“My son saw a picture of you two and recognized him. He told me that he’s some sort of fighter?”
“He was, but he recently sold an invention of his and started his own company.”
“And he’s how old?”
“He just turned twenty,”
“He’s different that one, I always get the sense that he’s keeping something barely contained.”
“He’s a good man, Doctor.”
“You love him, don’t you?”
Jessica smiled,
“I live for him.”
“And he for you, I can tell, but, would you like some advice?”
“Of course,”
“Make him socialize more; it will be good for him. If wolves spent more time socializing among the sheep, perhaps they’d be less inclined to devour them.”
This time, Jessica looked down at the floor.
“I don’t know what you mean, Doctor.”
“It’s just an expression, dear, now hurry, I’m sure he’s eager to see you.”
Jessica gazed up.
“Thank you, and we’ll be at your party.”
The doctor grinned.
“Smart girl,”
***
Over lunch, Jessica told him about Gregory Zubek. They were eating at an Italian restaurant on Boylston Street, near the Victory Gardens. The eatery was small, but quaint, with checkered tablecloths and a waiter with a thick Italian accent.
“He sounds dangerous. Has he ever made any threats?”
“No, he’s just infatuated with Dr. Harte, but I think she set him straight.”
“It sounds like more than infatuation; he does know that she’s married, doesn’t he?”
“Yes, but he doesn’t seem to care.”
He reached across the table and took her hand.
“Maybe I should talk to him.”
“You mean beat him up, don’t you?”
“If that’s what it takes.”
She sighed.
“Violence isn’t the answer; besides, I’m sure that Dr. Harte knows best, and she doesn’t seem worried.”
“If he comes back, let me know. I don’t want you getting caught in the middle.”
Jessica decided to change the subject.
“So, what are you doing after lunch?”
“I’m going to a baseball game.”
“With your friend George, George Carver?”
“Friend?”
“He is your friend, isn’t he? I mean you two seem to get along.”
He looked thoughtful for a moment, and then grinned.
“I guess he is my friend. I didn’t realize it; I’ve never had one before.”
Jessica gave his hand a squeeze.
“You’ve got me.”
“That’s not friendship; that’s a miracle.”
CHAPTER 12
On Wednesday, the doctor’s golden retriever went missing. On Thursday, the dog was found, or, at least his head was. The dog’s head had been left outside the front door of Dr. Harte’s home; it was discovered by her eight-year-old daughter, Cindy.
The police questioned Gregory, who denied any involvement in the dog’s death and also told the police that the doctor had it in for him because he spurned her advances.
A detective by the name of Geary heard what had happened and paid the doctor a visit at her office. Jessica listened along with the doctor, as Geary warned them about Gregory Zubek.
“You’re telling us he’s dangerous? Well then, why isn’t he in jail?” the doctor said.
“It’s his old man. Karl Zubek has been cleaning up for Gregory for years. You’re not the first you know, he stalked a woman in his apartment building two years ago, she was a redhead too and about your age. When she didn’t want anything to do with him, she got evicted. Daddy owned the building you see, a month after she moved, someone killed her in her new apartment.”
“You think it was Gregory?” Jessica said.
Geary ran a hand through his salt and pepper hair for a moment, as he considered his answer.
“Now, I didn’t say that, in fact, I shouldn’t even be here. I just don’t want the doctor to take this lightly. Killing your dog could be just a prelude to something worse.”
“Does Gregory have a record?” the doctor asked.
“A juvie record, but it’s sealed. I have a friend in the juvenile crime division that remembers Gregory. She didn’t disclose any details, but she said he’s dangerous.”
“Thank you for coming here, Detective,”
“You’re welcome, Doctor, and here’s my card. Give me a call if you need me.”
***
That next day, as they left the office, the doctor was dismayed to find that her new car wouldn’t start. Jessica offered to give her a ride home, and the doctor accepted.
As Jessica drove along the highway, Dr. Harte talked excitedly about her upcoming twentieth anniversary party. Neither women notice the car following them until it sped it front of their vehicle and slammed on its brakes, causing Jessica to smash into it.
Jessica’s car had only one airbag and it was on the driver’s side, a common feature in cars at the time. Jessica was shaken, but unharmed, when she looked over at the doctor, she saw that she was not only bleeding, but also unconscious.
Gregory appeared at the window on the doctor’s side of the car and Jessica locked him out by hitting the button on her door. Gregory pulled impotently on the door handle and then let out a frustrated grunt.
“Open the door, bitch; I only want the doctor.”
“No!” Jessica screamed. “Go away; the police will be here soon.”
Gregory laughed as he bent down and picked up a rock that was lying along the shoulder.
“Look around, do you see anybody stopping? They all think it’s just another fender bender. There’s no one coming to help you.”
Gregory reared his arm back in preparation to hurl the rock through the window, and Jessica covered her face with her arms.
She heard Gregory make a muffled sound, and then... nothing.
