Part 12
The Hart Remembers – Part Twelve
Nick Rhodes wasn’t happy. He should have insisted that idiot Vincent Bartelli finish the job on Jennifer Hart when she’d started nosing around in his business in the first place. He wasn’t sure why he’d let that incompetent hitman persuade him otherwise. If Bartelli had done the job properly then she wouldn’t be here now screwing up his plans once again.
Oh, well Bartelli had got what he deserved. The idiot had gotten himself arrested and that had been unacceptable to Rhodes so he had one of the cops on his payroll eliminate him before he could spill the beans. The incompetent police had ruled it a suicide and hadn’t even bothered to run an investigation. He laughed to himself.
And Jennifer Hart wouldn’t be a problem for much longer either, he mused with an evil smile. Sanchez should be back any moment with the package he’d asked for. Then Mrs Jennifer Hart would get what was coming to her. He felt satisfaction run through him at the thought of eliminating her permanently. He couldn’t wait.
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Jennifer didn’t know how long she had been in the room but it was dark now so it had been a few hours. She shifted uncomfortably. Her behind was numb from sitting on the hard chair and her left wrist was swollen and bloody from the cuff locked around it. She was starting to need the bathroom fairly badly also but there wasn’t anything she could do about that right now, so she had to hold on.
She had pushed the chair back up against the wall so she could lean up against it and had dozed a little. Now she was wide awake again and the panic was threatening to overwhelm her here in the tiny dark room. The only light was a sliver of moonlight shining through the skylight above.
Her mind wandered to Jonathan and she wondered what he was doing at that moment. Was he looking for her? Of course he was, she told herself. She had been missing for hours now and he would have everyone out looking for her she was sure. She smiled a small smile.
Jennifer knew she had been stupid. If she had just told Jonathan where she was going she knew he wouldn’t have let her come alone. He would have known it was a trap and would have called in the police as backup. After all they worked better as a team and if she had thought about it she wouldn’t have come here on her own. Just stupid, stupid, stupid!
Jennifer shook herself. Ok, she had been stupid but there was nothing she could do about that now. She had to think of a way out of this. She had to stay positive. Nick Rhodes was not going to get the better of her she vowed.
Just then the door was flung back and light flooded the room. Jennifer was temporarily blinded by the light and blinked a couple of times to clear her vision.
Nick Rhodes was standing in the doorway looking at her with a self satisfied smile.
“Well Jennifer Hart it is time for you to get what’s coming to you. You have interfered with my plans for the last time” he said menacingly. He strolled over to stand in front of her.
“You aren’t as brave this time without your husband beside you to protect you, are you?” He stooped to her eye level “Nothing to say for yourself?”
Jennifer glared at him. “My husband will kill you if he ever gets his hands on you”
Rhodes laughed “He won’t ever have the chance. Anyway he will be too heartbroken from losing his wife to bother with me. Your death will break him”
Jennifer’s heart stalled in her chest. Fear pulsed through her as she realized he was serious about killing her. And he was right; Jonathan wasn’t there to protect her this time.
“Sanchez bring it in, now” Rhodes ordered.
Jennifer looked up to see the man called Sanchez enter the room carefully carrying something.
“Set it up in front of her, I want her to be able to see it” Rhodes ordered the man.
Sanchez set the item down carefully in front of Jennifer and her heart nearly stopped. The item was a sophisticated looking bomb with an elaborate timer on it.
“You have done well my friend, Sanchez. This is exactly what I wanted” Rhodes patted the man on his shoulder and then turned to Jennifer “You see Mrs Hart I thought this would be a fitting end to your life as you dodged being blown up with the bomb I had set for you years ago. You and your husband deprived me of that satisfaction then, so it is only fitting for you to go that way now” he laughed loudly, almost maniacally and Jennifer knew that she wasn’t getting out of this.
“And you know what the best thing is?” Rhodes continued “You get to watch the last minutes of your life tick down, how good is that?” he laughed again “Genius isn’t it?”
