Carl picked it up gratefully and nodded in appreciation.
“Jerry here’ll show you out,” and Angelo swam back to his original spot.
As Carl was led out of the house and back to his car, he couldn’t believe that lying was so easy. He couldn’t believe that he’d bullshitted the Don and gotten away with it! He could feel the sweat clinging to the inside of his clothes as he started the engine and drove away. He gave a friendly wave to Jerry who was walking back in the house with a cheery expression and focused his eyes on the road.
CHAPTER 3
Carl looked to the passenger seat where the briefcase of money lay. $50,000. It wasn’t lottery money but it would keep him comfortable and settled for long enough. And anyway, he only needed a few more hits and then he could retire and make a fresh start. He always thought he’d head south and live somewhere warm, and cheap. The heat would help his back recover and he liked the idea of having a little plot of land to himself. A little orchard maybe and some farm animals. Or maybe he’d get a condo somewhere like Miami and party hard, living the bachelor’s dream on the beach.
As he pulled into the parking lot of the motel he felt a twinge of panic. He’d managed to get away with not killing the girl for now but what next? He’d get found out eventually wouldn’t he? He opened the door to the room and looked inside half expecting to see that Anna had escaped but was almost disappointed to see she was obediently lying still. He walked over to her and saw that she didn’t even seem angry, just inpatient.
“Who are you?” she spoke in hushed tones. “What are you going to do with me?”
“Shhhh…. You’ll find out soon enough,” he said rather harshly and regretted it.
Anna withdrew back into herself and sighed.
“Look, there’s no use getting all pouty and bratty,” joked Carl. “I ain’t lettin’ you go,”
“Well can you at least untie me…please? It hurts,”
Carl immediately felt like a brute. She was so tiny after all. What did he need to tie her up for?
“Ok fine… but don’t act up or I’ll shoot,” he put a finger on the handle of his gun that sat on his hip and Anna nodded.
He pulled the knots apart and let the rope fall to the ground. Anna stretched out her limbs and sat up feeling grateful.
“Thanks… I knew you weren’t that much of a bad guy,”
“Oh yeah… Why’s that?”
“Well if you were gonna do something, you would have done it already,”
She had a point. Carl almost smiled but stopped himself.
“Don’t get too complacent. There’s still time left,” he said menacingly.
But Anna was used to being threatened, and he wasn’t the first man that had showed her a gun to get their way. She could see the kindness behind the façade of machismo and she wasn’t as scared as she should have been.
“You can get some sleep if you want,” Carl nodded to the bed,
“And where will you sleep?”
“I’m fine right here,” he shifted in his seat and winced in pain. His back was hurting again but it wasn’t anything a shot of vodka and a couple aspirin couldn’t fix.
Anna shuffled into bed and pulled the covers up around her. They were dirty and smelled musty but at least they were warm. She huddled up into the foetal position and closed her eyes for just a second. She never for a moment imagined that she could sleep but slumber came easily and she drifted off peacefully.
~
The sun was already shining through the venetian blinds when Carl woke up. He had his head on his shoulder and he felt instantly stiff and in pain when he woke.
“Urgh…” he grumbled to himself.
Anna, having heard him, also began to stir and for a brief moment Carl was certain he saw a pained expression on her face. It was as if she’d remembered something tragic. But then she opened her eyes and looked to the ceiling as she realized where she was. She didn’t seem even slightly perturbed and just sat up in bed, still wearing her coat, with a dishevelled look.
“Sleep well?” he asked sarcastically.
“Never better,” Anna said so seriously it surprised Carl.
“Are you hungry?”
“Always,” she replied.
And as Carl looked to her legs that hung from her coat he noticed that she was frightfully thin with bruises covering her pale skin like fading leopard spots.
“I’ll be right back with breakfast,” he spoke gruffly and yawned before leaving the hotel room and jumping in the SUV.
