Helpless

by Daniel Palmer

  Tom heard the emotion in Roland’s voice. A weakness in his resolve, perhaps.

  “Did Mitchell kill Lindsey? You want to pin this on me, is that it?”

  “Kids can make stupid mistakes,” Roland said. “You and I both know that.”

  “Roland, you don’t have to do this. There’s another way. We can come up with something.”

  Silence.

  Tom’s heart pounded in his chest. Jill had come back to her senses and was struggling again. But Dee held her fast.

  Roland spoke. “There’s no other way, Tom. This cleans it all up. Nobody will investigate anything now. It’ll all fall on you. You’re the guy running the sexting ring. You killed Lindsey to silence a witness. You realized all the lives you ruined. You took decisive action.”

  “The angle of your shot won’t be right,” Tom said. “Forensics will pick up on that.”

  “Won’t happen. I know where to hit you. But if it isn’t, I’ve got the connections to make questions go away.”

  “What about the gun? Where’d I get it? Did you think of that?”

  “You stole it. Stole it from me, in fact. When you broke into my house. The police report’s already been filed.”

  “Why wouldn’t I use my own gun?”

  Roland laughed. “You know, I thought you’d have one, being a SEAL and all. But we looked. When you were at Marvin’s funeral, Frank searched all through your house. He found the knife and put that where the police would find it. But no gun to be found.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong, Roland—”

  “Good-bye, Tom. I really am sorry it came to this.”

  “I do have a gun.” Tom fell sideways. In a single motion, he reached behind his back and pulled a gun from the waistband of his sodden jeans. The gun was remarkably well preserved, even though it had lain hidden beneath the water for fifteen years. For fifteen years, the gun had been sealed inside a waterproof dry bag. Its only companion was a stash of drugs that a young Tom Hawkins couldn’t allow to get wet and ruined.

  The gun was a Beretta M9. An army private named Kip Lange had used it during a robbery gone bad. It had been fired only twice. On his way back to the Spot, Tom had checked the gun over for corrosion, to see if it still had a chance of firing. The bullets, four in total, were dry and lodged inside the magazine. Tom believed the gun would fire. But he didn’t have any proof. Just as Rainy believed in his innocence but lacked the proof. Just as Jill believed in her father enough to trust him again. Tom believed the gun would fire.

  And so he pulled the trigger as he fell. There was a flash. An explosion and burst of light followed. The recoil from the thrust as the bullet dislodged from the barrel.

  There was his proof.

  The first bullet slammed into Roland’s shoulder. The second shot hit him in the leg. Roland fell to the ground with a thud.

  Frank Dee did exactly what Tom expected of him. He acted to remove the immediate threat. Dee pulled his gun away from Jill and pointed the weapon at Tom. Tom fired two quick shots before Dee got off one.

  The first bullet hit Dee in his firing hand. Dee’s gun fell to the ground as a splash of blood sprayed out from the fresh wound like a burst of red fireworks. Tom’s second shot could have been a kill shot. He had the time and skill to take aim and hit the target. But killing was in his past. So the bullet that could have flattened Dee’s skull instead tore through the man’s abdomen. Blood spurted from that hole as well. Dee fell backward to the ground.

  Jill sprinted to her father as Dee was falling. Dee landed on the ground, groaning and clutching at his wounds. Tom doubted he’d hit any vital organs. Dee would live. Roland would live, too.

  Killing was in his past.

  Jill stumbled as she ran. Tom got to his feet and wrapped his daughter in his frozen arms. He removed the gag covering her mouth and unbound her wrists. She was hyperventilating. Couldn’t speak. She clutched Tom like a life preserver that she couldn’t grip tightly enough.

  Tom went over to Roland, who was still on the ground. He dropped the Beretta into the duffel bag, then retrieved Roland’s gun, which had fallen nearby. He stared down at Roland, who was writhing in pain and covered in blood and dirt. He heard Dee groaning, too. Both threats were neutralized.

  Jill kept clutched to her father’s waist. She was shivering. But he was hot with adrenaline.

