Royce

by D. Hamilton-Reed

  He managed to get his cell phone out his pocket and with his thumbs the only fingers that weren’t broken he dialed 911, and before he passed out his only thought was, I’ve got to get a message to Royce, he can’t come back, but he blacked out when the ambulance screeched in front of him and he woke up in Parkland Hospital.

  He made Sarah stand guard outside as he called the bank and using his pass codes and identity markers he wired a million dollars to the account in the Cayman’s and he said, “Make sure you put this in the memo section, make sure of it!” He demanded, “Hot sauce, aisle 10,” that was the only way he thought he could let Royce know without alerting anyone and he cried after he hung up, cried and prayed Royce had gotten somewhere safe.

  After they’d patched up the badly beaten man it was a doctor’s responsibility to alert the police to what they thought was criminal activity and they called when the badly beaten man was heavily sedated and taken to x-ray with all his fingers and nose broken, his ribs cracked from repeated punches or from a hard object. The on duty police officer interviewed Bobby when he came to, and he wouldn’t give them anything, “I don’t know who did it or why. I don’t know anything.” He knew the police couldn’t help Royce now and he didn’t know what the men would do to his family if he told. They’d threatened as much as they tossed him out the car, “If you love your old lady keep your fucking mouth shut,” and even though the on duty officers thought he knew more than he said they couldn’t do anything about it without information so they filed it with the hundreds of other unsolved crimes no one would follow up on.

  Two days later police were called by the alarm company to check out an alarm going off on Chaucer Street, 23 Chaucer Street. When they got there the home owner, a Royce Harrington wasn’t home but his office was trashed and they realized they might have passed the guys in a brown van when they were coming in. Bobby got that message from Ms. Severs, the alarm company called the office the next morning when they couldn’t get in contact with Royce all night. Bobby had Sarah go over and check out the house, “The office is trashed but everything else is okay”, she said, “Lock up and reset the alarm”, he said through his bandages, and he tell her know he could communicate with Royce, but he hoped he got his message through.

  The next week Michael was coming out his office. He walked briskly and quickly towards his car, he had a date tonight. He was still seeing Amanda and Maria. Amanda more now that she’d split up from Collin and he smiled, “That woman loved what he was throwing down between the sheets,” and he had to admit he loved doing her too. She spread her legs wide and let him push so deep inside her, it was like she wanted every inch he had down deep, but it was Maria he was seeing tonight. She was wild in bed and he’d liked that about her every since their club days. He didn’t pay attention to the brown van parked close by, he should have because before he realized what hit him he was cold cocked and stunned.

  He was tossed in the van and driven out in the woods and as the men beat him the only question they asked, “Where the fuck is your wife?” “We know you know! Where is she?” And he screamed as they broke his fingers and punched him repeatedly in his rib cage and he was so thankful Joy had gotten away. He sent his thanks up to God for her getting away before these lowlife thugs got to her, “I don’t fucking know and if I did you really think I’d tell you!” For that they almost knocked him unconscious, but he didn’t care they could beat him bloody, even kill him but they didn’t get Joy and even as they beat him as hard as they could they couldn’t wipe that stupid smile off his face and when they’d either had enough or figured he really didn’t know they tossed him beaten and bloody back in the van and drove back to the parking garage and tossed him right where they picked him up, and it was another man leaving late who saw him sprawled out barely conscious by his car and called 911.

  Michael spent the week in Intensive Care at Parkland Hospital and the doctors on call followed protocol and alerted the police to a possible crime, but it was different doctors on duty and no one put the two similar incidents together, and it was different police officers who took the report and Michael being the guy he is knew he couldn’t have anyone snooping around trying to find Joy. She needed to stay laying low wherever she was, and he told the officers, “It was a robbery, they only got my watch”, and if the police had asked about his personal possessions when he was brought in they would have noticed he had five hundred dollars and a Rolex watch. They were in his cabinet in his room, but he didn’t give them any other information, “I didn’t see them. I don’t know what kind of car it was”, so they took the report and filed it under “Robbery/Assault and Battery”, and no one would bother to look any further.

