Nine Pound Ten: A David Blaine Story

by Atonia

Part 1

This was truly the edge of the world. A wild place that at once excited him and filled him with fear. He opened the glass door and walked out onto the balcony. He could look straight down into the swirling frothy waters of the Pacific Ocean. It made him dizzy if he looked for too long. It made him want to hurl himself over the railing and into oblivion.

The wind blew his hair around and chilled his nostrils. He gripped the iron railing and felt something warm come around his shoulders.

“I didn’t hear you.” He said turning.

“I don’t expect you did.” Billy adjusted the sweater, “Put your arms in the sleeves it’s likely to blow away.”

David Blaine did as he was told.

“Mandi called…”

“Is she?”

“She’s fine, couldn’t sleep and aware of the time difference. Lyssa’s cold is better and she’ll be back in school tomorrow.”

Blaine nodded. A world away lay his life, that safe vanilla sugar scented life that kept his feet on the ground. He grasped Billy’s hand and held it. “Do you want to go home?”

“You are my home, Blaine. I miss her and Lyssa. I’m sure you do too.”

“Yes.”

“I understand why we’re here.”

“Do you? I’m not sure I do. This is above and beyond me, Billy. I…I just want to go somewhere and wallow in grief. I want to be left alone.”

Billy thought he had wallowed a bit in grief. But then he wasn’t sure how he would react if something happened to Blaine or to Mandi, who carried his child.

“When do you reckon he bought this house and why?”

“I have no idea, I didn’t know he had it. He never told me. I think maybe there are many things he never told me. I can’t make out the letter.”

“It’s a puzzle.”

“Ali was a master of games. Somewhere is the clue and I know he would have me find it. I’m not as clever as he was. “

“Why didn’t he just tell you straight off what he was about?”

“Perhaps he couldn’t. He was very afraid of something.”

“Let’s go in, you’ve been out here long enough for your nose to turn red. Come, love, back in by the fire.”

Billy worried over Blaine’s health. After he received the news about Ali’s death he’d become ill. It began as a cold but had spread to his chest. He’d lain in bed and Billy knew he didn’t feel good, but it was though he’d given up. He ceased to exercise and asked for his wheel chair to be brought down from the attics. That request Billy had ignored. Between he and Mandi they got him back on his feet and then the letter came from the London solicitors.

Ali had left Blaine a fortune. It was the first real glimpse Billy had into the wealth that had been Prince Ali’s. Blaine now had his own private plane and it had come in handy following the cryptic letter.

One pound two; two pound three; three pound four; four pound five; five pound six; six pound seven; seven pound eight; eight pound nine and nine pound ten.

One Pound Two. They’d worked it out at the house in England. Repeating it until it clicked with Blaine. Juan Pontu. He’d been a recruiter for civil service jobs in London. He and Ali both knew him in school. Blaine had no idea what ever happened to him. He wasn’t someone he particularly liked. At Mandi’s suggestion he’d contacted Cramer. Juan Pontu was deceased and Blaine asked him to find out why, how and where.

He’d been the victim of a hit and run driver as he pedalled his bike along the lane in Stow on the Wold. Driver never found. He died eight years ago.

It wasn’t remarkable at all. Until the notation that at his funeral one person spoke of him; Stu Roundtree, another from his school days. It was too close to 2 pound 3 not to follow it up.

They tracked him to the Isle of Crete.

“Juan Pontu. Do you remember him, Blaine?” Stu poured out a resinous liquid into small glasses.

“Vaguely, I remember I didn’t care for him.”

“He wasn’t a likeable person, really. I often wondered why he was chosen for that particular job.”

“Did he recruit you?”

“I’m sure he did,” Stu smiled and fingered his beard.

“How did you end up here?” Blaine asked him and looked out of the door down to the azure sea below.

“Ah, it’s been a long and winding road. One does migrate you know. I wonder how you found me.”

“You did not want to be found?”

“I suppose I should have left forwarding addresses. Why are you here, Blaine? You and I were never close. I can’t think we have anything to discuss and you’ve come such a long way.”

“I’m trying to solve a riddle. You may or may not be a part of it.”

“A riddle, oh what fun. Who gave it to you?”

“A dear friend,” Blaine looked down at the murky liquid in the bottom of his glass.

“And I’m mentioned?”

“Not really, not by name.”

“That’s a relief…not to be mentioned in a riddle.”

“Why?”

“One wouldn’t want to be part of a riddle. Who was your friend?”

Blaine gave him a steady look but didn’t answer.

“I’ll bet I can guess. You had a taste for the Prince if I recall. Too bad about him. I suppose I should say I’m sorry for your loss.”

“How did you know it was my loss, why do you say that?”

“Oh, it was just a figure of speech. Don’t attach any deeper meaning to it.”

“When did you last see Ali?”

He screwed up his lips, “Oh years. It’s been years since I’ve seen him. We didn’t exactly move in the same circles. He was a beautiful man, Blaine.”

“What circles do you move in, Stu?”

“You see it here,” he spread his hands, “This is my circle now and I quite enjoy it. How did you find me?”

“I also have circles.”

Stu narrowed his eyes studying Blaine for a minute. “Who are you working for?”

“I work for no one. I am on my own.”

“With your bodyguard outside of the door?” Stu smirked.

Blaine said nothing to dispel the idea that Billy was a bodyguard. “Does this mean anything to you?” He’d printed out the first two lines of the riddle.

He laughed and tossed it into the fire. “I have something for you.” He went over to a decoratively painted metal box and opened it. After moving the contents around he handed Blaine a key.

“What?” Blaine looked up at him.

“Two pound three…a key…no?”

“I…I don’t know. What does it open?”

“You’re a clever little bitch, figure it out.” He moved abruptly to the next room and came out again with his jacket on. “I must go. I’m sorry but I shall be late for an appointment.”

Blaine frowned a little and got to his feet holding his canes tightly in his hands. One quick move and he could have the sword cane at the ready but he didn’t. Roundtree was especially in a hurry to leave. He paused at the door that was being held open for him and looked Roundtree in the eyes.

Roundtree licked his lips, “Go.” He said and blinked turning away.

Billy turned the car around on the narrow road and started back down the hill. They hadn’t got far when Roundtree passed them.

“What d’ye reckon, Blaine?”

“He is in a burning hurry to get somewhere. He gave me a key but not the information as to what it might open.” He held it up and looked at it. “A door perhaps?”

They sat across the table in the hotel room in Athens looking at the key. Billy picked it up. I think it’s American.”

“Why?” Blaine.

“It’s a Baldwin key. Baldwin is an American company.”

“Let us look it up.”

He opened his lap top and they read all they could about Baldwin. “Doesn’t help much,” Blaine sat back holding the key. They’re located in Pennsylvania but their locks are sold everywhere even in England.”

“But in England they are more expensive, probably not going to be used a lot.”

“Oh, Billy,” Blaine ran a hand through his hair, “America is a very large place, imagine how many doors we will have to try.” He grinned.

Part 2

Reading, PA.

They sat across the desk from Mr. Freydar as he examined the key. “You have no idea, eh??”

“No, sir.” Blaine shook his head.

The man adjusted his eyepiece. And turned the key over several times. He dropped his eye piece, “Let me take this back to the lab a minute.”

Blaine looked over at Billy and winked. Billy shook head slightly and looked around the lock encrusted room. “A needle in a haystack.” He said quietly.

Mr. Freydar returned shortly, “There was a trace of metal here like something had been hitting it or rubbing on it. It’s nickel, we sell a nickel plated lock set with a covered key hole.” He moved over to a wall and motioned for them to have a look.

“You see here what must be done to open the lock. See how the little spindle hits on the key. That’s what’s happened here.”

Blaine examined it carefully, “Why would you want to cover a key hole?”

“It’s a decorative thing. Nice looking lockset. We don’t make it anymore.”

“Oh, when did you stop?”

“2005. Not that much call for them, mostly commercial and they’ve gone more to the keyless entry sets now.”

“You said mostly commercial, do you think this might be for a commercial building?” Blaine asked.

“No I think this was to a residence. There is a slight difference in weight.”

“I don’t suppose there’s a way to tell is there, where the lock is that this key fits. It was found with his inheritance with no explanation.” Billy said.

“Oh you want to know what it fits, let me have it again.” He disappeared into the back again. He returned with this information, “Builder out of Eureka, California. Name of Jamison Smythe. He ordered twelve of them in 2003. Can’t say what went where.”

Eureka, California

Billy parked in front of the builder’s remarkable abode. It was a fanciful house looking building trying to showcase his abilities…no doubt. Blaine had his door open and Billy went around handing him his canes as he moved from the seat.

“Fancy him building you a house?” Billy asked.

Blaine smiled, “Doll house for Lyssa, perhaps.”

“I’ve still got six of them left. I just  thought they were different you know. Turns out folks don’t want different,” the toothy fellow behind the desk offered.

“I am trying to find the house that this key fits. It was left to me with no explanation.”

“Well, let’s see what we know, Laura?” he called in his secretary. After they went through several of the files she knew used that lockset in 2003-2004 she thought she’d found it.

“It’s right on the cliff’s edge up near Crescent City and it sat empty for what was it, Jamie, about a year?”

“Oh yeah, I know where that’s at.” Jamie moved to a wall map where pins and red marks had been made, some were faded now. He showed them exactly where the house was.

“Who bought it?” Blaine asked quickly.

“ Ali Hassan.” Laura supplied.

To hear his name spoken here…Blaine had to get out of the office. Billy thanked them and went outside where Blaine leaned against the vehicle.

“What happened to you in there?”

“Ali,” he swallowed and lifted his pain filled eyes.

“In the car, Blaine.” Billy opened the door and helped him inside. “We’re going there now,” he started the motor and patted Blaine’s knee.

“No wonder it sat empty. Looks like three boot boxes askew.” Billy parked in the drive.

“Tis odd.” Blaine got out of the vehicle on his own pulling his canes from behind the seat.

The first level opened by the key housed the garages, utility rooms and storage rooms. However the nice entry didn’t show any of that. It was tiled and held curving steps up to the second boot box.

Blaine looked at the steps for a moment, there was a time not so long ago he could not have walked up them. He took it slow holding on to the hand rail and Billy was on his other side.

The second level was the main living area. One whole wall was of glass overlooking the ocean. A kitchen at one end, dining area and a living room boasting a rock fireplace at the other end.

It was cool and Billy went about turning on the gas logs and looking for a thermostat for the heat. Blaine walked out on the balcony. Their luggage was still in the vehicle and Billy thought he’d bring it up but first he had a look in the kitchen. Tea bags still in their original wrapper. Good. He put the kettle on and went down for their bags.

“Let’s get you sat down here by the fire. You don’t want to get chilled, Blaine.”

“You treat me like a child,” he pulled the sweater across his chest and thought the heat from the fireplace felt good.

“Only when you act like one.” Billy set a cup of tea by him on the table. “There are a few things in the cupboard. We can do coffee and tea and tomato soup.”

Blaine looked over at him, “How long do you think we are going to be here?”

“Longer than tomato soup.” Billy answered. “We should have eaten in Eureka.”

“I was not thinking about food.”

“I’ll bet you are now. We’re close to Crescent City, I’ll ride out and pick up something. Will you be okay?”

“I can’t do the stairs again. If I get up another level…”

“There’s a nice big bath, I’ll put you in it before I go.”

“A warm bath does sound good.”

It wasn’t something Billy would normally do, leave Blaine in a bath but Blaine was tired of being fussed over. Crescent City was only a few miles away and he would hurry.

The bath was a good idea. He lay back resting his head on a folded towel it was a whirlpool but he’d asked Billy not to turn it on, he wanted silence. He drifted off for a little while but he came to with a start.

