Deadly Treatment (25 page)

They leaned back on their chairs happy with their plan.

‘I think we should take Joshua with us too,’ Vince said.

‘Why?’ Scott asked slightly concerned.

‘He’s great for getting into tight spots, and we don’t know what we’ll come across in there. Also, since we’ve decided to let him go, and I doubt he’s ever gonna be any more scared of me than he is right now, we might as well dump him off somewhere quiet when we’ve done the job. It’ll be dark, so it’ll put the shits up the kid, and of course no one will see us either.’

It wasn’t the most eloquent way of putting it, but Scott was pleasantly surprised at how well Vince had accepted the release of Joshua.

‘Good idea,’ he said happily.

Vince smiled back.

They agreed that a big Chrysler would be the car for the job, so Vince called Hertz and booked one, telling them he’d pick it up in a couple hours, and he’d need it for a few days. Also, could they make sure it was a black one like the gangsters used.

Elwood was quietly fuming as he sat uncomfortably squashed in cattle class on the United Airlines flight back to LA. Paxton had interrupted his spa treatment to tell him to get his ass back to the rat shit motel next to Scott and Vince’s and await further instructions. ‘Go now; you’re booked on the next flight,’ Paxton had told him. Elwood knew there was no immediate urgency; it was just a needless power play by Paxton, and hence, his annoyance. Paxton’s attitude was starting to get under his skin, something he would have to resolve when he returned to Chicago.

A
fter leaving the insurance broker’s office, Rodriguez had crossed over the road and joined the four waiting in the car. Apart from Nick, they were full of questions as to what had gone on. The detective told them about Scott and Vince and gave them a very loose overview of the way they did business and detailed the next job they’d been hired to do.

‘Why is Harrison not under arrest?’ Erin asked.

‘All in good time. I think it’s best everything looks normal at the moment — just in case Scott and Vince are watching,’ Rodriguez replied.

‘So, what’s the plan of action?’ Malone quizzed.

‘The obvious showdown should be at the hotel — catch them in the act. Once we’ve got them, we can find out where Joshua is.’

‘There must be something else we can do! Let me go talk to this Harrison bastard.’ Erin was already halfway out of the car when Rodriguez stopped her.

‘Harrison knows nothing else, and at this stage, he’s cooperating. Anything you say or do now could seriously ruin our chances of getting the arsonists — and in turn, your son. By my reckoning, we have a couple of days to wait. I truly believe this is the best thing we can do.’

Erin looked towards Malone and then to Taylor — they both nodded in agreement with the detective.

‘I hope you’re right,’ she said, getting back into the car.

‘What about me?’ Nick asked.

‘Just get out,’ Rodriguez snarled.

Back at the house, Daniel was awakened by the sound of Malone’s voice.

‘So you chose to come back!’ he said as he stood side by side with Taylor in the doorway. ‘

We thought you’d flown the coop,’ Taylor added, smiling as she spoke. ‘How did you get on? Are you hungry? We’ve got some Thai takeaway; come and join us and tell us all about it.’

Keen to offload and, not surprisingly, hungry; Daniel readily accepted.

The three of them sat around the kitchen bench and Daniel began his story as Taylor unpacked the food. As usual, they’d over-catered and boxes upon boxes of starters and mains quickly covered the counter.

‘Sorry for flying off without telling you, but after I got the call from Logan, I booked an early morning flight; you guys got in late, and…’

‘We got the note; that’s fine, you don’t have to explain,’ Malone said as he dipped a prawn cracker into a sweet chili sauce and stuffed it into his mouth.

‘Did you get some
gai panang
?’ Daniel asked.

‘Of course, wouldn’t forget your favorite,’ Taylor answered as she pushed one of the white boxes towards him.

Daniel filled his plate and carried on with his story. He told them how nervous he’d been in the cab, and how he’d followed Shannon to the casino. They laughed at how easily he’d been spotted, and his clash with the bouncers.

