On My Knees: The Complete Series Box Set

by C. J. Thomas

  “See, there’s the problem.” I separated the leads into two piles: Possible and Impossible.

  “What’s that?”

  I put down the papers and looked at Frank. “Do you think she would’ve gone anywhere after she took Julia? Anywhere but where she’s holding her, I mean? Would she have left her alone?”

  He shrugged. “I don’t know. It don’t seem likely, does it?”

  “No. It doesn’t. Julia’s pretty sharp. She might find a way out if left alone.” I paged through more and more leads until my eyes crossed. “It’s great that people feel so inclined to help the police, but this is ridiculous.”

  Just then, a sergeant walked past with another handful of leads. He dropped them in front of me. “A lot of these people love Julia. They read her articles. They feel like they know her.”

  I smiled. That was my girl. “What about Margo?”

  He shrugged. “What about her?”

  Funny how nobody made comments about how much they enjoyed Margo’s writing. It was no secret Julia was respected—as respected as a gossip columnist could be, anyway. Hearing it was still gratifying.

  I hoped her faithful readers would be happy when this was all over.

  “It’s still a bunch of dead ends, though. I don’t think Julia’s ever been to an organic grocer, much less that she visited one this morning.” I groaned, putting my head in my hands. It was all too much. The tension was almost unbearable.

  “It’s gonna be this way all afternoon,” Frank reminded me sourly. “They just flashed the girls’ pictures on the news.”

  “Oh, great. We’re in for more of this?”

  “Try and stay positive. Somebody out there has to know somethin’.”

  I didn’t hear him. Instead, I compared two different reports. “Hang on a sec. Look at this. Both of these came from somebody saying they saw Margo coming in or out of the same hotel. Do you know this place?”

  Frank looked at the address, the plugged it into his computer. We both winced when we saw pictures of the shitty hotel.

  “When does it say she was there?” Frank asked, looking over my shoulder.

  “One said they saw her leaving yesterday morning. The other said they saw her pulling in at the garage last night. They remembered because she almost hit them. They looked right at her, behind the wheel of a car. She was all alone.” My voice got louder the more I read. It was the best lead we’d gotten by far.

  “Whaddya think? Do we go down there?”

  “Of course we do. But we have to be smart. She’ll be on her guard, especially if she watched the news today. She’s bound to know we’re looking for them.” I picked up the desk phone. “I need a plain clothes at this address.” I rattled off the address of the hotel. “Look for Margo Rice’s plates in the garage. Have them call this number immediately.”

  “I feel good about this,” Frank said.

  “You know what? Me, too.” For the first time since she disappeared, I felt actual hope. There was a lot of promise.

  “If they’re there, what do we do?”

  “We go in.”

  “Just like that?”

  “Just like that.” I was ready to go then and there, but knew that was a mistake. It was hard enough to sit still. I felt like a kid being punished.

  The phone rang. I leaped for it. “Yeah?”

  “She’s here.”

  I dropped the phone into the cradle, dashing to my desk for my keys and jacket. “She’s there. I’m going now.”

  “Don’t go in!” Frank called out. “I’m coming with you!” For a bigger guy, he could run fast. He drove fast, too, the two of us weaving through traffic in separate cars on the way to the hotel.

  I got on the radio. “Margo Rice’s car spotted. Believe she’s holding Julia Mabel at the location. I need cars on the way now. I need an ambulance, too.” I hoped we wouldn’t need it, but I didn’t want to take any chances. I was scared shitless that Margo would snap when she realized we were coming for her.

  “Come on . . . come on, get out of my way.” Some drivers didn’t care about a police siren, I noted. “Unless you wanna get sideswiped, move the fuck over!” I leaned on the horn, clearing more cars out of the way.

  The hotel was clear on the other side of LA, in a sketchy neighborhood. The sort of place where people darted inside doorways and alleys when they saw the cops coming.

  I turned off the siren once I was on the street—I didn’t want Margo getting spooked before the rest of the team showed up.

