Hot Fudge (A Loretta Kovacs thriller) Page 13

  “Why do you have to take Marvelli?” she asked defiantly. “Why don’t you just go?”

  “God,” Krupnick said in frustration, “is everybody stupid here? I just told you. Marvelli’s a guy. He’ll come after me like nobody’s business. It’s a male alpha thing.” He turned to Dorie. “Find him something to wear.” He nodded toward the rack of S&M dress-up clothes.

  Marvelli tried to do a sit-up. “Hey, I’m not wearing a dress. You can kill me—I don’t care—but I’m not wearing a dress.”

  Dorie sorted through the rack and picked out a black leather jumpsuit with a matching leather ski mask that had a zipper over the mouth.

  “I’m not wearing that,” Marvelli said.

  “Okay, fine,” Krupnick said, and in one smooth move he went right over to Vissa and stuck the gun barrel deep into her neck. “I’m gonna have to go with Plan ? then. Shoot everybody.”

  Vissa winced and tried to pull away from him, but he had a fistful of her denim jacket.

  “Okay, okay,” Marvelli said. “Whatever you want.”

  Loretta wanted to be furious with him for rolling over as soon as Vissa was in the slightest bit of danger, but it was clear that Krupnick was desperate and liable to do anything.

  “You won’t have to worry,” Dorie said cheerfully to Marvelli as she took the leather jumpsuit off the rack. “You wear this, no one will even notice. This is San Francisco.” She wasn’t trying to be funny.

  “Unbuckle him,” Krupnick said, letting go of Vissa but taking a step back so he could train the gun on both her and Loretta.

  Sunny went to work undoing the straps. When Marvelli sat up, he had wide red marks all over his body. The whipped cream clung to his privates.

  “You look like a zebra,” Vissa said.

  “I was thinking barber pole,” Loretta said.

  “Get dressed,” Krupnick ordered. “Hurry up.”

  Reluctantly Marvelli took the jumpsuit from Dorie and made a face. “I’m all sticky. Can’t I take a shower first?”

  “No,” Sunny said.

  Dorie shrugged. “Sorry.”

  “Dorie,” Loretta said, “you’re not gonna go with them, are you?”

  Dorie sighed. “I have to, Loretta.”

  “But, Dorie, you can be charged with kidnapping if you go with them. You don’t want to go back to prison, do you?”

  “Well, no,” she said, but it wasn’t a very convincing no. “I did meet some nice girls in prison. It wasn’t all bad.”

  Loretta shook her head. Dorie was a hopeless slave to her hormones. Loretta glanced at Vissa and Krupnick and wondered about their hormones.

  Marvelli was zipping up the jumpsuit, careful not to get his pubic hair caught. He didn’t look happy. “This feels terrible,” he said with a disgusted frown.

  “Quiet,” Sunny ordered, as she handed him a pair of black satin ninja booties. “Put these on.”

  “Why?” he said defiantly.

  Krupnick grabbed Loretta by the front of her blouse and hauled her across the room, jamming the gun barrel square in the middle of her forehead. “Why?” he yelled at the top of his lungs. “You really want to know why? Because I’ll do your friend here and not even think about it if you don’t put those friggin’ booties on. That’s why!”

  Loretta’s heart was in her throat.

  “Okay, okay, I’m putting them on,” Marvelli said quickly. “Take it easy.”

  Krupnick shoved Loretta away and indicated with the gun barrel that she should go back to where she’d been standing next to Vissa. Loretta’s heart was a frantic little bird, but there was a hint of a satisfied grin on her lips. Marvelli had conceded to Krupnick just as quickly for her as he had for Vissa.

  Sunny was pulling the leather ski mask down over Marvelli’s head, zipping the mouth hole shut. It matched the jumpsuit perfectly. Krupnick poked him in the back with the gun barrel, prodding him to stand up. When he did, his movements were stiff and unnatural. He looked like a gingerbread man who’d been left in the oven way too long. “Okay, move,” Krupnick said, shoving Marvelli toward the door. “Come on, let’s go,” he said to Sunny and Dorie.

