The Lawman Who Loved Her

by Mallory Kane

  What was Dev doing here? Was Dev the one Cody had sent for to watch her? A surge of hope washed through her. Dev and Cody were a dauntless team. Alone, Cody could do just about anything. But together, the two of them were truly invincible.

  She relaxed a bit. She didn’t know how they would rescue her, but she had confidence in her husband and his partner. If anyone could get Fontenot, they could.

  She saw them talking, Cody gesticulating in that way he had and Dev laying his hand on Cody’s arm, trying to reassure him, Dana was sure. They were arguing about something.

  Conscious of the maniac beside her, Dana found it hard to concentrate on what she was seeing before her. She considered vaulting up, making a scene, but a quick look around told her Fontenot had chosen his vantage point well.

  Once again Cody was right. Fontenot was a genius.

  He could not have chosen a better place from which to view the area below the lake house. It would be impossible for Dana to attract the attention of the two men, up here, surrounded by trees and underbrush as they were. Besides, Fontenot’s arm was around her shoulders and Dana was certain he would do whatever he deemed necessary to keep her from alerting Cody.

  So she waited and watched Cody and Dev come to some sort of conclusion, a hundred yards away from her, and as good as halfway around the world.

  They turned and walked toward the unmarked car. Cody leaned over and looked inside, then hit the car in obvious fury and frustration. Dev said something to him, and Cody drew his service revolver.

  The man beside her chuckled, a supremely fiendish sound. “Ah. So finally, Detective Maxwell is beginning to understand.”

  Understand what? Dana wanted to scream. She was caught up in a terror more profound than anything she had ever felt before. It tightened the skin of her scalp. It nauseated her. She knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that she was about to see something too horrible to put into words.

  “Don’t, please,” she begged the maniac whose arm encircled her so gently, whose ominously pleasant voice still hummed in her ear.

  She couldn’t speak around the tape that covered her mouth, but she still tried. “Please don’t hurt him,” she begged.

  As if he knew what she’d said, Fontenot patted her shoulder. “Don’t you worry about a thing, Mrs. Maxwell. I can assure you this will be an unforgettable experience. You’ll remember it for the rest of your life.” He laughed. “The rest of your life. That’s a good one.”

  CODY LISTENED TO DEV talking to Captain Hamilton on his cell phone. “You tell him I’m perfectly healthy.”

  Dev nodded.

  Cody gestured with his gun. “I’m going up to the house. I don’t like the idea of Dana being up there by herself. How soon can they get us some backup up here?”

  Dev closed his phone. “They’re sending the local guys right now, and Hamilton’s got three units from Metairie responding.”

  “Good.” Cody nodded. “Let’s get up to—”

  A deafening roar drowned out all other sound. Light flashed. Blinding light.

  Cody whirled toward the sound.

  His heart stopped.

  White-hot light erupted out of the top of the lake house as the deafening thunder roiled all around them.

  Then the world exploded around Cody in slow motion. Pieces of wood, fragments of metal, floated in the air, some bright with fire, others just dark specks against the sky.

  To Cody, it seemed to go on and on and on, rising upward, billowing out, black smoke following the blinding light, the deafening roar of the explosion followed by the dull sound of fire as it sucked oxygen from the air.

  “No-o-o-o!” Someone shouted, the word torn agonizingly from his throat. “Oh, God, no!”

  Cody forced his numbed legs to move.

  “No!” the voice screamed again. “Dana! God, please!”

  And Cody realized it was him, realized his throat burned, his arms and legs felt wooden, his soul had died.

  He ran clumsily, blindly toward the exploding building, his breath ragged gasps, his heart slamming against his chest as if desperate to break free, his legs like wooden sticks that didn’t work.

  Vaguely, distractedly, he noticed the heat. It billowed around him like a live thing. It rose up before him like an invisible wall, holding him back.

  “Dana!”

  He had to get her out. She’d burn up in there. He ran toward the house, toward the deck that was no longer there.

  A burning plank slammed into his shoulder, but he dodged it and kept going. Dana was in the bedroom, wasn’t she?

