The Winner

by David Baldacci

  soon it would all begin. And very soon it would all end.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN

  The medical facility at the University of Virginia was a teaching component of the medical school as well as a highly regarded public hospital with a level-one trauma center. LuAnn raced down the corridor. Riggs was parking the car and then would follow her in. She reflected briefly on the fact that she had never before been in a hospital. She quickly concluded that she didn’t care for either the smell or atmosphere. A lot of that was probably due to the reason she was here: to see Charlie.

  He was in a private room. A member of the Charlottesville police force stood guard outside his door. LuAnn shot right past him and started to enter the room.

  “Whoa, there, ma’am. No visitors,” said the police officer, a solidly built man in his early thirties, holding out a beefy arm for emphasis.

  LuAnn had whirled around ready for a fight when Riggs hustled up.

  “Hey, Billy.”

  The officer turned around. “Hey, Matt, how you doing?

  “Not so good. Won’t be playing basketball at the Y with you for a while.”

  Billy looked at his sling. “How’d you do that?”

  “Long story. The guy in there is her uncle.” He nodded at LuAnn.

  Billy looked embarrassed. “I’m sorry, ma’am, I didn’t know. They told me no visitors, but I know they didn’t mean family. You go on in.”

  “Thanks, Billy,” Riggs said.

  LuAnn pushed open the door and went in. Riggs was right behind her.

  LuAnn stared across at Charlie lying in the bed. As if he sensed her presence, he looked over and a smile spread across his face. He looked pale but his eyes were quick and active.

  “Damn, now that’s a real pleasant sight,” he said.

  LuAnn was next to him in an instant, taking his big hand in hers. “Thank God, you’re okay.”

  Charlie was about to say something when the door opened and a middle-aged man in a white coat popped his head in. “Just making rounds, folks.” He opened the door all the way and came in. He carried a clipboard.

  “Dr. Reese,” he said, introducing himself.

  “Matt Riggs. This is Charlie’s niece, Catherine.” Riggs pointed at LuAnn, who shook the doctor’s hand.

  Dr. Reese checked Charlie’s vital signs while he spoke. “Well, it’s very lucky Charlie was so good with a tourniquet. Stopped the blood loss before things got really nasty.”

  “So he’s going to be okay?” LuAnn asked anxiously.

  Reese peered at her over his glasses. “Oh, yes. He’s in no danger. We replaced the blood he lost, the wound is all stitched up. All he needs is some rest, get his strength back.” Reese noted his findings on Charlie’s record log.

  Charlie half-sat up. “I feel fine. When can I check out?”

  “I think we’ll give you a couple of more days to get back on your feet.”

  Charlie was clearly not pleased with that answer.

  “I’ll be back in the morning,” Reese said. “Don’t stay too long, folks, let him get some rest.”

  As soon as Reese was gone, Charlie sat all the way up. “Any word on Lisa?”

  LuAnn closed her eyes and looked down. Thick tears slid out from under her eyelids. Charlie looked over at Riggs for the first time.

  “We think he has her, Charlie,” said Riggs.

  “I know he has her. I told the cops everything I knew as soon as I came to.”

  “I’m sure they’re working on it,” Riggs said lamely.

  Charlie banged his fist against the metal sides of the bed. “Dammit, they’re not going to catch him. He’s long gone. We’ve got to do something. He hasn’t tried to contact you?”

  “I’m going to contact him,” LuAnn said, opening her eyes. “But I had to come see you first. They said — they said you might not make it.” Her voice shook and her hand gripped his tighter.

  “It’d take a lot more than one cut to send yours truly into oblivion.” He paused, struggling with what he was about to say. “I’m sorry, LuAnn. That bastard’s got her and it’s my fault. He called in the middle of the night, impersonated Riggs’s voice. Said that the FBI had Jackson. That I was to come up to Washington and rendezvous with you at the FBI building. I dropped my guard. I walked right into his trap.” Charlie shook his head. “God, I should’ve suspected something, but he sounded just like Riggs.”

  LuAnn leaned over and hugged him. “Damn you, Charlie, you almost got yourself killed for her. And for me.”

  Charlie wrapped his big arms around her while Riggs watched in respectful silence as the two shook and swayed together.

  “Lisa will be okay, Charlie.” She sounded a lot more confident than she actually felt. However, it would do Lisa no good if LuAnn allowed herself to become hysterical and thus useless.

  “LuAnn, you know that guy. He could do anything to her.”

  “He wants me, Charlie. His whole world is falling apart. The Feds are on to him, he killed Donovan and Bobbie Jo Reynolds and probably his own sister as well. And I know he thinks I’m the cause for all of it.”

