Love Lies Dying (16 page)

“They’re not here now,” he whispered to her. “I’m here and they’re not. Don’t worry. They can’t harm you now.”

After Zoe stopped crying, there were a few minutes of heavy silence between them. Then, as if readying herself, Zoe let out a big sigh and sat back to look at him. She wiped at the drying tears on her face with the backs of her hands and then tried to smile at him.

“Will you hold me some more?” she asked.

He nodded.

She turned around so her back was facing him and then she leaned backwards onto him. Her head rested on his chest and she stretched her body out on the sofa.

John placed both arms around her and let them rest just above her breasts. His eyes ventured further down her body and came to rest on her belly button. The diamond and the ring holding it there were in clear sight. His eyes watched as the diamond rose and fell in time to Zoe’s breathing. Occasionally, the light would reflect from the diamond. It was one of the most endearing things he had ever seen.

God,
he thought.
She’s beautiful.

She held on tight to his arms, took another deep breath and said, “Okay, from the beginning.”

John didn’t say anything. He just waited for her to start when she felt ready. His eyes slowly moved back up towards her breasts.

“I left you at the hospital, right?” she began.

“Yep.”

“And I started driving here.”

“Okay.”

“I’m not quite sure when I first saw them, but I guess it was about half-way here that I realised that the car behind me was travelling way, way too close to me. So, I think to myself, ‘Okay, Zoe. Don’t have a panic attack. It’s probably just one of those crazy drivers you hear so much about.’ So I take the next turn and head off on a little detour.”

“But they follow you,” John said.

“Yeah. But I still don’t panic. I take another corner, and another, but they still follow and now they’re even closer.”

“Ricky’s thugs?”

Zoe nodded. “Yeah, that’s them. Anyway, I get lost with all these turns and everything and I end up in some dead-end side street. There’s nowhere for me to go other than to reverse and drive out the way I came, but they’re too close to me for that. So I sit in the car and I think they’re going to come and get me, but they just sit at the other end of the street in their car, with their lights on high and they’re just sitting there and doing nothing. It really freaked me out. It was like they were waiting for me to make the first move or the wrong move or something so they could come after me.”

“
Bastards
,” John couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He held her tighter. “Go on.”

“Well, I’m almost beside myself with fear and I didn’t know what to do. All I wanted was to get out of there and get home here and make sure you were safe too. I mean, there could have been another load of thugs after you.”

She turned her head to stare up into his eyes.

“No,” he replied. “No one followed me.”

She smiled and looked back down at her hands.

“Good,” she continued. “I’m glad. So, I had no choice. I put the Jeep into reverse and floored it and backed straight up the street at them.”

“Really?” John was amazed.

“Yeah, I mean, what else could I do?”

“Good for you. That’ll show them you’re not going to be frightened so easily.”

“But that’s the weird thing,” Zoe said. “As I started to reverse, so did they.”

“Huh?”

“They wouldn’t let me get any closer than about twenty-five feet from them. They reversed when I did, they stopped when I did.”

“Weird.”

“Yeah, like it was all some big game of cat and mouse.”

“Some game,” he said.

“Yeah. Loads of fun. Anyway, I stopped the Jeep and they stopped their car. I started to reverse again, and so did they. I thought that there was no way they would allow this to go on forever, so I just kept doing it, waiting until they changed the rules. But they didn’t. Eventually, I reversed so far that they reversed past an intersection and I was able to drive down it and get away.”

“They didn’t follow you?”

“Nope.”

“They just
let
you go?”

“Yep.”

“But that’s crazy!” John said.

“I know. But that’s Ricky for you. You never know what he’s going to do.”

“Did you get a look at the car, or the licence plate?”

Zoe shook her head. “One car looks the same as another to me, unless it’s a Jeep! It was big and black. And I never even
thought
about looking at plates.”

“So then what happened?”

“Well, I speed home here and I’m sure you’ll already be here and in a panic because I’m nowhere to be seen, but when I get here, there’s no sign of you. Nothing!”

Silence settled between them again.

“Sorry about that,” John mumbled.

“Where were you?”

