Tough Customer

by Sandra Brown

  Berry ignored that, focusing instead on how this could possibly be happening. She'd seen his brain bulging out of his cranium, his body convulsing. The doctor had pronounced him dead. Yet now he looked completely healed and whole. Gone were the scrapes and scratches on his face and arms that he'd got during his chase through the Thicket. He didn't have a broken tibia.

  The only difference between him now and his sudden appearance in her bathroom last Friday night was that his head had been shaved. It was as slick as a billiard ball.

  He spun her around and pulled her arm behind her back, then linked her wrists together with the handcuffs. He pushed her forward, forcing her to stumble ahead of him along the pier toward the house.

  "Who are you?"

  "I'm Oren, silly, who do you think?"

  "You're dead."

  "Wrong. Dead men don't have boners like the one I've got from seeing your stiff nipples."

  "You must be Oren," she said. "That's the kind of juvenile, off-color remark that's typical of you."

  He hammered the butt of the pistol against her temple. She hadn't seen it coming, and the pain was intense. It caused her to drop to her knees. They landed hard. She crumpled forward. Her stomach heaved. She tasted bile in her mouth and had to spit it out in order to gasp in pain. He grabbed her hair and pulled her head back. Blood ran into her eye.

  "Now see what you made me do?" he cooed. "It's that snotty attitude that got you into this situation in the first place, Berry. You've got only yourself to blame."

  He hauled her to her feet. She swayed, half blinded with the pain in her head as well as the blood that trickled into her eye. All her loathing and hatred for him and the things he'd done boiled over. "Fuck you."

  He laughed, unfazed. "Possibly. I haven't decided yet. You look like the very devil just now. No temptation at all. But I'll think about it. I promise I will. In the meantime, your mother will do nicely. You can watch," he said, as though he'd just thought up a fun, new game. "Then you can watch me kill her. Only then, Berry, will I begin to deal with you."

  "He's a twin!"

  "What?"

  "A twin. Identical twin."

  Ski sat bolt upright in his desk chair.

  Through the phone, Dodge's breathing sounded like he'd been heaving hay bales. He was gasping each breath, but he made himself heard. "I went to that place where his mother is at. Nurse there told me Mrs. Starks had twin sons. Bookends."

  "Fuck!"

  "Tell me. The guy we pulled outta that swamp is Oren's twin brother, Carl. I'd stake my balls on it."

  "Shit!"

  "Something was hinky. I knew it, just didn't know what."

  "We thought it was off. The Oren that Berry described didn't fit with somebody who'd hide in the Thicket."

  "Makes sense now. It wasn't Oren."

  "But he was the mastermind."

  "That's what I think."

  "Which means--"

  "He'll come after Berry."

  "I'm on it." Ski rounded his desk. "Where are you?"

  "Blasting through Houston. I'll be there quick as I can."

  Ski didn't waste time thanking him. He disconnected and began shouting the names of other deputies who were in the squad room. Simultaneously he punched in the telephone number of the lake house. Caroline answered.

  "Caroline, Ski. Where's Berry?"

  "Uh ... you woke me up. I--"

  "You need to find her."

  "She mentioned earlier she might go for a swim."

  "If she's out, get her in. Stay inside the house and set the alarm. Keep the pistol on hand." He covered the mouthpiece and said to the men who'd assembled around him, "Stand by. New development in the Starks case." Then he addressed Caroline, who, fully awake now, was demanding to know what was going on.

  "Oren Starks is alive."

  "What?"

  "The man who died was his identical twin."

  "What!"

  "Dodge went to Houston, to the facility where his mother is a resident. He talked to a nurse and she told him. That's all I know."

  "Where's Dodge?"

  "Racing back. Alert Berry. Okay?"

  "Of course, yes."

  "And, Caroline?"

  "Yes?"

  "Call me as soon as you're both safely inside. I've got some calls to make, but if you beep in, I'll answer. Don't forget."

  "I promise."

  Ski clicked off and addressed the deputies grouped around him. "I want one of the launches on the lake ASAP, patrolling that inlet where Mrs. King's house is."

  "I thought the asshole was dead."