“Who are you?” she asked not the least embarrassed at his nakedness in the water, she’d had a good look at him.

He went under and came up reaching for the towel. “How did you get in here?” he asked.

“I have a key and it seems you do to?

“Who are you?” he asked aware he could not get out of the bath by himself.

“Ah, hah, I asked you first.” Honey colored hair fell over her shoulders and long bangs nearly covered her dark eyes.

“David Blaine.”

“Barbara Moore. That wasn’t so hard was it? Do you want a towel?”

“No…I…I can’t get out by myself.” He hated to speak of his limitations.

“I could help you…or not. Where is Ali?”

“Ali,” he closed his eyes for a moment, “Ali is…gone.”

“Gone…gone?”

‘Yes. It may have been an assassination or an accident. It has been reported as both. We do not know. How do you know him?”

“Oh,” she put her bag down and her raincoat came off across a bench. She sat on the bench and held her head a moment and wiped her eyes. “I knew him.” She said and looked up at him with some feeling.

“So did I,” he said.

“I can’t believe…I saw the lights and thought…”

“But it was not and will never be again. You said you would help me, the water is getting cold.”

“What happened to you?”

“I was…in an accident and broke my back.” She put her arms underneath his shoulders and pulled him up on the side of the bath. She saw the scars on his back.

“Do you walk?”

“Yes after a fashion.”

“How did you get in the bath?”

“Billy…oh he went out for food.” He accepted the towel and wrapped it around him. He was unconcerned with covering himself.

“David Blaine…when did Ali die?”

“Four months ago. He was in UAE.”

“I loved him a little I think,” she bit her lip.

“I loved him a lot. More than…anyone.” He dried himself off.

“Were you his lover?”

“Yes.”

She smiled a little and brushed her hair back over a shoulder, “I knew he was like that. It didn’t matter…I can’t…oh I can’t get my mind around his being gone.”

David looked down at his hands on his thighs, “Neither can I.”

Part 3

Billy pulled up to the garage door and got out of his vehicle and walked around the strange car in the drive. It was locked. He went back to his and retrieved the two bags of food and the gun from the glove compartment.

The food he left at the foot of the stairs and went up quietly with the gun braced in his hand. Voices came from up the stairs and he went up silently on the carpeted steps to the bathroom.

“Stop.” He said gun pointed at the woman.

“Oh,” hand to chest she stepped back from Blaine. She’d been handing him another towel.

“It’s all right, Billy.” Blaine said.

“Is it? Who is she?”

“I am not sure, she has not told me. She knew Ali.”

Billy’s eyes flicked over Blaine, “You’re all right then?”

“Yes,” he was a little proud of Billy and his gun.

Billy lowered it and then stuck it in his belt. “How did you get in, I locked up?”

“I have a key. Ali gave it to me. I saw the lights and thought he had come.”

“She is Barbara Moore, this is Billy.” Blaine made the introductions.

Billy moved over to Blaine and handed him the robe he found on the back of the bathroom door. “Let’s get you out of there.” He lifted him up and handed him his canes. “How’s the back?”

“Better,” Blaine walked out of the bath into the bedroom. A king sized bed dominated the room. He sat on the side of it.

“I’ve brought dinner such as it is. You’ll be all right if I go and warm it up?”

Blaine caught his hand, “I’m all right stop worrying over me.”

Barbara gathered up her coat and her bag and left the bathroom. She hesitated inside the bedroom. “I’m very sorry about Ali.”

Blaine looked over at her, “Don’t go.” He pushed himself up on the bed with pillows behind him, “Come and sit and talk to me.”

“I don’t know what we can talk about.” She did sit leaving her coat and bag on a chair.

“Three pound four?”

“You’ve lost me?” she looked at him strangely.

“Hmm, how did you meet him?”

“I met him in Vancouver. He was there on business and so was I?”

“What kind of business were you on?”

“Communication equipment, mobile phones.”

“You sell them?”

“In a way. We were at the same hotel, I was part of a conference and he was in the breakfast room one morning. We met and…he took me to dinner.” She looked down at her knee high brown suede boots.

“When was this?”

“Maybe three years ago.” She looked over at him in Ali’s robe and a tear formed in her eye and fell.

“He never told me about you. I never knew he was in Vancouver. I think we told each other everything and we did not. He left me a letter…well it is a riddle I think. Billy and I have been following where it took us and it brought us here today. I thought maybe you were part of it. He left me a key and we found what it opened. Three pound four, opened a door and now Barbara Moore.” He looked at her wondering what Ali was doing in Canada.

He shrugged, “I never knew he went to Canada”

“He said he was tired and ready to go home but there was much turmoil in his country.”

“There is always turmoil there.” He looked up as Billy came in with a tray.

“I should go and leave you to your meal.”

“You should not go, have you eaten?”

“I have, yes. I don’t’ want to intrude.”

“You have intruded into my bath. Now you are on my bed…you can’t go.” He said simply and gave her a melting look.

Her eyes went wide, she thought he was…gay.

“There is a reason I am here and a reason you are here. We will find out what he intended. I think you intended to stay the night and so you will sleep with me.”

“I will not.” She said and stood up.

He smiled and took a drink of the coffee Billy brought him, “ Soon you will change your mind.”

“I don’t know you at all, I’m not going to just…”

“You knew Ali. Ali loved me from the time I was fifteen. If it were not for his father I think we would have been together as a couple. But life had different paths for us to walk. He was always there for me. Even when it was dangerous for him, when my wife was killed, he came to her funeral.”

“You were married?”

“I am married. I have a five year old daughter from my first marriage. Her mother was shot and killed in front of us. I have recently married again, six months ago. She is pregnant now with a son.”

“And you want me to sleep with you?”

“Um hm,” he nodded, “it’s either you or Billy. I haven’t had you but Ali did.”

“You…you are the most outrageous man I have ever.”

“Yes, I am,” he smiled broadly.

“You with a pregnant wife at home.”

“It’s Billy’s child…we share,” he tilted his head.

“I,” she chuckled, “you really are.”

Billy came back up to see if he wanted a massage.

“Yes I do, you know I do.” He smiled and wiggled out of the robe.

“This bed is too big.” Billy said and went to get the oils from his bag.

“I’ll go.”

“No you won’t.” Blaine turned his head toward her and lay down on his stomach beside of her.

“But if he’s going to, well.”

“Watch, he knows what he’s doing.”

She pulled off her boots and moved to the other side of the bed. This was all new ground for her. Billy came back with the oils that he warmed in his hands before applying them to Blaine’s back. He started with his neck and worked his way down. She watched him and found her own hands moving in her lap wanting to touch Blaine’s skin. Billy was only giving him a good massage but somehow it was sexual. She felt it was. She knew it was when Billy asked her to remove her tights and her blouse and skirt.

She was under a spell of some sort and she complied with his wishes. Warm oil over her back and her hips just as he’d done for Blaine but he rolled her over as Blaine watched and massaged her breasts and her belly. Blaine took over then and kissed her and fondled her and pulled her on top of him.

She woke in a hazy warm fug and against Blaine’s back with her arm around his waist. The night came rolling back. Was that her did she actually…oh? She eased her arm from him and moved out of the bed. Quietly she went around to the other side and looked at him in sleep he was so innocent looking, so gorgeous with his curls over his face. No wonder Ali loved him.

She quickly dressed and pulled her bag from the floor. Something was missing. She grabbed her coat and went downstairs.

Billy was at the table with his coffee and toast, the TV was on but he caught sight of her. He had the two guns lying in front of his plate and the laptop to the side.

“You aren’t leaving us are you?”

“I really need to go, I have to go to work. You have my gun.”

“I do. I might give it back if you tell me why you have it in the first place.”

She took a breath and approached the table. “I would if I could, Billy.”

“Did you come here to kill Ali last night?”

“No…no, Billy, I loved Ali. I always carry.”

“Who do you work for?”

“Alan Communications.”

“Really. You carry two phones. I’ve downloaded the numbers.” He pushed her phones across the table.

She sat down. “You would do well to stop this quest. It’s not going to lead you to a pot of gold. Nothing good is at the end of it. Nothing good.”

“Did you really not know about Ali?”

“I really didn’t. It was quite a shock. I expected to see him last night.”

“Too bad it was Blaine.”

“I wouldn’t say that. No I wouldn’t say that at all. He’s wonderful.”

“You said you saw the lights, from where?”

“I was…there’s a house down there, it’s not really visible from here but from there the lights shine off the balcony. Ali used to turn on the balcony lights and I’d know he was here.”

“But it wasn’t him.” Billy said quietly watching her face.

“No, no it wasn’t.”

“He is an innocent. All he knows is that he loved Ali, loved him for a long time. I don’t know why Ali has pulled him into this scavenger hunt. You say there is nothing good at the end. Do you know what the end is?”

“Not really. I don’t know what Ali’s end looked like.”

“It looked like an explosion. A couple of years ago the same trick but he survived that one.”

“No I meant…I need to go before he wakes up.”

“It’s early, where do you go from here?”

“Um Oregon, I’ve got an appointment in Oregon.”

Billy stood up and unloaded her gun and then handed it to her. “You’d better be on your way then.”

“Thanks. About last night,”

“It was all fun,” he smiled and walked with her to the door. Once he saw her car disappear down the road he ran up the stairs and woke Blaine.

“Come on love get a move going. We need to get out of here and fast.”

“What?” Blaine sat up fuzzy headed.

Billy brought his clothes and began dressing him, got him to the bathroom and down the stairs. He loaded the car and came back for him. Blaine didn’t question as he sat in the passenger seat with a cup of coffee. He glanced back at the house and through the window snapped a picture with his phone as Billy turned around and sped down the drive.

“Billy?” Blaine looked at him for an explanation.

Part 4

San Francisco, CA

Blaine lay the newspaper down. “How do you think they did it?”

“Explosives planted beneath the boulders on the cliff. California is constantly falling into the sea. What’s another cliff? The house was pretty isolated, nobody around to hear anything. She warned us.”

“The house down the cliff that we couldn’t see.”

“Yeah, there were no houses, you know that you looked straight down.”

“Who were they trying to kill? Us or Ali? She didn’t know he was dead.”

“So she said, Blaine. I know how you broke down she barely shed a tear.”

“People are different. It was on the news all over the world. She had to have known. I don’t like this, Billy.”

“Maybe we should go home.”

“Four pound five.” Blaine raised a brow.

“Stay alive?” Billy gave him a look.

“You know, she was lying and I do not understand why she told me such a story. Ali was never in Vancouver. The time period she was talking about I know where he was. That was when I was in hospital. He was with me and Mandi.” Blaine frowned.

“She told me we should stop the quest because whatever is at the end isn’t pretty.”

“All the more reason to find it and expose it. Already it is not pretty. We discovered the house and Barbara Moore. Now what is next? Four pound five.”

They puzzled over four pound five for awhile. Billy kept thinking of the quest as a puzzle to be solved. But with only three pieces to go on nothing was taking shape except danger. “Blaine, what was Ali involved in?”

“Ali, oh, Billy I could not tell you. So many things went on in his life he spoke to me of intrigue even with his family they were all jockeying for position.”

“I find it odd that he would put you in danger after his death. That he would leave this puzzle for you to solve knowing how dangerous it was.”

Blaine frowned it was not like him to listen to criticism of Ali, “You and I are alive and what danger are we in, eh?” He rose from the table and walked to the windows of the hotel suite. “It looks like London…fog.”

“You know what keeps running though my mind? An old nursery rhyme: One two – buckle my shoe, three four-shut the door, remember that?”

“I do not but my nursery days were not…wait; yes I do remember. Five six- pickup sticks, seven eight- lay them straight, nine ten- big fat hen. We did the buckle shoe when we began to travel…”

“So did Stu Roundtree, he was hiding out on Crete. I wonder if he still is.”

