While he was curled on his side, Josie trained her gun on him. “Get on your knees and put your hands on top of your head. Now.”
Tim hesitated before shakily rising to his knees. Josie took her handcuffs out of her pocket and tossed them in front of him. “Put a cuff on one wrist and your hands behind your head.” Tim didn’t move. “Now, Mr. Wade. I’m not famous for my restraint.”
“I suppose my sister put you up to this. You’re a fool if you believe anything she’s said to you.”
“Cuff on. Now.”
Tim reached for the cuffs and shut one on his left wrist. Then he put his hands behind his head. “She’s a pathological liar. My entire life has been shit because of the lies she’s told about me. About everything. You should be warned.”
“I’ll take it under advisement,” Josie said. She approached from behind and put the gun to the back of Tim’s head. “Don’t move a muscle. I can’t miss at this range.” As she reached for the cuffs to secure his wrists, his leg shot out again, a swift backward kick that took Josie’s legs out from under her, landing her on elbows and knees. She couldn’t believe how fast he was. Faster than that Swanson jerk. He whipped around and slugged her in the face, snapping her head back and sending her sprawling. Still she kept hold of the gun and now aimed it with the full intent of wounding him, but knowing if she killed him it would be a mistake she could live with. She fired at his shoulder and watched as he fell, the shock returning to his face. He screamed bloody murder as he held his hand to his upper arm. Josie sensed the screaming wasn’t all about the pain. It was like he was having a temper tantrum, furious that he’d been spanked, that his toy was being taken away. Josie walked over and held the gun on him once again, but the fight seemed to have drained out of him.
“I see that got your attention,” she said, tapping her boot against his ribs. She figured it was the most effective bullet she’d ever fired. It scared the shit out of him. “Over on your stomach or I’ll put a bullet in the other arm.” Tim rolled over and Josie yanked his wrists together and secured the handcuffs.
“I need a doctor,” Tim moaned. “I’m going to bleed to death.”
Josie ignored him and dug out her phone. Her face was throbbing and her left eye was already closing. There was a stabbing pain from her lower ribs every time she moved. She’d never felt more alive.
“Stan. It’s me. I’ve secured the suspect.”
“What? Don’t tell me you went in without waiting.”
“Okay. I won’t tell you.”
“Goddamn it, Josie,” Stan barked. He was too stressed out. He didn’t handle the action the way he used to. He was old. “Is anyone hurt?”
“You mean aside from me?” she asked. “Wade has some lead in his shoulder, but he’ll live.” She saw Tim looking up at her. “More’s the pity.”
“Have you called nine-one-one yet?”
“No. I was about to,” Josie said. She put her foot on Tim’s back as he started to squirm. As soon as he felt it he stopped.
“Let me handle the local cops. We’ll get an ambulance out there, too,” Stan said. “I’ll be there in ten.”
“Okay. Harper out.”
Josie thought about Lauren and her parents for the first time. She saw the three of them lined up outside the house, watching her. It looked creepy, like they were watching a public hanging. She wasn’t surprised to see Lauren there. It would have been a surprise if she’d stayed in the car. But she wondered why they hadn’t come out to try to help her and felt a little disappointed in them.
She waved her hand and indicated they should come over. Lauren led her parents to Josie. She stared down at Tim, and from the look on her face Josie wondered if Lauren was going to kick him herself.
“Don’t worry,” Josie said. “The police will be here to arrest him.”
“Did you shoot him?”
“In the arm. He’s not badly hurt.”
“That’s too bad,” Lauren said. Her parents stood behind her. “Josie, these are my parents, John and Helen.” They both nodded to Josie but didn’t say anything. They looked unhappy with everyone around her.
“Glad to see you in one piece,” Josie said. Shouldn’t they be jumping up and down with joy? Everyone seemed so glum. Perhaps more angry than glum, and who could blame them? “Why don’t you go into the house and wait for us there? We’ve got help coming any minute.”
Lauren stayed behind as they watched John and Helen walk back to the house.