As she opened her eyes and lowered her arms, she discovered that Gregory was gone.
But then, she heard it, a sound like someone clapping. She leaned over the doctor’s unconscious form, and in the gully on the side of the highway, she saw them, her boyfriend and Gregory, and her boyfriend was beating Gregory to death.
“Noooo!” Jessica screamed, as she bounded from the car and ran down the short hill. When she reached them, she saw that Gregory was out cold.
Jessica grabbed his arm.
“Stop hitting him, you’ll kill him.”
Her boyfriend was on the ground, straddling Gregory, his right fist was already bloody and his eyes held nothing but hate. While still on his knees, he plucked Gregory from the ground and wrapped an arm each around his neck and his head, in preparation to snap his neck.
“He tried to kill you. He dies now.”
Jessica got down on the ground and hugged him.
“No baby, you can’t kill him. Let the law handle him.”
“They’ll let him go, Jessica. If they let him go he may try and kill you again, you or the doctor.”
Jessica sprang up.
“The doctor! Oh my God, I have to get to a phone and call an ambulance.”
“There’s a gas station down the road; they should have a phone. You go call for help.”
Jessica started back up the hill, but then she turned.
“Promise me you won’t kill him.”
“He needs to die. He’s too dangerous.”
“No. We live in a land of laws; we’re a society, let the police handle him. Please, for me?”
“It’s a mistake to let him live.”
“For me?”
He gazed up at her as he let Gregory fall to the ground.
“For you,”
She took three more steps before turning again.
“How did you find us?”
“I’ve been following you ever sin
ce you told me what the cop said about him.”
She smiled.
“Thank God you were here.”
And then she rushed off to get help.
Behind her, her boyfriend gazed down at Gregory, wanting so badly to kill him that it bordered on need. He reached down and took hold of Gregory, but it was only to rip the sleeves from his shirt. He then used them to bind Gregory’s hands and feet.
He glared down at Gregory.
“A mistake,”
***
The doctor wasn’t seriously injured, but only stunned, and soon made a full recovery.
With the help of his father’s money and connections, Gregory was out on bail and assured that by the time his case went to trial, the charges against him would be greatly reduced.
One week later, on Saturday morning, the doctor returned home from food shopping. She had run out to get a few last minute items for the party that was taking place that evening. When she entered her home, she was greeted by the sound of the TV blaring in the living room.
“Bob! Kids! Please turn down that TV. Bob?”
Dr. Harte walked into the living room and found her family bound and gagged, standing amidst them with a gun in his hand, was Gregory Zubek, his face still bruised from the beating he’d taken.
Dr. Harte began to turn and Gregory shouted at her.
“Run for help and I’ll shoot one of your kids.”
The doctor froze, but a moment later, she smiled at Gregory as she walked over and turned off the television, then, she began talking to him in a soft voice.
“There’s no need for all this, Greg. Don’t you know when a woman is playing hard to get? I was simply extending the chase so that when I finally let you catch me, it would be more exciting.”
“Hard to get? You yelled at me. You told me that you wanted nothing to do with me, tried to have me charged with attempted murder, and today, today I’m given this.”
Gregory reached into his pocket and took out a piece of crumpled paper.
Dr. Harte could only assume that it was a copy of the restraining order she filed against him.
She kept smiling.
“Why don’t we go somewhere where we can be alone? I have a cottage on the water in Marblehead; it’s very romantic.”
Gregory began laughing.
“How stupid do you think I am? You just want to get me away from your family, don’t you?”
“No, I simply thought that we could—”
“Shut up!”
“All right then, what do you want?”
“You, I want you.”
“And then you’ll leave?”
“Yes.”
The doctor gazed about at her family. All three of her daughters were crying and both her son and her husband were bleeding, as if Gregory had whipped them with the gun.
The doctor took a deep breath and then gestured towards the hall.
“The bedroom is upstairs.”
Gregory shook his head.
“Uh-uh, right here, I want your family to see what a slut you really are.”
The doctor began to cry. She walked up to Gregory and stared into his eyes.
“I’ll do anything you want, I swear, but not here; I’m begging you, not here.”
Gregory nodded in understanding, but then he placed the gun to her head.
“Get down on your knees.”
CHAPTER 13
Despite the doctor’s protests, Jessica insisted on arriving early for the party so that she could help set things up.
As they walked towards the front door of the secluded home, she looked over and noticed that her boyfriend’s expression had tightened into a grimace of apprehension.
“You just might have a good time you know; after all, that’s what parties are for.”
“I’ll try to fit in.”
“Thank you, my wolf.”
“What?”
“Nothing, just a private joke, but really, it should be a great time, and after all—”
Jessica stopped talking as he clamped a hand over her mouth, while pointing at the front door with the other one.
The door was ajar and upon it was a handprint in blood. On the ground were bloody shoeprints that disappeared into the grass of the lawn.
He whispered in Jessica’s ear.
“Get back in the car and drive to the nearest house to call the cops.”