  “If all you wanted were the drugs, why didn’t you make any demands?” Tom said to Roland. His speech came out rapid and breathless. “Why’d you frame me for having an affair with Lindsey? Why make it look like I was running a sexting ring, but never try to blackmail me into giving up where I hid them? It doesn’t make sense. I need to know why you did it.”

  “Wouldn’t you ... like to know . . .” Roland’s words came out in spurts. He licked at his shivering lips to wet them. His breathing, labored and heavy, accentuated the rise and fall of his heaving chest.

  “Yeah, I get it. You’ve got people who do it for you,” Tom said, kneeling beside Roland. “You’ve got Cortland. But my question is why?” Tom dug the barrel of the gun into the bloody mess he made of Roland’s shoulder. Roland shrieked out in pain.

  “It wasn’t me!” he yelled. “I didn’t do it.”

  “Bullshit,” Tom said, using the barrel to poke around for the actual bullet hole.

  “I swear ... it wasn’t me... . I didn’t set you up... .”

  Tom heard footsteps approach.

  “Tom? Are you there? Tom?”

  Tom looked in the direction of the voice. He saw a flashlight beam dance in the darkness. A figure emerged from the path that led to the Spot. Moonlight helped Tom to see the woman who had spoken. The voice that had come from the woods.

  Adriana Boyd.

  Chapter 83

  “Adriana, what are you doing here?”

  “Oh, Tom,” Adriana said, racing over to him. She put a hand on his shoulder. “I found out everything. Mitchell told me everything. That’s how I knew you were here.”

  Tom stood and pulled Jill up with him. “What’s going on, Adriana?”

  “Roland is the one who framed you,” Adriana said. “Roland’s been framing people for sex crimes for years. I didn’t want to believe it. But the FBI came to arrest Mitchell. He confessed to everything.”

  Tom kept Jill close beside him. “Are the police on their way?”

  “Yes,” Adriana said. “They’re coming.”

  Adriana circled the chaos about them with her flashlight beam. She shone her light on the opened duffel bag.

  “What’s going on?” Adriana said. “What’s in the bag?”

  “That’s what Roland is after. It’s millions of dollars’ worth of heroin that I smuggled out of Germany.”

  “You?”

  “Kelly and Kip Lange stole the drugs. Kelly used me as a mule. Roland orchestrated the whole heist, but Kelly never knew Roland was the man behind the scenes.”

  “I see... .”

  Adriana strolled over to Frank Dee. Dee writhed on the ground, clutching at his bleeding abdomen. Adriana picked up Dee’s gun. She hefted it in her hands, pointed the gun at Dee’s head, and pulled the trigger.

  Dee’s skull exploded in a spray of blood. Red droplets and fragments of bone lit by the moonlight fell to the ground like rain.

  “Adriana!” Tom shouted. “What are you doing?”

  Adriana turned and pointed Dee’s gun at Tom.

  “Put your gun down, Tom,” she said, her voice calm and eerily detached. “This doesn’t concern you. But it will if you don’t toss me that gun.”

  Jill clung tightly to her father. Tom tossed his weapon at Adriana’s feet. He didn’t set the safety, hoping the gun might accidentally discharge and startle Adriana. It would be enough for him to gain the advantage. To Tom’s displeasure, the gun landed with a wholly unsatisfying thud.

  “Walk away. Stand over there.” Adriana motioned for Tom and Jill to move toward the quarry’s edge. She had the gun, so Tom followed her rules.

  A
driana walked over to Roland as calmly as she had approached the now very dead Frank Dee. She stood over her injured husband. Tom and Jill huddled together only a few feet from where Roland lay. Adriana had smartly positioned herself so that Tom and Jill stood directly in front of her, with Roland in the middle. She’d be able to get off a shot quicker than Tom and Jill could get to the trees.

  But the woods weren’t their only escape option.

  Tom took a small step backward.

  “Roland,” Adriana said, poking at Roland with her feet. “Are those drugs?”

  “Adriana, help me... .”

  “You’re dealing drugs, too? On top of destroying innocent people’s lives, you’re also a drug dealer?”

  “Please ... Adriana ... help... .”

  “I didn’t frame Tom because of greed. I did it to save our son,” Adriana said, the tone of her voice pure venom.

  “You framed me?” Tom said incredulously. “It wasn’t Roland? It was you?”