“Clearly you plan to never do anything I say. I’ll have to keep that in mind,” Josie said. She was trying to make a joke, but Lauren didn’t even smile. “How did you get in the house, anyway?”
“The door wasn’t locked. Tim must have come in that way when he arrived,” Lauren said. She looked dazed.
Tim was now lying in perfect stillness on the ground. Josie’s gun dangled loosely from her hand; she wasn’t worried about him, but she’d be glad when Stan arrived to relieve her. It was going to be a hassle and a half with the cops; she’d shot someone, after all. She hoped the Wades would provide the self-defense evidence, since it seemed they’d been watching the whole fight. But she didn’t feel entirely confident. She looked back at Lauren.
“Did you see the whole fight?” Josie wouldn’t mind a little recognition of her heroics.
“I saw it.”
Josie felt deflated. She didn’t need a ticker tape parade, just an appreciative word from her lover would do. Lauren didn’t say anything.
“How’re your parents? They seem pretty subdued,” Josie said.
“I suppose if you were held captive for eight months you’d feel subdued yourself,” Lauren said coolly.
“True. But you seem the same way. Aren’t you happy to see them?”
Lauren’s expression remained cool, removed. “I couldn’t describe to you how I’m feeling. And what would be the point?”
Josie was beginning to understand the Wades were truly a fucked-up family. Granted, hers wasn’t much better, but she’d probably be able to rustle up a look of relief if her parents had been pulled back from the brink of death. Lauren went back in the house without a word.
Stan arrived a minute ahead of the police and ambulance and the scene was soon crowded and noisy. He briefed the officer in charge while the ambulance took Tim away with a police escort. Another ambulance took Lauren and her parents to the hospital after they were briefly interviewed, and Josie promised to meet them there as soon as she could.
Josie sat on the ground. She wasn’t feeling great. It was like coming down from a high. She hurt physically, but her mood was the thing going downhill. She realized how amped up she’d been.
Stan walked over to her. “You need to get to the hospital yourself.” He leaned over and offered his hand. Josie allowed herself to be pulled up.
“Don’t the police want me?”
“You’ll have to give a statement. They’re sending someone to the hospital to do that. But you’re in the clear. Our victims gave a pretty good account of you acting in self-defense. Personally, I wish they’d lock you up for a few days, maybe teach you some sense.”
“Hey. I got the job done,” Josie still had a modicum of hubris, despite her plummeting mood. Why should she be reprimanded for saving the day?
Stan looked at her, his face a mixture of amusement and frustration. He took Josie by the elbow and started toward the front of the house. “Come on. I’ll drive your car to the hospital. Nigel can meet us there.” Josie didn’t argue. Her ribs hurt like hell.
By the time they got to the small, rural hospital, John and Helen were being transferred from the ER to a room. Josie found Lauren in the empty waiting area. If anything, she looked grimmer than before.
“How are your folks?”
“The doctors insist on keeping them overnight,” Lauren said. “I don’t think there’s a thing wrong with them, but that’s the situation.”
“That’s okay. We can stay and drive them back tomorrow. I’ve got to get patc
hed up anyway. We’ll find a motel.”
Lauren didn’t respond. There was no sense of the vibrant person she’d made love with such a short time ago.
Stan had decamped to the police station and reported that Tim would be kept in the lockup over the next day or two, but would most likely be transferred to Cook County for prosecution. Josie had already forgotten about Tim. After she got her ribs wrapped and the cut over her eye taken care of, she found Lauren in the same chair in the waiting room, staring straight in front of her as if she were having a stare-down contest with someone, only no one else was there. Lauren turned to Josie.
“We’re going back to Chicago. I’ll have a car pick up my parents tomorrow.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to find a local motel? It’s a good two-hour drive back to the city,” Josie said. Her ribs were sore. She’d prefer the motel.
Lauren’s eyes narrowed. “I really need to get out of here, if it’s all the same to you. I’ll drive. It looks like your eye’s swollen shut.” She stood, gathering her things.
