by Julie Hyzy
At that, Eugene raised his eyebrows.
I ignored that. “Tell me one thing, then. Just one.”
He shook his head.
“You don’t even know what I’m going to ask.”
“Yes, I do. When all is said and done, all you really want to know is how your father came to be buried at Arlington. I gave you the best answer I could when you were here last time: He deserved to be there and I made sure he was. Child, you need to stop. Right here, right now.”
I sat back, frustrated with him as well as with myself. This had been a waste of time. I shouldn’t have bothered. Too late, I realized that no matter how much I’d believed I’d convinced myself otherwise, I’d gotten my hopes up after all. “So that’s it?”
“I’m sorry.”
“Are you?” I asked.
His hand reached out again, but this time he clasped my fingers. “Very sorry.”
After a moment, I stood. “Thank you for your time.”
He looked up at me, from beneath his wiry eyebrows. “You’re not coming back, are you?”
I didn’t understand. “Coming back?” I repeated.
“You’ve asked me for answers I couldn’t give you. Am I so useless to you now? You’re walking out of here, convinced I’m the bad guy. It doesn’t matter to you that your father and I were good friends. It doesn’t matter that I’ve followed your life since you were a little child.” He pointed to his front door. “Because I can’t give you the answers you want, you’re going to walk out that door and I’ll never see you again.”
I didn’t know what to say.
His hand dropped back into his lap. “I’m right, aren’t I?”
“I hadn’t thought about it,” I said honestly. “Why would you want me to come back? I obviously bring trouble wherever I go.”
“Come back and visit me, Olivia. To talk. About you, about your life. I want to know you. For your father’s sake. Please?”
Had I been so focused that I’d lost sight of others’ feelings along the way? Apparently I had.
“I’m sorry.” If it were possible, I felt even worse than I had when I’d first arrived. I glanced at my watch. “If it weren’t so late, I’d stay a bit now. But I promised someone I’d be back at three.”
He nodded. “Go on, then. Don’t forget me.”
I was about to answer when the doorbell rang. “Who are you expecting?” I asked. Not that it was any of my business.
“No one,” he said, then shouted, “Roberta, someone at the door.”
“I can get it while I’m here,” I said.
He waved as if to say “whatever.”
I started for the door, but Roberta hurried in, iPod in hand, earbuds pulled down around her neck, wires running along her chest. “Sorry, I’ll get it.”
“I’m leaving anyway,” I said.
“Ollie,” Eugene called to me, curling a finger, “one more thing.”
I returned to stand next to his chair as Roberta swung open the front door. “Hello,” she said. “May I help you?”
“What is it?” I asked Eugene.
In the background, a male voice said hello. I could make out very little else.
“Friends of Mr. Vaughn’s?” Roberta asked, sounding perplexed.
“What did you forget to tell me?” I prompted.
With his eyes on the door and a solid grip on my wrist, Eugene said, “You must remember to be careful. Very careful. You understand?”
“I do,” I said.
The voice outside was answering Roberta. “Here to see Mr. Vaughn.”
“He wasn’t expecting—”
She barely got the words out when her face flipped upward, backhanded by an unknown assailant. I didn’t have time to react before a man rushed through the door, then another. Seconds later, a third. The first two trampled past Roberta. The third picked her up, dumping her onto the floor in the center of the living room. Curled into the fetal position, she held both hands to her face and sobbed.
It all happened so fast, I couldn’t do anything. All three men were young, tall, and powerful looking. I was shocked into paralysis even as they ordered us not to move.
Finding my voice, I shouted, “What are you doing? Who are you?”
I didn’t have to wait long for my answer.
Another man, blonde and instantly recognizable as the guy I’d run into outside the coffee shop—the fellow looking for his blind date—entered the home, pushing a wheelchair ahead of him.
“Olivia, my dear.” From the chair, Harold Linka raised his hand in greeting. “You’re just like your father,” he said. “You don’t know when to quit, do you?”