  Adriana seemed to forget about her husband for a moment. “Tom, dear Tom ... I’m truly sorry. I can’t tell you how sorry I am.”

  “Why?”

  “To protect my family. To save my son. Someone had to take the fall. You.”

  Tom was shivering. He held Jill close to him for warmth. Tom wanted to keep Adriana talking, buy himself time. He made Jill take another small step backward.

  “But why frame me?”

  “You fit the suit,” Adriana said. “You worked with girls. You’ve been the soccer coach for years. You’re handsome. Girls are attracted to you. It was believable. Simple as that. I knew eventually the police would come after Mitchell. And eventually they did.”

  “You did this all just to protect your son? He’s a criminal. You’d destroy my life to save his?”

  “I already lost one son. I couldn’t just stand idle and watch Mitchell throw his life away. But before you judge me,” Adriana said, “ask yourself this. How far would you go to save your daughter?”

  Putting all the pressure she could manage on the gas pedal, Rainy couldn’t make her sedan go a mile faster. The lone red strobe light on the roof of her car warned what little traffic she encountered on the quiet streets of Shilo to stay out of her way. Carter made sure he had the GPS coordinates entered right. They didn’t trust Mitchell Boyd to give them directions. But the closer they got, the more it seemed that Mitchell had told them the truth. Mitchell had insisted his mother would be at this place called the Spot, and his father, too. She had to believe that Tom and Jill would be there as well. If Mitchell told the truth about one thing, he was confessing to it all.

  Rainy’s police radio crackled. Carter replied to the state police inquiry with their current location.

  “ETA is about five minutes,” Carter said to Rainy.

  “That might be five minutes too late,” Rainy said.

  Roland groaned.

  “Secrets ... ,” Adriana said, looking down at him. “We kept so many secrets. I guess both Roland and I did what we believed was best to protect what we had. We knew the same horrible truth about our son but didn’t tell each other. Instead, we tried to fix it.” Adriana pointed Dee’s gun at Roland’s head.

  “Adriana, what are you doing?” Tom cried.

  “You disgust me,” Adriana said to Roland. “I did everything I could to save our son. And you? You’re dealing in the same crap that killed my Stephen. Were you just going to peddle this garbage to somebody else’s kid? You’re a callous, sick man, and the reason Stephen is dead.”

  “Adriana ... help... .”

  “Did my son murder Lindsey Wells? Is my Mitchell a killer?”

  “No ... no ... Lindsey was alive when Mitchell brought her to me,” Roland said, struggling to speak. “But she had to die. You understand. To save our son, she had to die.”

  “You killed her?” Adriana asked.

  “No. It was Dee. I had Dee kill her. Adriana, please ... we can fix things.”

  “Nothing can be fixed,” Adriana said. “But maybe I can start over.” She knelt down, placing the barrel of Dee’s gun inches from Roland’s head.

  “Good-bye, Roland,” she said.

  Adriana pulled the trigger.

  Chapter 84

  Adriana stood from her crouched position quicker than Tom anticipated. Even so, he was ready to act. He’d been whispering in Jill’s ear while Adriana kept herself occupied with Roland. Jill assured him she was ready. She squeezed Tom’s hand with a strength he didn’t realize his daughter possessed.

  Adriana raised her gun higher. Her face, savage with a gruesome covering of blood splatter, contorted into a vicious snarl.

  “I’m sorry, Tom. I’m going to have to disappear. I don’t see any other way.” She aimed the weapon at Jill.

  Tom shoved Jill backward, hard as he could, coiling and uncoiling his hips to enhance his leverage. Jill’s feet lifted off the ground. Tom prayed they had taken enough backward steps that he could shove her far enough out to clear the railroad ties below. He dove to his right at the same instant Adriana fired her shot. Tom heard the bullet slice through the air, then a loud splash. Tom rolled twice, getting closer to Adriana with each revolution.

  Please ... please be all right, he thought.

  Another shot rang out. Then another. Pop! Pop! Tom rolled again and, in a single motion, sprang back to his feet, within striking distance of his target. Tom didn’t attack right away. He couldn’t make his decisive move until he knew for certain Jill was safe.

