Winter's Curse

by Mary Stone

  30

  “Save it,” Winter advised, taking a seat in the conference room.

  Sun looked furious. “You—”

  “We need to make plane reservations now. We don’t have any time to waste on petty, power-struggle bullshit.”

  “You would say that, wouldn’t you,” Sun accused in bitter rage. “You’re swooping in and saving the day again. Going lone cowboy and bringing the bad guy down all by yourself.”

  “Seriously?” Winter folded her arms and leaned back against the chair. “You want to hash this all out now? At least one life hangs in the balance here.”

  “I don’t give a fuck about Ryan O’Connelly.”

  “And, apparently, you give zero fucks about a bank manager in California who was taken from her husband of decades? Or a security guard in New York who won’t be going home to kiss his grandkids again? Bull Durham? Our teammate? The only fuck you give is about yourself. How can this be all about me when you knew you had inside information. You’re the lone cowboy here.”

  Sun paled but stood firm. “I care about the fact that you’re a loose cannon. You’re a new agent. You can’t just go around directing everyone like lackeys, basing all of your work on hunches. Putting everyone else at risk. Impulsively contacting suspects on your own with no plan in place. No backup.”

  “Really, Sun? You think I’m a loose cannon? You don’t think if you’d turned over your information as soon as you found it that you could have lowered some risks?”

  It was a direct hit, finally.

  Sun seemed to crumble, without moving. Her face stayed hard, but her voice was low. “Fine. You win. You’re better.”

  “Oh, grow up.” Winter, impatient with the delay and having to face someone else’s emotional angst, was brusque. “Now you’re just feeling sorry for yourself. If it’s important to you, I didn’t come up with this latest theory, a reenactment of the Collar Bomb heist, by the way, taking place tomorrow at nine a.m. in Erie, Pennsylvania. It was Parrish. I went to get his take on things this morning when you cut me out and refused to let me work with you and Noah on the case. If this is a competition, he wins. He’s better.”

  Sun pulled out a chair and sat down. Her face was a study in misery. She didn’t let any tears fall, but her eyes were rimmed in red. She took a heavy breath.

  “I’m sorry. I’m not going to say it again, and this never leaves the room, but I’m sorry. It’s all my fault, from the beginning. I handled this all wrong. It was supposed to be my moment. Heidi Presley sent that email to me. I was going to take her down. Make my career.”

  “And instead of working on it solo, you got stuck with me.”

  Sun nodded. “I got stuck with you. How am I supposed to shine, when every time I turn around, you’re saving someone’s life or coming up with another lead or being in just the right place at the right time?”

  “You think I’m doing all of that to make you look bad?” Winter snorted but gentled her voice as much as she could, under the circumstances. “I can only tell you, I’m here to do a job. I couldn’t care less about advancement, and I am not out to be your rival. But slogging this out now? We can’t. We can only go forward and try to end this the right way. We need to make some plane reservations, now.”

  “You’re right. I’m sorry,” Sun repeated. Picking up the phone in the conference room, she made a call. “We need the next flight out of Richmond for Erie. There won’t be a non-stop, but we need to be there yesterday. Better yet, charter something and call me back as soon as you have it.”

  “Do you have a new personal assistant I don’t know about?”

  “That was Dalton.” Sun narrowed her eyes at Winter. “He, at least, lets me boss him around.”

  “He’s easy like that. So, what’s the plan, case agent?”

  It was a concession, and Sun took it as one. She acknowledged Winter’s effort with a small smile.

  “We go to Erie, coordinate with the local LEOs and hope we find O’Connelly before she blows him or anyone else up. Other than that, there is no plan.” She hesitated, but only briefly. “Do you have any ideas?”

  “Not yet. I might if Doug Jepson comes through with anything for us from Heidi’s computer. In the meantime, I think we just need to stay flexible and have each other’s backs.”

  Sun raised an eyebrow. “Do we have each other’s backs?”

