Remember Murder

by Linda Ladd

  “No way are we handing Claire over to this guy,” Black said, grabbing the note out of her hand.

  Now McKay was doing the pacing, distraught and extremely close to being overcome by sheer terror. She had never seen him that way. He looked at her. “No, Claire’s been through enough. I’m gonna find this guy and kill him. But he’s gonna suffer first.”

  “How, McKay? How’re you gonna find him? You don’t know where he is,” she said, swallowing down the lump thickening inside her throat. Just the idea of that sweet little girl being in that monster’s hands made her want to scream. Somewhere he was touching her, and God knew what else he was doing to her.

  “You’ve gotta help me find him. I’ve never seen this guy before. I know there’s a BOLO order out on him. Have you heard anything yet?”

  “It’s Jesse, Joe! The guy you met at Jeepers!”

  “That little punk! How do you know?”

  “Never mind that—it’s him. I know it.”

  More calm than the other two, Black said to McKay, “We’ve got to get out an Amber Alert, right now, before he runs with her.”

  “There’s no goddamn time for that, Nick!”

  Claire tried to stay focused. Joe was losing it fast. “He wants to set up a meet. He’s gonna call us.”

  “That’s what I thought. I figured he’d already called you.”

  Claire’s chest was heaving up and down, her breathing labored. She downed a deep inhalation, trying to keep control. “Oh, God, McKay, this is so bad. Please let me call the sheriff.”

  Joe grabbed hold of her arm. “Please, Claire, please don’t, I’m beggin’ you. He’ll kill her. He won’t bat an eye. He shot Carol in the heart, the bastard. Just left her on the floor bleedin’ out.”

  Better than anyone, Claire knew the horrible things that Thomas Landers was capable of. How many people had he killed in pursuit of her? Ten? Twenty? More?

  “This is my fault. He wants me. He’ll call, and then I’ll exchange myself for Lizzie. Of course, I will. We’ll get her back, McKay.”

  “Oh, no, you won’t.” Black looked determined.

  Claire turned on him and faced his glower. “What choice do we have, Black? Do you really want Lizzie in that psychopath’s hands? At least I’ll have a fighting chance. He doesn’t want her. He wants me. He’s not going to hurt me if I play along with his fantasies.”

  “No, Claire, Black’s right. You can’t do that.”

  “Oh, really, Joe? What do we do then? Nothing?”

  “I’m not putting you in his hands. We’ll set a trap. He’s clever, but the three of us oughta be able to take him down.”

  They all stood there, staring at each other, helpless, all of them knowing how savage and unpredictable Landers could be. “We don’t know what he wants us to do yet,” she said at length. “Maybe we can get him, if he gets careless.”

  Black said, “Let’s just settle down and think this through rationally. There’s nothing we can do until he calls us.”

  The next hour was like being trapped in hell. Time crawled like a wounded warrior, and none of them knew how long Landers would make them wait. Claire fought the horrible visions torturing her mind. Little Lizzie, that tiny, sweet little child, was all alone somewhere in the lair of a savage, perverted killer like Landers. God, there was no telling what he was doing to her. McKay was like a man possessed, treading the floor incessantly, fists balled, jaw working, face distorted with pain and worry. But he was also calm, underneath the outward nerves. He wasn’t yelling or smashing his fist through the wall. Claire knew him well enough to know that he wouldn’t go off half-cocked, thank God. They just needed to get that call.

  “Joe, I think we need to bring in Bud and Charlie,” she said after another endless hour of waiting. “Put out that Amber Alert. He could be hours away by now.”

  “Thomas Landers won’t leave this area without you, I guarantee it.” Black spoke quietly, still more in control than McKay or Claire, but not displaying his usual sangfroid, either. He loved Lizzie, too. He was doing some serious pacing himself.

  When the cell phone in Claire’s hand started its song, all three of them froze where they stood. The two men rushed quickly to her side. Caller ID said unknown caller, but she knew without asking that Landers was using a throwaway phone. He was too smart not to. She answered and put the phone on speaker.

  “This is Claire Morgan.”

  “Oh, my, why in the world do you keep calling yourself that, sweetheart? You’re Annie, you’re my beautiful Annie. You know that now, don’t you?”

