Accidents Waiting to Happen (50 page)

Tyrell fought Josh to wrench his arm free.
 
Josh gripped tighter onto the vice president’s hand.
 
He pressed down even harder onto Tyrell’s arm and head-butted him, ending his struggle.

The blood drained from Tyrell’s face.
 
Tyrell’s resistance dissipated and Josh relinquished his grip on the vice president’s arm.

“Regardless of what happens to you or me, I have the satisfaction of knowing your life is as uncertain as mine,” Josh said to Tyrell.

Dexter Tyrell stared at his wounded arm, then at Josh.
 
His panicked expression said it all.
 
He was trying to comprehend what had happened to him and was coming up short.
 
Things like this happened to other people, not him.

Bob stared at the comatose executive then at his friend.
 
“Oh, Josh.”
 

“Call the police.
 
Let’s finish this,” Josh said.

Bob went to say something, but let his thoughts die on his lips.
 
He rested the pistol on the desk.
 
He treated the weapon like it was made of glass.
 
He wanted nothing to do with the gun anymore.
 
He got up from the chair and left the office.

Josh righted the chair he’d knocked over and sat down on it.
 
He picked up the pistol and took it out of harm’s reach, then sat back and waited for the police.

Chapter Thirty-three

The commercials finished and a talk show special took over.
 
The first half of the show would retrace Pinnacle Investments’ downfall and the second half would be an open forum of the rights and wrongs of the viatical settlement system.

“Leave it alone.
 
Don’t you people know when to stop?” Josh said to the TV.

Josh reached across the couch for the remote and switched channels.
 
He couldn’t bear to watch yet another show about the appalling truth he’d uncovered.
 
The subject had been done to death by the television networks, but they insisted on resurrecting the story.
 
He couldn’t go anywhere without seeing “viatical” and “shocking” used in the same sentence.
 
It would be on cereal boxes next.
 
He stopped channel hopping when he came to the cartoons.
 
He couldn’t see Tom and Jerry making a viatical settlement on Butch.

Cartoons.
 
Thank God for cartoons.
 
They were a welcome distraction.
 
He’d seen it all unfold on television.
 
The Sacramento Police Department had tracked down John Kelso’s address book from the River City Inn.
 
In the book, fifty-seven names and addresses were listed.
 
All but one, Mark Keegan, were clients of Pinnacle Investments.
 
All had been victims of unusual accidents that appeared to have been choreographed by John Kelso.
 
Josh realized Kelso hadn’t gotten the chance to report his final victim’s name, Belinda Wong.
 

If the networks weren’t discussing John Kelso, they were discussing Dexter Tyrell.
  
News programs showed stills of the successful executive from financial publications.
 
The images were a stark comparison to the broken man the police paraded before the media.
 
He must have lost at least twenty pounds since his arrest.
 
Dexter Tyrell never made it to court.
 
On his way to his arraignment, in front of the television cameras, he broke away from the police officer holding him and ran full pelt into the path of an oncoming bus.
 
The executive was killed instantly.
 
Josh watched Tyrell’s death on television.
 
He saw a look of total bliss when the vice president saw the bus bearing down on him.
 
Josh had never seen anyone happier.

Josh’s eyes registered the cartoon characters on the television, but his mind was elsewhere.
 
The talk show special forced him to relive recent events.
 
The last two weeks since his return from Pinnacle Investments had been a blur.
 
Police from two states, along with the FBI, quizzed him over the deaths of Mark Keegan, Margaret Macey, Joseph Henderson a.k.a. Tom Jenks, Belinda Wong and John Kelso a.k.a. James Mitchell, in addition to Dexter Tyrell’s and Pinnacle Investments’ involvement.
 
Josh held nothing back.
 
There was no point in lying anymore.
 
Once he started talking, nothing could stop him and in less than two hours he’d said it all.
 
It didn’t seem possible that the deaths and carnage could be explained away in a couple of hours.
 
He thought he’d left something out, but there’d been nothing.
 
Of course, the cops kept him talking until his head swam.
 
They hammered him for days, making him start from the beginning and dissecting the tiniest details.
 

The police released him after the first long day of interrogation.
 
He and Bob were flown home in the custody of two police officers and released on their own recognizance.
 
Dexter Tyrell’s testimony and Bob’s tape recording had seen to that.
 
The executive told the police everything.
 
He explained how he’d hired a contract killer after selecting clients to kill.
 
The name John Kelso was a surprise to Tyrell, Kelso had never told him his name.
 
Tyrell explained he had only dealt with a voice on a phone and a post office box.

Once the police had Dexter Tyrell, they were no longer interested in Josh and Bob, although charges were still pending.
 
But, for revealing the murder for profit scandal, it was their lawyer’s opinion the charges of intentionally wounding Tyrell would be dropped and the killing of John Kelso would be considered justifiable homicide.
 
For all intents and purposes they were free men; their part was over.
 

Josh’s release resulted in requests for interviews from all quarters.
 
