Vigilante Dead (Kate Jones Thriller #8)

by Berkom, DV

  “Don’t forget your radios,” he said. Everyone slipped on earpieces and took out the radios to turn them on.

  Luke started the motor and Darwin pushed off the larger boat using the tip of an oar. Lady D gave us a thumbs-up and disappeared into the cabin. My heart was thumping in time with the outboard engine as I covertly studied everyone on board, wondering what would happen next.

  And how I was going to get out of this alive.

  Twenty-Nine

  LUKE BROUGHT THE inflatable about and steered toward the tiny patch of sand. His first attempt overshot the mark and we had to use the oars to keep us from running aground on a set of partially submerged rocks. The second try put us on the sand. The six of us climbed out and Eve, Kitten, and I distributed the equipment amongst ourselves while Luke and Darwin dragged the boat further onto the sand. Angie stood to one side, smoking a cigarette and supervising, apparently.

  Since Luke was the experienced climber of the bunch, Darwin gave him the night vision goggles and we followed him into the crevice. Angie hung back, staying behind everyone else. I assumed it was so none of us would have a clear shot at her. I wouldn’t have tried to kill her, though. Not when I didn’t know who was loyal to whom.

  Luke was good. He found handholds where I didn’t think any existed. To her credit, Angie didn’t utter a word of protest, climbing gamely along with the others.

  The only sounds were occasional gasps of exertion as we traversed farther onto the island, climbing higher and higher until the terrain flattened. Once we cleared the cliff I sprawled on my back to catch my breath, thankful to have that part of the trip over.

  Kitten took out her laptop and booted it up. She typed a few lines and waited. “Got it,” she said, referring to Dobson’s Wi-Fi. She typed in a line of code and hit enter. “Comin’ atcha.” Eve checked her phone.

  “Password?” Eve asked.

  “You’re not gonna believe this. It’s his birthdate followed by his age.” Kitten rolled her eyes at the simple security code. “Dude,” she said to the sky as though Dobson could hear her. “Just because your house is in the middle of nowhere doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have a good password.”

  Eve typed in Dobson’s password and paused for a moment, watching her screen. Then she said, “He’s wheels up.” She slid the cell back into her jacket and zipped the pocket closed. “The climb took thirty minutes. Pretty good, since we planned on forty-five. From our calculations, it shouldn’t take more than twenty minutes to reach the house. That gives us a little more than an hour to get inside and set up.”

  Luke led the way. We followed him single file through the forest, stopping occasionally to check the GPS on his phone. Far from civilization, the night sky was awash with brilliant stars, tiny pinpoints of light punctuating the deepening indigo blue above. Somewhere an owl hooted. The only other sounds were the footfalls of six people on a mission.

  Fifteen minutes later, the lights of the estate winked through the trees. Eve held up her fist, signaling us to stop. She’d been eager to learn hand signals and had been a quick study. Kitten hauled out her laptop once again and walked over to sit on a large rock beneath a big leaf maple. A few minutes later, she’d found her way into Dobson’s security.

  “I count nine cameras. Looks like a do-it-yourself package.”

  “Which means?”

  Kitten shrugged. “That he’s a cheapskate, which isn’t unusual for a rich guy. Also, they come with remote access, so he could have someone monitoring the feeds. He’s also got motion sensors near the doors and windows, and inside the house. Let me see if I can access that system.” Her fingers were a blur as she typed. Soon, a smile lit her face. “Piece of cake. I’ll reactivate the alarm as soon as he gets to the front door so he won’t be suspicious. Make sure you guys freeze when that happens. We don’t want to set off any bells.”

  “How much time will we have once he’s inside?” I asked.

  “I’ll isolate five-minute loops for all nine cameras, which will run indefinitely, but if someone’s monitoring the screens it’s possible they could notice after the third or fourth loop. It depends on how closely they’re watching.” She checked the screens. “There isn’t much activity now, but there will be when he gets here. I’ll override the decoy loops from the time of his arrival until he goes inside the house. The three of you and Darwin will need to be out of camera view until you hear from me. That way if someone is monitoring the house, then everything will still look normal.”

