Page 9

M ason asked from his hospital bed, “What was that all about?” Tesla quickly filled him in. He repeated that last part. “She works at a bank, but she’s not been at work for the last few days?”

“Yeah,” she replied.

He groaned. “All these women and nobody gives a crap about them.”

“That’s what it looks like,” Tesla agreed, “but then not as many women have been as lucky as I have been.”

He gave her a ghost of a smile. “You would say that,” he teased, “because you love me.”

“I do say that because I do love you, yes, but I also know the kind of a man you are. Some of these other men, honest to God, I would be okay if they were just taken out back and dumped.”

He chuckled. “So fierce,” he murmured.

“So many upset lives,” she pointed out. “So many are hurting, but, if people would just step up and be honest, you would hope they would help each other.” He motioned for her to come over. “Are you okay?” she asked instantly, as she walked closer.

“I’m doing okay,” he replied, with a smile. “How about you?”

“I’m fine,” she said, sounding tired. “I really want to be out of here and back home again, but I know that we’re coming down to the wire on this whole mess, so I’ll take it.”

“Absolutely.”

Markus poked his head in. “You guys up for food?”

“I’m absolutely up for food,” Mason declared, facing him. “You had to ask?”

He chuckled. “Just checking.”

“Oh, good, and, yes, food, please.”

“Okay, I already ordered it anyway,” he said, with a big grin at Mason. “Give it about twenty minutes.”

“What did you order?”

“Italian, and lots of it.”

“Good. Will you eat with us?”

“ Ha , I’m on guard duty. Remember?”

“I know what you’re saying, but a big guy like you has to eat too.”

“We’ll see. You can go ahead and eat. Then we’ll see if you leave me anything.”

“Even saying that means he will, and you know that,” Tesla said.

Markus just chuckled and headed out again. At the doorway he stopped, then turned to them with a smile. “Just remember, guys. In a couple more days, you’ll be out of here and back home.” He closed the door behind him.

Tesla looked over at her husband. “He’s right, babe. Just a couple more days and this stage of our life will be over.”

“I can’t wait.” Mason gently covered her hand with his. “What we do need is some time for ourselves, without guards, without anybody.”

She chuckled. “For the record, sir, you are in no condition for any hanky-panky,” she declared. “So, if that’s what you have in mind, forget it.”

“Hanky-panky,” he repeated, with a silly grin, waggling his eyebrows. “I do love that term, and I especially love it when you talk dirty.”

She rolled her eyes at that. “That’s hardly talking dirty,” she muttered, “but it’s not happening regardless.”

“It might happen though,” he added, as the gleam in his gaze deepened, “if we ever get home.”

“We will get home, and it most definitely will happen when you are doing better. However, for now, get some rest before the food comes.” She smiled, then returned her attention to her laptop.

When a knock came several minutes later, the door popped opened, and Markus walked in with a trolley.

“Wow, when you deliver food, you deliver food,” Mason stated, with a grin.

“Hey, you’re a big guy, like me. So you need real food, not hospital food.”

“I won’t argue with that,” Tesla said, with a nod, “but your ability to turn around and get something like this to happen so quickly is quite amazing.”

“Hey, I can get all kinds of shit to happen,” Markus declared, “and don’t you forget it.”

“Not forgetting anything,” she muttered, “particularly when I see this.” She walked over to the bed and helped Mason sit up. With the trolley moved over enough that they could see the spread themselves, she stared in amazement. “Markus, this looks lovely.”

“Good, then maybe you’ll eat more.”

She rolled her eyes at that. “I’m hardly starving.”

“You won’t get the chance to starve either,” he pointed out. “Now sit down and eat.” And, with that, he quickly served them up plates, then enjoyed a plate with them. He bulldozed through his food, then announced, “Eat up. I’m heading back out to the hallway.”

“Are you sure? There’s still plenty of food here.”

He rolled his eyes. “Not for long,” he said, with a chuckle. “I will be disappointed in you if you leave some because I’m pretty sure, between the two of you, you’re more than capable of polishing off the rest of it. As for me”—he patted his tummy—“I’m pretty good.”

“On the other hand,” she added, as he walked to the door and opened it, “I’m not likely to—”

Out of nowhere, a stranger hit Markus in the head with the butt of his gun. Markus fell backward, stumbling before collapsing on the floor.

