by James Raven
Garcia was right, I realized. This was dynamite.
I rushed back downstairs with the case, but by the time I got to the living room Garcia was already dead. I checked for a pulse and listened to his heart just to make sure.
I tried not to let it get to me. The guy had essentially got what had been coming to him. As a lawyer who represented some of the state’s biggest criminals, there was always the strong possibility that his life would come to a violent end.
I forced myself to focus instead on the plan that was coming together in my head, a plan aimed at achieving the two objectives I’d now set myself. The first was to ensure that Kate came through this crazy mess in one piece.
And the second was to make someone pay for letting me spend ten years on death row for a murder I did not commit.
Before leaving Garcia’s house I went to his study and fired up his computer. Having watched Kate surf the internet in the hotel I knew how to get online and use Google.
I was looking for a specific address and I thought it would take me an age to find it. But to my astonishment it took less than five minutes. In the new high-tech world nothing was private or secure anymore.
I wrote down the details on a sheet of paper. Then I raided Garcia’s closet and took out one of his shirts and a sober grey suit. They were as good as new and probably made-to-measure. They were also a perfect fit.
I retrieved Garcia’s keys from his pocket and took his wallet too. It contained credit cards and a hundred dollars in cash. Plus his driving license with the photo of a man who looked just like me, only younger.
A minute later I backed the Mercedes out onto the road. I left the engine running while I shut the garage door and went over to the SUV to get the holdall with the money.
As I drove away from Garcia’s house I checked all around to see if anyone was watching me.
I saw no one.
44
THE SKY WAS a flawless blue when I got to the lake.
Vance was already there, standing at the water’s edge next to a grey Honda Civic. He turned around as I drove towards him across the otherwise empty parking area. He gave me a little wave and I saw smoke from a cigarette curl above his head.
I brought the Mercedes to a halt on the black tarmac next to the Honda. Vance had returned his attention to the lake so when I got out he wasn’t looking at me. I wondered how close I would have to get before he realized I wasn’t Raymond Garcia.
I kept my head down as I approached him. The pistol was tucked into my waistband under the jacket.
On the way here I’d gone over what I was going to say to him and how I was going to play it. This was the only chance I was going to get to put things right for Kate. I couldn’t afford to blow it.
He let me almost reach him before he turned around and the moment he did I drew out the pistol and pointed it at him. He froze with the cigarette in his mouth and two jets of smoke spewed out of his nostrils.
I don’t think he realized it was me at first because his eyes were drawn to the gun. But as he looked up and registered my expression he suddenly knew. His mouth fell open and the cigarette dropped out onto the ground. He instinctively reached for his gun beneath the suit jacket.
‘Don’t do it,’ I warned him. ‘Not unless you want me to blow a hole in you.’
He stopped going for his gun and let his hand hang loose at his side.
‘Raymond Garcia is dead,’ I said. ‘And before you start with the bullshit about you being my friend and saviour he told me everything.’
He ran the tip of his tongue across his upper lip.
‘What do you mean?’ he said. ‘What is there to tell?
‘Nice try,’ I said. ‘Now turn around.’
I gave him a hard stare to show that I meant business and he slowly turned. Then I held the gun against the back of his neck while I patted him down and removed his service pistol from its holster.
I pushed him up against the side of the Honda so that he was facing me again. Then with the gun still trained on him I told him what I knew. The deal he made with Garcia. How he came up with the plan to fake my execution. Why he wanted Julio Martinez to see me gunned down outside the restaurant. I then told him what I’d done with Michael Cruz and how Raymond Garcia had met his end. He listened to me in stupefied silence, his eyes suddenly bulbous with panic.
‘You bastards have stepped over the line once too often,’ I said. ‘And because of that my sister is dead. Now I’m going to make you pay.’
I felt a wave of pure hot rage flow through me. It took a great deal of willpower not to pull the trigger.
‘Your sister wasn’t meant to die,’ he said. ‘And I’m really sorry that she did.’
‘But you gave the order.’
‘It wasn’t like that. I sent our agents there to see if you’d turn up. They were meant to—’
I grabbed his jacket then and yanked it hard.
‘Get on your knees,’ I yelled.
When he was down I stood behind him and pressed the muzzle into the back of his head. My hand shook violently. I wanted to put the fear of God into him, make him believe that he was about to be executed.
‘Don’t kill me,’ he pleaded. ‘Just disappear. You’ve got a life now. I give you my word we won’t try to find you. I’ll tell Washington you’re dead.’
I almost laughed.
‘If you think you can save yourself by lying then you’re a fool, Vance. I know you’ll do whatever it takes to cover up what’s happened. You can’t afford not to.’
‘But what good would it do to kill me?’
‘It’ll make me feel better. At least I’ll know that I’ve got even for my sister.’
He started to speak but I cut him off and said, ‘Where’s Kate?’
He licked his lips and took a deep breath. ‘She’s at the safe house with her baby. The same place you spent the night.’
‘Who’s there with her?’
‘Daniels.’
‘Have you talked to her?’
‘Briefly.’
‘What has she told you?’
