Deadly Deception

by Gilbert, Morris

  DeSpain tried to resist, but the wire cut into his wrists. He was led outside and forced into the backseat of the truck. A loop of wire was placed around his neck, then fastened to one of the bars that held the seat. “Now don’t move too much, or you’ll hurt yourself, Freddie,” Savage advised. He got out and left, and DeSpain discovered that he was helpless. Frantically he struggled, but after tightening the noose and almost passing out, he could do nothing but lie there and curse silently.

  Joe Martino was sleeping soundly. He and his wife both had taken sleeping pills, and when he woke up, it was like coming out of a coma. All he knew was that a bright light hurt his eyes, and when he threw up his hands to shield them, an iron grip forced them down.

  “What’s going on?” he mumbled. He tried to open his eyes, but the light was too bright. He reached out and grabbed for his wife, who was beginning to stir. “Martha? You all right?”

  Mrs. Martino woke up, and cried out, “It’s a fire!”

  Martino tried to get up, but as he tried to rise, he felt something cold on his forehead. It was hard and round— and with all the nightmares of a thousand nights rising to engulf him, he knew it was the muzzle of a gun!

  “Now, just lie still, you two,” a pleasant voice commanded. “Don’t try to get up.”

  Mrs. Martino began to moan, and her cries unnerved Joe Martino even more. He called out hoarsely, “Don’t kill her! Please don’t hurt her.”

  There was a silence, and the voice went on, “I’m glad you said that, Joe. Most men would be thinking about themselves. I’m glad to see that you’ve got enough manhood to think about Mrs. Martino first.”

  Martino lay still, and Savage moved the light from his face. Though Martino felt relief, he could see nothing. The room was totally dark—that was the only way his wife could sleep—but Joe remained terribly aware of the presence of the gunman. He waited for the man to speak, but the silence ran on. Martha reached out, and he took her hand. Finally he questioned, “Who are you?”

  “Why, I’m a specialist, Joe,” the voice replied. “Right now, I specialize in Joe Martino. I work for Mr. Lanza, as you’ve probably guessed.”

  Terror ran through the couple, and Martha shrieked, “I told you this would happen if you started trouble, Joe!”

  Martino was not a tough man, not in the mold of his father, but he spoke steadily, “I guess you’ve come to kill me.”

  “Why, no. I’ve come to try to persuade you to live.” A soft laugh floated on the darkness, and the voice explained, “Now, Faye wanted you killed, but I persuaded Mr. Lanza that it wouldn’t be necessary.” A short silence, then the speaker added, “It’s really up to you, Joe. If you promise that you’ll stop sending your goons to hit the Lanza family, I’ll walk out of here, and that’s the end of it. If you can’t see it that way, it’ll have to be Faye’s way.”

  “Promise him, Joe!” Martha Martino exclaimed. “Do it now! He’ll kill us both if you don’t!”

  Martino lay there, thinking, then asked, “What makes you think I’ll keep a promise? If you let me live, I might send Ring to hit the Lanzas.”

  “You might, but who would hit me? You don’t even know who I am, and even if you did, who would you send who could take me? If you hit Lanza, Joe, you’re dead. You know that, don’t you? You paid for the best security in the world. DeSpain is the best, isn’t he? But here I am. I’ll always be there, Joe. Mr. Lanza paid in advance. If you hit him and run to France, I’ll see you there. You’ll wake up some night with me sitting by your side. And it’ll be too late to promise then.”

  The room was silent then, except for Mrs. Martino’s sobs. Though the intruder exerted no pressure, Martino knew that the gun remained in his hand. He slowly agreed, “All right. You have my word.”

  He waited, ready to protest, to vow, to try to convince the man of his honesty. But with a sudden movement, the assassin got to his feet. He only warned, “You’ll have to get rid of Johnny Ring, Joe. I think you mean what you say, but Ring won’t let it alone. Get rid of him. He can’t be controlled—by you or by anyone else. If he hits Lanza, it’ll be you who’ll wake up with me sitting beside you, not him. Don’t use the phone for ten minutes. I’d have to come back.”