“Three four we shut the door on the house…and Barbara Moore. Do you not think that when it is discovered that we did not go down into the sea with the house she will be in some danger?”

“Maybe, maybe not. I have her phone contacts. She carried two phones.” Billy went to the laptop.

Blaine continued to stare out at the foggy city. “Five-alive. I think it is a turning point. We either stop while we are alive or we become aware…which we already have, that things could get tricky. We must become very aware of our surroundings, of who we speak with.” He turned and looked at Billy who was going through phone contacts. “It’s the half way point. Are you in this, Billy, will you see it to the end or do you want to go home?”

“I’m with you, Blaine.”

“No, no you make a decision for you.”

Billy sat back in the chair, “Do you think I would let you go alone I know you would? When I say I’m with you I mean it. I’m intrigued too but if you want to go home there is no shame in that. There’s only us to know. No saving face.”

Blaine walked over to him and kissed him. “I love you, Billy.”

“Then we’re on.” He placed a hand over Blaine’s. Blaine nodded slightly and pulled up another chair so they could go through the numbers and names together.

Blaine had him put an asterisk next to familiar names.

“How is that possible?” Billy looked at Blaine. “That you have mutual friends.”

Blaine shifted in his chair. “I would not call them friends. I know them from school. And this has just occurred to me. There was a law that if you were homosexual you could not serve your country. Even Pontu and Roundtree were. We all knew each other. Knowing who someone is does not make them a friend.”

“What did you all do, clump together?”

“Oh no, it was nothing like that. You just know, you come to the same places, the same pubs. They all become friends of friends. Ali was older, he knew a lot of people.”

“This Pontu, what was he recruiting?”

“Civil servants. I wasn’t interested and to tell you the truth Pontu couldn’t have interested me in chocolate cake. He must have interested some though…and Ali.”

“Would be government employees, cast out because of their sexual preferences; might they be angry?”

“Ali wasn’t an Englishman. That is his number, his private number.”

“Oh yes. They are not all English.”

“Not.”

“Who we need here is Mandi. I’ll bet she could have this sussed out in a second.” Billy leaned back in his chair feeling Blaine’s arm across the back of it. “Sorry she’s pregnant.”

Blaine squeezed his shoulders, “You are not sorry and neither am I, but I think you are right she would she’s much better at this.”

“Okay if I send it to her?”

“Yes,” Blaine looked at his watch. “She should be in bed by now…wish we were with her.”

“Um. So how does Barbara Moore have these numbers?”

“All in the same phone...They were once a close knit little group.”

“The other one looks to be personal.”

Blaine pushed his chair back, “Let’s go out, find some dinner.”

“Just a tic,” Billy sent the message off to Mandi.

“Pickup sticks…5-6 pick- up sticks. Five pound six.” Blaine walked back to the window. “Call a cab, no need to drive in this soup.” He tried to distract himself but his mind kept going back to the riddle. “I am not so clever, Ali” he said to himself.

Billy grabbed their jackets and held Blaine’s while he put his arms in the sleeves.

They made it to the elevator when Blaine stopped, “51006”

“Means?” Billy asked reaching for the button.

“One of the phone numbers…Billy, it ended with 51006.”

“We’re hungry. When we get back we will pursue it. I promise,” he grinned and placed a hand in the middle of Blaine’s back as the doors opened.

Mandi was not asleep. The baby kept her awake at night running marathons and doing flips she decided he was going to be an athlete of some sort. Her days and nights were flipped and she slept when Lyssa was in school.

She’d pulled out the letter Ali left for Blaine and went over the email that contained the phone contacts.

She believed the riddle was some sort of code and as Billy had noted it more or less followed the nursery rhyme with added lines. She wondered at the use of ‘pound’ in every line. It almost resembled prices but they would have to be in pound sterling meaning English. Using rhymes and numbers the first two lines had played out well. Pontu and Roundtree were connected of that she was sure. Barbara Moore bothered her. She was an American and a woman who had known Ali. What was Ali doing in northern California? A good question. She sat back and sipped her tea. Ali never exactly told her anything about what he did or where. He was a member of a royal family but what he did was hazy. He had his fingers in lots of pies according to Blaine. He did travel a great deal, had his own private jet which now belonged to Blaine.

Barbara Moore…Billy indicated they were through with her. Mandi wanted to know who she was.

“Mandi?” Billy turned in his seat away from the clatter of the restaurant toward the fountain at his side. “Are you all right, love?”

“Yes, yes, Billy. I’m calling about Barbara Moore. We have to find out who she is and how she fits into this.”

“How do we go about that?”

“I’m not sure, you have two lists of numbers here and one you marked personal. Follow them up and find out all you can about her. Is David with you?”

“He’s gone into the men’s room we’ve just had dinner.”

“Where are you?”

“San Francisco. We drove down here yesterday. Mandi Blaine says one of the numbers ends in 51006 he thinks that might be five pound six.”

“Let me work on these numbers and find out who they belong to. Dish up Barbara Moore.”

“He’s just coming do you want to talk to him?”

“Yes, please, love you, Billy.”

“Love to you, Mandi, he’s here.” It’s Mandi.

David took the phone, “Mandi is everything all right?”

“Yes my love Lyssa and I and little Willy are doing fine. I was just talking to Billy about the Moore woman. Could you find out exactly who she is…possibly why she is?”

“Why she is. That is a very good thing to ponder. I wondered myself. She acted as though she didn’t know he had been killed. I found that hard to believe.”

Mandi sighed, “She lied and there has to be a reason for that.”

“Why are you awake?”

“Willy is a night owl, I love you, David, please be careful and don’t overdo. Come home soon.”

“No chance I will overdo anything. I want to come home, Mandi, but this thing must be solved. You understand that I hope you do.”

“I never thought it would take you away from me. Would you mind terribly if I had Cramer come over and help me with the numbers?”

Cramer had become almost a member of the family after the wedding. He visited frequently and talked with Mandi about some of the jobs they did. Lyssa called him Uncle Cramer.

“I don’t mind as long as he understands the secrecy of what we are doing.”

“You know he can keep a secret.”

“He can when he wants to. It’s damp and cold here in the courtyard. I think we will get a cab and go back to the hotel.”

“Have a good night, David, kisses to you.”

“Back to you, Mandi.” He smiled and handed Billy back his phone.

Part 5

Blaine and Billy spent two days going through the phone numbers Barbara Moore had listed in her personal phone. They found doctors, dentists, hairdressers, restaurants, three family members none of who would speak to them. All numbers were in Sacramento, California.

Moore was not her maiden name. It was Osborne. Her husband’s name was Clive Moore and he had been born in England. He was deceased and buried in Sacramento.

“You don’t remember a Clive Moore?”

“No, I never knew him.” Blaine answered. “I think we should go to Sacramento and see what we can find out about them as a couple. You can only do so much with a computer. We have addresses, favorite places to go.”

The first place they visited in Sacramento was the cemetery. Clive had been 38 when he died.

“Young, young to die. We have the date of his death, let us go find out how he died.” Blaine led the way out of the cemetery.

They stopped by a newspaper office and checked the obits. He died in an automobile accident. A link led them to a short article about the accident.

“He was survived by his wife Barbara Osborne Moore.” Blaine chewed the end of a pen. “We need to find out who Clive Moore really was.

“Back to the computer, Blaine.”

But first they drove around an found Barbara and Clive’s house. According to the information they’d gotten earlier, she still lived there. “Pull in the drive.” Blaine instructed.

“What are you up to?”

“I’m going to find out if she’s home or not and if anyone else is home. If not…I’m going to break in and have a look. Park the car on the street. If there is a silent alarm it will be quicker to getaway.”

An astonished Billy stopped him, “You will do no such thing. If there is a silent alarm you won’t be able to get down the steps and across the lawn before the police are here. I won’t allow it, Blaine.”

“You won’t allow? Just who do you think you are to tell me what to do?”

“The one that would have to call Mandi and tell her you’re in jail for breaking and entering.”

Blaine knew he couldn’t do it and it made him angry that he had such limitations. “Well you do it then and I’ll make the phone call.”

Billy moved the car and pulled out his phone.

“What are you doing who are you calling?”

“You.” Billy got out of the car and walked up to the door with his phone at his ear. He rang the bell and then knocked and noticed the door was damaged. He pushed it and it came open. “Someone else has been here, the door has been jimmied”

“Don’t go in.”

“Just a look ‘round. It’s a wreck, bloody hell.”

“Get out, Billy.” Blaine opened the car door and pulled his canes out from behind the seat. “Billy?”

Billy was running down the drive and jumped into the driver’s seat. Blaine whipped back into the car and closed the door. “What is it.” Billy was pale and obviously upset. “Billy?”

“You drive.” He got out and Blaine moved over and started the vehicle. “There’s a dead body in there. Female I think but it’s not Barbara.” He took a deep breath. “unnnh.” He began to retch and Blaine pulled over. He found a half bottle of water in the door pocket and handed to Billy.

They sat in silence for a moment and Blaine began to drive. After a while Billy began to notice, “Where are we going now?”

“Back to San Francisco. I don’t think we need to be around here. There is no way to know, of course, who killed the woman.”

“You’re thinking it could have been Barbara but why destroy her own house? I don’t think it was her, Blaine. There was an awful lot of…blood.”

“Someone should alert the authorities…I hope someone shows up there soon because neither of us need to be involved.”

After a while Blaine placed a hand on Billy’s, “I am sorry I asked you to go in.”

“It’s all right…I wasn’t expecting it.

“What is in Oregon? She was going to Oregon?”

“Ah, trees I think. I don’t know perhaps she was running away. Can’t say as I blame her.”

Blaine still was feeling badly for Billy and ordered dinner in for the night once they were back in San Francisco. Billy took a shower to wash off the remains of the house he’d entered. Blaine was reclining on the sofa with a sketch pad. He was quickly sketching the view he had of Billy standing in front of the mirror in the bath brushing his teeth, sans towel.

Finishing touches were applied when Billy came out and slipped on a pair of pajama pants.

“I can’t imagine what you found to sketch today.”

“Do you want to see?” Blaine scooted over and Billy came over to see.

“You’re a pervert.” He grinned and put his hand on Blaine’ head playing with his hair.

“Well,” he folded his pad, “so are you. We can be perverted together.” He slipped a hand behind Billy’s head and drew him in and kissed him.

“Are you over it now, Billy?”

“I guess so. I’ve never seen a dead body like that before. Only at funerals after they’ve been all done up for show.”

“I have.”

“Where did you see a body?”

“In an elevator and I’d killed him. I saw my Charlie dead at my feet with her head broken.”

“It’s not pretty, I couldn’t be a coroner.” Billy shifted next to Blaine.

“You have a sensitive nature.”

“I never thought so. By now I should be insensitive.”

“Are you?”

“No, no.”

“It is all right to say to me no, Blaine, we cannot do this.”

“Heh, I find that hard to do.”

“Saying no?”

“Yeah.”

“Why, are you afraid?”

“Not…afraid.”

“Then what?” Blaine had been speaking very softly holding Billy’s hand and arm in his.

“Disappointment. I wouldn’t want you to be disappointed in me.”

“I’ve never been.”

“I hope not. I’ve never …you see I’ve never loved anyone before you.”

Blaine’s eyes filled and he hugged Billy tightly.

It was unusual for Blaine to be up first. He saw the first hint that the fog might be visible in a little while. A lightening of the sky from the tall windows of their hotel. If not for the fog the bay would be visible. He wore the silk robe of Ali’s that he’d taken from the house near Crescent City. It still slightly bore his scent. Ali had been for his adult life,  his mother, his father, his lover. He’d depended on him even when he wasn’t around and it would be months sometimes years before they met but it was there, that solid support and unquestioned love.

