“Oh!” she cried, wrapping her arms and blanket around him. “Your nose is like the iceberg that sank the Titanic!”

              “Warm me,” Alec breathed and slid his arms beneath her. “You’re so soft,” he whispered.

              “And you’re very cold!” she admonished. “You’re going to catch pneumonia if you stay out much longer. Come back inside and I’ll draw you a hot bath.”

              “Let me hold you first,” he buried his face into the sweet hollow between her neck and shoulder and held her to him. “Where were you?”

              She stroked his damp hair and wrapped the blanket closer about him. “Pat and I had a long talk over tea and Wensleydale.”

              His head snapped up in surprise. “He broke out the Wensleydale?”

She nodded and Alec swore. “It must have been serious.” Alec toyed with the satin ribbon holding her nightgown together. “What did he say?”

              Lucy reached up and smoothed his cold cheek. “He told me about your mom and how they met.”

              “Everything…?” Alec hung his head.

              “Shh,” she whispered soothingly and urged his head down onto her breasts. “He wanted me to know that I have to give you space from time to time. I wish you’d told me about your father though.”

              “Y-You don’t have to give me space,” he said brokenly. “I wouldn’t push you away.”

              “No…?”

              He raised his head and kissed her lips. They were cold. “Sometimes I just need quiet so I go off by myself. But I wouldn’t mind you coming along, wife.” Alec reached up and brushed her hair away from her face. “It gets lonely feeling sorry all by myself. I’d like a little company.”

              “I’ll keep that in mind,” she laughed softly and slid her arms about his neck. “I never got the chance to thank you for saving me.” Lucy placed soft kisses against his neck and shoulder. “Thank you.”

              “It was nothing,” he murmured, closing his eyes at her touch. “She had it coming.”

              “That’s not what I meant.”

              “What…?”

              “For that night,” she said, pressing grateful kisses against his roughened cheek. “That night we met. You saved me from those two. I never understood why.
              “But I told you why.”

              “I know. But now I know you didn’t want what happened to your mom to happen to me.” He stiffened in her arms and she tightened her embrace. “I’m grateful.”

              “I-I couldn’t let it happen again,” he gulped. “Mum used to wake up screaming….”

              “Hush, darling,” Lucy soothed. “We’ll not speak of it again if you don’t want to. I just wanted you to know how grateful I am for you.”

              “I-I don’t deserve you, love,” he said, openly sobbing now. “You’re too good for me.”

              “Oh, stop!” she scolded, pressing her lips against his feverish brow. “I’m not going to argue with you. But it’s something you should know when you’re having one of your pity parties and don’t issue an invitation to the one who loves you dearly.”

              “Am I having a pity party?” Alec was able to laugh in spite of himself. She always made him laugh; even through the darkest of nights she had the power to shine her brilliance down into the blackest depths of despair. “And who said you weren’t invited?”

              “It doesn’t have to be spoken. I know when you need to be alone.”

              “Oh, Lucy love,” he sighed in understanding. “Don’t feel that way. I always need you.”

              “Pat said I should leave you alone.”

              “What does he know?” he grunted, lightly cupping her breast through the flannel. “Since when do you wear flannel to bed?”

              She giggled and cradled him between her thighs, trying to warm him with her body. “Like?”

              “I don’t know,” he murmured and untied the ribbon at her throat. She gasped as his hand slipped inside to claim a soft breast. “It all depends on how fast I can get you out of it.”

              “Not here,” she sighed in pleasure as his thumb stroked lightly over the nipple. “You’ll take me to bed and do it properly like a good little husband.”

              His head dipped to kiss her between her breasts and then moved to caress her lips. “I will, huh?”

              Lucy nodded, arching her body against his seductively. He groaned and kissed her roughly. “Take me to bed and let me hold you,” she whispered in his ear.

              Alec raised his head and stared down into the visage he loved beyond life itself. “Yes, ma’am,” he muttered hoarsely and kissed her again, her soft laughter mingling with his.

 

              Rudy parked the rental car and sat in disbelief, wondering if the clerk had given him the wrong address. The derelict sanitarium loomed over him like something out of a horror novel; crumbling bricks lay in sporadic heaps and broken windows peered down at him as if contemplating his demise. He stepped out of the car and made his way along what remained of the stairs and pushed the heavy door open. It creaked on its hinges and sent ghostly echoes reverberating through its lonely corridors. A shudder crept its way through him as he hurried to the third floor.

              It was getting late and he hurried to finish his task before he was left in complete darkness. An old room once used as storage for patient records lay at the end of the hall, and he winced as his shoes crunched loudly on shattered glass; he half expected some lunatic to lunge at him from the shadows. Rudy flicked on his flashlight and pushed his way into the room, which looked as if some angry giant had tossed it to and fro in a fit of rage. Tattered papers and shredded books lay in discarded piles amongst old file boxes; most of these held the most intimate details of a person’s life.

              But the staff had been in a hurry to vacate, so they’d left the most confidential recordings of people who had been committed at one time or another for such banal offenses such as petty theft and postpartum depression, exposed to anyone and anything that dared enter. He felt sick at the thought that society could so easily cast off the wrecks of humanity without so much as a second glance. Pushing these disturbing thoughts aside, he rummaged around in an old file cabinet, holding up the flashlight as he quickly scanned the yellowed pages. He didn’t have much time, and if he didn’t find what he was looking for he’d have to come back tomorrow. Rudy shuddered at the thought and was so engrossed in his task, he didn’t hear glass crunching in the hallway, never saw the person who raised their arm high and brought an object they held down onto his head… hard.               Rudy crumpled to the floor as his skull exploded in a blinding flash of agony. His last thought before he slipped away was that they hadn’t tied their shoelaces.

              The person tossed the object aside and ran off, expelling shards of glass beneath their feet.

 

             

 

             

 

 

             

 

 

 

             

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Thirty-Four

 

 

             

He scanned the crowd wishing he were anywhere but here. Harvey had decided to throw a little party to make up for their little “squabble.” Gavin didn’t know why he even bothered; half of these people were Harvey’s friends. They were mostly lowlifes in the industry; the kind of parasites your mother warned you about. Some of them were snorting blow off expensive mirrored coffee tables; half a dozen were fucking each other on various pieces of furniture; and the rest were so stoned out of their minds, Gavin was certain they didn’t know their ass from their elbow. Shaking his head in disgust, he decided he’d had enough, and was about to call it a night, when Harvey intercepted him at the door. He had a girl with him.

              “Gavvy, baby!” he bellowed, expelling fumes of stale cigars and vodka. “Where do you think you’re going?” He grabbed Gavin’s sleeve and steered him towards the stairs. Harvey pushed a gorgeous brunette in a black bandage dress at him. “You can’t leave without sampling the wares, my boy!”

              “I’m tired, Harv,” Gavin said, trying not to look at the girl. She looked about twenty with smooth dark skin, large almond-shaped eyes, and a luscious mouth. She also looked like she needed to be rescued; no doubt Harvey had tried to finagle himself a free sample.

              “Nonsense!” Harvey slurred and practically shoved the poor girl into Gavin’s arms. “Take her upstairs and then tell me you’re leaving!” He left without waiting for an answer, as a lithe blonde had suddenly caught his eye.

              Gavin was left with the poor girl whose eyes kept darting anxiously about as if she were afraid of something. “You…um…want to go upstairs?” he asked, not quite certain what he was going to do when he got there. “It’s too noisy here, don’t you think?”

              She nodded shyly, her thick mane of glossy black hair bouncing along with her. “Okay.”

              He smiled and escorted her up to a bedroom on the second floor. Gavin opened the door cautiously and peered inside. “I think it’s safe,” he said nervously and she giggled. He urged her inside and shut the door. When he glanced back, she had crossed her arms over her chest and was staring out the window. She seemed nervous about something. Gavin hoped she wasn’t afraid of him. But why should she be? Most of the girls Harvey invited to these things usually knew their way around a bedroom. “You want a drink?” he asked suddenly and watched as she flinched and then smiled.

              “Sure,” she said and Gavin detected a slight accent. He handed her a small glass of wine and hid a smile when she grimaced at the taste. “What is this?”

              “I don’t know,” he laughed and took the glass from her and set it down. “I think it’s wine, I can’t be sure.” Then Gavin reached up and ran his fingers through her silken locks. She was wearing a thick layer of cosmetics and he could see she didn’t need them. “What’s your name?” he asked huskily, pressing his lips against her cheek. She stiffened slightly but stood still.

              “Connie,” she said, so softly he had to strain to hear it. “And yours?”

              “Gavin,” he breathed and slid an arm around her slender waist. She stiffened again and he pressed his lips against her ear. “I’m not going to hurt you, sweetness. Just let me hold you a bit.” That seemed to calm her and she relaxed a little. “Are you afraid…of me?” he asked. For the first time in his life he was actually nervous around a woman.

              She peered up at him with wide eyes. Afraid? Yes, she was. But she couldn’t tell him that. “I’m cold,” she managed and did not object when he moved toward the bed, pulling her with him. Soon he had her beneath him and was kissing her.

              Gavin pressed soft kisses against her skin inhaling the sweet scent he’d long forgotten. He hadn’t meant to take her to bed, but she was so lovely and she seemed willing. It had been a long time since he’d actually gone to bed with a woman. He didn’t think work counted, as he didn’t enjoy most of it anyway. His breathing grew labored as he held her to him and kissed that soft mouth, her soft breasts pressing into his chest through the shirt he wore. He was suddenly eager to feel her silken skin and pulled her dress down to cup a sweet breast. She gasped into his mouth and his tongue gently coaxed hers out of hiding to stroke and beguile. He groaned when her tongue timidly met his in an awkward dance. He slid his knee between her thighs and she cried out, suddenly frightened but unable to tell him to stop. Gavin slid his mouth across her cheek and down her silken throat, heading eagerly towards that most luscious of fruits. He pushed her dress down further and claimed a taut nipple with his tongue, drawing it into his mouth and sucking gently. She gasped again, feeling hot and cold and afraid. Gavin was slowly becoming aware of her reticence; he felt it in the imperceptible stiffening of her body and the fact that she had not touched him. His head snapped up and when he peered down into frightened eyes, it washed over him like a bucket of cold water.

              “How old are you?” he asked in a panicked whisper.

              The long lashes fluttered briefly on pale cheeks before she answered: “Seventeen.”

              Gavin’s eyes closed in agony and he rolled off her and the bed in disgust. Harvey had done it this time, the sick fucker!  “What are you doing here?” he demanded angrily. When she didn’t answer, he opened a dresser and flung a shirt at her. “Dress yourself!”

              Connie pulled her dress over her breasts and pulled the shirt on. She was terrified. She was supposed to please him and now he was angry. They would punish her for sure. “P-Please don’t tell,” she wept, “they’ll kill me if they find out.”

              His fury was slowly dying at the girl’s obvious terror. Gavin went into the bathroom and wet a washcloth. He came back and sat down beside her. “Here,” he said, handing her the cloth. “Wipe that slap off.” He watched as she took the cloth with trembling hands and began removing the heavy layers of makeup. The young girl who emerged did in fact look younger than seventeen. Connie handed the cloth back to him and sat up against the pillows, trembling in fear. “Now, who’s going to kill you?”

              She shook her head, trying to keep it in, but it all gushed out in a torrent of desperation. She told him of the village she’d lived in before leaving to work at a hotel in Mexico City. And she told him of the woman who had promised to find her work in Dallas, only for that innocent dream to end on a dirty mattress in a desolate ranch in Laredo. She told him how she was sold to the highest bidder and how she eventually ended up in L.A., just one of many girls who were chosen to service rich clients and celebrities at parties. When she finished, he was as pale as she was and visibly shaking. “P-Please, don’t…tell them I didn’t please you.”

              “Tell?” he choked back in outrage, getting off the bed and marching over to Harvey’s dresser. She watched as he yanked out one drawer after another, the clothes piling into an untidy heap on the floor. Gavin reached into the pile and pulled out a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt. He flung them at her. “Put these on.”

              “What am I supposed to do with these?”

              “You’re going to put them on,” he said, and went to the door. He glanced back at her as she dressed. “Did you come with anyone?”

              “They brought us in a car. They’ll be back soon.”

              “Hurry!” he urged and had to suppress a laugh when she stood up. Harvey’s clothes swallowed her whole. Gavin whipped off his belt and threaded it around her waist and cinched it. He had to do something about her hair. Spying a baseball hat amongst the heap he grabbed it and plopped it on her head. “Stuff your hair into it,” he instructed and went to turn off the lamps.

              “What are you doing?” she hissed in the darkness and nearly screamed when he bumped into her. He steered her towards the windows and flung open the drapes. Connie suddenly realized what he was about when he unlocked the window, pushed it open, and peered down into the darkened street below. “A-Are you mad?” she whispered, tugging at her hand.

              “Don’t you want help?” he hissed back and began pulling her with him. “I know someone who can help.”

              “No one can help me,” she said sadly and began to cry. “What makes you think you can do anything?”

              “We’ll talk on the way,” he insisted and hopped onto the ledge. He held his hand out. “You can go back to them or come with me.”

              Connie thought quickly and made a decision. She took his hand and followed him out onto the ledge. “Careful,” he warned. She nearly slipped in her platform heels, and she kicked them off feeling for the edge in bare feet.

              Gavin pulled her along until they reached a ladder and he climbed down and leapt off. “Come on!” he whispered urgently. “It’s safe!”

              “Dios Mio,” she muttered to herself and climbed down, her feet searching for purchase on the slippery rungs and slipped. A frightened yelp emerged as she fell back and landed on something hard. Stunned, she lay motionless for a moment before she realized what had broken her fall. He groaned in pain and pushed at her shoulders.

              “I think we should wait until you’re older to get this close,” he said dryly.

              “Sorry,” she mumbled in embarrassment and leapt off him. He lay sprawled at her feet and held out a hand.

              “Help me up,” he grunted and when he stood upright, he brushed the dirt off and had a look around. Harvey had picked him up, but there were several cars sitting all by their lonesome. “Come on,” he said, taking her hand.

              She allowed him to pull her along like a lost puppy, but she wasn’t entirely certain that this was a good idea. They had threatened her mama and sister. What happened when they found out she was missing? They always did a head count at the end of the night; she could only imagine what they would do to the other girls. She was about to tell him that she’d changed her mind when she saw their truck. “It’s them!” she gasped in horror and tried to flee.

              But he held fast and refused to let her go. He crouched down low and led her to a yellow Porsche near the driveway. “You got a hairpin?” he hissed and grinned when she fished one out of her hair and handed it to him. “Let’s see if I can remember how this goes.”

              It took some jiggling but he finally managed to unlock the door and pushed her in while she clucked to herself about how he was going to get them killed. Gavin ignored her and felt beneath the steering column. He yanked them out and touched the wires together until the engine choked to a start. “Put your seatbelt on,” he told her and shut his door.

              Connie crossed herself for the hundredth time that day. “Dios Mio!” she mumbled and did as she was told. Then she heard an awful commotion as they figured out she was missing and came tearing out of the house. They spied them in the Porsche and started towards them. “They’re coming!” she shrieked.

              “Hold tight,” he growled and stomped on the gas. He tore out of the driveway like a bat out of hell, the tires burning rubber, and leaving skid marks on the asphalt. Gavin peered into the rearview mirror and saw them following close behind. He swore and sped up in a fruitless attempt to outrun them. Whoever they were, they were hell bent on retrieving their property. “Who are these guys?”

              “You don’t want to know.” She turned in her seat to try and see how close they were and turned towards him. “Why are you doing this? They’ll kill us!”

              “You’re asking me now?” He reached the highway and put pedal to the metal. Connie was flung back into her seat. “Let’s just say I’m open for some redemption.”

              “You speak in riddles!” Then she shrieked as they pulled along side them and one of them whipped out a gun and fired. The first shot shattered the window and the second hit Gavin in the shoulder. He was hardly aware of her screams or the blinding pain that crept slowly down his arm. “They’re shooting at us!”

              “No, shit!” he shouted and rammed the car into theirs, making them swerve into a guardrail with a spectacular display of fiery sparks. “Get down!” he ordered and Connie unbuckled her seatbelt and slid to the floor, cowering low and wondering why she put her faith in a complete stranger who was probably going to get the both of them killed.

              “Dios Mio!” she mumbled again and crossed herself. She screamed as more shots were fired at them, this time shattering her side window. Pieces of glass rained down and cut her face.

              “Keep your head down!” he shouted again, peering anxiously into the rearview. Where were the police when you needed them?

              This time when the bastards pulled along side them, Gavin floored it and sped past a semitrailer, barely making it by the skin of his teeth. He could hear their enraged screams and bullets flying at the car in a last ditch attempt to retrieve Connie. When they were at a safe distance, he breathed a sigh of relief, and that’s when he noticed he was bleeding. A lot.

              But he couldn’t stop now; he had to get to Alec.

