Fatal Transaction (Thriller & Suspense, Cyber Crime) (25 page)

“I’ve called them several times. They haven’t answered.” Levy stood, unmoving, glaring down at her.

“Sounds like a personal problem.”

“Enough of this game. They will show up in due time.” He shifted his stance. “You took my money. I want it back.”

“You mean the money you stole. Or should I say, the money I helped you steal.”

He leaned in, face to face with Sara, their noses only three inches apart. She could smell his overpriced cologne. His hands wrapped around her wrists, squeezing tight. “Where’s my money?”

“Where’s my Derry?”

With a shove, he backed off. “Is that what this is all about? You got yourself caught to save
your
Derry
?” Levy turned to Vance. “When you found her, did she have any tracking devices on her?”

“Not on her body.”

“What about her clothes?”

“I didn’t check. It doesn’t matter. I made her remove them, and I dumped them in the rubbish bin behind the computer store.”

Levy returned his attention to Sara. “You see. The police don’t know where you are.”

“What makes you think that? Maybe they’re just waiting for me to signal them.”

“I have men monitoring their communications.” Levy gave a cold stare as he shoved his hands into his pockets. “What bank did you move my money to?”

“Is Derry still alive? Just tell me that.” She was letting her fear show. A bad sign. It would give Levy more control over her. The chair contained Derry’s blood. Were all her efforts just a futile attempt to save a dead man?

“You always have been stubborn.”

Then he nodded to Vance.

As Vance turned the knob, her body vibrated with each cycle of current. The pain was worse than she had imagined. She tried to scream, but her muscles were no longer under her command.

Chapter 50

“T
his is only the beginning. Vance will use the next several jolts to zero in on your body’s resistance, and learn how much torment your body can take.” Levy talked like a schoolteacher giving a lesson. All this was familiar. He had given the same talk to Steve. “Vance considers himself an artist, finding the breaking point of each subject, seeing just how much torture their mind can go through before they snap.”

Levy paced the area between Sara and the table ten feet in front of her. “He believes he can kill you using this chair, and bring you back to life. He hopes to try it several times. You understand that, if you do not tell me where my money is, I will let him have his way. In the end, you will beg to talk, to tell me anything I want to know, if only to make the pain stop. By that time, it may be too late. Parts of your brain will be fried. You will be on the edge of becoming a simpleton, a babbling imbecile. At that point, I will let you go. Your mind will be gone. Oh, I could kill you then, but letting you live out your life as an idiot in the streets of Denver is a just punishment for you. A homeless moron, sleeping in the gutters. A woman the homeless men will use and discard.”

“Is that what you did with Derry? Tormented him, killed him, and then brought him back to life, all to build up your ego?”

Levy gave a half-smile. “Oh, I didn’t do that with Derry. That treatment is reserved for you alone.” He looked over his shoulder and gave a small nod.

Another jolt hit, vibrating every bone and muscle she had. When it finally stopped, she raised her head and opened her eyes to see Levy smiling.

“I’m enjoying this, seeing you go through this pain. It will only get worse, but you can make it stop. All you need to do is tell me where you hid my money. A bank name.”

This was all part of his power trip. He’d made the same promises to Steve, but even after Steve talked, Levy slowly killed him.

“Where is he?” Sara kept her mind on Derry. He was the one thing in her life worth living for, and worth going through any amount of pain.

“What does it matter? You and he are not getting out of here. Not alive, that is.”

“You want your money. I want Derry to go free. You give me what I want, and I’ll tell you everything.”

“You
have
lost you mind. What is this Derry to you?”

Before she could answer, Vance hit her with another jolt, longer and stronger than the ones before. Her body shook all the way into her bones. Her head wanted to explode.

Finally, the torture stopped. Opening her eyes, she found Levy unmoved.

“Well?”

“Well what?” It took a minute for her mind to clear again.

“Why is this Derry so important to you?”

It was strange. With each blast of energy, layers of her life seemed to burn away. Things she once valued so highly became unimportant.
Is this what happens when you know you are about to die?
“Because he’s a good man. He helped me—without knowing anything about me.”

Levy gave a short snort. “A good man? Never thought I’d hear you say that about anyone.” He strolled over to the table, and picked up a stack of papers that sat next to Vance’s control panel.

