Chapter Thirty-Three
Declan woke from a feverish dream. He was still lying on the table, tied down and his head was still hooded.
He listened for anything—a breath, a shifting foot, a car passing on the street outside, assuming there was a street outside.
The only sound was a mild buzzing in his head, probably from the drugs he’d been given.
He was alone. How long ago did The Attercop abandon him?
A minute? An hour? A day, maybe. A thought crossed his mind—maybe he was dead.
Perhaps he had died in his sleep, and this was what the afterlife was like–dull, boring emptiness.
The sound of a sliding door shook Declan out of his thoughts.
“Well, Declan,” The Attercop said, “it’s time to get you ready for Charlie’s arrival and the final act of our little play.”
Click-click-click-click.
Declan heard the now-familiar sound of the utility knife. He felt the blade against his skin as his underwear was slowly sliced off.
The Attercop inhaled quickly. “Just as delicious as I remember.” This was followed by the sound of footsteps disappearing out of the room, then…running water. As The Attercop returned, Declan heard liquid sloshing around in a container.
“Gotta get you all cleaned up before company arrives,” the man said.
He began with Declan’s upper thighs, wiping carefully, even taking the time to slide the cloth under his legs.
Declan smelled the scent of soap—one far fancier than he ever used.
The man shifted his focus upwards, gently washing the sides of Declan’s muscular buttocks.
He could hear the rate of the man’s breathing increase.
Declan flexed his glutes and the cloth slid under his butt.
The man left his hand there for a moment before withdrawing it and moving to the other side.
There was more rinsing of the cloth before he returned to work, wiping Declan’s lower abs, spending time to softly cleanse his navel.
“Now for the fun part,” The Attercop said, as he cleaned Declan’s pubic hair, then slid down the sides of his scrotum. The underneath region, from testicles to anus were scrubbed, then the cloth was thoroughly rinsed before returning to slowly bathe Declan’s penis.
Declan didn’t want to respond to the touch, but his body betrayed him. “Please, stop.”
“Oh, this is just the beginning, but I’ll move on for now. I want to have an audience for the climax of the play.”
The Attercop shifted his attention to Declan’s upper body, bathing his hands and arms, paying considerable attention to his armpits. It was all precisely performed, like a cleansing rite for an animal being prepared for sacrificial slaughter.
As The Attercop moved to Declan’s neck, the cloth got tangled in the ties of the hood.
“The hood is getting in your way,” Declan said.
“If you remove it, you’ll make it easier for yourself.
Besides, I’d really like to know who’s been fondling me.
You have good hands. Show me who you are.
” He wasn’t sure if his captor would fall for flattery, but Declan had to try.
If he recognised the person, he might remember something he could use against them.
The Attercop paused. “I was going to remove the hood once Charlie got here, but seeing as you’re well shackled, I don’t see any harm in doing it now.”
Declan felt hands working on the ties at the back of his head. The hood slid off. Declan couldn’t make out anything clearly. The ceiling lights were blindingly bright. He closed his eyes.
“Your eyes will get used to the light soon,” The Attercop said. He gently stroked Declan’s face with the cloth. Declan slowly opened his eyes and got his first glimpse of The Attercop. The man was smiling. “Well?” he said. “Surprised?”
Declan searched his memory, but he drew a blank. “I don’t remember you. Are you sure we’ve met?”
A look of disappointment crossed The Attercop’s face. “Maybe if you see me the way you did when we encountered each other at The Greek, you’ll remember me.”
The Attercop stepped back, stripped off all his clothes and slowly rotated, giving Declan a full view.
Declan shook his head. “Sorry, I don’t remember you. Maybe it was all of those drugs you’ve used on me. My brain’s still a bit foggy.”
The Attercop came closer.
Click-click-click-click.
“Are you sure you don’t remember me?”
Suddenly it came to Declan. He knew who this was, and in spite of himself, he laughed.
“What’s so funny?” The Attercop screamed.
“I just realised who you are! Chipping, isn’t it? Tyler Chipping?”
