And at the same time he could also hear her happily reading stories upstairs, unaware of his agony as he watched this tasteless torture. The CD came to an end and the images faded away but Josh could not move a muscle, he remained seated in front of his computer with his eyes shut tight in anguish.
He heard her kiss her children goodnight and then enter her bedroom for a quick shower as she prepared for her seduction. He could almost imagine her sitting in front of her mirror, flicking her curls and applying that faint subtle hint of makeup. He heard the fine swish of delicate silk as she slowly came down the stairs into his library. The gentle whiff of the enticing perfume she had used permeated across the room. She put her arms round his shoulders and kissed the back of his head, “Hello handsome, the kids are finally asleep, we can begin our party.”
But he did not move. He remained with his eyes shut and fists clenched as he leaned his throbbing head against his white knuckles. She moved round to face him. He opened his eyes. She was wearing her fine deep-blue silk summer dress that hugged her perfect form and fell just above her knees. His eyes travelled up to her face. She inhaled sharply as she met his gaze and saw that naked flame of fear. He had finally shed his acting mask.
He leaned forward and silently clicked the CD back to life, and he watched her face crumble as she relived her worst nightmare. She could not bear more than a minute and she switched it off.
“Did he send that?” Her voice trembled with horror.
“Worse... He personally gave it to Emma in Disneyland. He must have been trailing us and at the first window of opportunity he calmly approached her. He has managed to get so close to our daughter and she even thought that he was being friendly and kind. He could easily have abducted her but for some strange reason he chose not to.”
She gasped and swayed unsteadily towards him. He swiftly drew her onto his lap and she rested her head against his shoulder. He could feel her heart beating fast inside her chest but he continued, “I have also had dreams, and so has Ben.”
“What did he see?” she was panicking now. “Oh poor child, I must speak to him and comfort him. He must be shattered.”
“He is fine. He is coping much better than I would have expected. He is being very brave.” Josh tried to calm her down.
“Is that why you were both out on the balcony this morning?”
He nodded. “Maria, we have a lot to discuss whenever you are ready. We need to lay out our options and then ask Marco to come over. I have already contacted him yesterday and he is waiting for my call.”
“Ok, give me the fine details,” she said as she gathered her thoughts and braced herself for the worst.
“Freddie will come for Ben and he does not want anyone else but him. He even tried to warn us about the impending danger by sending stuff with Emma. It’s his way of inflicting terror and showing his invincibility.”
“When can we expect him?”
“I don’t see everything. I don’t know when or how. We can be as vigilant as we can but Freddie will manage to find a loophole somewhere down the line. He will not stick to any particular scenario and he will impulsively strike at the first opportunity. I’m sure that he is thinking of everything, school, parties, tennis lessons, changing rooms, toilets...everything. It is just not physically possible for us to stay glued to Ben’s side wherever he goes. And this will have to go on for God knows how long. I think that his abduction is inevitable. Then Freddie will probably ask for the exchange I had told you about. He does not want a repeat of last time and he will not hurt you. He just wants to start a family with you. So he will give you a choice, you can either go to him freely and he will release Ben...or else he will...murder the boy.”
“Will he still harm him if I go? Oh God, what is he going to do to him? Did Ben see all of this too?” She could not stop the hysterical questions from tumbling out.
Josh did not want to give any details but he had to be truthful. “Yes, Ben saw his own death. If you refuse the swap, Freddie will take the boy to this island. He goes into this crazy state where he thinks that the boy is me. He will…..he will…..he will nail Ben to the floor and….it’s pretty gruesome. Freddie will however keep his word if you go and Ben will be allowed to go home with me. Ben knows about the risks you have to take if you decide to save his life and he is against it. It would be just as painful for him to continue living without his mother. He has asked me to persuade you to abandon the swap.”
“Josh, you know that I won’t do that. Please be honest with me. If I refuse to go, can you definitely get Ben out of that island alive and unharmed?”
“No....I don’t know if I can make it there on time.....and I can’t man the island beforehand either because I have tried to mould my dreams that way and Freddie will somehow get to know about the ambush and he’ll change his destination. The end result would be the same, only the location would be different. Perhaps....” He stopped to think. “Perhaps we could spring on Freddie before he gets to the island, at the private airfield during the swap.”
“Do you see that succeeding?” she asked him, seeking his face for the truth.
He closed his eyes and concentrated on the ticking of the grandfather clock outside the room, on the beating of her heart and the hushed silence around him. She let him drift off into that alien world of his...
Josh and Maria got out of their car and looked at the far side of the runway where the private jet stood. They saw Freddie come down the steps and wait on the tarmac at the foot of the plane. Ben emerged, huddling a puppy close to the thick black jacket he was wearing. His attire was far too warm and heavy for that time of year. Maria started her long slow walk to the gallows, giving Marco’s snipers enough time to aim for a clear clean shot.