  “What’s your professional opinion, sugar?” Angie stood behind her, looking at the screen. “Y’all think he’s got someone on the outside?”

  Kitten frowned and shook her head. “It’s not like I do this on a regular basis. But, if he’s as relaxed about his home security as he is about his Wi-Fi, then you might have nothing to worry about. Looking at the simplicity of his passwords it’s possible he’s become complacent because of the estate’s location and checks the screens himself when he thinks about it. On the other hand, he could have left the monitoring up to someone else just because he could. He’s got enough money to outsource it.

  “Worst case scenario, there’s someone watching the screens who thinks something’s fishy and they call to see if he’s all right. If Dobson doesn’t answer the phone, it could trigger a call to police. Add in response time to the island and you’ve got yourself about an hour and a half unless they send out a helicopter, which isn’t realistic. Not unless it’s obvious there’s a crime being committed.”

  “Let’s hope that’s enough time.”

  Eve glanced at Darwin. “You’re up.”

  Luke handed Darwin the NVGs and he slid them on.

  “Remember, check the caretaker cottage first,” Angie reminded him. “We don’t want any surprises.”

  “Roger that.” Darwin gave her a salute and then disappeared into the forest.

  “Is there some way to see what’s happening in real time?” I asked Kitten. “Or are we stuck with the loops?”

  Kitten turned her laptop toward me. On the screen were nine squares showing interior and exterior views. Each of those nine squares had a smaller square in the lower left corner.

  “The smaller squares are the loops running in the background and are what anyone monitoring the screens will see. The larger squares are the actual feeds.” Just then, a glowing figure moved into one of the larger frames. “There’s Darwin.”

  “So the cameras have night vision capabilities.”

  “Yep.”

  Darwin walked along the perimeter and disappeared. A moment later, he showed up in one of the other squares. A majority of the surveillance system monitored the immediate exterior of the house and main interior rooms, like the living room and kitchen. Only three cameras were dedicated to the estate’s perimeter, although each of them encompassed a large swath of the grounds.

  Eve, Luke, Angie, and I waited until Darwin gave us the all-clear, and we made our way toward the house. I motioned to Luke to watch the front while Eve and I walked up the wide slate steps to the front door. Angie hung back with Luke.

  “Are we still good?” I said into the mic.

  “Yep.” Kitten’s soft voice came over the mic. “The loop is on and the alarm’s disabled.”

  With Eve at my back, I tried the handle. It was locked. I pulled on a pair of nitrile gloves, slid out my set of lock picks, and went to work. My right hand shook slightly and my heart thudded in my ears, both of which contributed to my taking longer to open the door than I’d intended. Good thing I wasn’t interested in a career of breaking and entering.

  After what seemed like much too long, there was a faint click as the lock tumbled open. With a relieved sigh, I pushed the door wide.

  “Wait.” The edge in Kitten’s voice brought me up short. Eve and I froze. “Darwin’s acting weird...” There was a pause and then she whispered, “Darwin, what are you doing?”

  “That’s a good boy,” Darwin said, nervousness lacing his words. “Take it easy, buddy.
..”

  “Shit.” Kitten’s voice came over the air. “It’s a dog. A big one.”

  Alarmed, I looked at Eve. The whites of her eyes were visible in the amber glow of the patio lights.

  “That means...” Eve didn’t finish the sentence. We both knew that meant there had to be someone on the island to take care of the dog.

  “Yeah.” Gravel scattered behind us. I turned in time to see Luke disappear around the side of the house. Angie moved just enough so that she was in deep shadow. “Looks like Luke is headed your way, Darwin,” I whispered into the mic.

  “That’s it, good doggy.” Darwin’s voice had lowered and sounded more like a coo than a desperate attempt at placating an angry canine.

  “Seriously?” The disbelief in Kitten’s voice would have been comical if the stakes weren’t so high. “He’s petting the damn dog.”

  “What?” the rest of us said in unison.

  “How the hell did you do that, Darwin?” Kitten demanded.

