Freeing Kirsty Ch. 03

SO FAR: Divorcee Merrick Jamieson (35) visiting New York comes into contact with the moll of the mysterious Spiro whom the spirited Kirsty Fallon has reason to fear if she so much looks at another man. But after a brief association with Merrick Kirsty (25) finds she has become attracted and follows him to his homeland and begins working with the photo-journalist. Spiro contacts Kirsty warning her to return otherwise a 'retriever' will be dispatched to bring her back.

*

Kirsty was afraid for Merrick's safety and even her own future was uncertain as Spiro now had good reason not to trust her so anything might happen. She chose not to attempt to define 'anything'.

Her instinct was to flee but Merrick stubbornly had decided to stay put, thinking it was his best chance of dealing with the retriever when having no idea when the home invasion would occur. She thought her lover was a bit naïve – she could be snatched when she was out walking or emerging from the supermarket. Then she remembered that would not allow the retriever to rough up Merrick or whatever.

After a couple of days the threat eased to the background of Kirsty's mind; she had considered emailing Spiro, pleading to him to call off his retriever and let her off the hook. She decided against it as Merrick had been so insistent that she must not reply to Spiro's email ordering her to return to New York.

Eight days after Kirsty had received that demanding email from Spiro, Merrick slowed his vehicle when approaching the house and then gently accelerated down the street, now looking straight ahead: he'd noticed all the windows visible from the street had the curtains drawn. Never were all of them drawn; obviously the retriever had arrived.

Parking around the block opposite the property behind his house, Merrick figured out what to do. It was unlikely that the retriever had been instructed to kill Merrick as the escape route being a long flight in an aircraft was not ideal. More likely the instruction was to beat Merrick up and warn him of the consequences of sounding the alarm. It was probable that Spiro was holding Meg under a death threat that unless Kirsty arrived back in New York Meg would disappear. That threat would allow the retriever to travel with a compliant Kirsty.

After attempting to invent other scenarios, Merrick decided his original thought was by far the most logical; he had to assume East Coast crime bosses either thought logically or had advisers that did that thinking for them. He knew that the couple in the house would both be away at their offices so walked through their property and climbed over the fence into his property. He skirted the lawn behind the cover of ornamental trees until reaching the garage. Quietly unlocking the side door he stepped inside. Both baseball bats where inside the house, so he picked up the axe and quietly used a screwdriver to work the wedge loose and extracted it with vice-grips to remove the axehead; murder was not on his mind either.

He then used his mobile phone to call the house, knowing that Kirsty had three choices – to answer the phone in the kitchen, living room or bedroom. It didn't matter which one, as long as she answered with the goon standing over her and listening.

Kirsty answered, and Merrick put down his phone, unlocked the door into the house and quietly closed it behind him.

"Who is it?"

It was a voice with an American accent. He'd been right with his assumption!

"There's nobody there," Kirsty replied.

"Okay, move back over to the window where we can keep watch."

So far, so good.

Merrick slipped out of his shoes. He went to the backdoor and knocked loudly, then quickly moved back to the connecting passage to the garage door, holding his axe handle at the ready.

"That's someone at the backdoor."

"Well, get rid of them. No secret signals or attempt to escape."

"No, I understand. I have my friend to think about."

Bingo he was right again, Merrick half-smiled in satisfaction.

Standing motionless he watched Kirsty walk past, eyes fixed on the door, followed by the tall, raven-haired goon with a kitchen knife held out in front of him.

"Pssst," Merrick whispered.

The goon turned, the knife no longer pointed at Kirsty's back. Merrick clubbed him on the side of the head and he dropped like a stone.

"Good day, darling," Merrick said brightly to Kirsty, standing looking at the fallen retriever with the knuckles of her hand jammed in her mouth. She looked up at Merrick wide-eyed and whimpered.

Without waiting for her to recover, Merrick went to the garage for a length of rope and a pocket knife. Picking up his phone he returned and began binding his victim's wrists behind his back.

"Is he dead?"

"No, just sleeping deeply. He's breathing. Grab one of my handkerchiefs and a tea towel."