 

* * *

              After an exhausting day of packing for the move to London, they’d all decided to retire early and were dead to the world when the pounding ensued. Pat was dreaming of endless wheels of cheese when someone started flinging the enormous rinds into the air and slipped through his fingers when he attempted to catch them. They hit the ground with an ungodly rumble, and Pat fell out of bed when he reached for a gigantic wheel of Wensleydale. He woke up hurling a slew of curses at the nightstand and that’s when he heard the pounding that he’d heard in his dream. Someone was at the door at one in the morning!

              He unfolded his bulky frame from the floor and wandered barefoot into the living room and promptly banged his shin on the coffee table. “Hell and damnation!” he bellowed as he flicked on a lamp. “Keep yer knickers on! I’m coming.”  Pat flung open the door to find a tiny brunette struggling to keep a bleeding Gavin on his feet.

              The boy’s lids fluttered open, and he trained glassy eyes on his stepfather. “D-Dad?” he slurred, squinting through a narrow tunnel. “Is that… you? Why’d you go and shave your… head…” the last word slid out of his mouth at the same time he slid out of the girl’s arms and into Pat’s sturdy ones.

              Pat started screaming for Alec, who soon tore out of the bedroom with Lucy in tow. “My God!” they blurted in horror at Gavin’s unconscious form hanging limply in his stepfather’s arms. “What happened?”

              “I d-don’t know!” Pat cried and noticed the blood. “He’s bleeding!”

              Lucy took one look at the young girl and Gavin’s shoulder and acted fast. “Get him into the kitchen and put him on the table,” she commanded and had to repeat the order when Pat and Alec stared at her as if she’d spoken in Swahili. “Do it now!” she shouted at the both of them and hurried along, feeling as if she were right back in the emergency room. “Put him on the table,” she said and turned to Alec. “Get my stethoscope in the top drawer. “ She gave him a little shove and turned to the young man lying supine on the tablecloth, which was fast becoming crimson.

              Alec hurried back and practically flung the stethoscope at her head. Lucy caught it and wrapped it around her neck. She reached and flung open Gavin’s shirt to make sure the bleeding wasn’t coming from his chest. Then she spied his left shoulder and grimaced. She pointed at Pat, “Hold his legs.” Then to Alec she ordered; “Get the pads from the bathroom and some duct tape!”

              Her husband raced to do her bidding while Lucy assessed her patient. It was a bullet wound all right, and there was no exit wound. She listened to his chest. He had a strong heartbeat that was slowly becoming erratic as he went into shock from the blood loss. She glanced up at Alec who had returned with the pads. Lucy went about placing a few of them beneath the jagged hole and on top, securing it with a kitchen towel held in place with a strap of tape. “We’ve got to get him to a hospital,” she told them. “He needs an IV.”

              “No…hospital…” Gavin smiled weakly and pointed to his companion who was standing nearby with both hands on either side of her mouth, looking as if she were going to faint. “Tell them…Connie…”

              They all turned to her and she flushed in embarrassment and shame. He wouldn’t be in this situation if not for her. “It’s true,” she said finally. “They will check hospitals first.”

              “Who’ll check hospitals first?” Pat nearly shouted and made the poor girl flinch in terror.

              Lucy gave her a reassuring smile and urged her into the spare bedroom while they worked on Gavin. She came back and thrust a piece of paper at Alec. “I need some stuff for an IV.” He nodded as if in a trance, still in shock over what was transpiring and hurried out to the car. While her husband went to fetch supplies, she took Gavin’s vitals and placed a cool cloth on his head and instructed Pat to keep steady pressure on his shoulder. Then she called Carlos. She was going to need him.

             

              She had a hard time inserting the needle as Gavin was dehydrated, but finally she got it in and hooked the IV bag up onto a hatrack. With that done, Lucy kept vigil over her brother-in-law while Pat and Alec stood by feeling helpless and were more in the way than actually being helpful. “Alec,” she said at last, “go and see to the girl and find out what’s going on.” To Pat she told him to go and get drunk. She didn’t think she’d ever seen a man so pale and there wasn’t anything he could do for Gavin anyway. Then she tried for the umpteenth time to get Carlos on the phone.

              When he answered she gave him the short and ugly version of what happened. He wanted her to meet him at the clinic but she didn’t think Gavin would survive the trip, as it was nearly an hour’s drive. He’d finally relented and promised he’d be there as soon as possible. All they could do now was wait.

              Nearly an hour had passed since Gavin had collapsed and Lucy felt the IV was doing its job, but they needed to stop the bleeding and start him on antibiotics, not to mention a good dose of Demerol. Alec came out of the bedroom with a grim look on his face.

              “What did she say?” Lucy glanced up from taking Gavin’s pulse and saw whatever he had to say wasn’t good. “That bad, huh?”

              He sat down on a stool beside her. “How is he?”

              “He’s stable if that’s what you want to know, but we need Carlos. An IV can only do so much. He probably needs a transfusion as well.”

              “You’re the expert,” he muttered and hung his head. “She told me some stuff I only thought happened in nightmares.”

              She leaned forward. “Spill your guts.”

              After hearing the sordid tale of kidnapping, forced prostitution, and human trafficking, Lucy wished Rudy were here. But he wasn’t and she quickly wracked her brain for anyone Rudy might have mentioned at one time or another who might have the expertise to help the poor girl. She was about to mention a name, when the doorbell rang and Pat interrupted his drunken foray into oblivion long enough to answer it.

              It was Carlos!

              He hurried in carrying his black bag and was ushered into the kitchen by a stoic Alec. Carlos greeted Lucy who gave him the lowdown on the patient. “I started an IV.”

              “Good girl!” he smiled and rolled up his sleeves. Lucy stood aside while Carlos took Gavin’s blood pressure and inspected the wound. “Why didn’t you call 911?” he said critically. “He needs a hospital.”

              “We couldn’t.” Lucy told him, exchanging guilty glances with her husband. “He said that would be the first place they’d look.”

              “They...?” Carlos frowned in confusion and began removing items from his bag. He laid them out neatly on a tray Lucy had pulled out for him.

              “It’s a long story.”

              Carlos removed the pads and duct tape from Gavin’s shoulder. “Tell me while I see if I can put Humpty Dumpty back together.” He motioned for Alec to hold Gavin’s legs down while he filled a syringe with Demerol. When Alec had filled him in, Carlos stood back and huddled with Lucy.  “He’s right,” he agreed. “They’d tear the hospital down brick by brick.”

              “Can you remove the bullet?” Lucy asked anxiously and gave her husband a reassuring smile. Alec looked like he could use a shot too.

              “I don’t know if I should try,” Carlos sighed at last and then peered at her questioningly. “You were a scrub nurse, right?”

              “Yeah.”

              “Good, you’re going to be my assistant.”

              Alec stood by helplessly as he watched his wife and Carlos scrub up for the operation to remove the bullet. He watched in open admiration as they pulled on latex gloves and draped sheets over Gavin and the floor to catch the blood that was sure to flow. He felt useless and asked if he could do anything. Carlos glanced up and nodded. “Hold him down, this is going to hurt like a son of a bitch.”

              “Get Pat,” Lucy added and prepared Gavin’s shoulder for the incision. “What if you can’t get it out?”

              Pat had shook off his alcoholic stupor and now stood by Alec, holding Gavin’s other leg should he rouse during the procedure. Carlos raised his scalpel and prepared to cut. “I’ll cross that bridge when I get there,” he muttered mostly to himself as he made the first incision. Gavin jerked and moaned slightly, but the painkillers seemed to be working. Lucy sponged away the blood and hoped for the best. If it were near the bone, they would have to take him to the hospital lest they risk further bleeding.

              The kitchen took on an eerie stillness as Carlos worked feverishly to find the bullet. No one said a word in fear of jinxing the good doctor. “Damn!” he swore. “I can’t find it. We might have to leave it in. I hope it didn’t bounce off the bone and into his chest.”

              “I checked.” Lucy assured him, dabbing at his brow, and blotting up blood. “It’s got to be there. Check again.”

              “You checked!” he muttered in disbelief and dug around some more. Finally his scissors hit something hard and metallic. He glanced up hopefully and Lucy smiled. “Hold him down you two, I think I found it.” Carlos got a good grip and pulled with all his might. He was about to ask the hulk with the worried frown to assist him, when with a final tug, the bullet relinquished its grip and Carlos fell back onto the floor with a thud. He held up the slug triumphantly. “I got it!”

              Lucy staunched the crimson flow of blood and smiled weakly at her husband. “See?” she said to the two men who looked as if they might hit the floor any minute. “I told you Carlos would get it!” Alec and Pat looked at each other and laughed, mostly in relief.

              They both stared in wonder as Lucy flushed out the hole and helped prepare the site for suturing. Pat nudged his stepson as Carlos did the internal sutures, and Lucy closed the wound. Finally she wrapped and bandaged the incision while Carlos gave Gavin a good dose of antibiotics and another dose of painkillers. When they were done, Pat put Gavin up over his shoulder and carried him into the spare bedroom to sleep it off.

              Connie was there and looked up fearfully as the giant placed the young man gently into the bed and covered him with a blanket. He looked at her and asked if she wanted something to eat. “No, thank you,” she shook her head. “I’ll stay with him.”

              Pat nodded and shut the door and went back out to them. “She’s not saying much,” he grunted as flopped down into a chair. “What do we do now?”

              Carlos had to hurry home, but made them promise if it were possible, to try and take Gavin to the hospital as soon as he came to. He’d check in with them in the morning.

              “I think we should call Eustacia Hurst,” Lucy suggested over coffee. They looked at her like she’d just recited the alphabet backwards. “She’s an immigration attorney,” she clarified. “She comes highly recommended.”

              “You think she’d help the lass?” Pat enquired over the last bits of Wensleydale. “Maybe we should call those Border Patrol chaps.”

              “Those are the last people I’d call in a situation like this!” Lucy scoffed and drained her mug. “Alec, tell him!”

              He nodded. “She’s right. They’re the right people to call in certain circumstances, but not this. It wasn’t her fault any of this happened. They’ll throw her in jail first and ask questions later.”

              “And how did you come by such information, may I ask?”

              Alec shrugged. “Javier tells me lots of things. He’d rather have his knuckles broken rather than deal with the lot of them.”

              “Who’s Javier?” Lucy and Pat asked in unison.

              “He’s a Sergeant Inspector for Interpol and a good friend,” Alec said, rolling his eyes in exasperation. “Why? Who’d you think he was?”

              “Oh, I don’t know,” Lucy exchanged knowing winks with Pat and grinned at her husband, “I thought he was some underworld crime boss.”

              “He’d love to hear that!” Alec replied gruffly and checked his watch. “We should get some sleep.”

              Pat shook his head. “I think I’ll stay up a bit in case the lad needs me.” He motioned for the two of them to go on. “You two get to bed.”

              “Not until I call Eustacia,” Lucy said firmly and went to find Rudy’s address book. She was on the phone and in a heated discussion with the woman and Alec decided he’d best stay up as well.

              “I’ll stay up too,” he said reluctantly and turned on the TV. Maybe he could find out more about the goons who tried to off his brother. Besides, he couldn’t sleep without Lucy. He cast an admiring glance towards his wife, who was splattered with Gavin’s blood and sorely in need of sleep. She’d gone above the call of wifely duty, and he was again reminded of how unworthy he was of her. But as she returned his glance and blushed, he decided he was more than willing to prove himself wrong. He mouthed, “I love you” to her and she mouthed the words back.

              He settled against the cushions and tried not to think about how his brother had nearly bled to death. It was sometime before dawn before he finally retired to the bedroom at his wife’s urging and fell into an exhausted sleep.

 

              Eustacia Hurst arrived the next morning to take charge of Connie, whose full name was Consuelo Esmeralda Amparo Barragan. And the knowledge that she was sixteen and a half by all accounts, was only worsened by the realization that not only was she still a child, but that there was nothing anyone could do to reclaim the innocence she had lost. But Eustacia was determined to try.

              Connie was reluctant to leave her savior, who was still in considerable pain and groggy from the sedatives. She knew nothing about this small red-haired woman who said she wanted to help. But Gavin’s brother and his wife had assured her it would be all right and promised they would visit her the first chance they got and make sure she was safe. “You… promise?” Connie said, still clutching Gavin’s hand. “What about my mama and sister? They said they’d hurt them.”

              “Not if we can help it,” Eustacia said kindly and offered a hand. “It’ll be all right. You’re safe now.”

              Connie wasn’t so sure. But she felt a tugging on her hand and looked down. Gavin was awake, his blue-green eyes gleaming at her in amusement. “Best go on with her,” he advised in a strained voice and with considerable effort, raised her hand to his lips and kissed it. No man had ever kissed her hand before, and Connie was both touched and saddened. “Will you come visit me when you are better?” she asked shyly.

              “Even if they have to wheel me in on a gurney, I’ll visit you,” he promised and winced at the effort it took to say those words. “You can write me if you want. We’ll stay in touch and you can tell me all about your adventures.”

              “Okay,” she laughed and leaned down to kiss his scruffy cheek. “Vaya con Dios,” she murmured and rose to leave. Connie cast one last look at Gavin before she left and wondered if she would ever see him again.  

              Eustacia assured Lucy and Alec that Connie was in safe hands and that she’d contact them as soon as possible. “What if they try to find her?” Alec said, gesturing to the shattered remains of the Porsche in their driveway. “They seem like the type who won’t take “no” for an answer.”

              “I’d like to see them try,” the little woman said defiantly and ushered Connie into a waiting car. Lucy looked on as they drove off and closed the door.

              “I should have asked her if she’d heard from Rudy.”

              Alec wrapped his arms around her and hugged her. “I’m sure he’s all right.” He kissed her hair. “You worry too much.”

              “I know,” she sighed. “Carlos is supposed to be here at ten. I’m going to crash for a bit. Wake me up if you need anything.”

              “Go on, wife.” he said. “I’ll go out later and get us lunch.”

              She smiled and yawned at him and went to bed. Alec retired to the kitchen and commiserated with Pat over several cups of black coffee. “That’s some wife you’ve got there, laddie.” Pat told him as he buttered a croissant. “ And don’t you forget it!”

              “You think I will?”

              “If you do, I’ll just have to remind you of your stupidity!” Pat grinned at his stepson and finished off the roll. “I’d better call yer mum and tell her we got Gavin. At least someone will find joy out of all this shite!”

              “Go on with you now!” Alec said irritably, and reached into the box for a croissant. He swore at Pat when he discovered they were all gone. “You ate the last one!”

              Pat just laughed and explained to his wife that her son was angry he’d polished off the last croissant. “But we got him, Mags!” he reported happily. “He’s sleepin’ like a babe.”

              Alec rolled his eyes and went to lie down on the sofa. He didn’t want to hear his parents getting all loved-up over the phone. He got enough of that at home. Home. He supposed he couldn’t think about that while Rudy was still out there, somewhere. He began to have a niggling suspicion that something awful had happened to the old boy. He wouldn’t say anything to Lucy. But if she brought it up…maybe he’d tell her.

             

              Carlos came back and gave Gavin the once-over. Satisfied that the young man was lucid and aware of everything that had happened, he left with clear instructions that they get him to a hospital once it was safe. Alec and Pat thanked him profusely, and he left them to care for the young man on their own.

              Pat decided to sit with Gavin while his stepson and wife got some much-needed sleep. He pulled up a chair and watched his boy for a long time.             

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

             

 

 

 

 

             

 

             

 

 

 

 

             

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Thirty-Five

             

             

 

“You’re as bad as mum!” Gavin complained as his brother and stepfather escorted him into the hospital waiting room. He’d had just about enough of them fussing and waiting on him hand and foot. He wasn’t some baby who needed to be fed and changed every hour on the hour. “I can do it myself!” And to prove his point, he tore away from them and headed towards the admissions desk. He tossed them a baleful glare as she took his information and told him to wait. He slumped into a chair and fumbled with his sling.

              Alec told Pat he was going to meet Lucy for her appointment in gynecology and took off for the elevators, leaving Pat to deal with his wayward stepson, alone. “You can pout all you like laddie, but you can’t go back to yer mum with bits missing. You’ll upset her and I don’t like it when she’s upset.” The last sentence came off as a warning.

              “Is that a threat?” Gavin glanced sideways at his stepdad, who appeared to have aged about twenty years since the last time he saw him. Notwithstanding the fact that the man had gone completely bald! “What makes you think I’m going back with you?”

              So that’s how the lad wanted to play. Pat wasn’t in the mood. Gavin wasn’t too old to put over his knee. Pat turned towards the little bugger and let him have it. “Now, you listen to me, you little shite! You’ve done yer mum a world of hurt going off and leaving the way you did! I’ll haul you back in a fucking suitcase if I have to, but either way you’re coming with us and you’re going to like it!” Pat paused to see what effect this was having on the boy. He was a good shade paler than before, but his mouth twitched a little as if trying not to laugh. “Don’t laugh at me laddie! Alec’s wife is a nurse and I’ll get her to inject yer worthless arse with some of that Thorazine if I have to.”

