by Hank Edwards
"Shh," Mark whispered with a finger to his lips. "I'm going to get you out of here."
Calvin turned his head back and forth as he checked all around them, and then he looked at Mark again and tried to say something through the gag.
"Shh," Mark whispered. "Be quiet. Jake is in here somewhere, and he may be working with Morgan. Hold on."
Mark slipped the gag from Calvin's mouth and watched him pull in a deep breath.
"Get me out of here," Calvin said, his voice loud and trembling in the silence. "You gotta get me out of here. He's fucking crazy."
"Quiet, okay? I'm working on it."
Calvin dropped his voice to a frantic whisper. "Hurry. He's still here."
"Who is?" Mark asked.
"I am."
The voice came from behind him.
Mark whirled and brought the gun up. He pulled the trigger without hesitation. His sudden turn, however, left him unbalanced. He toppled over but saw a figure duck down behind a bar table as the bullet went wild. Before he could scramble back to his feet, Mark felt pounding footsteps in the floorboards as the man rushed him. A kick from his attacker sent Mark's gun flying from his hand. It also snapped his little finger. He cried out and clutched his hand to his chest, then looked past the gun aimed at his face and up into the smiling face of Erik Hamill's cousin, Manny.
"Oh, Rob's going to be happy to see you," Manny said with a wide smile a crazy gleam in his eyes. "Really fucking happy."
37
The chair was just as uncomfortable as Mark remembered from the days he and Calvin had visited Shades nightclub. Manny had bound Mark's wrists behind him with a zip-tie, and the plastic was cutting into his skin. Pain perfectly timed with his accelerated heartbeat throbbed in his broken finger. His ankles had each been zip-tied to a front chair leg, keeping him firmly in place. The longer he sat restrained, the harder it seemed his heart beat and his breathing grew shallower.
"You okay?" Calvin whispered.
Mark pressed his lips together and nodded as he stared straight ahead. Sweat ran down his back with the effort he was expending to hold off the panic attack. He could not afford to shut down right now, no matter how much his mind and body wanted him to. He needed to keep his thoughts together, for Calvin as well as himself.
"You know that's Erik's cousin, right?" Calvin asked.
Mark nodded, still not trusting himself to speak. If he opened his mouth, he was afraid he would start screaming and not be able to stop.
"Why would he kill his own cousin?" Calvin asked. "What the fuck is wrong with him? He was crying at Erik's funeral for fuck's sake. What kind of sick asshole does something like that?"
Mark glanced quickly at Calvin, and the sight of his greasy, dirty face and wide eyes helped center him a bit more. He met and held Calvin's gaze as he drew in deep breaths.
"Oh, shit. Panic attack?" Calvin asked.
Mark nodded, forcing himself to continue to take deep breaths.
"That's good," Calvin said in a calm, quiet tone. "Just breathe. Just keep breathing." He looked around for Manny and then dropped his voice even lower as he turned back to Mark. "I'm glad he forgot to put my gag back on. I have decided I am definitely not into bondage."
Calvin's humor helped break through the last of Mark's terror. The tightness in his chest loosened, and he dropped his chin to his chest as his breathing evened out.
"Better?" Calvin asked.
Mark nodded and looked at him. "Better, yeah. Thanks."
"How did you find me?" Calvin asked.
"Jake brought me," Mark replied. "Did you see him at all before I came in?"
"Hunky straight guy Jake?" Calvin shook his head. "No. What about Aaron?"
"I texted him," Mark replied. "Just before I came inside."
"But you came here with Jake?"
Before Mark could answer, Manny stomped out of the small kitchen area and pointed his gun at them. His face was twisted into an expression of manic outrage and spit flew from his lips as he shouted at them.
"Shut the ever-loving fuck up! Oh my God, you two queens are worse than old ladies in a beauty shop! Just shut your fucking holes, okay?"
Manny looked at Calvin, then rolled his eyes. "No wonder. I gagged this gabby fat bitch earlier." He stood behind Calvin and roughly pulled the gag back into place. "There. Blessed silence." He moved around in front of Mark. "Don't you start yakking away, or I'll gag you with my socks. And, trust me, you don't want that."