  It looked as though the bedroom hadn’t been blown completely apart. He had to get her out. Hurry!

  He climbed toward that side of the house, stumbling, falling, getting up again. A rush of fire engulfed the wood.

  “Dana! Get out!” he screamed desperately, hopelessly, pushing burning planks aside, scrambling toward the bedroom, falling over and over. His feet slipped on the wet grass of the hill, and he scrambled, fighting against the slick dew, to get up again.

  “Dana!” he screamed. Please!

  He couldn’t see. He rubbed frantically at his eyes and kept climbing toward the raging inferno that had been the lake house, toward Dana. He had to get to her. He had to.

  The fire was getting too hot. She’d burn up in there. Suddenly, something tackled him from behind and dragged him backward. Cody whirled and gained his feet, then threw a punch at Dev, who deftly sidestepped it.

  “Cody! Stop!” Dev shouted, grabbing at Cody’s flailing arms.

  “Dana!” Cody yelled. “Got to get her out! Get the hell out of my way!” He threw another punch but lost his balance and fell into the bigger man’s arms.

  He pushed against Dev’s chest as hard as he could. “What are you doing? Get out of my way!” Dev was trying to stop him from getting to Dana.

  Dev locked him in a bear hug. “Stop! It’s too late. God, Code, it’s too late!”

  Cody heard Dev’s words, but he couldn’t—he wouldn’t accept them.

  “No! Dev! Let me go, goddamn you. Let me go!” He struggled with the strength of desperation, of panic, of awful horror too great to imagine. The horror of Dana trapped up there, in that burning house.

  He wrenched out of his partner’s grasp and lunged back toward the burning pile of rubble that had once been a house.

  “Oh, God. Oh, God, Dana!” he rasped, because he could no longer scream. He grabbed another piece of burning wood just as Dev tackled him again.

  Cody whirled and hit Dev on the side of the head with the piece of wood, then his own head exploded into light, and then into darkness.

  ABOVE THEM, HIDDEN by foliage and underbrush, Dana felt her heart die in her breast as she watched Cody’s futile struggle.

  “No, oh no, oh no!” Dana moaned behind the tape as Dev dragged Cody, unconscious, back down the hill. Her heart hurt so badly she thought she would die.

  She’d watched the whole thing. She hadn’t even been able to blink as the horrific scene had played out before her. She hadn’t taken her eyes off Cody as the lake house exploded into a fireball.

  Over the roar of the explosion, she’d heard him scream her name, and the sound had torn through her like a knife through rotten cloth. Even from this distance, she’d seen the stark, white agony in his face.

  She’d watched her husband as he realized his wife was dead.

  It would have hurt less if Fontenot had ripped her heart out with his bare hands.

  Over and over again, Cody had dragged himself up and headed toward the burning wreckage of the lake house. A mixture of helpless gratitude and blinding compassion engulfed her as Dev tackled Cody again and again, saving him from the inferno.

  Cody would kill himself to get to her.

  Dana didn’t think she could hurt any more, but her thoughts dug deep, bloody furrows on her soul as her brain absorbed what she’d seen.

  He’d been determined—desperate—to save her. He’d run toward the deadly fire. He’d screamed
her name, shouted No! to the heavens over and over again. He’d grabbed burning boards with his bare hands. He’d even hit Dev with a smoldering board.

  And she knew if Dev hadn’t stopped him, if Dev hadn’t knocked him out cold, Cody would have thrown himself into the fire because he thought she was there.

  If it had been another man whose wife was trapped in a burning building, Cody would have done what Dev had. He’d have acted responsibly to keep the man from killing himself to save someone who was almost certainly already dead.

  But Cody hadn’t been the competent, responsible cop at that moment. He’d been a man who had lost everything.

  Dana’s heart broke as she realized something else. She had not only seen a man trying to save a life. She’d watched her husband as he’d lost the most precious thing in his world.

  Dana sobbed, her eyes streaming, her nose running. She’d never known he loved her that much. She’d never realized how much he cared.

  Her whole body ached with grief, with sadness, for Cody, who thought she was dead. She cried for him and for herself, and with every sob, she cursed the man who had set this unspeakable drama in motion.

