He swung wildly with the rope. The heavy noose snaked through the air like a living thing. Thick strands curving towards her slim legs like a scythe cutting a swathe through the swaying crops.
She stepped back oh-so-easily as it reaped thin air a foot short. She smiled a smile that would cool the arctic. Looked down on him lying in the grass, his last chance spent. She wouldn’t miss this time. She stepped forward to make very sure of that. Pulled the trigger. A metallic click cut the air, every bit as loud as a live round to their adrenalin fuelled senses.
Evan’s arm pumped out like a well-oiled piston. His fingers clamped around her ankle as the second and third and fourth clicks filled the clearing with their hollow threats. He pulled as if uprooting the tree behind him. Tried to dislocate her leg from its socket.
In the time it took her startled squawk to exit her teeth, he was on his knees. The wind went out of her as her butt hit the ground with a bone-jarring thump. What little was left belched out, darkening the air with the memory of her earlier retching, when two hundred pounds of flying muscle and bone and irritation landed on top of her.
There was no messing this time.
He knocked the gun from her hand. Flipped her onto her front and pulled her arms behind her. Sat on top of the whole lot, squashing her into the dirt. The heavy-duty plastic trash bag lay a few feet away. He grabbed it. Twisted it, making it into a makeshift plastic rope. Then bound her wrists tightly. Only then did he get off her, let some oxygen back into her heaving lungs.
His head was still woozy from Jackson’s blow. He swayed as he stood upright, waiting for it to clear, the torrent of her vitriolic abuse washing over him. The contents of her handbag were scattered around. He dumped everything back in, picked the gun up between finger and thumb with a Kleenex.
The gun that killed Dixie.
And lucky for him—although he didn’t know it at the time—the one she used on Earl, leaving her with just the three shots she’d wasted.
Something in her bag caught his eye. He found another Kleenex, pulled out an old, battered cell phone. Twenty seconds later he was staring at Dixie as he lay slumped against his van, his blood flowing into the gutter beneath him.
He went to put it back and stopped.
For the briefest moment, he considered scrolling through her contacts looking for Sarah. No. She’d know what he was looking for. He wouldn’t give her the satisfaction if it wasn’t there, let her see how comprehensively she’d duped him. She took the decision out of his hands, her voice mocking from behind him.
‘Go ahead and look.’
Back at Jackson’s apartment he shoved her into the trunk of his car. The deluge of abuse dried up as soon as she realized her ugly mouth might have been flapping away under water for all he heard. She climbed in the trunk without complaint. His only worry as he slammed the lid on her hateful face was whether delivering her to Ryder and not Chico would be a deal breaker in getting Guillory back.
That, and the regret that the exhaust fumes weren’t routed through the trunk.
Chapter 76
CHICO MADE IT BACK to his office without incident. He parked the van in the underground garage, took the elevator upstairs and poured himself a large drink. Suddenly the problems with Carly and Dixie and the three million paled into insignificance. He’d almost died yesterday. Christ knows how he hadn’t been hit by any one of the dozens of bullets that had perforated his SUV
He’d driven for miles without thinking or paying attention to where he was going. Then he’d turned off up a dirt track leading into the trees. He’d sat there all day and all night. Waiting. Thinking things through.
Somebody had set them up and whoever it was had moved pretty damn fast. He’d only made the decision to go the night before they set off. Unless it had been planned for some time, the location already picked, just waiting for the right moment.
It couldn’t be any of the guys who’d come with him to the ranch. There was no way to guarantee you wouldn’t be killed in the firefight. That left the guys he’d sent with the investigator—Diego and Antonio.
Who stood to gain the most from it?
As soon as you looked at it like that there was only one answer. It sickened him to think about it. Would his own son really set him up like that? By the time it had got dark in the woods he still hadn’t heard from him. Not even a text to say nothing to report.
