3 Great Thrillers

by Churton, Alex; Churton, Toby; Locke, John; Lustbader, Eric van; van Lustbader, Eric

  “Huh,” Gus grunts. “You already been through that bloodbath.”

  The Lincoln Continental is singed with invisible fire as Gus drives them away from the bakery. Gus, brooding, is like a porcupine with his quills bristling.

  “That muthafucka,” he mouths, his eyes straight ahead. And Jack doesn’t know whether he means Andre or Cyril.

  “You know that bakery isn’t a bakery,” Jack says. “First off, there were no customers, just some men standing around.” He’s afraid of what he’s said, afraid that Gus’s seething will find its outlet in him. But he can’t help himself; it’s part of what’s wrong with him. His brain is exploding with everything he saw, heard, intuited, extrapolated upon.

  “Course it ain’t only a bakery. Fuckin’ Cyril runs drugs ’n’ numbers outta there.”

  Times like now, when he can focus on what his own brain has recorded, when it shows him the big picture, when he can “read” the signs and from them build a three-dimensional model in his mind, he has a clarity of thought he finds exhilarating. “I mean they’re making something more than bread there.”

  Brakes shriek as all at once his words sink in. Gus pulls the Continental over to the curb. The engine chortles beneath them like a beast coming out of a coma. Gus throws the car into park. His seat groans a protest as he twists around to stare at Jack.

  “Kid, what the hell you talkin’?”

  For once Jack isn’t intimidated. He’s in his own world now, secure in what he has seen, what he knows, what he will say.

  “There was the smell.”

  “Yeast and butter and sugar, yah.”

  “Underneath all those things there was another smell: sharp and blue.”

  “Blue?” Gus goggles at him. “How the fuck can a smell be blue?”

  “It just is,” Jack said. “It’s blue, like the smell when my mother takes off her nail polish.”

  “Acetone? Nail polish remover is all acetone. I use it to take glue spots offa stuff people bring in to my pawnshop.” Gus’s expression is thoughtful now. “What else, kid?”

  “Well, that cookie the guy gave me was days old. It should’ve been fresh. Plus which, whatever he had on his hands wasn’t flour or yeast, because his fingertips were stained orange by what he had on them.”

  Gus appears to think about this revelation for some time. At last he says, as if in a slight daze, “Go on. Anything else?”

  Jack nods. “The room with the ovens should’ve been hot.”

  “Course it wasn’t hot,” Gus says. “It’s hugely air-conditioned.”

  “Still,” Jack persists, “no heat came from inside when they opened the oven doors. The loaves were too thin to be bread. That wasn’t dough they were putting in, it was something that needed drying.”

  “How the hell—?”

  “Also, that guy Cyril is scared of you.”

  “Huh, you betta believe he is.”

  “No,” Jack says, “I mean he’s scared enough to do something about it.”

  Gus frowns. “You mean he actually wants to move against me?” He shook his head. “No way you could know that, kid.”

  “But I do.”

  “Cyril an’ I have a treaty—an understanding. Between us now it’s live an’ let live.”

  “No, it’s not.”

  Something in Jack’s voice—some surety—gives Gus pause. “What are you, kid, a oracle?”

  “What’s an oracle?” Jack says.

  Gus stares out the side window. “You like fried pork chops an’ grits?”

  “I never had grits.”

  “Shit, that figures.” Gus makes a disgusted face. “White folk.”

  He puts the car in gear.

  13

  Alli Carson saw the handsome man smile, remove himself from the doorway, pull a folding chair from the shadows. He straddled it, arms folded across the metal-tube back. He radiated a kind of magnetism, strong as her father’s, but entirely different: steely, opaque. All she saw when she looked into his face was her own reflection.

  “They tied you up, poor girl,” he said gently. “I asked them not to do that, but do they listen to me?”

  “Who—?” Alli’s tongue felt thick and gluey. “I’m so thirsty,” she managed to choke out.

  The man stepped into the shadows, returned with a glass of water. Alli stared at it, desire flooding her, but fear, too, because there was an unknown world all around her. What horrors lurked there, waiting?

