by Diane Bator
“Ah, the statue. Mother Mary saved me once too.” He grinned. “I got mixed up with a bad crowd and did things I wasn’t proud of. One night I got stoned and wandered around town most of the night until it wore off. If I’d gone home the way I was, my dad would’ve beaten me black and blue. He’s a cop and doesn’t tolerate drug use by anyone.”
He helped Katie into the passenger’s seat then ran around the car to get out of the rain. “I was so stoned that night I got lost. I grew up right near Hilda’s house on Cooper Street, yet there I was, hopelessly lost. Suddenly, there was this glowing white light. I wasn’t afraid. I was way too stupid to know better. Then I saw the statue.”
Bobby was probably in his late twenties and had a sweet, shy girlfriend smart enough to be indoors and dry who didn’t have to run from mobsters. “Mary spoke to me. I don’t know if it was the drugs or the fact I was beyond listening to anyone else, but I swear she spoke. She said she loved me and I needed to find a better path in life or I’d be dead before my next birthday. Considering my birthday was two weeks later, I freaked out.”
“No doubt.” Katie’s hands and knees shook in spite of the heat spewing from the dash.
“I spilled my guts to my dad. When he calmed down and decided not to send me to jail, he set some ground rules then busted all the guys I hung out with.”
“Is Mary why you became a cop?” Katie asked.
“No. My dad. He and I became a lot closer after that, especially since I was grounded for a year and did community service with him. When you work in soup kitchens and referee kids’ basketball games, your perspective tends to change.”
The car pulled to a stop. Hilda peered through the curtains and smiled.
He touched Katie’s hand. “Mary told me to open my eyes and my heart so I saw what was meant to be. I think you should do the same.”
She sighed. “My life’s more complicated than that.”
“We all think that.” Bobby put the squad car into park then faced her. “At the end of the day, we all eat, sleep, live and love. The complications come when we don’t let the things happen that are supposed to.”
If she let things happen, Al and Chevy would find her and she’d die. Katie blinked back tears. “Sometimes things get complicated no matter how hard we try.”
“Sometimes.” He nodded. “I have a feeling your life will be back in order soon, Miss Chourney.”
Her mouth went dry. “You know who I am?”
“I watch the news. In my line of work, it would be suicide not to.”
“You’re not going to turn me in?”
He shrugged. “What’s the point? If Maddox tries to do anything, we’ll catch him now. The whole town is on the lookout for him. We’ve all got your back.”
“But I’m one of them. They say I stole twenty million dollars. Doesn’t that mean you have to lock me up or something?”
Bobby opened his car door. “We’re all firm believers in second chances around here. Most of us have been allowed one or two before.”
“Twenty million dollars is an awful lot to forgive.” She followed him up the front steps to the warmth of the house, but her mind was already miles away. “Shouldn’t you do something? Lock me up? Arrest me?”
He smiled. “I’m doing what I have to.”
Hilda met them at the front door with hugs and thick, warm towels. Her grey curls were damp from the rain and the hems of her slacks were wet. “Dear girl, you’re going to catch your death of a cold. What possessed you to go out alone on a night like this? Don’t you know you could get lost in this fog?”
“I know.” A tremble spread from her extremities into the core of her body.
“You’re lucky Bobby was at his parents’ on his dinner break and they live just up the street. He’s come from the city to help them out for a while.” Hilda handed him a plastic container full of homemade cookies and a travel mug that smelled of freshly brewed coffee. “Thank you so much. I’ll make sure she’s taken care of.”
“No problem, Mrs. Clayton.” He grinned. “A big cup of cocoa and a few cookies should have you back to normal in no time, Katie. Take care.” He walked away into the night.
Katie turned back to her landlady. “How’s your friend?”
“Pardon me?”
“Your sick friend up the street. You’re wet. I’m assuming that’s where you were.” She toweled the drips from her stringy hair. “How is she?”
