“Will you shut up about Stick?” Melvin snapped and gave the fronts of his jacket a tug of frustration. “We got enough problems already.” He turned his attention back to Kelsey.
“You mean Stick’s dead?” she asked Wayne, incredulous.
Melvin ignored her. “So why did Matt say he’d be here? And what’s this shit about giving the kid swimming lessons?”
“Swimming lessons?” She was struggling to keep up. “What, like in a pool or something?”
“Lionel said ‘a high dive.’” Wayne corrected. “Then something about ‘the big swim.’”
Melvin did a palm up. “Swimming lessons, diving lessons, whatever. I don’t give a shit. Just tell us how we get the money.”
“First up, I didn’t kill Stick, I swear,” she told Wayne. “They told the cops I killed, like, six people or something, and I didn’t. I got over to Delmar’s and he was already dead. Him and his wife. I mean, shit, why would I kill Delmar? I liked the guy.”
“So, what about Maria?” asked Wayne. “What about her and her mom? Did you like them?”
Kelsey’s jaw dropped. “They killed Maria? And her mom? Why? When?”
“This morning. Around ten,” Wayne said.
Kelsey felt sick. At the time she was at Delmar’s, Matt and Lionel must have taken Delmar’s car over to Maria’s. Maybe Maria had called him, told him Kelsey had been there. Who knew? “So, who was the sixth one got killed?”
“Deitz,” said Melvin.
“Deitz?” she whispered. So Lionel must have got rid of him as soon as the nanny had been dealt with. Seemed like he wasn’t going to let anyone stand in the way of his drug ring. Who else had he got rid of that no one knew about?
Melvin snapped her out of her thoughts, asking, “So why did Matt want to meet you?”
She turned the corners of her mouth down and shook her head. “I don’t know. He called me an hour ago, said he’d be here.”
Wayne dropped the gun to his side and stalked across to the window, muttering. “This is bullshit. This is fuckin’ bullshit.”
“So why didn’t you ask him what it was about?” Melvin asked flatly.
She could feel the suspicion, the distrust. The air was electric with it. If she was going to lie to him, it better be good. If they caught her out, they’d kill her. She figured her best bet was to level with them. “Listen, I don’t know what Matt’s got planned. He told me to be here is all I know. But I know Matt. I know how he works. If I was him …” she began, and took a moment to put herself in Matt’s shoes. Think, think! She knew him better than anyone, knew how he thought. She focused on a point right into front of her and let the scene unfold before her. For a start Matt would probably …
“… set up a fall-guy for the kidnapping. Pfft. That’s a no-brainer,” she muttered. It was no coincidence that he and Lionel had stayed out of sight in the car and she was the only one identified. How could she have realized this late in the piece that she was that fall-guy? “He’d do the same for the shootings. He’d make sure I got the blame for those, too—maybe an anonymous call to the cops. That way they’re still in the clear, and the fall-guy—that’s me—would be even deeper in the shit. After that, he’d call you guys up because …” They were watching her, waiting for one wrong word, so she said, “Well, he told you I killed Stick, didn’t he? So then he’d tell you where to find me because he knew you’d come after me.” The realization hit her like a fist. Would Matt really do that? Would he really throw her to the sharks? She couldn’t think about that now. “So,” she reasoned, thinking through the sequence of events, searching for the obvious outcome, “as soon as he knew we were all out here, like, in the same place, then I guess he’d call …” She looked up. “We need to get out.”
“We’re not going anywhere,” said Melvin. “I say we wait for Matt. When he gets here, we’ll get this shit straightened out.”
“Seriously, we need to go. Now,” she insisted. They weren’t listening.
Melvin spun her around and shoved her. “He’ll come in from the front. Let’s go.”
It was pointless arguing. Kelsey walked to the front of the building, shaking her head, with the three of them following. She tried putting herself in Matt’s shoes again, wondering what he’d do. With a gun in her back and nowhere to run, her chances of escape were zero. Now it was only a matter of time before Melvin shot her. Or Wayne flipped out and shot her. The time to act was now.