Whoever ambushed them would have come down to confirm they’d got him, the main target. But they hadn’t found his dead body lying in the wreckage. They’d be panicking. He’d give them something to worry about. Last thing before settling down for the night, he’d sent Diego a text:
What’s going on? I expected to hear from you by now.
He got up and refilled his drink, thought again about Diego. He’d always written him off as an idiot. Maybe that was the problem. Years of bitterness and hatred seething under the surface in a man who maybe wasn’t such an idiot after all—a man who’d been secretly scheming in the background, waiting for his chance.
He jumped as Buckley’s partner’s phone rang on his desk. He let it ring out, wondered what had happened to her. Had she been killed along with the rest of them? Or did she manage to escape somehow? The phone pinged to let him know a message had arrived.
Kate, I interviewed the guy in the pickup that took off when Delacroix was shot. It looks like he saw the whole thing. This is the part you’ll like—he says the shooter was a woman. So it looks like you were right. This woman tried to kill the witness too—he’s in the hospital with a busted-up shoulder—so she’s tidying up the loose ends. But don’t worry, I’ll get Buckley one day. E-Z.
Chico felt like spitting. The guy sending the text was a cop. Who else interviews witnesses? And if that was the case, Buckley’s partner was a cop too—or used to be and still had a relationship with the other guy.
That made his idle musings about what happened to her a lot more serious. If Buckley was working with a cop, was there any chance he was going to hand over the cash and Carly? He needed to buy a little time. He had a lot to do. A lot of things to put in place before he talked to Buckley again if he was going to come out of this on top.
Trouble was, he didn’t know the relationship between the two cops. He didn’t want E-Z becoming suspicious if he didn’t get a reply and come looking. He picked up the phone, got Buckley’s card out of the drawer to check his first name. He thought about what to say as a reply. He needed to second-guess the relationship between them, get the tone right.
Looks like you owe me a beer. I told you Evan’s okay.
He hesitated a few seconds, sent it. Better to keep it short.
Chapter 77
‘BAD NEWS TRAVELS FAST,’ Ryder said when he answered Evan’s call.
Evan wondered what the hell he was talking about. Ryder carried on.
‘I send Kate a text and then two minutes later you ring up. I suppose you think I owe you an apology. We still want to talk to you about how come your fingerprints are on the shell casings, despite anything the crazy old guy says.’
Evan felt as if he’d opened the oven door while standing too close.
‘No problem. And I’ve got something even better for you.’ He put a lot of smugness into his voice as he said it.
‘Oh really?’
‘Yes really. But it’s going to have to wait.’
There was a pause, then a choked laugh on the other end of the line.
‘So now you’re the guy who tells us our priorities, are you?’
‘It’s Kate I’m calling about.’
‘What about her? Apart from the fact that she spends far too much time with you.’
The conversation was slipping too easily into the usual exchange of insults that characterized their non-relationship. It made Evan realize how difficult it was going to be to get Ryder’s help.
‘She’s been abducted.’
‘Really? That’s interesting seeing as I just talked to her.’
‘You talke
d to her?’
Ryder backtracked immediately.
‘Got a text from her, I meant to say.’
‘What? The guy who’s holding her couldn’t have sent a text from her phone?’
Ryder let out a bark of a laugh.
‘You know what your trouble is? You watch too much TV. Probably drink too many sugary drinks. It makes you hyper. Now stop wasting my time.’
The phone went dead.
‘What part of piss off don’t you understand?’ Ryder said when Evan called back.
‘Just hear me out.’
Evan gave him the whole story up to the point where they were abducted outside the bar.
‘I don’t know what you’re on, Buckley, but it’s messing with your mind in a big way. I’ve never heard such a load of crap.’
‘Ring her brother Ray if you don’t believe me. She’s staying with him for a few days. He’ll tell you he hasn’t seen her for two days.’
Ryder muttered something under his breath. The phone went dead again. When he rang back his tone was a little less aggressive and a lot less skeptical.
