Always Watching (44 page)

The older man shook his head.  “I’m not
so certain about this.  The marriage is a wrench in the plan
whether the two of you acknowledge it or not.  Orion is
dangerous.”

One hand smoothed down the front of an
expensive gray suit.  “You don’t know him the way I do. 
Johnny won’t find her.  Ever.  She should’ve never come
here in the first place, and I’d still like to know what possessed
Hardy and Weber to bring her here.  I thought for sure that
our men would dissuade her when we sent them to Washington last
spring.  Imagine my disappointment when they failed.”

“
Imagine my disappointment
when
you
failed,”
the old man rasped.  “You assured us that even if Lowe was
incarcerated that your control over the commissioner and chief of
police was so profound that it wouldn’t matter.  Then Weber
resigned.  It’s only a matter of time before they find his
replacement, and if he’s anything like that woman they hired to
replace Lowe, it definitely changes everything.  We cannot
afford any more law enforcement upgrades in this city, as you well
know.”

“
The Villanueva girl’s
death was hardly anyone’s fault.  You know that as well as I
do.  Who would’ve thought she’d try to swim for shore after
the transfer was made?”

“
It would’ve been better
for all of us if they’d kept her on board and dumped her at sea,”
the old man muttered.

“
I agree with my
father.  What was Gutierrez thinking?”

“
I’m telling you, that was
Preston’s call, not Umberto’s.  We can’t change it now
anyway.”

One man glanced at the security
detail.  “I should dismiss them for the evening.  I need
to talk to Andy before he’s gone.”

The elder nodded to his son.  “We’ll
take care of things here.  Will you come to the penthouse
immediately after you speak to him?”

He nodded.  “I’m tempted to get a look
at her before they go.”

The youngest of the trio snorted
softly.  “Don’t waste your time.  Besides, it’s not worth
the risk of exposure.  I’m displeased that Gillette had to
expose himself.  From what I’ve heard, she’s a lethal opponent
that should not be underestimated.  Do keep that in mind, and
it would be wise to remind Gillette as well.”

“
And the buyer?” he
asked.  “Should I tell Gillette to warn him too?”

The old man smiled.  “What happens to
the merchandise after the sale has never been our concern,
son.  You know that as well as I do.  It’s not like these
people are… well, people, after all.  They’re just women, not
even Christian women.”

“
Especially not Helen
Eriksson.  Oh would that we could round up all the atheists
and dispose of them the same way, yes?”

The old man stiffened.  “Not the queers
too?”

His companion scowled.  “No, they
should simply be shot.  That Underwood fellow had the right
idea, if you ask me.”

“
Yet he still murdered
Pastor Napier.  He
was
a good man.”

“
Dad,” he glanced at his
watch.  “It’s eight thirty.  I really need to get out of
here, and I’m anticipating an argument over this solo
journey.  We’ll finish this discussion at the penthouse
later.”

“
Be careful.”

He nodded.  “Always.”

Gray suit watched him go.  “I’m not
sure I’m comfortable with his role in all of this.  It’s been
the two of us for a very long time now.”

“
Almost thirty nine
years,” old man said.  “For the time being, he’s in exactly
the position we need him in.  If that changes…” a shrug
punctuated his vague statement.

“
Your son?”

Old man grinned.  “Not by blood. 
But then, we don’t view family the way others do in the end, do
we?”

“
At least I do good work
with the money we’ve made.”

“
Yes, but that won’t
absolve you if OSI isn’t stopped and they learn more than they
already know.”

“
You’re worried about
Melissa.”

“
Of course I am.  Her
mother meant the world to me.”  He clenched his withered
fists.  “Preston’s dying statement should’ve resulted in her
immediate release.”

“
Unless he died before he
could make it.”

“
Well, I suspect that even
if you were on better terms with those who might know the answer to
that question, they still wouldn’t share it.  Perhaps we’ll
have to have someone else confirm that Mr. Datello arranged for a
legal adoption of his child before he died.”

“
Have you got someone in
mind?”

