by Gerri Hill
She lowered her weapon.
“Kayla…no! He won’t shoot me.”
Kayla put her gun on the table as he’d instructed. “Yes, he will.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Murphy strained her wrists against the rope, to no avail. He had the knot tight and secure. She looked over at Kayla, who was tied, like her, to a chair next to the table. She, too, was trying to loosen the rope that held her.
“Won’t do you no good to struggle,” he said as he walked in from the bedroom carrying a duffel bag.
“And it won’t do you any good to run,” Kayla shot back. “Uncle Ned, think about what you’re doing.”
“Oh, I’ve been thinking about it for the past several months,” he said as he put his bag on the table and collected their guns and phones. He took the time to pour a glass of whiskey and knocked it back quickly. “My plan didn’t include killing Billy N’s wife, but I had no choice,” he said, almost to himself. He looked at them. “Of course my plan also didn’t include my meddling brother thinking I needed police protection.” He laughed. “Kind of ironic, ain’t it?”
“Why kill them?” Murphy asked.
“Why? Because I was doing all the goddamn work, I was the one taking all the chances. Them? All they were doing was getting rich. I found out their take was twice what mine was.” He zipped up his bag, then shoved his gun into the waistband of his jeans. “When I called them on it, Lance said he’d make good. Said he had a stash of money from what he was selling on the side. Guy didn’t even know about it.” He smirked. “But I think I know where he hid it. I’ll find it.”
“Floyd Niemeyer wouldn’t give up the location then?” she asked, remembering the knife wounds he’d suffered.
“Billy N was squealing like a pig when I shot his wife. But no, he apparently didn’t know where Lance had hidden it.”
“Who is Mr. X?” Kayla asked.
He laughed. “Lance was a paranoid son of a bitch. That’s what he called the guy from Houston who brought the money.”
“And the camera? The tapes?”
“Lance was an idiot. Yeah, I got all that and it’s been destroyed. He was trying to be secretive about this little business we had going, yet he tapes our conversations? Goddamn idiot.”
He paused beside Kayla’s chair and patted her cheek. Kayla jerked away from his touch. “You always were my favorite, Kayla Ann,” he said. “Aunt Charlotte’s too. It probably would have broke her heart if I’d had to kill you.”
“Aunt Charlotte knows?”
“Of course she knows. How do you think I got into Bernice’s shop?”
“Jesus,” Kayla murmured.
“No, I’m afraid he can’t help you now.” He stared at her for a moment longer, then took a step away. “I would have shot her, you know. I would have shot you too if I had to.”
“Yes, I don’t doubt that.”
“Yeah, well, remember that.” He took another step away. “You two sit tight.” Then he laughed at his play on words. “Tight. Get it? I’ll be back before daybreak. Then we’ll decide how the rest of this is going to play out.”
They watched him leave, and he paused at the door, looking back at them. He turned the lights out, plunging the cabin into darkness, then locked the door behind him.
“Great,” Kayla murmured.
“You okay?”
She heard Kayla sigh. “Oh, yeah. Just peachy. Although when I envisioned having you tied up, this wasn’t exactly what I had in mind.”
Despite their situation, Murphy pictured that very thing. “Had me tied up, did you? Was I naked at the time?”
“Yes, you were very naked. So was I.” She heard Kayla struggling with her rope. “So…do you miss Houston yet?”
Murphy moved her wrists up and down, feeling the rope cutting into her skin. “Oh, yeah…kinda getting there. You miss the FBI?”
“Well, I’m thinking I wouldn’t be in this predicament if I was still an agent.” She let out a frustrated breath. “My rope isn’t loosening a bit.”
“Mine either.” She stopped struggling with the rope, trying to relax. “So…when I was in the academy, we had this session on what to do in a standoff, and I’m pretty sure handing your weapon to the perp wasn’t part of the deal.”
There was silence for a moment. Then Kayla cleared her throat. “He would have shot you,” she said quietly.
“Then you would have shot him.”