CHAPTER 25
ROBERTA’S SOFT CRIES WERE THE ONLY sounds following Linka’s pronouncement. “What’s going on?” I asked.
His men swarmed the room, brandishing switchblades as long and deadly as my chef’s knives. As if we needed additional proof that we were in trouble.
The way they surrounded us, efficiently and without exchanging so much as a word, led me to believe we were in the presence of professional bad guys. As much as I tried to fight it, my voice quavered when I asked, “What’s going on?” again.
Eugene Vaughn had become visibly agitated. He shook a fist at the men and bellowed, “Get out of my home.”
Linka rolled deeper in to the room, regarding Eugene with curiosity. “Who is this, Olivia?”
My knee-jerk response would have been to snarl a sarcastic, “Like you don’t know,” but the genuinely inquisitive expression on Linka’s face stopped me in time. Better to keep the truth to myself until I could figure out what was going on here. “A former professor of mine,” I lied. My voice rose, still shaky. “Why? What are you doing here?”
“We were waiting for a moment to catch you alone. Away from the White House. Away from home.” He glanced around the room approvingly. “You provided a lovely site for our conversation.”
The blonde guy had left his charge to return to the front door. He gave a quick look up and down the street outside and shut the door with a sinking finality. “We’re clear,” he said as he trotted back toward the group. The four men watched our every move, looking ready and eager to slice us down at the slightest provocation.
Linka waited for the room to settle again. He watched me with eyes that fairly glowed with triumph. “Now, my dear,” he said, making my skin crawl. “Tell me exactly what Michael Fitch told you.”
I barely processed the question. Not that I had any intention of answering. My mind was far too busy attempting to make sense of this. I did my best to race through all the possibilities that Linka’s appearance here could signify but nothing fit.
Only one truth became suddenly clear. “It was you who killed my father.” I waited for him to reply. When he didn’t, I asked, “Why?”
“He didn’t know when to give up,” he said. “Like father, like daughter, eh?”
I pointed to the nearest brute wielding a knife. “You’ve changed your M.O. No execution-style murder for me?”
“That’s the secret to my resilience all these years,” he said, clearly amused. “I know how to change with the times. No sense disturbing this quiet residential neighborhood. You understand.”
Roberta sat up, and I could see that her bottom lip was bleeding; she seemed unhurt otherwise. “What’s happening? Who are these people?” she asked between gasps of air.
Linka shushed her with a flick of his hand. “I am in charge here. I ask the questions. You will remain silent.” To me, he said, “Let’s try this again: I warned Michael Fitch not to talk with you. Did he listen? No. And now he’s dead. Before you join him, maybe you’d care to tell me what it was he told you.”
Unsure of where to take this, I deflected. “What do you think he told me?”
“You aren’t making this easy.”
“Why should I?” I looked around the room. “It’s obvious you plan to kill us all.”
I immediately regretted my outburst because Roberta’s crie
s escalated into shrieking breathless sobs. “My kids,” she cried. “My kids…”
Oblivious to her terror, Linka pointed to me. “Get her purse.”
Immediately, the man behind me stepped forward and yanked the bag from my shoulder. He lumbered over to present it to his boss, then returned to his station behind me and Eugene.
“There’s nothing in there you could possibly want,” I said.
Linka ignored me, pawing through until he came up with my cell phone. He handed it up to the blonde man behind him. “Here, you work this thing. Find a listing for Gavin, or ‘Gav,’ as she calls him.”
My heart leapt into my throat. “He’s not going to answer,” I said.
Linka’s lips spread in an obnoxious impression of a smile, mocking me. He then directed blondie to text Gav with a message that begged him to meet me at this address because I needed help.
“Why?” I asked, still unable to comprehend. “Why?”
