“And I of you. Oh, but there is a reason?”
“Oh a reason?”
“I can’t tell what’s more beautiful my knots or you.” Kiko nodded with mischief taking a step back to admire her work.
“You see Farrow if you tied up your girlfriends on a regular basis, it wouldn’t be so hard to escape right now?” Kuroneko burst in toppling over. Bent over in laughter, her long black hair whipped around, veiling her face. Taking pleasure at the sight of me, she bum rushed me, only to wildly massage my head. I could feel her nails in my scalp. More words which I didn’t understand. The powder white woman grabbed me by the rope around my crotch. Kiko took hold higher up on my chest. They didn’t bring me far.
{XXXIII}
“IS THIS HER?” A CHARCOAL drawing of Missy hung crooked over the fireplace in Percy’s den. Kiko studied her body, taken aback by how Missy fit the obscene pose.
“Yeah...” In a trance, I traced her outline with my fingers.
“I know this woman.” Something was getting under Kiko’s skin.
“You what?”
“I met her the same day I last saw Percy Featherton, but he introduced her with a different name.”
“Evelina?”
“Yeah. How’d you know?”
“She was the seductress from his bestselling novel.”
“Hmmm. Anyway, Percy had some half-baked proposition that Monika likened more to the effect of standing in front of the firing squad than the Nobel foundation. He never really let on clearly what he was asking her to do. Instead, he spent more time explaining how the plan was foolproof. He had every angle covered. Bribes to company boardmembers were set in place. A team of Hitler youth propagandists were standing by ready to social network their cockrings off. He showed us these miniature ads that he would use for skyscraper wraps, challenging us to guess what subliminal messages were hidden inside.”
“What did Monika say?”
“Monika barely heard him out. It was everything she wrote against. With her cult following she could afford this lone wolf philosophy. She was about to go out on her own anyway. Start her own publishing house.”
“She was? So that’s why…”
“That’s why what?”
“Huh… nothing.”
“Who knows if it would’ve worked? Her fan base was so loyal, that if she endorsed anything, the vampire bats would come out in legions.”
“Or covens. What did you think of Missy? What was she wearing? Did she make any mention of the baby? How about…”
“Woooh. Farrow slow down. She didn’t say anything. She just looked around the house like she was taking notes. Casing the place. She made no mention of the baby. She only asked if we read her new book.”
“She’s not even a fucking writer.”
“That’s how she struck me. Writers usually have this extra-terrestrial outerwordliness about them, which she had, but she showed no signs of the pathetic desperation. From the second I saw her I felt she was occupying two realms at the same time. One with us and the other where she had the dark master at the bottom of her Ponzi.”
“That’s just her personality.”
“Mystically sexy, but it seemed more than that. So this deal you had going with Percy?” Kiko’s face contorted.
“I didn’t have a deal going with him?” The sinister insinuation lingered in my ears.
“Oh you didn’t. I thought you said…”
“I was just…” I didn’t remember what I told her. If I didn’t, someone else did or Kiko could see right through me. “…that’s how it goes… wait what was Gloom’s take?” I leaned forward attempting to swallow back the words.
“When Percy and Missy left, Gloom went over how it might play out with me at least a hundred times over. I was sick of hearing her talk about work all the time, so I suggested we get some fresh air. We went for a walk and we passed Percy staring at our house. I wasn’t sure why at the time, but instinctively my stomach convulsed in fear. Monika thought nothing of it and told me not to worry. If I only…” Kiko was sinking in despair.
“Untie me.”
{XXXIV}
A SERVANT TO THE HOT spirit, Kiko coerced me up the spiral staircase to the third floor. We twisted a couple times. Then out of the corner of my eye - I saw it. The door at the end of the hallway was left open just wide enough to see Chiara’s crib.
“Farrow… are you telling me everything?” Kiko’s voice trailed off as I slid past the cracked door. I didn’t want to touch anything. This was the real crime scene. The place where another man stole my daughter.
Her room was in perfect order. Instead of making me jealous or angry, it made me calm. Overwhelming joy in every hanging star of her mobile. I could feel her close. It was a good start for her, because it was a start - and that is all you could ask for. She would soon forget it as are the benefits of that age. Other things are impossible to forget.
“That’s why it’s so serious. From the first day I found out I was going to be a father, you’ve threatened to strip me of the miracle. From the first second I always had to worry about her being taken away from me.”
“She needs you.”
“I won’t lose her.”
“You’ll probably write that in your book.”
“Farrow, what are you doing in there?” Kiko cautiously pushed the door open.
“She haunts every crevice.”
“So while you were in here being haunted…” Kiko closed in on me with Percy’s pulp trash masterpiece. The binding of the book worn like the sampietrini of Rome. Most importantly the pages were still in place. I could picture Percy flipping soiled wax-thin pages, spitting out a few lines, attempting to drop a little wisdom on Missy.
“Ever make your way through this?”
“Ghost piss.”
“What?”
“Forget it.” Kiko cracked the book open a little too wide and the fifty year spine finally split. A neatly folded page fell to the ground.
“What’s that?” Something about the paper was unsettling.
“That’s not from the book.” Kiko bent over to pick up the loose paper. “It’s something new.” She had it in her hands. “It looks official…” Then she stopped in her tracks.
“What is it?” I could tell by her face it was something worth knowing about.
“Uh Farrow…”
“Kiko…”
“It’s your daughter’s birth certificate. It says Chiara was born on January 6th at Bellevue Hospital.”
“She was born exactly on the due date. Does she have a middle name?”
“No it just says… Chiara… Chiara Featherton. Farrow it says Percy is her father. Legally, I mean.”
“Motherfucker.”
Kiko handed me the birth certificate. I couldn’t even touch it. Somehow, the document was alive. Replete with a hex of manipulation that became both my venom of paralysis and vein-bursting shot of pure revenge.
{XXXV}
I STARED AT THE BACK of Chiara’s birth certificate letting Kiko block her face with it. She was absorbed. A one page life story for her to read and me to feel.
“She’s out there somewhere. Kiko help me find her. I can’t think anymore. My mind is empty. My heart is so full, but my mind is empty.”
“Look who the signed witness is…”
“Hawaii.” My voice hung in the air just long enough for whoever opened the front door to discover that the company had made it home before them.