chapter 15
Exactly whatever Yuri and Polo did with Wallace, I never asked about, and no one ever volunteered the information. As the noise settled and only the pitter-patter of a gentle rain took its place, I knew the danger was over.
I slumped against the wall and pulled my knees against my chest to rest. My mind echoed in and out to the sound of boots stomping and Polo laughing, but I blocked it out as best I could. I wanted to count, but I didn’t know how. I wanted to go home, but I didn’t know the way.
“Hey.” Charlie’s hand was warm against my cheek. I could feel myself relax. “Let me take you home.”
Considering the company I was keeping, I guess I shouldn’t have expected anything less than the personal luxury plane that had been commandeered for our travel. Despite my lack of knowledge, I had to figure this was a leading-edge aircraft. Even judging from my brief glimpse at the engine span, I estimated that it was probably worth more money than I had ever seen. I reminded myself to ask questions later and keep my mouth shut for now, a trait that other people seemed to acquire when Ben or Charlie were around. I struggled to keep my legs steady as I soldiered up steps to the plane’s entrance, my ankle was still slightly swollen and my knees as steady as Jell-O.
When I finally made it inside, Yuri was shouting something in his native language and Reid was already in the cockpit, trying to adjust a headset and a number of switches and gauges that seemed far too complicated to follow.
“Oh man, oh man, oh man!” There wasn’t much of the narrow aisle left, but Polo still managed to pace diligently in the small space between the cushy, white leather seats. I guessed the plane could probably fit ten people comfortably. Did they own this?
“What happened back there?”
“Later,” Charlie said. He eased himself into one of the seats, his knuckles growing white as he clenched his abdomen. It was only now that my relief was wearing off that I noticed how pale he was, how slow and winded his movements were, as they had been since limping from the hold.
“Charlie?”
He smiled at me, but it was thin and worn. He reached out for my hand and let his fingers dance on my wrist. The fear began when I saw how much they shook. And now that it occurred to me why they were all so eager to get back to the States and out of Singapore, the terror erupted in me as well.
“It’s just a scratch. Promise.”
I sat next to him and began preparing myself. “Leave lying for the liars.”
His smile looked more like a grimace, but I pulled the hand away as gingerly as I could, careful not to aggravate the injury further. It was startling how the blood gushed freely without the barrier of his hand, and how it now began to seep into his shirt at a horrific speed.
“What in the hell were you thinking?” I whispered.
He reached for a lock of my hair and smiled. “I was thinking ‘bout you.”
I reached for his hand, but it went limp, the multicolor of lights in his eyes flushing shut when he closed them.
I became frantic. “Charlie? Charlie?”
His lack of movement stopped my breath, yet if he would just speak, or move, even for a moment, then I knew that I could breathe again.
Reid began cursing into the headset and kicking the co-pilot chairs. I hardly heard all of the noise over my own silent panic. He would be okay, right? This bleeding would stop and he would wake up and be fine? I took his wrist and clutched it to me desperately, brushing his fingers against my cheek and keeping my thumb and forefinger against his pulse.
“You’re not allowed to die, Charlie Hays. It’s simply not acceptable.” I bit my lip to keep my tears from spilling. “Who else is going to keep me out of trouble?”
Despite the orchestrated alarm, Ben Walden was at ease. It was eerie the way he walked around the cabin with his shirt sleeve drenched in the blood of the man I loved. Unlike Reid and Yuri, he was completely composed, almost indifferent to the possibility of his friend bleeding to death. Somehow they had managed to hide Charlie’s wound from me during the bedlam of Singapore and grabbing the nearest taxi. The realization angered me. I had been so eager to get off the ship and back on land, or perhaps eager to ignore the blood, assume it didn’t belong to anyone I cared about.
“Damn it!”
“What is it, Reid?” Ben confirmed Charlie’s pulse and sat in the seat adjacent to him. “Why haven’t we taken off yet?”
“I can’t get confirmation that we’re clear. Wallace was the only one who could speak Mandarin. Most of the air traffic controllers speak English, but I can’t get a goddamn one to clear me.”
“Just go!” Yuri yelled
“And crash into something else coming in?”
I hated it with every inch of me, but I let go of Charlie as gently as I could manage. The idea of leaving him even just to walk a few yards ahead was putting splinters in my heart, but at the same time I also had the feeling we weren’t going any place at this rate, which meant he wouldn’t get the medical care he desperately needed.