A young man stepped into the room and quickly closed the door behind him. He looked at them and sneered. “Well, well, all those pros out there, and look what I managed to do.”

“What you managed to do,” Tesla said, “is hurt a friend of ours.”

“Yeah, and a guy like that won’t be out for long,” he noted, as he lifted his handgun, “so I don’t have much time. Sorry—”

The door opened again, and a woman called out, “No!”

He turned and stared at her. “We’ve had this conversation already,” he snapped and quickly turned to face Mason.

“Yes, we have,” she agreed, “and the answer is still no. You’re not doing this.”

“Sure I am,” he said, with a laugh. “Do you know how much money is at stake?”

“Maybe none,” Mason shared. “We’ve heard so many people talk about all this money they were committing these crimes for, and yet old man Richard doesn’t have much left anymore.”

“Yeah, that’s what you say,” the gunman argued, “but he’s loaded, like hundreds of millions.”

“No, he’s not worth much of anything now,” Tesla stated. “He’s made some bad decisions, and his son-in-law has made some bad business decisions. There isn’t much left now.”

“So what? Still tons of money are at stake, and I want my share. I was cheated out of all of it.”

“A lot of you feel you were cheated by Richard, but I wonder how much of that cheating is real.” Tesla looked at the older woman standing there, trembling, as she tried to stop the young man from following through with this murder. And, sure enough, it was the woman who had been upset at Janelle for going into the nursing station to make tea. Those sketch artists were uncannily accurate. Now side by side with her grandson, the resemblance between the two was unmistakable. Tesla noted that Steve looked like both his mother and his teenage son. “Hi, Cristal. This is your grandson, isn’t it?”

The woman gasped, and the grandson turned ugly. “What the hell do you know?”

Mason spoke up. “We know that you’re Steve’s son and that he dumped your mother because he didn’t believe you were his child, or, if he did believe,… he didn’t give a crap.”

“That’s because he didn’t give a crap,” the son declared. “That’s what men like him do.”

“So why do you want to become one of them?” Mason asked.

“Who said I was?” he asked, staring at him.

“You’re here, and you’re ready to kill me,” Mason stated, “without any justification, without even knowing what it’s all about.”

“I tried to tell him,” Cristal added, “but he won’t listen.”

“No, young men like this,” Mason noted, “they have a tendency to think with their egos and not with their brains.”

The young man glared at him. “You’re awfully cocky for a man facing a gun.”

“I’ve faced a lot of guns in my life,” Mason declared, “and, yeah, you have a chance right now to ruin my life, to ruin my wife’s life, to ruin the life of the child she’s carrying. And, if murder is all you’re into, what’s holding you back?”

“Test me, and you’ll find out.”

“You are being tested right now. You do realize that if you shoot both of us, then you may have to shoot your grandmother too, a woman who risked a lot to have a relationship with you.”

Cristal was shaking and crying and trying to reason with her grandson. “You can’t do this. You just can’t.”

“How did he get in touch with his grandfather?” Mason asked Cristal.

“I made the mistake of telling him about Richard,” she whispered. “Over the years he’s given me a little bit of money to survive. Not much, never enough,” she muttered, “but we made it. And then, when I was working at the home, and he was there, he told me it was too damn bad that I wouldn’t have any grandkids because at least they would be my blood. I didn’t dare say anything, but I guess my face was an open book, and suddenly he knew. Once he knew, he hassled and bugged me until I told him.”

“And, once she told him, Richard reached out to talk to me,” the grandson declared, with a smile. “It’s always nice to know that everybody in the family tried hard to keep me away from him.”

“Maybe because he’s a mass murderer,” Tesla declared, without hesitation.

“He is not. He’s just looking for revenge.”

“Revenge?” she repeated. “What is revenge all about? You just turn around and destroy other people’s lives?”

“Your husband did the destroying, remember?” the kid said, swinging the gun around.

“I did,” Mason declared. “Gabe was a rapist and a criminal. His life was a complete mess, as he was regularly breaking and entering other people’s homes. He came into my home to try and hurt my wife and to force me to watch,” Mason shared. “What would you have done?”

“Doesn’t matter. What I want is Granddad’s money, and he’s got a shit ton of it.”