              Gavin held his laughter in check. He didn’t doubt for one minute that Pat wouldn’t do it, but he was still hesitant about seeing his mum. He didn’t think he could live with seeing the look of disappointment on her face when she found out what he did for a living. “And what will you tell mum?” he asked quietly, staring sightlessly as an ambulance pulled up past the doors and doctors and nurses rushed past them. “I suppose you know what I do for a living?”

              “Laddie,” Pat said softly so no one could hear, “you think yer mum cares about how you get your kit off? She wants to see you.” He patted Gavin’s hand with a large paw. “I’m not judging and neither will she.”

              Gavin gulped back tears. “Don’t say that dad...” he trailed off and wished they would call his name. “I’ve done so many horrible things. Things that would make a man puke.”

              “You think I haven’t?” Pat said hoarsely. “You think Alec hasn’t? Do you know what they did to him in that place? They tortured him! Yer mum had cancer and they had to cut her breast off and she lost all her hair. We’ve all been there, even Lucy.”

              “What about her?”

              “Some bastard tried to kill her. She nearly bled to death and yer brother had to sit and watch her lose the baby and not knowing if she’d come back to him.”

              “I-I didn’t know…” Gavin said, feeling like an insufferable bastard. So many horrible things had happened to all of them and here he was feeling sorry for himself because he used to suck cock to put food on the table! It certainly put things into perspective. “You can’t tell her, dad. I don’t want mum…to know.” He swiped at his eyes and added, “Ever.”

              Pat nodded in agreement. “She won’t and thanks for dropping the charges, laddie.”

              Gavin rolled his eyes.

              Finally after a moment of awkward silence, they called Gavin’s name and he went to be examined by a resident who didn’t know what the hell he was doing. He emerged thirty minutes later with a prescription for ibuprofen and another course of antibiotics, just to be sure. Alec and Lucy had joined Pat and they were waiting for him in chairs.

              “Well?” Alec said anxiously. “What did they say?”

              “They wanted to know the name of the surgeon who stitched me up. They said it was fine work.” He winked at his new sister-in-law. “There won’t hardly be a scar.”

              Lucy breathed a sigh of relief and blushed at the compliment. “That’s good. I was afraid it would get infected.”

              “Did they ask any questions?” Pat asked, glancing at Alec and Lucy who seemed upset about something. They were whispering amongst themselves and Pat thought Alec said, “we can always adopt.”  He frowned in concern but turned his attention back to Gavin. “Well?”

              Gavin snickered. “The resident noticed it was recent, but I told him my ex-girlfriend’s brother tried to plug me.” They all stared at him aghast. It wasn’t far from the truth. He cleared his throat awkwardly and shrugged. “Can we get something to eat? I’m starving!”

              “Sure,” Pat said, and the four of them left the hospital and drove to a little Mexican place that Pat had wanted to try. As he and Gavin caught up on ten lost years, he noticed Alec and his wife just picked at their food, and didn’t say much of anything.

              They drove home with Gavin chattering away in the front seat and the couple who sat in back, mourned the loss of a baby they would never have. As soon as they pulled up in the driveway, Alec took Lucy’s hand and they drifted off towards the beach.

              “Where are they going?” Gavin said, looking at Pat. “What happened? They hardly ate anything.”

              “It’s a long story, laddie,” Pat sighed, and wished he’d had the foresight to buy more Wensleydale. “Come inside and I’ll fill you in. Best leave them alone for now.”

 

 

              The tears wouldn’t stop and Alec didn’t even try. The newfound knowledge that one’s wife was probably barren due to some bastard flinging her about like a sack of potatoes was a little much to take in at the moment. All he could do was lie down beside her and take her in his arms and reassure her that it didn’t matter, when in reality it did matter. Lucy cried herself to sleep that night, and Alec did the same long after she’d dozed off. When they awoke the next morning neither one broached the subject, and Alec took her in his arms.

              “Don’t say it, English,” she wept into his chest. “I don’t…want to hear…it.”

              “I wasn’t going to say anything, love.”

              “Liar.”

              “Tell me what to do. I don’t know what to do for you.”

              She glanced up at his dear face, now streaked with tears, and wiped them away with trembling fingers. “I don’t think there’s anything you can do. I’ll get over it…in about…twenty years…” she choked out the last word miserably. “Go and spend some time with your brother. I’ll…be all… right.”

              He tipped the fragile chin up and peered down into her swollen eyes. “No, you won’t,” Alec said hoarsely. “But I’m here if you need me.” She nodded sadly and kissed his lips before moving away and falling back into bed. He tucked the comforter closer about her and wished he could make the pain go away, then he left and went to find Gavin.

              Alec found them in the living room playing a video game on a console that Gavin had apparently picked up while dabbling in a little retail therapy. It was some racing game and Gavin seemed to know his way around a racetrack. He left poor Pat in the dust. Soon they were hooting and hollering, and Alec found it necessary to remind them that his wife wasn’t feeling well. “Hey, guys keep it down. Lucy’s got an awful headache!”

              They turned and saw Alec’s bloodshot eyes and grimaced. “Sorry!” the two of them whispered guiltily and stared dumbfounded when Alec left to go jogging on the beach---in his boxers.

              Pat put his finger to his mouth and turned down the volume. He left Gavin on the sofa and went outside to find Alec. Apparently, he never intended to go jogging. Pat found him huddled near the rotten remains of a dinghy, sobbing brokenly, his head in his hands. He let him grieve for an hour and then he went and sat beside his stepson, offering solace should he need it.

              Alec didn’t look up but merely wept into Pat’s strong shoulder, while his stepfather patted his back and soothed him the best he could. It was a long time before the sobs subsided and Alec straightened, embarrassed that his stepfather had had to comfort him like he used to as a child after a horrific nightmare. “I’m okay, dad,” he sniffed. “I just needed to get it out.”

              “I know, laddie.” Pat said softly and patted Alec’s back once more. “I know.”

 

              The second week in November brought freezing rain and high winds, and the occupants of Rudy’s beach house hadn’t had much fun being trapped and busied themselves with packing for the move to London and tying up loose ends. As for Rudy, no one had heard hide nor hair of him and Lucy was starting to get frantic.

              To get her mind off the fact that she might never bear children, she started to do a little investigating of her own into his disappearance. He’d now been missing for nearly a month, and no one seemed to know where he was or what he’d been working on when he disappeared.

              “This is ridiculous!” she said to her husband one day while they packed. “No one knows anything or they’re not telling.”

              “Well,” Alec said, scratching his nose. “Rudy told me he was going to check out the leak in the police department.”

              Lucy whirled about, stunned at this new information. “When was this?”

              “That day we went for turkey. It was the last thing we spoke about.” He handed her some folded sheets and blankets. “He broke that coffee cup, if I remember correctly. He seemed jumpy about something.”

              “I remember.”  She placed some books on top of the sheets and pressed down hard. “Hand me the tape.” Lucy taped the box and set it aside. “But he didn’t say anything else?”

              He shook his head and unfolded another box. He taped the bottom and sides and began packing their DVD collection. “He’s been acting strange ever since we got back from Point Reyes.”

              “How so?”

              Alec shrugged. “I can’t quite put my finger on it. But it’s like he knew who the snitch was.” He laughed uneasily and shook his head to clear it of the cobwebs. “I’m just being silly, love. You know me.”

              “Yes, I know you.” She peered at him closely, trying to see inside his mind. “And you’re not being silly!”

              “I’m not?”

              She took the tape from him and sat down. Lucy patted the bed beside her. “Sit, husband and tell me everything you know.”

              He sat down, wishing he’d kept his big gob shut. But Alec told her what he knew and watched in alarm as her dark eyes lit up with puckish intent. Here, we go again, he thought uneasily. “What are you thinking, imp?”

              “Come on!” she grabbed his hand and tugged him with her through the house. Pat and Gavin were gone for the day to the Santa Monica Pier. They’d invited them to go along, but Lucy and Alec were in no mood for revelry and had declined. “We’ll make a day of it!”

              “W-We will?” he panted, trying to keep up with her brisk strides. “B-But we’re not done packing!”

              “Later, English!” she laughed, settling herself behind the wheel. “Where’s your sense of adventure?”

              “Um…I don’t know,” he said, and buckled his seatbelt. “I think the TSA agent may have removed it when he gave me that colonoscopy.”

              “Oh, stop!” she giggled and turned the key. “Aren’t you worried about Rudy?”

              “I am.”

              Lucy pulled out and headed for the Pacific Coast Highway. “Then let’s find out where he is, shall we?”

              He glanced over at his wife and decided this was better than her moping about. That lively sparkle in her eyes was back, and he rolled down his window and allowed the sea air to calm his frazzled nerves. “Where are we going?”

              “The library and then over to talk to Detective Brandon. I want to know what he’s been doing while we’ve been worrying ourselves sick.”

              “What makes you think the fellow knows anything? Rudy doesn’t trust him farther than he can throw him.”

              “Exactly!” 

              Alec rummaged around in his pocket for a stick of gum and shoved it into his mouth. Before this day was through, he was certain he’d have to take up smoking.

 

              They spent a few hours in the library going over the extensive newspaper collection, examining the decades-old coverage of Reese’s rein of terror. For the first time since knowing Rudy, Lucy was able to see the horrific toll it had taken on the man she’d come to view as a father figure. There was page after page of a haggard looking Rudy being grilled by the press and in one snapshot, a grieving mother confronted him on the court steps after the first trial had ended in a hung jury, and flung her son’s ashes all over his pristine black suit. The look captured by the photographer would stay imprinted on Lucy’s mind for many years to come: that of a burned out man who’d been pushed to the brink by a sadistic child murderer.

              Alec had had enough for one day and went over to his wife who was still pouring over the old newsprints. “Let’s go.”

              “B-But I haven’t finished!” she protested as he closed the book. “It’s barely twelve!”

              “I thought you wanted to interrogate Brandon.”

              “I do.”

              “So let’s go. If we hurry, we might catch him before he heads out to lunch.”

              “Oh, all right!” she relented begrudgingly and trailed after him and into the parking lot. He sat behind the wheel this time and offered her a stick of gum.

              “Here,” he said, as he pulled out and began the short drive to the police station. “Work on that.”

              Lucy stuffed it into her mouth and chewed furiously. “Poor Rudy,” she said as they stopped at a red light. “I never knew how bad it was for him.”

              “None of us did,” Alec said, checking the rearview to see how far a tour bus was behind him. The driver looked to be in a heated discussion with one of his passengers. “I suppose he just wanted it all to go away. Some of us are like that.” He grinned knowingly at his wife. “Remember?”

              “I remember,” she sighed. “You think Brandon will talk to us?”

              “It all depends on what sort of mood he’s in.”

              “What’s that supposed to mean?” She hadn’t eaten breakfast and now was starting to feel bitchy. “Oh, never mind. Let’s go and then maybe we can get something to eat.”

              “Yes, ma’am,” he said lightly and swore as he passed the packed parking lot. “We’ll have to park on the street. I hope you brought lots of change.”

              “Sure,” she muttered glumly and checked her purse.

              He parked on a meter and fed his coins in. “Two hours ought to do it.”

              Lucy allowed him to help her out and they made their way out into the afternoon sun while her headache threatened to split her skull. They passed through uniformed officers and suited detectives on their way to lunch. Then they approached an officer munching a sandwich behind his plexiglass shelter, and he told them to sit while he went to see if anyone was available. They sat reluctantly in hard plastic chairs, and Lucy didn’t know which was worse: the smell of stale cigarettes or the smell of old coffee.

              Suddenly there was a loud commotion as one of the officers lost control of his prisoner and soon there was a writhing mass of black as a melee ensued. The accused kicked and spat at his jailers and bit one of them. A tall, burly fellow finally got pissed off enough to pepper spray him, and they hauled the bearded menace off to simmer down in a cell. The rest of the station went about their business as if nothing had happened.

              “Did you see that?” she commented to Alec, who hadn’t batted an eye.

              “They shouldn’t have taken their eyes off him. The quiet ones are the ones you’ve got to worry about.”

              “Oh?” Lucy brushed a piece of lint off her husband’s slacks. “And what do you do?”

              He grinned slyly. “Grow eyes in the back of me head!”

              “Cheeky monkey,” she giggled and leaned her head on his shoulder. It was now two o’clock. “I suppose they’ll find us fossilized after the apocalypse.”

              “Patience, my love.” He kissed the top of her head. Alec was beginning to worry. It seemed as if they’d been forgotten as officers went to and fro and pounded away at their keyboards. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, they were ushered in amidst all this lively bustling about and settled in front of a frazzled female sergeant who looked like she needed a vacation. She was buried up to her armpits in a swollen jumble of Manila folders and was making considerable progress through one heap when she glanced up and saw her guests. Her small eyes became annoyed slits as she looked at the intruders.

              “Can I… help you?” she sniffed and went back to shuffling paperwork.

              “We’d like to speak to Detective Brandon,” Lucy stupidly informed her. The woman stopped shuffling and eyed Lucy as if she’d just declared she had crabs. “I-If it’s not too much…trouble,” she stammered, wondering why the woman was making her so nervous. “Please,” she added sweetly.

              The sergeant smiled and declared imperiously, “He just left for lunch. I guess you’ll just have to speak to me.” She flung a folder into a tray and settled her elbows onto her desk. “Now, what can I help you two with today?”

              Lucy wondered if she’d just stepped into a parallel universe where the people who were supposed to help you looked like they would have no qualms about pushing you in front of an oncoming train. “We wanted to speak to him concerning Rudy Bartlett.”

              The sergeant’s thin lips mouthed the name and she frowned. “Isn’t he some famous lawyer or something?”

              “Yeah,” Alec interjected, “he was working on a case with Detective Brandon when he went missing.”

              “Would you like to file a missing persons report?” she asked as if she couldn’t care less and fished out a form from her desk.

              “What? No!” Lucy blurted. “He’s not---”

              Moody gray eyes met concerned brown ones. “But he’s been missing for more than 48 hours, right?”

              Alec exchanged glances with his wife and nodded. “It’s been three and half weeks.”

              “Why didn’t you file one sooner?” the sergeant said, in a slightly accusatory tone, as if they were somehow responsible. “The first 48 hours are crucial.”

              “Yes, we know!” Alec told her, not appreciating what she was implying and growing irritated with the woman’s smug demeanor. “He’s a grown man who’s free to come and go as he pleases.”

              “Sure, he is,” the sergeant snickered and began filling out the form. “Name…?”

              “We just told you his name!”

              “Name?” The sergeant pressed on as if enjoying their distress.

              “Rudy… Edward… Bartlett,” Lucy said tightly.

              “Age?”

              “Fifty-seven.”

              “And when did he go missing?”

              Lucy turned towards her husband. “When was it?”

              “October. Maybe around the tenth.”

              “Uh-huh,” the sergeant nodded and tucked the form into a folder. “And you didn’t think it was out of character for him to… go off just like that?”

              “For Rudy?” they answered in unison. “No!”

              “Well, we’ll call you if we hear anything.” Then she went back to her paperwork.

              “That’s it?” Lucy said in disbelief. “Aren’t you going to call… someone?”

              The gray eyes glanced up, and Lucy could have sworn she saw something unpleasant flicker in their watery depths. “What would you have us do? Drag out the hounds and send out the guard?” She gestured around with her pencil. “We have more important things to do. We’ll get to it when we get to it!’

              “Now, see here---!” Lucy sputtered in outrage and was suddenly grabbed by Alec who thanked the sergeant and quickly ushered her outside. “Let go of me!” she snapped, smacking his hands away. “Ooh! Rude much?” she shouted towards the building and stalked off to their car. 

              Alec checked the meter and unlocked the doors. “Get in, wife!” he ordered and watched as she slid into the seat, arms crossed like a petulant child. “Calm yourself, woman,” he said dryly and drove off. “Want to get something to eat?”

              “If that hussy hadn’t been wearing a uniform,” she grumbled, “I would have kicked her ass!”

              “I don’t doubt it, love.” He pulled into traffic and headed toward a familiar restaurant. “But I don’t think I want to visit you in jail.”

              Lucy hung her head in shame. “Why didn’t we report him sooner?”

              He sighed. “Don’t do that to yourself. I’m just as much to blame.”

              “I feel so guilty. We’re living in his house and he’s out there somewhere lying hurt or…worse.” She swiped a few tears away. “I’ll never forgive myself if something happened to him.”

              “You can’t think like that, Lucy,” Alec said, not knowing whom he was trying to convince. “We got caught up in Gavin and all that. It happens and he wasn’t exactly forthcoming himself.”

              “He wasn’t?”

              “Nope, he went off all by his little self and didn’t tell anybody where he was going or what to do if something like this happened.”

              She sighed warily and rolled down her window. “I suppose you’re right.”