Jennifer shook her head and said “You may kill me Rhodes but you will never get away with it, Jonathan will see to that. He will hunt you down and kill you. It doesn’t matter where you go he will find you, eventually.” Jennifer was acting braver than she felt but what the hell, she thought, it was over for her now anyway so she had nothing to lose.
“Ha!” Rhodes spat “Your wonderful Jonathan will be so paralysed with grief that he won’t be able to do anything but weep for your loss.”
“That’s what you think” she spat back.
“Enough of this, Sanchez, start the timer”
“Yes sir, how long do you want on it?”
“Oh I think 15 minutes should be long enough for us to get a safe enough distance away. I plan on being able to watch the fireworks. I don’t want to miss seeing this. I have waited a long time to get even with this woman” he laughed again.
Sanchez set the timer and the two men turned to leave. As he was about to go through the door Rhodes turned to her once more and said “Goodbye Mrs Hart. For good this time” he laughed again and was about to move on when he stopped and moved back to stand in front of her.
He pulled the keys to the handcuffs from his pocket and looked at them for a second.
He dropped them to the floor just out of Jennifer’s reach and said “And this will make it worse for you. To know that the last minutes of your life are ticking by and freedom is just out of your reach.” He lifted his fingers to his lips and kissed them while saying “Ciao baby!”
He quickly left the room without looking back. The door slammed shut and Jennifer looked at the bomb timer sitting just in front of her.
Thirteen minutes.
She had just thirteen minutes left to live. Her heart was pounding. She stretched herself out as far as she could go and tried to get the keys with her toes but it was no use they were just out of reach. If only she could get to them. The thought of Jonathan, and their love for each other, spurred her on. She kept trying for some time but couldn’t quite manage to touch them.
She gave up and sagged back against the wall. Her fate was sealed. She looked at the timer again.
Five minutes.
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At that moment Jonathan was speeding along in a police car with Herschel heading towards the warehouse on Carbon Canyon Road. Things had moved really fast after young Andy Prentiss had imparted the information on the whereabouts of Jennifer that he had learned from his girlfriend Jessica Clark.
“Can’t you go any faster” Jonathan yelled at Herschel
“The car is going as fast as it can, calm down Jonathan, we’ll be there in a few minutes.
Jonathan looked out the back window of the police car to see the convoy of police vehicles following them.
Rhodes wasn’t going to get away with this. Jonathan swore that he would kill him with his bare hands if he had to. He just hoped that they were in time and that Jennifer was still…. No, he told himself, best not to think about that right now. She would be alright, she had to be, he would have felt it if she wasn’t.
The police convoy turned into Carbon Canyon Road. Herschel slowed down a bit as he didn’t want to miss the gateway to the warehouse.
“There… there it is” Herschel pointed in the direction up ahead. He slowed the car and then stopped. The vehicles behind stopped also.
“What are you stopping for?” Jonathan screamed as he grabbed the handle of the car door.
Herschel put a hand out and held Jonathans tense arm to stop him. “Wait, we have to take this carefully. We don’t want to spook Rhodes into doing something stupid.”
Jonathan relaxed a little and was about to speak when an almighty explosion rent the night air and the surrounding countryside lit up like the forth of July.
Both Jonathan and Herschel looked in the direction of the warehouse only to see massive flames engulfing it.
Jonathan had the door open in a flash and was running towards the blaze screaming “NO! NO! NO!”
Herschel caught up with him and tackled Jonathan to the ground before he could run into the burning building. Jonathan struggled against Herschel trying to get free.
“LET ME GO!” he screamed “I have to get in there. Jennifer is in there!”
“You don’t know that for sure” Herschel held on to Jonathan trying to calm him down knowing what he was saying to him was a lie.
“YES I DO! NOW LET ME GO!”
“No I can’t Jonathan. If Jennifer was in there….”
“WHAT! Finish what you were going to say!” Jonathan spat at him.
“If Jennifer was in there, it’s too late already.”