  “That’s nuts.”

  “It’s not nuts if he believes it.”

  “Well, you can’t just walk in there and give yourself to him.”

  Riggs piped in, “My sentiments exactly. You can’t just call the guy up and say ‘Don’t worry, I’ll be right over so you can kill me.’ ”

  LuAnn didn’t answer him.

  “He’s right, LuAnn,” Charlie said. He started to get up.

  “What the hell are you doing?” she said sharply.

  “Getting dressed.”

  “Excuse me, didn’t you hear the doctor?”

  “I’m old, my hearing’s going. And so am I. Going, that is.”

  “Charlie—”

  “Look,” he said angrily as he stumbled trying to get his pants on. LuAnn gripped his good arm, while Riggs steadied him on the other side. “I’m not going to lie here in this bed while that son of a bitch has Lisa. If you don’t understand that, I really don’t care.”

  LuAnn nodded in understanding and helped him get his pants on. “You’re a big old ornery bear, you know that?”

  “I’ve got one good arm, and just let me get it around that guy’s neck.”

  Riggs held up his own injured arm. “Well, between us we have two good arms. I owe the guy too.”

  LuAnn put her hands on her hips and looked around. “There’s a cop outside.”

  “I can take care of him,” Riggs said.

  LuAnn picked up the rest of Charlie’s belongings, including the portable cell phone, and put them in a plastic hospital bag.

  When Charlie was finished dressing, Riggs stepped out the door and spoke to Billy.

  “Billy, you mind going down to the cafeteria and getting a couple of coffees and maybe some stuff to munch on? I’d go but I can’t carry anything with this bum arm.” He jerked his head toward the room. “And she’s pretty hysterical right now. I don’t want to leave her.”

  “I’m really not supposed to leave my post, Matt.”

  “I’ll hang out here, Billy, it’ll be okay.” Riggs held up some money. “Here, get yourself something too. Last time we played hoops I remember you eating a whole pizza by yourself afterward.” He eyed Billy’s healthy dimensions. “I don’t want you to wilt away to nothing.”

  Billy took the money and laughed. “You sure know the way to a fella’s heart.”

  As soon as Billy got into the elevator and the doors closed, Charlie, LuAnn, and Riggs left the room and made their way out by the back stairs. With LuAnn and Riggs supporting Charlie, they quickly walked through the pouring rain to the car. With the thick clouds, it was already dark and the visibility was getting worse every minute.

  Shortly, the three of them were in the car heading down Route 29. Charlie used the opportunity to tell them everything that had happened at the motel, including the fact that Jackson had had another man with him. After he finished, Charlie leane
d forward from the back seat. “So what’s the plan?” He winced as the car bounced over a pothole and jostled his arm.

  LuAnn pulled into a gas station. She pulled out a slip of paper from her pocket. “I’m going to call him.”

  “And then what?” Riggs asked.

  “I’ll let him tell me,” she replied.

  “You know what the hell he’s going to say,” Charlie rejoined. “He’s going to set up a meeting, just you and him. And if you go, he’s going to kill you.”

  “And if I don’t go, he’s going to kill Lisa.”

  “He’ll kill her anyway,” Riggs said hotly.

  LuAnn looked over at him. “Not if I get him first.” She thought back to her last encounter with Jackson, at the cottage. She was stronger than he was. Not by much, but she had the clear advantage there. However, he knew that too. She had seen that in his eyes. That meant he would not go toe-to-toe with her again, at least not physically. She would have to remember that. If he could adapt, so could she.

  “LuAnn, I have a lot of confidence in you,” Riggs said, “but this guy is something else again.”

  “He’s right, LuAnn,” Charlie added.

  “Thanks for the vote of confidence, guys.” She didn’t wait for them to answer. She pulled the portable phone out of the bag and punched in the number. Before it started ringing, she looked at both of them. “But remember, I’ve got two good arms.”

  Riggs slid his hand down into his coat until it touched the reassuring metal of his pistol. His aim would have to be a lot better this time around. He hoped to not have the painful distraction of a knife sticking out of his arm.

  He and Charlie watched as LuAnn spoke into the receiver, leaving the number of the cell phone. She hung up and waited, still not looking at them. Barely three minutes had passed before the phone rang.

  Before LuAnn could say anything, Jackson said, “Please know that I have a device attached to my phone that will indicate whether this call is being traced, just in case you happen to be sitting at police headquarters. It will tell me in about five seconds if that is occurring. If you are, I will immediately hang up and slit your daughter’s throat.”