              “If it’ll make you feel better, love,” he said, pulling up in front of an Italian restaurant. “I’ll get with Pat and see what he thinks of all this.”

              “What can he do?”

              “You’d be surprised, wife,” he grinned. “Now, let’s eat!”

 

              Later, they went to The Grove and looked at laptops as Alec thought it was high time his wife got her own.

              “But I don’t need a new laptop!” she protested amongst the expanse of glossy aluminum casings. “Why do a I need a new one when I can use yours?”

              “You’ll need one when and if you decide to go back to school,” he explained, hovering over an impressive 17-inch model with a price tag to match the gross domestic product of Taiwan. “What about this one?”

              “Who says I’m going back to school?” she muttered, wincing at the price tags. “I’m still paying off my college loans and you want me to buy a new laptop?” Lucy ambled over to the MP3 section and scanned the various makes and colors. She felt him beside her. “I’m not buying anything that costs as much as a small house!”

              “You’re being silly,” he chided softly and reached down to grasp her hand. “What about that dress you wore to Scarpetta’s?”

              “That’s different,” she said, flushing slightly. “I didn’t know how much it cost until they rang it up, and I’ll get years of wear out of it.”

              Alec eyed his wife dubiously until she rolled her eyes and dragged him out of the store. “Buy me some ice cream, English!” she demanded and he laughed, happy to placate his wife just this once.

              It was nearly five when they trudged through the door. Gavin and Pat were back from their day of fun and were obviously relieved when they saw them. “Where did you two get off to?” Pat demanded. “We were about to send out a search party!”

              Alec and Lucy collapsed onto the sofa and put their feet up on the coffee table. “We were at the police station trying to talk to Detective Brandon.”

              “Did you?”

              “No, we did not!” Lucy answered indignantly. “We had to sit and be grilled by some little shrew in a uniform. All they did was file a missing persons report.”

              Pat exchanged glances with Gavin who nodded at him. Gavin picked up the telephone and put in an order. “Well, we can talk about it after supper. How’s pizza sound?”

              They sighed and nodded and leaned their heads back, both suddenly assaulted by horrendous headaches. “Make it double cheese and pepperoni,” they mumbled in unison and closed their eyes.

              After polishing off most of four pies, Pat had a little talk with Alec. Lucy and Gavin had gone to bed. “Well, laddie, tell yer ole dad what happened.”

              Alec ran an agitated hand through his raven locks and felt for a sore spot at the back of his neck. It had been giving him hell all day. “We went to the library first and read through some old newspaper clippings.” He sighed raggedly. “Poor Rudy, he must have aged about fifty years after the first trial.”

              “Did you find anything new, though?”

              “Just the same old bullshit,” Alec held out his cup into which Pat poured a little whiskey. “I shouldn’t.”

              “You should and so should I.” Pat settled his bear-like frame into the wooden chair and leaned forward. “What about the police?”

              “About as useful as bedbugs!” Alec scoffed. “Lucy nearly throttled the chav, I had to drag her out of there before she ripped her head off.”

              Pat chuckled. “She’s a spitfire, that one.” He sipped his whiskey and tea thoughtfully. “What about this case he was working on?”

              Alec shrugged. “When we were hiding in Point Reyes, there were only a few people who knew where we were.”

              “And…?”

              “Rudy, for one. Me, Tia, and Detective Brandon.”

              “That’s a lot of people who had to keep a secret.”

              “Well, you can eliminate Rudy and Tia.”

              “And you.”

              “And me,” Alec said, rolling his eyes. “That left Brandon.”

              “And Rudy was going to see who the leaky bucket was, eh?”

              “Yeah, he was supposed to. He was acting a mite peculiar before he left.”

              Pat frowned and decided this was a case for his trusty Wensleydale. He rose and fetched some crackers and plates. He set them down and set to slicing his way through a wedge. “Go on.”

              “Well, we went for an early Thanksgiving supper and after, we were having coffee. I asked him who did he think the leak was and he dropped his cup and it shattered on the floor. I’d never seen him so discomposed.”

              “Might have known more than he was letting on, laddie.” Pat handed his son a plate full of crackers and cheese. “Where do you think he was off to?”

              “Don’t know,” Alec said through a mouthful of Wensleydale. “We ought to ask Tia. Maybe he said something to her.”

              “Could be.”

              Alec eyed his stepdad closely. Pat’s face was unusually pensive. The old noggin was gearing up for something. “What are you thinking, dad?”

              “Don’t know,” Pat’s huge shoulders moved slightly. “It doesn’t feel right. Him going off like that and not telling anyone where or why. He would have been back by now.” He polished off his plate and Alec’s as well. “We ought to get his cell phone records and any credit card purchases he might have made.”

              “I was thinking the same thing.”

              Pat grinned at his son and tapped his glass to his. “It’s on then!”

              “I guess so,” Alec muttered to himself. “I’d better tell Lucy.”

              “Why?”

              “Because she’ll have me head on a platter if I don’t, not to mention other body parts!”

              Pat guffawed at that and nodded. “Now you know what being married is like! ‘Bout time you joined the club, laddie!’

              “It’s not such a bad club to belong to,” Alec said, flushing a bit under Pat’s knowing gaze. “Stop grinning like that or I’ll tell mum all about these Wensleydale orgies!”

              His stepfather paled; Maggie had had him on a diet for years, concerned he was overweight. Try as he might, he could not give up his beloved Wensleydale. “Now, laddie,” the man cajoled. “You don’t want to do that! I’ll behave.”

              “You better,” Alec warned and took the plates and cups to the sink. “I’d better turn in. I have a feeling it’s going to be a long day tomorrow.”

              “Goodnight, laddie,” Pat smiled and watched Alec’s tall form disappear down the hall. But he didn’t go to bed. He whipped out his phone and made a few calls. It would be well into morning before he finally got some sleep.

             

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Thirty-Six

 

 

 

One of the hardest things about having your family live with you was the lack of privacy. Though Alec was chuffed about having Gavin and Pat in the house, he and Lucy were finding out how very difficult it was to maintain an active sex life. The walls were paper-thin and Gavin was right in the next room. They’d had to sneak down to the beach and make love in a sleeping bag. Alec was certain the damn thing was merely an evil device invented by a madman in which one would slowly suffocate.

              “Stop!” Lucy giggled as he nuzzled her neck. “It’s not that bad!” They had taken the sleeping bag out near the washed up dinghy and climbed in with Alec fulminating about the travesty of not being able to make love in a proper bed. “Oh!” she gasped as his mouth found a nipple. It had been nearly two weeks since they’d last been together, and Lucy was famished for his touch. Her hands slid into his hair and cradled his head to her.

              “My love,” he breathed, drawing the sensitive peak into his mouth and suckling her gently. His hands slid down over her flat belly and down a slender thigh to the hem of her nightgown. “Take this off,” he pleaded hoarsely and held his breath when she obliged, nearly poking his eye out with her elbow. He fumbled with his pajama pants and flung them aside. Alec clasped her to him hungrily. It had been too damn long since he’d felt that silken flesh against his own. He groaned as her taut little nipples pressed into his chest, and he seated himself between her thighs. He gasped at the feel of her, hot and damp against him.

              “My English,” she murmured, pressing softly heated kisses against his mouth and throat. “I love you so.” Lucy allowed her hands to slide down over his satiny flesh, shyly brushing her fingers against his nipples, down his hard belly, and following the crisp smattering of hair down to his engorged cock. Her hand closed gently around him, and he let out a shuddering gasp as he plunged his sex into hers. Her soft cry mingled with his, and she winced as he filled and stretched her snug flesh. But just as suddenly as the discomfort emerged, it vanished and became a slow throbbing ache, deep inside. “Oh my, is that for me?” she breathed against his lips and wiggled beneath him, gasping as he sank even deeper.

              Alec chuckled against her mouth and held her tightly to him, allowing his tongue to ravish hers while her body got used to him again. He could feel her flesh stretching, widening to accommodate his girth, and he began to stroke gently. “All right?’ he whispered against her lips.

              She sighed with pleasure and tightened her arms around him. “Yes!” Lucy closed her eyes and arched her hips into his frenetic thrusts. He felt good and right; so deep and hot inside her. She didn’t think she’d ever get enough as she rose up against him, gasping in delight as he plunged into her again and again.               His mouth was hot and demanding against hers and she returned his fevered kisses, telling him how much she wanted him. He groaned and caressed her cheek and buried his face against her throat. His ragged breaths scalded sensitive skin and sent rapturous currents of excitement down her spine. “Alec!” she sobbed, feeling the excruciating turmoil within; it was building into something monstrous and she wasn’t certain she’d survive the ensuing flood.

              “Come with me, wife,” he whispered raggedly in her ear. “I won’t let go.”

              Lucy shook her head, feeling his body quivering beneath her hands and suddenly without warning, it slammed into her like the pounding waves roaring in her ears. Her mouth opened on a sob and his mouth swooped down, taking it onto his tongue and giving her his cries in return. Alec groaned and shuddered in her arms, thrusting frantically into her, and felt as if he were being torn asunder, the release was so intense.

              His body settled heavily onto hers as their breathing slowly quieted. He could feel her hands---gentle and sweet---stroking over his body and down his back. “Wife,” he murmured happily and kissed her neck, inhaling the intoxicating scent of salt water and roses.

              “Husband,” she whispered back and kissed his chin, sighing as his lips caressed hers. “Was I too loud?” Lucy asked shyly. His body shook with suppressed laughter.

              “No more than usual,” he quipped, and uttered a squawk of pain when she pinched him lightly on the bum. “Hey, wife! Watch where you put that thing!”

              “You were saying…?”

              “I could ask you the same thing,” he countered. “Was I too loud?”

              She pulled his head down to hers and kissed his nose lightly. “No more than usual.” Lucy stifled a shriek when he lightly nipped her earlobe. “That tickles!”

              “Serves you right,” he said huskily, grinding his hips sensuously against hers. “Take it back.”

              “Never!” she gasped and drew his head down to hers.

             

* * *

 

              The police never called back, and Pat decided it was time to take matters into their own hands. “If they won’t help, then we’ll do it ourselves!” he declared one day out of the blue. “Can’t trust these Yanks to do a decent job anyway.”

              “Hey!” Lucy said, slightly offended. “I heard that!”

              “Sorry, lassie,” Pat said ruefully. “But you’re family. That doesn’t apply to you.”

              “Oh well, I suppose I should take that as a complement… I guess.” She busied herself with mashing potatoes for a shepherd’s pie. Lucy peered into the living room, where the men aside from Gavin, were gathered amongst piles of phone and credit card records, searching for anything that might be deemed as suspicious. “Find anything?”

              Alec was highlighting several phone numbers that were traced to a motel in Tucson. Pat poured over credit card purchases made two weeks after Rudy’s disappearance. Some of the purchases were for food and gas out of state, but one purchase had him over a barrel. When he called the number, the credit card company had informed him it had come from a sporting goods store in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Now, what would the old boy be doing all the way out there?

              “Nothing yet!” Alec fibbed and gulped when his wife narrowed her eyes in suspicion. But she said nothing and went back to mashing potatoes. He lowered his voice and said to Pat, “What do you think?”

              “I think the old boy bit off more than he could chew.”

              “How do you want to handle it?”

              “I’ll let you know in the morning,” Pat whispered back and flashed an innocent smile at his daughter-in-law, who was eying the both of them like the co-conspirators that they were. “Is supper ready yet?”

              “It’ll be about an hour.” She tucked the baking dish into the oven and practically slammed the door. Who did they think they were fooling? They’d have to get up pretty early in the morning to pull one over on her. “But I’m sure you boys can find something to…amuse yourselves.”  Lucy flounced out of the kitchen and went to see what Gavin was up to. At least he didn’t try to shut you out.

              Alec winced. “She knows!”

              “Of course she does.”

              “Well?”

              “Well what?”

              “What are you going to do about it?”

              Pat tucked the sheaf of paper on the table into a folder and set it aside. Then he picked up the remote and started channel surfing. He glanced at Alec, who was giving him the evil eye. “Relax, laddie!” he soothed. “You let your old dad handle this.” His meaty fingers finally settled on a sports channel. “Look,” he said, with a nod towards the screen, “Rooney’s gonna make it this time!” He rose up and cheered as the young man scored a goal and the stadium roared in agreement. But when he looked back at Alec, he was gone.

 

* * *

              “I still don’t see why I can’t go with you,” Lucy grumbled as they stowed their gear into the small camper that Alec had rented for the cross-country trip. He and Pat had decided that the best thing to do was disguise themselves as a couple of blokes on a fishing holiday and retrace Rudy’s steps, starting in Arizona.

              “Because I said so, that’s why!” her husband replied firmly and tossed a fishing rod on top of the tent they’d decided to bring; just in case they had to rough it.
              “And you’re going to have time to catch a few fishies while you’re playing Columbo?”

              Alec turned towards his wife, who had decided to be disagreeable this cold November morning. He went to her and tried to take her in his arms, but she wasn’t having it. She’d crossed her arms over her chest and seemed to be questioning his sanity by the way she was glaring at him. “Come on, love, “ he cajoled,  “don’t be like that. I need you here in case something turns up.”

              “That’s not why!” she cried, and looked close to tears. “I wouldn’t get in the way.”

              He decided to risk bodily injury and wrapped his arms around her. “I know you wouldn’t, but I’ll feel better knowing you’re here in case things get hairy.”

              “Oh?” She wouldn’t look at him and busied herself with studying the zipper on his jacket.  “You know more than you’re letting on.”

              “Perhaps,” he murmured and tilted her chin up. “Look at me, Lucy.”

              “No.” Her lower lip began trembling.

              “Please,” he said hoarsely and touched his lips to her brow. The scar was just now beginning to fade.

              Lucy finally glanced up and saw his eyes were just as watery and she uncrossed her arms and flung them around him, hugging him tightly to her as if she would never see him again.  “It’s just…I’ll miss you, English.”

              His arms tightened around her as he said huskily, “I wish you’d been there to send me off to Afghanistan.”

              She tried to laugh, but it came out as a wet croak. Lucy pressed her face into his chest, inhaling in his signature scent of aftershave and fabric softener. “Be glad I wasn’t,” she joked. “They would have had to sedate me and cart me off the tarmac.”

              “I wouldn’t have minded.” Alec rubbed soothing circles against her back. “If it makes you feel any better, I won’t be able to sleep a wink.”

              “That’s a sweet thing to say.”

              “Not really,” he chuckled, and tilted her chin up to kiss her mouth. “Pat snores.”

              “Oh, you!” she laughed and punched his arm playfully. Lucy sobered slightly and peered up at her husband, reaching up with trembling fingers to smooth his roughened cheeks. His blue eyes gleamed mischievously at her, and she was suddenly reminded of the fact she would have to sleep alone tonight.  “I’ll have to sleep with the lights on.”

              “And I’ll have to sleep with a pillow over me head!” He laughed and made a face.

              “It can’t be that bad!”

              “Oh no? Ever hear a C-5 Galaxy on takeoff?”

              “No.”

              “Well, combine that with the sound of an angry rhinoceros and you get Pat sleeping.”

              “You’re being facetious.”

              “I’m not!” he said, shaking his head and glancing up to see Pat stomping out of the house; his arms full of boxes of crackers and his prized Wensleydale. “Got enough cheese, dad?” he quipped, as his stepfather struggled to load the stuff into the camper.

              “Don’t ye start, laddie!” Pat growled. “I got enough of a lecture from yer brother!” he nodded towards the house where Gavin emerged, struggling with the sleeping bags and chairs they’d elected to bring.

              Gavin came up huffing and puffing and flung the things onto the heap of stuff already piled in the camper. “Gee, dad,” he grumbled, “I’m so glad you didn’t want to put your back out.”

              Pat roared with laughter and slapped Gavin on the back. “You need some exercise, laddie! Look at you!”

              Gavin rolled his eyes. “I’m in better shape than you, you old bear! Wait till mum finds out what you’ve been up to.”

              “And who’s going to tell ‘er?”

              “I don’t know.” Gavin shrugged with a decidedly innocent look on his handsome face. “Maybe someone who doesn’t like getting up at the crack of dawn will tell her all about your little affair!”

              “What affair?” Pat blustered, as his ruddy cheeks took on the color of enraged beets. “I’ve never so much as looked cross-eyed at another woman!”

              “Who said anything about women?” Gavin said maliciously. “I’m talking about the cheese!”

              They all burst out laughing at this and Pat grabbed his youngest and put him in a playful headlock. “You’re not too old to put over me knee, laddie!”

              “Aw, dad!” Gavin protested, pushing at Pat’s enormous arms. “She’ll find out sooner or later, won’t she Alec?”

              “Sure,” his brother drawled. “Wait till she sees him being rolled off the runway. How many stone have you gained, dad?”

              Pat ignored the question as he let Gavin go and turned to Alec. He took something from his pocket and gave it to Lucy. “Take this, lassie.”

