by Lee Driver
Eric checked his watch. “He has been terrorizing us for the past thirty minutes. Why the hell does he think we would have diamonds?”
Padre glared at Eric and asked, “Why don’t you ask your wife?”
Robert and Eric turned to Edie who feigned shock.
“I have never seen this man in my life.” Her eyes challenged Padre.
“What the hell is he talking about?” Eric demanded.
“They’re bluffing.” Edie remained calm.
“I don’t know.” Dagger shoved his seat back and propped his legs up on the linen-covered table. He took some deep Chi breaths to calm down and watched the glimmers of doubt growing in Nick’s and Robert’s eyes. “Maybe Nick would like to tell us about the woman he saw the night Rachel disappeared. The woman who let Nick think all these years that he’s the one who pushed Rachel and caused her to hit her head.”
“What?” Robert gasped.
Nick stared at the table. He ran a trembling hand through his hair and glanced toward the bottles on the bar.
Robert stared at his son from across the table. “Nick?”
Nick turned on Edie. “You were there that night.”
“What?” Robert turned to his daughter-in-law. “What the hell is going on under my nose?”
Edie tapped her nails against the linen, averted her eyes from Padre. “Of course, I was. Eric and I found you the next morning.”
“I really don’t care to hear a trip down memory lane,” Luke snarled. He picked up his cellular and turned to Dagger. “You’ve got five minutes. You and old man Tyler here better get your heads together.”
Dagger asked Lily, “Did you have any luck finding the kangaroo?”
Lily shook her head.
“Kangaroo?” Edie asked. “What kangaroo?”
Robert told them about the phone call he received from Rachel more than a week ago and how she had asked if he still had the kangaroo.
“That really was Rachel who was murdered? She has been alive all this time?” Nick slowly rose from the table, his head shaking in denial.
Luke dialed the phone. “Joey, we have a problem here. They can’t seem to find the diamonds.” Luke’s gaze jerked to Dagger. “Oh, really?” He smiled broadly and held the phone out to Dagger. “Your little lady is claiming to know where the necklace is, and she’ll only tell you.”
This brought Edie out of her chair, her eyes wide in anticipation.
Dagger crossed the room and took the phone. “Sara?”
“I’m fine, so far, Dagger.”
“You said you know where the necklace is?” Dagger listened for a while then strolled over to the patio. Sliding the screen door open, he stepped out. “Okay, I’m on the balcony but there’s nothing here.”
Suddenly, Luke’s massive frame was behind him, breathing down his neck. Dagger heard Joey tell Sara, “Just tell him where it’s at and give the phone back to me.”
“Describe it.” Dagger stepped back into the room, his eyes searching, then settling on a plant with red flowers.
Sara asked, “Einstein is okay, isn’t he?”
“Sure, of course, Sara.”
“Just don’t let him out like you did a few months ago when he got lost.”
The rest of the Tyler crowd stood and followed Dagger’s gaze.
Dagger walked up to Padre and whispered in his ear.
“Hey.” Luke leveled his gun at Dagger’s back. “What are you talking about? Give me the phone.” He pulled the phone from Dagger and spoke with Joey. “Hang on.”
Dagger settled back in his seat, hands clasped behind his head, legs propped on the table. His dark eyes danced as they followed Luke’s movements. Luke hadn’t noticed that Dagger had pressed the mute key on the telephone. Joey wouldn’t be able to hear him. That should buy Sara a little time. The detective said, “The diamonds are in the plant.”
Padre walked around the plant with the woolly leaves and red flowers. “So this is a Kangaroo Paw.” He looked around for something to cover the floor before spilling the contents.
“Kangaroo?” Robert gasped. “Of course. I had forgotten what Rachel called it.”
Unconcerned about dirt being spilled on the floor, Luke gave the plant a shove, sending the plant tumbling, spilling the dirt and smashing the terre cotta pot.
“Let me see.” Edie muscled her way between Padre and Luke. She knelt on the floor, staining her white slacks. Her long fingers plunged into the dirt. “I feel something,” she cried. She raised a wrapped plastic package, pulled at the sealed edges and gasped when she had the necklace in her hands.
