by Diane Capri
She heard Murphy yell out when one of her shots hit him in the belly.
He went down. But he didn’t stop.
From the garage floor, Murphy fired again and again.
He couldn’t see his targets, but he wasted his ammo firing in their general direction anyway.
The midnight train rumbled ever closer. The whistle blew loud and long in the distance. The lights and bells at the crossing began to clang.
The ground shook harder and longer than ever before. The train kept coming, louder, and harder.
Suddenly, the train was right on top of the tracks behind them. The noise and the wind and the shaking consumed and battered everything around them.
Just as the train’s engine rumbled past, the ground shook so hard that Kim bounced up and down whole inches, almost knocking them both over this time.
On the last bounce, the earth gave way.
The trench separated into a wide maw of gaping darkness. Two feet. Five feet. Ten.
As it gaped, the land on the other side, where Murphy and Nina were inside the garage, began to sink.
Murphy continued to fire as the garage and the land on which it sat sunk lower and lower into the massive pit.
Both Kim and Perry shot back, running backward, seeking safety from the disappearing earth.
After the locomotive, the endless sequence of rail cars hammered past, squealing metal hurtling north with speed and momentum and massive weight.
The train scarred the very air as well as the earth and everything remotely close to it. The crevice that Perry had tripped over opened wider and wider.
The domino effect. One thing after another.
The hole widened and deepened.
The front of the garage fell into the hole.
Murphy and the hearse, and whatever was inside it, sank into the hole with the garage.
The hearse rolled backward and landed on Murphy. His screams could barely be heard over the deafening noise.
Then the back of the garage came down.
As the hole grew bigger and bigger, the garage continued falling, crumbling, and breaking apart from the surrounding earth.
The cement sidewalk crumbled into the hole.
Kim reached out to grab Perry. He tossed his arm over her shoulder and they scrambled away from the widening sinkhole as the train cars continued to thunder past.
Just as they cleared the edges of the hole, running toward the SUV, the train’s caboose thundered past.
Kim’s breath came in quick, short bursts. Perry limped badly, moving as fast as he could.
The SUV was ten feet ahead.
They were almost there.
“Come on, Perry. You can do this,” Kim shouted over the monstrous noise. They kept going.
A moment later, Murphy’s house exploded.
The house burst into a million tiny pieces, launching like missiles through the air.
The first blast was quickly followed by smaller explosions when the gas line broke and parts of the house ignited.
Flames shot up, illuminating the night, shining a big spotlight on the length and breadth of the giant sinkhole into which the entire garage had disappeared, taking everything inside along with it.
Bits and pieces of the house and dirt and gravel rained down on them all the way to the SUV as they ran.
Kim hurried to settle herself behind the wheel and pushed the button to start the engine.
Perry limped quickly and arranged himself in the passenger seat. He was hurting, but she had no time to help with that now.
Before he’d closed the door, Kim accelerated backward and sped south to the crossroads while debris of various kinds pelted the SUV.
She executed a three-point turn and floored the accelerator to move east of the train tracks, the explosions, and the sinkhole as fast as possible.
When the SUV was far enough away, she stopped.
The flying debris stopped, too. But everything flammable in the house and the garage was burning.
She and Perry got out of the SUV and stared at the destruction.
The train was long gone. She saw the flashing lights on the caboose in the distance.
Within moments, the fire sirens sounded in Carter’s Crossing.
For the second time in less than twenty-four hours, the fire trucks rushed to the scene of a massive fire.
From her vantage point, now that the train was gone, Kim looked across the one-sided street on her left. The McKinneys, all four of them, stood on the cracked sidewalk outside Brannan’s. They stared at Murphy’s destroyed house and the sinkhole that swallowed his garage and the land around it, mouths agape.
As the fire department arrived, Greyson, lights flashing and sirens blaring, drove in. He parked alongside the road near where Kim and Perry stood.
When he got out and walked over to join them, Kim glanced his way.
She noticed a life-sized lump on the ground nearby, off the shoulder of the road. She trotted over and knelt down.
Nina Cloud was huddled into a tiny ball, face blackened with soot, hair and eyes wild. Obvious signs of shock. Clammy, chills, rapid heart rate. But still alive.
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
Friday, May 13
Carter’s Crossing, Mississippi
9:35 a.m.
The next morning, Kim awakened like a drunk after a three-day bender. Her phone had pinged with a message from the Boss at five o’clock. She was booked on a flight out of Memphis. No objections entertained.
She’d slept another hour, then dragged herself out of bed and into the shower.
Her secure hot spot connected with a strong signal, and she had no idea what conditions would be like later in the day. She’d taken the time to complete her reports and upload them to her server. Paying her insurance premium, once again. She’d mainlined two pots of strong, black coffee in the process.
Downstairs, she’d checked out and said goodbye to the Toussaint’s desk clerk, who was filling in for Janine Wood this morning. Janine was over at the hospital with Nina Cloud, the woman said. Nina and Janine had been friends from birth. Their mothers were sisters.
Kim smiled and said, “Small towns.”
The desk clerk agreed. “Everybody around here knows each other somehow.”
She had phone calls to make, but she could do that on the long drive back to the Memphis airport.
