"I don't think you ever met Beau Richard's wife, Amelia."
"The man who tried to kill you last year?"
Alex nodded.
"And that was his wife?"
"She's in some trouble. I'm trying to help."
"I'm sure you are!" she said, more sarcastically than she meant.
"Excuse me?"
Hanna stood and walked over to the bookshelves along the wall. "Alex, look, I'm sorry. I should have let you explain that night, but I show up and you're wasted and in deep conversation with this incredibly beautiful woman."
"I know, these pain pills I've been taking are making me crazy and I shouldn't be drinking."
"Are you still on them?"
"I've been trying to start cutting back, but I have some bad history with this and it's, well, it's going to take some time."
"That stuff is so dangerous, Alex."
"Trust me, I know." He looked away for a minute, then said, "I need to tell you everything."
"Okay."
"I went to Amelia Richard's house that night."
Hanna wasn't surprised by his admission, but her heart sank anyway as she listened.
"She has some evidence her husband hid away against this gangster we talked about."
"Dellahousaye?"
"Right. Amelia wanted me to get this information to the proper authorities, but she was afraid what Dellahousaye might do."
"So, you went back to her house," Hanna said, impatiently, trying to calm her instincts to just throw him out of her office.
Alex nodded. "I did. I slept there. I passed out, actually.
Sirens were going off in Hanna's brain. "I'm not surprised. You could barely make a sentence when I saw you at the bar."
"Nothing happened, Hanna, I mean between me and Amelia. You have to believe me."
She was surprised to realize she did believe him, but it didn't make her any less angry. Then, a flood a guilt washed over her as she thought about Sam and their last couple of days together. She heard him start talking again, but she was still thinking about Sam's kiss and the invitation.
"Hanna?"
She shook her head, coming back to the moment. "Alex, we need to talk about something else..." She stopped and looked up when she sensed someone standing in the open door. Alex had his back to the door and hadn't noticed anyone there.
"Sam!"
Sam Collins smiled that easy smile she was getting used to again and stepped in. "Hope I'm not interrupting anything, but we need to get going Hanna."
Hanna watched as Alex turned. The expression on his face went instantly from curious to enraged. She looked up at Sam who was suddenly moving quickly backward. He slammed the door closed. She stood speechless as he reached behind his waist and pulled out a gun from under his shirt and pointed it at Alex's head.
"Sam, what...?"
Alex yelled out, "Hanna, get down!"
She couldn't make sense of what she was seeing or hearing. Alex stood and quickly jumped between her and Sam. She watched as Sam's expression suddenly turned from his normal easy going and gracious calm to a dark anger she had never seen before.
Sam said, "Detective Frank, how inconvenient."
"You two know each other?" Hanna said, completely stunned. "Sam, put that gun down! Have you lost your mind?"
Collins moved closer to Alex and said, "Keep your hands in front where I can see them. Hanna, take his gun and put it over there on the table." His own gun was now only a few feet away from Alex's face.
Hanna pleaded, "Sam, what are you doing? Please..."
"Take his gun!"
She heard Alex say, "Hanna, I don't know who you think this is."
She couldn't respond. The scene before her was beyond comprehension.
"I'm going to ask one more time!" Sam hissed through clenched teeth.
"Sam, please stop!"
Alex kept his eyes trained on Sam Collins and said, "This man's name is Caine, Hanna. He killed Lonnie..."
"Shut up, Frank!" Caine snarled.
Hanna could see his finger pressed firmly on the trigger. She tried to calm the panic that was exploding through her. She couldn't make sense of what she'd just heard. "Caine?" She flinched when Sam suddenly rushed forward and smashed the side of his gun into Alex's temple. He fell to the ground in a heap and Hanna cried out.
"Shut up, Hanna!" Sam said as he knelt and took Alex's gun from the holster on his belt. He stood and stepped back, looking quickly at the door behind him, still closed.
