The Fix-It Man

by Donald Wells

  “Yes, and I take it that Tyler Denton here is your husband?”

  Mona kissed Tyler on the cheek. “He certainly is.”

  Bill glanced at me. “Thank God.”

  “My sentiments exactly,” I said.

  Mona introduced the children to Bill one by one and at the end, we said our goodbyes all over again.

  * * *

  We were in the limo when I got the call. Ms. Lee had just met us at the airport as we arrived back in New York. The call was from someone named Trent, one of Richard McCarthy’s associates.

  Trent was calling from Amsterdam with bad news.

  “Richard’s in the hospital, not expected to live.”

  “What happened Trent?”

  “Ahmed, Richard had a meeting with him and it went bad. I found Richard down by the docks, he’d been shot four times and was barely conscious. I also found six dead men near the scene; they must have been Ahmed’s bodyguards. Richard must have been crazy to go up against those sort of odds alone.”

  No, he wasn’t crazy, he was desperate, desperate to help me and Hannah.

  “Did he say anything Trent, any clue as to where I might find Thorne?”

  “He did it Mr. Faron, he found him! Thorne has a meeting with Ahmed tomorrow at midnight in a bar here called, Guiltless.”

  I began breathing again.

  Thank you Richard,

  “Mr. Faron, what would you like me to do?”

  “Give me a number where I can reach you and I’ll call you back in an hour with instructions, and Trent, great work.”

  “Thanks, but it was all Richard.”

  I explained everything to Felicia, Bill and Ms. Lee as we rode to the hospital.

  “Poor Richard,” Ms. Lee said. “He seems like such a nice man on the phone.”

  “That’s right; you’ve never actually met him, have you?”

  “No, but we’ve spoken often as I’ve helped him with resources.”

  “Well, hopefully you’ll get your chance. I want you and Bill to go with me to Amsterdam.”

  Ms. Lee nodded. “All right John, and is there anything else?”

  “Yes, it’s about this bar Thorne is meeting at…”

  74

  I was sitting up in Hannah’s hospital bed with my arm around her, holding her one last time before I had to leave for Amsterdam.

  Across the hall, the unoccupied room that had been her friend Sabrina’s, laid as dark and ominous as the future.

  Hannah seemed weaker to me than she had before I left for Vermont, but perhaps it was only the lateness of the hour.

  I prayed so.

  “Daddy?”

  “Yes baby girl?”

  “Why do you have to go away again? You and mommy just got back.”

  “Daddy’s going to get some medicine for your blood boo boo.”

  “And then I’ll be all better?”

  I kissed her forehead. “And then you’ll be all better.”

  “I don’t like being sick.”

  “I know.”

  Hannah stared across the hall.

  “Sabrina’s not coming back, is she?”

  “…No Hannah, Sabrina is with God now, in heaven.”

  Hannah hugged me tight, and I could feel her tremble.

  “I don’t want to go to heaven daddy. I want to stay here with you and mommy.”

  “You will sweetie, you’re going to live a long and happy life with mommy and me and Grandpa Bill and Aunt Sophie.”

  “Promise?”

  I closed my eyes. “Daddy promises.”

  Felicia appeared in the doorway.

  “Ms. Lee says it’s time.”

  I said, “All right,” and got up from the bed.

  Hannah lay down on her back and beckoned me to lean down toward her, when I did, she gave me a big kiss on the lips.

  “I love you daddy.”

  “And I love you too Hannah, you be good while daddy’s gone, okay?”

  “Okay daddy, and bring me somethin’ back.”

  “I will, bye bye now.”

  “Bye bye daddy.”

  * * *

  I joined Felicia in the hall, a short distance from Hannah’s room.

  “How is she?”

  “She’s scared, and I know exactly how she feels.”

  “She’ll be all right, as soon as you return from Amsterdam, Dr. Ramsey will begin treatment.”

  I squeezed my eyes shut, as I fought to hold back tears.

  “Johnny, it’ll be all right.”

