There was a pause and then, “So?”
“You have the means to read the chip, and I have the chip. I suggest a partnership.”
“Why should I trust you?” he said with a short laugh.
“Do you really think Derek was that clever?” she asked. “Do you really think he was capable of getting the lists from Joseph? No, I was the one who got the lists. I’ve been working for months to get close enough to Joseph to get access to the things he kept even from Derek.”
“I don’t believe you,” he said, but she heard the hesitation in his voice.
“Then you’re a bigger idiot than Derek thought you were,” she bluffed. “You see, I, at least, credit you with some brains. After all, you weren’t dumb enough to steal the diamond collar from Clarice when you took her in for lab tests. If you had, Joseph would have known in an instant that something was wrong. He might be more trusting than he should, but he’s no fool. I’ve been covering that idiot Derek’s tracks for months. The man couldn’t even file the paperwork he was given. If it hadn’t been for me, his cover would have been blown months ago. You really think anyone would buy him as a personal assistant when he couldn’t even keep the simplest things straight?”
She paused, waiting for his response. Jeremiah was looking at her like she’d lost her mind, but she turned away. If she thought about what she was doing, she’d lose her nerve.
“Say I believe you. What do you suggest?”
“I suggest we meet. The cops are no doubt looking for you, so it has to be somewhere discreet. It needs to still be a public place, though.”
“There’s a dog park on the edge of town, across from the Ono Family Eatery.”
“I’m familiar with it.”
“Meet me there in one hour and bring the dog. If you don’t, I’ll know and the deal is off.”
“Bring the laptop and get ready to leave the country,” she countered.
“I’m one step ahead of you, sister,” he said and hung up.
“That’s what worries me,” she whispered.
“Have you lost your mind?” Jeremiah exploded, standing up from the couch.
“I think maybe.”
“What were you thinking?”
“I was thinking that we needed something he wanted to flush him out of hiding. I was thinking that without it, Mark’s wife is most likely going to die and a killer’s going to walk free.”
“You can’t just take Ginger into the line of fire, or yourself either.”
“I wasn’t going to take Ginger, I was going to take Buff and hope he didn’t realize until too late that it was a dog he’d already seen.”
“Does my Ginger have what everyone’s looking for?” Bernadette asked suddenly.
Cindy glanced at the little dog. “At this point, the odds are getting good that she does. She’s one of the few who could have it.”
“And that detective’s wife could die if this man isn’t caught?”
“That’s right.”
“Then you should take Ginger. She and I want to help, for all our friends, and for this woman. Ginger and I wouldn’t feel right if anything happened to you or her that we could have prevented.”
“I don’t think—”
“I insist you take Ginger with you,” the woman said.
“And I insist you call Mark right now and tell him where he needs to be when this all happens,” Jeremiah said, eyes blazing.
Cindy nodded. She’d meant to have called him already. She dialed the phone, and when he answered, she told him in a rush what she’d done and where Vince wanted to meet.
“You are one crazy lady,” he said when she had finished. “You know that, right?”
“It was the only thing I could think of to bring him out of hiding,” she said.
“You might be right, but I don’t like it.”
“I don’t see that we have any choice,” Cindy said.
Mark paused and then said, “Okay, here’s how it’s going to go down.”
Half an hour later Cindy was in the car. Ginger was on the seat next to her in a tiny cat carrier that Cindy had borrowed from her neighbor at the last minute. She had left Bernadette inside the house watching over Buff and Clarice.
Jeremiah had been standing in her driveway watching her off when she left. He had volunteered to follow her, but she knew he was too sick. Besides, if Vince caught him doing it, the whole thing would be blown. She would just have to trust that Mark and the others would have thoroughly staked out the dog park and that they would be ready to jump when Vince put in an appearance.
Her cell phone rang, and Cindy jumped and let out a little scream. “Hello?” she asked, picking up. She expected it to be Mark or Jeremiah, calling to see if she was all right. Well, she wasn’t. She was completely and totally insane for coming up with the idea. There was nothing remotely safe about any of it. Instead of Mark or Jeremiah, though, it was him.
“Change of plan,” he growled in her ear.
“What are you talking about?” she stammered.
“We’re going to meet at a new location, one the police won’t be waiting at for us.”
“I didn’t—”
“Skip it,” he snapped, cutting her off. “Now listen closely. You’re going to meet me at Joseph’s house in exactly twelve minutes or I’m going to kill Traci here.”
Cindy swerved across three lanes of traffic and made a U-turn at a yellow light just as it turned red. “I’m on my way,” she said.
“Good, now throw your cell phone out the window.”
“What?”
“You heard me. Roll down the window and throw your cell phone out. That way you won’t be tempted to call the police. I’m watching you, so I’ll know if you do it. Oh, and twelve minutes doesn’t give you enough time to stop at any pay phones. It gives you just enough time to get here if you run the red lights. Now toss it.”
Cindy hit the power window button and threw her cell out the window of her car, wincing as she did so. Ahead of her the light was yellow. She reflexively put her foot on the brake, then remembered what he had said. With a whispered prayer for safety, she stomped on the gas hard and went sailing through the intersection after the light had turned red. Two cars had to swerve to avoid her, and for a moment she thought for sure it was all over.
