Hour Game

by David Baldacci

  96

  “COME ON, WHERE ARE

  you taking us, Eddie?” King called out over the sounds of the twin Mercs mixed with the thunderstorm.

  He was bound hand and foot with fishing line and was lying on his side on the deck next to the captain’s chair. Sylvia sat in the stern seat, similarly bound, as Eddie drove standing up, the wind whipping his thick hair around.

  “What do you care? It’s not like there’s a return ticket from this trip.”

  “So why kill us? You filled out your scorecard. You got everybody you were after.”

  “Not everybody, old buddy. By the way, I won the bet.”

  “What bet?”

  “When you caught me, you said it was over, I said it wasn’t.”

  “Congratulations.”

  Eddie changed course to the east, cutting across a big wave that jolted the FasTech hard. King hit his head on the molded fiberglass behind him.

  “If you don’t slow it down, you’ll kill us long before you get to where you’re going.”

  In response Eddie eased the throttle forward even more.

  “Eddie, please,” wailed Sylvia from the back.

  “Shut up!”

  “Eddie—,” she began again.

  Eddie turned and fired a bullet within an inch of Sylvia’s left ear. She screamed and threw herself on the deck.

  With an enormous crack a thin bolt of lightning hit a tree on a small island as they flashed by. The oak exploded, sending charred wood sailing into the water. The accompanying clap of thunder was far louder even than the Mercs.

  King inched himself forward. Tied up like this, he had no chance against someone as physically strong as Battle. Even in a fair fight he probably couldn’t hold his own. He glanced back at Sylvia. She still lay on the deck. He could hear her sobs over all the other sounds. He struggled to sit up, finally making it. He slid his back against the side of the boat and managed to finally hoist himself into a seat next to Eddie.

  Eddie looked over at him and smiled. “You like the view from there?”

  King gazed around. He knew the lake well, although as every experienced sailor knew, things looked very different in the pitch-dark. Yet at that moment they passed a landmark that he recognized, a five-story condo building built on a clay point that jutted out into one of the lake’s main channels. He shouted, “Looks like we’re heading east, to the dam.” He prayed his cell phone connection was still open. If it wasn’t and Michelle tried to call him back, he couldn’t hit the answer button, and the ringing sound would give it away in any event.

  “East to the dam?” he said again, even more loudly.

  “You know your lake,” said Eddie, who took another swig of his warm beer, seeming to savor every drop.

  “I know why you killed all those people, Eddie.”

  “No, you don’t.”

  “I figured it out. Tyler, Canney, Junior, Sally. And Hinson and Pembroke to throw us off. One tick off, right? One tick.”

  “You don’t know shit.”

  “Your father was a horrible man, Eddie. I know he drove you to this. You killed because of him, what he did to your mother, your brother.”

  Eddie pointed his pistol at King’s head. “I said you don’t know shit about why I did it.”

  King bit his lip, trying to keep his nerves in check, not exactly an easy thing to do right now. “Okay, suppose you tell me?”

  “What does it matter, Sean? I’m a psycho, okay? If they don’t burn me in the chair, they should just lock me up and throw away the key. Let somebody slit my belly while I’m asleep in my cell. Then everybody can just take a nice long breath. No more Eddie. It’s cool, no more Eddie, and the world just keeps right on trucking.” He eyed King and smiled. “Hey, at least when you die, there’ll be plenty of people to mourn you. I don’t have anybody.”

  “Dorothea?”

  “Yeah, right.”

  “Remmy will.”

  “You think so?”

  “You don’t?”

  Eddie shook his head. “Let’s just not go there.”

  “Tell me about Steve Canney.”

  “What’s to tell?”

  “You’re an honorable man, Eddie. You should’ve lived a hundred and fifty years ago. So grant a condemned man his last request. Talk to me.”

  Eddie finally smiled. “What the hell? Okay, here it is. I’d just gotten back from college. My parents were on the outs again. Savannah was about two years old, and Dad was already tired of her. I knew the bastard was screwing around again. I followed him and saw him with the Canney woman. When she had her son, I broke into the hospital, checked the blood-type records. Roger Canney wasn’t the father. I knew who was.”

  “Was Savannah Bobby and Remmy’s child?”

  “Oh, yeah. I think Dad believed Mom was really going to divorce him this time. So she suddenly ended up very pregnant. Whether the sex was consensual or not, you’d have to ask her.”

  “Why the hell didn’t they just divorce?”

  “Bobby Battle’s wife leaving him? No way that control freak would ever let that happen. That would’ve been a sign of failure. The great Bobby Battle never failed. Never!”

  “Remmy could have divorced him if she’d wanted to.”

  “I guess she didn’t want to.”