Checked out and packed up, she stowed her bags in the SUV.
She tried calling Sheriff Greyson. The calls went straight to voicemail. He was still working the crime scene. Or he’d gone to bed and dropped into immediate oblivion. He had to be exhausted.
She drove along Main Street one last time, resisting the urge to return to the scene of last night’s disaster. The best way to help Greyson now was to stay out of the way. If he needed anything from her, he knew to call.
Libby’s Diner was open for breakfast. She’d agreed to meet Mayor Deveraux, so she parked out front and went inside.
Deveraux was seated at the same table where Kim had last seen her. But this time, she wasn’t alone.
Libby was perched in the seat next to her like a bird expecting to fly at any moment. Kim joined them and filled the waiting plastic mug with Libby’s good coffee.
“I really didn’t know what to think about you when you came in that first time,” Libby said, glancing at Kim briefly. “Everything about Bonnie was still so raw then, you know?”
Kim nodded. She had pieced several things together after last night. Some of which she should have realized sooner. “Bonnie was involved in passing the counterfeits out at the casino. You knew that, didn’t you?”
“Bonnie never could keep any kind of secret.” Libby stared down at the table and fidgeted with the sugar packets. “She didn’t deserve to die for that. Nina was involved and she’s one of the managers. Bonnie figured it was okay because Nina participated, too.”
“Makes sense, I guess.”
“Bonnie didn’t do much. She switched some of the fake bill
s for real ones, now and then. She only worked part-time, after all,” Libby said, still staring at the table, shaking her head miserably. “She made a big mistake. She crossed the wrong guy at the wrong time. No way she would’ve seen that coming. Bonnie always led with her heart. And everybody liked that about her. Just never thought she’d get killed for it.”
Deveraux patted Libby’s hand. “Bonnie was a good person. Everyone will miss her.”
Libby cleared her throat and stood up. “What can I get you both for breakfast? Belgian waffles and fruit are good today.”
“I’ll have that,” Deveraux said.
“Make it two,” Kim added.
“Coming right up.” Libby trudged toward the kitchen, moving slower than she had a couple of days ago. They watched until she pushed the swinging door open and disappeared into the kitchen.
“Is she okay?” Kim asked.
Deveraux replied, “She will be. It’ll take a while, but she’ll get there.”
“Have you talked to Greyson?”
“All the time. I went out to the site this morning. I’ve never seen so much destruction from a sinkhole around here before,” Deveraux said, shaking her head like the issue weighed heaviest on the mayor’s shoulders.
“What do you think caused it?”
“Like I said before, we’ve had a lot of little sinkholes around here for the past few years. Then we had that larger one show up near the train. Now this. I’ve been talking to experts about the problem for weeks. Truth is, they don’t always know. In a few days, they’ll come in and check everything out. Take soil samples and the like.” She paused for a deep breath and shrugged. “We really don’t know. Might never know. It was probably a combination of unstable underground caves in the area and two hundred years of that train pounding along the tracks like it does. That’d be my guess.”
“I’ve heard about sinkholes that swallowed buildings and killed people before. But I’d never seen it with my own eyes,” Kim said quietly, still marveling at the power of crumbling earth. “For a while there, I thought Perry and I might end up at the bottom of that hole along with Murphy and Nina.”
Deveraux nodded. “Nina was lucky. I stopped off to see her at the hospital this morning.”
“How is she feeling?” Kim asked.
“Guilty.”
Kim raised her eyebrows. “She feels responsible for Bonnie’s death?”
“She is responsible for Bonnie’s death. And a lot more besides. Nina has always been unflinchingly honest in her self-assessments.”
“You like her, then?”
“The casino is a big part of the business community here. I’m the mayor. Not only have I known Nina personally for years, but I also work with her quite a bit. Randy, too. So does Greyson.” Deveraux shook her head and seemed to have more on her mind. “It’s hard to wrap my head around all of this, you know?”
Kim nodded. “It’s a lot to take in.”
“Trusting people is hard, isn’t it? They so often let us down,” Deveraux said, cocking her head.
“Yeah,” Kim nodded. She knew all about breaches of trust. She’d suffered plenty of betrayals in her lifetime. What had happened with her ex-husband was only one of many soul- crushing experiences in her personal life and her professional life, too.
Libby brought the waffles piled high with fruit and whipped cream. She set them on the table and retreated once again.
Kim ate a few bites of the waffle, watching as Deveraux attacked hers with gusto. She looked up and smiled with whipped cream all over her mouth like a kid. The woman certainly knew how to eat.
Deveraux took a break after a few bites. She had more to say. “Greyson interviewed Nina at the scene last night.”
“I figured he might have. What did she say?”
“She was pretty messed up. But she confessed that she was in New York with Murphy at the dog fight.”
“That’s not much of a confession. It’s obviously her on the videos, once you see it.”
“Everything is obvious once you know it,” Deveraux nodded. “Nina says she gave Pak the drink from the flask, but she claims she didn’t know it was poisoned.”
“You believe that?” Kim asked.
Deveraux shrugged. “Nina said that when Pak died, she freaked out. She admits she told Bonnie about it all. Bonnie threatened to tell Greyson. Murphy found out.”
