But then anger took over. How could she write about his sister and mom, revealing their darkest and most shameful secrets to the world’s scorn? It was no wonder she had a stalker. With the pain her books have caused, it was amazing no one has attacked her before now. No, he wouldn’t interfere. Let her reap her own just rewards.
***
Luke had just hung up from a call to his office. They would be wiring the appropriate papers necessary to arrest Gary Eder within two hours. While the FBI’s profile on Gary Eder was not nearly as damning as Carla’s, there was enough to gain extradition as long as local police were willing to expedite the paperwork before Eder could acquire a lawyer. He had already spoken to the New Zealand police, and they were more than willing to cooperate in the removal of a suspected serial killer from their midst.
His thoughts escaped the tension of the moment and found solace in memories of Julia. According to Carla, she was still single and still searching for a love equal to what they had shared. What if he were to call her? Tonight—this very moment—what if he were to acquire her number?
But what would he say? Hi, Julia, this is Luke Gallagher. Remember me? What if she replied no?
Yet he had never forgotten her. Her image was as clear in his mind as if she had left yesterday. He could even recall her lavender scent. If Carla was right, then her memories might be just as strong.
The thundering blows on the motel door pulled Luke from his pleasant reverie. Grabbing his gun and stepping to the side of the door, he called out, “Who is it?”
He heard a crash and then muttering. He cautiously went to the far window and peered out. Recognizing the intruder, he opened the door just as Chad’s foot smashed down on the laptop lying on the concrete.
Using leverage and surprise on his side, Luke knocked Chad off balance and pulled the broken remains of the computer to safety. “What the hell are you doing?”
Luke cursed as he studied the computer to survey the damage. He pried open the split back and studied the memory card, wondering if his people would be able to save anything.
“It’s gone,” Chad declared in a slurred, drunken voice. “Dead. I had them erase it. Erase everything!”
“Who? Who erased it?” God, he hoped it didn’t mean what he suspected.
“The store. I took it to a computer store and had them reformat the hard drive. Wipe out everything.”
“Damn it! You had no right!” Luke had planned to use the program, either with or without Carla’s permission.
“She told me to,” he muttered in his drunken state. “She told me to take the computer and get out.”
Luke remained paralyzed by the destruction of the laptop. His superiors were going to be furious. He hadn’t told them about the program, but he’d promised them some incredibly in-depth profiles. Now he would only have what Carla could remember.
Carla.
“Where’s Carla?”
“I don’t know, and I don’t care. I never want to see her again. Lying bitch…”
“You left her there alone?” Luke shook him, trying to get a response.
“She said I had to go, she’d be safer alone, and I figured she was right. Otherwise, I might kill her.”
Luke grabbed his shoulder harness and put it on. Slipping on his jacket, he tucked in his gun, grabbed his keys and stepped over the semiconscious form in his doorway. He couldn’t wait for a warrant. With Chad gone from the house, she’d be a sitting duck for Eder.
***
Carla had moved two ceiling-tiles from the closet and crawled into a narrow space between the ceiling and the upstairs floor. She’d then pulled the items on the closet shelf back into place and secured the tiles.
Her heart was beating at the speed of hummingbird’s wings, and she could smell the stench of fear on her body. If Eder checked the closet, he would be able to smell her fear as well.
And he would kill her.
She had no doubt Luke would confiscate her computer from Chad. Hopefully, he would be a better caretaker of the program and put it to positive use.
Her thoughts turned to Chad. She feared he would feel guilt for having left her to die, but had he stayed, the only difference would have been that he would have died as well. At least, she had saved him.
Steadied by these positive thoughts, she decided she didn’t want to die cowering in the ceiling. She would rather meet Eder face-on and fight for her life. As quietly as possible, she climbed down and left the closet.
The sense of danger almost overwhelmed Carla. Closing her eyes, she visualized Eder leaving his car and going around the back of the house with the stealth of a panther. Then he rushed forward and a moment later tossed a body in the pool. The water turned red.
Had he just killed the security guard? Chad was supposed to have sent everyone away. Did the guard refuse to leave?
Sorrow ripped through her body. How many people must die in my place?
She picked up a twenty-pound hand weight. She couldn’t allow any more innocents to die. She turned to leave the weight room, only the door handle turned.
This was it. The end… She moved to the wall next to the door, turned off the light, then gripped the weight in both hands. Lifting it over her head, Carla waited for what seemed an eternity. Finally, she heard a soft click as the handle returned to its closed position. Before she could make sense of what was happening, someone called her name. She recognized the voice. Luke Gallagher had returned to rescue her. Only the agent had no idea how much danger he was in. How could he? He didn’t even believe Eder was real.
She had to try and save him, to distract the killer so Luke might have the chance to stop the monster. Otherwise, they would both die, and Eder would move on to his next assignment.
She gently opened the door and peeked out. The room was almost pitch black. Eder must have closed all the drapes.
If she yelled out, Luke would come to her rescue, making him an easy target for Eder. Instead, she calmed and let her intuition take over. Eder was in this room; she was sure of it. Then for a moment, his silhouette appeared in the door to the library. He wouldn’t enter the room unless Luke was inside.