She whispered back.
“What are you going to do?”
“Gregory may still be inside. If he is, I’ll stop him.”
“Gregory?” Jessica said, as her knees threatened to give out.
He kissed her and turned her towards the car.
“Go.”
She nodded with a face full of falling tears and did as he said.
After she had driven away, he slipped to the rear of the home and found the doctor’s car with its trunk sitting open and bags of warm groceries inside. He tried the kitchen door and found it unlocked.
There was another bag on the counter, along with the doctor’s keys. Other than the sound of the central air blowing through the vents, the house seemed quiet, and empty.
A moment later, he caught the tangy odor of the blood, and followed it to its source.
They were in the living room, beneath the banner and balloons proclaiming that their love had lasted twenty years.
It took Gregory but a few hours to destroy it.
He stayed in the doorway. There was too much blood for him to enter the room without tracking it all over, and so he took it all in from where he was and gazed about at the carnage.
The doctor’s family was dead. The husband and son died from gunshot wounds to the back of their heads, their faces obliterated by the massive exit wounds.
The three girls, the youngest of her children, were all redheaded like their mother, and appeared strangled to death, their eyes bulging as their necks sat at odd angles. He then wondered if the rapes had occurred before or after death, but knew that they had happened, because each child, even the young Cindy, had their underwear about their ankles and were bleeding from their genitals. A moment later, he spotted the blood drenched handle from a bathroom plunger, and he knew that the girls had been raped in an even more heinous manner than he had first thought.
In the midst of the butchery was the doctor, she who had suffered the worst injury.
As he gazed at her, he knew that Gregory had made her watch all of it, the murder of her husband, her son, the defilement of her daughters. However, he had not left her untouched, her nakedness attested to that. And yet, other than the blood of her beloved, there was scarcely a mark on her.
She was in the middle of the room, nude, and bound to a kitchen chair. Her flaming hair hung about her vacant face like curtains on a blacked out window. Her eyes were open, but saw nothing, as her heart beat for no one.
She was gone.
Although the doctor sat staring at the wall, he knew without doubt that she was as dead as her kin, and that no amount of time, drugs or therapy would ever animate her again.
She was gone.
The sound of the sirens reached him and he walked out the way he had come and waited for the authorities to arrive.
As he stood there by the curb, he thought of Gregory Zubek and of how a simple twisting of the bastard’s neck could have avoided all this sorrow. He promised Jessica that he would not kill him, had kept that promise and now a family was destroyed.
He loved Jessica White to the depths of his black heart, but he knew that he would never make such a pledge ever again. In this world, evil must be met with violence, must be given no quarter, no mercy, because there were some souls that were unhampered by decency, by morality or law, and he also understood, sadly, that he was numbered among them.
***
The trial took place nearly a year later, and Jessica was the prosecution’s star witness.
She testified about Zubek’s harassment of the doctor, told about his attack on the highway and described the d
octor’s escalating fear of him. Her testimony, along with an overwhelming body of forensic evidence made it a certainty that Gregory Zubek would be found guilty.
And he was found guilty, however, the sentence placed him in a mental institution, as he was adjudicated to be criminally insane.
Doctor Harte was also in an institution, and would remain in its care for the rest of her life.
***
THE PRESENT
On the ride home, they had contacted their researcher, Carly Zhang. Carly said that she would report to them within a few hours, and so they waited for her call.
After dinner, they sat in front of the fireplace and talked, while sipping wine.
“Why now?” Jessica said. “Why seek revenge now, and how is it even possible when he’s locked away? As far as I know, he has zero contact with the outside world.”
“That must have changed,” he said.
He was right, and the reason behind the change was incomprehensible.
The State had simply let Gregory Zubek out.
He was one of a selection of inmates deemed acceptable to take part in group outings to the zoo, to movie theaters, and other local events.
Gregory was also being considered for release, due to his exemplary record behind bars.
The head of the psychiatric hospital defended her decision by stating to her critics that Gregory’s record indicated that he had shown no signs of violent tendencies since being incarcerated.
When it was pointed out to her that prior to her decision to let Gregory wander freely, that he had spent twenty-three hours a day locked in his cell, and thus, had scant opportunity to act out, she grew silent and stared at the floor.
“The man who tried to kill us, what exactly did he tell you?” Jessica said.
“His name was Enzo Parker, he was from Arizona and he told me that he was hired by Zubek’s lawyer, Albert Rossetti, and that Rossetti used him whenever he had a problem. He said that over the years, he had killed six people who were slated to testify against Rossetti’s clients, and that you were supposed to be number seven.”
“Who is financing this, Gregory’s father?”
“In a way, Karl Zubek is in a nursing home, Rossetti has temporary power of attorney, but I’d bet that it’s Gregory pulling the strings.”
“What date is Gregory’s hearing scheduled for?” Jessica said.
The TAKEN! Series - Books 1-4 (Taken! Box Set) Page 16