44. SIMON
SIMON
F our days later and I’m finally back at work.
Only in the club though, and observing any interrogations.
The doctor is happy with my healing and I have full motion back.
But I have another two weeks until I can be signed off for working out in the gym, things like weight lifting and boxing.
I can use the treadmill and do lower body training so that's something.
I think it will help me mentally, getting stronger physically again as day by day, life is a little better.
I still have the occasional nightmare, the usual one from when I was younger, but the panic attacks from the torture have pretty much stopped.
Currently I’m on the afternoon shift at the club and it's pretty slow today. I’m sitting in the back of the club, keeping Kai company as he goes through the books.
The brothers gave him accounting responsibilities and he has taken to it like a duck to water.
Being a guard wasn’t for him. Kai wouldn’t hurt a fly and he sucked at the job.
“I’m bored,” I complain, fiddling with my phone in my hand. Carlos is at a meeting this afternoon so I can’t even bug him.
“Simon, I’m trying to concentrate,” Kai moans.
“If you’re trying to concentrate, wouldn't you be better in the office where there is no music or tits flying around?”
‘White noise.”
“I’ve never heard of a strip club environment being described as white noise, but I’ve come to expect weirdness in this family.”
He doesn’t respond, and fortunately to break the boredom, my cell phone rings. Dima.
“Hey, D.”
“Hey. I need you to come back to the house. You’ve had an interesting delivery.”
“A delivery? I haven’t ordered anything.”
“Okay, a gift. It’s from Noah.”
“Noah? As in psycho maniac Noah?”
“That very person. Just get back here as soon as you can,” he says before hanging up.
“What did Noah do now?” Kai asks.
“He’s sent me a gift.”
Kai lifts his head up so fast, I think I may have strained his neck.
“Noah? As in Ty’s brother-in-law Noah?”
“Yeah, strange right?”
“Fucking creepy you mean. It can’t be pleasant if he sent it. Good luck,” he says, but I don’t think he means it.
“Guess I’ll see you later, Kai.”
I’m so happy to leave the club, before I die from boredom. I drive back to the house, ticking off ideas in my head of what it could be. Oh god, what if he has sent me a body part of a victim as a joke?
As I pull up at the house, I notice Jules arrived just before me.
“Hey,” I say.
“Hey. What are you doing back?”
“Dima called. Apparently I have had a delivery of something.”
“Carlos trying to romance you?” he laughs.
“No, it's from Noah.”
“Noah? Now this I have to see,” he says, as perplexed by this whole situation as I am.
We both walk inside where Seb is waiting.
“Dima said to go meet him down at the holding pen,” Seb says and with that, a coldness covers my body. Why do I have a bad feeling about this?
As if on auto-pilot, I take the long walk to the holding pen, Jules is with me and I’m actually glad he is here.
We open the large black door into the pen, where I see Dima and Lev standing, chatting, which then stops when they see me.
My eyes then land on the box that's on the floor in between them.
Not a cardboard box, this is a heavy wooden box.
“What’s going on?” I ask, not taking my eyes off the box.
“Noah called me earlier and said he was sending a package. Two guys turned up with this note for you,” Dima says, and I grab the note from him.
When I open it, it says: Got bored so I killed the demon for you.
A sinking feeling hits me and I’m a little afraid to open the box as we all know what happens when Noah is bored.
“Are you gonna open it?” Lev asks.
“Why don’t you open it?”
“I’m not opening anything that fucker has sent.”
“Jules, you open it,” I ask, and he rolls his eyes.
“Wow guys, such a bunch of hard asses.”
Jules crouches down and unclips the box and opens it.
“Who the hell is that?” he asks, and with his hands pulls out….a severed head!
“I told you that guy shouldn’t be on the streets,” Lev says.
“Why would Noah send you a random head?” Dima says. It says a lot about us that we’re more concerned by the reason why, rather than the fact we have a decapitated head in the room with us.
“Oh wait, there's a folder in here,” Jules says as he lifts out a plastic folder with my name on it, he passes it to me and I open it.
My eyes widen as the first thing I see is police records with the man’s name. Holy shit.
Mr. Stuart Morgan.
My old foster dad? How the hell did Noah know who he was?
I never mentioned his name. I scan through the documents and see he was only released from prison a week ago.
An assault on his neighbor, homophobic of course.
I see nothing changed. From the court paperwork, it looks like the guy was lucky to survive.
“Well, who is it?” Dima asks.
“Mr. Morgan. The foster parent I had.”
