by David McLeod
The waitress came to the table carrying Vince’s food, and asked if he wanted a drink.
‘A beer — and make it a large one.’
‘We’ve got Bud on draught,’ she offered.
‘That’ll be great.’
‘I’ll grab one of those too,’ Scott added.
They both sighed and went silent until the waitress returned with their drinks.
‘What the hell have we gotten into?’ Scott asked.
‘I don’t know, but this guy has really pissed me off,’ Vince replied though a mouthful of burger.
‘For a murderer, he’s obviously very well-connected — credit card and bank account access. At least after hitting the cop car he’s gonna be banged up for a while. That gives us a chance to catch our breath.’
‘Let’s go down to the station and find out who he is,’ Vince suggested.
‘The hell with that. I say we go to our safety deposit box, grab what cash we’ve got left, and go and hide for a while.’
Vince started to nod. ‘I agree with part of that plan. We’ll get the cash, but I’m not letting this guy get away with this. I’m gonna leave a message on his phone for when he gets out of jail — telling him he owes us and owes us big time.’
Scott had seen that look on Vince’s face before, a look that meant he was going to see this through to the bitter end — and Scott had a funny feeling that it was going to end — bitterly.
Elwood was drinking a Perrier at the bar in his new hotel. Putting the earlier faux pas with the open door down to lack of sleep, he’d relocated to a four-star hotel, a major upgrade from the noisy cesspit he’d been staying in. He was properly rested and relaxing at the bar when the phone call came in. He moved to the far side, a deserted area of the room, took a seat and flicked open his phone.
‘What the…Where’s our fucking money?’ It was Vince on the other end; he sounded surprised that Elwood had answered the call.
‘Ahh, do you need a loan?’ Elwood said smugly.
‘I told you last time that if you fucked with us again the price would go up, so I’m calling to tell you that you’re gonna have to cough up five million. And we want it now, or we’ll go to the press.’ Vince was of course bluffing; he had no idea who would be interested in the contents of the photos, but he assumed that it wouldn’t be the police.
‘Wow, you guys really are serious players, five million dollars — that’s a lot of cash.’ Elwood’s tone was sarcastic, but Vince didn’t pick up on it.
‘You’d better believe it!’
‘I can tell that you’re not in a negotiating mood. But to come up with that much money is gonna take me till the end of the day.’ Elwood was feigning submissiveness.
‘Yeah, okay. Meet me at Elysian Park near Dodgers Stadium at four o’clock. You’d better be on time, and you’d better be alone,’ Vince said in as menacing a tone as he could muster; then he hung up.
Elwood smiled and downed the rest of his water; he had a few errands to run.
After the phone call to Elwood, the two men and Joshua jumped into the stolen Honda and headed to their bank in the city; they picked up the last of their cash from the safety deposit box, and travelled east to find a motel.
The Comfort Stop motel had a three-star look about it, but due to its location displayed two-star pricing, perfect now that Scott and Vince were on a seriously tight budget. They even chose the one-bed option figuring it would be best for them to sleep in shifts. After checking in, Vince left Scott and Joshua to fend for themselves while he went off to buy some health insurance. It didn’t take him long to find an enterprising youth happy to sell him a snub-nosed thirty-two pistol for a shade under two hundred dollars. Then it was off to Circuit City for some extra cover. By the time he got back to the motel, it was time to head off to meet Elwood.
‘You’re cutting it a bit fine,’ Scott said.
‘Yeah, getting this stuff took longer than I thought,’ Vince replied as he handed over what he’d picked up.’
‘I should come with you keep watch from a distance,’ Scott said.
‘I’ll be fine, he’s not going to try anything in a place as public as that. Plus, you need to babysit.’ Vince motioned towards Joshua.
‘Pretty soon we’re gonna be rich men; start thinking about where we should go for an extended vacation,’ Vince joked.
Vince went over the plan one last time, and then left the motel.