The Tyler men watched Edie’s reaction with horror.
Padre announced, “I believe we have found the rest of the Williamsburg Collection.” He turned to Dagger. “Why aren’t you excited?”
Dagger smiled. “I’m waiting for the missing player.”
Padre smiled in agreement. “He’s a little late.”
Robert asked, “He who?”
J.C. Kinnecutt appeared in the doorway. “Guess I didn’t fool you, did I, Dagger?”
CHAPTER 46
“Oh my god.” Edie glared at J.C. and clutched the necklace to her chest. “You!”
“Hello, Sweetheart. Forget to call?” J.C. held a small Smith & Wesson .9mm in his hand.
“Sweetheart?” Eric stammered.
“Something’s come up,” Luke said into the phone before hanging up, unaware Joey still couldn’t hear him. Luke slid a beefy hand around Edie’s slender neck and pulled her against his body, his gun pointed at her head.
Lily let out a scream.
“Let’s all remain calm,” J.C. said. He asked Dagger, “What gave it away?”
“Celia, the desk clerk at the Carmelite Retreat couldn’t quite remember specific details about Rachel’s fictitious brother, Sean, until Padre called earlier and asked her if the brother had an Australian accent.”
“Ahhh. Just a tiny detail, but significant.”
“Well, well, Edie.” Luke traced her jaw with the barrel of his gun. “Why don’t you tell us who your friend is?”
“I was going to call, J.C.,” Edie stammered.
“Oh really, now?”
“Oh my god,” Eric moaned, covering his face.
“Well, now I know it wasn’t my imagination that someone was following me.” A nervous laugh escaped from Edie’s throat.
“Amazing way to connect the dots. I just followed your father-in-law from Dagger’s house and I followed you. Best way to find out who all the players are.” J.C. fanned the gun at his audience, “Please, everyone sit down.” To Edie he said, “Drop the necklace nice and easy.”
One by one the Tyler brood sank back into their chairs. Lily clung to Robert’s hand. Eric huddled close to Nick.
“She ain’t giving you jack shit.” Luke pulled her tighter. Edie gasped as she strained her eyes in the direction of Luke’s gun.
J.C.’s eyes smiled. He had a trusting face and a sincere cadence to his voice. “I do detest violence. It is so messy. But there are circumstances when the situation warrants it.” He fired one shot. Edie and the necklace dropped to the floor. He fired off another and Luke dropped to the floor.
All the men jumped to their feet. Eric cried out, “Edie!” Lily screamed.
“Anyone else?” J.C. asked.
“Sara was right about you,” Dagger said.
J.C. bent down and scooped up the jewelry.
“And what was that?”
“She Emailed the last museum you worked at and suggested they check their most valuable collection to see if it was moissanite. Imagine their surprise when they did your little flame trick and those suckers turned bright yellow. We then discovered that moissanite, the fake diamond you used, was never available in pink. You, however, were a pretty good gemologist in your own right and I figured you found a way to make pink ones. No one had ever heard of a pink moissanite so they would never suspect the set you had in the Argyle Museum was fake.” When J.C.’s cheshire grin co
nfirmed the revelation, Dagger added, “Edie must have hired you.”
“Actually,” J.C. explained, “we sort of found each other. Birds of a feather they say. What a perfect way to get the diamonds out of the country. She arranges for her sister-in-law to be the model, I exchange the wonderful replicas for the real thing, and Edie retrieves the jewels back in the states. We find a buyer, split the profits. What a country.”
“But,” Padre interjected, “Rachel suspected they were real when Edie became obsessed with getting them from her.”
“When Edie quarreled with Rachel, she accidentally pushed her and she hit her head.” J.C. looked down at Edie’s lifeless body. “I helped Edie deliver Rachel to that retreat. I wanted to make sure she actually did have amnesia. Couldn’t trust Edie, really.” J.C. turned to Eric. “Don’t you find that to be true, Mr. Tyler?”
“Can’t trust the cops, either,” Padre confessed.
Puzzled, J.C. furrowed his brow and gripped his gun tighter.