  “What if Thorne doesn’t show up for the meeting? Trent said he didn’t know what happened to Ahmed, maybe he’s warning Thorne right now, or maybe the police will catch up with Thorne before I can grab him or, or… hell, any of a hundred things could go wrong.”

  Felicia smiled at me.

  “Why are you smiling?”

  “Because you really don’t know, do you?”

  “Know what?”

  “What you are, who you are. Johnny, David could hide on the moon and you would find him, because Hannah needs him, and there is no way that you would ever let your daughter down.”

  “Baby, fate can be damn cruel sometimes.”

  “You have never let me down and you won’t this time. When we first met, when I was still a kid, I’d come by the shop just to watch you work, watch you fix things, and it never seemed to matter what was broken, you’d fix it. A vacuum cleaner, a TV, a bike, computer, it didn’t matter. You would just get to work and figure out what was wrong.

  “I was broken then too, heartsick over my mother’s death, neglected by my father, and you fixed me, paying me to sweep the shop, buying me food when I was hungry, being my friend. And later, when my father nearly killed Mona, you stopped him; you beat him.

  “And… after the bomb, after I had used up all of my strength and lost my grip. My God Johnny, I was literally falling to my death. I believed I was dead, and then from nowhere, there you were, holding me, saving me, saving me and Hannah. You saved her then and you’ll save her now.”

  I grabbed Felicia and embraced her, feeling her warmth, trying to absorb her strength, her faith.

  “Baby I love you so damn much.”

  “And I love you. Find David, end this, and then come back to us.”

  I wiped at my eyes. “I will.”

  She smiled again. “Yes you will.”

  We kissed and then said our goodbyes.

  * * *

  I was at the elevator with the doors opening before me, when I had the longing to see Hannah one more time.

  I stopped short just outside her door, as I heard her crying. I then peeked around the corner.

  Felicia was lying in bed with her back to me, holding Hannah in her arms and comforting her. I leaned back against the hallway wall and listened.

  “What’s wrong with mommy’s baby?”

  “The Boogeyman,”

  “The Boogeyman? What about him?”

  “He’s coming for me, he got Sabrina and now he’s coming for me.”

  Felicia laughed. “Oh baby, you never have to worry about the Boogeyman.”

  “I don’t? Why?”

  “Because of your daddy, your daddy can beat the Boogeyman any ol’ day.”

  “Daddy can beat the Boogeyman?”

  “Yes baby.” Felicia said, and then she lowered her voice to a whisper.

  “Would you like to know a secret about your daddy?”

  Hannah whispered back. “A secret?”

  “Yes, it’s something only you and I know.”

  “What is it mommy?”

  “Your daddy, he’s the Fix-it man.”

  “The Fix-it man?”

  “Yes baby, and the Fix-it man can fix anything.”

  “Anything?”

  “Yes baby, anything, even your blood boo boo.”

  “How mommy?”

  “With love, daddy can do it because he’s full of love.”

  “I love daddy so much mommy.”

  “Me t
oo baby, me too,”

  I crept away from there, away from my two angels, and went searching for the Boogeyman, a Boogeyman named Thorne.

  75

  I walked down the corridor toward Richard McCarthy’s hospital room at about noon, local time, Amsterdam. At my side were Bill and Ms. Lee.

  Trent met us at the door and turned out to be enormous. He was seven feet tall if he was an inch and must have weighed nearly four hundred pounds.

  He had been sitting vigil with Richard throughout the night and greeted us with good news.

  “He’s awake Mr. Faron.”

  Richard was lying in bed, pale looking, and hooked-up to several machines. He gazed up at each of us in turn; when he got to Ms. Lee, he smiled.

  “My God you’re a beautiful woman.”

  Ms. Lee blushed. “Thank you Mr. McCarthy.”

  “I know that voice. You’re Ms. Lee, aren’t you?”

  “Yes Richard.” Ms. Lee said, and then she fought to hold back tears.

  “Don’t believe the doctors Ms. Lee, I’m not going anywhere.”