  King debated whether to ask the next question, deciding this might be the only chance he got. He was also thinking that the longer he kept Eddie talking, the longer he and Sylvia would stay alive. And who knew, he might just be able to persuade him to let them both live. “Why didn’t you kill the boy, Eddie? Tommy Robinson?”

  “Figured he’d set up his old man, make my life easier.”

  “Come on, you couldn’t be sure of that.”

  “So there was no reason to kill him. So what? You think that makes me a Boy Scout because I managed not to kill one stinking kid? You saw what I did to Sally. What the hell did she ever do to me, huh? I smashed her face down to the bone.” He looked down and eased back on the throttle.

  The storm was growing fiercer by the minute, and even the FasTech was having difficulty cutting through the now massive wakes. Formula built some of the best boats in the world, and King prayed the fiberglass of this boat could withstand the beating it was taking. Yet they were only one lightning strike from being incinerated when the fuel tank ignited.

  “And Junior?”

  “That one I felt really shitty about. That stupid Sally. Why didn’t she come forward? Hell, I liked Junior.”

  “He wouldn’t let her tell the truth. He didn’t want to hurt his wife.”

  “See, there you go. Always better to tell the truth. They’d both be alive if they’d just done that.” Eddie sucked the last drop of beer out of the can and tossed it overboard. He rocked his head back and forth, loosening the thick muscles in his neck. “You’ve killed people before, Sean.”

  “Only when they were trying to kill me.”

  “I know that, I wasn’t lumping us together. What did it feel like, right before you saw them die and you knew you’d done it?”

  King at first thought Eddie was making light of this, but when he caught the man’s gaze locked on the darkness ahead of them, he understand exactly what Eddie was really asking.

  “It felt like a piece of me died with them.”

  “I guess that’s where you and I are different.”

  “You mean you enjoyed it?”

  “No, I mean I was already dead when I started killing.” He flexed his arms and shook his head clear. “I wasn’t always this way. I never hurt anyone or anything. I wasn’t one of those people who started out torturing animals and worked my way up to humans. The kind of crap Chip Bailey went on and on about.”

  “I never thought you were a run-of-the-mill serial killer.”

  “Is that right?” Eddie smiled. “I wanted to play in the NFL. I was good enough, a damn good college player. Could’ve made it in the pros. Well, maybe I could, maybe I couldn’t. Strong as an ox, good wheels, and I
hated to lose—man, I hated that. But it didn’t happen, just wasn’t in the cards. You know, you’re right. I was born too late. The 1800s would’ve suited me a lot better. I’m freaking lost in this century.”

  “When did you find out the truth about your brother?”

  Eddie eased his gaze over to King and then checked the rear, where Sylvia had once more perched on the edge of the stern seat. Looking back at King, he said slowly, “Why are you asking that?”

  “I think that’s where all this started, that’s why.”

  “Oh, what, my big excuse?”

  “Most men in your position would be begging for justification, a legal defense, something to explain it.”

  “I guess I’m not most men, then.”

  “Syphilis. When did you know that’s what it was?”

  Eddie pulled back on the throttle some more, and the FasTech slowed to thirty knots. Still fast, but at least the boat’s props weren’t coming out of the water every furlong.

  “When I was nineteen,” Eddie said slowly, still looking out over the bow into the distance as though he were attempting a dead-reckoning calculation. “They didn’t know I found out. They were just feeding me lies about why my brother was dead. But I learned the truth—oh, yeah, I did. They weren’t going to slip that shit by me. No way.”

  “So shortly before the kidnapping scheme.”

  Eddie smiled. “I can’t believe I was able to keep that secret all these years. I guess Chip was really surprised.”

  “To put it mildly.” King glanced at Sylvia, but she was simply looking out over the dark waters, flinching at every burst of lightning and clap of thunder. King could feel his dinner coming back up on him, the seas were so rough. He fought through this urge to retch and said, “Did you ever confront your father about it?”

  “What was to confront? He was the indomitable Bobby Battle. Bastard could do no wrong. He never admitted what he did to his own son. He rubbed his crotch against every hooker around, brought the shit home, killed Bobby and didn’t even give a crap. That sure as hell didn’t surprise me. He didn’t give a shit that he’d murdered his own flesh and blood. Damn brain dissolving, eyes falling out, teeth rotting. His last years he was in agony all the time, I mean all the time. It was like someone had taken this beautiful painting and wiped turpentine all over it. I knew Bobby was still in there, but I couldn’t see him anymore.” Eddie blinked rapidly. “Every day, man, I just watched him waste away. When he started getting really ill, I said, take him to the doctor. Damn it, help Bobby, help him. Please! And they never would. I was just a kid, they said. I didn’t understand, they said. I understood, man. I sure as hell did, just too late for Bobby.”