So I whispered in his ear, “I’ll be right back, promise,” and made my way to the cockpit, practically jumping over Polo.
“What do you have to say to them?” I sounded much braver than I felt.
Reid whirled around and glared at me; I had done nothing but cause him trouble. “Get the hell out of here.”
While it may have been late in coming, the adrenaline was coming down on me hard. I didn’t have time for Reid and his pettiness; Charlie was hurt and needed help. If Reid was going to get in the way of that, then I would figure out a way to remove him from this current equation.
I yanked the headset from him before he had time to respond. The only advantage I genuinely had was his underestimation of me. Furiously, he lunged for it, but was already buckled in his seat, so I just took a step back, completely stoic and waiting.
I spoke the words into the small microphone and wrote down a series of numbers on a pad of notebook paper. A woman on the other end laughed at me, but spoke patiently enough that I sensed she sympathized with me.
“Thank you.” I spoke into the headset. If nothing else, I knew my basics well enough and there seemed to be plenty of individuals at air traffic who spoke Mandarin and well as Chinese.
The other end beeped four times as she had directed and I pulled it from my head and pushed it back in Reid’s face.
“You’re good to go.” I was positively seething.
He gawked at me.
Before we took off, I reclined Charlie back in his seat to elevate him. From an overhead deck, Ben pulled out a large tackle box and dropped it in the aisle.
He cleared his throat. “He’s had worse.”
Nervously, Ben laughed and surveyed the menagerie of supplies that lay in the box. In actuality, it was a first aid kit stemmed together from what looked like all kinds of sets and various household items.
I undid my seatbelt and slid back into the aisle. I could remember first aid and CPR training from summer camp. The anatomy I had learned from textbooks I could only hope would be useful to me now.
“It’s okay.” I tried to reassure both of us.
Whatever fears I had looming in my mind disappeared with the effort of the task in front of me. The scissors were easy to operate, and with them I removed Charlie’s shirt. If the situation were different, I might have enjoyed that very much, but I couldn’t give myself the luxury of thinking on those things now. Having an assignment gave me the ability to be unbiased and focused. I ran through the first aid safety checklist in my head and put on a pair of dusty latex gloves after I scrubbed my hands with scorching hot water in the restroom. It seemed like such a stupid thing at this point, but it made me feel sturdy and professional, so much unlike myself that I was even borderline confident.
Small strips of loose fabric from his t-shirt had somehow managed to get caught in the smallest fragment of the wound. With the most careful precision I think I’ve ever maintained, I removed those loose threads. Ben flicked on the single passenger light above us and sat back down. With the newfound light, I could see his injury appeared to be fairly orderly in terms of its shape. I didn’t know much, but I did know that anything jagged wouldn’t allow the wound to close properly.
Ben went back to talking with Yuri and I went back to work. I cleaned the area with a mild disinfectant, also checking the expiration date, and being careful not to aggravate the injury further. Every so often I would glance up at Charlie’s face. I didn’t want to think about why he was still unconscious and why every so often the core of the abrasion would gush with fresh blood. I taped down sterile gauze pads with an equal amount of pressure on both sides to try and keep the bleeding down. From there, I enclosed the wound in a tight bandage. It wasn’t great, but it would have to do for now.
“Wherever we’re going does have a doctor, right?” I said to no one in particular.
Ben nodded seriously. “Everything will be taken care of.”
I stood up and wandered into the aisle. “Is there any water around here?”
Eager to be active, Polo unbuckled himself and headed to the back of the jet where he made a ruckus of noise.
“Water? Water? Anybody water?” He frantically started tossing the bottles to everyone. I was lucky enough to catch one just before it landed on Charlie’s head.
Yuri caught one of the wild throws. “Polo, you’re the ugliest flight attendant I’ve ever seen.”
We all smiled, but it wasn’t very heartfelt. Charlie was still unmoving, and as pale as anything I had ever seen.
I sat back down beside him and unclasped the water, forcing some into his mouth. Even though he coughed reflexively, it was good to hear some kind of response from him. Every few moments I made him drink a little more.
I rested my hand against his chest and continued to periodically feed him water. His eyes were sunken in and dark against the white of his normally tan complexion. But that wasn’t what bothered me. What truly disturbed me was his lack of response to my touch. I brushed my hand against his cheek, his forehead, and silently prayed for the flutter of an eyelash or the twitch of a lip. But the only movement came when I forced him to drink.
