There was one thing I forgot to mention. Richard was going to Washington to see somebody.
Sometimes I travel with him, but this time he insisted it would be better if he went alone." Kelly was watching her with a surprised expression. "That's strange. Mark told me he had to go to Washington, and had to go alone." "We have to find out why." Kelly walked over to the window and pulled back the drapes. "There's still no car." She turned to Diane. "Let's get out of here." "Right," Diane said. "I know a little out-of-the-way hotel in Chinatown called the Mandarin. No one will ever think of looking for us there. We'll call Mr. Kingsley from the room."
* * *
"I KNOW A little out-of-the-way hotel in Chinatown called the Mandarin. No one will ever think of looking for us there. We'll call Mr. Kingsley from the room." Tanner turned to his chief security officer, Harry Flint, with the perpetual half smile. "Kill them."
Chapter Twenty-Three
HARRY FLINT WILL take good care of the women, Tanner thought with satisfaction.
Flint had never failed him.
It amused Tanner to think about how Flint had come into his life. Years ago his brother, Andrew, poster boy for the bleeding hearts of the world, had started a halfway house for newly released prisoners, to help them adjust to civilian life. Then he would find jobs for them.
Tanner had a more useful plan for ex-felons, because he believed that there was no such thing as an ex-felon. Through his private sources, he would get inside information on the backgrounds of recently released prisoners, and if they had the qualifications that Tanner needed, they went from the halfway house to working for Tanner directly, doing what he called "delicate private tasks." He had arranged for an ex-felon named Vince Carballo to come to work for KIG.
Carballo was a huge man with a scraggly beard and blue eyes that were like daggers. He had a long prison record. He had been on trial for murder. The evidence against him was overwhelming, but a member of the jury stubbornly held out for acquittal, and it ended up in a hung jury. Only a few people knew that the juror's little daughter had disappeared and a note was left behind: If you keep quiet about this, your daughter's fate will be determined by the jury's verdict.
Carballo was the kind of man Tanner Kingsley admired.
* * *
TANNER HAD ALSO heard about an ex-felon named Harry Flint. He had investigated Flint's life thoroughly and decided he was perfect for his needs.
Harry Flint had been born in Detroit, into a middle-class family. His father was a bitter, failed salesman who spent his time sitting around the house complaining. He was a sadistic martinet, and at his son's slightest infraction, he enjoyed whipping him, using a ruler, a belt, or anything else that was handy, as though he wanted to beat success into his son to make up for his own inadequacy.
The boy's mother worked as a manicurist at a barbershop. While Harry's father was tyrannical, his mother was devoted and doting, and as young Harry grew up, he was emotionally whipsawed between the two.
Doctors had told Harry's mother that she was too old to have a child, so she considered her pregnancy a miracle. After Harry was born, she lovingly fondled him and was constantly hugging him, patting him, and kissing him until eventually Harry felt smothered by her love. As he got older, he loathed being touched.
* * *
WHEN HARRY FLINT was fourteen years old, he trapped a rat in the basement and stomped on it.
As he stared at the rat slowly, painfully dying, Harry Flint had an epiphany. He suddenly realized he had the awesome power to take life, to kill. It made him feel like God. He was omnipotent, all-powerful. He needed to have that feeling again, and he began to stalk small animals around the neighborhood, and they became his prey. There was nothing personal or malicious about what Flint was doing. He was just using his God-given talent.
Angry neighbors whose pets were being tortured and killed complained to the authorities, and a trap was set. The police put a Scottish terrier on the front lawn of a house with a leash to keep her from running away. They staked out the site, and one night, as the police watched, Harry Flint approached the animal.
He pried the dog's mouth open and started to insert a lit firecracker. The police pounced. When Harry Flint was frisked, he had a bloody rock and a five-inch fillet knife in his pocket.
He was sent to Challenger Memorial Youth Center for twelve months.
One week after Flint arrived, he attacked one of the other boys, maiming him badly. The psychiatrist who examined Flint diagnosed him as a paranoid schizophrenic.
"He's psychotic," the doctor warned the guards in charge. "Be careful. Keep him away from the others." When Harry Flint had served his time, he was fifteen years old and was released on probation. He returned to school. Several of his classmates looked upon Flint as a hero. They had become involved in petty crimes such as snatching purses, lifting wallets, and shoplifting, and Flint soon became their leader.
In an alley fight one night, a knife sliced a corner of Flint's lip, giving him a permanent half-smile.
As the boys grew older, they turned to carjacking, burglary, and robbery. One of the robberies became violent, and a shopkeeper was killed. Harry Flint was convicted of armed robbery and abetting a murder, and sentenced to ten years in prison. He was the most vicious prisoner the warden had ever seen.
There was something in Harry Flint's eyes that made other prisoners leave him alone. He constantly terrorized them, but no one dared report him.
One day, as a guard passed Harry Flint's cell, he stared inside unbelievingly.
Flint's cell mate was lying on the floor, in a pool of blood. He had been beaten to death.
The guard looked at Flint, and there was a smile of satisfaction on his face.