Chapter Forty-Two
JOHN IS FRUSTRATED. He checks their cell phones, still wearing his black nitrile gloves, looking for any telltale texts, any files.
They both deny having any other phones. This hasn’t gone as he expected.
He’d hoped that with a little persuasion, they’d break down and offer him what he needs.
But they don’t have the files. He’s sure they don’t.
There’s no way this guy would let his wife be tortured like that and not fess up.
Same with her – she’s not that tough. She’d finally fainted, probably from seeing the bright red blood all over her arm and running into the white sheets.
He doesn’t think the pain could have been that bad.
He regards the two of them. She’s slouched on her side on the bed, tears smeared all over her face, blood all over her arm. Her husband is up beside her again on the bed, leaning toward her, tears streaming down his face. ‘Lara,’ he pleads, his voice breaking. ‘Lara.’
John has never understood this kind of thing. Love and tears and all that.
He knows they don’t have the files. He believes them. It’s disappointing. But it is what it is. He steps forward and pats her face briskly to bring her around. Her eyes flutter open, and she stares back at him in abject fear.
‘You happy now?’ the husband snarls at him.
‘Not really,’ John says. ‘Just to be sure, I’d like to see your computers.’
‘Our laptops are over there, on the desk.’
He already knows they don’t have a desktop, because he had Billy look. John grabs the two laptops off the desk and brings them over. He thrusts them onto the bed. ‘Which one is yours?’ he asks Lara. She indicates with her head. He cuts the ties on her wrists. ‘Open it and sign in.’
She does as he asks. He takes the laptop from her and uses a new zip tie to retie her hands.
Then he settles on the floor and searches through it, while she whimpers and her husband tries to comfort her.
John is good with computers, and he knows what to look for.
There’s nothing there. He does the same with the husband’s laptop, but there’s nothing there either.
‘You said you have a safe?’ he asks the husband.
He nods. ‘It’s in the study, on the next floor down.’
‘What’s in it?’
‘Some cash, jewellery.’
‘How much cash?’
‘About ten thousand.’ Ben adds, ‘It’s for emergencies. Take it, and leave us alone.’
John unplugs the landline phone on the desk, takes the two cell phones and the two laptops, goes out into the hall and throws all of it over the railing to the floor two storeys below so that they can’t call for help.
He likes the sound they make as they hit.
He returns to the bedroom and bends down and cuts the ties on Lara’s ankles.
He grabs his backpack from the floor and says, ‘Show me.’
‘Leave her alone. Let me show you,’ the husband says.
‘No.’
He pushes her down the stairs at knifepoint, and she leads him to the study.
He flicks the light switch with his finger, illuminating a large room with an enormous desk, sofas, a fireplace, and walls of books.
She lifts her bound hands to point to a portrait of a woman on the wall. ‘It’s behind that one.’
He lifts the painting off the wall, revealing the safe. ‘Open it,’ he directs her.
With her hands bound and visibly shaking, it takes her some time to make the combination work.
Finally, the door swings open and he grabs the money, counting it roughly and stuffing it into his backpack.
He looks the jewellery over carefully but leaves it behind.
Then he marches her back upstairs to the bedroom and thrusts her back onto the bed.
He says, ‘I’m going to go now,’ and the husband looks up at him with fury and revulsion. She merely seems weak with relief.
John shrugs his backpack on, then leans forward and grips her face roughly in his right hand. ‘If either of you tell anybody about this I’ll come back. Understand?’ They nod back at him, mute.
He steps backward, watching them, then turns and walks out the bedroom door.
He’s getting out of here. But as he walks down the hall, he hears the unexpected sound of rushing feet behind him.
Surprised, he turns to see the husband hurtling toward him, his right hand pulled back to throw a punch.
John is thinking, How did he get untied?
He hears the woman screaming from the bedroom.
And then it all happens so fast. Reacting quickly, John bends low and flips his assailant over the railing.
He rises and watches the man plunge two storeys to the floor below.
He hears the sound of the body landing and looks down over the railing in disbelief.
The other man is lying in an unnatural position, one leg obviously broken, blood seeping out from the back of his head onto the floor.
Even in the faint moonlight, John can clearly see that he’s dead.
Lara comes to, groggy and in pain. At first, she doesn’t remember what’s happened, and she simply lies there, her head throbbing, her arm aching, and something hovering on the edge of memory that’s too frightening to allow in.
All at once her eyes fly open. Ben. She sees the blood on her arm, all over her nightdress.
Her hands are still tied. She remembers Ben running after the intruder, she remembers screaming, and running out of the bedroom to see what happened.
She’s afraid, so afraid … Ben, oh god, where’s Ben?
She’s in the hall. She gets up, dizzy from being struck on the head – she remembers that too now, the stranger looming over her again just before he struck her to stop her screaming.
She stumbles down the hall and looks over the railing.
Sees Ben, splayed out on the floor far below.
She sinks to the floor in shock and stares down through the railings at her husband.
She begins to cry. She doesn’t know how long she does this. She feels like she is drowning. But finally, she pulls herself up and makes her way down the stairs, to Ben.