SECRETS OF THE PAST
Chapter Ten
On a flight to Montpellier,
France, Jack had gone to see his relatives, showing Rose his heritage.
He went to the store, and saw a
familiar face.
"Monique?" She was
dressed in a fancy black dress.
"Pig?" She had loved
Jack. That was her way of loving, calling him names.
"You still hate me, don't
you?" Jack knew she still loved him.
"Yes, Jack, but I have lived
a different life. After I left you, I went back to my old life, and got
married, too. It didn't last, but at least I got his estate to live well and
happy for the rest of my life." She held a few bags in her hands.
"That's good to hear,
Monique. I always prayed for the best for you after you left me." He
looked at her. She looked good.
"How's Rose?" she
asked.
"She's fine," he said.
"You're married,
right?" Monique asked.
"Yeah. Two years." Jack
looked at her.
"I see you didn't waste any
time." Monique had her head down.
"Monique, what can I
possibly do to make it up to you?" He knew he couldn't really give her
what she wanted.
"Nothing, Jack." She
walked away.
He got to the counter and put his
items on the conveyer belt.
"Well, Frank Abagnale. At
your old scheme again, huh? You're going back to jail. Cuff him, boys,"
someone said behind him.
"What? Who are you?" A
man with a gun held Jack in place.
"I am sure you know me.
Hello, Frank." A girl named Roxie appeared.
"Roxie?" Roxie Donelli
was Max ‘The Hit Man' Donelli's daughter. She was a lively one, wild as could
be.
"Frank, I have been watching
you." She walked around him.
"I know who you are, but I
am not Frank Abagnale. You got the wrong man." He tried to convince her.
"Don't play this again. We
know who you are." The man with the gun pushed him.
"You've got the wrong man.
I'm telling you. Call my wife." Jack wanted to get out.
"Married already,
Abagnale?" Roxie questioned him.
"Roxie, please. Help
me," Jack pleaded. He didn't really know her. But he had seen her around.
"You help me, and I will
help you." Roxie grabbed his inner thigh.
"What do you want?"
Jack thought she wanted sex.
"Two million dollars."
Roxie touched his manhood, smiling.
"Two million dollars?"
Jack looked at her like, yeah, where was he gonna get that kind of money?
"Frank, you are known as the
best forger in town, the absolute best. I need you to get us some outfits and
ID's. Since you ripped off Pan Am once, I think you can do it again." She
had read all about it in the newspapers.
"No, I won't. I won't do
it." Jack pushed her away from him.
"Then it's off to prison you
go." Roxie started to walk away.
"All right. I will do it.
Whatever you say, but I am going to need some supplies, and I want to call my
wife," Jack demanded.
"You got it." Roxie
flipped his tie.
He called Rose, and told her where
everything was so she could get back home. He told her that he was with some
friends. He mentioned to her to tell his father about Roxie.
Rose was not a stupid girl. She
understood everything. She called Jack's dad.
The phone rang.
"Hello?" Frank answered.
"Mr. Abagnale?" Rose
was worried about Jack.
"Oh, Rose. How are you
doing?" He hadn't heard from Jack, and he was worried.
"Just fine. Jack's in
trouble." Rose was worried. He was in deep shit.
"What's wrong?" Frank
had a gut feeling something was coming back to haunt him.
"Something's happened. He
mentioned someone named Roxie. He said you knew what it meant," Rose said.
"Montpellier, right?"
Frank hated Montpellier. It reminded him of the worst prison in hell.
"Yeah," Rose muttered.
"I am on the next flight
out, Rose." Frank got a small suitcase. A suitcase he hadn't used in
twenty years.
*****
Rose met Frank at the airport
terminal.
"Mr. Abagnale." She
went to him.
"Rose, where is he?"
Frank ran to Rose, gasping.
"I don't know. He didn't
tell me. He went to a market to get something. Next thing I know, he's calling
me. Then, I never hear from him." Rose felt like crying, but she had to be
strong.
"I know where he is."
