Never Fear (69 page)

A pause as he waited for Jack to pick
up. Jack closed his eyes and didn’t move. He felt bad about leaving
his father hanging, but he wasn’t up to another conversation with
him right now.

“
All right…when you get
in, give me a call. I came across another great opportunity for you
down here.”

Jack exhaled when he heard the click
of the connection breaking.

“
Dad,” he said softly,
“you’re making me crazy.”

His father had moved down to Florida a
few months ago and Jack had thought it was a good idea at the time.
Better to be a retired widower down there than in Burlington
County, New Jersey.

But as soon as Dad had settled in, he
began seeing all sorts of opportunities for Jack. His older brother
and sister were both professionals, pillars of their respective
communities. They were set. But Jack… Dad still saw his younger son
as unfinished business.

His brother and sister had given up on
him long ago. The annual Christmas card was the extent of their
contact. But not Dad. He never gave up. He didn’t want to go to his
grave thinking his prodigal dropout son was living hand to mouth in
New York as an appliance repairman.

I’ve probably got more socked away
than you do, Dad.

He winced as he remembered their last
conversation.

You’ve got to see this
place, Jack. It’s growing like crazy—a gold mine for someone like
you. You establish yourself here as a reliable repair service and
in no time you’ll have a fleet of trucks all over the
county.

Be still my heart, he
thought. A fleet of trucks, and maybe, if I play my cards right,
the cover of
Entrepreneur
magazine.

Jack had been begging off, hoping Dad
would get the message, but obviously he hadn’t. When Jack called
back, he was going to have to tell his father point blank: No way
was he leaving New York. The Jets would be wearing Super Bowl rings
before he moved to Florida.

Then again, if work didn’t pick up,
maybe he’d have to rethink that.

He’d just checked the answering
machine in the drop on Tenth Avenue. Nothing there. Business had
been kind of slow lately. He was getting bored.

And when he got bored, he bought
things. He’d picked up his latest treasure from his Post Office box
just this morning.

He stood and rubbed his eyes. The
computer screen tended to bother them. He removed the clock from
its packing to admire it again.

A genuine Shmoo pendulette alarm
clock. In beautiful condition. He ran his fingers over its smooth,
white, unmarred ceramic surface, touching the eyes and whiskers on
the creature’s smiling face. It had come in its original box and
looked brand new. The eBay seller hadn’t exaggerated.

Now seemed as good a time as any to
hang it on the wall. But where? They were already crowded with
framed official membership certificates in The Shadow and Doc
Savage fan clubs, Captain America’s Sentinels of Liberty, The
Junior Justice Society of America, the David Harding Counter-Spy
Junior Agents Club, and the Don Winslow Creed.

What can I say? he thought. I’m a
joiner.

His apartment was crowded with
wavy-grained Victorian golden oak furniture. The wall shelves
sagged under the weight of the neat stuff he’d accumulated over the
years, and every horizontal surface on the hutch, the secretary,
the claw-and-ball-footed end tables was cluttered as
well.

And then he saw where the clock could
go: right above the pink Shmoo planter… which still didn’t have
anything planted in it.

He was just about to look for his
hammer when the phone rang again.

Dad, give me a break, will
you?

But it wasn’t his father.

“
Jack? It’s Gia. You
there?”

Something in her voice… Jack snatched
up the handset.

“
Always here for you.
What’s up?”

“
I’m waiting for a cab.
Just wanted to make sure you were in.”

“
Something
wrong?”

“
I’ll tell you when I get
there.”

And then a click.

Slowly, Jack replaced the handset.
Definitely upset. He wondered what was wrong. Nothing with Vicky,
he hoped. But she would have told him that.

Well, he’d find out soon enough. The
West Village to the Upper West Side wasn’t too bad a trip this time
of day. No matter what the circumstance, an unexpected visit from
Gia was a treat.

He thought back on their stormy,
off-again, on-again relationship. He’d been crushed and thought it
was off forever when she’d found out how he earned his living—or
thought she had. She’d concluded that he was some sort of hit man,
which was as wrong as could be, but even after she’d learned what
he really did, even after he’d used those skills to save Vicky’s
life, she still didn’t approve.

But at least she’d come back to him.
Jack didn’t know where he’d be without Gia and Vicky.

A short while later, he heard her
footsteps on the stairs leading to his third-floor apartment. He
turned the knob that retracted the four-way bolt system, and opened
the door.

The sight of Gia standing on the
landing started that warm funny twitch he got deep inside every
time he saw her. Her short blond hair, her perfect skin, her blue
eyes—Jack felt he could stand and stare at her face for
hours.

But right now her features were
strained, her usual tight composure seemed to be slipping, her
normally flawless complexion looked blotchy.

“
Gia,” Jack said, wincing
at the pain in her eyes as he pulled her inside. “What is
it?”

And then she was clinging to him,
loosing a torrent about Christmas toys being stolen from the AIDS
kids. She was sobbing by the time she finished.

“
Hey, hey.” Jack tightened
his arms around her. “It’ll be all right.”

He knew Gia wasn’t much for emotional
displays. Yeah, she was Italian, but Northern Italian—the blood
running in her veins was probably more Swiss than anything else.
For her to be sobbing like this… she had to be hurting something
fierce.

“
It’s just the
heartlessness
of it,”
she said, sniffing. “How could somebody
do
such a thing? And how can you be
so damn
calm
about it!”