  I placed a hand on his shoulder. “Richard, I can’t thank you enough, you’ve given my daughter a chance.”

  “Trent tells me that you’re worried about Ahmed, don’t be. I managed to secure him before I passed out.”

  “What’s that mean, ‘Secured him?”

  “He’s locked in a Sea Box, a trailer, in the parking lot of a defunct cement factory, but he still needs to be… handled.”

  I nodded. “I’ll deal with that, and then I’ll deal with Thorne.”

  Richard gestured toward Trent. “Let him handle it John.”

  “No, it has to be done and I’ll do it. But Richard, how can you be so sure that Thorne will show at this bar tonight?”

  “Ahmed told me, under duress, in fact, he may be dead already.”

  Ms. Lee shook her head sadly at Richard.

  “The things you have to do, they must take their toll.”

  “Ms. Lee, I killed six men last night, possibly seven, all of them evil, despicable beings, and it just may have saved a little girl’s life; looked at that way, I can’t kill enough of them.”

  She fought back tears again. “I understand; it’s still a sad life.”

  Richard gave me Ahmed’s location and I told him of my plans for Thorne.

  “It sounds good John, but be careful, Thorne travels with an army.”

  “We’ll be ready for him.”

  Ms. Lee took a seat beside Richard’s bed.

  “John, will you need me tonight?”

  “No, it’s too dangerous, in fact, why don’t you go back to the hotel and I’ll call you if I need anything.”

  “If it’s all right with Richard, I’d like to stay here, to make sure that he’s being cared for.”

  Richard reached out and took her hand. “I’m sure you’re much better company than Trent.”

  “Trent’s going to be busy anyway,” I said, “he’ll be making sure things are ready, so it would be nice if you kept Richard company.”

  Ms. Lee smiled, “Thank you John, and please, be careful, and call if you need me.”

  I said, “Will do.” and then followed Trent and Bill out of the room. As we walked to the elevators, I asked Trent a question.

  “Have you been with Richard very long?”

  “Since before the beginning,” Trent said, and then he ran a massive hand through his mop of black hair and brought it to rest atop his beard, while staring back at Richard’s room. “Mr. Faron, tell me something, this Ms. Lee, is she good people?”

  “Ms. Lee? She’s the best, why?”

  Trent suddenly looked reflective. “I haven’t seen Richard look at a woman like that since his wife died.”

  * * *

  At half past nine, Bill and I stood in the back parking lot of the dormant cement factory where McCarthy had locked up Ahmed. At the end of the parking lot, there was a chain link fence, beyond that, the North Sea.

  Although Ahmed had been doing business with Thorne, he didn’t know his true identity. Richard said that Ahmed knew Thorne only by the name of Phelps, but when questioned about Phelps, he had described Thorne to a T.

  Trent had supplied me with an untraceable gun, a Beretta 92FS. I took it out and held it loosely at my side while Bill opened the padlock on the door.

  Trent said that Richard had broken both of Ahmed’s knees with a crowbar to make him talk, actually one knee made him talk, the second was to confirm the information.

  Richard had done all this after being shot four times and having just killed six men. I marveled at the man. And now it was my turn to see if I could kill just one.

  Bill took out a flashlight and shined it within the container. Something inside moaned and Bill found it with his beam. Ahmed, alive and cursing us in what I took to be Arabic. He was a chubby man with a scruffy, graying beard. He was crawling along the floor towards us, dragging his broken legs behind him and seemingly in great pain. With care, he would heal and live.

  He was a slaver of women. He was not going to heal and live.

  “I know you can speak English.” I said.

  “Yes I can, let me go and I will pay you.”

  I raised the gun. “We don’t want money.”

  All at once, I felt a pain shoot through my arm, as I was grabbed from behind. Within instants, I was losing consciousness, and then all went black.

  * * *

  I awakened with a start. I was lying where I fell, beside the container. Twenty feet to my left was Bill. He was sitting atop a wooden reel and staring at me.

