“I can’t take this much longer,” she said, huffing nervously as she planted her butt on the wooden stool next to him.
“Neither can I,” he responded, his gruff voice edged with dejection - but somehow Jessie missed the sarcasm.
***
That night, the Charleston snake struck out its poisonous fangs and easily coerced Josh into his rented car.
His bait, of course, was Jessie.
Deuce simply picked a time, easily manipulated a few tiny details, and waited for his prey.
Ulysses had been parked in front of Josh’s place all day, much to Josh’s annoyance. Before Josh left to go off to dinner at Kayla’s, he approached Ulysses’ car and told him in no uncertain terms to lay off and leave him alone. Given Jacob’s presence in Jessie’s life, Josh didn’t see the need for round the clock protection, and he was in no mood to be shadowed. Besides, having Ulysses watch over him was nothing more than a constant reminder of a difficult situation, namely Jessie and the soul-searching ice blue eyes that constantly haunted Josh. So Ulysses, grumbling, did the next best thing and stayed parked outside Josh’s house. He couldn't stick around Josh if the actor didn’t want him there, because ultimately the choice whether or not to have a bodyguard around was Josh’s. Would Josh be in danger at Kayla’s place? Maybe. But to Ulysses it made sense to eyeball the actor’s house as well – he could only be in one place at a time, and given Josh’s irascible mood, hunkering down in the UBC neighborhood listening to The Peak and watching for a rented Ford Fusion suited Matt’s guy just fine.
But he didn’t count on Deuce’s tricks. Ulysses got a text from Dan’s phone. Deuce got his filthy paws on the cell by bribing a young male waiter at the Cactus Club where Dan, on his day off, was sucking back tapas and Margaritas with a young green-eyed redhead. The phone was easily pilfered from beside his plate when careless Dan and his lady friend tiptoed unsteadily off to the elegant upstairs restrooms for a little fun. Deuce had paid the redhead in five crisp one hundred dollar bills after she’d serviced him in the Burnaby apartment a few days before. He found her on the Downtown Eastside near Arnie’s place and set up an “accidental” meeting at Dan’s favorite café, Elysian on West Broadway. The whole thing was so damn easy to rig Deuce got to feeling himself downright invincible.
He was laughing with glee when he texted Ulysses:
Emergency Matt wants to see us asap North Van
Deuce knew from eavesdropping on a conversation with Matt’s wife Julie that, on this particular evening at this particular time, Matt was in a meeting with his young daughter’s schoolteacher. The universe was on Deuce’s side but the window would only be open for a very brief time, for Matt would not be leaving his cell on ‘silent’ for more than half an hour at most. Deuce had to act fast.
While Ulysses was hell-bent for La Casa, Deuce punched in a text to Josh:
Hi Josh Dan here break-in at your place can u be here in ten
It was that easy.
When Josh sped home in the pick-up, sorry he’d cursed at Ulysses, and rather certain Dan was only at his house because Ulysses was pissed and had vacated his post, Deuce was waiting in the shadows not even remotely concerned about the cameras he knew were pointed at him. He knew they were on a 24-hour loop, meant mostly to deter, to scare him. By the time Deuce got Josh out of there and someone actually checked the recordings Deuce would have him well hidden.
Josh ground to a halt next to the rental without bothering to take a good look at the car in the blue semi-darkness. He just figured it was Dan’s personal vehicle. He hopped out of the truck as Deuce heaved a sigh of relief. McCall half expected Josh to have the sister with him, or her boyfriend, perhaps. He would need to act fast. With this close-knit clan, usually there was another friend on the prowl nearby – Stephen, or maybe Charlie.
Deuce moved noiselessly out of the shadows, slithering, alighting silently on his prey.
“Finally,” he said, his voice anxious and high-pitched. “We meet. Although I feel like I know you already, Sawyer.”
Josh froze for an instant and then whipped around to face the disembodied voice. Spying McCall, he quickly regained his composure. He could see no weapon in the man’s hands, but there was no question as to who the intruder was.
“What the hell are you doing here, McCall?” Josh asked, his voice steady but his heart quickening. “I’m not with Jessie anymore. I haven’t been for a long time.”