Dima looks at me like that makes sense, dots connecting from the conversation we had before I went to Brazil. Nobody knows the full story. Only Carlos, and I’d prefer to keep it that way.
“Was he abusive?” Jules asks, and I just nod. They take the hint and don’t probe anymore.
I don’t know what to do with myself. Am I happy? I’m not sure. I’m definitely in shock as my shoes have turned to concrete, preventing me from moving. Jules lifts up the head and takes a closer look before turning it to face me.
“Is it the right guy?”
I tilt my head, comparing him to when I last saw him. He’s obviously aged a lot but that's definitely him. The crooked nose is a feature I didn’t forget.
“Yeah.”
“I wonder what he’ll send you for Christmas?” Lev mutters.
“Si, are you okay?” Dima asks. Moving over to me.
“I don’t know, I’m just confused. How did he know? And…why?”
“Only one person you can ask,” Jules says.
“I should call Noah, get some answers.”
“No, I meant Chase. You know Noah won’t say shit to you. I’m surprised you even got a note.”
“I suppose.”
I still don’t move. Is this real life?
“Si are you sure you’re okay? Should we call Carlos?” Dima asks and I snort.
“I’m not a baby, Dima. I can handle this.”
“You don’t look like you’re handling it,” Lev says.
“Hey what's going on? You’re not playing without me are you?” Ivan says as he strolls inside and straight away sees the head.
“Cool. Who is that?”
“A gift from Noah to Si,” Jules says.
“What! I thought I was his friend. Why doesn’t he send gifts to us?” Ivan says, and I’m positive he is sulking.
“Shut up, Ivan. Why would he send us all gifts of dead people?” Dima says.
“I don’t know. But it would be nice. Do we know who the head guy is?” Ivan says.
“Someone from my past,” I say.
“You’re lucky to have a friend like that, Si,” Ivan says.
“Is Ty around?” I ask Ivan.
“No he had to go out to buy a new suit or something, Why?”
“I need Chase’s number.”
“Oh, I can forward you that. Here,” he says as he taps a few times on his phone before sending me his number.
“Thanks. Are you okay dealing with it?” I say to the guys, pointing at Mr. Morgan.
“Easy work, Si. Not like it’s a full clean up. You go,” Jules says, and I run out of the room and instantly call Chase.
I stop halfway down the hallway, leaning against the wall for support before my legs give way. After only two rings, he answers.
“Hello.”
“Hey, Chase. It’s Simon, I’m not sure if you remember me,” I say, but he interrupts.
“Of course I do. How is your back?”
“Better. Listen, Noah sent me a gift. I’m not sure how much you know.”
“Not the grizzly details, but I know.”
“Chase, how did he know who he was and why did he do it?”
“It’s kind of a long story. Look, Noah is difficult to explain if you don’t understand the psychology behind it. He fixates on things, obsesses when it's something that piques his interest, and I’m talking obsession on a scale you couldn’t fathom.”
“Okay, I’m listening.”
“When you were so upset on the plane, and then you had the nightmares where you were calling out for Leo. It triggered his obsessive tendencies, so when we parted ways, he got a hold of your files from social services.”
“He did what?! How?”
“Noah is from a very powerful family, he can find out anything. Anyway, when he noticed you were placed at the same time as Leo, he searched into it more and found out the guy who you were in the care of assaulted Leo after you left.”
My vision blurs. No…no, not Leo.
“What did he do? I left a day before Leo.”
“It didn’t go too much into detail but he beat him up pretty bad.
All I know is that Leo spent some time in the hospital and moved to Canada.
After reading the multiple arrests and this guy's long record of homophobic attacks, Noah was convinced he’d hurt you for that reason and that's why you were struggling. Noah hates homophobes anyway, but he made this his new obsession. To find him and send him to you.”
“Oh, he did that alright.”
“Simon, I know it’s odd behavior.”
“You think?”
“But this is how his brain works. It wasn’t even something that he did for you because he cares, he just couldn’t focus on anything else. It’s just how he is, but in this case, he wanted you to know.”
“I’m not sure if it’s appropriate to say thank you to him, but do it anyway.”
“No problem, Simon. Look after yourself.”
“You too.”
After the call ends I remain glued to the spot. I don’t know if that answered my questions or gave me more questions. But I don’t know what to do, let alone know how to feel about this. I’m more disturbed by Noah than the fact he killed that fucker.
“Hey, did you get any answers?” Jules asks as he approaches me.
“Only that Noah is the scariest motherfucker I’ve ever met.”
I need to see Carlos, so I decide to drive over to the docks to update him on what's happened, hoping he can help me make sense of it all.