  “We better.”

  The conference room phone rang again, and Sun picked it up. She listened for a moment and made an approving sound. “Thanks, Dalton. We’re on our way.”

  This was it. Heidi prided herself on keeping a tight rein on her emotions. But right now, she felt like giggling.

  Six years of planning. Longer than that, really, when she thought about the dark days with her father. The long, irritating hours she’d spent by her ailing mother’s bedside. The decade and a half she’d spent working in IT contracting, constantly being hit on, overlooked for promotions, and used as the general dumping ground for crap jobs and problems no one else wanted to take the time to work out.

  It had all led up to today.

  The small house she’d rented for the final act was just outside of Erie, chosen for its secluded but nearby location. The property was wooded. The driveway alone was a quarter-mile long, and she had every point of it covered with cameras. No one would be sneaking up on her. And, in the meantime, she had the only window to the world she needed, right in the palm of her hands.

  She sat back on the couch, crossing her legs beneath her and pulling her computer up onto her lap. She panned through her surveillance feeds. All of them were working, but the pictures weren’t as clear as they should have been. Heidi almost panicked, before she glanced out the living room window and realized it was snowing. Large flakes fell lazily outside the windows, already coating the ground. She relaxed again.

  On the split screen in front of her, to the right, she had Ryan O’Connelly.

  She clucked her tongue in disapproval. He was looking far worse for the wear than he had been when she’d first seen him in person at the airport in Bismarck. Now, his shining black hair looked lank and limp. His eyes, such a pretty shade of blue, were clouded, the skin around them scored with fine lines of stress and pain. He had a sore near his mouth, probably from stress. His shoulders were hunched inward, as if he could escape the contraption rigged around his neck if he just collapsed far enough in on himself.

  She chuckled. “Sorry, Ryan,” Heidi said out loud. “That thing’s not coming off. They’re going to have to bury you in it.”

  He twitched at her words.

  “Oops. I forgot about the microphone. Sorry about that.”

  He was wearing a wireless headset. He had a written list of instructions, too, clutched in one hand, but she’d decided to rig him for sound as well. It would be nice to give him directions on the fly if any good ideas occurred to her. Keep everyone guessing.

  On the other half of the screen, she had a view of the outside of the shabby little rental house.

  There were at least a dozen police cars, parked at what they probably thought was a safe distance, in case of an explosion. A gray SUV held the FBI team. The tall, good-looking man, and the two women. The man, she wasn’t interested in. It was the dynamic of the two female agents she was keeping an eye on.

  Sun Ming, she’d picked because she’d bought into the woman’s own hype. Winter Black, it looked like, was the better agent. Could she play them off each other somehow? The unflappable Special Agent Black, and the ego-tripping Special Agent Ming? It would be interesting to find out.

  She checked her watch. Three minutes to nine.

  It had been easier than she’d expected to get Ryan into the collar bomb. She’d built it based on the specs for the original that she’d found online, with just a few modifications. The original caused only minimum damage, limited to the man who wore it. This one, though, would take out Ryan and anyone unfortunate enough to be close to him. A specially added shrapnel case would add additional
pain and suffering to bystanders.

  She’d taken the original design, built like a large handcuff with attached explosives, and improved upon it.

  The only dicey moment had been when she’d brought it into the room she’d kept Ryan in. She had to somehow get him to sit still long enough for her to put it on him while making sure he felt threatened enough to cooperate. That had been accomplished with the help of the remote—not yet activated, though he didn’t know that—and the fact that he’d been weak and woozy from the loss of blood from his arm.

  It was a good thing that Ryan was proving to be such a wuss. He had no way of knowing that he’d already blown his best chance of escape. She wished she’d taken the time to tell him that when she’d seen him for the last time.

  During the last few days, she’d discovered that she liked to see desperation and fear in a person. It was more fun than viewing those emotions filtered through a camera.