"Sam, what are you doing?" She looked down and Alex was not moving, and blood was now leaking out from the blow to the side of his face. She got down on her knees to press her hand against the flow of blood. "Sam, what is he talking about?" When she looked up, the man she knew as Sam Collins was staring back, the gun now pointed at her.
"We obviously need to talk, Hanna."
Ten minutes later, Hanna was in the back seat of Sam's car, holding Alex's head in her lap, a handkerchief pressed firmly to the side of his face. Alex had regained consciousness enough to allow Hanna, at Sam's insistence, to help to get Alex out the back door of the office and into the car. Sam had grabbed plastic tie strips from the trunk and secured Alex's hands behind him. Sam had threatened to kill Alex on the spot if she didn't help.
She looked up at the back of Sam's head as he drove through the shaded streets of Charleston. "Where are we going?"
He didn't answer.
"Who are you?" she cried out.
"I'll explain everything, in time."
"You killed Lonnie Smith and all those other men?" Hanna said through her tears, still not understanding or believing anything that was happening.
Sam... or Caine, didn't answer.
She looked up from Alex when the car stopped. She could see boats along a long pier. Sam turned to her. "You're going to help me get him out to my boat. If you say anything or don't do exactly as I ask, I will put a bullet in the side of his head and throw him in the river. Are we clear?"
She nodded back in shock and disbelief.
Hanna sat across from Sam in the cockpit of the big boat. Alex lay on the deck behind them, his hands and feet now both secured by plastic ties. The bleeding from his head wound had slowed, but he was barely conscious. She looked back over at the man she thought she knew as Sam Collins driving the boat. His gun was now on the console in front of him. She was shaking and felt cold even though it was near eighty outside and little breeze was blowing into the closed cabin of the boat as they made their way out the river toward open water.
She listened as Sam started to speak over the dull roar of the engines. "Hanna, you need to understand a few things."
"Who are you?" she shouted.
Sam looked over at her with a grim and determined look, a frightening look. "I was brought back to Charleston to do some work. I couldn't resist looking you up again."
"You did kill those men!"
Sam didn't respond.
"This isn't possible!" she cried out, looking again at Alex, motionless on the deck of the boat.
"Hanna, years ago when I left school, I was getting some photo work in France, but barely getting by. I met some men one night in a bar. They were mercenaries working for an outfit out of Paris. It's a long story, but we became friends and they introduced me to another line of work that’s become far more profitable."
"You're an assassin?"
He smiled back at her and said, "Yes Hanna, I get paid to kill people... and I've become very good at it.
"And your name is Caine now?" she said.
"When I'm working, yes."
"And the photography...?"
"A convenient cover."
Chapter Fifty-one
Alex felt the low vibration of an engine through the cold hard deck of the boat against his face. He was beginning to regain some sense of where he was and what was happening. Caine had come into Hanna's office. She knew him, for God's sake!
Hanna shouted, "You need to take us back. You can't do this!"
Alex watched as Caine just grinned at her. Finally, he said, "Your friend here, Detective Frank, he and I have some unfinished business to take care of and then you and I are going to the Bahamas as planned."
"I'm not going anywhere with you!" Hanna yelled out.
"I had planned to take my client's plane and come back for the boat in a few days... but plans change, right?"
"Sam, this is crazy! You need to take us back!"
"Hanna, I'm sure this is more than you can understand right now, but this is just a job. I still want us to be together again."
"You've lost your mind!" Hanna cried.
Alex pulled at his restraints to see if there was any chance he could get free. He was held fast and remained motionless with his eyes closed. The side of his head was screaming with pain and he struggled to keep from passing out again.
Alex wasn't sure how long he had lost consciousness again. The boat's engines were throttling back and then the boat slowed and moved up and down in the swells from the big wake coming up from behind. He could smell gasoline and putrid fish from the oily deck of the boat. His head was suddenly jerked up by the hair and he saw Caine's feet beside him. He heard Hanna yell out, "Please, Sam! Don't hurt him again!