Tying the man's feet Merrick then took the handkerchief and stuffed it into the man's mouth, snatching a kiss from the startled Kirsty as he took the tea towel from her and cut off a strip to tie the gag in place.

Merrick went through the man's pockets until he found a passport.

"Look in the list of phone numbers by the kitchen phone and call Lisa a Mason's Travel – get her to hold, I'll be back inside two minutes."

He took the passport into the garden, slit open a piece of hard ground with the spade, and dropped the document into the opening after noting the man's name, Tony Mario. He stomped the ground until satisfied that it looked exactly like the surrounding earth.

Wordlessly and still looking a little shocked, Kirsty handed him the phone.

"Hi Lisa, it's Merrick.

"Great your lovely client; how are you?"

"Look, I've got to get to New York urgently. Any chance of getting me on the flight this afternoon?"

Lisa asked him to hold.

He held out an arm, and Kirsty came into it.

"What are you doing? You have no show in hell of trying to reason with him. He's a criminal."

"I'll think out tactics on the aircraft. My feeling is my current run of luck will hold out."

"If it doesn't?" Kirsty asked coldly.

"Well, darling. It was great while it lasted."

She stared at him impassively looking ready to cry as Merrick resumed speaking on the phone.

"Yes - that's great, Lisa. I'll take the business class option all the way through. I need to arrive in tip-top shape. Get me an economy return two days later, final flight of the day. But do your best to wheedle an upgrade for me. You've got my credit card details."

"Yes and your passport number.

"Good, electronic ticketing means I don't have to come it, doesn't it. I'll buy something in New York for you to make that lovely face of yours even more beautiful."

"I bet you say the same think to all those women who are nice to you."

"No, I don't flirt like this with all women. Bye Lisa and thanks."

Kirsty looked at him balefully. "Although we are not yet married, you are turning me into a widow."

"That's the gloomy side - look at the reverse side. If I succeed the threat is removed. I feel I can only get your release through face to face negotiations. Remember, your predecessor negotiated her release."

That last comment perked up Kirsty a little, conceding that was true. She asked to be allowed to accompany Merrick to New York.

"No, if there were two of us there he'd be more likely to outsmart us. This way is best. Come on, start packing while I go and fetch the SUV. I want you to stay a few days in hiding; my best buddy and ex-brother-in-law who is a doctor up the coast will offer you refuge. I'll phone him on the way to the airport. I'll need you to help me get this ape into the back of the SUV."

"What will you do with him?"

"Dump him at the airport, with his identify documentation intact but no passport. There will be a brief investigation and then he'll be deported. With luck he'll call Spiro, adding to their confusion."

"Are you sure you are not a criminal?"

"Of course not, why do you ask?"

"It seems to me you think like one."

Merrick grinned, and slapped her on the butt, telling her to go and pack.

Dr Brian Raymond told Merrick he'd be delighted to have Kirsty as a house guest. Marg being heavily pregnant would welcome the company of a bright American only about her age.

"Thanks buddy, she will drive herself up in my wagon later this afternoon. We are engaged and will throw a party as soon as I get back."

"Am I to be best man?"

"Best man - you? I was intending to have a respectable person, but perhaps we might make an exception."

In the airport parking lot Kirsty left the vehicle and walked to the terminal. After fifteen minutes when there was no apparent activity in that parking area Merrick pulled the still conscious hood from the rear of the vehicle and dropped him onto the ground. He then drove some distance off and parked, thinking that with a bit of luck no-one had witnessed the dumping and his action had not been caught on security camera. In all probability the vehicle registration had been photographed arriving, but so would the registration numbers of hundreds of other vehicles.

Noting the row and space number of where he was now parked to give to Kirsty, Merrick grabbed his bag and headed for the terminal.

Kirsty was surprisingly composed when it came time to say goodbye. They kissed and hugged enthusiastically and she told him, "I now feel a little confident that you might pull this thing off."

"Why, what's changed you from dread to almost jubilation."

Kirsty led him to the window and straining to get the oblique angle, pointed. Merrick took her position and could see the flashing lights of police and airport security vehicles grouped where they had first parked Merrick's SUV.