‘So, what did she say when you told her you were her son?’ Malone asked, already moving on to the red curry.

‘She didn’t believe me; she asked for proof!’ Again; they all found that very amusing.

‘What’s she like? What does she look like? What’s her personality like?’ Taylor asked.

Daniel described her physically, short black hair, slim, quite good looking, and then stopped as he thought about her personality.

‘She’s really open and honest,’ he said, in an almost surprised manner.

‘She’s had a bit of a rough past, but she told me all about it, and guess what…’

‘What?’ Malone and Taylor asked.

‘Sister Elizabeth was my grandmother!’

‘You’re kidding!’ Malone said almost as shocked as Daniel had been.

‘Yeah, it’s true. It all makes sense now, doesn’t it?’ he announced acting like the person that knew all along who the killer was in a whodunit movie. ‘Why she was so good to me and protected me all those years; she was family. What I don’t understand was why, through all those years, she kept it a secret that she was my grandmother.’

‘It would all be tied up with the oaths she took when becoming a Sister and daughter of God,’ Malone said.

‘Speaking of family, did she tell you about your father?’ Taylor asked seriously.

‘Yeah, he was a guy called Daniel. He was older than her, and they were together for quite a while — but he’s dead now.’ Daniel chose not to divulge too much about Shannon’s checkered past or that his father was murdered.

‘I’m so sorry,’ Taylor said as she put her arm around him. Malone put down his fork and reached over to pat his hand.

‘Thanks, but it’s not like I ever knew him or anything.’ Daniel knew they would both have a lot of questions about his father so he quickly changed the subject. ‘She works as a manager in one of the Casinos.’ It was a lie, but it was a small one; after all, Shannon had told him she was going to be promoted soon — or was it that she hoped to be?

Since Daniel’s mood hadn’t turned melancholy, Malone and Taylor went back to their food.

‘And she said she’s going to be moving into a bigger house soon, and I can come and visit her anytime.’ Both of those statements were based on a true story. If she had the money, she would have a bigger house; until then, he was welcome to the fold-out bed anytime.

‘Wow, it all sounds great,’ Malone said. ‘How are you taking all of this? When are we going to get to meet her?’

Daniel went quiet.

‘What’s the matter?’ Taylor asked.

‘I left this morning without saying goodbye,’ he muttered under his breath.

‘Why was that?’ Taylor asked.

‘I was overwhelmed; I didn’t know how to deal with all of this, so I snuck out of the house this morning without saying goodbye.’ Embarrassed, Daniel was talking to the food on his plate. Finishing with, ‘No note — no nothing.’

The three of them went silent.

‘Well, we can’t leave it like that now, can we?’ It was Malone who broke the silence. ‘It sounds like you two got on fine, and there is a lot more for you to talk about. You’ve done the right thing by meeting each other, but it would have been quite intense, I’m sure. Perhaps you need to cool things a bit; maybe you should give her a call and talk for a while on the phone, or get on the computer and e-mail or Skype — something like that. Sometimes not being face to face helps. I should know — confession being good for the soul and all that.’

Daniel changed the subject as he let Malone’s advice sink in. ‘So, tell me what’s been going on with the Costello case; sorry I haven’t been much help.’

Malone brought him up to speed with what had happened, ending with Richard Harrison and the two arsonists.

‘Wow, sounds like you haven’t needed my help anyway,’ Daniel said once Malone had finished.

‘We can always do with your help — however lame it is,’ Malone joked.

With the mood lightened, Daniel thanked them both for the dinner and for their advice, and then went back to his room. With Daniel gone, Taylor put her arms around Malone and repeated what she’d said to him several days ago.

‘Good-looking
and
smart – what did I do to deserve you?’ And then she kissed him deeply.

