by Lauren Carr
It took several seconds for Bogie to realize that the Spencer Inn security manager was calling to him on his ear bud.
“No,” Bogie answered. “We have a hostage situation. Leah has shot Finnegan and taken her hostage. She is demanding her daughter and safe passage out. I repeat, Leah is armed and has taken Finnegan hostage. I’m not getting any response on my radio from the station.”
“That’s because something is going down there,” Hector said. “I got what sounds like a butt dial from Faraday. Some woman sounds like she’s taken them all hostage and is threatening to shoot everyone.”
“Damn!”
“I’ve already called the feds for us and the state police for your department,” Hector said. “Is the little girl safe?”
“Gnarly is guarding her in the home theater.” Bogie squinted to peer into the dark corner of the theater where Gnarly had led her. “Gnarly? Sari? Where are you?”
They were both gone.
“Archie is upstairs trying to talk Leah down,” he reported.
“Don’t you worry, mate,” Hector told him. “We’ve got your back.” In his ear, Bogie heard Hector rallying the guards outside to move in.
“It’s dark, Gnarly,” Sari whimpered. “I can’t see anything.”
In the dark corner of the home theater, she could feel, but not see, the dark tunnel that Gnarly had urged her to crawl into on her hands and knees. It seemed like a game of follow the leader.
She had not seen Gnarly jump up to push the button that popped open the hatch door built into the wall beneath the movie screen. Grasping the hem of her skirt in his mouth, he had pulled her into the tunnel behind him. Clinging to the dog’s tail as her lifeline, Sari crawled behind him until they reached the end of the tunnel, at which she felt a flight of stairs. Using his nose, Gnarly nudged her up the stairs.
“What’s up there?” she asked with a whine.
As if to show the way, Gnarly trotted up the stairs to what seemed to be a dead end.
She followed. The sound of birds singing and the lake water seeped down to her ears. With a push on the roof above her, the trap door opened to reveal a multi-colored floral scene around them.
“Cool!” she squealed.
Gnarly leapt out of the secret passageway.
Outside in Robin Spencer’s rose garden, Hector Langford was squinting through his binoculars into the living room while praying, as he always did when he found himself in a tough situation.
When he had signed on as security manager at the five-star Spencer Inn, he had assumed the toughest situation he would run into would be a sticky fingered housekeeper. He had needed a break after retiring from a career in covert operations.
No one warned him that anything is possible when you go to work at an inn owned by a world famous mystery writer. When Robin Spencer died, her son, who turned out to be the personification of her literary detective, Mickey Forsythe, stepped things up a notch.
How did I ever get into this? Oh, Lord, let that little girl be okay. The answer to his prayer came in the form of a bark.
“Is that Gnarly?” one of the officers nearby asked a security guard hiding a few paces away.
The glasses still in front of his eyes, Hector turned in the direction of the bark in time to spot a magnified dog snout racing straight for his face. Before he could prepare himself, Hector Langford was flat on his back in the rose garden with a hundred pounds of fur on his chest and a squealing child wrapped around his leg.
US Marshal Randi Finnegan was bleeding. One whole side of her shirt and pants was covered in blood where Leah had shot her. Leah held a gun to her head, with a second gun tucked into the waistband of her slacks.
Archie’s blue Ruger was on the floor between them where Leah had ordered her to toss it.
Archie refrained from covering her mouth in horror while watching Leah shove the wounded woman, her friend and confidante of a decade, down the stairs into the living room. “It doesn’t have to be like this, Leah. It’s clear that you killed Ray Bonito in self-defense and to protect Sari. You covered up his murder because you were afraid that once his people found out who you were and what you had done—”
“That’s not what I’m afraid of them finding out,” Leah said. “It’s what happened afterwards.”
“You took over running his operation,” Archie said.
“I can’t believe it.” Randi struggled against Leah’s hold with her arm around her throat. “You mean you were running a major crime syndicate while in the program?”
Leah laughed. “Who would have ever guessed that someone who was being protected from the mob would be running the mob?”
“I’m going to be so fired for this,” Randi said.
“Or dead,” Leah replied.
Spying movement in the shadows beyond the deck, Archie eased over toward the fireplace on the other side of the living room. “Leah, it doesn’t have to be like this.”
“Yes, it does,” Leah said. “You don’t get it, do you? I have been running a major identity theft operation, illegal arms deals, swapping drugs for weapons and then selling them to the cartels—all of it and I loved it,” she hissed. “All that power. All those men doing what I said, when I said. Someone gives me grief, and with one text, they’re dead. Someone gets in the way, just the tap of a few fingertips on the keypad, and the way is clear. It’s exhilarating…and addictive.” She waved her gun at Archie. “Really—seriously—I never planned for it to be that way. I didn’t go to see Ray to kill him. But it happened. And I thought that I would pretend to be him, using the phone, sending texts, for only a few days until I figured out what I was going to do. But then, I couldn’t give all that up. Don’t you understand?”
“No,” Archie said.
