Deception (5 page)

I stand alone in
the closet while my mind runs rampant with more questions than answers. She’s pregnant? Did she look pregnant? That would make her six weeks along, could I even tell at this point? I didn’t notice anything, but I wasn’t looking either. Why would she tell me that if it wasn’t true? Is it mine? It has to be mine, right?

Billy will be back soon, so I try to pull myself together. I take a deep breath and think. Okay, so what now? Option one is do what these guys say and hope I don’t die. Hope we don’t die. Option two is refuse to help them and definitely die. I don’t really have much of a choice, do I?

In the hall, I hear footsteps. Billy’s coming. Moments later, the door opens and he enters.

“So,” Billy begins, “what will it be?”

“You win.”

Billy nods his head in agreement. “I thought you’d see it my way.”

“Say I do get the money somehow, then what? What’s in it for me?”

“You walk away. You and the girl. You can have your whole little family. I get my money, and you go home happy. Everybody wins.”

“How do I know I can trust you?”

“You don’t have a choice. There is no other alternative for you.”

He’s right.

“Fine. I’m in.”

Without saying anything, Billy turns and walks out the door. He pops his head back in a moment later and looks to me. “Are you coming?”

I reach for and pull the string hanging from the ceiling, killing the light, then follow Billy into the hall.

---

I sit on the
cracked, faded, black leather bench in the rear of Billy’s van, my hands tied together in my lap with a shaggy rope. It’s the same van that grabbed me earlier, that much I remember. Billy drives in silence mostly, whistling a tune periodically. The other guy, Frank, sits across from me, obliviously picking his nose like no one is around.

The floor of the van is covered with shit. Not shit like feces, but shit like junk: Gum wrappers, cigarette butts, empty beer cans, and an old sneaker. The rear windows are tinted on the outside and covered with a sheet on the inside. No one can see in and no one can see out. I didn’t notice before, but it’s musty. It kind of reminds me of an old attic, or a wet dog. I can’t pinpoint it exactly. A black bag rests between Frank’s legs under the bench he’s sitting on. Suddenly, and seemingly randomly, the van slows down and comes to a stop. We couldn’t have gone much more than a few miles from the warehouse. The engine is killed.

“We’re here,” Billy says, now turned to Frank and me. “Get your finger out of your nose.”

Frank looks surprised he was caught, and he quickly removes his index finger from his left nostril. He wipes his finger on the seat. Billy gives him a look, and Frank shrugs. Billy turns back and faces the front, then opens his door and hops down.

Moments later, the backdoors swing open and Billy is silhouetted in the afternoon sun. I shield my eyes with my tied hands. Frank stands, approaches me, and motions for me to get up. He grabs the rope on my wrists and we leap out the backdoors together.

The scene is unfamiliar to me, a place I’ve never been. I don’t spend much time exploring new places, but I’ve lived in Kansas my whole life and this place looks foreign. To my right, a chain-link fence with high voltage warning signs enclose a large structure. It’s huge, probably as wide as a tree trunk at the base and as tall as a skyscraper, although it does narrow out a bit at the top. I suspect it’s a cell tower.

“What are we doing here?” I ask to anyone who will listen.

Billy looks around with his head pointed in the sky. Frank stands next to me.

“A lovely day, isn’t it?” Billy says as he breathes in heavily through his nose, still looking up. He fetches a cigarette from the pack in his pocket and lights it with a Zippo. He flips the cover open and closed, the aluminum clicking with each motion while he smokes. He smokes the entire stick without anyone saying a word. When he finished, he finally continues, “I bet you’re wondering why I brought you here.”

I just stare at him, the question too stupid to offer a polite response. He fetches some gum from his pocket and disposes of the wrapper on the dirt. He points to the tower.

“Do you know what this is?”

“It’s a tower,” I say.

Billy smiles. “It’s not just a tower, George. It’s a cell phone tower. Do you know the range on this thing?”

“No. Should I?”

“37 miles. 37.25 miles actually. 196,680 feet. But who’s counting?”

“So?”

“You got a problem with that?” Frank is suddenly in my face, unprompted and aggressive. He pulls me up by my collar. We stare at one another, me looking down at him in fear, Frank looking up at me in rage. Then he smiles. “I just kiddin’ with you, Georgie.” He pulls me toward him and kisses me, then puts me down and laughs. “Just playin’.”

I stand there staring at him, defenseless, my hands still tied, and say nothing. What the hell is wrong with this guy? He definitely seems to have a screw loose. Billy walks toward us, stops, and slaps Frank in the back of the head.

