The Worst Best Luck (14 page)

Matt answered his cell phone as he walked down the street to the garage.  “Hi, this is Matt.”

“Matt, hi, this is Nina Slate.  I’m working with Peter and I have your number as an emergency contact and…okay, before I go any further, is he with you?”

“Uh, no,” Matt said, freezing in his tracks on the busy sidewalk.

“Well, we were meeting, and he excused himself to go downstairs for a minute and, that was an hour ago.”

“Oh shit.”

“Do you know where he went or what might have…”

“Yeah.  Yeah, I’m afraid I do.” 

Looking out the window as the car sped across the George Washington bridge, Peter watched the boats in the Hudson River.  He recognized the Circle Line boat, and he wanted to open the window and wave his arms wildly at it, begging for rescue.  As if they could even see him, as if they were even looking…he thought about all the people on it, watching the skyline and totally oblivious to his plight, and it struck him how many things just as crazy as this were going on in New York right now. 
What was a little interstate kidnapping in the city’s grand scheme of things,
he thought absurdly, as Cody rambled on.

“So we’ll start over.  A new life, man.  You’ll see, I’ve changed.  I’m going to make you happy.”  Cody nodded, his fingers tapping on the wheel to the music of his own riff.

“You can be happy on your own, Cody.  I’ll give you a million dollars.  Just take me back to the hotel.  My wealth manager can start the process…”

“NO!” Cody shouted.  “You’ll throw me a bone and then I’ll just be…” He stopped.  From years of experience, Peter realized that Cody had almost told the truth about something.  “I’ll be alone again.  No, Peter, never again.”

Cody was crying now.  “It’s not fair.  Nothing good ever happens for me, everything always goes wrong.  It’s not fair.”

Sociopaths do have feelings, and they can cry,
Peter remembered Millie telling him long ago, after he’d gotten rid of Cody the first time and spent that night sobbing with relief in her kitchen. 
But they can only cry for themselves.

I need to be calm,
Peter thought. 
I need to think my way out of this.
  And the most surprising thought of all was,
I can do this.  Matt, you believe in me and I won’t let you down.

Matt’s emergency response team went into action.  Chadrick and Guy grilled him for details, anything that could help them figure out where Cody might have taken Peter.

“Peter mentioned a cabin, in Pennsylvania, where Cody said he was going to take him someday.”

“He owns it?”

“No, no, it’s some guy’s.  Some past victim.”

“Great.  We can find that guy, Matt.”

“How?”

Guy raised an eyebrow.  “Don’t ask.”

“Hack Cody’s bank account,” Chadrick said, less shy with the details.  “Find his deposit history.  See where the money came from. You gotta figure if he had a sugar daddy with a cabin, he got some bucks out of him. If we’re lucky it was enough money that he had to take a check.” 

“Highly illegal, mind you,” Guy said.

“Do it.”

Matt made his own call.  “Jose, my man.”

“Dude,” his coworker said.  “What’s up? Where are you?  People looking for you, man, trying to figure out why their cars aren’t ready.  That’s not like you.”

“Listen.  I know you’re on the up and up now.  But do you still have any connections from your old days?”  Jose had worked in a chop shop before going straight, and leaving the criminal underworld behind.

“Well, you know, you try and get rid of those people, but when one of them is your brother, it’s kinda hard to do.”

Matt smiled. “Great.  Listen, write down this name.  Cody Ray Burrell.  I need to find out what he’s into these days…”

An hour later, Matt paced the room, running a hand through his hair.  “We should go.  We know where they are.  We can…”

Chadrick moved in front of him, put up a hand, gently pressed against Matt’s chest. “No, man.  It’s in the hands of the professionals.” 

It hadn’t taken long to find the string of deposits, each one for around a thousand dollars, then one for ten thousand, then nothing. 
Another man Cody had used till he was used up,
Matt thought.  A search of property records under the name of Cody’s victim had found the cabin in Pennsylvania. 

Google Earth showed them its location, remote, nearly inaccessible, a road to the south that didn’t reach it.  Cody and Peter would have to abandon the car and trek the rest of the way on foot.

Then, though it had broken Matt to do it, it was time to let the cops and the FBI take over.  Chadrick’s family connections in Albany and Washington ensured that few questions would be asked about how the cabin had been found. 

Matt was afraid they’d fuck it up, end up getting Peter killed.  But there was nothing to do but wait.

Then his phone rang. 

“Hey man,” Jose said.  “I got bad news.”

“Okay.”  Matt steeled himself.

“The mob is looking for this dude.  He got into a deal, used your boy as leverage.  Said he had Peter’s financial backing, showed them some old pictures of the two of them together, and they recognized him from the news and went ahead with it.  And, well, of course the dude fucked it up.  Matt, it was a big ass coke deal.”

“Oh shit.”

“It gets worse.  Cody rented a car under his own name.  The car has GPS.  And someone at the rental car agency was bribed by these guys to give up the data.  They’ll be on their way to the site.”

“Well, then they’ll run into the cops, so…”

“No, they won’t.  The cops take the road.  These guys are going to come through the woods.  Quiet like.”

Matt’s stomach flipped over.  “Oh my god.”

“I’m sorry dude.  Not the best news.”

Think!
  Matt told himself.  If Peter still had his cell, Matt could send him a warning.  But if Cody had taken it, any message Matt sent would go straight to him. 

But maybe that was even better,
he thought.  He racked his brain for a message that would do the trick, regardless of who read it first. 

Then it came to him.  He wrote it down and showed it to Guy and Chadrick.  “I’m going to text this to Peter.”

They read it.  Chadrick raised an eyebrow. “You don’t want to wait for this to play out.” 

