After a good deal of time, she was finally floating toward sleep, when her brain clicked on full alert and her eyes flew open. She’d heard something. Not Simon or Dillon or Sherlock moving around, something that wasn’t right.
Maybe it was nothing at all, just a phantom whisper from her exhausted brain or only a puff of wind that had sent a branch sweeping against the bedroom window. Yes, the sound was outside, not in her bedroom. Maybe it was in Simon’s bedroom, just down the hall. Had he awakened?
Lily continued to wait, gritty eyes staring around the dark room, listening.
She started to relax again when she heard a creak. Just a slight pressure on the oak floor could cause a creak, but it was there and it was close. In the air, no longer heard, but she still felt it. Lily waited, straining to hear, her heart pounding now.
The scattered carpets covering the oak floors would mask any creaks, make someone walking hard to hear.
Lily lurched upright, straining to see. Too late, she saw a shadow, moving fast, and something coming down at her. She felt a deadening pain like a sharp knife driving into her skull.
She fell back onto the pillow. Just before she passed out, she saw a face over her, a woman’s face, and she knew whose face it was. The mouth whispered, “Hi, little sister.”
• Sherlock couldn’t sleep. Dillon’s arm was heavy over her chest, and he was close and warm, his familiar scent in the air she breathed, but it didn’t help. Her brain wouldn’t turn off; it just kept moving, going over and over what they knew about Tammy, what they imagined but didn’t know.
When she couldn’t stand it anymore, Sherlock eased away from Savich, got out of bed, and pulled on her old blue wool robe. She wore socks to keep her feet warm against the oak floor.
She had to check the house again, just had to, though she’d already checked it three times, and Dillon had checked probably another three. She had to be sure. It was early Sunday morning, it was snowing, and Sean was at his grandmother’s, safe. When would she feel secure enough to bring him home? Ever? It had to end. Tammy had to do something; it had to end, sometime.
She hoped the four agents outside weren’t freezing their butts off. At least she knew they had hot coffee; she’d taken them a huge thermos about ten o’clock.
She got to the end of the hall and paused for a moment, feeling the house warm around her, breathing in its comforting smells. It took a moment, but Sherlock realized that something was different.
It was quiet in a way she wasn’t used to. Too quiet. She realized that the alarm was off, the very low hum you could barely hear wasn’t there. Panic lurched up into her throat.
She turned to look down the beautifully carved oak staircase. She saw dim light pooling at the bottom from the glass arch above the front door, snowflakes drifting lazily down. She took one step, then another, when a hand hit her square in the middle of the back. She screamed, or at least she thought she did, as she went head over heels down the stairs. Someone passed by her as she lay there facedown on a thick Persian carpet, the breath knocked out of her, barely hanging on to consciousness. She’d struck her head, struck everything on her body, and she could hardly move.
She thought she heard a moan, and then the figure was gone. The front door opened as she stared at it, yes, she was sure it was open, now fully open, because she felt a slice of cold air reach her face, and she shivered.
The front door stayed open. Only an instant passed before she realized what had happened. Someone had shoved her down the stairs. Someone had just gone out through the front door.
She managed to stagger to her feet, fear swamping her. Tammy Tuttle, it had to be her, but how? How had she gotten past the agents and into the house? Why hadn’t Sherlock seen her?
She threw back her head and yelled, “Dillon! Oh God, Dillon, come quickly!”
Savich and Simon appeared at the top of the stairs at the same time, both wearing only boxer shorts. A light went on.
“Sherlock!”
Savich was beside her, holding her tightly against him, then gently pushing her down, afraid that he was hurting her.
Sherlock came back up, grabbed his arms. “No, no, Dillon, I’m okay. Tammy-she was here; she shoved me down the stairs. The alarm was off and I was just coming downstairs to check. I heard a woman’s moan. It wasn’t me. Where’s Lily? Dear God, check Lily!”
Simon was back up the stairs, taking them two, three at a time. They heard him yell, “She’s gone!”