“Admit it,” Leah taunted her. “Wouldn’t you like to be Mac Faraday—have all his power—have people cow-towing to you—even if only for one day?”
“Ariel,” David said while trying to ease away from the group of officers, “you have to believe us. Alan is not here. We don’t have him, Ariel, and we have no authority to bring him to you.”
As he was talking, David eased up toward her. “You have every reason to be scared. That’s why they have the witness protection program, so that people who are brave, like Alan, can help to put people like Tommy Cruze away without getting hurt.”
Slowly drawing his gun, Mac eased around behind the hostages and slipped out of the range of Ariel’s peripheral vision.
They could all see that the terrified woman was indeed an amateur. It was with little difficulty that David had managed to draw her attention away from the rest of the officers. Taking them hostage was not planned. It was a desperate act of survival.
When David took a step toward her, Ariel held her ground. He reached out his hand to her. “Ariel, you don’t want to do this. You’re not a killer like Cruze. Everyone will see that everything you did, and everything that Alan took the credit for, was for self-defense.” He reached for her. “Hand me the gun.”
Mac saw Tonya’s Taser resting on top in her open hand bag.
Indecisive, Ariel was breathing hard.
David inched in closer. “We’ll talk to the prosecutor. The feds will protect you.”
As he reached for the gun, she pulled back. “No!” Her resolved returned and she thrust the gun up and at David. “They’ll kill us both. We—”
Mac dove for her from behind. With one arm, he thrust her hand up into the air. The bullet flew wild to hit the ceiling. With his other arm, Mac planted the Taser against her neck and hit the trigger to send a jolt of electric shock through her body.
With a single scream, Ariel Richardson collapsed into Mac’s arms.
“Why did you kill Ray Bonito?” Archie asked Leah. “When he recognized you, why didn’t you tell Randi and get relocated?”
Leah laughed. “Do you have any idea how many people Mario worked for and with? No matter where they put me, no matter how they had me live, one of Mario’s people was going to locate me. I thought Ray—he knew my father. He said he had a lot of respect for my family, which was why he wasn’t going to rat me out to Mario’s people, as long as I did as he said. Do you know what he wanted me to do?”
Randi replied in a weak voice. “I can imagine.” Her clothes were soaked with blood. Losing consciousness, she staggered to stay on her feet.
Lying on the floor in the dining room, with his gun aimed at Leah from over the lower wall, Bogie was in position. He got her into his sights.
Without warning, Leah whirled around to aim her gun at him.
“Oh,” Archie called out as she collided with the end table. Both it and the lamp fell over onto the floor.
The sudden movement in the other direction caught Leah off guard. Pulling the trigger at the same time, she turned toward Archie, who had dropped to the floor behind the end table. Her shot went wild and took out a picture of a Spanish bull fighter that Archie always hated.
When Leah ping-ponged to find her target, she lost her hold on Randi, who slumped to the floor.
Seeing Leah firing in Archie’s direction, Bogie grabbed the precious second to fire his gun, but he didn’t have enough time to readjust his aim. The shot ended up taking out the grandfather clock. It wasn’t the first time the grandfather clock had been shot out. Before he could take another shot, Leah had spotted him and had him in her sights.
Archie was back up on her knees and firing. The little pearl-handled revolver that she had concealed in her ankle holster was more for appearances, but in the hands of an experienced shooter like she had become, it was good enough.
The bullet tore into Leah’s side, traveled upward and shot out through her upper chest. During its flight through her body, it tore through her heart. She was dead before she hit the ground.
“Randi!” Archie was by the marshal’s side.
“Target is dead,” Bogie reported into his ear bud to Hector at the same time that the guards came bursting in from all directions—taking out doors, windows, sheers, and curtains in the process.
Chapter Twenty-Two
“Randi is going to be okay,” Archie reported to Mac on the cell phone from the waiting room at the hospital. “The bullet went through and through without hitting any vital organs. She should be out in a few days. How are things there?”
“Complicated.” In the squad room, Mac could see David being questioned by the chief of the local state police barracks. “Ariel Richardson, aka Harper Cruze, was the one who had hired the assassins posing as FBI.”
“Self-defense,” Archie said, “If she hadn’t had killed him, he would have killed her.”
“Yeah, well, she isn’t exactly Miss Goody-Two-Shoes,” Mac said. “Dr. Reynolds, the man you saw killed, wasn’t having an affair with her. She and Alan Richardson set him up so that Cruze wouldn’t know who she was really fooling around with.”
“Those couple of…” Archie didn’t want to say the word.
“That’s what they are, all right.” Mac rubbed his tired eyes. “You can bet they’ll get immunity and protection. Alan Richardson has been collecting information for years to use as a get-out-of-jail-free card for this very purpose.”
“They’ll get theirs,” she replied. “If not here, then they will in the next world.”
“Hey!” The cheerful note in Mac’s tone came out as forced. “I haven’t told David about Finnegan being shot yet. Bogie told him about the standoff and shooting, but I asked that he let me tell him about Finnegan. So if she asks, tell her that he’ll be coming by to see her later. How’s Sari in all this?”