As he put his keys in the ignition he worried whether she would try and escape. Leaving her alone for a while was somewhat of a test. If she ran away she’d go straight to the police but they could never penetrate the protection of the mob. But what if she escaped and the Don found out? He decided to stay in the parking lot for a while longer and see what she did. He had the key to the motel room but she could easily smash a window. He could see her figure a little bit through the gaps in the blinds. She appeared to just be sitting on the edge of the bed. She leaned forward and flicked on the TV. So she’s getting comfy, he thought. She won’t be moving. As he drove out onto the freeway, he wondered why.
Back in the motel room Anna grabbed the remote and put on some cartoons. She’d never really seen them before. Her father was a strict man and wouldn’t allow her much freedom so she could never choose what she watched. Most of the time her Dad had on some ball game, or gangster movie. In a moment of sadness Anna realized that this was one of the few times in her life she had just chilled out and watched TV. A sense of calm washed over her as she enjoyed the precious minutes to herself in the motel room she was held captive in.
The tragedy of the situation did not elude her though, since her freedom came at the price of her father’s death. Thinking of him dead, she didn’t know how to feel about it. Part of her wanted to cry because….he was her father. He raised her, clothed her, fed her and gave her a life. Granted it wasn’t a life she wanted, but it was hers, and now that he was gone she could do anything with it.
Her mind wandered to the mysterious man who kidnapped her. Her feelings for him were conflicted too. She wanted to hate him, to feel distraught and angry. She knew that other girls in her position would try to escape but something inside Anna didn’t want to. She felt safe somehow and wanted to at least say thank you to him, to explain that in a way, she felt rescued. She pondered on why he didn’t kill her. Maybe he was sent by a stranger to kill her father and rescue her? The thought optimistically hung in her mind before she dismissed it as fantastical.
Her Dad was a notorious scumbag but no one knew about the things he did to her. She saw the way people looked at her though. They knew something was wrong but they could never have guessed the lengths of depravity her father would go to for immediate gratification. She flung herself back in between the pillows and relished the thought of never being hit again, of never having to be pinned down into the bed and have her legs forced apart. She’d never smell that rancid stench that came from his unwashed body and she’d never feel that dirty way again. Anna thought back to all those times she’d put a capful of bleach into the bath water and how she’d smell her clothes over and over again and each time they only seemed to smell dirtier.
She looked over to the doorway of the bathroom and thought about taking a shower. It would be the first time she had bathed privately in her whole life. Her father always made her keep the door open but now she’d be able to finally enjoy the warmth of the water on her skin like the way she was supposed to. She leapt up with a sense of joy in her heart. It was amazing what little acts of freedom could do to you.
She walked into the bathroom she saw that there was no lock. She hesitated for a second worried her captor would come back at any moment and find her naked. But then she reasoned that he could have raped her in her own bed back home if he wanted to. He could have taken advantage of her when she was tied up but he chose to sleep upright in a rickety chair instead of sharing a bed with her. Som
ething in her gut told her she was safe. She pulled off her coat and turned on the hot water.
CHAPTER 4
Carl pulled into the diner and saw a familiar vehicle. It was Lucas’ Dodge Viper, it had to be. No one else around here gave much love to that ostentatious shade of yellow. As he parked nearby he saw him, one of the Don’s cronies. He was leaving the diner with a coffee, a donut and that smirk of satisfaction he never washed off. Despite the fact that Carl tried to stay hidden Lucas noticed him immediately!
“Carl! Buddy, how’s it goin?”
“Good….yeah…. Good,”
“Hey, you don’t look so great. Rough night?” he asked before realizing what he said. “Oh yeah! Of course! That hit over on the south side. That god damn rat bastard Tommy, it was comin’ to him alright,” Lucas chewed on his donut for a moment in thought. “Say, let me get ya breakfast,”
“Oh…No it’s cool… thanks. I can’t stay long,”
Lucas eyed him for a second. “Well at least let me walk you in,”
“Ok,” Carl relented.
Maybe he was being paranoid but he couldn’t shake the feeling this young associate of the Don was trying to keep an eye on him. They walked into the simple diner and Carl ordered two breakfasts and two coffees. The men sat in a nearby booth while they waited.