“Yeah…but he still would have shot you.” Another pause. “And…well, I kinda like having you alive. I mean, we haven’t even kissed yet and I’m already picturing you naked, in my bed.”
Murphy smiled at that, wishing she could see Kayla through the darkness. “So you’re saying when we get out of this mess, we’re going to kiss?”
There was no response for the longest time. Then she heard Kayla shift in her chair. “I haven’t been with anyone since Jennifer. I haven’t even gone out on a date in eight months. The first time I laid eyes on you, though…”
“I felt like a nerdy teenage boy with a crush on the head cheerleader,” she admitted. She twisted her wrist slightly to the side, feeling the rope give. “And, of course, in my mind, you were straight.”
“I can’t believe you thought I was straight. I was blatantly flirting with you.”
“Yes, I know.” She could now move both wrists, and she curled her fingers, trying to reach the knot.
“You flirted with me too.”
“I couldn’t help it.” She felt the rough edges of the knot, and she moved the rope back and forth, trying to loosen it.
“Have you slept with her?”
Her head jerked up. “Who?”
“Gloria Mendez.”
“No.”
“Kiss?”
Murphy lifted a corner of her mouth in a smile. “Well…”
“She wanted to sleep with you?”
“Oh, yeah. She didn’t keep that a secret.”
“Kinda like I’m not keeping it a secret?”
Murphy’s hands stilled. “Do you want to sleep with me?”
“I do. Which is a little odd for me. I normally go much slower.”
“So you’re not a first-date-hop-into-bed kinda gal?”
“Not even second date. Well, there was the one time in Miami…” Kayla said, her voice trailing off. “I blame it on the rum.”
She felt the knot give, and she tugged on the rope. “So no third date?”
“No. The sex was okay, but I wasn’t really that interested in her.”
It was a double knot. The second knot was always looser than the first one. The triumph she felt as the knot came loose subsided when the remaining knot refused to budge.
“What about you? Were you serious the other day when you said you didn’t leave an ex behind in Houston? No broken hearts?”
“Why would you think there’d be broken hearts?”
“Because you don’t look like the settling-down type. I can imagine some poor girl falling in love with you and you leaving her with her heart broken.”
Murphy’s fingers were cramping, and she flexed her fist several times. “No broken hearts. I never really took the time for romance,” she admitted. “Woke up one day—alone—and I’m over thirty and I wondered where the time had gone.”
“You gave it all to the job? A lot of cops are like that.”
“Yeah.” She tried the knot again, surprised to find it loosening. “And most live to regret it.”
“You?”
“I do. Because I am the settling-down type.” She paused in her attempt to untie the knot. “I just never met anyone I wanted to settle with, I guess.”
“Yes. Dating is hard work…weeding through all of the castoffs to find that perfect mate.” She sighed, and Murphy heard Kayla’s chair shift. “I can’t fucking believe this is happening. What did my dad say?”
“You want verbatim or should I just paraphrase?”
“I know he didn’t believe you, but what did he say?”
&
nbsp; “‘You’re out of your goddamn mind, Murphy,’” she said, trying to mimic Earl. “‘And don’t go brainwashing my daughter with that crap either. Ned ain’t no goddamn killer!’”
Kayla laughed. “Oh, Murphy…that was good. I think even Dad would appreciate your impersonation of him.”
The sound of Kayla’s laughter in the darkness made her smile.
“So where do you think the money’s hidden?” Kayla asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe Lance Foster had some property somewhere. Maybe he had something like this, back in the woods.”
“If he did and it was kept secret, I’m not sure how Uncle Ned would find it.”
Murphy’s hands stilled, shocked that the knot was starting to pull free. “Just a little more,” she murmured.
“I hope that means you’re making progress on your rope. I was about to fling myself to the floor, hoping the chair would break apart. You know, that works in the movies,” Kayla said.
