearest Tyler Hawthorne’s. He could easily see that Bradley Clarke was insecure and troubled. He soon learned that Bradley had gambling problems. Nothing could be better. Eduardo quickly freed him from financial debt by putting him into another kind of debt entirely.

  Daniel and Evan had been easy to recruit. Both were eager to live the promised life of ease in exchange for a small amount of dirty work. If it seemed strange at first, comfort and enormous wages made them willing to overlook the odd requirements of their bizarre employer, a man who took them down to the basement, leading them by candlelight, telling them he was getting messages from an iron box.

  Those misunderstandings were soon cleared up.

  They learned from Eduardo that his lordship was not pleased with them, since he could not enter their minds as completely as he did Eduardo’s—it seemed that only a very few individuals would be subject to that particular horror. However, a new chapter in his lordship’s existence was about to begin. After a decade out of the sea, he had found a place where he could, as he phrased it, “begin regeneration.” Evan and Dani
el were put to work removing the locks.

  “Go to the stairs,” Eduardo said when the locks were off. “Take the candle with you.”

  In the far corner, in the darkness, Eduardo opened the iron chest.

  The stench was immediate and overpowering, so sharp that it made their eyes water.

  “Leave me!” a voice shouted.

  It didn’t have to ask twice.

  Back then, Daniel was never sure what it was that Eduardo brought into the cellar every few nights, but the stench worsened. He mentioned to Eduardo that he was sure someone would call the cops about it.

  “He’s shielding the house,” Eduardo answered dully. “Don’t you realize that you only smell it if you open the basement door? It’s the same with the screams. No one hears them outside the house.”

  Daniel knew all about the screams. His, Evan’s, Eduardo’s.

  Now that his lordship could address them directly, he had more power over them, it seemed. Daniel had tried once, when he had been sent miles away on an errand, to go even farther away, to make a run for it. He had not gone far before he felt a kind of craving unlike anything else he had ever known. It was as if his cells had become magnetized, and his lordship was exerting a pull on them. He could think of nothing else, do nothing else, but return.

  He had paid an awful price for that experiment. He had not been able to leave his bed for three days.

  He thought of that experiment now, of how this bargain had cost him his freedom in a way prison never had. Eduardo had taken the only escape route.

  He would never forget the night Eduardo had been killed by the dog. That dog had surprised Daniel and Evan, but now Daniel wondered if Eduardo had known about the dog all along.

  His lordship had been displeased with them when they came back and reported what had happened, although what they could have done differently, Daniel did not know.