Читать книгу Deliver Me From Evil - Mary Monroe - Страница 17

“Christine, this is Wade. Why are you sounding so strange? What’s the matter with you?”

“Huh?” I had been so deep in thought recalling my first time with Wade that I hadn’t heard the telephone when it rang on the stand next to the bed. I don’t even remember picking it up. But when I heard Wade’s loud voice on the other end of the line, I realized where I was and what time it was. “Where are you? What’s going on?” I looked around the dreary motel room, frowning.

“Listen, baby, and listen good. This is the thing, see. I know this shit is getting crazy, but I might need for you to talk to our boy again,” Wade said, sounding tired and disappointed. “I’m getting real aggravated with your old man.” He sounded angry and even more impatient now.

“What did he say? What’s the problem?”

“He ain’t saying what I want him to say. That’s the problem.” Wade let out a groan and started cussing under his breath. “That’s why I can’t stand niggers with money! They ride on such high horses, they done rode clean out of reality. Them stingy motherfuckers!”

“Is he not going to pay the ransom?” I gasped.

“He’d better! I didn’t go out on this goddamn limb for my motherfucking health!”

“Well, did he say he would, or did he say he would not?” I demanded, my heart beating. Now I was angry and impatient. Not just at Jesse Ray, but at Wade, too. I wanted him to get to the point. “Talk to me, Wade. Is Jesse Ray going to pay you the money or not?”

Wade took his time responding. “Well, I think so, but not without a little more encouragement.”

“Wade, please tell me what my husband said. I’ve talked with him. So … so doesn’t he believe I’ve been kidnapped?”

“He said he didn’t know if he could pull together half a mil by Friday.” There was a lot of uncertainty in Wade’s voice.

“Pull it together? Is he trying to tell you that he doesn’t have the money? He’s got the money in the bank!”

“I believe you, baby. And I’m just as frustrated as you are with that … that scalawagging cocksucker myself! Now I wish I had snatched up Mick Jagger’s half-black daughter. You know where she live?” Wade snorted and cussed some more under his breath. “Never mind. Knowing that uptown heifer, she won’t be that easy to grab, no how. We’ll just have to make this here thing with you work. You just might have to chat with your old man again. Sound real bad; cry; beg; do whatever.”

“If I have to, I will. I just hoped that we’d be able to get this over with as soon as possible with just a couple of phone calls,” I said, with a heavy sigh.

It was a good thing that this was not a real kidnapping. A real kidnapper would not have put up with the shit from Jesse Ray that Wade was putting up with. I would have been dead by now.

“Baby, I don’t know what he’s up to. That’s why I think you might have to put another bug in his ear,” Wade told me in a gruff voice.

“I just spoke to him yesterday. You told him he had until Friday to get the money to you.” I sniffed. If this plan failed, my life was over. I had run out of options. “I’m … uh, in a world of trouble. What is it going to take to get him to realize that?” I didn’t even try to hide the desperation in my voice.

“Calm down, baby,” Wade hollered. “You just hold on there and calm yourself down. We can’t afford to have you falling apart when we so close to the prize.”

“Look, I just want this to be over with so I can get up out of this dump,” I said, with a heavy sigh, looking around the gloomy room. “I’m nervous and … and I’m scared.”

“I can understand you being nervous, but you ain’t got nothing to be scared about. I got your back.”

“Then what do we do now?” I asked, rubbing my nose. “I … shit! Somebody’s at the door!” I whispered, gripping the telephone with both hands.

“Don’t you open that door!” Wade ordered, shouting so loud, it sounded like he was in the same room with me.

I held my breath and stood stock-still, covering my naked body with the thin bedspread.

“Housekeeping,” the person on the other side of the door yelled, jiggling the door handle.

“It’s just the maid,” I said, breathing a sigh of relief. “Let me get rid of her.” I didn’t wait for Wade to respond. I laid the phone on the bed and put on the sunglasses and the cap. Then I cracked open the door and peered into the tired moon face of a woman who reminded me of my beloved late godmother. I had to blink back a tear that was threatening to slide out. My godmother had not been dead that long, but I got emotional every time I thought about her or saw somebody who resembled her. I smiled as I looked over the maid’s shoulder.

“Housekeeping,” the woman said again, nodding toward the room, trying to look over my shoulder. She could glimpse just enough of me to see that I was wrapped up in the bedspread. From the smirk on her face, something told me that she assumed I was one of the hookers.

“Um, I don’t need any service today,” I said quickly. She seemed relieved to hear that. “As a matter of fact, I won’t be needing any housekeeping services any other day, either. I’ll be checking out on Friday,” I said hopefully.

“No towels, toilet paper?” the maid asked, still trying to look over my shoulder.

“No,” I said, shaking my head and trying to shut the door. “I have enough toilet paper, towels, and everything else. I brought my own soap, so you don’t even have to worry about that, either.” The maid had a puzzled look on her face as I shut and locked the door, securing it with the dead bolt and the chain. I stood with my back against the door until I heard her knock on the door of the room next to mine.

“I’m back,” I said, picking up the phone. “I got rid of her.”

“Don’t you open that door no more,” Wade hollered.

“It was just the maid,” I hollered back. “If I hadn’t opened the door, she would have entered the room. What was I supposed to do? I got rid of her for the rest of the week.”

“Just don’t open that door no more. Do you hear me? I ain’t going to jail for you or nobody else.”