“
Perhaps,” the old man
said cryptically.  “We’ll discuss it later.  At the
penthouse.  I’m assuming you’ll remain on Hennessey Island for
the meeting?”

Gray suit looked at his Piaget watch. 
“I should at least let my wife know that I’ll be late.  Don’t
want her making any frantic calls to report me missing,” he
chuckled.

“
You’ve trained her well,
old friend.”

“
What choice did I
have?”

“
Wives can be disposed of,
or have you forgotten about mine?”

“
You didn’t have children
with your wives,” gray suit said.  “It makes a
difference.”

“
You’re right.  I was
simply wise enough not to marry the mother of my child.”

Gray suit rested his hand on the old man’s
shoulder.  “We’ll figure out a way to get Melissa out of this
mess.  You have my word.  As soon as OSI closes, that
will become much easier.  They’ll be completely
discredited.”

“
Yes,” the old man said
softly.  “And we’ll be well on the way to resuming business as
usual.”

“
It can’t happen soon
enough for me.”

“
Running low on funds
again, are we?”

“
Maintaining the façade of
the family fortune isn’t easy,” gray suit admitted.  “Perhaps
it’s time for me to scale back on some of the charitable
donations.  This economy seems to be getting
worse.”

The old man chuckled.  “Now that sounds
plausible.  Just in case this takes longer than we
planned.  You may thank me now.”

“
For?”

“
Insisting that we kept
Helen in our sights in spite of her alleged retirement.  If we
hadn’t been always watching, who knows how much she might’ve
accomplished?”

Chapter 38

Musty iron filled my nostrils when awareness
crept its way back into my head.  Odor was first, followed
quickly by doubts over whether this was a nightmare or if
consciousness had truly returned.  Fragments of memory drifted
close and were swept quickly away.

I had been crying.  Johnny and I
fought.  Devlin made me feel hopeful again.  I was
getting ready to make a phone call.  What had happened?

Dull pain forced me to accept reality. 
My left shoulder ached.  The old gunshot injury wasn’t ever
going to completely heal, not to the point of living without
chronic discomfort.  Maybe I laid on it wrong.

I tried to move my arm.  Something
clanged – metal against metal.  My fingers scrabbled for
purchase.  What they encountered was hard.  Cold. 
Unyielding. 

More awareness invaded.  My arms were
stretched out away from my body.  Oh God.  Had someone me
put me on a cross?  I thought of my deranged killer from two
months ago, Fulk Underwood.  He used religious symbolism in
his murders.  Was he really dead?

Yes.

No.

It wasn’t Underwood.  This wasn’t a
crucifixion.  Metal cuffs circled my wrists, heavy and
secure.  I was shackled.

But what about my feet?

Forget the feet, Helen.  Why can’t you
see?

I blinked rapidly.  Nope, can’t
see.  Either I’d gone blind or I was shackled in a very dark
room.  One with a lot of metal in it.  The chains
suspending my arms clanged with every move I made.  Iron on
iron.

I moved one leg cautiously. 
Nope.  No restraint.  It was progress I supposed, if I
could see where I was.

The ache in my arms and shoulders
intensified.  It shouldn’t hurt this much.  Restraints in
general –

“
Shit.”

Reality slammed through me full force. 
I stretched my toes, a quick hunt for the floor.  It could’ve
been the proverbial bottomless pit underneath me.  How would I
know?  I could see absolutely nothing.  The lack of a
solid surface told me enough.  Offered the explanation for why
my arms and shoulders felt slowly eased out of the sockets.

“
I’m hanging on a
wall.  My God.”

Light spiked the room, a pill-shaped burst
of the world beyond blinded me for a moment.  Two bodies
dimmed it, lowered the glare enough for me to get a better lay of
the land.

Ha.  Land.  Not quite.  I was
in what appeared to be the cargo bay of a ship.  Steel rivets
bubbled out of the walls in regular intervals where they held the
panels together.  A caterpillar of recent conversation inched
through my brain.