  The delay gave Adriana precious seconds to get herself reoriented. She aimed the gun point-blank at Tom’s chest.

  Finally, Tom heard what he’d been waiting for.

  “Green! Green!”

  Jill’s songbird voice echoed off the quarry walls and filled Tom’s heart. He lunged at Adriana, clutching her in his arms before she could get off a third shot. They grappled together, spinning around several times, as though in a frenzied dance. Tom lost his grip on Adriana’s arm. He felt the gun barrel digging into his abdomen. Tom somehow maneuvered them close to the edge of the quarry. He kept hold of Adriana as he fell backward. They tumbled over the lip of the quarry’s steep cliff with their arms wrapped tightly around each other.

  Time slowed. Tom sensed himself floating above the water. The darkness below appeared infinite, and their bodies felt weightless. The fall shouldn’t have taken Tom by surprise, but it did. A ripping wind howled in his ears as he plummeted downward, shattering the momentary stillness. As Tom fell, he heard Adriana’s loud screams puncturing the night, and the explosion of a gun.

  Rainy reached the path before the others. She sprinted ahead of Carter, who didn’t have nearly enough leg strength to keep pace. Off in the distance, Rainy heard the sound of sirens, screeching as though the whole town of Shilo were on fire. She could hear cars pulling to a quick stop, doors opening, then slamming shut. She heard the sputter of radios crackling as more sirens arrived. She pushed ahead, sprinting at full speed with her gun drawn. She felt dizzy with adrenaline. Her thoughts were spinning.

  Why had Adriana left Mitchell? Why did Roland bring Tom to the Spot? Where was Lindsey Wells?

  Rainy broke free of the woods and stumbled into the clearing. It was just as Mitchell had described. She looked around and saw two bodies on the ground. She heard a gunshot, followed by a splash.

  Still falling, Tom heard Jill cry out from somewhere in the water below, “Dad! No!”

  The railroad ties, the ones Tom had prayed Jill would clear, emerged from the darkness like a predator about to strike. Tom struck the water and twisted his body to avoid a direct hit. He heard the sickening crack of bone, felt Adriana’s skull crack against his own. Blood splatter sprayed his face like seawater called up from a fast-moving boat.

  Tom floated in the water, clutching Adriana’s limp body in his arms. It wasn’t just the cold water making it hard for Tom to breathe. No, something else was wrong. A spot on his abdomen felt exquisitely sore to the touch.

  Tom suddenl
y knew why he’d begun to sink. Water filled his nostrils. He gagged to clear his airway, but the pain felt worse than drowning.

  Tom’s body bobbed vertically in the water, as if he were climbing the rungs of an invisible ladder. His mouth angled for each struggling breath. He let the water fill him up and pull him under.

  His muscles were tiring. Any moment now.

  Drowning wasn’t anything like the movies or TV portrayed it to be. It was far more terrifying, because no overt signals, like splashing or frantic hand waving, warned of any peril. Drowning, Tom knew, was a far more cerebral experience. But no matter how people imagined a drowning victim suffered, in the end everyone died the same way: the heart simply stopped beating.

  Tom’s limp body sank into a free fall. He made several hard kicks, fighting to surface against the decreased mobility of his denim jeans. His lungs were afire. His chest felt as if it were being squeezed by a bone-crunching weight.

  He felt a sudden pull on his shirt. His whole body jerked upward. His body jerked again. Instead of sinking, Tom felt himself starting to rise. Tom broke the surface, the fire in his burning lungs extinguished with that first blessed breath of air. He began to tread water. He could feel the blood rushing out the bullet hole in his stomach. He saw Jill treading water beside to him. She was holding on to his shirt. A body, floating facedown nearby, had to be Adriana. He could see the depression where the railroad tie had crushed her skull.

  Tom felt another tug on his shirt, followed by the sensation of being pulled. Jill was swimming for the shoreline. And she was dragging him with her.

  Tom felt the rocks and sand of the shoreline pricking at his neck and arms. He could see the moon and the stars above him. The world was spinning. The last words Tom heard before he lost consciousness repeated in his fast-fading thoughts.

  “Don’t you die on me, Dad! Don’t you dare die!”