She soon found a building containing four large elevators that construction workers were taking to go underground, and to return to the surface. For some reason they called them “vatorcars” instead of elevators, maybe because it was the name of the company that had manufactured them. But as she watched men and women using it, she felt reassured. Despite her phobia of heights she knew that modern elevators were safe, and had not heard of any of them falling.
She had second thoughts, however, after stepping into the car with a construction worker and pressing a button marked “1.” The car dropped precipitously, leaving part of Tatsy’s stomach on the top level. She felt a sudden regret that she should have walked down the dirt ramp instead. How far was it to the bottom? She didn’t know, tried to avoid the gaze of the ruddy man in the car with her. Dressed in dirty coveralls, he was staring at her and she hoped it was because he found her attractive, and not because she was showing fear.
The vatorcar, which had walls of glassite, dropped at first through a rocky shaft, with walls illuminated in low, yellow light. In a matter of moments the car left the rocky shaft, and the vista opened into an immense, brightly illuminated cavern with scaffoldings and walkways around the perimeter of the interior. The car slid on a track down one side of the cavern, inflaming Tatsy’s fear of heights.
In order to dissipate her fears, she thought instead about strangling this man. If she could catch him off guard and do it quickly she might lift the body through the hatch in the ceiling and place it on top of the vatorcar. There were no lights on inside the vatorcar, so she might not be observed from outside.
She looked up, staring at the hatch.
Tatsy imagined breaking the man’s slender neck with powerful hands, cutting off his air supply, and feeling him die in her hands. Improvisation. Never knowing when she would kill someone, or how. What a rush! Her pulse quickened. Tatsy could finish him off in a few seconds. But how far was it to the bottom of the cavern? How much time did she have, and might someone on a walkway see her do it?
Not knowing was increasing her excitement. She looked at the worker, smiled prettily.
How long do you have to live? Tatsy thought. Then she took a deep calming breath. As she’d reminded herself before, another matter was far more important and she didn’t want her to blow her chance to do it. There would be time enough for freelancing after dealing with Lamour when she made her risk-management visit here tomorrow, a schedule that she knew because Riggio worked with her.
Meredith Lamour. To Tatsy the name had an ugly sound. The vile creature who agitated her brother, aroused him.
Interestingly, now that she was out on her own, with complete control over the body, Tatsy was getting the urge to kill more people than ever. At one time she had been content to dispose of Riggio’s lovers and little more, but now that she was rid of him she was developing an appetite. A big one, and she intended to satisfy it after dealing with the last of her brother’s loves.
She took another deep breath to overcome the urge to attack the man in the car with her, and continued to focus on the only reason she’d come to Sun Under. She couldn’t stand her brother caring for anyone else, so in reality Tatsy had been protecting him, keeping him from rejection. Such a foolish compulsion he’d felt for Lamour, despite the way Lamour degraded him with her teasing, hard-to-get games, leaving him to grovel.
Her handsome brother reduced to such a level, by an arrogant bitch. She loved him and hated him.
Presently the car came to a rest and the doors opened.
Breathing a big sigh of relief, Tatsy stepped out first, and looked up... a long way up. The ceiling of the cavern was at least two hundred meters overhead, perhaps more. It was covered with what looked like ceramcrete, with a metal structural framework over the surface, connected to girders and high walkways. The artificial sun hung from the highest point in the ceiling, and she saw workers on walkways up there, wearing lights on their helmets. The sun-orb glistened from its glass and interior workings, but was not on. Numerous light fixtures, reminding her of high-power sports-stadium lighting, were attached to the undersides of the walkways and to other places around the curved ceiling, illuminating the work areas below.
On one end of the cavern the large ramp of dirt and rock led up to a wide hole, through which she could see the moon in the night sky. Construction equipment thundered up and down the steep ramp.
She spent a couple of hours exploring Sam Howe’s underground world. In addition to the swimming pools that were under construction, she saw the workers setting up a large white-sand beach, with what looked like real palm trees and other plants on the shore of what would obviously be a man-made body of water, a simulation of Hawaiian, Tahitian and other tropical beaches.
At an information booth that was already set up with video-recordings, Tatsy learned to her surprise that the palm trees were real, as were banana fronds, papaya and breadfruit trees and tropical flowers, and even exotic birds that would fly between the flora, making their characteristic calls. There would be controlled insects and other small creatures as well, a complete ecosystem with a watering system. Electronic wild bird feeders would be set up all over the resort.
Sun Under was supposed to be better than the real thing, the video-recording told her, in a pleasant female voice. Attached to the ceiling of the massive cavern, the voice said, the glassplex bubble up there was a synthetic sun in a testing phase, and when fully operational it would look quite real, set against a cerulean blue sky with a few small, simulated clouds drifting through it.
The sun would provide realistic light and nutrients for the plants. Day and night it would shine and patrons would bask in tropical sunshine at the pools and the tropical beach, cooled by man-made tradewinds and an endless supply of tropical drinks served by attractive, grass-skirted native girls. Guests would even be able to surf on simulated waves that were produced by powerful wave machines, and it was all available without having to leave rainy Washington State. And during the fun, guests would suffer no sunburns, making suntan lotion or sun-block unnecessary, since harmful ultraviolet rays were filtered out.