I began whispering in his ear. “Did you know that tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur? Did you know that the average person blinks about twenty-five times per minute?” I brushed the hair from the side of his face and leaned against his shoulder. “Did you know the human heart beats 100,000 times a day?” I choked on my own words. “You still have lots and lots to go today.”
“How long until we get there?” I asked Ben.
He looked to Reid for an answer. “You’ll have to ask that one.”
“We finally caught a break,” Reid answered. “No reports of bad weather, going as fast as we can. Should be there in about fourteen hours.”
Fourteen hours? And that was a short amount of time? I tried not to seem disappointed, but I couldn’t help it. Who knew how Charlie’s condition could be by then?
“It’s usually like eighteen hours,” Polo said. “It’s the worst. A couple of hours less is a lot better, right, guys?”
Ben’s focus seemed to be on a point on the floor. “Hmm? Oh sure, Polo. Absolutely.”
He stood up then and walked to the back of the cabin. When he returned, it was with a small humidor. Yuri and Polo declined the offer of a cigar, but Ben lit one up almost immediately.
I checked Charlie’s pulse again. It was weak but steady. It was really his shallow breath that began to concern me.
“Put that out, please?” I nodded to the cigar.
The glare he gave me was almost threatening, daring me to ask again. Still, he produced a crystal ashtray from a side compartment and put out the butt without complaint. As I watched his strangely graceful movements, I realized the unique opportunity I had at that moment, as it was very possible Charlie would never allow me to know any more about his past than I could read in a newspaper. But Ben Walden had known him for years, and Charlie was hardly in any position to object to a friendly interrogation.
“You and Charlie met in prison, right?”
Yuri craned his head from the window. At last the conversation seemed to interest him.
“That’s correct.” Ben seemed unsurprised by the question, almost as if he expected it, even.
I remembered what the articles had said about their sentences and what they had done. I figured if Ben wasn’t going to volunteer any information, then I was going to have to choose my questions wisely enough to gain as much data as possible.
“W-were you doing this kind of stuff before then?”
He smiled. “I was doing work along these lines, yes. But Charlie Boy was still doing that mettling child’s play.” He waved the phrase away as though it disgusted him.
I shifted uncomfortably in my seat and tried to prepare myself. “I take it you aren’t referring to hopscotch?”
“I like hopscotch!” Polo jumped up and started jumping from one foot to the other in the aisle.
“As a young man he acted as a bit of a motivator for some of the less refined groups of the south.” Ben scoffed at what seemed to be a fond memory. “I could see the potential here—” He kicked Charlie’s leg fondly. “So I took him under my wing.”
What was I supposed to say to this? I knew Charlie was capable of hurting people. I had seen and felt his anger inflicted on others. It was only too easy to picture him as a brooding teenager, working as a leg-breaker (or whatever it was) because he thought it was his place. And while I only had a vague idea about jail from Hollywood and the media, I understood that gang life was something of a necessity. Still, the idea of some twisted Aryan ideals and Charlie looking toward them made me sad.
Maybe he was young and stupid, I told myself.
I looked at him and smiled. Was that what he had meant when he said I wouldn’t love him after awhile?
“I’m going to prove you so wrong,” I whispered to him.
“You need to stop taking people under your wing,” Yuri mocked. “You took Wallace under your wing, and ‘cause of him, we got two dead people, a kidnapped girl, and Charlie got a hole in his gut.”
“True, true.” He weighed his hands out in mock balance. “However, we also have one less share to split, Charlie has a girl, and we have rid ourselves of a troublemaker.”
Yuri began counting off the items. “Life sentences for everybody, and all kinds of unnecessary heat.”
Ben groaned into his fist. “Hmm, well, we’ll take care of all of that when the time comes.”
I didn’t know whether or not it would be appropriate to apologize, but I had a compulsive desire to do so. I hated to be an inconvenience to people. Heck, I even hated asking the librarian for help finding something at the reference desk. But on the other hand, I hadn’t asked to be kidnapped, either. And there wasn’t any chance I would apologize for the way I felt about Charlie.
Polo poured a handful of colorful candies in his mouth. “The police won’t be a problem, will they?”
“No, Polo.” The words came out of my mouth before I could stop them “Not because of me, anyway.”
I pulled my knees to my chest and created a veil with my hair, though it was impossible not to see the glare Reid gave me.