Dillon grabbed his cell phone to call the agents outside.
Simon turned on all the lights as Dillon was speaking to the agents. The front door was open and there was no sign of Lily. Somehow, Tammy had taken her out without Sherlock seeing anything.
Savich stood on his front porch in his boxer shorts, straining to see through the snow falling like a thin, white curtain in front of him, into the darkness beyond.
• Jimmy Maitland said as he sipped his coffee, so blessedly hot that it nearly burned his tongue, “What do the folk in Behavioral Sciences have to say?”
Savich said, “Jane Bitt is guessing, she freely admits it, but as far as she knows, no one has ever before encountered anything like Tammy Tuttle. She may have some sort of genetic gift, be able to project what she wants you to see. What’s amazing is the scope. She had everyone in that airport in Antigua believing she was a man, and this is what makes her so unique. Jane said that even given that, we shouldn’t focus exclusively on it-there’s just no percentage to it. She says there’s no beating her that way. We should focus on a woman with one arm who’s twenty-three years old. What would she do? If we can predict that, she’s vulnerable.”
“But we don’t know what she’ll do, where she’d take Lily,” Sherlock said.
“She was supposed to come after me here, not Lily-to tear my fucking head off,” Savich said slowly, staring at his hands, which were clasped tightly together around Sherlock’s waist.
Jimmy Maitland blinked. He had never heard Savich utter a profanity before, and then he realized he was quoting Tammy.
Simon was on his feet, pacing in front of the two of them. He was wearing only wrinkled black wool slacks, no shirt, even his feet were bare.
“Listen, Savich, you know she took Lily because she figured it was better revenge than just killing you. Now, think, dammit. Where would Tammy Tuttle take Lily?”
It was nearly four o’clock in the morning and snow was still falling lightly. No one said a word. Savich sat in his favorite chair, leaned his head back, and closed his eyes. He felt Sherlock leaning against him.
Then Sherlock said very softly, “I think I know where she might have taken Lily.”
29
Lily was colder than when she’d been lying on that naked mattress in Gothenburg. Her wrists and ankles were bound together loosely, with some sort of tape. She was lying on her side in a dark room, and it smelled funny. It wasn’t unpleasant, but she didn’t recognize it.
She was all right. She felt a dull throb on the side of her head, but it wasn’t bad, and her side hurt, but that wouldn’t kill her. No, it was the insane woman who had brought her here who could kill her.
Did she hear someone laugh? She couldn’t be sure.
She gritted her teeth and tried working at her wrists. There was a little bit of movement; the tape wasn’t all that tight. She kept pulling and twisting, working the duct tape.
Where was she? Where had Tammy Tuttle taken her? She knew Tammy was utterly mad and smart, since up to now she’d managed to evade Lily’s brother. She’d taken Lily because she was Dillon’s sister. She thought it was better revenge against Dillon than just killing him.
Lily knew she was right about that. Dillon was probably driving himself mad with guilt. She kept working the duct tape.
What was that smell that permeated the air? Then she knew. She was in some sort of barn. She smelled old hay, linseed oil, yes, that was it, at least it was some kind of oil, and the very faint odor of ancient dried manure.
A b
arn somewhere. She remembered Simon asking Dillon where they’d first caught up with the Tuttle brother and sister, and he’d said it was at a barn on Marilyn Warluski’s property near the Plum River in Maryland.
Maybe that was where she was. At least Dillon and Sherlock knew about this place. Was this Marilyn Warluski here with her as well? Was she still alive?
Dull, gray light was coming through the filthy glass behind her. It was dawn. Soon it would be morning.
Lily kept working the duct tape. She didn’t want to think about how in all the years she’d used duct tape it had never broken or slipped off. But it was looser than before, she knew it.
Lily needed to go to the bathroom. She was hungry. Her side and shoulder were thudding with pain. Just surface pain, that damned doctor had assured her. She wished now she had slugged him. Let him feel some surface pain for a while, the jerk.
