by Bill Eidson
Then it was McGuire’s turn to hesitate. Finally, he said, as if asking after an irresponsible buddy who never showed up on time, “So where’s that goddamn Ludlow?”
“He’s dead.”
“Jesus Christ,” McGuire said. “You can’t buy good help these days. So all right, I’ll deal with you directly. Bring me the negatives and you can name your price.”
“No deal. The cops are on the way.”
“Then you better get your ass out of there.”
“Now why would I do that?”
“Far as I can tell, you’ve got four good ones.” He heard McGuire moving, a car door opening and closing.
“Four reasons? And what would those be?”
“First is you’re already dirty. You already tried to blackmail Cheever, so I know you’ve got nothing against selling your pictures for profit.” McGuire’s voice was cheerful. “So that’s reason number one.”
“Wrong guy,” Ben said, his eyes on Kurt. “I never blackmailed the senator.”
“Bullshit. Then who did?”
“What’s my next reason?”
Ben heard a bell. What sounded like a front door bell. Familiar.
And then his stomach twisted and he stood away from the car. “You son-of-a-bitch.”
“Shut up or I’ll do the reason number two right here for you on the phone.”
Ben heard a woman’s voice. Muted in the background. And then McGuire talking, his voice smooth and courteous. Saying he had Ben on the phone and could she speak to him?
Andi’s voice filled the line. “Ben? What’s this all about? What’re these FBI—?”
Suddenly Andi’s voice was in the background, as if the phone had been ripped away from her. Ben could hear Andi’s voice rise, could hear shocked questioning. “Hey! What are you doing? What are you doing?”
Ben could hear Lainnie and Jake.
“You bastard,” Ben said, his voice shaking. “You fucking bastard.”
Back on the phone, McGuire said, “Reasons three and four just joined us,” McGuire said. “Now think about this, Harris. With what you’ve got on me right now, I’ve got exactly zero reasons for not taking them all out if I get so much as a hint of a cop following you home. So you’d better get moving. Or else you’re gonna be spending all your weekends by yourself from now on. Tell Ms. Taylor I want to see her, too. Tell her, I’ve got two guys outside her apartment right now who’ll do her daughter and nanny if both of you aren’t here in fifteen minutes.”
He broke the connection.
CHAPTER 43
THE THREE OF THEM PUSHED THROUGH THE SMALL CROWD FORMING around the car and hurried off to Kurt’s car. They quickly jumped in and Kurt pulled away from the curb.
“What about those people?” Kurt said. “They saw us, they could give my plate to the cops.”
“They weren’t the most get-involved types,” Ben said. “Just drive.” Ben kept hearing his kids’ voices over the phone, muted behind McGuire’s cheerful threats. He fumbled for ideas, for the next step, but came up blank.
Sarah was silent until they pulled onto Storrow Drive. At that point, she said, abruptly, “I can’t do this. I’m going to call the cops.” She took the phone from her belt and dialed 911.
Ben reached into the back seat and snatched the phone away from her. “If the cops show up at your place, then it’s one call and my family is dead.”
“Sarah, we’ve got to work together,” Kurt said.
“Work together, shit.” She grabbed at the phone, and Ben held her back. “Give it to me!”
“No.”
She slapped him. “She’s my daughter!”
“I know,” he said. “But don’t do that again. I’m trying to think and this doesn’t help.”
She slumped against the window suddenly, covering her face.
He squeezed her shoulder. “You understand the spot we’re in as well as I do.”
Her voice was shaky, and she wouldn’t look up. “I understand, all right. We’ve got nothing. We’re going to walk in there, he’s going to take the negatives, and then he’s going to kill us. And he’s not going to leave any witnesses in your house.”
“Even if that’s true, he’s got no reason to kill Cindy—if you show up.”
She sniffed. “Maybe that’s logical, but what does logic have to do with a guy like him?”
“I know this,” Ben said. “If we show up with the police, we’ll be standing outside the house while the gunfire starts. And then he’s got reason to take revenge on you through Cindy. So let’s stop and think.”