I looked Charlie over and reached for the pulse at his neck. Though he was still abnormally pale, his pulse seemed stronger. I counted the beats there and remembered to breathe. The serpent bounced beneath my finger: one, two, three, four…
“Does anyone have a phone I can borrow?”
Yuri eyed me suspiciously.
“The internet.” I hoped my stare would shatter him.
Ben rolled his eyes at us. “You kids play nice now.” He then tossed a sleek-looking device in my direction, naturally I dropped it. My blush increased dramatically.
“Sorry,” I muttered.
I squished up into a tiny version of myself and concealed myself beside the shield of Charlie’s arm. He was feeling warm but not abnormally so; I hoped a fever wasn’t threatening to settle in.
It was peculiar to see myself right away when I tapped on the browser. The homepage was linked to a popular news site and there I was on a string list with a half a dozen of the day’s headlines.
No New Leads on Missing Honors Student
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is actively pursuing the possible abduction of Adeline Battes, 17, missing since last Tuesday after she was last seen speaking with convicted felon Charles Hays, 29. Although no ransom demands have been made, Battes’ destroyed cellular phone was found several yards within a crime scene involving the death of truck driver Spenser Hanson, 46, and the theft of an unidentified number of computer staging equipment.
I clicked out and searched for a new link. I already knew most of that information. What I wanted to know, what I needed to know, had to be around here somewhere.
Suspect in Kidnapping now on 10 Most Wanted List
Wanted in connection with the recent alleged kidnapping of Adeline Battes and murder of Spenser Hanson in Syracuse, New York, Charles Hays has been added to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Ten Most Wanted List. While the search for Adeline Battes continues, investigators have few indications as to the teenager’s whereabouts and consider her to be in extreme danger.
The FBI is offering a reward up to $100,000 for information that leads to the arrest and capture of Charles Hays, who has now been charged with felony theft, gross parole violation, and assault.
“We believe Hays could be anywhere in the United States and we are concerned for anyone who comes into contact with him or his associates,” said Junior Deputy Agent Adam Harpsten.
Hays was last seen on August 13 just before the disappearance of Adeline Battes. He has brown hair, green eyes and is 5’ 11’’. He weighs between 170 and 200lbs, and may be identified by a unique series of tattoos as pictured below. Hays may also have connections in Tennessee, Alabama, Texas and Georgia. He is considered armed and dangerous.
I almost wanted to laugh; that description didn’t even come close to doing him justice. But now he was one of the most wanted people in the country. There were probably professionals out there looking for him just for the reward alone. But I wished I knew more about criminology so I could have a better idea about how they were investigating. I told myself that if and when everything did sort itself out, I would have to look into taking some sort of criminal justice class as an elective, maybe buy some outdated law books.
Most of the articles were repetitive in nature, relaying the same information in different formats. Others were embarrassingly exaggerated, featuring bloated or outdated pictures of me from my childhood. Those articles were human interest in nature, not relaying any real information, just going on about what a tragedy it was.
From there they just continued to get more ridiculous. There were some articles that suggested Charlie Hays was part of a political conspiracy, concocted radio commentary from activists who thought I was being used for secret medical research because of my IQ test scores, an interview with a psychic who said I was already in the underworld.
“Wow, really?”
“I like the ones that say you were abducted by aliens,” said the voice in my ear.
My heart ricocheted in my chest. “Charlie!”
I threw my arms around him to embrace him, but he flinched instantly.
“Oh, sorry! Sorry!”
To my amazement, he laughed, or at least tried to. It was clear even that movement caused him considerable pain.
“If it were anybody else…” His broken hand reached out for me.
I finished the sentence for him. “You wouldn’t have so many problems.”
He smiled my favorite Charlie smile. “Just think ‘bout how boring life would be.”
“I don’t see your life being anything close to ordinary.”
An empty water bottle flew in our direction and landed on my head. Within moments, a barrage of candy wrappers and water bottles were soaring in the air like an army of flaming arrows.
Charlie gauged the attack and broke out laughing. “Hi, guys.”
“Jackass,” Yuri mumbled.
“Hey, Charlie! That was a crazy mess back there, man! There was like blood all over the place and everybody was yelling at everybody. If you were awake it would have been even louder, man! Hey, you want some candy? I found some candy—”
“How are you feeling?” Ben interrupted.
He leaned his head back, “Like I’ve been shanked.”
Ben smiled. “Makes me feel young again.”
Charlie tried to laugh but winced in pain. I immediately flicked him in the arm with my fingers.
