Things were going so well that he knew he could’ve scored with her tonight if he wanted to, but he had to stick to his same plan. This was a long con after all. Yeah, he was going to nail her good, but he had to build her trust completely to accomplish everything he wanted to accomplish.
So he kept the BS flowing, telling her everything she wanted to hear, and then her boyfriend came over. This was too perfect. Johnny figured it was that Darren guy she’d been blogging about. Johnny had been in this situation many times before and knew there was no better way to win over a girl than to get rid of her pissed- off ex. It helped when the ex was a skinny little weasel. So Johnny took Darren aside and squeezed his hand as hard as he could and told him very calmly that if he didn’t leave Marissa alone he was gonna cut off his dick and feed it to him. He said this with steel in his voice, looking right into the wimp’s eyes, and he could tell he was getting his point across. Finally he let go of the guy’s hand and watched him hightail it out of there.
Johnny could tell Marissa was impressed, and he scored more points when she went to tell her friend that she was leaving. Her friend looked over at Johnny, and he grinned and read her lips: He’s so hot. Now Johnny had gotten friend approval. Was he the greatest pickup artist in the world or what?
Johnny had to be careful not to get too cocky, not to shoot himself in the ass. At the cafй he almost went a little too far, saying that he’d lived in Hampstead at the same time she did. Of course, he’d picked up this info from her blog, and he’d been smart enough to do a little extra research about it earlier, checking out the neighborhood on a map of London and picking up the name of a street in Hampstead near where she lived. But that was all he knew about the area and he had to change the subject quickly before she asked too many questions.
He had to be more careful from now on, make sure he didn’t get boxed in like that again. He saw her checking her watch, saying she had to get home. He knew she was just being the Good Girl, trying to make him think she wasn’t the type who went home with guys she hardly knew. Yeah, right. He knew if he tried to get her back to his place, hit her with some more charm, he could’ve scored, no problem. He almost pushed for it because he was in the mood to bang her, but he knew that would be taking a risk. She might feel bad in the morning, freak out, not want to see him again, and he didn’t want to take that chance.
So he insisted on taking her back to Forest Hills, and he could tell she was impressed. She’d met a hot guy who was nice and thoughtful, too. She probably felt like she’d struck gold. What woman wouldn’t?
At the house, Johnny was glad to see the police car parked in front. He’d expected Bloom would panic when he found the note under his door and try to get some kind of extra protection, but little did he know this was gonna backfire right into his face. This was exactly what Johnny wanted, for the cops to see him coming home with Marissa, kissing her good night, and walking away. Now he could get as close to the Blooms and the house as he wanted to because as far as the cops were concerned he was clean.
He told Marissa all the right things, how he wanted to see her again, and he knew she wanted him to kiss her. He let her want it a little longer, making her really want it, and then he gave it to her. He was holding both her hands and was gentle with his lips and slipped in just enough tongue. She was pressing her body up against his in a way that told him she was ready for him, but he stuck to his plan and said good- bye, leaving her wanting more.
As he walked away, he saw the cop looking over at him. Johnny looked down, avoiding eye contact. Man, Johnny couldn’t remember the last time he’d gotten a rush like this. He couldn’t wait to see Marissa’s blog tomorrow. She’d write about how she’d met this great guy named Xan and how excited she was. Just thinking about that name, Xan, cracked Johnny up- But nothing was funnier than picturing Dr. Bloom sitting there in his fancy house. He’d probably jazzed up his alarm system, gotten new locks for the doors, and thought he was safe with the cops sitting out there. Yeah, like anything could protect him now. Pretty soon Johnny was gonna be inside his daughter and inside his house, and that would only be the beginning of the pain he’d make that man feel.
fourteen
On Friday morning Adam decided that shooting Carlos Sanchez ten times had probably been a mistake. Shooting him the first two times had been necessary- he had no doubts about that- but he wished he could take back the other eight shots.
But, unfortunately, there was nothing he could do about that now. What was that Shakespeare quote, what was done can’t be undone? It was so true. And ruminating about it incessantly was just causing anxiety and stress, so why not just let go?
Adam was getting dressed to go to work when Dana sat up in bed and said, “I want to go to Florida.”
She had just woken up and her voice was deeper than normal, more gravelly.
“Come on,” Adam said, “you know we can’t do that right now.”
“We can do whatever we want. We’re not trapped here.”
Buttoning a red pinstriped shirt, Adam said, “Clements said he doesn’t want us to leave.”
“I want to talk to a lawyer today. We’re not criminals, for God’s sake, we’re not suspects in anything. We don’t have to stay around here, putting our lives at risk, because he wants us to stay.”
“I think you’re being a little melodramatic-”
“We can be available by telephone. We can be available by e-mail. We can teleconference with him. This is the twenty- first century, for God’s sake.”
Adam, sitting down in a chair, putting on his loafers, said, “If there was a reason to go to Florida I’d go.”
“Your life was threatened,” Dana said. “If that’s not a reason to go, what is?”
“Okay, just relax, take some deep breaths,” Adam said. “It’s very difficult to talk to you when you get like this.”
Adam was looking down at his shoes, but he knew exactly what Dana’s expression was- she was staring at him in mock exasperated disbelief.
“Fine, you do whatever you want to do,” she finally said. “But I’m leaving, and I’m taking Marissa with me. If you want to stay here that’s up to you.”
Adam stood back and checked himself out in the mirror. He didn’t look the best he’d ever looked. He appeared tired, worn, burnt- out-the stress of the past few days was getting to him. He could see Dana behind him, sitting at the edge of the bed. She didn’t look so terrific either.
“Let’s discuss this later when you’re calmer,” he said. “I have to get to the office.”
“I’ll let you know what hotel we’re staying at,” Dana said.
“Oh, come on, can you please just stop it with the posturing?”
“He’s using us as bait. I refuse to be bait.”
“There’s no one to bait us. The note was a prank.”
“It was a death threat, Adam.”
“It said nothing about killing me. It said, what, I don’t even remember. Oh, yeah, it said I was going to wish I was never born. Come on, that means nothing. It’s something a kid in a schoolyard would say.”
“I don’t understand why you’re not taking it seriously.”
“Not taking it seriously? Come on, I had Clements down here right away, I had cops outside all night. I think I’m taking it very seriously, but I still think it was a prank.”
“A kid from the neighborhood wouldn’t do something like that.”
“You don’t know that. It sounded like a kid, I mean the language.”
“It sounded like somebody who’s angry, who wants to hurt you.”
“Explain to me how that makes any sense. Please just try to explain it. Somebody who robbed our house would come here the next day and put a note under the door? Why? To scare me? If somebody’s angry, wants revenge, why leave a note? See, so if you think about it, logically, it doesn’t make any sense. It had to be a prank, maybe not a kid from the neighborhood but maybe some nut who read about me in the paper. I’m sure that happens all the time when somebody’s front- page news. That’s why, you noticed, Clements wasn’t very concerned. He probably sees this kind of thing happen all the time. If our number was listed I bet we would’ve been getting threats all night.”