Deadly Payoff

by Valerie Hansen

  Reveling in Shaun’s closeness, she marveled at how the deepest reaches of her mind had revealed what she had been denying for twelve years.

  “This is my beloved, and this is my friend,” she quoted silently, over and over. She sighed. Like it or not, that was the absolute truth and always would be.

  SIX

  Later calls to Stoneley Memorial Hospital and to Miranda provided little new information. Howard Blanchard had been stabilized, admitted to the hospital and was undergoing a battery of tests. Beyond that, his doctors had nothing to relate except that he was resting comfortably and seemed to be out of danger for the present.

  That was one of the reasons Delia had chosen to press on in spite of Shaun’s suggestion that they return to Stoneley instead.

  “There’s nothing I can do back in Maine but sit around the hospital waiting room with the others and wring my hands,” Delia explained. “Miranda says Grandfather is sedated, anyway. There’s absolutely no reason for us to race back there.”

  “Are you sure that’s what you want to do?” he asked.

  She pressed her lips together in a thin line. “Yes. I suppose you think it’s awful of me but please remember, he doesn’t know us half the time, anyway. And the times when he is lucid, he’s an evil, nasty old man. I can’t believe the horrid things he said to Juliet when he mistook her for our mother. He was so furious and out of control I thought he was actually going to hit her.”

  “I heard plenty about Howard when he was younger,” Shaun said. “I don’t doubt that his illness has sharpened his temper.” He reached across the SUV and laid his hand over Delia’s. “I just don’t want you to have any regrets if he doesn’t make it.”

  She managed a smile while she blinked back unshed tears. “Knowing me, I’d have regrets no matter what I did or didn’t do. It seems like I’m always trying to second-guess God. I’m afraid I don’t get it right very often.”

  Giving her hand a parting pat he concentrated on the road ahead without further comment. On the dashboard, the GPS map was flashing. “Looks like we’re pretty close,” he said, pointing. “Another five miles or so to the turnoff.”

  “I know. I…” Delia frowned and studied the passing side streets. “This whole area seems very familiar. Let’s get off early.”

  “The map says to stay on Eighty-seven.”

  “I know, but I have a feeling we’re only a little ways from where Aunt Genie used to live and I have this odd urge to drive by her place and have another look. Maybe get the DNA I forgot the first time.” She pointed. “Over there. Take that road.”

  “Okay. You’re the boss.”

  Delia laughed softly. “That’ll be the day. I can’t believe how you and my father got together just to boss me around. You both act like you think I’m lolo.”

  Shaun’s eyebrows arched. “Is that Hawaiian for stupid?”

  “How’d you guess?” She made a sardonic face. “I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes. You and Father have never agreed on a single thing, until now.”

  “We’re both concerned about your well-being, that’s all,” Shaun said. He’d done as she’d asked, slowed the SUV on the surface streets, and was leaning forward to peer out the windshield. “Does any of this look familiar to you?”

  She noted the carefully tended lawns with their artistically arching specimen trees and too-perfect arrangements of shrubs. “I think so.”

  “Well, it sure isn’t the kind of neighborhood I imagine Evans lives in.”

  “No, but it seems right for Aunt Genie. I wish I’d remembered to bring her address. So many of these upscale condominium complexes along the lake look alike.”

  Her breath caught. She pointed again. “Look! Over there. See that black motorcycle parked in the cul-de-sac? Do you suppose…?”

  Shaun immediately wheeled in and parked parallel to the curb. “Yeah. I do.” He shut off the motor and set the emergency brake. “Stay here.”

  She had already hopped out of the car and was headed toward the nearest buildings before his feet hit the ground.

  “No way,” she called over her shoulder. “I’ve been to Aunt Genie’s and you haven’t. I know exactly where to go from here. Besides, I still have the key.”

  “Suppose that’s not Evans’s bike?” Shaun asked, hurrying to catch up. “Or if it is, what if he’s not at your aunt’s apartment?”

  “Then we won’t have wasted more than a minute or two,” she said, breaking into a trot. “Come on!”