“I…I needed to make sure no one was following me, so I took a detour or two myself to make sure.”

“But you said no one followed you from the hospital.”

“No one did. But I had to make sure of that. So I took some detours to make certain. They just took a bit longer than I expected.”

“Oh, okay. Maybe I should’ve done the same thing. Anyway there’s no sign of your car and no lights on in the house, so I naturally panic and think the worst. I charge up the drive and run inside looking for you, but there’s no sign of you anywhere. Then I really get scared.”

“And the place was trashed?”

“Huh?”

“This room, it was all messed up when you got here?”

“No, why?”

John was confused, “Well, I thought the thugs must have been here and messed up this room a bit. You know, to scare us.”

Zoe shook her head, “No, Johnny, this room was fine.”

“So they didn’t call by?”

“No.”

“But look at the state of this room!”

There was a long pause.

“I did that,” Zoe mumbled.

“You?”

She nodded.

“Why?”

Zoe turned to look up at him again. Her dark brown eyes were pools of sadness. “I’m sorry, Johnny, I didn’t mean to. I just lost it for a moment.”

“Lost it?”

“Yeah, went crazy.”

“Why?”

She turned from him and began re-braiding her hair.

“Why?” he asked her again, more forcefully this time. “When I walked in here I thought they had come and taken you away.”

“Not yet,” she muttered.

“What made you do it, Zoe?” he asked. “What made you trash the room and cower behind the sofa?”

“Ricky,” she whispered.

“Ricky?”

“Yeah.”

“Ricky was here?”

She shook her head, “No. He phoned.”

Thirteen

John kissed the top of her head and hugged her tighter.

“So he knows where you are?” he whispered.

Zoe nodded.

“I knew I couldn’t escape him. I should’ve known better than to try.”

“I think you did the right thing.”

“But what has it achieved?” she whispered. “He’s already found me and I know he’s going to make me pay for it.”

“Tell me what he said.”

Zoe sighed deeply and continued re-braiding her hair.

“Okay, let me think. I was standing here in the middle of the room wondering if you’re okay and whether they’d got to you, and suddenly the phone rings. To begin with, I’m relieved because I think it’s either you calling to say where you are or Helen calling to say everything’s okay. I honestly thought it was you, Johnny.”

“I understand.”

“But it wasn’t.”

“It was Ricky.”

“Ah-huh. I pick up the phone and he’s on the other end.”

Zoe fell silent for a few seconds, as if building up the courage to continue.

“Go on,” John prodded.

“It’s all over, Johnny,” she turned to stare up at him once more. “He knows where I am and he knows who I’m with.”

“And he has Helen?” John asked.

Zoe nodded. “I talked to her.”

“What?”

“Ricky said he wanted me back and I had to follow his instructions and if I didn’t he would kill Helen. I just stood there with the phone in my hand and I was frozen, you know, so scared I just couldn’t move. I couldn’t believe all this was happening and that he had tracked me down. But I managed to tell him that I didn’t believe him. It was all I could say. So, he put Helen on the phone to prove it to me.”

“Bastard.” John said between clenched teeth. “How did she sound? Was she okay?”

“Yeah, she sounded fine. I mean, she sounded scared and all, but she said she was safe and well and that we should follow Ricky’s instructions.”

John nodded. “Okay,” he said. “Do we have any other choice?”

“No,” Zoe shook her head. “We don’t. I have to go back to him.”

John hugged her harder. “Don’t worry,” he said. “We’ll follow his instructions.”

“There’s no other way.”

“But you won’t be going back to him.”

“Huh?” she looked up at him with confusion in her eyes.

“We’ll do what he wants, up to a point, and when I’m satisfied both you and Helen are safe, we’ll start playing the game to
our
rules.”

Zoe shifted on the sofa and turned her body around to lie stomach-down on him. She rested her chin on his chest and stared into his eyes.

He missed staring at the diamond in her belly button, but her face was no less captivating.

“Are you serious?” she asked. “You have no idea who you’re dealing with.”

He smiled at her and ran a hand along her braids. “Bastards like him can’t get away with things like this. Someone has to fight back sometime.”

“You’d do this for me?”

