“That was more than a half hour,” Callie said.
I gave her a look that said I was doing all the work, and followed it up by asking, “That chair comfy enough for you?”
“Depends how long I’ve got to sit here.”
“Five minutes, tops.”
Then I got out the sledge hammer.
Chapter 56
Forty minutes later I gave Callie the concrete saw and directed her to start a horizontal cut from both sides of the twelve-inch opening I’d managed to create. Between the drinks, the big dinner and the physical labor, I was beat. Though it was cool in the building, I was drenched with sweat. My back, neck and shoulders ached. I took her place in the chair and hoped my strength would return.
I sat there holding the flashlight on the wall as she’d been doing for me. The penlight threw off enough light to perfectly silhouette her body. Because the line she was cutting was about two feet above the floor, she had to squat and perch herself on one knee while she worked. Did I mention I’d had a few drinks and been looking at women earlier that night? Somehow the flashlight’s beam moved away from the hole in the wall and found a home on Callie’s perfect backside.
“Do you mind?” she said.
“Not at all.”
“Dude!” she said. “We’re trying to save a life here.”
“Spoilsport.”
I reluctantly moved the beam back to the wall where it belonged. Twenty minutes later I began the final assault with the sledge hammer. Twenty minutes after that, I’d created an opening large enough for Callie to slip through, and she did. She took a flashlight with her and I placed mine on the floor of the room to add some light.
I was only able to fit my head and neck into the opening, but that was enough to see that Alison’s room was small, with a bed, a TV, a toilet, sink, and a mini fridge that probably held water and food. But Alison was enjoying none of these comforts. She was completely naked, chained to the wall. Her mouth was covered in tape that encircled her head. Above and below the tape I could see the top and bottom of a red bondage ball Quinn had forced into her mouth.
I had no idea how long she’d been chained to the wall like that, but she was at least thirty pounds thinner than the last time I’d seen her. She was also clearly in agony, and there was a large puddle of urine beneath her. Callie turned to me and said, “What now?”
I backed out of the opening and retrieved a pair of heavy duty bolt cutters from my equipment bag. I passed the cutters through the hole to Callie. It took her a minute to cut the cuffs, then she said, “Donovan, give us a little privacy.”
I backed out of the opening again and waited while Alison used the toilet. I heard Callie say, “This will hurt less if I go slowly.” Then I heard the tape coming off Alison’s mouth. She gagged and coughed and sputtered. Callie kept saying, “It’s okay, Quinn’s dead, everything’s going to be all right.”
Callie got her cleaned up and dressed and helped her through the wall. When Alison emerged she gave me a cold look. Her eyes narrowed and her nostrils flared.
“Your fault,” she said.
“My fault?”
“That’s right,” she said, launching the words aggressively. “It’s your fault. All of this.”
Callie said, “Donovan’s the only one in the world who figured out what happened to you. You’re safe because of him.”
Alison pushed me. “That’s the slowest rescue of all time,” she said. “Where’ve you been? You promised me a job.”
I said, “You ready to start tonight or you want to yell at me some more?”
Chapter 57
We got the hugely ungrateful Alison out of there, checked her into the hotel room between mine and Callie’s, got her fed, and got her story.
After I was declared dead, Alison had indeed entered into a romantic relationship with Quinn, hoping to cash in on the work I’d promised her. Like Quinn said, when Alison realized it wasn’t going to happen, she took off . Unfortunately for her, Quinn was the best guard in the business, and she didn’t get far. When he caught her they had some words and he kidnapped her and brought her to the warehouse.
When he was home, which was most of the time—Quinn doted on her. But whenever he left, he chained her to the wall, his way of making sure she was glad to see him when he came home. If he planned to be gone more than a few hours, he’d use a longer chain, one that allowed her access to all her comforts. Quinn had been gone about three hours and was on his way home when I caught up to him on Walnut Street.
So again, according to Alison, my fault.
“Did he beat you?” Callie asked.
“Occasionally,” Alison said.
“Did he force himself on you?”
“At least twice a day.”
“You ever put up a fight?”
“The times I did, that’s when he’d beat me.”
Here in the well-lit room she looked white as a ghost. I said, “Before tonight, how long had it been since you’ve been outdoors?”
“More than three years,” she said. “And the only reason I know that is that I had a TV.”
Callie gave her a sleeping pill and sat up with her until she fell asleep. Then she joined me in my room and we broke the seal on a bottle of mini bar wine and drank it while working out Alison’s training schedule.
I said, “I’ll give Lou the second and third weeks, you get the next three, and I’ll take the next two. Then she can shadow you on a couple of jobs. After that we’ll test her out on something easy, see how she handles it.”
“What’s the going rate for nurse maids these days?”
“Twenty grand a week, plus whatever you make on jobs.”
“Works for me,” Callie said. “Who gets her the first week?”
“Dr. Crouch. Because if Nadine doesn’t think she’s ready, we pass on the project, and try to help Alison get her old life back.”
I punched a key on my cell phone and winked at Callie. “Listen to this,” I said, pressing the speaker button.
Dr. Nadine Crouch answered by shouting, “Unacceptable!”
I said, “I’ve got a patient for you.”
“What’s the matter with you? Do you have any idea what time it is?”
“This is a good gig,” I said. “It will appeal to your avarice.”
“I’m trying to sleep, Donovan. Don’t ever call me in the middle of the night like this again. Unacceptable!”
“How’s twenty-five hundred a day sound?”
“I’m sure it will sound a lot better when I wake up in a couple of hours. Call me then,” she said, and hung up.
“She’s a bitter old bitch,” Callie said. “Don’t you think?”
“Yeah, she doesn’t care much for people, though she seems to like me.”
Callie shook her head. “You ever hear yourself talk?”
Chapter 58
Myron Goldstein was already parked at the rest stop at mile marker 177 just outside his home town of Cincinnati when I pulled up. I got out of my car and made a wide circle around his, checking for possible snipers. As I approached his passenger door, he unlocked it, and I got in.
“Sal says you want to die,” I said.
“You’re Creed?”
“I am.”
“I thought you’d be younger.”
“I thought you’d be older.”
Myron Goldstein nodded. He was a gaunt, sad-faced man with thick lips and sagging jowls. A thatch of wiry black hair protruded from each of his nostrils. He kept a wet, mucus-soaked handkerchief in one of his shaky hands, and used it to dab at the slimy fluid that steadily dripped from his nose. He wore thick horn-rimmed glasses.
I said, “The way this works, you tell me what’s on your mind and I’ll tell you what I think.”