He got to the park twenty minutes early; his basic army training had taught him to scope the terrain and be prepared. He knew Elwood was a dangerous and resourceful man, so he’d have to be extra vigilant. He rounded the park checking for anyone who looked suspicious, and scanned the bushes and trees in search of any face that didn’t fit but nothing seemed out of place. A cast made up of joggers, dog walkers, lovers, and the odd vagrant was all that was on offer, so Vince relaxed a little.
As he walked towards the meeting point by the BBQ area, he scanned the roads running alongside the park in search of the black SUV — even though he’d seen its demise. The city traffic ignorantly flowed by, and only an ambulance and an empty convertible were parked on the roadside. Once again, nothing caused him any alarm. He arrived, as arranged, at four o’clock on the dot.
No one was there to meet him. Vince looked left and right and swore under his breath; he was going to give Elwood a hard time for being tardy. He checked his watch every twenty or so seconds and kicked and shuffled his feet as he waited. The big hand rolled over five past the hour and Vince started to get agitated. A hint of fear had crept back into his belly although at the moment the only person anywhere near him was a tramp.
As the tramp drew near, Vince turned his back to avoid being asked for spare change; he smiled to himself as he thought the tramp was probably better off than he At the moment
‘This is for you,’ the tramp slurred; his verbal approach made Vince jump.
‘What?’ Vince snapped.
‘Guy told me to give you this,’ he said, holding out a small package.
Vince took it from him and the tramp moved on muttering to himself.
‘Who gave this to you?’ Vince called after him, but the tramp just carried on walking.
The brown paper package was just under half the size of a shoebox and felt empty. Vince shook it a few times trying to get a feel for its contents, but it didn’t make a sound. Obviously, the package had been sent to him by Harrison’s killer, but just in case, he looked up and down the pathway and there was still no sign of him.
‘Fucking game player,’ Vince said, and in frustration he ripped open the package.
The white powder contained in the package burst out and covered Vince’s face. He sneezed once and then convulsed; froth filled his mouth, and he dropped to the ground unconscious. Within seconds, Elwood arrived on the scene dressed in a paramedic uniform and pushing a wheelchair. He loaded Vince into the seat and returned with him to the back of the parked ambulance.
Scott paced the room; ‘Vince should have been back by now’ was all he could think about. He switched the phone on again to check to see if he’d called; he waited for the phone to connect to the nearest antennae and find the network; seconds ticked by until finally the phone beeped.
He scrolled down through the menu and to his concern and then disappointment, saw that it only had several missed calls from Harrison’s phone.
‘Shit, why didn’t he buy another phone?’ he said and switched the phone off again.
Fidgeting again, Scott needed something to take his mind off the situation.
‘Come on Joshua; let’s go get something to eat.’
Elwood was enjoying his new supply of experimental drugs; the one used on Vince was an adaptation of concentrated chloroform, meant to be a replacement for pepper spray as it not only incapacitated the victims, it rendered them completely unconscious; unfortunately, it had a fit-inducing side effect that needed to be solved. After today’s results though, Elwood thought it should be kept as is.
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br /> The medical facilities morgue was the perfect place for what he had in mind for the evening, and after a generous donation to their social fund from Paxton, they were more than happy to give him free rein of the place — even throwing in the old ambulance for him to use. He wheeled Vince up to the necropsy table and heaved him onto the slab. A creative use of cable ties bound Vince’s wrists and ankles to the table, and as Elwood started to cut the clothes from his body, Vince slowly began to come to.
‘Good evening,’ Elwood said as he tugged the last bit of clothing away from Vince’s now naked body.
‘What the fuck… Argh!’ Vince yelled as the cable ties dug into his flesh when he tried to pull away.
‘My suggestion is that you don’t do that too often; cable ties have a ratchet system that click tighter every time you tug. Now, am I in the presence of Scott or Vince?’
‘Fucking untie me, you wanker, and I’ll show you who I am,’ Vince spat.
Elwood rifled through the clothes until he found a wallet.
‘Vince it is then. And what do we have here?’ He pulled out the snub-nosed pistol. ‘Were you planning to shoot me with this little thing?’
