Just the Truth

by Gen LaGreca

  "Is that really necessary?" Sean asked, as Reed ripped a length of tape from the roll.

  "It's to protect all of us, including you," Reed said, as he taped Sean's mouth with it.

  Reed lifted Sean over his shoulder like a sack and lugged him to the front of the building where his car was parked. Laura followed. Reed opened the rear door of his sedan and laid Sean across the seat.

  "You have to stay down, Sean. If you don't, we'll all be dead," Reed said. Then he turned to Laura.

  "It's too late for you to run. They'll be here any minute. You have to hide here."

  "Take this." She tried to give him back his gun.

  "No! You keep it."

  "You need it, Reed. I absolutely insist."

  She held the gun out. He took it and dropped it in her purse.

  "They play dirty, Laura. Nothing is beneath them. Use it if you have to."

  He looked her over, drinking her in before embracing her.

  "I'm supposed to give them the source code for Topcoat," he whispered into her hair as he held her. "It's reasonable for them to ask for a personal delivery of something that sensitive, so I have to comply. But I can't help thinking this could be a trap."

  He pulled back and his face showed a grim resolve to accept the ultimate risk he was taking.

  "If you see them leave, and I don't . . . come back. . . . If anything happens to me . . . hide until they're gone, then get out of here. Call in an anonymous tip to the cops to come and retrieve Sean but wait until after my video starts before you set him free."

  "Reed, do you have to meet them? Can't you just leave the country now? Can't we go together?"

  "You can't be part of this! If I don't show up, they'll suspect something. They could detain me before I'd ever get out of the private airport I use."

  She pulled him close again. "Reed, be careful!" She kissed him passionately.

  Their moment ended abruptly. They heard footsteps and voices nearby.

  "Hide back here. Don't come any closer!" he whispered.

  In a moment, he was gone.

  Chapter 29

  Reed walked into the courtyard and stood at the lamppost by the playground. At his side, the empty holster where his gun had sat now felt like a missing kidney. Sean's knife tucked into his pants provided some comfort.

  Soon Darcy and Zack came into view, approaching as they usually did on foot through the alley. Zack carried a laptop case slung over his shoulder.

  As they walked toward him, Reed nodded his head in greeting.

  "Where is it?" said Zack.

  Reed removed a thumb drive from his pocket and gave it to Zack. "Your tech guy at the Bureau will find all of the security information here to access the complete file sets of the source code."

  Zack sat at the picnic table and removed his laptop from the case. He inserted Reed's thumb drive. "I'll transmit this under high security to Rayon to check it out." Rayon was the code name of the technical specialist inside the Bureau of Elections who was in on the scheme. He was none other than the director of technology, who had stood in Judge Davidson's courtroom, Ted Burns.

  A few minutes passed before a reply came through. Zack reported, "Rayon verifies that everything is here."

  The president's senior strategist looked pleased as he shut down the laptop, slipping it back in his case before he rejoined the others.

  "Good," said Reed. "Operation Topcoat is completed and delivered. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll see you again for the next election."

  He turned and started to walk away.

  "Wait just a minute," said Darcy.

  Reed turned to the woman who was now pointing a gun at him.

  "You're not going anywhere until after Election Day," explained Darcy.

  Dread filled Reed. "Come again?"

  "We've arranged for you to be taken to a pleasant place with everything you could possibly need provided."

  "And what armed guards will keep me in there?"

  Darcy huffed, and said reassuringly, "There are no guards. Really, now. There's just an associate of ours. He'll see to it that you're comfortable. You'll remain at our location until after the election is over."

  "Why?"

  "Because we want to keep you on our radar during the election."

  "Then what?"

  "Then, if all goes as planned, you'll be free to leave and do as you please," Darcy said pleasantly.

  "If you think I'm a threat, you'll have to detain me forever—or kill me."

  "After the election," said Darcy, "the deed would already be done, and you'd be guilty of doing it. Before the election, you could say you're innocent. You could say you're coming forward to reveal the scheme before it's carried out and leave me and Leather holding the bag."

  "Come on, Velvet. You're protected by my involvement. That holds true before, during, and after the voting. I'm the one who did the work. Do you really think I'd expose you at the cost of incriminating myself?"