Hilda recovered quickly and set a few cookies on a plate. “Her arthritis is so bad she can’t get out of bed. I shipped her off to the doctor in a taxi this afternoon so she’s feeling much better now.”
“That was nice of you.”
Hilda brewed a pot of tea.
“I was worried about you earlier.” Katie stared at the flowered plate, tears clogging her throat. “Danny’s gone missing and Ray was beside himself all day.”
“Oh, honey, I’m so sorry.” She set down the kettle. “I was just looking out for my friends. I know they would do the same for me.”
Katie let out a relieved breath and picked up a raisin cookie. “You weren’t up this morning when I left and were gone when I came home. I guess I overreacted.”
“Oh, you poor dear.” Hilda hugged her. “You thought those bad men had gotten me? I never even thought to leave you a note. I’m so sorry. Go have a hot bath. I’ll whip us up some dinner. I haven’t eaten yet either. How does pasta sound?”
“Sounds good. There’s tortellini in the freezer and pesto in the fridge.”
“You go get warm and dry.” Hilda gave her a nudge. “I’ll take care of dinner tonight.”
She was on her way up the stairs, the mug wrapped in her icy hands, when she overheard Hilda on the phone. Her voice was so soft Katie couldn’t hear the conversation. She gave her landlady the benefit of the doubt.
For tonight.
Chapter 36
Danny
A blindfold blocked Danny’s view. His legs and arms, numb from lack of circulation, were bound to a chair. Aside from his breathing, the only sound in the room was the erratic tapping of a keyboard. Someone else was in the room.
“I need to go to the bathroom.” His words slurred like he was drunk.
“Hold your horses.” The tapping stopped. What he guessed was a chair scraped the floor. Someone loosened the ties around his arms but left his hands cuffed in his lap.
If he lashed out, Danny could knock the man to the ground easily. The drugs had zapped his strength to fight. Knowing Maddox, there were other people in the room who had guns aimed at his head.
Only, he still hadn’t heard Maddox’s voice.
A man with a gruff voice grabbed him by the elbow and steered him out of the room. “Move it.”
Danny’s legs ached with pins and needles, making him stagger. He bumped into the wall enough times to figure out it was a narrow hallway. The man shoved him into a smaller room. When the door latched, he reached up to whip off the blindfold and was startled by his reflection. Pale, ruffled hair and a black eye. No other damage.
The bathroom was beige with a bamboo print shower curtain and seventies green fixtures that shone as though someone tried to make a good impression. No prescription bottles lined the medicine cabinet, just a bar of hotel soap on the edge of the sink and a faded green hand towel on a hook. Not even a toothbrush lay in sight. Too bad, he could have used one. The window was far too narrow for him to crawl through. What kind of kidnappers was he dealing with?
His phone was gone from his back pocket. He couldn’t call or text anyone.
“You done yet?” Someone waited from beyond the door.
“No.” After one more quick search, he found nothing to pick a lock or fight his captor. He washed his hands as best he could and took a deep breath. “Ready.”
The door opened and someone slightly shorter than Danny, wearing a Darth Vader mask, stepped inside and tied the blindfold back on.
“You really don’t need that.” He could fight his way out, but his rub
bery legs wouldn’t carry him far. “I’m not going to do anything stupid.”
“You better not.” The man in the mask marched him into the hallway. Danny knew by the musty smell they’d returned to the other room. The room they’d held him in since they jumped him in the parking lot. There was no way to tell how long ago that was. Something stung his arm. Another needle. Seemed they drugged him regularly.
Maddox would have beat him up then killed him, so who or what he was dealing with?
His body relaxed and drug-induced sleep took over again.
“Is he still out?” The voice that woke him later belonged to a woman, but Danny’s eyes were covered and his senses dulled by the drugs.
Maddox didn’t have a lot of women on his staff, except Paulina who was privy to everything that happened. The only other women who’d ever entered Maddox’s office were Margaret or Dunnsforth’s wife, Heather.
His back stiffened. He wanted her to say something else. He needed to know if it was Paulina, Margaret or Heather. Instead, someone else whispered in a voice so low it was a hum.
