When she answered, he said, “Is Grady with you?”
“Yes, he’s right here,” she told him. “Did you want-”
“Tell him to stand at the door and watch for me. I’ll be there in a minute.”
“Is something wrong?”
“Just tell him…” Hal hadn’t realized just how out of shape he was until he started to run up the hill to the main street. He had a mental picture of himself passing out in the middle of the street, but he made it to the shop without collapsing and was happy to see Grady in the doorway.
“Lock the door,” Hal panted. “We have a problem.”
“What? What’s wrong?” Vanessa cried. “Dear God, Hal, did you run all the way from the police station?”
He nodded, and she went into the back room and grabbed a bottle of water from the refrigerator.
“What the hell is going on?” Grady was asking when she came back to the front of the shop. She twisted the cap off the bottle and handed it to Hal.
“The woman-Jackie-just came into the station. Told me that something very bad was going to happen, like now. To Ness.” Hal paused to take a drink. “That Dent is planning on ‘taking care of her’ and then he and the woman were going to leave town.”
“She told you this?” Vanessa felt the blood drain from her face.
“Yeah.” Hal fought to get his breathing under control. “She doesn’t know what he has in mind, only that it’s going to be soon. As in now. This morning.”
“Well, he isn’t likely to be able to get past the two of you,” she noted warily.
“Is the back door locked?” Hal asked.
“It was earlier,” she replied.
“I’ll check it.” Grady walked to the back of the shop and tried the door. “It’s locked and dead-bolted,” he told them when he returned.
“So what do we do now?” Vanessa tried to keep the rising panic under control.
Hal rested his upper body on the counter. “I guess now we just have to wait to see what his next move is going to be.”
“Swell,” Vanessa muttered.
Maggie couldn’t remember the last time she felt this good. It seemed that ever since Carl had passed away, things had just gotten better and better for her. Oh, not that she was happy that he died. Far from it. His death had saddened her greatly. Carl had been a really good man and he’d adored Maggie. While he was lacking in certain of his husbandly duties, he’d made up for it in other ways. He’d been her friend, and he’d provided very well for her. It was the first relationship Maggie had ever had with a man who’d demanded nothing more of her than her companionship. So she’d kept him company every day, and when his eyesight began to fail, she’d read the newspapers to him as well as the crime novels he loved so much. In return, Carl had given Maggie a lovely if somewhat isolated home and the first financial security she’d ever had. But lately, she was beginning to secretly think of Carl as her geriatric guardian angel.
She smiled to herself as she walked up Vanessa’s driveway with the bag from the plant nursery in her arms. Hal had said that Vanessa wanted water lilies and koi-well, then, water lilies and koi she would have. Maggie could hardly wait to see Vanessa’s face when she realized that her mother had single-handedly cleaned out the old pond and brought it back to life again. There’d been so few times in Vanessa’s life that Maggie had done something unexpected and just for fun. Well, this was the new Maggie. She was aware that her daughter was annoyed that she’d come to Beck’s wedding uninvited and that Vanessa had, well, issues with her. But she was going to do everything she could think of to win her daughter’s affection. She’d move heaven and earth, she told herself, why, she’d even-Maggie rounded the corner of the house and went into the yard, and walked smack into a man who stood near the door leading down into the basement. He was dark-haired, short and stocky, and had long sideburns, an unkempt mustache, and eyes like a ferret.
“Oh my God!” Maggie gasped when she recognized his face. The realization took her breath away. “You. It’s been you…”
She started to turn back to the driveway, her only thought being to run like hell, but he moved more quickly. In one stride, he had one arm around her waist and the other hand over her mouth. The bag slipped from her grasp and fell to the ground.
“Don’t make a sound,” he hissed in her ear. “Not one little peep. And stop struggling, damn it, or I will put a hole the size of Ohio through the back of your head right now.”
She froze.
“That’s better.” He began to move backward, dragging her along with him. “I’m going to turn you around, and you’re going to go down the steps ahead of me.”
