The Florencia Lozano Homepage - Fan Fiction
Chapter 34
“Yes....hello,” said Tea breathlessly, running for the phone.
“Hi, Tea, it’s Bo.”
Tea closed her eyes and swallowed her conscience.
“Hi, Bo.”
“What’s going on, Tea? My officer said he saw Todd leaving the house a few hours ago. Where was he going?”
“He...uh...he went to The Sun. He needed to take care of some things...and...uh...I told him I’d call him if anything happened.”
“I can’t believe Ram hasn’t called yet. Usually kidnappers make their demands known within 24-48 hours,” said Bo. “This is highly unusual.”
“Well, maybe he’s seen all the police around the penthouse, Bo. Maybe we’ve scared him off.”
“Yeah...I was thinking that myself. I’m going to have my officers keep a lower profile. They’ll still be around, Tea, but you’re not going to see them. We’ll let this psycho think that we’ve given up...see if we can flush him out that way.”
“Yeah, Bo...that’s sound like a good idea, I guess.”
“It’s weird but we can’t seem to find anything out about this guy. Regina, the woman who runs the club said she doesn’t know him. Apparently he just showed up at her door a few months ago and hired himself out. You’d think a man with tattooed ram horns on his head would be easy to find, but no one’s seen him, no one knows him...there’s nothing on him in our database. I swear it’s like this guy never even existed....”
As Tea listened to Bo, Todd walked in, a black briefcase in his hand.
“Bo, Todd just walked in. I’ll let him know what’s going on and...we’ll call you if we hear anything, okay?”
Tea hung up and looked up at Todd.
“Tell me you didn’t say anything to Bo.”
“No, Todd, I lied my head off. That’s what you wanted right?” said Tea, turning away from him.
He laid the briefcase down on the desk and walked over to her.
“I know you hate this. I know you don’t agree with the way I’m handling this, Tea, but...”
“Yes, yes, I know. I need to trust you, right?”
“Yeah.”
Tea sat on the sofa and stared up at the ceiling.
“I guess I just wish your trust extended to other people...other than me, Todd. I think we should let the police handle this.”
“The same police that keep arresting me falsely? The same police that believe Blair’s lame-assed story? The same police that can’t get a kitten out of a tree without fucking up? You expect me to sit here twiddling my thumbs and TRUST Bo and his clowns try and rescue my daughter? MY DAUGHTER? Never!”
“Todd, this man, Ram...he’s a psychopath. He raped Blair. He killed Cherry. Yes, he’s desperate now and he wants money, but we know what he’s capable of. And after you give him the money who’s to say that he won’t hurt you...or worse.”
“I thought you trusted me! I thought you were with me on this Tea! Have you changed your mind?”
Tea stood up.
“No. I agreed to this, Todd. I agreed to trust you. That’s why I just lied to Bo. But Todd,” she said walking up to him and leaning against him, “I’m scared as hell.”
Todd put his arms around her and closed his eyes.
“I know. I’m scared as hell, too. But, Tea, if this guy even smells a cop, he’ll kill Starr. I just know it. I need to get close to him. Then, I can deal with him.”
Tea nodded and wiped her eyes.
“So, how did you get the money so fast?”
Todd walked over to the briefcase and opened it. It was filled hastily with bundled stacks of money.
“You know how paranoid I am, Tea. I keep ready cash everywhere. Most of it was in a safe in my office, the rest I got from a safety deposit box I keep. It’s all here. A million.”
“Has Ram called?”
Todd removed the black cell phone from his coat pocket.
“No,” he said, staring at the phone. “I guess...now...we just wait.”
They embraced, leaning against the desk both staring at the clock on the mantle. It had been10 hours since they’d heard from Ram. It had started to rain and the wind pelted the droplets against the window lightly as they stood still and silent.
“Tea,” Todd whispered into her hair, “if...if anything happens to me I want you to know that you and the kids are taken care of. There’s a will...”