              She took the small key and turned it over in her hand. “What’s this?”

              “We want you and Gavin to go up to the house and stay there while we sort things out.”

              Lucy peered up at her husband, who nodded his agreement. “Why? You don’t think it’s safe here?”

              Alec curled her fingers around the metal. “I’ll feel better knowing you’re up there. It’s too isolated here.” He glanced around. It was a miserably overcast day with chilly, damp winds, and the ocean a capricious shade of dull ash. “I want you around lots of people.”

              “We could stay at Rudy’s,” she offered, not seeing the logic at having to go all that way. “He just had that new security system installed.”

              Alec frowned at his wife. “But I thought you didn’t want to go back there.”

              She shrugged. “I’ll never be comfortable there, but at least he tried to make it like Fort Knox.”

              Pat was adamant. “No, lassie. You and Gavin head on up there and stay put till we get back. That’s an order!” He reached into his coat pocket and produced two plane tickets. “Here,” he said, handing them to her. “You fly out tomorrow and drive up to me place. I stocked the kitchen and put in a new tub.”

              She glanced at the tickets. First-class. Pat didn’t mess around. “Okay,” she relented finally and handed Gavin his ticket. “How long should we figure on staying?”

              “Until you get a call from us saying it’s all clear, I guess,” Alec said, tucking a stray lock of her hair behind her ear. He was loath to leave her, but he knew she could take care of herself. He leaned down and whispered in her ear. “I left something for you under the bed.” Her eyes widened, but she nodded and walked him to the passenger side of the camper. Alec held her close and kissed her wildly and then set her from him and climbed up into his seat. “Don’t talk to anyone!” he instructed as Pat slid in beside him.

              Lucy joined Gavin on the other side of the vehicle as Pat started the engine. He slid a brotherly arm around her shoulders and hugged her close. “Don’t worry, sis,” he said, his voice catching a little. “They know what they’re doing.”

              Tears filled her eyes and her fingers touched her lips where they still tingled from her husband’s kiss. She watched with a heavy heart as Pat maneuvered the camper out of the driveway and onto the road. They waved at them until the back of the camper became a tiny dot in the distance. Then they were alone in the morning chill, the wind shrieking about them as if mocking their grief.  “Want to get breakfast?” Lucy asked her brother-in-law, not wanting to go back to the empty house just yet.

              He smiled down at her, and Lucy was startled at how much he resembled Alec at that moment. “Only if you’re buying.”

              She groaned and rolled her eyes at him. “Sure, just try and leave some pancakes for me.”

 

              They drove to a local pancake house and stuffed themselves until they were close to bursting. Lucy was astounded at the amount of food Gavin tucked away. She hadn’t had much of an appetite but forced herself to down the pancakes and scrambled eggs, knowing Alec would want her to eat. She finished her meal with a cup of tea and sipped while Gavin moved on to his third stack.

              Lucy studied him while he munched happily away. He seemed to have recovered nicely since that awful night. His shoulder had healed, and he spent his days catching up on the ten years he’d lost. Though only twenty-four, he acted more like an adolescent, staying up at all hours of the night playing video games, and sleeping all day. She was of the mind that he was depressed. And he hadn’t wanted to leave the house. He seemed afraid that Harvey would somehow track him down and drag him back to his old life.

              “Have you heard from Connie?” she ventured instead. He’d talk when he was ready.

              He forked a huge mouthful of pancakes and bacon into his mouth and chewed. After he’d washed it down with milk, he answered: “I got a letter from her a few days ago. She’s in one of those shelters.”

              “How is she?”

              Gavin swiped his mouth with a napkin and nodded. “She’s doing okay, I guess. She’s going to school and everything.” He scooped up some bacon and scrambled eggs. “She writes a nice letter,” he said after swallowing.

              “She does?”

              He pinkened slightly under Lucy’s knowing gaze. “She’s just a friend!”

              “I didn’t say anything.” She smiled and sipped her tea. “But it’s good to see you two keep in touch. She needs a friend and so do you.”

              “I’m just fine!” He retorted and polished off his plate. “She’s lonely.”

              “I know how that feels.”

              “It’s a shame we couldn’t visit.”

              “Eustacia didn’t think it was safe. They’re still looking for her.”

              Gavin pushed his empty plate aside and sat back. “How long have you and Alec been married?” he asked, changing the subject to something more pleasant.

              “Eight and a half months I guess. We got married in March.”

              “So how did you manage to snare my brother?”

              “I won him in Vegas!” she giggled and burst out laughing at Gavin’s confused look. “It’s a long story.”

              He leaned forward, barely glancing at the waitress who came to take their plates. The poor girl took one look at Gavin’s deep aqua eyes, sensuous mouth, cleft chin, and was lost forever. “So, tell me all about it.”

              Lucy wasn’t sure she wanted to burden him with all the sordid details, but when she started, she couldn’t stop. It was almost a purging. When she mentioned Vivian, Gavin scrunched his face up into a disgusted grimace. “She’s your stepmother?” When she nodded, he scowled. “My condolences.”

              “How do you know Viv?”

              “Don’t ask!” he pursed his mouth in disdain and gave a little shudder. “She’s the biggest whore in Hollywood.”

              “At the Halloween party, she talked about you as if she knew you.”

              “Yeah? Well, she shouldn’t flatter herself.”

              “What did she do to you?”

              “It’s not what she did to me, it’s what she tried to do to me.”

              “Oh…?” Lucy wasn’t sure she wanted to hear this. “Go on.”

              “She tried to rape me in the ladies’ loo at a pre-Oscar party a few years ago.” He took a swig of his coffee and winced at the stuff. “I’d just made my first movie and Harvey thought it would be great if I got out and mingled with the locals.”

              Lucy was horrified. “How old were you?”

              “Barely eighteen.”

              “That bitch!” she swore, to which he chuckled. “What did you do?”

              He shrugged and lowered his voice as several families came in, some bearing children. “I tried to explain as nicely as I could that I didn’t want any. She’s got quite the reputation and I hadn’t had my shots.”

              “That’s true,” Lucy snickered and flushed slightly. Poor Gavin. “Then what?”

              “Well, she practically tore me kit off and I had to kick her off and ask some lady for her mink coat. It was very embarrassing.” He sighed and shook his head at the memory of standing in the cold with nothing but a mink loincloth to protect his modesty. “I nearly caught pneumonia and had to beg some guy to drive me home.”

              Lucy smiled sympathetically. “That’s nothing compared to finding her coiled around my father like a snake, which led to my mother’s suicide, and then finding her wrapped around my fiancé.”

              “Your fiancé…?” His eyes were wide saucers. “But I thought Alec--”

              “I told you,” she sighed as they got up to leave, “it’s a long story.” Lucy paid the bill and walked out with Gavin to the car. A steady drizzle was fast on its way to becoming a full-fledged downpour. They buckled themselves in, and Lucy had an idea. “Let’s go shopping!”

              “What for?”

              She pulled out of the parking lot and headed towards the mall. “You need some new clothes.”

              “I have clothes,” he said as he fiddled with the radio. “I can wear Alec’s.”

              “Don’t you want something of your own?”

              “It doesn’t really matter,” Gavin said, shrugging. “But if it’ll make you happy, so be it.”

              She smiled and turned on the windshield wipers. “I’ll buy you a new videogame,” she wheedled. “That one where all the dead bodies reanimate and try to kill you.”

              “Now, you’re talking!” He grinned boyishly, revealing an adorable set of dimples, and drummed his fingers on the armrest to the rhythm of The Clash.

 

              Gavin perused the endless racks of novelty T-shirts with something akin to boredom. But his sister-in-law was determined to clothe him like a child, holding up various garments up to him to gage his size, and tossing the selections into a basket. While he may have been bored out of his skull, he was more concerned that someone would recognize him. He’d found a baseball cap in the backseat and put it on, hoping no one would notice an ex-porn star shopping at a discount department store. “I’m going to look at the video games,” he told Lucy and beat a hasty retreat towards the electronics section.

              “Wait!” Lucy huffed and tossed a package of socks into her basket. “Men!” she muttered to herself and finished picking out a few changes of clothes for him. She felt like she was shopping for a child, and in a way, she was. He’d hardly glanced at the garments she’d picked out for him and seemed nervous about something. Though she and Alec had reassured Gavin that he didn’t have to worry about Harvey anymore since he’d been a minor when he signed the so-called contract, it didn’t stop him from looking over his shoulder. He’d even refused to go back to his apartment afraid that Harvey and the Tree would be waiting for him. Shaking her head, she picked out a few books for herself and went to stock up on towels and toiletries.

              Gavin hitched up Alec’s jeans for the hundredth time that day and scanned the aisles for the newest and bloodiest games. Harvey hadn’t allowed him to indulge in his favorite pastime, deeming it a waste of time and money, so Gavin was trying to play catch-up. He’d found a few he thought were promising and was about to leave, when he spotted them. Two teenage girls were giving him the eye. They couldn’t be more than fifteen-years-old. One was a plump little blonde and her friend, a freckled-faced brunette. For a moment he wasn’t quite sure that they were looking at him. He glanced behind him and around and finally pointed at himself with increasing dread. They nodded and giggled. Neither one had the decency to blush in embarrassment. To his everlasting horror, they were actually leering at him! Gavin felt sick. When he’d gone into porn, he hadn’t thought much about whom, what, or how. He’d only thought about putting a roof over his head and having enough money to feed himself. So now it had come to this…

              Such shame and remorse flooded his soul at that moment that he dropped the video game cases he was carrying and ran out of the store. He didn’t look back.

              Lucy was approaching the electronics section when she saw Gavin hurrying out of the store with a stricken look on his face. There’d been such a look of pained anguish on his handsome features that she left the basket in an aisle and hurried after him. She found him in the parking lot, hunched over with his hands on his thighs, retching. “Gavin!” she cried out and went to him. She rubbed his back as he discarded his breakfast next to a beat-up Mustang. “What happened?” she asked once his stomach was empty.

              He held up a hand and then to add insult to injury, it began to rain. “They were… looking at…me,” he gasped, grabbing the handkerchief she held out. He wiped his face and stood upright, leaning against the car as Lucy unlocked the doors. She hustled him into his seat and went to her side and slid in. “I need to lie down,” he muttered. He glanced at her and to her credit she didn’t press him for more information.

              Gavin was grateful for her silence while she drove them home. Once there, he headed for his room and collapsed into bed, pulling the quilt over his head. Lucy let him rest for a bit and then she came to give him a glass of water and something to calm his stomach. She placed a cool cloth on his forehead and flitted out as softly as she came. He sighed, feeling as if he were five again with his mum coming to comfort him after he’d been sick at school. He closed his eyes and fell into a deep sleep.

             

              Lucy woke him up later for a light supper of chicken soup and sandwiches. Then she let him play his video games while she packed. He still hadn’t lost that green about the gills pallor, and she figured he’d tell her when he was ready. She could only imagine what had upset him so horribly. Alone in her room, she never felt the absence of her husband more acutely than she did now. Without Alec and Pat’s witty banter to fill up the small house, the silence was both eerie and deafening. She kept checking her phone, but Alec hadn’t sent her any messages. But she figured it was time to see what sort of present he’d left for her under their bed.

              She bent down and lifted the bed skirt. There was a large package wrapped neatly in newspaper. Sitting down on the bed, Lucy untied the string and found Alec had left her quite the going-away present. In the bundle were several hundred dollars, credit cards, and for the piece de resistance, Alec’s pistol and several clips of ammunition. She stared at it in shock and quickly put it away. Now, what on earth had her dear husband been thinking? A gun? He knew how she felt about the things. It was her turn to get sick, so she had to lie down and think about the ramifications of being armed and dangerous.

              She didn’t like where this was heading. Lucy heard Gavin calling her and she told him she was lying down. “In here,” she called.

              “What happened, sis?” He glanced around at the clothes strewn about on the floor. “A tornado hit?”

              “Very funny,” Lucy said dryly and sat up. “Alec left me a little present for our trip.”

              “Oh?”

              “Yeah,” she said glumly, pointing to where she’d stowed the weapon. “He left me a gun.”

              The smile slid off Gavin’s face. “You’re joking!”

              “I wish I were,” she sighed and got up to finish packing her suitcase. “Better pack what you can, we have to leave at 8 a.m. sharp.”

              “Will do,” he said as he made to leave and paused at the door. “Are you all right?”

              “Me?” Lucy folded some jeans and tucked them under a sweater. “I’m just peachy!”

              He didn’t particularly care for the ghostly shade of pale her face was becoming. Though Alec had told him Lucy was more than capable of defending herself, he’d made it quite clear he’d have no qualms about wearing Gavin’s intestines as a charm bracelet should anything happen to his wife. “You don’t have to pack all that stuff, we can buy what we need, no?” She nodded and pushed the suitcase aside. “Go to sleep, sis,” he said and watched as she turned off all the lights save one. She left the bedside lamp on.

              He didn’t close the door all the way and decided to stay up a little longer; Gavin had the feeling that Alec would have wanted him to.

              They woke the next morning and drove to the airport; both of them the worse for wear as neither had gotten a good night’s sleep. Both he and Lucy were numb to the pat downs they received through security and gladly boarded the plane for the short trip to San Francisco.

 

              Pat let out a startled snort as the camper rattled with the violent aftershocks of a passing artic. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and stretched, wincing as he tried to straighten out his long legs and bumped up against the floorboard instead. They were driving along a desolate stretch of desert between Tucson and Las Cruces.

              They’d arrived shortly before sunset in a city that looked like something out of an episode of Gunsmoke. Well, at least to his eyes anyway. The only trace of Rudy they could find was at some decrepit petrol station off the main highway. And the only employee in attendance---a short little man with a bad combover---only mentioned Rudy after they pulled out a couple of twenties. After that, Pat had turned the reins over to Alec and tried to grab a much-needed nap. Suddenly he was nearly thrown to the floor by a horrendous vibration followed by a loud explosion. Alec swore and whipped the wheel around violently as the vehicle swerved off the road. They came to an abrupt stop and Pat was flung forward in his seat; if it hadn’t been for his seatbelt he might have gone through the windshield. “What the hell…?”

              “Tire blew,” Alec informed him, shutting off the engine. He unfastened his belt and hopped out. They were out in the middle of nowhere, in the dark, and in the middle of a desert where the temperature was falling…fast. He shone the flashlight toward the right rear tire and saw where the rubber had burst. There would be no patch job. The whole tire was shredded beyond repair. “Hey, dad!” he shouted above the wind. “Did you pack that radio?” They were going to need a tow.

              Pat came stomping towards him, grumbling under his breath and swore viciously when he saw the shredded remnants of the tire. “How did that happen?”

              “Here,” Alec handed Pat the flashlight and crouched down. “It looks like an IED hit the bloody thing!” He stood up and huddled deeper into his jacket. Icy fingers of wind ruffled his hair and sent chills down his spine. “Someone must have left something in the road, maybe from a lorry or something.”

              Pat crouched down himself to inspect the damage. Whatever hit the tire, it had done its work. They were stuck, at least until they could get someone out here to tow them back into town. “Well, laddie,” Pat snorted and shoved the flashlight back at Alec, “we’d better hunker down for the night. It’s going to be a cold one.”

              Alec whipped out his phone and tried to call Lucy, but there was no reception out here. He only hoped she and Gavin were having better luck than they were.

             

 

             

             

             

 

 

 

             

             

 

             

 

Chapter Thirty-seven

             

 

 

Gavin turned the key in the lock and opened the door. Home sweet home, or something like that. He didn’t know where Pat had gotten this old relic. It looked like something that barely survived the 1906 earthquake. He tossed his duffle onto the floor in disgust and went to help Lucy.

              She hurried in and set her small overnight bag and backpack on the sofa. Then she flopped down into an overstuffed chair and put her feet up. While the plane ride had been mildly pleasant, she was exhausted from having gotten no sleep the night before. Her mind had been too busy thinking about Rudy and whatever Alec and Pat might find. Now that she was again ensconced in Pat’s house, she felt she could allow herself the luxury of sleep.

              Gavin flopped down beside her and turned on the TV. “Should we eat or should we sleep?” he asked as he flipped through the channels. “You hardly ate anything.”

              “You sound like Alec,” she laughed warily and sighed. “I think I want a nap.” Lucy got up and made for the stairs. “Behave now,” she admonished and went to find the bed.
              Gavin laughed and waved at her as he found a horror movie channel and raided the kitchen. He settled happily amongst the cushions, munching on popcorn, and watched as some lunatic tried to carve up a fat man who looked a lot like Harvey.

              It was near dusk when Lucy finally roused from her nap. She got up and went into the small bathroom and splashed some water on her face. There were dark circles under her eyes and small lines around her mouth that hadn’t been there yesterday. Too much worry and not enough sleep. She ran a comb through her hair and looked on with amusement at the small tub that Pat had installed. At least it was an improvement from that rust bowl she and Alec had tried to bathe in the last time they were here. 

