Don t Look Back

by Margaret Daley

  But not before Jameson saw the large, dark bruise on it. Its sight mocked his ability to keep her safe. That was why he intended to stay close to her whether she agreed or not. When she was at school, he felt she was all right, but that left a lot of hours in the day that someone could get to her.

  As they crossed the lobby toward the dining room, his cell phone rang. He fished it out of his pocket. “Sorry. I’ll turn it off.” He looked at the screen to see who was calling and immediately answered it. “Hello?”

  “Dr. King, I know where Kevin is staying, and he has agreed to meet with you. He says he’s tired of running.”

  THIRTEEN

  “W hat does he mean by that, Marcus?” Jameson asked.

  “Kevin wouldn’t tell me. He said he would only talk to you. No police.” The fear in Marcus’s voice vibrated through his words.

  “Fine, but I’ll have Cassie with me.”

  “He wants her there. He feels she should hear what he has to say.”

  “Where do we meet?”

  “You know the abandoned sugar mill near Riverton?”

  Jameson pictured the run-down building he’d explored last year for research for his first book. Its collapsing facade and isolation had been perfect for a scene he wrote. “About thirty minutes out of town on Magnolia Road?”

  “Yeah, that’s the place. He’ll be there in an hour. He’ll wait for fifteen minutes, then leave.”

  “We’ll be there.” Jameson flipped his cell closed and slid it back into his pocket. “Marcus said Kevin wants to meet with us.”

  “When?”

  “We have an hour to get to the old sugar mill.”

  “Why there?”

  “It’s out of the way. It sounds like Kevin has been in hiding since Scott’s death and doesn’t want anyone to see him. I used the mill in my first book. It’s got great atmosphere.”

  “But you write murder mysteries. I don’t think that’s a good recommendation.”

  “I hadn’t thought of it that way.”

  “What if it’s a setup?”

  “That’s always a possibility. Maybe you should stay back.”

  “No! I’m coming. I need to hear what Kevin has to say. He may be many things, but at one time he and Scott were best friends. I can’t see Kevin being the one who killed Scott, but he may know who did.” She grinned. “Besides, how can you protect me if I’m not with you?”

  Jameson hesitated, wondering if it could be some kind of trap. Then he remembered the fear in Marcus’s voice. He knew the young man’s integrity and couldn’t see him being part of a setup. “Then let’s get moving. I want to be there first before Kevin arrives. We can check out the place and make sure there isn’t anyone else there.”

  “We can even get back in time for your class this evening. You’ll just have to feed me afterward.”

  “You’ve got yourself a date.”

  “I know where Kevin will be in an hour.” Cradling his cell against his ear with his shoulder, he put the mike in his backseat.

  “How?”

  The deep voice hardened around that one word and renewed his fear of the man on the other end. “After last night’s—”

  “Failure to take care of a problem.”

  He frowned at the interruption and reminder of the botched job. “I decided to listen in on Dr. King and Cassie’s conversations. I thought I was in for a boring evening, but he received a call from Marcus Reed.”

  “Good. You know what has to be done. We’re in this together. You need to do your part. No loose ends or we all could go to jail.”

  “I wish I had night-vision goggles.” Cassie peered up at the sky, clouds racing across the three-quarter moon. “Hopefully the storm will hold off until we get out of here.”

  “We’ll leave the Mustang where Kevin can see it. That way he’ll know we are here. But I don’t want to show ourselves until we know he is alone.”

  Cassie hefted her flashlight, one of two they had purchased on their way to the sugar mill. “At least we have these.”

  “Ready?”

  After buttoning her coat, she released a long sigh and pushed opened the car door. Cold wind hit her warm cheeks. “We should have brought some gloves, too.” She clutched the flashlight and switched it on.

  Climbing from the vehicle, Cassie directed the beam ahead of her as she rounded the Mustang and faced the abandoned edifice. Its dark hulk loomed before them in menacing lines.