Tatsy saw and learned all of this, and a good deal more. She found herself looking for places to surprise and kill Meredith Lamour. There were many interesting possibilities around the vast construction site, ways to crush her victim’s body or tear it apart in machinery. Or blow it up. She sighed. No need to fill her head with such pleasant conjecture. She would come up with a deadly method on short notice.
She always did.
CHAPTER 36
A sickly buzz brought Meredith out of her slumber, causing her dream companions to fade in memory. She didn’t think it had been a bad dream this time.
Lying on her side, she gently removed Zack’s arm from where it was draped over her. He muttered something, turned the other way. She shut off the rasping alarm clock, thought about the events that had brought her and Zack back together. She felt more complete now and hoped they would continue to nurture one another.
The news about Riggio had been startling, that he was a serial killer with at least seventeen victims. He was on the run now, had not been seen at work for days. It proved that Zack had been right about him all along.
Meredith shuddered at the thought of how she’d been alone with that murderer, traveling to a distant place. Had he been stalking her, waiting for the right opportunity to kill her? It seemed possible. But she kept reassuring herself by going back to Riggio’s gallantry when he saved her from the fire on the beehive ride. Had he saved her in order to murder her later? She could not wrap her mind around any of it. But at least he was gone, out of her life. Zack and his friend Detective Hagel didn’t think Riggio was anywhere around. They said he was probably in another state.
She and Zack were in his loft apartment and studio, and had decided to live together with the goal of remarrying if they proved to be compatible. He had even suggested they might have another child, but that was going too fast for her, and made her think
twice about going into another marriage with him. She backed off a little, telling him she didn’t mind living with him, but before going any further they needed to get to know one another all over again, and make absolutely certain it was going to work out between them.
With a yawn she looked out the window to admire a swath of pastel colors that were spread across the sky, as if an artist with a giant brush had painted it. Stately fir trees were profiled against the sky, silent sentinels at attention, with their tops bending slightly in the wind.
This was the morning on which she would accompany Sam Howe to Sun Under, and he was going to pick her up at 7:00 at the Johansen Agency office. Taking care not to disturb her former husband, she swung her feet to the carpeted floor and shuffled sleepily into the bathroom with its adjoining dressing area, closing the door behind her. A short while later she was sitting at the makeup table Zack had fashioned for her a couple of days ago, and a rough engine noise touched the edge of her awareness. It grew louder, and louder still, until she identified the whipping sound of heliplane rotor blades.
An amusing thought occurred to her, but immediately she discarded it. Not possible. Sam knows I’m living at Zack’s place, but he wouldn’t be crazy enough to—
She hurried to the front window nonetheless and pulled the wooden shutters aside, just in time to see a small red, white and blue heliplane set down in the middle of the street. The engine noise changed, a diminishing whine, and the rotors slowed. Sam stepped out, wearing one of the gaudy Uncle Sam costumes he liked so much. His white goatee looked freshly manicured.
In the other room, Zack asked grumpily, “What’s all that racket?”
She called him to the window. He shambled over, in a pair of old pajamas she’d given him when they were married.
“Look at that crazy client of yours!” he said. “Sam’s standing out in the street with a silly grin on his face, looking up here. Can you believe it? He must have violated half the flight rules in the book landing that thing here.”
The engine noise wound down, and finally stopped.
“It certainly isn’t going to endear us to our neighbors,” she said. “I doubt if he violated any flying rules, though. He’s a careful pilot. I’ve seen the documentation on his aviation record, since I insure two solarjets and three heliplanes for him. That must be the new one he got last month. It’s super-charged, made in Sweden.”
“Not experimental, I hope?”
“Oh no, it’s a proven design,” Meredith said, lying. Actually she hadn’t looked into that yet, didn’t know anything about the safety record of the aircraft, but didn’t want to worry Zack unnecessarily. He had a tendency to be over-protective now, worrying about everything. But he’d been right about Riggio.
Zack sat on the edge of the bed, scowling. She could tell he was anxious about her, and confirming this he said, “Maybe I should go with you. I can get ready quicker than you can.”
“Not possible, dear. It’s only a two-seater heliplane.”
“The thing must have a cargo area. I could ride back there.” He was on his feet, getting dressed hurriedly.
“Zack, you are not going! I don’t know what the weight limit is on that aircraft, but you’re not going to embarrass me by watching everything I do. I’m a big girl now, in case you haven’t noticed.”
“I’ve noticed. Believe me, I’ve noticed!”
She kissed him on the cheek, and said, “Besides, I have work to do, and I can’t have my nervous husband—” She grinned. “I mean, boyfriend... getting in the way.”
Meredith kissed him again, said in a reassuring tone, “You’re the one I love, not Sam. You have nothing to worry about him. I like him, sure, but not in the way I like... and love... you. It’s different with you, way different.”
He nodded, forced a little smile. She could tell he was still worried. And she didn’t blame him. But she had never given Sam any reason to think he had a chance with her, and she never would.
