Chapter 34
DISAPPEARANCE
"Damn! I don’t believe this!" Sarah turned off the fire under the butter she was melting, and started for the front door. It was the second time she’d tried cooking in the last five years, and the door bell rings this time too! She opened the door in no very good temper, and when she didn’t recognize man standing in front of her she nearly shut the door in his face.
But she didn’t---and the last thing she remembered after that was his hand coming up with a gun in it.
******
Johner came home late but elated.
"Hey---where is everybody! I’ve got news!" He hurried through
the kitchen, looked briefly around the living room, then banged on John
and Carlie’s bedroom door in passing on his way to Sarah’s door.
"Come on, people, where are you?"
Carlie came out of her bedroom alarmed. "What’s the matter, Johner? What happened?"
"We made top of the A list on the Security Agencies Listing, that’s what happened! And you had a lot to do with that, darlin’!" He picked her up and swung her around, endangering both Carlie and nearby furniture. "Hooe-e-e! I’m thinking of a new slogan, ‘Not the biggest, but the very best!’ Where’s Connor?"
Carlie regained her feet, laughing up at him. "I don’t know. She wasn’t here when I got home."
"Damn! I want to tell her the news!" His brows drew together. "Her car’s in the garage. Where the hell is she?" His face cleared as he heard the back door slam. "There she is!"
But it was John who came through the kitchen door. "Damn! It’s John."
"Thanks! Thanks a lot! I suppose you were expecting Mom; I guess we all have to accept being a distant second, but you could at least pretend to be glad to see me!" John grinned and turned to kiss Carlie.
******
When dinner was ready to eat and the news had been thoroughly discussed, Connor still had not returned. Johner began to get mad.
"Jesus Christ! She could at least call!" He glared at the phone as if it were responsible for Sarah’s delinquency.
"You got that right; she’s forever bitching at us to call before mealtime if we’re not coming home." John grinned at Johner, amused at his rare irritation with Sarah.
"Her car’s here. Where the hell did she go without her car? Something’s not right here, John. You know, there was a pan on the stove, with melted butter in it. Carlie didn’t do it; I didn’t do it. Something is funny---." He stopped, and his face cleared as the phone rang. "There she is. I’ve got a few things to say to her!"
He reached for the phone. "Yeah?" It wasn’t Sarah, they could tell from his face. "Yeah, it’s me." He said nothing further, just listened; and then, while John and Carlie watched, the color drained from his face, leaving it absolutely white. After just a few seconds, he put the phone slowly back in its cradle.
"Johner, what? God, what is it?"
"It was---someone. He’s got her. He said---he said he might kill her. He said it depended on me. He said he’d get back to me." Johner lowered himself slowly into a chair at the table, staring ahead with blind eyes.
"Oh my God. Who? Why? Johner, did he say anything else?"
Johner shook his head still staring straight in front of him, his hands flat on the table. "He said he’d get back to me."
Shock silenced them all as they digested this unbelievable event. Then Johner’s head raised and he sat up straighter, his eyes coming back into focus. His mind began to function again, recovering from the first paralysis of shock, and shifted into emergency mode, peak performance, instantly.
"OK---OK! John, check to see if the front door lock is turned on. ---He either waited for her in the garage, or----no, he didn’t do that, he knows us; he’d know she’d kill him if he jumped her. The windows all have Safelock, they’re not beatable. If the doors were both locked, then she let him in. He rang, at either the front or back door. Probably the back, it’s in the garage; less noticeable. It was locked, I used my key to get in. Someone she knew? Not necessarily, she’d open the door if the bell rang." He got up, opened the door into the garage, and began to examine the floor and the door.
"Johner? Come in here, I’ve found something." John’s face was white also as he returned from the front door.
On the light tile floor just inside the front door, and scattered outside onto the step, were a few drops of blood, dried now; a dark brownish red, but recognizable.
Johner squatted to examine them; then he subsided limply onto the floor, leaning against the opened door, his head back, his face agonized. "Oh God---Connor, Connor---."
*******
When the next call came Johner was ready. The recorder came on undetectably when he picked up the phone, and the trace started at the same moment. There were advantages to knowing people in law enforcement. Jack Henderson sat with him at the kitchen table; Annalee Call, John and Carlie were all gathered there also, waiting.
"Yeah?"
"She’s hurting, Johner; she’s hurting a lot. She’s a good-looking woman, isn’t she, Johner. She looks even better without her clothes, though. A lot better. It’d be a shame to mess that up, wouldn’t it?"
Johner’s face crumpled, and his body curled down in the chair over his arm held tight around his abdomen; but no sound came from him.
"Johner, you there?"
"I’m here. What do you want?" His voice was perfectly calm, but the effort to make it so was evident to those watching him.
"I want you to hurt. I want you to suffer, the way I have. Doesn’t feel too good to have someone mess with your woman, does it? I’m going to mess with her, Johner. I’m going to mess with her a lot. I’ll let you know how it’s going, all the details, Johner."
The
connection broke, and Johner put the phone carefully down in its cradle.
"I know who it is."
Every head came up. "Who?"
"Clifford Dexter, Marie’s husband. ---I’m going to kill him." This came quietly, conversationally.
John looked up quickly, and saw cold intent to kill in Johner’s face. "But first we’ve got to get Mom home safe, right Johner?" Maybe after she was safe he’d cool down, and they could keep him from doing murder.
Johner looked up. "Yes. Of course."
"How do you know it’s him? His voice?"
"Not his voice. I don’t think I’ve ever heard it. I dunno exactly. A combination of how he sounded and what he said." Johner shuddered, remembering what had been said; then turned to Captain Henderson.
Jack, did we get a trace?" Jack nodded, his CP at his ear. "We did."
"Where?"
"Booth, corner of Hempsted and Logan. Not a good neighborhood; warehouses, crummy businesses."
Johner nodded. "He works near there. I know where it is. God, he’s a stupid man. Did he think he could get away with this? He knows what we do for a living!" He got up from the table and went to the locked cupboard beside the back door where weapons were stored; for emergencies, when they couldn’t spare time to get to the office. "John, let’s go. We’ll decide what we’re going to do on the way."
Jack put his hand on Johner’s arm. "Hey, this’s what the cops are for, Johner. Can’t you let us handle it for you?" He too had seen the deadly intent to kill in Johner’s face.
"Jack, I can’t let anyone else do this. I can’t trust anyone else, not even you. Not for this." His face twisted for a moment, his terror and his torment showing through the blank facade he was maintaining. The others hadn’t heard the last phone call, and he meant to keep it that way. No one else needed to hear that.
Jack put his hand on Johner’s shoulder. "I know; I understand. If it was anyone else, I’d argue; but to tell you the truth I think you’ll do it better than we could. God knows you’ve got reason! But Johner---don’t let this guy screw up your future, yours and Connor’s. If you kill him, it’ll be very bad for you, and that’s what he wants."
"Yeah. Let’s go, John."
John didn’t get up from the table. "Johner, let’s give this some thought. I know, I know, you want to go now! So do I, Johner, I love her too. But we’ve got to have some kind of plan, and Jack might be able to help us. Please, Johner, cool down and think. It’ll be better for Mom."
That got through. Johner subsided
slowly to a chair at the table, and they began to make a plan.