  Shaun let Delia lead till they were nearly to the apartment door, then he grabbed her firmly and shoved her behind him. The look on her face was part consternation, part resentment. He didn’t let that stop him. Though he wasn’t an expert in motorcycles, he had great distance vision and a good memory for numbers. The tiny license plate on the black bike identified it as belonging to the man they were after. There was no question.

  When Delia started to protest, Shaun laid his index finger against his lips and hissed, “Shush.”

  Making a face, she nonetheless obeyed. Shaun didn’t know how long her voluntary compliance would continue but at least she was letting him take the lead for the moment. That was definitely a plus.

  He bent closer to whisper, “I’ll go in first. You hang back.” The defiance in her gaze made him add, “Please?” and hesitate until she nodded and handed him the key.

  Peering past him, she gave a disgusted-sounding, “Humph.”

  Shaun followed her line of sight and noticed that the apartment door was ajar. From the looks of the splintered jamb, the building maintenance crew was going to be in need of a good carpenter.

  He spread his arms, using his left to ease open the door and his right to block Delia’s access to the opening.

  In the dimly lit interior he was able to discern only one man; the one they had anticipated.

  Shaun was relieved. He’d bested small groups of adversaries in the past but he wasn’t looking forward to that much of a challenge this time. Not when he also had a headstrong woman to protect. If he didn’t put Evans out of commission with a couple of well-placed blows, as he had in Maine, there was every chance Delia would dive into the melee and get herself hurt trying to help.

  Evans had his back to the door and was busy stuffing small items into a gym bag. Shaun assumed he intended to steal whatever he could carry on the motorcycle, then perhaps come back for the larger stuff, like the DVD player, TV and computer, when he had a better way to haul it.

  He eased into the room, careful to make no noise. Though he sensed Delia behind him, he didn’t dare take his eyes off Evans for an instant. Advantages in situations like this were measured in microseconds.

  The apartment was strewn with the remnants of what had once been expensive furniture. The cream-colored leather couch had been slashed, the occasional chairs reduced to kindling. In the middle of the room, blocking direct access to his quarry, a glass-topped, wrought iron coffee table had been upended and smashed in an apparent fit of temper.

  If Evans was responsible for the damage, Shaun sincerely hoped the thorough ransacking had used up a lot of the other man’s energy. This was one fight the good guys couldn’t afford to lose.

  He sidestepped the glass shards and closed the distance soundlessly. Twenty feet—eighteen—fifteen. Shaun held his breath. He was almost close enough to use a chokehold and render his opponent unconscious without taking him on hand to hand.

  Something made a tinkling, shuffling sound behind him. Shaun glanced back for a split second. Delia had apparently nudged a bit of broken glass with the toe of her sneaker because she was giving him an apologetic look. Suddenly, her eyes widened in alarm.

  Shaun whirled in time to see Erik Evans braced for battle. The man’s chunky body hit him squarely in the chest and they both went down with mingled shouts and a resounding thud.

  Evans landed atop Shaun, knocking the air out of him. Before Shaun could react, the other man had grabbed his hair and was smashing the bac
k of his head against the floor.

  Shaun saw a leg from one of the splintered chairs arc through the air above his opponent’s back and heard it connect with a dull whop before glancing off his shoulder.

  Delia! Now she’d done it. Evans was sure to turn on her!

  Shaun filled his lungs as soon as the thug pushed himself off his chest and used the first breath to shout, “Run! Get out of here!”

  Naturally, she ignored him. He struggled to his feet in time to see her bouncing across the seat of the slashed couch like a barefoot Polynesian native crossing hot coals. She had the chair leg raised as if she were about to bat a home run.

  When Evans lunged toward Delia, Shaun tackled the heavyset man at the knees and brought him down. Hard. The whish of the chair leg whirring past Shaun’s ear did not inspire confidence in Delia’s aim.

  “Hey! Watch what you’re doing!”

  “I am. Move so I can hit him again,” she demanded.