“Luke, it’s Eder!” she yelled followed by three gunshots exploding in the dark.
***
Minutes earlier…
When Luke arrived at the lake house, the guard wasn’t at his post and a dark, eerie sense of danger hung over the place. He parked his car on the street and hurried across the open lawn, cautiously working his way around to the back. A man’s body floated in the pool, but he didn’t dare check it out just yet. Instead, he entered the unlocked glass door and headed to the main section of the house.
The library French doors gaped open like an entrance to Hell. Luke could almost feel the evil within. Slowly, he edged himself in, avoiding the broken porcelain on the floor. He’d left Carla in this room. Had she heard Eder’s entrance and found a safer place, or was she already dead?
“Carla,” he called out.
She didn’t answer.
Hopefully, she was alive and safely hidden somewhere. He paused and listened, but the house was deathly still. Was he too late? Had Eder already found and killed his victim? Was he already seated in first class, flying back to his home in Miami, pleased with a job well done? Was Carla lying upstairs, bleeding to death, as he stood frozen in the dark shadows of the library?
He was just about to convince himself that Eder was no longer there when he heard the smallest sound of porcelain crushing beneath someone’s foot, no more than four feet behind him. Was it Carla or Eder?
As he turned to see, he heard Carla yell from the other room. “Luke, it’s Eder”
He yelled “FBI” as he emptied three rounds into the black shadow swiftly approaching him.
The shots reverberated in the silence. The final sound was the thudding clump of the body as it hit the floor and air wheezing as the last breath of life squeezed out.
Luke frantically made his way in the dark to the light sw
itch. If it was anyone other than Eder, his career was over.
He almost cried with joy as he turned the body over to study the pale face of Gary Eder. He muttered a quick thanks to God as he verified the man no longer had a pulse.
“It wasn’t exactly according to the books, but it was the right man,” he whispered to calm his pounding heart.
“If you had followed protocol, he would have killed you.”
For a moment, Luke mistook it for his own thought, but only for a moment. He looked up to see Carla at the door. “You saw this?”
“I was in the gym, seconds from dying, when you called out my name. He heard you.”
“I don’t understand.” Luke stood and studied her face. Her skin was so pale she could be a ghost.
Carla tugged her robe tightly around her. “He stopped before he opened the door to the gym.” She looked at Eder’s body lying on the library floor. “He intended to garrote you before he returned to kill me. I was afraid if I called out to you, you’d run to my rescue and he’d kill you before you even realized he was here. So I followed him out. When I saw him enter the library, I called out, letting you know. Still, I feared you might wait too long before you fired.”
“How long did I wait?” Luke asked, dreading her answer. Despite the man at his feet was a mass-murderer, Carla’s honest reply could cost him any chance of future advancements.
Carla didn’t reply for quite a while. “I’m not sure. Everything crawled in slow motion. You called, ‘FBI, stop.’ Then I think you said ‘stop’ again. And then you fired.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah.” Her weary eyes met his. “You saved my life, you know. He would have killed me if you hadn’t arrived. He didn’t even search upstairs. He came directly to the exercise room, almost as if he had a metal detector and I was the lump of ore he sought.” Her body trembled and she sat down on the couch.
“Are you all right?”
“Just shocked I’m still alive. I didn’t think you believed me. I was certain this time I would die.”
“I need you to go to your room, get dressed, and wait for me to get you. Hopefully, we’ll be able to head home on the next flight out.”
Without a single argument, she turned and headed upstairs.
Her obedience surprised him. Evidently near-death situations made her a bit more compliant. He picked up the phone and called the local police. He then searched the house to determine if there were other dead bodies to be found. He knew the place normally had a guard, a cook and a housekeeper. Had Eder killed them as well?
Finding no further bodies, he called Chad and asked if he’d sent the staff home. Upon learning he had, he relaxed. He was still pissed Chad had destroyed the PC, but he’d saved lives by thinking of others.
So who was the floater outside?
Once the police arrived, he gave a brief review of what he knew, then asked the police to remove the corpse in the pool.
Two of the officers jumped into the water and turned the body over.
Eyes still open, the pale dead face of Davis Grimes, Chad’s assistant stared up.
Why would he be here? He could only think of two possible reasons: either he and Carla were working together or Davis had arrived to kill her, only he met Eder first. He recalled Carla saying that Davis had been listening at the door when Luke had shared the fellow’s misdeeds with Chad. If true, that would explain why he hadn’t returned to the States as planned and why he’d come here. He needed Carla quieted for good.
He shook his head. Carla had had two assassins after her, not one.
“Know him?” asked one of the New Zealand police.
“Yeah. He’s a bit of trouble we’d planned to arrest the moment he arrived back in the States, only he jumped the plane before it took off.”
“Well, he won’t give you any trouble this time you take him home,” one of the soggy officers cheerfully pointed out.
Another cop helped them move the body to the concrete. “He’s been garroted. How’d the guy in the house die?”