Bang...Freddie instantly hit the ground...but so did the black box in his hand...and Ben’s explosive thick black jacket turned into one vast inferno...
Josh gulped a mouthful of air as he painfully forced his lungs to inflate.
“That was not good either. Don’t lie to me Josh. I can see it in your eyes.”
“Nothing works because you are so determined to go,” he accused irrationally. “If you keep your options open I might be able to predict a different outcome.”
But she kept shaking her head, “He is my Ben, my little Josh; please understand that I would give up my life for my baby. I cannot and I will not see him get hurt. Please Josh, don’t try to stop me...because I will never forgive you if something happens to our son.”
“I know. I’ve seen you hating me forever if I try to hinder that swap.” He sighed and continued, “Then, I can see two parallel paths emerging after the exchange. Marco and I can come to the island to try to get you out of there, but again Freddie will somehow spot us and he will drag you to a path in the cliff face to try to escape by boat. I’m not sure what really happens but you somehow end up clinging for your life. This morning I dreamt about a mangled body with a bunch of medics surrounding it but the image was distorted and dark, not like any of the other vivid pictures. I do not know its significance. On the other hand, I can choose to let you live your life with my brother. I see you locked in this white room with Freddie’s son, a fair-haired, blue-eyed boy as handsome as his father. You will have a new family and you will love the boy.”
“You must understand this,” she said with a passion as she firmly held his face in both her hands, “I cannot live without you or the kids, that life would be completely worthless. And I will not have his children growing inside me. So the second path is not an option. You must help me here, you must come for me. I will not die. You can open a totally different path so that we can all be together again.”
“You can’t ask me to gamble on your life just as much as I can’t ask you to put Ben’s life on the line,” he responded with equal passion. “I cannot watch you die because of my actions, just because I cannot bear to see you with someone else. This reminds me of a bible story I learnt during Sunday Church School when I was a boy. Do you reme
mber Solomon’s story? He was a wise king who had been asked to judge two women who each said that this one baby was theirs. Solomon wanted to use his sword and cut the child in two so that each of them would have half, and in that way he would be fair and just to both of them. Only the true loving mother stepped forward and stopped the madness, she would rather see her child healthy and alive and being raised by another than see him cut in two. If I truly love you, I would let you live your life and perhaps you will one day find happiness with someone else. Perhaps you would already have found it with Rob had I left two years ago but I was too selfish to do so. But this time your safety will be first on my list.”
“No, I beg you Josh, don’t do this to me. That is not a life, that would be a mere existence. I’d rather die. If you truly love me you would consider my wishes, and everything will fall into place.”
“You sound just like your father, but neither one of you has a right to ask this of me.”
“Is that what my father said? Did he ask you to respect my wishes?”
“Yes, but it is I who will have to live with the knowledge that I have sentenced you to an early death. Maria, I have not been totally honest with you, but I did see you in my dreams, you were happy in Freddie’s arms...kissing passionately...very passionately. Freddie can be quite a charmer if he wants to be and he will treat you well if you don’t ever mention me. I am the one who sends him into that crazy, violent mode.”
There was shock and disbelief in her voice as she raged, “That is a lie. I can never be happy with him. This passion you think you saw in that kiss is a cruel lie.”
“My dreams don’t lie, even though I really wish they did for just this once. I know Freddie well. Every woman craves for his attention and lusts for his presence, and as much as it hurts me to say, you will not be an exception to that rule.” He looked sadly at her, “Maria, I also know that deep down he honestly loves you and he might not be doing this only to avenge me. If you learn to love him in return he will not be the monster he is now. I’m sorry, I cannot be the one to end your life.”
She started to protest again but he abruptly silenced her. “Stop it; we are wasting precious time arguing over this. I will not come for you unless I dream about you surviving this. That is my final decision. The only thing we can do now is to try to tip the balance in our favour. We have to study all our options, memorize the layout of the island and its cliff face and all possible scenarios. I did not tell you this but four months ago Marco managed to locate the island and I have gone to see it. The cliff face is indeed very steep and treacherous. We have photo close-ups and I have to have another look at them to try and identify which ledge you will be holding on to and what my chances are of getting close to you before it breaks away. If there is a way out of this I will come for you, but if there is the tiniest possibility of a fatal outcome...then you will have to move on and start a new life with Freddie. Know that I will always love you.”
He picked up the phone. Marco was there in less than ten minutes. They poured over photos as Josh pointed out every little detail he remembered from his dreams. He could easily memorize the exact route he had to take down the first half of the cliff to reach the safety of the path. His photographic memory would come in handy. All Marco had to do was to follow in his footsteps. Knowing the route beforehand would give them those few extra precious minutes.
Josh even managed to locate the exact ledge Maria would hold on to. He recognised it by the nearby shallow cave Ben had highlighted which would have been impossible to see from where Josh would be standing because of the sharp ledge overhanging the entrance. All Maria had to do was to keep moving to her right until she reached the solid floor of the cave. It all looked so simple on paper but Josh knew that Maria would be too distraught to think. He was not convinced. He had to dream about it succeeding before he would attempt it.
