"Be quite Maria! We have to make sure to evade detection."
Maria and Michelle had managed to scurry over to Carla's home it was now after 8:30 pm and the street was completely dark. They had reached the front door of the flat to find it was locked only to go over to the back. They had better luck and rushed inside.
"Carla?" Michelle called out before Maria slapped her. "Ouch, why'd you do that for?"
"Because Michelle you are being absolutely daffed and ridiculous. You give me a lecture about avoiding detection in an abandoned flat and the first thing you do when we get inside is alert the occupant they've been found out."
"Well sorry, I wasn't thinking alright."
They were standing in the kitchen now.
"Should I turn on the light or what?" Michelle asked.
"No, lets use my key chain flashlight and maneuver around if we can."
The light from the key chain was minimal at best and the two were squinting profusely.
"I can't see a bloody thing," whined Maria.
"Well where was the light coming from?"
"The living room area, I think, lets attempt to get there."
"Well all we have to do is look for light under a door crack."
"No shit Maria," said Michelle irritably.
"Do you want me to deck you Michelle, do you need a black eye?"
"Oh yeah Maria I am sure you have it in you. You deck me and you can walk to Dublin."
"Ha, I will probably just not go then."
CREAK
"Shut it Maria. Did you just hear that creaking noise?"
"No."
"Well be quite, maybe we'll hear it again."
The two women listened in silence but the sound did not repeat. They walked down the hall and saw light illuminating underneath Carla's bedroom door.
"Down here, lets go," said Michelle grabbing Maria's arm and leading the way.
They opened up the door to find a perfectly tidy bedroom nothing looked array at all. Maria let her eyes comb over Carla's dresser while Michelle went into the bathroom. Suddenly she let out a scream and Maria rushed over to the scene. She didn't see anything worth screaming over, she just saw Michelle clutching a man's sweater.
"What? What is it Michelle, you practically give me a heart attack and then I come over here to find you clutching some god damn sweater." Maria stood looking rather haughty.
"This isn't just any sweater Maria. There are only two like this in the whole wide world."
"Oh really?" said Maria. She was far from convinced.
Michelle stepped closer to Maria and lifted up the right sleeve. Carla could see a golden pendant sewn onto it.
"Do you see this? Carla only ever did this for two men in her life. The first one is back in my childhood home in Dublin. It belonged to Paul. The second time she sewed a pendant onto a sweater she gave it to Tony Gordon!"
Maria was taken aback.
"It's not possible, he's in jail. He can't be here can he?"
Michelle's eyes widen and then a look of horror came over her face. She looked like she was going to faint. Maria rushed to give her some support and keep her legs from giving out.
"Of course," Michelle whispered. "I missed the parole hearing. Carla is the one that always goes. I got my notices but I just assumed she would take the responsibility…"
Maria's eyes widened, "But she hasn't been here. So she missed the hearing."
"And now he's out, oh my god Maria he's out and he's been back here!"
"No calm down Michelle we don't know that for sure."
"There isn't any other explanation! I saw him wear this sweater it has to be him. Oh gosh we better get back Maria, little Liam is alone in the house."
Maria helped Michelle to steady herself and they clambered out of Carla's room.
"If what your saying is true about Tony, we need to leave right away."
Frank stood in the doorway of the little boys room watching him sleep. He looked so peaceful and Frank tried to remember the last time he had had any such peace. Louise had often been able to sleep very easily as a child and Frank was envious of her ability to continue existing in such traumatic situations. She had always been able to adjust to whatever country their parents had them travelling to, and didn't seem to mind being home schooled. Frank on the other hand was always etching for a life outside the same old, same old of anthropology conferences and historical debates. He wanted freedom and when he was 14 his grandfather a wealthy real estate entrepreneur took him under his wing away from all that.
Louise was 12 at the time and she remembers when the time came for them to say goodbye she couldn't stop crying. But Frank assured her he would always be with her. He had told her time would not change them, and she so boldly replied that time was the devourer of all things, Ovid had been at work in there young minds even then.
Frank looked at the boy who is called little Liam and he thought that this was very much true. He was young, never to know his father and if Franks plan worked time would ensure his mother be devoured. He wouldn't remember any of them and in the essence of time they would mean nothing. Was this who he was to be, a murderer? He was already a rapist. He had ruined Carla, the day he raped her at Tony's insistence. He could have said no, but he did not. And it is at this point he comes to a cross roads, he remembers his father sitting him down as a little boy as they read through the works of Saint Thomas More, there was the part where Thomas talks about Anne Boleyn and why he would not attend her coronation.
Thomas tells of an Emperor who deems a certain offence punishable by death unless the offender was a virgin. The first person to commit the crime is a virgin so the Emperor's council is perplexed at what to do. The Emperor responses: "Why make you so much ado, my lords, about so small a matter? Let her first be deflowered, and then after may she be devoured." Those words have stuck with Frank everyday since he first read them. He had reasoned in his head that the evil he had done was justified and if by some chance it wasn't he would make it so. The only reason he was going to kill Maria, Michelle, and Carla is because he saw them as a means to an end. He would in humanize them in order to carry out the task. His father would probably never dream his son would put his knowledge of historical texts to use in such a way.
Frank slowly walks over to little Liam's bedside and pulls from his pocket a small jar of sand. He collected it as a boy when he went on trips with his grandfather in the summer.
