24 Hours

by Greg Iles

  “You don’t look fine. In fact, you look like hell.”

  “Thanks a lot.”

  Stephanie looked over Karen’s shoulder. Whatever she saw convinced her that something was very wrong. She took hold of Karen’s wrist and, in an almost comic reversal of their previous motion, began pulling her toward the Lexus.

  “Keep walking,” she whispered. “When I start the car, jump in the backseat.”

  “I can’t. Get your butt out of here, Steph. Now.”

  Karen risked a glance back at Hickey. His pant leg was completely soaked with blood now, and his right hand was behind his back. She turned back to Stephanie and said in a bright voice: “I’ll see you in a few hours, okay?”

  Stephanie’s brow was knotted in puzzlement. Why didn’t she just go? Was she trying to work out if Hickey was Karen’s lover after all? Whatever was occupying her brain cells, self-preservation finally overrode it. Karen actually saw Stephanie write her off. She whirled and yanked open the door of the Lexus, all pretense of normalcy gone.

  Hickey shot her through the window. A crimson flower bloomed on her upper chest, and her mouth formed an almost comical “O.” Karen screamed and leaped forward, but not in time to catch Stephanie as she slid down the rear door of the car, leaving a bright trail of arterial blood on the white paint. Her eyes were closed, and blood pulsed steadily from a hole in her sternum. Karen felt her brain clicking into crisis mode, all the skills she’d learned as a nurse infusing her mind and hands. But even before she could check Stephanie’s airway, Hickey’s rough hands jerked her to her feet.

  “Get your ass in the truck!”

  “You shot her,” Karen said, still not quite believing it.

  Hickey aimed the .38 down at Stephanie’s head. “If you don’t get into that Expedition, I’ll shoot her again.”

  His enraged eyes left no doubt that he would put a bullet in Stephanie Morgan’s brain. Karen backed toward the Expedition, Hickey following with the gun.

  “You said nobody was going to die!”

  “She called that play. She should’ve handled those damn cows herself.”

  “She has two kids!

  “You’d better start thinking about your kid, Mom.”

  Karen’s mouth went dry. Abby’s death had suddenly become real in a way that juvenile diabetes had not prepared her for. She climbed up into the driver ’s seat and sat there, trying to hold herself together. Will often joked that she could remain calm in the middle of an earthquake, but Hickey was proving him wrong. Her quest for some source of strength brought an image of her father to her mind. He had fought in Korea, then in Vietnam during the early years. God, how she wished he was here. He would know how to deal with a bum like Hickey. Hickey wouldn’t know what hit him. But her father was gone, taken by cancer five years ago—

  “Take hold of the gear shift and pull it over to D,” Hickey said, as though talking to a child.

  “You lied to me,” Karen said. “Everything you’ve told me was a lie. You’ve been planning to kill us all along. You’re going to get your money and kill us.”

  “Listen to me. Because your stupid gene is really showing through. Remember Costa Rica? By tomorrow night, I’ll be sipping umbrella drinks in paradise. I’m not worried about who saw me shoot some air-head in a Lexus. What I am worried about is getting my money. And that’s what you need to focus on. Are we on the same page?”

  Karen took a deep breath, then reached down and punched 911 on the Expedition’s cell phone.

  Hickey jammed the gun into her ribs, driving the breath from her lungs. “Your friend is dead. So hang up and start driving. Or the only mother Abby will ever know is the twenty-two-year-old Will marries after you’re dead.”

  The 911 line rang once before Karen pressed END. She hated herself for being a coward, but she could not die here. Not in this truck, over an acquaintance who was almost certainly dead already. She had a child to raise. Nothing else mattered. She and Abby had to get through the day alive.

  She put the Expedition into gear, backed onto the lawn, and drove around the Lexus and the body of Stephanie Morgan.

  When the phone rang in the suite at the Beau Rivage, Will pounced on it. Now that he’d given Ferris the go-ahead to call the FBI, he wanted to hear the man report that a fleet of helicopters was combing the forest around Hazlehurst, flying at treetop level over every road and path, not a dog or a cow moving unseen. He jerked up the receiver, aware that his sleep-deprived brain was slowly but surely slipping off its tracks.