“Are you so dense? You and your Agent Gavin have gotten in too deep. I risk losing everything if you two continue on this little quest of yours. I need to stop you now before you dig any further.” He regarded me coolly. “I suspect, however, you haven’t yet brought your suspicions to anyone else. That’s not part of your M.O., is it Olivia?”
I didn’t answer.
“We’ll wait for your knight in shining armor to pull up on his mighty steed.”
Gav wouldn’t get any text until very late tonight. I thanked heaven for that, but didn’t feel compelled to share the information. “You should let us go now while you have the chance,” I said. “He will take you down.”
Linka said, “Sit. I have more questions for you.”
I remained standing. “You have me. Let these two go. They don’t know anything about you. Nothing about…” I stopped myself. “…The past. Let them go.”
“Too late.” He waved a casual hand toward Roberta and Eugene. “Innocent bystanders. Happens all the time. Of course, once we leave here everyone will believe you were the innocent bystander. To the authorities this will be a break-in gone wrong. Another unsolved crime. Tsk.”
I forced myself to tune out Roberta’s whimpers.
Linka consulted his watch. “I estimate that your agent boyfriend will be here in less than an hour.”
“Then do yourself a favor and run while you can.”
“Sit down, Olivia, and tell me what you know about me. What you learned from Fitch.”
I knew nothing about Linka other than what he’d told us himself. But I wasn’t about to tell him that. I shook my head. “I refuse.”
“Fine. I have all day. We’ll wait. I suspect you’ll be more willing once your beloved is at risk.”
One of the giant men grabbed my shoulders, forcibly sitting me down. Another man pulled Roberta up from the floor and threw her onto the couch next to me. We were more than a foot apart, but I could feel her body trembling. In the chair next to us, Eugene blinked a couple of times, glancing about the room, looking addled. “Who did you say you were again?” he asked Linka.
Linka, talking quietly to the blonde man, didn’t answer.
“Roberta,” Eugene tried again, speaking briskly, “why haven’t we offered our guests any sweet tea? Where are your manners, girl?”
Linka finally paid attention. “Is he out of his head?” he asked me.
Why he expected me to tell the truth, I didn’t know.
“He goes in and out,” I lied. “Stress isn’t good for him.”
“Roberta,” Eugene repeated, his voice rising. “Don’t just sit there, go get us all some tea.” He glanced down at the two glasses he and I had used, still on a low table. Feigning confusion, he pointed. “Whose are these?”
“Some professor,” the blonde guy said. “What did he teach, anyway?”
I didn’t answer.
Not knowing what to do and with her hands shaking, Roberta got to her feet. Linka snapped, “Do not make a move.”
The guy behind her pushed her back down.
I had no idea what to do. Gav wasn’t coming to save me. He was in training, blissfully unaware of the drama taking place and Linka’s expectations of his arrival. I’d have to save myself—all of us. But how?
I looked around the room, into the dead eyes of the angry men. They didn’t budge, didn’t waver. Knives in fat fists were ready to slash the life out of us without a moment’s hesitation.
It wasn’t my nature to give up, but I felt smaller and more helpless than I ever had in my life. I didn’t know what to do.
As though reading my mind, Linka rolled his wheelchair forward. To my frustration, he remained just out of reach. The blonde man remained by his side, ready to beat me back if I clawed at him the way I wanted to.
With his unhurried manner, his commanding presence among these automatons, and his ease of control, Linka had clearly been a man in power for a very long time.
In control of what, though?
My father had found out, but the secret had died with him.
I turned to Eugene. The elfin eyes sparkled with intelligence. Perhaps the secret hadn’t died. Not yet at least.
“Why isn’t Roberta getting us all tea?” Eugene asked innocently.
“Listen,” I said to Linka, trying again, “let my old teacher go and I’ll tell you everything. He’s not going to be able to identify you. There’s got to be some kindness in you. I mean, you have a dog. You must have some compassion.”
He laughed.
Laughed.
Undaunted, I pointed to Roberta. “She doesn’t have any idea who you are or why you’re here. Take me away and leave them here. They’ll have no idea where we went.”