Sara’s jaws were sore. Had she bitten down on the tracker? She tried to feel it with her tongue. The area felt smooth, but it was hard to tell. Her tongue was slightly numb.

Where was Derry? If he was still alive, Levy would have brought him out and used him to get to her. If he was dead, it didn’t matter how long it took Vance to kill her. Life without Derry would be—

Could she even live without him? He was what was important, not money. The only thing she was afraid of now was losing him.

“Did you kill him?”

Levy looked up from whatever he was reading. His eyes were cold, lifeless. Did this man even have a soul? “No, I didn’t kill him. But I should have.”

“Why? To get me to tell you where the money is? To punish me?” She was pleading for an answer.

Levy tossed the papers back on the table. “No, that has nothing to do with it. I should kill him because of what he got away with. His past.”

“What are you talking about?”

“He’s not the good man you think he is, yet you are willing to make a trade—his freedom for my money.”

“I don’t care about your money anymore.”

“What about yourself? Don’t you want to live?” Levy moved in.

“My life doesn’t matter. I know you’ll never let me go.” She had
gotten Derry into this mess with her past and her greed. He was a good man with a good heart. He could do so much better than her.

“You are willing to die for him?”

“Yes. He saved my life and I—” She couldn’t tell the full reason. He’d just use it against her.

“You love him.” Levy laughed. “Sara actually loves someone. Why? Because he gave you a ride? You are such an easy mark.”

“No, it’s more than that.” Rage reared its ugly head.

“Forget about him. And tell me where my money is. Then you will be set free.”

“You’ll never let me go, but Derry’s the first person I ever met who is truly good and innocent. Something you’ll never understand. Let him go, and I’ll tell you where your stupid money is.”

Levy gave a sadistic laugh. “Derry? Derry Conway? Innocent?” He spun around and grabbed the stack of papers, clenching them. He held them out toward Sara. “He’s not innocent. He’s a murderer. He killed his girlfriend. Her name was Tami. He shot her in the head. You’re wanting to die for a murderer because he gave you a ride and shared his bed.”

“No. He never touched me. And he told me about his girlfriend. He didn’t kill her.”

“He lied to you like all the rest. Read it for yourself.” Levy flung the papers at her. “He killed her in cold blood. A girl he said he loved. She trusted him. She loved him, just like you do, and he killed her over some drugs. He’s the worst kind of person. Compared to him, you’re as pure as the driven snow.”

Levy advanced, placing his hands on her arms, lighter than before. He stared into her face. “His sins are deep, and no amount of your love can change that. It doesn’t matter how you feel about him. It can’t change the truth. He’s a murderer, and you don’t deserve to die for the likes of him.”

She stared down at the floor.

He pulled back. “My money.”

She looked up into his face. “Where’s Derry?”

Vance hit her with another jolt. She shook even harder than before.

When it was over, she closed her eyes to rest. Her mind drifted back to thoughts of Derry. The memories gave her a peace she didn’t quite understand. She sat across the table from him as he talked with her. It was the day he told her about God and what true love is. “
Love made it possible for a sinless man to willingly die for murderers and rapists.
”

Is this what he meant? Even if what Levy said was true, it didn’t matter to her. She loved Derry, loved him enough to willingly die in his place, regardless of his past.

Is that the type of love God had? Love for murderers? For rapists? For her? She wanted that kind of pure love. To be loved the way she was, no matter what she’d done or what had been done to her. She wanted to feel clean all the way through. She was willing to exchange her life for this type of love, for God’s love. She was willing to give Him anything and everything to feel that type of love in her own life.

Levy was talking again. She didn’t want to listen. She wanted to stay where she was. In God’s love.

Sara opened her eyes.

“Where’s my money?”

“You again?” The fear she held for Levy was gone. She didn’t care about anything but Derry’s life and his God.

Now her God.

***

Derry waited behind the dumpster for the men on the back stoop to finish their break. They took forever, standing around, smoking and talking. Didn’t they know what was going on under their noses? Didn’t they care?

Finally, the men disappeared through the door. Was he too late? Derry gave them one long minute to clear out of the hallway on the other side of the door before leaving his hiding place.

Going through the door, he found the hall vacant.
Good
. At the top of the stairs, he could hear Levy and Sara talking. Was she in the chair?

