John Locke - Lethal Experiment

Victor grimaced. “I…believed…you would…live, but…if not, then… Doctor…Childers…would…lose his…wife… and …the case.”

I said, “So one day you’re jogging at Amelia Island, and I kidnap you. Soon thereafter, you’re with your lover, savoring your sweet revenge.”

“Let’s keep the story straight,” she said. “You beat the shit out of me, injected me with a lethal poison, kicked me out of a moving truck, and left me to die.”

I glanced over and saw Dr. Nadine Crouch holding her head with both hands.

“Bygones?” I said.

Hugo offered his version: “You killed Monica, our people brought her back to life, she’s living on a plantation in Costa Rica, and Baxter’s serving twenty to life.”

“All’s…well that…ends well,” Victor said.

“You could have smuggled me out of the country,” Monica said. “You didn’t have to let him kill me!”

“We’ve…been…through this…many…times,” Victor said.

“Right. You were testing your anti-serum on me, killing two birds with one stone.”

“But you’re happy now,” I said.

“Eat shit and die,” she said. “It took four surgeries to repair my ear. The pain was excruciating.”

“You keep dwelling on the bad parts,” I said. I looked at Victor. “Is she always like this?”

“In my…experience…she is.”

“Fuck you both!” she said.

Dr. Crouch said, “Monica, I want to thank you for coming today. Though you can’t imagine it, or care to, your presence here has been meaningful.”

“I only came so I could look this bastard in the face and tell him about Kathleen.”

“What about her?” I said.

Monica’s eyes grew ice cold. Her mouth curled into a smug smile. You could tell she’d rehearsed this scene many times. I think she planned to say more, but changed her mind at the last minute, realizing the faster you say it, the quicker it hurts. She’d come all the way from Costa Rica to get this out, so I waited as she paused to gather the proper venom in her voice. When she was ready, she lifted her chin defiantly, and spit two poisonous words at me: “Kathleen’s engaged.”

Chapter 47

Monica’s words sent my heart into freefall. I blinked, forcing my brain to accept what I’d heard. Nausea flooded through me in that terrible way you feel when you can’t quite vomit. You know you’ll feel better if you do, but your body won’t cooperate. I took a deep breath. I should have stayed in the coma. This was too much to deal with all at once. When I let the breath out it felt as though my life force went with it.

Nadine broke the silence: “How nice for you to take this opportunity to tell him that.”

“No man ever deserved it more,” Monica said. “I bet her fiancé is fucking her right now, making her say his name.”

Hugo shook his head. Victor lowered his eyes in embarrassment. Monica kept the smug look on her face, and I thought, revenge agrees with her. She’s probably never looked more beautiful than she looks at this moment .

I wanted to scream, but I found myself smiling. I mean, you have to smile, right? During the past week I learned I’d lost three years of my life, lost my face, lost my name. And now, hearing I may have lost the love of my life, well, what else are you going to do?

Monica sneered. “How does it make you feel to know another man has taken over your life? A man who at this very moment is screwing your lover, spending your millions, and raising your little match girl.”

“How does it make me feel?” I repeated.

Like I’d been tied to a whipping post , I thought. But what I said was, “I feel like thanking God.”

“What?”

“No matter how much I love Kathleen and Addie, I can’t live like that. Dr. Crouch spent the past week helping me understand that, and what you’ve told me just makes it a lot easier to leave them behind. I’m glad they’ve found someone special to take my place.”

“Bullshit,” she said.

“I’ll miss the sex,” I said. “And Addie.”

“And the money?”

I laughed. “I’ve got as much as I need and I can always get more.”

“So your story is that you’re fine with all this,” Monica said.

“It’s true,” said Nadine, “though I wouldn’t have chosen you, or this time and place, to tell him about Kathleen.”

“Well I think he’s bluffng,” she said. “He won’t admit it, but I think I hurt him worse than he hurt me.”

“And I think you look sensational,” I said.

“What?”

“I like the whole package. You’ve got a kick-ass little body, and I bet you’re a wildcat in the sack.”

Her face smoldered like a live coal. “From what hellish pit have you summoned the gall to talk to me like that?”

“What do you expect me to say? I haven’t been laid in three years. Suddenly you waltz in here all worked up, wearing those ‘check-out-my-tight-ass’ pants!’”

“How dare you!”

I shrugged. “A kind word never broke a tooth.”

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” Monica said, but stormed out before I had a chance to answer.

“Guess you’d better chase after her,” I said to Hugo. “She won’t like it when security pins her against the wall.”

He left, and Victor said, “It…was all…about you.”

“What was?”

“The…experi…ment.”

“The experiment,” I repeated.

“We…wanted…to see…how far…you’d…go.”

I thought about the seven loans Victor had Callie make to four couples and three individuals, loans that represented eleven lives and seven hundred thousand dollars—loans made and lives taken for nothing more than a bet between two midgets.

“You had me kill all those people just to see how long I’d do it? Why?”

“You…ever see…that…movie… Trading … Places ?”

“Yeah…”

“Well…we had…a bet…Hugo…and me.”

“Who won?”

“He did.”

I stared at him blankly. “How much did he win?”

“Like…the movie.”

“One dollar?”

“Yes but…it’s the…principle…not the…money.”

Hugo made a bow, reached into his pocket, pulled out a single dollar bill, held it up, and performed a strange little victory dance.

Victor said, “He’s…very proud…of his…victory.”

Nadine and I looked at each other.

“I think we’re done here,” she said.

When it was just me and her in the room I said, “When were you going to tell me?”

“I was working up to it.”

“You and Lou let me believe everything was fine with Kathleen and Addie.”

She looked at me awhile before speaking. “You want the truth?”

“Tease me with it. We can always default to your bullshit later.”

“Dr. Howard asked us not to say anything that might interfere with your recovery.”

“She’s engaged,” I said.

“She is.”

This, along with all the rest, was almost too much to bear. “I guess Kathleen’s had it pretty rough,” I said, “Addie too.”

“And Kathleen had every reason to believe you were dead. She attended your funeral, don’t forget.”

“Did she seem pretty broken up at the time?”

“I wasn’t there, but I understand she took it hard.”

“You think she brought a date?”

“That sort of talk is destructive, don’t you think?”

“You really want to know what I think?”

“I do,” she said. “It’s my job, after all.”

“I know she wants to be married, and it’s certainly better for Addie. Still, I think it’s pretty quick on her part. Don’t you agree?”

“I try to avoid judgment,” Nadine said.