He’d allowed Charlie in and then Mandi. He was asking himself why he hadn’t turned around and looked at Billy. Ali was gone, Charlie was gone and now it was Mandi and Billy who filled his life. He’d finally opened himself up for Billy, really seeing him as an equal and someone he loved. He turned and looked at him now in a tangle of sheets…Billy. Billy looked to him as he had once looked to Ali. Blaine thought he would be Billy’s Ali. Ali had taught him to love but Billy was already there.

As quietly as possible he picked up the hotel phone and ordered coffee and breakfast.

Billy was awake but he hadn’t moved. He was thinking about Blaine and how his declaration of love for him had changed something between them. Blaine had been almost tender with him. He opened his eyes to see Blaine sitting in the chair by the bed.

“How long have you been up?”

“Not long. I’ve ordered breakfast so you’d better get up and be presentable.” He half smiled. “I’ve also had a revelation about this riddle. All the time I’d been thinking about school and how this was tied to people there. I did know Moore, not in a friendly way but I knew who he was. I knew him in Hong Kong. He held some minor position with a company I did business with.

“I once encountered him in a men’s room of a hotel. There was some conference going on. I’d been invited to attend, found it boring and stopped on my way out. I was washing my hands and looked in the mirror. He was standing  maybe two feet behind me and our eyes met in the mirror. I finished drying my hands and left. He never spoke to me.”

“Was he trying to solicit you?”

“I’ve seen that look before, Billy.”

“The dirty bugger”

Blaine got to his feet. “So I’ve placed him. What he was doing here getting into an automobile accident…I do not know.”

“You won’t know if he was married or not when he was out there in China?”

“No…but I bet Cramer would. He knew everyone it was his job to know who the players were.”

“Don’t you think…it might be time for us to go home. If I’m going to sit and look out at fog, I’d rather have proper tea.”

Blaine sat back and smiled.

Breakfasted, showered and dressed Billy was restless and Blaine was sitting at the table out in the lounge area with his sketch book. Due to the time difference a call to Cramer had not been returned yet. Blaine said he was probably at work an unable to talk with them.

Finally Billy walked in and looked over Blaine’s shoulder. “I thought you might be perfecting my bum.”

“Your bum is quite perfect. No I’m trying to connect the dots. Pontu – dead. Pontu was recruiting young men all of a certain persuasion. Roundtree – hiding out and I hope he still is otherwise I shall bear the burden of his death. Moore – dead. I had some connection to him in Hong Kong. He was, I believe still in the, um, closet. His wife, Barbara must have had an affair with Ali or it could have been something else…still waiting on information on the phone numbers Mandi has. Somehow, Billy, I think she is tied up in this why else warn us about the house and then disappear?”

“She knew something and by the condition of her house it must be tangible. Somebody was looking for something there. She knows, Blaine.”

“Or it was a warning to her. Quite a warning I must say.”

“Mandi wanted us to ‘dish her up’ we haven’t done that only found her husband.”

“All right, let us find her. We’ve got her phone number. I suppose there is such a thing as a public phone box in San Francisco.”

“Blaine, if we call her from San Francisco we’d better be prepared to leave it.”

“Really, well we’d better pack and contact our pilot, perhaps he knows what’s in Oregon.”

“Just because she said she was going there doesn’t mean that’s where she went. She said she had appointments there…that don’t ring true to me. Why would she tell me where she was going?”

Part 6

“What time is it there?” Blaine asked Mandi.

“Just going 1:00 PM. I don’t sleep at night, love and Cramer came at 11:00. We wanted to wait until Lyssa was asleep. We’ve been going over the numbers and by the way this wasn’t her phone it belonged to her late husband, Clive.”

“He’s been dead for two years.”

“I know and the only thing we can figure is she was trying to find out who killed him.”

“He died in an automobile accident.”

“A suspicious accident. His brakes failed.”

“That doesn’t mean…how did you find this out there was nothing in the paper about it?”

“Cramer made a phone call or two.”

“I knew him, Mandi, in Hong Kong. I’m not sure we ever spoke but did travel in the same circles. My company and his did business. Look we’ve not located Barbara Moore. Sorry about that you gave us an assignment and we’ve failed. But we did visit her house and found a dead body.”

“Blaine, I think you’d better come home.” Cramer was on the phone.

“Why, this is getting interesting?”

“All the more reason for you to come home. From what we can determine this was some sort of secret organization. At one time they all were at school with you and Ali. Ali is dead, Blaine and so are four other members of this group.”

“Pontu, Ali, Moore and who else?”

“Roundtree was found at the bottom of a gully in Crete. His skull had been bashed in. Also a man by the name of Richard Mullinax. He was living in Dublin, died of a broken neck.”

“He was a poet…I used to listen to him down at our pub.” Blaine frowned. Five pound six – Mullinax. “He was beautiful with long red hair.” Blaine’s mid was turning too fast. “Five round Mullinax, five down Mullinax.”

“Ali never spoke to you about any of this, any of the people we’ve identified?”

“No, no.”

“Blaine I think your Ali was involved in something rather sinister. I’m not sure yet what the purpose of this group was or exactly how many people were involved. I want you to think and think hard about your time at school and Ali’s friends who were perhaps not yours.”

“I cannot believe that of him. He was always as open and honest with me as I was with him.”

Cramer cleared his throat, “You were in love with him, Blaine, perhaps that might have blinded you to other parts of his personality, things that you didn’t want to see and so you didn’t.”

Mandi took the phone back, “I’m having a hard time with this too, David. I’m hoping it doesn’t turn out to be true.”

“I…I don’t know what you are talking about. He’s dead and not here to defend himself. Be careful of what you say about him. You knew him, Mandi.”

“I know, and I loved him. Cramer wants you to think back when you went to his country, when he called you to come because his life was in danger. Think about the explosion that killed his driver and he disappeared only to show up later at your house. Think about what happened during that time.”

“Brownie told me he had been killed and made out like he’d had a hand in it.”

“That’s right, Blaine,” Cramer said, “and then the elevator happened. We think Brownie may have also been a part of this group. Someone is killing them off one by one. “

“This is all speculation, Cramer. You have not uncovered any evidence that any of this is true. You want to cast doubt on Ali, paint him as some sinister person and this is not so. I knew him. He would not have lowered himself to such..such…no.”

Billy had been sitting across from Blaine during this conversation and only hearing one side. Blaine was becoming visible upset blinking back tears. He reached over and took the phone from Blaine’s hand. Blaine let it go without comment. He got up and went to the bathroom.

“This is Billy might I have Mandi please?”

“Billy, oh Billy, I hate this I really do.”

“I’m not privy to it all, what’s the bottom line?”

“Come home, it’s too dangerous out there until we find out what’s really happening.”

“All right, I’ll get him home whether he wants to come or not.” Billy fumbled for the key to disconnect and mistakenly turned on the camera. He checked the photos remembering Blaine taking the picture of the house, he sent it to Mandi and then disconnected.

Blaine came out of the bathroom with a wet washcloth over his eyes. “You do not speak for me.” He nearly lost his balance and Billy jumped but didn’t go to him. He’d righted himself with one cane.

“No I speak for me. I’m going home. We’re running around here chasing wild geese in a dangerous place. We’re running blind because we don’t know what we’re up against. I’m not ready to be dead and neither are you.”

“We have not finished what we set out to do.”

“As I see it, we’ve finished with America. You found the house...still not sure what that meant except for Barbara. You found out about her husband. There are no more clues that we’ve found to keep you here. We’re up to six pound seven, right?”

“I do not know anymore.” David sat down on the bed and eased himself flat of his back. “I think Cramer wants to slander Ali for some reason.”

“He has no reason to do that, Blaine, unless he’s found something or knows something he hasn’t told you yet. I’d like to remind you what you told me once. Ali was a master at games.”

“Mind games.” Blaine wearily rubbed his eyes.

“Like the Golden Orb?”

“Yes, like the orb.” Blaine reached for Billy’s hand. “I am ready to go home.”

Blaine was strangely subdued for the next twenty four hours. He quietly made the arrangements for the plane. Billy packed and had them ready. They turned in the rental car at the airport and were driven to the private hanger where the plane had been waiting for them.

Billy hadn’t questioned him figuring Blaine had a lot to think about. He’d slept in the adjoining room of their suite without a problem. Blaine hadn’t asked him to but Billy wanted to give him some private space.

Blaine was going through a ladder of emotions. At first he was angry that anyone would accuse Ali of being less than he was. In his eyes Ali had been everything. Now he was half angry with himself because doubt once planted in his mind was beginning to grow. He was looking at things from a different perspective.

He thought about his trip to Ali’s house and the boy he’d bought and passed on to him. The boy who, out of jealousy, had tried to kill Charlie. Ali had called him because his life was in danger and it was he, not Ali, who had zeroed in on the boy as being the one most likely to try and assassinate him. Ali had bought the boy and dazzled him with favors, took his pleasure and then gave him away. He was nothing and Ali had said he was nothing. His life had no value.

The man who committed suicide in his place in Hong Kong was sent by Ali. His life had no value.

And yet Ali had loved life, he’d been full of it and filled Blaine with life and love. Now looking back from a distance at their shared school time Ali had loved and protected him and cared little for others feelings or conventions. He’d been in the center of Ali’s life and had not looked beyond at what lay around  him. There hadn’t been a need to. Ali was everything.

Had he been blind?

He felt the loss of Ali acutely. It was a sharp pain inside of him that sometimes took his breath. His beautiful Ali who’d defied custom, religion and his heritage to be with him. He cared nothing for any of it.

“Blaine, your seat belt, love.” Billy shook him gently. “England’s down there.”

He sat up and felt for his belt and snapped it together. His eyes had a dark haunted look about them.

“You’ll sleep in your own bed tonight.” Billy said and patted his hand.

Blaine didn’t respond.

“Do you want to take the train in or hire a car?”

The plane set down smoothly. Billy helped him down the steps and onto the tarmac. A car was waiting to take them into the terminal. They were through customs and Billy had their two bags and the laptop. Blaine had the small carry on over his shoulder.

“Take the train to Victoria, we’ll get a cab to the hotel from there.” Blaine finally spoke.

Billy didn’t question it although the car and driver were at their disposal. Billy called Mandi from the train. She would come and get them tomorrow afternoon after she picked up Lyssa from school.

“Guess we won’t be in our own beds tonight. Where do you want to stay tonight?”

“Does not matter.” Blaine answered.

“Are you all right, Blaine?”

“Yes,” he replied faintly.

A cab was waiting right as they walked from the station to the taxi stand. Billy gave the driver the name of a hotel and settled back in the seat.  He looked over at Blaine’s pale face, “Is your back bothering you?”

“Some.”

“You need a nice hot bath and a massage. Maybe a shot to calm things down. That was a long time for you to sit.”

“Yes, a long time.” He turned and looked at Billy for a moment and conscious of the driver looked ahead at his profile. He’d caught the accent earlier when their bags were stowed in the boot. He could have been Pakistani…maybe.

They were delivered to the front of the hotel pulling to the end of the passenger area. Blaine opened the door and got his feet on the ground, reached for his canes. Billy pulled out his wallet to pay.

“That will be 9 pound 10.” He hadn’t turned around.

Billy froze for a moment and then pushed Blaine out of the cab. He scrambled after him grabbing their hand luggage.

“He said 9 pound 10,” Blaine was trying to get back to the cab.

“No.” Billy held him firmly and the cab left with their luggage in the boot. He reached down on the ground for Blaine’s canes.

“Billy,” Blaine’s frustration was coming out now. “Why did you do that, I was meant to ride in that cab.”

“It was another warning. We aren’t out of this yet. Keep your head, Blaine.”