  The door opened and closed, and Martha grabbed at Joe, holding him as tightly as she could. “He let us live, Joe!” she cried over and over. Finally he reached over and turned on the light. His hands were shaking, and he stared at them blindly.

  “Joe,” his wife gasped, pulling at his arm. “You’ve got to do it! You wouldn’t have a chance! That man would find you anyplace on God’s earth!”

  Joe Martino nodded slowly. “Yes. I’ll have to do it.” But he was already thinking, But how will I get rid of Ring? He’d kill me just as quickly as the man who just left. Slowly a plan formed, and he put his arm around his wife. “Don’t worry, Martha. We’ll be out of it. It was a mistake to go against Dom Lanza. But we’ll put a stop to it. I’ll have a meeting with Dom, so he’ll see we’re serious.”

  “But what about Ring?” she demanded.

  “I have a plan for that,” he acknowledged slowly. “He got us into all this. Now he’ll have to go!”

  14

  Rosemary’s Choice

  * * *

  For three days Dani’s nerves had been stretched so tautly that even the children had begun to notice it. She wasn’t sleeping well, for the nightmares of the shooting exploded in brief but terrifying scenes that brought her awake, drenched with sweat and clawing at the sheets. Each day that Ben was away on his mission drained her. Rosemary, being closer to her than anyone else, had noticed it first.

  The two of them had been sitting outside in the shade of one of the huge live-oak trees when Rosemary mentioned it. It was the twenty-third of March, and the weather was hot. On this, her first day out, Rosemary was prepared to enjoy life to the fullest. Pat napped while a young student from Tulane drilled Matt and Rachel in science. Dani had Rossi wheel Rosemary outside in a wheelchair, and for an hour the two of them had been delighting in the gusts of wind that tossed the clouds and caressed their cheeks.

  Somehow Dani found herself telling Rosemary about her life. She had said little to anyone for a long time about her past, but the privacy of the moment and Rosemary’s sympathetic attitude caused her to speak. Dani told how she had had her life neatly arranged, only to have it go down in flames. “I had my CPA,” she recalled slowly, “and was working with the attorney general’s office in Boston. But then I fell in love with a man.”

  She paused for so long that Rosemary asked gently, “What was his name, Dani?”

  “Jerry Hunt. He was like no man I’d ever met, Rosemary! But he was very different. I mean, he was a seminary student and planned to go to Africa as a missionary. I don’t know what he saw in me, but he asked me to marry him, and I said yes.” Dani looked across the broad green yard to where Mel Ennis, the manager, was driving a John Deere tractor, cutting the grass with the precision of a hair stylist. Then she shared, “I don’t know what we thought, Rosemary. I think both of us knew I wasn’t fitted for the missionary life, but we didn’t talk about it.” She let her voice drop, then spoke so quietly that Rosemary had to lean forward to hear her. “He died before we had a chance to find out. Maybe it was a good thing.”

  “How did he die, Dani?” Rosemary asked quietly.

  “It was—my fault,” Dani noted painfully. “We had a fight one day, while we were driving on the interstate. I made him stop the car, and when I got out, he drove off. It wasn’t a bad fight, but Jerry—” Dani struggled with the words, and finally told her, “He had an accident that killed him instantly.” She paused, then took a deep breath. “It was my fault, so I decided to go as a missionary in his place.”

  “I never knew you were a missionary!”

  “Well, I wasn’t.” Dani shrugged. “I was doing my work at the seminary when my father had a sudden heart attack. I had to leave school and take over his firm—that’s Ross Investigations. And that’s
where I am now.”

  Rosemary stared at Dani, then said, “I knew you’ve been nervous lately. I thought it was because of Ben.” When there was no response, she asked, “Are you in love with Ben, Dani?”

  “Why, of course not!” The answer came back so vehemently and the color rose in Dani’s cheeks so quickly that Rosemary said no more about it. “He doesn’t even like women,” Dani blurted out. “Or he likes them home, keeping house for a dozen kids. I’ve almost fired him a dozen times, Rosemary. He’s just one of the employees.”