Josie didn’t want any hassle with Lauren. There was something going on with her. Maybe she could get to the bottom of it and this icy, removed woman would give way to the one she’d been having so much fun with.
They got into the Corolla, Lauren at the wheel. It was pitch black as soon as they cleared the town. Highway 20 snaked through miles of farmland, interrupted occasionally by another hamlet-sized town. Their headlights picked up the corn crops edging close to the side of the road. Inky blackness lay beyond them. It looked eerie, like a black-and-white scene from a Hitchcock film, where a deranged killer burst through the towering corn stalks.
“What’s going on, Lauren? That was the grimmest reunion I’ve ever seen. It was like you didn’t know each other.”
Lauren was quiet. “We don’t.”
“What do you mean?”
Lauren gave a short bark of a laugh, the first sign of animation she’d shown for hours. “At this moment I wish Tim had killed them. The result would have been better than this.”
Josie put a neutral look on her face. She was getting a very bad feeling. Time seemed to have slowed. Where everything had been rushing by up to the fight with Tim, now she had a good look at Lauren. There was something off. “What result?”
Lauren glanced at Josie. Her lips were pursed as she looked back at the road. The silence stretched on.
“Lauren? There’s something going on I don’t know about. You’re not making any sense.”
She glanced at Josie once more. “You can’t possibly know how important my company is to me, can you?”
Josie was having a hard time focusing. Her head was throbbing. “No?”
“That’s right. No one can, except for my parents.” Lauren’s voice took on a bitter tone. “And they just fired me.”
“What?” Josie snapped to attention. “I’m not following. What does your company have to do with your parents’ kidnapping? Why are they firing you?”
Lauren looked at her as if she was a little slow, and truth be told she felt a bit dense at the moment. She tried to stay focused on what Lauren was saying, but she felt awful and her mood was in free fall. That probably signaled the end of whatever mania she had. It hadn’t been so bad. She hadn’t slept with anyone’s girlfriend, or spent days at the Horseshoe Casino, or even talked too much, too often. She’d saved two people, for God’s sake. But now her thoughts kept drifting.
“Everything that happens in my family has to do with the company,” Lauren said. “Tim kidnapped my parents because they belittled him his whole life. He hates them. But another reason was to make me look foolish to my employees and the board of directors by forcing me to act like a buffoon. He hates me, too.”
Josie was shifting around in her seat, trying to get comfortable. The pain pill she’d taken was making her drowsy. “So Tim hates your parents, you hate Tim, or at least I assume you do. But why would they fire you?”
Lauren remained quiet. A vertical line ran up her forehead, giving her a fierce appearance.
“My parents and I declared a truce when I first started to work as an editor at the company. I would say relations before then were strained. They expected a lot from me, mostly because I shone compared to Tim. They were deeply disappointed whenever I failed to meet their expectations, though they seldom explained to me what those expectations were. We fought a lot. They weren’t around often, but when they were it was uncomfortable. Still, it was always assumed I’d work at the company and make my way up the ranks, and I wanted that. I understood that one day the place would be mine. I’d risen nearly to the top by the time they retired, while Tim showed only a shaky understanding of the business. But I learned recently that Tim and I would have equal shares upon their death. All of my hard work made no impression on them.”
“I still don’t see why they fired you. And don’t you think they’d strip the shares from Tim because of the kidnapping? I mean, who wouldn’t?”
Lauren gripped the steering wheel tighter. Josie could see veins starting to bulge on the top of her hands. They were barreling down the highway; she didn’t want Lauren to get more upset. “They think I should have rescued them sooner. They’re furious with me. That’s what we talked about when I first saw him. They didn’t even say hello.” She was speaking through her teeth.
Josie roused herself. “Are you telling me they’ve taken your job away because you couldn’t do the impossible? What bastards.”
Lauren seemed to be growing angrier by the minute. “Like I said, I seldom know what their expectations are. They’re higher than I thought.”