He had known Roxie all too well.
Frank told Rose to wait for him
at the hotel. She had a room there, and she gave him her room number.
He took his rental car and went a
few miles out of Montpellier to a place he had spent time when he was in
trouble.
He honked the horn.
"Hold up," the guard
yelled. "Frank Abagnale? But I thought you were in there already."
"My son is, you idiot. Now,
open the gate." Frank almost wanted to ram the gate down.
He opened the gate.
Frank walked through the endless
corridors, looking for Jack. He heard a couple having sex. Frank bet one
hundred to one it was his son and Roxie.
Sure enough, it was.
Jack was tied to the bed,
resisting.
"Well, Roxie, I see you're
still humping your clients," he said, with a weird expression.
"Frank Abagnale?" Roxie
turned around.
"Yeah." He stood closer
to the light.
"Dad?" Jack asked
deliriously. He had been drugged.
"Roxie, get your
disease-infested carcass off my son!" Frank said with authority.
Roxie got off Jack and put a robe
on.
"Hey, Frank. What's
up?" Roxie played with Frank's tie.
"Nothing. I want my son out of
here. He has nothing to do with what I did to you twenty years ago. Let him
go," Frank demanded.
"All right, Frank. I will
let him go if you give me two million dollars. Real cash. No checks."
Roxie studied him.
"Fine. Consider it a
deal," Frank said.
Roxie called her men to unchain
Jack.
Jack was so delirious, he thought
the whole thing was a dream.
Jack got dressed, and he leaned
on his father. The drug made him sick.
Jack threw up.
Frank put Jack in the car.
"It's all right, son. We are going home." Jack fell asleep on the
ride there. Frank called a doctor and had him check to see if anything more was
wrong with him. Luckily, there wasn't.
Jack went to bed after the doctor
left. Frank got a room and stayed with them in Montpellier. He called Angelina
and told her that he was watching over Jack, that some trouble had come his
way, and that he was helping him. Angelina understood, and told him to take his
time coming home. She wanted him to call and give her updates about the
situation every now and then.
Rose made some coffee. It was
going to be a long night.
Frank walked into the room where
Jack was.
"Son, we need to talk. Look,
I know that you are being blamed for everything that I did, and I am truly
sorry, but I need your help. We are gonna pull off the biggest scam in
history." Frank sat on the bed with Jack.
Jack heard everything his father
said. He loved his father so much that he would do anything for him.
*****
Over the next few days, Frank and
Jack pulled off getting ten suits and ten fake Pan Am ID's for Roxie. Rose knew
nothing about it.
Jack and Frank Abagnale hit the
streets three days later. Frank told Jack about the incident with being a
security guard standing in front of a bank with a laundry cart. He had stolen
the money out of the envelopes, threw the bills away, and put them in a
bathtub. Jack and Frank stood at different banks, a mile away from each other.
Everyone that passed by the night depository box dropped their money into the
laundry carts. Frank was smart this time. He had a dolly to reel into the van.
Later that night, they had collected over nine hundred thousand dollars. It was
a lot, but not nearly enough for Roxie.
Frank had met Roxie at a bar late
one night. He remembered how she had conned him into staying the night with her,
and when he had woken up she had robbed him blind. Frank remembered laughing at
her because all that she had taken wasn't worth anything. He had promised her
fifteen thousand dollars when she stood with him that night, and she had gotten
gypped. He had gotten a free night of pleasure, while she got nothing but a
bubblegum wrapper, or so Frank put it.
Over the next few days, Frank and
Jack walked down to the airport, dressed in identical Pan Am uniforms. They
passed by some Pan Am stewardesses. Each bared a smile, and their charm gleamed
through their immoral facade. Frank and Jack made a good team. They worked one
city each day, getting the rest of the money that was owed to Roxie. By the
time they were through paying the debt, they had made a little extra. Frank had
a box in Sweden, and transferred all the extra money there. When the game was
over, Frank went home to Angelina, and Jack got the hell out of France, vowing
never to return to that city ever again.