“And because the dose I was given wasn’t that strong, you thought I might have been an accomplice?”
“It wasn’t unreasonable. You’re appealing, and you have a certain boldness. Norwalk might have bribed you to inveigle your way into my home. You’re a twin, and that would have pleased his hunger for statement. You could have been part of his master plot of which he’s so proud.”
“Yes, I could, and I would have done it well. You’re right, I’m a very good actress.” She looked him in the eye. “But I would never have done it. There are only two people in the world whom I’ve ever cared about. One was my sister, Sylvie, the other is Cara, who is like a sister to me now. Norwalk killed my sister, and now he wants to take Cara away from me. I’d burn in hell before I’d do anything to help him.”
He nodded slowly. “I believe you would. I was afraid you’d managed to con me. I’m glad that I can tell Nikolai that you are not involved.”
“I’m glad also. I don’t need to be dodging Nikolai while I try to get to Cara. You’ve sent people after Brazoff?”
“Immediately.”
“But you don’t expect them to find him.”
“He had a head start and is working on Norwalk’s plan. Norwalk has been very efficient so far. But we’ll still find him eventually.”
“Eventually sucks,” she said flatly.
“I agree. So I’ll work on a way that doesn’t suck.”
“I already gave you a way.” She swung her legs to the floor. “You should have done what I told you to do. We could have pulled it off. Then Cara wouldn’t have to go through—” She broke off as her eyes filled with tears. “You should have done what I told you. Don’t you screw up again.”
“I’ll endeavor to keep from doing that,” he said quietly. “Though I believe you’d think leaving you out of the equation would be a screwup, and yet I find I’m tempted to do it.”
“Don’t you dare!”
He shrugged. “Why should I argue when you might end up giving me what I need?”
“You shouldn’t argue. Just let me be with you when you go after Norwalk.” She wiped her eyes on the back of her hands. “But you’ll do it now because you feel guilty about—”
“Guilty?”
“I know you probably consider yourself above guilt or below it. But I can’t walk on eggs around you right now. Maybe when I feel better. Did you call Eve and Joe? When will they be here?”
“Shortly.” He got to his feet. “And I left it to them to notify Jock Gavin. I have things to do, and I have no time for the explosion.”
“You might have to make time,” she murmured. “We might all have to make time to deal with Jock.”
* * *
“Repeat that,” Jock said softly. “I don’t believe I heard you correctly, Eve.”
“You heard me,” Eve said. She had liked neither the silence when she’d told Jock nor this icy softness. It was far worse than any outburst of anger. She’d seen him like this before, and it meant he had reverted back to the Jock he had been when he’d been that beautiful boy who had been taught by Thomas Reilly to kill without remorse. “And I can’t talk to you right now, Jock. We can’t meet you at Ladeau’s. We’ve turned around and are heading back to Belle Grace to see what we can find out. We’ll finish questioning Ladeau later.”
“That’s all you know? Just that she’s gone?”
“Right now. Kaskov will know more by the time we get back there. He was very angry.”
“Was he? It’s too late for anger. It had to be an inside job. No one could get onto the grounds. I made sure that Nikolai had plugged all the holes.”
“We’ll find out when we get back. You can’t be sure of anything. Don’t make any rash decisions. You’re coming right away?”
“I’ll be there soon. There are a few things I have to do first.” He hung up.
Pure ice. If ice could burn.
Joe glanced at her. “It could have been worse.”
She shook her head. “No, it couldn’t. Cara and MacDuff have been fighting for years to keep him from spiraling back down to that violence level, and he’s—” She stopped. She’d as much as told Jock she couldn’t deal with him right now and yet she was trying to do it. “It probably couldn’t be worse. But neither could Norwalk’s having Michael and Cara.” Her voice was suddenly fierce. “So I don’t care, Joe. Let Jock do whatever he wants to do as long as I get them back.”