  "His twin brother is dead. He's still unaccounted for, still considered armed and dangerous."

  He assigned special tasks and ordered the dispatcher to put out the word. "City police, DPS, Rangers, FBI, everybody, got it?"

  "Got it."

  He personally placed calls to the detectives in Houston. Rodney Allen was unavailable, but Ski talked to Somerville, who was no more gregarious than before. He listened to Ski's remarkable update without emotion or comment, then said, "I'll inform Detective Allen. We'll check out Oren Starks's residence, put out an APB."

  "One more thing."

  "Yes?"

  "Tell Allen it was Dodge Hanley who cracked it."

  After breaking off the connection, Ski unlocked the department's gun cabinet and took out a high-powered rifle with a scope. Stevens, who was on the phone, raised his eyebrows as Ski walked past his desk, the rifle on his shoulder.

  "Bringing out the heavy artillery, Ski?"

  "You bet your ass."

  Caroline came racing into the kitchen just as Oren shoved Berry headlong through the back door. Caroline screamed and rushed forward to help her daughter, who had fallen hard, banging her shoulder against the floor.

  Oren thrust the pistol into Caroline's belly. "Drop the phone! Drop the phone!"

  "Mother, do it! I'm okay. Do as he says."

  Caroline let go of the cordless phone. Oren moved it along the floor with the toe of his shoe, then kicked it out the back door before slamming the door shut.

  Berry worked herself into a sitting position. She shook back her hair and tried to blink the blood from her eye as she looked up at her mother. Caroline cried out in shock at the sight of her bleeding head. "What did you do to her?" she screamed.

  "Shut up! You scream again, I'll shoot you."

  "I'm okay, Mother." Berry tried to stand up, but Oren placed his hand on her shoulder and shoved her back down. "Did I say you could get up?"

  "Don't hurt her," Caroline pleaded.

  "Oh, she's going to hurt. So are you."

  "My mother's done nothing to you. It's me you want. Let her go."

  He laughed. "As if. Carl had my permission to kill her, too, if she should happen to be in the house on Friday night."

  Berry looked up at him with bewilderment. "Carl?"

  "My twin."

  "Twin?" she echoed faintly.

  "Twin?" he repeated, mocking Berry's tone.

  Berry's blood-filled eye sought her mother to gauge her astonishment, but Caroline was staring at Oren, her face devoid of expression, probably due to the shock of seeing him alive when she'd thought him safely dead.

  "Carl was the millstone around my neck my whole life," he was saying. "I couldn't have friends because Carl was such a psycho. No one wanted to play at our house, and I couldn't go play with other children because I had to play with him.

  "Finally, my stupid excuse for a mother put him in a mental institution, where he stayed for years.

  Shh! Dirty family secret. We moved from Beaumont to Houston. 'Let's not tell anybody about your brother and his mental illness, Oren.' As if I wanted to advertise that my brother, my womb mate," he said, giggling over his play on words, "was a lunatic.

  "Thank God I'm finally rid of him. Stupid son of a bitch. Couldn't even kill himself without botching it." Suddenly his voice changed. "Where the hell do you think you're going?"

  He'd caught
Caroline inching toward the door that led into the dining area. Berry remembered that her mother's cell phone was on the dining table. She'd been using it to try to call Dodge.

  Dodge, why aren't you here?

  Ski, where are you?

  She couldn't depend on their rescue, on anyone's. This was her fight. It was up to her to keep her mother and herself alive.

  Ski was speeding toward the lake house when his cell phone rang. He answered without reading caller ID. "Berry?"

  "Sheriff Drummond. Am I understanding correctly that Oren Starks is still at large?"

  "I'm afraid so, sir."

  Ski gave him the shorthand version. Drummond was in midsentence when call waiting beeped. "Excuse me, sir. I'll fill you in on details as I get them, but I need to take this call."

  He didn't even wait for his boss to acknowledge before clicking over. "Berry?"

  Another deputy identified himself. "Ski, we've got a problem."

  "Go ahead."

  "Somebody's horses got out of their pasture."

  Ski's mind was so fixed on the crisis, it took him a moment to process. "Horses?"

