Good Deed Bad Deed : A Novel Mystery

by Marcia Morgan

  “Yeah, him too,” Lenny said, his voice intentionally muffled. He ended the call and placed the phone on the table.

  Gareth had still managed to hear what was said. Once he heard Lenny’s conversation, he knew immediately that he was to be disposed of as well. His thoughts raced. He feared that his brother would be another victim and never know why. He would have to confront Lenny, and it would be an uneven fight. Besides having a violent nature, Lenny was stronger than Gareth, and his additional height would be no compensation for Lenny’s brawn. Yet a faceoff would be his only chance for survival.

  Lenny stood by the table, his back to Gareth, who rushed through the doorway and jumped on him. Surprised by the attack, Lenny spun around, trying to disengage Gareth’s arms, tightly clasped around his neck. With the weight of Gareth’s body on his back, he spun in circles, using the momentum of Gareth’s weight to break his hold. After breaking free he remembered putting his gun on the table. Gareth had been flung to the floor but saw the gun as well. They both dove toward the table, trying to reach it first. Lenny expected the gun to be no problem once he attacked and disabled Gareth, but he briefly gained the upper hand by body slamming Lenny, knocking him off balance. He fell, hitting his head on the table and becoming disoriented. Totally unfamiliar with any kind of weapon, Gareth hesitated before picking up the gun. In the meantime Lenny staggered to his feet and lunged toward him.

  They continued to struggle for the gun, ending up near the small table. Lenny tried to bang Gareth’s hand on the edge, hard enough to release his hold on the gun, but it went off and fell to the floor with enough momentum to slide into the bedroom. Valerie, handcuffed to the radiator, had been shot straight through the bedroom doorway, but neither man had noticed. Lenny seemed unconcerned with the location of the gun and lunged toward Gareth, grabbing him by the shirt and pulling him closer. He delivered a strong right hook squarely to Gareth’s face and he stumbled backward, dazed, his body stopped by the wall. In what seemed like an instant Lenny was on him again, this time with his hands around Gareth’s throat. His arms flailed as he began to lose breath, his face flushing red from the pressure of blood unable to circulate from his head. The expression in Gareth’s eyes was one of both terror and resignation. His knees began to buckle as the two men locked eyes. Lenny’s eyes were cold, his expression one of evil intent.

  * * *

  During the violent confrontation in the house, Ben had remained parked across the street and was becoming more and more impatient. Just as he had decided to give his surveillance only another half hour, he heard the crackling sound of a gunshot. There was no mistaking it, and he looked around, uncertain of the direction from which it had come. The adrenaline rush that came with hearing a gunshot triggered him to take action. He jumped from the car and ran to the house, knowing something had to be done to move things along, to find out whether he was even on the right track. While crossing the street he looked up and down for signs of activity, but there were none. He proceeded slowly up the walkway to the front door then stood still, listening for any signs of life. At first he heard an angry voice, followed by the sound of furniture hitting the floor. Less than a minute passed before he heard screams. Neither man was aware that someone had been watching the house and was now listening at the door.

  Ben hoped the woman who screamed was either Olivia or Valerie, but regardless, he made the decision to intercede on her behalf. Finding the door locked he threw his body against it. The degraded wood frame gave way and the door fell forward, providing access to the house. The first thing he saw was a man with his hands around another man’s throat. Ben had no way of knowing whether the man being strangled was involved in the abduction, so his first instinct was to help him. He caught a glimpse of the women, but knew he must first disable the man whom he immediately recognized as the one who had attacked him twice in London.

  Lenny heard the door fall to the floor and turned away from Gareth, distracted from the pleasure he felt while strangling the man. Ben charged at him, but Lenny just laughed and pushed him aside. His attention was now on Ben, and Gareth had to take advantage of this momentary freedom. He gasped for breath and steadied himself before going to the bedroom door to look at the women. He could see Valerie was bleeding from her abdomen and knew that if Lenny subdued the man, all four of them would not survive. Olivia was sobbing and trying to reach for an unconscious Valerie. Lenny and Ben were circling each other like wrestlers at the start of a match. Gareth took advantage of the moment by rushing back into the room and grabbing the handcuff keys from the cupboard knob.