Mark kept his mouth shut and gave a simple nod.
"Good boy." Manny gave him a cold grin. "You learn quick." He held up Pearce's unregistered gun that Mark had been carrying. "Looks like you came prepared. You and that hot jock agent." Mark's surprise must have shown on his face because Manny continued. "Oh yeah, I found him all right. I clobbered him from behind just a few feet down the hall. Dragged him into the men's room. Smells really bad in there, and the rats might have a go at his face and fingers, but oh well." Manny squatted before him. "Rob is going to be super excited to hear that I caught you."
"Why'd you do it?" Mark finally asked. "Why'd you kill all of those men? Why'd you kill your cousin Erik?"
"Why the fuck not?"
Calvin made a choked sound around his gag, a combination gasp and shout.
"Shut up!" Manny pointed Mark's gun at Calvin's face.
"No, don't!" Mark cried. "Look, I'll stop talking, okay? Just don't hurt him. I'll be quiet."
"Both of you be quiet!" Manny shouted and sprang to his feet. He paced the length of the bar, arms waving, a gun in each hand as he talked so fast his words all ran together. "Erik wasn't meant to be one of them. I know that, okay? I get it! But he found out, okay? He saw my phone, saw the pictures and the text messages on my phone, and he found out. He'd seen me and Rob together at the apartment, he'd heard us having really hot and rough sex. He put it all together, and he was about to go to the police so I had to do it, right? He had to go. He had to die because he would have told. And when I told Rob what I'd done, he was the one who suggested we use him for the fourth note. It was his idea, and I was just, like, really relieved he wasn't mad about it, you know? I didn't think about what it might mean for the investigation, I just wanted to get Erik out of the apartment and away from me, right? So we dropped him off like we had the others and now… Well, now everything's gone to shit, hasn't it? I mean, Rob wanted to get to you—" Manny gestured toward Mark with one of the guns. "—and this fat gabby bitch was a way to get to both you and your FBI fuck buddy. I didn't expect you to find this place, though." He scratched his head with the barrel of one of the guns and shook his head. "Nope. Wasn't expecting you two to just waltz right in here to try and rescue the fat gabby bitch. That has kind of thrown me. Maybe I shouldn't have sent you the picture of him tied up, huh?"
He fell quiet and stopped his manic pacing as he looked toward the hallway. "Did you hear something?" Manny asked in a quiet voice.
For a long moment, he stood in silence. Finally, he turned back to Mark. "You know, Rob was in the bedroom when you and your hot agent boyfriend stopped by to talk to me again. I'd just gone on a food run and was coming home. Do you have any idea how fucking hard it was, sitting there talking to you two while I knew Rob was just in the next room? And he was listening to all the bullshit I was feeding your boyfriend about Kent Grady." Manny let out a loud cackling laugh. "Oh, man, did I get fucked hard and deep for being a good boy. He walked out of the room naked and hard the minute the door shut behind you, and he bent me over and fucked me at the window so we both could watch you drive off as he came inside me. It was really fucking hot."
Mark could barely focus on what Manny was telling him. Robert Morgan had been in that apartment the whole time. It could have ended right then and there.
Manny stuck one of the guns in the back of his pants and pulled a cell phone from his pocket. "Fucking reception is shit in here." He walked off into the darkness toward the dance floor, grumbling to himself as he looked at the phone. "I need to ma
ke sure Rob knows about the hot jock agent in the bathroom. I don't think I told him about that part. Fuck, man, he needs to get his ass down here and give me a hand."
Mark looked toward the hallway and wondered what condition Jake was in. He was sure Jake was tied up, but if not, maybe he could overpower Manny and free him and Calvin.
Movement from the other end of bar caught his eye, and his heart hammered faster. Had he seen someone look really quick out from behind the other end of the bar? Or was it just his imagination? He focused his attention on the end of the bar and nearly cried out in surprise when Pearce's face bobbed back into view for a moment, heavily shadowed by the lantern on the bar but familiar and comforting.
Mark heard Manny talking from the other side of the room and knew that Pearce could hear it too. He waited for what seemed like hours, days, weeks to catch another glimpse of Pearce, but he wasn't revealing himself.