He pointed to the basement, which loomed dark and deep before her eyes.
“No, no, please…” The thought of what might lie below in the dark terrified her, and the old movie mantra-don’t go down into the basement-rang in her ears. She pushed against him, and he laughed.
“You have a short memory, Mrs… I can’t remember what your last name is, but it doesn’t much matter. I know who you are. I know that you helped that bitch after she put my man Eugene in that damned prison so he could die there. I know you took her out of town before any of us knew she was gone. So it’s going to give me a real thrill to do you, lady. An unexpected pleasure, but it’s going to be a pleasure all the same. Now, walk down those steps, or I do it right here.” He pulled the gun from his waistband and held it to her forehead.
Maggie descended the steps, Edmund Dent at her back, his gun pressed hard between her shoulder blades. The air below was close and redolent of dried herbs. It was dark and twice she fell slightly forward, and twice more she tripped over something before the toe of her shoe struck the bottom step.
“Lift your foot and find the stair,” he told her.
She counted as she climbed, thirteen steps to the top. He reached around her and pushed open the door. Maggie blinked several times at the bright sunlight that flooded the kitchen. He led her across the room to the table and pushed her into the nearest chair. A length of rope lay coiled on the countertop, and she guessed that it had not been placed there by Vanessa. That, and the fact that the basement door was already open, told her that he’d been in the house earlier today. What else had he brought with him? she wondered. What did he have planned for her daughter?
“What’s her cellphone number?” Dent demanded.
“What?” Maggie frowned.
He leaned forward, so close to her that she could smell his breath. She had to force herself not to gag.
“I want her cellphone number.”
“I don’t know it.”
“You’re her mother.” He remained literally in her face. “How could you not know her number?”
Maggie shrugged and tried to move back away from him. “We’re not particularly close.”
“You were close enough a couple of years ago when Eugene’s trial was going on that you were in the courtroom every damned day. You were close enough when he was sentenced that you drove her straight out of town.”
“Yeah, well, that was then.” Maggie looked him in the eye. “This is now.”
The slap across her face was totally unexpected.
“I’m going to ask you again. What’s her cellphone number?”
“I can’t give you what I don’t have. She never gave it to me. Up until Saturday, I hadn’t seen her in three years.”
She braced herself for another slap, but instead he put his hand in his back pocket and took out his wallet. He opened it and searched through some bills-bills most likely stolen from Vanessa’s cash register, Maggie thought. He removed a card and reached for the house phone on the wall.
“Got something just as good.” He smirked. He began to dial, turning the card around to show Maggie. It was one of Vanessa’s business cards, taken, she suspected, from the shop when he robbed it. “I know she went to that shop of hers today. I watched her from the coffee shop across the street. When she answers, I’m putting you on the phone, and you�
��re going to tell her to meet you here, you understand?”
“I won’t do that,” Maggie told him.
“Oh, I think you will.” He pointed the gun directly between her eyes. “As a matter of fact, I’m sure of it…”
Chapter 18
SO what do we do, just stand around here staring at each other until Edmund shows up?” Vanessa asked.
“That’s about it,” Hal replied.
“Well, I’m just going to keep on doing what I was doing before…” She returned to the pile of sweaters she’d earlier started to fold, anything to keep her mind occupied. Knowing that someone was planning on killing you that day was terrifying. If she gave in to the panic, she’d be useless. She envisioned herself as a weeping heap in the corner of the room. Terrified and cowed wasn’t a good look for her.
The phone on the counter began to ring. Vanessa reached for it and Hal stopped her.
“Check the caller ID first.”
She leaned forward and read the number.
“It’s my house.” She frowned and looked up at Grady. “Who’d be in my… oh.”
“Well, I guess we know where,” Grady said to Hal, then nodded to her. “Pick it up, Ness. If it’s Dent, sound surprised that it’s him. Don’t let him know we’re onto him.”
“Hello?”