The Celeste came in from sea last
Tuesday.  She’s going out again this week.

I groaned.  “Christ.”

The rest came back on a
flood of panic and despair.  Mercer Boulevard.  The
aborted phone call to Johnny.  The snippet of our last angry
conversation when Johnny snarled at Dev and told him his
old friend from Montgomery
had been looking for him at OSI.  Said old friend, Andy
Gillette rapping on the window of the Expedition.

He stood before me now, smug and
sneering.  A cigarette hung, barely pinched between his thin
lips.

“
Turn the light on,
Umberto.  Our latest acquisition is awake.”

“
You son of a bitch,” I
hissed.  “Do you have any idea what will happen to you when
Johnny catches you?”

He laughed maniacally.  “From what I
saw today, your new husband isn’t in any hurry to spend quality
time with you, Helen.  Dare I suggest you may not even be
missed?”

My red-black murderous tunnel vision
returned. 

“
Oooh,” he mocked
fear.  “If looks could kill, doctor.  Good thing we had
the foresight to keep you restrained, eh?”

“
You should be
afraid.”

“
Hmm, yes, I’ve heard all
about your moral flexibility.  Suicide, huh?  Pretty good
trick.  Never let it be said that it’s a bad thing, having
friends in high places.  How many men have you killed, Dr.
Eriksson?”

“
Who cares?  Just
know that you’re the last.”

“
You’re in no position to
make threats,” the man with him sneered.

“
Well, until now, I was
feeling pretty much neutral where you’re concerned.  Let me
guess.  Captain Umberto Gutierrez.”

He gave an exaggerated bow with a
shit-eating grin.

“
Don’t feel too honored by
the notoriety, Umberto,” I warned.  “You’re the second to the
last person I’m going to kill.”

“
Helen, Helen, Helen,”
Gillette shook his head.  “We’ve got our work cut out for us
before we get to the buyer, wouldn’t you agree,
Umberto?”

Shards of ice pumped through my veins. 
“Buyer?  You bastard.  You can’t do this to me!  I’m
an American citizen, a free woman!”

“
Blah, blah, blah,” he
shook his head and laughed.  “Freedom is an illusion, a drug
to numb the masses, Helen.  Surely you know this.  You’re
an expert in human psychology.  How can you reject some of the
mind-numbing nonsense used on the sheep and fail to recognize such
a basic truth?  Someone owns everyone.”  He stepped
close.  Anger glittered in his glacial gray eyes. 
“Especially you.”

“
No one will
ever
own me, you son of
a bitch!” I spat in his face.

He jerked back a step and wiped his cheek
with the cuff of his sleeve.  “That was a really stupid thing
to do, Helen.  I may have to punish you for it.  As I
said, we’ve got a lot of work to do with you before we make the
transfer on Friday.”

“
You’ll never get that
far.  Go ahead.  Lull yourself into a false sense of
security, Andy.  Keep telling yourself that Johnny won’t find
me, won’t even look.  I wouldn’t worry about it if I were you,
really.  You’ll be dead before he gets here.”

The corner of his mouth curled upward. 
“Yet here we are.  You’re in chains, ready to transport to the
most recent buyer –”

“
Most recent?” A harsh
laugh carried the words from the back of my throat.  “You’re
delusional.”

“
No,” very patiently
drawled, “I have more information than you do, that’s all. 
Funny thing about information.  It’s the only true power in
the world.  Your secrets gave you power over Commander Orion,
pushed him to the brink, didn’t they?  I’m not surprised that
you grew up to be such a guarded woman, Helen.  You were after
all, groomed by the best of the best.”

“
What are you
saying?  What the hell do you know about who raised me?” 
My heart slammed against my ribcage.  I thought of Dad’s other
side business again, the dirty secret no one had ever uncovered,
one I only suspected, but could never prove.

“
Your mother of
course.  She was the reigning queen of secrets.”

“
My… my
mother
?”

“
Oh dear.  Seems I’ve
spilled the beans a bit,” Gillette chuckled.