Rock Radio (35 page)

“Hey, Larry, nice wheels.”

He slid quickly out of the car, shielding the open doorway from view with his body.  It was his nosy neighbor, Theo.

“Thanks, Theo.”  He closed the door quickly, waiting until Theo got inside his townhouse before reopening the door. 
Stay focused.  Stay focused.

Carefully he lifted Dana from the car
, kicked the door closed and sprinted with her into the house.  He hadn’t estimated her weight.  Even though she was quite thin, she was unconscious, so her body felt like a lead weight.  Once inside he placed her on his couch, then ran back to close and lock the front door.  He studied her sleeping so peacefully on his ratty brown sofa.  He wished he could leave her there, but he knew he couldn’t.  One day he knew she’d lie there willingly, but for now, he had to be careful.

Larry removed from under the couch a roll of duct tape and a pair of scissors.  He pulled her arms behind her back and wrapped the thick black tape around her wrists.  Then he bound her ankles.  Dana was still out cold.  He felt her neck and found a pulse.  Good, she was still okay.  He lifted her body and brought her to his little room, his private castle for his fairy princess.  Gently he placed her body in the small chamber beneath the stairs, then closed the door and locked it.

Larry moved swiftly, putting away the tape and scissors, then straightened up his family room to neat perfection.  Larry peeled the driver’s clothes from his body and slipped on a pair of shorts and a plain white t-shirt.  He then jumped back in the limo and began the long drive back to Naples to return the car.  He had promised the guy the car back by Monday intentionally.  In case things didn’t go as planned he then had an extra day,
padding
, he liked to call it.  But everything went so smoothly, there was no reason to wait.  The sleeping pill bottle said each pill would last for a guaranteed eight hours sleep.  The three pills combined with the champagne should keep her out for a long, long time.  Enough time to return the car and get back before she woke up.

It was all Larry could do to keep himself from racing to Naples.  He needed to be calm and go the speed limit.  He couldn’t afford to get stopped by the cops now.  Nearly two hours later he was back in Naples.  He pulled into Talbot Motors and went inside.  The same old man with the white hair was behind the counter.

“Mr. Holden.”  He never forgot a customer who paid cash.

“Yes,” Larry said, “I have your car,” he slid the keys onto the counter, “and the rest of your money.”  He held out several large bills.

The old man counted the money.  “Let me get you your change.”

“Keep the change,” Larry said, feeling like a big shot.  He always wanted to say that, just like they did in the movies.

“Thank you, sir.”

Another sir!
  Just like the guy at the home improvement store.  Already his association with Dana was paying off with respect.

“Bye,” Larry said and walked from the store.  When he was sure that he was out of the man’s sight he began sprinting to the shopping center.  His familiar rusty green car was just where he parked it.  He hopped in and began the drive back to Miami.

It was now nighttime.  He was thankful for the darkness, it shrouded him from prying eyes.  He sped along the highway desperate to get home.  He wanted to be there when Dana woke up.

When Dana realized she was now with the man of her dreams.

Cody ordered a large bouquet of flowers to be delivered to Dana at work on Monday with the message:

Counting the days...the hours...the minutes.

I love you.

Cody

He then caught the late flight from Nassau to Miami, changed planes and was on his way to the Gainesville Airport.  Fortunately the flight was quick and smooth.  He hated the quiet...it only made him think of Dana and how much he missed her.  He wanted to get back in the swing of thing
s...get his mind occupied.  The plane landed and they exited onto the tarmac.  Gainesville’s airport was small, which was good in the sense that you got off the plane and out the door fast.  Cody got into his used silver BMW convertible – a present for himself from the first big check he got from the record company – and headed to Pinetree and his mother.

He had mixed feelings about seeing her.  It had been years.  They spoke occasionally on the phone, exchanging pleasantries and such, but she didn’t really know him, she didn’t know who he was as a person.  She told him she was proud of him, a comment usually followed by a plea for money.  He figured she was proud of his paycheck.

Cody maneuvered through the small town streets thinking about how far he’d come from the scared little boy who thought there was no way out of his rural existence.  It felt good in a sense to come back on his terms, in his luxury car, needing no one.

Not that he was a millionaire, not by any means.  His band was doing well – a spot on the charts meant money, good money,
but not unbelievable money.  That would happen over time or with a huge, huge hit.  And it would happen.  Of that Cody was certain.

He sighed.  In a way, he wondered why he was visiting his home.  Things were going so well...Dana, the band...he hated knowing that this visit would probably bring him down.

He turned down the familiar dirt road and slowly approached the shack his mother still called home.  He begged her to move, time after time, specifically earmarking the money as a means for her to have a nicer place to live...a place that didn’t hold so many awful memories.  She put him off,
“Cody, I appreciate your money, but I use it for my living expenses and for food...you have no idea how much things cost.”
  Her logic made no sense.  Of course he knew how much things cost, he was living on his own.  But arguing with her was useless.  She didn’t understand the meaning of a conversation, nor did she have the ability to grasp the idea that she could be wrong.

The lights in the house were on.  Cody was tired.  He figured they’d talk for a bit, then he’d call Dana and go to sleep.  The next morning he’d meet up with the band and could get out of the past and back to his future.

He parked the car and walked up the stone path passing a new pick-up truck in the driveway.  Well, maybe she had spent some of the money on something useful.  He slowed his pace.  Each step forward seemed to remove years from his life, turning him into a scared young boy.  He resisted the urge to be afraid and knocked strongly on the door.

It opened and there she was – his mother.  Jane Smith had aged well.  Smooth skin marred only by slight wrinkles around her eyes and light hair with a few strands of gray.