“So Murphy is the one who killed Bonnie,” Kim said slowly, putting the timeline together in her head. “Murphy is probably the one who killed Redmond and Hern. Jasper, too. Did Nina admit all of that?”
Deveraux nodded. “Easy enough to blame a man who is already dead. But Greyson says he thinks she’s telling the truth.”
While Deveraux continued eating, Kim considered the facts with Nina’s confessions added in.
Everything made sense. Nina closed it all up and put a neat bow around it all for Greyson. With the army now gone from Kelham, the community would accept that answer gratefully.
Things could go back to what passed for normal in Carter’s Crossing.
No reason to keep beating this particular dead horse.
“I’m glad Nina is going to be okay. I didn’t know her at all, but she seemed rather fragile to me,” Kim finally said.
“Nina’s very fragile.” Deveraux shook her head, lifting her coffee cup to her lips. “She won’t be okay. She has not been okay since Reacher was here the last time.”
“What do you mean?” Kim leaned in, feeling like her ears had literally perked up.
Before Deveraux could respond, Perry limped in. He’d been to the hospital. They’d examined him and fitted him up with a surgical boot on his left leg. Cracked ribs had him taking short, shallow breaths, but there was nothing more the doctors could do about those.
“You were talking about Nina Cloud when I came in, weren’t you?” He sat, poured coffee. “Far as I’m concerned, Nina is one lucky woman.”
“How’s that?” Deveraux asked.
“She got out of that sinkhole alive, for starters. I’d say that’s pretty damned lucky. Wouldn’t you?” Perry said.
“She’s not feeling very lucky right at the moment,” Deveraux said slowly.
Perry arched his eyebrows and widened his eyes. “Because?”
Deveraux gave Kim a meaningful look before she said, “Nina was pregnant, but she lost the baby last night. Murphy was the father. The last time she was pregnant was fifteen years ago. The CEO at Kelham was the father of that child, and Nina lost her baby then, too.”
The little hairs on the back of Kim’s neck raised to attention and the butterflies in her stomach jumped around like crazy. “Fifteen years ago? When Reacher was here, you mean?”
Perry’s eyes widened even further. “Jack Reacher? He was here back then, and he’s here, now, too? He saved Nina twice?”
CHAPTER FIFTY
Friday, May 13
Carter’s Crossing, Mississippi
10:05 a.m.
Kim cleared her throat. “Hold on there, cowboy. What do you mean Reacher is here now?”
“Nina said a big guy pulled her out of the sinkhole just in time and left her on the side of the road last night. Nobody else around there at the time besides you and me,” Perry said. “Who could have done that besides Reacher?”
“She was incoherent when we found her. Babbling all kinds of crazy things.” Kim’s eyes widened. “She said a big guy, and I assumed she meant Hammer had found her at the last possible minute. Greyson said Hammer drove his own car to the hospital. He could have detoured to Murphy’s place. Plucked her literally from the gaping earth and moved on. Right?”
“Are you going to eat that waffle? I’m starving.” He grinned, and Kim pushed the plate toward him. He dug in like a man who hadn’t eaten in years.
With his mouth full, he said, “I did think it was Hammer at first. Until I asked him about it.”
“What did he say?” Kim asked.
“Said he’d like to take credit for rescuing a damsel
in distress but remember he got shot in the casino parking lot. So he was at the hospital when it all happened. Not at the sinkhole site at all,” Perry said between bites. The waffle was almost gone already. “So I hobbled down the hall to Nina’s room and asked her directly. She told me it was Reacher. She knew Reacher from before. He’d helped her that other time somehow, too.”
Kim turned to Deveraux. “Did you know about this?”
“Reacher didn’t mention it to me.” Deveraux nodded, a slight grin lifting her mouth at the corner. “Nina told me this morning.”
Kim narrowed her eyes and stared at Deveraux. “So you’re saying he’s been here in town this whole time? And you knew that and didn’t tell me?”
“He asked me to tell you, and I quote, Mother Nature sure is a bitch, isn’t she?” Deveraux said, with an amused smile. “I think he admires you.”
“Where is he now?” Kim demanded, scowling fiercely. When was she going to learn to trust her gut where Reacher was concerned? She knew the Boss was expecting Reacher to show up. When she thought she’d seen him, she should have marched right toward him.
Next time, I will. Come hell or high water.
Deveraux shrugged. “The sheriff has been trying to find him. No luck, I’m afraid.”
“What was he doing out at Murphy’s place last night?”
“I’ve been thinking about that.” Perry cocked his head, “He must have already been there waiting when Murphy and Nina drove back from the casino. We’d have seen him otherwise. Everything happened too fast for him to come after the sinkhole started. Murphy dying was bad luck, as far as Reacher was concerned.”
Kim nodded. She knew what Perry meant. Public service homicide, Reacher would have called it.
Either way, Murphy was dead and Reacher was gone. Again. She’d failed to find him.
She wasn’t used to failing and she didn’t like it. Not even a little bit.
And she wasn’t sure how she felt about all that. She’d have plenty of time to think about it on the plane.