  Jameson swung his flashlight in an arc across the stone-and-wooden structure. The east side lay crumbled in a heap while the west stood sentinel over the mill.

  Cautiously Cassie trod toward it, picking her way through the gravel and uneven surface, marred with pockmarks, as though someone had dug small holes every few feet. “This isn’t a safe place, especially at night.”

  “But it is very isolated.” He nodded toward the terrain surrounding the sugar mill. “It’s flat with few trees and hiding places. That’s to our advantage.”

  Cassie surveyed the area and only noticed a small grove of trees silhouetted on the horizon maybe two hundred yards away. “I just wish my imagination wasn’t working overtime.”

  As she neared the entrance, the wind sweeping through the building rattled the door. She half expected someone—or something—to thrust it open and explode outside. Her heartbeat matched the clattering portal.

  “We aren’t going in there, are we?” She pointed with her flashlight toward the steps that led into the mill, the beam wavering as her hands shook from the cold and a growing sense of apprehension.

  “No, but there are several overgrown bushes off to the side that can conceal us.”

  The sweep of his arm directed her attention to the large plants several feet away, their branches flapping in the brisk wind. “Oh.”

  Jameson grabbed her hand and slipped between the stone structure and the bushes. Cassie followed, shuffling her feet to prevent tripping on the pitted ground. Safely settled behind the green wall, she knelt next to Jameson and switched off her light. Darkness closed in around her. He parted some foliage, and through the hole he created Cassie could see the outline of the Mustang in the dim moonlight.

  “Now the wait begins. It shouldn’t be long.” Jameson’s strong, soothing voice calmed the rapid beating of her heart.

  “I’m surprised Kevin wasn’t here waiting for us.” She would be all right. They would discover what Scott was investigating and possibly even who his murderer was, and then her normal life could resume.

  “He would have no way of knowing Marcus could get hold of me. And if he was hiding in Savannah, he has to come a little farther than we did.”

  “Not exactly how I imagined my evening when you invited me to dinner.” Her stomach rumbling, Cassie leaned against the stones. “And I’d worked up quite an appetite with practice today. This will teach me not to skip lunch.”

  “Why did you skip lunch?”

  “David was upset and needed to talk. Then after he left another student had a crisis. This seemed to be the day for problems.” She shifted, trying to make herself more comfortable. “I did find out from David that he was the one who called my house and hung up several times. He apologized.”

  “That’s a relief to know it wasn’t something more sinister.”

  “I set up another practice session with Marcus for David.”

  “I image he doesn’t get much attention from Cornell right now. He’s been so busy staking his claim to the presidency.”

  “My mother had to be a single mom for most of my childhood, but she always had time for us. She sometimes worked two jobs to get enough money to support us, but she was there when we needed her.” Her legs aching from squatting, she sat on the ground. “One of Scott’s dreams was to go to the NBA and earn enough money so Mom wouldn’t have to work anymore and could live a comfortable retirement.”

  “What were your dreams?”

  “To teach, get married and have several children. How about you?”

  “Pu
t the bad guys in jail where they belonged.” He settled next to her, his arm touching the length of hers. “That changed after Liz got hurt.”

  When he didn’t continue, Cassie asked, “To what?”

  “Actually, other than taking the best care of her, I didn’t have a dream. I lived one day at a time for years.”

  “And now?”

  “At this moment, I want to help you. I haven’t thought beyond that.”

  “Hopefully this will be over soon, and we both can get on with our lives.”

  “I still feel I’m living in a limbo, but I’ve started reading my Bible again. It certainly has given me something to think about.”

  Two glowing beams, coming toward them, brightened the darkness. Cassie straightened, clutching her flashlight. A car stopped near the Mustang, and a minute later a tall man emerged from it.

  “Dr. King? Cassie?”

  She recognized Kevin’s voice, although the person still was shrouded in shadows. She started to rise.

  Jameson halted her. “Let me go first.”