Billy walked around in a circle trying to calm himself. Fear had taken hold of him.

Blaine hooked the shoulder bag he’d been carrying with one of his canes and settled it back on his shoulder. He looked over at Billy.

Neither of them noticed the large black Mercedes that pulled alongside as cars had been pulling out of the area. In an instant the back door opened and Blaine was grabbed.

“NOOOooooooo.” Billy screamed. He attracted the attention of the doorman and a man and woman in front of the hotel. The man picked up a cane from the sidewalk and handed it to Billy.

“What happened? The man asked.

“e’s mate were taken…in t’car.” The Doorman came running up.

Billy was desperate and banged on the hood of a cab waiting for a passenger
“Can you follow that car?”

“Can I!” The driver laughed a little. “It’s like on telly.”

But unlike ‘telly’ the driver could not keep up with the car. He gave up and pulled to the side into a parking space. “Sorry, governor.”

Billy wept in frustration. He paid the driver and got out not even knowing where he was. He banged the cane on the pavement and realized that Blaine had the sword cane with him. They’d had to pack that one in luggage to board the plane and had only taken it back out at the airport prior to boarding the train. In Blaine’s tired and painful condition he doubted he would be able to walk with one cane. He circled around and leaned his back against a building. He had the two bags still with him. One was the computer and the other was Blaine’s.

He was totally lost and hurt now that the initial panic was dying down. He called Mandi.

“Mandi…Blaine’s been taken. Kidnapped right in front of me at Regents Hotel. He’s gone.” He bit his lips.

Mandi had been asleep but she was awake now. “When, how long ago,” the tears were welling up.

“Oh, twenty minutes. I got a cab and tried to follow but they lost us. It’s them, whoever them is that’s causing all the mayhem. Mandi I don’t know what to do, whether I should report a kidnapping or, or what.”

“No…let me get Cramer.’ She was out of the bed reaching for a robe. “Where are you, Billy?”

“I honestly don’t know, in front of a, shop of some sort…chippie…Finney’s’.

“Stay there, love. We’ll have you picked up and then.”

“I’m just so…so dreadfully sorry.”

“Nothing to be sorry for. Hold up, Billy.”

“Right.” He could barely hold up the wall.

Part 7

His first conscious thought was that he was spinning around a white orb. His eyes opened only a slit. He felt heavy, so heavy he couldn’t move an arm. He awakened and he realized the orb was actually a crystal light fixture hanging from the ceiling. The light was off now. He was lying on his back and it was uncomfortable he tried to turn and found he couldn’t move. His arms and legs were tied to bedposts. Not too tightly, he could move he just couldn’t get his hands together or his feet. He had an urgent need for the men’s room.

She let herself into his room and smiled brightly, “Good morning, ducks, I’ve brought you tea and coffee and a little breakfast.”

“Where am I? he asked.

“I’d let you up but doctor says you may not be able to walk so there is this, I am sorry.” She pulled a urinal from the cabinet by the door. We don’t mind at all do we.” She took hold of his penis and guided it into the urinal. He was naked except for a light blanket.

“There now, that’s got to feel better”. She came back and helped him sit up on the bed. An antique with heavily carved posts and headboard.

“Please, where am I. Tell me. Where is Billy?”

“I don’t know a Billy, ducks.” She settled a tray on his lap. “Have your breakfast.”

He had the coffee but he couldn’t eat anything. This was madness. He turned his head from side to side trying to figure some way out..

The woman came for his tray and scolded him for not eating. She told him nothing.

About ten minutes later a woman dressed in white came in and opened the heavy draperies and the window enough to let in a fresh if not cold breeze across his body. He stared at her but said nothing.

“Good morning,” the doctor said closing the door behind him. "How are you feeling?” he walked to the bed and took up Blaine’s wrist feeling for his pulse. A quick smile, “We aren’t talking are we.” He shined a light in Blaine’s eyes and listened to his chest. He pushed him forward a little and listened to his back. “You may still be feeling a little groggy this morning but that will soon pass.”

Blaine remembered the car now. An open door the pin prick and then blackness. It all happened so fast.

“I went ahead and did a thorough examination while you were out. Nasty business about your back. Do you walk at all?”

“Where am I?”

“Ah you do speak. You are in a fine country house.” He uncovered his legs and began feeling up and down. “Do you feel this, yes?” Blaine jumped.

“Why am I here, where is Billy?”

“I cannot answer your questions, Mr. Blaine. I am a doctor of medicine and am here to make sure you  are healthy. We’ve done some blood work and should have the results back shortly from the lab. You didn’t eat your breakfast, naughty you. It would help settle your stomach after the sedative.”

A quiet knock on the door and the nurse answered it. She handed the doctor a piece of paper.

“Hmm,” he looked over it, “Do you take any medications?”

“Only pain killers from time to time.” He could use one now.

“Your blood pressure might need checking on a regular basis. I understand it might be high right now due to the stress you are under. I’m not going to prescribe anything other than pain medications.” He smiled and handed the paper back to the nurse. She added it to the clipboard.

“You are in remarkably good health considering your injuries and your lifestyle.”

“What do you know about me, what do you know, and who are you?”

“Nurse will be back in a moment with something for pain. Perhaps we might close the window.” He looked at his nurse and left the room.

The shot he had in his hip was welcomed. He dosed for a little while and was awakened by a man in scrubs wheeling in a wheel chair.

“What’s this?” Blaine asked.

“To take you to the bath.” He answered. Another man entered about twice the size of the first and held the wheelchair while Blaine was untied. The big man lifted him into the chair as if he were a child. They tucked the blanket around him and he was taken down the hall to a large bathroom with a deep tub already steaming with warm water.

Everything he might need for a good bath was at hand. He made use of it all and waited until they came for him. It reminded him a little of when he was in hospital. Helpless.

When they returned him to his room his clothes were laid out, clean and pressed.

“Do you need assistance?” the big man asked his voice a soft basso.

“No.” he couldn’t imagine those fingers buttoning a shirt. He dressed himself in their presence. The chair was moved over to the side of the bed for him. “Am I leaving?” he asked.

“Well, we meet at last.” Bren Johnson stood up from behind his enormous desk and walked around presumably to shake Blaine’s hand but Blaine was having none of it. He had no idea who this man was. “My name is Bren Johnson

“I hope we’ve not treated you to badly. Sorry about the abduction but it was necessary. You wouldn’t have visited us otherwise…I’m sure  of it. You’re a handsome man but then I was told you were. He smiled a little and leaned against his desk. “Don’t worry I won’t take advantage of you, not my thing.”

“Why have I been brought here?”

“We need your help, Mr. Blaine but I’m afraid you might be reluctant to give it.”

“If you think I will help you after being drugged and tied to a bed you are very mistaken.”

“I’m going to change your mind, lad.” Bren went around his wheel chair and pushed him into an adjoining room. It was a library. The shelves filled with leather bound books but it was the screen set against a wall that was the focus. Bren cut the lights.

A series of photos were projected onto the screen. “You recognize these young men don’t you. Look there, it’s you with long hair, many a girl would wish for hair like that. And there you are again. Are you counting how many are there, eh? Ten except when you are in the picture. There you are with Ali. Always close to him, at his feet or in the crook of his arm. When you aren’t in the picture there are the same ten men. Did you take the pictures?

“No.”

“Then we have a photographer. Who was he, do you remember?”

“Not…right away…I don’t.” Blaine was taken up with the photos taken at school. Some in Ali’s lounge room. Some in their pub, he remembered that corner. It began to dawn on him who he was seeing.

“That was Mullinax.”

“Yes, the only other one with locks to match yours.”

“How many are still alive?” he asked quietly.

“One we know of and he’s under our protection. There are some we simply cannot find.”

A picture of Ali looking down at him at his feet. His eyes filled and he blinked the tears away. “Who are you Mr. Johnson?”

“Only a public servant, Mr. Blaine. I mean you no harm. I don’t believe you were a part of their club but you know things that may help us to save your life and perhaps a few others.”

“How did you come by these photos? I’ve never seen them before. Who gave them to you?”

“I can’t tell you that, at least not yet. I wanted you to see these photos so you would know I am not blowing smoke when I say…you knew Roundtree, or Pontu, or Davis. You were in the same room with them.”

“That does not mean I knew them outside of that room. These are mates of Ali, all of them upperclassmen. I was only there because of Ali.”

“You are not telling me anything I do not already know.”

“Perhaps, Mr. Johnson, I do not know anything else. Perhaps I do not know the thing you want from me. What is it you seek?”

“I noticed that you did not question the club or what it’s purpose in life might be.”

“I don’t know that it is a club, they were friends of Ali’s.”

“Oh it was a club, there is no doubt of that. Whatever their original ideas were or what they thought they were getting into changed into something else. Young people are always out to save the world. Tell me what you know of each of these young men.”

Blaine shook his head, “I did not move in their circle.”

“Ali Hassan did and you were with him in three of these photos. Three different locations. What’s a man to think? I think that you might have been with him when photos were not taken with this group. That’s what I believe.”

“Quite possibly I was. I spent a great deal of time with Ali.”

“You were lovers, weren’t you.”

“If you like.”

“I don’t like but that’s not the issue here. What was discussed at these meetings, Mr. Blaine?”

“I don’t remember. Richie Mullinax was a poet he often read us his work.”

“Did you think it subversive?”

“I thought he had a lovely voice.”

Bren chuckled, “A lovely voice. Someone broke his neck. Grabbed him from behind and broke his neck right in his own back garden. His partner found him. They never found the culprit. But I thought it funny that Ali Hassan’s plane took off from the airport in Dublin that very night. Now what do you think Ali was doing in Dublin? We know he had lunch with some government officials that day. He hired a car, had his own driver. Mullinax died around three that afternoon. The plane left at 5:30 pm.”

“How dare you suggest that Ali had anything to do with Richie’s death.”

“I dare. Prior to going to Dublin he was here in England. I believe he attended your wife’s funeral. We’ve been keeping track of him for some time, Mr. Blaine. He appeared in the oddest places and usually left a murder behind. Now no one has seen anything untoward. He has been impeccable. I even find it hard to believe that he actually dirtied his own hands. He was never alone, was he?”

Blaine was angry but something clicked. Ali was always accompanied by his driver. “Ali was not a murderer.”

He had bodyguards…he was never alone except when he was with him. “Ali is dead, how do you account for Roundtree?”

“How would you account for him?” Bren walked over and turned on the lights and clicked the projector off. “You may have been the last to see him alive.”

“Obviously there is someone else behind these murders.”

“Would you like a copy of any of these pictures?”

“No.”

“I should thank you I suppose. It was you who allowed us to find them in the first place. They were found in a drawer in Brian Brown’s desk after his death in the elevator.”

Blaine looked up at the man, “You…you are part of Cramer’s outfit?”

Bren smiled, “Oh, one of the ‘M’s’ but we are not the same species.”

Bren wheeled him out of the library and back into his expansive office. “Would you like some tea, Mr. Blaine. I understand you did not eat breakfast, perhaps a sandwich.”

“I want to go home.”

“I’m sure you do and you will, yes…you will.”

Blaine looked over Bren’s desk and saw his cane. “That is mine.”

“Indeed it is, quite an ingenuous weapon. Where did you acquire such a thing?”

Bren rang for tea and sandwiches. “It may be a long afternoon.”

Part 8

It took forever for a car to show up for Billy. He’d gone down in a slump against the chippie. Cramer almost missed him and had the car back up and stop while he got out.

“Billy?”

“Cramer, thank God.” He got himself up and gathered the two bags and Blaine’s cane. He explained what had happened from the time the set down at Heathrow to his present state.

“So sorry, mate, so sorry.” Cramer tried to comfort him. “You have no way of knowing , of course, how many Finney’s chippies are in London.”

