Deadly Treatment (31 page)

‘
I
’m sorry.’ Daniel looked red-eyed and solemn as he shuffled out of his room to see Malone and Taylor.

‘You were right; I was wrong…’

‘It’s not about that. I’m sorry too,’ Malone jumped in. ‘I know how well you two were getting on.’ He was struggling to find the right words to say.

‘I’ve packed up my gear, and I’ll move out as soon as I can find somewhere to go.’

‘What? Don’t be silly!’ Taylor piped up.

‘I can’t stay here, not after what she did to you.’ Daniel was looking at Malone.

‘Daniel, Daniel. Come and sit down.’ Malone patted the couch and Daniel reluctantly sat down beside him.

‘What Shannon did to my wife affected my life in ways I can’t begin to explain, but you have to know it was her doing and not yours; it’s not your debt to repay. I don’t hold you accountable for her actions. Daniel, in many ways you have been my savior; you brought such bright light to my dim and nonexistent life. I’m not going to stand in your way if you really want to leave, but please understand that my feelings for you have not changed. I guess I’m asking you to stay around a while and only move out when the time is right for you, not because of any sense of guilt over something you had nothing to do with.’

Daniel had gone back to his room to think about what he wanted to do and Taylor had gone out to run some errands. Malone moved to his favorite chair and sat alone in the living room mulling over current events — or more correctly, non-events.

Shannon, the murderer of his wife, had disappeared; Scott and Vince had vanished with Joshua, and he was of little help to Erin. Daniel was brooding in his room, and Taylor was pushing him to move out of his home. This was one of those moments when he would have loved to simply jump in a cab and go to his old favorite bar, the Dog Box, drown his thoughts and memories with the bar’s clientele, and be neither answerable to nor responsible for anyone. 

To take his mind off his urge for a drink, Malone picked up Harrison’s cellphone, turned it on and dialed Vince and Scott. As was becoming usual, he got the voicemail. He didn’t bother leaving a message, just hung up and switched it off again.

Getting up from the La-Z-Boy, Malone walked over to the house phone, took a deep breath, and dialed Erin’s number.

‘Hi. It’s me. How are you holding up?’ he asked.

Erin broke down in frustrated and concerned tears on the other end of the line. Malone let her cry for a while, and when she calmed down a bit, he asked her if she knew of a guy called Elwood. As he expected, she didn’t.

They talked for another ten minutes or, mostly with Erin just rambling on about this and that until Malone told her it would all be alright and he’d be in touch again as soon as he thought of another direction to head.

‘
I
don’t fucking believe it,’ Vince said as he sat down beside Scott and Joshua in the diner.

‘What’s up?’ Scott asked.

‘The bastard’s cleaned us out!’

‘What do you mean?’

‘The bank. I went to the ATM; we’ve got no money; it’s all gone.’

‘What the? How? When?’ Scott’s mouth dropped. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

The waitress came to the table carrying Vince’s food, and asked if he wanted a drink.

‘A beer — and make it a large one.’

‘We’ve got Bud on draught,’ she offered.

‘That’ll be great.’

‘I’ll grab one of those too,’ Scott added.

They both sighed and went silent until the waitress returned with their drinks.

‘What the hell have we gotten into?’ Scott asked.

‘I don’t know, but this guy has really pissed me off,’ Vince replied though a mouthful of burger.

‘For a murderer, he’s obviously very well-connected — credit card and bank account access. At least after hitting the cop car he’s gonna be banged up for a while. That gives us a chance to catch our breath.’

‘Let’s go down to the station and find out who he is,’ Vince suggested.

‘The hell with that. I say we go to our safety deposit box, grab what cash we’ve got left, and go and hide for a while.’

Vince started to nod. ‘I agree with part of that plan. We’ll get the cash, but I’m not letting this guy get away with this. I’m gonna leave a message on his phone for when he gets out of jail — telling him he owes us and owes us big time.’

Scott had seen that look on Vince’s face before, a look that meant he was going to see this through to the bitter end — and Scott had a funny feeling that it was going to end — bitterly.

Elwood was drinking a Perrier at the bar in his new hotel
. Putting the earlier
faux pas
with the open door down to lack of sleep, he’d relocated to a four-star hotel, a major upgrade from the noisy cesspit he’d been staying in. He was properly rested and relaxing at the bar when the phone call came in. He moved to the far side, a deserted area of the room, took a seat and flicked open his phone.

‘What the…Where’s our fucking money?’ It was Vince on the other end; he sounded surprised that Elwood had answered the call.

‘Ahh, do you need a loan?’ Elwood said smugly.

‘I told you last time that if you fucked with us again the price would go up, so I’m calling to tell you that you’re gonna have to cough up five million. And we want it now, or we’ll go to the press.’ Vince was of course bluffing; he had no idea who would be interested in the contents of the photos, but he assumed that it wouldn’t be the police.

