Circling Carousels (17 page)

To make her feel a little apprehensive, Sawtell kept her waiting for just over ten minutes, but it didn’t work. Bonnie expected some intimidation tactics. She knew this man well by
reputation and by the deeds he had done, for even though the sex industry was not a close one, it was certainly full of gossip.

Entering the room from the direction, Bonnie least expected Mario stood before her and gave her a withering look, designed to rock her confidence. Had he known her at all he would have realised this was futile. Bonnie had been in and around this business her entire life, so his bully tactics were never going to work on her. She was sitting, not in the least bit rattled, waiting until he made the first comment, for she certainly didn’t want to appear too eager.

“Ah, Ms. Leslie,” he said, “so sorry to have kept you so long.” “Hello, Mario.”

“Well, my dear,” he said, “would you like to cut to the chase and tell me the reason for your wanting to see me on such short notice or would you like to exchange pleasantries first?”

He was so full of his own importance, but Bonnie replied with careful precision. “Mr. Sawtell, I would like to get straight to the point, for I, too, lead a busy life that requires my presence. There is something I would like to purchase from you. It is that simple. You have something I want; in fact, I have had my eye on it for a good six months now, and I have an exorbitant amount of money to offer you as a down payment while I await your decision on the full purchase price. It is a straight business deal, like any business deal, for I require the final piece for my set and I am reasonably sure you will want to sell it to me.” She spoke without a gap so that she wouldn’t have to reveal which goods she required earlier than she was ready. Bonnie wanted to retain the upper hand as long as she could. It was the only way to win with a man such as him. His only reaction was to raise his large black eyebrows.

“On my person,” she continued, “I have two hundred thousand dollars. The remainder of the payment will be made to you when certain delivery of the goods is made and I am satisfied with them.”

“Okay, okay,” Mario said, “enough talking in riddles! What is it that you would like to purchase?”

Bonnie gave him the whole speech about having an incomplete set, just as she had with Jason, but Mario did little
but move his eyebrows and the corner of his mouth occasionally as she announced her reasoning and desire. Then she told him that this was the very reason she had tried to engage him back before he left for Europe. She wanted to purchase Crystal Carmody for her looks and the asset she may be to her business. Mario was suddenly very forthcoming about what he was doing with the blonde
now
, and Bonnie found out where Crystal was and she was appalled, but not totally surprised, that Jason and Mario had put her straight back to work in a location where
she was unlikely to be found, down by the riverfront.

As she was picturing poor Crystal in her mind, Sawtell laughed. “So you wanted her before she almost destroyed my brother’s reputation? How ironic is that? If only I had met with you before I went away, our family may have been spared the embarrassment of Jason’s ridiculous decision. I think he only did it to spite me, and I think somehow she needs to pay for what nearly happened here, but still I will consider your request. I feel there needs to be quite a large payment should I decide to let her go, because she is quite a favourite. It’s all due to the media surrounding my inept brother’s short marriage. As a result, I will need to consider this carefully.”

Bonnie left his home with the money still in her possession, even though she had tried to force his hand and appeal to his greedy nature. He seemed suspicious of her, as though she were somehow going to make a lot of money from Crystal and he was too competitive to let go of the prize if she was still worth something. Even still, as he was showing her out the door he couldn’t help but ask, “Just how much are you willing to pay for her?”

Bonnie replied, “Whatever your asking price may be.”

With the words still ringing in his ears, Mario was just closing the door when the unthinkable happened. Usually he would never have been anywhere unguarded, but in his over eagerness to show this woman he had no weakness in him, he took Bonnie Leslie to the door himself. Caught up in his pride, he stood and watched her walk away, feeling superior while mulling over her request and the reason for it. As Bonnie
put her hand on the door of her waiting town car, a loud bang and a kind of whooshing noise rang through the air. The next moment, Mario Sawtell was dead on the floor of the foyer, shot through his cold hard heart. Behind the trees with the murder weapon in his hands was a familiar face, but no one saw him, as far as he knew.

Bonnie heard the shot, too, and she saw Mario laying there, the door still open, and as the guard ran to him she got in her car, not wanting to get caught up in the aftermath, but not entirely untouched. She was unable to believe she had come that close to getting the answer she wanted.
If
Sawtell was dead, she would need to go back to Jason with her request, and she had no idea how that might turn out.

As they drove away, Bonnie took a look at her makeup in the mirror and wiped the tear that had formed in the corner of her eye. As she did, she saw a figure stealthily crawl out and stand from behind the thick plants on the perimeter of the gardens. He moved fast and with surprising agility as he dropped the gun in the storm drain and walked mostly unseen down the street away from the house. She knew this man and knew what he had done. That evening the television journalists reported the story.

Well-known businessman Mario Sawtell had been shot dead in the open doorway of his home in broad daylight that morning. As yet there were no witnesses, no known suspects, no clues, no murder weapon, and nothing unusual about the bullet that had been removed from his chest cavity. In time, that would change. The funeral was a small private affair, and Mario Nicolas Sawtell was laid to rest, with his brother Jason the only living heir to his fortune and business interests.

Jason mourned the death of his older brother. They
were
close until recently, although much of this closeness was necessary, so that Mario could clean up his young brother’s messes. Jason grieved more deeply than he usually would, for his brother left this world while they were still angry with each other, and he felt guilt over his latest actions that seared into his very soul. Mario was still disappointed in Jason’s behaviour and his wanton rebellion while he was away overseas. He missed no opportunity
to berate his brother for his mistake. He taunted him, bullied him, and took away his privileges in the business to teach him a lesson. There was no way for the remorseful Jason to make amends for his stupidity and for asserting his independence in such a destructive fashion. He couldn’t live with the shame he felt, and he couldn’t live with the way his brother looked at him, the way he spoke to him, and how he now treated him like a foolish child. Finally one day, he could stand it no more. It was not enough of a reason to do what he did to Mario, but as usual and yet again, he made a decision fuelled by his wildly beating heart, without consulting his mind.