  It was Landers’s voice, all right, the creepy tonal inflection out of her worst night terrors, the voice she’d heard echoing through the endless dark, deadly dreams, the voice of a homicidal maniac on the loose. How could she not have detected it when he was masquerading as Jesse? Even with her memory loss? She felt her hands begin to tremble so she clenched the phone tighter. Think about Lizzie, think about Lizzie.

  “Thomas, is that you? I’ve been waiting for you to call. I miss you.”

  “Liar, liar, pants on fire.”

  That was uttered in a childish, high-pitched voice, a singsong cadence. The hair rose up on Claire’s arms, and she tried to control the quiver contorting her voice. “I’m not lying. McKay says we can finally be together. Tell me where you are and I’ll come to you right now. He wants his little girl back, and I want to be with you.”

  A very tense, frightening silence ensued, and then Landers said, “What do you take me for, Annie? I’m not that stupid.” This time his voice was low and controlled, a man’s voice, completely different than before.

  Joe’s face was blood red, and he looked ready to explode in pure, unadulterated rage, his teeth grinding, his muscles hard as rock. For the first time since she’d met him, Black looked unsure.

  Claire spoke quickly. “Tell me what you want me to do, and I’ll do it. Anything you say. I’m telling you the truth, Thomas.”

  “Oh, yes, you sure will. And I’ve got lots of fun stuff planned out for us. I’m gonna have to punish you first, though, for shooting me. I hope you understand. That wasn’t nice at all, Annie.”

  Black kept shaking his head, mouthing no, warning her off. She said, “I want to speak to Lizzie. Let me speak to her. Is she okay? I miss her.”

  “She’s asleep. You’ll just have to trust me on that.”

  “Don’t hurt her, Thomas. Please don’t hurt her. She’s only a baby.”

  “I know. I already love her almost as much as I love you. She’s real sweet and her skin’s so soft. She tastes so good, too, like pink cotton candy, but not as good as you taste. I tasted you when you were asleep, Annie. I licked you all over. I helped you wake up.”

  Claire watched Black react to that knowledge, but his rage didn’t reach the violence of Joe McKay’s. Joe jerked backward bodily as if someone had slugged him in the gut. Black grabbed Joe’s arm and restrained him from grabbing the phone out of Claire’s hands.

  “What’d you want me to do?” she asked quickly. The less time Lizzie was with him the better. Now Claire remembered the case that she and Joe had worked on. She knew the child had endured more trauma in her young life than anyone should ever have to. Claire had to get Lizzie away from Landers. She didn’t care what it took.

  “Listen carefully, my sweet darlin’ Annie. Come to the Grand Glaize Bridge. Alone. I can see the bridge right now. If I get even a glimpse of Joe McKay or Nicholas Black or any cops, I’ll tie this little princess up nice and tight and drop her in the lake. Tell Joe she’ll sink like a rock. You’ll never find her again. I will do that, Annie, I will most certainly. That’s how much you mean to me. So you better do exactly what I say. Come alone and unarmed.”

  That threat was more than McKay could bear, and he yelled hoarsely at the phone, his face contorted into an unrecognizable mask of fury. “You lay a finger on her, you bastard, and I’ll kill you. I’ll kill you. I’ll kill you with my bare hands!”

  At the other end, Thomas
only giggled. “Maybe I’ll do it right now, daddy-o, since you’re being so rude. Her mouth’s taped up nice and tight right now. All I have to do is put another strip over her nose, and bye-bye, sweetie pie.”

  McKay’s knees buckled, and he dropped to the ground, working desperately to get control back. Black put his hand on his back, his face rigid with anger.

  “Don’t do that, Thomas, or I’ll never forgive you. I love Lizzie. I don’t want you to hurt her. If you do, I don’t think I can love you anymore.”

  Silence for three long beats, while they all held their breath. “I won’t hurt Lizzie, if you come alone and do what I say.”

  “I will, just hurry up and tell me what you want me to do. I can’t wait to be with you.”

  “Meet me there in exactly one half hour, thirty minutes, no more, no less. Park your car in the mall parking lot, and then start walking out to the middle of the bridge. Bring your phone, and I’ll call and tell you what to do next once you get there. When we’re together and on our way, I’ll call Daddy Joe and tell him where his little princess is.”

