“Anyway,” continued Ray, “Casimir called up Martinez, and Martinez told him to 86 him.”
“86?” Sandy said.
“Execute him.”
“What?” Eugene said. “Oh, come on.”
“That’s about what the prosecutor said. Even with Squad justice they weren’t going to execute a man for approaching the commandant’s wife. Still, Casimir had a problem. Even if they put him back in Joliet, he’d talk. Some nosy Populist blogger might pick up on it. It’d be all over the media. ‘Casimir steals man’s wife and jails man for it.’ Something like that. Martinez couldn’t have that. He had to find a way to get rid of him, and then the opportunity came.”
Ray stopped and took a swig of his water; then he continued. “Well, Casimir got a call from the Hell House in Joliet. They’d just treated a lefty blogger, and wanted to know if they should close the place. Casimir said no because he had another ‘patient.’ His word—not mine. Well, you know the rest.”
Sandra and Eugene got up to leave and then Sandra stopped; realizing something she’d forgotten. The other three just looked at her.
“The package. I just remembered. After I told Jay about it, I opened it up. It was a bracelet. It was cruddy looking. Later on, I had a dream about that bracelet.” She stopped and began crying. “He just wanted me to remember him.”
Terry Foote was in Armstrong’s Suburban. His partner, Jack Wrenn, was in Ray’s car; and both were watching the motel parking lot. They saw a man they didn’t recognize approach Pamela’s car, walking around it. He had fished around in his pocket for something when Foote yelled out, “You there! Come over here.”
The man just froze when Foote got out of the car and motioned him to come over. Wrenn yelled to him, “You better do what he says.”
The man walked over to Foote. “What’s in your hand?” Foote asked.
“Nothing.” Foote forced his hand open. It was a tracker.
“Who do you work for?”
“I work for the motel,” he stammered.
“Why do you want to put a tracker on?”
“I was just told to put this underneath this car.”
“By who?” Foote was angry now and glared at the man.
“A man named Colderon.”
“He’s dead. Did he promise you a reward?”
“Yes, sir,” the scared man said. “Two thousand dollars. Every night I come out here and look for any new car that met his description.”
“Well you can stop looking now. There’s not going to be any reward.”
“Okay.”
“Get out of here.”
The man bolted out of there and Wrenn came over. “Hey, Terry, shouldn’t we call Armstrong and let him decide what to do?”
“There’s nothing to do,” Foote said. “He doesn’t know anything. He’s just in it for the reward he’s never going to get anyway. He’ll probably try to call Colderon, but we both know Colderon isn’t going to be answering. Look, we got about forty-five minutes, then Ray and Cassandra relieve us and we can get some much needed shuteye.”
Everybody was off at the crack of dawn. They stopped at a roadside fuel and restaurant. Eugene went inside to grab some groceries. When he came out he went to Sandy’s car, but she was gone. The fuel pump was still in the gas tank. That’s strange. Let me see if anyone knows where she went.
He walked up to Armstrong’s car. He was still fueling up, but he was gone too. They must have gone inside. Eugene was headed for the restaurant when Ray came out.
“Ray, is Sandy inside?”
“No, I thought she was with you.”
Eugene went inside and found everyone else, but no Sandy, and no Armstrong.
Foote went to the station attendant, but the attendant stuck his head out of the window first. “Hey, you looking for two people?”
“Yes, did you see where they went?”
“Two guys went to each vehicle, and a man and a woman got out, and got in a black sedan.”
“Did you get the make and model? See their license plate?”
“No. It was a pretty new sedan; maybe a limo, like a Lincoln. I didn’t see the license plate.”
“Which way did they go?”
“There’s only one way to go—west.”
Foote got in Armstrong’s car while Cassandra drove Sandy’s car. There was no other choice. They had to find them. Another needle in a haystack, Ray thought.
Eugene and Pamela followed them. Pamela could see that Eugene was worried. Since Sandy showed up she and Gene seemed to become close traveling companions. “Are you concerned about Sandy?”
“Of course. Armstrong too.”
Pamela smiled. “You care for her.”
Gene looked surprised. “I guess there is a certain amount of attraction, but it’s more than that. She reminded me of Fernando. You should have heard the way he talked about her; how loving and kind she was. Her change was not her fault. They stuck her in that awful place. They changed her.” He paused and thought a moment.
“Something else too. I can’t put my finger on it, but she reminds me of someone I used to know.”
“An old girlfriend?”
“Maybe. I don’t know.” He was quiet for a little while and then cleared his throat. “She made me think of Catherine before Casimir got to her. How many lives has that bastard ruined? I shudder to think that he would do that to her again. I only spent about two or three days there—though it felt a lot longer—”
“It was,” Pamela said. Gene just stared at her incredulously. “According to Ray, they drugged you and brought you to Hell House on Saturday. It was Friday before they rescued you.”
“Friday? I know I was pretty much out of it at the time, but I thought it was only about three days.”
“Gene, you were there for almost a week.”
“Even a week can’t compare to the months that Sandy spent in there. I can’t imagine the horror of undergoing the brain probe hour after hour, day after day, week after week, and even month after month.”
“At least she’s with Armstrong.”
“Yeah,” said Eugene who then turned toward Pamela. “Why are things so fucked up? I understand the academic explanation, but I just can’t get my head around why this is happening. Why do people put up with it?”
“Why did you, Gene?” Eugene was taken aback by the remark and glared at Pamela. It was the second time she shook him up, but Pamela was unshaken. “What was your reaction to the things Cassandra was telling you?”
“That was different. She wanted me be a part of their revolutionary plan. I talked to Professor Zinney and he told me to get as far away from them as I could—Dennis too.”
“I know, Gene. And I don’t fault you for it. I’m just saying that if you want to know why no one is standing up for the promise of America, instead of what it has become, then ask yourself—before all this started happening to you—did you want to be a part of any meaningful change yourself?” Eugene knew she was right, but the criticism stung, nevertheless.
“How about that job offer you told me about? A quarter million dollar offer would have been difficult to turn down. Now, answer me honestly, Eugene. Would you have taken that job offer if you never met Cassandra or everything was fine with Catherine?”
Eugene hesitated. “I’m not sure.”
“You told me at Jeff’s motel that you would have. You knew what was happening to business. You knew about business expansion into things the Mafia used to be involved in, but you didn’t quit your job. You worked for the promotion offered to you.”
“Please don’t bring up that incident at the motel. I was out of my mind. I don’t know what I would have done.” Pamela looked at Eugene like she didn’t believe him. Eugene looked downcast. He knew Pamela was right to be suspicious of him. “Okay, I would have.”