  “I’m not at the police and I’m not tracing your call.”

  He didn’t say anything for five seconds. She could envision him eyeing his device, perhaps hoping she was lying to him. “I applaud you for avoiding the obvious,” he finally said quite pleasantly.

  “When and where?” LuAnn said.

  “No greeting? No small talk? Where are your manners? Has the expensively constructed princess deteriorated that suddenly? Like a flower without water? Without sunshine?”

  “I want to talk to Lisa. Right now.”

  “Sorry about Uncle Charlie,” Jackson said. He was sitting on the floor almost in total darkness. He held the phone close to his mouth, speaking slowly and in as casual a tone as he could muster. He wanted her panic level to rise steadily, he wanted her to feel his absolute control of the situation. When the time came he wanted her to come obediently forward to receive her punishment. He wanted her to come meekly to confront her executioner.

  She wasn’t about to tell Jackson that Charlie was sitting right behind her wanting nothing more than to wring the life out of him. “I want to talk to Lisa!”

  “How can you be sure I haven’t killed her already?”

  “What?” she gasped.

  “You can talk to her, but how will you know it’s not me mimicking her voice? ‘Mommy, Mommy,’ I could say. ‘Come help me.’ I could say all those things. So if you want to talk to her, you can, but it will prove nothing.”

  “You son of a bitch!”

  “Would you still like to talk to her?”

  “Yes,” LuAnn said pleadingly.

  “Manners now. Yes, what?”

  She hesitated for an instant, taking a deep breath, trying to keep her wits and her nerves together. “Yes, please,” she said.

  “Just a minute. Now where have I put that child?”

  Riggs was doing his best to listen in. Exasperated, LuAnn finally opened the door and got out of the car.

  She strained to hear any sound in the background.

  “Mom, Mom, is that you?”

  “Honey, baby, it’s Mom. Oh, God, sweetie, I’m so sorry.”

  “Oh, excuse me, LuAnn, that’s still me,” Jackson said. “Oh, Mom, Mommy, are you there?” he said again, mimicking Lisa’s voice precisely.

  LuAnn was too stunned to say anything.

  The next voice she heard was Jackson’s real one. His tone almost bit into her ear it was said with such forcefulness. “I’ll let you talk to her, really talk to her. You can have your mother–daughter emotional exchange. But when you’re done I will tell you exactly what you will do. If you deviate in any way from my instructions . . .”

  He didn’t finish. He didn’t have to. They both sat there on the phone, not saying anything, simply listening to each other’s breathing, two trains careening out of control, about to slam into each other across the wireless void. LuAnn tried with all her might to hold back the thick gush of air that was ramming against her throat. She knew what he was doing. What he was doing to her mind. But she was equally aware that she could do nothing about it. At least not right now.

  “Do you understand?”

  “Yes.” As soon as she said the word, she heard it. She heard the sound in the background that made her both smile and grimace simultaneously. She looked at her watch. Five o’clock. The smile increased at the same time her eyes took on a gleam. A gleam of hope.

  The next minute she was talking to Lisa, quickly asking her questions that only her little girl would know the answer to. They both desperately wanted to reach through the darkness that separated them.

  And then Jackson came back on the line and gave her the instructions, the where and the when. None of it surprised her as she focused again on the sounds occurring in the background on his end. He ended the call by saying, with daunting finality, “See you soon.”

  She clicked off the phone and got back in the car. She spoke with a calmness that astonished the two men, particularly under the circumstances.

  “I’m to call him tomorrow at ten A.M. He’ll give me the meeting place then. He’ll let Lisa go if I come alone. If he even thinks anyone else is around, he’ll kill her.”

  “So it’s you for Lisa,” Riggs said.

  She looked at both of them. “That’s the way it’s going to be.”

  “LuAnn—”

  “That’s the way it’s going to be,” she said more forcefully.

  “How do you know he’ll let her go? You can’t trust him,” Charlie implored.

  “On this I can. He just wants me.”

  “There’s got to be another way,” Riggs exclaimed.

  “There’s only one way, Matthew, and you know it.” She looked at him sadly before putting the car in gear and driving off.

  She had one more card to play. But Charlie and Riggs weren’t going to be invited to the game. They had already sacrificed too much for her. Jackson had nearly killed both men, and she wasn’t about to give the man another try on either. If Jackson were given an extra shot, she knew what the outcome would be. It was now up to her. It was up to her to save her daughter, and that, she felt, was the way it should be. She had been self-reliant for most of her life, and truth be known, that was the way she liked it. That knowledge was reassuring. And she knew something else.

  She knew where Jackson and Lisa were.