He crossed town, walking blocks rapidly, until he found an isolated pay telephone. It was time, he thought, to check his messages.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
A siren creased the nighttime air perhaps a block away from the pay phone where Ricky stood. He couldn’t tell whether it was the police or an ambulance. Fire trucks, he knew, had a deeper, blaring sound, unmistakable in raucous energy. But police and ambulances sounded much the same. For a moment, he thought that there were few noises on the earth that spelled out the promise of trouble quite as much as siren sounds. Something unsettling and fierce, as if compromise and hope were being reduced by the harshness of the sound. He waited until the racket faded into the darkness, and the Manhattan standard quiet returned: just the steady noise of cars and buses working their way on the streets and the occasional rumble below the surface of a subway careening through the subterranean tunnels that crisscrossed the city.
He dialed the number at the Village Voice and accessed the replies to his personal ad at box 1313. There were nearly three dozen.
The majority were come-ons and promises of sexual adventure. Most of the respondents mentioned Ricky’s “… special fun and games” from his ad, which seemed to speak, as he suspected it would, in a particular direction. A number of people had concocted rhyming couplets to accompany his own, but, again, these promised sex and energy. He could hear unbridled eagerness in their voices.
The thirtieth, as he’d expected, was far different. The voice was cold, almost flat, filled with menace. It also had a metallic, tinny sound to it, making it seem nearly mechanical. Ricky guessed that the speaker was using an electronic masking device. But there was no concealing the psychological thrust of the reply.
Ricky’s clever, Ricky’s smart…
But here’s a rhyme he should take to heart:
He thinks he’s safe, he wants to play,
But where he hid, is where he should stay.
He escaped once, impressive, no doubt.
But this success, he shouldn’t flout.
A second chance, another game,
Will likely just end up the same.
Only this time the debt owed me,
Will be paid in full, this I guarantee.
Ricky listened to the response three times, until it was well printed on his memory. There was something additional about the sound of the voice that unsettled him, as if the words spoken weren’t enough, even the tones were filled with hatred. But, beyond that, it seemed to him that there was something recognizable in the voice, almost familiar, that seeped past the hollowness of the masking device. This thought pierced him, especially when he realized that this was the first time that he’d actually heard Rumplestiltskin speak. Every other bit of contact had been a step removed, on paper, or repeated by Merlin or Virgil. Hearing the man’s voice created nightmarish visions within him, and Ricky shuddered slightly. He told himself not to underestimate the depth of the challenge he’d created for himself.
He played the other message responses in the mailbox, knowing that there would eventually be another, far more familiar voice. He was not surprised to hear her speak. Immediately following the silence that accompanied the brief poem, Ricky heard Virgil’s voice on the recording. He listened carefully for the nuances that might tell him something.
“Ricky, Ricky, Ricky, how nice to hear from you. How truly special. And genuinely surprising, too, I might add…”
“Sure,” Ricky mumbled to himself. “I’ll bet it was.” He continued to listen, as the young woman went on. The tones she employed were the same as before, tough one instant, cajoling, teasing, then harsh and uncompromising. Virgil, Ricky thought, played this game just as hard as did her employer. Her danger lay in the chameleon colors she adopted; one minute trying to be helpful, the next, angry and direct. If Rumplestiltskin was singleness of purpose, cold and focused, Virgil was mercurial. And Merlin, whom he’d yet to hear from, was like an accountant, passionless, with all the iron danger that implied.
“… How you escaped, well, that certainly has some people in important circles reviewing their approach to things, I must say. A head to toe reexamination of what was thought to be the case. Shows just how elusive the truth can be, doesn’t it, Ricky? I warned them, you know. I really did. I told them, ‘Ricky’s a very clever sort. Intuitive and fast-thinking… ‘ but they didn’t want to believe me. They thought you would be as stupid and careless as all the others. And now look where it has landed us. Why, you are the very alpha and omega of loose ends, Ricky. The pièce de résistance. Very dangerous for all connected, I would suspect…”
She sighed, deeply, as if her own words told her something. Then she continued:
“Well, personally, I can’t imagine why you want to go another round or two with Mr. R. I would have thought watching your deeply beloved summer home go up in flames-that was a genuinely nice touch, Ricky, a really smooth and wonderfully smart move. Burning up all that happiness along with all those memories, I mean, what other message could there have been for us? From a psychoanalyst, no less. Didn’t see that one coming, not in the slightest-but, I would have guessed that experience alone would have taught you that Mr. R. is a very difficult man to best in any contest, especially contests that he designs himself. You should have stayed where you were, Ricky, under whatever rock you found to hide yourself. Or perhaps you should run now. Run and hide forever. Start digging a hole someplace distant and far away and cold and dark and then keep on digging. Because my suspicion is that Mr. R. will need better proof of victory this time around. Very conclusive proof… He’s a very thorough individual. Or so I’m told…”
Virgil’s voice disappeared, as if she’d hung up her telephone abruptly. He listened to an electronic hissing noise, then accessed the subsequent telephone message. It was Virgil for a second time.
“So, Ricky, I’d hate to see you have to repeat the outcome of the first game, but if that’s what it’s going to take, well, the choice is yours. What is the ‘new game’ you speak of, and what are the rules? I’ll be reading my Village Voice with greater care now. And my employer is-well, eager doesn’t exactly seem like the right word, Ricky. Champing at the bit, like some racehorse, perhaps. So, Ricky, we await the opening move.”
Ricky hung up the telephone and said out loud, “It’s already happened.”
Foxes and hounds, he thought. Think like the fox. Need to leave a trail so you know where they are, but stay just far enough ahead so to avoid capture and detection. And then, he thought, lead them directly into the briar patch.
In the morning, Ricky took the subway uptown to the first of the hotels where he’d checked in, but not stayed. He returned the room key to a disinterested clerk reading a pornographic magazine called Large Ladies of Love behind the counter. The man had an undeniable seediness to him, with ill-fitting clothes, a pockmarked face, and a lip marred by a scar. Ricky thought that you couldn’t have found a better choice for the room clerk at that particular hotel in central casting. The man took the key with hardly a word, more or less engrossed by the bulk displayed in vibrant and explicit color on the pages in front of him.
“Hey,” Ricky said, getting the barest bit of attention response from the clerk. “Hey, there’s a chance a man might come looking for me with a package.”
The clerk nodded, but still not particularly focused, preferring, obviously, the cavorting creatures of the magazine.
“Package means something,” Ricky persisted.
“Sure,” said the clerk. A reply only the barest step beyond ignoring everything Ricky was saying.