I pushed the thoughts away. Had to stay focused. I now knew taking JT back to Florida was like playing baseball with a grenade. Thing was, I didn’t have a choice. I had to get Dakota safe and that meant getting her back, then taking JT to jail and collecting the bond money.
Pops looked real sorry about the whole situation, but that didn’t mean that I could trust him any. I stepped towards him and planted a kiss on his cheek. Hugged Deloris, who looked like she might cry, then turned and strode to the door.
‘Lori,’ Pops said. ‘Play it close, you hear. Listen to what people say. He is different. And he’s wanted now. Not just by the law.’
‘I hear you.’ I kept walking, held up my hand and waved as I stepped out the door.
So what if JT was different now. Weren’t we all?
32
Good Hope Hospital stood a few miles out of town. The well-maintained grounds and lush lawn around the building suggested it was the type of place where many good people’s insurance dollars had been spent. Including Merv’s, it seemed, because the briskly efficient woman on the enquiry desk checked her computer screen, told me Merv had gotten out of the ICU just that morning, and directed me to a private room in the surgical wing.
The room had glass walls on to the corridor, the kind that allow nursing staff to check in on a patient without waking them, but prevent any form of privacy. Sitting outside the door was a uniformed officer – a cop, not hospital security. Damn. Guess they’d figured Merv might need protection – not so many witnesses to hits involving the mob tend to make it through alive.
The cop gave me a problem. To get past him into the room I’d have to show him ID, and, given what Quinn had told me about the cops and the Feds, as soon as he ran it, my connection to JT would flag. Not an option.
Still, the upside was that there was only one cop here, and he looked plenty bored. In his hand was a go-cup coffee, grande-sized. On the floor beside his chair, lying empty on its side, was another. After two grande coffees, my guess was he’d be needing the bathroom real soon.
I’d passed the restrooms on my way to Merv’s room, back at the entrance to the wing, beside the elevators; a good ninety-second walk away. That meant, with the walk both ways and, say, a half minute to pee, once the cop left his post there’d be a window of three and a half minutes for me to talk to Merv. I’d have to move fast.
Until then it was a waiting game. I stepped into the seating area to the side of the corridor, chose a chair that gave me a good view of the cop but kept me partly hidden by a large display of artificial plants, and picked up a newspaper that’d been left on the chair beside mine. I opened it wide and pretended to read. Waiting.
The cop’s bladder lasted another twenty-five minutes. It was still early and, as I’d hoped, no one came to take over his post. He stood, stretched, and set off in the direction of the restrooms. I checked my watch and, as soon as he was out of sight, dropped the newspaper and strode towards Merv’s room.
As I got closer I had a good look at him through the glass wall. He lay still as a corpse, surrounded by machines that beeped and pumped God knows what drugs into his body. His usually tanned skin was so pale it almost matched the white sheets draped over him. He looked as good as dead.
I pressed the pad to the right of the door and it slid open. The smell of antiseptic and bodily fluids was just about detectable over the scent of the lilies sitting in a vase on the side table. I hate lilies. Lilies are for coffins and graves. I’ve never understood why you’d send them to a person in hospital. To me that just seems like a threat.
As I stepped into the room, Merv’s eyelids flickered open. Not dead then. Good. I needed him alive.
He scowled. ‘What the hell do you want?’
‘Why, that’s a real nice way to greet an old friend.’
‘You ain’t nothing to me.’ He sounded drugged-up, his words slurred. ‘You a vulture … coming to pick my bones is all.’
I nodded. He wasn’t wrong, no sense in pretending. Ever since I’d worked with JT all those years back, the battle lines had been drawn. JT and the Daltons had always been rivals. And Merv’s younger brother, Bucky, hadn’t liked it when I’d started getting jobs over him. I’d never had a specific beef with Merv, though. Still, I couldn’t show weakness, and to those boys empathy was just a sign of it. ‘How’d it happen, Merv? You Daltons aren’t usually so careless.’
His fists tightened against the sheets. ‘Goddamn…’
Good. I’d riled him, and, of course, he’d need to prove he’d not been caught out. ‘Too much for you, were they?’
