“Jerry,” Steve groaned, sinking into his chair. “You gotta excuse my partner,” he said.
“Oh!” Jerry said. “I forgot about your son—” He broke off, turning a mottled shade of red.
Kathy smiled gently, reached out and touched his hand. “It’s all right. It wasn’t Ryan, anyway.”
“Then—” Jerry began.
“Stop!” Steve protested.
“It’s just that—”
“Jerry!”
“It’s all right!” Kathy laughed. “Jerry, I just can’t really explain. It’s too personal.”
“You should still be married,” Jerry said stubbornly.
“Well, you’ll have to tell Brent that—” Kathy began but she broke off and they all stared at one another when Sam began to bark.
Then Jerry and Steve were up, both quiet and highly professional, guns drawn as they moved to see who was outside.
Jerry shoved his gun into his holster. “It’s the lieutenant,” he said.
“Oh. I’d better get Sam,” Kathy said. She opened the door and called for the dog while Steve went to open the gate.
“Kathy, can you come with me?” Robert asked, watching Sam with distaste. “Brent needs to discuss something with you. I think he thinks he’ll hit the last key to this thing if he has you with him.”
“Of course!” Kathy agreed. “Let me grab my purse, and I’ll be right with you.”
She went into her room and dumped her wallet and brush and cosmetics from her evening bag into a big leather shoulder bag. She hurried to meet Robert, anxious to help Brent.
Why did she want to help Brent? she wondered. Once this was solved, he was going to walk out of her life. She was trying so hard with him, yet she wasn’t getting anywhere. She had known that last night. She was going to start crying if she didn’t hurry.
In the living room Robert was telling Jerry and Steve to hang around the house. He didn’t know when he would bring Kathy back. With the phone ringing, he hurried her down the path and into his car.
“Think I ought to go back and get that?” Kathy asked. “It might be Brent.” A cold finger of fear squeezed her heart. “You left him alone, Robert. Are you sure he’s all right?”
“No, we don’t need to get the phone, and yes, I’m sure he’s all right,” Robert assured her. “I left him all locked in where no one can get to him. Honestly.”
He smiled at her. She smiled back.
Jerry picked up the phone. It was Keith Montgomery, and he seemed very agitated to discover that Kathy wasn’t there. “What’s the problem?” Jerry asked him.
“Well, I talked to Brent. He called from his house and he seemed upset. He wanted me to come over and stay with her, to make sure that she didn’t leave the house for any reason. He had a hunch.”
“He changed his mind,” Jerry said. “He just sent the lieutenant to pick her up.”
“That’s not like Brent.”
“The lieutenant’s on the job, Mr. Montgomery. Just hold tight, and we’ll get one of them in touch with you as soon as possible.”
Jerry hung up. He looked at his partner and explained the call.
“Sounds like there’s something wrong, doesn’t it?” Steve said.
“Maybe we should get over to McQueen’s place.”
They looked at one another uneasily. Steve exhaled slowly. “Boy, our rumps could really be on the line here, you know.”
“Yeah, I know.”
Jerry shrugged. “What the hell. We can both go back to Alabama, right?”
“Yeah, sure, Alabama.”
They left the house. At the last minute, Steve whistled to Sam.
Sam loved cars. He didn’t hesitate a moment.
It wasn’t long before Kathy realized they weren’t heading toward Brent’s house.
She’d never been in it. He’d bought it after the divorce, but she’d dropped Shanna off at the gate often enough, and she knew that though they were headed to the water, they weren’t going to his house.
She frowned at Robert. “What’s up?”
He shrugged. “We were down at the warehouses.”
“By his old house, the small place,” she breathed. “Where he wrote the song. So I was right.”
“Yeah, yeah, you were right. And it had to do with that article you dug out, too. We’re pretty damned sure. He was twenty-two when he finished the song, so he wanted to try the twenty-second storage unit. All he needed was the numbers to the vault.”
“You’re a cop, Robert!” Kathy laughed. “Can’t you just blow it open?”