  He’d been such a good boy when he’d been fitted for his necklace, she’d even let him use the bathroom. A minor detail she’d forgotten. Oops.

  Now, she could see him stand up. Cautiously start to pace. She smiled. He knew she held his life in her hands. He also knew she was going to destroy it. The rest of his life could very well be counted in minutes at this point.

  He never should have pretended to seduce her. The fact that she’d fallen for his moves, letting him get her drunk like that…she flushed at the memory. He deserved every second of pain and fear he was going to experience. She’d drag it out forever, if she could.

  At nine o’clock exactly, Agent Ming got out of the car and took out a bullhorn.

  “Ryan O’Connelly,” she could hear through Ryan’s headset. “This is the FBI and the Erie police. Come out of the house slowly, with your hands in the air.”

  Ryan started to move, but hesitated.

  “Go ahead,” Heidi encouraged, speaking directly to him through the headset. “Let’s get this show on the road.”

  He went to the front door, and she could see his hands shaking as he reached for the doorknob. Good. She wanted him terrified. Completely compliant.

  “There’s no hope for you, Ryan. Better just get it all over with,” she crooned in his ear.

  She switched cameras, so that she had the outdoor view pulled up, and the surveillance camera on the road outside of her current location. There was no way they could have tracked her, and she’d be long gone before they could, but it paid to be safe.

  Ryan was on the front porch now.

  “Go ahead,” she ordered. “Tell them what the first item on your honey-do list is.”

  She adjusted the volume of her own headset when his voice boomed out. “I’m supposed to rob a NBG bank.”

  “I see you, Ryan,” Heidi laughed. “Knock that off.”

  He’d mouthed the words “help me” to the officers. Not very subtlety, either.

  “You have a headset on,” Agent Black called out. “Can Heidi Presley hear us right now?”

  “Tell them ‘yes, I can.’ And they’d better not try to stall this out, or I’m going to get impatient. My button pushing finger gets twitchy when I’m impatient.”

  He repeated her message to the group.

  Then, Heidi had an idea. “Tell them I want Agent Black to drive you to the NBG.”

  She watched the reactions of the agents intently. Agent Ming looked angry. The big, dumb guy started shaking his head right away and took a protective step toward Agent Black. Interesting.

  Time to stoke the embers a bit. “Tell them this isn’t negotiable. Agent Ming is incompetent and useless. She’s compromised the investigation from the beginning, withholding information, by the way. Agent Black is the one I want.”

  Ryan relayed the information, word for word.

  It was gratifying to watch Agent Ming turn pale and then practically vibrate in fury. Her scowl was immediate, and though the man tried to intervene, she got up into the other agent’s face, hissing something at her. Agent Black shoved her back, and Heidi wished she could hear what they were saying.

  It was like watching a soap opera, she thought. Regular people and their petty dramas were so predictable. Next step, catfight.

  But the two got themselves under control. Agent Black was saying something to her team in an undertone, and neither of her co-workers looked happy about it.

  “We’re taking my car, Heidi,” she called out. “O’Connelly, let’s go.”

  The local officers gave Ryan a wide berth when he slowly, carefully walked down the stairs. He acted like any wrong move would turn him into a human fireball. He wasn’t far off.

  Heidi watched, delighted, as Agent Black held the door of a black sedan open for him, looking like a chauffeur. He slid into the seat, and she walked around the front of the car. Before she got in, she looked back at the house. Directly into the camera Heidi had mounted above the front door, which should have been damned near invisible.

  Agent Black gave a small wave and smiled. It was like she could see through the camera. Just like in the house in Saint Ignace, with the hiding spot under the floorboards. She’d known immediately that the stash was there, and that it had been rigged to explode.

  Heidi’s good mood faltered at the reminder.

  She stroked the button on the remote she held. She could push it now. End it.

  It wouldn’t be the big finale she’d hoped for, though.

  No, she decided. Carry it through. Stick with the original plan. But when she did push the button, she’d make sure that Agent Black was nearby.