“Shut up! Shut up, Todd,” she said, burying her face in chest. “You’re Todd Manning. You’re indestructible. You’ll never die. And you’ll always come back to me.”
Todd started laughing.
“Oh, yeah, I forgot. I’m fucking Todd Manning! I take it all back, Delgado.”
They both laughed. Todd held her face between his hands.
“I love you. I’ll keep on living so that I can keep loving you,” he said, leaning down to kiss her, his mouth crushing hers desperately, passionately, letting themselves escape into the realm of the senses, of touch and smell and taste, escaping from the ugly reality that surrounded them.
The humming of the telephone found them and brought them back.
Todd pulled away and reached for the phone.
“Yeah.”
“Hello, Toddler! Got my money?”
“Yes, I have the damn money. Where can we meet.”
“Let me talk to you delicious wife?”
“Fuck you! Where do you want to meet?”
“If you don’t put Tea on, I’m hanging up and dicing little Starr into bite size pieces. Now, put Tea on!”
Todd looked shaken as he handed Tea the phone.
“He wants to talk to you.”
“Yes, this is Tea.”
“Tu belleza enciede el fuego que arde en mi cuerpo, Tea,” [Your beauty ignites the fire that burns in my body] said a vaguely familiar voice. It was the doorman at the Black Key club, speaking impeccable Spanish.
“Donde esta, Estrella?” asked Tea in a trembling voice as Todd looked on in confusion.
“Starr’s safe, she’s fine.”
“Please don’t hurt her. We have what you want.”
“Tu sabes que quiero? Tus labios, tus pechos...tu dulzura de color morado.” [Do you know what I want? Your lips, your breasts...your dark, purple sweetness.]
“SHUT UP!” Tea yelled into the phone as Todd approached.
He yanked the phone from her and put it to his ear but all he could hear was Ram’s laughter.
“What did you say to her, you fucking bastard?”
“Calm yourself, Toddler. I only complemented her beauty. You’re a lucky man to have such a precious soul. Now...let’s move on to the business at hand, shall we? Call the doorman and collect your mail. I’ll call back in 5 minutes.”
Todd stared at Tea than walked over to the phone and called down for his mail. When he’d finished he turned to Tea who seemed rattled.
“What did he say to you?”
“Nonsense. He spoke Spanish to me, perfect Spanish. He made some, sexual remarks, nothing violent, just silly, florid stuff. He’s a freak.”
“Sorry, Tea...” he said, taking her hand.
“I’m fine, amor. He’s just trying to scare us, to intimidate us, that’s all.
There was a knock on the door. Todd opened it and found the young police officer who’d been guarding their door holding the mail and the late edition of The Sun, still wrapped up with a heavy elastic band. Todd took it and closed the door.
When he unwrapped the paper, a pair of silver handcuffs fell out onto the desk. They looked at one another as the phone in his hand began to ring.
“I got your...gift. What am I suppose to do with these?”
“Yes, that particular pair has great sentimental value to me, Toddler,” he chuckled. “I want you to lock yourself to the money tonight using those cuffs which have brought me so much pleasure in the past. You will leave your place at 8 o’clock unnoticed, that’s when the cops change shift downstairs. You’ll drive to the Black Key Club and park. There will be a taxi waiting for you...an innocent I hired who doesn’t know anything about what’s going on. He’ll take you to an old building outside of town. After he’s left, you’ll walk around the left of the building where you’ll see a rusty metal door that says: ‘Authorized Personnel Only’. Walk down the corridor, down a flight of stair’s and into the door marked ‘Examination Room’. Starr and I will be inside. And tip the driver generously, I promised him a big tip and...I’m a man of my word. Got all that, Toddler?”
“Yeah, I got it.”
“Oh, and there’s one more thing, dude?”
“What?”
“Bring mi bella, Tea. I want her dressed the way she was at the Black Key Club.”
The phone went dead before Todd could respond. He stared at Tea.
“When?”
“Tonight,” said Todd. “He wants you there too.”
2003 Copyright by Trog
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