Thicker Than Blood - The Complete Andrew Z. Thomas Trilogy (25 page)

"Are they in Woodside?"

"Flame on!"

The cacophony of the television again filled the room. Leaning forward, I positioned the lighter against Orson’s inner thigh as he watched with rabid interest. This time, I felt less squeamish about applying the pain.

He hollered over the dissonant voice of Barney Fife as the
tonguelike
flame licked his skin. When the patch of hairy white flesh began to bubble, I extinguished the flame and hit the mute button. He was still yelping, eyes closed, teeth clicking, breathless.

"I think you missed your calling," he said, wincing and sucking through his teeth, stifling the squeals. Glancing down at his thigh, I noticed the afflicted skin had blossomed into a bright blister. I could smell the sweet charred flesh, a pleasantly devious odor, like gasoline.

"All right, Orson," I said. "Take three."

"Maybe it’s in a storage unit in some town you’ll never find. Maybe —" The television blared, and standing up, I held the lighter beneath Orson’s right eye. When the flame leapt out, he shrieked, "In the desert! In the desert!"

Stepping back, I cut the volume. "I think you’re lying."

"Andy," he gasped, "my videos, my photographs, everything I used to blackmail you — it’s all out there."

"Where out there? In the cabin?"

"Take me to Wyoming, and I’ll show you."

"I guess you like being burned."

"No. Don’t. Just listen. If I told you, Andy, even after you’d tortured me, you’d have no way of knowing if it was the truth till you got out there. And trust me, it wouldn’t be. Now think about that."

"You think I’m gonna haul you to Wyoming?"

"How are you gonna find the cabin? My dirt
road’s
in the middle of nowhere. You have to watch the mileage from a certain point even to have a chance at finding it, and I’m not telling you where that is. Not here. No fucking way. You need me; I need you. Let’s take a trip."

"I can find it on my own."

"How?"

"I found you."

He snorted. "That fucking cowboy."

I considered holding the flame to Orson’s eye until he screamed exactly where in the cabin or shed I could find the paraphernalia of his obsession. But he was right: I wouldn’t know if he’d told the truth until I got out there.

I wanted to ask him about my mother and how he’d framed me, but I was afraid the rage would undermine me like it had Walter, and there were things I still had to know.

"Where’s Luther?" I asked.

"I don’t know. Luther drifts." Discomfort strained his voice.

"How do you communicate?"

"E-mail."

"What’s your password?" Part of me wanted him to resist. I flipped open the Zippo.

"W-B-A-S-S."

"Pray he hasn’t touched them." I got up and opened the door.

"Andy," he said. "Can I please have whatever you’ve been giving me? This hurts like hell."

"It’s supposed to hurt."

I walked through the living room into Orson’s study and booted up the computer. His password gave me access to his E-mail account. Six new messages: five spam, one from LK72:

>From:

>Date: Fr, 8 Nov 1996 20:54:33 -0500 (EST)

>To: David Parker

>Subject:

>

>O —

>

>Getting antsy. Need to head north soon. Ask me about that
strpt
at
stlns
. Funny stuff! AT is still gone. As is WL. Still? as to the L. whereabouts. I’ll wait if you want. Otherwise, there’s someone I need to go visit
asap
up in
Sas
. Still all over the tube. Wow! Looking forward to OB.

>

>L

I searched Orson’s deleted, sent, and received message folders, but he kept nothing saved or archived. When I’d printed out the E-mail, I took it with me into the den.

"Decipher this," I said, setting the cryptic E-mail in Orson’s lap. "It is from Luther, right?"

"Yeah, that’s from him."

"So read it back to me like it makes some fucking sense."

He looked down at the page and read aloud in a weary, crestfallen voice: "Orson, getting antsy. Need to head north soon. Ask me about that stripper at Stallion’s. Funny stuff. Andrew Thomas is still gone. As is Walter Lancing. Still no idea as to the Lancing whereabouts. I’ll wait if you want. Otherwise, there’s someone I need to go visit
asap
up in Saskatchewan. Still all over the tube. Wow. Looking forward to the Outer Banks. Luther." He looked up at me. "That’s it."

"So he’s still in North Carolina, waiting for you to tell him what to do about the
Lancings
?"

"Yes."

Returning to the desk in his study, I sat for a moment, staring out the window at a woman raking her lawn across the street. As I drafted the message in my head, it occurred to me all at once what I would do — about Luther, the photographs, even Orson. It was a revelation not unlike the epiphanies I’d experienced upon finding my way out of the woods in the plotting of a novel.

As I typed, I worried that my E-mail response to Luther would deviate too conspicuously from Orson’s format and style, but I risked it:

>From:

>Date: Sat, 9 Nov 1996 13:56:26 -0500 (EST)

>To:

>Subject:

>

>L,

>

>Head on to
Sas
. I may take care of the L’s later if need be. I’m heading cross-country, too, to you know where. Want to meet somewhere en route late tomorrow or Monday, and tell me about that
strpr
in person?