Meredith hurried to get ready, putting on a long white and gold cotton dress with an Egyptian hieroglyph design on one shoulder. She wasn’t running late, didn’t know why Sam had come to get her, and why it was in a heliplane. She thought they were going to go in his car from Johansen’s office to the heliport, or so she’d been led to believe. “I’ll pick you up at your office at seven,” was all he’d said. Something had changed in his plans, that was for sure.
On her way out the door, Meredith told Zack she loved him and would see him in a couple of days.
He held her tightly, and she had to pull away. “I’ll be fine,” she assured him. And she hurried off, carrying a small suitcase.
As Meredith went downstairs and through the front yard, she saw a police patrol car by the heliplane. A policeman was shaking hands with Meredith’s colorful client. Then the cop drove off, waving to Sam out of an open window.
Sam gave Meredith a broad smile.
Neighbors in night clothes and robes stood on their porches, watching the unusual activities. Someone might have called the police, but if so, it had done no good.
“Dicey weather forecast,” Sam said, as he put Meredith’s suitcase in the back and helped her into the passenger side. “It’s supposed to get rough later this morning. I’m early because I want to beat the storm.”
The two seats in the craft were light brown leatheryl, with a pleasing saddle soap scent. The compact dashboard displayed an array of dials, buttons and toggles, as well as green, red and yellow lights. Sam said it was a customized, fully-manual piloting system, a rarity. She’d only seen a couple of similar examples in her entire lifetime, one for driving a car and the other for a pleasure boat. Using hands to operate everything, instead of making settings and going on automatic or using psi-link, the mental command system. She glanced out the window and up at the loft window. Zack was there, waving.
She returned the gesture, and kept waving, as did Zack.
“Preparing for take-off,” Sam said, cheerily. A safety web snapped into place over Meredith’s torso and waist. She set her purse on the floor at her feet.
The engine whined to life, accompanied by the wind-whipping sound of the overhead main rotor.
They lifted above the tall firs and cedars, and Sam commented that the wind was picking up a little earlier than expected, a sure sign of an impending storm. Looking down, Meredith saw a long line of evergreen trees bending even more than she’d noticed earlier. To the west, beyond the Seattle skyline and the craggy Olympic Mountains, the sky was dark and foreboding.
“Storm’s coming from the ocean beyond the mountain range,” Sam said. “We’ll turn east in a few minutes, and with luck we’ll outrun it.”
“I wish you hadn’t qualified your statement like that,” she said.
“How’s your life insurance?” he quipped. “Mine’s in top shape, thanks to your salesmanship. I think they call it ‘insurance poor.’”
“I didn’t oversell you! You asked me for life insurance, and when I said you had enough you kept buying anyway, saying your accountant told you to do it.”
“How about another policy right now? I might need it before this day is out.”
She shook her head, not enjoying that sort of joke. Bad things could happen, as she knew only too well. She’d lost one of her favorite clients in a solar-saucer crash, and had felt only a little comfort that they at least carried adequate insurance to care for their surviving family members.
It had already occurred to her that Sam might keep buying insurance from her because he had a crush on her, and Nicole believed exactly that. Now he had paid a large ransom to free her. She didn’t know whether to be grateful or angry. Maybe both.
“Did you really pay millions of dollars to get me released?” she asked. “Tell me you negotiated it down as far as you could, because I’m going to repay it.”
He shook his head stubbornly. “It doesn’t matter what I paid. You’re not paying me back. You’ve saved me lots of money over the years, using your risk manageme
nt expertise to improve the safety of my properties, allowing me to either avoid insurance or buy it with high deductibles, at very reasonable premiums.”
“You’re just saying that to make me feel better.” She took a deep breath to calm herself. “Sam, please understand, it’s very hard for me to accept this from you.”
“You didn’t want me to leave you out there with that madman, did you?”
“No, but—”
“I won’t listen to any buts. Whatever I paid to get you freed, it’s not much money to me, the equivalent of a few pennies to most people.”
“Well, thank you, then.“
Sam smiled, and said, “But—”
She looked at him quizzically. He’d just said he didn’t want to use that word.
“But you won’t sleep with me,” he said, with a big grin.
They laughed, but Meredith was still having trouble with this. She didn’t like feeling a big obligation to this powerful man, and didn’t want any personal relationship with him, at least not beyond friendship... but she didn’t want to hurt his feelings, either.
He winked and to her relief said, “No strings attached.” Then he focused on the controls again.
Meredith only thought of a cordial business relationship whenever she spoke with Sam and wished it could be the same with him, but she always suspected that he had other things on his mind. Maybe this trip was a ruse to be alone with her. She considered using the weather as an excuse and asking him to turn back, but thought she might be misjudging him. He was her most important client, and she’d spent days with him before, visiting his various properties. He had always been a gentleman, so her suspicions might be unfounded.
Sam smoothed his goatee. “Haven’t had your coffee yet this morning, have you? I can tell. You’re a bit irascible.” He touched a button on the dashboard, and a console screen flashed a message:
The Unborn Page 21