She tried running different scenarios through her head—making a break for it down the stairway; spinning around and knocking Wayne’s gun aside; diving through an open doorway and barricading herself in. But every setup ended with her getting shot. By the time they got to the first of the front offices, her head was spinning.
Like everywhere else, the front offices were also strewn with broken desks and chairs and all kinds of crap in between. But the wide span of unbroken windows looked directly out across the parking lot.
Melvin jabbed his gun at a tangle of chairs. “Sit down.”
She righted one of the few that wasn’t broken and sat on it.
One by one, the others did the same, positioning themselves where each could clearly see each other. From their sullen attitudes and furtive glances Kelsey figured there was something bad going on among them. Sitting around with this kind of tension was like putting a match to a fuse. Either Wayne would pick a fight with one of the others, and someone would end up dead, or they’d turn on her and she’d wind up dead. Seemed like every situation, ever since this whole mess started, wound up the same way.
And because of her, Holly was stuck in the middle of it.
She dipped her hand into the back pocket of her coveralls and found the button eye from the toy lion. It was brown glass with a circle of black in the middle. On the back was a shank with a single thread looped through. She turned it in her fingers, wondering if Holly knew that she’d keep her promise, that she’d keep looking for her no matter what. Or if she’d think Kelsey had given up and abandoned her.
Out of nowhere, Kelsey’s mother’s face swam into her mind’s eye. Wavy blond hair falling around her shoulders, the curve of her mouth when she smiled. A smile like that could light up Times Square. It didn’t happen often enough. When it did, the sun and moon shone out of her.
Melvin was watching her. “What are you grinning at?”
She put the button eye back in her pocket and leaned back with her arms folded across her chest. “Nothin’.”
She had two hours and nine minutes to find Holly. Two hours and nine minutes to put everything right. All she had to do was come up with a plan.
But the sound of tires on the gravel outside beat her to it.
CHAPTER TWENTY NINE
DAY TWO 12:59 PM
Elizabeth parked the Micra in a parking building on St Clair in the downtown district, and walked a block back to the office building she had last visited four years ago. Inside the lobby, she checked the board listing the tenants. His name was ninth from the top. He was still in the same office, on the same floor. Last time she was here, her world was crashing down around her. Déjà vu, she thought.
When the elevator opened, she stepped inside with her head down, avoiding eye contact with the other passengers. At level six she got out and walked quickly down the hallway, checking off office numbers until she came to Suite 609. She knocked once and entered.
The small reception area had a sign affixed to the wall that read, “Caulder Jackson Private Investigations.” Directly below it, a woman sat behind a broad black desk that was set with phone, a computer and a nameplate with “Valerie” lettered on it. Somewhere in her mid-forties, Valerie had dark hair wound into a severe knot at the back and heavy-looking designer eyeglasses that didn’t suit her. She looked up just as Elizabeth closed the door. “May I help you?”
Elizabeth tucked her keys into her purse. “I’m here to see Caulder. I called twenty minutes ago. He’s expecting me.”
Valerie frowned and switched her atte
ntion to the computer screen, then clicked her mouse. “I’m sorry, I don’t have an appointment marked for you, Mrs. …?”
“McClaine—Elizabeth McClaine,” she told her, looking towards Caulder’s closed door just behind her. “I don’t have an appointment. I just told you, I called him directly. Look, I’m in a hurry. Just tell him I’m here …”
“I’m sorry, he’s with someone at the moment. But he does have a two o’clock tomorrow, if that’s convenient.”
“Oh, for God’s sake, I don’t have time for this,” Elizabeth said irritably and rounded the desk.
Valerie spun her chair. “Hey, whoa! You can’t go in there,” she said, and leapt up just as Elizabeth threw Caulder’s office door open and strode in.