There was more light, dull, flat light, and she could see now that she was in a small tack room. There was an ancient desk shoved against the opposite wall, two old chairs near it. A torn bridle with only one rein was dangling from a nail on the wooden-slatted wall.
It was cold. She couldn’t stop shivering. Now that she could see around her, see the cracks in the wooden walls that gave directly to the outside, she was even colder. She was wearing only her nightgown. At least it was a long-sleeve flannel number that came to her neck and down to her ankles.
But it wasn’t enough.
She turned her head when she heard the door slowly open.
She saw a woman standing in the dim light. “Hello, little sister. How are you doing with the duct tape? Loosen it up a bit yet?”
And Lily said, “I’m not your little sister.”
“No, you’re Dillon Savich’s little sister and that’s more than close enough. That’s just dandy.” Tammy walked into the small room, sniffed the air, frowned for just a moment, then pulled one of the rickety chairs away from the desk and sat down. She crossed her legs. She was wearing huge-heeled black boots.
“I’m very cold,” Lily said.
“Yeah, I figured.”
“I also have to go to the bathroom.”
“Okay, I don’t care if you’re cold, but I wouldn’t make you lie there on your side and pee on yourself. That would be gross. I’m going to unfasten your feet so you can walk. You can go out in the barn and pick your corner. Here, I’ll put the duct tape around your wrists in front of you. I wouldn’t want you to pee on yourself.” Lily didn’t have a chance to fight her. Her ankles were bound. She could do nothing, just wait for the duct tape to go around her wrists again. At least they were in front of her now, even for just a short time.
“Here’s a couple of Kleenex.”
Lily walked ahead of Tammy into the large barn. It was a mess-overflowing rotting hay, random pieces of rusted equipment, boards hanging loose, letting in snow and frigid air. She quickly saw the big, black-painted circle. It was starkly clean. That was where Tammy and her brother had forced the two boys to stay while Tammy called her Ghouls.
“How about the corner over there? Hurry up now, you and I have lots to do. I don’t trust you not to be stupid but it won’t matter if you are. Move, little sister.”
Lily relieved herself, then turned to face Tammy, who’d been watching her.
“How did you get into the house? The alarm system is one of the best made.”
Tammy just smiled at her. Lily saw her very clearly now in the shaft of strong morning light that speared through a wide slash in the wall. She was wearing black jeans over those black boots, and a long-sleeve black turtleneck sweater. One sleeve dangled where her arm should have been. She wasn’t ugly or beautiful. She just looked normal, average even. She didn’t look particularly scary, even with her moussed, spiked-up dark hair. Her eyes were very dark, darker than her hair, in sharp contrast to her face, which was very pale, probably made more pale with white powder, and her mouth was painted a deep plum color. She was thin, and her single hand was long and narrow, the fingernails capped with the same plum color that was on her mouth. Even thin, she gave the overwhelming impression that she was as strong as a bull.
“I’ll just bet your brother and that little redheaded wife of his were chewing off their fingernails waiting for me. But I didn’t come when they wanted me to. That announcement the FBI character made on TV, I didn’t believe it, not for an instant. I knew it was a trap, and that was okay. I took my time, found out all about the alarm, how to disarm it. It wasn’t hard. Sit down, little sister.”
Lily sat on a bale of hay so old it cracked beneath her. “I don’t think you could have done that alarm yourself, alone. It would require quite some expertise.”
“You’re right. People always underestimate me because they think I’m a hick.” Tammy grinned down at her, then began pacing in front of her, every once in a while looking down at her empty sleeve, where her other hand should have been. Lily watched her and saw the look of panic, then bone-deep hatred, cross her face.
“What are you going to do with me?”
Tammy laughed. “Why, I’m going to put you in the circle and I’m going to call the Ghouls. They’ll come and tear you apart, and that’s what I’ll deliver back to your brother-a body he’d rather not see.” Tammy paused for a moment, then cocked her head to one side. “They’re close now, I can hear them.”