Merv growled.
I stepped closer to the bed. ‘Does it hurt?’
He grimaced. ‘Like the bastard child of a tank and an elephant used me for target practice.’
‘Why’d you do it?’
He closed his eyes. ‘You may as well get out. I got nothing to say.’
I glanced at my watch: just under a minute gone. I made like I was going to leave, turning and taking a couple of steps towards the door. Then I halted, twisting back to face him. Shook my head. ‘I don’t get it. Don’t you want them caught? These guys whipped you, shot you in the head and left you for dead, yet you’re happy to shrug it off?’
He ground his teeth.
The noise made my skin crawl. I tried to ignore it, to show no vulnerability, just as JT would have told me – never show weakness unless it’s part of your play. ‘Talk to me.’
Merv sighed. The machine beeping along with his heart rate quickened its rhythm. ‘You know me and your boy, we had our differences, but he was good at the job. I could respect that but…’ the beeping of the machine quickened again ‘… business is still business. Quinn offered good money, sweet. Thing was, I had another interested party … willing to give more cash. Word was he’d gotten them pissed over some job … they’d give big money to whoever handed him over…’ He gasped, struggling to speak and breathe together. ‘I called them … Gunner and his people showed … whole thing went to shit…’
I didn’t need a bedtime story. ‘So the mob guys shot you?’
Merv shook his head, winced at the pain. ‘Not them … others.’
‘Others?’ I needed the facts, the details: the what, the when and the who. That was the only way I could figure out where the sons-of-bitches that snatched Dakota could be hiding. I approached the bed. ‘Tell me what you know about Emerson.’
‘Don’t know any … Emerson.’
I glanced at my watch again. Two minutes gone. ‘Sure you do. You just need to think a little harder.’
‘Shit, girl, you shooting the wrong tree … don’t even have the basics.’
Seemed Merv might be telling the truth. But that couldn’t be right, not right at all. If he hadn’t called Emerson’s men, how the hell had they found the ranch? ‘Tell me then, who’d you sell JT out to?’
‘Can’t say.’
I took another step forward. I stood over him, an inch from the edge of his bed. Wanted to scream at him, They took my daughter, my child, she’s only nine. Didn’t. The warning in the text had been explicit: Don’t tell. I couldn’t take the risk. ‘Best you damn well do.’
Merv closed his eyes and turned away. I noticed the bruising across his ear was a deep purple. I’d never seen an ear bruised that bad close up. It looked like a piece of squashed eggplant.
I waited, watching the second hand of the clock on the wall above the bed tick round. Ten seconds, twenty. The smell of antiseptic and fresh, sickly-sweet sweat brought back the memories of Dakota’s last hospital stay. She’d looked so tiny, so fragile, lying there helpless as the cancer and the drugs made her body a battlefield. The doctors feared the worst, said her only other hope would be a bone-marrow transplant. I got tested – but no damn match. They told me her father would be the next best chance.
I glanced at my watch: almost three minutes. I needed an answer, fast. Merv hadn’t moved, his shutters were bolted down. I had to find a way to prise them open. I placed my
palm on his shoulder, over the bandage covering one of his wounds, and pressed hard. ‘Tell me.’
Merv’s eyes snapped open. He cursed, a stream of slurred obscenity firing at me, at God and at the lying cocksuckers, double-crossing assholes, and at a good few similarly named unknowns.
I kept my hand where it was and leant closer to his face. ‘How did they double-cross you?’
He ignored me. I saw movement in his hand; his fingers tightening around a small remote. The pump attached to his drip clicked twice. As the morphine hit his blood Merv smiled. ‘Go to hell, bitch.’
Looking through the glass door I spotted two nurses charging towards us. Son-of-a-bitch hadn’t just pressed for pain relief; he’d called for medical assistance. I didn’t have long. ‘Tell the cops Tate didn’t do this.’
‘Can’t … didn’t see who did it.’