  She nodded, even though he couldn’t see her response. She waited while he pushed to his feet and slid along the stone facade.

  “Give me a minute to make sure everything is okay before coming out.” Jameson came from around the back of the bush. “I’m over here, Kevin. Are you alone?”

  “Where’s Cassie?” Kevin spun toward Jameson twenty feet from him.

  “Are you alone?”

  Marcus’s brother went to his car and opened the driver’s door as well as the back one. The interior light revealed an empty vehicle. “Satisfied? I’m alone. I’m not the one you need to be afraid of.”

  “Cassie, come on out.” Jameson didn’t move forward until she was at his side.

  In the glow from the car, Cassie saw Jameson clasp his flashlight as if it were a club. She did likewise and almost laughed. She had never been in a fight before and had no idea what she’d do if she was involved in one.

  Kevin kicked his doors shut and darkness fell around them again. In the faint rays from the moon she could make out his outline and the taut set to his stance. Jameson, with her next to him, halted a few feet from Kevin. Tension whirled around them like the wind.

  “So why did you bring us all the way out here?” Jameson’s voice knifed through the strained silence.

  “Cassie, I wish for his sake Scott had never found me. He might still be alive if he hadn’t been such a good reporter.” Pain laced each word.

  “But he did, and we need to know who murdered him. Do you know?” Cassie held her breath, her eyes slowly adjusting to the darkness.

  “No.”

  Cassie blew out the trapped air in her lungs and stepped closer. “Then why are we here?”

  “Because you have a right to know what Scott and I talked about. I think that is what got him killed.”

  “Why do you think that?” Jameson moved to Cassie.

  “Because I’ve been hiding ever since I came back to this area. Someone tried to run me down about four months ago. I’m only a threat to one person. Coach Nelson.”

  The picture of the assistant basketball coach streaked across Cassie’s mind. The short, balding man wasn’t her idea of a cold-blooded killer. “Why would he want you dead?”

  “He’s the reason we lost the play-off game four years ago.”

  “How?” Skepticism was clear in Jameson’s voice.

  “He paid me to throw the game. I was too far in debt to say no. Near the end the only way I could see us losing the game was to take Scott out. He was hot that night. He would have won the game for us single-handedly. I didn’t mean to permanently disable him.”

  “What kind of debt?” Cassie fumbled for Jameson’s hand and gripped it.

  “Gambling. Coach Nelson approached me about my gambling problem. He had a way for me to take care of what I owed my bookie. I never bet on basketball. I should have wondered how he knew about my gambling, but at the time I was too thankful for the chance to wipe my debt out to question it.”

  “What are you implying?” Jameson slipped his arm around Cassie and pulled her close.

  “Coach Nelson fixes certain games and profits from it. I don’t know who else is in with him or even if anyone is, but Scott came to me after he analyzed the past few seasons, starting with the one four years ago. He saw a trend. It wasn’t blatant, but it was enough to make the coach a lot of money if he put enough down on a certain game.”

  Cassie quaked with anger. “How did he fix the games?”

  “Probably like he did with me. He found someone vulnerable and offered him a deal he couldn’t turn down. I had to lose the play-off game, but a lot of the times a player only had to miss a couple of key shots to cut our win to cover the point spread. That would be harder to track.”

  Scott died because of a gambling scheme, because of someone’s greed. The very thought appalled Cassie. “Then how did Scott find a trend?”

  “He discovered something from Tony when he was investigating the women who were still missing from ten years ago. He had questioned Tony about Paige and Will. Tony has a habit of not holding his liquor well, and Scott could ferret out the truth better than most people.”

  “Is that all?”

  Kevin shifted his attention to Jameson. “Isn’t that enough?”

  “Would you testify about Coach Nelson?”

  “Yes. I want my life back. I’ve been running from my mistake for the past four years, trying to ease the pain with drugs. No more. I can’t change what I did to Scott on the basketball court, but I can help bring Coach Nelson to justice.” The tall man turned to Cassie. “I told Scott I wouldn’t come forward, and he ended up dead. I owe your brother.”