  “I’ve heard your brother was a really wonderful person, even with all the pain and hardship he suffered.”

  Eddie’s features brightened. “You should’ve seen him, Sean. The sweetest guy. He was everything I wasn’t. Before his brain started going, he was smart, man, I mean really smart. He taught me shit, helped me, took care of me. He was my big brother. There wasn’t anything we wouldn’t do for each other. The times we had together.” King watched as salty tears started to slide down Eddie’s cheeks to mix with the rain. “And then he just started getting sicker and sicker. Mom finally took him to a specialist; she never told me what the person said, but Bobby just kept getting worse. He died four days after our eighteenth birthday. Dad was gone on some business thing. Mom wouldn’t come in the room. I held my brother, held him until he passed, and then I just kept right on holding him till they made me let go.” He paused and added, “Bobby was the only real friend I ever had. He’s the only person I know who ever really loved me.”

  “You said your father’s reaction didn’t surprise you. Did something else?” King asked curiously.

  “You really want to know what surprised me? You really want to know?”

  To King, Battle seemed like a little boy desperately eager to share a long-held secret.

  “Yes, I really do.”

  “That my mother, my steel-backboned dear mama, didn’t raise one finger to save her own son. Her own damn son. Now, explain that one to me, will you?”

  “I can’t, Eddie. I don’t know why.”

  Eddie took a deep, replenishing breath. “Join the club.” He throttled back even more. “Okay, we’re here.” As the boat slowed, King looked around to see if he could tell where they were. It was very dark and his bearings were off-kilter, but something looked very familiar about their location.

  Eddie pulled a knife out of his watertight pouch and pointed it at King, who flinched back in panic.

  “Eddie, you don’t want to do this. We can get you help.”

  “I’m beyond help, Sean, but thanks for the offer.”

  Sylvia cried out from the back. “Please, Eddie, don’t do it.”

  Eddie stared at her, suddenly grinned and motioned her toward him. When she didn’t budge, he pulled his gun. “Next one goes right into your brain, Doc. Get your ass up here.”

  She hobbled forward trembling with fear. He sliced through the fishing line binding her and pushed her down the stairs and into the forward cabin and shut the door behind her. He then slipped the knife blade under the line binding King’s feet and cut through it cleanly.

  “Move to the back of the boat, Sean.” He shoved his pistol into the man’s back for emphasis.

  “What are you doing, Eddie?”

  “Just coming full circle, man, full circle. Now step up on the gunwale and turn around.”

  “Are you going to shoot me here or while I’m in the water?”

  In answer Eddie took his knife and sliced cleanly through the bindings around King’s wrists, freeing him. King looked at him warily.

  “I’m not getting this, Eddie.”

  “No, you’re not getting it, at least from me.” With a sudden thrust Eddie hit King hard in the chest with one of his massive forearms. King shot backward out over the water and went under headfirst.

  Eddie raced back to the cockpit, slammed the throttle forward, and the FasTech shot off before King even had a chance to break the surface.

  When he did come up, he saw the FasTech circle around and head back toward him.

  King turned and started swimming away. Why hadn’t the bastard shot him and left it at that? Why run him over with the boat? As the FasTech bore down on him, King could almost feel the massive props eating into his flesh, turning the lake water red with his blood.

  At the last instant the boat veered away and passed him. Eddie called out, “Thanks for asking about my brother, Sean. It just saved your life. Have a good one.”

  The boat roared away, quickly turning into a speck before completely disappearing into the darkness.

  King screamed, “Sylvia! Sylvia!” but it was useless. He turned, looked around, and it finally struck him why his surroundings looked so familiar. The dock he was now staring at was his dock. They were in his cove! And there sat his jet boat in its slip.

  And yet the FasTech was already out of sight. How could he possibly find them in time?

  And then it hit him, what Eddie had said. Full circle. He’s coming full circle.

  King swam toward the dock with all his might.

  CHAPTER

  97

  MICHELLE WAS FLYING

  through the darkness on the Sea Ray heading toward Sylvia’s home when Williams came up beside her.

  “The connection was lost on your phone,” he said glumly.

  “It’s probably the storm.”

  “Yeah, probably,” he said.

  She looked to the sky. “I don’t see a chopper.”

  “Damn, Michelle, in this weather? What’d you expect? You can’t risk a bunch of people’s lives like that.”

  “Why the hell not? I spent nine years of my life doing that at the Secret Service!”

  “Come on, we’re doing all we can—”

  “What’s that?” she said suddenly.

  “What’s what?”

  �
�It’s the phone!” she screamed. “My phone, where is it?”

  “Back on the seat.”

  “Take the wheel.”