Mason snorted. “No money is left, kid. What your granddad really has is lies. Lies and the ability to con people well past all reason. The old son of a bitch is nearly broke. Yet he’s got you and Steve and other guys ruining your lives, chasing money he doesn’t even have.”

Cristal cried out, “Listen to him. He’s right. Richard never helped me with any real money all these years, and he should have. He occasionally gave me pocket money, nothing more. He should have done better than that.”

Tesla nodded. “Yes, he should have. You were raising Richard’s child, and Richard had the money to help back then.”

“He didn’t want anybody to know,” she whispered. “It had to be secret, so he used to give me little bits and pieces from his petty cash. Any time the lawyers would come, he would get more spending money, and they always asked him what he was using it for. He would glare at them and tell them it was none of their damn business.” She smiled at that. “But still, he was never there to help out in a way I could count on.”

“He could have though,” Tesla said. “He could have at any time.”

“Yes, but I think he just liked playing games. He didn’t want anyone to know and said it would serve them all right. He changed his will constantly, at least he talked about it all the time,” she added. “I don’t even know who’s in it anymore. I don’t know that he ever intended to give anybody his money.”

“What about your son, Steve? Would Richard give him money?” Mason asked.

She winced. “I don’t know what to say, but I do know right from wrong. Somewhere, somehow, that old bastard got to my Steve. He’s bad, just really, really bad.” She sniffled and tried to rub the tears out of her eyes. “I tried to get Richard to stay away from my grandson, after he turned my own son against me,” she whispered, “but I think it was just Richard’s way of punishing me for giving birth to the one son he wanted to legitimately call his own, and yet he wouldn’t.”

Mason stated, “Richard certainly could have. There were options. With your agreement, Richard could have added his name to the birth certificate. He even could have adopted Steve.”

She stared at him with a haunted expression. “His wife didn’t know.”

Tesla stared at her and asked, “What about his daughters? Did they know Richard wasn’t their biological father?”

“They didn’t know either,” Cristal confirmed, “and now only one daughter is left, and she’s dying of cancer. Richard wanted to make sure that she still had the same opinion of him after all these years, so he didn’t want it to be a lie for her.”

Tesla stared at her. “How will they feel when they find out about all the things that Richard’s done?”

“It doesn’t matter,” the grandson interrupted impatiently, as he waved the gun. “Like what the hell?… I don’t give a crap who and what and when or how many other people there are. As long as that will is in my name, it won’t matter.”

“What about your father, Steve?” Mason asked.

“My father is an ass,” he snapped. “He made damn sure that I never got any support or anything I wanted in life. He was just too cocky and too mean to share.”

Cristal sighed. “I’m so sorry.”

“You keep saying that,” he said, glaring at her, “but it doesn’t matter. Don’t you understand? Nothing matters, just that I get what’s due to me.”

“And yet I wonder if what’s due to you,” Mason pointed out, “is really what’s due to you.”

He blinked. “I don’t care about your mumbo jumbo. I just need to finish the job. Granddad just needs to know, and then I get everything.”

“There isn’t anything to get,” Cristal cried out. “That’s what I keep telling you. Richard kept changing his will because it was all a game to him, but there’s a reason the lawyers would only let him have so much money a month.”

“Yes, because the home would take it all. If they thought he had more money, they would have charged him more,” the gunman claimed, turning on her. “Can’t you understand that? You just don’t have a head for business at all.”

He spoke to his grandmother with such a disparaging tone that Tesla snapped, “Don’t you talk to your grandmother like that. She’s done an awful lot to try and help you.”

“Oh God,” he muttered, cackling. “Another one of those goody-goody people,” he said, with a sneer.

“What about your mother?” Mason asked. “How will she take this?”

“I don’t give a shit how she takes it.” He pointed to Tesla. “My mother’s another one—although unlike this one—my mother doesn’t want to bother anybody. She doesn’t want any trouble and just wants to get on with her life.”

“Is that so wrong?” Tesla asked.

“It sure is when I didn’t get a life at all. I have every right to be what I want to be. Besides, she’s got a new boyfriend, and she doesn’t care.”

“Did she ever have any more kids?” Tesla asked.

“No, she didn’t,” he said, looking at her. “Why?”

“Just wondered. And what about you? Have you got a girlfriend?” Tesla asked.

