by Alice Sharpe
“Apparently,” she said around a yawn. “Sorry,” she added, smiling that way she had that made him want to find a room—with or without a heart-shaped bed. “I didn’t get much sleep last night. There were all these…distractions.”
He leaned across the seat and kissed her. “How about I drive to Green Acre and you catch forty winks. I want to know if Chuck Miner can have visitors.”
“You got it,” she said, but before he could move away, she’d wrapped her hand around the back of his neck and pulled him toward her again until their lips met.
Each kiss was as sweet as the first…so why did he keep feeling each might be the last?
* * *
PAIGE WOKE UP WHEN HER phone rang. As it was on her lap, she was able to glance at the caller ID before answering. “Katy. Thank goodness it’s you.”
“But it isn’t her, is it?” came the reply.
A cold sweat broke out on Paige’s forehead. Korenev had Katy’s phone! “What have you done to her?”
“Did you and Cinca enjoy little trip to Kanistan? Shame you didn’t wait until summer. Much warmer then. He should have warned you.”
“Where is Katy?”
The tone of her voice had attracted John’s attention. He pulled the car to the side of the road and turned in the seat to face her.
“Do you know where new apartment is?”
“Yes.”
“There be a surprise there for you. Tell Mr. Cinca I will call. And don’t contact police, not if you want to see sister again.”
With that the phone went dead.
“Was it him?” John said as Paige lowered the phone.
She nodded, her throat too swollen to speak.
“What is it, Paige? What did he say? Is Katy okay?”
“I don’t know,” she blurted out. “He just said he had her. Oh my God, that monster has Katy.”
John hit the steering wheel with his hand. “How—”
“I don’t know any details. He knew we were in Kanistan, though. He says he’s going to call you. I’ve been asleep. How far are we from Parker? He said we should go to her new apartment, that there was a surprise awaiting us there.”
John immediately put the car in gear and got back on the road.
“Oh, John. I should have stayed with her.”
“You are not at fault,” John said firmly. “I am. I allowed this to keep going.”
He was driving fast and he was obviously good at it. Of course he was, he’d been a cop for years. They were trained for things like high-speed driving.
“Call the police,” John said. “Tell them about this. Get them over there.”
“I can’t,” she said, voice trembling. “He said not to.”
She dug in her purse for a tissue to wipe at the tears that kept filling her eyes. “Go faster,” she whispered, and he must have heard because his speed increased.
All she could think of was the time she’d spent with Korenev and the unmitigated fear she’d experienced in the face of his ruthless brutality. Now it was days later, he must know the police were after him and he’d been thwarted repeatedly. Who knew how angry he was now and what he would do in retaliation?
As they neared town, Paige started giving directions. She’d been to the Palms only once before, and that was to visit a college friend ten years before.
“Turn here,” she said, then a minute later, “There it is, the green building. There’s no parking lot. Hurry, just let me out while you go find a space.”
He shook his head. “No way. We stay together.”
A block down, he found street parking and they ran back to the apartment.
But which unit?
“Check the mailboxes,” John said as he rang the bell on the central door, hoping someone would let them in. Paige’s hands shook as she ran her fingers over the nameplates. Most looked as though they’d been there for years, but a white piece of paper with handwritten letters caught her eye. “Here it is, K. Graham. Apartment Nineteen. Let’s go.”
“We can’t get in the—” He stopped talking as someone finally buzzed them in. John pushed the door open. A sign on the opposing wall of the small lobby area pointed at the stairs for apartments twelve through twenty. John grabbed her hand and they ran up the stairs together and then down the long hall.
Number nineteen was the last door on the north side of the building. “I’ll break it down—” John started, but Paige tried the knob and the door opened.
There were boxes and furniture stacked everywhere. It didn’t appear anything had been unpacked or arranged except Katy’s portable TV, which had been set on the bar separating kitchen from living area. A bawdy comedy was currently playing with the volume turned up. A few empty water bottles and a couple of beer cans lay on the Formica countertop nearby as though people had paused during moving to catch their breath.
Despite the noise of the television, the room had an empty feel to it. Why had Korenev sent them here? What was the surprise he’d mentioned? And most important, where was Katy?
And then a sixth sense set in and Paige’s skin began to crawl. She’d encountered the aura in this apartment before today and recently, too. The cloying odor…
“Paige, go out into the hall, please,” John said, reaching for her arm, but she shrugged away, galvanized by the compulsion to move forward into the room. John couldn’t protect her, he couldn’t save her from this, and she knew it. She climbed over boxes as the characters in the show hurled insults at each other. And then she spied the edge of Katy’s love seat and a scrap of yellow fabric.
She forced herself to continue moving, shoving aside a box spring that blocked her view.
A man wearing a yellow T-shirt and jeans lay sprawled across the pale gray leather, eyes open, a hole in his forehead, his hands clutching something wispy and brown.
Matt…
Canned laughter rang out in the background, then applause.
“Oh, no,” John said, coming up behind her and gripping her arms. “Oh, damn. Poor kid.” Releasing her, he moved to bend over the body and then straightened and shook his head as he met Paige’s gaze.