When she was finally through, she sent another prayer heavenward that a police officer would stop her, or at least try to. Then maybe they could alert Mark to what was happening.
As long as that officer isn’t corrupt too, she realized.
A blue Volkswagen pulled into traffic ahead of her, moving at a crawl. Cindy checked her mirrors, hit the gas harder, and cut off the guy in the lane next to her. He honked and waved his fist at her.
She glanced at the clock on her dashboard. It was seven thirty-four. What time had he called? Why hadn’t she checked the clock? As she flew past Central Street, she knew that he was wrong. There was no way she could make it in twelve minutes even with running the red lights.
Traci was going to die, and there was nothing she could do to stop it.
19
JEREMIAH WATCHED FROM HIS OWN CAR AS CINDY CUT ACROSS THREE lanes of traffic to make a U-turn as the light was changing. He blinked, stunned, and was grateful he was already in the left-hand lane. As he saw her car pass by on the other side of the street, he saw her throw her cell phone out the window.
Something had gone terribly wrong. He passed through the intersection and then turned left into a gas station when there was a gap in the oncoming traffic. He turned around as quickly as possible and was back on her trail.
They were on one of the main thoroughfares, so odds were good wherever she was going, if it was more than a few blocks away, she’d be on the street for a while. He put his foot down hard on the gas and wove in and out of traffic.
He put on his Bluetooth and dialed Mark, leaving his hands free.
“Has something happened?”
“Yes. She just did a U-turn, threw her cell phone out the window, an
d is driving like a maniac to get somewhere.”
“He redirected her, made her toss the cell so she couldn’t alert anyone as to where,” Mark said, voice trembling.
“It looks as though.”
“You’re following her?”
“Yeah, I was worried.”
“We all are. We’re on Third Street, just passed Central.”
“Let me know when you have an idea where she’s going. I can’t alert dispatch to have officers watching for her without risking him hearing.”
“Do what you can, and so will I,” Jeremiah growled.
He ran a red light and then another. He edged his speed up over fifty and hoped that Vince couldn’t actually see Cindy to know that she was being followed.
Her car finally came into view as she was turning right. He managed to make the turn and then dropped back a few cars.
After two more quick turns he realized that they were close to Joseph’s home. When Cindy turned up the hill, he parked on the next street over and prepared to hike.
He dialed Mark before he got out of his car. “She just turned up Joseph’s hill. I’m turning my cell off.”
“Don’t do anything reck—”
Jeremiah disconnected him. He bypassed the road up the hill and turned instead into the trees that bordered it on the one side. He began to climb as fast as he could. He had to stop halfway up as a coughing fit drove him to his knees.
Easy, you’re no good to her if Vince can hear you coming.
Cindy came to a skidding halt in front of Joseph’s front door and flew out of the car with Ginger’s carrier in hand. She raced inside the house and then stopped just inside the front door. “Hello?” she called.
The phone on the table to the left rang two short bursts. She picked it up.
“Derek told me the day he died about the intercom system. Figured I’d go ahead and activate it. It ties up the line nicely and is easier than trying to cut the line to the house,” Vince said.
“Where are you?”
“Upstairs. Come and find me. I’ve got a little surprise for you. Suffice it to say that someone here can’t wait to see you.”
If he wanted to leave the intercom line open, then two could play at that game. She prayed again that someone had seen her racing across town and alerted Mark, or that when she didn’t show, he would figure out where she was. She placed the receiver down on the table and then put her finger down on then cradle and then lifted it quickly. He would hopefully think that she had hung up.
She crept toward the stairs as quietly as she could and then walked up them slowly. He hadn’t specified which upstairs, so she exited at the second floor landing and made her way toward Joseph’s office. She walked inside, but there was no one there.
The curtains were blowing on the far side of the room as they had been the day she found Derek. With her heart in her throat she approached. There was no body this time on the floor behind the desk. She gathered her courage and flung up the curtains, but there was no one on the balcony either.
What am I doing here? I’m going to die and no one’s going to know what happened. She clutched Ginger’s carrier tighter. What if it doesn’t matter? What if he kills Traci, anyway? Why wouldn’t he, he’s killed so many others.
She moved to one of the guest rooms and pushed her way inside. She walked around the bed and even opened the closet door. Nothing.
She kept going. She searched three more rooms. Where could he be? Where did he have Traci? She came to the next room, opened the door, and walked inside. The light from the hallway streamed in, giving vague form to the things in the room. Her fingers felt for the light switch even as she tried to look around. She turned her head and gasped.
There in a corner, arms folded across his chest, his smile gently mocking her, was Joseph.
Jeremiah finally made it up the hill and stood a moment, panting, just inside the tree line. He was sick, too sick to be doing this, but he had no options. The police were half an hour away, and Cindy might not have that much time. When he finally stopped wheezing, he darted across the open expanse to the front of the house as fast as he could.