“No.  If the cops and the criminals arrive at the same time, that is not going to be good.  We have to force Cody’s hand one way or the other.”

He pulled out his phone and started to type.

Cody took an exit, then a side road, into the hills.  “You’re going to love it up here,” Cody said.  “It’s really peaceful.”

Peter’s phone hadn’t vibrated in a while, but he knew there were messages backing up on it.  He was so glad he’d turned off the ringer when he’d met with Nina.  There was no way he could take it out and check it, and he knew that only the roar of the highway had kept Cody from hearing the vibrations of incoming calls and texts.  And only his coked-up state had prevented him from thinking to take away Peter’s phone.

Think.
  He calmed himself, thought back on all he’d been through. 
You can do this.
  Who would be calling him?  Nina, of course, because he hadn’t come back.  Then who?  Matt, his emergency contact. 

They could trace me!
 
They can find me via the phone signal!
  He clenched his fist in glee.  Then, Cody parked the car. 

“We’ll walk from here.” 

As soon as Cody got out, Peter slipped the phone out, just to look for a second. 
No Service.
  He was off the grid now.  They could trace him as far as the last cell tower, but that was it. 

Cody got a bag out of the trunk.  “I packed some clothes for you.  See, I remember your size!”

Peter smiled back.  “Thank you.”

Cody was clearly pleased.  “Come on, let’s go.”

As Cody led the way through the woods, Peter slipped his phone out again.  He’d had service for a second…just long enough to receive a text from Matt.

He read it.  Everything came clear to him then. 
Matt, you clever bastard.
  Peter smiled. 
Here we go, Cody,
he thought. 
The end game at last.

At the cabin, Cody peeked out the windows, his nerves on edge. 
Did he know?
Peter thought. 
Or was it just the drugs making him edgy?

Cody finally noticed him, sitting there calmly.  “You’re taking this well.”  He sounded suspicious.

“Isn’t that what you wanted?  For me to be happy, with you?”

Cody narrowed his eyes.  “You’re being sarcastic.”

“I got a text from Matt, Cody.”  He handed his phone over.  “I think you should read it.”

“You’ve had your fucking
phone
all this time!” Cody snatched it from him.  “God damn it!”  He went to throw it against the wall.

“STOP.”  The strength in Peter’s voice surprised them both.  “Read it, Cody.  Then smash it if you have to.”

Cody scowled, read the text. 
Cops coming to your location from the South.  Mob approaching from the North.  Your call.

“Oh fuck, oh fuck,” Cody said, dropping the phone.  “What the fuck does that mean, your call?”

“You’ve got two options, Cody.  The law or the criminals.”

Cody ran a hand through his hair, pacing the floor.  “Okay.  Okay.  We go north.  We meet up with these guys and we…and you pay them.  It’s a half a million dollars.  That’s nothing to you.  Then you’re free, okay?  We’re done.  I promise.”

A surge of rage went through Peter.  It was as if his psychic polarity had been suddenly reversed – what had once exhausted him, suddenly energized him.  In the past, he would have bent, folded, collapsed and given in, given Cody anything, everything.  Even knowing that it would all start over again soon enough, since Cody’s promise that they were “done” wasn’t worth the air it took to make it, and he knew it. 

That voice inside him said,
just give him what he wants, one more time, and it’ll be over
.  Always the voice in the back of his head, always the shadow standing behind him, unseen, whispering.  In his mind, Peter turned around and punched it in the face.

“No.”

“What?!”

“You heard me.  No.  I’m not bailing you out.”

“We’re gonna die, man!  They’re gonna come and fucking shoot us!”

“No.  They’re going to shoot
you.
”

“You don’t care if I live or die!”  Cody was across the floor in a moment, one hand on the gun, another seizing Peter by the neck.

Cody put the barrel up against Peter’s temple.  “I’ll fucking kill you first.”

It was almost as if Peter could see them.  The pack of cards that Matt had talked about in “Alice in Wonderland,” coming to behead him at the Red Queen’s command.  But like Alice, he sent his hand flying, scattering them.  They were nothing but a pack of cards! 

It was over.  Even if he died right now, he’d finally done it, destroyed that part of himself that Cody had needed to be in there, needed to control Peter. 

All his life he’d never seen it.  How strong he’d been, through his mother’s illness, the sacrifices he’d made to bring in more money, the way he’d thrown Cody out before, the way he stood up to his boss, the decision he’d made to take the burden of the money, and to give it away, properly.  

He’d thought Matt a fool, in love with a weakling.  But he wasn’t weak.  He’d never been weak.  Just very, very tired.  But now the energy flowed through him, the exhilarating sense of freedom, of knowing nobody would do this to him ever again.

Matt.  I’ll miss you so much.  But at least I had you for a minute.  At least once in my life I was loved by a man who just wanted…me.
  Peter finally felt sad, but not for himself, only for Matt, knowing how he’d take this.

“Okay.  Go ahead and shoot. I’m free of you, Cody.”

Cody laughed disbelievingly.  “No you’re not, I’ve got a fucking
gun to your head.”

But Peter could see it, the hint of doubt, of fear in Cody’s eyes, that canny animal deep inside him knowing when the prey had escaped. 

“Yes, you do,” Pete replied.  “So go ahead.  Shoot me.  Then what, Cody?  The criminals come and they kill you.  Or the cops come and arrest you.  We’re in Pennsylvania.  It’s still a death penalty state.”

Cody blinked.

“Or,” Peter went on.  “We can start moving fast now, back down towards the road, and you can go to jail.  You know you’ll be fine in jail, Cody.  You’ll fit yourself into the system and you’ll run your scams and play your games and you’ll…you’ll thrive.”