“Vanessa. It’s Maggie.”
Maggie’s voice vibrated with fear.
“Maggie, what are you doing at my house?” She shot a confused glance at Hal.
“I’m supposed to be luring you here, because-”
Vanessa heard the sound of a struggle, then a slap before Maggie cried out.
“Maggie? Maggie? What’s happening?” Vanessa cried into the phone.
“Maggie isn’t playing by the rules, so she took a penalty,” a mocking male voice told her.
“Who is this?” Don’t let him know we’re onto him…
“This is your worst nightmare, baby,” Edmund crooned, and Vanessa grimaced at Grady. She pointed to the phone and nodded. It’s him.
“I’ve had a lot of nightmares lately,” she said. “Who is this?”
“You’re going to have to come on over here and find out for yourself. But you come by yourself, you hear? Do not call the old man or the guy who’s been banging you.” He snickered. “I saw his clothes in the closet upstairs. It must be nice and cozy around here at night.”
“What do you want?” she asked curtly.
“I want you, here, in this house, in nine minutes. I know it takes eleven minutes to walk from your shop to this house because I timed it. I’m giving you nine. For every minute you’re late, your mother will have another hole in one of her body parts. A foot, a hand, maybe shoot off a couple of fingers. If you don’t come at all, I aim for the heart. I see anyone but you coming this way or anywhere near this house, I kill her. Come now. I’ll be watching for you.”
“Listen-”
“You’re down to eight minutes, Vanessa, and so is your mother.” He hung up.
“I have to go,” she said. “He’s going to kill Maggie if I’m not there in eight minutes.”
She ran for the door.
“Hold up there.” Grady grabbed her arm as she ran past. “I can’t let you just walk in there.”
“I have to. He’s going to shoot my mother.”
“If you go into that house, Ness, he’s going to shoot you, too,” Hal told her.
“You’re the survival expert, right?” She turned to Grady. “You figure out how to save us both.” She shook herself free. “I have to go. He said he’d be watching for me.”
“Ness, where’s your cell?” Grady asked.
“It’s in my bag.” She pointed to the counter.
He grabbed her bag and dumped the contents onto the floor. He picked up her phone and dialed a number. His cell rang inside his pants pocket. He answered his phone as he handed Vanessa’s phone to her.
“Leave the call open in your pocket so we can hear what’s going on. He’s going to have to be in the front of the house, so try to keep him there to give us time to get in through the back.”
“How do you know he’ll be in the front of the house?” she asked.
“You just said he told you he’d be watching for you. He’ll only be able to see the street from the front door or from the living room.” Grady turned to Hal. “There’s a stretch of woods that runs behind her house. You know where we can cut through to get to her yard?”
Hal nodded.
“All right, let’s go.” Before Grady opened the door, he kissed Vanessa soundly on the mouth. “Keep the phone open, and keep him talking for as long as you can. He’s got to be feeling pretty clever right about now, so let him brag. Keep him talking, Ness. Act like you’re impressed that he found you, whatever strokes you think his ego needs. Keep him focused on you. Keep your interactions with Maggie to a minimum.”
Vanessa nodded and started out the door. “What if he’s already shot Maggie? What if he just shoots me when I walk through the door?”
Before he or Hal could answer, she shuddered and said, “I have to go.” She fled out the door, with both men at her heels.
“We can cut through the Eakinses’ backyard,” Hal said.
Hal and Grady were right behind her, but when she took off to the left toward Cherry Street, they turned right for the street that ran behind it.
Vanessa ran. She was scared to death and her heart was racing so fast she thought she was going to have a heart attack before she ever made it home.
Then he’ll think I’m not coming and he’ll shoot Maggie, she told herself.
She talked to herself the entire time.
Why am I doing this? I can’t not. I can’t let him kill her because he can’t get to me.
What if he kills me? Grady won’t let him kill me.
Grady and Hal. They’ll save us.
How? How are they going to save us?
By the time she reached her house, she was scared out of her wits.