“Fuck off,” he says. “Go wait in the van.”

Frank’s face drops, but he does what he’s told. He closes the rear doors of the van and disappears inside. He looks like a big kid who just got caught stealing another cookie.

“Why are we here?” I ask, now getting frustrated. “Where are we?”

Billy doesn’t say anything. He spins me around and leads me toward the front of the van. He points out into the flatland at a small building. It looks like a tiny run-down house.

“There,” Billy says, “that’s where Snake hides out.”

“Snake?”

“Yeah, Snake. Snake is the leader of the Zved’s.
”

“How was your date?”
Frank asks as I sneak into the house and quietly close the door. It’s late, just after midnight, so I’m surprised Frank is still awake. The light from the TV fills up the otherwise dark living room. He regularly watches TV with all the lights off, which I’ve never understood.

“Fine, but I’m going to bed now though. I’ll see you in the morning,” I say.

“How’d it go?”

“Did you not hear what I just said? I’ll tell you about it in the morning.”

Frank doesn’t respond and just continues to watch whatever movie or program he’s indulged into this evening. He’ll sulk about the rejection until morning.

Alicia is on board with my idea, now I just need to figure out how the hell to implement it. I quickly rip off my clothes and toss them in the laundry basket near the closet before sliding into bed without brushing my teeth. I can smell the warm beer on my own breath and I can taste the staleness in my mouth, but I ignore it. I close my eyes and block out the noise, hoping I’ll find the answers subconsciously as I sleep.

---

It’s morning and Frank
is still asleep on the couch with the TV actually off. He sometimes puts it on a sleep timer so he has some background noise to fall asleep to, so I’m guessing that’s the case here. I enjoy the silence. The spare bedroom has all of Frank’s personal belongings in it, but he rarely sleeps in there. He hasn’t handled our father’s death very well, and I guess I can’t blame him for that. Our father took him in after he was released from the hospital, and Frank was there until our father died. Our father was all he had.

I start a pot of coffee and try to be as quiet as possible so I don’t wake Frank. I retrieve a pen and a notepad from one of the kitchen drawers and start jotting down the thoughts that came to me during sleep. My brainstorming session isn’t much more than a jumbled mess of a web of ideas, but it helps me to see everything on paper. I do the same thing at work when trying to solve a case that’s gone cold, or at least I used to. I may not ever be going back there, we’ll see.

The pot of crushed grounds on the counter catches my nose when ready, and I pour myself a cup. I add in a pinch of sugar and make my way back to the notepad on the table. Frank’s nose catches the aroma too, as he wakes just moments later. His grunts and groans are distracting as he pulls himself up from the couch, his morning wood fully engaged. He staggers to the table and sits across from me. I look up at him but don’t say anything.

“Mornin’,” he grumbles.

“Morning. There’s some coffee on the counter if you want some.” I motion behind me to the fresh steaming pot.

Frank shakes his head. “How was last night?”

“Fine. Not much to say really.”

“What did you talk about?”

“Not too much.”

It’s a lie.

“Do you like her?”

“Yes, I like her.”

Frank smiles. “Does she like you?”

“I don’t know Frank, we just had dinner,” I snap. I’m sterner than needed, but I don’t want to talk about it with him. Not yet.

Frank rubs the crust from his eyes before noticing the pad that I continue to make notes on during gaps in conversation. He leans in close to it and peeks at the upside down letters, then he glances back up at me. “What you doin’?”

I drop the pen on the table and lean back in my chair before looking at him. I study his groggy face while he tries to wake himself by blinking repeatedly. “Have you ever thought about us getting out of here?”

“What do you mean?”

“You and me, we could start over some place.”

“Where would we go?”

I shrug. “We could go anywhere you want. We could go somewhere out of the country even.”

Frank pauses for a moment, thinks about it, then smiles like he did when dad said we were going to Disney World when we were kids. “We could go to Mexico,” he says. “I’ve always wanted to go there. That would be a fun vacation.”

“I’m not talking about a vacation.”

The smile falls from his face and he looks blankly at me, unsure of what I mean. “What you talkin’ about then?”

“I’m talking about moving somewhere. Leaving Kansas and moving somewhere new, somewhere fresh, somewhere away from here.”

“But why?”

“There’s nothing here for us anymore. Dad’s gone and mom’s gone. What’s left for us?”

Frank thinks about this and a look of sadness comes over his face. “I really miss dad,” he says. He looks like he might cry.

“I know, me too.”

