Wes stared at her. “That’s not how it was at all.”
“He was mine,” she went on, acting like she hadn’t heard him. “He loved me. He was going to marry me.” She locked eyes with Wes. “I was pregnant. Did you know that? It was Jack’s baby. Our baby. We were going to get married in the spring, then move away after graduation. But that never happened. My own sister ripped that from me.”
“What are you taking about? She was raped!”
“Whatever happened out there, she wanted it! She asked for it! Hell, she probably even begged for it!” Dori breathed heavily for several seconds, her chest heaving. Finally she seemed to calm down at bit. “I spent a whole month crying and worrying about Jack. Where had he gone? Why hadn’t anyone found him? I guess with all that, it wasn’t a surprise I lost my baby. Then I had nothing. I confided in Mandy. She hadn’t known I’d been pregnant; I’d been keeping that a secret. I thought she’d be sympathetic. I thought she’d do what sisters are supposed to do. But instead she got angry. She told me her lies about what happened that night at the party. She called Jack a monster. She said that she was glad he was gone and never coming back. I don’t think she even realized her mistake, but I caught it immediately.”
“They weren’t lies,” Wes said.
“Of course that’s what you’d say. I wouldn’t expect anything less. You know how I got her to tell me what happened?”
Wes shook his head.
“I pretended like I believed her. I acted like I also thought Jack was this animal she was claiming him to be. She was eager to tell me everything. And when she was done, I knew she would have to pay.”
Even if Wes wanted to move at that moment, he couldn’t. He was riveted to the stone, shocked beyond anything he’d ever felt before. “So you killed her?”
“It was simple, really. I knew which day it needed to happen, the anniversary of Jack’s death. So I made sure things worked out that she was home alone that afternoon. All I had to do was crush some of Mom’s sleeping pills into a can of soda, then fill up the tub, and make sure Mandy stayed under. The only hard part was carrying her ass from the living room into the bathroom after she passed out.” A pause, then a tilt of the head. “I helped her on her way. Like what you did with Jack.” She extended her arm, aiming the barrel of her gun at Wes’s head. “Now put the girl down. No more wasting time.”
Wes had to force himself to move. He turned and scanned the immediate area, looking for a good spot to set Anna down.
“Right there’s fine,” Dillman said, pointing at the ground directly behind Wes.
Wes pretended like the spot Dillman had indicated was a little farther back, so that Anna would be that much farther from whatever was about to happen.
“I said right there!” the man yelled.
“Okay, okay,” Wes said.
As he knelt down he squeezed her again. Once she was on the ground, he bent over her to give her a kiss on the cheek. He whispered, “Count to one hundred, then get up quietly and get away. I’ll distract them.”
Again she tensed.
He knew she wanted to protest, so he added, “Just do it,” then stood back up.
“Saying your goodbyes?” Dori asked.
“You could have killed me years ago. I would have been easy enough to find.”
“But I wasn’t around. See, Michael joined the Army when I married him. Got stationed on the East Coast. Then we spent some time in Germany and a few other fun places. Didn’t come back here until he got out a couple years ago. By then I was willing to forget all about you. Besides, I didn’t leave you completely unscarred.”
“What do you mean?”
She snorted. “Let’s just say killing you will be a lot easier than killing your dad.”
Wes felt suddenly weak. It was all he could do to keep from falling to the ground. “What?”
“Mandy wasn’t the only one unable to keep a promise. After she told me what happened, I used to go out to the mine to be close to Jack. One day your dad shows up, and I realized you had to have told him, too. He never saw me, though, but I saw him. So I started keeping a close eye on him. He came back several times. It finally dawned on me he was planning on moving Jack. I couldn’t have that. So on the night it looked like he was going to do it, I followed him again, planning on stopping him in the act. He showed up with a truck full of gear, but instead of starting, he seemed to be waiting for someone. When whoever it was didn’t show up, he left.”
Lars, Wes realized. He would have been the only one his father could have trusted to help him. That’s why “Pudge” had been on his schedule. But why move the body?
“I knew he’d try again, and there was no way I could watch him all the time. I couldn’t wait any longer.” She paused, a self-satisfied smile on her face. “So I knocked on your front door after he got home. I said I was your friend, and asked if I could use the phone because my car was giving me trouble. It was easy enough after that. Once he was knocked out, I drove his car out to Nine Mile Canyon, and Michael followed in mine. You know the rest. The next week Michael enlisted, and I went with him.”
“You bitch,” Wes said.
“I wasn’t the one who started the killings. You were.” She raised her gun. “Now move it. You know where I want you.”
Yes. He did.
LARS WAS DOING EIGHTY WITHOUT A HELMET as he passed the city limits east of town. It was another mile before he saw the flashing lights in his side-view mirror. But while the cop car was slowly gaining, it wasn’t going fast enough to catch up anytime soon.
Lars eased off the throttle. The bike had more to give, but losing the cop was not something he wanted to do. If he was right about where Wes was, it would take the cops a good twenty minutes to get there after he called them. At least this way there would be one squad car with him already. The trick was to remain a tantalizing target. So far, so good.