  "We don't know what you'd do. We just want to be cautious." Her voice sounded benign while her eyes looked vicious. "Leather, do what we discussed. We need to get out of here now."

  Zack reached into his briefcase and removed a pair of handcuffs. "Put your back against the lamppost, Fox."

  Reed hesitated. Zack pushed him against the post.

  "Leather will cuff you to the post, and we'll be on our way. You'll wait here for our associate to pick you up."

  "You're okay with this?" Reed tried his case with Zack. "With her pointing a gun at me?"

  Darcy answered for Zack, "We just want to be sure everything goes as planned, and you don't pull a fast one on us."

  "That's why Velvet arranged for one of our people to escort you to a safe place, where you'll pass a day under our supervision. Then you can go," Zack said. He spoke in a monotone, as if he were one of Darcy's stooges, repeating her talking points.

  "Are you trying to convince me or help yourself ignore what's actually happening?" Reed asked sharply.

  Zack pulled Reed's arms behind him around the post and was about to cuff his hands.

  "How much does she tell you?" Reed asked him. "Did she tell you about Spenser?"

  Reed hit a nerve. Zack hesitated.

  It had been a shock to Zack when Spenser was killed. Darcy had told him Spenser's death was an accident. Was he in for another . . . surprise?

  "You're leaving me here for a hitman to get me. Are you okay with that, Leather? I know you're okay with character assassination. But now you're going far beyond that."

  The cuffs dangled limply in Zack's hand. "What exactly is Denim gonna do, Darcy?" he asked.

  "Oh please, Zack," she scolded him. "Get on with it."

  Zack swallowed hard as if to dismiss his misgivings. "I'm cuffing you, Reed. That's all I'm doing, and that's all I know," he said.

  "Hurry up, Zack," Darcy said. "Leave the handcuff key on the picnic table for Denim. We need to get out of here before he arrives."

  As the tension mounted, they dispensed with their sartorial code names, except for their references to Denim, which seemed to be the man's actual name.

  "Is Denim the same associate who killed Spenser?" Reed asked. "Were you an accessory to that murder, Zack, as you will be to mine?"

  "Shut up!" Darcy bellowed. "Zack, cuff him now!"

  "Oh, no you don't." Suddenly, from the shadows inside one of the buildings, a woman moved in close to the courtyard. She pointed Reed's gun at his two adversaries.

  Laura said, "Drop the gun, Darcy."

  Reed leaped into action. He grabbed Darcy's gun. He patted Zack down but found no weapon. Then, he walked to Laura and held them at gunpoint with her. He glanced at his ally with a mixture of affection for her and concern for her safety.

  "You!" Darcy said, astonished. "Here? Then who's with—" She stopped short of finishing her sentence, looking as if she had gone too far.

  "What the hell are you talking about?" Zack asked, suspiciously.

  "Never mind!" Darcy replied.


  A beep sounded from Reed's phone with a special tone that captured his attention. Holding Darcy's gun in one hand and lifting his phone out of his vest pocket with the other, Reed looked disturbed by the urgent message he'd received.

  "I can tell you exactly what she's talking about," he said, as he scrolled down a text message with images that had been transmitted to his phone.

  His private eye reported the kidnapping. He had recovered from his scuffle with the skaters quickly enough to capture photos of the event. Grimly, Reed held one of the images out to Laura.

  "Oh my God!" Laura exclaimed, horrified at the sight of a monstrous man grabbing Kate and shoving her into a truck. Then Laura's eyes gravitated to the tattoo visible on the man's forearm, a marking she recognized. She whispered to Reed, "That's Spenser's killer with Kate!"

  "Darcy was having Laura kidnapped, Zack. And someone got pictures of the whole thing." He held up his phone for Zack to see the image, then he slipped the phone back into his pocket. "You picked up the wrong woman!" Reed yelled at Darcy.

  Zack looked mortified. "We didn't discuss any kidnapping, Darcy! We discussed taking Fox here into our custody for a day, and that's it."