  Shaun twisted Evans’s left arm behind him, put his knee in the small of the man’s back and used the leverage to pin him to the floor, facedown. “You don’t need to. I’ve got him.” Now that he had regained the upper hand he found the situation amusing. “You’re a bloodthirsty little thing, aren’t you?”

  “I was saving you, you stubborn—”

  “I’d have been fine if you hadn’t tipped him off that we were sneaking up on him.”

  “I tripped.”

  “I gathered.”

  He stood, hoisting Evans to his feet while keeping tension on his disjointed arm.

  The criminal wailed. “Ow! Take it easy. You don’t need to break it, man.”

  “Maybe I will anyway, just for practice,” Shaun threatened. “Or maybe I’ll hold you still and let my friend, here, get even. If I remember right, she can hit a baseball right out of the park when she connects.”

  “She’ll kill me!”

  “Not if you cooperate. Right Delia?”

  To Shaun’s delight, she was playing along as well as if they’d rehearsed it. Stance wide, she was holding the chair leg like a bat and rhythmically smacking its wider end onto her opposite palm.

  “Maybe. Maybe not. I’d like to hear what he has to say before I make any promises.”

  “Okay, okay. Just call her off, man. I’ll tell you whatever you want to know. I got nothin’ to hide.”

  “Then why did you run?” Delia asked. “Why didn’t you keep your promise and meet with my father?”

  He regarded her as if he thought she was dimwitted. “Look, lady, I didn’t have time to hang around in Maine. I had to make it back here before somebody else cleaned out all the expensive stuff and left me with junk.”

  “That’s not good enough,” Delia said. “My father’s lawyers got you out of jail because you said you had inside information about Genie. You owe it to me.”

  “You ain’t gonna tell the cops?”

  Instead of answering, she raised the bat.

  “Okay, okay,” Evans said. “It’s your word against mine, anyway. Genie was a gambling buddy of mine from way back. She looked me up one day and said she needed help to get control of her crazy sister, Trudy. That’s all it was. I promise.”

  The mention of her mother’s name made Delia freeze.

  Shaun spun the man around, pushed him onto the sofa, then stood over him. “What about Trudy?”

  “That was the job I did, man. The one I never got paid for.” Evans was rubbing his sore wrist as he spoke. “Genie told me her sister was nuts and she needed help getting her back from California. So I went to Santa Barbara and sort of persuaded Trudy to come with me.”

  Shaun glared at him. “She trusted you enough to let you haul her off, is that what you’re saying?”

  “Hey, I didn’t hurt her. And I didn’t take her far,” Evans insisted. “I turned her over to Genie real quick.”

  “Then what happened?”

  “I don’t know. The last I saw them, Genie had drugged her sister, loaded her into her car and was headed east. We were supposed to meet back here in a week so she could pay me. Only she never showed.” He cringed under Shaun’s intense stare. “That’s the truth, man, I swear it.”

  Shaun looked to Delia. “What do you think?”

  “I don’t know,” she said with a sigh. “Now that Genie’s dead we may never find out what she did with my mother.”

  “I’d try that hospital where she used to be locked up,” Evans volunteered. “The one in Chicago. I think Genie said she was planning to take her back there. It figures. It was on the way.”

  “That still doesn’t explain how Genie eventually ended up in Maine. Dead.”

  “Hey, I’ve told you everything I know,” Evans insisted. “I got no reason to lie. There’s nothin’ in it for me. Not anymore.”

  “Nothing except a possible prison term for kidnapping,” Shaun said. He held out his hand and Delia took it. Together they began to edge away.

  “You can’t prove a thing,” Evans said.

  “Which is why we’re going to let you go.” Shaun felt Delia’s fingers tighten and gave her hand an encouraging squeeze. “When we get outside, we’re going to count to ten and then phone the police. I suggest you gather up your loot and hit the road.”

  “Okay, okay.”

  “And you’d better have told us the truth,” Shaun warned. “The Blanchards can afford the best detectives in the world. If we want you, we can find you no matter where you try to hide. Got that?”

