Accidents Waiting to Happen (13 page)

Bob watched Kate and her friends welcome Josh and draw him into their discussions.
 
He scanned the partygoers for the blackmailer.
 
Alone at the drinks table, she was pouring herself a glass of wine.
 
Bob appeared at Belinda Wong's side and cracked open another beer.

“Hi there,” Bob said.

“Hello,” Bell replied.

“I’m Bob Deuce, a good friend of Josh Michaels and of Kate and Abby, of course.” Bob smiled and offered a hand.

“Of course.
 
I’m Belinda Wong.
 
A pleasure to meet you, Bob.”

Bob saw the coldness in her eyes.
 
“Yes, I’m sure.”

“Josh has mentioned you before.”

“Yeah, I think we met a long time ago.
 
You used to work for Josh.”

A middle-aged couple arrived at the drinks table to interrupt Bob’s conversation.
 
Bob and Bell moved out of their way.

“Shall we?”
 
Bob indicated they should move on with a swing of his arm, bottle in hand.
 
He needed to get Bell alone.
 
“Are you enjoying yourself?”

“Yes, it’s a nice party, and you?”
 
Bell gave him a hint of smile but her eyes were filled with suspicion.

Bob took a swig from the bottle.
 
“I wasn’t talking about the party.”
 

Bell narrowed her eyes.
 
“I don’t know what you mean.”

“About you…coming here…uninvited.
 
I know about you and Josh, and the money you extorted.”
 
Bob gestured with the bottle.

The coldness in her eyes bled into her expression and her words.
 
“And what the hell has it got to do with you?”
 

“Josh is my best friend and I stand by him.
 
I don’t condone what he did.
 
Personally, I think he was an asshole to have an affair, no offense to you.
 
I want you to leave Josh and his family alone.”

Bell’s features tightened into an angry knot.
 
“Did that spineless bastard send you to speak to me?”

“No, he didn’t.
 
I came because I’m a friend.
 
You have enough money from this, what more do you want?”

“I want to see him suffer.”

“You hate him that much?”

“I love him that much.”
 
She paused for a moment.
 
“You have no idea how hard it was to watch him leave me and go back to his wife and his daughter.”

Bell’s sincerity frightened Bob.
 
She wouldn’t leave Josh voluntarily.
 
She’d go kicking and screaming.
 
He couldn’t see Josh surviving this one.
 

“He’ll never be yours if you destroy what he has now.”

“I know, but if I can’t have him then no one will.”
 

***

“Assholes!”
 
Bell poured herself another drink.
 
Anger prevented accuracy and she slopped most of it over the table and her hand.
 

“Who are?” James Mitchell said, joining the table.

“Men,” she said.

Mitchell took the bottle from her hand and finished the job she’d started.
 
He poured himself some wine.

“I’m afraid I fall into that category.”
 
He gave her a bemused smile.
 
“Who particularly is an asshole?”

“Our lovely host.”

“Josh Michaels?”

“Yes.
 
Are you one of his cronies?”

“No, I only met him tonight.
 
I’m an acquaintance of a friend of his.”

“That makes you part asshole?”
 
She took a big gulp from her glass.

Mitchell blurted a laugh.
 
“Quite probably.
 
Would you like to talk about it?”

***

It was a relief when Bob removed Josh from another discussion about his accident.
 
It was the sixth time Josh had recounted the events of the incident.
 
He kept his belief that someone was trying to kill him to himself.
 
With every new telling the event seemed more and more like the incident happened to someone else.

“Josh, I spoke to her.”
 
Bob was grave.

“And what happened?”

“She is pretty fucked up over you.
 
She’s not going to go away.
 
This one’s going down to the wire.”

“Where is she now?”

“She’s talking to Mitchell.”
 
Bob nodded to Bell and Mitchell over by the drink table.

Josh turned to see.
 
“Do you think she’s telling him?”

“No.
 
She’s angry, but she isn’t ready to throw you to the wolves.
 
Honestly, I don’t think she knows what to do.
 
She still loves you, did you know that?”

“No.
 
No I didn’t.”
 
Josh’s eyes were still fixed on Bell talking happily to James Mitchell.

***

The rest of the birthday party went without incident.
 
It was the picture of respectability and mediocrity.
 
No one got too drunk, the music wasn’t too loud and the neighbors didn’t complain too much.
 
People left as the food and alcohol disappeared.
 
The designated drivers were called to duty to perform their role.
 

Around eleven o’clock, Kate found Abby under a picnic table curled up in a ball with Wiener at her side.
 
Kate put her to bed and discovered Wiener smelled of alcohol.
 
She had no idea who had given the dog a drink.
 
She mused on the thought she’d never seen a dog with a hangover.

It was well after midnight when Josh decided to call it a night and send the party hyenas on their way.
 