  A little late, Cassie thought, tears blurring her vision. She needed to get out of here before she cried in front of both Kevin and Jameson. She shrugged away from Jameson and started for the Mustang.

  Crack!

  The loud noise swung her around in time to see Kevin slump to the ground.

  “Down!” Jameson shouted.

  Before she could move, another booming sound echoed through the quiet and something pierced her shoulder. Stunned, she looked down, and because of the dark, she couldn’t see anything. But the smell of blood assaulted her nostrils. She touched her upper chest and felt a wetness.

  “Down now!”

  Jameson pulled her to the ground as pain radiated through her. Blackness that had nothing to do with the night danced before her eyes.

  “Are you hit?”

  Jameson’s question reverberated through her mind. I have to be strong.

  “Cassie?”

  “Yes, my shoulder.” She glanced toward Kevin, who was crawling toward the abandoned building, dragging his left leg behind him. “We need to hide.”

  “Can you crouch and move toward the mill? We need to get inside.” Jameson positioned himself behind the Mustang, continuing to use it as a shield.

  “Yes.” Trying desperately to block the pain, Cassie squatted, using her good arm to keep her balance while her vision spun.

  “Move as fast as you can. I don’t want to be out in the open any longer than necessary.” Jameson began creeping toward the building.

  Progressing at a slower rate, her legs protesting, she kept peering behind her to see if she saw anyone rushing toward them. But the cars obstructed most of her view beyond the mill’s yard.

  “I don’t see anyone. Do you?” Jameson asked as he neared the entrance.

  “No.”

  “I think the shots came from the trees to the west. If he has a night-vision scope on his rifle, he’ll still have trouble running toward us and aiming at the same time. At least I hope so.”

  Cassie visualized the killer hiding in the grove of pines, waiting for them with his sights directed at them. She looked toward their only shelter a few feet in front and noticed that Kevin had disappeared inside, the front door swinging in the wind, banging against the jamb. The noise rivaled her pulse thundering in he
r ears.

  The gaping dark hole before them beckoned. Her shoulder throbbed. She could feel the blood dribbling from the wound, dampening her shirt and jacket.

  When she came to a stop beside Jameson, she saw the elevation of the steps would most likely expose them to their assailant. “We’ll have to make a run for it.”

  “We’ll go together since the entrance is wide enough. He won’t be able to shoot both of us at the same time. We should only be visible a few seconds.”

  An eternity if a rifle is pointed at you. But Cassie didn’t see anything else they could do if they wanted to get inside. The two cars only blocked them so much. They had to find a better place to conceal themselves until help came.

  Jameson grabbed her hand. “Ready? On the count of three. One. Two. Three.”

  Cassie surged forward toward the blackness, every nerve tingling with awareness as if she had a large bull’s eye on her back. Which she did when she thought about it.

  One second. Disregarding her wound, she dove through the doorway.

  Two seconds. A shot rang out in the night stillness.

  Cassie tensed. The ache in her shoulder intensified.

  The bullet struck the building near Cassie’s ear. The sound exploded in her head. Wood splintered in a hundred different directions, slithers stabbing her cheek.

  Three seconds. A dark cloak swallowed her within its folds. Jameson shielded her with his body as he shoved her toward the side, out of view.

  Four seconds. Safe for the time being, but the pain in her cheek and shoulder threatened to steal her breath. She forced herself to take as deep an inhalation as possible. She couldn’t pass out now.

  Jameson punched in some numbers on his cell. Although Cassie heard his call for help, the pounding in her head struck the sides of her skull as though a drum were beating inside her.

  Before she realized that he had pocketed his phone, Jameson clasped her arm and began dragging her forward. “I think I see where we can hide until the police get here. This place hasn’t changed much since last year.”

  For a moment her legs refused to function. Her body shook with fatigue as more blood oozed out of her wound. A sound by the cars prodded her into action.