Her breath shuddered in, and she turned back from the window to meet his eyes. She was visibly trembling. “I’m trying… . I’m just coming up empty. I keep thinking of her with those two men.”
Ben thought of Burnett, the hostage negotiator at the Johansen site. Talking afterwards, wiping the sweat from his face. “Thought I had him settled in,” Burnett had said. “I thought I knew what he wanted. I knew he wanted that media attention. That’s the trick— knowing what they want. Problem was that he wanted more than what I’d bargained on. Hell of a lot more.”
What did McGuire want? Beyond getting free from the murder rap, what was he afraid of? Ben asked himself. Who did he go to when he was in trouble?
Uncle Pat. The guy who’d saved McGuire’s ass more than once. Sent him off to Stanford after the home invasion. Came charging in before McGuire could spill too much in front of the reporters.
The guy who promised Ben and Sarah their families would be safe.
Ben looked at his watch. At the rate they were going, they’d be at the house in ten minutes. He shifted his legs, feeling cramped and claustrophobic.
He reached down to move Kurt’s briefcase and realized it was the notebook computer. “You brought this along?”
Kurt looked at it, surprised. “I guess I had it over my shoulder the whole time. I was on the way out to join you when I saw Ludlow pull the gun.”
Ben held up the little computer. “You saved the image on this, right? You’ve got the shot of McGuire killing Cheever.”
“What’s this got to do with anything?” Sarah said.
Kurt looked at Ben, confused. “I guess so. Sure, I saved it.”
Ben looked at Sarah’s phone. Saw that it had a modem jack.
“Huh,” he said.
“What?” Sarah asked.
“Do you have that little pack of business cards you’re always collecting?”
She reached into her jeans and came up with the little leather card wallet. “What’ve you got?”
“Something,” he said. “We’ve got something.”
CHAPTER 44
KURT STOPPED THE CAR AT THE BEND BEFORE THE HOUSE.
Ben got out of the passenger side and walked around quickly to take his place behind the wheel. Kurt stood beside the car, holding the computer in its bag. His face was bloodless, and he looked flat-out scared.
Ben said, “You know what to do?”
Kurt said, “Listen, I should go in there with you.”
“Forget it,” Ben said. “Just do what we worked out.”
“Yeah.” Kurt wiped his mouth. He held up the computer. The screen was partially open and glowing. “It’s all set.”
“Good.” Ben put his hand out and Kurt shook it. Ben said, “We’re counting on you.”
“I’ll come through,” Kurt said.
“We better go,” Sarah said, looking at her watch. “We’re coming up on fifteen minutes.’’
Without a word, Kurt took off up into the woods. Ben and Sarah continued around the corner to his former home.
Andi opened the door.
Her face was white and her lower lip trembled. But her voice remained clear. “He says to tell you there’s a gun pointed at my head. If you’ve got any weapons on you, to hand them over now.”
Ben held his arms wide. “Nothing.”
Andi backed away from the door and Ben and Sarah stepped in. He took in the scene in an instant with a
dreadful sense of déjà vu from walking into the barn with Johansen.
The kids were sitting on the stairway with McGuire. He sat between them with his arms around them both. His right hand held an automatic that was pointed directly at Lainnie’s belly.
Both kids were trying their best to shrink away from him, but there was little room on the stairs.
Lainnie cried, “Daddy,” and she started forward.
McGuire pulled her back.
“Let them go,” Ben said. “They don’t know anything about this.”
“They do now,” McGuire said.
The tall man who had been on the bow of the boat was standing beside the bannister, his gun pointed squarely at Ben. The man had black hair and was wearing a sport jacket that was too short for his long bony wrists. “Let’s just do this and get out of here,” he said.
“Shut up, Paulie,” McGuire snapped.
Teri Wheeler was standing farther back in the hallway. Somewhere along the way she’d put on jeans and a white shirt. Her face was pale, her lips tightly compressed. She said to Ben, “You goddamn snoop. Put your nose in it, and now everybody’s got to pay.”
