In Another Life V

Chapter 9

"Buzz? Chuckie? You guys seen Sal this morning?" asked Jack, entering the common room, puzzled. "I was gonna report to him on Dent."

"He left about an hour ago with the shrink," replied Chuckie, not looking up from the TV and munching on a bag of potato chips.

Jack stared at him. "With the shrink?" he repeated.

"Yeah," agreed Buzz. "Looked like you roughed her up pretty good, Jack. Her face was all bloody."

Jack felt panic seize at his heart, but tried to remain outwardly calm. "Did he say where they were going?" he asked.

"Uh...not sure," said Chuckie, furrowing his brow. "You remember, Buzz?"

"Yeah...gimme a minute," said Buzz. "One of his dumping grounds – I guess the shrink told him all he needed to know about Dent."

This did nothing to ease Jack's mind. After Sal found that his prisoners or hostages had outlived their usefulness, he would take them to one of his dumping grounds to dispose of them, usually a chemical factory of some kind, where the acid would dissolve the bodies without a trace.

"Which one?" he asked, trying to remain calm.

"Why are you so interested?" asked Buzz.

"I'm...uh...supposed to meet him there," invented Jack. "And he'll be mad as hell if I don't."

"Oh God, it's something with a playing card name," said Buzz, rubbing his temples. "Joker...no...Ace! That's it! Ace Chemicals!"

"Gee, with a memory like that, Buzz, you could go on a gameshow," said Chuckie, turning back to the TV. "Ain't that right, Jack?"

But Jack had already disappeared out the door, leaping into his car and praying he wasn't too late.

...

Harley had fainted from the pain, but her eyes opened slowly at last to see a beautiful woman, glamorously dressed in furs, studying her with a look of disgust. "She's not much to look at, is she?" asked the woman, straightening up. "What do you think Jack sees in the little bitch?"

"She's nothing compared to you, Jeannie, that's for sure," said Sal Valestra. Harley tried move, but found that her arms and legs were tied. She was kneeling on what appeared to be a metal platform, and her eyes widened as she looked down at a vat of churning, green chemicals below her.

"That's right, sweetheart – it's a long way down!" chuckled Sal. "Nasty drop. And just see what that stuff down there does to metal," he said, picking up a loose screw and tossing it down into the vat. The chemicals hissed around the metal object and then dissolved it, like acid.

"It's even more effective on human flesh," murmured Sal, lighting Jeannie's cigarette and then his own.

Harley's stomach plummeted in fear. "N...no, please," she whispered. "You...don't have to do this."

Sal chuckled. "It ain't a matter of wanting, sweetheart – it's a matter of honor!" He nodded at Jeannie. "This here is Jeannie Napier, Jack's wife. You've really dishonored her, sleeping with her husband and all. And I'm the kinda guy who likes to avenge a lady's honor."

"I haven't...we haven't..." stammered Harley. "We haven't done anything wrong...I haven't slept with him, I swear! Now please let me go!"

"Ugh, she's so pathetic, Sal!" sighed Jeannie, exhaling a cloud of smoke irritably. "Lying and begging you for mercy! Maybe that's why Jack likes her – she's just as pathetic as he is."

"I'm not lying..." began Harley.

"Oh, I believe you'll tell me the truth soon enough, sweetheart," chuckled Sal, lifting her up by her bound arms and pulling them over a hook. He pressed a button and the hook swung out over the vat, so that Harley was suspended just above the churning, green acid.