Chain Reaction

by Rebecca York

  “Wrong. I’ve come to convince you I didn’t have anything to do with your partner’s death.”

  Rand gave a harsh laugh. “Innocent. That’s what they all say.”

  “I know. But in this case, it’s true.”

  “If you want to prove you’re innocent, turn yourself in.”

  Darnell made a derisive sound. “Oh, sure. I can really be effective sitting in a cell.”

  “That’s better then getting killed in a shootout. They haven’t executed a murderer in Maryland in years.”

  “Thanks. But I don’t plan for it to end that way. Turn on the bedside light so we can see each other better.”

  Rand was scrambling for a way to take the bastard. Meanwhile, he complied, then watched as Darnell sat down in the easy chair in the corner.

  He looked relaxed, but the gun pointed at Rand’s chest said otherwise. “I assume you have a make on the bullet that killed your partner,” he said.

  “Yeah.”

  “What gun did it come from?”

  “Why should I tell you?”

  “What do you have to lose?” Darnell asked, his voice very calm.

  Rand’s lips hardened. “A Sig P220 Sport.”

  “That’s interesting. You think I’d choose a sports pistol or one that’s easy on the kickback? You think I’m not strong enough or experienced enough for the standard model?”

  “Maybe your wife did it.”

  “You sick bastard.” Darnell started to stand, and Rand felt a jolt of fear. He’d been angry enough to say the wrong thing. Darnell might be a killer, but he cared about his wife.

  The intruder looked like he was struggling for control. Very deliberately he sat down again. “Lily wouldn’t shoot anyone,” he said, his voice hard.

  Rand knew he should keep his mouth shut, but he heard himself say, “Stress makes people do things they wouldn’t ordinarily consider. Like giving her tail the slip at her parents’ house.”

  “She’s not a killer.”

  “Either you did it or she did.”

  “Not true. Somebody else was at the campground. They set me up.”

  Rand couldn’t keep the sarcasm out of his voice. “You were set up twice? How unfortunate for you.”

  “Let’s assume it was the same person both times. Maybe we can prove it tonight.”

  Rand laughed. “It’ll be a cold day in hell before you can do that.”

  “Keep an open mind. Somebody else pulled the trigger. We just have to find out who it was. How many men did you have closing in on me at the campsite, including you and your partner.”

  Rand hesitated, then said, “Five.”

  “My GPS screen showed six. There was another guy at the campsite. The shooter.”

  Rand didn’t bother to think of a comeback. He was busy assessing his chances of getting out of this alive. He decided that for the moment, his best option was to go along with this madman who’d had the guts to break into the house of the detective who wanted to bring him down for killing his partner.

  But was there any possibility of help? Rand had arranged to have a patrol car drive by his house periodically in case Darnell was stalking him.

  If he stalled, would the patrol show up?

  “Where have you been hiding out?” he asked in a conversational voice.

  “In a beach house.”

  “I’ve been checking them. But we don’t have enough manpower to get to them all in a short amount of time.”

  “Lucky for me. But let’s stop wasting time. Get dressed,” Darnell said.

  “Where are we going?”

  “You’ll find out pretty soon.”

  Rand complied. As he bent down to slip on his shoe, he spotted the book on new crime-scene techniques he’d been reading. It was lying half under the bed. He could hurl it at Darnell and hope his shot went wild.

  His muscles were tensing when a sudden sound made him stop in mid reach.

  “What’s that?”

  The sound crackled again, and Rand blinked as he heard Lily Darnell’s voice.

  “Are we ready?”

  “Yes,” Darnell answered.

  Lily’s voice had come from a speaker clipped to her husband’s waist. Rand didn’t know what he was using to speak to her because he had no obvious sending equipment.

  “Have I managed to capture your interest?” he asked, speaking to Rand again.

  “Yes,” Rand admitted.

  “Let’s go, then. Because we don’t want to be late for the party.”

  IN THE DARKNESS of the car, Lily checked the lighted dial of her watch. It was time for her performance to begin. She dialed a private number, then fought to keep her voice from quavering as she waited for the phone to ring.

  When a man picked up, she said, “Is this Sidney Edmonston?”

  “Who is this?” Edmonston asked, his voice thick with sleep.

  “Lily Darnell.”

  He woke up quickly. “How did you get my private number?”

  “I had to do some digging,” she answered. “I want to talk to you.”

  “About what?”

  “I’d rather not say over the phone.”

  He made a snorting sound. “The phone company has a record of calls.”

  “Yes. But I’m using a prepaid cell that only makes outgoing calls. I paid cash for it, so they can’t trace it back to me.”

  “Very thorough.”

  “Can we meet at your office?” she asked, hoping the suggestion would help put him at ease.

  “When?”

  “What about now?”

  “It’s the middle of the night.”

  “Then we won’t be disturbed. Tell the guard to let me in the front gate.”

  He hesitated, and she clenched her hand around the instrument, wondering if this whole plan was going up in smoke right now.

  When he said, “Okay,” she let the breath she’d been holding ease out of her chest.

  “Give me half an hour,” he added.