  A soft chuckle floated across the mic. “I remembered what Kate told us about being chased by dogs at that drug dealer’s place and thought it couldn’t hurt to bring along some treats.”

  “What are you going to do once the dog’s done with those treats?” I asked. “You need to get out of there, now.”

  “No worries. In a minute, this puppy’s gonna be taking a nice, long nap. I added a couple of doggy downers to the snacks.”

  Eve and I glanced at each other, and I shook my head in disbelief. “You need to go find the dog’s handler. Have you got anything like that for humans?” I said it as a joke, not expecting a response.

  “Isn’t that what guns are for?” he replied.

  “You’re kidding, right, Darwin?”

  There was a little too long of a pause before he answered. “Of course I am. What do you think I’m going to do? Kill the caretaker?”

  I glanced back at Angie, barely noticeable in the darkness except for the gleam of her eyes.

  At that point, all bets were off.

  Thirty

  LUKE JOINED US in the foyer a few minutes later. He and Darwin had carried the dog to a gazebo at the edge of the property and left him sleeping under a bench. Darwin continued his reconnaissance, insisting that he would keep to the shadows so as not to raise suspicions if someone was in the caretaker’s cottage.

  “Do you believe him?” Eve asked Luke, off mic.

  He shrugged. “I’m not sure, to be honest. He seemed whacked. He smeared mud on his face and had a scarf tied around his head like in that old Stallone movie.”

  “You mean Rambo?” I asked.

  “That’s the one.”

  “That can’t be good.”

  “I’ve known Darwin a long time,” Eve insisted. “He’s never been interested in action movies or guns, or anything like that. I can’t believe he’s going to turn into some vigilante.”

  “I think we need to talk,” I said. Angie hovered nearby as I pulled Eve aside and recounted the conversation Darwin and I had on the boat, and that he thought she was good with his decision. After the initial shock, she still didn’t believe he’d be a problem.

  “Darwin’s about as dangerous as a puppy. He might think he’s capable of taking revenge for Sean, but he’s never killed anyone. I don’t think he’s going to start now.”

  Angie cleared her throat. Eve and I looked at her, waiting for her input. “All this talkin’ about killin’ is fine and dandy, but can we get this show on the road? Time’s a wastin’.”

  Eve glanced at her phone. “She’s right. Dobson will be here soon. Let’s get on with it.”

  Using the Maglite from my backpack to light the way, we moved through the house. Dobson’s taste ran to midcentury modern—a pair of Eames chairs and matching sofa had pride of place in the living room, accompanied by a low oval coffee table and floor lamps with Jetson-style shades. There was even a vintage orange metal cone fireplace in one corner.

  Angie stopped to admire the paintings in the living room and foyer. I recognized a Rothko and a Pollock, two of my favorite modernists. One, with a white background, had what looked like a bunch of colorful amoebas on it. I squinted at the distinct signature in the lower right corner. Miró. It looked like Dobson had invested heavily in some very valuable art.

  The open-concept kitchen was a Michelin chef’s dream. I counted three ovens and two large Sub-Zero refrigerators, with an eight-burner gas stove. The eat-in counter seated twelve, lit by expensive-looking pendant lamps.

  We continued down another hallway, this one quite a bit longer, past a bathroom that could host the Academy Awards and an office with a curved flat-screen television and an elegant pool table. The master bedroom was similar to the living area. It was like standing in a fifties time warp, with every stick of furniture a midcentury modern masterpiece.

  Luke went to work securing a video camera to a mini tripod, which he then placed on the dresser across from the bed. He angled it toward a chair that Eve had placed next to the window. Eve sat in the chair while Luke adjusted the picture. Angie did what she did best: stand nearby and supervise.

  I looked over Eve’s shoulder at the small screen. She checked the remote connection on her phone, zooming in and out to test the framing.

  “Mary had a little lamb.”

  As she spoke, a colorful graphic displayed her voice’s audio level. Satisfied, she pocketed the phone while Luke rearranged a few items on the dresser in order to obscure the camera. He then stowed the bag holding everything needed to restrain Dobson. All we had to do now was wait.

  “We have incoming.” The edge was back in Kitten’s voice.