“I beg to differ, Sawyer.”
Confused, Josh tilted his head to the side, wary, as he eyed Jessie’s stalker for any sudden movements. His fists were coiled and his feet solidly planted. He was ready to defend, should the need arise. He swallowed nervously before responding. “Would you care to explain?”
“Well, it’s like this. Jessie has Jacob, yes. And aren’t they cute together with their little guitars and their music and all that staring into each other’s eyes crap. But, well,” he held up his hands, palms out, “their hands are like this.” He clapped them together. “They touch, they rub, and they fuck a lot. But with you and Jessie, your hands are like this,” Deuce intertwined the fingers. “You can’t see where she ends and you begin.”
The shocked look on Josh’s face telegraphed the sudden realization that Deuce had somehow seen his hand cover Jessie’s at the open mic.
In response, inordinately pleased, Deuce grunted contemptuously and added, “Surprised? My eyes are on the prize, Sawyer. I see everything.” He untwisted his hands and wiggled his fingers in front of Josh, taunting him, green eyes wide and bouncing in their inky sockets with glee.
“Now,” he said, as Josh’s mouth settled into a firm line, “I have a girl in my car who wants to see you. She’s been missing you.”
Deuce was so confident Josh would follow that he walked a few paces ahead. He kept an eye over his shoulder though – Josh was fit and although the men were likely equally matched, Deuce didn’t want any surprises. After all, Josh was younger. He could have an edge physically although in Deuce’s arrogance he doubted it.
Apprehensive, Josh approached the car carefully. Shit, if this asshole has Jessie…Michelle didn’t even cross his mind. He had to think quickly – how would he get out of this mess? What if Jessie was hurt, beaten again? His stomach clenched and his eyes blurred as the agony of Deuce’s hold over the woman Josh loved almost crumpled him in half. He wanted to tear the man in two.
Deuce had the advantage. Strong, prepared, he whipped open the passenger door and chloroformed Josh before he even got a chance to peer inside. Initially fighting the hand over his mouth as well as resistant to an accompanying sickly sweet pungent smell, it was a mere few seconds before Josh passed out cold and slumped halfway to the ground, his extremities numb. Caught roughly by Deuce, Josh was shoved ungracefully into the passenger seat of the vehicle. Deuce heaved Josh’s feet in as well before glancing fretfully around outside to ensure no one was watching. He had been smart enough to throw a few rocks and shatter a few light bulbs. So much for the motion sensors. He hadn’t bothered with the cameras.
Deuce was excited about his turn in the spotlight.
It was an hour and a half before Deuce got to his destination. Taking a zig zaggedy route as a precaution, he chloroformed Josh a few times along the way just to make sure he stayed under the influence of the icy cold substance, and the repeated usage resulted in nausea and vomiting. McCall had duct taped Josh’s ankles and wrists for extra security, so he was forced to pull over and wrench out a bag he was using for garbage while Josh got sick. When he later hauled Josh out of the car and dragged him into the abandoned building Deuce had targeted for holding, his captor gave Josh a hard kick in the belly for his trouble, which startled Jessie’s ex-fiancé groggily awake.
McCall bent down over his hostage, the guy Jessie loved unconditionally instead of him. He spat in his face. “Sorry about the mouse turds,” he growled, and then laughed in his gravelly put-on high-pitched clown voice. “Or are they from rats? Can’t say that I know!” He
bent so close that Josh recoiled from the stench of stale wine on his breath. “Y’all have rats heah?”
“Jessie,” Josh managed, struggling to assess the verity of his predicament over the pounding chloroform-induced headache. He tried to look around but rippling waves of light disrupted his vision.
“Oh I expect she’s home fucking Jacob about now. That’s what they usually do around this time every night. Every night, Josh! Imagine! That boy must have some stamina. Although Jessie herself has a pretty strong sex drive, I do admit. Having tasted that myself many times, I mean.”
He relished Josh’s reaction, a mixture of horror and self-loathing, as Josh turned his head into the cold cement floor away from his captor.