  She looked at her watch. “I’ll be at the gate at 3:30.”

  She was sitting in another stolen car, already within sight of the Cranesbrook gate, so she’d know if Edmonston came in alone. She should relax. She had nothing to do for half an hour. But tension crackled along her nerve endings as she waited for the president of the company to appear.

  He was a few minutes early, which was a relief. Or maybe he was making sure he could set things up the way he wanted them.

  He stopped at the gate and had a short conversation with the guard. Then he drove on through. She gave him six minutes to get to his office, then couldn’t make herself sit there any longer.

  When she pulled up to the gatehouse, her heart was thumping.

  As a uniformed guard stepped out, she rolled down her window. “Lily Darnell to see Mr. Edmonston.”

  “I’ll have to look inside your car and in the trunk.”

  “Of course.” She’d been expecting that. Still, her footing wasn’t quite steady as she stepped out of the car. Trying to look like she had nothing to hide, she stood aside while he looked inside the car and inside the trunk, then used a flashlight and a mirror on a long pole to inspect the underside of the chassis.

  Next he looked through the briefcase she’d brought along. It contained only papers and a CD.

  When he found nothing incriminating, he turned to her. This was the most dangerous part of the inspection, and she fought to keep her face impassive as he patted her down for weapons.

  Again, he seemed satisfied.

  “The front office is in the third building on the right,” the guard said. “Mr. Edmonston is waiting for you on the second floor. Turn to the right when you get off the elevator.”

  “Thank you,” she said politely.

  She climbed back into the car and when the gate opened, she drove through as if she had every right to be there.

  At this hour of the morning, the Cranesbrook campus was deserted, and there were no streetlights, making the empty streets look spoo
ky.

  Lily knew where to find the administration building. She’d been there after Gage ended up in the hospital. And she had also been in Edmonston’s office.

  There was only one other car in the executive parking lot when she pulled up in front of the two-story brick building. It must be Edmonston’s.

  She hoped he was alone. But she had no control over what he chose to do now. She could only cross her fingers that her plan was going to work. It had sounded so clever when she’d explained it to Gage. Now that she was here, though, her mouth was so dry she wondered if she’d be able to speak.

  Still, she climbed smartly out of the car and took a deep breath of the crisp night air. A few fall leaves had drifted onto the sidewalk, and they crunched under her feet as she marched toward the building. The front door was unlocked.

  Bypassing the elevator, she walked to the stairs, then up to the second floor, hearing her footsteps echo on the concrete. The metal exit door put her in the hallway right outside Edmonston’s office.

  She stepped through a glass door into the reception area and saw through to his private domain, where he was sitting behind his desk, his bald head gleaming in the lamplight. His expression was quizzical as she walked through the door.

  “Mrs. Darnell. I didn’t expect to see you again.”

  She couldn’t stop herself from retorting, “I’ll bet.”

  Edmonston kept his gaze steady. “So what are you doing here?” he asked. “Did your husband send you?”

  “No.”

  “You’ve been hiding out with him, haven’t you?”

  “Yes. But I don’t want to stay with him. He’s dangerous. Unstable.” She gave him a look dripping with sincerity. “I don’t know from one minute to the next whether he’s going to kiss me or threaten to kill me.”

  Edmonston leaned forward. “That’s interesting.”

  Wondering what he would say, she tried a direct question. “He got doused with a dangerous chemical in that explosion, didn’t he?”

  “You said you wanted to talk to me. Did you come to pump me for information?”

  “No.” She swallowed. “I want money.”

  He tipped his head to one side, studying her as though she were a lab animal in a cage. “For what?”

  She held up the briefcase she’d brought. “Gage hacked into your computer system. He downloaded some information that you’d rather not have circulated. About your business.”

  Edmonston looked mildly interested. “Like what?”

  “He found out that this part of the company is in financial trouble and that some of the men in the labs have been keeping double records.”

  “What men?”

  “You’ll have to pay me for that information.”

  “You might have some papers with data but Darnell made it up. Our systems are secure. Do you expect me to believe he got through our firewall?”

  “He’s an expert hacker.”

  “Thanks for telling me.” Edmonston’s hands had been out of sight below the level of the desk.

  Suddenly he stood up, and she saw that he was holding a gun.

  She gasped and took a step back.

  “Stay right where you are.”

  Stiffening her legs to keep from falling, she waited with her breath shallow. Before she could take another step, he rounded the desk.

  “You think I’d fall for your ploy? I’m not that stupid. I know he sent you. And I know you’ve got to be wearing a wire.”

  Before she could protest, he reached out with his free hand and ripped open the front of her blouse so that it hung loose over the vest she’d donned. It was made of a special padded material that was designed to hide the transmitter she was wearing. Edmonston tore the vest away, then closed his hand around the flat plastic box beneath it.

  “You think you can fool me with a trick like that?” he snarled. “Did you think you could convince me that you weren’t working with Darnell?”

  Dropping the device to the desk, he slammed a glass paperweight down on the plastic.

  She heard the cover and the electronics within shatter. Then he pulled the wires out and tore them apart.

