Nine Minutes (20 page)

     
Grizz
called me every morning and every night, and after a
week I started to get a really uncomfortable feeling. I had no doubt he was
going to kill Darryl, but wouldn’t he have done it by now? And again, why wasn’t
I calling the police? What was wrong with me?

     
I couldn’t fathom
my own heart.

____________

After eight
days,
Grizz
showed up and took me back to the motel.
Darryl wasn’t there, and everything seemed back to normal. I was certain Darryl
was dead, but I didn’t know any details. I didn’t know if I wanted to know any
details.

     
Eventually, Grunt
told me some things. I wish he hadn’t. It was my own fault—I asked him.
He wasn’t there the whole time, but he knew enough.

     
While
Grizz
was setting me up in a fancy hotel in Naples, his
guys were looking for Willow. They found her and brought her back to the motel.
When
Grizz
got back he immediately ordered his guys
to relieve Willow and Darryl of all their clothes. He then had them walked over
to the empty cement pool. He told them to walk down the steps into the pool and
stay there.

     
And that’s just what
they did. They were trapped in the cement pool with no food or water and open
to the elements for days. Hot, scorching days in July with no breeze or
shelter. Their skin was soon pink and blistered. The nights were cooler, but
that’s when they were exposed to mosquitos and other bugs.

     
As if this wasn’t
bad enough,
Grizz
had two poisonous coral snakes
tossed in there with them. The snakes were always seeking shade during the day
so
Willow
and Darryl could barely keep still if the
sun was out. The snakes were always trying to work their way under their
wilting bodies looking for relief from the sun.

     
To make matters
worse,
Grizz
taunted them. Not with words, but with
actions. He set Lucifer and Damien up to guard the pool steps where they might
try to climb out. He put an umbrella up for his dogs and had Chowder run an
extension cord out to a couple of fans so that the dogs would stay cool. He
made sure they had big bowls of water that were just out of Willow and Darryl’s
reach. If Willow or Darryl tried to get out of the pool, Damien and Lucifer
were ordered to attack. That was their choice. Be mauled to death by dogs or
die from exposure.

     
Instead of
sitting around the pit at night,
Grizz
used them for
entertainment. Whoever came to the motel would sit around the pool instead of
the pit and mock the prisoners.
Grizz
was never there,
though. They were allowed to do whatever they wanted to Willow or Darryl as
long as they didn’t help them or kill them. Needless to say, some of the
younger, newer members of
Grizz’s
group really
enjoyed this. They tossed heavy rocks, firecrackers and lit cigarettes at them.
The one night Grunt was there, some of the guys were spitting at them. They
were so
thirsty,
they were trying to drink the spit.
Grunt had seen enough and left.

     
Willow died
first. Then Darryl. They were slow, agonizing deaths that took days and were
slightly prolonged by a couple of afternoon rain showers. The little bit of
water they got just made their deaths drag out longer.
Grizz
had his guys toss them in the swamp and there was never any proof that either
person had ever existed.

     
I listened in
disbelief as Grunt told me what happened. He was only there one time and couldn’t
stand it himself. Chowder told him the rest. As much as Chowder hated what
Darryl had done, the wizened gang member still thought it was too much
retaliation. Even for
Grizz
.

     
Froggy
couldn’t bring himself to be there are at all.

     
I felt sick.
Empty.

     
Where was I to go
from here? I was now nineteen years old. I would be twenty in six months. I
still didn’t have a plan for my life. I had not witnessed what happened to
Darryl and Willow, but it haunted me. I would catch myself staring at
Grizz
and wondering who is this person that knows such
evil? It didn’t help that he did what he did in retaliation for what was done
to
me and
Gwinny
.

     
But as much as I
wanted to, or told myself I wanted to, I didn’t make any attempt at change. I
was in love with
Grizz
. I hated what he did, but I
loved him.

     
Unfortunately, my
love for him was causing me to hate myself.

Chapter Thirty-Three

In January
1980 I finally convinced
Grizz
to let me go to
college. I would have graduated high school in 1978 with the rest of my peers,
and I was really risking running into a former classmate. But I explained to
Grizz
that I would just deny it like I had at the vet a few
years back when a classmate recognized me. I was already almost two years
behind in earning a college degree. Sarah Jo had been at Florida State
University in northern Florida since graduating high school. I enrolled at Cole
Southeastern University and started working on a degree in business
administration with a concentration in accounting. I recognized a person or two
from high school, but they never recognized me. I kept my bangs because
Grizz
loved them, but I’d gotten in the habit of wearing
them off my face when leaving the motel. I also had adopted a new wardrobe
style. I liked to wear nice clothes, business attire, to school. If anybody
recognized me, they certainly didn’t let on. The girl who supposedly ran away
in 1975 had long been forgotten.

