Knife Point

by Jim Heskett

  Jonah, who had insisted Harry take him to be with Inessa and Cameron yesterday, instead of to a separate location, as Layne had decreed. But, so far, Jonah had mostly been sequestered in the other room with Harry, until Inessa had gone over there to talk with him after breakfast.

  “Uncle Harry!” Cam said. He held up a finger, and she frowned at him. “What are you doing?”

  “Hang on a second,” Harry said as he set his spaceship down on the dresser. He crossed the room and put his ear against the closed door. The conversation came through faintly at first, but he could hear most of the words after a few breaths to focus.

  “This isn’t what I wanted,” Inessa said. “All of this dropped on me at once, it’s too much for me to handle.”

  “Do you think I wanted this, either?” Jonah said. “I had no idea you were going to show up here in Redding. I couldn’t have known Layne would find me and all of this would come after.”

  “Why are you here? Why did you come to this hotel?”

  “I wanted to see her. I wanted to meet her.”

  Harry’s eyebrows raised as he moved his ear along the door to better hear the argument. Words here and there were lost in the stream.

  “I have a right to meet her,” Jonah said.

  “What right?”

  “You know what right. Do I have to spell it out for you?”

  A strange sensation came over Harry. His eyes flicked to Cameron, piloting the plastic spaceship in circles on the carpet. Harry understood the her they were talking about in the next room was Cameron. But all of the pieces of this puzzle were scattered everywhere.

  For a brief moment, Harry experienced that pre-awareness sensation of falling. And then, it all snapped into place.

  Several realizations came to Harry in rapid succession. Jonah had more or less disappeared after he had retired from the team after the New Orleans operation. He had a brother in Denver and had said he visited his brother from time to time, for skiing and microbrewery trips.

  Six years gone, and his time during that span had been largely unaccounted for.

  A couple days ago, right after taking Jonah and forcing him to dry out in the motel, Jonah had been crying about something he’d done to Layne. Something he thought was unforgivable, but he wouldn’t reveal the secret. That was in addition to whatever secret Jonah and Layne shared from the New Orleans op.

  And once, Layne had admitted to Harry that Inessa had been cheating on him. He had learned of it right before Cameron’s birth. It had been the cause of their divorce, a messy process they had undergone during Cameron’s first few months on the planet.

  Looking at Cameron’s face, Harry could see it. The secret that had racked Jonah with guilt since they had all come together a few days ago.

  This little girl looked just like Jonah. Same eyes, same chin, same smile.

  “Oh my God,” Harry said. “I can’t believe I didn’t see it before.”

  Cameron looked up at him as he pulled away from the door. Her little light brown eyebrows knitted together, and she held the spaceship to her chest like a shield.

  “What is it, Uncle Harry?” she asked. “Your face looks sad. Is something wrong?”

  He shook his head. “No, baby girl. Everything is fine.”

  “Why are Mommy and that man arguing?”

  He balked, unsure what to say. “I don’t know. But everything is okay. There’s nothing to worry about.”

  Cameron stared at him, her little blue eyes searching his face. He didn’t know what words would soothe her. He didn’t know how to alter his expression so she would stop reading the worry and confusion on his face.

  Harry’s phone buzzed in his pocket. He took it out to see Layne on the Caller ID.

  34

  “Wait a second,” Layne said, gripping the phone as he applied the brakes to stop at the next light. “Jonah is there? At the same hotel as my family? Did I hear you say that right?”

  In the passenger seat, Serena eyed him, a puzzled expression on her face. Her lips were pursed, but she offered no comment.

  On the phone, Harry stammered. Layne could visualize the sweat dripping down Harry’s temple as he tried to think of how to explain the situation. “Well, I mean. I told him you wanted me to take them to the other place, and he had a pretty good argument about why we shouldn’t do that. We talked about it, and then we came here.”

  Layne pressed his lips together, trying to beat back the ire bubbling up inside him. His hand on the steering wheel started to ache. He realized his arm was flexed, his bicep pushing against the limits of his shirt sleeve.