Jason had destroyed everything important to him, and in the midst of disgust in himself and his wish to make it all go away, he drove to the home by the river where Crystal was set up to work. She was alone at that very moment and soaking in the bath, with a glass of wine in her hand, but still he marched into the room and ordered her out of the water. She was frightened out of her mind, for he had a look in his eyes she had never seen before. He looked crazed, determined, and angry! He unceremoniously threw a pair of her jeans and shirt at her and with one last look at her body, marched her out the door, into the street, and told her to leave and never show her face anywhere he could see it again. In her hand, he placed a duffel bag full of her casual clothing and a bus ticket to a city over a thousand miles away. He told her it left in two hours and to be on it or else.

Crystal accepted the freedom. She couldn’t for the life of her understand why he was letting her go. She didn’t know what she would do with her freedom, but she accepted it and almost ran to get away in case he should change his mind. Jason didn’t know why he let her go, either, only that he could no longer stand the accusing voices in his head. He needed to put as much distance between himself and his ex-wife as possible.

Chapter 25

S
ienna and Elsie were kept abreast of the situation between Bonnie and Mario Sawtell, and they were at first some- what pleased and then worried, just as the madam was, at his untimely death. Bonnie was almost sure Mario’s greed would consume him and he would accept her offer of purchase. Now dead and quite unable to make
any
decision, her meeting with Mario had been pointless and fruitless. Sienna knew now their only hope lie in the hands of Jason Sawtell and his desire to be rid of the woman who had beguiled him and caused him to upset his brother. Just as she usually did, she also had another
card up her sleeve.

All this and more was being documented day by day in Sienna’s diary, and within the lines of a particular entry, she, too, pleaded that God, who she had recently started talking to, would allow her to regain her lost sister. Crystal must be missing her, too, she thought, but she may have given up hope, for in all these years, it would probably seem to her that Sienna had never tried to make contact. All that time, while Marcus was pretending to be in contact with Bonnie and Crystal, her sister had been totally
alone. Crystal couldn’t possibly know the angst and pain that flowed in her sister’s blood. Sienna hoped one day to make right every wrong that had been acted out upon her. She imagined the scenario when they would first meet, and she played over in her head the words she would say to apologize for all the lost years and for her belief in Marcus who had deceived her so long and separated them from one another.

Bonnie plucked up an extra ounce of courage and appeared again, the very next day, in the Sawtell household. She had her guard carefully up and her plan of attack firmly in her mind. It was precisely one week after Mario’s funeral. She planned to forcefully offer an open amount to Jason for Crystal’s freedom, and as an extra card up her sleeve she would promise to keep silent about what she knew of the girl he married and his latest murderous actions, which she witnessed. She would frame it in such a way that he would have no choice but to accept her generous offer, but when she tried to push him with her words he let fly with some words of his own.

“How dare you threaten me!” he exclaimed angrily. “I have just lost my brother! He’s gone and I can’t take back what I’ve done! And do you know what, Ms. Leslie? The last thing that we did was argue about that dreadful woman! She was beautiful, intoxicating, and beyond the reach of my heart. She played with me, held me at arm’s length, and turned me into a fool—a complete and utter fool!” His eyes turned stormy as he ranted. “If you must know, she’s gone,” he admitted. “I set her free just so I didn’t have to see her ever again! She’s gone forever, and I don’t even want to know where she is!” He sat down defeated and beyond consoling, his eyes wet and his body weakened by emotion. Bonnie tried to press him for details, but Jason would have none of it and demanded she leave, calling in his new bodyguard to remove her forcibly if need be.

The madam, who was very used to getting what she wanted, was there for no more than three minutes and hadn’t succeeded in rescuing Crystal. Even still she was armed with information now. She at least knew Sienna’s sister was still alive and well. In Jason Sawtell’s grief and anger, he could have very well had killed
her, just as he had killed before, so Bonnie was thankful that he had spared his ex-wife’s life. Why, she would never know, for killing her would have been more his style, but for some reason his emotions held him back this time.

Reporting back to Sienna was both a joy and a source of sadness, because for now they had no idea where Crystal had gone, if she was still in the vicinity, or if they would be able to find her again, now that she had slipped through their fingers. Had Jason chosen to do so he could have made their search much easier, for he did know where Crystal was, at least which city she was in. In his desire to make her a dim memory, he couldn’t risk Bonnie finding her and bringing her back to live only twenty minutes of his home.

His hatred for her was misguided, for he was placing the blame for his decisions all on Crystal’s shoulders, but his grief needed someone to blame so she was his scapegoat. Now that she was gone his soul and his conscience felt a bit better. “See,” he said to the sky, hoping Mario would hear him, “I got rid of her! I’m sorry for losing my head over her, Mario. Please forgive me! I’m sorry for what I did to you!” With that, he sobbed. He was a man who would never usually be seen sobbing, but his guilt and pain ate away at him like a disease. Time would never ease his guilty feelings, and it was a good thing he let Sienna’s twin go, because his emotions and actions may have gotten him into even more trouble had he harmed her, as he so wanted to. Making unwise decisions was a part of his life he wished he could stop.