“What’s being done? I told Mandi?”

“Um, we’re looking, Billy that’s all we can do.” Cramer’s driver took them to his headquarters.

Billy was exhausted mentally and physically. He wasn’t aware he was going up in the same elevator that had broken Blaine’s back. It was all new and shiny and he looked at his reflection in the brass decorations.

“I could do with a cup of  tea.”

“All the tea you can drink, man. I’m sure this has taken a lot out of you.”

“You have no idea.” Billy replied.

“In here this is my private lounge,” he escorted Billy into a comfortable looking room. Billy headed for the men’s room and Cramer stepped out for the tea.

He splashed cold water on his face and ran his hands through his hair. “Hold up” he told himself in the mirror.

Tea arrived and Cramer sat down and lit an illegal cigarette. Not supposed to smoke in the building but this was his private space. He offered Billy one and he took it although he didn’t smoke.

What followed was a softly conducted interrogation of Billy about their trip to Crete and also to America. Billy was so tired he answered everything and added what he could think of.

“Did you get the photo of the house?”

“Photo, no.”

“Oh, I sent it to Mandi, sorry.”

“What photo, Billy?”

Billy reached in Blaine’s bag and found his phone. “It’s on here. This is it, he took it…don’t know why.”

“Strange looking house isn’t it?”

“We thought so, looked like a pile of boot boxes.”

“Three levels. Tell me about the house.”

“Oh…well the first level was the garage and utility rooms you know for the heating and cooling system, water tanks, laundry. The second level was the main living area. Kitchen, dining and lounge. There was a nice balcony that ran the length of the dining room and lounge. It stuck out over the cliff with a clear view of the sea. Upstairs were the bedrooms. Two I think one in the front and one in the back. We took the one in the back it was larger.”

“Any other houses around it?”

“No, none that we could see. The builder said it sat empty for a long time. Ali bought it and paid cash. Over a million dollars.”

“Money was nothing to him.” Cramer mused. He touched the picture on the phone, “There is something significant about this. He must have recognized it.”

Billy sat back on the loveseat and rubbed his face, “I’ve got a terrible headache.”

“What I wonder is, how he found it in the first place.” Cramer went into the bath room and came back with a short glass of water and a bottle of headache pills. “Help yourself.”

“Barbara Moore had a key. She gave the impression that she and Ali met there.”

“Perhaps she found it for him.” Cramer raised a brow.

“No idea.” Billy swallowed the pills.

“Upstairs…sleeper cells.”

“Sorry?”

“Oh…just thinking out loud. By the way I had to threaten Mandi to make her stay home. She wanted to drag Lyssa to London so she could be with you.”

Billy smiled a little, “I wish I was there with her. Cramer, I’ve been flying half of yesterday and all night and I’m about done in. Luggage is gone.” He ran a hand over his head.

“Sorry, Billy, but I wanted to get this all on record while it was still fresh in your mind. I’ll get you a room somewhere.”

“No, I’ve got a place to go I just need a way to get there…I don’t trust London Cab at the moment.”

“All right. I’ll send my car and driver with you. Stressful day.”

“I can’t think…I’m worried about Blaine. Please call me if you hear anything.”

“You know I will,” Cramer escorted him out.

Billy gave the driver the address of the flat he and Mandi owned. Once inside he locked the door, deposited the bags on the table and fell across the bed and cried. He’d been holding it in since Blaine was abducted. Eventually he slept.

Mandi slept in fits and starts during the day. It was 2:00am and she was walking the floors. It had been a difficult afternoon with Lyssa trying to be upbeat and helping her with her homework. Trying not to let on that inside she was screaming. Somehow she’d gotten though it all, bedtime stories and the child went to sleep.

She’d called Margret Langston to see if she could keep Lyssa for a few days but she was in York. She hadn’t told her that Blaine was missing. It filled her eyes every time she thought of it. Not to be able to call him or walk into the next room and find him. She caught sight of herself in a mirror…had she brushed her hair at all. Eyes circled and swollen. A fine looking sight for him to come home to. Home, oh David.

She was not happy with Cramer either. He said they were looking for him, that wasn’t enough. She wanted to know who and how and where but he was less than forthcoming with information. Who did he think he was talking to? She knew how the department worked. Maybe she knew too much and that knowledge fed the fear that had taken hold of her. There was a string of dead bodies out there.

She wanted to be with Billy. There was no way for her to know how he was handling this. She’d talked to Cramer after he’d finished with him but Billy hadn’t answered his phone when she tried him later. Cramer said he was exhausted and needed to rest, doing the best he could.

It just wasn’t good enough. She banged the door to Blaine’s bedroom. It wasn’t real…

Billy slept for six hours and woke with that little niggling feeling that something wasn’t right with his world and then he became aware of the circumstances. It caught in his throat as he sat up. He’d slept in his clothes  and he felt his pockets for his phone but it wasn’t there.

His phone was on the table with the rest of the things he’d brought in. He returned Mandi’s call.

“Nothing, love.”

“Everything is conspiring against me, I can’t get to you. Where are you?”

“Ah, at the flat. I came in and crashed…haven’t even had a cuppa. I just woke up. How are you, Mandi?”

“Wretched, that’s a good word for how I am right now. I even look the part. I’ve not said anything to Lyssa and I’m not going to.”

“No, no I wouldn’t. It’s a living hell and I’m sitting on my hands with nothing to do.”

“What happened with Cramer?”

“I didn’t think he was ever going to let me go. I coughed up everything from the time we left Heathrow and come back. Maybe he can take it all and make whole cloth out of it. Did you ever come up with anything with the numbers?”

“Cramer took them and said he’d get back with me but he hasn’t. “

“I’m beginning to think it’s a list of the dead.” Billy filled the kettle and plugged it in for tea.

“Billy, do you want me to come and get you?”

“No, Mandi, I think I’d rather be here in case, you know.”

“I understand but the offer stands, I can get someone to pick Lyssa up from school, one of the other parents.”

“I’m okay, love, not going to do something stupid.”

“I love you, Billy.”

“Love you too, Mandi.”

Billy had his tea. He was grateful for the flat. He and Mandi had each added things. It wasn’t cold and impersonal like a hotel room. A bit of comfort…something between him and cold reality.

Mandi had Lyssa ready for school. She waited in the hall for her to come down the stairs with her jacket. “Got everything now?”

“My pictures,” she ran back to her father’s office for the pictures she and Mandi had printed out. Pictures of farm animals.

Mandi opened the door to find a London Cab in the drive.

“Come with me, please,” he said in heavily accented English.

“No…I…No!” she backed away. He grabbed her arms and walked her to the cab. Mandi looked back over her shoulder for Lyssa.

“Mandi?” Lyssa stood at the open door as the cab sped down the drive.

Part 9

It had been a gruelling day for Blaine. Unaccustomed to sitting in a wheel chair all day he was in a lot of pain by the time he was wheeled back to his room. He asked for pain medication and he was given another shot in his hip. He slept for a little while and awoke to a semi darkened room. Moonlight was streaming through the open curtains. He glanced at his watch to see it was 7:15. He’d slept for two hours. The muscles in his back no longer screamed and he sat up on the bed pushing pillows behind him. A movement in a corner.

“Who is there?”

Sounds of a cigarette being lit and the glowing tip. A quick glimpse of a face in shadows.

“I could say an old friend but then we were never friends. I remember you well, a fresh faced beauty. I would have liked to have known you but that was impossible. Ali had you.”

“Who are you?”

“A fellow spider caught in somebody else’s web. My position is a little different, please…speak softly. I don’t imagine our host would approve of my visiting you.”

“You are the one…the one in protective custody.”

He chuckled softly, “Is that what they told you? I am a prisoner here just as you are although they may let you go if you give them what they want. I shall stand for treason when it pleases them. I don’t care anymore. I’m sorry to see you here, Blaine, honestly I am. They have cast their net wide.” He walked over the window and opened it a little, flicking ashes out into the darkness.

Blaine could make him out now. He was tall and slender, longish hair over his collar. He was wearing suit and tie. The moonlight reflected from his blond hair.

“Renee`.”

“You remember?”

“Yes. How did you come to be here?”

“I panicked. My…my lover was shot and killed as we left the theatre in New York. I came home alone. Ali paid me a visit and said how very sorry he was to hear, that he’d been in New York and if he’d known he would have come to me and offered comfort, protection…whatever.” He made a motion with his hand. Blaine followed the tip of his cigarette.

“For some reason I found his visit very discomforting, condescending, too much. I was approached by friends of our host who suggested my life might be in danger. Would I like to come and talk with them. I did and then went about my days. A little more watchful. Four months ago I was picked up and brought here. I’ve not been allowed to leave and I suppose as far as prisons go, it’s not bad.”

“This was after Ali was killed. I’m sorry about your partner was he anyone I knew?”

“No, Blaine, you did not know him.” He finished his smoke and tossed it out of the window.

It was strange talking to Renee` here in the darkness. Many years had passed. Strange that he remembered him right away. He’d been a quiet one and somewhat of a loner in the group. He had a flashback of his hands, he played the piano beautifully. He often heard him late at night playing in his room.

“Why are we here, Renee`”

“Because we are a threat. A threat to staid old England. As if I could do anything anymore. I’m here because I admitted to passing on secrets to foreign governments. Ali’s to be exact…and others. I haven’t worked since Michael was killed. I couldn’t bring myself to…there didn’t seem to be a point to it all anymore.”

“I married and I have a child by her. She was killed in front of me as we left a restaurant near our home. I never found the actual trigger finger but I know who paid for it. He’s dead now.”

“You…you killed?”

“I did.”

“You surprise me, Blaine.” He came over and sat on the side of Blaine’s bed. “Even if I knew who killed Michael, I’m not sure I could…no.” he shook his head.

“This person made me believe he killed Ali. There was an explosion and it was reported that he’d been killed. I hated him anyway.”

“I’m sorry for the loss of your wife. It is odd  isn’t it that we both lost our loved ones to a gunshot.”

“I am not surprised at anything anymore.”

“Why are you in a wheelchair?”

“I am not a practiced killer. I didn’t know I was going to kill. I picked an elevator and over a period of time up and down it went crazy and fell. I broke my back. I’m not confined to a wheelchair. They took my canes from me. I can’t really get around without them.”

“You poor thing,” Renee` touched his face running the back of his fingers over Blaine’s cheek and across his mouth. Blaine thought he was going to kiss him, he’d come very close. He wouldn’t have stopped him. There had always been something erotic about Renee`, some attraction there.

“I’d better go. I shouldn’t be found in here. Don’t say anything about my being here.”

“No…I will not.”

“Be very careful, Blaine.” He whispered and his lips touched Blaine’s but only for a moment. He quietly left the room.

It wasn’t a kiss and he hadn’t responded but it left him aroused and uncomfortable. He drew his knees up and rested his arms and head on them. He was vulnerable here in more ways than one.

His dinner was brought in by the “ducks” woman as he thought of her. He was taken to the bathroom and then back to his room. As Renee` had said, it wasn’t bad as far as prisons go. He wasn’t tied to his bed but the chair had been taken out of his room. He slid off the bed and holding on to it he made his way around and to the window. I was dark outside but they could see in the moonlight the shapes of a garden. Trellis and arbor, hedgerows and trees. He could be anywhere in England. Where he wanted to be was with Mandi and Lyssa and Billy. He blinked away tears and made his way back to the bed.

Instead of sleep he went over the day. His experience with Bren Johnson, the visit from Renee` and then his own doubts and suspicions laid out where no one but himself could see them.

He did sleep only to be awakened before dawn by the sound of his door closing.

“Who’s there?” he asked reaching for the bedside lamp.

His scream brought running feet down the corridor some dressed and some only half dressed.