     
I was walking out
to my car one day and heard someone call my name. Not my real name or alias.
My gang name.

     
“Kit! Kit, wait
up.”

     
I turned and saw
a really cute guy jogging toward me and smiling. I recognized him immediately.
It was Sam, Sarah Jo’s neighbor. I hadn’t seen him since that summer and the
incident with Neal in Jo’s garage.

     
“Sam! How are
you? Long time, no see.”

     
He hugged me and
asked, “You hungry? Can you grab some lunch?”

     
I hadn’t realized
until that moment how nice it would be to have a conversation with someone
else.
Someone who knew a little bit about my background.
I was beginning to realize that secrets could be exhausting. All this time I’d
been living in my own little world and had only made two girlfriends outside of
Sarah Jo: Carter and Casey. They were my age and went to school with me, and
even though we had distinctly different backgrounds and college majors, there
was an instant connection. Of course, I couldn’t ever bring them to the motel,
and our friendship in the beginning was limited to school. But at this point, I
hadn’t shared my real story with my new friends. With Grunt and Moe gone, it
was just
me
,
Grizz
and
Chowder now living at the motel.
Chicky
didn’t even
come around that much anymore. Since Moe died, Fess came less frequently, too. I
realized I was lonely.

     
I immediately
took Sam up on his offer and followed him to a diner in Davie.

     
We chatted for
hours. It was strange because I really didn’t know Sam that well, and I
certainly hadn’t heard anything about him from Sarah Jo in the last few years. Sam
explained how he’d watched from his living room window that summer day in 1977
as
Grizz
carried out his punishment of Neal. He saw
me drive off and the garage door go down
. He told me that
less than thirty minutes later a car showed up. Two rough-looking characters
went into the house and came out, escorting a crying Neal to the car. They
drove off.
Grizz
got on his bike and left, and Neal
never bothered Sam or his mother again.

     
“You know, I’ve
always felt bad that I couldn’t do anything to help you and Jo that day. Felt
like a real wimp, Kit. I’m sorry.”

     
“Please don’t
apologize.” I looked at Sam kindly. “For heaven’s sake, you were a kid
yourself, Sam. He was a bully threatening your mother. You didn’t do anything
wrong. Please don’t feel bad. I never looked at you as a wimp. I didn’t think
it then and I don’t think it now. Now, tell me, what are you doing at Cole?”

     
He told me how
trade school didn’t really work out. He’d found he had a knack for social
skills and loved working with troubled youth. He was now working full-time at a
local YMCA and going to school part-time to get his degree. He wanted to be a
social worker.

     
“So, um, Kit, are
you still with
Grizz
? Are you still like his
girlfriend, or something?”

     
I smiled at him. “Actually,
Sam. I’m married to
Grizz
.”

     
I know this
shocked him. “Wow, married.” Sam leaned back against the booth. “Didn’t expect
that one. Would it be rude of me to ask if you’re happily married? Just curious,
is all.”

     
“No, it’s not
rude. And yes, I’m happy. I love
Grizz
. I don’t need
to tell you I don’t love his lifestyle, but yes, I love the man.”

     
He nodded. “I
kinda
don’t get it, though. I mean, I know who he is and
what he does, and you just seem like such a sweet, smart girl. I can’t imagine
you with someone like him. Sorry—I know you love him. It’s just difficult
to wrap my head around.”

     
“Don’t feel bad.
Sometimes I can’t wrap my head around it, either. I know I shouldn’t be talking
about this, but I’ve tried to make up for it, at least in my own mind, by
seeing if any good can come out of being with him. To see if there are any
negatives I can turn into positives.”

     
“What do you
mean?”

     
Then I told him a
story. It had become a source of irritation in my marriage.
Grizz
had warned me more than once, but I couldn’t help myself.

     
“Fuck, Kit. I can’t
take you anywhere,” he’d said one day in frustration.

     
I rolled my eyes.
“I’ve asked you not to be such a dirty mouth.”

     
“Well, I’ve asked
you not to get in the middle of every Tom, Dick and Harry fight that you come
across.”

     
“I do it because
when I’ve asked you to help, you won’t. You don’t care! So you leave me no choice
but to involve myself. Besides, if we weren’t in a crappy part of town to start
with, no thanks to
your
activities, I wouldn’t see half the things I’ve had to see.”

     
“Do you want me
to get arrested? Is that your goal?”

     
“Don’t be
ridiculous. This is about helping someone, not about you getting in trouble.”

     
“Yeah, but you
realize I’m capable of murder where you’re concerned? If I kill someone it’ll
be on your conscience.”

     
This conversation
happened long before the Darryl and Willow story. I knew how
Grizz
had killed Johnny Tillman, but I’d convinced myself
that was somehow different.
An isolated circumstance that
wouldn’t repeat itself.
After all, he didn’t have Neal killed after the
garage incident.