"Yeah, I got both of them," Manny said as he approached the place where Mark and Calvin sat tied up. "Just like you wanted… No, no sign of him, but I snagged his partner… Yeah, the hot straight guy… Okay, see you soon. And bring the scarves, we're going to need at least three of them."
As his stomach twisted in tension, Mark forced himself to look at Manny. "Morgan's been staying with you all this time?"
Manny grinned. "Not the whole time, but mostly, yeah. Lately we've been fucking on Erik's bed."
Anger and disgust welled up inside of Mark. Morgan had been so close all this time. He needed to keep Manny talking but didn't think he could stomach hearing any more about their sex romps.
"So your plan is to just strangle all three of us?"
Manny shrugged. "Yeah. Pretty much. That'll really kill your fuck buddy, won't it?"
"You don't know Pearce very well," Mark said. "He'll just be more determined than ever to stop you."
"Bring him on, man," Manny whispered.
"How'd you meet him?" Mark asked.
"Meet who? Rob?"
"Robert Morgan," Mark replied. "Yeah."
"At one of the bars back in the winter," Manny said. "We just kind of hit it off and started fucking around, you know? Found out along the way we're both a bit more twisted than most other guys, and he cooked up this fun little game for us to play."
"You murdered people," Mark stated. "That's a game to you?"
Manny's smile sent a shiver through Mark. "The best game I ever played. Got a big ol' boner each time we snuffed one. Gave Rob one, too, and afterward we'd fuck like we'd never stop. He likes to tie me up and stretch me open. There's lots of things he likes to do that not many other guys like. Told me I was the best he's ever had."
"Jesus," Mark whispered. "You're fucking crazy."
"Crazy, inventive." Manny shrugged again. "Tomato, tomahto."
Pearce rushed out from behind the bar, staying low and silent. His sudden appearance made Mark jump and Calvin release a muffled scream. Manny turned toward Pearce and started to raise his gun, but Pearce had too much of a head start on him. He tackled Manny, and they fell hard onto the floor where Pearce punched him twice in the jaw. When Manny's limbs went slack, Pearce took the gun from his hand and got up.
"He's got a gun in the back of his pants," Mark said.
"Of course he does." Pearce rolled Manny over and took that gun as well as Manny's cell phone and Mark's phone, which Manny had taken from him. Pearce dragged Manny by one hand back to where Mark and Calvin were positioned and dropped him in a heap on the dirty floor.
"You okay?" Pearce asked as he inspected the zip-ties securing Mark. "You hurt at all?"
"No, I'm not hurt," Mark replied, fighting back tears. "I'm not sure about Calvin. I heard Manny say that Jake's in one of the bathrooms."
"Guess we were wrong about Jake, huh?" Pearce flashed a tight smile. "And we need to talk about how you ended up here with him."
Mark nodded. "I know. I'm sorry."
"Save it for later," Pearce said. He slipped the gag out of Calvin's mouth. "You hurt, Calvin?"
"Nothing serious," Calvin replied. "I've never been so happy to see someone before in my life."
"Morgan's not here," Mark said. "But he's on his way because Manny called him."
"Yeah, I heard him." Pearce moved around behind the bar and started sifting through items.
"What are you doing?" Mark asked.
"Looking for something I can use to cut those ties."
After a couple of minutes of rooting around in drawers and cabinets, Pearce returned with a paring knife. It took a bit of sawing with the rust-dulled blade, but Pearce had soon cut the plastic tie around Mark's wrists. He handed Mark the knife, then walked toward the hallway leading to the back entrance.
"Finish cutting yourself free and then Calvin," Pearce said over his shoulder. "And secure Manny. I'm going to find Jake."
Mark bent over to work on the ties around his legs.
"I thought I was dead," Calvin said in a quiet voice.
"I wasn't going to let that happen," Mark replied.
"I kept telling myself that," Calvin said. "But it got harder to believe the longer I sat here."
"I know."
A rat scurried out from behind the bar and ran off across the old dance floor into the dark.
"Jesus Christ," Calvin said with a shudder. "I hated this fucking bar when it was open, and I sure as fucking hell didn't want to die here."
