“I made the best decision I could,” she insisted, her voice strong. She’d had a lot of years to weigh her choice, a lot of years to examine all that had happened. “We all did.”
“So that’s how Peter’s organization was born,” I stated.
“Yes. I was the first. A short while later, Peter was interning in the D.A.’s office. A rapist was acquitted and began stalking the woman he’d raped. She was his third victim, but the jury wasn’t allowed to hear that he’d been charged before. Peter offered her their help. They hid her and Peter put a tail on the man. They anonymously called the police as he broke into another woman’s apartment. He was caught before he harmed the fourth woman. Once he was convicted, she went back to her family.
“Another case followed, this one with an informer whose testimony was ultimately blocked from trial. He wasn’t eligible for witness protection. They hid him, and, as far as I know, he’s never come back. Word got around on the underground, and people sought Peter out.”
“How do you know all this?”
“I helped them for a while, with the ones they brought into Canada. They sometimes came through here before going on to their permanent destinations.”
“You actually became part of the network?”
“Only for a short time.”
“So you stayed in touch with Stephen all these years.”
“He would come visit me to bring me news about you and Cara, and to give me photos. I watched my niece grow into a lovely young woman. About a year ago he bought a place in Cowichan Bay.
“I’d never intended to stay away forever,” Josie added. “I thought it would only be for a few months, maybe a year or two at the most, but then the boys were born. Nick moved back to Denver. He was already rich but everything he touched turned to gold. He became more and more powerful. I followed the growth of his political influence. I knew him, Elizabeth. If he’d ever gotten the chance after what I’d done to him, he would have killed me.”
“It wasn’t what you’d done to him, it was what he’d done to you,” I reminded her. “And then there was Nathan.”
“Yes.” She smiled.
“You gave up your education, your career goals.”
“No. I did my graduate work at the university here. Peter provided a transcript of my undergraduate work in my new name.”
“Forged?”
“It was my work. I’d attended every one of those courses, earned those grades. I teach as an adjunct professor. There was a time when I considered moving back, under my new name, but—”
“There’s no way you could have risked anything happening to your children.”
“If Nick had tried to take them from me, if he had touched one hair on either of my babies’ heads…”
But her babies weren’t babies anymore. A lifetime had passed between us. It was almost too much to bear. I felt tears spilling from my eyes. She put an arm around me.
“Elizabeth, it’s all right. You’re safe now. We’re all safe.”
“No, we’re not,” I managed. “Ackerman is still after Will, and when his men don’t come back, he’ll know you’re still alive.”
Chapter 34
“You can’t go back to Cowichan Bay tonight,” Josie insisted.
She drew a long wooden spoon from an empty coffee can on the counter and stirred what she called her can-can stew, which was made entirely from shelf-stable meats and vegetables. She scooped up a taste and offered it to me. It was amazingly good, thanks to the dried herbs and garlic she’d added.
“See? Not so bad after all.”
“I remember you vowing never to learn to cook,” I said.
“I also vowed never to do dishes, mop floors or make my bed, once I was able to escape Mom’s tyranny.”
“Right. You couldn’t waste your valuable time on trivial tasks.”
“What was I? Twelve?”
“Closer to eleven.”
“Yes, well, reality set in. I discovered that once I dropped something or failed to put it away in my own apartment, it stayed right there, waiting for me to pick it up. Whatever the item, it would outwait me.
“And as far as cooking was concerned, I soon found that Lean Cuisine offered only so many options. It got worse when the boys were born. They came out of the womb hungry. Once they started playing hockey, I couldn’t make enough food to keep them full.”
“You miss them,” I said.
“With every breath I take.” She turned the burner down and flipped on the stove, but I saw her smile slip from her face before she put it back on and turned to me. “They’re all grown-up now. I’ll see them soon, and lucky you will get to meet them. Now that Ian’s dead—”
“Nick will send someone else.”
“So you keep reminding me. James will help.”
“Yes,” I agreed. “There’s James.”
“But first you’ve got to get some rest. None of you got any sleep last night. Look at Cara. The girl still hasn’t gotten her color back.”
I stopped beating my muffin batter and took an appraising look at Cara. Her color wasn’t great, but it was a heck of a lot better than it’d been a few hours ago.
“I’m fine,” Cara insisted, sitting next to Will on the little couch. “I’m also over twenty-one and legally responsible for making my own decisions concerning my health. I’m not sick unless I say I’m sick.”
“And saying makes it so, I suppose,” I said.
“Just feed her,” Will said. “Her stomach is growling so loud I can barely hear you over it.”
Cara threw him a dirty look. “He’s lobbying on his own behalf. I’m not even hungry.”
I filled the muffin tin. “You’re right. She needs rest. We all do. I’d like us in decent shape before we meet back up with James tomorrow.”
“What’s worrying you?” Josie asked.
“What do you mean?”
“You’re frowning. Is there something about James—”
“No,” I cut her off. “We’ve got planning to do, and you’ve only got two beds. You can’t put all of us up without some of us sleeping on the floor.”