It was past midnight and Marco was still there going through possible plans. The phone rang and Josh quickly answered it, wondering who it might be at that time of night.
“Hello Josh.” Freddie’s voice came loud and clear. “Did you enjoy the gift I sent with your beautiful daughter? She is quite trusting and very talkative, isn’t she? You should teach her not to converse so intimately with strangers; it would have been so easy to take her. But I wanted Ben, the child I delivered into this world. He belongs to me. And guess what? I’ve got him here beside me.”
“Ben’s at home, Maria just tucked him in bed,” but as he said that he sprinted up to his son’s room with Maria hot on his heels. The window was open and the bed lay empty.
“Didn’t you believe me when I said that I had Ben? You see, I know your son better than you do. He never told you about his daily midnight adventures out in your back woods. He would open his bedroom window and slither down the tree trunk, whistling for this cute stray puppy which roamed the place. He had always wanted his own four-legged friend, now why didn’t you ever give him one? Perhaps if you had, he would not have had to sneak out in the middle of the night.”
“Oh God,” Josh murmured as he passed his hand over his face. He had always denied his son any contact with dogs and he even tried instilling an irrational phobia in him. He had subconsciously hoped that banning pets would prevent that airport runway dream where he had seen Ben fervently clutching on to a small puppy. Moreover, he had never discussed the details of his dreams with his son. They should have been sharing vital information...but it was useless crying over spilt milk.
“The boy thought that his midnight adventures were harmless,” Freddie continued. “After all it happened inside your own private and secure forest which is fortressed by massive walls and hedges. But I have been inside hundreds of times through the same gap the dog squeezes through. And I’ve watched your son every day. I could have had him a long time ago but I generously wanted to give you a fair warning with that CD. And after that I just grabbed my first chance when it presented itself this evening. You should have seen his petrified face before I put him to sleep. Gosh, your son does look like you. He reminds me so much of the four-year-old Josh I despised so much as a child.” Freddie’s voice was quivering now. “Why did you shred me apart, Josh? Why did you ever exist?”
Josh sensed his brother’s mental unrest and mounting agitation. “Freddie, please let him go. He is not me.”
“I need to speak to Maria, now please.”
“You can speak to me. It’s me you despise so much. Leave my family out of this.” But Josh knew that the pack of cards lay in Freddie’s hands, he had Ben and all the bargaining power. Josh was in no position to dictate any rules.
“That is exactly why I want to take your family away from you. If you want to violate a man’s soul go for the people he loves...that is my philosophy. Who will you choose to save from me, your son or your wife?”
Maria grabbed at the phone but Josh kept it out of her reach. She ran downstairs and hit the speakerphone button as she glared at her husband, “Freddie, what do you want from me?”
“Go to Longman’s private airfield tomorrow morning at six. You must know that your little Ben will have some explosives attached to him and if the police interfere in any way he will be blown into a thousand pieces and little Josh will exist no longer. Park your car at the start of the runway and we can then have a fair exchange, Josh can have his son back, unharmed, and you can come with me. Please wear something nice. I haven’t had sex in ages. Will you come?”
“Yes, I’ll be there.”
“That was a very quick decision. I had been expecting some begging and tears. You must be starving. I don’t blame you. Josh can be rather bland and boring, doing his thing and leaving you short of that final exhilarating moment. But I’ll soon take care of that for you.”
“The quick decision was because you have my son, you moron, I would never have come close to your disgusting existence otherwise,” she hissed.
“Now Maria, that was not what you felt during that wild Christmas party. You really enjoyed my disgus
ting hands roaming every inch of your curvy body. Well, enjoyed is an understatement, you were wetter than the Pacific Ocean before I had you in that restroom...Do you remember that? Oh, I know you are on speakerphone and Josh can hear everything and we had agreed not to mention this to him. Our dirty little secret, but guess what, Josh already knows about your lusty behaviour on that wild party night. Did you really think that he wouldn’t notice the absence of your underwear when you returned home that night? Or did you really think that I’ll allow him to live in ignorance? Yes Maria, I told him a long time ago but I bet he never confronted you about it. Poor meek Josh, he will never hurt your precious feelings and he will never obstruct your path. He will let you sleep with a horse if that makes you happy. And you will be happy with me Maria, I can guarantee that. That party proves it all.”
She looked at her husband’s pained face and she knew that he was thinking of her future passionate embrace with Freddie in his dreams. She shook her head and sent out a silent apology to him. But he turned his back on her, masking his crumbling self-esteem.
“That party was a mistake. I only did what I did because I was angry with Josh and you really knew how to fuel that anger. I would have slept with anything after hearing Pam’s story, even a beast like you. I hate you Freddie, you can never ever compare with Josh. You can never touch my soul the way he does.”
The Blake Soul Page 28