  Beside her, Fontenot sat spellbound. His breaths were short and rapid, his upper lip beaded with sweat. His eyes were dilated. He licked his lips, chasing droplets of sweat with his tongue.

  “Magnificent,” he breathed in that quiet, mad voice. “Brilliant. I really should have videotaped it. But then, does true art, true genius, really need an audience?” He rubbed his hands together, and Dana noticed they were trembling.

  She tensed, willing herself to run, but the unyielding tape around her knees, her midsection and arms, her shoulders, reminded her she was trussed like a turkey, and helpless. Panic welled within her as Fontenot drew a long, shuddering breath and continued with his deranged muttering.

  “Art is art, and genius is undeniable, whether presented to the world or not. Perhaps, even, one could argue that the most exquisite genius is always unappreciated.”

  Dana watched him in unbearable horror. He was insane, the most insane person she had ever seen.

  “Mark my words, Mrs. Maxwell. Some day, some day my name will be known. Some day, they all will have to acknowledge my superiority.”

  Calmly, Fontenot pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and blotted the sweat from his lip and brow. Then he stood.

  “Come, Mrs. Maxwell. This part of our drama is ended now. We need to go.”

  She turned and looked back down the hill, where Dev crouched over Cody, a cell phone in one hand, the other touching the side of his head where Cody had connected with the burning two-by-four.

  Even from this far away, Dana saw how shaken Dev was. She’d never seen the big detective react to anything. She’d always thought he was impermeable to normal, human frailties like fear, or grief. But what the madman beside her had done had even broken through Dev’s defenses.

  And Cody. Oh, Cody. Dev must have dealt him a crushing blow, because he was unconscious, lying limp on the ground. Dana sent a silent prayer of thanks to Dev Gautier for taking care of her husband.

  “Come, Mrs. Maxwell.” Fontenot hauled her upright. “Why, you’re trembling. I’m humbled and gratified that you were so…affected by the performance.” He laughed, a low, demented sound. “Call me a show-off, but I do so enjoy an appreciative audience.”

  His strength and brutality belied his soft voice as he dragged her bodily through the woods, then pulled her up against a dirty wreck of a car. He grabbed her hair and forced her head back so she had to look at him. One gloved finger touched a tear that was just spilling over from her eye.

  “Ah, dear lady. Thank you for this.” He held up the teardrop until it caught the sun in a prism of color. Then he touched it to his tongue. “Tears just may be the perfect elixir of emotion. They combine pain, effort, love, humiliation, grief, anger. Ah. Exquisite.” He smiled serenely. “Your husband obviously does love you very much. That’s good.” He nodded. “Yes. That is good. I was so pleased to see that you two…renewed your physical bond last night. That fits in very well with my plans.”

  Dana stared at him in shock. “You watched?”

  He smiled and touched her cheek, rubbing his thumb over the ragged edge of duct tape. “It is so endearing, that you continue to try and talk, even though you can hardly move your lips. It’s amusing to listen to your moans and grunts, and try to decipher them.”

  He ran his hand down the side of her neck, and Dana shuddered in revulsion. “I’m positive you exclaimed ‘You watched?’ in horror. Yes, Mrs. Maxwell. I watched. And in a rather base way, it was entertaining.” He pulled the blanket back over her head. “Now we really must be going.” Opening the car door, he pushed her into the floorboard of the back seat.

  “You ghoul,” she muttered through the tape on her mouth, struggling to breathe inside the musty blanket. But as he started the car, he just hummed.

  “You deserve to die the most horrible of deaths. You deserve the worst I can think of, and I swear to God if it’s the last thing I do, I’ll make you pay for what you’ve done to Cody.”

  “Now, Mrs. Maxwell,” Fontenot said reasonably. “You’re going to wear yourself out. Just lie still. We’ll be there soon, well before dark.” He continued to talk. Dana could barely hear him.