  “I’m sorry, Layne. I’m really sorry. It made sense at the time, you know? But I can totally see why you’re mad.”

  Layne blew out a sigh. “It’s okay. I’m not mad at you. I’m just trying to figure out what’s going on here.”

  “Nothing is going on.”

  Something in Harry’s tone made Layne suspicious, but he couldn’t connect all the pieces together. “Is everyone okay?”

  “Everyone is fine. Cameron and I are playing Spaceship. She’s a ruthless captain, that one.”

  “Yeah, man, she likes things a certain way and doesn’t tolerate when you step out of line. She doesn’t suffer insubordination.”

  “What do you want me to do?” Harry asked.

  “Nothing. Stay put. Serena and I are on our way, then we’re all going to have a joint strategy session.”

  “Okay. I’m so sorry, Layne. I should have told you.”

  Layne ended the call and dropped his phone onto the center console. Both hands gripping the steering wheel. His nose whistled as he pushed air in and out, and he had to remind himself not to gun the engine when the light ahead turned green.

  “What’s up, chief?” Serena asked. “That didn’t sound like everything is going okay.”

  “It’s Jonah. He’s behaving… I don’t know how to explain it. I gave Harry explicit instructions to take Jonah to the Super 8 and then to take Inessa and Cameron to a B&B in the next town over. I wanted them as far away from us as possible. But Jonah talked Harry out of it, and they’re all at the motel in town.”

  “You can’t blame Harry. He’s not the sort to stand up to someone with a louder voice than him. If what you’ve told me about Jonah is true, I mean.”

  Layne turned at the next light, with the Super 8 in sight a couple blocks up ahead. He winced against the rising sun as the light hit his eyes. “I know, I know. It’s Jonah.”

  “What kind of game is he playing?”

  “No idea. He’s been odd all week, talking about old regrets and things from the past. After what he’s been through, I guess I wasn’t sure how he would behave. But this is too odd.”

  “Trust, but verify?”

  “Yeah,” Layne said. “But the verification isn’t as straightforward as you might think. You’ve seen what happens to shadows when they burn out.”

  “Probably not as much as you have, but yes, I’ve seen it.”

  In another minute, they turned into the Super 8 parking lot, and Layne pulled right up to the room. The door opened, and Jonah stood there, with Inessa, Cameron, and Harry all trailing behind.

  Harry waved at Serena as they emerged from the car. She gave her fellow shadow a quick nod, then looked to Layne without comment.

  Cameron raced across the lot, her arms open wide. The LEGO spaceship fell from her fingers, a hundred pieces scattering across the pavement. Layne dropped to one knee and wrapped his arms around his daughter. With her little head smushed against his face, he took in a big whiff of her shampoo.

  “Hello, little one.”

  “Daddy, we’re so happy to see you. I got to play with Uncle Harry. We played Spaceship, and I won the whole time. He didn’t win at all.”

  “I’m happy to see you, too. But I need to talk to the grownups for a little bit, okay? Then I’ll take you to the airport. And you can tell me all about playing with Uncle Harry.”

  She pouted. “Okay.”


  Layne stood, pointed at Jonah, then hooked his thumb over toward the motel’s front office. “You. We need to speak, now.”

  Jonah raised his hands in surrender and followed Layne away from the others. Inessa, Harry, and the rest of them stood mute as Layne led him toward the office.

  Once they were out of earshot, standing under a concrete awning leading into the building, Layne squared up against him. “What the hell is going on here?”

  “I get that you’re mad as hell. And I know why you told Harry to split us all up. But, I made a tactical decision that the safest plan was for us to be together in one place.”

  “You can’t make that sort of decision.”

  “I did what I thought was right.”

  Layne’s nostrils flared. “All of this only works if we do it my way.”