The nurses were almost at the door. I had less than half a minute before the cop would be back. I had to move. Leaning closer to Merv I whispered, ‘You know he was long gone before they shot you, just tell the damn truth.’
‘I do that, they’ll do me way worse than this.’
I stepped back from the bed and shook my head. ‘Shit, Merv. I thought you were tough. Why are you so afraid?’
He stared back at me and for a short moment I believed that he might tell me. But then he shook his head. I heard the glass door slide open behind me. We were out of time.
The nurses entered the room, shouting at me to leave. I stepped away from the bed, checked the corridor. My luck held good; there was still no sign of the cop.
I took the carved figure from my back pocket and placed it on Merv’s tray-table – watching him. Threw my business card on to his bandaged chest. ‘When you grow a pair, you call me.’
Then I turned, and I ran.
33
I got back to Motel 68 a couple of minutes shy of nine. I unlocked the room with a half-formed plan circling in my mind: collect my carryall, call Scott’s cell again. After that I wasn’t quite decided.
I’d opened the door two inches before I heard the water running. Someone was in the shower. Heart thumping outside of my chest, I stepped inside and closed the door with a soft click.
On the bed lay a heap of crumpled jeans and a blue shirt. A gun sat on the top of the pile. JT was back. As I had the only key, he must have picked the lock.
The first thing I felt was relief. He was alive, not captured. And he’d not abandoned me; he’d kept his word and come back to help find Dakota. The feeling lasted maybe two seconds.
I moved towards the bathroom. Beside the bed was a pair of brown work boots, scuffed and pulled off with the laces still done up and the socks inside. The bathroom door was half open.
I heard the running water stop, and saw the shape of a man reflected in the steamed-up mirror.
‘You wanna quit sneaking around out there?’ JT said.
I ignored the comment. ‘What kept you?’
The bathroom door opened wider. JT emerged, the small, off-white towel around his waist the only thing shielding his nakedness. He shook his head, said nothing.
I clenched my fists, felt the anger building. My daughter was gone, taken, and he was pulling the strong-and-silent act. Mysterious, my ass, oftentimes him staying quiet was just damn frustrating.
I glared at him. ‘Just tell me already.’
He avoided my gaze. ‘I’m sorry.’
Sorry, again. I hated sorry. Sorry could not bring Dakota back. ‘Shit.’
‘I saw the guy from the SUV dive out through a window. I followed, tracked him as far as I could, but the trail went cold. Ended up hitching a ride back here. Took a while.’
‘I was just leaving.’
He frowned. ‘Why? I told you I’d be back.’
‘You’re way late, I didn’t think you were coming.’
‘Lori—’
‘Quinn sent me a file last night, a load of information about you and the trouble you’ve gotten into these past few years. Got me to thinking that perhaps there’s things you’ve not been entirely straight about. So I’ve been doing a little investigation of my own. Found out some stuff.’
He stepped closer, staring at me all intense with those old blues of his. ‘What stuff?’
I could feel the heat coming off his skin. Avoiding his gaze, I watched a bead of water run down his chest, across his ribs, past the scar of an old gunshot wound and seep into the towel around his waist. I fought the urge to lean into him, to rest my head against his chest, just for a moment.
‘Tell me, Lori.’ His voice was husky, enticing.
I gazed up at him. He sure was pretty. Putting my hands on his chest, I felt the firmness of his skin beneath my palms. Remembered how things had been before. Knew they couldn’t be that way again.
Going back with him now would most certainly be a mistake. I don’t visit with a man more than once. Twice, and you start getting comfortable. And I had learnt my lesson about that the hard way. There’s no comfort in a man. I married my first to escape my daddy’s fists, and climbed into bed with my second – JT – to escape from the first. After JT, I wised up to the fact that I would always be better off on my own. The way I see it, sex is easy. Love’s the thing that gets you hurt.
I pushed him away with everything I had. Fixed my expression to pissed, and raised my voice. ‘You beat Merv in a bar a couple of years back. You were charged and did community service. What happened to force only as necessity?’
He didn’t speak.
I shook my head. ‘Pops said you’d changed. Guess I hadn’t realised how much.’