"For luck," Frank whispers. Slowly he backs out of the room and shuts the door.
Maria threw whatever clothing she could get her hands on into a small duffle bag and quickly packed her son a little carry bag of clothes. She made sure she packed his favorite book I'll love you forever, and his worn out pet giraffe. Slowly she went into his room and smiled. It was a smile weighed with many things, the day had been long and stressful and she was just glad that Liam didn't have to be apart of all of this. Maria walked over to Liam's bedside and gently taps him on the shoulder.
"Baby, you've got to get up now. Momma, you and auntie Michelle are going on a trip now."
Little rubs his eyes with his knuckles and looks up at his mother. He doesn't cry at being risen so soon, he seems content and just hold out his hand for Maria to take it. Maria slides a green sweater over him to ensure he is warm and the child beams at her with his blue eyes, his fathers in everyway.
"Go alone baby, Auntie Michelle is waiting for you." Liam stumbles but manages to gain his stepping and goes towards the stairs. Maria hopes Michelle doesn't have difficulty putting on his leg brace.
Maria's eyes comb the scope of her son's room and she feels herself getting very emotional. She doesn't know why she feels like such a basket case, or suddenly why she has such a foreboding feeling. But it is like; she knows that this may be the last time she is standing in her son's room. She wants to make the most of it while she can, before he grows up to hate her and feel like all she ever cared about was being angry.
"I wasn't like that baby. Mummy wasn't always so angry, she was just scared and sad." Maria talks to herself. Then she spots it a tiny glass jar, almost like a vile resting on Liam's bedside table. Strange, she thinks, I don't remember putting this there. She picks it up and examines it closely. It seems to be full of sand, so strange. She puts it pack down and with one last looks turns off Liam's light and heads down stairs.
"So what is all this Helen? Some idea of a sick joke?" Carla was being paraded down the hall from the kitchen into Barry Connor's den. She now had an explanation as to why Tom hadn't been picking up her calls for a couple of days. He was tied up in something else literally.
"We've kept a seat warm for you miss," said the old man releasing his grip on Carla and throttling her into an empty chair.
"Whose we exactly?" Carla asked indignantly.
"Don't ask," said Barry Connor. He was sitting right next to her surprisingly in good condition. "We tried getting that information out of him earlier. All we know is that it is Tony Gordon or an enemy of Tony Gordon. Can't figure which is worse."
"Obviously Tony Gordon Barry!" Helen screeched. "You know what he did to our Liam!"
Barry sighed, "Yes Helen, you remind me everyday and now it seems you must remind everyone else."
"You got some tongue and cheek old man," said the old man.
If the situation weren't so distressing Carla would have laughed. Who was he calling old man, he looked practically decrypted from the ancient world or something.
"Well you must enjoy it, because you allowed me to read for the last little while."
"If you don't shut that hole in your face, you won't be reading anything but your own tombstone."
With that Barry shut up. Carla however wasn't going to let this old man with surprisingly excellent strength intimidate her.
"Well if were all hostages why isn't she tied up to?"
"Well I made a compromise with her, that she could interview you for a while and such. But now that she's had her fun, she'll be sitting back right down next to you." The old man tightened Carla's knots.
"No I will not sir. I still have something's I'd like to clear up with my ex daughter in law."
"And you can right there, in that lovely chair." The old man pointed at the chair on the other side of Carla.
Carla was ecstatic that someone was shoving it to Helen, finally because she shut up and planted herself next to Carla.
"But I wanted to make her read from the diary!"
The old man glared at Helen and said in a warning tone, "Now we've talked about this before Mrs. Connor but if you get on my nerves, I will shut you up."
"But sir!"
"Do you want me to get the scarf and tie your mouth again?"
"No, but…"
"OH BUT A CORK IN IT HELEN. Your family is being held at gunpoint and all you want to do is go on about a damn diary. Your nephew over here is suffering the most." Barry glared in his wife's direction, "Now are you going to just shut up or what? Frankly I have had enough of you to last me a lifetime. I had a piss poor time in Nice and for what to come home for more of a piss poor time."
"Maybe we can move her to another room", Tom chimed in. "Oh Auntie Helen don't look at me like that!" Helen was shooting daggers. "You make being held hostage a thousand more times stressful then it needs to be."
"All I'm saying is that I want the diary," said Helen quickly. She gave the old man her best mousy eyes and he relented.
"Fine you'll get your bloody diary if you want it. "
"Ugh," Tom sighed. "Please move them to another room. This is going to be another run around on Carla and Paul and Liam. I love you all, but it has been ages. If I wanted a soap opera, I would tune into days of our lives."
"God I have never had so many hostage victims with so many issues. The things you lot complain about, they are ridiculous." The old man returned with the diary and plopped it on Helen's lap. "Oh is that not enough for you? Now you want to be untied, fine both of you back to the kitchen."
"I'm not going anywhere with her," said Carla defiantly.
"Oh yes you are," said the old man holstering her up. "I've seen too many a times how unresolved issues can destroy a person. You both need to just get it out of your system; it will make my job easier. But don't try any funny business, if either one of you tries to escape I will kill you and not blink twice."
"Fine," said Carla. "But who are you and who do you work for?"
"Go and sit with your mother in-law and when you get back I may just tell you."
Carla followed Helen down the hall to the kitchen. Frankly she rather be tied up in the chair.