by Simon Wood
clients. Bob couldn’t be sure whether Tyrell was aware of his slip or not. Either way, he was scared.
Tyrell continued. “Even if he did reimburse Pinnacle Investments for monies paid, it wouldn’t provide the company a return on its investment. We do have investors to think about. As you can understand, we are a
profit-making organization, not a charity.”
“Thank you for your time, Dexter.”
“Thank you for your call. And I hope we can do
business again. On behalf of Pinnacle Investments, we do appreciate the business we receive from our agents.
Good-bye Bob, it’s been a pleasure.”
Bob had only seconds to decide. He knew a killer
pursued Josh. He knew it was more than likely someone at Pinnacle Investments was at the heart of it. He had the feeling Dexter Tyrell was the man giving that order. But he couldn’t be sure—it was all supposition.
In a moment, the connection would be broken and
contact lost and it was unlikely Tyrell would take further calls. Should he bluff Tyrell and risk his own life?
He couldn’t hesitate any longer.
“I know what you’re up to, Mr. Tyrell.” Bob’s voice trembled. He had just stepped into the ring and sized up the opposition. He feared his decision and hoped it was the right one.
“What do you know, Bob?”
Tyrell’s coldness trickled down the line and Bob
shivered.
“I know what you’re doing to your clients.”
“Providing them with first-class service at reasonable prices?” Tyrell mocked.
Bob composed himself before asking the five hundred thousand dollar question. “You’re killing your viatical clients, aren’t you?”
Tyrell roared with laughter. “Bob, Bob, Bob, where did you come up with that cock-and-bull story? The X-Files} Or Days of Our Lives maybe?”
Instead of being embarrassed by Tyrell’s mockery, Bob took strength from it. The evidence to support his belief was in front of him and what he and Josh knew made a compelling story, even if it was all circumstantial.
He took a deep breath and let the executive have
it, both barrels.
“Pinnacle Investments is the most successful viatical company in the industry.” Tyrell tried to interrupt, but Bob spoke over the vice president. “You are the only successful viatical company in the industry, especially with an AIDS client base as big as yours. AIDS
patients are living longer. Yours are dying quicker. So are your other clients. A number of my colleagues have had their viatical clients with Pinnacle Investments die from unusual accidents, just as their health
improved.”
“This sounds like a crank call to me. I’m putting the phone down,” Tyrell said.
“I think your next two targets are Josh Michaels and Margaret Macey. Both of them are my clients, Mr.
Tyrell.” Bob said Tyrell’s name like he chewed sour lemons. “And Margaret Macey is dead.”
Bob had nothing left to say. He waited for Tyrell to respond. He didn’t.
“Dexter, I don’t hear you putting that phone down,”
Bob said.
Dexter Tyrell said nothing.
Bob felt he was on a roll. He’d rattled Tyrell. The executive would be weighing his options. Bob decided to
push until he left Tyrell no option. “There is a man passing himself off as an employee of Pinnacle Investments called James Mitchell. I think he’s your hired gun.”
“What do you want?” Tyrell asked.
“I want you to stop.”
“What if I don’t?”
“I’ll go to the cops.”
“With what you’ve got?” Tyrell snorted. “They’ll
laugh you out of the precinct or lock you up.”
“Maybe, but I’ll give them enough to make someone look into Pinnacle Investments’s operations, and that wouldn’t be good for business, would it now?” Bob smiled.
Tyrell was silent for a very long time. Bob was happy to wait. He could almost hear Tyrell squirm.
“I have an offer to make to you, Bob.”
Bob listened.
Josh returned home after his breakfast with Bob and found no one home. He kept playing over Bob’s theories in his head. Would Pinnacle go for the buyback option?
He hoped so. He waited for Bob’s call, but it
didn’t come. He tried calling, but Bob didn’t pick up.
He couldn’t just sit there. He had to do something with himself. He decided to indulge in something he had not done in ages—climbing. Bob’s mention of his old hobby had a nice ring to it. Josh dug his gear out from his home office. The kit, ten years old or more, was very much out of date compared to the modern
lightweight rigs people now used. He drove down to the indoor climbing center and knocked the rust off his old skills. He found he was better off using the equipment provided at the center.
After ten minutes, Josh was back in the fold; no hint of staleness showed after his eightyear absence. As the hours shot by, Josh went from their basic climbs to the most difficult, conquering each level with great aplomb.
Amazed, he couldn’t understand why he had not gone to an indoor center before. The risk was so minimal he was sure Kate wouldn’t have minded. But even with this brief taste, he knew if he came here regularly he would end up wanting to hit the mountains for the real climbs. Yosemite was too much of a temptation to be ignored.
He came home in a good mood. It had been a good
day. He parked next to Kate’s minivan. Kit bag over his shoulder, Josh unlocked the door to the house and pushed it open. The door opened only a few inches before bouncing off the security chain. The door’s recoil knocked the keys out of his hand and he jumped back before the charging door took a finger or a toe as a trophy.
“Kate, it’s me. The chain’s on, can you take it off?”
Josh called through the crack of the door and picked up his keys.
No one answered.