“So…. Was it messy?” Lucas asked while sipping on his coffee. “I mean like… loadsa blood?” He was speaking so glibly he could have been talking about baseball or making an omelette.
“It was yeah… But nothing too bad,” Carl thought back to the incident and was disgusted with himself for realizing that he couldn’t actually remember what Thomas Martin’s body looked like after he shot him in the head. He’d been too preoccupied with the girl…and too used to the job.
“And his daughter? Such a shame she had to go too,”
“Yuh… It’s always bad when it’s a lady,” Carl tried to talk calmly.
“Sure is,”
“But seriously that Tommy,” Lucas swallowed the last bite of his donut and licked his fingers. “Was a real lowlife… a proper cunt,”
“I can’t say I knew him,”
“Well ain’t that a blessing,” Lucas laughed.
“What did he do that was so bad anyway?”
“Always chasin’ something that doesn’t belong to him, he might have been alright before he got addicted to whatever the fuck he was addicted to. Got caught drink drivin’ and when the cops pulled him over he was carrying a shipment of the Don’s cash… We think he squealed,”
“Jesus! That’s heavy!”
“Sure was! And it was 100k too….not exactly pocket change,”
“What a dope,” was all Carl could say as he thought about the girl’s father. Slowly a little piece of the picture was slotting into place as he caught a glimpse into the girl’s family life.
“Dope ain’t even half of it. That man beat his daughter Anna black and blue her whole life…. Such a shame, she never really had a chance,”
Carl thought back to the bruises on her shins and the way she acted so demure and delicate.
“Your order, Sir,” a waitress interrupted them and the two men looked up almost offended at her intrusion.
“Thanks,” Carl said flatly.
“Well, I better let you get back to your day. We should catch a beer soon,”
“Sure!” Carl lied. He didn’t like fraternizing with the mob unless he really had to.
The two men walked back out to their cars and drove away.
That was weird… Carl thought to himself. Lucas had never been so friendly before. He hoped he wasn’t on to him. But then how could he be? He arrived back at the motel and felt hungry as he caught the smell of bacon and warm bread on the seat beside him. He couldn’t wait to eat but first…pain meds.
~
Anna was enjoying the hot water as it ran through her hair. It warmed her mind as well as her body and she couldn’t believe that such a simple daily chore could be so enjoyable if it was done alone. She had to admit though that the motel bathroom was a rather slimy and dirty room. As she looked around she noted the mould on the walls, the lime scale on the taps and the hole in the ceiling. Then she noticed something else. Something metallic and precious glimmered through the steam on the side of the sink. It looked like a necklace.
Anna reached out to look closer and saw that she was looking at dog tags. The name said Carl Reiner. Now she knew who he was! Or at least she had something to call him by. Suddenly she could hear the sound of the bedroom door opening and she placed the dog tags back before jumping in the shower again. A gentle knock sounded from the door.
“You still hungry?”
“Starving!,”
“Sure,”
Anna felt grateful that he didn’t just barge into the bathroom unannounced. In fact he had been more polite to her in the last twenty seconds than her father had ever been. She dried herself quickly and wrapped a towel around her body.
“Thanks for breakfast!” she smiled as she exited the bathroom.
“Haha!”
“What are you laughing at?” Anna seemed perplexed.
Carl kept laughing and shook his head. “I just killed your father and kidnapped you and you’re just standing there in a towel thanking me for some bacon,”
She suddenly felt silly and childish and sat back down on the bed sadly. She didn’t realize she was doing anything wrong.
“Look,” Carl took a mouthful of his sandwich. “I didn’t mean to poke fun at ya, it’s just strange that’s all. Don’t ya think?”
“Well yeah….. but… I was just being polite,” she began to nibble on the crust of her breakfast nervously.
Carl remembered what Lucas had said about her father.
“So… I’m guessing your old man wasn’t such a nice guy then?”