  Two days later Ernestine and Cecil Vincent had just come back from RVing. They’d gone down south this time and had spent two weeks in Charleston. Even though it was April and Spring it was cold in Philadelphia and she wanted to warm her bones. It was dark when they arrived home, “We’ll clean up tomorrow, let’s just get some rest tonight”, she said. “Okay honey,” Cecil said and he checked and rechecked the locks on the RV. Although they’d lived in Point Breeze a long time and nothing had ever happened he still didn’t take chances, times had changed. He walked up the steps behind Ernestine and she unlocked the door and they walked into the dark house. She flicked the light switch and nothing happened, “What the…”.

  Suddenly someone grabbed her pinning her arms to her side and a hand over her mouth. She heard a loud thud and Cecil went down. She tried to scream and opened her mouth against the hand, the man holding her said, “Scream and I’ll slit your throat,” and she clamped her mouth shut.

  One of the intruders shut the door and turned on the lights and there were two men in her house. They tied her and Cecil to dining room chairs, Cecil’s head was bleeding from the hit he’d taken and her heart was beating wildly. They didn’t have much, they’d spent and invested all their money in their girls and now they lived off Cecil’s pension, and their girls gave them cash for birthdays and holidays. That’s what they asked for and their girls were generous, it was nothing for Joy and Sylvie to give them five thousand dollars apiece for Christmas and add in Lanie’s thousand and they had several trips paid for, so they lived frugally. One of the men pulled Cecil’s head up he was awake now and held his head up, “I got one question to ask you and if you answer right I’ll let you and your ol lady go…but if you answer wrong...Well you’ll see what I’ll do to youze”, he said in a heavy New York or New Jersey, accent.

  “Where the fuck is your daughter Joy? She took something that don’t belong to her and ran off and we want to know where she is…Now we won’t hurt her if you tell us where she is. We’ll just take back what she took,” he said with his heavy accent. “This is about Joy? Joy wouldn’t tell us where she went if she was running, we been away ourselves. We don’t know nothing about what Joy’s doing,” Cecil said. “Wrong answer,” the guy said and punched him, and punched him again. “Now I’ll ask you again, where is Joy and I don’t want you don’t know? No daughter leaves without telling their parents,” he stated like it was fact, “Now tell us where she is!” “Look mister we don’t know where she is, like I told you she wouldn’t tell us…,” and he was punched again and again. “He’s telling the truth!” Ernestine yelled at them, “He’s telling the truth we don’t know nothing!” She cried and yelled at them and they slapped her. “You mean to tell us your beloved daughter just ran off without telling you anything, I say what kind of daughter is that…I don’t believe you,” and he punched Cecil again and again. “Believe what you want, Joy wouldn’t tell us if she was in any kind of trouble or if she took something, she wouldn’t tell us,” Cecil said and they saw the one guy nod to the other and they began to untie them. “We’re going to let you go this time, but if we find out you know anything, anything about the whereabouts of your daughter we’ll be back,” they said and left quickly and quietly through the front door and afterwards Cecil and Ernestine clung to each other crying and
holding tight.

  Ernestine rushed him to the hospital where he was stitched up and given a pain killer and sent home and unlike at Parkland Hospital doctors didn’t have to report an old man beaten up, so they patched him up and sent him home.

  Joy and Royce lived their life almost forgetting they were on the run. They loved Spain, the children were growing up and loved Spain and Royce after running the horse ranch so long decided this was where he'd stay and bought the ranch. Now they’d been in Spain three years and spoke Spanish like they were born to it. They knew the search was still going on Jameson often reminded them of that, but today Joy wasn’t thinking about why they were here, today her period was two weeks late.

  Jameson saw her standing by the sink a smile on her face and he thought she was beautiful, she seemed to glow today. He was happy to be here with them but as time went on he hoped they were getting closer to the end, but instead they were becoming closer to the family.

  When Joy discovered Valerie couldn’t cook she insisted they come over for their meals, and at first he couldn’t go, but Valerie would bring him a plate and say, “Mrs. Harrington sent this,” and she’d look at him, “Just join us Jameson,” and it was so hard. Mrs. Harrington unnerved him, she was so beautiful and seeing her smile, hearing her laugh, and eating her food, God that woman could cook and the smells from that house were always wonderful. He was just so enraptured with her and wanted her so bad. It only became easier to be around her when he found Lita.