In the remaining minutes left together he noted down details of the names of company principals that Kirsty named as Spiro's business associates. She was good, fantastic in fact. Merrick had a list of thirteen names.

"So you suspect all of these people are involved in crime at least at some level?"

Kirsty nodded, saying it was customary to have a legitimate enterprise masking the real money-making activities.

"Be careful what you do with that list of names, Merrick. Make accusations and you'll not be seen again."

"Understood, now come here for our last passionate embrace for the next thirty-six or so hours. While I'm away you might like to get Brian's wife help you plan an engagement party. She's a great sort; she was a semi-pro women's cricketer in Australia."

Kirsty told Merrick when he phoned her from Los Angeles that she'd found the vehicle without a problem and on the way out passed a police check. She'd told the police she'd not seen anyone dumping a large package in the car lot. She showed her American driver's license and confirmed that the owner of the vehicle, Merrick Jamieson, was her finance and she'd just left him at the airport where he was catching a flight to Los Angeles on business.

One of the policemen detained her. He phoned someone and paused to check with Kirsty that it was the Air New Zealand flight at four-fifteen. She heard him say 'Jamieson, Merrick'.

"The policeman returned and said tome, 'On your way, madam. We just needed to check your story as you were not directly related to the owner of this vehicle'."

"Excellent said Merrick who said he had a two-hour wait for the United Airlines connection.

"Take care darling, you are very precious to me," was Kirsty's farewell followed by the sound of kisses.

Merrick hoped he had years more of farewells like that ahead of him.

On the flight over the Pacific through Oceania to the Americans he'd consumed some fine wines and lovely food. Instead of watching a film he thought about tactics; he'd had the germ of an idea when he'd asked Kirsty for those names of Spiro's business associates.

Sleep came to him easily after he'd checked and double-checked the robustness of his strategy and was satisfied it should have a chance of out-smarting his adversaries.

At the airport in Los Angeles Merrick wrote a one page letter to his lawyer, a junior partner in one of the largest law firms in Auckland, asking that the enclosed sealed letter be lodged in the firm's documents security room. He instructed that the letter be opened at midday on the twenty-second of the current month and taken to the police unless that written instruction had not been cancelled by Merrick in person before that date. In a footnote he asked that a photocopy of that instruction be attached to in the documents security room day book for the 22nd.

Merrick photocopied that letter of instruction and then had the original letter and the sealed letter packages lodged for couriering to New Zealand. As a precaution he tore off his solicitor's address off the top right-hand corner of the letter he placed in his inside pocket and discarded the address.

As Los Angeles dropped away behind the United Airways jet Merrick accepted a glass of California chardonnay from the flight attendant. Without fear he wondered if this might be his final flight in an aircraft – the finality of everything. It was likely that Spiro was into gambling, drugs, prostitution and keeping on top of competitors using the age-old tried and proven methods.

Without fear? There was nothing in Merrick's background to support such a he-man image. Nothing in the genes – his father was a school principal and his paternal grandfather had been a radio officer on merchant ships, these days called freighters; his maternal grandfather had been a farmer.

His mother was feisty, hot-headed enough to be termed brave as she hadn't a clue about knowing how to back down. That was just how she was, the rebel daughter of a kindly second generation clergyman.

Nor had home life been a hard physical struggle for Merrick, who being the elder of two children ruled the roost and was accepted in that role by his sister whom he'd adored through childhood and had that affection reciprocated in a mostly queenly manner, Merrick being eager to respond to her commands when it suited him. As Melba progressed though her teens Merrick made up his mind he would marry a girl like Melba. Unfortunately, his choice of wife was not in that mould; she was almost the opposite in fact.

Not unexpectedly, Merrick's girl friends as he'd journeyed through his teen years began to date Melba's friends – girls six years older than him. Initially this caused problems as although New Zealand is socially mature as a nation, a sixteen-year-old boy dating 22-year-old women had him cast as some sort of depraved monster by some of those girls' parents. Merrick largely kept his head down through double-dating with Melba and her friend who fancied going out with the kid brother who appeared so worldly. The incentive was Merrick had access to his parent's car and didn't drink so there was no problem for the girls of being driven around by a drunk driver as they hit the night clubs.