              She wondered idly what kind of trouble Gavin had gotten into while she slept. But as she made her way downstairs and into the living room, she saw that aside from empty chip bags and sofa cushions on the floor, most of the room was intact. “Gavin,” she called and found him in the kitchen taking something out of the microwave. He turned around and gave her a lopsided smile.

              “We’re having macaroni and cheese for dinner,” Gavin said, and set the container on the table. “Pat must have thought he was stocking up for a zombie apocalypse,” he quipped,  “the freezer is chock-full of this stuff.”

              “Well, he said he’d stocked the kitchen,” she said wryly and got plates. She set the table with forks and napkins and went to see what they had to drink. The refrigerator was stuffed with cans of soda and iced tea, thank goodness. She gathered glasses and filled them with ice. “So, what have you been up to?”

              He handed her a loaf of bread and sat down across from her. “Did you know you could decapitate someone with an end table?”

              “What…?” Lucy had been about to take a mouthful of the gooey concoction, but it slid off her fork and onto her plate, splattering her blouse. “And where did you come by this…information?” She snatched a napkin and tried to blot up the mess. “Should you be watching these sort of…movies?”

              He chuckled and nearly choked on a piece of bread. Lucy was looking at him like she’d love to have him committed. “It’s not what you think,” he rushed to explain before she notified the Whoopee Squad. “I’m sort of studying,” he said, scratching his nose and eliciting a grin from his sister-in-law. “I…um…I’d like to do special effects.”

              “Really?” she said, relieved and tucked into her lukewarm macaroni. “Then why did y---?”

              “Why didn’t I get into that instead of taking my kit off?”

              “Um…well,” Lucy glanced up at him, blushing profusely. It was none of her business. “I-I didn’t mean to…”

              “Oh, that’s all right, sis,” he laughed and handed her another slice of bread. “It just sort of happened, like a happy accident.” Gavin made a face and helped himself to another scoop of mac and cheese. “You know I ran away at fourteen, right?”

              She nodded and sipped her tea.

              “Well, let’s just say the years between 14 and 19 were a bit of a blur.” Gavin wasn’t certain how much Lucy knew about his former life of turning tricks, but she was listening patiently with her lovely brown eyes making no judgments. “I wandered here and there until a friend of mine decided to head to L.A., and I decided to hitch a ride with him across the pond.” He stopped and decided he didn’t want anymore mac and pushed his half-eaten plate away. “No one ever tells you that when you get there, that you ought to have a plan.”

              “Why? What happened?”

              “What didn’t happen!” he said bitterly. “We had no place to stay. The bloke we were supposed to stay with had left town, and we were forced to spend the first night in a shelter. It was humiliating, not to mention dangerous.”

              “Why didn’t you call home?”

              “Oh…” he grumbled and poured himself another soda. “I wish I had. I just couldn’t bear to see dad with that look on his face and wagging his finger in my face, telling me he’d told me so.”

              “How’d you meet the toady?”

              Gavin had a good laugh at that. Alec was right; she was funny. “Is that what you call Harvey?”

              “Yeah,” she said through a mouthful of bread and butter. “I’d say something else, but my mother raised me to be a lady.”

              “Go on, say it!” he urged. “He’s that and then some. But I didn’t meet good ol’ Harv until two years later. Up until then, I did a lot of things I’m not proud of. I turned tricks, mostly to pay on this squalid room I was renting. Sometimes if I was lucky…they would take me home…and feed me…and give me a change of clothes…” 

              He stopped to see what her reaction would be to the fact that he’d had to suck cock for a living. But when he looked into her eyes, they were soft with unshed tears and compassion. He didn’t know why he was so surprised. Harvey had drilled it into his head so many times that if anyone he loved ever found out he’d prostituted himself for money, they would hate him. “Don’t cry, sis,” he said, as she began to weep for him. He rose and went to her, patting her arm awkwardly. “I-It’s not as bad as it sounds, really.” Then to his horror, her nose started bleeding! Gavin grabbed a napkin and put it to her nose. He seemed to remember something Alec had told him about what happened when Lucy got upset. “Oh…um…don’t do that!” he said, glancing about helplessly. “I’m sorry,” he said lamely. “I shouldn’t have told you. Alec said this would happen.”

              Lucy held the napkin to her nose and pinched the nostrils together. Poor Gavin was looking a fright with all the blood drained from his face. He’d been confiding in her and this had to happen! “It’s okay,” she said, her voice muffled. “It happens sometimes. It’s not your fault. Go on.”

              “You don’t really want me to continue?”

              “Oh, sure…spill your guts! Then I’ll let you beat me at that new game you’ve been playing.” She eyed him quizzically. “You brought it didn’t you?”

              “H-Huh?” he said stupidly and then recovered himself. “I did.” The bleeding seemed to stop just as suddenly as it began and Gavin was a little shell-shocked. “You’re s-sure you wouldn’t like to lie down first?”

              “Oh, stop!” she said, and tossed the napkin into the trash. “I’m fine. How can you be a special effects artist if blood makes you queasy?”

              “That’s different!” he said, slightly offended at her implication that he was a spineless jellyfish. “There’s a difference between fake and real!”

              “There sure is.”

              “And blood doesn’t make me queasy!”

              “Oh, I believe you.”

              “Uh-huh.” Gavin toyed with his napkin before continuing his story. “Well, I’d just finished with this one gent in Skid Row one night and Harvey rode up---don’t ask me what he was doing there--- and said he was looking for some guys to appear at a party he was throwing. The rest is history…if I can say that.”

              “But, I thought you said your first movie was at 19,” she frowned. “What were you doing until then?”

              Gavin blanched and looked down in embarrassment. “Harvey had me…um…servicing his…um… friends. I was a teenage sex toy.”

              “I’m sorry,” she said quietly, wishing she could take it all back. “Does Alec know?”

              “Only what you heard through the door that night. I didn’t have the heart to tell him the rest. Please don’t say…anything to him.”

              “And Pat?”

              “He knows…but not everything.” He rose and put the rest of the mac and cheese in the refrigerator and cleared the table. “I think he’s better off not knowing, don’t you?”

              Lucy stared at the tall young man clad in his brother’s shirt and jeans that were way too big for him and decided she’s take it with her to her grave. “Your secret is safe with me,” she swore.

              “We should shake on it,” he grinned and spat into his palm. “Shake,” he said and held it out.

              “Ugh,” she grimaced as their slimy palms slapped together in a bond of friendship. “But what if Alec asks? I don’t like to keep secrets from him.”

              “You can tell him when we’re both old and gray. Until then, you have to keep my secret. You already shook on it.”

              “All right,” she agreed, albeit reluctantly and changed the subject to something more pleasant. “What do we have for dessert?”

              Alec had also warned him she had a fierce sweet tooth. “I think there’s some cookies,” he muttered as he fetched a package from the cabinet. “Pecan shortbread.”

              “Gimme!” she said eagerly, reaching for the package and tore into one. “Now, about that game…”

 

              They played some bloody and uberviolent game that took place in outer space. Lucy was certain she’d have nightmares for a month about reanimated corpses trying to impale her with claws made from their own spines. Gavin beat her, of course. It was well after midnight when they finally tired of game playing and fell asleep in the living room: she on the sofa; he on the floor. The TV had been left on and droned quietly in the background.

              Neither one heard the front door being tested, nor did they hear the frustrated oaths uttered when the knob wouldn’t budge. The shadowy figure skulked off and tore down the steps knocking over a trashcan in their haste; the loud reverberations woke up several dogs nearby. Enraged howls echoed throughout the darkened streets, and a promise was made: they would be back.

 

              Gavin woke the next morning to find Lucy outside; knee deep in putrid muck and wearing a pair of rubber gloves to scoop up what was left by the neighborhood strays. “Need some help, sis?” he called out to her. Her dark head snapped up, and she waved to him with a little smile. Gavin could see why his brother was so smitten. He tugged on an old pair of sneakers and retrieved a broom and dustpan from the kitchen.

              The sun was shining brightly this November morning with no hint of the wintry weather that was pummeling the rest of the country. Gavin tied a bandana over his face to filter out the nauseating stench of banana peels and rotting chicken carcasses. His sister-in-law had no such problems and happily bent over the foul-smelling miasma like she was tending a rose garden. It took them an hour to scrape up the mess, put it into garbage bags, and hose down the street. When they were finished, Lucy raced into the house to beat him to a hot shower while Gavin contented himself with reruns on the telly while he waited.               When she was finished, she called to him and he raced upstairs to wash the stench off.

              Now that they were both clean, Lucy offered to take Gavin out for a spot of lunch and shopping for new clothes. He didn’t know why he needed new clothes when Alec’s fit him just fine, even if they were two sizes too big.  “I don’t think so,” he said, whilst munching on stale popcorn and washing it down with soda. “We’ll save money by not shopping.”

              “Oh, stop!” Lucy groaned in exasperation and tugged a brush through her damp hair, tying it back with a colorful scarf. “It’ll do you good to get out and get some sun.”

              He put his feet up on the coffee table and began to channel surf. “Well, have a jolly good time…without me!”

              Lucy could sense when something was wrong with Alec. Now, she felt it with Gavin. He seemed in a mood today, hardly eating anything but junk food, and tossing on a wrinkled t-shirt and baggy jeans. She sat down beside him and willed him to look at her. “What’s wrong?”

              Gavin kept punching in the same channels over and over again, until finally he gave up, and tossed the remote onto the table. He glanced sideways at Lucy and crossed his arms defensively over his chest. “There’s nothing wrong with me,” he said sullenly.

              “Okay,” she said, settling back against the pillows and crossing her arms over her chest. “There’s nothing wrong with the both of us.”

              They sat in companionable silence for what seemed an eternity before Gavin finally realized he was being played like a fiddle. “Oh, all right!” he yelled and jumped off the sofa. “I’ll go!” He marched off to find a light jacket and a clean pair of trainers.               Lucy was waiting for him on the front stoop wearing a loose pair of jeans and one of Alec’s university hoodies. Gavin glared balefully at her, but she simply stared back with those doe-eyes as if knowing what had set him off in the first place. She neither gloated, nor seemed smug. She just seemed to be…waiting.  “Ready?” she smiled instead.

              He followed her onto the sidewalk. “Aren’t we driving?” he frowned. Pat had left the hatchback in the garage for them to use, but Lucy seemed bent on walking today. “Don’t tell me we’re walking!”

              “And why not?’ She reached out and caught his arm. “It’s a lovely day. The sun is shining, and we’ll get to ride a streetcar. You’ll love it!”

              Gavin allowed himself to be tugged along like a child being carted-off to his first dentist appointment. He didn’t know how someone so little could be so…pushy. “Do you do this to Alec, or am I special?”

              She turned in surprise to see the look on Gavin’s face. Lucy stopped and faced him. “Now, what’s the matter?”

              He wondered how long it be would before it all caught up to him. But he thought he’d be trussed up in one of those funny jackets and in a quilted room when he finally lost his shit. No, it had to happen in broad daylight, in a residential area, and with his brother’s wife looking at him with those big brown eyes. Gavin couldn’t take it anymore and collapsed promptly onto the sidewalk and buried his head in his hands. He began to weep, wishing his mother were here. He felt Lucy’s quiet presence beside him instead, and he was grateful for her silence. It had been a long time since he allowed himself to feel anything resembling remorse or self-pity.

              After a while, he was able to look up and not feel as if the world was coming to an end. “At the mall,” he began, wiping his nose on his sleeve, “these…girls…were looking at me.” Gavin took a deep breath before continuing, “They couldn’t have been more than 15-years-old, and they...knew me!” The realization that he might have contributed to the loss of a child’s innocence led to a fresh round of self-flagellation. “How do little girls get to know me, huh? How do they…know what I’ve… done?” The last word was choked out. He began to wonder if Lucy was listening to anything he said when she pulled out a pocket pack of tissues and handed him several.

              “Blow,” she commanded gently and waited patiently as he did just that. “Feeling better?” she asked after he’d demolished several tissues.

              “No,” he sighed finally. “There’s more…if you…want to hear it.”

              “Okay,” she whispered, trying not to cry for him. “I’ll listen.”

              “Before…Harvey decided to put me in those…films…he let me live with him. I didn’t have to pay rent or nothing…but sometimes…he’d…have these…um…parties.” Gavin swallowed hard and focused on his clenched hands. “He’d invite all these celebrities and he’d have me…dress up for them. Sometimes…he’d make…me wear…certain…outfits.” He stopped just then to see what effect this sordid tale was having on his sister-in-law. She was white as a sheet but nodded for him to continue.

              “He’d make me and this other boy dress…up in these leather shorts…and he’d have us crawl out on…all fours…with chains around our necks.”  Gavin clenched his hands together so hard the nails began biting into his skin, drawing blood. “They’d all clap and holler…and…laugh. The women would jump on our backs…and ride us around the…room, hitting us with whips. Then we’d…perform for them…with each…other…or…with them.” Gavin hung his head in shame. “Please don’t tell Alec,” he pleaded hoarsely. “Or dad.”

              Lucy’s eyes were wet with unshed tears, and she let them fall freely. She didn’t know what to say or what to do that would make his obvious shame go away. So she showed him instead. She jerked up her sleeves to show him the scars. “Do you know what these are?” she asked as her eyes met his.

              He nodded. “Why…?”

              “When I was thirteen, one of Viv’s boyfriends decided to visit me at night. After he was done, I did this,” she fingered the scar lightly. “I figured anything was better than having him in my mouth again.” Lucy dragged her eyes from his and pushed down her sleeves. “You’re not the only one who’s scarred you know.”

              “Does Alec know?” he asked, his voice a horrified whisper.

              “He does.”

              “What did he say when…you told him?”

              “Well, he…” her voice caught at the memory. “He told me that whatever happened wasn’t my fault. That it had nothing to do with me and who I am now and that I had to stop blaming myself because he didn’t and that he would always love me.” Lucy swiped at the tears that didn’t seem to want to stop and smiled tremulously at Gavin. “I think your brother would say the same thing.” She reached up and wiped at this cheeks with a tissue like she would a child. “He’s like that you know.”

              “Is he?” Gavin said, feeling somewhat relieved. He’d been afraid Lucy would look at him like he was a monster. “I still think I should take it to my grave.”

              “That’s your choice,” she slapped him on the shoulder and stood up, squinting in the mid-morning sun. “You can wither away like a dying plant and let it define you, or you can dig yourself out of the wretched hole you’ve dug for yourself and start living again.” Lucy held out her hand. “It’s up to you.”

              He looked up at her in wonder. “Is that what you’ve done?”

              “It won’t be easy,” she warned. “But I’ll help you every step of the way if you want. Alec will too, if you’ll let him.”

              Gavin pondered this as he peered up at the petite brunette who possessed enough mettle to rival that of Winston Churchill. She was too young to be this dauntless, but he figured living in a house with that bitch had forced her to it. “You can’t tell mum.”

              “I won’t if you don’t want me to.” Lucy smiled and reached down for his hand. “Come on, I’m hungry!”

              He took her hand and stood up, brushing himself off. They walked down the street in quiet contemplation, when Gavin suddenly remembered something. “Isn’t this where they filmed that movie with Steve McQueen?”

              “You mean Bullitt?”

              “Yeah!”

              “I guess so, why?”

              “Can we get that?” he asked eagerly.

              “Come on!” she groaned, and towed him along, wondering idly if this was what having children was like. If it was then by the time she and Alec decided to have a few of their own she was going to be exhausted.

             

* * *

              “That’ll be 500 dollars,” the mechanic informed them as he swiped his face with a filthy bandana.

              “500 dollars!” Pat choked back in outrage. “That’s outrageous! I won’t pay it!”

              “Oh yeah?” the burly man in dirty coveralls grunted. “Well, maybe I’ll tow you back and you can sit in the desert all by your big self and think about it.”

              “Just pay the man, dad!” Alec said irritably, stepping between Pat and the man who’d taken the time and energy to haul their sorry arses all the way to Las Cruces. They’d sat in the desert all night, listening to the hungry howls of coyotes and trying without any success to get someone on the radio. It was only by a pure stroke of luck that a trucker made a wrong turn and found them on the side of the road. He’d called on his CB radio for them and here they were. “Here,” he said, taking out his credit card, and glaring at Pat whose pockets were deep enough already. “Put it on this.”

              “Can’t do that, sonny,” the mechanic said with a rueful shrug of his heavy shoulders. “Cash only.”

              Alec swore and stalked over to Pat and searched the man’s pockets. He yanked out his wallet before Pat could protest and withdrew five 100-dollar bills. “W-What do you think yer doin’ laddie?” Pat blustered in righteous indignation. “That’s me money!”

              “And now it’s his money,” Alec retorted angrily as he handed over the bills. “Don’t start, dad. I’m not in the mood.” He was tired and hungry and he hadn’t been able to get hold of Lucy. “Not unless you want me to throttle you right here.”