Linka folded his hands across his stomach, the picture of patience. “I don’t leave loose ends,” he said. “Now, back to you. Was it Michael Fitch you intended to meet at the coffee shop? What happened when he didn’t show up?”
I was dumbfounded by his repeated queries about Fitch and knew instinctively not to tell him that the sorrowful little man had pointed a finger at Pluto, not at Linka. “How long have you been following me?” I asked.
Linka disregarded the question. “Is that why you met with his wife? What was in the package she gave you?”
I craved, desperately, to come up with a lie that made sense, but I was at a deep disadvantage. Eugene’s warning about a field littered with land mines echoed in my brain. I knew enough to get us killed, but not enough to save us.
“I refuse to cooperate,” I said, “until these two others are released.”
“Impossible.”
I sat up a little straighter. “Then kill me now and cut the drama.”
Roberta’s eyes went wide with terror. “No!”
Linka leaned forward in his wheelchair. “I am a patient man. Why? Because being patient ensures I always get what I want. Too bad you never learned that lesson.” Resettling himself in his chair, he checked his watch. “Your young man will show up soon enough. Once he’s here, I guarantee you’ll find yourself in a cooperative state of mind.”
I glanced at the clock on Eugene’s mantel. Although it seemed silly to even think about anything but survival at this time, knowing that I wouldn’t make my meeting with Josh made me breathtakingly sad about letting him down.
The men made small talk among themselves and with their boss. I pretended not to care, but strained to hear every word, hoping for some clue as to why Linka had been threatened by my inquiries into Pluto and why he needed to know what Fitch had told me. No matter how I turned it, I came up empty. If Pluto was indeed selling tainted supplies to other countries, how could Linka, and not the Bensons, be blamed?
Unless the Bensons were behind today’s coup, which seemed less likely with every passing moment, I couldn’t see how Fitch’s assertions affected Linka in the least.
“Where is he?” Linka asked me, not for the first time.
“Who?”
“Don’t get smart with me, child. You won’t like it when I retaliate.”
I waited.
“Where is he?”
“I told you: He’s too smart to fall for this. He’ll figure it out and bring the cavalry with him.” My words were brave, my insides panicked. I knew Gav wasn’t coming. By the time he discovered what happened, it would be too late. For all of us.
Roberta had curled up on one end of the couch, looking as though she were trying to make herself small. Eugene sat in his chair, straight-backed as ever, occasionally coming up with random comments or queries that no one answered.
At one point, Eugene attempted to stand. Three men jumped into action, as though the frail elderly man posed any actual threat. “Get away from me,” he said, thrusting his hands at them. “I need to use the washroom, let me through.”
The men looked to Linka for direction and my heart sparked with excitement.
“Go with him,” Linka said. “Scour the room for anything that could be used as a weapon. Check for phones. And do not leave him unsupervised. Not for a moment.”
My elation fell, but rose again, slightly, when two men followed Eugene down a corridor. That left only one thug, the blonde guy, and Linka. If Roberta and I could…
It was now or never. I had to make my move.
I leapt to my feet, hoping to close the distance between us, hoping to tear at Linka’s face. Anything to cause trouble.
I hadn’t gotten three steps when my head was whacked from behind. The world went kaleidoscope bright, breaking into a dizzying, spectacular display of fireworks. Then, my lights went out.
CHAPTER 26
I CAME TO, VAGUELY AWARE OF BEING TUGGED by the arm.
“She’s awake,” I heard. Then, “Come on, get up.”
I ached, but had a hard time localizing the pain. My vision was clear enough to know it was Roberta pulling at me, and to recognize that the lighting in the room had changed since I’d last been conscious. That meant time had elapsed. Linka watched with furious intent, as though I’d passed out on purpose. I raised a hand to the back of my head, where a lump formed. Touching it made me wince. “What…?” I began.