  Rosemary reached over and patted Dani’s arm. A smile lit her face, and she quietly assessed the situation. “I don’t think so, Dani. You’ve been a nervous wreck ever since he left. Nobody will tell me what he’s doing, but I assume it’s something dangerous.”

  Dani gave her a reproachful look. “Naturally I worry about one of my investigators!” She rose, her hair blowing in the breeze, and looked across the lawn. “I’m going to take a day off soon, Rosemary. There are some things I need to check at the agency. I’ll wheel you inside.”

  “No, just have Thomas come and get me in an hour,” Rosemary suggested. “I could walk, as far as that goes.” She hesitated, then added, “You’ve been so good for me, Dani—for all of us.” It was not what she meant to say, and she sought for the words to frame what had been in her mind. Finally she confided, “Dani, I was so afraid of you when you first came.”

  “Afraid of me?”

  “Yes. You were so efficient. You took over the house and the children, much better than I ever could.” She hesitated, then looked up at Dani. “And I was terrified you’d take my husband.”

  “Why, you shouldn’t—”

  “No, it could have happened,” Rosemary said. “You’re so beautiful, and Frank is an attractive man. And I—I haven’t been a wife to him for months.” Tears suddenly rose to her eyes, and she whispered, “I’d lost him, Dani! But now I think I have a chance!”

  “Of course you do!” Dani smiled. She leaned over and kissed Rosemary’s cheek. “It’s going to be fine!”

  Rosemary held tightly to her, her eyes pleading. “But I can’t stop drinking, Dani! I’ve tried so hard, but it never works. It started when I got so afraid of where we were going, as a family. I was afraid of the life that lay ahead for the children. I couldn’t talk to Frank about it. I tried, but it didn’t make any sense to him. Now, he’s more like he was when we first fell in love—but the problem’s still there! I know I’ll drink again!”

  Dani glanced at Rosemary, then sat down. “Rosemary, you can’t handle the drinking problem. But there is a way, if you’ll take it.” She pulled her New Testament from her pocket, and her face was utterly serious. She had waited for this moment and was certain that it was right for her to share the gospel with this woman. “Rosemary, it’s impossible for any of us to live a good life in our own strength. You’ve described what I’ve felt many times. You try to quit doing something, but sooner or later you find that it’s come back. Let me read you what the Bible says about that. It’s in the gospel of Matthew, the twelfth chapter.”

  She read slowly, “‘When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. . . .’”

  Dani looked into Rosemary’s eyes and explained, “You’ve tried to clean yourself, but you have never put anything in your life to take the place of the drinking. So when the urge comes back, you have an empty heart, so you let the drinking come back in.” Then she turned a few pages in the Bible. “Rosemary, you need something in your heart so that when the urge to sin comes, there will be strength to resist. Let me read you a story from John’s gospel, the fourth chapter.” She read the story of the woman at the well and how Jesus met her need. “Every man she’d ever met had used her, Rosemary, but Jesus wanted to give her something. And do you know what He gave her?”

  Rosemary was staring at Dani, her eyes filled with tears. “What?” she asked faintly.

  “He gave her Himself,” Dani said. “The gospel means the ‘good news,’ and the good news is that God became a man and that man was Jesus Christ. And Jesus died, as you know. Why did He have to die? To pay our debt of sin. And now that He has paid it, we don’t have to be afraid of death or of facing judgment.”

  “But—how does Jesus get inside of me?” Rosemary asked.

  “I can’t explain it to you in scientific terms,” Dani told her. “In the third chapter of John, Jesus Himself could speak of it, only by saying it was like a new birth. ‘. . . Ye must be born again,’ He told a Jewish rabbi. But even though I can’t explain it, I can tell you that it’s true. When I finally came to the end of my rope, I called on the name of Jesus, and two things happened. First, I had peace with God. The torment and guilt left. I knew I was forgiven! And the second thing—from that time on, Jesus Christ has been in me. I’ve never seen Him or heard an audible voice, but I just sense His presence. When I pray or worship, He’s just there, Rosemary!”

  There was such a look of joy on Dani’s face, that Rosemary stared at her. “Do you think He would forgive me, Dani?”

