The Final Kill

by Meg O'Brien

  “That’s a relief. Maybe now life can go back to normal for Jancy—whatever normal is. So, when are they letting Alicia go?”

  “Pretty soon, I’d imagine. For now, though, she’s still in custody in Houston. The last I heard, she wasn’t allowed any contact with the outside world until they’ve finished questioning all the suspects.”

  “What suspects? So far as I could see, all Gerry had was a meager little band of hoodlums playing guard dogs for him.”

  “Well, the feds got inside the Matalene Trust somehow,” Kris said. “That’s Gerry’s secret organization to ‘save the world.’ It’s no longer a secret, and every single member is being questioned and their backgrounds thoroughly checked.”

  “Gerry called them kindergartners. He said they wouldn’t go ‘the extra mile,’ so I doubt they’ll find anything illegal to charge them with.”

  “Gerry Gerard has no conscience,” Kris said. “If nothing else, we know that about him.”

  “So he really did snatch Danny just to make you botch the search for Alicia and the Devlins? It wasn’t that he wanted custody of him, after all?”

  “Doesn’t give a damn about him, actually,” Kris said with a snort. “But if Pat Devlin had been found too soon—before he could finish the bioweapons and Gerry could conveniently find them on his doorstep and turn them over to the feds—he wouldn’t have had a chance to become a hero.”

  She laughed. “I just can’t wait for the government scientists they’ve got working on those ‘bioweapons’ to tell the press they’re fakes. If I have anything to do with it, you can be damned sure the talking heads will be after Gerard for months.”

  Binny arrived with the tea and sandwiches they’d asked for after Jancy and Danny had been fed and were safely in bed. The roast beef sandwiches were consumed without conversation as Kris and Abby purposely stocked up on carbs and protein. Side salads of pasta were in cups on the sandwich plate, and they chowed down on them, too.

  “You sure you don’t want coffee?” Abby asked when they were finished.

  Kris shook her head. “I get more energy from tea. I’m Irish, you know.”

  “I kind of assumed as much. And speaking of which, what happened to Alicia’s mother?”

  Kris smiled. “Funny thing, she wasn’t at the house in Emerald Gardens when the FBI got there. And no one seems to know where she’s gone.”

  “Ah…the disappearing Devlin act, again.”

  “With a few false IDs and some money from me this time,” Kris said.

  “Oh, really? Just please don’t tell me you’re a member of an IRA splinter group.”

  “No, I just felt I had to do something to make up for taking Jancy. The fact that I couldn’t go through with it makes me only a half level up from Gerry. Besides, from what you told me, it sounds like the Devlins have lived a pretty clean life the past thirty years. Bridget deserves to start a new life.”

  “True. Even so, Kris, I’m impressed. And to think I didn’t like you the first time I saw you.”

  “No offense. Nobody likes me when I bust into their house and flash a warrant.” She smiled. “Oh, by the way, that wasn’t a real warrant.”

  “What? But it looked—”

  “Official? I made it up on a computer at the police station before we came over here that night. In fact, that’s how I made up Bridget Devlin’s papers. Amazing what you can do on a computer these days.”

  Abby started to laugh, then sobered as the antique clock on her mantel sounded a single chime. Eleven-thirty. Gerry would be here soon.

  38

  The nuns and other women of the Prayer House had been asked to stay on the second floor for the rest of the night, and since they were usually in bed by this time, it wasn’t a problem. Abby had told them not to worry if they heard any unusual noises. Above all, they were not to call the police.

  Narissa, being young, energetic and therefore needing little sleep, had been asked to keep an eye on the two younger guests. If either one left his or her room, she was to keep them from coming downstairs.

  The downstairs was dimly lit, and Abby stood at a window looking out at the grounds. At exactly midnight, headlights swept up the driveway. Good. Joey was right on time.

  “He’s out on bail, so I’ll bring him to you,” he’d said, “and I’ll drop him off. Just don’t tell me what you’re doin’. I don’t want to know. And remember, this is just a favor for leaving you high and dry in Houston when my flight was grounded.”