‘Everything that happened to her after you abducted her in the parking lot,’ he said. ‘She said you stopped Larson from beating her up and then you took her to Mountain City. She said that by then she didn’t think you would hurt her. That’s why she picked you up after she heard the shots and saw you running away from the house.’
‘What else did she say about me?’
Vance wiped a hand across his face. He knew what I was getting at.
‘I want the truth,’ I said.
He gave a slight nod. ‘At first she tried to pretend she didn’t know who you were. But I didn’t believe her. So I pressed her on it and eventually she came clean and told me how she learned of your identity from the TV news report on the shootings.’
I wasn’t surprised that Kate had opened up. She was scared and confused and would have found it hard not to buckle under the pressure of an FBI interrogation. Vance would have been firm, perhaps even rough. He would have used every trick in the Bureau’s book to extract the relevant information from her.
‘So you intend to kill her now to stop her talking,’ I said.
He hesitated, which told me he was about to lie, so I kicked him hard in the back and he toppled forward onto his front.
‘You bastard,’ I said. ‘You callous, fucking bastard.’
He lifted his face off the ground and said, ‘What do you expect us to do? She knows you’re alive. She’s therefore a risk. And it’s your fault for getting her involved.’
He was right about that. I was to blame. And that was why I couldn’t just walk away. I owed her. She was an innocent victim in all of this just like my sister had been. I’d let Emily down, but I was determined to save Kate.
I told Vance to sit up. Then I stood in front of him. I stared hard into his face, as though seeing him for the first time. There was a hint of raw desperation in his eyes. Clearly he was a man who was not used to failure. To be
come a Special Agent in Charge he would have had to put in a lot of toil and commitment – and carried out his fair share of ‘dirty jobs’ no doubt. For despite its holier-than-thou image, the FBI had been a law unto itself since the reign of J Edgar Hoover. Everyone knew it and everyone ignored it. The Feds were experts at covering up their crimes and misdemeanours. They pulled out all the stops – including the elimination of people who they perceived to be threats or potential embarrassments. People like Kate and me.
‘Here’s the deal,’ I said. ‘I won’t kill you if you have Kate and her baby brought to me here.’
He wrinkled his brow. ‘Are you insane? I can’t do that.’
‘You can and you will,’ I said. ‘You’ll call Daniels and get him to bring them. Just him. Nobody else. Tell him you’ve had orders from Washington to kill them both right away.’
‘He won’t believe me.’
‘Why not? You’re the boss and he’ll know it’s what you plan to do eventually anyway.’
He shook his head. ‘It’s not that simple. Something like that would have to be sanctioned.’
‘Then sanction it or I’ll kill you right now.’
He studied my expression for about fifteen seconds and he must have realized that I meant what I said because he agreed to do it. I told him to get his cellphone out slowly and to put it on speaker.
‘Now make the call,’ I said.
I was prepared to shoot him at that moment. But I didn’t really want to. My thirst for revenge had been quenched by the realization that it would be cold-blooded murder. I’d killed the other men in self-defence. If I pulled the trigger now it would be an execution. And when it came down to it the primal instinct to kill wasn’t in me.
Vance told Daniels he’d been ordered to neutralize the Pena woman and he wanted him to take her and the baby to the lakeside parking area where they’d had meetings with Garcia. He sounded convincing and Daniels did not even question the order.
‘Tell the woman you’re taking her to a hotel or something,’ Vance said. ‘Otherwise she might get worried.’
I took the phone from him and put it in my pocket. Then I got him to open the Honda’s trunk and told him to get inside while I moved the Mercedes to the edge of the parking area where it couldn’t be seen. He wasn’t happy, but he complied because he knew he had no choice.
Five minutes later, after I’d parked the Mercedes amongst some bushes, I moved the Honda so that it was parallel with the side of the lake. That way I could position myself behind it when Daniels arrived.
I then let Vance out of the trunk.
‘Give me your cuffs,’ I said.
I knew he had a pair in his pocket because I’d felt them when I patted him down. I got him to lean forward over the Honda’s hood and put his hands behind his back.
Then I attached them to his wrists.
‘What now?’ he asked.
‘We wait,’ I said. ‘And when they get here I don’t want you lying to Kate by telling her that you’ll take care of her. If you won’t tell her the truth, then keep your mouth shut.’
I looked up at the access road to the lake. There were no cars in sight. The sun was starting to go down, throwing shadows across the landscape.
I turned back to Vance and said, ‘For your information Michael Cruz doesn’t know who I am. My face was covered when I dropped in on his office. So there’s no need to kill him. And one other thing. If I drive away from here with Kate then you can have Garcia’s dossier. At least then it won’t all have been for nothing.’
His eyes widened. ‘You have it with you?’
‘It’s in the Merc,’ I said. ‘A briefcase full of documents and discs. Looks to me as though you could do a lot of damage with it.’
A smile almost touched his mouth. He began to say something but I told him to shut up because at that moment I saw a vehicle in the distance moving slowly down towards the lake.
45
I RECOGNIZED THE vehicle as it drew nearer. It was the Dodge that had pursued me through the city after the failed attempt on my life outside the restaurant.
