Chapter 76: Chapter 77

She’s shaking and trembling. All that nerve, all that defiance has evaporated.

Have I finally broken you?

Here? Now?

Is that what I wanted?

What did I want?

What do I want?

“What the fuck have you done to my life? I never hurt you. And my mother really did nothing either. No-

one chooses who they fall in love with. But she might have stayed with both of you if you’d let it happen…. But it’s all about you, you selfish, evil bastard…. And with what they’ve got on you now, my testimony isn’t even going to make any difference. You’re in here to stay, but you’ve got me in prison too….”

Shaking and rocking, she sobs hard. Blondie looks alarmed, wrapping his arms around her, murmuring something quiet.

And if the screen were not between us, I would hold her myself….

Mitch….

Mitch’s daughter….

She wipes a runny nose on her sleeve. It’s inelegant but endearing….

What the fuck am I thinking….?

The guard taps Blondie on the shoulder, pushing a tissue into his hand. He passes it to her and she blows her nose loudly and gracelessly.

A silence falls.

Ahh…. Christ….

What have I to lose…?

“Jennifer…. Charlotte. Go get your life back.”

Clutching at the tissue, she blinks through swollen eyes. “What?”

“I said, get your life back. You’re right. You appearing in court, no matter what your testimony, isn’t going to make a difference to me at this point. Go home. Go back to your university. Go find your mother if you want to. If she’s still alive. You won’t have any more trouble. Or at least none that I’m responsible for.”

Blondie stands, his chair scraping back, looming over me through the screen….

Jeez, you’re a big bastard….

“You’re kidding,” he says. “Just like that, it’s all different?”

Is it?

“Yeah… just like that. I suppose you won’t believe me, but, for what it’s worth to either of you, you have my word. Whatever else happens in your lives, I won’t be behind your problems…. But there’s a price….”

She wrings at the tissue. “Which is?”

“I’m going to be locked away for a long time. Probably for good. Come and visit me.”

And now she stands, rising from her seat and stepping back. “You cannot be serious.” She looks appalled.

“I’m perfectly serious. Come and visit me….”

Mitch’s daughter….

Mitch’s image….

“…. Talk to me sometimes.”

Blondie, outrage in his voice, “You murdered her father, tried to destroy her mother, enslave her…. And you want her to visit you?”

“What harm can it do? You think they’re going to let me near her?”

“What I have to get past….” says Blondie, “…is that I’m looking at a man who kidnapped, assaulted, and intended to rape and sell, my wife-to-be, and to crown it all, suspects he might be her father….”

Conners’ daughter….

And my stomach lurches again….

“….. suddenly turns into Father Christmas and says that everything’s suddenly okay?”

“Yes, I did all that. But that was then. And…. I’ve already lost the game.”

He looks at me in utter disgust and disbelief, wraps an arm around her and with a nod to the guards, steers her away and out. As they leave, she looks back at me over her shoulder.

*****

After they leave a guard takes me by the arm. “Back we go, sir.”

Sir?

“You're new, aren't you?”

“Yes, Mr Klempner, I am.”

Mr Klempner?

He keeps his voice low. Low enough not to be heard by the other guard. “I ran into an associate of yours recently. A Mr Baxter….”

Ahhh...

“…. He asked me to ask you if there is anything you need?”

“News mainly.”

“Yes, Mr Klempner. Anything else?”

“I’ll let you know.”

“Here we are, sir.” He holds a hand to my cell door. “Um, you understand sir that when the other guards are around….?”

“Of course. What’s your name?”

“I’m Gerry Sutcliffe, sir.”

“Good to meet you … Officer Sutcliffe.”

“You too, sir. Let me know if you need anything and I’ll do my best.”

*****

James “So how did it go?”

Michael prises the cap off a beer bottle on the edge of the table then gulps down from the neck before wiping his mouth on the back of his hand. “It was…. surreal.”