  I picked up the handset again. “Frank, no sirens.”

  “Copy that.” He cut the noise a moment later. We drove like normal people the rest of the way, exploring some of LA’s vast underworld while we did.

  “Come on, Julia. Be alive. Tell me you’re alive. Please.” If only she’d managed to keep Margo talking, acting like a normal person. I wasn’t a praying man, but I said all the prayers I ever knew at that moment.

  It was the best move I could’ve made, I realized, putting Margo’s info out as a missing person instead of as a suspect. Missing people were a big deal. Civilians tended to look a lot harder for missing people than for criminals unless there was a reward involved.

  Not only that, but Margo would be more likely to panic if she knew she was looked at as a suspect. If she was only a missing person, it gave the impression we weren’t after her. I’d do anything in my power to ensure Julia’s safety.

  Then I’d never let her out of my sight.

  We pulled up in front of the hotel, Frank just seconds behind me. I saw the plainclothes cop standing at the entrance to the garage—in the middle of skid row, he stuck out like a sore thumb in a polo and khakis. I almost laughed at the juxtaposition he made against the graffiti-covered concrete walls.

  Even in the middle of hell, I saw the humor in the situation.

  Frank came through on the radio. “What a shithole. It looks even worse than it did online.”

  “Yeah, I can’t imagine the sort of things that go on here.”

  He snorted. “Isn’t it funny? When you think about it, there’s probably somethin’ illegal going on in most of the rooms. We only care about one.”

  “Yeah, hilarious.” I rolled my eyes. He snorted again.

  “We’ll get her. Don’t worry. If the car is still here, she’s still here. Which means so’s Julia.”

  “What if there’s a getaway car?”

  “Do you think she thought it through so well?” he asked.

  “I don’t know. Who saw any of this coming? I can’t imagine anything she’s thinking.” She didn’t seem like any kind of mastermind. She hadn’t even thought it through very well.

  Well enough, though. More than I wished she had considering we hadn’t been able to find her for a day.

  “Pierce? You on here?” My captain.

  “Yeah. Talk to me.”

  “They found Julia’s car at the old abandoned drive-in. Purse and everything still inside.”

  I closed my eyes. Why the hell hadn’t she told me where she was going? Didn’t it seem the least bit strange when Margo asked to meet at such a remote location?

  I looked up at the hotel, knowing she was in there somewhere. It took all the willpower I had to keep from getting out of the car and running through the hotel like a madman.

  I couldn’t live without her.

  No way.

  I’d had a taste of what life with her could be like, and there was no going back from there. How could I be the old Dan again?

  Sure, I had a good life. I was comfortable. I had my habits down pat. Life was uncomplicated before.

  And boring as hell.

  I remembered the way I felt in bed that night, the last night we were together. Holding her after we had sex. I knew she was all I’d ever need.

  Nobody made me feel that way before. I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life without it.

  Or without her.

  “I swear,” I muttered, looking up at the hotel’s windows, knowing s
he was behind one of them. “Once we get out of this, I’m never letting you out of my sight again.”

  Sirens approached from all directions. It was time to go in there and get my girl.

  160

  Julia

  “PLEASE, please. Untie me. Jesus, I’m in so much pain.” I groaned sincerely. It wasn’t a put-on—my arms hurt like hell. They were simultaneously stiff, numb, and sore. I couldn’t go much longer without moving them.

  “Shut up. Okay? Just shut up.” Margo looked out the window, biting her lip. She held the gun in her hand again.

  “What are you so upset about? Please. Calm down. Talk to me.” My thoughts raced as I tried to outthink her. I had to get in front of her, anticipate her next move.

  “Why should I talk to you?”

  “You brought me into this with you, Margo. We’re in it together. Come on. Talk to me.”

  She glared at me. “They’re coming. I know they are.”

  “Who?” Play dumb. Play dumb. Don’t sound like you’ve given this any thought.