  “Wait, Thomas, please, I need more time. I don’t think I can make it there that fast. That’s on the other side of the lake. I’m at Cedar Bend.”

  “Well, you better. If you want to see this little cutie pie again.”

  The line went dead.

  “I’m gonna call Charlie, get snipers in place,” Claire told them, but she could hear the waver of uncertainty in her own voice. That was so risky; so risky her heart stopped at the mere idea.

  “We don’t have time for that, and you know it.”

  “Then I’m going to do what he says. Both of you stay here and wait for me to call. I’ll make sure he leaves Lizzie behind.”

  Black did not budge. “No way in hell, goddamn it. Not even if I have to lock you up.”

  “You’re not going alone.” McKay frowned. “He’s got to show himself to take you. If I can get there first, I can kill him the first time he gets into my sights. I’ve got a sniper rifle with a high-power night scope.”

  Well, that shocked Claire. “You’ve got what?”

  Black turned to McKay. “Can you get to that bridge fast enough to find a high enough angle to take him out? Without being seen?”

  “Yeah, and I’ve got the rifle in my truck. Loaded and ready to go.”

  Shaking her head, Claire tried to keep up with them.

  Black said, “Then go get into position. I’ll get a rifle and do the same thing.”

  “You’ve got a sniper rifle, too?” Claire said to Black.

  “No, but you do.”

  “It’s in my Explorer. At my house.”

  “Then let’s get going. Your cove’s on the way to that bridge. We’ll take the boat. It’ll be faster and give us time to stop there. And you’ve got to wear your Kevlar vest, anyway, or I’m not letting you walk out on that bridge. C’mon, let’s go. Lizzie doesn’t have much time.”

  McKay was already at the elevator, jabbing the button over and over. Once they hit the ground floor, Joe raced to his truck. Black and Claire headed at a run toward the marina and Black’s Cobalt 360 cruiser.

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  High above them, the night sky was beautiful, black velvet deep, sparkling with millions of glittering stars. A full moon glowed among them, bright and white, as if watching over them. Claire wished it was. Black was at the controls, and the boat absolutely flew across the inky dark water, the Cobalt opened up to full throttle. The cool night wind whipped her hair, fluttered her T-shirt as she stood beside him, but her mind wasn’t on anything but Thomas Landers and what he was doing to Lizzie. They didn’t have proof of life, but Claire didn’t think Landers would kill the child, not yet.

  God, they had to get to Claire’s house and then make it the rest of the way across the water to the bridge by the time limit. If they didn’t, Thomas would drown Lizzie. Claire had absolutely no doubt about that. They made better time than she could ever have hoped for. In only minutes, it seemed, the dusk-to-dawn light on Harve’s old dock on the point came into view, blinking with the blue signal post that Harve put up to help navigate him home from night fishing.

  Her cove was quiet, the water smooth as ebony glass, but she could see the lighted windows of her house, the timer-driven lamps more evidence of Black’s pricey security gadgets at work. She couldn’t see Harve’s house from where they were, but she had called him earlier to make sure he was okay. Harve had been in Thomas Landers’s clutches once upon a time, and he took the current threat very seriously. Black maneuvered the boat into the dock, easily and expertly, and Claire jumped out and tied up. Black turned off the motor and scrambled out after her. They ran down the dock and up the incline to the house.

  At the front steps, they both skidded to a stop and pulled their weapons. Thomas had taught them some very good lessons in the past, and they took nothing for granted anymore. “Looks quiet enough,” she whispered.

  “Yeah. But we’re still checking it out before we go inside.” Black was holding his injured shoulder. It was way too soon; he shouldn’t be doing anything like this with the wound only just beginning to heal. But what choice did they have?

  “The alarm should be activated.”

  “Yeah, and it was activated the night he shot me, too. Stay here. I’m going to check out the back.”

  Claire watched him step stealthily around the side of the house. First, she found out he was capable of sniper shooting, and now he seemed to have his cat burglar skills down pat, too. Black was keeping secrets that he hadn’t bothered telling her. But anxious to get going, she stepped up on the porch and checked out the security system. The alarm light was on and blinking; nothing was disturbed on the front porch.