Josie thought the Borgias were a more loving family than this lot. She noticed the speed of the Corolla inch up.
“What my parents feel is always dependent on how the company’s doing,” Lauren said. She didn’t seem to be talking to Josie. It was more like she was recording something for the record, for posterity. “I’ve had declining profits for three consecutive quarters, which is the most significant transgression. The board has complained about my unusual behavior, which of course my parents knew about. Tim reported all of this to them. He probably showed them video of me singing karaoke with the women in accounting. They aren’t happy with that or the fact that I stood trial for murder, despite the acquittal. But all they said to me was I failed to rescue them and couldn’t be trusted.” Lauren took a shuddering breath. “I suppose I should have seen this coming.”
“Wow.” Josie was struggling with how to respond; the situation was well beyond her experience. At least her parents were a case of “what you see is what you get.” Granted, what you got wasn’t much, but at least they didn’t operate at a Machiavellian level. She felt sorry for Lauren.
Josie was fighting sleep. “I don’t understand why your parents weren’t grateful to you. It was you who kept them alive and rescued them,” she said. “I’d think that would be worth a thank you and few extra shares.” Shares being the coinage of love in the Wade family. She tried to think of what it would be in her own family, but beer was all that came to mind.
Lauren increased her speed; the cropland was flashing by even faster. “After everything I’ve done for the last eight months to keep them alive, and they can’t rely on me. I wish Tim had killed them.”
The engine had to be reaching its limit. She peeked at the speedometer, which showed ninety miles per hour. She hadn’t known the Corolla had it in her.
Lauren seethed. “The shit I’ve been through this year is unbelievable. First with Kelly, then with Tim, now with my parents.” She hit the steering wheel hard with the base of her palm; the car jiggered a little, crossing the median line. Josie sat up. “The relationship with Kelly was mostly a joke,” Lauren said. “I stayed with her to show I was in a stable relationship, something my parents and the board demanded, though no one was crazy about my partner being a woman. Fuck all of them.”
Josie shifted again in her seat. It felt surreal to fly down the empty highway with a madwoma
n at the wheel. She tried to revert to her training, to stay calm and, hopefully, alive. Asking questions wasn’t the smart thing to do, but she couldn’t help herself.
“Does that mean you didn’t care when you found out Kelly was sleeping with Ann-Marie?”
Lauren stayed silent. A look of resignation and a certain stillness in her body came over her. Another five miles per hour showed on the speedometer.
“I wasn’t surprised. Not by Kelly or my parents or Tim. It’s always been a matter of how much crap I was willing to take. I’m not willing to take any more.”
With a flash, Josie knew Lauren had reached the end of her rope, just as Lauren yanked the steering wheel hard to the right, plunging them to the side of the road. She saw the corn stalks bathed in a sepulchral light before the car hit the ditch and flipped over. And then over again. It was the last she knew.
Chapter Thirty-three
Josie opened her eyes. Her head felt like a wrecking ball was swinging back and forth in her brain. She didn’t understand where she was or what had happened. All she could tell was the law of gravity was working against her. Her head was where her feet should be.
She took stock. She was upside down in her car, her head held inches from the roof by a straining seat belt. Her ribs were a mess. The one that Tim kicked was probably broken, along with a few others. There was something wrong with her leg; she tried to move and screamed in pain. Broken. Blood dripped downward from a cut on her forehead. When she tilted her head she could see a puddle of it pooling in the roof of the car.
In slow dribs and drabs, more came back to her. Lauren and all she’d said, Lauren and her suicidal crash into the side of the road. She turned her head carefully toward the driver’s seat, half expecting to see Lauren dead at the wheel. Instead she saw an empty seat and a wide-open door. She might be lying next to the car, injured. Josie felt upward toward her seat belt, fumbling with slick, bloody hands to release it. It was hard with all her weight straining against it, holding her up like a parachute harness. When she finally snapped it open, she fell down to the roof, her brain lighting up like fireworks when her head hit the surface. She lay still for a minute, long enough to convince herself to move again.
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