  Abby opened the door and Joey “escorted” Gerry into the foyer with a firm push. “Gerry!” she said with a false tone of pleasure. “Good to see you again. I’m sorry it’s not under better circumstances.”

  He didn’t bother with the amenities. “What do you want, Abby? I’ve already got plenty of charges pending. There’s nothing more you can do to me.”

  “I’m sure you’re right,” she said, smiling at Joey. “I think you had something to do?”

  Joey nodded. “Don’t worry about me. I’m outta here.”

  “Wait—” Gerry looked around as if searching the shadows for ghosts. “You’re not leaving me alone here, are you?”

  “Hey, man, you’ll be all right,” Joey said. “Abby here, she’s a fine woman.”

  Gerard made a scornful sound, and Joey left. The hallway became very quiet. Abby let the silence become uncomfortable.

  “You might as well get on with it,” Gerry said at last. “Whatever it is you want. I know you can’t kill me, because that was a cop and he’s probably still out there. I’d better stay alive and well.”

  “No problem, Gerry. As I told you on the phone, this is about Jancy. Your daughter.”

  “Jancy? What about her?”

  “She’s sick, and she’s been asking for you.”

  “So, what’s wrong with her?” His tone let her know that this was an inconvenience, and Jancy had better be damned sick to have dragged him all the way out here just to see her. “Where is she?”

  “We put her out in the infirmary,” Abby answered, “in case whatever she has is contagious.”

  “Infirmary?”

  “Our little hospital. We have two sisters who were registered nurses before they came here.”

  “Let’s get this over with, then. Where’s this infirmary?”

  “It’s behind the gardens,” Abby said, “next to the new Women’s Center for Learning.”

  “You mean, she’s not here in the house? You’ve put her outdoors somewhere? I guess that tells me something about you people and how you run this place.”

  “Gerry, she’s hardly outdoors,” Abby said mildly. “And I haven’t just ‘put’ her there. The infirmary is a brand-new building, top-of-the-line, and Jancy’s getting excellent care.”

  “Then get on with it! Let’s go,” he said in a clipped, impatient tone that said he was accustomed to ordering people around.

  “Of course,” Abby said, reaching for her denim jacket by the door. “Let’s go.”

  39

  The sky had clouded over, smearing the moonlight into a vague blur. The air was chill. The closer Abby and Gerry Gerard got to the old chapel, the more she shivered and the more her joints began to hurt. She started to limp.

  “This is damned far out,” Gerry complained as he caught his toe on a root in the path. He righted himself with a curse.

  “We manage to stay in touch,” Abby said.

  “I’d like to know just exactly how you stay in touch,” Gerry said irritably, “if people have to use this path all the time. You haven’t even paved it.”

  “We have intercoms,” Abby said. “Walkie-talkies, cell phones, land phones, e-mail…as I told you, this is a new facility. The woman who was director here before me was wealthy, and she left us an excellent inheritance to build whatever we thought we needed. I added my money to it, and we were able to do a great deal.”

  “Is that the infirmary?” he asked, as if he hadn’t been listening. “That building over there? It looks dark.”


  “No, that’s the Women’s Center for Learning. We bring teachers out here and offer classes for women who need help reentering the business world.”

  Gerry, obviously not interested, didn’t respond.

  They were coming up to the old chapel, which was no more than a crumbling tower and three walls, with the entire back side open to the surrounding forest. Along the right-hand wall was a large tree with branches so low they had to duck to pass under them.

  “Wait!” Gerry said. He stopped walking.

  Abby nearly jumped. “What?”

  “I heard something.”

  “It’s just the horses,” she said. “At night, when it’s quiet, you can hear them moving around in the barn.”

  “No, it was something else.” He turned his head from side to side, like a hound on the hunt.

  “Gerry, there are all kinds of sounds in the country that you probably never hear in New York City. It’s a whole different world out here.”

  “I suppose—” he began.