‘He confirms she’s not been back for two days. He hasn’t heard a word from her either.’
There was an uncomfortable silence on the line for a long moment before Ryder broke it clearing his throat.
‘Looks like you were right about the text message.’
‘There’s a first time for everything.’ He laughed and Ryder joined in. It sounded genuine. ‘By the way, it’s your birthday today, isn’t it?’
There was a puzzled silence.
‘No—’
‘Oh, but it is.’ Then he told him what he had for him in the trunk of his car. ‘I’ll bring her in tomorrow after I pick up the cash. Something tells me she’d choose a night in my trunk over the reception she’ll get when I hand her over.’
‘You got that damn right.’
Chapter 78
EVAN’S PHONE RANG IN his pocket. He pulled it out and read the display. Jackson. Again. No surprises there, the guy wasn’t going to give up. He waited for it to go to voicemail. Called Chico.
‘Where’s Diego?’ Chico said.
‘I lost him.’
Chico made a sound like he’d swallowed his gum.
‘It seemed a sensible thing to do. Seeing as I had no guarantee you wouldn’t simply kill me and my partner as soon as I led Diego to the cash.’
‘You don’t trust me? Can’t say I blame you. Talking about trust, I’ve got some good news and some bad news for you.’
‘Let’s have the good first. I feel like I’m overdue some.’
‘Your partner got a message from somebody called E-Z. Looks like you’re not in the frame for killing Dixie any longer.’
‘That’s not good news, that’s old news.’
If he thought it would take the wind out of Chico’s sails, he was disappointed.
‘Really? I know the bad won’t be. It made me suspicious about what E-Z does for a living. So I called the police department, asked to speak to E-Z. All bright and breezy like we’re great buddies. The guy half covered the phone, shouted out if anybody knew where Ryder was.
‘That’s a pretty cheesy nickname, don’t you think? E-Z Ryder. No wonder there’s so much unsolved crime if that’s the level of intellect in the police department. Anyway, that established E-Z’s occupation. And from there it’s a short hop to your partner being a cop too. It looks like I’m not the only one who can’t be trusted to tell the truth. You’re probably wondering why I’m telling you all this.’
‘To let me know how clever you are?’
‘Laugh all you like. But now I know who you’re working with, I’m expecting you to try to double-cross me. You need to bear that in mind at all times. If I see another vehicle within ten miles of you, I’ll assume they’re police. And if that happens, there’s going to be one less of them to worry about, one less burden on the taxpayers’ pockets. Is that clear enough?’
‘Clear as day.’
‘Good. Now at least we both know where we stand with each other. So, are we good to go? I assume you’re calling because you’ve got what I want.’
Evan cleared his throat. He’d find out now whether Carly was the deal breaker
‘I don’t like the sound of that.’
‘You can have the cash. But not Carly.’
Evan almost heard an eyebrow being raised, the sound of a chair pushed back.
‘And why is that?’
‘Because she’s in police custody’—or would be soon, but he didn’t need to know that—‘which is how come I already know I’m off the hook. I don’t think they’re going to be letting her out any time soon either.’
There was a short intake of breath and a long silence.
‘It can’t be helped. She belongs in a cell anyway. Here’s what you’re going to do.’
Chapter 79
EVAN COLLECTED THE DUFFEL bag of cash from the gym early the next morning before he went to meet Ryder. He looked like he’d aged ten years overnight. It was understandable. Whatever was going on between him and Guillory at the moment, they’d been partners for a long time.
And he was about to make it worse.
They got the handover with Carly out of the way quickly. As Evan predicted, she looked like she’d have preferred to stay where she was in the trunk, rather than be passed into their eager hands with her jacket marked as a cop killer. She made one last, desperate attempt.
‘Why don’t you arrest him too?’ she yelled as two uniformed officers manhandled her out of the trunk. ‘It was him all along.’
Ryder looked as if he liked the sound of that.
‘How do you figure that?’
‘His fingerprints are on the shell casings.’