  Things were happening fast, but it seemed that everything was moving forward in slow motion. He proceeded to unlock Valerie from the radiator then Olivia from the cot. Olivia scrambled to where Valerie lay drifting in and out of consciousness.

  Gareth went to Olivia and helped her up. “Run! You can’t help her! Get out of here while you can.”

  “How can I leave her?” Olivia cried out. “She’ll die!”

  “If you don’t run—now—you’ll die too!”

  Olivia was weak and unsteady on her feet. She moved through the outer room as fast as she could, momentarily leaning on one chair, then the other, before reaching the open door. Ben continued to spar with Lenny but managed to shout to Olivia, telling her to run outside and find help. Her face full of terror, she obeyed. Ben and Lenny were engaged in a physical struggle that Gareth expected would not end well for Ben. He seemed mesmerized, watching the men wrestling for control. He stood in the doorway, his back to Valerie, who had regained consciousness and was moaning on the floor of the tiny room.

  Just as he had done with Gareth, Lenny punched Ben in the gut then the jaw, sending him hurtling backward against the wall. He stomped forward, and before Ben could recover from the punch, Lenny grabbed for his throat with both hands. Ben felt the painful pressure of Lenny’s thumbs cutting off his breath, but with residual weakness in his left shoulder he was unable to pull Lenny’s right hand away. He struggled with Lenny’s left hand, trying to wrench it from his neck and gasping for breath at any slight break in the pressure. In spite of his efforts to break away, Ben’s focus began to blur due to the restricted blood flow. For a moment his only awareness was of the pulsing in his neck and the loud ringing in his ears.

  A crackling noise suddenly broke through the ringing, and he felt the pressure on his neck release. He focused on Lenny’s eyes. They were vacant, his face absent of any expression. Weakness overtook Ben. His knees gave way and he began to slide down the wall. Lenny fell toward him, glanced off the wall, and dropped on his back, hitting the floor hard. The man was lying completely still, his eyes wide open as if staring at Ben. Then Ben noticed blood begin to trickle from the side of Lenny’s mouth. There was a hole in his chest, around it a widening circle of blood soaking his shirt. Ben regained his composure and strained to turn the bulky man over. That accomplished, he saw a smaller hole in his back, barely ringed with blood. Since the hole in his chest was obviously an exit wound, Ben wondered how the bullet hadn’t injured him as well. He turned to look at the wall, seeing immediately where the bullet had lodged and cracked the plaster, its trajectory just missing his body.

  Ben’s observations were made in an instant, before he could wonder where the shot had come from, or who had shot Lenny. His eyes tracked along the floor to the doorway, where he saw that Valerie had managed to crawl or drag herself that far before once again losing consciousness. The gun was in her relaxed fingers. He realized that she had also managed to drag herself to wherever the gun had been, but where it had come from he had no idea. In spite of her wound, she had managed to pick it up, take some sort of aim and shoot. Valerie had made a lucky kill shot from the floor and saved his life. He rushed to her side and felt her carotid artery for a pulse. It was weak and her breathing was shallow. The wound was off to the left, about midway below her ribcage.

  Valerie’s eyes opened slightly and with a trembling voice she whispered, “Cold … cold.” Ben saw
she was shivering and feared she had gone into shock. He took a blanket from one of the cots and covered her.

  Gareth was crouched in a corner, all but holding his breath in order not to be noticed. He imagined every scenario he could be facing, and the reason for his actions wouldn’t matter. Coerced or not he was still guilty of taking part in detaining the women. Yet all along his greatest need had been to free them, to take Olivia in his arms and comfort her. That scenario had played over and over in his mind since the moment he had first seen the women suffering. He had chosen his brother over the woman he could easily have loved. He would never forget the look on her face when she learned of his part in the kidnapping. And now he wasn’t even sure he had managed to save his brother.

  Gareth inched along the wall in the main room, clearly planning to make his break while Ben was distracted. Just as he decided the moment was right, Ana appeared in the doorway and shouted Ben’s name. Gareth stood completely still, hoping she wouldn’t see him. Ben turned away from Valerie, a look of both surprise and exasperation crossing his face.