     
Grizz
and I had been arguing about something that had happened
earlier that day.
Grizz
had taken me along with him
while he met with one of his associates. We were in his car and had pulled up
to a seedy-looking warehouse in a bad section of Pompano Beach. I remembered
being there before. There was one car parked in front of it.

     
Grizz
left his car running and told me, “I’ll be less than
five minutes. People know my car, so nobody will bother you. Besides, I can see
the car from that window.”

     
He pointed to a
window on the second floor.

     
I’d gone on many
business visits with
Grizz
and heard this over and
over again. I knew he was right. I didn’t want to go inside and meet anybody
anyway. I pulled out a book and immediately started to read.

     
I hadn’t read two
pages when a speeding car pulled in behind me. I looked in the rearview mirror
and saw a flash of color. I looked to the left over the driver’s seat and saw
the source of the color.

     
It was a brand
new yellow Mustang. The driver must have thought he could go around the
building, but when he made a right to turn the corner, I heard his brakes
squeal. I’d been to this building before. I knew it backed up to a cement
retaining wall. There was no back parking lot. He quickly shifted into reverse
and was backing up when another car pulled in and blocked him.

     
I watched in
horror as two guys got out of an unremarkable green car. One was carrying a
baseball bat and was patting it against his open palm. They looked like serious
criminals.

     
I could see the
one guy talking, but I couldn’t hear him. I leaned over the driver’s seat and
put down
Grizz’s
window. In broken English they were
telling the guy to get out of the car. If he got out and handed over the keys,
nothing bad would happen. This was a car jacking.

     
I looked up to
see if I could find
Grizz
in the window. I didn’t.
Surely he heard the tire squeals and would be down in a second. I waited.
Nothing.

     
I got out of the
car and went into the same door that
Grizz
had gone
in two minutes earlier. I went up the only set of stairs and walked in on him
talking to an old man. I didn’t pay any attention and didn’t apologize for
interrupting.

     
“Please call the
police,” I panted, trying to catch my breath. “There’s a car jacking going on
down there.”

     
The old man
started to say something to me, but
Grizz
put his
hand up and stopped him. “Okay, we’ll call. Go wait for me downstairs. Don’t go
back out to the car.”

     
“Okay,” I said
breathlessly. “Thanks.”

     
I walked
downstairs and looked out the glass window of the door I had come through. It
was just a kid. He had gotten out of the car like they told him, but he must
have done something to make them mad. The one guy had him pushed up against his
car while the other guy with the baseball bat was using it to skim through some
bushes. Then it dawned on me what had happened. The kid must have turned off
the car and got out like they told him to, but he took his keys with him and
tossed them in some hedges.

     
Just then, the
guy holding him up against the Mustang grabbed the boy by the scruff of his
neck and started marching him toward the bushes. I cracked the door so I could
hear what they were saying. He was telling him in broken English that he’d
better find the keys or he was going to die.

     
Die?
For a car?
He shoved the boy down on all fours and had him
scouring the bushes. I could tell the boy was starting to panic. I’m certain he
wished he’d just handed the keys over and called the police. He’d tried to
outsmart hardened criminals and now he was going to pay. The one guy started
kicking him in the ribs as he crawled along the hedge line.

     
I pulled the door
closed. “
Grizz
?” I screamed. “Are the police coming?”
No answer. I knew immediately that he didn’t call the police. This was
Grizz
.
Grizz
didn’t care what
happened to other people. I knew what I had to do. I calmly walked out of the
warehouse and approached the threesome.

     
“Excuse me.
Excuse me, gentlemen. I just thought you should know that the police are on
their way. I think if you leave now, you’ll be gone before they get here.”

     
All three of them
stopped what they were doing, and the two criminals swung around to look at me.
I could see tears streaming down the boy’s face. He had found his keys and was
holding them up in one hand, still on his knees, while resting all of his
weight on the other. I stopped walking. I was now close to them, but not so
close that they could take a swing at me.

     
“Just thought you
should know,” I added. It came out hoarse.

     
They didn’t move toward
me or respond to my statement. I turned around and started to walk back toward
the warehouse door.

     
I heard one of
them muster up a serious phlegm ball and spit. I felt it splatter against the
back of my head. I heard laughter.

     
Just then the
warehouse door flew open so hard the glass shattered.
Grizz
strode toward me. He must have seen me from the second floor walking toward the
thugs. He’d seen the guy spit at me through the glass door right before he
opened it.

     
The men behind me
started talking quickly in Spanish. I’d had enough Spanish in school to know
what they were saying.

     
“Fuck, Manny! Do
you see the size of that motherfucker coming over here? Why’d you have to spit
at the girl? You dumb fuck! Leave the kid and the fucking car. Let’s go. Now!”