The front door stood open, and after a moment he slipped inside, pressing himself flat against the wall just inside. A sharp gasp came from a couple of feet away. He crouched down before realizing it had come from the receiver of a phone that was off the hook.
He picked it up. It was connected to another phone, and he listened for a moment. Had Cindy left the phone off the hook or had Vince?
“No!” Cindy whispered, staring at the image of Joseph in the darkened room. She stood for a moment, struggling to understand what she was seeing. Her fingers found the light switch and flicked it.
The lights flared to life, and she blinked in the sudden brightness. She took half a dozen steps and realized light reflected off of his hair. She froze in her tracks and then she realized what she was seeing. It wasn’t Joseph. It was one of the cardboard cutouts of him.
She sagged in momentary relief. Suddenly, she smelled Old Spice cologne. A hand descended on her shoulder and spun her halfway around. The cat carrier banged against her shin, and Ginger yelped. There, standing a hair’s breadth from her, was Vince.
“You want to make a deal, huh?”
“Yes,” she said, stiffening her spine and forcing herself to look him in the eyes. “I want to make a deal. I want my share of everything. I have the dog you need.”
“And what made you think I wouldn’t just take the dog from you?”
“Because you’re not sure. You’re not sure if I brought the right dog, and if you had crashed into my car and stolen him or just took him from me now and he’s not the right one, then where would you be? I’ve got a computer guy who can figure out how to read the chip, so the way I see it, I don’t need you nearly as much as you need me.”
“Clever girl, but not that clever, I’m guessing.”
“Try me,” Cindy said, lifting her chin defiantly.
In the carrier Ginger growled low in her throat, and Cindy only hoped she sounded half as fierce as the bit of orange fluff.
“You at least brought a dog I haven’t checked yet.”
Cindy opened her mouth to respond, but Vince lunged for the carrier. She jerked it away, twisting as she did so, putting her body between him and the dog. He hit her across the cheek and pain exploded behind her eyes. For a moment things went black, and she swayed on her feet.
She felt him grab the carrier, and she struggled to maintain control of it. The dog was the one thing standing between her and death. If he was able to get Ginger and discover that she had the microchip, then Cindy was dead. Inside the carrier Ginger barked and growled and scrambled to keep her footing.
Cindy backed into the cardboard cutout of Joseph with a crash. It fell to the floor, and she nearly tumbled backward after it. While she tried to regain her footing, Vince ripped the carrier from her hand.
She toppled sideways and managed to land on one knee with a grunt. She stared up at him and realized that it was all over. She had gambled, and she had lost. Ginger and Traci would also pay for her arrogance.
“You don’t have to do this, Vince,” Cindy panted. “You don’t have to kill me in Joseph’s trophy room. I mean, we’re all alone up here. We could just walk down the hall to his office. I know where he keeps his cash. We could be in Mexico in three hours.”
“Oh, but I do have to kill you. I’ve gone to too much trouble, killed too many people not to get this chip. Thank you for your help in that regard. When I’m sitting on a beach in South America, I’ll raise a glass to you.”
Jeremiah had heard enough. He ran toward the stairs. Cindy had given him all he needed to find her. The trophy room was on the same floor as Joseph’s office, just a few doors down. Sweat was rolling off his body as he reached the top of the stairs. His stomach clenched, and bile filled his mouth. He forced himself to swallow it and continue on.
As soon as he passed Joseph’s office, he could hear Vin
ce’s voice. “You know, you should have agreed to go out with me. I could have protected you from all this.”
“Kept an eye on me is more like it,” Cindy said.
Jeremiah could hear the fear and the pain in her voice, and it took all of his self-control to keep from barreling down the hall and into the room.
“That too. You just had to insist on getting involved, didn’t you?”
“It’s not my fault,” Cindy said. “You’re the one killing people and kidnapping innocent women.”
“Ah, yes, Traci. I had to admit, I was considering letting her live. That was before you and Mark had to go and figure out what was going on. Why couldn’t you have just been content with Joseph as the mastermind? After all, it wouldn’t be the first time you had trusted a killer.”
“What did you do that made the police think it was Joseph?”
“Mostly that was Derek. He was clever, despite what you think. Clever enough I had to kill him before the end of the deal. You see, he paid all the protestors to be there out of Joseph’s accounts. Each and every one of them was a criminal who was absolutely convinced Joseph hired them to stage the protest.”
Jeremiah was just outside the room, fighting hard to control his breathing. There was a tickle deep in his throat, and it took all his focus to keep from coughing. He angled himself so that he could glimpse in the room.
Cindy was on the floor, facing in his direction. Standing in front of her with his back to Jeremiah was Vince. He was holding a gun on Cindy with his right hand and carrying the dog carrier in his left.
I’ll break his neck, Jeremiah thought. No, I don’t need the detective asking me any more questions. He paused, hovering as he decided what he was going to do.
“What have you done with Traci?” Cindy asked.
“She’s around.”
“Tell me where.”
“Why, it won’t do you any good. You’re going to die before she does. But don’t worry, she will die too.”
“You never saw me driving over here,” Cindy said. “You were waiting here with her all along.”
“Correct.”
I Shall Not Want Page 21