  “That’s why He came!” Dani exclaimed. “He loves you so much, Rosemary!”

  “How—how can I do it?”

  “It’s not a matter of living right. You know already that won’t work. The Bible says we are saved by faith. Paul wrote, in his letter to the Ephesians, ‘By grace are ye saved through faith.’ And in Romans we’re told how to come to God.” She turned to the passage and had Rosemary follow as she read: “‘If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.’” Then she added, “Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

  “Just ask God? That’s all?”

  “If Patrick were hurting, and you could help him, what would you do if he cried out for you?”

  “Why—I’d help him!”

  “Because you love him. But God loves you more than you love Pat, Rosemary. He gave His son so that you can be saved.” Then Dani knew the time had come. “Will you have Jesus Christ as your Saviour, Rosemary? That means letting Him forgive all your past sins and live in you so that you can face anything in the future. It means obeying Him, even when you may not want to. It’s not just a matter of getting out of hell, you see. It’s like a marriage. Jesus will be your heavenly husband, just as Frank is your earthly husband. It may be hard, but it’s worth it!”

  Rosemary dropped her head and murmured, “Help me to pray, Dani!”

  For the next few moments Dani did just that, until she heard with joy that Rosemary was asking God for forgiveness. Finally she gently prodded, “Rosemary, did you call on God?”

  “Yes!” Rosemary lifted her face, which was filled with hope. But she asked, “Shouldn’t I feel different, Dani? I thought I’d feel like shouting or something.”

  “You’re a newborn baby, Rosemary,” Dani told her. “But you’re God’s baby now. You’ll be growing fast. Jesus will begin teaching you things. I’ll help all I can. But when you called on God in the name of Jesus, that took care of your past sins, and now you have to learn to follow Jesus in every way.”

  Rosemary was happy, but concerned, “I don’t think Frank knows anything about this. He won’t understand.”

  “He probably won’t, but he’ll see a new peace and strength in you that was never there before,” Dani promised. “Don’t preach at him, Rosemary, just let Jesus have you—and one day He’ll have your whole family!”

  The scene had lifted Dani’s spirits, and she watched carefully the rest of the afternoon and especially that night. Rosemary said nothing to the children or to Frank, but the happiness in her caused Pat to say, “Mommy, you
look so good!” Later, when Dani went by to see that Rosemary was all right for the night, she told her, “I’m going to be praying for you, Rosemary. Sometimes when you come to God, the devil will try to discourage you. If you start thinking that nothing happened or if difficulties come and you get down, you have to lean on Jesus. Will you remember that?”

  “Yes!” Rosemary beamed. “I want to start learning the Bible, Dani, but I don’t know where to start.”

  “Start with the gospel of John.” Dani smiled. “We’ll have lots of time to talk about it. Good night, Rosemary.”

  She left and went to her own room, but in the middle of the night, the worst of nightmares awakened her. Dani dreamed that she was shooting the man, and his blood turned into a flood that came up and was drowning her. A voice demanded, Call yourself a woman of God? You’re nothing but a killer! She came out of the dream with a sharp cry and leaped out of bed. She was trembling terribly and did not dare go to sleep again. When dawn came, she stumbled to the kitchen for coffee, but could eat nothing. At eight o’clock Rossi came to say, “A call for you, Dani.”

  She took the call inside, and Luke Sixkiller’s voice came through the phone. “You’re under arrest, Ross!”

  “Oh, what’s the charge?” she asked, smiling a little. His voice was rough but a refreshing change from her thoughts.

  “Resisting a police officer,” Sixkiller accused. “This is what they call an off-duty arrest. It’s my day off, and I’m coming to get you. Tell those ugly apes at the guardhouse if they try to stop me I’ll put them where the dogs won’t bite them. Got it?”

  “You fool!” She laughed. “What are you talking about?”

  “My ego is bruised. And the guys in my squad know you’ve turned me down. It’s bad for morale, Ross. So you’re going out with me if I have to drag you, kicking and screaming. I’ll be at the front gate at one o’clock. Don’t make any plans to be in early!” He hung up before Dani could answer, and when she put the phone down, she felt better.