              “Fine,” Pat grumbled, and went off to sulk by the soda machine. “But I’m telling yer mum.”

              “Fine,” his stepson said, twirling his index finger next his ear. The mechanic chortled loudly at this and went inside the garage to ring up the total. Alec plunked himself down onto a nearby bench and tried to text his wife. He was eager to see how she and Gavin were doing. He didn’t like leaving her alone, but he knew Gavin wouldn’t let anything untoward happen to his beloved. He dug around in his jacket for a stick of gum and popped it into his mouth. His jaws began to work the strip into a bland wad of mint. “You going to pout all day, dad?” Alec called over to Pat who was busy chugging a cheap soda and fuming over his lost 500 bucks.

              “I might!” Pat called back angrily. “Don’t think I won’t forget this!”

              “Very mature, dad!” Alec said dryly and continued to try and contact Lucy. He didn’t think it odd that she wasn’t answering her phone since she sometimes went a couple of days without checking her messages, so he left her a voicemail and hoped to reach her later in the day. “We should check into a motel,” he said more to himself than his stepfather.

              “What’s that, laddie?”

              “I said we should check into a motel to refresh our batteries, dad. We need to sleep and shower. It’s going to be a long drive out.”

              “Well, I ain’t paying, laddie!”

              “I’ll pay,” Alec sighed, rubbing the flesh between his eyes. He could feel a headache coming on. “You can have your own room.”

              “Now then,” Pat grinned, walking over to Alec and slapping him on the back. “That’s mighty generous of you, laddie!”

              “Yeah, I know.” Alec sighed again, wishing he’d brought Lucy instead. This was going to be a long trip. He just might make his mother a widow before it was over.

              They drove off and checked into a cheap motel. Alec was true to his word, and Pat was happily settled in a room next door. Alec tugged off his shoes and climbed into bed. He slept for a few hours before showering and changing into fresh clothes. Then he and Pat had a bite to eat at a cheap restaurant down the road before setting off again.               Before leaving for Rhode Island, they checked with the sporting goods shop that Rudy had visited. The manager didn’t remember him, but there was a record of the transaction. Pat and Alec were perplexed and more than a little alarmed.

              Rudy had purchased a stun gun.

 

              Lucy and Gavin hauled their purchases up the hill, grumbling all through the slow climb to the house and up the stairs. “We should have taken the car,” Gavin told Lucy as she pulled out the key.

              “A little exercise never hurt anyone,” she chuckled but her smile faded as the door swung open. They exchanged alarmed glances before stepping inside. “Wait here,” she told him as she had a look around. Lucy was sure she’d locked the door and now she couldn’t be certain, as there didn’t appear to be anything out of place. Gavin joined her in the kitchen.

              “Anything missing?” he asked and inspected the refrigerator. Nothing seemed amiss. “Didn’t you lock the door?”

              “I thought I did,” she said, confused. Lucy went back to the door and inspected the knob. She shut the door again and locked it and unlocked it. Nothing. “The door is fine.” Assuming it was stress taking its toll, Lucy locked the door and fastened the security chain for good measure. “That’s odd,” she muttered to herself.

              “What’s odd?” Gavin came out of the kitchen munching on a burrito.

              “I know I locked this door!”

              He went and jiggled the knob. It seemed locked to him. “It’s an old house. The locks probably haven’t been changed since the last earthquake.”

              “I guess you’re right,” she agreed and spied the burrito in his hand. “Where’d you get that?” Though they’d had a bite to eat at a pub, that was hours ago and she was famished from all that walking.

              Gavin tore off a chunk and handed it to her. “Bean and cheese. There are at least five boxes of these in the deep freeze.”

              “Lead the way,” Lucy grinned and followed after him, casting one last look at the door.

 

              They loaded up on burritos for dinner and retired to the living room for more video games. While Gavin was engrossed in taking out living corpses, Lucy went through her phone to see if Alec had tried to contact her. He had. He and Pat had run into a spot of trouble outside New Mexico, but they were on their way to Rhode Island and shouldn’t worry. Gavin noticed her furrowed brow. “What does bro say?”

              “He and Pat had to change a tire in Las Cruces but not to worry.” She set the phone aside and picked up the game controller. “Now, how far have you gotten?”

              “I’m in the apartment complex.”

              “Hmm,” Lucy took out a few mangled bodies before her avatar was disemboweled. Her heart just wasn’t in it. She opted to watch Gavin instead. He seemed to have a knack for this sort of thing. “Eww,” she grimaced as he blew off a head in a spectacular burst of blood and brains. “That’s so gross!”

              “How long have you been a nurse?” he laughed and took out a few more corpses as they charged him. “How can you be so squeamish?
              “Nursing is different!” she retorted. “People don’t go around trying to eviscerate you with claws made from human vertebrae!”

              “Sometimes they do,” he reminded her, and she made a face and stretched out on the sofa while he slid onto the floor. “They just don’t warn you before they do it!”

              “That’s true,” she yawned and pulled an afghan over her. “I’m going to nap for a bit.”

              “Nighty night, sis,” he said lightly, and gathered so many credits he was able to upgrade his suit. “Sweet!” Gavin muttered to himself. This game was getting better and better. Now if only he could find a corpse that looked like Harvey.

 

              Gavin had finally tired of role-playing and crashed on the carpet, his head pillowed on a floor cushion. It was well after midnight and he’d left the television on. A horror movie was playing with a young woman screaming in the background. Neither he, nor Lucy heard a door creaking open and the light fall of footsteps making their way down the hall.

              Lucy was curled up on the sofa dreaming of nothing in particular, when she was startled awake by the sudden bright flare of a flashlight. Her scream was cutoff as the flashlight slammed into her head, silencing her. Gavin was roused from slumber by the sound of Lucy’s scream, then he too, felt the vengeful blow of a flashlight against his skull and slumped to the floor, blood trickling out from a gash in his forehead.

              They were carried out of the house and stuffed into the trunk of a waiting car. It sped off, bleeding gas and fumes and when questioned later by the police, the next-door neighbors would swear they didn’t hear a thing.

 

             

 

             

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Thirty-eight

             

 

 

He opened his eyes to find complete and utter darkness surrounding him. Gavin could hear the faint trickling of water and his nostrils were assailed by a dank and musty odor of decay. He tried to move but couldn’t as his hands were bound behind his back and when he tried to move his legs, he discovered his feet were bound as well. Panic set in. Where was Lucy? He tried calling out but his lips were immobilized by a piece of duct tape. A faint scent of roses reassured him that Lucy was nearby but he couldn’t see anything, so he couldn’t tell if she was injured or not. The last thing he remembered was her scream, and cold fingers of dread crawled along his spine. What if she was hurt? Gavin’s mind began playing evil tricks on him as it turned over the dreadful scenarios, but his head pounded a fierce protest and he had to stop.

              She was fine. She had to be.

              Gavin thought he heard a faint rustling behind him, and he clung to the hope that she wasn’t as bad off as he appeared to be. Whoever hit him had meant it to be fatal. He was finding it increasingly difficult to think clearly and there was a buzzing in his ears that taunted him from time to time. If only he could move. He tried shifting onto his back and with a fair amount of maneuvering, was able to move into a position that allowed him to see the ceiling. At least Gavin hoped it was the ceiling. It was so dark he had to squint just to make out the faint outlines of bars on a small window. He could only mumble to Lucy and relief shot through him when she mumbled back. There would be no Alec to save them this time. They’d have to get out of this one themselves.

              He didn’t know how long they lay trussed up like tragic dinner fowls, but he marked the passage of time by how many drops of water that fell. Gavin soon counted to three hundred and then heard a vague echoing that bounced off the walls and chilled his soul. Footsteps! He turned his head slightly and was able to see a faint glimmer of light from a lantern as it swayed to and fro. Gavin closed his eyes and pretended to be asleep. He heard the metallic jangling of keys and then a high-pitched creaking as a door swung open on rusty hinges.

              “Untie her hands,” someone growled. It sounded like a man, but Gavin couldn’t be sure. The voice was deep and gravelly.

              “What the hell for?” another voice answered. This time it was a woman. It was soft and tinged with annoyance.

              “Because I said so, that’s why!” the man hissed to his companion. “They can’t be comfortable trussed up like that!”

              “You think I care? Let them suffer!”

              “Don’t tempt me, Corinne!” the man rasped. He sounded angry. “I’ve done what you wanted. Be merciful for once!”

              “Don’t you dare speak to me about mercy!” she sputtered in outrage. “Where was my mercy thirty years ago?”

              “And you think this is going to bring him back?”

              “I wanted that bastard to suffer as he made me suffer!”

              “Dammit!” he swore. “Get out of here and let me at least make them comfortable.”

              “Fine!” the woman pouted. “Just remember what you owe me!”

              “How can I forget?” The man’s muffled voice sounded sad and Gavin felt him kneel down behind him and grasp his hands. Then there was a sudden movement and a knife sliced through the rope and Gavin could feel his arms again. His feet were untied and then through slitted eyes he saw the thin figure of a man kneel down beside Lucy and slice through her binds as well. The man took out a damp cloth and wiped her face and brow and then he stood up and left. They were alone in darkness once more.

              Gavin tore off the tape, wincing as he did so, and crawled over to Lucy. “Lucy?” he whispered, trying to feel for her hands in the dark. “Where are you?”

              “I’m here,” she gasped, groping blindly for his hand. Their fingers brushed and they clasped each other in relief. “What happened?”

              “Don’t know,” he muttered, trying to figure out what the hell was going on. “There are two of them.”

              “Who?”

              “A man and some woman named Corinne.”

              “Corinne…?” Lucy repeated stupidly. The name sounded familiar, but she wasn’t capable of logical thinking at the moment. Her head felt like it had been pushed through a meat grinder, and the dull, throbbing ache wasn’t reassuring. “Are you hurt?” Her hands gently roamed over him feeling for broken bones.

              “My head hurts. They really jobbed me.” His hands found a swollen area on her face and she let out a slight cry of pain. “You’re hurt!”

              “I’m sure it’s just a flesh wound,” she quipped and winced again, feeling nauseated. They’d really let her have it. “I think I’m going to be sick,” she gasped and turned away, vomiting in a dank corner. When she finished, she examined herself and found a large lump near her ear. From where she’d been hit, she suspected a concussion and probably a skull fracture. That’s all she needed. To buy it here in some dingy cell without Alec was something she did not dare contemplate. “Where are we?” she managed and was able to scoot along the concrete floor and rest against a wall.

              “I don’t know,” Gavin winced and squinted around him. “I think it’s a holding cell. There are bars on the windows and they had to open the door with keys.”

              “A cell?” she repeated numbly, searching her pockets and then remembering she’d left her phone on the coffee table. “You mean a prison?”

              “I think so.”

              “Great,” Lucy mumbled to herself. “Alcatraz.”

              “You don’t know that!”

              “It’s the only thing that’s close by and abandoned this time of night!” she told him, her voice rising in panic. “No one knows we’re here!”

              “What can we do?” Gavin didn’t sound entirely convinced that they’d make it out alive.  “I wish Alec were here!”

              “Well, he isn’t!” she hissed in annoyance, her brain trying frantically to figure a way out of this mess. “We’re on our own.”

              Gavin crawled over and slumped against the wall beside her. “This is all my fault.”

              “How can this be your fault?”

              “Alec told me to take care of you and I fell asleep!”

              “Don’t blame yourself,” she said consolingly and patted his arm. “I should have slept with the gun under my pillow.” Lucy drew up her knees and willed Alec to see her thoughts and race to their rescue but she knew she was being silly.

              If anyone were going to save their bacon, it would have to be them. She sighed and leaned her head back against the damp wall. It was cold, and she shivered despite wearing Alec’s sweatshirt. Gavin wrapped an arm around her and she leaned her head against his shoulder. The warmth he offered was more than welcome, but he was a poor substitute for her husband. When she thought of never seeing Alec’s beautiful eyes gleaming with laughter or never feeling his arms around her again, Lucy gave in to self-pity and began to weep. Gavin tried to comfort her, but he was no Alec.

              Alec, where are you? Gavin’s mind screamed helplessly. Where are you?

 

* * *

             

              Alec was trying to make heads or tails of a map when he was suddenly overcome by a horrible feeling of dread. Suddenly his skin felt too tight. He told himself it was nothing and tried to concentrate on navigating, but it was no use. Something awful had happened, he just didn’t know what.

              “Turn around,” he muttered through a dry mouth.

              “What?” Pat said, focusing all his energy on not colliding with the SUV in front of him. “What’s that you said, laddie?’

              “I said turn around,” Alec said loudly and reached for the steering wheel. “Something’s happened.”

              Pat was run off the road by Alec’s erratic steering and he turned to his stepson in anger. “What’re you trying to do, laddie? Make yer mum a widow?”

              Alec unbuckled his seatbelt. “Get out!”

              “What?”

              “I’m driving! Something’s happened to them.”

              “You’re imagining things. They’re fine!”

              “They’re not fine!” Alec growled as Pat reluctantly exchanged seats. “Lucy and Gavin are not all right!”

              “You’re sure?” Pat queried uncertainly, feeling a sudden creep of the willies himself. “She would have called.”

              “What if she can’t?” Alec retorted and made an illegal U-turn. He floored it as soon as he cleared the highway. “She’s my wife and my brother and I’m going to sit on my ass wondering whether she’s fine or not!” Then he sped down the road, hoping to reach them before it was too late.

              Pat sat back, watching the desert whiz by and could see the fear in Alec’s eyes. He was starting to feel a bit worried himself. When they came to a small town, Alec handed him his phone and told him to try to get Lucy on the phone. There was no answer.

 

              Gavin had nodded off and his head jerked up at the sound of the cell door creaking open. He nudged Lucy awake and he could feel her body tensing as the tall man entered, waving his flashlight into their eyes. They both cried out and shielded their eyes from the glare. “Get up!”’ the man commanded roughly. “It’s time.”

              Time for what? Lucy thought fearfully, and had no choice but to obey his order as he had a gun leveled at their heads. He led them out of the cell and into a darkened passageway. Lucy felt sick and dizzy and clutched Gavin’s arm to balance herself. They followed the man up numerous flights of stairs and through gloomy corridors until finally he flung open a door and a cold blast of air nearly sent them both tumbling down the staircase. He led them outside and ordered them to sit.

              Lucy and Gavin sank down and huddled together, not knowing what was going to happen and fearing the worst. They glanced around in the dark and winced when a bright light was shone in their faces. Lucy figured they were on the helipad judging from how high up they were and how the wind seemed determined to blow them off into the bay. She could see a tall, lanky man talking with someone and then she heard him as the man started yelling at his companion. The woman screamed back and it looked like they were struggling with each other from the way their arms flailed about. It seemed she had the upper hand as the man hung his head in defeat and nodded. He slunk off somewhere and the woman began fiddling with a large duffel bag. Lucy couldn’t see what she had pulled out, but it didn’t look pleasant.

              “What’s she doing?” Gavin whispered, leaning forward to get a closer look.

              “I don’t know. It looks like she’s putting something together.”

              It soon became apparent what the woman had been assembling. It was a video camera on a tripod. She set it a few feet away from them and began peering through the lens. “Say cheese,” she smirked and giggled to herself. When her prisoners didn’t obey, the hospitable mask she wore slithered off to reveal her true self. The woman’s face was etched with so many lines Lucy thought she was looking at a road map. She might have been a beauty at one time or another, but that time had passed and something nasty and horrible had replaced the once beauteous visage. The harsh, angular lines of her face looked like the result of too many cigarettes and one drink too many. Her eyes were a nondescript shade of mud and her thin lips were curled up in a defiant sneer. Her thinning hair had long since gone gray and blew about her razor-like cheekbones like a mad witch.

              Lucy was certain she’d seen her before, but where and when? She was staring so intently that the woman’s eyes narrowed and before anyone could react, she rushed up to Lucy and backhanded her. “What are you staring at, missy?” she hissed. She pushed back her stringy hair and smiled evilly. “Recognize me, my dear? You should.”

              Gavin stared, horrified as Lucy spat out a mouthful of blood and glared defiantly at the bitch. “I think I do,” Lucy muttered and knew exactly where she’d seen this harpy. That day at the library she’d seen the old newsprint with a grieving woman flinging her son’s ashes at Rudy. The face may have aged, but Lucy would never forget the hatred in the woman’s eyes. The same eyes she was staring into right this minute.

              “What’s that, dear?” Corinne smiled. “Either you know me or you don’t.”

              “Forgive me if I don’t recall the name, but I never forget a face, especially one as ugly as yours.”

