Page 29 of Deader than Dead
“Good,” Cade said. “Then you’ll be fine. Tell them what they want to hear. Be polite. Don’t rile them. Come up with an alibi for last night if you can.”
John let out a sound that was half snort and half laugh. “I’m not talking to them. I had my fill of them yesterday. Did I mention they pointed a fucking gun at my head?”
Had they? Jesus. He’d left that part out of his story. Perhaps I should be grateful for that missing portion of time. If they’d threatened to shoot him, what might they have done to me?
Cade’s voice dropped to a lower cadence. “I’m sorry to hear that. Honestly, I am, but I’m afraid it’s too late.”
“What do you mean?” John’s voice was sharp, his gaze finding mine once more, my already rapid heart rate kicking up another notch as we both held our breath in anticipation of Cade’s answer.
“I had to give them your address, John.”
John shot to his feet, his coffee cup careening off the table to lie in broken pieces at his feet, the coffee that had still been in the cup splattering the linoleum. “You did what? Why would you do that? Why would you sell me out?”
I’d stood too, panic making me lightheaded. If they came here, they wouldn’t find their corpse, but they’d find something infinitely more valuable. A man who could once more tell them where the mask could be found, and I was all out of cyanide pills. It was a shame the amnesia didn’t go back further. If only I’d forgotten that bit, too, then I’d be useless to them. But I hadn’t, so I needed to keep myself out of their hands, somehow.
“I had no choice, John,” Cade insisted.
John ran a trembling hand through his hair, his expression leaving nothing to the imagination about how he felt about Cade’s entreaty. “Of course you had a choice. You could have told them you couldn’t disclose that kind of information about your employees. Oh, and maybe you could have not taken the dodgy fucking job in the first place. You’re rich as sin. It’s not like you need the money.”
“They have my son.”
The quietly spoken statement seemed to stop John in his tracks. “What? You don’t have a son.”
“I do. It’s not widely known information, but I do. They must have found out somehow. Three armed men took Mika from his childminder’s house yesterday. They said if I did everything they asked, they’d return him to me unharmed. I didn’t have any choice but to accept the job. They made that very clear. It was meant to be straightforward. You reanimate the corpse. He gives them the information they need, and everyone is happy. I didn’t know they’d lied about how long he’d been dead.”
This was turning into such a fucking mess. The slow shake of John’s head said he thought so too. “Do you even know what they’re after?”
The pause broadcasted the answer loud and clear even before Cade muttered a quietly spoken “no.”
“You didn’t think to ask?” There was no mistaking the bite in John’s tone.
“I just want Mika back. He’s only seven. He doesn’t deserve to be caught up in this.” Cade let out a breath loud enough to be audible. “It will be fine. Just tell them the truth, that you had nothing to do with the disappearance of the corpse. Why they’d think you’d steal a corpse anyway, I don’t know. They’re obviously grasping at straws. Once they realize you’re telling the truth, they’ll have no choice but to release Mika. It’s not like I can do anything else for them.”
“It’s not that simple,” John said. He made for the bedroom and I followed, the messy bed a poignant reminder of last night’s carnal activities. While John started stuffing things in a bag, I put my shoes on and grabbed my borrowed jacket. I assumed John intended on getting the hell out of here before O’Reilly and her stooges arrived. A sentiment I was fully on board with.
“What do you mean?” Cade asked, his tone sharp.
Indecision flickered across John’s face and I was surprised to discover I could read him like a book. He was trying to work out if he could trust Cade. Whether his boss having a son caught up in this made him more or less trustworthy. When he looked to me, I nodded. I didn’t see that we had a choice. Not when we were already up shit creek. It was hard to imagine how things could possibly get worse.
“Nobody stole the corpse,” John said. “Don’t ask me how, but he came back to life on his own. He walked out of there.” He stuffed a couple of T-shirts in the bag, continuing before Cade had a chance to question anything. “He came to me. We have a… bond, something that tethers us together. That’s why I acted weird even when he was dead. I thought I’d hidden it, but obviously I hadn’t.”
I smiled even as Cade remained silent. It was nice to have confirmation of the bond we shared, proof that we were in this together. John paused with a pair of jeans in his hand. “Cade?”
“Is he still there?” Cade finally asked.
Sensing my cue, I stepped closer to the phone. “Yes, I’m still here. I could hardly have known you were going to send them here. Thanks for that, by the way.” Derision dripped from my voice. Kidnapped son or no kidnapped son, there was no getting past the fact that Cade had sold John down the river. And from this point on, anything that upset John upset me too.
“How is he…?” Cade caught himself. “Never mind, that’s hardly the priority. He needs to tell them what they want to know.”
I rolled my eyes. Yeah, because life was that simple. I took John’s phone from him while he continued to throw things in a bag. “Cade, is it? I’m Bellamy. I’d say it’s good to meet you, but I’d be lying. What do you know about the Bontifi mask? Have you heard of it?”
There was a slight pause. “Only that it’s been missing for years and it’s incredibly powerful.”
“In what way?”
“It varies depending on what the wearer wants out of life. I guess it’s a bit like a genie in that it grants their wishes.”
I took a moment to digest the information. At least Cade wasn’t freaking out like Dice had. “And what do you think it would do for someone like O’Reilly?”