See Them Run (Lucy Kendall Thriller Series #2): A Lucy Kendall Mystery Thriller (The Lucy Kendall Series)

by Stacy Green

  I hadn’t given her nearly enough credit. “So you help get the kids, then?”

  “Sometimes, if that’s what Jake needs. It’s not so hard, especially when they’re little. Half of them have parents who don’t know one day from another.”

  “What about the ones brought in from out of state?” My wrists were bound with zip ties tight enough to break the skin.

  “I handle those,” Jake said.

  I licked my dry lips and looked at Riley. “You told me about Preacher, about other boys.”

  “I wanted you to stay on his trail,” she said. “How did you kill him?”

  “I didn’t.”

  “And my driver,” Jake said. “He was bringing that nice little black boy from Ohio. I figured he’d just had some kind of heart attack, but then you mentioned him to Riley, and I put it together. So you,” he trailed his hand on my knee, “have taken out two of my best people.”

  My ego had betrayed me. Don’t cops say every criminal screws up? That their egos do them in?

  “Don’t bother denying it,” Jake said.

  “What about the Senator?” I asked. “Is he involved?”

  Jake’s laugh was boisterous and cocky. “Please. He’s too busy looking for political glory in all the wrong places. Everything’s going on right under his nose, and I get to stay one step ahead of the task force. How brilliant is that?”

  “Amazing,” I said. “Is that how you got started?”

  “Never mind that,” he said. “Let’s just say Preacher and I made a good team, and he introduced to me to little Riley here. Now I’ll have to replace him, thanks to you.”

  Riley moaned. She looked like she wanted to cry, but those tears were likely nothing more than crocodile tears. I should have known there was more to this little girl. “He was good to me. Sometimes.”

  “He beat you,” Jake said. “I’m the one who cares for you. Don’t forget that. Preacher was just our pawn. We’ll have to find another.”

  “What about Sarah?” I focused my attention on the black-haired girl. “I thought you were friends?”

  “We were,” Riley said. “Especially when she gave me money. But I couldn’t let her get too close. I made sure she went in the wrong direction.”

  “Because of this piece of garbage?” I jerked my tied ankles toward Jake. “You’re so in love with him you’ll sacrifice friends? And the little kids you hurt, what about them? What about that little guy you were babysitting?”

  Her mouth tightened, and she shook her head. So she didn’t like to think about those things. Riley lived in survival mode. I could work with that.

  “He’s using you,” I said. “For sex, for protection. Don’t think for a minute he doesn’t have a way to pin all of this on you and Preacher and walk off scot-free.”

  She looked at her feet. Stupid girl.

  Jake’s hand flashed out and connected with my face. My skin stung; I tasted blood. He’d pay for that. “You screwed up,” he said. “Never should have told Riley you knew about that kid. You know how to access my website.”

  This time I did laugh. “So you’re going to kill me, silence me forever?”

  He shrugged.

  I almost taunted him that I gave Todd the information but held my tongue. Jake could switch servers, alert his clients, move his kids.

  “Whatever,” I said. “But the police have Sarah’s notebook. Which Riley led us to, by the way.”

  “I wanted the locket,” she snapped. “I didn’t think you’d involve the police since you just killed Preacher.”

  “You underestimated me.” Just like she was doing right now.

  “Doesn’t matter,” she said. “Sarah didn’t have enough to bring Jake down.”

  “So how’s it going to be?” I asked Jake. “You’re way too delicate to have killed someone. If it needed to be done, you enlisted some other lackey. Except you can’t this time, because only you and Riley can know. So you’ll have to do it yourself.” His darting gaze, shooting from me to Riley, and the burst of color on his cheeks told me I’d hit a very touchy nerve. “It’s not easy to take someone’s life. Even if you walk away before they die, you’re still giving a part of your humanity to that death. You’ll never be the same. Are you prepared for that?”

  His grin reminded me of the eels tucked in the corner of the aquarium. Sinister and patient, and ever observant. His voice, stuffed full of forced bravado, betrayed him. “You surprise me,” he said. “I expected you to beg. To name-drop your detective and your boyfriend. But instead you try to intimidate. Impressive.”