“Speak up,” the woman snapped.
Definitely not Paulina or Heather. The Dragon Lady. Only Margaret could talk that way in Maddox’s presence without being slapped or beaten.
There was another hum, voices whispering, muttering. He tried to catch names but was tired. The drugs never seemed to get enough time to wear off and everything warped into one massive hallucination. The kidnappers had him in the dark in more ways than one.
The phone was back in his right rear pocket and vibrated several times. The battery hadn’t died yet. Normally, it took a couple of days to run down. Had he only been missing a day or two? His sense of time was off kilter due to the drugs. Apparently his captors didn’t think anyone missed him. Ray and Hannah would. Possibly even Katie if she had a conscience.
Maddox would never have let him have it back. Who were these people?
He clenched his fists until the handcuffs bit into his skin. His wrists were bruised and cut. Pain. Reality. A rush of adrenaline cleared his head. If he got out of this alive, he’d make it up to Katie. He’d protect her with his life. She wasn’t the person he remembered. She wasn’t Paulina. Since her escape from Maddox, everything about her had changed for the better.
No one could change their entire personality so fast. Unless they got sober. Was it merely a survival tactic or was that who the real Paulina was all along? Maybe the way she’d behaved around Maddox was the mask and she did what she’d needed to in order to survive.
It wasn’t only Gerard Maddox who’d threatened and beat her. He tensed. How many times had he walked into the office and seen Paulina and Margaret head to head and toe to toe? Margaret would grab his arm and lead him out of the room, lamenting about the need to find good help. Did she know her husband and Paulina had had an affair? Had she threatened Paulina?
How could he be so stupid as to get caught, and by whom? He’d definitely lost his edge since going undercover and should never have gone to that meeting alone. Leo was right about two things. Danny was stupid not to bring him up to speed sooner and a psychic in the detective agency might not be a bad idea. Neither would making sure their phones had functioning tracking applications.
Danny stretched his fingers out, but still couldn’t reach his phone. His head ached and he began to drift into sleep. He fought hard to hang onto one last question. Who framed Paulina for Dunnsforth’s murder? Heather or Margaret?
Chapter 37
Katie
Katie and Hilda followed up their hearty meal of meat-stuffed tortellini with pesto with two cups of tea laced with a tiny bit of brandy to “take off the chill,” according to Hilda. Chill well shaken and legs wobbly, Katie excused herself from watching game shows with Hilda and retreated to the solitude of her bedroom. She nudged aside one of the blue lace curtains and peered out at the deserted sidewalk below.
Drinking again wasn’t one of her better moves. She needed to keep her wits about her.
Someone had replaced the bulb in the street lamp and, while fog obscured her vision, it was clear enough to see there were no vehicles parked in front of the house. Chevy and Al hadn't come back for her yet. Had Maddox called them off because a bigger problem surfaced?
Dunnsforth’s wife was the only logical person to draw them away. The only living person, as far as everyone else knew, with access to their twenty million dollars. Maddox, if he was responsible for taking the funds, would play along and feign innocence until he found Paulina. Roland probably went after Heather, even though he wasn’t in Maddox’s good books either. He’d undermined Maddox and his wife a dozen times too many and would probably be the next partner to die. The second Al and Chevy left, Katie should have closed the store and run to the nearest airport. If Danny had followed her, they could have both lived happily ever after. She still had the option, but if she ran now, Ray might never see his nephew again.
Why did she have to care about Danny or Ray? Aside from her family, she’d never cared about anyone, yet something about Packham had made her drop her guard. She was more worried about helping to get Danny back than about saving her life.
Katie climbed into her double bed and buried herself beneath the blankets. She needed to call her parents before it was too late since she doubted there was a good connection at the bottom of the lake. She dialed a number she knew by heart. The ringing made her nervous. What on earth would she say? What if they didn’t want to speak to her? She supposed at this point she could tell them whatever she wanted. Maddox already knew where she was and would kill her soon anyway.