When he turned eighteen his parents sent Merrick to a toughening up adventure school in the Marlborough Sounds where he learned the skills of bush craft, watercraft and self-defense – three new passions that returned home with him. The family was astonished by the change in him. He seemed taller stronger, more focused and, most unexpectedly, had become extremely polite.

Before dropping out of urban social life for wilderness training, Merrick had not jelled well with his father, whom he thought was a grump and rather useless as a father, never wanting to throw a ball or run, and his mother had to attend to most breakdowns and other emergencies around the house.

The exception was discipline; his father Basil was exceedingly expert at that. However, the last thrashing Merrick received was just after coming home from that Outward Bound course when Basil refused to stop slapping Melba around. Merrick intervened and when being whacked turned on his father, knocking him to the ground, watched by his terrified sibling.

"You wait, you'll get it from your mother when she comes home," Basil had snarled, with one eye closing rapidly. Instead of berating her son, his mother turned on his father. A meek 'Yes dear' from Basil never to hit Merrick again was a promise kept by Basil until his death eight years later in a hunting accident.

At the character-building course, Merrick had been so fascinated by one of his tutors - an acclaimed mountaineer - who he decided to model himself on that man, who was hard as nails physically while being the politest man Merrick could ever remember meeting.

The first evening after his arrival back home Merrick went to enroll in the local judo club; he'd won the award as the most approved student in self defense at the training camp, and was eager to work through the belts. Alas, every class was full. Already appealing to women with his rugged good looks and almost shy smile, Merrick's hound-dog expression of disappointment turned the heart of the female judo instructor. She whispered she should not be 'sending a potential student to the enemy' but wrote down the address of a man who'd just set up a kick boxing studio in his car garage.

Merrick was turned into a hard, fearless and award-winning student of the art –with two false replacement teeth screwed into his jawbone as more enduring reminders of his six-year adherence to the sport of kick-boxing than were the trophies on shelves in the family room at home.

It was the third discipline of skilled action on watercraft that Merrick brought home from training camp that really gave him direction in life. Entering university he joined the rowing club, and performed better than average. That interest, however, was short-lived when a fellow rower invited him out one weekend for a social sail on his father's 54ft sloop. When Merrick went to the aid of a grunting deckhand and the winch really began flying and that was noticed by the skipper and boat owner, Alec Raymond. As a result, the next Wednesday evening Merrick was sitting at dinner with the Raymond's in a fancy restaurant.

Brian their son would join them later, being at a tutorial. To his astonishment as he was talking about his interest in sailing with Alec, Merrick felt the toe of Mrs Mary Raymond running up and down his leg, and then a few minutes later the foot of Brian's older sister Kate sitting opposite him; that foot plopped straight into his crutch.

Embarrassment was all over Merrick's face as he heard Alec inviting him to join his regular crew which would mean giving up rowing. He urged Merrick to consider the request favorable - "I will make it worth your while," said the senior partner of one of the largest law firms in the city. "I need you aboard. I've been trying to get Brian on the crew and after that sail last Sunday when I brought it up for the umpteenth time, he replied that if I could tempt you he would join you. His twin brother Stan, who is at law school, is already on board as a trimmer.

"I'd like you to join the crew, Merrick," Mrs Raymond had smiled, her shoeless foot now inside the cuff of his trouser left.

"Yes, Kate said, also with a shoe off and her foot massaging Merrick's disbelieving cock. "Join and we'll adopt you as an honorary member of the family. I feel you have promising talent." Saying that, she licked her lips provocatively, a display not lost on her mother.

Merrick's idea of sailing along with a winch handle in one hand and a bottle of beer in the other were quickly dispelled. Alec had Brian and Merrick and the rest of the crew at a gym two nights a week training, with superbly fit Alec setting the pace.

Brian doing medicine had a punishing study schedule and if he missed a crew training night he was expected to go solo the next evening. Brian would call on Merrick to join him, as he got bored working out alone. When they finished they would go on to the boxing ring if it were available, where Merrick began teaching him the rudiments of kick boxing. Quickly they bonded.