“It’s not funny, Charlie. I didn’t think—I mean, with all of the blood and everything.” I couldn’t finish my sentence. Just remembering the small pond of crimson that had collected in the seat around him, the life that sustained him just draining, like it meant nothing, made me want to die on the inside. I had wanted to become some sort of statue or robot that never felt anything ever again.
He reached for me, pulling me close. I didn’t object. Instead, I nuzzled myself against his arm and breathed in the scent of him, wishing we were alone so that I could hold him closer.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I ain’t used to having somebody care ‘bout what happens to me.”
I kissed him quickly in the crook of his elbow so no one could see.
“He told me you were in there and I kept seeing all the stuff that ever happened in there. I didn’t think—”
“Goddamn right you didn’t think!” Reid called from ahead. “Could have gotten us all sent to Changi. I’m not going to a Singapore prison for your sorry ass—”
“Easy, kids.”
Charlie ignored them both, sliding down enough so that he could speak directly into my ear. “In the dark, Addie, I heard your voice. I think you’re ‘bout the only thing that kept me from going straight to Diyu, the real one.”
I clutched at him. “My stupidity almost got you killed, Charlie.”
He tensed in my hands. “No. That greedy, yellow-bellied, piece of crap Wallace is what almost got you killed—”
“Not me, Charlie! You!”
“Let us not get ahead of ourselves,” Ben said. “I don’t know about any of you, but until I get home, I will hardly be capable of very much brainstorming.”
Home? Is that where we were going? What exactly was home to someone like Ben Walden? A hundred different ideas came to my mind. Now that I knew Charlie was all right, I was beginning to concern myself with the logistics of the journey in front of us. We couldn’t have been flying for more than an hour or two, so that had to have put us behind half a day.
“Where are we going, anyway?” I asked Charlie.
He smiled at me. “They didn’t tell you?” He grinned at them.
“Do I look like ‘information’?” Yuri crossed his arms over his chest and went back to staring out the window.
Charlie ignored them and turned his attention back to me. “In the wine country, there’s a little town that makes everybody fall in love with it.” His voice was a whisper in my ear again. I shivered and clutched at him.
“Oh, really?”
He nodded briskly. “Yup. Everybody’s got their own place nearby, but we usually just bother Ben at his house.”
I was skeptical. “Where exactly is this place, anyway?”
“Northern California. You know a lot of other ‘wine countries’?” He was mocking me, but I didn’t care. It was just good to hear his voice again.
I rolled my eyes. “For all I knew, you were taking me to a cave in the middle of Italy.”
“Hmm.” He stroked his chin. “That ain’t a bad idea, either.”
I only faked my annoyance but Charlie could see that I was near giddy with excitement. California was only one of the many places I had wanted to travel. And while these weren’t fantastic circumstances, I was glad I would get to see a little piece of it, anyway.
Polo couldn’t stand it any longer. “Oh! Oh! Oh! Hey, Ben? Ben? Is Elise making pancakes for dinner today? Because that would be really great.”
“Who is Elise?” I mouthed the words to Charlie.
“Ben’s old lady.”
I nodded, but it took a moment for the fact to really register. It had never occurred to me that someone like Ben Walden could have a significant other, or at least not in the traditional sense. Vaguely I pictured Bonnie and Clyde and The Lonely Heart Killers. Considering his occupation, what sort of relationship did they really have? I began to wonder what life was like for her: did she spend her nights worrying about the day Ben was shot and killed by a rival? Did she practice alibis for him in case the FBI came looking for him?
Then it occurred to me that maybe she was constantly prepared for all of those things. If she was with Ben, didn’t she have to be? A life half-lived, waiting for some terrible secret phone call or news report on the television that would reveal her other half would spend the rest of his life in prison?
I looked at Charlie for some comfort but he was resting with his eyes closed. A fear rushed through me. I couldn’t even be near him without being afraid of losing him.
“Charlie? Charlie?” I shook him.
He opened a single eye. “Yup?”
I sighed. “Nothing. Just making sure.”
“Don’t worry, Vicious.” He rested his broken hand on top of mine. “I ain’t going anywhere.”
While he napped, I periodically iced his hand and torso, which didn’t seem to bother him enough to do anything but try and bat away the ice pack. Every so often I would hear his breath increase or see his nostrils flare, and in those moments, when it became obvious he was dreaming, I would rest myself against him and hear him mutter only one word continuously, “Addie.”