Lainnie began to struggle again and McGuire tightened his grip. “Stay here, kid. Don’t you want to tell me any more about your vacation?”
“I don’t want to talk to you,” she said. “Stupid bastard.”
This brought a hoot of laughter from McGuire. “What a mouth.” He gestured to a photo on the wall of Lainnie and Ben standing before the fireplace in the cabin. He said to Teri, “Don’t be so tough on the man, honey. He’s got alimony to pay and a little blackmail on the side must go a long way toward keeping his kiddies in new clothes, and still have enough cash to keep a cabin in Maine.”
“Please let go of my daughter,” Ben said.
“Sure.” McGuire casually brushed the gun against Lainnie’s hair, and then aimed at Jake. “Pow.”
“You son-of-a-bitch!” Andi started up the stairs.
McGuire stood and put the gun on her forehead. “Back off.”
Lainnie started to cry.
Ben walked over and took Andi’s hand. “Come on.”
She abruptly turned her back on McGuire, her face high with color.
Jake put his arm around Lainnie, saying, “Sssh, sssh.” His eyes were locked on Ben’s.
“We’ll be OK, guys,” Ben said.
McGuire came down and stood inches away from Ben. He spoke quietly, confidentially. “I don’t think so, Dad. But you tell them whatever you want.’’
McGuire snatched the envelope from Ben and pulled out the negatives and contact sheet. The gunman came over and patted Ben and Sarah down for weapons.
“This everything?” McGuire asked.
Ben didn’t answer.
The gunman thumbed the hammer back on his revolver. “You were asked a question, shithead.”
Ben drew his breath, shuddering. He could feel Sarah watching him.
He waited until McGuire looked up from the contact sheet and repeated his question.
In the library, Ben heard the phone ring. “No,” he said. “No, it’s not everything.”
“What’s this shit?” McGuire exploded against Ben, shoving him against the wall. “You call the cops?”
“Better than that,” Ben said. “I called your uncle.”
McGuire watched in stunned silence as the faxed photograph of him shooting Cheever slid out. Ben, Sarah, and Teri were alone with him in the library while Paulie kept his gun on Andi and the kids in the hallway.
“That’s what your uncle got,” Ben said. “And then I talked to him.”
“Who’s sending this? Who’s sending this to us right now, motherfucker?”
“The kid’s stepfather, Kurt Tattinger. My ex-wife’s new husband. But you can just think of him as our revenge if you harm us. I made a deal with your uncle.’’
“What deal?” McGuire looked at him incredulously. “I’ve got a gun on your kids, I’ve got the negatives!”
“And we’ve got an image on a computer file that clearly shows you killing a U.S. senator that is one keystroke from being faxed to the Associated Press, as well as to the police, the district attorney, and a good friend who I trust at the FBI in Washington. Someone I’m sure you haven’t bought.”
“Oh, Jesus,” Teri said, passing a hand over her face. “Amateur hour.”
“Shut up!” McGuire snapped.
“Now, your uncle understands families,” Ben said. “The way it looks to me is he’s been bailing your ass out all your life. Covering up for you, sending you away to Stanford. Killing people to cover up.”
“Like we’re going to kill your ass,” McGuire said. “Like we’re going to chew you up into pieces.”
Ben nodded. “Maybe. I’d say there’s a good chance, seeing as I took the shot.”
“And her.” McGuire waved his gun at Sarah. “The bitch was there, too.”
“That’s right,” she said. “Ben and I are witnesses.”
“But my family isn’t,” Ben said. “And neither is her little girl. So here’s the deal.” Ben stepped a little closer so the kids wouldn’t hear. “Listen, I know you’re planning on killing every one of us, you little punk. So I’m not negotiating whether or not we’ll send that file to the papers. We are. The only question is when.
“At midnight—ten minutes from now—that file goes out unless you release Andi and the kids. Their stepfather can see the back and sides of the house. If he doesn’t see them drive away at midnight, he pushes the button. After that, you leave—with me in tow—and he waits one hour with me calling in every fifteen minutes. If he doesn’t hear from me within that time, he pushes the button. Either way, he pushes the button one hour after we leave.”
