Hope House (33 page)

“Don’t take it personally, Tad,” Gloria said. “He lies to everyone and kills people without a second thought if it suits him.
His whole family is—”

“His whole family was my family
too. They raised me like their own.” Dr. Tad’s strength was leaving again. His sadness dragged him down, took his energy and his will. Martine had dropped to her knees beside him, holding on.

“Yeah well, you’re not their blood,” replied Kurt, shaking his head. “And that’s what it all boils down to with people like that.”

“It’s my fault,” Tad continued his confession. “I should’ve told him no. I should’ve made intentional mistakes . . . shown him it wouldn’t work. Then maybe he’d  have given up. All those poor women he lied to . . . like you, thought they lost their babies. I should never have done any of this.” He leaned against Martine with a body so hot it hurt to touch. She tried to guide him back to lie down but he resisted. Dr. Tad moved his hand to his chest and started to breathe in a more labored fashion.

5.

Maison D’Espoir, Haiti, predawn- Mick

Mick pulled up to Maison and was not happy to see Boris talking to some cab driver. That meant Kurt and Gloria were here. Inside. Already spreading their poison to Tad. Mick shut off his car and walked to the gate.

Boris walked over to him and aimed his semi-automatic at his chest.

“What are you doing?” Mick asked, anxious to get inside. “Help me open the gate.”

“No.”

“Damn it, Boris. I need to get in there. Open the gate or get out of my way so I can do it. And get that damn gun away from me. What’ve you been smoking?”

“Sorry, Mr. Puglisi. Maison D’Espoir is not yours anymore.”

“What did you say to me?”

“It is
time for you to go.”

“I need to get in there. Do you know who Gloria Hanes is? She’s a reporter. She’s going to expose everything that’s been happening here and do you know who that’s going to hurt most?”

“I think it will hurt you the most, Mr. Puglisi. You and your family. And that is a good thing.”

Boris butted the end of the gun into Mick’s chest. It hurt but he didn’t want to seem like a whiner. Mick grabbed the end of it. Then let go. What the hell was he doing? Angie was right. He was going to get himself killed. But he couldn’t leave. He had to stop this.
Think, Mick. Think.

“It’s going to hurt the country of Haiti. It’s going to hurt all the girls who ever gave birth here. It’s going to hurt the babies who were adopted out.  If Gloria succeeds in exposing the running of Maison D’Espoir, then all the girls will be sent off. Not by me, but by everyone who reads the story. Is that what you want? To hurt your sister?”

Boris put the weapon down. Thank God. A sucker born every minute.

“You can go in to stop the two outsiders but if you hurt Martine I will kill you myself. And you give me your word that Maison D’Espoir will be shut down. No more babies.”

“Fine, fine just open the fucking gate.”

Boris pulled on the metal latch and swung the door open.

Mick walked in, catlike. He eased through the front door of the clinic. They were all in the exam room. He could hear them. Mick walked closer and listened, watching unseen when he heard Tad Boucher spilling his guts.

“All those poor women he l
ied to,”  Boucher was saying. “Who-who thought they lost their babies. I should never have done any of this.” Tad leaned against Martine.  She again tried to guide him back to lie down but he continued to resist. Dr. Tad moved his hand to his chest and started wheezing.

“Well you did do all this,” shouted Mick, stepping into the room, a gun pointed at them. “You made your bed, Dr. Boucher, and now you’re going to lie in it.”

Mick realized that Tad couldn’t look any whiter. Gloria held tight to a newborn infant. He’d have to get that baby away from her. On top of all the other hassles these people were causing him he wasn’t going to lose money too. Boris was such a numb skull. As if he was really going to shut this enterprise down. But one assassination at a time.

The big blond guy was
obviously Kurt Malone. He seemed familiar but Mick was pretty sure he’d never seen him before. Mick pushed past him to get to Tad. He’d have to start there and finish Tad off before he made some kind of death bed confession and blurted out all the secrets.