  “Will Jennings.”

  “What are you doing answering the phone?” Hickey asked. “You expecting a call?”

  “No,” he stammered. “I’m just ready to move. Ready to get your money and get Abby back.”

  “That’s good, Doc. Because it’s time to leave for the bank.”

  “I’m ready.”

  “You sound sleepy. Cheryl’s got some pep pills if you need them. I don’t want you messing up because you can’t think straight.”

  “I’m not going to mess up. But I need to talk to my daughter, Joe. I’m not going to the bank until I do.”

  “Is that right? Huh. Maybe you should talk to your wife a minute. We just had a little social call at your house.”

  Sweat beaded on Will’s forehead. “Karen?”

  “I’m here,” she said.

  “Are you all right?”

  “Will, he just shot Stephanie Morgan.”

  Will blinked, certain that he’d misheard. “Did you say—”

  “You heard her right,” Hickey cut in. “She’s busy driving now. But if I hear any more bullshit about what you will and won’t do, the Lexus queen won’t be the only one who dies this morning. You follow?”

  “Yes.”

  “Now, what about this helicopter?”

  Acid flooded Will’s stomach. “Helicopter?”

  “You been talking to the FBI?”

  Harley Ferris couldn’t possibly have gotten an FBI helicopter into the air and over Hazlehurst so quickly. It had to be coincidence. “Joe, I’m doing exactly what you tell me. Nothing else.”

  “Let me talk to Cheryl.”

  Cheryl was sitting on the sofa with her purse at her feet. She had gone downstairs to Impulse, a clothing store in the casino lobby that operated twenty-four hours a day, and bought a white lycra sheath to replace the torn cocktail dress. She took the phone from Will and began her litany of one-word replies.

  “Yeah...No...Right...No, he’s cool...We’ll be there. No problem.” She handed the phone back to Will. “It’s showtime.”

  “Thank you, Cheryl.” He hung up the phone. “I owe you more than I can ever repay.”

  She stood and slung her purse over her shoulder. “You just remember you said that.”

  The Klein Davidson Building was an elegant stone edifice in the affluent business section of north Jackson. It looked more like a town house than an office, but Karen knew its interior thrummed with computers churning out market quotes from around the world. There were four satellite dishes mounted on the flat roof in back, but Gray Davidson had hired an architect to construct a mansard roof to conceal them. Karen pulled the Expedition into the parking lot and parked two spaces over from Davidson’s Mercedes 560.

  “You only want to be thinking about one thing in there,” Hickey said. “Your kid.”

  As Karen reached for the door handle, an older woman parked beside them, got out, gave her a little wave, and walked into the office.

  “Gray’s receptionist,” she said.

  “Go on,” Hickey told her, uncovering the gun in his lap.

  “I’m not taking one step until you let me call nine-one-one and report a woman shot at my address.”

  Hickey held the gun against her ribs again.

  “If you shoot me, you won’t get your money. All I’m asking is a chance to try to save a woman’s life. It won’t cost you anything.”

  “She’s dead,” Hickey insisted. “I shot her in the pump.”

&nb
sp; “You don’t know she’s dead. She has two small children, and I can’t live with myself if I don’t do all I can to help her.”

  “You won’t be able to live with yourself if you kill your own kid, I’ll tell you that. And that’s what you’re doing if you don’t go wire that money.”

  She turned to him, unable to remain silent. “You hate Will for supposedly killing your mother, but you just shot someone else’s mother. You orphaned two children. Can you explain that to me?”

  Hickey expelled air from his cheeks in exasperation. “You’re going to pay for this later.”

  She closed her eyes and leaned back against the headrest. She expected to feel the gun barrel pressed to her temple, but instead she heard four beeps, one ring, and a click.

  “Nine-one-one, emergency,” said a female dispatcher.

  Hickey said, “A woman was just shot in the chest at number one hundred, Crooked Mile Road. She’s dying.”

