King and Maxwell

by David Baldacci

  CHAPTER

  83

  SEAN AND MICHELLE IMMEDIATELY MOVED away from Grant and his explosive belt, but Brown stood rooted to the spot. “What are you doing here?” he said slowly.

  Grant pointed at Sean and Michelle. “Following them. Are you the one who stabbed me in the back, Curtis? Because without somebody’s help I don’t see how they could have done what they did.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Alan,” replied Brown, eyeing the detonator in his hand.

  Grant observed this. “Idiot switch. Fitting, actually, since I’ve learned this is what Wingo used in Afghanistan to escape. Otherwise, he would have been dead as planned and I wouldn’t be standing here now as a flesh-and-blood IED.” He eyed Brown. “Pity you didn’t have the intelligence about Wingo’s fail-safe, Curtis. But then again you’ve failed me in so many ways.”

  “It doesn’t have to end like this, Grant,” said Sean.

  Grant looked at him. “Nice to finally meet you face-to-face, Mr. King. We seem to communicate too much these days with texts and emails.” He paused, and his calm face finally showed a flash of anger.

  “Twenty-five years. A quarter century I’ve lived with this hurt, this shame. This injustice.”

  Michelle said, “But how exactly is it justice to kill a man who had nothing to do with your parents’ suicides?”

  “Well, I couldn’t kill the man in office at the time could I? Because he’s already dead. So it’s symbolism that matters, Ms. Maxwell. This all began with Iran and now it will end with Iran. Or at least that was the plan. President Cole’s heroic escape with your help apparently will allow him to suffer no consequences for his actions. The guilty once more go free and brave, honest people die.”

  “I was the one under the Potomac,” Michelle snapped.

  He looked directly at her. “I should have thought of the oxygen tanks being used as an explosive device, but I didn’t. I commend your ingenuity.” He gave a mock bow in their direction.

  “Is this how you want your family to see you go out, Grant?” asked Sean. “In a flame ball? Like a suicide bomber? You fought against those guys when you were in uniform. Now you’re taking a page from their book. Is that how you want to be remembered?”

  “My options are limited.”

  “I didn’t betray you, Alan,” said Brown.

  “I don’t believe you. I paid you well for your services. Was it too much to offer loyalty in return?”

  “I didn’t betray you,” shouted Brown.

  “He’s telling the truth, Grant,” interjected Sean. “We figured it out for ourselves. Wingo followed Jenkins to Vista Trading. That’s the link to you. We knew about what happened to your mom and dad. That was public information. That gave us the motive. We tracked your lease of the satellite through a shell company. Jenkins had purchased the cabin, which we found out from his computer records. By the way, the police found a shallow grave up there with the remains of Jean Shepherd.”

  “Another one who lost her way,” said Grant.

  “We were on to her,” said Michelle. “That’s why she ran.”

  “Then why are you here?” said Grant. “If not to hook back up with your confederate?”

  “We’re here to tell him why the FBI is going to be showing up here any minute,” said Sean. “To arrest him for being a co-conspirator with you to assassinate the president.” He stared at Grant. “What, did you think I slugged him because he’s my buddy?”

  Brown paled. “The FBI?”

  Sean looked at him. “Did you really think we just came over to blow a lot of hot air and then let you walk? The FBI used our intel to do their deep dig. They have the evidence to nail you to the wall.”

  “You’re lying,” barked Brown.

  “Now you know how it feels, Curtis, to have your life ruined,” said Grant.

  Brown turned to him. “Did you order the hit on Dana? Are you the reason she nearly died?”

  “She was working with these two. And what did you do? Blab to the bitch about Wingo. That was the betrayal.”

  “So you were just going to kill her? For that?”

  “I’ve killed for a lot less than that. Just like right now.”

  Sean said, “Grant, you don’t want to do this.”

  Grant hadn’t noticed that Michelle had edged close enough to strike.

  She hit him chest-high, her long, strong fingers clamping over the detonator, keeping the button pressed down. But Grant was also strong and agile. He spun around and threw her off. He had not anticipated the next attack, though.

  Curtis Brown screamed and hit Grant so hard the two men flew backward and crashed right through a window, toppling into the front yard.

