Primary Valor by Jack Mars (booksvooks TXT) 📗

He owed a lot. He couldn’t keeptrack of it. The interest was high, much higher than a bank. He was afraid toask how bad it had gotten. And he and Darwin weren’t even really friends. Theyknew each other on the Upper East Side. They were in the same social circle,the same party scene. It was superficial at best. At worst, Darwin hadknowingly trapped him.

Anyway, all that was gone now. Darwinleft New York for Florida, and Jeff came down here to North Carolina. ThenDarwin didn’t even seem to live in the country anymore. Jeff thought maybe itwas a new start. But Darwin’s people were still around. And Jeff was stillcaught, like a fish on a hook. Owing Darwin King money was like owing money tothe mob. There was no escape.

One day a man met him on a benchin a local park. Just two guys sitting, chatting quietly, at either end of thebench. If you watched them from afar, you probably wouldn’t even notice theywere together.

“You need to put up something ofvalue,” the man said. “His patience is gone. It can’t go on like this anymore.”

Jeff couldn’t think of a singlething. The cars? Darwin wouldn’t care about that. He probably had a hundred cars.The 1948 Hudson, his pride and joy, wasn’t even all original. There were abunch of modern replica parts in there which for any real collector wouldcrater the value. Jeff didn’t like to admit that, not even to himself, but itwas true.

“I don’t have anything,” he’dsaid. “I mean I am just tapped out.”

He fully expected the man to takehis head right then and there, sitting on a bench in a public park in themiddle of the day, and twist it off his shoulders. But it turned out the manalready had something of value in mind.

“What about the girl?” he said.

It seemed crazy, like a joke. Hehad heard rumors about Darwin’s proclivities, but he had never really takenthem seriously. People talked, that was all.

“What girl?”

The man shook his head. He was alarge man, and stern. His face was so blank, he almost didn’t seem to have aface. There was no intelligence behind his eyes. Nothing meant anything to him.He could have just as easily said, “What about the couch?”

“You know what girl.”

Jeff didn’t say anything. He didn’teven want to dignify it by responding. He remembered how he trembled slightly.

“He’s seen pictures. He likes her.Also, she’s connected. This will settle an old score that you don’t know aboutand don’t need to know about.”

“She’s not my girl,” Jeff said, asif that was an answer.

“No, but you can help get her. Justmake it go smoothly. It’s not the easiest thing in the world sometimes.”

Nor should it be.

But it turned out it was easy,almost too easy. It was nothing to track what Charlotte was up to, her littlesecret meetings with friends, her undercover communications, the times shesnuck out of the house to go to parties with her friends.

Charlotte thought she was thecoolest kid on Earth. She thought she knew everything. She was a spoiled brat,really. There was a lot she didn’t know, about the world, about herself, andabout others. For example, Jeff helped her get away with sneaking out a coupleof times. She didn’t know that. She didn’t know he was watching her, and evenworse, she didn’t know that they were watching her.

The truth was she didn’t knowanything. She was oblivious, just a dizzy teenage kid.

To Jeff, it seemed like a strangedream. It couldn’t be real. This was how he was going to get off the hook? Bygiving Joy’s daughter away? When the big night came, he wasn’t sure if it wasactually happening or if it was just practice.

Then she was gone. Just gone. Hespoke to the police, of course, the concerned boyfriend. Suspicion naturallyfell on him, but it wasn’t like he had attacked and beaten up the Hastings kid.He wasn’t at the party. And there were no communications between him and thereal kidnappers.

Everything was done on ananonymous, encrypted phone Darwin’s people gave him. He never saw a bill. Hedidn’t even know what network it used. On Friday afternoon, he took the batteryout of the phone and dropped it in the river.

He’d been thinking of killinghimself ever since. Yes, it seemed he had gotten away with it, but that didn’tmean he deserved to live.

And as soon as he noticed theseplainclothes types following him, he knew it was over. He hadn’t gotten awaywith anything. It was just completely over. There was no sense pretendinganymore. He couldn’t go to jail. He couldn’t face Joy. He couldn’t face the media.

He was moving quickly again, asfast as he could, and the ladder shook as he climbed it. He did not want thatcop to catch up to him. At the top of the ladder, he clambered out through yetanother trap door.

He emerged onto a wide platform. Itwas high, much higher than it had seemed from the ground. The height was crazy,and the platform sloped gently downward from the center to the edge. One sideof the platform looked out over the harbor and the distant islands, and theocean, and maybe the whole world. It was dark that way.

On the other side of the platformwas the city. He could see the lights of the buildings downtown. He imagined hecould almost see people moving, hurrying along city streets, all the hustle andbustle. But that was a different city, not Wilmington, not North Carolina. Thatwas New York. It was almost like he was hallucinating now, or having visions. Itwas like he could understand things, things he’d never understood or eventhought of before.

He had been such a fool. Just asorry clown who skimmed along the surface and never tried to understandanything. Now, too late, he saw that he could have been smarter about it all. Hislife could have been different.

He started to cry.

He walked toward the edge. It wasan amazing view. More than amazing, it was magic. A strong wind blew, shakingthe structure beneath his feet.

Behind him, the man clambered outonto the platform. Jeff turned and looked. He