  Startled, I asked, “Dobson’s here?” I hadn’t heard the floatplane approach.

  “No. It’s someone else. A woman. I don’t know where she came from. She just appeared from the woods.”

  “Where’s Darwin?” Eve asked.

  Before Kitten could answer, there was a loud crash, followed by a scream. I was out the bedroom door in a second, headed for the front entrance. Just past the kitchen, I skidded to a halt. Darwin had a young woman in a stranglehold. Her face white, she whimpered and squeezed her eyes shut, her hands wrapped around his forearm.

  “Darwin. Let her go.” I put as much steel as I could into my voice. The woman tried to look at me, but Darwin jerked her head back with a vicious twist of his arm.

  “I can’t.” He shook his head, his eyes dark. “She’s going to ruin everything.”

  “Darwin,” I said and took a step toward him, my voice calm, acutely aware of Angie’s and Luke’s presence behind me as well as the gun in my holster. “She won’t ruin anything. We’re not here to hurt anyone, remember?”

  Darwin swiveled until the woman was between us.

  “Stop.” He nodded at me. “Don’t come any closer.” He glanced down at the woman he held in his grip. “Who are you?” he demanded.

  The woman whimpered again and shook her head, tears streaming down her face. “What have you done to Brutus?” she cried. Darwin choked her words short. I winced, hoping the pressure of his forearm didn’t damage her windpipe. Or worse.

  “Shut up. Or you’ll end up like the dog.” His face now a dark red, Darwin clamped his mouth closed, making his jaw flex. Dried mud flaked from his cheeks onto the tile floor. The woman fell silent. Angie slid her hand underneath her jacket. She was going for her gun. I’d have to think of something, quick, or both Darwin and the young woman would be dead.

  “Darwin.” Eve’s voice floated through the earpiece. “You don’t have to do this. Sean wouldn’t want you to.”

  Darwin closed his eyes for a moment. “Yes he would. He’d want to avenge all of the people who died because of Dobson.”

  “But not with an innocent life,” she countered, walking into the kitchen so he could see her. “If you kill this woman, you’re no better than Dobson.”

  Darwin stared at the back of the woman’s head, and I held my breath, unable to guess what would happen next. Second
s ticked by. The tension in the room was palpable. Angie’s gaze never left the two of them.

  Finally, Darwin let go of the woman and stepped back. A collective sigh of relief rippled through the kitchen. Angie’s shoulders lowered a fraction, and her hand dropped to her side. I hurried to where the woman was hunched over and rubbing her throat, gasping for air.

  “Are you all right?”

  She nodded and slowly straightened, wariness evident in her eyes.

  “Who are you people?” She smoothed her hair back with a shaky hand. “And where’s Brutus?”

  “The dog is fine. He’s been given a sedative to keep him quiet.” I led her into the living room and lowered her onto the couch. “As for who we are, the less you know the better.”

  “You’ll never get away with whatever it is you’re doing. There are security cameras everywhere.” A look of fear crossed her features and she stared at me. “Unless you’re here to...” The question hung heavy between us.

  “We’re not here to kill anyone.”

  “Then what?”

  “Let’s just say we want a confession.”

  “A confession.” She frowned and shook her head. “From Mick?” A moment passed before the spark of understanding lit her eyes. She sighed. “I really liked this job,” she said, her voice quiet.

  “I’m afraid we’re going to have to keep you out of sight. At least until we’re finished here.” I stepped back, giving her room. She stood and smoothed her hands down the front of her jeans.

  “He’ll wonder why certain things haven’t been done.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like turning on the exterior lights and the lights to the dock.”

  “Good to know.” I studied her face. “What’s your name?”

  “Amelia.”

  The name on the terse emails Dobson sent. “Well, Amelia, is there anything else we should do?”

  She nodded.

  “I usually have a snack waiting for him on the kitchen counter.”

  That didn’t sound unusual. She could use this as an opportunity to signal to Dobson that something was wrong, though. “Okay. Why don’t you go ahead and prepare whatever it is you usually fix for him, and then we’ll head back to one of the other rooms where we can keep an eye on things.”