“Hello?” Her mother’s soothing voice filled Katie’s heart with peace. Tears sprang to her eyes.
Katie pictured every detail right down to the bobbed grey hair that curled around her ears, almost as if she were in the same room. She fought back tears, but they trickled down her cheeks anyway. “It’s me.”
“Paulina?” There was a startled silence.
She shut her eyes. Had she made a mistake in calling?
“Paulina? Where are you? Are you okay? Do you know how many people are looking for you? You’ve been all over the news.”
“Paulina?” Her father’s voice boomed over the line from another extension. He was probably in his home office, so small there was room for only him and his grandfather’s mahogany desk. “It’s so good to hear your voice. After they found Dunnsforth’s body and you left town, we didn’t know what to think.”
She wanted to cry at the relief in their voices. They’d thought she was dead. “I know. I’m sorry. I didn’t want you to worry, but if you knew where I was, they could find me.”
“It’s okay, dear.” Her mother calmed her. “Donovan told us everything.”
She sat upright in the bed and wiped tears from her cheeks with her bed sheet. She asked, even though she already knew the answer, “Donovan who?”
“Donovan Wild, the detective someone hired to find you,” her father said.
Katie wrapped the blankets around her and struggled to breathe. “Did he say who hired him?”
Her parents discussed how Donovan Wild had become involved in the case and seemed to forget she was there. At first, Katie didn’t know half the names they tossed around.
“I believe it was Ray Colter,” her father said.
“No, he said he knew Ray Colter,” Her mother argued. “Ray had nothing to do with it. He was working with the police.”
Katie was breathless. “Wait. How do you know Ray?”
“He worked with my dad in Atlantic City years ago at some old casino,” her father said. “I’ve known him since I was a kid.”
“When did this Donovan guy contact you?”
“A couple days after you left town.”
“Damn it!” She punched the pillow next to her.
Was it actually a fluke she ended up in Packham? Ray hadn’t said anything about knowing her family. Since she’d used an alias, there was no way he could have known. Not until her pict
ure flashed across the television screen. Unless Danny told him.
“Paulina? You are okay, aren’t you?” her mother asked.
Katie was dangerously close to losing her grip on reality again. She brushed away another tear and wanted to curl up in a ball and cry. “I don’t know. I’m in way over my head this time. Every turn I take seems to involve Ray Colter and Donovan Wild.”
Her father sounded concerned. “What do you mean?”
She had nothing left to lose. “I bought an old bookstore from your friend Ray Colter. Donovan Wild’s real name is Danny Walker. He’s Ray’s nephew, an undercover cop who’s also the so-called detective Maddox hired to find me.”
“He what?” her mother gasped. “Isn’t that a conflict of interest?”
Katie laughed and tried to ward off more tears. “It seems to me, Danny Walker does whatever he wants. Maddox knows where I am because Danny told him. Now Danny’s missing and Ray’s beside himself.”
Her father’s voice was as soft as the cashmere sweaters he wore all winter. “And you think Maddox kidnapped him and you’re next?”
Katie bit her lip and hesitated. “I am next, Dad. I’m the only witness who can tie everything together since Dunnsforth and Danny are gone. I’m next on the list. I know too much for Maddox or anyone else from DMR to let me escape.”
He cleared his throat. “I never thought you’d go to Packham of all places. We’ll be there as soon as we can.”
“No. This is my mess to clean up. My greed got me into this. The funny thing is, no one seems to think turning myself in is a good idea. Even the local police are all waiting to see what happens next.”
“Don’t they get it?” he snorted. “Those guys want to kill you. Go to the police and tell them to lock you up for your own protection. I’ll sue them if they don’t.”
Her mother groaned and Katie pictured her rolling her eyes. “Oh, please, like that’ll do a lot of good. Paulina, do you have protection?”
“Excuse me?”
“A gun, Katie. Do you have a gun?” Her voice was hard and even. “I know Maddox taught you how to shoot. Do you have one?”