McGuire shook his head. “Screw you. I’ve got you right now, I’ve got your kids. Tell him to get his ass down here. Or I pop your kids one at a time.”
“You do that, he pushes the button. He doesn’t have a gun, but he’s got that computer. If you harm these kids, it’s his only recourse. And he’ll damn well take it. Your life is over.”
“Let’s get out of here,” Teri said, to him. “Come on, baby, let’s find a way to break free.”
He shoved her away.
“Talk to your uncle,” Ben said. “I expect he’s putting something together for you. A private jet, maybe. Probably send the two of you to Europe or South America. Arrange for new faces, new I.D. I don’t know. You’ll be alive and rich, you just won’t be here.”
“Jimbo?” Teri said. “Your uncle could do that, right?”
“What about your contacts?” McGuire said to her sharply. “What about all the people you’ve told me about who can make things happen?”
She laughed, shortly. “Those people would make us dead. No one’s going to want to be tied to us when this comes out.”
“Seven minutes,” Ben said.
“If it comes out,” McGuire said.
To Ben, he said, “How do I know you haven’t already sent it? How do I know the place isn’t crawling with cops out there?”
“Because all we care about are the children.”
“I want to hear you make the call to your guys telling them to drive away from my house,” Sarah said. “If I don’t go out to Kurt and wave my arms, letting him know you’ve done that, the same thing happens. He pushes the button.”
“Maybe I’ll just send Paulie up and pop old Kurt. Save me a lot of trouble right there.”
Ben shook his head. “He can see the whole house from the woods. Paulie tries to make that hike, Kurt will see it, and run down one of about a half dozen trails to his car before Paulie even starts up.”
“So why hasn’t my uncle called me if he’s got this big plan together?”
“I don’t know,” Ben admitted. “But I expect he’s been busy. It sounded like he was going on the run himself.” Ben reached in his pocket and drew out a piece of paper with Clooney’s car phone number. “He gave me this.”
The bl
ood drained out of McGuire’s face. This more than anything Ben had said seemed to convince him. The number he probably knew by heart, sitting in Ben’s pocket.
“Five minutes,” Ben said. “Make your call fast.”
CHAPTER 45
MCGUIRE TOLD BEN AND SARAH TO LEAVE THE ROOM WHILE HE made the call.
The two of them went into the hallway, and Andi looked up from the kids who were sitting on the last two steps. The gunman moved back slightly, letting Ben and Sarah come forward.
“What’s happening?” Andi whispered.
“Daddy, I want them to go away,” Lainnie said. “Please.”
“Dad?” Jake said. “They’ll let us go, won’t they?”
Ben knelt beside Andi. “We wait. If all goes right, you and the kids will be leaving in a minute.”
“What about you?” Andi said.
“We’ll go with him.”
Her face blanched. “What does that mean?”
“It means we get the kids free,” Ben said, quietly. “Bear in mind this goes for Sarah’s girl, too. No arguments.”
Andi looked up at Sarah and stood.
“Strange circumstances to meet,” Sarah said, wiping at her eyes.
“Your girl’s in this?” Andi asked.
“There are men outside my apartment.”
Andi touched Sarah on the shoulder. Then she leaned forward abruptly and the two women hugged each other.
Ben looked at his watch. Less than two minutes left.
He said to the gunman, “It’s time. I’ve got to tell him.”
“You stay here,” Paulie said.
“You don’t understand …”
“No, you don’t.” The guy raised the gun.
Ben started toward the library door, and he heard the gun cock behind him.
The library door swung open and McGuire and Teri stood there. McGuire’s face was impassive and he held his gun up to Ben’s face and said, “Me and Uncle Pat had a better idea.”
Paulie had Ben sit on the floor, his back to the wall. Then the gunman propped the hallway door open so he could watch McGuire take Andi out on the back deck. Paulie said, “This should be good.”