John nodded. “And Helen. I have no other choice.”

“But how? What are we going to do?”

He sighed, “I have no idea yet. But we have to fight back.”

She smiled and kissed his chest.

“You’re the best, Johnny. Even better than I dreamed.”

“But to do so, I need to know something,” John continued. “What happened to the gun you had last night?”

“The gun?”

“Yes, last I saw of it, it was over there on the hallway floor,” he pointed.

Zoe smiled, “Oh, that’s easy. It’s in my handbag. I put it there when I cleaned up this morning.”

“In your handbag?”

“Yes.”

“The one you took out shopping with you?”

“Yes,” she giggled. “For protection, just in case…”

John sighed, “Well, we’ll see what Fox has to say when we pull the ace from our sleeves.”

“But, Johnny, he’ll have his men around him for sure. You’ll be taking on a whole group of killers.”

“Don’t worry, Zoe,” John whispered. “If he can take Helen and use her as a hostage to get what he wants, I’m sure we can take him hostage to make our escape.”

“Are you serious?” she asked him.

“
Deadly.
”

“My hero,” she said and smiled up at him.

“So,” John continued. “What’s the plan? What does he want us to do?”

Zoe sighed deeply again and began to fiddle with the buttons on his shirt.

“He told me that I’d been a very naughty girl and that I would pay for it when he saw me again. He said he’d been knocked out by our fight, but not for long and that when he got back on his feet he found my address book on the floor of the bedroom.”

“Address book?”

She nodded. “It was by my suitcase. Well, I thought it was. I put it there when I was packing. With Ricky barging in on me and surprising me and probably because of the fight we had, it must’ve fallen to the floor and I didn’t see it when I ran from the room. He went through it. Most of the names in the book are friends of his and there were only a couple of names that were really just friends of mine. So, he got his men to call around to all of the people he knew were his friends. They wouldn’t allow me to hide with them anyway. They know what Ricky would do to them if he found out I was with them and they had lied to him. So, that left three names in the address book. Two were friends of mine close by in the next neighbourhood and he sent his men to check. The other name…” her voice trailed off.

“Was Helen’s.” John finished for her.

She nodded.

“Well, at least that explains how he found you so quickly.”

“Yeah. He grabbed a few of his best men and headed out this way. Knowing the way they drive, they were probably here before I was. I mean, I had to stop to sleep for a few hours here and there. They could take turns to drive.”

“So they were already watching this place before you even arrived?” John asked.

Zoe’s face cracked as tears began to flow.

“I’m so sorry, Johnny,” she sobbed. “I’ve dragged you and Helen into this and I’m so so sorry.”

“Ssshh,” he rubbed her shoulders. “There’s nothing you can do about that now.”

“I know, I know,” she continued as she wiped the tears away. “But I’m so sorry to have dragged you both into this.”

“Well, what we have to do now is drag ourselves
out
of it.”

Zoe nodded, “You’re right. I just hope we can.”

John waited for Zoe to compose herself before he continued the conversation. When she was once more calm, he asked the question again.

“So, they were already here when you arrived last night?”

“Yes. They saw me pull up in the Jeep and watched me as I went inside.”

“And when Helen came out to drive off to the hospital they thought she was you?”

“I guess so. They followed her to the hospital, laid in wait and then grabbed her when they could. They must have realised it wasn’t me when she arrived at the hospital last night. But I guess they grabbed her as a bargaining chip or insurance or something. They knew that if they could threaten the life of one of my friends, I’d come quietly without a fuss. And they’re right. If I’d been driving the Jeep, they would’ve grabbed me and I’d already be back with Ricky and he’d be punishing me.”

“But they got Helen instead.”

“Yeah, and I don’t want to think about what they’ll be doing to her.”

“If Fox is smart, they won’t be doing anything. She’s a great bargaining tool, alright. Especially as I imagine they’ve been following you all today as well.”

Zoe nodded. “They kept looking for another chance to grab me, but you were with me all day and we were in public places with lots of people, so they couldn’t do it.”

“But why not try to get you when you were driving back from the hospital? Why follow you and scare you and then let you go?”