  “Now we’ll find out just how quickly the police discover that there are no human remains in the house. I calculate that it will take them most of the evening, which should give me plenty of time to finish my preparations. I only hope it won’t take them much longer than that. I do so look forward to my next encounter with your husband. If he were just a more worthy opponent…” Fontenot sighed. “You cannot imagine how annoying it is to have to constantly deal with imbeciles.”

  Dana lay still, trying to conserve her energy. She knew she was going to need every ounce of strength she possessed in the next several hours. If she lived.

  But she wasn’t through with him yet. Even though Fontenot wouldn’t understand a word she said, she had to finish her promise. “You will die, Fontenot,” she swore. “That’s a promise. And if I can make you suffer like you’ve made Cody suffer, I’ll be satisfied.”

  She’d made an oath, and she would keep it until she died.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Cody came starkly awake. The first thing he noticed was pain, searing pain, in his hands and arms. He opened his eyes, but everything was hazy, watery. He closed them again and tried to ground himself. He was lying down, on a pallet of some sort, and he was damned uncomfortable. As he struggled to regain some semblance of control over his hazy brain, he licked dry lips, and tasted blood and smoke.

  All this flitted through his brain in a split second. What had happened to him? He moved, and felt the harsh cut of metal into the skin of his wrists. He was handcuffed.

  Jerking his arms, sending spears of pain through them, he looked around. Handcuffed wasn’t all. He was restrained, tied to a stretcher, which two men in white were lifting into the back of an ambulance.

  Cody struggled against his bonds and bellowed. “Dev, goddamn it! Where are you? What the hell’s going on?” His throat burned and his voice came out as no more than a hoarse whisper.

  Suddenly, as brutally and instantly as the explosion had rent the air, Cody remembered, and his heart shattered.

  No! Oh, God, Dana!

  “Dana!” he screamed hoarsely. “Dev!” He struggled some more, and succeeded in ripping the Velcro restraints off one arm.

  “Goddamn it, somebody let me up! I’ve got to find her! Help me!”

  A shadow fell over his face and he felt a pinprick in his arm.

  “Don’t! Don’t drug me! I’ve got to…find…Dana.”

  The world closed in on him and the pain in his hands and arms lessened. But even as he lost consciousness, Cody realized the drug they’d given him hadn’t lessened the pain in his heart at all.

  DEVEREAUX GAUTIER DROVE UP to the Lucky Seven Motel just south of Slidell. It was the clo
sest motel to the explosion site. He sat behind the wheel of the car and stared at his soot-covered hands. He’d had the devil of a time explaining the whole story to the local sheriff. After a lengthy discussion, the headache where Cody had smacked him with a smoldering two-by-four was raging out of control.

  So he’d lifted the sheriff by his collar and growled right in his face. “My partner’s wife was in the house when it went up. I had a little trouble convincing him it wasn’t a good idea to rush into the fire to save her. That clear enough for you?”

  The sheriff had calmed down and helped them get Cody into the ambulance, but after the paramedics checked him over and bandaged his hands and forearms, they said he needed to be hospitalized.

  Dev had to spend another half hour convincing them that as a former medic in the marines he was perfectly qualified and capable of administering morphine by injection if Cody woke up in pain. As lies went, he thought, it was a pretty good one.

  Then he’d checked them into a room at the motel, got Cody bedded down with another dose of morphine, borrowed a local deputy to watch him and headed back to the explosion site.

  Donning a spare set of firefighter gear, he’d gone through the smoldering wreckage alongside the local police and the firefighters. He’d set his jaw in grim determination, and gone over every inch of the pile of smoking rubble that had once been the lake house. In the bedroom, they found scraps and pieces of clothing. In the kitchen area and scattered all over the site were burned carcasses of crawfish. There was nothing left of the living room and deck.

  Every time one of the men shouted, every time Dev saw something unusual, his heart flipped painfully in his chest. But he gritted his teeth and continued searching.

  He’d never forgive himself if he let someone else find Dana. It was his responsibility, as Cody’s partner, and as his best friend. He couldn’t let him down.

  Now he was through. They were all through, except the arson investigators. There were still a lot of unanswered questions. There was one conclusion everyone shared, from the arson expert to the sheriff to the fire chief to Dev himself.