He climbed onto the picnic table and surveyed the stragglers.
 
Bell was gone.
 
He hadn’t seen her go or whether she was with anyone when she had left.
 
That worried him, she had drunk more than the legal limit and he hoped she hadn’t spilled her guts to someone.
 
Mark Keegan had left around ten-thirty.
 
His flying partner wanted an early night since he and Josh were flying the next morning.
 
Bob, of course, was still there with his colleague.
 
Bob wouldn’t leave until every plate was licked clean.

“Can I have everyone’s attention,” Josh called to the bleary-eyed congregation.

Dulled by alcohol and fatigue, they turned towards him.

“I would just like to say thanks to everyone who came, especially those who had the decency to have left already.”

A titter of laughter came from the ensemble.

“But the party’s over.
 
There’s no more alcohol left.”
 

The surviving party revelers expressed a cry of sad comic despair.

Josh smiled.
 
“So you’ll have to go home now.”

“I don’t wanna go home,” Bob said.

“I didn’t want you to come.
 
So that makes two of us disappointed tonight,” he said and got another laugh.

Josh jumped down from the table and everybody took it as their cue to go.
 
Josh, with Kate’s help, ushered the party stragglers out.
 
They watched their friends leave from the front yard.

Josh surveyed the battlefield of discarded bottles, plates, paper cups, glasses and other victims fallen during the festive clash.
 
“I think we’ll leave everything tonight and clean up tomorrow.”

“Yeah, I don’t want to deal with it tonight,” Kate said.
 

“Thanks for coming everyone.”
 
Hiding a smile, Josh ignored his wife and focused on his friends’ departure.
  
After a moment, he looked at Kate and winked.

“You bastard.”
 
She grinned.
 
“You’re flying tomorrow.”

He put an arm around her and pulled her tight.
 
“I probably won’t go, anyway.”

“Why?”

“I drank too much and I don’t really feel like it.”
 
Although he had drunk too much, he hid his real feelings.
 
Bell’s arrival had taken the shine off his party and sapped his desire to enjoy himself.
 

“Now that everyone’s gone, I thought we could play, maybe?” Kate said seductively.
 
She made little circles with her finger on his chest.

“What Scrabble, Twister, that sort of thing?”
 

“You know what I mean.”

“Oh, you mean sex.”
 
He pretended to think for a moment.
 
“I think I could manage that.”
 

A car horn tooted as a vehicle went by.
 
Josh waved.
 
He spotted Bob and Mitchell talking animatedly, fuelled by alcohol.
 
The topic, basketball and who would make it to the playoffs.
 
Nancy tried to ignore her husband and his colleague.
      

Then Josh’s life changed dramatically, wiping the smile clean off his face as if it had been a smudge.
 
In response to Bob’s question, would the Sacramento Kings make it to the playoffs, Mitchell stuck his arm out straight with his thumb up.
 
Slowly, the Pinnacle Investments representative twisted him arm until his thumb pointed down.

There was no mistaking the thumbs down gesture.
 
James Mitchell was the man from the bridge.

Chapter Ten

Shock paralyzed Josh’s vocal chords.
 
A cold wave washed over his body as if a transfusion of ice was being pumped into his veins.
 
He’d entertained the man who’d tried to kill him.
 
Mitchell had drunk his alcohol, ate his food and probably pissed in his toilet.
 
He had insufficient strength to stand unassisted.
 
Josh slumped against Kate.

“Josh, are you okay?
 
Do you feel sick?”
 
Kate’s expression was a mask of concern.

“That’s him,” Josh said, staring at the vehicles leaving.
 
“He was here.”

“Who?”
 
Kate looked at her husband then at their friends’ disappearing cars.

“The man on the bridge.”
 
Josh became agitated and his voice rose in volume.

“Who?
 
Where?”

“James Mitchell,” he barked, his impotent frustration spilling over.

“The guy Bob brought?” Kate said, incredulous.

“He did that thumb’s down thing, the same as he did on the bridge.”
 
Josh’s frustration turned to rage.
 
He jabbed a finger into the empty street.
 
“James Mitchell tried to kill me.”

“For Christ’s sake, Josh.
 
Calm down and come inside.”

Kate dragged Josh, still babbling like a madman, into the house from the yard.
 
She got him into the living room, sat him down in an armchair and knelt in front of him.
 
With considerable effort, she held his flailing arms against his knees.
 

“Josh, you’ve got to get a hold of yourself.
 
I’m not having you blow up at every little thing that reminds you of the accident.
 
I know it must have been frightening but I won’t accept that behavior.
 
You shouted at those cops in the hospital, you scared the shit out of that poor kid with the flowers and now you’re accusing a man you’ve just met of being a killer.
 
Listen to yourself.
 
This is not the way Josh Michaels acts.”