“Not to worry.” Nathan came up behind Josie and put his arms around her waist. “There’s a bed-and-breakfast about ten miles up the road. I can drop you and the kids off there.”
“No,” I said louder than I had intended. “Not me. I know the two of you could use some time alone together, but Josie and I have a lot of years to make up for. I want to stay here tonight. You take Cara and Will. They’ll rest more comfortably there.”
And I’d rest more comfortably knowing they were there.
Josie rinsed the Dutch oven and handed it to me to dry. The sun had gone down and darkness was settling around the outside of the cabin. Nathan, Cara and Will had been gone almost an hour. As I listened to Josie chatter, I kept one ear on the road outside. Nathan should have already been back.
Tinny music played “Clair de Lune,” startling us both.
“My cell,” Josie said, quickly grabbing my dish towel and wiping her hands. “It hasn’t rung since I got here. Nathan insisted we only use it for emergencies.”
She lifted the phone from an end table. “Hello?” She smiled at me and covered the mouthpiece with her hand. “It’s all right. It’s Nathan. When he got in the Hummer to come home, he discovered he’d picked up a nail in his back tire. It’s flat and so is the spare. He’s trying to find someone to fix it, but the B and B is pretty much out in the middle of nowhere.”
Josie seemed relieved. I was anything but.
“How long’s it been since he found it?” I asked.
She said something to Nathan and then reported, “Fifteen minutes.”
“Get off the phone. Now,” I said.
“Later, baby,” she said and hung up.
I should never have left that island without seeing Ian’s dead body for myself.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“You know what’s wrong. The flat tire is no accident. It’s Ian
. He’s found us.”
“Oh, God, no.” Josie hit the lights, and the cabin swam in darkness. I pulled James’s gun from my waistband. Moonlight through the window glinted off metal in Josie’s hand. It looked small enough to be a derringer. I hadn’t known she had it on her.
“Do you think he’s already here?” she asked.
“Yeah. He’s had plenty of time to get back from the B and B. I think he’s been watching us through the window.”
The phone rang again.
“Turn it off,” I commanded. She hit a button and slipped it into her pocket.
“Both doors are locked and bolted. All the windows have alarms.”
“You had everything open this morning when we came in.”
“When you came in, only one person knew I was here. Nathan. That’s not true anymore.”
Seemed paranoia ran in the family.
“What’s your guess as to how many are out there?” she asked.
“Only one person was unaccounted for.”
“Good. That means we outnumber him.”
“Have you got anything bigger than that pop gun?” I asked.
“Yeah. In here.”
She led me into the bedroom and drew something about eighteen inches long from under the bed. I couldn’t see it well in the dark, but I was betting it was a sawed-off shotgun.
“We might do better if we separated,” I suggested.
“Not a good idea.”
I didn’t argue. She knew the lay of the land a whole better than I did.
Josie threw back the rug next to the bed, fumbling over the hardwood. In seconds she raised a trap door.
“Go, go,” she insisted.
I heard the back door burst open as I ducked through. I landed roughly on my rump in the soft, moist earth of the cabin’s crawl space, the stagnant odor of dirt that had lain there undisturbed for years filling my head.
Josie scrambled after me. She pulled the lid down and I heard it click into place.
“As soon as he gets the lights on, he’ll know where we went,” I whispered.
“He won’t get the lights on,” she promised. I heard a snip and saw a spark. Josie was prepared right down to the electrical shears waiting on the other side of the trap door.
“Go forward,” she urged, “toward the lattice. He’s sure to have a flashlight.”
I wished we had one, too, but we didn’t. Or Josie couldn’t find it in the dark. Either way, we couldn’t risk light escaping up through the boards in the floor.
My shoulder hit a cinder block support as I crawled toward specks of light. I bit my tongue to keep from cursing. I would gladly have rolled on my back and shot straight up through the floor, but if I’d missed, our pursuer would know exactly where we were. We had less freedom of movement than he did and no idea what weapons he might have.
At the lattice, I swung my legs in front of me and kicked hard, splintering it outward. Josie crawled through after me, and we struggled to our feet.
The grass was silvery in the moonlight, but most everything else was coated in amorphous darkness.
“Where to now?” I asked.
She pointed toward the woods, and we both took off running. I looked over my shoulder and realized why Josie had taken us out that way. No windows on that side of the house. Whoever was inside would have to come outside to see which way we’d gone. And if we made it to the trees before he cleared the porch, he wouldn’t know.
Hidden by the night, we paused at the edge of the woods, holding our breaths. A figure emerged from the back of the house. Tall, shrouded in black, all I knew was that he was armed and he was surveying the yard with a spotlight, his gun following his every turn. The light went out and he stepped back, enveloping himself in the house’s shadow. I couldn’t imagine what he was doing, but then I saw it, a tiny, blinking red light, the only bit of color amid all that darkness.
“C’mon. If we can make it half a mile through these woods, there’s a cabin where we can borrow a car,” Josie whispered.
“No, wait,” I insisted. “What’s he holding?”
Her breathing steadied as she grew still and watched.