  It was the last sound he uttered before he was flattened to the ground by Kris, who had dropped from a branch of the tree and landed smack on him.

  She lost her balance as she got to her feet, and he pushed her away and managed to stand. But Kris flew at him as Abby grabbed his right arm and stuck a foot behind his legs, making him land on his back again. Using all the strength she could muster, she rolled him onto his stomach, then sat on him while Kris tied his hands together, then his feet.

  Abby was panting loudly, and she couldn’t believe how tired she was. She had done everything so far on adrenaline, but oh, God, she hurt now. The bandaged arm had struck something, probably a tree branch, and it felt on fire. Blood was seeping through the bandage, and her entire body shrieked with pain.

  “You will never come near my son again,” Kris said, her breath short and rasping as she fastened the knots. “You will never even drive by my house, or talk to him in the school play yard, or even speak his name again.”

  “You bitch!” he muttered, showing no sign of fear. And to Abby, “Get off me! You’ll both pay for this!”

  “Say it, you monster. Say you are sorry that you kidnapped Danny and you will never come near him again.”

  This time Kris’s voice was steady and cold. She stood above him, holding a gun in both hands, pointing it straight at him.

  “Kris!” Abby said anxiously. “We were only supposed to scare him. You promised, no violence!”

  “Shut up, Abby, and get off him. This is my show now.”

  She kneed Abby in the shoulder. “Off! Now!”

  Abby half fell to the ground next to Gerard.

  “I can’t let you do this!” she said, painfully rising to her feet.

  Kris pointed the gun at her. “Your job is over, Abby. Go back to the house.”

  “No!”

  “I mean it!”

  “This is my home, Kris. No way in hell am I leaving.”

  Kris shrugged. “Suit yourself. But if you get in my way, or try to stop me, I won’t hesitate to take you out along with him.”

  Abby watched as Kris, with what seemed like superhuman strength, yanked Gerry up by his shirt with one hand. Buttons popped, and Gerry swore. “You crazy bitch, I’ll get you for this.”

  “Move!” she ordered, pushing him toward the inside shell of the chapel. Step by step, with the gun pressed to his neck, she made him hobble, stumbling from the ropes around his ankles. When they reached the table-size stone where the altar used to be, she shoved the gun into his back.

  “Up there!” she ordered.

  A Coleman lantern rested on a small table to the left of the stone. Next to it, gleaming in the flickering light, was a knife.

  Gerard saw it and went weak. He tripped on the first step and fell to his knees. “Look, you don’t want to do this—”

  “Now!” she said.

  His voice shook, but he got to his feet. “You’ll lose Danny for good if you kill me,” he said. “You’ll spend the rest of your life on death row.”

  Kris slammed him against the stone. He let out a cry as his head hit against it. Blood ran down his face from temple to cheek.

  “Kris, please!” Abby said. “You’re going too far—”

  “I told you to shut up! Do you think I give a damn what you have to say, when this monster stole my son?”

  Kris’s face was illuminated by the lantern’s light, and Abby could see it was twisted and pale.

  Kris held the gun to Gerard’s ear. “I’ll give you to the count of five to get up there. One…two…three…four…”

  “All right, all right!” He climbed up onto the stone table.

  “Lie down on your back,” Kris said coldly. “And say the words, ‘I am sorry I kidnapped Kris’s son Danny, and I will never go near him again.’”

  “Go to hell!” he said.

  She hit him on the temple with the butt of the gun. “Say it!”

  He began to whimper. “Damn you—”

  She raised the gun again.

  “All right, dammit! I’m sorry I kidnapped Kris’s son, Danny…and I will never go near him again.” The whimper turned to anger. “There! Are you satisfied?”

  “Hell, no,” Kris said. “I have lots more in store for you.”

  He began to plead with Abby. “I know you don’t want this. Think what it would do to the Prayer House, all the bad publicity if it comes out what she did here. And think of Alicia. She’s your friend, for God’s sake! And Jancy! What about Jancy?”