  Leaning over her, he tipped the glass against her lower lip. “Slowly,” he said as she gulped. “Sip slowly.”

  Despite her aching thirst, Alli obeyed him. When at last the glass was drained, she ran her tongue around the inside of her mouth. “I don’t understand,” she said. “Who are ‘they,’ who are you? Why have you brought me here, what do you want?”

  He had soft eyes and such a large masculine presence, it seemed to fill the entire lit space.

  “Be patient,” he said. “In time, all your questions will be answered.”

  She wanted to believe him. That way lay hope. Hope that she’d soon be freed. “Then can’t you at least untie me?”

  He shook his head sadly. “That would be most unwise.”

  “Please. I won’t run away, I swear.”

  “I’d like to believe you, Alli, really I would.”

  She began to cry. “Why won’t you?”

  “The others might come in at any time, you see, and then who would be punished? Me. You wouldn’t want that, would you?”

  She felt desperation fluttering in her breast like a caged bird. “For God’s sake, before they come!”

  “Are you kidding me?” He said in a voice that lashed her like a whip, “You can’t be trusted. You’re a liar—and a cheat.”

  Alli, confused as well as disoriented, said, “I—I don’t understand. What are you talking about?”

  He produced a thick manila folder, which he opened on his lap. With a shiver, she saw a snapshot of herself stapled to the top sheet of paper. Wasn’t this a scene from a film she had seen? And then with an internal shriek she realized that her mind and body had parted company, that she was looking at herself from a distance, or another dimension, where she was safe, would always be safe because nothing could touch her.

  She heard someone with her voice say, “What are you holding?”

  “Your life.” He looked up. “You see, Alli, I know everything about you.”

  The schism inside her deepened—or widened, whichever. “You don’t … You couldn’t.”

  His eyes flicked down, skimming information with which she could see he was clearly familiar. “You were born Allison Amanda Carson—Amanda was your maternal grandmother’s name—on January twenty-third, daughter of Edward Harrison Carson and Lyn Margaret Carson, née Hayes, married thirty-seven years this past September fourteenth. You were born in Georgetown University Hospital, your blood type is O-negative. You attended Birney Elementary, Lincoln Middle, and—let’s see—Banneker High School. At age five you fractured the ulna in your right forearm. At age eight you twisted your left ankle so severely, you were required to wear a cast for seventeen days. Neither injury had a lasting effect.

  “In ninth grade you were diagnosed with Graves’ disease by your pediatrician—what’s his name?” He turned a page. “Ah yes, Dr. Hallow. He recommended you for treatment at Children’s Hospital, where you stayed for six days while tests were being performed, medication prescribed and evaluated in your system.”

  He looked up into Alli’s stricken face. “Have I left anything out? I thought not.” Returning to the file, he struck himself lightly on the forehead and a smile spread over his face like taffy melting on a July afternoon. “But of course I have! I’ve failed to mention Barkley. Philip Barkley. But you called him—what? Help me out here, Alli. No? All right, all on my own then. You called him Bark, isn’t that right? Bark was your first love, but you never told your parents the truth about you and Bark, did you?”

  “There was a reason.”r />
  “Of course. There’s always a reason,” Kray said. “Human beings are so good at rationalization. Did you or did you not tell your parents the truth about Philip Barkley? A simple yes or no will do.”

  Alli gave a little moan, appearing to sink as much as she was able into the chair.

  “You see the futility of your current predicament?”

  It was a measure of her mental paralysis that it wasn’t until this moment that the thought occurred to her. “How could you possibly know about Bark? I never told anyone about—”

  “That night on the raft?”

  She gasped. “It’s impossible! You couldn’t know!”

  “And yet I do. How to reconcile this seeming impossibility?” He cocked his head. “Would it help if I tell you that my name is Ronnie Kray?”

  Some inarticulate sound got caught in the back of Alli’s throat, and she almost gagged.

  I’m a prisoner, Lyn Carson thought for the first time in her life. She, her support staff, and her bodyguards were in a motorcade, on their way from a luncheon, where she’d spoken to the Washington Ladies’ something-or-other, to a fund-raiser where she was standing in for her husband, who was God knew where, doing God knew what. This morning, she had been on Good Morning, America. She barely remembered what she’d said.