  “You shouldn’t be here!” he shouted back at her.

  Ana could tell he was furious. “Are you okay?” she asked, ignoring his reprimand. She immediately noticed the blood on his face and neck—more blood than on that first night when he was attacked. There was more blood on the front of his shirt. Adrenaline flooded her body. Instinct compelled her to make physical contact as reassurance that he was truly all right, but she held back. Distracted by the need to embrace him, she stepped through the doorway without a thought for her own safety. Neither she nor Ben had noticed Gareth cowering in the shadows.

  Ben absent-mindedly rubbed his shoulder as he answered. “I’m okay, but Valerie’s been shot. It’s bad. I sent Olivia to call an ambulance. Did you see her out there?”

  “Olivia’s sitting in the taxi I came in—shivering and crying. The driver called emergency services. I don’t know how long it will take.” When Ana started to walk toward Ben she saw the man lying on the floor, a circle of blood on his shirt. “Oh God… it’s the man who attacked you in London.” She looked back and forth with disbelief at Ben and the man with the vacant stare.

  “He’s dead—thanks to Valerie.” He turned back to his ex-wife and brushed the hair from her pale face. “Another minute and I would have been the dead one.” The truth of his close call became more real to him as he verbalized it to Ana.

  “But how…” Ana asked, her brow furrowed, her focus shifting to Valerie. She reacted instantly and rushed to her side, instinctively grabbing the other ratty blanket to apply pressure to the wound. She feared that the woman’s only chance to survive was to slow the bleeding.

  Before he could answer Ana’s question, Ben remembered the other man. He glanced around the main room and saw him standing in one corner. He was very still and partially hidden by the refrigerator’s shadow. “Stay with Valerie,” Ben said as he quickly stood up and started toward Gareth.

  Gareth saw Ben coming toward him with a murderous expression on his face. He put up his hands in a defensive posture and spoke with fear in his voice. “Wait man, you don’t understand… Let me explain. They were going to kill my brother!”

  Ben was so filled with rage he heard little of what the man was saying. He lunged forward and yelled, “Fucking bastard!”

  With a hard push Gareth managed to deflect Ben slightly, upsetting his balance. Gareth assumed there would be no reasoning with the man, so before Ben could grab for him again he rushed through the open door and broke into a full speed dash up the street. Without a word to Ana, Ben chased after him. He ran toward his rental car, shouting at the cab driver to stay with the women. Although the call had already been made he repeated the order to keep calling emergency 112. He could still see Gareth running toward the intersection. He jumped into the car, skidded into a quick U-turn and took off in Gareth’s direction. While still a half block away he saw Gareth jump onto a bus. He increased speed, fell in behind the bus, and continued to give chase. In spite of traffic he managed to keep up. When it made regular stops he was close enough to see that Gareth didn’t jump off.

  After following the bus in a straight line for more than a mile, a detour sign caused the driver to make a sudden change in route. At the next stop Gareth did jump off, stopping to look around, wondering which way to go to make his escape. His short pause enabled Ben to spot him, so he pulled to the curb and abandoned the car. Just as Ben got out he heard what sounded like a rocket, and then the dull roar of a crowd in the distance. Gareth had spotted Ben and made the mistake of waiting to see what he would do. Like a shot, Ben took off after him, both men dodging pedestrians as they ran one block, then two. Ben was keeping pace with the younger man when he dashed into an alley. Gareth stumbled slightly when making the sudden turn, and Ben began to gain on him. The pursuit changed course when Gareth, then about twenty yards away from Ben, tried the gate of a walled property. It was locked, but he scaled the wall with ease and dropped to the other side just as Ben reached the outside of the wall.