  "They're running along the highway, going haywire. Motorists are having to dodge them. You told us to check out all the boat rental places, which is what Andy and me were doing. But we can't split up, and if somebody hits one of these horses..."

  Ski didn't need to be told what could happen. The animal could die, but anyone inside the vehicle could also be seriously injured or killed. "You're together in one car?"

  "Yeah, Stevens was gonna take--"

  "Never mind. Get the horses back where they belong. Then get on those boat rentals. Keep me posted."

  "Ten-four."

  Ski checked his phone for recent calls, thinking he might have missed one. There had been none. He hit speed dial for the lake house. It rang until voice mail picked up. Swearing, he dialed Berry's cell number. It went straight to voice mail. He checked the time. It was seven minutes since he and Caroline had talked. He rang the house phone again and, when he got no answer, called Dodge.

  "Talk to me."

  "Can you call Caroline's cell for me? I don't have her number programmed into my phone." He told Dodge about instructing her to call him. "Caroline promised me that one of them would as soon as they were safe inside the house. I haven't heard from them."

  "You're on your way there now?"

  "Turning onto Lake Road as we speak. I'll try Berry's cell again. You call Caroline's."

  "Roger that."

  Ski called Berry's cell. Then the house. Got voice mails. Eleven minutes had elapsed. Ample time for Caroline to have called Berry indoors. Unless, he thought with a modicum of relief, she wasn't swimming in the pool.

  When Caroline had mentioned her taking a swim, he'd automatically thought pool, which was right outside the back door off the terrace. But Berry could have gone swimming in the lake. In which case, it would be taking longer for them to get inside.

  Caroline would have had to walk to the end of the pier. Maybe Berry had been far out. Maybe it had taken a while for her to notice Caroline signaling from the shore, then several minutes for her to swim in and for them to walk back to the house.

  His phone rang. "Berry?"

  "Me," Dodge said. "She didn't answer."

  "Christ. I should have told Caroline to take the phone with her when she went to get Berry."

  "She ain't stupid, Ski."

  He was right. Caroline didn't need it spelled out for her. She would have immediately grasped the implications of Starks's being alive. She would have taken every precaution, and that would have included keeping a telephone in her hand.

  Dodge's thoughts were running parallel. "The only reason she wouldn't call you back is if she couldn't."

  Ski's stomach dropped. He started swearing, started praying, stamped the accelerator.

  Oren forced the two women at gunpoint into the living area. He motioned toward the sofa and ordered Caroline to sit. Berry he kept standing in front of him, the pistol against her temple. "This is a lovely room," he said pleasantly, looking around.

  "You've been here," Berry said. "When you took back the bracelet."

  He laughed. "So you noticed it was missing? I wondered. I thought you might check for it when it was found on Sally. And I was right."

  "You also came into the house this morning when we weren't here."

  He laughed. "You discovered the bag in the guest room? I guess I can't blame you for switching rooms. Imagine my surprise when I saw my gifts on the kitchen table. I replaced them in the bag and even added some duplicate prints of the photos I took of you. The close-ups." He licked his lips obscenely.

  Berry looked away in disgust, but he placed the pistol along her cheek and forced her to look at him. "It was Carl who came here last Friday night. I had laid the groundwork, showed him the photos, and drew him the layout of the house. I had told him a thousand times to wait until you and Ben were cozy in bed. He was to shoot you both and get out. No fuss, no muss. But, the best-laid plans..." He sighed.

  With his free hand he picked up a picture frame from an end table and looked at the photograph. To Caroline he said, "You're very photogenic. Just like Berry."

  She merely glared at him.

  "You said Carl was in an institution," Berry said. "When did he get out?"

  "Couple of years ago. The state declared him cured. He got dumped on me because of Mother's condition. He'd been the bane of my childhood, now I was responsible for him for the rest of his life. Wonderful. Fabulous.

  "But then," he said, his inflection shifting, "when I started thinking about how I could get revenge on all you hateful people at Delray, I saw a way to put the head case to use. I began brainwashing him on how evil you were, how you must be killed, how it was up to him to do it if he wanted to go to heaven and live with Mother forever and ever." His giggle sent chills down Berry's spine. "It worked."