He worked his way down the stairs, stopping at the bottom. No one had noticed him.

Sara was strapped into that horrifying device.

He needed to destroy that hellish machine. He had one chance. He rushed Levy first. Ramming his head into Levy’s gut, he knocked him back into the table. Veering, Derry smashed his good shoulder into the control panel, knocking it over. Sparks flew across the floor and into the air.

Sara screamed. Derry spun around and, grabbing the heavy wires that led to her chair, he yanked on them with all his strength, pulling the chair over.
Bad move
.

As Vance lunged at him, Derry ducked and swiveled to the side. Vance was big but slow. They turned to face each other. As Vance approached him, Derry brought his leg up and smashed his foot into Vance’s knee. Pain from the knife wound shot up Derry’s other leg. He collapsed next to Sara.

Her face held a surprised look as she exclaimed, “You’re alive.”

He reached for her. Something crashed into the back of his head. Sharp pain engulfed his brain.

***

Lying on her side, Sara watched in horror as Vance smashed a pipe into Derry’s head. Dropping the weapon, he went to Levy’s aid.

“Derry, wake up.” Sara tried moving her arms, hoping to budge him. The straps held tight. “Derry, come on. Wake up. You can’t die now. I love you.” Tears flowed from her eyes. He was so close, yet she couldn’t reach him or help him.

Then he was gone. Vance tossed his body aside like a rag doll. Derry landed on his side a few feet in front of her. He didn’t move. A fresh red spot appeared in the middle of the dark stain on his shirt. His shoulder was bleeding again.

As Vance righted her chair, Levy stepped up, blocking her view of Derry. “There’s your hero.” Levy brushed dirt off his sleeves. “The little murderer that you’re so willing to die for.” He pulled his gun and pointed it behind him, at Derry. “You want to watch him die?”

“No, don’t. Please. I’ll do what ever you want. Just let him go.”

“Tell me what I want to know—now! Where’d you hide my money?”

“Ok, I’ll give you what you want. Just let him go, please.”

Sara noticed movement behind Levy. Derry was alive. He quietly, covertly, removed tape from the cables running from Vance’s control panel to her chair.

“Tell me what I want to know, or I shoot him right now.” Levy’s gun hand turned white. He would pull the trigger any second.

Biting down hard, she ground her teeth back and forth, hoping the electric shocks hadn’t destroyed the transmitter.

Levy spun toward Vance, “Get this thing working. I’m sick and tired of playing games.”

Vance had the control panel set back up and was checking it over. “Almost there. One of the fuses blew when it got knocked off the table, but I have more.” He yanked out a round fuse, three inches in length, and pushed in a replacement.

“Let me know as soon as it’s ready.”

Levy, gun still on Derry, turned back to Sara. “You said you’d trade the money for his life.”

She glanced at Levy’s hand. Color was returning to the skin. “But he’s not free.”

“You either tell me where the money is, or I will put a bullet in his head right now. Is that what you want? To see his brains splattered across the floor?”

“No. Wait. I’ll give you what you want.” She took one quick glance at Derry. His hands were the only part of his body moving. He needed more time.

“I’m waiting.” Levy cocked the hammer.

“The money’s in a bank in the Bahamas.”

Levy paused. “Why the Bahamas?”

“I wanted it as far from your reach as possible. You’ve said you’d never use an offshore bank that the FBI could get access to. I figured it would be safe there. Now will you let him go?”

“It’s ready.” Vance stood by the controls.

Sara stole another glance at Derry. He had one wire apart, and the tape most of the way off the second one.

“Good. Now the account number and password?”

Sara’s gaze bounced between Levy and Derry. “I came half way. Let Derry go.”

“He was free, and he came back. Very stupid of him. He wants to die. Or perhaps he came back to watch you die.” Levy dropped down, and pushed the gun under Derry’s chin. “The account number.”

Derry’s eyes were closed, his hands at rest over the wires.

“If you’re going to kill
me
anyway, why should I tell you anything else, you low-life half of a man? Yeah, I’ve heard the stories. Everyone has. You don’t have a wife because no woman would want you. At least men want me. So now you’re trying to prove your manhood by beating up on a woman half your size. You’re a pathetic specimen.”

Levy rose and pointed the gun at her head, knuckles white. “You little—”