T
o Gerard Paxton, his looming retirement was a bitch. He liked his job, he liked the power that came with it, and most of all, he liked the money. Not his multimillion dollar salary, nor his share and pension scheme, although these were very comfortable figures to live off of. No, the money Gerard Paxton liked was the pharmaceutical business money. Pharmaceutical money is ridiculous money, not Monopoly money — Monopoly money is paper money — pharmaceutical money is much bigger than that; it’s spiritual money. It’s full of insinuation, nods, winks, and back-scratching. If you want something, whatever the size or cost, it mysteriously appears. If you want to go somewhere or do something — however outrageous it may be — you can. It’s like you’re a titanium black Amex card, or you have Jedi superpowers; there are no signatures required or paper trails to follow, because after all, pharmaceutical money doesn’t exist. Oh, how he was going to miss pharmaceutical money.

Sighing, he shuffled through the personnel files again. With Cain gone, he’d narrowed his next replacement down to three candidates. Each had their own special skills, and of course, each could bring a wealth of experience to the position; but to Paxton, that really wasn’t the most important thing. What he was looking for was a particular bent in their character; Cain’s replacement needed to have certain attributes and a particular moral fiber that could only be found in a rare breed of person — unless, of course, you nurtured them yourself, as had been the case with the now deceased Anthony Cain.

Paxton had spotted Cain’s potential very early on. A decade ago, he’d joined the organization when Paxton had hired him against the wishes of the personnel department. Apparently, Cain’s personality test had highlighted certain peculiarities, and his references had been, at best, average. But for Paxton’s purposes, he seemed perfect. He remembered him as being smart and quick-witted as he recalled part of their conversation during the interview.

‘So, Mr. Cain, which university did you go to?’

‘I attended UCLA, Harvard, and Yale,’ Cain replied.

‘You’re fuckin’ joking, aren’t you?’ Paxton said looking up from his papers.

‘Well, you started it!’

He still laughed at that comment.

He’d left Cain alone for the first few months, allowing him to get his feet
firmly planted before setting up a few small tests of character. Eager to please, Cain had worked late hours and early mornings — so hard work was never an issue, bribes were.

Although bribes were commonplace in the organization — after all, there was a lot for companies to gain in getting their research acknowledged — they were never taken. To take bribes or corporate gifts would not only be unethical but distasteful, and thus carried penalties of instant dismissal, and more often, jail time.

As part of the first batch of Cain’s tests, Paxton had sent in a few very low-grade applications with small cash donations enclosed. In a paper and bank transaction business, cash was a perfect medium; it was untraceable and essentially unnecessary. Paxton was pleased to see that while the applications got through, the cash never did — Anthony Cain had passed that test with flying colors.

As luck would have it, after Cain had been with the organization for almost a year, his mother fell ill with kidney failure. Paxton saw it as a great opportunity for the big test — it was time to see if Cain would take pharmaceutical money. Unbeknownst to Cain, that week Paxton arranged a meeting for him with a pharmaceutical client who was affiliated with a renal care unit. As a result, the client’s drug application was approved, and Mrs. Cain got a new kidney. In the subsequent disciplinary meeting between Paxton and Cain, the use of Cain’s corporate position for individual gain was deemed by Paxton to be
Contractual Gross Misconduct,
and probably criminal; but as a
favor
, he let this matter slide. From that moment on, Paxton held power over him.

Slowly but surely he’d molded and manipulated Cain to be the successor he wanted — this included keeping under wraps all the things Paxton needed to be kept hidden after his retirement —Cain was, in fact, the successor he needed.

That’s why it had been such a devastating shock when, out of the blue, Cain announced to him he’d been to see a specialist and had been diagnosed with cancer. Sure, Paxton was concerned about the wellbeing of his employee, after all the years Cain had worked for him there was bound to be a certain sense of attachment; but even then, Paxton knew that unless Cain pulled through it would be back to square one with the task of finding a successor. This was the position he found himself in now.

He picked up the phone and dialed the first of the three candidates on his list; it was late, actually it was the early hours of the morning — he wanted to know where they all were — hopefully at least one of them was up to no good.