“Get up you bastard. I’ve been taking care of you long enough. I gave you everything and this is how you repay me? Fraternizing with the enemy?” Mick grabbed Tad’s hospital gown and shook his body. “You’ve taken advantage. I let you mollycoddle all these breeding bitches and this is the thanks I get? My family raised you when your father died. Did you forget that? Forget what you owe us?”

Tad’s eyes kept rolling up in his head like he was trying to sleep and his breathing grew more and more shallow. “Your father killed my father,” Tad said. He paused to catch his breath, “And you felt guilty so you took me in.”

Mick loosened his hold on the gown. Shit. When had Tad figured that out? “Fine, Daddy killed him! But it was just business. We liked your father well enough.”

He saw where the loose cloth hung on Tad’s shoulder and pulled away. “Holy shit! What’s wrong with you? What is that?”

Mick looked around for hand sanitizer on the counter but didn’t want to step that far away. Maybe Tad’s shoulder was just badly bruised and not something communicable. Mick ha
d no interest in checking under the sheet to see how far the blackness went. He had work to do here. Had people to dispose of. Cleanliness could wait.

Tad blurted out, “You killed Luke, too! And Boni and her child! Only a monster kills a child. Martine was right. They were all right. You’re as bad as the Tonton Macoute. That’s what they all say about you, you know. That you’re like the Tonton Macoute.” Tad closed his eyes to staunch whatever pain he was feeling.

“Oh for God’s sake. I didn’t kill Luke or Boni’s kid!” denied Mick, going closer again to Tad. “Tad, you gotta know I’m not that bad. I’m raising Luke and Donnie myself! They’re my sons now, and Luke’s a great kid, would do anything for me. Anything. I love that kid.”

Mick heard something behind him and turned around. He saw the blur of activity as Malone ushered Gloria and Martine out of my room, escaping.

“Where do they have to hide?” Mick said aloud.

“Please, Mick, no more deaths!” pleaded Tad.

“Bullshit! I gotta get this under control in a hurry, that’s for sure.” He held the gun up under Tad’s ribs.

“You sick bastard,” Tad said, drool dripping from his mouth. He’d given up trying to keep his eyes open. “What kind of sick relationship do you have with Luke?”

“Sick? I’m not sick. I’d never do anything to hurt Luke. Hold on, what are you implying?”

“A single man who never dates women adopting a little boy—two now, eh? Little boys who’ll do anything for you, huh? And I’ll bet you make them—”

“How dare you try to make it into something vile!” Mick slammed the gun into Tad’s fevered face. Tad slumped over and the sheet and gown fell off, exposing Tad’s whole arm and hand. Black and blue and purple all the way to his fingertips.

“Jesus Christ. What’s wrong with you?”

But Tad didn’t answer.

“Tad!”

His head rolled side to side when Mick moved him.

“He’s dead,” Mick said. But he knew there was no one there to hear him.

“Dead.” A lump formed in his throat.

He had killed him. One pistol whip and he was dead. Maybe it was the sickness that did it but Mick knew he had pushed him over the edge. He had wanted to kill him anyway. That’s what he came here for. All the same, Mick started crying. He set down the gun and wiped his tears.

“Damn you, Tad. It’s wasn’t supposed to be like this. You know damn well I wouldn’t have gone through with it. I never would’ve killed you for real. I was just going to scare you is all, like I always did till I got my way.”

Through the
blur of his tears, Mick observed Tad’s face, his left cheekbone red from the hit.

What the hell am I doing here
, Mick thought for about the tenth time since he’d talked to Angela.
In a jungle killing my only friend in the world, and off to murder others. What the hell am I doing?

“I’m sorry, buddy. You were like my brother. You knew that right? I loved you.”

But Tad wasn’t answering.

Like your brother but not your brother
, Mick’s father’s words rang in his head. So many times Daddy had reminded him of that when he’d wanted to include Tad on secrets, details, investments. 