Fear rushed through him. Had Mitchell tried something?
“Kate,
are you there? Is everything okay?”
“Josh, you aren’t coming in.”
Fear turned into confusion. “What?”
“You’re not welcome here anymore.” Kate’s voice
cracked under her tears.
Josh peered through the gap the door allowed. He
couldn’t see Kate.
“What’s wrong? Let me in.”
Kate broke into sobs, which were echoed by someone Josh presumed was Abby. Kate spoke to Abby, but
he couldn’t hear what she said.
“Just go. Please, Josh, go away.”
His stomach clenched. A vivid recollection of the events at Margaret Macey’s house struck him between the eyes. But this was his house, his family. He wouldn’t be kept out of his own home.
“Don’t panic, I’m coming round the back,” he
paused. “Okay?”
For a moment, Josh waited for a response and heard only stifled weeping. He raced over to the gate to get to the backyard, but it was locked. He dropped his kit bag and clambered over the top. He glimpsed a neighbor across the road watching the real-life soap opera unfold; but he didn’t give his neighbor a second thought.
He darted over to the patio doors and found them
locked, but he had the keys to the lock and rushed inside.
Drowning
in worry, he called, “Kate, Kate, it’s me.
It’s okay.”
Josh found his wife and child huddled together in the living room. Kate stood with her back against the fireplace and Abby’s face buried in her stomach. Seemingly, they were okay. He detected no visible wounds or
injuries other than their tears. His panic subsided.
“Thank God, you’re okay. I was really worried,” he said. “Why the security chain?”
“Josh, get the hell out.” Kate’s tone was as hard as s
teel.
The demand was hard enough to stop him in his
tracks. Kate’s hostility made no sense. He was at a loss for words.
Kate unpeeled Abby from her. “Abby, go up to your room. It’s going to be okay, but I need you to do this for me. Can you do this for Mommy? Can you?”
Sobbing, Abby didn’t want to leave, but she relented at Kate’s insistence. Kate pulled Abby to her and hugged her.
“You’d better go. Wiener’s waiting for you in your room. He needs you.” Kate said.
The sight of his wife and daughter in such turmoil tore Josh up inside. What’s happened to cause so much misery? He had no idea for the reason of the heartbreak.
Abby raced past him for the stairs and her room. She took an exaggerated path around him and stared at him like he was a monster. Josh murmured her name and put an arm out to her, but she dodged his touch.
Husband and wife said nothing until they heard the bang of the bedroom door upstairs. The muffled sobs through the ceiling made an unbearable soundtrack for their encounter.
“You bastard, Josh. How could you? How could you
do it to us?” Kate said through bitter tears.
Josh didn’t have an answer. He didn’t know what
she was referring to. He’d done so much to them.
“With the pain and misery you’ve brought to this
family, you aren’t entitled to any of the love you’ve been given.” Kate’s nose had run. She sniffed and wiped the back of her hand across her nose. “You deserve all you get.”
Shaking his head, Josh was still at a loss to understand.
“What have I done, Kate?”
“You didn’t tell me everything. In the park, you gave me the edited version. Keep the family on a need-to know basis—was that the plan? Keep the really bad stuff to yourself and make sure you don’t get into some real trouble? You coward,” Kate spat. Each word was a shard of glass meant to cut deep. “Any of this ringing any bells, Josh?”
It was. He didn’t understand how she could have
found out. Who would have told her? Josh swallowed the knot in his throat.
“We met Bell in the mall today. She told me all about you two. No, she broadcast it across the store. What a fool I’ve been to believe in you. Moments before, I was defending you to her, when all along she knew the real you and I only knew the fucking fairy tale.” Kate paused to get a grip. Her emotions were taking over.
“Your secretary! Couldn’t you have been more original and fucked a Nobel scientist or something?”
Bell. How she must have enjoyed the moment. He
should have known she’d do this once she’d lost her hold over him. Destroying his reputation wouldn’t have been enough. She needed to crush him under her heel.
Well, she’d done that.
She could destroy everything else, but he’d be
damned if he’d let her destroy his marriage. He rushed toward his wife with arms outstretched.
Kate stiffened. Backed up against the fireplace, she clutched for something to protect herself with, and picked up the poker from the rack. Brandishing the weapon with deadly intent, she jabbed it at Josh. She looked like a cornered animal. “Keep away from me.
God help you, I’ll use it on you.”
Josh stopped abruptly, only inches from the end of the poker. “Oh, Kate. You don’t understand,” Josh pleaded.
“Educate me, Josh. Tell me why. Why did you do it?
Come on now, the spotlight’s on you.” Kate positioned her arms like a magician’s assistant highlighting a master illusionist’s achievement.
Fighting with himself to give a delicate, more softened version, Josh struggled to speak. But knowing lies and deceit were useless currency, he paid with the truth. “I started the affair three months after you lost the baby. We were strangers to each other. We were both unsure what we wanted or even if we wanted each other.”
“That’s it? Because we had a rough patch you ran off to find the first bitch you could fuck?”
“No,” he recoiled. “You didn’t want to know me,
you pushed me away like it was my fault.”