“Anyways,” Deuce continued, “I’ll just give her a day to sweat, the way she’s made me suffer this last little while, and then I’ll let the two of you have a brief reunion before I run my new dagger through you as easily as I sliced your tires a few years ago. And through that runaway Sandy kid before that. B’bye for now! Sleep well! Don’t let the mousies shit on you! Oh – I have a present for you, by the way, here…”
Deuce tipped two tiny white pills into Josh’s mouth and, although Josh tried to pull away, the older man was quick. He held Josh’s mouth closed for a good two minutes, forcing him to swallow.
“Thought maybe you missed the old fun.”
And then Deuce slipped away into the black night.
Miserable, Josh lay on the icy floor amidst batches of decomposing droppings and untold dirt and filth and tried to focus his aching mind on where he was, and how to escape, but within a few seconds his throbbing head was whirling and his eyelids begged for closure. An old familiar high snaked its way through his body. It was like the way he felt about Jessie, easing and unnerving him at the same time. The last thing he saw before passing out was peeling Benny, ice cream torch held high in his hand, lit by a full white moon. Once a symbol of innocence and childhood, Benny was now nothing more than a dwindling portent of decline and decay.
***
Chapter Thirty-Two
Deuce was near crazy with anticipation awaiting a media blast announcing Josh’s disappearance, so great did he think his coup was and his fame about to be. But the news reports didn’t come. All day he switched back and forth between radio stations, the internet and every news network he could find on television, and his anger built as the realization sank in that either no one had missed Josh yet (unlikely) or the powers that be were in silence mode (more likely).
Amongst Josh’s friends it was Stephen who first found out but it was Michelle who alerted him. Her moving company arrived at Josh’s place to pick up a few large furniture items remaining at Josh’s place and her ex wasn’t there to let them in, as promised. There were cars in the driveway, including a cop car, but nobody was letting the moving guys into the house. Once the company notified her, Michelle called Steve.
He arrived at eleven to find a stocky disgruntled balding guy and a muscular tattooed forty-something bearded fella in grey coveralls loitering on Josh’s front steps, smoking. Steve’s eyebrows lowered in curiosity when he noted Matt’s Audi and a snazzy shiny new Metro Van cop car in the driveway near the moving company’s cube van. Josh wasn’t answering his texts. Steve had a bad feeling in his gut, and the broken bulbs in the driveway exacerbated it.
Josh’s truck was there. What the hell? Steve’s stomach turned over.
Sprinting past the vehicles without acknowledging the increasingly pissed moving company dudes, he tore up the back patio steps and into the first level of the house where he found Matt tearing a strip off the recently arrived Dan, who took it with the shame he deserved, feet apart, large hands on his hips, head down. A meaty cop silently observed the interaction while spooning one of Josh’s blueberry yogurts into his mouth. Charles Keating was seated on the couch, his head in his hands.
Steve couldn’t speak. He was terrified of what he might hear. Sure, Josh was depressed, his girlfriend just left him and this Deuce McCall thing was freaking everybody out…Jessie was still with Jacob…but no. He would not hurt himself. Steve consoled himself with that thought. Not while he had a shot at winning Jessie back. He would not.
Defiantly, bravely, Steve raised his head. “What?” he demanded.
Matt left Dan to ponder his will to live after his disgraceful part in the prior evening’s twisted events and stormed over to Steve. He spoke first. “The security cameras,” he said, nodding to the silver MacBook lying stalwartly on the coffee table in front of Charles. Steve could see a video file there, on pause. He leaned forward. Josh. His friend was barely visible in the semi-darkness, talking to a well-dressed man who could only be McCall. Heartsick, Charles poked the play button and Steve watched as Josh followed McCall out of the frame.
“Jesus,” Steve groaned as he dropped down next to Charles, who looked like he could use a shave and a strong Scotch. “You guys like your fucking secrets, don’t you?” He bent over double and squeezed his temples with both hands. “I take it Jessie doesn’t know.”
He looked up, suddenly, the blood rushing from his face. “You haven’t found him, have you?”
Matt understood his meaning immediately. “No,” he said brusquely, “on both counts, although Susanne is with Jessie at the Robson studio right now. If Jessie gets a call, any call, we’ll be on it. There’s no point in worrying her, Steve.”
The couch sagged a little as Charles leaned forward and manipulated his tired feet into holding him up.