I’m up and about and able to walk now, at the level of using the bathroom without the intervention of a nurse. Nonetheless, Michael’s return is an excuse for me to climb back into bed, take the weight from my aching leg and draw a surreptitious sigh, which he pretends not to notice.

And I’m happy enough to be here. Back in the beach house, the environment is soothing and convinces me to sleep more than I could have done in the renovation/building site which is our mountain home, even were we able to return there.

I prop myself up against the pillows and Michael reaches around, rearranging them for me. When I’m settled comfortably, “Go on. I’m listening.”

“Cutting a long story short, Klempner admitted to murdering Charlotte’s father, seemed to have some kind of crisis over her looking just like her mother and at the end of it told her he’s calling off the dogs and to get on with her life.”

What the fuck….?

Yeah…. Right….

“I’ll ask for the longer version of that in a bit, but do you think he could possibly be sincere? After everything he did, you think he would simply give up? Forget his revenge, just like that?”

Michael sighs. “I’ve got to say, no.” He pulls up a seat, then leans back, rocking on the two back chair legs. “But…. if we don’t at least consider taking him at face value, what are our alternatives? We all have to disappear, like Charlotte’s mother? Change our identities? Give up our lives?”

Not an option….

“We can take precautions of course,” I say….

…. I need to think this through….

“Of course. I’m already on it. And this time, it’s more than just keeping an axe under the bed.”

“Oh?”

Michael sits forward again, becoming much more animated. “The house is a complete renovation anyway. While it’s stripped to the foundations, it’s as good a time as any to install any extras we might think of.”

“Such as?”

He counts off on his fingers. “Cameras, security protection, fences, pressure detectors around the fences, vibration sensors on the windows….”

Ye Gods….

It’ll be a fuckin’ fortress….

Then he flashes bows at me. “.… And since we were digging out the cellars anyway for your.…er….

‘Play Room’…. I’ve extended the digging somewhat to give us some extra options on getting out undetected if we need to.”

He’s doing what?

“You’re kidding? Some sort of secret door?”

“More than that. A tunnel. A literal bolt-hole, in case we ever have gunmen turn up again in the night.

Personally, I don’t want any more midnight escapes through the snow.”

And the memory of the most appalling night of my life floods back; waiting in the dark, helpless to do anything, while my friend and my lover escaped through the bitter winter’s night from assassins.

“Does Charlotte know about all this?” I ask.

He sucks air between his teeth. “I’ve not gone into details…. She knows I’m doing something, but I think she’s trying not to think about it too hard right now….” He looks up, staring me in the eye. “Listen, one other possibility does occur to me, about Klempner’s motives. He changed his mind when it was pointed out to him that he was retaliating against someone who was completely innocent of what had happened. Even if taking Charlotte from her mother as a baby was part of his reprisals, her mother wouldn’t know anything about everything that’s happened since…. What kind of revenge is that?”

Good point, but…?

“So…?”

“So…. Charlotte wants to know about her mother, probably to find her, and Klempner knows that. He’s in prison for God-knows-how-long….”

And good riddance….

“…. Suppose he intends to simply sit tight, and let Charlotte do his work for him, track her down? With everyone trying to help her because she’s the long-lost daughter, rather than the psycho she’s hiding from?”

Christ….

Perhaps I should have shot the bastard when I had the chance….

Too late now….

“And then pick up where he left off? Sheesh…. that’s an uncomfortable thought…. you think he’s mad enough for that?”

“Yup. In fact, ‘mad’ is an interesting way of putting it. I’m told by Will Stanton that he may not end up in prison at all. He’s got doctors arguing that he’s psychotic, criminally insane; and lawyers on both sides saying he should be locked up for the good of the rest of the human race, but in a secure hospital.

Personally, I think he’s just an evil bastard.

“So, we go for it? Try to get back to a normal life, but remain vigilant?”

“Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty? Yes, I think that’s about it….”

Speak quietly and carry a big stick….

*****