“Finally!” Tyler crowed.
“I do remember you! I remember that on a cold winter night, you attacked Charlie outside of our office. And I also remember that he kicked your ass.”
Tyler slammed his hands down on the table and yelled, “He didn’t play fair. He kneed me in the balls. That’s breaking the rules!”
“So, none of this is about me,” Declan said. “It’s all about being angry with Charlie. Is that why you’ve done all of this?”
Tyler grinned. “Oh, no. It’s about something much deeper than that. Look around. Do you recognise this place?”
Declan twisted his head sideways. “It’s not the basement where you tasered me, but…”
“Looks familiar, doesn’t it?”
Declan concentrated, then it came to him. He had been here before—a little over a year ago. He’d been beaten up outside this place when he was trying to find Ian Mann. Then he’d burst into this very room to save a teenager from being killed by a guy associated with—Monarch!
“This is the basement of the abandoned Monarch Bakery building,” Declan said. “Why bring me here?”
Tyler smiled. “Because Mother said it would be poetic justice.”
“Your mother? Who is your mother?”
Before The Attercop had a chance to answer, the sliding door at the end of the room opened and Jules led a handcuffed Charlie into the space. “Oh, boy,” she said. “Already naked. I guess you couldn’t wait for us to get here before you started.”
Declan kept his head craned to look at Charlie, who had started to cry.
“Thank god you’re alive,” Charlie choked out.
“Not for long,” Tyler said. He strutted over to Charlie and tousled his hair. “How touching to see the ill-fated lovers reunited. Julie, close the door and let’s get on with this.”
Tyler took hold of Charlie and sat him in a chair facing Declan.
Charlie stared at Tyler. “It doesn’t surprise me that it’s you. I mean, you’re pretty clever, aren’t you?”
Declan frowned. What’s he up to?
Charlie continued. “In fact, I’m quite impressed with how elaborate your scheme to capture us was.”
“You don’t know the half of it,” Tyler said.
Charlie shrugged. “Maybe not all of it, but I do know that you broke into Michael Colton’s office. That was you, wasn’t it?”
Tyler smirked. “She thought I was a new client, but really, I just wanted to scope out the place to figure out the best way to break in. I needed Declan’s files so I could learn all of his little secrets.”
He walked around behind Charlie.
Click-click-click-click.
Keep him talking, Declan thought.
“I do have one question about the break-in, though,” Charlie said.
“And what’s that, boy wonder?”
“How did you figure out who Declan’s therapist was? It’s not exactly common knowledge.”
“Mother did that,” Tyler replied. “She has her sources. She told me where to go.”
Charlie nodded. “Well, we almost didn’t figure it out, but you made one big mistake—you dropped a single page of his file on the floor.”
Tyler tensed up.
Click-click-click-click.
Charlie continued. “And that led us to checking the computer and discovering that you had downloaded his session recordings.”
“But you didn’t know who had taken them, did you?” Tyler snapped back.
“No,” Charlie returned. “Not at first, but you got careless at Bar-None when you beat up Angel. You left him for dead, but he didn’t die.
And the CCTV cameras outside caught your image…
or at least an image of you in disguise.
And later, Angel was able to confirm that the man in the picture was the person who had beaten him. ”
Tyler scowled. “I was so close to the two of you in the bar and you never suspected me. It was too public to take either of you down, but I had a score to settle with Angel. Sorry to hear he’s still alive. I guess I didn’t kick hard enough.”
Charlie sat up in his chair. He looked calmly at Declan, then back to Tyler. “But why did you break into our place, and Gwen’s?”
“I wanted to make you feel vulnerable before I lured Declan in. And he was so compliant.”
Click-click-click-click.
“I’m getting bored,” Tyler whined. “Let’s get this show on the road.” He moved toward Declan.
“Just one more thing,” Charlie said. “I need to know—why go to the trouble of luring Declan one place, then move him to another?”
“Well, it made him harder to find, didn’t it? In case someone got wise.”