* * *
“You can’t do this,” Ladeau said defiantly as Jock came back in the room. “Untie me. I told you, my cousin knows all about the law, and he’ll find a way to lock you up for the next ten years. I didn’t do anything that was illegal. I just leased my airboat. A simple deal between two businessmen.”
“Nothing simple about it. Or you wouldn’t have run and put a bullet in me.”
“I didn’t mean to hit you,” he said quickly. “I just wanted to scare you off. Macvey warned me that I couldn’t talk about our deal. Not that it was crooked. But he’s not someone I wanted to offend.”
“So you chose to offend me.” He leaned back against the wall and gazed at him. “Not a wise choice, Ladeau.”
Cara sitting beside him at the lake playing her violin.
Cara in the summerhouse last night.
Cara staring up at him in bewilderment and wonder.
Cara gone.
Don’t think about it. Don’t think about her. Push it away. Coldness was better. Get the job done as Reilly had taught him. It was the only way he could function right now. The pain was too great.
Kill Ladeau?
Not now, later perhaps. Ladeau could be of use.
“I won’t answer any questions,” Ladeau said defiantly. “I don’t know anything.”
“I hope you do. Because it will be a very uncomfortable time for you if you don’t give me the answers I need.” He straightened away from the wall. “I found all sorts of maps and charts in those cabinets over there. I’m going to put them on that desk one by one, and you’re going to look at them and tell me where Macvey took those supplies.”
“I don’t know. He didn’t want me to know.”
“But you’re very familiar with all these swamps and bayous. It’s how you make your living. I imagine you can make a good guess.”
He shook his head. “There are so many rivers and bayous. It could take weeks to find the right area.”
“I don’t have weeks.” Jock moved toward him. “I doubt if I have twenty-four hours. So we’re going to study those maps, and you’re going to tell me where I have to go.”
“I can’t do it.” He nervously moistened his lips. “I won’t do it.”
“You will,” he said softly. “You’ll tell me everything you know.” He stopped in front of him. “Because you may be stupid, but you’re not suicidal.”
“I didn’t mean to get mixed up in this,” he said desperately. “You don’t know what kind of man Macvey is. I think he would have killed me if he hadn’t thought he might need me later.” He broke out, “And the son of a bitch said he’d cut off my dick if I said one word.”
“And you’d miss that dick with your pretty little bartender.” He looked him in the eye. “I wouldn’t do that to you. That’s such an ugly, quick solution to my problem. I was taught extended pain is always better. And I know so many ways to make certain you’re telling me the truth as we go forward step by step.”
Ladeau was staring at him in fascination. Jock could see the horror and the realization beginning to dawn in him as he realized what he was facing.
Give him a moment, Jock thought. Let him see that he meant it. Let him see the ice and the disconnect and the fact that he’d do anything … and everything.
Yes, give him a moment.
* * *
“Cara. Wake up. I need you!”
Michael?
But she couldn’t wake up, she wanted to tell him. She was too far away, and she couldn’t come back. She might not be able to ever come back.
“
Yes you can. I need you, Cara.”
Michael needed her. She had to come back to be with him. She fought desperately, and finally her lids lifted.
Michael’s face above her. Michael’s brown eyes staring down at her.
A dream. It had to be a dream. Michael couldn’t be here. But miracles did happen, didn’t they?
“Hi,” she whispered. “Awfully sleepy, Michael. Can’t keep my eyes open. Maybe we should both go back to sleep…”
He shook his head. “I don’t think that’s a good idea, Cara. Norwalk was mad that you didn’t wake up. He told that Brazoff man it might mean he’d given you too much, and it might kill you.”
“Norwalk…” She was suddenly jarred to full awareness that something was terribly wrong. She glanced around her. A crude wood shack, the smell of wet grass and peat. Michael? She tried to think, to fight through the haze.
“Where’s … Norwalk now?”
“Outside on the bank yelling at Brazoff. He said he wasn’t going to pay him for you. He only came in to fasten that vest on you.”