Vince clammed up.
‘We’ll get back to that a bit later. Now, did you bring the flash drive with you?’
Vince stayed quiet.
‘You know, it’s very rude to ignore someone who’s talking to you. I can see that you’re either a shy or non-communicative guy, Vince, and here’s me thinking that we could be friends.’
He continued to go through Vince’s clothes as he spoke. ‘I mean you and your partner have indirectly done quite a lot for me over the past few years, and I must say that your work has been excellent. No questions asked about who the buildings belonged to or why you were doing them — you just took the money, and did the job. We’re not too different, you and I; we’re both links in a big, in fact huge, corporate chain. Ahhh, here it is.’ He had found the device hidden in the lining of Vince’s jacket.
Vince’s head sank as Elwood admired the stick for a moment before inserting it into his computer. The machine clicked and whirred, and then the photo of Anthony Cain on top of the Sears tower filled the screen. Elwood flicked through the images until he came to the one with the two suits in the background. He studied it for a few seconds before laughing out loud. ‘Oh, poor little Vince, you still have no idea what you’ve got here do you?’
Perplexed, Vince’s eyebrow raised.
Elwood laughed again and turned back to the computer. He attached the image’s file to a bcc’d e-mail message and hit send; then he returned his attention to Vince.
Back from the diner, the display on the motel’s cheap alarm clock provokingly flashed 9:40, and Scott was beside himself. Throughout dinner, all he could think about was what had happened to Vince. Did Elwood kill him? Did the cops get him? Did he take the money and run? Plus a myriad of other options. Every fifteen minutes or so, he’d switch on the mobile and check for messages, but each time, the phone remained silent.
He put Joshua to bed and turned the TV volume down low; he needed to think, but he also needed the distraction of the images that flashed on the screen. With Vince gone AWOL, he was left carrying the can. Kidnapping, murder, arson, grand theft auto, the list of what he’d done and not done could run a mile long. He had no money and no passport. He couldn’t go anywhere near his family in case the killer was after him. He was fucked!
He went to the bathroom to empty his bladder; he didn’t really need to go, it just passed a few more seconds. Back in the room, he tried the phone again – nothing. Think, think.
‘The PI,’ he said to himself.
I’ll call the PI, and get him to take Joshua back; maybe I can get the kidnapping charge dropped. It’s a start at least.
‘You know you’re not going to walk away from all of this don’t you?’ Elwood said to Vince as he donned an apron and put on some surgical gloves.
‘You’ve got what you’re after; just let me go… and give us our money back.’ Vince sounded deflated, the return of their money being an afterthought.
‘I’m going to ask you some questions, and how painful your last moments on this planet are going to be depends on the truth of your answers.’
Vince tugged on his restraints and they ratcheted up a notch cutting deeper into his flesh.
‘Fuck you! You ain’t gonna get shit from me.’
Elwood wheeled over the surgical instrument trolley and selected an electric autopsy saw. At the flick of a switch, the tool burst into life; the aggressive noise from the motor and the small round blade echoed around the empty room startling both of them.
‘Wow, noisy little thing isn’t it?’ He smiled as he moved closer to Vince revving the tool in short bursts.
‘Now, who else knows about Anthony Cain and the pictures?’
Vince tried to wriggle away from the saw.
‘Get that thing away from me!’ Vince yelled.
‘Arrrrrgh.’ He screamed as Elwood ran the small blade over his exposed glute, slicing off a big chunk of flesh.
‘Since you’ve been a pain in my ass, thought I’d return the favor,’ he joked. Blood poured from the open wound and Elwood swatted the slice of cheek down to the end of the stainless steel table.
‘Stop, Stop. My fucking ass!’ Vince was twisting and turning on the table, the plastic ties cutting into his skin.
‘Now, I’ll ask you again, who else knows about Cain?’ Again he revved the saw.
‘No one else. Just Scott and the boy, that’s all.’ Vince was starting to cry.
‘The boy? Don’t you mean the dwarf?’ Elwood was thrown by the word boy.