He frowned, grabbed my arm. ‘You spoke to Pops? Shit, Lori. When? Did you tell him I was—’
My cell began to ring. I pulled away, yanking the cell phone from my pocket. The caller’s number showed on-screen.
JT was right behind me, looking over my shoulder. ‘That’s Scott.’
I put the cell on speaker and pressed answer. Waited.
No one spoke. I heard a rustling sound, like a butt dial.
I turned the volume to max. Aside from the rustling I heard two voices, both male. I held the cell closer to my ear, but still couldn’t make out the words. All I could tell was that one sounded angry. The other didn’t say much, just single words and the occasional grunt.
I glanced at JT. He was staring at the cell, concentrating hard.
There was something else: a tune; sleigh-bells and singing: ‘… and we’ll all have a jolly fun time. Happy holidays all year round. A joyful place to laugh and sing. Come along and we’ll begin. Percy Penguin…’
JT inhaled sharply. ‘That’s the Winter Wonderland theme song,’ he whispered. ‘They play it everywhere in the main park. Scott must be inside.’
One of the men’s voices became clearer. ‘No point you looking at the door, Scott, ain’t nobody coming to rescue your sorry ass. I told you what happens next. Tell me where it is or I’ll—’
‘Please. Don’t hurt him.’ Dakota’s voice; my baby was alive. My heart punched against my ribs so hard I thought it might bash its way clean out of my chest.
‘I told you to shut up,’ the angry man yelled.
I heard a crash. Dakota screamed. The call disconnected.
My pulse pounded against my temples. I hit the touchscreen, found my recent-calls list, and selected Scott’s number.
JT put his hand over mine. ‘Don’t.’
I shoved him away. ‘They’ve got my child. I have to know they’ve not—’
He didn’t budge. Tightened his grip over my fingers. ‘It’s a set-up.’
I glared at JT. Jerked my hand and the cell from him. ‘She was screaming. She—’
‘Think about it, Lori. They’ve tried to get to us twice, and failed. Seems they’ve changed tact and are trying to draw us to them. That call was to get our attention.’
Shit. JT was right. That Scott had kept hold of his cell after he’d been captured; that he’d called my number even though he’d never met me; that Dak
ota had spoken while the line was open – it was all far too convenient. ‘Well it sure as hell worked.’
‘Exactly. Question is, what next? We go there, we’re walking right into a trap.’
‘But if we stay here, we’ve still got nothing. At least going to Winter Wonderland means we’re getting closer. More chance of finding Dakota.’
JT frowned. ‘Yep. I guess it does.’
It was a risk, sure. But I had to take it. ‘So let’s move.’
JT nodded, moved across to the bed. I turned away as he dressed, grabbed my carryall. Tried to block out the sound of Dakota’s screams, still echoing in my mind.
Less than a minute and we were out of there. We ran to the Mustang.
I threw my carryall into the back and slid into the driver’s seat. Fired up the engine and sped out on to the highway. Moving into the outside lane, I accelerated, putting more room between us and the sedan riding tight on my ass; a brown sedan just like the one outside Pops’. Was it coincidence, or did we have a tail? I accelerated harder, watching in the mirror as the sedan stayed back, tucking itself behind another truck. Told myself it was nothing; brown sedans are pretty damn common.
‘You were right about Scott,’ I said after a spell. ‘They already had him. At Thelma’s, we were the target.’
JT stayed silent, his eyes fixed straight ahead.
‘How close do you think he is to cracking?’
‘Scott? He’s held this long, at least.’
‘And if he gives out?’
‘I’d say that they’ll want to catch us a whole lot more.’
Meaning, getting the device was no longer their only objective. While we were loose, we were a liability. And they needed Dakota to lure us in. ‘Figures.’
‘So drive,’ he said, his voice low and tight.
I stepped on the gas, praying to a God I didn’t believe in to keep my daughter safe. Winter Wonderland was in Fernandina Beach, Florida. It would take us the best part of two hours to get there. I hoped that Scott could hang on to his secrets a while longer.
Deep Down Dead Page 20