  I’d never beg. And I had little chance of Todd or Chris finding me. Riley had covered her bases very well.

  “You have potential,” I said to her. “Think of all the people you could help with me.”

  “But he’s so much better than you are,” she said. “He’s not being watched by the police. And he’s got money. What do you have?”

  “Dignity.”

  “Not for long.” The smirk on Jake’s face sent a horrific chill through me. “To answer your question, no, I’ve never killed anyone before. I don’t have to. If someone becomes a nuisance, I simply sell them. Or trade. Depending on the market and person in question.” His eyes roamed over me. “You are worth a lot of money to a very interested client.”

  35

  They left me to wait. To my thoughts, I supposed. Expecting my imagination–powered by very real firsthand knowledge–to overwhelm me until I was at my weakest point, mentally and physically. I certainly could crumble into a thousand pieces of wasted ambition and dreams, but what would be the point? Had I really risked my own freedom, sacrificed my soul–if there even is such a thing as an afterlife–to end up as some cretin’s bag of flesh to use whenever he wanted?

  I’d make them kill me before that happened.

  More black irony. My greatest fear would be a respite from what awaited me outside the garage.

  Daylight slivered in beneath the door, giving me just enough light to take a better inventory of the tools on the wall: a skill that saw required electricity; two different-sized chisels that probably weren’t sharp enough to slice a carotid; electrical cords that could be used to strangle, but I didn’t have the strength against both of them. The shovel was still the easiest thing to incapacitate them with. The hammer would do the rest.

  No chills of shame on my arms. The cold, methodical way I planned to kill two people would split me in two. The Lucy Kendall that walked out of this garage would be a new person. And I say person only because I would be the one still breathing. But I will be a brand new monster.

  Isn’t it funny how far we will go for our own survival? Whether or not we actually deserve to live is irrelevant. Survival is a basic primal instinct, and the species who still walk this earth do so because they were willing to do whatever it took to stay alive. Less than two days ago, I thought I’d been ready to hand myself to the police, sign my life away. More lies to myself. I saw that now. Admitting defeat and turning myself in would have made me feel like a martyr, alleviating the guilt of Todd and Justin and even Chris’s involvement. Stuck in a prison cell and then probably death row, I would have consoled myself with my personal sacrifice.

  I started to laugh. I’d fooled myself quite well. Which meant it shouldn’t be too difficult to trick the weakest link in this duo.

  Stupid little girl. I’d kill her first.

  Escaping the zip ties around my wrists and ankles was impossible. Riley would have to cut me free, or I’d have to bank on them cutting them off during the transport to the buyer. Too risky. Playing Riley was easier.

  I started to scream.

  As expected, she slammed out of the door that connected to the house. She stunk of sex, and her sweater was gone, leaving her in a skimpy tank top that showed off her perky breasts. “What do you want?”

  “Where’s Jake?”

  “He’s taking a nap.” She smiled, and I wondered why I’d ever thought she was pretty. “He’s taking you to the bu
yer himself, and it’s a long drive. He needs his rest.”

  “After you serviced him.”

  No response.

  “Why are doing this?”

  She shrugged. “Why not?”

  “No.” I shook my head. “I don’t know how you got involved in this, but it’s not too late for you. Let me go, and we’ll turn Jake in.”

  Riley snorted, making her even uglier. “Please. I have no skills. I’m a prostitute. Even if I didn’t get charged because I helped, where do I go after this? Not to my parents. Right back to the streets giving blowjobs to dirty old men who think ten bucks is a fair price. No thanks. Jake’s making real money, and I’m not walking away from him.”

  “You don’t love him.”

  “What’s love, anyway? I’m happy and fed, and he doesn’t make me do shit I don’t want to do. That’s good enough for me.”

  Old Lucy would have felt sorry for this poor girl who’d been so used and abused she’d lost all self-worth and hope. New Lucy saw nothing but an obstacle and a waste of space.

  “You’re not going to change your mind.”

  She shook her head.