He shook his head. “I can’t just go blowing up property of other citizens, can I? What if Brent is wrong about the numbers?”
“I guess you’re right. But maybe you should get a unit down here or something—”
“Let’s just see if Brent knows what he’s doing first, huh?”
“Are you sure he’s safe?”
“Oh, yeah. I’m sure.”
They turned into the road that led to the warehouses. It was already twilight. The area was old and shabby-looking. Kathy didn’t see a soul anywhere.
Robert pulled his car around back, close to the water. She looked at the docks. There were a few fishing boats pulled up to the pier and a few old motorboats. Darkness was falling quickly.
It seemed that no one had been to the warehouses in years. The paint was peeling. The scrawny grass and trees that wrestled a hold through the rocky earth were overgrown and mixed with weed.
“Come on,” Robert said.
Kathy shuddered. “Boy, I wouldn’t want to be here alone on a dark night,” she told him. She cast him a smile. “Thank God I’m here with a cop.”
He grunted. “Come on. Around this way.”
He took her arm and led her to a small door in the rear of the brick enclosure. There was a padlock on it, but he pulled out a key and opened it. Kathy frowned, wondering what good the padlock would have done to protect Brent.
But before she could comprehend anything, Robert pushed the door open. For a moment, all Kathy could see was darkness.
Then she realized that Brent was in the room, gagged and on the floor in handcuffs. His ankles were cuffed, too, and chained to the wall. Kathy let out a scream and started to run for him but Robert caught her arm and wrenched her back.
“I told you he was safe,” Robert said. “And he can stay that way.” She heard a click and realized that he had pulled back the safety on his gun and had it aimed at her temple. “It didn’t have to go down this way. Brent has the numbers, you see, Kathy. I could have taken the diamonds and—”
“Diamonds!”
“Yeah, it’s diamonds. I came up with a connection in South America. And Harry Robertson and I had a deal. It’s a long story. It started with a bribe at least ten years ago. Of course, I never let scum like Harry or Johnny Blondell know who I was. I didn’t dare. And you would have never known. Except that once we got here, Brent seemed to figure something out. He started playing innocent. Then I caught him at the radio so I shot him.”
“Shot him!” Kathy gasped. He wrenched her closer, playing the cold muzzle of the gun over her cheek. “I grazed him. Had to knock him out. I couldn’t risk a fight. He picked up too much about self-defense in the service. I just nicked his temple. He’ll have a little bald spot for a while. But he’ll be all right. If you can talk some sense into him.”
Her eyes had grown accustomed to the darkness. She felt ill and terrified, aware that the loaded gun was against her head and that Brent was helpless on the floor. She didn’t know if he was still breathing.
She couldn’t comprehend that Robert…They’d gone to school together.
Then she realized that Brent was definitely alive. His eyes were open.
“He’s awake,” she said flatly. She had to stay calm. She couldn’t panic. She had to reason with this man…when all she wanted to do was scream and scream and scream.
“Let him up. Uncuff him. I’ll get him to give you what you want.”
Her fingers were shaking so badly she could barely undo the cuffs. Brent’s eyes remained open, golden and warning on hers. She released his hands first, and he ripped off the gag and unlocked the steel cuffs on his feet. He staggered up and had to accept Kathy’s help.
Blood trickled down his forehead from the gunshot wound. He faced Robert then, shoving Kathy behind him.
“I’ll kill her. You know I’ll kill her,” Robert warned him.
“Yeah. And what guarantee do I have that you’ll let us go once you have the diamonds?”
“None. But you know I’ll blow you away if you don’t.”
“We’re at a stalemate then, aren’t we?” Brent said.
“No. Because I’m going to shoot Kathy somewhere within the next five minutes if we don’t get the diamonds.”
“All right. Let’s go try warehouse number twenty-two,” Brent said. “I don’t have damned guarantees to give you, just an idea.”
He started to stride by Robert, holding Kathy’s hand tightly in his own, trying to keep her at his rear. Then he pushed her in front of them when Robert fell behind them.