“Because that’s Ricky’s style, Johnny. That’s what you’ve got to understand. He scares and he pushes and he taunts, and when you’re at your weakest, he attacks. That’s his game. He sent those guys to follow me so I
knew
he knew where I was. And then he makes the phone call. Then, he tells me the whole story. How he found the address book, how they followed me, how his men grabbed Helen. He tells me it all on the phone, like I’m his greatest ally, but he knows that what he’s really doing is scaring me half to death.”

She fell silent and rested her chin on his chest again. The tears had stopped, but she was pouting and sniffling.

“So, what do we have to do?”

“He wants to swap Helen for me.”

“Yeah, I guessed that,” John said. “At least we know Helen is okay.”

“Yeah, she sounded scared and tired though.”

“I bet she is.”

“Do you know Hepburn Lakes?” Zoe asked.

“Ah yeah, it’s out of town. About a three hour drive. It’s a little country town.”

Zoe nodded. “That’s where we have to go.”

“Hepburn Lakes?”

Zoe nodded. “Ricky said we have to go there. We have to get there by nine o’clock tomorrow morning and then he’ll let us know the next stage of his instructions.”

“Why there?”

Zoe crawled up John’s body so their faces were closer. She continued in a low voice, “Ricky and I took a holiday there once, about a year ago. We stayed at some old church which he had bought and converted for ‘business use’ as he liked to call it. I only spent the weekend there because he had some business that he had to conduct there the following week. And there was no way I was going to hang around for that.”

“What sort of business?”

“I think you know, Johnny. The church is about ten minutes outside of Hepburn Lakes and in the middle of nowhere. There’s no one around for miles and it’s perfect for the kind of business Ricky wants to conduct. No nosy neighbours, no witnesses, no case.”

“I see,” John said. “Then it’s perfect for us too.”

“Huh?”

“We’ll meet him on his own turf.”

“Are you sure?”

“We’ll play him at his own game.”

“It’ll be dangerous.”

“And we’ll win.”

“I hope you’re right, Johnny,” Zoe said as she snuggled her head under his chin and hugged him tight.

“So, we get to this church by nine o’clock tomorrow morning, right?”

“Yep. That’s what he said. We have to be there by nine.”

“And that’s where we’ll meet him?”

“No.”

“No?”

“There’s a phone at the church, one of those really old fashioned black ones with a dial and everything. He said he would call at nine o’clock tomorrow morning. If we don’t answer…” Zoe stopped talking.

“If we don’t answer?” John prodded.

“Helen dies,” she muttered.

There was silence for a long while.

“And if we do answer?” John asked.

“Ricky will give us instructions on how to get to the exchange point.”

“Okay,” John sighed deeply as he tried to take it all in. “Then that’s what we have to do.”

Zoe lifted her head to look him in the eyes. Their faces were just inches apart. Her forehead creased with ever-changing emotions.

“You’ll do this for me?” she asked.

He reached forward and kissed her on the bridge of the nose. He took his thumb and brushed it across the scar in her left eyebrow.

“Yes,” he whispered back.

“Why?” she asked in a quiet voice.

“I have no other choice.”

“Sure you do,” she replied. “You say goodbye to me and let me drive up there alone and I get one of Ricky’s men to drive Helen back home.”

“I don’t think so.”

“Honest, Ricky said nothing would happen to Helen if we followed the rules. He keeps his word about things like that.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“Huh?”

“I’m not letting you go back to him. You can’t.”

Zoe stared into his eyes. It was as if she was boring down into his very soul.

They were both so quiet he could hear her deep, rhythmic breathing.

“Do you mean that?” she asked.

“Yes,” he replied. “I’m not letting you go.”

Her face changed again; emotions sweeping across her. She smiled. Then the smile quivered and she looked sad, then worried. Finally, the smile returned. Slowly, she climbed off him and stood next to the sofa.

“Then we better get packed and get going,” she said as she held out both hands to him.

John took her hands and let her pull him up from the sofa. He nodded his head. “Yes, we might as well.”

“I’m sorry, Johnny,” she said again.

“Stop apologising,” he rubbed her arm. “We’ll get you out of this.”