The phone rang.
John held out his hand but Paige shook her head as she clicked it on and raised it to her ear.
“Cinca?”
“No. You bastard—”
“Put Cinca on line.”
“Where are you? Where’s my sister? If you’ve hurt her—”
“Paige!” Katy yelled in the background and then Paige heard the unmistakable sound of a hard slap and the desperate cries that followed. Her own cheek stung as her stomach roiled in protest.
“This is not game,” Korenev said. “Put Cinca on phone or sister end up like boy.”
Paige handed the phone to John, bowing her head, but not before once again glimpsing Matt’s sightless eyes.
* * *
AS JOHN TOOK THE CELL, he watched Paige more or less stumble toward the hallway door, one hand clutching her stomach.
“Do you kill people just for the hell of it, is that it?” John barked into the phone.
“I do nothing just for hell of it. You have proved to be big pain.”
“How did you know we went to Kanistan?”
“How can you ask such stupid question?” he replied. “Although why you go is mystery. Did you have nice talk with police?”
Korenev knew what they’d done in Kanistan. That raised all sorts of questions. None of that was important right now.
“You should have left things alone,” Korenev said. “You be big liability. To get girl back, we trade. You for her. Simple. All this killing for nothing.”
“What about the old guy in the fire truck? Why did you kill him?”
“Liability. He see me at warehouse. Had to go.”
John kneaded his forehead a couple of times. “The police know your name,” he said. “You won’t be able to leave the country. If you release Katy—”
“Oh, come now. We both know I not give real name. Even finge
rprints won’t find the real me. Even silly drawing of hairy man. Now listen to me. I say once. Go to rural airport located outside city of Cheyenne. You know it?”
“I can find it.”
“Both of you come. When you get there, you wait by south fence. I will watch to make sure you do not bring police or make trap. Then we exchange.”
“That has to be a good three hours from here,” John said. He glimpsed Paige’s desperate expression and wondered how she would make it three more hours.
“Then go. Sister depending on you.” And with that he disconnected.
“We’re going to Cheyenne,” John said, joining Paige at the door.
“What about Matt?”
They were leaving a depressing trail of bodies in their wake, but this situation was the same as the others. Matt had been dead for hours if not a day or so. “If we call the cops, they’ll want to get in on the swap and Korenev said—”
“I can guess what he said. You’re right, we can’t call them.” She looked back into the room, her eyes moist and unbearably sad. “Could we cover Matt’s body?”
“Better not,” John said. “Best to leave the scene as it is.”
“Then I’m at least going to turn off that stupid television,” she said, and although he started to protest, it was obvious she had to do something for her fallen friend. He’d tuned out the noise a while before, but now it came back loud and clear.
She walked into the room and reached for the remote, then paused.
The police drawing of Korenev filled the screen with contact numbers scrolling across the top. The picture switched to a bronzed newscaster. “As previously reported,” he said into the camera, “one of Korenev’s first known victims, Chuck Miner, has regained consciousness. Police are hopeful Miner will be able to shed light on a recent slew of killings that has taken the lives of at least three people in Wyoming. They plan an interview tomorrow morning. Tune in at six for details.”
Paige clicked off the television. The sudden silence was deafening.
“Come on, honey,” John said, his voice low. “We’ll get Katy back, I promise, then this will be over.” She nodded. He couldn’t tell if she believed him or not. He knew he sure as hell didn’t.
It just didn’t seem as if it would ever be over.
They locked the door behind them.
Chapter Fourteen
Paige let John drive. Between Matt’s face and Katy’s scream, her mind was too filled with horror to concentrate on traffic.
Was there a time in the past few days where if things had been done differently, if she’d behaved differently, the people in her life would not be dead or in jeopardy?
The answer was yes.
Whatever John had started in motion before he met her was beyond her to change, but it was her fault Korenev had come into her life.
But that wasn’t true. What about the Pollocks?
So, maybe the question was, did things make sense at the time? Did decisions make sense when they were made? And she didn’t know the answer for sure, but her gut was tortured with the speculation that Matt’s death and Katy’s abduction were her fault.
She sneaked a peek at John. From the expression on his face, she’d wager he was drawing the very same conclusion about his own conduct.
And now a guy named Miner was conscious, and it must be killing John to drive the other direction.
“What did you mean when you said we were going to swap?” she asked. “Swap what?”
He’d obviously been deep in thought because it took him a few seconds to respond.
“Katy for me,” he said, not looking at her.
“What? Are you nuts? He’ll kill both of you.”
“No,” he said, “I won’t let him hurt her.”
“This is suicide.”
“I have three hours to think of a plan. I’ll come up with something.”
She put her hand on his thigh and he finally glanced at her. “I’m sorry you aren’t on your way to talk to Miner. I know speaking with him meant a lot to you.”
“First things first,” he said succinctly. “Katy is the priority now.”
“She’s my only sister and I know she’s a screwball, but it doesn’t matter. I can’t help but feel this is all my fault.”