Vest?
She looked down at her body.
She inhaled sharply, her heart jumping to her throat. The canvas vest was tight, and had neat pockets in which cylinders had been inserted. She suddenly couldn’t breathe as she realized what those cylinders must contain. She had never seen one before except in movies, but she knew what this vest was, what it had to be. In the movies, it was usually an explosive suicide device.
No dream.
A nightmare.
But she was not alone in this nightmare. Michael was here. She glanced quickly at his body. No vest, she realized with relief. Deal with anything else later. But he’d said he needed her, and that was the only thing important at this moment. “Come here.” She held out her arms to him. “I don’t know what’s happening, but I’ll find out about that later. I need you, too, Michael. I’ve been so worried about you. Let’s just hold each other right now.”
Then she inhaled sharply. What was she doing? She was telling him to get close to her when she was a walking bomb? How cruel of Norwalk to have her make the choice of comforting Michael or trying to push him away from her for his own safety.
Not that there was anywhere in this small shack where he would be safe if Norwalk set off these explosives. They would both die, so there was no real decision to be made. But the choice was a torture in itself and worthy of Norwalk.
“I’ve missed you. I’ve been lonely.” Michael came into her arms and nestled close. “And I’ll tell you all I know about this place, and that might help keep you awake. Right, Cara?”
“I’m sure it will.” Her fingers were gently stroking the silky hair on his nape. So dear, so alive. After all the frantic worry, he was here in her arms, and she was going to have a chance to bring him home to Eve in spite of that damn vest. And until she found a safe way to distance herself from him, she would give what she could—love, comfort, a companion to keep away the loneliness. “But Norwalk was wrong, I’m not going to die, Michael. And neither are you. It will be—”
She stiffened as a gunshot echoed from somewhere outside the shack.
He was yelling at Brazoff. He said he wasn’t going to pay him for you.
Except with a bullet?
“Cara?”
“It’s going to be okay.” She held Michael closer. “We’re together now, and we just have to figure out how to help each other get away from here…”
BELLE GRACE
“What else do you know?” Jock asked Kaskov as he strode into the parlor two hours later. He glanced at Joe and Eve standing by the window before he added, “I talked to Joe while I was on the road coming here and he told me about Brazoff. The bastard is your man, you must have an idea how to get your hands on him.”
“I’m working on it.” Kaskov’s lips twisted. “Nikolai is definitely motivated. All of my cars have LoJack and he’s been able to trace the car he took from the property to a pier on Lake Pontchartrain. But the car was abandoned, and there was no sign of Brazoff or Cara.” He paused. “But one of the boat owners on the next pier said they saw a motorboat leaving the pier earlier this morning.”
“No definite direction, Jock,” Eve said. “Brazoff was heading east, but that could be anywhere in those bayous.”
“The bayous again,” Jock said. “I was concerned that Norwalk might be leaving a false trail, but not this late in the game. He’d know that Cara’s disappearance would bring Kaskov front and center into the mix.”
“Joe told you that I was sure that’s where Michael was being held,” Eve said quietly. “I can’t expect anyone else to have any confidence that it’s true, but I believe it, Jock.”
“I’d have more confidence if you could tell me how I could get to them,” Jock said harshly. “I’ve seen amazing things happen while I’ve been around you, Eve. And Cara has told me about how close you are to Michael. I’d like to believe you. You gave Joe descriptions on how the camp is set up, but it’s no good to me if I can’t find it in those swamps. I’ll believe black is white if you tell me that.”
“She can’t do that,” Joe said. “Give her a break.”
“I don’t have time.” He glanced at Kaskov. “Norwalk is going to want you there when he kills her. That means that he’ll call you and set it up. I want to know when that happens.”
“That’s entirely possible.”
“And you’re going to go where he tells you to go. You’re not going to sit here in this antebellum mansion and send Nikolai.”