  Sean grabbed Michelle from the floor, and they hurtled into the kitchen. He pushed her down and she landed on the floor and kept sliding. Sean threw himself forward and covered her body with his.

  When the C-4 detonated it blew out the entire front of the house. The walls collapsed and the roof toppled downward. Glass shards and other debris thick as fists hurtled in all directions.

  “Move, move, move!” shouted Sean. He grabbed Michelle’s hand and they burst out the back door, jumped off the deck, and ran across the back lawn. Sean gave her a leg up over the fence and then scrambled over it, too. He landed face-first in the grass on the other side at just the moment when the severed gas lines in Brown’s house erupted.

  In a blazing flash the entire house was leveled. The explosion was so huge that it blew out windows in the houses next to Brown’s even though each was over a hundred feet away and there were stands of trees in between. The remains of the destroyed house quickly caught fire.

  The fence Sean and Michelle were behind was impaled with glass and metal shards. Part of the top was sheared off.

  Michelle helped Sean up. “You okay?”

  He nodded, holding his hand at an odd angle. “But I think I fractured my hand,” he said.

  She dialed 911 and reported the explosion.

  “Is the FBI really on the way?” she asked him.

  He shook his head.

  She drew a long breath and leaned against a tree for support.

  “Is this sucker over yet?” she said, in a husky, drained voice.

  Sean shook his head.

  “One more to go.”

  CHAPTER

  84

  IT FELT LIKE THE LONGEST walk Sean King would ever have to take.

  The hospital corridor was mostly empty. Michelle was not with him. She was waiting outside in her Land Cruiser. She had offered to come with him, but this was something Sean had to do by himself. He had fractured his hand when he’d jumped over the fence. It was in a soft cast. He would take that over getting his head blown off.

  He turned down the last hall and proceeded to her room.

  Dana Brown had been stepped down to a regular hospital room. She was finally out of danger. She would make it. At least physically she would. Sean wasn’t sure about mentally.

  He knocked, heard her say “Come in,” then opened the door and stepped into the room.

  One look at her face told him all he needed to know. She had been told about her husband’s death and his involvement with Alan Grant. As he approached the bed Dana slowly sat up. They hugged for a long time. He let her cry and he felt the tears trickle out of his own eyes.

  When they drew apart he pulled up a chair and sat down next to her. He held her hand and watched her closely. She had aged much in the last few weeks. Anyone would have. But even though she’d been shot and had nearly died and now had lost her husband, he could see the woman he had fallen in love with all those years ago quite clearly defined and sitting in front of him.

  She said in a halting voice, “They said he didn’t suffer.”

  “He didn’t, Dana. It was over, well, it was over very quickly.”

  “And you were there?”

  “Yes. We’d gone to check up on Curtis when Alan Grant showed up.”

  “Alan Grant
. My husband’s partner in crime,” she added bitterly.

  “I don’t believe that Curtis knew what Grant was planning, Dana. He just got him some information on the mission in Afghanistan. Curtis just thought it was a robbery of government funds, and he was going to get his share.”

  “Still a criminal, Sean. I can’t believe he would do that. I really can’t.”

  “That much money makes for a lot of temptation. I’m not saying it wasn’t wrong, because it was. But I can understand the temptation.”

  “I guess I should too, considering how often I’ve succumbed to temptation in my life,” she said guiltily.

  “But the fact is I wouldn’t be here right now except for Curtis. He sacrificed his life for ours. Just like the soldier he was. He took Grant out and gave his life in doing it. So, yeah, he did some wrong things. Some really stupid things. But you have to give the man that. And I know that he wanted to kill Grant because Grant had hurt you, Dana. That’s why Curtis attacked him. He was avenging you.”

  She nodded, and more tears swept down her cheeks. “I know,” she said in a barely audible voice. “I know.”

  Sean held her for a while and let her cry, trying to absorb her body shudders, her grief, but he knew he really couldn’t.

  When Dana finally pulled back he said, “There was a reward posted for the capture of the people behind this. It’s been decided that you should have it, as Curtis’s widow.”

  She looked stunned. “But Sean, you and Michelle risked your lives to—”

  He squeezed her hand more tightly. “And Curtis sacrificed his life for us. And it’s more than enough money to take care of you for the rest of your days. You’ll never have to worry about finances, okay?”