I take a moment and think back to all the things we used to do together growing up, as a threesome, and I have to fight my lip from quivering. We were all so close back then and continued to be as we got older, but one night changed it all. It’s all Snake’s fault.

“But if we move away, what about your job and your house?” Frank says.

“I can find a new job and I can buy a new house.”

“Sounds like that will cost a lot of money.”

I pause and smile slowly. “I wouldn’t worry about that. Money may not be an issue for too much longer.”

Billy opens the back
doors of the van and ushers me inside. Frank is sulking, sitting on his hands on one of the benches. Billy motions in Frank’s direction.

“Frank, grab that bag under your seat, will you?”

Frank pulls his legs in tight and looks to the left, then to the right, but he can’t find the bag. He stands up and turns around to face the bench. He leans down for a closer look and bangs his head on the leather, groaning a bit. He rubs his forehead and looks for blood. Obviously there is nothing there. Billy sighs behind me.

“Found it,” Frank says as he grabs the bag and carries it to Billy. “Here you go, boss.”

Billy takes the bag from Frank and drops it among the trash on the floor of the van. He unzips the top and separates the fabric. “Here.” Billy hands me a nicely folded collared shirt and a baseball hat while still digging through the bag. I don’t take it right away, so he looks up to me in frustration. “Take it.” I raise my hands, showing him they’re still tied together, and he nods. “Frank, take care of this.”

Frank fishes a pocket knife from his jeans and saws me free. Blisters are forming just below my palms where the rope had been awkwardly rubbing. I reach for the shirt, now on the floor in front of me, and stretch it out, revealing an AT&T logo on the breast. The hat has the same familiar blue and white sphere.

“What’s this for?” I ask.

“That’s our in,” Billy says.

“I don’t understand.”

“That cell tower is new. They just finished construction like a month ago.”

“Okay.”

“Network testing.”

“Huh?”

“Put the shirt on, and the hat. Then you’re going to walk down to that house, knock on the door, and invite yourself in.” Billy hands me an iPhone from the bag, AT&T of course.

“And you expect it to be that easy? If this guy’s the leader of some gang, why would he just let me in?”

There is a brief pause.

“You’ll figure it out. Suck his dick or something.”

Frank giggles in the background.

“And what if I don’t?”

“I could kill you, but that’d be too easy. I do know of a pregnant lady that we can sacrifice in your place.”

I can feel my throat beginning to tighten. He wins again. “Fine. Why me?”

“Because Snake would never suspect someone like you, and because he’s probably armed. I mean, he’s the leader of the fucking Zved’s for Christ sakes.” Billy forces himself to laugh, and Frank joins him. “Better you than me.”

---

Dressed in my new
attire and with instructions on what to look for once inside, I make my way toward the small house in the distance. The dry blood in my nose from the earlier incident at the warehouse is crusted to the hair, but I don’t think it’s broken. The bleeding stopped quite a while ago, and the pain has just about gone away completely. I may have dodged a bullet there. I need to be more careful around these guys, that’s a lesson learned the hard way.

The day is getting late and the sun is going down, but it’s still bright. The flatlands are mostly sand and gravel, and it’s exactly as its name describes: Flat. I could use this opportunity to make a run for it, but they have the van and, well, I do not. Looking around, there is nowhere for me to run and nowhere for me to hide anyway. Plus, Billy flashed me his gun before I left, just to keep me in check.

I can feel the sweat beading on the back of my neck as I approach the front door. The house is ordinary, just a little beat up, and it’s literally in the middle of nowhere. I can’t see anything else in the distance in any direction besides this house, the cell tower, and Billy’s van. Maybe this makes the perfect hiding spot for someone like Snake.

There is no specific entrance, no walkway, nothing. Just dirt and gravel that leads up to the front door. My hands are trembling as I knock. I peek back toward the van, although I’m not sure why. I guess I was hoping it would be gone. The front door cracks open enough for the barrel of a shotgun to slide through and point in my face.

“Who the fuck are you and what do you want? You have five seconds,” says the deep male voice from behind the door.

My mouth is suddenly dry and I can’t breathe.

“Five…four…three…”

I’m completely frozen as the final seconds of my life are drowning down the barrel of a gun. I try to speak, but can’t.

“Two…”

I can hear the gun being cocked from behind the door.

“One…”

“Network maintenance!” I scream, just in time. “I’m here for network maintenance! I work for AT&T. We just put that new tower up right over there.” I point behind me.

The gun has not moved and the gunman hasn’t said another word. I’m expecting my brains to be blown out all over the dirt at any second.