>

>O

I walked back into the den and filled a syringe with two vials of
Ativan
. Then I jabbed the needle deep into the muscle of Orson’s bare ass. On my way out the door, he called my name, but I didn’t stop. I ascended the staircase and headed for the guest room, unwilling to sleep in his bed. The mattress was cramped and lumpy, but I’d been up for thirty hours and could’ve slept on broken glass. Through the window, I heard the college bell tower striking two, birds bickering, wind in the trees, and cars in the valley below — the sounds of a New England town on a Saturday afternoon. I am so, so far from that.

My thoughts were with Beth Lancing and her children as I floated into sleep. I’m trying to save your lives, but I robbed you of a husband and a father. Robbed myself of my best friend. I wondered if she already sensed that he was gone.

28

I came down the staircase at 1:30 in the morning, having slept straight for eleven and a half hours. The house was so still. I could hear only the minute mechanical breathing of the kitchen appliances as they cut on and off in the predawn silence.

After starting a pot of coffee, I poked my head into the den. Orson’s chair had fallen over. He was unconscious, naked, still awkwardly attached to the toppled chair. He looked feeble, helpless, and for a moment I let myself pity him.

Barefoot, I walked into his study and sat down at the desk. As the monitor revived, crackling with static electricity, I saw that he had one message waiting. Typing in the password, I opened the new E-mail:

>From:

>Date: Sun, 10 Nov 1996 01:02:09 -0500 (EST)

>To: David Parker

>Subject:

>

>O —

>

>Might be in SB Monday
evng
. Call when you hit
Nbrsk
and we’ll see about a rendezvous.

>

>L

Shutting down the computer, I walked back into the den and gave Orson another injection. Then I went upstairs to take a shower.

The hot water felt immaculate. After I’d tidied up the cuts on my face with a razor blade, I lingered in the stream, leaning against the wet tile, head down, the water cooling, watching the blood swirl under my feet into the drain.

It took a while for the steam to settle in the bathroom, and I sat on the toilet while it did, thumbing through Orson’s wallet, yet another possession of his, identical to mine. Removing his driver’s license, I set it on the sink. I looked nothing like the picture. His hair was short and brown, his face clean-shaven. Rising, I wiped the condensation off the mirror.

My beard had grown out considerably, gray and bristly. My hair was in shambles, the dye stripped from this last marathon shower. I shaved first, even my sideburns, and it was an improvement. There was an attachment on the electric razor for tonsure, so I climbed back into the shower and sheared my head.

When I finished, I glanced again into the mirror — much, much better.

"Hi, Orson," I said, smiling.

IV

29

SUNDAY, before dawn, I loaded Orson into the trunk of his Lexus and pulled out of the driveway of his house in Woodside. I carried his wallet, filled with his cash and credit cards, and I felt reasonably sure that, should the necessity arise, I could pass for my brother. It was comforting to know that because Orson existed, Andrew Thomas could disappear.

I drove to the Woodside Inn and slipped furtively up the noisy staircase into what had been Walter’s and my room. Our clothes were still scattered across the beds, and I stuffed everything from the drawers and the floor into our suitcases and lugged them down to the car.

Heading out on Highway 116, I prided myself on my thoroughness. I’d remembered to check out of the inn. I’d removed all traces of my presence in Orson’s home (my blood in his room, my hair in his sink and bathtub), along with all signs of his abduction. I’d even taken care of Walter’s Cadillac, driving it down the hill to the Champlain Diner at 3:15 in the morning and leaving it parked beside an overflowing Dumpster. The jog back up into Orson’s neighborhood had been a bitch, but it was worth it. Nothing could link me to this town now, and though Walter’s gory car would more than likely be discovered within the week, I’d be long, long gone by then.

Prior to leaving Orson’s house, I’d downed an entire pot of coffee and swallowed a double dose of a sinus medication that always keyed me up. Caffeine raged through me, and with unfettered energy, I drove southwest out of Woodside into New York State. If nothing went awry, Luther would be dead, and I’d be in Wyoming in less than forty-eight hours.

I sped westbound on I-80 through eastern Nebraska. It was 11:45 P.M., and the luster of driving without sleep from Vermont to Wyoming had waned. Orson was awake. He’d been kicking the inside of the trunk for the last fifty miles and cursing at me to pull over.

Traffic was light, and because there was nothing but hewn corn-fields and distant farmhouse lights as far as I could see, I obliged him. Pulling into the emergency lane somewhere between Lincoln and York, I hopped out into the chilly Nebraska night and popped the trunk. Lying on his back, in his bathrobe, handcuffed, he lifted his head.

"I’m thirsty, you bastard," he croaked. "I’ve been dying back here."

"Well, there’s some ice-cold water up front with your name on it. But you gotta earn it." Taking Luther’s E-mail from my pocket and unfolding it, I asked him, "Is SB Scottsbluff, Nebraska?"

"Why?"

I went back to the front seat and grabbed the full squeeze bottle from the passenger side. Returning to Orson, I stood in front of him and squirted a stream into my mouth.