Josh declined them all, much to the media’s disappointment.
 
He’d gone from villain to hero.
 
Bell’s construction fraud claims were forgotten for the meantime in favor of his vigilante quest for the truth.

But Josh didn’t return to a hero’s welcome.
 
He’d won his life back at great expense.
 
He had lost Kate and Abby.
 
When he returned from Pinnacle Investments, he told Kate about everything—the affair, the murders, he didn’t leave a single detail out.
 
She remained detached until he had told her of the possibility that he was HIV+.
 
Kate cracked and burst into tears, telling him she never wanted to see him again.
 
He’d discovered Bell had indeed been HIV+, but he and Kate were clean.
 
Kate didn’t care that the AIDS scare was a false alarm.
 
She decided they were finished.
 
He didn’t feel much like a hero.
 
A tear rolled down his face.

The front door opened and Josh swiftly wiped away the tear with the back of his hand and focused his attention once more on the television.

Bob came into the living room.
 
“Come on, Josh, turn that crap off.
 
You’re still in the same clothes you were wearing three days ago.”

Josh turned his head over his shoulder towards his frowning friend.
 
He looked at his clothes, a tee shirt and sweatpants.
 
Stains of some description ran down the front of the shirt.
 
He didn’t remember what it was or when it had happened.

“Why are you home so early?”

Ignoring Josh, Bob took the remote from his hand and switched off the television.
 
He sat down on the coffee table between Josh and the TV, the remote held between his clasped hands.

Josh pointed at the television.
 
“I was watching that.”
 

“Yeah and you’ve been watching that crap for the last week.
 
Daytime TV will rot your brain.
 
It’s about time you did something.”

“Like what?” Josh asked.

“Anything.
 
Something.
 
You can do whatever you want, now.”

“It’s easy for you to say.
 
You haven’t lost anything.
 
Everything’s the same for you.”

Bob’s grip tightened around the remote and his face flushed.
 
“Fuck you, you ungrateful shit.
 
It’s been no picnic for me, you know.
 
I stood by you.
 
You are a guest in my home.
 
It hasn’t been easy.
 
Nancy isn’t your biggest fan after what you’ve done.”

Nancy’s icy reception had been quite clear once she knew of his affair.
 
Josh made it his business to keep out of her way at all times.
 
When she came home, he went to his room and he knew Bob was having his ear bent quite regularly about his stay.

“Do you want me to go?”

“No, Josh.”
 
Bob stood and walked away in disgust.
 
He threw the remote and it thudded into an armchair.
 
“No, I don’t want you to go.
 
I want you to get on with your life instead of pissing it away on watching TV and wallowing in self-pity.”

“I don’t have much else to look forward to.”

A crooked smile spread across Bob’s face and enthusiasm glinted in his eyes.
 
“I think I can change all that.
 
Come on, man.
 
I’ve got someplace to take you.”
 

“Where are we going?”

“Stop asking questions and get moving.
 
I’ll be waiting for you in the car.”
 
He clapped his hands together like the King of Siam and disappeared out the front door.

Josh went into the hallway.
 
He caught a glimpse of himself in the hall mirror.
 
He looked at his untidy appearance—hair unkempt, unshaven and his lived in clothes.
 
He hoped Bob wasn’t taking him somewhere special.
 
He could do without the hassle.
 
He found his running shoes and slipped them over his bare feet.

 
Walking out into the daylight, Josh squinted against the brightness of the morning sunshine and raised a hand to shield his eyes.
 
It had been days since he’d left the house and visited the outside world.
  
It wasn’t as he remembered it.
 
The world was a lot more colorful than he recalled, like he had removed tinted goggles after a long day of skiing.
 
He joined Bob in the car.

“Where are we going?” Josh asked, again.

“You’ll find out soon enough.”
 

Bob didn’t divulge their destination until they got there.
 
He indicated to a three-bedroom, ranch style house on the south side of Land Park with a “For Sale” sign outside.
 
He brought the car to a halt, but Josh wanted to jump out before the Toyota had stopped.
 
Kate stood on the porch to the house, dressed in a loose fitting, summer print dress.
 
Josh fired the car door open, but Bob grabbed his forearm.

“Get over there and win her back.
 
Don’t screw this up,” he said, with a smile pasted across his face.
 
“I went to a lot of trouble to get her here.”

Bob released his grip on Josh’s arm.
 
Josh leapt out of the car and rushed over to Kate.
 
Fearing her rejection, he slowed as he got closer and stopped about five feet from her.

Bob’s Toyota drove away.

“Hello, Josh.”
 
Kate’s reply didn’t exhibit any enthusiasm.

“Hello, Kate.”

“I saw you on the TV last week.”

“Yeah, I can’t seem to get rid of them.
 
They’re like flies around a cow’s butt.”

“Are you working?”

“No.
 
Red Circle offered me my job back, but I said no.
 
It’s not what I want anymore.”
 

Kate nodded.

They were silent for a long moment until Josh broke it.
 
“Is this where you’re living?”