“She and Gnarly are inseparable. Hector took them to the Spencer Inn.” She sighed. “Another deputy from the US Marshals Office is on the way to take care of her. Sari’s still in the program. So the feds will be relocating her. The agent I talked to said there may be a couple, who so happen to be in the program, looking to adopt. They’re going to look through their records to find a good permanent home for her. That poor little girl. Both of her parents are murderers.”
“If we can get her to talk,” Mac said, “we can find out exactly what happened at the Dockside Café.”
Released by the two state police officers, David started to cross over to join Mac.
“I have an idea about that,” Archie said.
When Mac hung up, David said, “The media is going to have a field day. A police department took hostage by a distraught woman trying to spring her husband.” He patted Mac on the shoulder. “You did good. I’m glad you didn’t shoot her.”
“I don’t go around shooting everyone.” Mac slipped the phone into its case on his belt.
“It only seems like it lately,” David said.
Mac cleared his throat. “Meanwhile, at Spencer Manor, a witness in the witness protection program has been running a crime syndicate right under the government’s noses. You do know that Finnegan is going to be the scapegoat in all this.”
“I imagine so.” He lowered himself into a chair in the reception area. “This certainly doesn’t look good for her.” Reminded of Randi, David took his cell phone out of the case on his belt. “The way the feds operate, there’s going to have to be a fall guy, and since she was Leah’s handler—”
“David…”
Seeing no messages, David looked up from his phone. “What?” He took a deep breath. “What other bad news do you have for me? Go ahead, make my day complete.”
“Leah shot Finnegan.” When David jumped to his feet, Mac placed his hands on his shoulders. “She’s okay. The bullet went through and through. She’s at the hospital now and Archie is with her.”
At a loss for words, David glanced around. He clasped his gun and equipment belt as if he were looking for something. In reality, he was unsure of what he needed to do. His men needed him there to lead them, but he yearned to go be with Randi Finnegan, who only the week before annoyed him to distraction.
“Would you like me to drive you to the hospital?” Mac looked over at the chief detective in charge of the scene who had been standing in ear shot to overhear their conversation.
“I got your information,” the detective said. “We’ll be in touch with additional questions.”
Free to leave, Mac ushered David out the door.
“Why do you think Nora Crump is lying about Gordon planting the poison?” David asked on the way to the hospital in Oakland, the next town over. Sitting in the front passenger seat of his cruiser, instead of the driver’s seat, he felt out of place.
David hated the silence that filled the air in moments like this. It seemed to suck up the oxygen in the nursing home when he tried to visit his mother. Everyone was afraid to talk as if their words could burst it. He asked questions to break the silence. “Because Richardson says they got into a fight over the bodyguard taking the cream from their table?”
“Exactly,” Mac said. “I remember what the Crumps were saying to each other when they were leaving. We overheard part of their fight through the agent’s wire. Gordon was asking her what she wanted him to do. She said she wanted him to be a man for once. She was upset because he let the bodyguard take the cream from their table. Why if it was meant for Cruze?”
“The fight could have been staged to give them an excuse to leave the scene,” David said. “But think about it. How would Gordon Crump have known Tommy Cruze was in Deep Creek Lake?”
“According to Alan Richardson,” Mac answered, “Cruze decided to come out at the last minute after Archie killed two of his men. The desk clerk says the Crumps had made their reservations over a week ago and checked in the same day Cruze arrived in town. Another question. How did Gordon Crump know Cruze was going to be at the Dockside Café
?”
“If Nora is lying, then Leah killed Tommy Cruze,” David said. “She had to recognize Tommy Cruze, who was demanding to meet with Bonito, who no one knew was dead. Cruze was probably starting to figure it out, and picked the Dockside Café for a reason. When Cruze walked in, Leah freaked and poisoned him.”
“Two problems with that.” Mac ticked off on his fingers. “One, Richardson admitted in his confession that he suggested the Dockside Café. Two, he also states that the poisoned cream came from the Crumps’ table. Nora says her husband planted it for Cruze, which brings us back to how did Crump know Cruze was in Deep Creek Lake and going to be at the Dockside Café? Nora Crump isn’t telling us the truth and I hate it when witnesses lie.”
David sat back in his seat. “We’re right back to square one.”
Mac held up a finger. “We still have one witness left to question.”
With a warm hug, Archie greeted David in front of the hospital’s reception desk. “Randi’s going to be okay,” she assured him. “She’s resting now.” She led him over to the waiting area to sit down.
“How did this happen?” David asked her.
“She sneaked up on Leah while she was sending a text and read it over her shoulder,” Archie said while taking her cell phone from her purse. “I guess I wasn’t the only one suspicious of her.” She handed the phone to David. “I had made a clone of her phone. She was sending out a message to the rest of Bonito—her—people to scatter and lay low.”
David looked up at Mac. “After the ambush last night. When Randi got home, Leah must have learned about how it played out and realized that the phone she had been forwarding her texts through had been discovered.”
“She risked one last message to tell her people to lay low until after she was relocated,” Mac said.