  She was twenty-three and he’d kiss her lips and suck her nipple piercing and hold onto her voluptuous curves and drive her crazy while pouring his love out to Joy, “Oh Joy, amor, te amo oh,” Oh Joy I love you and Lita never knew it was a woman he was talking about, she thought it was the emotion of the word. But after months, gradually slowly he started joining them at their table and now it felt like family.

  But he never forgot why they were here, he was consumed with this case and he wanted nothing more than to solve it. His only thought was to keep them safe and while they were living their lives hanging out on the beach, buying horses and running the ranch he was no closer to solving it than when he started. After three years he had nothing. At first he thought they were on to something when Tommy called, “The word on the street is there’s a search for the two guys, they were from Chicago and a couple of their buddies are here looking for them.”

  “Ah alright, this is heating up. Keep listening and let Reggie know,” he told him. Reggie called next, “They’ve been to Rhodes and Abrams asking questions, both men took a beating and they’ve staked out the house a few times. Fuck! This is getting warmer, so the thugs partners are trying to find them, we made sure that’ll never happen. Okay let em keep looking, burn up some time, “And the undercover on Tammy anything new?”

  “No nothing she’s not talking.” And that had been the story, the Chicagoans came and went. They’d come looking and when they found nothing they’d disappear back to Chicago, and he’d switched undercovers at the prison many times from guards to inmates trying to get close to Tammy but so far they’d turned up nothing, all saying the same thing, “She’s not talking.”

  Then Reggie called, “Mr. Harrington’s father hired a private investigator,” and that was understandable, his son was missing, a wealthy man isn’t going to let his son disappear and not spend some of his millions to find him. And that made him nervous, he knew the guy, Thomas Gibeau, he was good and he’d made visits to Rhodes, Abrams and to Philadelphia. He knew he’d talked to Lanie and that worried the hell out of him, that sister of hers, her and that boyfriend knew too damn much, his stomach flipped. All Gibeau had to do was get fixated on them, dig deep and he’d stumble across the yacht trip. But somehow Gibeau had gotten tripped up and went searching all over the Midwest, Nebraska and Kansas and now he was up in Canada. He’d been thrown a bone and he hoped it wasn’t Lanie. Jameson knew that wasn’t wise, because once the bone was thrown the dog always came back.

  Although he wished the family lived a little more secretly they were happy and busy living their lives, so he couldn’t fault them, but he wished they’d decided to just lie out on the beach. But the change in Mr. Harrington was well worth this lifestyle. He was the man in the portrait, he had an easy way about him and he smiled all the time and Jameson wanted to keep him that way. He’d only asked one thing, for his safety he’d asked him to go by a different name, and Royce chose Rojas, it sounded as close to Royce as he could get even though it meant “red,” and there was nothing red about him, to Jameson he was clear blue sky eyes, an easy smile and a casual way about him, and Jameson went by Jackson and now they’d been here three years.

  Joy was in the kitchen with Rosa, she was humming a Spanish tune a smile on her lips. They were preparing la comida, this was her favorite part of the day. They were making paella today, a seafood stew, being by the ocean seafood was big in Spain. The paella was simmering and they had moved on to the side dishes, she was preparing grilled esparragos con alioli (asparagus with alioli) and then she would move on to make red and yellow peppers stuffed with goat cheese. A suckling pig was roasting in the oven and Rosa was basting it. They would eat some of it for dinner and then Rosa would pull it apart to make pulled pork and then she’d stuff it in empanadas for tomorrow. Joy hummed and prepared, Rosa closed the oven, “I go get Christopher,” Joy nodded.

  Rosa loved Christopher, she treated him like he was her son, “I’ll take him to school, you go to ranch,” she said all the time, and Christopher loved her too and Joy understood. Christopher was a baby and needed looking after more when they first came and he went to Rosa for everything, for food, for comfort, for everything when she wasn’t around and Rosa loved it. Rosa was the one who gave him goat’s milk when the box of powdered milk she’d brought from the yacht ran out. Rosa would put Christopher on the back of her vesper in his child safety seat, strap his little helmet on and drive him to school. Through the window she saw Rosa ride away on her vesper, Christopher’s little helmet attached to the side.