  “Yeah, I got it.” He rose stiffly and shook slivers of glass off his jeans. “Try to do a simple favor for a friend and look what happens. It ain’t right.”

  “It could be worse,” Shaun reminded him. “You could be pushing up daisies in a cemetery like your buddy, Genie.”

  Delia didn’t realize how exhausted she was till she’d sat in the SUV for a few minutes and calmed down. They had notified the police about the break-in, as Shaun had promised, but hadn’t waited around for their arrival.

  He pulled to a stop at a traffic signal and asked her, “Okay. Now what? It’s your call.”

  “Chicago,” she said without hesitation. “I have to know if my mother’s there. Bianca didn’t have much luck when she and Leo visited Westside Medical Retreat but a lot has happened since then.” She smiled wistfully. “And I have you with me for backup. We can always sit on the doctor or hit him with a chair leg if he won’t tell us anything.”

  Shaun returned her grin. “You really are something in a fight, Delia.”

  “Except for the fact I almost clobbered you, you mean?”

  He rubbed his ear as if it hurt. “Yeah. That was too close for comfort. I’m glad you were on my side.”

  Her smile gentle, she laid her hand over his where it gripped the steering wheel. “I can’t tell you how glad I am that you agreed to come with me, Shaun. You didn’t have to do it.” She hesitated, then asked, “Why did you?”

  “Beats me. I guess your father caught me in a weak moment. After he apologized for being such a…never mind. Anyway, after he apologized, I was so off balance I didn’t think to refuse outright. Then, when you phoned and I realized you thought I’d agreed, I had to go ahead with it.”

  Delia nodded sadly. As she had suspected, Shaun had felt obligated to accompany her. It wasn’t a new phenomenon in her life. People always bowed to the wishes of Ronald Blanchard. Whether they consciously considered his wealth or not, they never overlooked his power. Everybody knew her family could buy and sell Stoneley ten times over, if they wanted to, which meant they could also ruin anyone who crossed them. Few put that power to the test.

  It had been nice to dream that Shaun had come with her because he cared for her as strongly as she did for him. Reality wasn’t nearly as romantic, but it was far more sensible. The best thing she could do was focus on that instead of letting her imagination make more out of Shaun’s involvement than it should.

  Delia shivered. Watching him being knocked down by that low-life thug had nearly burst her hear
t. If she’d had any doubt that she still cared about Shaun, it had been banished in that pivotal moment. She hadn’t given her own safety a second’s thought. All her senses had been bent on making sure of Shaun’s well-being.

  You’d have defended anyone in that position, she argued. Yes, she would have. Her sense of right and wrong wasn’t in question. The problem was her motives. She’d come to Shaun’s aid because he mattered to her, not because he was simply someone in need of assistance. That was the crux of the issue.

  And that was what she knew was going to keep her up many a night, even after all this was over and they’d each returned to the lives they’d been leading before this ill-advised quest had begun.

  According to the directional system in the SUV, they were still a long day’s drive from Chicago and it was getting dark.

  Delia wasn’t thrilled about spending much more time alone in the car with Shaun. She also wasn’t happy about the prospect of checking into a hotel with him, separate rooms notwithstanding. It would have been nice if she could have come up with a sensible alternative. Unfortunately, their current circumstances gave her little or no wiggle room.

  “If we’d been in Maine when we got Evans to talk, we could have flown from Bangor to O’Hare much faster,” she remarked as he drove west. “I think that’s what Bianca and Leo did.”

  “Like I said before, by the time we went back there and caught a plane we’d have lost another day at least, depending on available flights. Traveling this way has to be as fast, probably faster.”

  She had to admit Shaun was right. “I know. And I wouldn’t have wanted to leave Father’s car parked at an airport in New York and fly from there, either. It just seems like this drive is taking forever.”

  “Yeah, tell me about it.”

  “I thought I just did.”

  “Was that what that was? I thought you were just making noise because you can’t stand silence.”

  “I’m not the one babbling right now.”

  “That’s because you know I’m right.”