  Dorie hopped to, but Sunny stooped down to say good-bye to Dragon. “I’ll see you later, okay? I’ll make you something nice.” She fondled the dog’s jowls and kissed his wrinkled forehead. She seemed genuinely concerned about the animal. But if Dragon felt anything for Sunny, his wrinkly face didn’t show it.

  Sunny locked the padded door that led upstairs before she went out the back door, which she also locked but from the outside. Loretta could see that there were no handles to turn the dead bolts on either door, which she supposed made sense since this was a dungeon, after all.

  She glanced sideways at Vissa, who was already glaring at her. Loretta glared back.

  Vissa was just about to say something when a sound came out of Dragon that made them both stare at him in amazement. The dog did have a voice. He was growling as he bared his teeth, but it was a hissy, high-pitched sound that reminded Loretta of a chain-smoker on his deathbed.

  When neither of the women responded to him, he growled a little louder and half an octave higher.

  Loretta curled her upper lip at him. “Don’t start with me,” she warned. Then she looked Vissa in the eye. “You either.”

  17

  Vissa moved away from Loretta, going around to the other side of the table where Marvelli had been strapped, Loretta holding her ground near the door that led upstairs. They stared at each other like professional wrestlers getting psyched for a bout. The only difference was, this was for real.

  “What the hell’re you doing here?” Vissa said with an Elvis sneer.

  “What the hell’re you doing with Marvelli?” Loretta shot back.

  Vissa pushed the hair out of her eyes. “Is that why you’re here? Because you’re jealous?” She looked up at the ceiling and shook her head in amazement. “Take me, Lord. I’ve heard everything now.”

  Dragon emitted another high-pitched growl and showed a few more teeth than he had before. He was anxious and upset, turning his head back and forth from Loretta to Vissa. He didn’t like them positioned this way. He wanted them standing together so he could watch them both.

  Loretta was about to throw what she had in her hand, hoping that he’d go fetch it, when she realized that she was still holding that bowl of Elmer Fudge Whirl Arnie had given her upstairs. It was almost completely melted now. “Here,” she said, stooping down and sliding the bowl across the floor. It tottered to a stop in front of the dog’s paws.

  Dragon tilted his head and stared at it, then he bent down and sniffed it. A split second later he was scarfing it down and cleaning the bowl, his pink tongue darting in and out of his wrinkled jowls like lightning from a rain cloud.

  Loretta turned her attention back to Vissa. “So why shouldn’t I be jealous? You don’t think I have a right to be?”

  “No one has a right to be jealous,” Vissa said, tossing her head. “Jealousy is stupid.”

  “Only when you’re the cause of it,” Loretta said. Her face was hot. She had an overpowering urge to grab Vissa by her Annette Funicello flip and drag her around the room a few hundred times.

  “Oh, get real,” Vissa said dismissively. “I’m not interested in Marvelli.”

  “Oh, really? Then how come I saw you two strolling through the airport holding hands?”

  Vissa crossed her arms and tucked in her chin. “Last time I checked, hands weren’t sex organs.”

  “No, but they know where to find them.”

  “Yeah, well, mine didn’t. Not Marvelli’s.”

  “Yeah, right,” Loretta grumbled. Vissa was looking her dead in the eye, as forthright as a judge, which started to give Loretta second thoughts. The woman’s denials sounded genuine.

  “So what is it with you?” Loretta asked. “What are you, a guy magnet? They just flock to you?”

  “You know, I’m getting sick and tired of hearing people say that about me. You ma
ke it sound like I’m some kind of sideshow freak, like I can put guys under a spell and do whatever I want with them. Sure, I’m sexy, and I’m proud of that. I use it to my advantage. But I’ve had my problems, too—more than you’d think.”

  Vissa was frowning defiantly, but Loretta could see that she was upset. For the first time since Loretta had met her, Vissa seemed vulnerable. “What kind of problems?” Loretta asked.

  Vissa didn’t answer immediately. She looked away and heaved a big sigh. “I’m thirty-nine, and I’ve never had a halfway decent relationship in my life. Not even close to one because guys don’t get serious about girls like me. I did not touch Marvelli, and he didn’t touch me because he wouldn’t want me, not the way I’d want him. Besides, I couldn’t have done anything with him if I’d wanted to because he’s stuck on you. He talks about you all the time.” Vissa brushed away a tear with the flat of her hand, trying not to ruin her mascara. “And if you don’t believe me,” she blurted, “well, too damn bad.”