Caulder Jackson looked up in surprise, while the girl sitting on the other side of his desk turned in fright. Obviously embarrassed, the girl quickly turned away and began dabbing at her tear-reddened eyes with a wad of compacted tissue she had scrunched up in her hand. Caulder immediately got up, circled his desk and placed a reassuring hand on the girl’s shoulder.
“Will you excuse me a moment, Leah? Elizabeth,” he said, and moved self-consciously across to her. “When I said come over, I didn’t mean now.”
“Holly’s been kidnapped,” she told him without preamble.
“Well, yes, I heard.” He shot a quick glance back to his client, who was now sitting rigid and staring into her lap. “I’m sorry, Leah, I won’t be a moment,” he said and guided Elizabeth across to the door.
“I need your help. She’s been taken by two men—” she said and opened her purse.
“—whoa, Elizabeth, I’m sorry but I don’t have the authority to get involved in something like this. I thought I made that clear on the phone.”
She was scrambling through the contents of her purse, searching for something to write on. “I’ve got their names. Here, I’ll write them down,” she said and produced a notebook and pen from her purse.
He placed a firm hand on her arm. “Elizabeth, listen to me. This is a job for the police, not for me. They have the resources, the records, background information that I don’t have access to. What can I do?”
“Don’t tell me you don’t have access,” she said sharply enough to make Leah turn around. “You have plenty of access …”
“Not this kind.”
They eyed each other for a moment, then she said, “The police aren’t doing enough. I can pay, if that’s what you’re worried about—”
“—that’s not what I—”
“I don’t have pictures or addresses or anything but …”
Caulder grabbed her by the shoulders, turning her to face him. “Elizabeth, you’re not listening. I know nothing about the case. I need time to get all the background facts, talk to the police, call up my contacts.”
“There is no time.”
“Why don’t you come back tomorrow and—”
“I can’t! Tomorrow’s too late,” she said, and broke away from him. This time Leah moved in her chair and Elizabeth lowered her voice again. “I don’t need you to find them. All I need is the word on the street, that’s all I’m asking.”
“But whose word? Who do you think I’m going to ask?”
“I don’t care who the hell you have to ask. Pay them if you have to. Someone out there knows where my daughter is. They’re hiding her somewhere. I need to know where.”
Caulder glanced back at Leah, who was sitting with her head slightly inclined—obviously listening. He shook his head slowly and sighed heavily. “Give me the names.”
Elizabeth scratched down the names Diana had given her. “She has just over two hours,” she told him as she tore the page from the notebook and pressed it into his hand. “They’re going to kill her.” This time she met his gaze straight on. “All I need is somewhere to start looking, that’s all. I’ll do the rest.”
Caulder opened his mouth to object again, but wound up simply shaking his head.
“Lionel Subritzski was released from prison three weeks ago.”
He opened out the square of paper and looked the names over. “Which prison?”
“I don’t know. He’s a drug addict. I assume he’s getting drugs from somewhere. That could be a start.” She watched him fold the square of paper. “Caulder, I have to try. I’m her mother. I’m all she has. Please.” She placed her hand on his arm, held it there a moment.
“I’ll see what I can come up with.”
“Thank you,” she said and left.
She had one more unannounced visit to make. It wasn’t one she was looking forward to. But by the time she was finished, she was hoping she’d have some answers.
And the ten million dollars.
*****
At the sound of the car pulling into the lot out front, Kelsey took her feet off the desk and sat up. Wayne also sat forward and shrugged into his jacket while Luke and Melvin straightened and looked toward the windows. The sound of car doors opening and closing was followed by gravel crunching underfoot as at least two people moved across the lot.
Luke got to his feet, lifting his head and leaning towards the windows to look out front. “That’ll be him. About fuckin’ time.”
He got up but Melvin hissed, “Wait,” and waved him back. “Let her go.”
Kelsey also got to her feet. “Yeah, I’ll go.” She lifted her head and sidled across to look out.
The second she saw them, her heart flipped.
On the other side of the lot was a dark blue Impala that these three had obviously driven up in, and now it had two cops bent over peering into it. She pulled back just as the cops turned to give the building a once-over.