  I let my chin fall to my chest, summoning my worst memory-the one I’d stored in the vault decades ago. Not finding my sister dead or hearing my mother call Lily a liar. The memory occurred two nights earlier, when my mother went out with friends, and her boyfriend slipped into bed with Lily in the next room. Usually he waited until I was asleep, until the middle of the night, she’d said later. But that night he was drinking and feeling brave. He stole into her room and made her scream so badly I wet the bed. I thought of that scream now, of her begging him to stop, of her pleading with him not to make her do that. He sodomized her and left her bleeding into the toilet while he passed out in the bed he shared with our mother.

  Ashamed that I’d been too terrified to get up and do something to stop it, my underwear soaked with my own urine, I went to the bathroom and cleaned both of us up. That’s when she told me how long it had been going on, and I convinced her to tell Mom. I truly believed she would listen and make him go away. But Mom didn’t, and Lily killed herself.

  I wondered about the role I played in her death. What if I’d kept my mouth shut, and Lily had simply endured until she outgrew his interest? He might have moved on to me, but she might be alive. Our mother’s disbelief is what made Lily take her own life.

  When I tasted the hot, salty tears, I raised my head and looked at Riley. She stood with her skinny hip cocked to the side, arms folded over her chest. Smug little shit.

  “What’s wrong, Lucy? Finally realizing you’re not calling the shots?”

  A perfectly round tear rolled down my cheek and dripped onto the floor. “Who’s buying me?”

  “Some big, sweaty guy in Jersey and his new wife.” Her laugh sounded like a braying horse. “They can’t wait to get you.”

  “So Jake’s been planning this?”

  “Ever since the wife contacted him, yeah. She asked for you by name.”

  Through my tears and the bad light, I stared at the babbling brat. Everything in the garage became crystal clear, as though I’d just managed to focus a microscope after fiddling with the lens. “Why would a woman contact Jake about me specifically?”

  “She bought a girl from us before, so she knew Jake had good product. Said she was looking for you. Jake couldn’t believe the timing because you’d become a big problem.” Another braying laugh. I liked her better when she was distrusting and quiet. “Talk about luck.”

  “Her name is Mary?”

  “Very good.” Riley clapped her hands and danced on her toes. “You must have really pissed her off. Did you kill someone she loved?”

  “No.”

  Mary was looking for me, not her sons. How did she know of my connection to Chris and Justin? When the news first broke about Mary Weston being Martha Beckett, Chris’s personal history had been dragged through the papers. Had I been mentioned in those articles? I couldn’t remember.

  Riley picked at her fingernails. “And just so you know, I recognized you from the street right away. Your face is pretty memorable, even with the wig and nerdy glasses. I hoped you’d find Preacher. How did you kill him? Tell me, please? I’m sure he deserved it.”

  So she wanted to share secrets. Bond. Dumb girl, playing right into my hands. “An overdose of ketamine.”

  She threw her head back and bellowed. “Oh, I hope he suffered. Did he?”

  “Yes. And he begged for his life. Peed his pants.”

  She ate it up, and I layered more on. “I could have turned him in, but I killed him for beating you. He treated you like a piece of garbage. And that’s why I killed him. For you, Riley.”

  For the first time, uncertainty flickered in her dark eyes. “Really?”

  “Yes. But I guess it doesn’t matter now.” I summoned more tears and said a silent apology to my dead sister. “I know you’re not going to let me go, but can you at least let me go to the bathroom?”

  “I’d have to take you into the house. Jake would freak.”

  “I’ll be quiet, I promise.” More tears dripped onto the floor. “Mary is a monster, and the things she’s got planned for me are nightmarish. Please don’t send me to her on a full bladder. I don’t want to piss myself. Give me some dignity, like I did for you by killing Preacher.”

  She debated, clearly enjoying seeing me beg. Let her. “You won’t try anything?”

  “Like what? I kill with poison. I don’t know any other way. And I’m done, kid. Done trying to hide and pretend to be something I’m not. Let Mary have me. But let me go my way, just a little.”

  “Well, I guess you don’t have anything on you that could hurt me.” She took a step forward and then balked. “And I’ve been on the streets a long time. I know how to fight.”