  Loretta didn’t know what to say. If what Vissa had said was true, then Loretta should be ashamed of herself. But she wasn’t exactly ready to buy the whole package yet. Still, she was beginning to feel foolish for jumping to conclusions and coming all the way out to San Francisco to spy on them.

  “I … ” she started. “I … ” In her heart she wanted to believe Vissa, but her stubborn head just didn’t want to be wrong. “Vissa, I—”

  Ka-thump!

  Loretta looked down and saw Dragon lying flat on his side with his long pink tongue hanging out. He’d just keeled over. The bowl was absolutely clean, and Dragon seemed to be having a hard time keeping his eyes open. If he were a cartoon dog, he’d have had little imaginary birds circling his head.

  Loretta furrowed her brow. “What the hell’s in that stuff?”

  “What? The ice cream?” Vissa moved closer to the dog.

  Loretta got down on one knee and stroked Dragon’s flank. His breathing seemed to be a little slow for a dog, and she thought she could see a doggie smile under the folds around his muzzle. “This is weird,” she said. “There must be something in this stuff, something that’s not kosher.”

  “Like what?”

  “I don’t know, but I did see Arnie putting his secret ingredient into a vat of Fudge Whirl at the plant.”

  “What did it look like?”

  “I didn’t get to see it. He threw it in too fast.”

  “Poor dog,” Vissa said, kneeling down next to Loretta. “You think he’ll be all right?”

  Loretta shrugged. “I don’t know anything about dogs.” She kept stroking his wrinkly coat. He felt like a fuzzy prune. She pulled off her brunette wig and skullcap and tossed them aside, shaking out her long, dirty blond hair. “Poor Dragon,” she moaned. “I wish we could get him to a vet.”

  “We’d better find Marvelli first,” Vissa said.

  Loretta narrowed her eyes and gave Vissa a look.

  “Not because I’m lusting for his bod,” Vissa clarified, “though I must admit it isn’t a bad bod. It’s because of Krupnick. He’s a very dangerous person. I’m afraid of what he might do.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Vissa suddenly became very serious. “Krupnick will do anything to get his way, and he doesn’t care who he hurts. He’s also got a nasty temper. I’ve seen it in action. If he starts to feel squeezed, he’ll take it out on Marvelli. I know it.”

  “How will he take it out on Marvelli?”

  Vissa smacked her forehead with the heel of her hand. “God, do I have to draw you a picture?”

  “Yes.”

  Vissa sighed in frustration. “Now I don’t know this for a fact, but I was told that there was a guy who owed Krupnick money once. It was something like twenty thousand dollars. When the guy didn’t pay on the day he’d promised, Krupnick kidnapped his wife, and every day that Krupnick didn’t get paid, he did something to the wife. The first day he shaved her head and sent the hair to her husband FedEx. The second day he sent one of the woman’s front teeth. Do I have to go on?”

  “How long did it take for the guy to come up with the money?”

  “A week.”

  Loretta shuddered. “I don’t want to know.”

  Dragon let out a dreamy moan. Loretta pushed back the fold of his brow and checked his eyes. They were out of focus. The dog was out of it.

  “We have to get out of here,” Loretta said. “We’re gonna drop this animal off at a vet and then find Marvelli.” She was saying this more to herself than to Vissa, thinking out loud and putting together a battle plan as she went along. “Is there anything in here we can use to break the door down?”

  Vissa got up and started checking out Sunny’s equipment. “We could whip it open,” Vissa said sarcastically. “She’s got plenty of those.”

  Loretta scanned the room, searching for an idea. There were chains hanging from the ceiling and all kinds of restraints but nothing heavy enough to batter down a door. But then she noticed something on the legs of the table that Marvelli had been strapped to. It was on wheels.

  “Give me a hand,” she said to Vissa. She unlocked the wheels and swiveled the table around so that it was aimed at the back door.

  Vissa came over to help. “It looks like it’s made out of solid wood,” she said hopefully. “It might work.”

  “On three, push as hard as you can,” Loretta said. “Ready? One … two … three!”