  The house had two doors that opened onto a patio crowded with chairs and pots of flowers. A long table held preparations for some sort of party. Landing hard, Gareth tried to resume running but tripped on a chair, momentarily losing his footing. Both doors leading into the house were ajar, and Gareth ran through one of them just as Ben managed to get over the wall. He followed Gareth and saw him running toward the end of a dim, tile-lined corridor. Ben entered the house, welcoming the coolness but continuing to pursue the man pace for pace. Gareth reached the end of the long hallway, Ben only a few yards behind. Both men heard loud voices and laughter that seemed to come from above the stairwell to the left. Gareth was trapped against a massive carved door, the main entrance to the house. Just as Ben reached out for him, Gareth pulled the door open. The roaring of a crowd flooded the house as Gareth dashed blindly through the doorway. Confronted with a street barrier, he body-slammed it, forcing it aside. He ran straight into the middle of Calle Estafata, nearly colliding with the last few bandana-clad runners. The ground trembled beneath his feet as he heard a faint rumble becoming louder. In that instant the bulls rounded Mercaderes corner into Calle Estafata and advanced on him at full speed. He was stunned, paralyzed on the spot, and before he could react with evasive action they plowed over him, one pausing to toss him aside with its horns. Ben came through the door and stopped in his tracks, horrified by the scene in front of him.

  Even though ambulances were always on standby during the bull runs, the crowds made it difficult to reach an injured runner or bystander with immediacy. Ben ripped off his shirt and knelt beside Gareth, hoping to control the profuse bleeding from his inner thigh. Yet it became obvious that manual pressure would not have helped such a gaping wound. An ambulance reached the location rather quickly, but to Ben the wait had seemed unduly long. As the emergency medical technicians transferred Gareth to a stretcher Ben could see by their expressions that his condition was grave. Ben managed to pass for a friend and was admitted to the ambulance. They left the scene, siren blaring, but Gareth’s femoral artery had been damaged. The situation urged Ben to see Gareth only as another human being, one who needed comfort in the face of his possible death. He soon lost consciousness and while the ambulance sped through the crowded streets he stopped breathing twice. Resuscitation was effective only once. He died from blood loss before reaching the hospital.

  * * *

  At some point during the mid-morning Ben’s parents had arrived at the hotel, having no idea what had transpired. They asked the concierge to call Ben’s room then Ana’s, but neither answered. While discussing whether they should just go to their room and wait, the concierge received a call. Ana was on the line requesting that Paris and Hugh be given a message immediately when they checked in. The concierge passed the phone to Hugh, telling him it was Ana Doherty.

  “We were so sorry not to be on site to meet you, but so much has happened and there was no chance to call.”

>   “What do you mean? Is Ben all right? Has he made any progress in finding Olivia? Is it Valerie who’s with her?”

  “I’ll answer all your questions, but right now you must get to the hospital to see Olivia.”

  “What? Olivia? Then he found her. Is she all right?” Ana paused, trying to find the right words. Hugh became impatient and all but yelled into the phone. “For God’s sake tell us!”

  Paris tried to grab the phone away from Hugh, but he held tight, turned to her, and said, “She’s alive.”

  Ana continued, “Yes, she’s okay, or at least she will be. The doctors said she’s dehydrated and malnourished, and other than a few superficial scrapes and bruises she seems unharmed. I rode in the ambulance with her. She was completely lucid—kept asking for Ben—was Ben okay … over and over.”

  Ana hesitated, unsure of what to say and how to say it. When Hugh finally spoke, his tone of voice betrayed his impatience. “What? What haven’t you told us?”

  ”It’s Valerie. She’s been taken into surgery. She was shot during a struggle between the kidnappers. The doctors said it doesn’t look good. She lost a lot of blood.”

  Paris tugged on Hugh’s sleeve. “What about Ben? Ask her. Where’s Ben?”

  Ana had heard Paris ask the question and gave the only answer she could. “I don’t know where he is. He took off after one of the kidnappers and I hate to say that I haven’t heard from him since.”

  Hugh sighed, immediately thinking of how he would tell Paris that Ben was presently out of touch, who knows where and doing who knows what. He asked Ana for the name of the hospital where Olivia and Valerie had been taken then assured her they would get a taxi and be there as fast as possible. As he handed the phone back to the concierge, Paris looked hard into his eyes, her expression beseeching him for more information. “I’ll tell you everything in the taxi,” he said, grabbing her hand and heading out of the hotel. Several taxis were waiting for fares near the entrance. Within moments they were on their way to Hospital de Navarra.