“Don’t go to all that trouble,” she said as the rope fell away from her wrists. She flexed her arms. Her hands then made quick work of the rope tied around her thighs. She stood, pausing to rub her sore wrists.
“You got it?” Kayla asked excitedly. “Come untie me!”
Murphy held on to the table, sliding around it. Ned had left them on opposite sides and she banged into one of the other chairs, wincing at the pain in her shin.
“Damn…I can’t see a thing.”
“Turn to your left. The light switch for the hallway is right there.”
Murphy held her hands out, feeling for the wall. She found it, then slid her hands up and down, finally finding the switch. She flipped it up, but nothing happened.
“What the hell?”
“Jesus…you think he turned the power off outside?”
“Considering how hot it’s gotten in here, I’d say yes.”
“I thought it was getting hot for another reason,” Kayla murmured.
Murphy walked toward the sound of her voice. She nearly fell in her lap as she collided with her chair, her hands reaching out to steady herself. She gasped as her hand settled on something soft and round.
“Jesus, Murphy…we don’t have time for you to feel me up,” Kayla said with a quick laugh.
“I’m so sorry,” she said as she jerked her hand away from Kayla’s breast. “I can’t see a thing.” She kept her hands on Kayla’s shoulder, moving behind her, sliding them slowly down her arms until she reached the knot.
“I know this is so not the right time, but I’m incredibly aroused,” Kayla said lightly.
Murphy’s hands shook as she tried to untie her. Aroused? Yes, there was something about it being completely dark in the room, something about having to use her hands instead of her eyes. It would be like making love blindfolded. And Kayla tied to the bed. Her hands stilled as she pictured just that.
“Murphy?”
She shook her head to chase the image away, her fingers tugging at the rope again. It finally loosened, and she pulled it away, releasing Kayla’s hands.
They both moved at once, bumping into each other with quiet laughter.
“I’m heading to the door,” Murphy said. “Where are you going?”
“Yeah, do you know where the door is?”
“How can it be so freakin’ dark in here?”
“We’re out in the middle of the woods and I’m guessing we have no moon,” Kayla said as she took her hand. “Let’s stay together.”
“Ouch!”
“Okay, that’d be the sofa,” Kayla said.
Kayla moved them around it while Murphy held out her other hand, trying to ward off any other objects that might be in their path. They came to the wall, then felt along it for the door. She heard Kayla fiddling with the lock. Then she opened it, letting in more darkness.
They stumbled out onto the porch then down the three steps to the ground. Looking overhead at the clouds drifting by, proved Kayla right. The sliver of a half-moon above barely shed any light on their surroundings. There wasn’t even one sparkle of a star in the sky.
“Great night to have cloud cover,” Kayla stated dryly.
They stood still for a few seconds, letting their eyesight adjust to what little light there was. Kayla’s car was parked where they’d left it, and they headed in that direction.
“He took my keys, but I have a handgun in the glovebox,” she said. “And a flashlight. Can’t guarantee the batteries are still good.” When she opened the door, the interior light was a welcome sight. She turned on the headlights too, then leaned across the seat and pulled out a gun and small flashlight.
Murphy took the light and turned it on. It had a surprisingly sharp beam.
“Do you know how to hotwire a car?”
“Give me an older model car and sure, I’d be all over it. These new cars? I wouldn’t know where to start.” She flashed the light around them, landing on the tires. “Doesn’t matter much,” she said. “He must have knifed your tires.”
“That son of a bitch. Tires cost a fortune.”
“So? We walk?”
Kayla blew out her breath as she turned the headlights off and closed the door. “Yeah, I guess we walk.” She took the flashlight from her. “Be right back. Water bottles,” she explained as she headed back into the house.
Alone in the darkness, Murphy heard rustling in the brush. She turned, looking toward the woods. She felt her heartbeat increase, felt her senses on full alert as she listened. She didn’t imagine it would be Ned or any other person. She hoped it was nothing more than a raccoon or armadillo. Still…it seemed like an eternity before Kayla returned.
“Found a flashlight in the closet.”