“You don’t have to explain anything about guilt to me,” he said. “I take full responsibility for this whole mess.”
“Don’t flatter yourself,” she said. “You had plenty of help. Korenev has done his best to destroy everything and everyone he comes across.”
He spared her a longer look, then concentrated on driving again. “I just wish that somewhere along the line I’d gotten a few answers instead of new questions. And I wish I had more time with you.”
“Wait a second,” she said. “That sounds an awful lot like a goodbye. Don’t do that to me.”
He covered her hand with his, but he didn’t look at her.
She felt her eyes water again and she blinked it away. “Korenev has eliminated or tried to eliminate everyone who got a glimpse of his undisguised face,” she said. “I sure hope he didn’t let Katy see him.”
John took his foot off the accelerator so suddenly the car behind them honked as it swerved past.
“John! What’s wrong?”
He shook his head, but at least he sped up again. Only for a while, though. They were just leaving Parker on their way to the freeway, but he pulled over to the curb instead of taking the ramp. He turned in the seat and stared at her.
“What is it?” she repeated.
“What you just said about Korenev eliminating the people who saw his face. That’s why he killed Jack Pollock. And then he went inside to make sure the wife was dead, too, because maybe she’d seen him through a window or something. That’s why he was going to kill you. It’s why he took out the old guy in the fire truck and Matt, too. Did you see the long, dark hairs caught in Matt’s fingers?”
“I saw something brown.”
“Matt must have grabbed at Korenev’s fake beard or wig. I bet Katy saw his face, as well. This trip to Cheyenne is a farce, a diversion. We have to turn around.”
“What? No. We have to get Katy.”
“Katy isn’t in Cheyenne any more than Korenev is. He knows about Miner waking up. That news clip said ‘as previously reported.’ In other words, it had already been aired, so Korenev knew about it when he called.”
“How do we know he watches TV or listens to a radio or—”
“Because he does. He knew about the composite sketch made of him. He’s no idiot. He also knew exactly when we entered Katy’s apartment. He gave us less then five minutes before calling, and he didn’t ask if we were there yet or anything, did he?”
“No.”
“Because he knew. He was close by and he knew we were there. So he sends us off to Cheyenne while he does the most logical thing—for him.”
“Which is what?” she said. “Can’t we drive toward Cheyenne while we talk?”
“Korenev is not in Cheyenne. He’s on his way to Green Acre to take care of Miner, the last loose end, besides Katy and me. And you, Paige. You, too.”
“No,” she said firmly. “He told you to go to Cheyenne because for some unexplained reason, getting rid of you is his major goal. He won’t jeopardize an opportunity to get rid of all three of us in one fell swoop just because of Chuck Miner.”
“Yes, he will. It’s precisely because he has Katy that he can call the shots. Until he gets his hands on me or you, she’s safe. And I’m telling you, she’s not in Cheyenne. You heard her call out your name, right, and him silence her? Even I heard that. She’s with him and he’s on his way to Green Acre, which is where we’re going, too.”
“No,” she cried as he made a U-turn. “Absolutely not. I forbid it. The man is a murderer. We have to rescue Katy.”
He pulled the car to the opposite curb. “Paige. Trust me one more time.”
“No,” she said. She was not backing down. She’d been selfish, she�
�d been blinded by her feelings, but no more. She was too late for Matt, but Katy was still alive. “No,” she said, tears running down her face now. “I can’t.”
He sat back as though stunned by her objection. “We don’t have time for this,” he said.
“Then drive to Cheyenne.”
He took a deep breath. “Paige, listen—”
“No.” She gathered her thoughts. Her hands shook, her voice quavered. “John, I think it’s possible you’ve never had a family or really loved anyone or been responsible for them in such an organic way that it’s built into your DNA. Maybe that’s one of those closed doors Natalie sensed about you. But my crazy family is part of me and I cannot, I will not, abandon them on a whim and a hope.”
He shook his head.
“If Korenev sees me in Cheyenne without you,” she added, “he’ll just kill Katy and me both. You’re willing to walk away knowing that?”
Now his voice shook, too. “I’m not walking away. I’m heading a different direction because it’s the only way to save you and Katy. Can’t you see that? Come with me.”
“And can’t you see that you’re off on another wild-goose chase? You want to know your past so badly you’re willing to abandon good sense.”
“I can’t believe you think that of me,” he said.
“And I can’t believe I allowed myself to love a man who would abandon me when I needed him most. What am I supposed to think?”
He stared hard at her a minute. “Then this is where we finally say goodbye,” he said, his voice cracking. “I’ll go my way and you go yours. I want you to take the gun—just in case. Don’t argue with me. Just point it and pull the trigger if you have to.”
“If you’re so sure about this, then why are you giving me your gun?” she asked.
It took him a moment to answer. “Because I love you, too,” he finally said.
Lips trembling, Paige turned her face away.
* * *
IN THE END, THEY FOUND a car rental place and Paige, being the only one with a valid driver’s license and a credit card, rented another vehicle. Within ten minutes, she drove away in the rental with a few of her belongings as John took off in the other direction in her car.