  The freaky bitch.

  31

  Noah was furious.

  He was pissed off at Winter, who should know better than to put herself in direct danger like she had. Again. Pissed off at Sun for letting her. And pissed off at himself for not putting a stop to it.

  He’d also seen her little wave. Of course, the house would be rigged with cameras so Heidi could watch Ryan’s last performance. She was deliberately goading a killer, while simultaneously loading the next victim into her car. The car that she would get into and drive.

  If she lived, he might well decide to kill her himself.

  “That was bullshit,” he said, his voice hoarse with stifled anger. “Some ‘case agent.’ I can’t believe you let things go down like that.”

  Sun looked away from the road for a moment. They were first in line in the convoy, following the rental car to NBG bank. “I’m not any happier about it than you are, being called out like that in front of the local cops.”

  “You are so self-centered,” Noah burst out. “I was talking about letting Winter climb into that car with a suspect, wired to blow at the touch of a psychopath’s button!”

  “I knew what you meant.” Sun sighed. “But, as much as it pains me to say it, Winter’s hunch was right. Heidi is trying to play us off each other for her own entertainment. We need to let her think it’s working. Keep her distracted from everything else that will be happening.”

  “Everything else.” He snorted. “That’s another thing. There are so many variables in this plan we cooked up that it’ll be a miracle if it doesn’t go south before we even get started. Too much shit could go wrong.”

  Sun’s dark eyes were sympathetic, and a little sad, when she gave him a sidelong look. “You really like her, huh?”

  “We’re friends.”

  “That’s not what everyone was saying after you guys went to Harrisonburg together.”

  “Not important right now, Sun.”

  He stared out the window at the outlines of the passengers in the car in front of them. Winter Black, FBI agent, and Ryan O’Connelly, acclaimed international art and jewelry thief. Off to rob a bank together. They looked so normal. Like two people carpooling on the way to work or going out to breakfast together. Except, of course, for the way the bomb he wore around his neck threw off his silhouette.

  And it was starting to snow. Big, fat flakes that stuck wetly to every surface. Lake effect snow, off of Lake Erie
. The local news channel was calling for over a foot of it to fall today. That could help or hurt their operation. Which one, remained to be seen.

  Too many variables.

  Like now, for example. What if the car hit an icy spot? Went off the road? Would the bomb explode on impact like that? Unconsciously, Noah pulled his worn deck of cards from the pocket of his shirt and began shuffling. The whisper and fluttering sound of the cards failed to soothe his nerves like they usually did.

  He was glad that Sun was driving. He’d never be able to focus on keeping the vehicle on the road.

  “She’ll be okay, Dalton.” The words were quiet and certain.

  There was another thing that was pissing him off. Sun was so fucking calm about the whole thing. Winter, too. He was the only one whose guts were in a tangle right now.

  “You’d better hope so, darlin,’” Noah replied grimly.

  It wasn’t a word of caution. It was a threat.

  Ryan could smell the acrid scent of his own fear. It was cold, the temperature hovering around the twenties outside, but his armpits were drenched with sweat.

  He tried to control his harsh breathing. It echoed in the silent car, and he knew Heidi could hear him. Was feeding off of his fear.

  The woman driving looked over at him and smiled.

  She hadn’t said a word since they’d gotten in the car, but every once in a while, she’d glance at him and give him one of those calm, soothing smiles. He tried to grin back, flirt a little, like the old Ryan O’Connelly would have, but it fell flat. His face felt like it was contorting into more of a grimace than anything.

  The metal contraption on his neck was heavy. The wires—blue, red, green, black—he could see out of his peripheral vision. The weight, he imagined, was tightly packed explosive material, ready to end his life. With every heartbeat, he was afraid something he was going to do—or a whim of Heidi’s—would set it off.

  The past week or so had been a revelation to him. He was a coward. He didn’t want to die, but death didn’t care. It was coming for him.