“Yeah, it’s them,” she told Melvin. “Listen, here’s an idea.” Her heart was in her mouth, praying they wouldn’t look out and see the cops. “Why don’t you stay in back while I’ll go talk to him?”
Melvin took out his gun and checked the chamber. “We’ll all go.”
“What if the kid sees you and screams her lungs out?” she asked.
He looked up. “I’ll shoot her.”
“You shoot her,” Kelsey said, “you get nothing.”
They stood, eyes locked, challenging. Then Melvin turned to Luke and Wayne. “You two stay here. Cover us out front.”
It wasn’t what she would have planned. Then again, what was?
They headed down the hallway and when they came to the door leading to the ground floor, Melvin nodded at the stairs, then followed her down.
Shelving and machinery sat haphazardly around the downstairs area, turning the entire ground floor into an enormous maze. It must have been ten degrees cooler down here, and the air stank of rust and oil and chemicals. Kelsey felt like she was underground. The three massive silos stood lined up on the left side of the building like giant sentries left there to guard the area. She wondered how the hell she’d get out alive.
With the gun in her back, she moved cautiously between machines and shelves, wondering what she’d do if she ran into the cops. They had gone no further than ten feet, when she heard a voice up ahead say:
“You find anything?”
Kelsey and Melvin both stopped short, and dropped into a crouch. From off to their left, another voice answered, “Nothing. I’ll check down here, you look upstairs.”
Two guys. The cops she’d seen. Kelsey felt sweat prickle. Plan time.
Melvin tugged at the back of her coveralls and gave her a suspicious look.
“That’s him, that’s Matt,” she whispered. “Stay down. Let me go talk to him.”
Melvin pressed the gun to her temple and mouthed, “Back.”
Kelsey stayed firm.
Melvin cocked the hammer. Then he hesitated. He leaned in close and whispered, “Who’s with him?”
“Lionel.”
He waited, deliberating. “One wrong word …” And he showed her the gun. She nodded, let go her breath, and crept toward the cops. Ten feet or so along, she looked back. Melvin was crouched low in
the shadows, watching her like a rat in a corner. He waved her on.
When she caught a glimpse of movement between two shelves, she hesitated. This could go very bad, very quick. Melvin was still watching her so she inched toward a gap in the shelving and called, “Hey, Matt, I’m over here.”
“Who’s there? Don’t move,” the cop said. She could see his gun panning, trying to get a bead on her location as he picked his way between machinery and shelves and crates.
When she looked back this time, Melvin’s expression had hardened and the gun was pointed straight at her. Had he figured it out?
She put her hand up to him, then called, “Yeah, that’s it, Matt, I’m right here. Just keep comin’.” Melvin’s eyes narrowed on her. He looked ready to run.
“Where are you?” the cop called.
“You got something?” the other cop called from some distance off to the left.
“Yeah. Over this way,” the first replied.
She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned in fright. Melvin was right behind her. “What the hell are you doing?” he hissed.
“I’m calling Matt over here where you can see him. I’m over here. A little more to the right,” she called to the cop.
“What the fuck …?” Melvin said. He grabbed her by the hair and pressed the gun hard to her temple. Tension twisted his features and tightened his finger on the trigger.
“You shoot me, you get nothing,” she said. “And he’ll probably kill you into the bargain.” Melvin lowered the gun. Kelsey’s heart skipped a beat. “Let me go talk to him.”
“Come out slowly and put your hands where I can see them,” the cop called.
Melvin leaned over and whispered, “That’s not Matt. You think I’m fuckin’ stupid?”
But before she could answer, the cop stepped out in front of them and raised his gun. Melvin’s eyes flew open. He yelled, “Fuck!” and fired.
Kelsey dived aside, and the cop yelled,
“Freeze!” and also fired.
She scrambled into a gap between two work benches while shots went in all directions. The second cop was yelling, “Jacobs! Where are you?”
The Elizabeth McClaine Thriller Boxed Set Page 25