“Matt,” he said, “ We have to tell her. She told us Deuce has stopped calling her. She’s jumpy as hell. We already made the assumption he might use Josh as bait. Unless we are right there with her, when she gets a call she’ll be out the door in a flash. We need to prepare her.”
“Look,” Matt interjected, “give her the day. Susanne is with her, she’s safe. Tonight the guys will be watching her building. Although if I didn’t need him, Dan would be fucking fired.” He ran a hand through his usually perfect hair, leaving the little gelled spikes pointing to and fro like a whipped meringue. “We can assume Josh is okay for the time being. If he…” he glanced at Steve, “if McCall kills him, he knows Jessie won’t respond. He has to keep Josh alive. In the meantime, we’ve finally got our match from the DNA samples, our i’s are dotted and our t’s crossed with Interpol and with Charleston. We’ve got this asshole by the balls. Let him come to us. I guarantee it’s gonna go down soon. That southern prick is antsy as hell. Let’s not worry Jessie until we have to. She’s been through enough.”
Defeated, exhausted by this new insufferable fear and worry, Steve stood and faced Matt. “She’s going to hang you by the balls for this.”
“There’s nothing Jessie can do, Steve, except worry herself sick. Matt’s right.” Charles was ashen, but still thinking straight even after the long night at Josh’s place after Ulysses had unexpectedly screeched into the driveway at La Casa last evening. “We’ve got the local cops on it, they’re doing what they can. All we can do is wait. And keep a close eye on Jessie in the meantime.”
And so began the longest day of the year for Steve, Matt and Charles.
Michelle eventually got her belongings.
Jessie was not told Josh was in Deuce’s hands, and she did not get the call from Deuce himself until ten o’clock that night.
***
When the sinister call finally came in, Jessie was sitting up in bed reading with her back against the headboard, Jacob on his belly dozing beside her, his head reclining on crossed arms while a tiny sliver of drool leaked from the corner of his lips. Although Jessie and Dee had not formally made up, and the tension between them was a thick soupy fog, Jessie had accepted some scripts from her manager and was halfheartedly going over them that night. She was trying to flip the pages quietly so as not to disturb Jacob, but the shrill cell phone jarred him awake in a second flat.
Grabbing it, Jessie felt an ever-present fear in the pit of her stomach collide with an earlier light
dinner of spinach salad. This was the phone that these days only Deuce called on. Matt had dropped by earlier and too calmly, in her opinion, instructed her to take “the bastard’s” next call. The forensics were in and the paperwork was done. They could now nab her stalker.
She slid her finger over the answer button and swallowed past the hard stone in her throat.
“Yeah.”
“Jessie! My girl, you’re finally taking my calls, are you?” His repulsive sneer sickened Jessie.
She inhaled sharply. “Okay. Name the time and place.”
“Oh! Well, if I had known it would be that easy, then I wouldn’t have needed to enlist a little help…”
Now the creep sounded like he was pouting. Why? Jessie creased her brow, Jacob by her side up on an elbow now, tense, swiping at the spittle on his chin.
“It’s just that…you weren’t taking my calls, so last night I found a friend of yours and thought to myself oh well, now she’ll come.”
Jessie paused. As she absorbed the chilling statement a cold sweat soaked her.
“Last night? Deuce?” she whispered.
Then her blood pressure crashed through the ceiling. Jessie vaulted off the bed and with one arm wrenched a hoodie over her tank top. The cotton pajama bottoms would have to do. She yanked her feet into the faded brown boots so fast the hem of one leg of the pjs got stuck in the top of the boot; the other fell overtop and dragged on the ground. Fire in her eyes, she glanced in terror back at Jacob, who was already following suit, tugging on jeans and a black T-shirt.
“Heah. Listen for yourself, Princess!”
The voice on the line was groggy but unmistakable.
“Jessie. Please don’t come – please. I’m not worth it. Don’t do this…”
Josh.
Josh had one thing to add before Deuce ripped the phone away from him. “I’m nothing, Jessie. Nothing.” It was a low moan, a whisper, barely discernible, but Jessie heard him loud and clear.
No Greater Love Page 38