Alex watched as Caine's right foot reared back and then came crashing into his forehead, a new flash of pain searing into his brain. His last conscious thought was the sound of Hanna crying out. "Please, no!"
Chapter Fifty-two
Hanna jumped down from the tall boat seat and fell to Alex's side. He lay there, not moving, Sam's kick doing more damage to his face. "You're a monster!" she yelled as Sam walked past and opened the doors to the back deck of the boat. She looked out across a long stretch of blue water with no land in sight, no boats. She stood and looked around through all the cabin windows. The shoreline of Charleston was barely visible to the west. She saw a few boats now, but all were miles away. Sam had taken her phone and thrown it overboard with Alex's soon after they left Charleston harbor. She looked over and saw the ship's radio on the other side of the steering wheel on the console.
"Don't even think about it," Sam said, coming up from behind. He put his arm around her waist. She cringed and tried to pull away, but he held her close.
"There's no need to spoil this new chance we have, Hanna."
"Let me go!"
He let her step away and said, "We can live anywhere, go anywhere. It can be a marvelous life."
She stood there shaking her head in disbelief at what she was hearing. The man was truly deranged. How could I not see this?
"I know this is difficult, Hanna. I don't expect you to understand right away."
"And what if I tell you to go to hell!" she yelled out. "Will you kill me, too!"
He smiled back at her but didn't answer.
"Sam, please take us back," she pleaded.
"Much too late for that, dear. How about a little fishing."
Hanna watched in stunned silence as Sam moved about the rear of the boat, dipping bait with a small net from a live well along the side rail of the boat. With a long knife, he was cutting the bait fish into small bloody pieces and scraping them into a large white bucket. The boat drifted along on the blue swells of the ocean. The sun overhead stifling hot and only a hint of breeze blowing.
Sam opened a gate across the back transom of the boat as Hanna sat down in a folding chair on the deck next to Alex, still lying unconscious at her feet. She leaned down and stroked his hair. He felt cold and she pulled back, the fear continuing to build and blur her senses.
Sam took the bucket of cut fish and walked out on a small platform behind the boat. He threw the contents of the bucket out into the water. Hanna could see the oily bloody mess spread out across the calm surface of the water. Sam came back up on deck. He went over and scooped more fish, larger this time and continued hacking away at them with the big knife.
He had poured three buckets full of the bloody chum into the water when she saw the first gray fin sweep across the water behind the boat. The fear she was feeling now turned to sheer panic. She ran over to Sam at the back of the boat, screaming, "You have to stop this!"
"You might want to go below, Hanna," Sam said calmly. The look in his eyes was almost manic. She saw the grip of his gun in the holster under his shirt on the back of his pants.
"You can't do this!" she cried out, the tears coming again.
"This is just business, Hanna. You'll come to see this is just business."
She could tell from the crazed look on his face that this was far more than that. He was enjoying this, getting some sick pleasure from it.
Without thinking, she said, "You'll have to kill me, too, Sam. I'll never go with you!"
He just laughed and said, "Don't be ridiculous."
She lunged at him, thinking maybe she could get to the gun. He grabbed her easily and held her arms in vice-like grips. His face grew deadly serious. "Do not get in my way."
She backed up, the terror of the moment now totally overwhelming her. She fell to the deck beside Alex and lay over him in some futile attempt to protect him. She heard Alex whisper in a hoarse and weak voice, "Hanna?"
She looked over at his face and his eyes were half open. Beyond, she could see two large sharks now, thrashing through the bloody bait behind the boat. "Oh my God!"
She felt Sam pushing her away and watched in horror as the crazed killer she thought she knew as her college lover, Sam Collins, swung a large handled hook into Alex’s thigh. Even half conscious, Alex screamed out in pain as Sam started pulling him to the back of the boat deck.