  Of course she did. And she was too stupid to think about the wall of weapons behind her. “I know.”

  She dug out a pocketknife from her jeans and slowly approached. A three-inch, curved blade. Enough to work with. “This probably can’t kill you, but it would hurt. So don’t be stupid.”

  Foolish girl.

  I promised I wouldn’t. Carefully, her dark eyes never wavering from mine, she cut the ties that anchored my feet to the chair. “I’m not cutting your hands free.”

  “That’s fine.”

  “Stand up.”

  I did, slowly, letting my legs adjust after being in the same position for too long. Faking a dizzy spell, I stumbled and clasped the metal chair to keep from falling. With my wrists still tied, I wouldn’t get the same leverage, but I could stun her enough to make it to the hammer. “Woozy,” I mumbled. “Guess whatever he gave me hasn’t quite worn off.”

  “Don’t fall and hurt yourself. I don’t want Jake finding out I let you up.”

  Still clutching the metal chair, I tried to step forward and failed. “I’m not sure I can walk on my own. Can you help me?”

  Her youth made her overconfident, and my supposed weakness gave her a false sense of security. She’d been taken care of by Preacher and Jake long enough she’d forgotten how to survive on the streets.

  Riley stuck her knife back in her pocket and stepped forward. In one motion I planted my feet for leverage and then yanked the chair up, hard and fast. The metal seat caught her chin making her neck snap back. Too shocked to even utter a word, she staggered sideways. I swung the chair around and slammed it into her temple. She dropped to her knees. I jammed the chair onto the back of her head and then tossed it aside, rooting for the pocketknife.

  I sawed quickly at my bonds as Riley rolled around, trying to call Jake’s name. My wrists twisted awkwardly, I kept hacking at the zip tie and kicked her in the face. Blood gushed from her mouth. The sight of it seemed to pull her back from the edge of consciousness and give her new energy. She grabbed my leg and yanked me down hard. My ass and right elbow hit the concrete, and a lightening streak of pain ascended up my arm, but the velocity was enough to cut the last p
lastic thread of the zip tie. My hands were free, and Riley was coming right at me.

  Scrambling on her hands and knees, she reached for the chair and brought it over her head to slam it down onto mine.

  I shoved the blade into her stomach just as the connecting door opened.

  36

  Riley dropped to her knees, the chair clattered to the floor. Blood oozed through her shirt. If I’d remembered my anatomy, I’d at least nicked her spleen. I planned to go for the hammer next, but Jake’s rushing form ruined that plan.

  Shirtless and shouting, his pale chest reminding me of a hairless corpse, he charged. I dodged, barely, swinging the knife at blank air. Now he stood between a moaning Riley and me, his glittering eyes darting between the bleeding girl he supposedly cared about and the one who was going to ruin his life.

  “You bitch.” Spittle flew from his lips.

  I stepped back, edging toward the tools. If only the keys were in the SUV. As it stood, when I brought Jake down, I’d have two options: hit the garage door opener and run into the freezing afternoon and hope I wasn’t in the country, or dart into an unfamiliar house and search for a phone. Neither were appealing.

  Riley screamed. The wound in her stomach was gushing blood. “Please, Jake, help me. Call an ambulance.”

  “I can’t.” He sounded like the pathetic, unsure boy he was. “What about her?”

  “Kill her!”

  “I cut her spleen,” I said. “Look at how dirty this floor is. If she doesn’t bleed out by the time you get her to safety, an infection is pretty much guaranteed. And if you don’t treat that quickly, with high-powered antibiotics, it will kill her slowly.” Better than the hammer.

  Riley sobbed, rolling around and making it worse and soaking up even more dirt. “Please, Jake.”

  “You could run,” I said. “Find someone to take care of her, leave me be. My word against yours.”

  “Or I can kill you.”

  My turn for the creepy eel smile. The difference was I would back up mine. “You’re too inexperienced. You have no weapon. I have plenty behind me. And I have no fear.” I let my eyes roam his shivering, half-naked body. “You’re terrified.”