I was crouched down behind the Honda next to Vance, peering through the front windows. I had the gun in one hand and held onto the cuffs with the other.
‘If for any reason this doesn’t go smoothly I swear I will put a bullet in you,’ I said to Vance. ‘Do you understand?’
He nodded.
The Dodge moved slowly towards us across the parking area. I couldn’t see who was inside because of the tinted windows.
‘Now just stay calm and don’t try anything stupid,’ I said. ‘This could all be over in less than a minute and you’ll get to see another day.’
The Dodge came to a stop. When nothing happened immediately I felt my whole body go stiff. The thought struck me suddenly that maybe Kate wasn’t even inside.
But then the driver’s door opened and a man stepped out. It was Daniels. I recognized him instantly. He opened the rear door and helped Kate out. She was holding Anna.
Seeing them caused an intense wave of relief to surge through me. Vance acknowledged their arrival with a curt nod. Daniels raised a hand in response. Then he took Kate by the arm and walked her towards the Honda.
When I jumped up I took them completely by surprise. Daniels stopped dead and glared at me. I aimed the gun at him and he looked from me to Vance.
‘Just stay where you are,’ I shouted. ‘Don’t move a muscle.’
But Daniels did what I feared he might do. He pulled Kate in front of him and whipped out his pistol. I couldn’t risk taking a shot. So now there was a stand-off, and just to make things worse, the baby started to cry.
‘Put your weapon down and step out from behind the vehicle,’ Daniels yelled.
My response was to step behind Vance and hold the gun to his right temple.
‘I suggest you talk some sense into your man,’ I said to Vance. ‘Before there’s a bloodbath.’
Vance spoke with calm authority. He ordered Daniels to drop his pistol and let Kate go, explaining that they had no choice.
Daniels took a long time to do as he was instructed. His eyes kept shifting nervously between me and his boss. And all the time Anna kept crying. Finally he stepped away from Kate and tossed his gun onto the ground.
I shoved Vance forward and moved around the Honda. I asked Kate if she was OK. She looked petrified, but she nodded and started patting Anna on the back.
‘What’s going on?’ she said.
I ignored her and told Daniels to get his cuffs out and warned him that if he resisted I’d shoot him.
‘It’s not an idle threat,’ I said. ‘I’ve got nothing to lose here.’
He didn’t resist and a minute later his hands were cuffed and he was standing alongside Vance.
I stepped back from them and turned to Kate. Anna had stopped crying and was looking around curiously at her surroundings. When she saw me she smiled and I couldn’t help but smile back.
‘Please explain to me what’s happening,’ Kate said, her voice fragile.
‘I couldn’t let them kill you,’ I said.
She was shocked. ‘But they wouldn’t do that.’
‘So why do you think he brought you here?’
She looked at Daniels. ‘He said he was taking me to a hotel.’
‘Well there are no hotels here. You were brought here to be killed along with Anna.’
She looked at Vance and waited for him to tell her that I was lying. But he held his tongue and looked sheepishly down at the ground.
‘Oh my God,’ Kate said.
‘They killed Larson,’ I said. ‘And they killed my sister. You’ll be next if you don’t let me take you away from here.’
‘The police,’ she said. ‘We have to go to the police.’
‘If that’s what you want to do then do it,’ I said. ‘But I can’t. And be aware that without me to back up your claims they’re unlikely to believe you. And there’s a fair chance that while you’re trying to convince
them that your story is true you’ll mysteriously disappear.’
She looked at me and I felt a smothering weight of guilt.
‘I’m sorry I got you into this,’ I said. ‘But you’ve got to trust me now. You need to get away from here. I can help you start again.’
Her uncertain gaze lingered on me for a while longer and then she came to a decision.
‘Very well,’ she said in a tearful voice.
I got Vance and Daniels to give me their cellphones. I then flipped open the trunks of both vehicles and told them to climb in – Vance in the Honda and Daniels in the Dodge.
‘Don’t panic,’ I said. ‘As soon as we’re away from here I’ll put in a call to the cops to tell them where you are.’
‘What about the dossier?’ Vance said.
‘It’ll be under the Honda.’
He gave a slight nod. ‘Thanks.’
A thought struck me and I said, ‘I want you to make sure my sister is buried near our parents. The Green Pastures Cemetery in Houston.’
‘Consider it done,’ he said, before climbing into the trunk.
A few minutes later I stopped the Mercedes next to the Honda and slid Garcia’s briefcase under the vehicle along with their cellphones and car keys.
I asked Kate to give me her cellphone and then tossed it in the lake.
‘We’ll get you a new one so that it can’t be traced,’ I said.
Then I drove away from the lake with Kate and her baby in the back seat.
46
KATE STARTED TO cry a few minutes after leaving the lake. Her sobs were pitiful and they reached deep inside me.
I said nothing because I knew she had to get it out of her system. She’d just discovered that she was going to have to embark on a new life and lose contact with her family and friends. Her name would have to change and she’d have to find somewhere else to live. It was devastating for her.