“I’m so sorry. It must be my fault you put your dick in your secretary.” Sarcasm laced the tirade.
“No, I’m not saying that. I’m telling you the truth— something I should have done a long time ago. I had an affair for my own selfish reasons, but I realized it was wrong. I came back for you and I made this family work, did my best to make us happy. I love you, Kate, and I want you.” Josh maintained his distance; Kate still had the poker and he feared what she would do with it in this distraught state.
“How do I know you won’t run off with the next
pair of pretty tits that jiggles by?”
“Because I’m here now and I’m not going anywhere.
I’m one hundred percent behind this family, for this family.”
Kate glared. Her face, screwed tight with the fury and pain, suddenly relaxed. She dropped the poker to the floor. It twanged against the fireplace tiles.
The Kate Josh knew came into focus. It was going to be okay. He managed a weak smile.
The house was silent; not even a noise from Abby’s bedroom.
“I want you to go, Josh,” Kate said.
He couldn’t believe it. He had lost. He tried to challenge, but she knocked his pleas down with a raised
hand.
All the emotion had drained from Kate. “I don’t
know what I want, but I do know I don’t want you.”
Kate’s fury, present moments earlier, now possessed Josh. He knew he could do nothing here. He’d lost his family and stormed out of the living room.
He yanked on the door, but the security chain was still attached. The door ripped itself from his grasp and slammed shut. He jerked on the door even harder. With a crack of splintering wood, the fixings tore from the door frame. The chain attached to the door recoiled and swung out, narrowly missing Josh’s face. The
door’s momentum sent him sprawling.
Josh tore over to his car and flung himself behind the wheel. He gunned the engine, yanked the gearshift into reverse and the car roared backward into the street. He jammed the car into drive and floored the gas pedal, trails of black smoke pouring off the screaming tires.
“Fucking bitch,” Josh growled. He would be
damned if Bell would be allowed to get away with this.
She would pay dearly for what she had done.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
The journey to Bell’s house took mere minutes. The rules of the road didn’t apply to Josh. He bullied his way past every vehicle in his path. The engine screaming in pain, Josh tore along the roads, taking each bend too fast and stopping too late.
The car screeched to a halt outside Belinda Wong’s borrowed house. The car rode up over the rolled curb and positioned itself untidily on the sidewalk, trailing a pair of black, wavy lines on the pale road surface. Josh leapt from the driver’s seat. A Pontiac Grand Am
missed him by inches as it passed him. He ignored the driver’s violent overcorrection and the subsequent insult.
Blinded by rage, he charged up to the house.
Josh yanked on the door. It was unlocked and
opened easily. It wouldn’t have mattered if the door was locked—nothing would have prevented him from getting in.
Bell appeared from the bedroom dressed only in a
white silk teddy and skimpy panties. The silk was opaque, but it clung to her delicate frame. The peaks of her nipples were easily highlighted under the seamless material. When she moved, the material momentarily stuck to her like wet cotton, giving glimpses of the contours beneath.
“You bitch. You fucking bitch.” His rage was so intense he thought he would puke.
She smiled sweetly, not showing a hint of surprise at his uninvited intrusion. “Josh, so good to see you. You must have gotten the news.”
“You had to tell her. You couldn’t hav
e taken the money. You had to destroy my family.”
Bell cocked her head to one side and flashed a tightlipped smile of regret. “Things not too good at home
then?”
“You knew what Kate’s reaction would be.” Violently, Josh grabbed her by the shoulders, his fingers
digging into her supple flesh. He shook her in some vain hope of making her understand the significance of what she’d done. Bell’s raven hair scattered over her face and shoulders.
Still in Josh’s grasp, she shook her head, revealing blazing eyes and an open mouth excited by Josh’s energy.
“God, you have no idea how horny you’re making
me.”
There was no talking to her and he found it hard
to speak. Different emotional states fast-forwarded through his mind—anger, rage, desperation, loss and defeat. He didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. A knotted ball of frustration in his brain prevented him from doing either. Releasing a primal growl of frustration, Josh shoved Bell away from him. Stumbling, she
fell backward, striking the floor unceremoniously. Legs in the air, panties showing, Bell lost all the seductive allure she’d ever inspired. Frustrated, Josh collapsed onto the couch behind him.
Bell got to her feet. She dropped her mocking tone and in all seriousness said, “What did you expect me to do, Josh?”
“Accept what happened. I don’t know.”
Bell glanced out the window. “Nice parking job, by the way.”
She came over to him. She looked at him with a pitying expression.
“Why did you do it?” Without the rage, he sounded tired.
Crouching on her haunches, she placed her hands on his knees. “You gave me no choice. You refused to give me what I wanted. I wasn’t just going to disappear to make it convenient for you.”
“But this way, you’ve destroyed everything you
wanted. You don’t get any more money. You’ve destroyed my family, so you don’t get me. You’ve lost as
much as I have.”
“You still don’t get it, do you? This has never been about money. It was about making you pay for what you did to me.” Pain was evident in Bell’s rising voice.
She pushed herself away from him and stood up. She went into the kitchen, got herself a beer from the refrigerator and popped the top with the bottle opener on