It was almost completely dark. Shadows surrounded them. Kathy looked around Brent, still unable to comprehend that Robert could be at the root of all of this.
“Why?” she asked him incredulously.
“Why?” He smiled. “Have you ever taken a real good ride around here? Have you ever wondered how so many people can have so much money? Hell, the drug traders get off with good lawyers. The lawyers get rich on the drug money. Everybody’s getting rich. I went so long without it, and then I just wanted a piece of it. There was a guy who needed to escape in the night. He gave me the location of some of his stash, and I took a chance. I let him go. And it was there, a whole cache of diamonds. And it was mine. Just for letting that thug go before the courts could do it instead. I learned a lot from that. But Harry Robertson turned out to be a pathetic little rat. And then he held out on me. I had to have him killed.
“But I want the diamonds. The game is up. They’ll buy me a place and security for the rest of my life. I always liked you, Kathy. Always. I’m sorry. I wanted to keep you out of it. I didn’t have any choice. Brent, open that damned door, now.”
“You killed Keith’s wife!” Kathy gasped, horrified.
“I thought Keith was the man at first. I needed to scare him. To get him off guard.”
“So you killed her.”
“And I’ll kill Kathy,” he reminded Brent.
Brent eyed him, then looked at the electronic combination lock. He played with some numbers. Nothing happened. Seconds ticked by.
Robert wrenched Kathy to his side and shoved the gun against her face. Tears stung her eyes. She could almost taste the metal.
“Now, Brent, now.”
“Then what?” Brent demanded. “You’ve got the gun down her throat right now. What am I giving you the diamonds for?”
“All right, listen. You get me the diamonds. We leave Kathy here, and you come with me. She won’t say a word to anyone because I won’t let you go until we’re far out at sea.”
“Let her go now,” Brent said.
Robert hesitated.
“Let her go,” Brent repeated.
Robert shoved Kathy away. “Get down the walkway,” Brent commanded her. “You stay away, you hear me?”
She nodded jerkily.
Brent pushed more numbers. The vault slid open.
Robert waved his gun in the air. “Get the diamonds.”
Brent disappeared into the vault. Robert turned the gun on him. “Get over here, Kathy. Or I’ll shoot him right now. He’s too dangerous to take with me. It has to be you.”
She stood still. He aimed his gun toward the vault. She cried out and raced toward him. A second later he had her in a hammerlock. “Give me the diamonds, Brent. And for every one that spills, she loses a finger. Push them along the ground.”
Brent reappeared, staring at Kathy and Robert. He bent down and slid the velvet sack of diamonds on the floor to Robert. Holding the gun to Kathy’s face, Robert stooped with her to pick up the satchel. Then he started to back away. Brent followed. Robert aimed the gun at Brent’s face. Brent followed anyway.
They moved across the stone and the earth to the docks. And still Brent followed, keeping his distance. Then Robert stopped in front of a motorboat.
“Give me back my wife. You’ve got the diamonds, and you’re free.”
“Can’t trust you, Brent, sorry,” Robert said. There was about a three-foot drop between the dock and the boat. Robert shoved Kathy off the dock, and she cried out, landing hard on the boat’s deck. He leaped quickly behind her, untying the rope that looped the boat to the dock. He stepped forward, his gun aimed at Brent, while he pulled the cord on the engine.
The small motor seemed to cough and wheeze and leap to life. “Stay there. She’ll come back to you,” Robert said.
“Like hell!” Brent swore. “You’ll shoot her out at sea and dump her body. You won’t have any other choice.”
Suddenly, they heard the sound of barking. It was enough to distract Robert, if only for a second. In that split second, Brent leaped from the dock to the boat, landing on top of Robert. The gun went flying. And the boat moved from the dock.
Kathy staggered up from beneath the fallen men. The motorboat was spinning in circles as the two men viciously battled at her feet. She tried to slam her fists against Robert’s back, but the boat careened, and both men went overboard.