“It will just take a minute, Sir. I just need to come inside real quick and see how many bars I have, just to make sure the tower was installed properly.”

“Get out of here. Go somewhere else,” the man says, then he pulls the gun inside and closes the door.

“But there is no one else, Sir. You are the only house around here for miles.” It’s a final desperate attempt, and I hope I’m not pushing my luck.

Suddenly, the door swings open and a tall black man stares me in the face, his shotgun pointed under my chin. “I’m not fucking around. Get out of here or I’ll blow your teeth into your stupid little brain.” His perfect teeth shine through his well-maintained beard. He has short curly hair and he matches Billy’s description perfectly. It must be Snake. He’s thin too, real thin, like you have to wonder how someone like him became the leader of a gang thin.

It must be that gun that people fear.

I’m pushed back on my heels a bit, stretching my pants on my thighs. I feel a bulge in my pocket and it gives me an idea. “For your troubles, Sir, we are offering you a brand new iPhone.” I pull the phone from my pocket and show it to him, my hands still trembling. He’s not impressed. “And we’ll cover your entire bill for your lifetime.” I pause, still nothing. “And we’ll do the same for up to ten of your closest friends. Plus, $10,000. For your troubles, Sir.” I offer a cheap smile.

He presses the barrel of the gun deeper under my chin and puts his face next to mine, our noses nearly touching. “You have thirty seconds.” He releases the pressure on the gun and pulls it away from me. He pushes me through the door.

Billy had told me to look for something or somewhere to store a lot of cash, somewhere hidden. I scan the room quickly while Snake closes the door behind us. The room is small and has a couch and a tube TV on a stand. There is a short hallway that leads to the kitchen at the end, and there is a single bedroom and bathroom off the wings. The walls are bare and are covered by some old wallpaper.

“Whose van is that?” Snake asks.

“That’s mine, supplied by the company.”

“What’s your name?”

The question catches me off guard. I should have prepared something, but I didn’t. “Bill Franks.” As soon as I say it I regret it.

Snake doesn’t say anything, and he just stares at me for a few seconds. “You have fifteen seconds.”

I look down at the iPhone which is still in my hand, pretending to look at the bars of reception. I point down the hall. “Do you mind?”

He nods once.

The kitchen is practically empty. One folding chair lay on its side near the sink and it looks like the power cord to the refrigerator has been cut. The room smells of rotten garbage.

I quickly turn back down the hall and stick my arm in the bathroom, not bothering to turn on the light. A roll of toilet paper rests on the edge of the sink, and an old plunger is in the shower. I think I can see shit on it.

Back in the hallway, I head for the bedroom, but get cut off before I can enter.

“Not in there. Time’s up,” Snake says.

I glance in the room and catch a glimpse of a large painting hanging on the wall near a mattress that lay on the floor with no frame. It seems out of place.

Snake grabs my collar and pulls me toward him. “Not in there I said, motherfucker!” He rips the phone from my hand and pushes me toward the now open front door, my hat falling off in the process. “Now where’s my money?”

“Call customer service and give them my name, they’ll work out the payment details with you.” I don’t know if he believes me or not, but he doesn’t raise the shotgun.

“Don’t ever come back here again.” Snake slams the door in my face. It’s only a matter of time before he’ll realize that the phone doesn’t work, so I quickly turn and head back to the van, unsure if I should run or not.

I do make it back to the van, honestly surprised not to have a bullet in my back. I refuse to look behind me. I slide into the driver’s side and start the van. Billy ducks in the passenger’s seat next to me while Frank is still in the back. I move the van behind the tower, out of site of the house, and stop. Billy sits up in his seat and looks at me.

“I see you’re still alive, that’s a good start,” he says. “What did you find?”

Frank slides down to the end of the bench near us so he can hear.

“I don’t know, I wasn’t in there for very long. There is a painting hanging on the wall in the bedroom, that’s the only place it could be. Maybe there’s a safe behind there or something.”

Billy nods. “Okay, good. That’s good. That’s perfect,” he says. Relieved at his satisfaction with my effort, I slide in the back and sit across from Frank, close to the front. Billy slides over to the driver’s side and turns to me. “Did you lose your hat while you were sucking Snake’s dick?”

Frank laughs, loud and hysterically, with his mouth wide open. His voice cracks when it reaches its climax, and it makes my ears pop. Billy smirks and jams the van into gear. He waits for me to respond to his jab, but I don’t find him humorous.

“Okay,” he continues, “now for step two.”