  Lily stared in horror at the ruined transmitter that Gage had so carefully wired to her. “He said it would work,” she said in a thin voice. She didn’t have to fake terror. In the next few minutes, this man could kill her, and there was nothing she could do about it—except play for time.

  “Too bad he underestimated me.”

  “Please, don’t hurt me,” she whimpered. “I had to do what he said. I wasn’t lying about his being unstable. I’m afraid of him. Can you help me?”

  “You’re on your own now. He’s not going to rescue you. He can’t get into the compound. You’re stuck,” he added with a look of satisfaction. “If your husband has been poking into my business, this CD and papers aren’t the only evidence. Where is the computer that he was using?”

  She opened her mouth and closed it again.

  “What—you think you can bargain with me?”

  “Yes.”

  “I don’t think so.” When he slapped her across the face, she gasped, then fought to keep tears from blurring her vision.

  Roughly, he pushed her into one of the sturdy guest chairs opposite the desk. With the gun still on her, he moved to the closet and opened a box. Inside was various equipment, including a length of rope. Not the standard issue for a corporate executive.

  He wound the rope around her body and the back of the chair, holding her arms at her sides and her body in place. After her torso was secured, he tied her ankles to the chair legs. When he was finished, he stepped back and inspected his handiwork.

  Satisfied that she couldn’t get away, he put the gun down on the desk.

  “What are you going to do?” she quavered.

  “Now that I know we’re not being recorded, I can be a little more candid. I’m going to kill you,” he murmured. “The question is—how painful will it be?”

  She lifted her chin, pretending a show of confidence she didn’t feel. “You can’t get away with it.”

  A sneer flickered on his lips. “You don’t think so? I’ve already gotten away with it. I killed that janitor at the hospital. And I killed that cop at the campground. And—” He stopped short.

  “What?”

  Ignoring the question, he said, “Why do you think I can’t keep up my winning streak?”

  She stared at him in frozen horror. “You were at the campground?”

  “Yeah. I was pretty sure Gage would be camping out, given his macho constitution. So I asked around and found out where he liked to go, then gave the cops some hints about where to find him. I followed them in the back way and shot one of the detectives. Richard Francis, to be exact.”

  Even as Edmonston’s bragging made nausea rise in her throat, she felt a flash of relief. She’d been sick with worry that she’d drawn the cops to the campground. Edmonston was telling her that she was not at fault. He’d already been stalking Gage.

  “Why?” she whispered.

  “Francis and McClellan started off hot on your husband’s trail. But then they began questioning whether he’d really killed that janitor. I needed to put them back on his case and give them a reason to blow him away.”

  The matter-of-fact way he said it sent a shiver over her skin. “Why did you kill the janitor?”

  His eyes narrowed, and she couldn’t stop herself from cringing. “The same reason. To get the cops after him. What do you think? Once he escaped from the hospital, he was too dangerous to stay on the loose.”

  “Did Dr. Morton shoot at him? Or was it Hank Riddell, the man you assigned to watch Gage?”

  “Gage and Wes.” He gave her a smug look. “No, the shooter was me, actually. I happened to be on site, and I thought I could nip the problem in the bud. It would have been so much easier if I’d just shot your husband before he had a chance to get away.”

  She swallowed, wondering if she could get just a little more information
out of Edmonston without getting hurt. He was obviously enjoying her interest. “How did you get away from a trained SWAT team at the estate?”

  “I dressed like them. In the confusion, I pretended to be looking for you like everybody else. When I was out of sight, I got to my car and drove away.”

  When he smirked at her, she tried one more question: “That explosion. Were you working with an unstable chemical? Is that what happened?”

  Edmonston’s eyes narrowed. “We’ve wasted enough time. I don’t have to tell you any more.” He gave her a speculative look. “I presume your husband is worried sick about you, with the transmission cut off and all. You’re going to call him on the phone and tell him you’re still alive.”

  “Then what?”

  “Tell him that if he wants to save your life, he’d better get over here as fast as he can.”

  “And walk into a trap?”

  “You have a choice. I can start doing some things to you that will be very painful. Do you want to find out how much you can take before you make the call?”

  Chapter Fifteen

  “That won’t be necessary.” The comment came from behind Lily.

  With a mixture of relief and fear, she whipped her head toward the doorway to see Gage, a gun in his hand.

  Edmonston’s reflexes were excellent. He dove behind the desk, firing as he dropped into a defensive crouch.

  Gage ducked to the side of the doorway, cursing, and she knew he couldn’t defend himself because she was in the way.

  “Are you all right?” she shouted anxiously.

  When he answered yes, she breathed a sigh of relief.

  “Move where I can see you or I’ll kill your wife,” the Cranesbrook president growled.

  Lily watched Gage’s shoulders sag as he moved to the door again.

  “Put your gun on the carpet.”

  Gage complied.

  Cautiously, Edmonston slid his body along the back of the desk, then reached out a hand and pulled Lily’s chair toward him, yanking her head around so she was staring into his angry eyes.

  “How did he get here?” he growled.

  She shrugged. “I guess he didn’t trust me so he followed me to the campus.”