  “Bill, what the hell happened?”

  In answer, he simply pointed into the container.

  As I stood, I saw the flashlight lying on the ground, I picked it up and shined it within. Ahmed was dead. He had been shot twice, once in the heart, once in the head. I turned toward Bill in a fury.

  “You did this, didn’t you? What the hell? I didn’t ask you along to do my killing for me.”

  Bill rushed me, before I knew it he had me backed up against the metal container.

  “One John! One life! Thorne’s! That’s all you get. I will not see you turn into a McCarthy.”

  “And what about you? You just killed an unarmed man. What does that do to you?”

  “I did it for you boy. I did it for Felicia and for Hannah, for our family. One life each, we can survive that, but I won’t let you turn into a butcher. I love you too much to let you become that.”

  I embraced him and hissed into his ear. “Thorne is mine.”

  “Yes John yes, in a way I, I think you need to kill him.”

  We separated and then Bill relocked the container. I checked my watch, a little more than two hours until midnight.

  We walked back to our car in silence. As I opened the door to get in, I called to him.

  “Hey Bill,”

  “Yes?”

  I stared at him. He had been a cop for twenty-one years, and I knew that it was a point of pride with him that in all that time, he had never had to so much as draw his weapon from its holster. Now tonight, he had killed a man in cold blood to save my soul from corruption.

  I gave him a smile as a tear rolled down my cheek.

  “I love you too Captain.”

  He smiled back at me, and off we went to meet with Thorne.

  76

  The bar Guiltless was near the waterfront, at the end of a city block and took up the entire corner from one end of the street to the other. It was a long, narrow building with a bar against the left wall that ran the middle length of it, there was a dance floor near the front entrance and tables at the back, toward the kitchen, and along the right side.

  I was across the street, standing deep in the shadows of a bakery’s darkened doorway, along with Bill and Trent.

  At the bar’s entrance, bouncers accepted or rejected potential patrons who were lined up to get in, more than one would-be customer objected vociferously to the bouncers’ rejection.


  Richard said that Ahmed had given Thorne a phrase to say that would not only gain him and his people entrance, but also insure that he would be seated at a table toward the back that was roped off.

  A limo appeared and parked in front of the club, and six men got out. They were young, fit and oriental; they were also undoubtedly armed. The six looked around, scrutinizing the crowd, and a few moments later one of them opened the limo door and spoke to someone inside.

  Three seconds later, I beheld the face and form of David Thorne.

  He was at least thirty pounds heavier than I remembered and wore an unkempt beard. He was wearing a black, European style suit with a white shirt and no tie. At his side was an Asian woman who looked to still be in her teens.

  Thorne walked up to the door and said the magic phrase and he and his entourage were granted entrance.

  Trent tapped a Bluetooth earpiece and spoke.

  “PLATINUM is in the trap. I repeat, PLATINUM is in the trap.”

  After receiving a reply, Trent turned and smiled at me.

  “Finally, eh Mr. Faron?”

  “Amen Trent, and call me John.”

  “The phrase to get in the door,” Bill asked me, “What is it?”

  “Money can buy happiness.’ I guess it was a sick joke between Thorne and Ahmed.”

  “Now?” Bill said.

  “One second,” I took out a disposable cell phone and dialed a number. After two rings, he answered.

  “Hello? John?”

  “It’s me Dr. Simon, is everything ready?”

  “It is. When do you expect to be back?”

  “No later than six a.m. your time,”

  “Good luck John, and happy hunting,”

  “Thank you Stu, I’ll see you soon.”

  I put my phone away and nodded to Bill. “Let’s go.”

  As the three of us walked across the street, I looked at my watch. It told me that the time was 12:02 a.m. and that the date was February 14th, St. Valentine’s Day.

  I said a prayer for Hannah, and went to meet the Boogeyman.

  77

  Of all the reactions that I could have imagined Thorne displaying upon first seeing me, happiness was not one of them, and yet, he seemed ecstatic.

  “John Fucking Faron, at last!”