  "It didn't work very well," Caroline remarked coolly.

  Berry was surprised and grateful for her composure. Her mother had to be every bit as afraid as she was, yet she gave the impression of being calm. "Mother is right, Oren," Berry said. "Carl made mistakes. Ben survived. He panicked and couldn't shoot me. He--"

  "Shut up!" Oren barked. "I know all about it."

  "From Carl? You saw him after he left here on Friday night?"

  "He's the idiot, Berry, not me. Of course I didn't see him. But I'd given him a cell phone, so we could stay in touch. He was to call me as soon as it was done. When he did call, he was blubbering, crying, telling me he'd failed, wailing because now he wouldn't go to heaven. I got the details from news reports. Oren Starks was a wanted man, so I had to get Carl out of sight. I told him to find a place to hide."

  "The motel."

  "It seemed like a good idea," he said defensively. "That goof-up was a--"

  "It was a fatal shooting of an innocent boy."

  Oren shrugged. "It was that kid's time to die."

  "And Mr. Mittmayer's, too, I suppose."

  "I was furious with Carl over that. Hijacking the RV was smart, but it was careless of him to hit the old man hard enough to kill him." Oren thoughtfully tapped his lips. "Although, it actually worked out for the better. His killing spree, as they called it on TV, made him look all the crazier."

  "He began to unravel."

  "You have no idea," he said, rolling his eyes.

  "You told him the only way to heaven was to kill himself."

  "Precisely. I told him to go into the Big Thicket."

  "That was an elaborate choice. Why there?"

  "Because the more difficult his capture, the more fatigued everyone would be afterward. Your friend Nyland would breathe a huge sigh of relief and relax his vigilance. You see?"

  When she said nothing, he continued. "Carl was instructed to throw away the cell phone, somewhere where no one could find it, then to use the pistol on himself. I promised him it wouldn't hurt, and he'd go straight to heaven. He could
wait there for Mother, who would join him soon. You should have heard him. He was so relieved and happy, he sobbed. But"--he gave another dramatic sigh--"the moron couldn't even do that correctly."

  "Is that why you killed Sally yourself? You wanted to make sure it was done right."

  He chortled a laugh. "That, and I didn't want Carl to have all the fun."

  Berry swallowed with difficulty.

  "She came home to find me inside her house." He smiled as though fondly recalling the scene. "She'd heard about the shooting here the night before. She knew what my being in her house implied. She had an inkling of what I had in store for her. But only an inkling." Chuckling, he added, "I had some surprises for her."

  Berry tamped down another surge of nausea.

  "I told her that if she was convincing when the authorities called, which they were sure to do, and if she threw them off track, I'd let her live. She actually believed me!" he said around a laugh. "We spent a lot of quality time together, but by the time I actually killed her, I think she was relieved."

  Berry looked over at Caroline. Their eyes met, communicating that Sally Buckland's fate would be their own if they didn't prevent it. While he'd been talking, Berry had been surveying the room, searching for something that would serve as a weapon. Fireplace tools? Brass candlestick? Crystal vase?

  Nothing looked lethal, and even had there been something to use as a weapon, her hands were manacled behind her. Her mother was too petite to overpower him. She'd be shot the instant she attempted it.

  Berry reasoned that the only way to escape would be to continue stoking Oren's ego by asking questions. Meanwhile she'd watch for him to relax his vigilance, and then she must be poised to act. As he'd noted, she had long, strong legs.

  She said, "You certainly had this well planned."

  "Didn't I just?"

  "It was risky for you to call me from Houston on Sally's cell phone, after being spotted in Walmart."

  "Well, that was Carl in the store, of course. Meanwhile, I was at Sally's place trying to decide how I was going to dispose of her body. Oren Starks was at Walmart buying shoes at three o'clock in the morning. He's at the Astros game in Houston hours later. That call was risky, but it added to the confusion and suspended the search for Carl in and around Merritt. That is, until those old people were found in their RV the next morning. But by that time, I had persuaded him to go into the Thicket and finish this thing."