  She knew in a moment she’d see the school children walking down the street and Royce crossing the street. And sure enough as Rosa sped around the bend she saw a group of children heading home, and behind that group she saw Deon with his friends and Lindsey with hers. They were older now, Deon was a fourteen year old handsome teenager and Lindsey was right behind him at twelve and they were in secondary school. And right behind the older kids were the little ones, she saw Justin in the middle of the pack. He was in primary school, or preescolar, a first grader and even though she wanted to pick him up for lunch he wailed, “No mamita, please no,” and begged her not too.

  Then she saw Rosa with Christopher strapped behind her speeding up the road on her vesper. Joy heard laughter and saw Royce and his ranch hands laughing as they parted ways and she watched as he turned towards home a smile on his face and she smiled too.

  A few moments later she looked up and saw him standing in the doorway a soft sparkle in his blue eyes. She smiled at him, no matter what he wore she loved him, but cowboy attire suited him, she liked his casual ease in his squared toed boots, jeans and shirt untucked, he just looked so at home and comfortable.

  “Hey baby,” Royce said as he came up behind her, “Hey amor,” he put his arms around her and kissed her neck and caressed her stomach. He knew this woman, knew everything about her and he had consciously made an effort to do so, he knew her from head to toe. How her hair felt when it was curly and wet, when it was dry and soft, how her mouth tasted, how many fillings she had, how her armpits smelt, how she liked the back of her neck kissed, he knew her breast, the feel, the weight, he knew how she tasted when her sex was on her, how her ass smelt, yes he’d put his nose back there and taken a whiff, he wanted to know everything of her and he noticed this morning her breast were slightly heavier, and her nipples went soft instead of springing forward and her hips had spread a little, these were sure signs of one thing, and he’d seen these signs before.

  “Umm
m smells good in here,” he nuzzled her a little more. “Gracias baby,” they said in Spanish, neither hardly used English anymore.

  Everyone gathered at the table, Jameson and Valerie had come in through the front door when Royce was nuzzling at her neck. The case had gone cold, cold, cold, Gibeau wasn’t even close he was up in Canada snooping around and had been for at least two years, and once the search had gone cold Valerie was no longer her shadow and Joy could come and go as she pleased.

  Joy hadn’t told Royce what she suspected. She had a doctor’s appointment after la comida and sure enough the doctor confirmed she was two months pregnant and that night, “Hey amor, I need to talk to you,” and he laid down beside her and looked at her smiling, “Okay, what is it babe?” She smiled she was so happy and had held on to the news for just this moment when they were alone, “I’m going to have another baby,” and his smile was bright, “I knew that I was just wondering when you were going to tell me,” and she laughed, “You did not! How did you know?” He shrugged, “I know everything about you baby, I just knew that’s all,” he said smiling and he took her in his arms, “And I hope it’s a little girl just like you,” and he kissed her softly on the lips.

  But Valerie thought she was nuts to have another baby, and Rosa said, “I’m not surprised senora you eat right to make babies, the food you eat just right,” and she looked at her to continue, “Si senora, you like eggplant, avocado, yams and liver, all foods good for the body to make baby,” Rosa said. “Well, I’ll stay away from those”, Valerie laughed and said and Rosa looked away, she didn’t want to say what she was thinking, you carry yourself like a man and you don’t have good birthing hips like the senora, not even the foods would help you. But Joy laughed, “Okay so I made this happen so to speak because I like certain foods?” And Rosa nodded, “Si senora you make way for baby.”

  Royce became a doting husband and she became fearful. There wasn’t a hospital near Isle de St. Mary’s, the nearest was almost two hours away in Santander. They had a clinic here run by the Catholic Church. She didn’t know if they were real nurses, they wore nun’s habits, but at least the doctors were, but no one specialized in obstetrics. These doctors were general practitioners and handled whatever came their way that day. “You must go see the midwife senora, she can help you”, Rosa implored of her, she found out that’s what pregnant women did in Isle de St. Mary’s, they went to midwives.