  “So, now you care about your daughter?” Abby said. “Well, not to worry. Jancy’s fine. She’s asleep in the house.”

  “Asleep?” He looked dazed. Confused. “You said she was sick.”

  “Just one of those little lies you big CEO types use all the time in negotiations,” Abby said. “It is okay to use whatever will get the job done, right?”

  Abby picked up the knife.

  “But, I heard you!” Gerry cried. “You told her no violence. You wanted her to stop!”

  “Actually, that was just a little practice for the community theater tryouts. Did I do good?”

  She slid around Kris and stuck her face close to Gerard’s, leaning her arms on his chest. The knife was still in her right hand, and the point of it was close to his neck. There wasn’t a sign of pain on her face, though the hole in her arm felt as if a hot poker were being held to it.

  “See, Gerry, it’s not nice to use little kids as hostages,” Abby said. “You know how that makes me feel? It makes me feel mad. And when I get mad I’m like one of those abused kids you hear about who need to cut themselves. Only in my case, you know what, Gerry? I like cutting someone else.”

  She raised the knife and studied it, as if gauging its sharpness. “I put this out here before you came,” she said. “Sister Binny uses it to cut meat. It’s so sharp, she can dissect an entire pig, guts and all, with this knife.”

  “Oh, God.” He began to visibly tremble. “You’re both crazy! You’re both fucking crazy!”

  “You may be right,” Abby said. “So, Gerry, this is what we’re going to do.” She laid the knife alongside his head. “Kris and I are going to take turns dissecting little pieces of you. I’m going to start with an ear, and then she’s going to carve out an eye. Little by little we’ll work our way down, and unless you pass out from shock…you know what, Gerry? You’ll still be alive and able to feel it when we get…here.”

  She rested the knife point against his crotch.

  Tears fell from his eyes, but he still tried to plead. “You don’t have it in you, Abby. You’d never do a thing like that. Just let me up—”

  “You think I should let you go?”

  “Yes! Please, Abby. We’ll forget this ever happened.”

  “Oh, I know what you’re thinking, Gerry,” Kris said. “You’re thinking that once you get away from here, you’ll hire someone to kill me. Abby, too, I suppose. But you know what? There’s a camera in here.”

  His head swung sid
e to side, and on his face was an expression of shock.

  “Oh, don’t bother to look for it,” Kris said. “You’d never find it in a million years. The point is, I’ve been taping all this. I have your confession now that you kidnapped my son. And my nice little tape is going into a safety deposit box that you’ll never find.” She smiled. “The CIA will, though. And they’ll come after you like bats out of hell for harming one of their own. You’ll be ruined, Gerry. And gee, you know what? You might even be dead.”

  40

  After Kris left, Abby sat in the chapel until the fog wore off and the sun came up, then far into the afternoon. Gerry’s mouth was taped, and he was bound to the altar with rope.

  Finally, the call came through on her cell phone. Abby moved away from Gerard and spoke softly. “All’s well on the Carmel front.”

  “Great,” Kris said. “Thanks for doing this, Abby. We’re all moved. I found a nice condo for the two of us on the tenth floor, with a doorman and locked gates all over the place. Danny loves it. There’s a safe, enclosed patio, and he can see the Golden Gate Bridge from here. And there’s no way Gerry will ever find us. I’ve swept our tracks clean.”

  “Thank God. I take it I can let our friend go now?”

  “Is he sufficiently humbled?” Kris asked.

  “He peed his pants,” Abby said. “Is that humble enough?”

  Kris laughed softly. “I really wanted to kill him, but I’m glad all it took was the threat of torture.”

  “At least he’ll think twice,” Abby said, “before he goes after Danny or Jancy again.”

  Abby hung up, then untied Gerry with one hand, all the while holding Kris’s gun on him with the other. She told him he could go, but it didn’t seem to her he appreciated her kindness.

  “If it wasn’t for that goddamn tape,” he said, rubbing his wrists and mumbling as if his lips had gone numb, “I’d ruin you, bitch. You and her, too.”