He’d backed to the far side of his bed, crying aloud and trembling.

“What’s going on here?” The doctor wrapped his robe tying the sash.

“Mr. Blaine?” the nurse went around to him. “He’s hyperventilating.”

While the medical team worked to get him stable another man had walked in and seen the picture propped against the lamp. He picked it up. “Somebody get Mr. Johnson.”

Bren Johnson dressed in dark red pajamas and a striped robe looked at the picture holding it with the sash of his robe. “Oh dear.”

“Who is it, Mr. Johnson” the man at his elbow asked.

“It’s his wife.”

Immediately the mood in the room changed. Almost lovingly he was put back in the bed. A wet cloth for his face. A sedative. Pillows plumped and fresh water in the bedside carafe. Finally they all filed out except for Bren Johnson.

“Dirty business, Mr. Blaine.”

“Lyssa…I need to go home…where is my daughter?”

“I can send someone to the house for you. It’s not a good idea for you to be walking around out there right now. You know what this is, this photo? It’s a warning to you. It’s typical of them. Victim bound and gagged with weapons pointing at their head. She’s a bargaining chip and I don’t think this will go any farther.”

“Lyssa…Mandi…Lyssa…Lyssss.” The sedative put him to sleep.

Lyssa spent the day playing in the house waiting for Mandi to come back and take her to school. She ate cookies and her lunch from the bag Mandi packed for her. She found juice in the fridge to drink. She found the remote for the TV and played her favorite video.

But it was getting dark now. School was over and still Mandi hadn’t come back.

In Mandi’s purse was her cell phone. Lyssa found it and after applying some lip gloss she found in the same pocket she called her Daddy.

Billy had been in and out during the day. He shopped at the market and made several calls to Cramer who he was getting frustrated with.

When Blaine’s phone rang he jumped from the sofa and grabbed it from the table.

“Hello?”

“Where’s my Daddy?” Lyssa asked.

“Lyssa, this is Billy. He’s not here right now what’s up, love?”

“Well I couldn’t go to school today.”

“Why not are you sick again?”

“No, Mandi didn’t come back?”

A cold finger went down his spine, “What do you mean she didn’t come back where did she go?”

“I don’t know she was in a black car. It was, um, a cab. A cab and she didn’t come back.”

“Wha…when was this, love?”

“I went to get my pictures for school and she was going in the cab.”

“You’ve been there all day?”

“Yep and I cleaned up my mess in the kitchen.”

Billy staggered against the table. “Oh my God. Lyssa go and lock the doors right now you know how to do that. Take the phone and tell me when they are locked.”

“Okay,” Lyssa locked the front door and ran through the house to the back door, “All locked up.’

“Good girl. I’m coming home…just stay in the house and just…I’m coming, Lyssa.”

“Okay. I’m going to watch my other video.”

Billy disconnected and felt for a chair.

“For the love of God,” Billy looked for Cramer’s number in Blaine’s phone. Mr. Cramer was unavailable. He called information services and was connected to a car hire agency. Within forty five minutes he had a car delivered downstairs on the street. He gave the driver cab fare back to the agency and left London.

Billy let himself in the house, “Lyssa?” barely hearing the TV over his own beating heart. “Lyssa?” he ran through the house finding the TV on in Blaine’s office and ran up the stairs and checked her room, Mandi’s and finally found her asleep with her stuffed dog in Blaine’s bed. He covered her up and wiped the tears from his face.

He rose from the bed and went into Blaine’s bathroom and washed his face. Back down stairs he slipped the deadbolts and went around locking all the windows. In Blaine’s office he found the cane with the little pistol. Breaking it down he loaded it from the box in Blaine’s desk. He stuck it in his pocket and then took it out.

“Ohhhhh.” He wished he had the gun he’d tossed in a trash bin in San Francisco before they left for the airport. He was in a murderous mood.

Part 10

It was a different David Blaine that was wheeled into Bren Johnson’s office around 10:00 am. Bren pulled up a chair near him instead of sitting behind his big desk. Blaine wasn’t impressed by the size of the desk or anything else. He was a different animal and today he sensed he was a dangerous one.

“Good morning again, Mr. Blaine.”

Blaine stared straight ahead. “How did that photo appear on my bedside table?”

“We are trying to determine that right now. All camera feeds are being processed, everyone in the house and grounds are being questioned. We do an extensive background check on anyone employed with us plus regular screenings.”

“Is my room bugged am I on camera?”

“You are.”

“Then you know I had a visitor.”

“I wondered if you’d mention that.”

“I would not have if it was not already known.”

“We look at everything here. If we can’t be safe here then there is no safety anywhere.”

“There is not any safety anywhere…not anywhere in the world. I have also looked at everything. There are some things I know. They may not make a difference at all in what I am here for. I know who the photographer was. Clive Moore. He was not in any photos ever that I can remember. He always carried a camera with him. It was a hobby of sorts but it was also something else. I have no proof you understand. I recalled him last night taking photos of some couples. I believe he was the one who took the photos you showed me. He was in Hong Kong the same time as Brian Brown. Brian would have liked those photos not the ones you showed me but the others. Do you have them too?  They should be destroyed. Both these men are dead. One buried in Sacramento and one I killed myself.

“I was not in any way ever a part of a group in school. I have not been a part of one since. My association was with Ali as his lover and companion. He did not pour into me anything but affection.

“Ali has been the great love of my life. I think I accepted parts of his personality that caused me some...distress because of who he was and where he was from. I looked to him for love and guidance which he gave to me without hesitation. That was my relationship with him. He saved my life more than once. He gave me life when I thought mine was over. Always he was there for me. He showered me with affection and trinkets. He’s given me a boat, now a plane and a fortune so that I may not have to earn a living. It’s hard for me now with my back. But had he given me nothing but himself I would have been content for I loved him as I knew him.”

Bren crossed his legs and rested his elbows on his chair tenting his fingers. Blaine spoke in his clipped formal English without a trace of emotion in his voice neither did his face reveal any. He dared not interrupt him, though he had questions.

“You might ask a woman how she can love a mass murderer or a rapist. She will tell you he was good to me and I did not know. I have been blind.” He looked away toward the tall mullioned windows. “It is all over now. He has gone to whatever hell awaited him.” He turned and gave Bren a direct look, “What is it you want of me? The time for games is past.”

“The center of this group, the strongest member, the one who directed the show was Ali Hassan. You know he had many interests it allowed him to travel all over the world. But he played a dangerous game. He worked both sides of the street.”

“I can see that. It would have amused him.”

“Indeed. He began cutting off  his contacts about five years ago. Perhaps he was trying to pull out. We don’t know.”

“He may have become bored with it.”

“Yes…not all his contacts agreed, however. His life was in danger. More and more he traveled as he began to eliminate his past. Do you know how long it’s been since he was in his own country?”

“I honestly do not know. I do know he was there two years ago.”

“That was the last time he was there. He moved his family to Switzerland two years prior to that and that’s where he’s been living since then.”

“The attempts on his life?”

“He didn’t die did he? A very rich man can publish anything he likes.”

“Why did you not bring him in, arrest him or whatever it is you do?”

“Our hands were tied so to speak. He is a royal and he is not a British subject. We could only watch and wait. When was the last time you saw him?”

“He was in London about eight months ago. I spent a week with him.”

“And what did he do?”

“He was here on business…he said. Some people came to the flat but mostly he left for a few hours a day.”

“He never mentioned anything about where he went or who he saw?”

“No.”

“He went ‘round to see your friend upstairs. We thought he was after him and so we pulled him in. Soon after another explosion. Some of his personal things at the scene, his phone still identifiable, his glasses. Odd don’t you think…a pair of glasses survives such a blast? You believed it as did we all for awhile.”

“You are not suggesting he is alive, his will has been read and his estate divided and dispersed.”

“I am not suggesting anything, Mr. Blaine. I am just saying we did not get a positive ID on what remains there were. It was all assumption. His family is convinced he is dead he’s a martyr in their eyes.”

They were interrupted by the same man he’d seen upstairs. Bren excused himself and left Blaine alone in his chair. The first thing he did was look for the cane but it was gone. Blaine had a burning desire to get out of this house and back on the streets where he could think and act.

He rolled himself over to the window and lifted up on his hands to see out. Nothing there to tell him anything. Voices outside of the office and the door opened again.

“Well, we found your courier…the dogs found him. Committed suicide in the garden. How thoughtless of him. No ID, no distinguishing marks. He’s an Arab. Did find this on him, what do you think?” he handed Blaine a little bag.

“Tobacco.” Blaine inhaled and closed his eyes. “I have not had this for awhile and I cannot think why.  There was a shop on Regents street that sold it. I think Ali told me it closed, that he had bought the last of it for me.”

“Looks like our fella had connections.”

“Take me there,” Blaine was becoming agitated wheeling his chair around. “Get me to this shop on Regents street.”

“You said it was closed,” a gleam appeared in Bren’s eye.

“Ali said it was closed.”

Bren jumped up from his chair and walked around his desk. “I won’t let you go alone.”

“Are you afraid I will run away without legs?”

“I’m not sure what you’ll do. Anyway you’re in no condition to go anywhere alone.”

“Shoot my back full of Novocain and give me my canes and I can do anything.”

“You’re angry, Blaine, not a good head to go hunting.”

“I am numb. Yesterday I was angry…today I am resigned.”

Blaine was taken back to his room where he fumed and tossed pillows and  water jugs.

“You listened to him what do you think…you know him better than I?” Bren lit a cigar and sat on the leather sofa of the library.

Cramer looked away for a moment, “He’s bound and determined to do something. We don’t know what he might turn up.”

“That’s not what I asked.”

“All right,” he walked to the mantle. “he can be lethal…is that what you want? Pushed to the edge he will turn around and fight. He’s there, Brennan. If Hassan is in that building somewhere and you turn Blaine on him…it could go either way. In my own opinion Blaine is not expendable. He’s got a wife and a daughter and a baby on the way.”

“His wife has been kidnapped.”

“Wh…what? Mandi?”

“Don’t know yet when she was taken but a photo was delivered before dawn here in Blaine’s room. Unfortunately the person who brought it is now dead by his own hand. We had to sedate Blaine.”

“My God, Brennan, why didn’t you tell me?”

“I am aware she is a special pet of yours. It’s better this way. You might have given yourself away. He wants to go alone I said I wouldn’t allow it.”

Cramer was still shaken by Mandi’s kidnapping. “Who has her do you know?”

“Not yet but it’s the same picture we’ve seen before. A warning to Blaine to keep his mouth shut. The thing is the poor sod doesn’t know anything or he’d tell me, he’s ready to tell all but he doesn’t know bloody all to tell.”

“Brennan, Mandi is four months pregnant, nearly five. Did they take the little girl too?”

“I’ve told you all I know. I’ve got the photo on my desk you are free to look it over. It’s been fingerprinted, scanned and x-rayed. We are speaking in the hypothetical here. Hassan could be ashes by now.” He rose and followed Cramer out into this office. "It could be one of the others that we haven’t been able to locate.”

“Christ!,” Cramer exclaimed.

“Sir, a list of the tobacco shops on Regents Street.” A woman handed the sheet of paper to Bren.

“Robert, it is a possibility that this is Hassan’s work. I actually hope it is because he may have some feeling for the woman and not mistreat her.”

“Mandi loved Ali…at one time they were a ménage a trios. Even now Blaine has Mandi and Billy. I know…it’s to say the least an odd way to live but they are happy together. They are a family and that is something Blaine needs.”

Bren looked toward the window for a moment, “About this Billy, where is he?”

“In London…oh I forgot I had a call from him that I couldn’t take last night. Mind if I?”

“No not at all.”

“Sorry, Billy, I’ve been tied up.”