  “Who do you think? Stop it. You know your boyfriend is looking for you. He put our pictures all over the place, for fuck sake.”

  “Hang on. We’re only listed as missing. You’re not wanted. They didn’t say anything about a kidnapping or a murder or anything like that. Right? So they don’t know you did anything. You’re still innocent, as far as they’re concerned. We can keep it that way.”

  “We?” She snorted. “Don’t act like you’re my friend right now.”

  “I’m in this just as much as you are. If they go after you, they’re going after me, too. I mean, I’ll be with you, right? Unless you leave me alone.”

  “I’m not leaving you alone.” She scoffed.

  “There you go. We have to think our way through this.”

  She looked terrified. There was nothing she could do, and she knew it. The police would track us down eventually.

  “What are the odds that they’ll even find us here? I doubt we’re in the middle of Hollywood, right?”

  “Right.” She looked around the room with a smirk. Hollywood might have been the place where a lot of dreams went to die, but this particular room looked like the place where many let out their death rattle.

  “There you go. We’re fairly safe here. Don’t fly off the handle. Remember: You have what you want. You have Austin. I won’t publish anything. That’s over. We just have to find a way to get out of this safely, easily, so the two of you can be together.”

  “That’s all I want,” she breathed, gazing out the window with a wistful look on her face.

  “I know. When you find somebody you care about, somebody you feel like you connect with, you’ll do anything to be with them. Once they’re part of your life, you realize there was something missing all along. You might not have known it before they showed up. Isn’t it a shame? We don’t know what we were missing until somebody comes along to show it to us, and then that person goes away. We’ll do anything to keep them with us. That’s how you feel, right?”

  “Yes.” She stared at me intensely, her eyes burning into mine.

  Was she always off-kilter or did meeting Austin really do it to her? I didn’t think it was possible for a person to go crazy out of nowhere. She must’ve had a few bats flying around in the attic before they even met. I had the feeling that once all was said and done, when Margo Rice was the topic of a gossip column rather than the writer, old boyfriends would start coming out of the woodwork to talk about obsession, stalking, maybe even worse.

  “I know that feeling. I’ve felt that way before. You don’t know whether to be overjoyed that you’ve met your special person, or angry at life for bringing them to you, then taking them away. Reminding you of how good things could be, then denying you that happiness.”

  “It’s so unfair,” she whispered.

  “You’ll get your happy ending; I can feel it. You’re an inspiration to me. Like you said, you waited an entire year for this. You waited and hoped and worked for it. You knew what you wanted and wouldn’t let anybody else tell you it was wrong.” My voice was low, soft, placating. My words hypnotized her. She saw herself as the hero I described, I just knew it.

  “How can I be with him now, though? With the police looking for us?”

  “What if you just needed a little time to yourself? You know? Everybody needs to disappear every once in a while. It could all be painted as a silly misunderstanding. Your phone was off. No one could contact you but you were fine. I could help you spin it any way you want to. The sooner we show up, the easier it will all be. The sooner you can be with Austin again, too.”

  “You’re right. God, I’m so tired, Julia.”

  “I’m sure you are.” I nodded sympathetically.

  I was so close to breaking her down, I could taste it. I didn’t know how I’d convince her to escalate things by untying me, but it had to be possible. “You deserve to enjoy the fruits of your labor, so to speak.”

  She smiled softly. “You were always so much better with words than I was.”

  Yeah, who didn’t know that? I kept my face blank, guarding my thoughts.

  Then, something in her words made me stop. “Why the past tense?”

  She shook her head. “Because I can’t let you leave here alive, Julia.”

  My heart took off like a racehorse, blood rushed through my ears until they rang. “What are you talking about?”

  “You know too much. You know I killed Emelia.”

  “So does Austin, right?”

  “Right, but I love him. I’m sorry, but I don’t love you.”

  “I thought we were friends, Margo.”