‘Wow, you guys really are serious players, five million dollars — that’s a lot of cash.’ Elwood’s tone was sarcastic, but Vince didn’t pick up on it.

‘You’d better believe it!’

‘I can tell that you’re not in a negotiating mood. But to come up with that much money is gonna take me till the end of the day.’ Elwood was feigning submissiveness.

‘Yeah, okay. Meet me at Elysian Park near Dodgers Stadium at four o’clock. You’d better be on time, and you’d better be alone,’ Vince said in as menacing a tone as he could muster; then he hung up.

Elwood smiled and downed the rest of his water; he had a few errands to run.

After the phone call to Elwood, the two men and Joshua jumped into the stolen Honda and headed to their bank in the city; they picked up the last of their cash from the safety deposit box, and travelled east to find a motel.

The Comfort Stop motel had a three-star look about it, but due to its location displayed two-star pricing, perfect now that Scott and Vince were on a seriously tight budget. They even chose the one-bed option figuring it would be best for them to sleep in shifts. After checking in, Vince left Scott and Joshua to fend for themselves while he went off to buy some
health insurance
. It didn’t take him long to find an enterprising youth happy to sell him a snub-nosed thirty-two pistol for a shade under two hundred dollars. Then it was off to Circuit City for some extra cover. By the time he got back to the motel, it was time to head off to meet Elwood.

‘You’re cutting it a bit fine,’ Scott said.

‘Yeah, getting this stuff took longer than I thought,’ Vince replied as he handed over what he’d picked up.’

‘I should come with you keep watch from a distance,’ Scott said.

‘I’ll be fine, he’s not going to try anything in a place as public as that. Plus, you need to babysit.’ Vince motioned towards Joshua.

‘Pretty soon we’re gonna be rich men; start thinking about where we should go for an extended vacation,’ Vince joked.

Vince went over the plan one last time, and then left the motel.

He got to the park twenty minutes early; his basic army training had taught him to scope the terrain and be prepared. He knew Elwood was a dangerous and resourceful man, so he’d have to be extra vigilant. He rounded the park checking for anyone who looked suspicious, and scanned the bushes and trees in search of any face that didn’t fit but nothing seemed out of place. A cast made up of joggers, dog walkers, lovers, and the odd vagrant was all that was on offer, so Vince relaxed a little.

As he walked towards the meeting point by the BBQ area, he scanned the roads running alongside the park in search of the black SUV — even though he’d seen its demise. The city traffic ignorantly flowed by, and only an ambulance and an empty convertible were parked on the roadside. Once again, nothing caused him any alarm. He arrived, as arranged, at four o’clock on the dot.

No one was there to meet him. Vince looked left and right and swore under his breath; he was going to give Elwood a hard time for being tardy. He checked his watch every twenty or so seconds and kicked and shuffled his feet as he waited. The big hand rolled over five past the hour and Vince started to get agitated. A hint of fear had crept back into his belly although at the moment the only person anywhere near him was a tramp.

As the tramp drew near, Vince turned his back to avoid being asked for spare change; he smiled to himself as he thought the tramp was probably better off than he At the moment

‘This is for you,’ the tramp slurred; his verbal approach made Vince jump.

‘What?’ Vince snapped.

‘Guy told me to give you this,’ he said, holding out a small package.

Vince took it from him and the tramp moved on muttering to himself.

‘Who gave this to you?’ Vince called after him, but the tramp just carried on walking.

The brown paper package was just under half the size of a shoebox and felt empty. Vince shook it a few times trying to get a feel for its contents, but it didn’t make a sound. Obviously, the package had been sent to him by Harrison’s killer, but just in case, he looked up and down the pathway and there was still no sign of him.

‘Fucking game player,’ Vince said, and in frustration he ripped open the package.

The white powder contained in the package burst out and covered Vince’s face. He sneezed once and then convulsed; froth filled his mouth, and he dropped to the ground unconscious. Within seconds, Elwood arrived on the scene dressed in a paramedic uniform and pushing a wheelchair. He loaded Vince into the seat and returned with him to the back of the parked ambulance.

Scott paced the room; ‘
Vince should have been back by now
’ was all he could think about. He switched the phone on again to check to see if he’d called; he waited for the phone to connect to the nearest antennae and find the network; seconds ticked by until finally the phone beeped.

He scrolled down through the menu and to his concern and then disappointment, saw that it only had several missed calls from Harrison’s phone.

‘Shit, why didn’t he buy another phone?’ he said and switched the phone off again.

Fidgeting again, Scott needed something to take his mind off the situation.

‘Come on Joshua; let’s go get something to eat.’

Elwood was enjoying his new supply of experimental drugs; the one used on Vince was an adaptation of concentrated chloroform, meant to be a replacement for pepper spray as it not only incapacitated the victims, it rendered them completely unconscious; unfortunately, it had a fit-inducing side effect that needed to be solved. After today’s results though, Elwood thought it should be kept as is.