  Karen looked over at him, amazed.

  “One hundred, Crooked Mile Road,” said the dispatcher. “Are you at that address, sir? I’m not getting a location readout.”

  “I’m on a cell phone. The woman is lying in the driveway.” Hickey looked at Karen as though asking if he’d done enough.

  “Sir, I’m showing that we already received a call for this emergency.”

  Hickey’s jaw clenched. “When was that?”

  “About two minutes ago.”

  “Who called it in?”

  “I don’t have that information, sir. But we’ve already dispatched an ambulance to—”

  Hickey hit END. “I think your husband has made a very big mistake. First we get a helicopter over the cabin. Now somebody’s at your house reporting a shooting.”

  “You were outside when you shot her. A neighbor could have heard and run over.”

  “Your neighbors aren’t that close.” Hickey rubbed the dark stubble on his chin. “Get your ass in there and move the money. And remember . . . one mistake will put you in a mourning dress that you’ll never really take off.”

  Karen got out and walked toward the entrance, his last sentence hanging over her thoughts like a pall.

  The Biloxi branch of the Magnolia Federal Bank was a two-story brick building of unprepossessing architecture. There were few cars in the parking lot, but drive-through business was brisk as Will pulled his rented Tempo into the lot and parked.

  “What now?”

  Cheryl shifted in the seat beside him and began tapping her fingers on the dash. She had popped two amphetamines before they left the hotel, and she was wired. Will had swallowed one, fearing that exhaustion might prevent him from making the right move if an opportunity to save Abby presented itself.

  “Now we wait,” Cheryl replied. “Joey will call after the money’s on its way.”

  Will took her cell phone from her lap and dialed Harley Ferris’s number.

  “Ferris,” said a clipped voice.

  “It’s Will. Anything?”

  “The FBI already had a chopper in the air when I called them. It’s been over the woods at Hazlehurst for a while now, but the foliage is so thick, they’re probably missing buildings down there, much less a pickup truck.”

  “What about the phone trace?”

  “We’re almost there, Will. We just had a quick call to the subject’s number. Our crew is working its way down an overgrown logging road right now.”

  “What will they do if they find the truck?”

  “There’s an FBI SWAT team en route from Jackson. The SAC there says they can seal off the cabin without the subject’s knowledge.”

  A chill of foreboding went through Will. “They’re not going to try an assault?”

  “I think they’re going to play it safe,” Ferris replied. “But my guess is that with your little girl’s life on the line, if they get a clean shot at the guy holding her, they’ll take it.”

  “Sweet Jesus.”

  “They’re pros, Will. Just like you. They know their jobs.”

  “I’ve got to clear this line.” Will couldn’t bring himself to hang up. “Harley . . . for God’s sake, tell them to be careful.”

  “Have faith, brother.”

  He hung up. Have faith? It took a supreme effort simply to sit in the parking lot while Abby’s future unfolded a hundred and forty miles to the north. But he had to play the hand Hickey had dealt him. Hickey had to believe until the last second that his plan was ticking along like a Swiss watch.

  “What happened?” Cheryl asked. “What’s going on?”

  “Nothing,” he lied. “Nothing at all.”

  Sending the wire was just like everything Karen had ever done at Klein Davidson: a matter of paperwork, signing on various lines while Gray Davidson led her through the pages and made chitchat about kids and schools. With men, he probably talked kids and sports. Or women. Karen didn’t know and didn’t care. She was functioning on autopilot, tormented by images of Stephanie Morgan’s chest blossoming red. The only thing that really registered was the receptionist handing her a receipt and saying, “The money’s on its way.”

  “That’s it? That’s all we have to do?”

  Gray Davidson patted her on the shoulder. “Scary how fast you can spend two hundred grand, isn’t it?”

  He was wearing his trademark double-breasted English suit with a spread collar shirt and rugby tie. Five years older than Karen, Davidson hailed from Hot Coffee, Mississippi, but his pretensions rivaled those of the most dedicated Anglophiles on the eastern seaboard. Some clients made fun of his eccentricities, but nobody joked about his market acumen.

