“Now, Wald.”
“Favor, sir? Make sure Hinks don’t mess with my buttons.”
Cutter rolls his eyes. Wald puts down his PlayStation controls and pads into the adjoining room. Hinks grinning and reaching for his partner’s controls. “Mind if I fuck him up?” he asks.
“Not in the least.”
“We got the money?”
“We got the money,” Cutter says. “Wire cleared at thirteen hundred hours.”
Hinks fiddles with Wald’s controls, very pleased with whatever mischief he’s committing. “Mind if I ask you a question, Captain?”
“Permission granted. You may speak freely,” says Cutter, using an irony that, he knows, will go through Hinks like invisible smoke.
“When do we get paid?”
“Three days. That’s how long it will take to get the money back into the country.”
Hinks nods, as if satisfied. Cutter gets the impression the man isn’t primarily in it for the money. He likes the excitement. Not that he’d give up his cut.
“’Nother question, sir.”
Cutter nods.
“Why not take out the female, sir? Why leave her alive, now that we’ve got the dough?”
“Are you questioning my methods?”
“Didn’t say that, sir. Just wondering if it’s worth the risk.”
“Risk assessment is my responsibility, remember?”
“Sure, of course. I was just, you know, wondering and all.”
Cutter stares at him, expression neutral. “Don’t wonder, Hinks. Leave the wondering to me. But just so you’re not tempted to exercise your brain, the lady has been left alive because she’s part of the diversion. What form that diversion will take, you’ll just have to wait and see. You’ll just have to trust me. Do you trust me, Hinks?”
“Yes, sir. Absolutely.”
Wald appears in the doorway. “I said no fucking around! I better be at third level, you cheating, thieving bastard!”
“The package?” asks Cutter, willing himself to have patience.
“Fine, sir. Except he pissed the bed.”
“In that case you better change the sheets.”
“Fuck.”
“Do it, Wald.”
Wald sighs, vanishes back into the bedroom. Bitching all the way.
“Two hours,” Cutter tells Hinks. “Then we make our next move.”
Hinks looks up from the game. “Permission to ask another question, sir?”
Cutter nods. “Go ahead.”
“Did you do her, Captain?”
“Define ‘do.’”
“Fuck her, mess with her naked body, whatever.”
Cutter smirks. “Is this in regards to your ten-dollar side bet with Wald?”
Hinks’s jaw drops.
“I know everything,” says Cutter. “You should know that by now.”
“I’ll be damned. You wired the van!” Hinks looks amazed.
“I wired your brain, Hinks. I know how you think.”
Hinks shakes his head in admiration. “So did you do her, or what?”
“Let me put it this way,” says Cutter, allowing himself to preen, for Hinks’s benefit if not his own. “The lady is totally fucked.”
11 in the basement
Groundhog Day all over again. What was his name, the guy who played the wacky weatherman in the movie? Waking up each morning to find he was trapped in the same day. Only, the movie was funny and this, whatever it is, is decidedly not funny, not with my cheek pressed to the bathroom floor. I’m staring at the white porcelain of a toilet, able to see, more or less, but not yet able to move. More a lack of will than any sort of paralysis, because I can feel all of my limbs, prickly with pins and needles, as if I’ve been lying in the same position for hours and hours, or possibly days.
Bill Murray. The guy in the movie. Brain sluggish. Feels like my thoughts are filtering through heavy oil. Why am I still in the bathroom? Isn’t it time to go to the bank, wire the money? No, wait, I already did that. I recall going into the bank, speaking with a nice lady. Something about the parking lot, a feeling that unseen people were watching me. Then—wham! It all comes pounding back, a rush of images. My panic attack, the cell phone screaming at me, the darkened garage, the man in the mask with his knees crushing my chest. Saying he’ll put me to sleep again, which obviously he did.
What time is it? How long have I been out?
Must get up, must find Tommy. I struggle up to my hands and knees, head whirling, panting with the effort. There, progress. Now I’m perched on the toilet seat, willing the vertigo to pass. Expecting the man in the mask to barge in any second. What did he say before he knocked me out—he had “other things to do”? What other things? Did other things include returning my son?
“Tommy!” I call out weakly.
Without warning my stomach decides to empty itself. Taken by surprise, I aim for the bathtub, am only partially successful, spattering my feet with flecks of watery vomit. God, how I hate to throw up. Always fought it, even as a kid. Taste in my mouth is, well, awful, but it gives me the impetus to lurch from the toilet to the sink. Leaning heavily while I fumble with the faucet. Using both hands to splash cold water on my face, into my mouth. Better, head clearing, less dizzy.
Outside, the hallway is a hidden roller coaster, the carpet undulating under my feet, but I hang on to the banister and call out my son’s name.
“Tommy! Tomas, are you there? Can you hear me? It’s Mom!”
Nothing. The kind of overwhelming silence that means the place is empty. My instincts have already told me that I’m alone, but my instincts have been so wrong lately, they can’t be trusted. I desperately want to climb the stairs and check in Tommy’s room, just to make sure—he could be napping, exhausted from his ordeal!—but that will have to wait until the roller coaster stops and equilibrium returns. Confined to the ground floor, I stagger into the kitchen. Nobody home. Slide along the wall—very clever and solid, these walls—and check out the TV room. Half expecting to find the man in the mask reclining in my brown leather chair. Messing with Tommy’s video games. Wrong. Using a hand against the wall to make certain of my balance, I check my downstairs office. Looks like somebody has made a mess of my desk, scattering papers and catering contracts, but the culprit has vanished. What were they looking for? Was it a “they,” or just the man in the mask? Does it matter? Not right now it doesn’t. This can wait.
I take my hand away from the wall. Amazing, girl, you’re walking on two legs. Look, Ma, no hands! Reminds me of Tommy toddling across the carpet, going boom-zi-day as he reaches for Ted, falling flat on his tiny face and laughing. Not crying, laughing. Like falling down was fun, a show he was putting on for his dad. Ted laughing, too, with tears in his eyes, shooting me a look that said, We’ll never forget this, will we?
No, Ted, we won’t.
“Tommy! Tomas, are you there?” Hopeless. My son isn’t in the house, I know it in my gut, in my heart, in my head, in every weary bone in my body. He’s somewhere else. He’s been taken.
The phone rings. Not a cell phone, my home landline. I’m at the desk in a heartbeat, snatching up the receiver. “Tommy?”
“He prefers ‘Tomas.’ You really ought to make an effort. Names are important.”
The man in the mask. I recognize his sneering voice.
“Where’s my son?”
“He’s not your son, Mrs. Bickford. He belongs to someone else. Always did, always will.”
“Let me speak to him, please? I’m begging you! You promised!”
“You’re a nice woman, Mrs. Bickford. So I’ll give you some parting advice. Whatever you do, don’t go into the basement.”
The phone goes dead.