“Nope, and I won’t make that same mistake,” he vowed. “I will make sure that I get what I want in life first, then make sure that nobody can take it from me.”

Tesla sighed, as she listened to him. “I guess all of that is really important to you, isn’t it?”

“Of course it’s important to me,” he replied, staring at her. “Do you know what it’s like to grow up without money?”

“No, I don’t,” she said, shaking her head. “I had a loving father and a loving brother, and now I have a loving husband,” she said, looking to Mason. “But now you’re the one trying to take everything away from me.”

“I won’t try . I will do it.” Then he laughed. “But what you lose, I gain, so thanks.” As he raised the handgun once more, his grandmother stepped in front of him.

“Nope, you’ll have to kill me first.”

He pointed the gun right at her chest and said, “Fine by me. You’ve been a pain in my ass for a very long time.”

His grandmother burst into tears, wailing.

“Oh shut up!” the gunman roared. “All you ever do is bellyache.” When he failed to get Cristal to shut up, he finally got frustrated enough that he put the gun against her head. “Now stop it or else.”

Sobbing quietly, she managed to stop.

“Now get out of here. Just leave the room.”

She stared at him.

“Yeah, leave. You don’t want to know about it. You don’t want to hear it, so the easiest thing for you is to just leave.”

“When I leave,” she whispered, “and you do this terrible deed, your life is over. It doesn’t need to be over,” she cried out. “It’s not too late.”

“Yeah, it’s too late already,” he argued, giving her a grim smile. “You might not have believed Granddad, but I do, and that money is mine. I need it, and I will break this cycle of poverty,” he declared. “You don’t want anything to do with it, and that’s fine. I wasn’t planning on sharing anyway.” And, with that, he gave a bark of laughter, raised the handgun again, and said, “Now, make a decision.”

She stared at him, then turned to look at Mason and Tesla.

He turned his gaze back to them as well, and he laughed. “Jeez, look at you guys. It’s not as if you can do anything. You’re just sitting here, ducks on a pond, waiting to be shot and to be put out of your misery,” he muttered. “It’s almost too easy.”

As he turned the gun to Mason, Markus launched from the floor and tightened his arm around the gunman’s neck, threw him off balance, and grabbed his gun arm, pulling the gun free at the same time. As he flipped him onto his stomach, he came down on his back, a knee digging hard into the boy’s spine.

Cristal burst into tears, sobbing and wailing at the sudden turn of events. Tesla got up, waddled over to her, and she wrapped her arms around her and whispered, “It’s okay. It’s okay now.”

Cristal shook her head. “It’s never okay,” she whispered. “These men, they just…” And then she couldn’t continue and just burst into tears all over again, but Tesla understood.

She looked over at Mason, and he nodded. She just held Cristal, then asked her, “What about his mother?”

She looked over at him and whispered, “His mother doesn’t have anything to do with this. She’s a good person. It took a lot for her to recover, but now she’s put herself through school, and she’s done well. She has a new relationship, and I wondered if maybe that would be better for her son, but instead he blames her still.”

“It’s easier to blame people,” Tesla explained, “than it is to deal with your own problems. But good for her for managing to move on, after Steve abandoned her and their child.” Tesla looked over at Markus and smiled. “You must have one hell of a headache.”

He groaned. “It stunned me for a moment, though it pisses me off that this dumb kid got by me. I will blame it all on your damn food.”

She laughed. “I watched you playing possum, waiting for an opportunity,” she noted, “so you are as strategic as ever.”

“As if I would let this snot-nosed kid shoot you,” Markus muttered, with an eye roll. “As you well know, I can move like a cat when I need to. You guys had him talking, so it was better to get as much information as we could because he sure won’t talk now.”

His grandmother still sobbed, but then she stopped and looked around wildly. “He might not talk, but I will. This has to stop,” she cried out. “My grandson’s just poison, like Steve and like Richard.”

“The old man has already been picked up and is sitting in jail,” Mason shared. “So now it’s over.”

Cristal stared at him in hope. “You promise? So many people have died or have had their lives ruined because of him.”

“It’s over,” Mason repeated. “I promise.”

And, with that, Cristal sagged into a heap on the floor, rolled her head onto her knees, and just sobbed some more.

Markus looked at Mason, then Tesla, and added, “I think you may be right. This thing is finally over.”