In the murky darkness, she couldn’t see either of them. They could be anywhere, beneath the motor…
With a scream she lunged forward and cut the motor. The barking was suddenly very fierce and she noticed that Sam was on the dock, going crazy. Jerry and Steve were behind him, searching the water with a flashlight.
The boat pitched precariously, catching her off balance. She tumbled into the darkness of the water and sank into the dark green depths.
There were fingers in her hair. Her lungs burning, she twisted and tried to see. Robert had her. And he was dragging her down.
But he was wrenched away and she kicked furiously, desperate for air. She surfaced. “Brent!” she screamed. He didn’t come up. Someone touched her and she tried to fight. “It’s me—Steve. Let me help you.”
“No, no. Brent—”
“You can’t help him. Don’t you see? The lieutenant keeps using you against him!”
She let Steve pull her away. Jerry dragged her onto the dock and Steve went into the water. She breathed heavily, trying not to panic.
“It’s all right, it’s all right,” Jerry was saying.
No, it wasn’t. Brent wasn’t coming up.
But then there was a burst from the water. Straining to see, she made out Brent coming to her with strong strokes. Sobbing, she sank to her knees and reached for him. Jerry reached for him, too, then Brent was up and out of the water, lying flat on his back on the dock. For long moments he gasped for breath with his eyes closed and his heart thundering. She was still so afraid.
Then Sam was there, licking his face. Brent touched the dog and his eyes opened and saw Kathy.
“I would have done better. Honestly. It wouldn’t have taken me so long except for this damned nick on my forehead.”
She started to laugh with relief, then she was crying again. Then she was in his arms. Jerry was smiling, too, and Brent paused to put an arm around the anxious Sam. “You’re a good old dog. With good instincts. He never did like Robert,” he reminded Kathy.
No, Sam had never liked Robert.
Steve searched the water until the team Jerry had called for came with masks and diving equipment. Within an hour, they found Robert. He had become entangled in the seaweed beneath the dock.
&nbs
p; By then Kathy was sitting in a car, sipping coffee, a blanket around her. Brent told her the news, and he explained to her that the numbers had been in the main chords to the song—C, G, E. All he’d had to do was count their place in the alphabet, and he had it.
“Why Harry did that to us…” Brent murmured.
“Maybe he thought it was his only chance to live and see justice come to his tormentor, too.”
“But he died.”
“How did he know he was going to die in prison?” Kathy said. Brent, hunkered down before her, shrugged, and she knew he understood.
Keith arrived on the scene, Jerry had remembered to call him. He and Brent embraced, and Brent apologized. Keith hugged Kathy. When she whispered again that she was so sorry, he told her it was all right. He had his little son, and they were going to make it.
Steve and Jerry drove Kathy, Brent and Sam to her place. Inside, Brent shook their hands and thanked them both. “We were lucky you came. After all, you had no reason to doubt Robert. He was your lieutenant.”
Steve shrugged. “Yeah, well, it was hard. He turned bad. We had to stop him. But that isn’t the norm, you know, it really isn’t.”
Kathy smiled and pushed past Brent. She kissed Steve on the cheek. “You guys are the best. And I’ll always believe in you.”
Steve smiled. “He kind of soiled the badge, you know.”
“He tried to,” Brent corrected. “And he tried to ruin the music, too.”
“Yeah, well, that’s why we figured you were probably all right in there with him. He was after your wife and, in a way, all the things you believed in. I’ll never think badly of musicians if you promise never to think too harshly of cops.”
“It’s a deal,” Brent promised with a grin.
Then they were gone, and Kathy and Brent were alone. They were both crusted with seaweed and dried salt water. Suddenly Kathy started to shiver. She whispered, “It was Robert. Oh, Brent, it was Robert all the time.”
“Don’t think about it,” he told her, sweeping her into his arms. “Don’t think about it.”
He carried her into the bathroom and set her down, still shivering. He started a bath and filled it with bubbles. He peeled away her clothing and set her in the water. She leaned back, and when she opened her eyes, he was with her, holding two glasses of wine.
Forever My Love Page 16