  They ran with the heavy table, like bobsled racers at the start of a race, crashing it into the back door with a loud thud. But instead of splintering the door, it did absolutely nothing. Both the door and the table were unaffected. They’d only managed to put a two-inch scar in the door.

  “Again,” Loretta shouted and pulled the table back. “One, two, three.”

  They ran with the table, and it boomed like a shotgun when it hit the door this time, but nothing broke. The door remained intact. “Again,” Loretta yelled. “Come on.”

  They tried it again, shoving the table as hard as they could, but the collision only stung their hands and rattled their eardrums. The door stood solid—sturdy and arrogant about it.

  Tears welled in Loretta’s eyes. She ran her fingers through her hair and leaned over the table, ready to try it again. She didn’t want Marvelli back in pieces.

  Vissa laid her hand on Loretta’s shoulder. She was crying, too. “I want you to know something. I didn’t do anything with him while we were here. We did do it once, but that was a long time ago. Before he met you. And it was only one time. I guess I wasn’t the girl he wanted to bring home to Mom. Anyway, the point is, I’m not after him. I swear. I may be a flirt, but I’m not a slut. I want you to believe that.”

  Loretta looked into Vissa’s eyes. Mascara was running down the woman’s cheeks in vertical lines. Loretta sniffed back her own tears and laid a hand on top of Vissa’s. “I believe you,” she said softly, her voice breaking.

  “Let’s try it again,” Vissa said. “Come on. We can do it.”

  Loretta sighed. She knew Vissa was just trying to be encouraging because a stick of dynamite wouldn’t knock that door down. But Loretta also knew that she had to do something because she refused to give up hope. “All right,” she said. “One more try.”

  They took their positions on either side of the table. “On three,” Vissa said, and they both counted together. “One … two … three!”

  They pushed as hard as they could and ran with the table, Loretta putting all of her determination into it.

  For Marvelli, she thought.

  The table crashed into the door, but this time they heard something different, not a thud or a boom. The women looked at each other, unwilling to believe it until the other confirmed it, but they knew something had happened. Something had cracked.

  “Again,” Loretta said.

  They pulled the table back into the room, adjusted the angle, and charged again, smashing directly into their target.

  They searched each other’s faces f
or affirmation. Yes! Wood had cracked again, louder and more pronounced this time.

  Neither of them had to say a word. They knew what to do, pulling the table back, getting into position, and ramming it into the door once more.

  CRACK!

  This time the door screeched in agony, drowning out the boom of the initial impact. Loretta looked at the door and could see the damage clearly now, a fissure running along the grain from the bottom to just above the point of impact.

  “Keep going,” she yelled, and that’s just what they did, slamming the heavy table into the door again and again, smashing it until it cried out for mercy, then smashing it some more until there wasn’t much of a sound at all. The formerly rock-solid door was a ragged fresco of shreds and strips. Spears of daylight filtered into the gloomy basement from outside through a wide crack. The table had started to split as well, and the leather padding had taken a beating, but it didn’t look half as bad as the door. Loretta shoved the table aside with her hip as she went over to the door and gave it a good boot. She kicked it a few more times until the crack opened up clear to the top; then using her hands she pulled the unhinged side down, letting it crash to the floor. The hinged side swung open meekly on squeaky hinges. Fresh air wafted into the dank room and cooled the sweat on Loretta’s face.

  She fanned her blouse against her chest. “Do you have a car?” she asked Vissa.

  Vissa nodded. “On the street.”

  “The dog,” Loretta said, nodding toward Dragon, who was still in a stupor. “I’ll take the front. You take the back.”

  Together they stooped down to pick up Dragon, Loretta cradling his head as she got a hand under his shoulder, Vissa linking her fingers around his midriff. But when they went to pick him up, they were both startled by how heavy he was.

  “Jeez!” Vissa said. “He weighs a ton.”

  Loretta struggled with her end, trying to get a better grip on the floppy animal. “He’d better lay off the Arnie and Barry’s,” she grunted.

  Dragon dozed blissfully as they carried him out the door and into the sunshine. A tiny flower garden clung to the side of the house. Rose bushes in big terra cotta pots climbed a long trellis that ran along the property line.