‘What dwarf, there’s just me, Scott, and the boy.’
‘You took a boy on the office job with you? I thought you hired a dwarf.’ Elwood was a little confused.
‘So you don’t know everything. Arrrrrgh’
Elwood ran the blade over Vince’s upper arm, cutting through the bicep to the bone and round to the tricep as he tried to struggle away. The flesh sagged uncovering a mess of blood, muscle, and sinew.
‘Don’t lie to me! Who else?
‘It’s the fucking truth — I swear. Pleeeease stop. I’ll do whatever you want,’ Vince begged.
Elwood’s phone rang interrupting his interrogation; normally he would have ignored it, but the ringtone was the one set exclusively for his boss, Gerard Paxton.
He pulled off the gloves and flicked open the phone. ‘Hello.’
‘HELP ME, HELLLLLP.’ Vince screamed behind him.
‘Hold on just a minute,’ Elwood told his boss as he walked over and shoved one of his rubber gloves into Vince’s mouth gagging him quiet. Then he moved away to concentrate on the call.
‘We have a problem,’ Gerard said, knowing better than to ask what was going on and who was shouting for help.
‘What’s up?’
‘I’ve opened up the images file you sent me and it’s not good news for us, there’s some pretty damaging stuff on it. Make sure the trail ends here and ends NOW. We don’t need any of this stuff out there.’
‘Got it.’ Elwood shut off the phone and donned a fresh pair of gloves.
Vince’s eyes were wide open with fear as Elwood walked back over to him and pulled the glove from his mouth.
‘Time for you to tell me everything you know,’ he said as he picked up the saw.
Chapter 47
With Joshua asleep in the room, Scott wrote him a quick note then grabbed a cab to meet Malone. During their phone conversation an hour earlier, Scott arranged to meet Malone at the Greyhound station on East 7th street. He knew it was a risk, but his urge to run was out-weighing his stay-and-see-it-through nature. To Scott’s mind, Vince was either dead or gone, and neither prospect was a win for him. He wanted to tell the PI, Malone, the way things had turned out; he wanted him to tell Erin that they’d never meant any of this to happen, that it was all a huge misunderstanding. Maybe he could get some cash from Malo
ne and then just disappear.
Scott got out of the cab and walked into the bus terminal. Rows of uncomfortable steel chairs filled the room, a handful of vending machines lined the back wall, and the room smelled bad. Malone was already there waiting. Despite the fact they hadn’t exchanged appearance details, he wasn’t difficult to spot. It was just after midnight, and aside from the odd drunken vagrant, Malone was the only normal looking person there — and the only one sitting upright.
Scott took one last cursory glance around the room — although if Malone had called the cops it would have been far too late to bolt — and went and sat beside him. Not only had Malone kept his promise about not calling the cops, but he’d also chosen not to call and wake up Erin, opting to find out what Scott’s story was first.
‘I take it you’re Malone,’ Scott said and held out his hand.
Malone refused to shake it.
‘Where’s Joshua?’
‘He’s safe for now, but if I don’t return, he won’t be,’ Scott lied.
‘Then we’ve got nothing else to talk about. I told you on the phone to bring back Joshua, and then we’d talk about where to go from there. No Joshua, no talking, just a lot of jail time.’
Malone grabbed hold of Scott tightly with one hand in case he bolted, and then pulled out Harrison’s cell phone. Scott didn’t attempt to move; he simply sighed and dropped his head.
‘Maybe you’re right; maybe jail is the best and safest place for me now.’
Slightly stunned at Scott’s response, Malone thought for a moment, and then put the phone away.
‘What’s this all about? Arson, abduction, and murder? You must know that Erin Costello isn’t a wealthy person, so there’s no chance of any ransom.’
‘Well she’s got enough cash to hire a PI, and I’m sure you’re not cheap,’ Scott snapped. He was getting desperate.
‘You think I’m a PI?’ Malone was mildly amused. ‘I’m just a friend helping out a poor single lady who’s lost the one thing in this world that means anything to her life. Something you’ve taken from her.’