  “We were. But I love him. That’s all that matters to me. If you’re running around, free to tell on me, I can’t be with him. Don’t you get it? You’re standing in my way.”

  “I won’t publish the story,” I promised.

  “I know you won’t. Because you’ll be long gone. I’m so sorry, really. I didn’t want it to be this way. I tried to get you to change your mind about it, you know. When I broke into your place.”

  My blood ran cold. “That was you?” You bitch. To think I’d defended her to Dan. I’d worried for her safety, back when I thought Austin was the bad guy. I should’ve been worried about him, instead.

  “Sure. I did it that morning while you were at work.” She chuckled. “I was just leaving your place when you called me. You didn’t even know you were eating lunch with the burglar.” She shook her head, clicking her tongue. “You’re supposed to be so smart, too. I’ve been outsmarting you since the beginning. Ever since I saw you at the party, with that hot detective on your arm. Talking about Emelia like you knew her. I realized you were in on the case with Pierce, and I knew you’d find out too much. I had to get in front of you, cut you off. I didn’t want to hurt you; really, I didn’t.”

  She left the window, sitting on the edge of the bed. I flinched away from her, scooting as best I could with my restricted arms.

  “You’ve gotta believe me, Julia. I didn’t want to hurt you. That was why I broke in but I didn’t take anything. I didn’t even do that much damage, did I? I only wanted to scare you. Shoot, I should’ve left a note or something, shouldn’t I? I should’ve made it more obvious. I wondered about that afterward—like, would you figure it out? My message, I mean?”

  “I got the message, actually. You were clear enough.”

  “So how come you didn’t back off?” She squinted, tilting her head to the side.

  I shrugged painfully. “Because it seemed more important to me to tell the truth. I wanted to protect Emelia.” I could’ve kicked myself for saying it. What the hell was wrong with me?

  “Emelia.” Margo’s voice dripped cold fury. “Always Emelia. Everybody loves Emelia. That’s what that show should’ve been called, you know. Because everybody did. She was the world’s sweetheart, wasn’t she?” Margo stood, laughing. Waving her arms, the gun moving back and forth.

  I could hardly brea
the for the panic filling my chest. She could fire at any moment, and there I was, shooting my mouth off about Emelia.

  “I’m so sick of hearing about her! She’s even more popular now than she was when she was alive! Did you know they’re already calling her a shoo-in for awards season? For that last shitty movie she did. Just because she’s dead, they’ll give her all the publicity.”

  I had seen that movie. She deserved to win and probably would even if Austin hadn’t had the misfortune of Margo becoming obsessed with him. I held my tongue, watching Margo rant and rave, praying she didn’t pull the trigger.

  Please, don’t pull the trigger.

  “And now, here you are, telling me all you cared about was her. That’s all anybody cares about. If you had just minded your own damned business, none of this would’ve happened. The cops were ready to call it suicide, right? Or an OD. Either way, it was open and shut. Until you came along and decided it wasn’t.”

  She was still waving the gun around, but now it was focused more closely on me. I struggled to keep from wincing but couldn’t help myself as I watched the muzzle float around in front of my face. I whimpered softly, wondering what the heck was taking Dan so long to get here.

  “That’s it. You’ve gotta go. I can’t take this anymore.” She blamed me for everything. She’d stopped blaming Emelia and started blaming me instead. I was the cause of all her heartache. I was the one ruining her life.

  “Please, don’t do this.” It was the only thing I could think to whisper as Margo aimed the gun at my head.

  “Too late.” She cocked it, and all I could think about was Dan. His face filled my head and my heart.

  I love you, I thought.

  I hoped he could feel it.

  Where I expected to hear a gunshot, I heard sirens.

  Margo gasped. I took the chance of opening my eyes. Blue and red lights bounced off the walls and ceiling, even up on the fourth floor as we were.

  She glared at me, then ran to the window. I let out a small sigh of relief—I wasn’t dead yet, but this wasn’t over yet, either. I had to get through the rest of it, whatever it entailed.