Smiling, Padre said, “We never come alone.” Three members of Cedar Point’s elite Swat Team had just arrived.
Dagger raced his pitted Ford Torino to the forest preserve. He had played Sara’s message over in his head while the events unfolded at the Tyler residence. He had taught her to be prepared for anything and to be observant. Dagger was sure Sara was somewhere in Possum Woods.
The sun was setting as he gunned the Ford through the downtown streets and headed for the outskirts. Possum Woods was on the other side of town, a little-known woods except in the fall after the first frost when all the mushroom pickers were out in droves. The creek wasn’t deep enough for boats and there were no large picnic areas. No walking or jogging trails. The woods would be isolated enough to do whatever Joey wanted to do without any witnesses.
He gripped the steering wheel tighter as he thought of Joey. If things got bad, he knew Sara’s instincts would be to flee, to shape-shift. Dagger felt confident until something popped into his head. Sara’s instincts would save her, provided she was conscious.
“I have to go to the bathroom,” Sara pleaded.
Joey stopped pacing and stared at her. His eyes drifted down her sundress and traced the body beneath the fabric. Slowly he unbuttoned the bottom two buttons of her dress. The fabric fell away, revealing shapely thighs, tan and firm. His lips parted as he exhaled slowly, his eyes closing briefly with thoughts Sara didn’t want to imagine.
Slowly he took his knife from his pocket, walked around in back of Sara’s chair and knelt down. He inhaled the scent of her hair and closed his beady eyes as he drank in the smell of her perfume. His bony fingers slid languidly down her arms and when he reached her fingers, he clasped one between his teeth and sucked hard.
Sara fought back the urge to vomit. Everything about him made her skin crawl. He seemed to rarely blink, his eyes appearing psychotic, dangerous. Finally, she heard the knife cutting and felt her wrists released from their binding.
“You leave the door open though.”
“Why?”
“Because I said so.” His gaze never left her chest as it rose and fell with each labored breath.
“I can’t go if you watch.”
“Too bad.” He checked the time. “I don’t know why Luke isn’t calling.”
She entered the small closet, which contained only a rusty toilet and tank. It hadn’t been used much and was rusty from water stain. She closed the door slightly but Joey pushed it open. He stood straddling the threshold between the two rooms, his knife whittling away at the wooden door jam.
Sara started to cry. Her tears were huge and fell like rivers down her cheeks. “I feel sick,” she cried. She held her stomach as she neared him. Joey backed away. Moaning, she held a hand to her mouth, and when he least expected it, kicked hard at his groin.
Joey doubled up in pain and Sara proceeded to give him another sampling of what he had received when they had broken into her house. Another kick sent Joey halfway across the room. Sara spun, kicking out again with her leg, planting a foot into his throat.
As Joey hit the floor, Sara ran to the door, unfastened the bolt, and fled.
Flashes of sunlight skipped in and out from between the trees as Dagger raced the car down a dirt road. Dagger pounded the steering wheel. “Think, dammit.” He pulled the car to a stop and killed the engine. Leaning over the steering wheel, he stared into the woods, looking for some sign, some hint of movement.
Sara? He tried to reach her telepathically but there was no response. Then he remembered…the lodge! A small house had been used as a storage lodge. It had been vacated over ten years ago but was never torn down.
He checked his gun and rushed out of the car.
Sara’s strong legs carried her swiftly away from the house. There were more woods there in which to hide and in the cloak of the dense forest she would be able to shape-shift and get away from him.
“Sara!” Joey’s voice echoed off the trees. He gave a shrill yelp as if he were on some fox hunt. “I love it when you fight.”
His voice sounded close. She looked back quickly and saw him running like a deer up the hill. Sara speeded up, branches catching her clothing and whipping across her face. Just as she reached the top of the hill and a clearing, she heard Joey closing in.
“That’s it, Sweetie. Tire yourself out so you won’t fight too much when it counts.” His voice cackled, taunting, teasing.
The rushing of the creek grew louder and Sara ran toward the sound. But she stopped quickly and wrapped an arm around a narrow tree. The creek was fast and about thirty feet below. She didn’t think she had climbed that high.