"No one's dying here today," Mark said, bent over to cut the ties around his ankles.
He finally managed to saw through both ties and got out of his chair to kneel behind Calvin. His hands had been bound for two days, and the plastic edges had dug into the skin, causing him to bleed and swell up.
"This is going to hurt," Mark said. "But I need you to hold really, really still. I don't want to cut you."
"My hands are pretty numb anyway," Calvin said. "Go for it."
Several tense minutes later, Mark finally managed to cut through the plastic tie, and Calvin groaned with relief. Mark helped him bring his arms slowly around in front of him and laid his hands palms up in his lap. A deep groove dark with dried blood circled Calvin's wrists, and the skin around it was puffy and red.
"Oh my God," Calvin whispered. "I knew it was bad, but… Oh."
"Paramedics will be here soon," Mark assured him. "You're probably dehydrated, too."
"It was pretty late when I left the community center," Calvin said. "I was planning to go right to the bar from there. He was waiting for me inside the center."
Mark knelt before Calvin to work on the ties around his ankles. "Manny was?"
"Yes. I didn't recognize him at first, and then when I did, it was too late."
"How'd he get you to go?" Mark asked.
"He had a gun. He wore a hoodie, kept his back to the security camera, and held the gun low and out of sight. He knew what he was doing. His car was on the side street and he made me drive. He held the gun on me the whole time and kept telling me he'd let me go if I just did what he told me." Calvin shook his head. "I wanted to believe him. I didn't want to risk getting shot, you know?"
Mark nodded as the tie around Calvin's left ankle popped open. He shifted his attention to the last tie as he tried to hold at bay the panic desperately clawing to get out of the box he'd forced it into earlier. He could not give in to that terror once again. He was beyond that kind of fear. He'd beaten it back in DC, and he needed to get a handle on the anxiety before it consumed him again. Sweat beaded across his forehead, and drops slid down his back as Calvin talked and he focused on cutting through the final tie.
A footstep sounded behind him. Mark's muscles tensed, but he kept his attention on the tie around Calvin's ankle. It was Pearce returning from the bathroom with Jake, that was all. Or a police officer or agent Pearce had called in before entering the bar. But if it was Pearce, why hadn't he spoken?
Just as the final tie fell apart, Calvin sucked in a breath and said, "Oh…."
Mark didn't stop to think. He rolled to the side and got to
his feet. The knife was still in his hand, and he held it concealed behind him.
Robert Morgan stood a dozen feet away. His smile was cold and terrifying. The gun he held was pointed at Mark's face.
"Mark Beecher," Morgan said in that shiver-inducing smooth voice. "We have some unfinished business."
38
The smell was really getting to Pearce. He stood hunched over Jake's still form in the last stall of the men's room, trying to ignore the filth around him and hold his breath as he checked the man over. A trickle of blood running down the back of Jake's neck led Pearce to believe he'd been hit on the head, probably with the butt of Manny's gun. And then he'd been dragged in the bathroom and handcuffed to the assist bar in the handicap stall.
Pearce checked his pants pockets but didn't have a handcuff key on him. He grimaced and reached into each of Jake's pants pockets until he produced a key. Manny was crazy, but he wasn't the smartest. Pearce let out his breath and held his shirt over his nose and mouth as he drew in another, his stomach recoiling at the stench it detected.
A squeak from the doorway made him jump, and he turned, bringing up his gun. The door was still shut. No one else was in the bathroom with him. He slid the gun into the back of his pants and leaned across Jake to unlock the handcuff from around the handicap bar. It was going to take some effort to get Jake out of there because he was out cold. Pearce debated leaving him sitting on the toilet until backup arrived, but knew that if he himself was in Jake's position, he'd want to be dragged out of that horrible place.
"You owe me," Pearce muttered. "And more than just a coffee."
He crouched down and pulled one of Jake's arms around his shoulders, then straightened up. Jake was heavier than expected, and Pearce staggered a bit before he found his footing. With Jake's feet dragging behind, Pearce made it to the door and had to lower him to a sitting position against the wall. He'd read somewhere that it took about a minute for someone to get "used" to a bad odor, but he bet that person had never stepped foot inside this bathroom.