"Are you kidding me?" I said, laughing through my own tears and wiping a tear off her cheek with my thumb.
"I'm just worried about you. Call me, okay, and right away as soon as you are settled. Promise?"
"Yes." I promised.
And I did just that. I called her as soon as I got to my parent's house. But she didn't answer the phone. She didn't answer the second time I called or the fourth time. She didn't answer her phone.
JOSHUA
“Now, we are going to go through this one more time and if you don’t tell me what I want to know you’ll be eating your food through a straw for the rest of your life. Kay, sweetheart? ” I said.
Diamond. She was looking so tasty just lying there on the floor, her hands tied behind her back, her nylons torn and her blouse untucked from the waistband of her skirt. It certainly did cross my mind to have some fun with her before beating the information I needed out of her. But, that just isn’t my style.
You hear cops always talking about how with rapists it’s always about the power not the sex. I had power. I had power wrapped in tissue paper stuffed in my closets. I had so much. And right now I just needed to convince Diamond that it was for the best of everyone involved that she tell me where Natasha was. Perhaps I started off on the wrong foot, I wondered recalling how I got in touch with Diamond in the first place.
She helped Natasha get into a cab and before I could get my car the taxi had merged with a dozen other yellow cabs. It would have been too difficult to try and figure out which one held my beautiful, deceitful ex-girlfriend. But, as the Universe never closes one door on Joshua Hewitt without opening another, Diamond just turned and walked slowly down the sidewalk. She must not have felt like a cab ride. Lucky, lucky me.
Police also warn women to always be aware of their surroundings. As I walked behind Natasha’s friend I let my eyes wander just a little to the other females walking along the sidewalk. It was getting dark already at this early evening hour. The streetlights had another half an hour at the most before they would flicker on causing the city to take on a more ominous appearance.
So why not walk with your purse just hanging loosely over your shoulder. No one will swipe it in broad twilight. Keep your face buried in your cell phone as you walk. No one will sneak up on you. And truthfully, those of my own gender were really no better. They yapped on their cell phones and stomped around heading in this or that direction wrapped up in their own thoughts.
With everyone on the sidewalk preoccupied I thought I’d conduct a little experiment. You see, when you are virtually untouchable and so much more elevated than the average Joe walking the beat you have to continually hone your skills. To become complacent, to settle into mediocrity is an affront to the Universe. I would never do it.
With long strides I quickly came up on Miss Diamond and walked right past her without her even noticing me. She was too busy on her phone. I made it about a block ahead of her and quickly ducked down an alley. Once in the smelly, stagnant gangway I stepped into a shadow and waited.
Sure enough Natasha’s friend reached the opening still gazing at her phone.
“Oh, God, help me.” I whined, just loud enough for her to hear. It was an instinct Diamond couldn’t fight. It was a very rare woman that, when hearing a cry for help, could push her maternal instinct aside and keep walking. I was doubled over, leaning against the wall as if I had been ill or attacked.
“Hey. Hey, there. Are you okay?” she asked, looking at me, then looking behind her then back at me. Her eyes were wide with concern until I looked up at her quickly snatching her by the wrist and pulling her toward me, my o
ther hand clamping over her mouth.
“You aren’t going to make a sound, Diamond, right?” I said, squeezing her wrist tightly.
“You! Heee…”
SLAP!
I didn’t want to do it. I didn’t want to slap her right there in the alley but she gave me no choice. It was funny. I felt her teeth rattle beneath my palm and was sure she was going to spit out one or two canines from the blow. She didn’t, but she did lose her balance and fall, cracking her own head on the side of the brick building next to us. It was perfect.
I slipped an arm around her waist feeling the fullness of her hips and the soft cushion of the female form in my arm. There was an alley entrance to The Marquette, a crappy bar where construction workers, lawyers and secretaries would go to unwind after work. We slipped in quietly and since the crowd was already feeling good it was easy to say that Diamond had just had one too many.
We stood in a quiet corner and had a nice long talk.
“It didn’t have to come to this.” I said. “You could have helped me out.”
“Helped you do what?” Diamond said as her eyes rolled and she touched the back of her head pulling it away with blood on her fingertips. I watched her tongue touching her lip gently, wincing at the pain. “Obviously you’re crazy and I’m getting away from you.”
She took one woozy step before I yanked her back into the corner.
“You aren’t going anywhere. You see there isn’t much that can’t be done when you have a pocket full of hundred dollar bills. Here, I’ll show you.”
Quickly I leaned over and tapped the shoulder of a guy wearing a white t-shirt and faded blue jeans with steal toed work boots on and a tattoo of a spider web on his elbow. I whispered a couple of words to him over the noises of the jukebox, reached in my pocket and handed over a hundred dollar bill. The man took it and disappeared. Within a few minutes he was back with two shots of Jack Daniels and my change that I let him keep.
He handed both drinks to Diamond and gave her a sly smile as his eyes felt her up.
“Bottoms up, sweetheart.” He said, smiling with yellow, tobacco stained teeth.