Luke met his gaze. “Three rounds in the chest from my gun. He intended to sneak up and garrote me as well, but I turned around in time to prevent that.” Thanks to Carla…
“Good on ya!” said a blond cop with an Australian accent. “These blokes don’t carry guns, so had you not been here to stop the fella, he could have garroted half the force as well.”
The Aussie’s claim caused a burst of outrage from his fellow officers and even a suggestion that he go back to Australia. Luke left the ruckus and returned inside to share his thoughts with the lead detective.
Chapter Twenty
The New Zealand police were polite, efficient, and more than willing to accept Luke and Carla’s statements at face value. However, upon returning to the States, the FBI wasn’t nearly as obliging. Luke watched Carla’s grueling interrogation from the observation room. He attempted to portray a nonchalant expression since he was certain he was under observation as well. She told her story repeatedly, never wavering on any detail. Had he not known the full story, he would have believed her simplified version. The version she told had no computer, no odd program that could divine the truth. It was a common story of a stalker hunting the famous. It was quite compatible with his version. If they had sat down to write it, it couldn’t have been better coordinated.
However, they never had the chance. By request of the FBI, Luke and Carla had been separated by the New Zealand Police and returned on different planes. Luke told the most sensible story he could and eliminated anything that was unbelievable. As he listened to her story, his inner tension faded away. He would come out of this looking like a hero. Her story was a perfect match. How the hell had she known what he would say?
***
Just as Carla wondered if the interrogation would ever end, Luke and an older man entered the room. “I think we’ve got all the information we need, gentlemen,” the older guy said, his dismissive tone quickly understood. The room emptied of all but three.
The man sat across the table from Carla and studied her for several moments in silence. She studied him in return. She concluded he was responsible for her endless interrogation, but she hadn’t been his intended victim. He had been after Luke. She thought back to the profile she had written on Luke and decided the man in front of her was George Scott, director of the West Coast division of the FBI. He knew Luke was a hundred times better than he could ever hope to be and a threat to his future advancement. He had tried his hardest to find something that would enable him to get rid of his competition once and for all.
George Scott was disconcerted by her intense stare. “Is something wrong, Ms. Simon?”
She met his eyes, searching them for clues. “No. I’m just wondering why you ordered my intense interrogation.”
Scott’s eyes rounded and then narrowed as they flickered to Luke.
Luke closed his eyes, no doubt wishing she had just kept her mouth shut, but she was angry and needed to vent.
“Pardon?” Scott asked.
“I said—”
“I heard you, Ms. Simon. I’m just a bit surprised you would classify our inquiries into an international incident as an ‘interrogation’. Such terminology is for the paranoid, or someone with something to hide. Do you have something to hide?”
Carla rolled her head from side to side, releasing the tension from her neck. “No. But rest assured, had I possessed a secret, your men would have found it out. They were nothing if not persistent.”
“We only want the truth.” Scott continued to search her face for some hint of guilt or duplicity.
“Well, you’ve gotten it. About twenty times, if I recall.”
“There were discrepancies between yours and Mr. Gallagher’s story.”
For the first time, Carla looked at Luke, but she couldn’t read his expression. “I can only tell you what happened as I remember it. And I’ve done that. I’d like to leave now.”
Scott stood and held out his hand. “Mr
. Gallagher will take you wherever you wish to go. I’d like to thank you for your forbearance of our questions. Rest assured they were necessary.” Upon shaking Carla’s hand, he stepped from the room, leaving Luke and her alone.
Luke stiffened and his brow creased. “Is there somewhere I can take you, Ms. Simon? A hotel, perhaps?”
Carla sighed. Poor Luke must be terrified that she might say something to ditch his career in this false moment of privacy. “I would love to return to New Jersey, but I doubt I can get a flight out tonight.”
Luke tapped on his phone. “There’s a red-eye at four. I’ll get you a seat.”
Carla stood and stretched. “Thanks.”
As soon as the seat was confirmed, they left for the airport.
***
Neither spoke for the longest time during the drive, but Luke was concerned that Scott would find their silence suspicious, so he finally decided upon a line of conversation. “I hope you understand the questioning was necessary, Ms. Simon.”
“Honestly, no. The first hour, yes, the second, maybe, but after that, it was an abuse of power.”
“I’m sorry if it seemed that way, but the FBI must be very careful when one of its agents is involved in a shooting.”
“Gary Eder would have killed me had you not interrupted his search. I was his intended victim. Yet throughout the entire interrogation, I felt the FBI was trying to make me the aggressor and poor Eder the victim.”
“They just needed to be certain you were telling the truth.”
“Why would they think I’d lie? I wasn’t the murderer.”
Luke sighed and relaxed. He had no doubt the car was bugged, but Scott would get nothing out of this conversation to use against him. “They didn’t think you were lying, Ms. Simon. They were just following procedure.”
“I somehow doubt that. But it’s over and done with, and if I never see another FBI agent, it will be a day too soon.” Then she paused and added softly, “No offense to you, Mr. Gallagher. I haven’t forgotten that you saved my life.”
Public Secrets (Artificial Intelligence Book 1) Page 11