  It had been difficult getting the appropriate parties to sign off on this. Many were reluctant to let Brown’s widow get anything, since he had been in on the crime. But Sean had pulled the biggest chit he had—a personal plea to President Cole. After he came on board, everyone else quickly followed.

  She put a shaky hand to her face and whisked some tears away. “That is very kind. Very generous.”

  “That takes care of the money part. But what about you?”

  She shrugged, her look one of bewilderment. “I don’t know. It’s hard to even think clearly right now.”

  “Of course it is. And you don’t have to think about it right now. What you have to do is get yourself well. You’ll be going to rehab soon. And I’m going to go there with you.” He held up his injured hand. She had evidently not noticed it before.

  “Oh my God, what happened?”

  “Just being clumsy. But we can rehab together, how does that sound?”

  “That sounds really good,” she said a bit breathlessly.

  “You’re not alone, Dana. Okay? You’re not alone.”

  She sat back in the bed. “You know, I always thought we’d have kids. A big family.”

  “Life doesn’t always work out the way you’d like. In fact, it almost never does. I wanted to pitch in the major leagues. Ended up being a human shield in a suit instead.”

  She turned her head to look at him.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “For what?”

  “You know for what, Sean. You know.”

  “Blame is a two-way street.”

  “I wish it were so, but not in this case.”

  He patted her hand.

  “You’re way too good to me,” she said.

  “You’re a good person.”

  “I’ve changed, you mean,” she said, a weak smile crossing her lips.

  “A good person,” Sean said softly.

  Later he walked back down the hall and left the hospital. The day was crisp and clear. He couldn’t see a cloud in the sky, when for the last couple of weeks he couldn’t remember not seeing them up there.

  He climbed into the Land Cruiser where Michelle was waiting.

  She said, “How did it go?”

  “As well as could be expected.”

  She put the car in gear.

  “You going to see her again?”

  He glanced across at her. “I told her we’d rehab together. My hand, her body.”

  “You think that’s wise?”

  His brow creased. “Why wouldn’t it be? She has nobody right now. She shouldn’t be alone.”

  “Don’t you think you might be giving her false hope?”

  “False hope of what?”

  “Of you two getting back together.”

  “Michelle, that is not going to happen.”

  “Does she know that?”

  “Well, if you mean did I tell her there is no chance in hell we were reconciling, no I didn’t. I thought the timing might be bad what with her husband just being blown up,” he added in a harsh tone.

  Michelle drove out of the parking lot. “Just saying is all. You might be setting her up for a greater hurt down the road.”

  “Is this female-speak that I’m somehow not understanding?”

  “I thought it was pretty clear, actually.”

  “Okay, then let me be clear. Do you feel threatened by Dana?”

  “Not unless she’s going to join our firm as a partner.”

  “So just business then?”

  She looked at him. “What else?”

  “Fine. Then I can tell you unequivocally that she will never be joining King and Maxwell.”

  He looked away and thus didn’t see Michelle bite her lip and inwardly groan.

  “Look, I’m sorry, Sean. I didn’t mean it like that. The words got jumbled up coming out of my stupid mouth.”

  “Wouldn’t be the first time.”

  “Hey, I don’t deserve—”

  She stopped when she saw him turn and smile at her.

  “Jealously is good for a relationship, business or otherwise,” he said.

  “You’re a shit, you really are.”

  “I’ll admit on the record that I am occasionally a shit.”

  “I’d punch you except you’re injured.”

  “You’ve hit me before when I’ve been injured.”

  “Yeah, but you’re older now. I don’t want to do permanent damage.”

  He reached over and gripped her hand. “Do you know what I wished for when I was sitting next to your hospital bed waiting for you to wake up?”

  Her gaze grew serious. “What?”

  “That I would be the first person you’d see when you did wake up.”

  “And you were,” she said, her voice suddenly cracking.

  “Yeah, I was,” he said.

  “So your wish was answered.”

  “My wish was answered as soon as you opened your eyes.”

  “If we keep this up you’re going to see me cry for the first time in your life.”

  “Not the first time.”