“My god.” Her heart pounded in her chest. She could jump and shape-shift as she fell, she thought. But it was too late. Joey tackled her from behind.
“Gotcha!” Joey turned Sara around. She kicked furiously struggling to get up. But Joey threw a punch and connected with her chin. Sara fell against a tree and slid down to the damp ground.
She felt hands tearing at her clothes. Her head felt groggy and she tried to shake herself conscious but it hurt too much. Warm air caressed her exposed breasts. She moaned when she felt her panties ripped off her and Joey pushing her legs apart.
“You are going to pay, Sweetheart.”
Joey’s voice was husky, depraved, as he pressed his mouth against her throat. When she felt his hands fumbling with his zipper, she cried out and forced her eyes open, shook the grogginess from her head.
She gathered all the energy she could, and just as he was ready to penetrate her, she shape-shifted.
“Whaaa?” Joey rocked back on his heels and watched in horror as Sara shifted into a hawk, slipped out from his hold, and flew up to a high branch. He had been too busy concentrating on Sara to hear Dagger rushing up the hill. Sara had no sooner shifted than Joey felt Dagger’s body slam into him.
Dagger’s adrenaline was on high. He pummeled Joey, punching him in the midsection several times. Joey staggered, turned and lunged for Dagger. They rolled partway down the hill, over fallen branches and wet leaves. Joey pulled himself up and kicked at Dagger’s head. Like the skinny weasel he was, Joey scampered back up the hill and away from Dagger. It would have been so simple to just shoot the sonofabitch but Dagger thought that would be too easy.
At the top of the hill, Joey struggled for his breath. His eyes searched the trees, saw Sara’s clothes on the ground. A strange sneer pulled at his lips as he saw the hawk through the branches.
Reaching the top of the hill, Dagger charged, knocking Joey off balance. Dagger popped the palms of his hands against Joey’s ears. Joey screamed as he felt one of his ear drums pop. Dagger kicked, sending Joey flying backwards where he lay motionless for a few moments. But he was like a road kill that refused to die, arms and legs still twitching.
Exhausted, Dagger crawled hand over hand through the mud to where Joey lay. The man was still breathing, eyes fluttering trying to regain his senses. Slowly, Dagger rolled the limp body over. He pressed one knee int
o Joey’s back, grabbed his head, and twisted. Joey died instantly.
Dagger? What are you doing? Sara’s voice quivered in his head. The sound of Joey’s neck breaking sent a shiver through the hawk. Sara had never seen Dagger look that way…dangerous, feral, frightening. She had seen a similar look many times in the past when the hawk would watch an animal on the hunt. Once the prey was killed, the predator would have a menacing, fierce look as it guarded the remains of its meal.
When Dagger jerked his head up to stare at the hawk, the hawk took a few steps backward. Go home, Sara. Strands of hair, littered with fragments of leaves fell across his dirt-smudged face. There was pure vengeance in his eyes, and no matter how many attempts Sara made to communicate with him, he shut her out. He never spoke again.
But the hawk didn’t leave. It watched tentatively as Dagger hoisted Joey’s body up and sent it plunging over the cliff and into the creek below. Then he gathered Sara’s clothes and carried them down the hill.
CHAPTER 47
Simon rose from the couch the moment Dagger stumbled through the front door. Dagger had called Simon and asked if he and Eunie could stay with Sara until he got home.
“How’s she doing?” Dagger whispered, his gaze drifting toward the upstairs.
“Hard to tell. She’s quiet, you know? Didn’t say much, least not to me.”
A stocky woman with skin the color of chocolate teetered down the stairway. She held onto the railing as though not sure of her footing. Because of her enormous chest resting over her waistline, she couldn’t see the stairs. Her head was a wad of tight graying curls.
Eunie’s jovial eyes smiled, but the corners of her lips frowned when she saw Dagger. “Honey, I hope you don’t feel as bad as you look.”
Dagger’s shirt was torn and ragged, his slacks covered in mud that was now drying. He had brushed them off the best he could before coming into the house.