“I’ll do what I wish.” Kaskov met his eyes. “As I always do. And if I didn’t see how upset you are, there would be a reckoning for your insolence.”
“I am upset,” he said softly. “You have no idea. I’ll use you if I can. If I can’t use you, I won’t permit you to get in my way. I won’t let Cara die.” He turned on his heel. “If neither of you can help me, I’ll have to go back to using Ladeau. I brought him with me. I have two maps in the car that Ladeau selected as possible sites for building a shelter in the swamps that would have the total isolation Norwalk needs. I’ll bring them in, and we’ll take a look at them.”
“A cooperative effort?” Joe said dryly. “What a surprise.”
“I’ll use anyone I can,” Jock said. “You were a SEAL. You know about operating in swamp terrain, and that could prove valuable. Eve might find a detail in the maps that could trigger something. Kaskov is intelligent and may know more than he’s telling us. And eventually he should know where he’s going to have to go to meet with Norwalk.” He headed for the front door. “I’ll be right back.”
* * *
“I don’t believe I’ve seen this Jock Gavin,” Kaskov said as he gazed after Jock. “He’s always been innovative and lethal but not this … reckless.”
“He’s not reckless.” Eve could see how he might mistake the total focus and icy concentration. “He just doesn’t care. He’s driven. He’ll do anything he has to do and nothing must get in his way. And he’s incredible in what he does.” She looked at him. “Don’t you get in his way, Kaskov. Ordinarily, I’d try to stop him. Cara would be very upset with me that I didn’t. She hates it when anything twists him like this. So do I. But if anyone has a chance of getting Michael and Cara back, it’s Jock.” She gazed directly into his eyes. “This Jock.”
“I told you once that you’d kill for your son.” He smiled faintly. “And now you’re willing to use Jock as the weapon.”
“No, I’m not. Because I’ll be there beside him when he finds Norwalk.”
“If he permits it. Everything appears to be ebbing and flowing at the moment.” He shrugged. “We shall see.”
“Two possibles.” Jock was back and unrolling the first map on the coffee table. “This one is Green Cypress Swamp. Both of these swamps are off the beaten routes of any of the swamp tours because the waters are too difficult to negotiate, and it’s too easy to get lost. Once lost, you’re in bad trouble. Ladeau says nothing lives in either one of them b
ut snakes and alligators. Very prehistoric.”
“Are there islands?” Eve came over to look down at the map. “I don’t see any islands.”
“Ladeau said he thought he remembered seeing a couple, but he was there only once. No reason to go back when it would have been foolish to try to take any tourists back there. But, if they exist, this map doesn’t show them.” He unrolled the second map. “Black Pool Swamp. Same scenario. Ladeau knows there was at least one island there because he tried to set up a tour through this swamp once and thought he might be able to use it as a rest stop. But once the interest faded, he thought it would be a lost cause to keep it on his agenda.” He pointed to the first map. “He thinks the chances are that it’s either one or the other. But they’re halfway across the state from each other. We can’t afford the time to try to wind our way through both those swamps. We have to guess right.”
“Not much information,” Joe said. “Can’t you go back to Ladeau and dig deeper?”
“I could. I have him tied up and locked in my car outside right now. But it would be useless. Ladeau told me everything he knew.”
Joe frowned. “You’re certain?”
“Everything,” he repeated with emphasis. “These were the only two options he could see that would afford Norwalk the isolation he’d need. I only brought him with me because I’ll need to take him along to act as guide when I make a decision.” He turned to Eve. “Joe’s right, neither choice is good. Do you see anything? Do you have any … hunches?”
He meant could she relate anything she was seeing to what Michael had told her. She shook her head. What could she see? Two dense swamps that Jock had said were almost prehistoric in nature. One that had perhaps only one island when Michael had shown her three. The other might not have possessed even that. Nothing on the map.
Snakes and alligators.
Michael had mentioned those, but both swamps had them. Probably every swamp in Louisiana had them.
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