              Corinne’s eyes narrowed in rage. She’d had all this planned out. If it weren’t for that imbecile Reese, she might not have had to kidnap the little bitch a second time. But that’s what happened when you dealt with amateurs. She let out an enraged shriek and smacked Lucy again. This time so hard, Lucy fell backwards. The young man caught her and rushed to stem the flow of fresh blood. She didn’t know what she was going to do with him. But she figured it was better to kill two birds with one stone. “If I’m ugly then you should blame Mr. Bartlett. It’s his fault I look like this! Don’t you think it’s a shame he couldn’t be here to join us for our little tete-a-tete?” When Lucy’s eyes widened in horror, she went on savoring her triumph. “He was always a little too nosy for his own good. Too bad he didn’t use that gift in the first trial.” They both looked confused, so Corinne decided to elaborate. It was just like Rudy to keep his crimes to himself. “You mean he didn’t tell you?”

              “Why don’t you fill us in?” Gavin muttered glancing at Lucy’s mouth, which was inflating like an inner tube. He yanked out a bandana and gave it to her. The old hag had a gun pointed at them, but as just soon as he was able, he was going to kill her. “By all means, do tell.”

              She grinned, revealing an uneven row of yellow teeth and sat down cross-legged in front of them and began the tragic tale, which had brought her full circle to this defining moment. The moment she had been planning for nigh twenty years. Corinne leaned forward eagerly and began to speak.

              “Rudy never told you about Millie did he?” Corinne cackled in glee. She was going to enjoy ripping off the girl’s rose-colored glasses. Rudy was no saint and the sooner people started realizing that, the better. “Rudy and Millie go way back. They went to school together if you can believe that! Childhood chums they were until Millie started carving up the neighborhood cats. Oh, he’d go and snatch strays or pets that had gotten out of someone’s house. Rudy of course, the little angel that he was, told on his best friend and so many people gathered pitchforks and torches that Millie’s parents had to leave town. And Millie being only 6-years-old!”

              Corinne clucked her tongue in disapproval. “Well, Millie went on to a life of crime, while saint Rudy went on to law school and became district attorney.” She stopped to see if any of this was sinking in. But they just stared at her with wide eyes and pale faces. She wanted to smack some sense into them! Before she was through, they would know the truth. “Millie was a frightful child, aside from carving up cats, he tortured his schoolmates, raped his cousins, nearly burned down an apartment complex, and all by the time he was eight! He got bored one day and stabbed his mother to death. A couple of years later at the tender age of fifteen, his father had just gotten home after toiling in the office, and guess who was waiting there with a shotgun?”

              “Who?” Lucy and Gavin said numbly, already knowing the answer.

              “Silly children!” Corinne laughed. “Millie, of course! His father had just decided to have him committed and Millie couldn’t have that. He was having too much fun. So he shot the poor man as he stepped through the door. He left him there bleeding to death. I think it was nearly a week before someone finally figured out what happened. But that was Bill’s fault. No one told him to buy that house out in the middle of nowhere.” Corinne stopped and examined her nails. She needed a manicure.

              “Now, for the meat of the story,” she began again and wondering what was taking Phil so long. He should have been back by now. But no matter, this was her show and she loved being in the spotlight. “Well, ole Millie was serving time in Indiana for kidnapping and raping a four-year-old boy, but some asshole in a cubicle didn’t pay attention to what he was doing and they let him out! Millie was free as a little bird and decided he wanted to feel the sand under his feet. So he hitchhiked to California, slicing and dicing a few drivers along the way, and turned up in sunny Los Angeles. No one told anyone what had happened or what he’d done. But Rudy knew what he was capable of. They all did!”               Corinne’s voice took on a hard, bitter quality as she related the story about how her whole world was destroyed in a matter of days. “I had a beautiful little boy. Most of us did. Some were girls, but Millie didn’t discriminate. Oh no, he helped himself to a wide variety. No one told us he’d taken a job at the school as a janitor. No one told us a fucking thing!” Her breath caught and she saw they were looking at her as if she were the one who’d gone mad. Especially Rudy’s little pet, she was looking at her with pity in those big, soft eyes. “Don’t you feel sorry for me!” she spat and continued, waving the gun at them. “I was late one day picking up Timothy. You see I had so many things to do that day. There was Ryan’s dry cleaning; Stacie had to go to the dentist and then I had to drive her to softball practice; Rhea kept hounding me to pick up her prom dress. Timmy should have known to wait for me! Why didn’t he wait for me? It was only four o’clock!” Corinne started weeping as she remembered that day. All of it came flooding back in a perpetual torrent of agony. “When I got there, the school was deserted. So I went through every classroom, every locker, and every bathroom. He wasn’t there! I drove around for hours looking for him. I called his friends. I called his teachers. No one had seen him since lunch. And no one called me! He was missing all that time and no one said a goddamned thing!”

              She brought a trembling hand up to her lips and squinted up at the sky, wishing she’d died that day. “Everyone thought I was overreacting! Even his own father! But I knew! I was his mother, of course I knew! Ryan finally called the police six hours later and they made it seem like I had something to do with it and everyone blamed me! Everyone kept asking how does a seven-year-old disappear in broad daylight and in a crowded school? NO ONE thought to ask Millie, who was busy mopping the floors like he always did with that smirk on his face! It took those assholes two days before they even asked him what he’d had for dinner that night! All the while my Timmy was lying broken in some junkyard. Do you know what that bastard did to my baby?”

              “What did he do?” Lucy asked numbly, feeling sick to her stomach.

              “They found my precious Timmy two weeks later, or rather what was left of him. Millie had stuffed him in the trunk of a junked-out Chevy and left him to die! He was still alive and screaming when they crushed the car. The medical examiner said he’d died earlier that morning, but I know better! You better believe I know better! Millie had tortured him for days; raping him every which way you can rape a person. He’d taken his time with my boy, beating him one day, raping him the next. The little bastard had even recorded Timmy’s screams. But think the police did anything about that? NO! They said they didn’t have enough evidence to charge him as it was all circumstantial and they barely had DNA testing back then, so by the time they figured it out, Millie was long gone.”

              Corinne stopped and brushed at her tears with a trembling hand. Lucy and Gavin were looking at her pitifully like she was some tragic exhibit in Bedlam, and she jumped to her feet and punched them both viciously in the mouth. “Don’t look at me like that!” she screeched. “I’m not the one who carved up little children for fun and got away with it!” She straightened her bony spine and looked around for Phil. Where was that idiot? “They finally caught him six months later in Santa Fe, but by then he’d already caught and murdered twelve little girls at a summer camp. They dragged him kicking and screaming back to L.A. where the newly elected District Attorney had the task of sending his sorry ass to the electric chair and he couldn’t even get that right! The first trial ended in a hung jury because some bleeding heart liberal didn’t think poor little Millie had gotten his fair share in life and couldn’t decide if Timmy had suffered enough. I blame Rudy. He didn’t try hard enough. You should have seen him prancing about in his Gucci suits for the cameras.”

              Corinne waved the gun around erratically to emphasize her point. “It was a goddamned sideshow! People all dressed up in their Sunday clothes,” she spat in disgust. “You should have seen it. Even the judge posed for the cameras at the end of the day. Ryan wasn’t much help, that bastard going off getting trashed each night, and leaving me to pick up the pieces! I had to sit with the other parents and listen to mothers sobbing for their babies while Rudy took center stage like he was presenting at the fucking Oscars! It was quite the spectacle let me tell you! Hell, I’m surprised no one pulled out popcorn while they showed the crime scene photos!”

              She sat back down across from them and reached into her pocket for a handkerchief. Corinne tossed it at them and glared at Lucy. “It was all his fault! Your precious Rudy was so busy trying to impress the voters who’d elected him in the first place, that he didn’t even try to convict Millie. Oh no, his little friend sat there with puppy-dog eyes looking sad, all the while smirking at us when no one was looking! It wasn’t a surprise to me when they didn’t convict, and Rudy just stood there like a fucking wax figure in one of those museums! Did you know he went over and spoke to the little bastard after the trial was over? That’s when I got angry. I hadn’t allowed myself to get mad. I just sort of cruised through the whole thing on autopilot. I wanted to feel numb because if I felt anything, I couldn’t be there for Timmy. I’d brought his ashes that day and stowed him in the car. I would have driven off if I hadn’t seen him posing prettily for the cameras as he spoke to the reporters. It was all about him! It was never about the children!”

              “You lie!” Lucy shouted, blotting her mouth with the handkerchief. “Rudy agonized over it! I saw the photo of you tossing the ashes on him. He looked like hell!”

              “Stupid girl,” Corinne said sadly. “He fooled you too. He fooled everyone. Even me. But I wised up and so should you. I went up to him and begged Timmy to forgive me before I opened his urn. I think he forgave me. You should have seen their faces when the dust had settled. Poor Rudy’s suit was ruined. But that was nothing compared to what we went through. Most of the parents never recovered. Some slashed their wrists and some drowned their grief in booze. As for me, I waited. I waited and there were more children and more promises and Rudy vowed he would bring Millie to justice.” Corinne shrugged. “ I suppose he meant well, but it was too late for that three-year-old he found in the mall up in Vancouver. They found the poor little thing three weeks later torn inside out. Millie had raped her to death.”

              “Don’t!” Gavin blurted in agony. He didn’t want to hear anymore. “No more!”

              “But why not?” Corinne’s head tilted to the side, looking at that moment like some ghoulish doll whose head has just been ripped off and put on again in a clumsy attempt to hide the damage. “Don’t you want to hear it? I mean you all worship the ground Rudy walked on. It’s disgusting! If he’d done his job, those children would still be alive!”

              “How is Rudy to blame for what that maniac did?’ Gavin countered, trying to distract her long enough to lunge for the gun. “He didn’t kill those children.”

              “But he helped!” Corinne shrieked. “Millie would have been put away. He knew what he was capable of long before he took Timmy from me! They all did!” She shook a bony finger at Gavin. “He swore to us parents that not one more child would have to die like Timmy. He looked all of us in the eye and swore up and down that he would take care of it! And did he? No! He couldn’t even do that right! We all got to thinking that Rudy cared more for Millie than our dead children.” She glanced up with tortured eyes, and Gavin almost felt sorry for her. But when he glanced back at Lucy, with her swollen face and bloody mouth, any pity he might have felt evaporated under the murderous rage he felt.

              “Look, I’m very sorry that man did that to you and hurt your son, but why blame us? We didn’t do anything to you. Lucy didn’t do anything to you…”

              “That’s where you’re wrong little boy.” Corinne got up and went over to Lucy who was hanging on by a thread. Gavin was scared shitless. She hadn’t so much as uttered a sound since the old hag began speaking. And now she stared straight ahead as if in some sort of trance. Corinne grabbed a handful of Lucy’s hair and yanked her head back. Lucy didn’t blink. “She’s the closest thing he had to a daughter. I wanted him to know what it was like to lose a child, because obviously he’s never known what it feels like to have your heart ripped out.” She let Lucy go and began pacing back and forth, growing increasingly unhinged by the minute. “When they let Millie out, I saw my chance and took it. You think it was an accident Millie found her alone in the house that day?”

              Gavin saw Lucy’s eyes widen a little, but she remained silent.

              “I’d been following her for days and then she went to the house and I told Millie he could have her. I told him just to rough her up like a warning. The little shit wasn’t supposed to kill her!” Corinne snorted in disgust. “What a mess! There was blood everywhere. He wanted to finish her off, but I told him to be patient. Then that fatso came in and ruined everything!”

              “How awful for you,” Gavin said absently, glancing at Lucy who was shaking.

              “Yes, it was awful. He wanted to go to the hospital, but they were watching her day and night. If her husband hadn’t taken her up to Point Reyes we might have gotten her sooner. But that’s all right. Millie was so excited to go. I had to practically tie him down. It would have been so perfect if Millie hadn’t screwed up! I mean he let him break his neck! Who does that?’ Corinne shook her head and gave a little shudder. “But that’s all right. What’s done is done and I’ll have my revenge. Rudy already got his. This will be the topping on the cake.”

              “What do you mean, ‘Rudy already got his’?”

              “Oh, don’t you know?” she informed them brightly. “Rudy went up to that hospital Ryan had me put in and Phil let him have it.” Corinne put a bony finger to her lips and giggled. “They’ll never find the body!”

              Lucy exchanged pained glances with Gavin as her shoulders slumped in defeat. “You killed my baby,” she said quietly

              “What’s that dear?” Corinne said.

              “I said you killed my baby!” Lucy screamed at her. “You’re no better than he is. He killed for pleasure, you killed for spite.”

              “Please,” Corinne sniffed, pulling her hair back. “I didn’t know you were knocked up. But it was certainly a pleasant surprise. How did Rudy take it?”

              “YOU BITCH!” Lucy shrieked, clenching her fists in rage. “You’re a baby killer! You’re a miserable bitch who killed an innocent baby because of some stupid vendetta! You’re no better than Reese! Worse even!”

              “Don’t you dare compare me with that piece of shit,” Corinne said calmly, her eyes now bottomless demonic pits. “I kill because I have to. Millie killed because he wanted to. There’s a difference. And if you want to blame anyone dear, blame yourself. If you hadn’t been so keen on substituting Rudy for daddy dearest, you might be holding the little brat right now.”

              Corinne turned away, closing her eyes for a brief moment to savor the brisk sea air and gloating in her victory. That’s when Gavin saw his chance. He looked at Lucy who nodded in agreement and he lurched forward, speeding up and launching himself at the hag. She turned and fired the gun but Gavin reached for her arm and the bullet bounced off the tarmac. The gun fell to the ground and Corinne stabbed Gavin in the eye with her nail. Caught off guard, he cried out in agony and Corinne lifted a booted foot and hoofed him viciously in the ribs. Gavin screamed and fell to his knees. Corinne punched him in the face and when he was out cold, smiled evilly at Lucy who was sitting, taking it all in. Corinne turned her back to retrieve the gun and that’s when Lucy made her move.

              “You miserable bitch!” Lucy screamed, running and hurling herself at the woman who had killed her baby. “Millie misses you in hell!” She caught Corinne around her waist and shoved her toward the railing. Corinne yanked Lucy’s hair and kicked out her feet, but she lost her balance and fell back, taking Lucy with her. They hung suspended by Lucy’s precarious grip on the iron bar.

              Lucy gasped and tried to hold on, but her hands were slippery. Corinne hung from her feet like a deadweight and Lucy tried to kick her off, to no avail. The woman wasn’t going to go quietly. “Let go!” she gasped, kicking the bitch in the face. “Just die!”

              Corinne cackled evilly, her feet dangling above the razor-like cliffs below. “If I’m going, you’re coming with me!” She tugged at Lucy’s feet, determined to take the girl with her into the fiery pits of hell. “Don’t you want to see Rudy again?”

              “Let me go!” Lucy screamed, trying to shake the woman off and desperately clinging to the rail. Her arms were aching and numb and Lucy didn’t know how much longer she could hold on. Alec, her mind screamed. Help me! But he wasn’t here and she could hear the violent charging of the surf below as it slammed itself into the rocks. If she let go, Alec wouldn’t have anything to bury. Just when she had resigned herself to dying, she felt something grab her hand and looked up. Her eyes couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

              It was Rudy!

              “Rudy!” she gasped. “I’m slipping!”

              “Hang on, kiddo!” he grunted and began to haul her up. But Corinne had spied him and began laughing, tugging at Lucy’s feet again and making her slip from his grasp.

              “I thought Phil sent you to hell, old man!” she snarled, pulling at Lucy with all her might and making her scream as she slipped lower. “Well, you can’t have her. She’s mine!”

              “Let go, Corinne!” Rudy pleaded, and pulled hard on Lucy’s hand. “It won’t bring Timmy back.”

              “No, but I’ll have the satisfaction of knowing you’ve lost her.”

              “Don’t you think I don’t know what you went through? What all of you went through? The holdout was some crazy woman who fell in love with him. If it hadn’t been for her, there wouldn’t have been a second trial.”

              “Doesn’t matter!” Corinne screamed and yanked hard on Lucy. “If you’d told everyone what he was capable of, I’d still have my Timmy!”

              “No one believed how sick he was.” Rudy tugged as hard as he could on Lucy, who was fast losing her grip.

              “Rudy!” she gasped helplessly. “Tell Alec… I love him.”

              “Tell him yourself!” Rudy grunted and pulled hard. Just when he thought he was going to lose her, someone reached and helped pull them up. Phil had chickened out and had been unable to go through with Corinne’s murderous plans. But just as they were hauling Lucy up, Corinne sank her teeth into her leg and tore out a chunk.

              Lucy screamed in agony and determined to grow old with Alec, kicked down sharply and broke Corinne’s nose with the heel of her boot. The woman shrieked and let go, her body crashing into the jagged cliffs below, and the shattered remnants swallowed by those ancient depths. 

              The two men managed to pull Lucy up and she collapsed into Rudy’s arms, sobbing helplessly in relief.

              Rudy comforted her as best he could. Phil went to check on Gavin, who was just beginning to stir. “There, now kiddo,” he soothed. “You’re okay.”

              She wept and just clung to him relieved the nightmare was finally over.