Hanna tried to breathe, to get enough strength to stand. She saw Sam pull Alex by the hook in his leg onto the back platform of the deck, the sharks only a few feet away in the bloody froth of water. Sam put his foot on Alex's leg, still bound and lifeless. He pulled hard and the hook came out in a spurt of blood. She watched in stunned horror as Sam laughed and threw the gaff up onto the rear deck.
Sam turned away and watched as the sharks raced through bloody bait now, clearly in a frenzy. Alex lay motionless on the platform beside him, moaning in a low haunting voice. Hanna saw Sam staring at the sharks, laughing.
She managed to get up and stood for a moment, staggering in the slow rolling motion of the boat. She thought she was going to be sick, but pushed the sensation down and then, on instinct, ran quickly towards the rear of the boat, reaching down to grab the long handle of the fish gaff. With all her strength, she swung the hook and felt it thud into the man’s neck. Blood immediately gushed from the wound and splattered down on Alex and the deck. Sam tried to turn but she held him tight with the handle. He managed to turn his head just enough to look back at her with a twisted smile.
He started to speak, but Hanna didn't give him a chance. With her last reserve of strength, she pushed hard on the gaff handle stuck into his bleeding neck. He lost his footing and fell with arms out wide into the froth of water and blood and streaking sharks behind the boat. Hanna let the gaff go as he fell.
The man she now knew as Caine, came back to the surface quickly, his face remarkably calm. He was pulling at the hook in the side of his neck when his body shuddered and was jerked sideways and then down below the surface. Hanna fell to her knees beside Alex, still half conscious and not moving.
Caine’s head burst through the surface of the water again, his eyes now showing the first sign of panic, but still, he managed to smile back at her, blood staining his teeth a bright red.
Hanna lurched back in sheer fright as the huge jaws of one of the sharks flashed up across the water and took the man's face and then his entire body down with it,
down into the blue depths of the Atlantic.
Sam Collins... Caine, didn't come back up.
Hanna peered over the edge of the platform and could see the dark shapes of two large sharks tearing at the body several feet below the surface. Blood and torn limbs were coming to the surface and joined with the other bloody chum. She looked away retching and then fell to Alex's side, her arm over him, holding him close. She heard him groan, "Hanna?"
Chapter Fifty-three
Hanna lay with her arm across Alex's stomach. She'd been dozing and woke when someone came in behind her. The nurse walked to the other side of the bed and checked the readings from the monitor Alex was hooked up to. He was still sleeping. The nurse made several notes on a chart, then left without speaking.
Hanna looked down at Alex's face, still bruised from the earlier beating. She took a deep breath to clear her head.
Somehow, she had gotten the radio on the boat to work and kept screaming "911" on different channels until someone answered back. The Coast Guard had found them about an hour after she had pushed Sam into the frenzy of the big sharks. The memory of it made her shudder and she felt like she might be sick again at any moment. She was just laying her head back on Alex's chest in sheer exhaustion when she heard him whisper, "Hanna."
She sat up. "Oh, Alex!"
His eyes were glazed and only half open. She reached for his hand and squeezed it tight. She watched as he looked around the hospital room. "What the hell...?" he rasped, not finishing the thought.
She fell down into him, her arms around him, holding him close. She couldn't speak, the memory of the horror out on the ocean more than she could bare to think about. She felt Alex tense beneath her and say, "Where's Caine?"
She looked up at his battered face. "He's gone, Alex. He's gone."
Special Agents Foster and Fairfield knocked on the open hospital room door. Hanna looked up and saw the wall clock at just past 5 pm. She hadn't seen them in over a year since their help with the safe return of her son. More than ever, she felt sure the gangster, Asa Dellahousaye, was involved in her deceased husband's failed land deal and her son's kidnapping as the mob element in the deal tried to recoup lost money they thought Hanna had squirreled away. She rose and gave both the FBI agents a warm embrace.
Death on the New Moon Page 20