The problem was he had never personally driven out to the Rocks. The few times he’d gone had all been back in high school, and on each trip Wes had been driving. So it wasn’t surprising he almost overshot the turnoff. As it was, he ended up leaving a long skid mark on the highway to keep from missing it. Once he’d finished the turn, he stopped on the dirt road, engine idling.
Lars knew he had a decision to make. Guess, and chance being wrong, or wait until he was sure, and chance being too late. Hell, I could already be too late.
He pulled out his phone and saw that the reception indicator was down to two bars. If he went much farther, the signal would be gone altogether. It looked like he didn’t have a choice, after all.
He was halfway through his phone call when the police cruiser pulled to a stop across the mouth of the road. There was only one man in the car. He immediately jumped out, his hand hovering above his gun.
“Step away from your vehicle!” the officer ordered.
“Have you got my location?” Lars said into the phone.
“Got it,” Janice said.
“You know what to do,” he said. “I’ve gotta go.”
“Sir, I’ll tell you only one more time,” the cop said, stepping toward Lars.
Lars stuffed the phone in his pocket.
The cop was only ten feet away now. “Get off the motorcycle.”
“No time,” Lars said. “We’ve got to get out there.” He pointed in the direction of the Rocks.
“Sir, keep your hands where I can see them,” the cop ordered, his own hand now resting on the butt of his gun.
“Listen, Officer. My name is Lieutenant Commander Lars Andersen. There is a crime happening out—”
“I don’t care who you are. Get off the motorcycle now!”
“Listen to me,” Lars said. “There’s been a kidnapping. There are people in serious trouble. I need you to follow me.”
“Sir. Don’t—”
“Call the station, they’re already expecting to hear from me. Tell them to send everyone they can to the Drama Rocks.”
Lars put the bike into gear
and took off, not waiting to see what the cop decided to do.
WES MOVED OUT ONTO THE FLATTOP ROCK where he and Jack had fought, and from where Jack had fallen to his death years before. It resembled a wide plank, and now it was his turn to walk it.
In his head he had been keeping count. He was up to forty-six. In less than sixty seconds, Anna should be making her move. He couldn’t think about what had happened to Mandy, or Jack Rice, or, dear God, his father. He needed to keep Dori’s and Michael’s attention fully on him long enough for Anna to get away. Once she was safe, he’d be able to relax. It wouldn’t matter what they did to him. At least Anna would have a chance.
“Move to the edge,” Dori said.
Wes held his position.
“I said move.” She raised her gun to emphasize her point.
“Shoot me and you ruin your whole I-killed-the-commander scenario,” Wes said.
“I shoot you, it just looks like you guys got into a gunfight.”
Fifty-nine.
Wes took a small step toward the drop-off. “You really think people are going to believe I did this?”
“You’re already having problems with the cops. You told me that yourself.”
Sixty-five.
“My friends will know it’s not true. They won’t let it go.”
“Your friends will be back in Los Angeles before the end of the week. And in a month, they’ll have forgotten all about you.”
Michael Dillman was still too close to Anna.
Wes took a step in his direction. “You willing to go to jail for this?”
“Get back,” Dori said.
Wes stared at Dori’s husband. “Well?”
“She said get back,” Dillman told him.
Wes didn’t budge.
Eighty. Almost time.
Dillman moved the barrel of his gun a couple of inches back and forth.
“Is that supposed to scare me?” Wes asked.
“I don’t care what it does.”
Ninety-four.
“Now get back.”
Then, to drive the point home, Dillman took three large steps toward Wes.
One hundred.
Wes held up his hands and moved back to where he’d been before. “Better?”
Behind Dillman, Anna stirred. First she turned her head a few inches and opened her eyes. Then she pushed up and got silently to her feet.
“So after I jump, then what?” Wes said.
“What then doesn’t matter,” Dori said. “Not to you.”
Anna was leaning a little to the side, still unsteady from whatever she had been given.
Run, Wes thought. Get out of here.
She righted herself and looked like she was about to do just that.
“Two ways to do this,” Dori said. “You jump or we shoot you. I’ll let you choose.”
Dillman smiled. “Bet we have to shoot him.”
Anna had stopped.
Get out of here!
“I’ll … I’ll jump,” Wes said.
A look of horror swept across Anna’s face.
“You’ve got ten seconds, then we shoot,” Dori said.
“I’ll go, I’ll go,” Wes said, hoping Anna would get his hint to move it.
“I don’t see you falling,” Dori said.
Wes took a step back to the very edge of the rock.
“No!” Anna screamed.
Both Dori and Dillman whipped around.
Without thinking, Wes charged forward, crashing into Dillman. They fell to the ground, the man’s head knocking against the surface of the boulder. Wes pushed Dillman hard, grinding his head into the stone.
Dori’s attention had been on Anna, so she didn’t react until she heard the two men hit the rock. Training her gun on Anna, she swiveled her head to see what had happened.
But by then Wes was already on his feet and headed her way.
Dori tried to bring the gun around, but he got there first, and he wrapped his arms around her, going for the weapon. The impact caused her finger to twitch. The gun fired, the sound near deafening at such a close range.
