Frank Klus - Azaleas Don't Bloom Here

“My husband is such a bastard. They say he’s the second most powerful man in the country after this guy named Martinez.”

“Imagine that. It used to be the President.”

“How did this ever happen in the first place?”

Eugene just shrugged. There was a knock at the door.

“It must be the pizza man,” Gene said. He looked out the spy hole and then opened the door.

Sandy smiled and ran to the door, and then shrieked. Eugene looked at Sandy, and then at the stunned pizza guy.

“It was another flashback,” she exclaimed.

“What do you mean?”

“Yeah. I keep having them. Something about that guy triggered one just now, but I can’t make sense of it.”

They sat down and had some of the pizza when Sandra, lost in thought, suddenly realized something. “Fernando!”

Eugene just looked at her. “Fernando? What about him?”

Sandra wasn’t sure. She just remembered something. “A package,” she said. “A package from Fernando.”

Eugene just stared at her, and then realized something. “Sandy, I asked Ray to see if he could find out something about Fernando. This was a while back and he never got back to me about it. Maybe this would be a good time to check in on him.”

Sandy and Eugene went to Ray and Cassandra’s room, and confronted them about Fernando.

Ray invited them in and the four sat around a table. “I decided not to tell you, Gene,” Ray said.

“We decided,” Cassandra said. “Something awful happened.”

“You couldn’t do anything about it,” Ray said. “We thought it better not to tell you.”

“Tell me what?” Eugene said.

“Yes, please tell us,” repeated Sandra.

“I’m sorry, Gene, but your worst fears were realized. I heard it from Judy. They did take him to a Hell House, like yourself.”

Ray relayed all that he heard from Judy, which was based on the formal report delivered to the Commandant. Then he told him what he’d done to Grifton.

“Good for him. That bastard,” Eugene said.

They were all silent when Eugene spoke up. “Why did they stick Fernando in there? Jesus, I get it with politicians, journalists, Populist agitators—I mean, it’s wrong—but I get it; but Fernando?”

“Eugene, when Fernando was released from Joliet, he wasn’t taken to Hell House. His boss wanted him back at work. He just wanted to frighten Fernando into working off the loan.”

Eugene was confused. “Then how did he get to Hell House, and how did he get into the Fortress?”

“Getting in wasn’t difficult.”

“Yeah,” Sandy said. “I just remembered. They called me asking me if I was expecting a package. I told them to let him in because Jay was always getting packages.”

“Okay, but what about Hell House?” Eugene asked again.

After he was released from Joliet he didn’t go back to work. He went looking for you, Sandra. Somehow—and I don’t know how—he found out that you married Jaydan Casimir.” Ray stopped briefly. He looked reluctant to go on, but Eugene and Sandra wanted to hear more.

“He found the commandant’s address, and went over to your house,” looking at Sandra. “He had a messenger’s uniform on and a package in his hand when he rang the doorbell.”

“That’s what I was starting to remember,” Sandra said. “He showed up at my door and tried to come in. He was talking crazy and I screamed. I didn’t know who he was. He told me, but this was before my dreams started. Oh, my poor Fernando. I scared him away. He dropped the package and ran off. I told Jay about him and what he said to me, and he told me he’d take care of it. That was all I remembered.”

Eugene was upset. “I still don’t understand how he ended up in Hell House or how he got in. Because he looked up Sandy?”

“Partly. And getting in to the Fortress isn’t that difficult. Delivery people come and go all the time.”

“Yeah, they called me up and asked me if I was expecting a package. Jay gets packages all the time so I told security to let him in.”

“Anyway,” continued Ray, “Casimir called up Martinez, and Martinez told him to 86 him.”

“86?” Sandy said.

“Execute him.”

“What?” Eugene said. “Oh, come on.”

“That’s about what the prosecutor said. Even with Squad justice they weren’t going to execute a man for approaching the commandant’s wife. Still, Casimir had a problem. Even if they put him back in Joliet, he’d talk. Some nosy Populist blogger might pick up on it. It’d be all over the media. ‘Casimir steals man’s wife and jails man for it.’ Something like that. Martinez couldn’t have that. He had to find a way to get rid of him, and then the opportunity came.”

Ray stopped and took a swig of his water; then he continued. “Well, Casimir got a call from the Hell House in Joliet. They’d just treated a lefty blogger, and wanted to know if they should close the place. Casimir said no because he had another ‘patient.’ His word—not mine. Well, you know the rest.”

Sandra and Eugene got up to leave and then Sandra stopped; realizing something she’d forgotten. The other three just looked at her.

“The package. I just remembered. After I told Jay about it, I opened it up. It was a bracelet. It was cruddy looking. Later on, I had a dream about that bracelet.” She stopped and began crying. “He just wanted me to remember him.”

Terry Foote was in Armstrong’s Suburban. His partner, Jack Wrenn, was in Ray’s car; and both were watching the motel parking lot. They saw a man they didn’t recognize approach Pamela’s car, walking around it. He had fished around in his pocket for something when Foote yelled out, “You there! Come over here.”

The man just froze when Foote got out of the car and motioned him to come over. Wrenn yelled to him, “You better do what he says.”

The man walked over to Foote. “What’s in your hand?” Foote asked.

“Nothing.” Foote forced his hand open. It was a tracker.

“Who do you work for?”

“I work for the motel,” he stammered.

“Why do you want to put a tracker on?”

“I was just told to put this underneath this car.”

“By who?” Foote was angry now and glared at the man.

“A man named Colderon.”

“He’s dead. Did he promise you a reward?”

“Yes, sir,” the scared man said. “Two thousand dollars. Every night I come out here and look for any new car that met his description.”

“Well you can stop looking now. There’s not going to be any reward.”

“Okay.”

“Get out of here.”

The man bolted out of there and Wrenn came over. “Hey, Terry, shouldn’t we call Armstrong and let him decide what to do?”

“There’s nothing to do,” Foote said. “He doesn’t know anything. He’s just in it for the reward he’s never going to get anyway. He’ll probably try to call Colderon, but we both know Colderon isn’t going to be answering. Look, we got about forty-five minutes, then Ray and Cassandra relieve us and we can get some much needed shuteye.”

Everybody was off at the crack of dawn. They stopped at a roadside fuel and restaurant. Eugene went inside to grab some groceries. When he came out he went to Sandy’s car, but she was gone. The fuel pump was still in the gas tank. That’s strange . Let me see if anyone knows where she went.

He walked up to Armstrong’s car. He was still fueling up, but he was gone too. They must have gone inside . Eugene was headed for the restaurant when Ray came out.