  “Very scary,” Karen replied, wondering if Will was already in the bank in Biloxi, waiting to collect what she’d sent. “I now own a two-hundred-thousand-dollar chunk of wood.”

  “You look like you’re going to faint,” Davidson said with genuine concern. “Why don’t you come into my office and sit down?”

  “No. I’ve got to run.”

  “May I get you some coffee?”

  “No, thanks, Gray. Really.”

  “Green tea? Espresso?”

  Somehow Karen conjured a smile, a feat of magic under the circumstances. “It’s just a summer cold. I’ll be fine.”

  The broker didn’t look convinced. She touched his arm above the elbow and squeezed with an intimate pressure. “I’m fine, Gray. Thanks for worrying.”

  Davidson’s critical faculties melted. Men were so easy to manipulate. She gave the receptionist a wave and hurried toward the door.

  “Go straight home and get some rest,” Davidson called after her.

  She held up a hand in acknowledgment but did not turn, and she barely slowed when she went through the varnished rosewood door and down the steps to the parking lot.

  The parking lot of the Magnolia Federal Bank in Biloxi was filling up fast. People were cashing pay-checks, hitting the ATM machines, and carrying in payroll bags. Will could see why Hickey had picked this branch. Cheryl sat beside him in tense silence, waiting for Hickey’s go-ahead call. The temperature was rising fast in the parked car, so Will started the engine and switched on the air conditioner.

  When the cell phone rang, he snatched it up, but Cheryl put her hand on his wrist and took the phone from his hand.

  “It’s me,” she said. “Right...Okay.” She hit END and looked at Will. “The money’s here. He said you should go in and get it.”

  Will shut off the engine and looked at the double-glass doors of the bank. “Give me the phone.”

  “Why?”

  “I’m taking it in with me.”

  “You don’t trust me?”

  “I didn’t say that. I just said I’m taking the phone.”

  Cheryl snapped her head away from him, but she did not resist when he took the phone from her hand. He slipped it into his pocket along with the Tempo’s keys, then got out and started walking toward the bank.

  SEVENTEEN

  Hickey drove south along the interstate at fifty-five miles per hour,
his face wet with sweat. His right thigh was thoroughly soaked in blood.

  “I think some more stitches broke,” he said. “You aren’t much of a doctor. I think you’re going to have to do some repairs here.”

  Karen had not given the suturing her best effort. “I don’t have Will’s bag. I could probably tape it up, if you stop at a drugstore.”

  “I don’t want to stop.” Hickey looked in the rearview mirror, then changed lanes. “But I may have to.”

  “Are we on our way to get Abby?”

  “We’re on our way to a drugstore.”

  “Are you letting us go when you get the money?”

  “That’s up to your husband. Let’s see if he can follow simple instructions. Start looking for a drugstore.”

  Karen glanced to her left, searching the strip malls that lined the interstate. She was pretty sure there was an Eckerd’s along here somewhere.

  “There’s a cop back there,” Hickey said, straightening in his seat.

  She started to turn, but he grabbed her knee and said, “Don’t look.”

  “Cops are always patrolling this interstate,” she told him.

  “This one’s acting squirrelly. He’s ten lengths back, but hanging on me like a trailer. He’s running our plate.”

  “Were you speeding?”

  “You think I’m going to speed today? This is your husband, goddamn it. The son of a bitch called somebody. That’s the only way they’d know what to look for.”

  “What about the shooting at our house?”

  “They wouldn’t have issued an APB on this vehicle off that. Not yet, anyway,” He checked the rearview again. “That SOB is still back there.”

  “You’re paranoid! And you’re driving suspiciously.” Karen spotted the Eckerd’s on her left. “Take the next exit. Northside Drive. There’s our drugstore.”

  Hickey leaned toward her, then craned his neck backward and looked up through the moonroof.

  “What are you doing? Watch the road!”

  “Paranoid, huh? Take a look.”

  The moonroof was tinted against the sun, but even so, Karen could see the large dot against the sky. It was a helicopter.