“Cody!” she exclaimed, throwing her arms around him.  She pushed him back, “Let me look at you!  Oh, you look wonderful!”  She hugged him again.

“You look good too, Momma.”  It felt good to be in her arms.  “Can I come in?”

“Of course, of course.”  She eyed him nervously.  “I have a surprise for you.”

It was then that Cody saw the tall heavyset man in the kitchen.

“Hello, boy.”

It was his dad.

His body tensed automatically.

“What the hell is he doing here?” Cody exploded.

“Cody,” his mom said calmly in the voice he remembered from so many years ago, “he’s your father.”

“No he’s not!” Cody spat, anger pulsing through his body.  He began pacing back and forth, unable to deal with the rage that was overtaking him.

“Cody, he’s changed.  We’ve been spending time together,” she turned to glance lovingly at Kevin.  “It’s okay.”

“I knew this was a mistake, Jane,” his dad said in a frustrated southern drawl, the drawl that was the predecessor to every fight.

“No, he hasn’t changed!” Cody yelled taking in the man he hadn’t seen in a lifetime.  Kevin had lost some hair and gained quite a bit of weight.  He now sported a thick beard that was colored brown, copper and gray.  His eyes were dull, lifeless and mean.

“He has Cody…
I see him a lot.  I’m not alone anymore.  I thought you’d be happy for me.”

Cody eyed his mother.  She had fallen back in with him.  “What about the money I gave you?  Is he where it’s going?”

“Cody,” she said softly, “it’s not like that.”

One look outside the window again at the large, shiny new pick-up truck told Cody it probably was.

“Did I pay for that truck?  His truck?” he said, voice low and quavering.

His mother looked at him silently.

“Did I?” he yelled.

She whispered.  “Yes.”

“Aw, Jane you dummy, I told ya t’lie to him!  What the hell did you do that for?”

Cody looked at them both with blind rage.  They weren’t his parents, they were two despicable people who deserved each other.

“You are dead to me,” he said to both of them and stormed out of the house.

“Cody!” his mom called out, running to catch him.

“Jane, don’t bother, he ain’t worth it,” Cody heard his father say and then heard the crunch of his mother’s footsteps retreating toward the house.

Cody got into his car, screeched out of the driveway and never looked back.

             
The first thing Dana noticed was a headache.  An aching, throbbing headache.  Groggily she tried to rub her head, but couldn’t.  She felt extreme resistance...her hands were restrained. Dana opened her eyes, but saw nothing.

Nothing but pitch black.

Fear struck fast.  She felt a cold hard floor beneath her face.  She wriggled her legs, they too were bound.  Lucidity came quickly to her foggy mind.  She’s was trapped but how did she get here?  Her mind raced to what she could remember.  She got off the plane and got in the limousine...and then...what then...?  She couldn’t remember anything after she got in the limo...the limo from Cody.

Unless the limo wasn’t from Cody.

Fear took a stranglehold hold of her.  The driver never said the limousine was from Cody.  She said it.  In fact he didn’t say much about Cody at all.

It was a set up.

But who?  Why?  And what the hell would happen next?

Horrible thoughts flooded Dana’s brain.  Her heart raced and her breath grew short.  She was panicking. 
Breathe, Dana, breathe
, she told herself,
panic won’t get you out of this.

Then she realized she wasn’t gagged.

“Help!  Help!” she screamed at the top of her lungs.  “Help me!”

Larry shot up from his bed.  He could hear muffled cries for help. 
Damn it...she was awake. 
He looked at the clock, it was Monday morning and he’d overslept.  Larry jumped out of bed and threw on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt.  He wanted to shower and dress nicely for his first encounter with Dana, but that was not to be.  Cries for help reverberated through the walls.  With lightning speed, he raced down the stairs.

“I’m here!” he called back.

Dana stopped yelling.  What voice was that?  Was it help?  Or was it her captor?

She heard keys and then the door was opening.  She squinted at the bright light and tried to make out the dark, shadowy man kneeling outside the room.

“Dana, it’s okay, I’m here,” he said softly.

“Are you here to help me?”

“I’m here to save you...”

“Oh thank...” she started to say.

“...save you from your life alone.  Dana, I’m your soul mate.  It’s me, Larry.”

“Larry?” she asked in fear, trying to place the name, the voice, the face.

“Larry Carter.  We talk all the time.”

Larry Carter.

The psycho listener.

Her heart lurched.  She tried to stay calm, to stay in control.

“Larry,” Dana said as evenly as possible, “why do you have me here tied up like this then?”

“Dana,” he said, “you never would have given me a chance if I hadn’t brought you here like this.”

“But I’m in pain.”

“Dana, I’m sorry about that, but I had to do what I had to do to save you and bring us together.”

“I don’t need saving.”  Anxiety was thick in her voice.
              “Yes you do,” he said sternly, anger creeping into his tone.

Back off, Dana, back off,
she thought, trying to remember all the TV specials she’d seen on kidnapping and what to do in the situation, never thinking she’d ever need those skills. 
Gain their trust, be their friend, don’t confront.

“Larry,” she said as sweetly as possible, “I appreciate what you’re doing, but how can I get to know you if you have me tied up in this little room?”

She made a good point.  And she said his name.  It sounded so nice when Dana Drew said
Larry
.  It made him feel like somebody, not the loser everyone thought he was.

“You’re right, Dana” he said, crawling into the room to get her out.

Dana’s body skid against the concrete floor as he pulled her out.  She felt her legs burn with pain.  Her head came out first.  She breathed in the air; it was not much less stagnant than where she was.