  Normally, she loved these functions; they allowed her to feel senatorial—and now presidential—all on her own without feeling like Edward’s elbow. But these days, she was so preoccupied with thoughts of Alli that the luncheons, fund-raisers, photo ops … these days what an effort it was to keep her smile intact, the tasks that usually filled her with joy dragged by like a ragged filmstrip. What a useless process life is, she thought as the armored limo sped her crosstown, traffic peeling away, pedestrians peering briefly, wondering which member of the government was passing by. Without Alli, my life is without purpose.

  In desperation, she pulled out her cell phone, dialed an overseas number. Checking her watch, she calculated it would be just after dinnertime in Umbria. Blue shadows would have already fallen over the olive groves, the ancient stone house would be lit by warm light and the smells of tomato sauce and roasted meat would have permeated the thick-walled rooms. Perhaps music would be playing softly.

  “Hi, Mom,” she said when the familiar voice answered. “Yes, I’m fine, everything’s fine. Of course, Alli misses you, too.”

  She listened for some time to the melodious drone. Not that she was uninterested in what was fresh in the market that day or the old man who pressed their olives into fragrant green oil, the one who was teaching her to speak like an Umbrian. It was simply that her parents’ world seemed so far away, so carefree it was almost criminal. She felt suddenly older than her own mother, who continued rabbiting on about this year’s oil, the cinghiale they’d eaten for dinner, the series of paintings her father was completing.

  Suddenly, she realized that this was no respite. As long as Alli was missing, there was no respite for her. She could run herself ragged with daily tasks, mindless work, but it wouldn’t change reality one iota. The nightmare descended on her once again, roosting on her shoulder like a vulture.

  “I’ve got to go now, Mom.” She almost choked on her emotions, had to bite back the words that threatened to keep tumbling out: Mom, Alli’s been abducted. We don’t know whether she’s alive or dead. “Our love to you and to Dad.”

  She snapped the phone shut, bit down on it until the metal showed the marks of her small white teeth.

  “On that note, maybe we should talk about Emma, your best friend,” Ronnie Kray said. “Our mutual acquaintance.” He slipped a photo out of the file, held it up for Alli to see. It was a snapshot, slightly grainy, of two girls walking across the Langley Fields campus. “Recognize the two of you? You and Emma McClure.”

  Alli, staring at the photograph, remembered the moment: It was October 1, just after noon. She remembered what they were talking about. How could she forget! Seeing that intimate moment preserved, knowing that she and Emma had been spied upon gave her the willies. Then it hit her like a ton of bricks: The surveillance had been going on a long, long time. Someone—maybe the man facing her—had wormed himself into her bed, under her skin, wrapped himself around her bones, lying out of sight while she, unknowing, went about her life. She had to fight the queasy churning of her stomach. Having read both 1984 and Brave New World, having her own life so tightly controlled, she was under the impression that she knew the meaning of intrusion. But this invasion was monstrous, Big Brother on steroids.

  “I told Emma about Bark.” Her mind was racing so fast, she grew dizzy, even more disoriented. “Emma told you?”

  “Did she? What do you think?”

  “What do I think?” she echoed stupidly. She felt as if she were in an elevator whose cable had been cut, was now in free fall. “I knew her. She couldn’t, she wouldn’t.”

  He cocked his head. “May I ask what might seem an impertinent question? What in the world were you doing slumming? Emma McClure wasn’t from your socioeconomic class. She was rough-and-tumble, from the wrong side of the tracks, as we said back in the day. Not your kind at all.”

  Alli’s eyes blazed. “That just shows how much you don’t know!”

  His face hardened like a fist. “I thought we were friends. I was even thinking of untying you, despite the danger it would put me in. But now …”

  “Please untie me. I’m sorry I talked to you that way.” Her cresting fear made her voice quaver like a glass about to shatter. “I’ll never do it again, if only you’ll untie me.”

  He shook his head.

  The pain congealed with outrage into an intolerable barb inside her. “You can’t treat me like this! My father will move heaven and earth to find me!”