‘Really? And how would you know that?’
He waited. She didn’t have an answer
‘I sure as hell didn’t tell her,’ Evan said.
Nobody knew exactly how but it was clear she had something to do with it.
‘I know I don’t like you,’ Ryder said with a smirk as they led her away, ‘but I can’t imagine what you must have done to her to make her hate you like that. That’s some going even for you.’
After they’d got her downstairs in a holding cell, Evan handed over her bag with the gun and phone. Then he told Ryder what Chico had said on the phone. Told him how he’d figured out Guillory was a cop. And even though Ryder’s dislike of him was mutual, he got no pleasure from telling it, didn’t enjoy watching the effect it had on him. It was as if he’d pricked him with a pin, a look of horror passing behind his eyes before he got it under control. That was one text message he wished he’d never sent.
Evan dumped the duffel bag on Ryder’s desk to break the tension.
Ryder jumped, his focus snapping back to Evan and the bag. He peered into it. Moved the stacks of cash around.
‘That doesn’t look like three million.’
‘It’s not. It’s a million and a half.’
Ryder’s head jerked up from the money to Evan’s face, his eyes narrowing.
‘You better not be suggesting we try anything funny here. Not with Kate’s life at stake.’
Evan shook his head.
‘No. There’s another bag.’
‘What, you left it in the car? Too heavy for your little arms?’
‘You got the combination to Kate’s locker?’
‘What the hell are you . . .’ His eyes grew wide. ‘You can’t be serious?’
Evan nodded, tried not to grin. Ryder shook his head in amazement. Evan gave him the combination Guillory had told him. Five minutes later the other bag was sitting next to the first one on Ryder’s desk.
‘Son-of-a-bitch,’ he said, more to himself than Evan.
After they’d counted it he called down for his technical guys. Despite Evan’s protestations they wired him up and stuck a GPS tracker in each of the bags as well as one on the underside of his car.
Then they set him loose on a wing and a
prayer.
***
EVAN RANG CHICO’S NUMBER.
‘I’m assuming you’re wearing a wire and they’ve stuck a tracker on your car,’ Chico said.
Evan didn't bother to deny it.
Chico tut-tutted down the line.
‘Despite everything I said yesterday. Doesn’t matter, they can stick one up your ass for all the good it’ll do you.’
He laughed, the sound more sinister than if he’d screamed at him. The sound of a man with a better plan.
Chico directed him out of town in the direction they’d taken Guillory two days earlier. Before he got to where the ambush had taken place, Chico got him to make a left onto a smaller road. He followed that for a couple miles, then took a turn leading down to a jetty on a wide stretch of river. A small boat was tied up, banging gently against the wooden jetty. Evan laughed to himself—there wasn’t a bridge over the river for a good ten miles both ways.
‘I hope you can row,’ Chico said. ‘Look upstream, you’ll see another jetty about a quarter mile away.’
Evan saw it, grunted his assent.
‘Get the money into the boat and start rowing. Don’t hang up. I want you to tell me when you’re halfway across.’
Evan transferred the bags and pushed off. He put the phone under his chin, started rowing.
‘I’m halfway now.’
‘Drop the anchor in.’
He did as he was told, waited to see what came next. The anchor caught, the boat swinging around with the current until he was facing the far side jetty.
‘Okay, in you go.’ He laughed a very smug, self-satisfied smile. ‘You shouldn’t have let them put a wire on you, should you?’
There wasn’t any point arguing. Chico wasn’t as stupid as they thought.
‘Don’t worry, it’s not very deep, but it’s going to be oh-so-cold. Let’s hear a nice, big splash.’
Evan put the phone on the seat, stood up and balanced for a second, then leapt in. The shock of cold water hit his head as he disappeared under the surface. He hit the bottom, pushed off, popped back up again. The water soaked into his clothes and shoes. He grasped the side of the boat to stop them weighing him down.
Hunting Dixie Page 30