Murphy took it and cast the beam of light in the direction of the noise. Sure enough, a harmless armadillo scurried away.
Kayla laughed quietly. “Thought it was a mountain lion or something?”
Murphy let out a nervous breath. “Or something.”
Kayla handed her a water bottle, and they started walking along the road. It was relatively quiet, the sounds of crickets and cicadas breaking the silence occasionally. Far off in the distance, they heard coyotes and the faint hooting of an owl.
“I missed the night sounds,” Kayla said after a while. “Living in the city—traffic, horns, people talking, music playing, dogs barking—you don’t realize what the real night sounds like.”
“When I was a kid and I’d stay with my grandmother, we’d sit on the porch after dark—her in her rocking chair—and we’d listen to the frogs down at the pond.”
“You had a fishing spot too?”
“Yeah, nothing big, but I could spend a whole Saturday out there drowning worms,” she said, remembering those carefree days. “Once we moved and I got involved with new friends in the city, I kinda forgot how much I liked it there.”
“You didn’t go back much?”
“At first, we went back a couple of times a month, but as time went on, our visits got fewer and fewer. Special occasions, holidays, we still went for that. By the time I was in high school, I had new interests and new friends, so I didn’t miss it.” She shrugged. “Or at least I convinced myself I didn’t.”
“I quit trying to pretend that I didn’t miss it. I sometimes wish I had come back sooner than I did, but I wasn’t ready, I guess.”
They were quiet again as they continued walking, both with their flashlights on, illuminating the road ahead of them. It was only then that she thought to look at her watch.
“I didn’t realize how late it was,” she said. “Nearly eleven.”
“I would imagine that by the time we make it to the county road, our chances of hitching a ride are going to be slim.”
“I just hope we make it to the county road. I’m completely lost out here.”
“Once we get through the gate, we go left. That’s Zimmerman Road. We’ll take another road to the right which will take us to the county road.” Kayla sighed. “And I’m tired just thinking about how far it
is. I’d guess it’s at least six miles to reach the county road.”
“Maybe we’ll get lucky and someone will come along.”
“Yeah, the way our luck’s running that someone will be Uncle Ned.” Kayla turned to her. “I still can’t believe it’s him. I would have never thought him capable of doing something like this.”
“Money makes people do crazy things,” she said. “We’ve seen that plenty of times in our line of work.”
“True. But does he really think he can simply take the money and disappear? Does he plan to head to Mexico or something?”
It was her turn to sigh. “We had him, you know.”
“No. He had us,” Kayla corrected her. “Your instinct was right, and when I went back out, I should have been better prepared.”
“If he wasn’t your uncle, I think you would have been. What were you going to do? Come out of the kitchen with your weapon drawn?”
“He was suspicious the moment I came out. I could see that. So yes, I should have drawn on him.”
“And he obviously had a nine mil tucked in his pants. Would you have been able to shoot him if he’d drawn on you?”
“Yes.” She pictured that scenario, then shrugged. “That’s easy to say now, of course.”
“Yet you gave up your weapon.”
“He would have shot you, Murphy.”
“You gave up your weapon. He could have shot me anyway, just for the fun of it. He could have shot both of us.”
“Look, I know all of that. I know what I should have done. I’ve been through countless hours of training, and no, I should not have surrendered my weapon. I was clinging to the hope that he was still my Uncle Ned and he wasn’t going to shoot us.” Kayla leaned closer and nudged her arm. “In case you didn’t know, I’m very attracted to you, and I let that cloud my judgment.”
She laughed. “Well, I guess I’m really happy about that, because yes, I think he would have shot me.”
Kayla stopped walking and so did she.
“After this is over with, do you think we can…I don’t know, maybe—”
“Have a date or something?”
Kayla smiled. “Well, I was thinking more like, get naked and have a date…you know, like in bed.” Then she laughed. “God, I’m not normally ever this forward. Maybe a near-death experience has made me lose all my inhibitions.”