Uh-oh.

“
I hear anger looking for
a target. I know this has really cut you deep, Gia, but I’m not the
bad guy here.”

“
Oh, I know, I know. It’s
just—you’ve never been down there. Never seen these kids. Never
held them. Jack, they’ve got nothing. Not even a parent who cares,
let alone a future. We were collecting those toys so they’d have a
nice Christmas, a
great
Christmas—the last Christmas for a lot of them.
And now–”

Another sob.

Jeez, this was awful. He had to say
something, do something, anything so she wouldn’t feel like
this.

“
Do you know what the
presents were? I mean do you have some sort of a list. Because if
you do, just give it to me and I’ll replace–”

She pushed back and stared
at him. “They were donations, Jack. Most of them all wrapped up and
ready for giving. Replacing them’s not important. Getting
them
back
is.
Understand?”

“
Yes…and no.”

“
Somebody’s got to find
these guys—the ones who did this—and teach them a lesson… make an
example of them… a very public example. Know what I
mean?”

Jack fought to suppress a grin. “I
think so. You mean, make it so that the next creep who gets the
same idea will think twice, maybe three times before he decides to
go through with it.”

“
Exactly.
Exactly
.”

With exaggerated innocence—and still
fighting a smile—he said, “And um, just who could we be thinking of
to make such an example?”

“
You know damn well who,”
she said, fixing him with those eyes.

“
Moi?” And now he had to
grin. “But I thought you didn’t approve of that sort of
thing.”

“
I don’t. And I never
will. But just this once…”

“…
you could live with
it.”

“
Yes.” She began wandering
around his living room, aimlessly tracing her fingers across the
golden oak hutch, the rolltop desk where he kept his computer. “But
just this once.”

“
But Gia–”

“
Please,” she said,
raising her hand. “I know what you’re going to say.
Please
don’t start
pressing me for some sort of moral and philosophical consistency
between not marrying you because of what you do and then coming to
you when there’s a problem that looks like it can only be solved by
your kind of tactics. I’ve been battling that all morning—I mean,
trying to decide whether I should even
mention
it to you. Even in the cab,
I was ready to tell him to turn onto Fifty-ninth and forget the
whole thing–”

“
Oh, great. That hurts.
Since when is it that you can’t come to me for
anything?
”

She stopped and looked at him. “You
know what I mean. How many times have I mouthed off about this
‘Repairman Jack’ thing?”

“
About a million.” More
like three million, he thought, but what’s a couple of million
between friends? “But the ‘Repairman’ thing was Abe’s
coin.”

“
Right. Whatever. I know
I’ve gone off on how it’s stupid and dangerous and violent and
dangerous and how if you don’t end up dead you’re going wind up in
jail for the rest of your life. And I haven’t changed my opinion
one bit. So you can imagine how this thing must have got to me if
I’m asking you to fix it.”

“
All right. I won’t say
another word about it.”

“
Maybe not now, but I know
you will later.”

Jack raised two fingers. “I won’t.
Scout’s honor.”

“
I think that takes three
fingers, Jack.”

“
Whatever. I promise I
won’t.” He reached for her hand. “Come on over here.”

She took his hand and he pulled her
onto his lap. She settled on his thighs, light as a feather, and
they kissed—not a long one, but long enough to warm him
up.

“
There. That’s better.
Now… let’s get down to practicalities. Who’s hiring me?”

“
I spoke to Doctor
Clayton—she’s the acting director.”

Jack felt his insides tighten. “You
told her you know me?”

He’d warned Gia about
that.
Never let on you know me—to anyone.
Even your best friend.
He’d made too many
enemies over the years. And if one of them thought he could get
back at him through Gia…or Vicky…

He shuddered.

“
No. I said I knew
of
someone who might be
able to help get the toys back. Didn’t mention any names. Just said
I’d try to contact him and see if he was available.”

Jack relaxed. “I guess that’s
okay.”

Still, if he got involved in this, it
would leave a link—at least in this Dr. Clayton’s mind—between Gia
and a guy named Jack who “fixed” something. Probably be okay, but
he didn’t like it.

“
Well?”

“
Well what?”

“
Are you
available?”

“
I don’t know.”

“
How can you not
know?”

“
Well, there’s a problem.
I mean, the Center can’t hire me, because I can’t work for a legit
business. They’ve got to account for their expenses and I don’t
exactly take checks.”

He didn’t even have a Social Security
number.

“
Don’t worry about it.
I’ll pay you.”

“
Oh, right. Like I’ll take
money from you.”

“
No, I mean it, Jack. This
is my idea. I want this. What’s your usual and customary
fee?”

“
Forget it.”

“
No, I’m serious. Tell
me.”

“
You don’t want to
know.”

“
Please?
”

“
Oh, all right.” He told
her.

She gaped at him. “You
charge
that
much?”

“
Well, as you said, ‘it’s
stupid and dangerous and violent and dangerous’ and if I don’t end
up dead I’m going wind up in jail for the rest of my life. So yeah,
that’s what I charge.” He kissed her. “And I’m worth every
penny.”

“
I’m sure you are. Okay.
It’s a deal.”

“
No, it’s not. Told you:
I’m not taking money from you.”

“
But you’ve told me you
never do freebies. It’s against your religion or
something.”

“
It’s just a policy. But
let’s forget about money for now. Let’s first see if this is
something I can deliver on.”