  Reed moved directly in front of Darcy with the barrel of his gun almost touching her chest. "Call your thug and have the woman you snared released. Now!" he shouted.

  "It's too late," Darcy said. "They're coming here."

  Reed quickly walked to Laura and whispered, "Keep your gun on them. I'll tie them up, then we'll hide here and surprise the thug."

  "Reed, we can't leave here till we get Kate!" said Laura.

  "Of course, we'll rescue Kate," Reed assured her.

  Before they could execute their plan, a pickup truck pulled into the alley. The vehicle stopped abruptly, its brakes screeching. The man called Denim got out of the passenger's seat, dragging the driver behind him.

  Reed and Laura froze in their places. They dared not shoot, fearing for Kate.

  Terrorized, Kate Taninger could only move her eyes. She looked at Laura, knowing why her sister was there. Then she looked at Reed, utterly confused at his presence. Her shoulders were locked in the vise-grip of her assailant's arm, and a gun scraped against her temple. With her assailant twice her weight and almost a foot taller, she looked as if she could be crushed in his grasp.

  Darcy sighed in relief. Her voice suddenly regained its vigor. "I thought you'd never get here!" She looked elated at the site of the stocky man pointing a gun at Kate's head.

  She turned to Laura and Reed. "Drop those guns and step back!" she ordered.

  Laura and Reed complied.

  Darcy peered at Kate, whose sunglasses had come off during her struggle. "It's Laura's sister, you moron!"

  Denim did a double-take of his victim and the look-alike woman already in the courtyard. His face looked vicious and his voice was a snarl. "What the hell's goin' on? I don't never work with no audience watchin' me."

  "I'll handle it," Darcy said. "Denim, keep your gun on the hostage! Zack, get my gun and give it to me." Darcy addressed the men like a general giving orders to foot soldiers. Zack handed Darcy the gun that Reed had dropped. "And take her gun." Zack picked up the gun Laura had dropped. "Pat them down."

  Zack complied and found the knife Reed carried. For a moment, he paused, uncertain of what to do with it and utterly uncomfortable with the situation. Then, as if imitating the crime shows he'd watched on television, he assumed a cocky look and tucked the knife in his pants.

  Reed, Laura, and Kate stood helpless, all held at gunpoint.

  Chapter 30

  "Get that Neanderthal off Kate!" Reed ordered.

  "You're hardly in a position to give orders," Darcy said smugly, like a player who held all the aces. She turned to Denim. "Hold on to her."

  Denim looked distressed. "I work in private. What the hell's goin' on?"

  "Darcy, let the women go! I'll comply, but let them go," Reed demanded, but Darcy ignored him.

  Zack glared at Darcy, a mounting fury on his face. "You never discussed any kidnapping with me! Are you crazy?"

  "It's not just Reed that poses a danger. Laura does, too," Darcy explained to Zack, her tone patronizing. "I discovered she had a tail on her. We didn't put it there. He did. He still has a thing for her. Look at them here together. They're partners, and that's not good for us. She's as dangerous as he is."

  "You and Ken planned this thing and left me out?" Zack sounded injured, as if he, the insider, were suddenly—shockingly—tossed out, just when he thought he'd reached the preeminent place to ply his trade. "I don't get it, Darcy!"

  "I get it," Reed said to Zack. "You and Darcy were supposed to leave me here tied to the lamppost, so the kidnapper could swing by and grab me, too. You two were supposed to leave here before the hitman arrived, so you'd never see Darcy's real partner. Then, later on, you'd learn that Laura coincidentally disappeared, also. Then, she and I would never be heard from again. That would surely raise your suspicions, Zack. You'd know that something more was done than you were privy to. But to allay your conscience—what little of it there is—Darcy would spin it for you, so you could evade the fact that you were an accessory to murder."

  Zack looked indignant. "What the hell were you thinking, Darcy? We have nothing on Laura. She's not our accomplice. She's committed no crime like he has. Why on earth would we take her? And now we have the other sister being kidnapped to add to our crimes? Are you stupid or what, Darcy?" Zack's face reddened with rage.

  Denim, ignored in the heat of their argument, was growing impatient. "What the hell's goin' on?" Denim looked at Darcy, then Zack, searching for an answer.