“I don’t know, but the hell if he isn’t coming our way.”
She was right. The man had stepped out of the shadow and was rapidly heading straight for us, his flashlight once again on, and this time, aimed in our direction.
“He’s got some kind of homing device.” Frantically, I went over in my head what we were wearing. How could he possibly…
“Move it, Liz, we don’t have time.”
She grabbed my arm and I spun to follow after her. She knew these woods, which was fortunate because a flashlight would have given away our position.
He was gaining on us at an unnatural rate. I could hear him tearing through the brush behind us. We’d never make it. I spun and shot, ducked down and shot again. Still he came, and now his flashlight was trained on me. I froze and aimed once more directly at that yellow target. The gun fired and snapped backward, but instead of the light going out, a bullet flew past my head. I ducked and flung the gun at him. I’d wasted seconds that I didn’t have to waste, exactly as he’d planned. I’d lost Josie in the confusion. I hoped she had enough sense to go on without me. The flashlight had me pegged like a bug wriggling on a straight pin.
“If you want your sister alive, don’t give me any trouble.”
“What’d you do? Put a tracking device under the pistol grip?” I asked James as he lowered the light and roughly pulled me to my feet.
“Right on the first try, Elizabeth. After we got back to your brother-in-law’s, I loaded blanks in the chamber. But I guess you figured that out, too.”
His grip was so strong, his arm circling me in front of him, that I could barely breathe. “You make even one unexpected move in the direction of that pepper spray in your pocket and I’ll blow your head off,” he whispered in my ear, snuggling the gun barrel under my chin.
“Let her go.” It was Josie. Damn. Why hadn’t she gotten out of there? Her shotgun offered her only two options: kill us both or kill no one.
“Gutsy, but not so bright as you,” James whispered, and swung his gun in the direction of her voice. The hammer drew back and a male voice called out, “Relax.”
I didn’t think. I simply let out all my breath and went slack, slipping just enough in James’s grip that when the bullet tore through his shoulder and snapped back his torso, I was already in a controlled fall to the ground. James crumpled behind me, as I dove for the gun that slipped from his hand.
Josie screamed, “Elizabeth!” and ran toward me. In the dark she couldn’t tell which one of us had been hit.
“I’m all right.” I grabbed for her, but she’d already swung the shotgun toward the shooter and stood in front of me, protecting me from the faceless intruder.
He stepped forward and I spun James’s flashlight in his direction.
“Jesus,” he swore, ripping the night vision goggles off his head. “You’re the most damnably aggravating woman I’ve ever known. I endure being bitten by a dog and run down by a van, I engineer Patrice and Cara’s rescue and you leave me to be killed at the airport, I cover your back on that godforsaken island that has more dynamite than mosquitoes, you blind me with that accursed flashlight, and now your sister is prepared to blast me to kingdom come after I’ve saved both your lives.”
“You know this man?” Josie asked.
I pushed the nose of her shotgun toward the ground. “Meet Ian Payne. He was Stephen’s friend.”
“Your friend,” Ian corrected. “I’m Elizabeth’s friend.”
Chapter 35
“Rule one—never assume. No body, no definitive proof of death. Remember that,” Ian lectured.
“Consider it filed for future reference.” I took the steaming mug of Constant Comment that Josie handed me and passed it over to Ian. “How’d you get off the island?”
“My boat was in the bushes on the other side of the island where I’d l
eft it when I came in.”
“When the cafeteria exploded, I thought you’d been killed,” I confessed. I felt a twinge in my chest, an echo of the pain I’d felt at the time. My original instincts had been right. If only I’d trusted them.
“Hardly. The blast knocked me out of the main room and into the pantry. There was no way I could get out through the fire to where you were, so I made my way through the side of the building and onto the loading dock. A bit overenthusiastic, that husband of yours. Likes his dynamite,” he called to Josie at the sink and then turned back to me. “By then Nathan had joined you out front.”
“Why didn’t you show yourself?” Josie asked, bringing another cup for me and one for herself as she joined us at the table.
“Elizabeth had obviously embraced James as the one who was there to help her, thus labeling me Stephen’s killer. If I’d made my presence known, I would have gotten my bloody head shot off.”
I heard James stir in the bedroom. Ian had done some pretty inventive things with duct tape after Josie had dressed his wound. It wouldn’t do for James to die on us. We needed him alive.
“James saved Cara,” I said. Ian had told me James was clever. He knew exactly where my weakness lay.
“He still needed you to lead him to Josie. He knew you’d trust him if he pulled her out of that pool. He had access to Will and would soon have Josie, as well.”
“He gave me his gun to cinch the deal,” I said.
“The one with the homing device in it,” Josie added. “But I don’t think you ever completely trusted him.”
“Half trusted. My instincts always leaned toward you,” I told Ian.
“Hah!” Ian retorted. “That wasn’t instinct. That was your pride. If James had been Stephen’s ally, you’d have to rationalize running from him in the first place and causing all sorts of grief to Cara and Patrice as well as yourself, not to mention our little…” He cocked his head. “You know, in the motel.”
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