Lily listened. She could hear the faint rustling of tree branches, probably from the constant fall of snow, the movement of the wind. But nothing else, not even early-morning birds, no animal sounds at all. “I don’t hear anything.”
“You will,” said Tammy. “You will. We’re going to walk over to that black circle. You’re going to sit down in the middle of it. I won’t even tie your hands behind you. Now, move it, little sister.” Tammy pulled out a gun and aimed it at Lily.
“No, I’m not going anywhere,” Lily said. “Will the Ghouls still want me if I’m not in the circle? What if you’ve already killed me with that gun of yours? Will they still want me then?”
“We’ll just have to see, won’t we?” Tammy raised the gun and aimed it at Lily’s face.
• Simon wished he were on his motorcycle, weaving in and out of the heavy, early-morning traffic. Why didn’t Savich have a bloody siren? Why were there so many people at this hour?
When there was finally a break in the traffic, Savich pressed his foot hard on the accelerator. Simon looked out the back window, saw six black FBI cars, one after the other, coming fast, keeping pace with them.
“Tell me, Sherlock,” he said, his heart thudding fast, hard beats. “We’ll be there soon. Tell me about Tammy.”
• Slowly, Tammy lowered the gun. “You think you’re pretty cute, don’t you?”
Lily slowly shook her head, so relieved she was nearly sick. She’d been ready to feel a bullet go right through her heart, to just be gone, and that was it. Sudden and final and she was dead. But she was still here, still alive, with Tammy, who was still holding that ugly gun.
The circle-it appeared Tammy wanted her in that circle, still alive. “Where is Marilyn? She’s your cousin, isn’t she?”
“You want to know about my sweet little cousin? I’m not real happy with her right now. See, she told your brother everything about me. Then he used her for bait. That was ruthless of him. I like that in a guy. She was waiting for me right there in the open, in that airport, standing next to that stupid agent who was supposed to be guarding her. From me. What a joke that was. I cut the agent’s throat, and everyone saw a crazy young man do it. Everyone believed it, but it was really me.
“You want to know why I hate your brother? It’s not hard. He killed my brother, shot my arm off, just left it dangling by a few strips of muscle, and I saw it hanging there and I thought I was going to die. And they strapped me down to this bed because your brother told them I was bad trouble, and then they cut the rest of it right off in the hospital and I nearly died. All because of your damned brother.”
Then Tammy let loose, scre
amed to the rafters, “One goddamned arm! Just look at me-my fucking sleeve is empty! I nearly died from the infection, damn him to hell. He shot my arm off! After I set the Ghouls on you, after they’ve gnawed you to a bloody mess, I’m going to get him, get him, GET HIM!”
Lily kept her mouth shut, tried to pull herself together enough to work on the duct tape. She wished she could raise her hands and use her teeth, but Tammy would notice that for sure. At least her hands were still bound in front of her; that might give her some chance.
Tammy drew a deep breath as she slowly lowered the gun. Her eyes focused again, on Lily. “You’re like him-stubborn.”
“How did you get past all the agents guarding the house?”
“Stupid buggers, all of them. It was easy. There’s hardly any challenge anymore. I didn’t let them see me.”
Lily didn’t want to believe anything that outrageous, but she said, “And they couldn’t see me either?”
“Oh yes. Nothing to it. Just dragged you out, wearing that cute little nightgown-sorry I didn’t get you a coat. But I figured after you realized what was going to happen to you, you’d want to feel the cold, better than being dead and not feeling anything at all. Now, little sister, move into the goddamned circle!”
“No.”
Tammy raised the gun and fired. Lily cried out, unable to help herself. She threw herself to the right, off the bale of hay, felt the hot whoosh of the bullet not an inch from her cheek, and rolled and kept rolling, pulling and twisting at the tape on her wrists. Another bullet hit a pile of moldering hay and spewed it upward.
Then Tammy stopped shooting. She walked over to Lily and stood still, staring down at her, the gun pointed at her chest. Lily looked up, frozen, afraid to move, afraid even to breathe.
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