“Like my brother but not my brother,” Mick said now at his friend’s body. He took a deep breath and knew he needed to move on. Put it behind him. Tad was dead. No use crying over it.

Time to get the rest of them.

He pulled the sheet up over Tad’s body. “Rest in peace, buddy.”

Mick ran from the room to find and kill Martine, Gloria, and Malone. Three more kills and he’d be done with all these pesky complications. Done with the gatecrashers once and for all. And by next week there would be a new hospital staff. He’d have to hire two doctors. No one else would agree to be on call 24/7. Two nurses too.

He had some more fertilized embryos waiting to be shipped. Not only would Maison D’Espoir stay open, the production could double. He’d bu
ild more cabins and double-up on the number of Haitian girls.

He smiled when
he ran down the hall in search of his prey. This was going turn out just fine. What’d the politicians say? There’s opportunity in crisis. Daddy would be proud, Mick thought as he began hunting down his victims.

6.

Maison D’Espoir, Haiti, same time-Kurt

“Over here. There is an opening in the gate,” Martine said as she led Kurt and Gloria away from Maison D’Espoir.

An escape route. He smirked. “So you really weren’t prisoners after all,” Kurt said.

Martine turned to him, and even in the darkness he could see her scorn. “Do not confuse the choice to walk from one hell into another with freedom. It is not the same.”

Kurt’s hands rose in the universal gesture for surrender Gloria held the newborn closer.

“Come down this hill and to the river,” Martine commanded.

Kurt and Gloria followed. After some time passed, and they had put some distance between themselves and Mick Puglisi, Gloria pleaded for a moment’s rest. They had found the river, and Gloria sat on a rock and began feeding the baby from a bottle.

It broke Kurt’s heart to watch Gloria bonding with the infant. He wanted to be a part of that new family so bad he could taste it, but he knew now that wouldn’t be possible. Mick had come to Haiti and would be soon after them. Kurt would have to kill him, most likely in front of Gloria. And he knew it wouldn’t end there. There was a lot more cleaning up to do and he had to separate himself from Gloria to do it. He couldn’t jeopardize her career or her life by getting tangled up together.

“Come on Gloria, we have to go,” he said as he gently nudged her along.

“She’s beautiful, isn’t she?” Gloria asked about the infant as she moved along with Kurt. “My little baby. At last.”

“Yes, she is, but if you don’t get a move on, we’re all going to die out here. I don’t want to be blunt but it’s time to go. You have the rest of your life to enjoy her but right now you need to run.”

“Come, Gloria. We do not
have much time,” Martine agreed while holding open the small back gate.

“I can’t wait to start our life together. All three of us: You, me, and the little one, back home,” Gloria said to Kurt.

He didn’t have the heart to tell her the truth or to lie. Instead he just rushed her and the child, whom she held tight in her arms, through the jungle. He looked at their guide, Martine, and understood all too well what she had meant about being trapped in a life where there was no true freedom. For so long he had been forced between one hell and another. Staying with Gloria was a dream he could never have. His life on the run with so many different names, crimes. His past was his prison.

7.

Woods behind Maison D’Espoir, Haiti, same time- Gloria

Gloria ran down the hill, fleeing from Mick who must be right behind them. She’d zoned out for a few minutes after the baby was born, mesmerized by her tiny fingers and tiny mouth. She’d blocked out all that was going on around her.

But now it was time to wake up.

Tad was dead, either from the voluntary morphine overdose or by Mick’s hand, and no doubt she, Kurt, and Martine were next.

She hugged the infant tight to her. “No one is going to hurt you, little one. If I have to kill Mick Puglisi myself to protect you, I will.”

“That’s the spirit,” Kurt said as he nudged her along. He smiled and she believed things were going to be all right. Once again he was going to protect her, save her from the bad guys.

The clouds had moved and now the moonlight illuminated the landscape. It helped to show the way but also made them easier targets for Mick.