Cherry Two

Part 40

Chapter 38

Despite the gloom, Robert could sense there were two intruders inside the darkened suite. The drapes remained closed and very little daylight filtered through. His arms were jerked up behind his back, then he felt handcuffs being snapped closed over his wrists. A sharp pain shot into both shoulders that rivaled the throbbing pain in his forehead. He groaned. Confusion rained. If these are police, why take me down with such excessive force like a dangerous criminal? Are they complete morons in this hick town?

A hand grabbed his belt and the neck of his shirt from behind. He was hauled up bodily and propelled through the open double doors and flung face down onto the first unmade bed—the one Alain and Calley had used. He could smell her traces on the pillow. A knee pressed hard into his spine.

So far not one word had been uttered. The pressure lifted. Robert tried to speak between gasps of breath. "Are you madmen? Get off me! Don't you know who I am?"

The smaller, less violent intruder, seemed to busy himself at the dresser in front of the mirror. Robert could detect some sort of preparation getting underway as containers snapped open and closed. All he could see were moving shadows.

The brutal one had moved lower beside him and seemed to be kneeling, bringing his mouth level with Robert's ear. When he spoke in a whisper, the gentle breath from his mouth caressed the side of Robert's face.

"A long time ago I was paid to do two things, but only did one."

Robert started to tremble. The voice had a Hispanic trace buried deep in the vowels.

"I took their money and I enjoy it, but always had some regret. You see I am professional. I pledged one day I would make good the contract, even though the ones that paid me are long ago dead. This is the way I am."

"Who are you?" Robert's eyes bulged in terror.

A hand towel from the bathroom was passed to brutal. He stuffed it deep into the old man's quivering mouth. "I talk now. You always talk too much."

The smaller silhouette then handed brutal another object as brutal continued to whisper. "I kept this needle in a special place. It is the same one I use on your whore slut daughter. I give you same cocktail that she like so very much." Brutal began to push up Robert's sweatshirt sleeve. "When you fuck with my people—send them to prison, even though they supply that junky bitch with the things she wanted so bad—then a special price must be paid. That day she died you are lucky and live a long life without paying this price. Your free time has now ended."

Robert watched, mesmerized, as brutal attached a hypodermic needle to a syringe and started to fill it by sucking clear liquid from a plastic container the size of a prescription bottle.

***

Calley and Alain were running as if in panic with Alain slightly ahead clasping her hand. He wasn't quite sure why he ran with such urgency, except he knew enough to take her strange episodes at face value and react. Almost unnoticed, the thudding sound had returned overhead as a police helicopter traversed the sky in another sweeping arc.

They hadn't dashed halfway to the hotel when a patrol car slid up beside the curb and gave the running pair a short toot from the siren. A pointing hand indicated they should stop right there.

At curbside Alain drew Calley to him as both gulped in lungfulls of air. Two husky cops emerged from the patrol car, each with one hand poised near their gun holster. "What's the panic, folks? Want to give me some identification?" one challenged.