  “You’re not the top dog here anymore, Layne. We’re both retired, both civilians. I’m not Thorny, and you’re not Boy Scout. I’m trying to keep everyone safe, just like you. So I did what I thought was best.”

  Layne bit his lower lip, then jabbed a finger back toward the motel room. “Bullshit. That’s my family. You don’t get to make that call. Now, why don’t you drop all this posturing and tell me what’s really going on here?”

  Jonah shrugged. “There’s nothing going on here. Like you, I’m just trying to make sure everyone gets out safe.”

  Layne breathed, and he realized his fists were balled against his waist. He had to force himself to unclench them and to lower his shoulders. Jonah stood opposite him, with a stone face and unblinking eyes.

  Layne didn’t quite know what to make of the situation, but he knew he wouldn’t get anything else out of him.

  After a minute, Jonah said, “Who’s the Latina chick you brought with you?”

  “That’s the shadow I told you about. Serena.”

  Jonah looked over toward her as Serena and Harry hugged in front of the room. “I’m surprised Daphne would bring such a hot young thing onto the team. Maybe Control ain’t as jealous as she used to be?”

  Layne breathed, unsure of what to say.

  Jonah cleared his throat and rocked back and forth on his heels a few times. “Well, Inessa is waiting for you to take her to the airport. I’m going back to my place to clean up a few things since I expect none of us will be here in a couple more hours. If this all goes well, or even if it doesn’t, actually.”

  “You shouldn’t go alone.”

  “I’ll be fine.”

  With that, he walked off, and Layne watched him go.

  35

  Layne gave his daughter a hug as tight as he thought her little body could stand, then he said goodbye to Inessa. They didn’t hug or shake hands or venture anything beyond a few civil and polite words. Not much different than any other time they had said goodbye in the four years since they’d split up.

  As he drove away from the airport, Inessa gave him one final wave, and Cameron jumped up and down, throwing her arms frantically to get his attention. Layne gave his daughter an exaggerated wink. If all went well, he should join them back in Denver in a couple days. If it didn’t go well, that might be the last he would ever see of them. Layne knew this, every time he made a choice to engage in dangerous activities such as this one. He tried not to think about it too much.

  But today, he had a plan. He and Serena would meet at Hillcrest, sneak onto the roof, and set a trap for Farhad. They would intercept the helicopter as it landed, giving them the proof they needed to take him out. Actually, Layne might’ve planned to kill Farhad anyway, were it not for the fear someone else might carry out Farhad’s mission without him. They needed him and the chopper.

  Layne had a feeling the contents of that chopper were vital to whatever Farhad was planning.

  Layne drove across town to the north side of the building, not far from the big dam constraining Shasta Lake. Along the way, he inventoried his gear, mostly taken over the last few days from the fresh corpses of Farhad’s hired soldiers. He’d collected it all in a gym bag, bought at a sporting goods store in Redding. It still had a tag on it.

  When he drove past Hillcrest, Layne gave the exterior a quick look. Since today was Saturday, only a skeleton crew would operate at the facility. No regular therapy sessions, only a few on-site for day treatment in the satellite building and general groundskeeping around the campus. The main building should be empty. Maybe a half dozen cars in the parking lot.

  Layne parked on the street north of the building and left with his gym bag. While he didn’t recognize any of the cars out front, he still didn’t want to park near them. No telling who might recognize the car Louis Pastori had used to flee the grounds a couple days ago.

  Layne set his sights high. He knew how to get to the roof; he’d scoped it out a few days ago, just in case. The elevator went to the top floor, then he could break into a maintenance room secured with a simple key lock. From there, roof access.

  He pulled a baseball cap low and zipped up his windbreaker to hide as much of his face as possible. Last time he’d been in this building during the day, he’d had to run from security guards. He expected one guard, maybe two in the main building. Any more than that would be highly unlikely on a Saturday.

  Layne entered the front with no trouble, then he skirted toward the elevator. The receptionist at the front didn’t work weekends, and if there was a security guard on duty right now, he was absent, probably walking the property.