“Where the hell have you been? Mandi’s been taken. Somebody picked her up in a London Cab right here at the house. Left Lyssa here by herself all day until she called me last night. No word nothing from you about Blaine.”

Cramer sighed and sat down in Bren’s chair, “I am aware, Billy. Please we might have a clue and I can’t talk about it you know how that is. We are working on it and as soon as I know something I will call, I promise.”

“That’s not good enough is it? You’re a bunch of bloody bastards the lot of ya.”

“I totally agree, Billy.”

Blaine turned as his door opened. “Renee`.”

“What bloody difference does it make now whether I’m seen or not? We’re on TV, the latest reality show.”

Blaine was standing holding on to a bed post.

“What happened to your room?”

“They have my wife.”

“I thought she was dead.”

“I married again, six months ago.”

“Who has her, would you like a smoke?”

“Yes I would.” Renee` lit his cigarette. “Men with guns and ski masks”.

“Cowards. I’m sorry.” He walked to the window, “It’s going to rain.”

“Who would kidnap?”

“You’re asking me? I don’t know and I would tell you if I did. I only shifted papers and CD’s.” He opened the window. “Have you seen the view, come and look.”

Blaine looked at him and took a step still holding on to the bed. Renee` slipped an arm around him and walked him to the window. “Look there,” he pointed and placed his mouth next to Blaine’s ear. “Steven Waites.”

Blaine turned and looked at him. He shook his head slightly and pulled him into the heavy voluptuous draperies. “He’s in London somewhere working. Wanted me to come in with him but I was picked up.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Missing groupie.”

“Ah.” He bit his lip.

Renee` looked at his mouth as it parted. “I didn’t tell them.” He touched Blaine’s mouth with his fingers and his arm tightened around him. “I could…” Blaine kissed him.

“Don’t do this to me,” Renee` said and backed away from him letting his arm and hand slide over Blaine’s backside.

“Go.”

“Yes.”

“Thank you, Renee` and good luck to you.” Blaine picked up the cigarette he’d left burning on the windowsill and smoked it too. He wanted to help Renee` Blevin but didn’t know how. He wanted to bed him right now. His eyes filled, the world had gone crazy and so had he.

Part 11

Blaine had lain back on the bed alternately sketching and working a puzzle on the notepad he found in the bedside table.

Renee` had given him seven pound eight. Steven Waites and that left Renee` Blevin as six pound seven. He was glad Renee` was here. His door opened and he was a little surprised to see Mr. Johnson there.

“Oh what a naughty boy, look at this mess. You’d better get your walking shoes on.”

“This is not necessary.” Blaine said through gritted teeth as the handcuffs were fastened and then a black bag slipped over his head.

“Sorry, Mr. Blaine, orders.” The young man said and closed the back door of the vehicle.

He was aware someone had joined him in the back seat but whoever it was never spoke. The two in the front seat talked back and forth. Racing numbers. It was a long drive but he recognized the sound of London traffic. The stopping and starting, muttered oaths from the driver.

Finally the vehicle stopped. Someone got out and opened the boot and slammed it shut. The back doors were opened. The hood was taken from his head and he blinked. The young man put a pair of sunglasses on him, “Might help with the glare,” he said and unlocked the handcuffs. His cane and another plain black one was given to him and he was helped out of the vehicle. There was no sign of the other two passengers.

“That’s Regents Street there around the corner.” The man said and closed the doors. He got in the driver’s seat and drove away leaving Blaine alone.

His lower back was numb from the shots he’d had before he left the house. He shifted the canes moving his own to his right hand and took a few steps. It was okay he could walk.

It felt good to be out and he was distracted by displays in shop windows as he walked along the street but he knew where he was going. Strange to be alone without Billy. He was rarely alone now; where had he heard that lately? He smiled a little to himself. He thought about Billy and knew how upset he must be. He thought about Mandi and his lips formed a line. He still did not know where his daughter was.

He paused for a moment when the shop came in sight. A slight tremor took him as he gathered himself. As he’d been in Johnson’s office earlier that morning he was emotionless when he entered the shop. The familiar smell of tobacco shops closed around him and he inhaled deeply enjoying for a moment the sensation.

“Can I help you?” A man had come out from behind some heavy colorless curtains and stood at the cash drawer.

Blaine didn’t answer moving around the tiny shop until he found the tobacco he was looking for. He took it in his left hand and moved to the counter.

“Is that all for you? That will be twelve pound five.”

“I will only pay nine pound ten.”

“Sir, it’s…nine pound ten.” He repeated barely above a whisper.

“Eight pound nine, Seven pound eight, Six pound seven.”

“Come with me,” he looked nervously around the shop and out of the door and then plucked at Blaine’s sleeve, “This way.”

Through the half darkened storage area and a door that led down some steps, Blaine counted six to a small landing and an elevator he was grateful to see. The man left him there without a word and went back the way he’d come. Blaine pushed the button. Inside it went down two stories and up five. He went down to the bottom level. He came out into a parking garage dark except for dim yellow lights here and there. He put the sunglasses in his jacket pocket and looked around. Silence. It was cold the way underground places are.  To his right was a green painted door with the paint faded and peeling. The doorknob looked new. He was well versed in doorknobs and locks now. The door was locked. With no other exit in sight he went back to the elevator…down.

His breathing increased along with a sudden fear factor he tried to swallow away. The doors opened again into a semi darkened narrow hallway. Again the silence was loud. He jumped hearing the elevator going up. He was halfway down the hall heading toward a door much like the one in the parking garage but with a better paint job. It opened at his touch and fed him into another hallway better lighting and the walls were painted cream and green. Through a set of double doors and he was in a different place. An expensive office set up with desks communication equipment and people busily working. He continued on and a man stood up at his desk.

“Blaine?”

He stopped and looked at him recognizing Davis but he didn’t respond to him. He continued on toward a black painted shiny door with the number 910 in fancy gold script.

“Blaine, don’t go in there,” Davis again. Another man in thick glasses joined him.

“You can’t go in there, Blaine.”

He knew before he opened the door.

“You did it! I knew you would.” Ali stood up from his desk and smiling came around  as Blaine leaned against the closed door He grabbed Blaine’s face and kissed him and then stepped back. Blaine had not responded.

“Ah you are angry with me, darling. Please you will give me time to explain and then you will understand it all. Come, come and sit. You look beautiful as always.”

Blaine blinked, this was Ali but it wasn’t. Ali was dead.

“Where is Mandi?”

“Mandi…she is well. It was the photograph. I’m sorry, darling, to have upset you.”

A slight tremor again, “Where is Mandi?”

“I see you will not be happy until you know. Come with me this way. She is quite comfortable. Surprising what can be done with a basement.” He led the way through a door in his office into another narrow hallway. He opened a door and inside was a Plexiglas cell. Nicely furnished with a video playing on a TV. Hunched on the bed wither her arms around her knees was Mandi.

“Get her out of there.” Blaine said evenly.

“We need to talk first, Blaine.”

“We have no talk. Get Mandi out of that box…NOW!”

“What did you tell Johnson?”

“How do you open it?”

“Blaine, please, you know I don’t like to do this to Mandi. I have loved her.”

“I do not believe you have ever loved anything in your life. Open that box.”

“I loved you. You are correct but for one exception and that was you. Life would have been so different if we could have remained together.”

“I loved Ali. He was the most important thing in my life for many, many years.”

“We can do it again and this time with no one to stop us.”

“The Ali I loved is dead.  I wept for days.”

“No, no, Blaine.” Ali moaned.

“Open that box and let my wife out.”

Mandi had seen them and she was now pressed against the side but her words could not be heard through the thick glass.

Blaine saw movement from her out of the corner of his eye but he never took his eyes off Ali.

Ali’s eyes filled and he shook his head slightly and took a step toward Blaine.

The sword came up and caught him in the abdomen an upward thrust from a man with a strong upper body. He looked surprised and then he smiled as Blaine leaned into him and pulled out the sword. Ali crumpled to the floor. Blaine fell back against the wall unaware his face was wet and dripping; he looked toward the glass cell and Mandi was weeping too. He staggered to the plexus glass wall and placed a bloodied hand flat against it. Mandi placed hers on the other side.

“Oh bloody hell and back.” Robert Cramer entered the narrow hallway.

A crowd had gathered outside the tobacco shop as one by one the basement workers were led out in handcuffs and stuffed into the police vans. Crime scene tape kept them at bay.

Down in the basement the coroner pronounced him dead and entered the time and pertinent information. The cell door found in a corner had been blasted open.

Huddled in the parking garage under Cramer’s trench coat Blaine shook from head to toe. An ambulance pulled up and Mandi got in. The young man who’d ridden with them from the country on one side and Cramer on the other walked Blaine to the ambulance and helped him in.

“He’s in shock.” Cramer told the medics.

At the hospital after both of them had been examined and treated Mandi lay down in the bed beside Blaine.

“We’re back where we started from not the same room but the same hospital.” She placed a hand on his face and he locked eyes with her.

“I’m not the same man.”

“I’m not the same crazy woman either. I don’t want to go over what happened today at least not until you are ready to talk about it. I am…so proud of you. You are the bravest man I have ever known. You rescued me and little Willy. I don’t think we were meant to leave that room.”

“I committed murder.”

“No, no, David. You came for us just like I prayed you would. He wasn’t himself, he wasn’t. The Ali we loved would never have done such a thing.”

“I came there knowing what I would do.”

“If you had to and you did. I saw him move toward you, you didn’t see his hands. You did what you had to do. I saw it all.”

“I want to go home.”

“So do I. Let’s go.” She kissed him softly and his arm went around her holding her tightly.

“We’re going home.” She told Cramer who’d been waiting out in the emergency room waiting area.

“You sure you’re both all right, you need a ride?”

“Yes, will you find us a car and driver?”

“I can take you.”

“No, I think we’d rather be…alone.”

David went home in Cramer’s trench coat and scrubs. His bloodied clothes had been thrown away.

“I feel like one of those flashers.” He said when they reached their front door.

“Flash Billy, I’ll bet he’s ready for it.” She smiled and opened the door

They found Billy and Lyssa in the floor of the living room playing snakes and ladders.

“Daddy, daddy,” Lyssa went running to him. He backed into a chair and sat down pulling his daughter up in his arms and kissing her until she giggled. Billy stood up paused by Blaine and touched his head and went to Mandi.

“Let’s put a kettle on.” He put his arm around her and walked back to the kitchen.
Are you all right?”

“Yes, I am. Her arms went around his neck and she kissed him.”

“I’ve been so worried, and the baby?

“Glad to be home.”

“No more of this, I’m putting my foot down.” Billy said.

“I’m going to give Daddy a bath,” Lyssa called into the kitchen.

“Um, wait up, Lyssa, Mandi wants to talk to you.” Billy winked at Mandi and went to the stairs. An arm around Blaine he walked him up the stairs.

“Little girls don’t bathe their Daddy’s.”

“Why?”

“Because they are too big and can do the job themselves.” She hugged Lyssa.
“Now I want you to tell me what you did here all by yourself.”

“Well,” Lyssa rolled her eyes, “You probably aren’t going to like it.”

Epilogue

(Phone conversation between Brennan Johnson and Robert Cramer)

“Well you can’t kill a dead man, Robert. Make him a John Doe, found dead in the basement of the Turkish Tobacco Shop. Probably a transient or something. What happened to that cane?”

“The sword cane, I’ve got it in my office.”

“Ohh. He doesn’t want it back?”

“No said to toss it.”

“Did it clean up good?”

“Like new.”

“Send it round. I’ve a liking for antique weaponry.”

“I’ll do that, Brennan.”

“I’ve a mind to give the boy a job, think he’d be interested?”

“You’d better acquire a shield to go with this sword, Brennan.”