  Darcy spoke soothingly as if confronting a beast that might bite her. "Nothing to worry about, Denim. Tie the three of them up and take them away in the truck bed." There was a cap with dark tinted windows on the bed of the truck, convenient for concealing the contents. "We'll hold them at gunpoint until you're finished. Go on! . . . Denim?" She glared at the big man, who hesitated.

  "I'm gettin' paid to do two. Not fer nothin' more," said Denim. "Not fer no crowd observin' my work."

  "But you've already done something else, remember?" said Darcy. "We have that on you, so you'd better comply."

  Becoming more agitated and out-of-control, Denim blurted out: "That wuz an accident 'cause the dude fought back. That wuz self-defense."

  Zack shot an angry look at Darcy and said, "You told me we were just going to rough Spenser up, to scare him into keeping his mouth shut!"

  "I was surprised it went that far, too," Darcy admitted. "But I've learned to appreciate the benefits. If there's no person, then the problem he posed is suddenly gone, too."

  "You were spying on Spenser, weren't you?" Laura posed the question to Zack and Darcy. "You knew Spenser had found out something, and he was meeting me to reveal it. You sent him," she looked at Denim with disgust, "to beat up Spenser, which led to his death." She turned to the kidnapper. "Do you know we have a witness? When you killed Spenser, someone saw you jump the fence and got a good look at your tattoo. We'll nail you for that unless you let your hostage go and make a run for it now."

  A profusion of sweat dripped down Denim's face.

  "We can lean on the mayor, Denim. You see they've been soft on the Spenser investigation," Darcy coaxed.

  "But now there's more evidence and more crimes," said Reed. "The police won't play politics with what I have, big man." Reed slowly pointed to his vest pocket. "I have pictures of the kidnapping on my phone. I'll show you."

  "Shut up, Reed!" Darcy demanded.

  "You shut up!" Denim overrode her. He momentary swiveled the gun to point at her. With a new coat of worry shellacking his leather face, he turned to Reed and demanded, "Let's see wut you got."

  Gingerly, Reed reached for his phone and held it up to the kidnapper. Denim squinted to see the images. "Here you are shoving the woman into your car at gunpoint. Your face is in full view. So is your gun and your tattoo." He scrolled do
wn to another image. "Here's a shot showing the license plate of your truck. Once the police magnify that plate, they'll identify you. Once they catch you, they'll match your gun to the bullet they recovered when you killed Spenser—"

  "Shut up, Reed!" Darcy ordered.

  "The private eye you knocked down took these pictures, and he's transmitting them to the police right now!" Reed added.

  Panic gripped the big man's face.

  Darcy softened her voice to plead with him, saying, "Now Denim, let's remain calm and focused. Do what I told you to do. We'll kick in extra for the sister. All you have to do is tie the three of them up and take them away in the truck bed."

  "It's going to be a little hard to claim self-defense four times," Reed said.

  "Your only chance is to run now!" Laura added.

  Denim was shaking. His eyes bulged as if they were envisioning a scenario he had to avoid at all costs. Suddenly, he shoved Kate away roughly. With a cry, she fell to the ground. He ran to his truck and backed out of the alley at high speed, his wheels kicking up plumes of dust. Soon there was silence. Denim vanished behind the powdery cloud, like a monster retreating in the face of an attack.

  But two guns still pointed at Reed, Laura, and Kate.

  Chapter 31

  With his arms raised to avoid provoking a shot from Darcy or Zack, Reed walked slowly to Kate and helped her up. His captors were too busy bickering with each other to stop him. In a brotherly way, Reed helped Kate dust off, and he comforted her with a hug.

  "Reed, what are you doing here?" she whispered incredulously.

  "I'm on your side," he replied.

  Her face looked trusting, as if she were pleased to discover that someone she liked wasn't a villain after all.

  She clung to him for a moment, welcoming the chance to compose herself. Then, she moved away and stood on her own, staring angrily at Darcy and Zack.

  "There comes a time, Zack, when the New Leader's aides have to be willing to do extraordinary things in exceptional circumstances," said Darcy. "Did you read the last chapter of my book?"