  But something wasn’t right here in the reception area. The quiet unnerved Layne.

  He smelled it before he saw it. The metallic, iron scent Layne had always come to associate with blood. He approached the receptionist’s desk and peeked behind it. As he leaned over, Layne saw the hand resting against the lower wall, attached to an inert body.

  There, in a puddle of his own blood, the stoic security guard Ronnie was sprawled on the floor. His face had taken quite a beating. Purple and mangled so bad he was nearly unrecognizable.

  Layne couldn’t see any cuts or gunshot wounds on Ronnie’s body. Someone had beaten him to death. What a brutal way to go.

  Could Farhad have done such a thing? He wasn’t a small man, but beating Ronnie to death seemed a little out of his reach. No, Farhad was more the type to pull a trigger than to ball his fist when faced with a threat.

  “Sorry, Ronnie,” Layne said. “You deserved better than going out like this. I’m going to make things right.”

  Layne watched for several seconds, but that big chest did not rise and fall. Definitely dead. Nothing could be done for Ronnie now, and Layne didn’t see any reason to approach the body and implicate himself in the forthcoming investigation. So, he took the elevator to the top floor and then made quick work of the maintenance room security. A simple analog lock he could pick with a paperclip. Before he went in, he spent a full minute in the hall, listening. As far as he could tell, he was alone in the building.

  Why had someone killed Ronnie? What possible purpose could his death serve? Farhad doing such a thing would be terribly odd. It’s not as if Ronnie would have given him a hard time for appearing at the building on a weekend day.

  Inside the maintenance room, a door at the back led to the stairway, a drab concrete space lit by a single hanging bulb. Layne stayed on high alert as he progressed through the room.

  When he exited onto the roof, he took quick stock of the area. The main flat section spanned most of the building, except for the angled spires at either end. Probably attics for the east and west wing. There was a concrete surface, with air conditioners spaced out every fifty feet or so. A large space in the middle looked like a perfect place to land a helicopter, and someone had painted a red X in the middle of the large space.

  But, among all these details of his surroundings, Layne noted Serena was not present. She was already supposed to be here, waiting for him.

  He whistled, a quick chirp like a bird. Nothing came back. Layne waited a few seconds and then tried it again, with the same blank result.

  W
ith gritted teeth, he took out his phone and dialed her. As the call connected, he skulked across the surface, checking behind the air conditioners to find her. His phone rang and rang, then eventually went to voicemail. He hung up and tried again. Still, nothing.

  This wouldn’t work without her. Why wasn’t she answering her phone?

  He started to compose a text when he heard it. The door back to the maintenance room opening behind him. Layne barely had time to turn around before the fist hit his face.

  Layne’s eyes instantly watered. He staggered back a step since he couldn’t see and needed to create space. After a few more blinks, he took in the figure before him. So large, he blocked out the sun.

  Layne was a big man, but this guy was bigger. Video game big. At least 6’8”, three hundred pounds of hulking mass. Same triangle tattoo on his thick neck. Must’ve been the one who beat poor Ronnie to death.

  “Hello,” the big guy said. Fists balled, he stood over Layne, grinning down at him.

  The guy had an Eastern European accent. Where did Farhad get all the money to hire these goons to go along with his nice house and expensive clothes? These weren’t normal expenses for the director of a mental health facility. He must have had serious bankrolling.

  Layne hoisted the gym bag with one hand and grabbed the zipper with the other. But, before he could get it open, the beast grabbed the bag and ripped it out of Layne’s hands like taking a toy away from a child. In one fluid motion, the man hurled the gym bag over the side of the building. Layne heard it crash onto the ground. All of Layne’s weapons, gone in an instant.

  “Just you and me,” the big guy said in a voice so deep, it almost made the ground rumble. “You can call me Conner.”

  “I don’t care what your name is.”

  “Maybe not, but I want you to know who broke your back and smashed every bone in your face before you die. It is important to me.”