“Well, we did get wise,” Charlie shouted. “But actually, it wasn’t your mistakes that are going to get you caught. It was your sister who was careless.”
Tyler paused for a moment. “What do you mean?”
Charlie continued. “We found a small piece of the isoflurane bottle where you abducted Declan. It linked us to Julie, who’d let it slip that she worked for a vet.”
“He’s the one that fuckin’ dropped it!” Julie said, pointing to Tyler.
Charlie pressed on. “Look at how she’s blaming you, Tyler. If anybody was responsible for me figuring this out, it was Julie. And the thing that was most damning was her phone records. I was able to track them and there were two numbers she called most, and you were one of them.”
Good for you, Declan thought.
Julie yelled, “I destroyed that phone the night I was keeping you busy so Tyler could kidnap Declan.”
“The phone records still stand,” Charlie continued.
“And, by the way, Tyler, if you’re going to be involved in big crime, perhaps you should get an unlisted number.
We used your phone listing to track down where you live.
We’ve been to your apartment. We found the luggage.
We found the disguises. We found pictures of Declan everywhere.
Even if you kill us both, the police are going to arrest you. ”
Tyler thrashed about in a rage. “Julie, you bitch. How could you be so stupid?”
“What’s more,” Charlie added, “the second number on Julie’s records went to your mother’s phone. She was smart enough to have hers unlisted, but she still has voicemail. And I can identify the voice. Jasmine is going to be arrested as well.”
Click-click-click-click.
Tyler’s eyes had gone dead.
Declan finally spoke. “You might as well give up, Tyler. If you kill us both, the police are going to catch you anyway. If you let us go now, your sentence will be lighter.”
“I don’t care,” he screamed. “I’m putting an end to this.”
Tyler raised the knife above Declan and began to slash downward. A loud sound filled the air. The knife clattered to the floor and Tyler shouted out in pain.
Gary Sawchuck raced through the door, followed closely by Sam, along with four other officers.
The rest happened quickly. Two officers grabbed Julie, cuffed her and led her away. Two other officers got to Tyler and restrained him. His wrist was bleeding from where the knife had been shot out of his hand, but he was still alive.
Sam ran to Tyler. “Give me the keys to the locks on the table,” he demanded.
Tyler spat in his face.
Sam found Tyler’s clothes and rifled through the pockets. He located the keys and released Declan, who got up slowly.
Sam grinned. “Hell of a way to spend a Friday night. It’s a little kinky for my taste.” He gave Declan a quick hug. “Would someone get him a blanket and cover him up…for all of our sakes.” He pointed at Tyler Chipping. “And get this guy out of here before I hit him!”
Two of the officers took Tyler out, while one of the others worked on freeing Charlie. As soon as he was released, he ran to Declan, practically knocking him over.
“How the hell did you ever pull that off?” Declan asked.
Charlie pointed at his smart watch. “Best birthday gift ever! Not only did it allow Sam and Gary to track me from a distance, but it recorded everything that Julie…or Jules as you know her…said on the way over. And when I got here, I thought it wouldn’t hurt to talk through all of Tyler’s actions, so we have that on record as well.
Oh, it also has a panic button that I used to let the police know when to break in. ”
“I think that one’s a keeper,” Sam said.
Declan held on tight to Charlie, then kissed him. “Charlie Watts, you never cease to amaze me.”
Declan pulled away. “Gary, you need to send someone to Simon Griffin’s old house in Banff and apprehend Jasmine Robertson. She was the housekeeper. She’s heading up Monarch and she was behind all of this. Charlie has the proof.”
“Got it,” Gary said. “I’ll also have the police put out a watch at all of the airports, and anywhere else she might be.”
Sam interrupted. “I know you two have got a lot to talk about, but if we’re going to do this right, we’ll need to get your statements. And, Charlie, you’ll have to forward the recordings from your watch to Gary. I’ll let you know if they get Jasmine.”
One of the cops returned with a blanket and draped it around Declan’s shoulders.
Declan looked at Charlie. “Promise me no more babysitting cases.”
Charlie laughed. “Agreed.”