  Abruptly, Kray took out surgical pliers. Alli thought she was going to pass out. What was he planning to do to her? She’d seen plenty of films filled with scenes of torture. She tried to remember what happened in those scenes, but her mind was blind with panic. Her terror mounted to unbearable heights.

  She watched him stand up. She was shaking now, couldn’t take her eyes off the pliers, which, glowing, swung in a short arc, back and forth. Then, without any warning, Kray disappeared into the blackness.

  Alli couldn’t believe it, but she actually began to weep. She tried to stop, but her body wouldn’t obey. Some animal part of her nervous system had been activated. What she was feeling she could neither believe nor abide: She wanted him back. The feeling was so powerful, it was as physical as the pliers.

  He was her only connection to the outside world, to life. “Don’t leave me alone!” she wailed. “I don’t care what you do to me, I’ll never tell you about Emma,” she said through her tears.

  “Quite the little loyalist, aren’t you?” His voice came from the darkness. “No matter. As it happens, I already know all I need to know about Emma McClure.”

  She felt a wave of nausea as her terror ratcheted up.

  “No, no! Please!”

  She wanted to shrink into the chair, to disappear like him, but she remained in the cone of light. She hung her head, the blood pounding in her temples.

  “What is it?” Kray said, his voice suddenly soft. “I’m a reasonable man. Tell me.”

  She shook her head. Her fear clouded her eyes.

  Kray stepped into the light. “Alli, please speak to me.” His features took on a rueful cast. “It’s not my fault. You forced me to frighten you. I didn’t want to, believe me.”

  For a moment, utter stillness held her in its grip; then she began to weep, her breath fluttering like a spent leaf. “I need … I need to go to the bathroom.”

  Kray expelled a tender laugh. “Why didn’t you say so?”

  He unstrapped her from the chair, and she whimpered.

  “There,” he said.

  She stared at him, wide-eyed, so stunned, her brain refused to function.

  He brought over a bedpan.

  “This can’t be happening,” she
said more to herself than to him. “I won’t.” She was sobbing and begging all at once. “I can’t.”

  He stood in front of her, arms crossed like a corrections officer, detached, observant, his smoke-colored eyes on hers.

  “Please!” she begged. “Don’t look. Please, please, please turn away. I’ll be good, I promise.”

  Slowly, he turned his back on her.

  Stillness overcame her then, as her mind tried to accommodate. But it was so hard. Each time she thought she had a handle on her new reality, it turned upside down: good was evil, kindness was pain, black was white. She felt dizzy, alone, isolated. Terror crept into her bones, freezing the marrow. But, oh, her bladder would burst unless she peed, peed right now! But she couldn’t.

  “Emma didn’t tell you a thing.” She was trembling, the muscles in her thighs jumping wildly. “How do you know about me and Bark?”

  “I’ll tell you, Alli, because I like you. I want you to trust me. I know because there was a microphone in your dorm room. When you confessed to Emma, you were also confessing to me.”

  Alli closed her eyes. At last, head bowed, shivering, she let go, the sound like rain spattering a tin roof.

  14

  The POTUS and Secretary Paull sat together in the backseat of the president’s heavily armored limo on the way from the White House to where Air Force One was waiting to take the president and his small party to Moscow to meet with the Russian president, Yukin. In the briefcase that straddled the president’s knees was the Black File Paull had provided, proof that Yukin’s handpicked head of the state-owned RussOil was his still-active ex-KGB assassin.

  The president could have taken Marine One, his helicopter, to the airfield but with its privacy shield between the passenger compartment and the driver, the limo provided absolute privacy, something with which the president, in the waning weeks of his Administration, had become obsessed.

  “This abduction business,” the president said, “how is it progressing?”

  “We’re following every lead,” Paull said noncommittally.

  “Ach, Dennis, let’s call a spade a spade, shall we?” The president stared out the bulletproof smoked-glass window. “We’ve been blessed with a bit of great good luck. This business, unfortunate as it may be for the Carsons—and God knows every day I pray for that young woman’s safe release—has provided us with the excuse we need to excise the missionary secularists—all of them.” He turned back, his eyes burning with the fire of the devout. “What I want to know is why hasn’t that already happened?”