“You could say that again….”
“You don’t miss him do ya?”
“Nuhuh…” she shook her head.
Carl watched her eat hungrily and could see her frail body as the towel hung limply from her.
Meanwhile Anna was thinking back to the dog tags. “So you’re military?” she hit out.
“That obvious?” Carl smiled and Anna loved the sight of his happy face. He obviously had fond memories of his service days.
“Yeah I’d say pretty obvious. The backpack, the hair…the dog tags in the bathroom you left behind with your name on,” she smirked. “Rooky mistake,” she giggled.
Carl couldn’t believe how stupid he’d been. She could have escaped and told the police his name. He was sleepy and sloppy, and he’d fucked up.
“Why didn’t you run? You could have escaped and told a cop that Carl Reiner had held you captive,”
“Yeah but you were comin’ back right? You said you were coming back. I was waiting for you,”
Her words were so innocent and naïve to Carl’s ears. They were so peculiar and sad. It was as if she didn’t want to leave, that she wasn’t afraid of him at all but instead was rather attached. Like she had transitioned from her father to him in one slick move and wasn’t looking back. He didn’t realize Stockholm Syndrome could develop so quickly. He had to make a decision fast…either kill her or dump her somewhere where she could get help.
“Well….” He began to choose his words carefully. “Is there not somewhere you’d rather be?”
Anna thought for a moment and then shook her head. “Nope. I mean… I don’t have anywhere else,”
“What about friends, other family members?”
“I wasn’t allowed friends and no… no family. They all left us in the end,”
Jesus what have I got myself into? Carl cursed himself. If he killed her he wouldn’t have this dilemma but he just couldn’t do it. She was so sweet, so fragile and docile. He wanted to envelope her in clean clothes and hugs and tell her everything would be alright.
“Are you not even a little sad your father’s dead?”
“Nah,” she finished her sandwich
and tossed the empty wrapper in the trash.
“You don’t even wanna know WHY he died?”
“He was a son of a bitch. I’m guessing that’s why,” she spat.
“Well yeah, I mean, from what I heard he wasn’t the greatest but still… he was your old man,”
“I’m glad he’s gone and I have you to thank,” Anna’s face turned from childish to churlish in a split second as she remembered her childhood with anger. “That man didn’t know how to be a father. Each night of my life I prayed before I went to sleep and I prayed that he couldn’t touch me again. I prayed that God would kill him and set me free and you know what? He answered my prayers. He set me free and he brought you into my life to give me wings. I’ll never grieve over that asshole. If that makes me a bad person then fine but I had time to think when I lay here all tied up last night. And I thought of you and how grateful I am. Carl from the bottom of my heart I thank you… I thank you for putting an end to my misery,” she had worked herself up into a frenzy of anger and her cheeks raged red.
Carl was taken aback and sat in his seat with a blank expression on his face and his mouth wide open. Was this a trick? Or could someone really hate their own father that much?
“He really hurt you that bad?”
“Like you wouldn’t believe, since I was nine years old,”
Carl quickly realized what she meant and decided to drop the subject.
CHAPTER 5
Don Angelo De Lorenzo was relaxing in the busy restaurant. His pockmarked skin shone with oil under the dim lamp light and his hair was slicked back immaculately. He was devouring a bowl of lobster bisque with his rubbery lipped mouth.
“Hey, you know who I saw this morning?” asked Lucas.
“Who?” Angelo didn’t bother looking up from his food.
“That Carl guy…. You know the Navy Seal,”
“I know who Carl is,” Angelo said angrily. “What about it?”
“Well…. I dunno he was just like…real shifty,”
“Shifty?”
“Yeah! Like all weird….”
“Yeah well he’s a bit of a weird guy. These military types are comin’ back from the middle east with all sortsa problems these days,”
“No nothin’ like that, I mean he seemed nervous talking, kinda eager to get away. And when I mentioned Tommy’s daughter he started blushin’. Went as red as that lobster there,” Lucas nodded to the almost empty bowl.