Dori screamed out in anger as Wes grabbed at her wrist, fighting for control of her pistol. She twisted and turned under his arms, trying to force him to let go, but he held on tight.
Another gunshot. Not quite as loud, and not quite as near.
Wes twisted around, looking in the direction of the noise.
Swaying slightly, face bloodied, Dillman was aiming his weapon at the rocks where Anna had been standing. For half a second Wes thought she’d been hit, but her body wasn’t lying on the ground. In fact, he couldn’t see her at all.
Dori took advantage of his distraction and slammed her shoulder into his chin. One of his hands slipped, and she rocked to her left, nearly freeing herself. But he quickly regained his grip and pulled her back against his chest.
“Michael, goddammit!” she yelled. “Help me!”
Dillman swiveled around and fired a shot.
Wes felt a hot, searing pain a split second before Dori winced. He knew instantly he’d been hit, the bullet entering through the fleshy part of his back on the lower left.
Dori moaned, then slipped downward.
Wes wrenched her back up, and twisted her around so that she was between him and Dillman, then easily ripped the gun out of her hand. It was then that he realized she’d been hit, too. The bullet must have passed all the way through him and into her.
A rock sailed out from behind some small boulders and clattered on the ground near Dillman’s feet. The big man whipped around to see where it had come from.
Wes had never shot a weapon in his life, but as Dillman raised his pistol in Anna’s direction, Wes squeezed the trigger of Dori’s gun.
Thunder rocked the desert as flames licked out of the end of the barrel.
Dillman fell face-first onto the ground, his gun clattering across the stone surface, then flying off the edge into the darkness.
“Michael!” Dori screamed as she wiggled free of Wes’s grasp. She staggered over to where Dillman lay, and fell to her knees. “Michael.” She put a hand against his motionless face, then let out a wail.
“Dori,” Wes yelled. “It’s over.”
Suddenly she was on her feet again, rushing at Wes, a scream of fury spilling from her mouth.
With one arm wrapped around her side, she used the other to take a swing at Wes. He tried to back out of her range, but she kept coming as blood began to soak her shirt.
“You bastard!” she yelled. “You killed him!”
“Dori, stop,” he said.
“You killed him!”
“I had no choice,” he said.
“You pushed him off, because my goddamn sister told you to. You killed my baby. You bastard!”
It wasn’t Dillman she was talking about. It was Jack.
“Enough!” Wes yelled as another blow hit him on the arm. “Enou—”
A large hand clamped down on his shoulder and spun him around.
Dillman. He was a gut-shot mess, but alive. He pushed Wes into Dori, and made an awkward grab for the gun, but missed.
Wes whipped around and realized they were only a few feet from the edge of the rock. One good shove from Dillman and he and Dori would go over the side.
He tried to duck around the bigger man, but Dillman reached out and grabbed him.
Twisting left and right and left again, he struggled to get out of the man’s grasp. When he turned again, the butt of his gun knocked against Dillman’s hip and popped out of his hand, smacking against the rock.
Dillman let go of him and made a grab for the weapon.
But it was Dori, not her husband, who came up with the gun. She pointed it at Wes.
“You goddamn son of a bitch,” Dori spat. “It is over now.”
She staggered slightly from her wound, then took a step backward for balance. But she had misjudged her position, and her foot landed half on, half off the rock.
Her eyes went wide and her a
rms flew out as she fought to keep from falling.
Dillman tried to grab her, but instead of connecting with her hand, he knocked into her arm, stealing what little balance she had left.
With a face clouded in disbelief, Dori vanished over the edge.
DILLMAN FELL TO HIS KNEES, LOOKED OVER the drop, then collapsed to the ground.
“Dori!” he cried out. When he said her name again, his voice had weakened. There was no third time.
Wes knelt down and checked Dillman’s pulse. He was still alive. Barely.
His own energy waning, he sat down on the rock.
“You’re bleeding.” It was Anna. Her hand touched the wound on his back, then found similar damage around front. “Oh, God.”
“Went clean through,” he told her, panting a little. “Is that good?”
“We need to get you to a hospital.”
The thought of walking all the way back to the car was not an exciting one. He wasn’t even sure he could do it, but he knew he was going to have to try. Then he remembered …
“Dori’s got the car keys,” he said. “One of us … is going to have to climb down and … get them.”
“You stay here. I’ll do it.”
“Yeah. That’s probably best,” he said, trying to smile. But before she could move, he touched her on the leg. “What about … Forman? Is he dead?”
“I didn’t check.”
She rushed over to where the commander lay. “He’s still breathing. But there’s no way we’re going to be able to get him to the car.”
“Keys first,” Wes said. “We can worry about that … later.”
Maybe there was some old wood around here they could use to make a travois. Worst case, once they were within cellphone range, they could call for help.
As Anna moved off into the darkness, he tried to track her progress, but soon he could hear nothing but his own breathing and the sounds of the breeze in the brush. He considered scooting over to Forman, but he knew he needed to conserve his strength, so the commander was going to have to just hang in there on his own.
A memory came to him, of him and his father camping up at Kennedy Meadows. Just the two of them sitting by the fire while a couple of trout cooked in a pan over the flames.
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