  “I told you to wait, dammit,” Black muttered, back to her almost at once and with so light a step she barely heard him. He had discarded the sling again. God, she hoped he didn’t break open the stitches.

  “No time. We gotta get to that bridge.”

  “Not until we clear this place.”

  “Okay, let’s just do it.”

  Claire disengaged the code on the alarm and pushed open the door, Glock out and held in front of her. She pointed it around the living room, both hands, finger alongside the trigger, very cautious now. After all, it was Thomas Landers they were dealing with. Black had his weapon out in front of him, holding it with both hands. Claire went to the right. Black went left. There was no one in the house. Nothing was disturbed.

  “I’ll take upstairs,” she told him. “You take the garage. My stuff’s in the back of the Explorer. You know where I keep the spare car keys. Go ahead and take the rifle and vest down to the boat. I’ll meet you there in a sec.”

  “Not until you clear the loft.”

  Claire ran upstairs. The bedside lamp was on. She cleared the bedroom in nothing flat, and then checked out the closet and the bathroom, aware of how fast the minutes were ticking away. “Nobody’s up here. I gotta grab a jacket to hide the Kevlar. He’ll suspect an ambush if he sees me wearing it.”

  “Hurry it up!” Black ran to the kitchen and snatched the keys out of the bowl on the granite counter.

  Claire jerked a black Windbreaker off a hanger inside the closet, and then turned quickly to hightail it downstairs, just in time to see Thomas Landers step out from behind the bedroom drapes. He was holding Lizzie tightly against him with his left arm. Her mouth was taped shut, her big blue eyes wide and terrified, the nose of his .45 pistol pressed hard into her cheek.

  His whisper was barely audible. “Hello, sweet Annie. I’ll kill her. I will. Toss your gun down on the bed.”

  Claire hesitated. Then she lowered her weapon, but kept it in her hand. Black was still in the garage; she could hear him. She waited for a second, not sure if she could call out to him without getting Lizzie killed.

  Thomas read her mind. That bizarre whisper came at her again. “Go ahead, yell for him. I’ll shoot her. Right here, right now. Blow her brains clean out. Ev
en if he kills me. I don’t wanna live without you.”

  Claire debated her chances, but then Lizzie made a little frightened moan from deep inside her throat. She waited, unmoving, until she heard the garage door open and go back down. Black was outside now. She raised her weapon again and pointed at Landers’s face, but he jammed his pistol deeper into the child’s cheek. Lizzie groaned with pain and began to tremble, and Claire knew then that he’d kill the child if she resisted. Even if he died, too, just like he’d said, he’d kill Lizzie first. Claire couldn’t do anything to stop him. He was smiling. He knew Claire wouldn’t risk it. She lowered the Glock.

  “Okay, Annie, take your left hand, forefinger and thumb, and throw the gun onto the bed like I told you.”

  She obeyed, eyes locked on his.

  “Now the one strapped to your ankle.”

  Unsnapping the holster, she removed the .38 snub nose. He would kill Lizzie, right there, she knew that from experience. But Black was out there; he was armed.

  She spoke, striving to buy time, trying to think. If she lingered, Black would come back to get her. But she couldn’t let him barge in blindly, or Thomas would kill him. She had to find a way to disarm Thomas. “How’d you know we were coming here? You said to meet you at the bridge.”

  “I didn’t know. Can you believe my luck? I’ve been hiding out here with the kid to give you time to get to the bridge. I figured nobody would look for me again out here at your house, once the cops got done with the crime scene and locked up the place. But here you are. See, darlin’, our love is meant to be. God is blessing us. He brought you straight to me.” He kept his tight grip on Lizzie.

  To Claire’s horror, and while his eyes were focused intently on Claire, he put his tongue on Lizzie’s cheek and licked a long wet swath up into her hairline. The child squirmed hysterically against his hold. At that point, Claire wanted to kill him. Not wound, not imprison, but kill him—shoot, stab, bludgeon him—anything that sent him straight to hell.

  “Okay, let’s go, Annie, my love, and don’t even think about yelling for Black. She’ll be dead before you get out his name.”