Don’t let him know I’m afraid. Let him brag, Grady said. Keep him talking. Let him brag. Act impressed. Keep him talking…
Unless, of course, he shoots me the minute I walk through the door, she thought as she walked up her front steps on wobbly legs. Maybe I should have waited until we came up with a Plan B…
She pushed open the front door and stepped into her foyer. Edmund Dent stood at the bottom of the stairwell, Maggie in front of him, a gun to her head.
“Edmund?” Vanessa asked as if she hadn’t known who had summoned her. “Edmund Dent?”
“Yup.” He pushed Maggie away from him, into the living room and onto the sofa.
Vanessa kept her focus on Edmund.
“Bet you never expected to see me again,” he taunted.
She shook her head. “How did you find me?”
He smirked. “It was easy. Your old lady left behind some very talkative neighbors everyplace she went. And she’s pretty talkative herself. ‘Hello, I’m looking for Vanessa Keaton… we’re having a high school reunion and it wouldn’t be the same without her.’ “He mimicked a woman’s voice.
“You… you made that call?” Vanessa asked, then turned to Maggie. “Maggie, couldn’t you tell that that ‘Shannon’ person was really a man?” Before Maggie could answer, Vanessa had turned back to Edmund. “You had her fooled. She really thought you were a girl named Shannon, even though I told her I didn’t know anyone named Shannon.”
“Yeah, pretty clever, I thought.”
Vanessa nodded. “I have to give you that one.”
“Thanks.” He sat on the bottom step and waved the gun. “I want you to sit over there with your mother. I want to tell you a story.”
Vanessa moved slowly and backed onto the sofa. She made no move toward Maggie, nor did she make eye contact with her.
“So tell me a story,” Vanessa said.
“When I was a kid, I was very small. And I stuttered. Everyone made fun of me, knocked me around. Nobody ever stuck up for me, excep
t for one person. Know who that person was?”
Oh, shit, she thought. I think I can see where this is going…
Aloud she said, “Who, Edmund?”
“The man you sent to prison. The man who died there, beaten to death like a dog. My cousin Eugene.” He stared at her through flat black eyes. “You should have taken it, Vanessa. Whatever you did to make him put you in your place, you should have taken it. You had no right to call the cops on a family matter. You should have taken it, then worked it out with him later. It’s your fault he’s dead, Vanessa. The Bible says an eye for an eye, right?”
He got off the step and started toward her, the hand that held the gun swaying, his free hand clenching and unclenching. She was pretty sure the first blow would be with a fist. He wasn’t going to shoot her before he hurt her. Grady had been right about that. She braced herself for the punch that was coming.
“No! Don’t touch her!” Maggie jumped from the sofa and lunged toward him. Just as he raised the gun there was the sound of something hitting the floor in the dining room.
Edmund smacked Maggie with his free hand and swung toward the sound just as a black plastic flower pot rolled across the floor.
“What the f…” he muttered.
From the kitchen doorway, Grady leaped forward and landed on Edmund’s back and slammed him, face-first, onto the floor. The gun Edmund had been holding slid on the hardwood almost to the front door.
“What the hell took you so long? And where’s Hal?” Vanessa rushed to help Maggie up.
“I’m all right, honey.” Maggie stood shakily. “I’m all right.”
“Pick up that gun, Ness,” Grady told her. “Put it on the table near the window.”
She picked it up between her thumb and forefinger, as if it had a life of its own, and placed it on the table.
“Grab the cuffs from my back pocket, would you?” Grady asked as he twisted Edmund’s hands behind his back.
She assisted Maggie onto the sofa, then pulled the cuffs from his pocket and handed them to Grady.
“Hal’s out back, probably still trying to catch his breath,” Grady told her as he cuffed her would-be assassin. “He ran the entire way, but he’s just not in shape. He was breathing so hard I was afraid you’d hear him before I could create a distraction, so I told him to wait outside. He’s called for backup but told them to hang back.”
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