The Winner

by David Baldacci

  to do, LuAnn quickly made her way to the front porch and her hand closed around the doorknob. It didn’t budge despite the immense pressure she was exerting. She had no special tools to jimmy it as Charlie had; thus she moved on, looking for another way in and finding it at the rear of the cottage. The window finally opened under her persistent tuggings and she quickly climbed inside.

  She silently descended from the windowsill to the floor and immediately crouched down. From her line of sight she could make out the kitchen. She had very acute hearing, and if someone had been in the small house she was certain she would have heard his breathing no matter how shallow. She edged forward until she reached what should have been the dining room but had been set up as an office. LuAnn’s eyes widened as she saw the news clippings on the bulletin board. As LuAnn’s gaze swept around the room, she sensed there was something more at work here than a blackmail scheme.

  “Oh, hell.” Riggs ducked down after saying the words and watched in dismay as the Chrysler passed by him on the way to the cottage. The man was hunched over the steering wheel, but Rigs had no trouble recognizing him despite the beard’s having been shaved off. Thinking quickly, Riggs gripped his shotgun and hurried to his Cherokee.

  LuAnn flew to the back of the cottage as soon as she heard the car drive up. She raised her head a few inches above the windowsill; her heart sank. “Dammit!” She watched Donovan pull around to the rear of the cottage and climb out of the Chrysler. Her eyes were riveted on the pistol he held in his right hand. He headed straight for the rear door. LuAnn backed away, her eyes darting every which way, looking desperately for an exit. The problem was there wasn’t any, at least none that would be unobserved. The front door was locked and if she attempted to open it, he would hear her. There was no time to wriggle through a window. The cottage was so small that he couldn’t possibly fail to see her if she remained on the first floor.

  Donovan inserted the key in the door lock. If he had glanced through the paned door window, he would have spotted LuAnn immediately. The door began to open.

  LuAnn edged back into the dining room and was about to head upstairs and try for an escape from the second floor when she heard it.

  The car horn was loud and shrill and the sound pattern kept repeating itself, like a car alarm that had been activated. She crept back to the window and watched as Donovan jerked to a halt, slammed the door closed, and then ran around to the front of the cottage.

  LuAnn lost no time. She launched herself through the same window she had used to enter, did a roll, and came up running. She made it to the shed and crouched down. The horn was still beeping. She ran to the far side of the shed, peered around the edge, and watched as Donovan advanced down the road, away from her, toward the sound, his pistol making wide sweeps as he did so.

  The hand that suddenly gripped LuAnn’s shoulder almost made her scream.

  “Where’s your horse?” Riggs’s voice was even and calm.

  She looked at him, the whiplash of fear receding as quickly as it had appeared. “About a hundred yards that way.” She jerked her head in the direction of the thick woods. “Is that your car alarm?”

  Riggs nodded and gripped his car keys tightly. One eye on Donovan and the other on their avenue of escape, Riggs rose to his feet and pulled LuAnn up with him. “Ready, go.” Bursting out from their cover they raced across the open ground. Keeping his eyes on Donovan’s back, Riggs unfortunately caught his foot on a root and he went down, his finger gripping the key ring, accidentally pressing the alarm’s shut-off button. Donovan whipped around and stared at them. LuAnn had Riggs up again in a moment and they raced off into the woods. Donovan lurched toward them, his pistol making broad sweeps. “Hey,” he screamed. “Dammit, hold it right there.” Donovan waved the gun around, but he wasn’t going to shoot; he wasn’t a killer.

  LuAnn ran like the wind and Riggs found it impossible to keep up with her. He had slightly twisted his ankle, he told himself, but truth be known, even at full speed he probably could not have caught her. They reached Joy, who stood patiently awaiting her owner’s arrival. LuAnn quickly released the tether and jumped into the saddle without even bothering to use the stirrup. She flicked out a hand and hauled Riggs up behind her. The next moment they were racing up the trail astride the fleet mare. Riggs looked back for an instant, but Donovan was nowhere in sight. They had moved so fast he wasn’t surprised. Riggs gripped LuAnn’s waist with both hands and hung on for dear life as she whipped Joy at a breakneck pace through the swerving trails.

  They had returned Joy to the horse barn and were walking back to the main house before Riggs broke the silence. “I take it that’s how you handle those kind of situations. Break into the place. See what you can find. I don’t know why I should be surprised. That’s what you did with me.” He looked at LuAnn with angry eyes.

  She matched the look. “I didn’t break into your place. And I don’t remember asking you to follow me.”

  “I followed Charlie, not you,” he corrected her. “But it’s a damn good thing I was there, wasn’t it? Two times in two days. At this rate you’ll wear out your nine lives in a week.” She kept walking, her arms crossed in front of her, her eyes staring resolutely ahead. Riggs stopped.

  She stopped too and looked down for an instant. When she looked up there was a far softer countenance confronting him. “Thank you. Again. But the more distance you put between the three of us and yourself, the better off you’ll be, I guarantee it. Forget the fence. I don’t think we’ll be staying on here. Don’t worry, I’ll pay you for it anyway.” She stared at him for a moment longer, trying to push away feelings that had been strangers to her for so long that they now simply frightened her. “Have a good life, Matthew.” She turned and headed for the house.

  “Catherine?” She kept walking. “Catherine,” he said again.

  She finally stopped.

  “Would you please tell me what’s going on? I might be able to help you.”

  “I don’t think so.”

  “You never know.”

  “Believe me, I know.”

  She started toward the house again.

  Riggs stood there staring after her. “Hey, in case you forgot, I don’t have a car to get home in.”

  When she turned around, the key ring was already sailing through the air. Riggs caught it in the palm of his hand.

  “Take my car. It’s parked out front. Keep it as long as you like. I’ve got another one.”

  On that she spun back around and disappeared into the house.

  Riggs slowly pocketed the keys, shaking his head in absolute frustration.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  “Where the hell have you been?” Charlie came out of his study and leaned up against the doorjamb. His face was still pale, a detail LuAnn picked up on immediately.

  “Same place you were,” she said.

  “What? LuAnn, I told you—”

  “You weren’t alone. Riggs followed you. In fact he managed to save me again. If he happens to do it once more, I might have to consider marrying the man.”

  Charlie went a shade paler. “Did he go inside the house?”

  “No, but I did.”

  “How much did you see?” Charlie asked nervously.

  LuAnn swept past him and into the office. “I don’t want Lisa to hear.”

  Charlie closed the door behind them. He went straight over to the liquor stand and poured himself a drink. LuAnn watched his movements in silence for a moment before speaking.

  “Apparently, you saw more than I did.”

  He turned to her and downed the drink in one motion. “The news clippings on the lottery? The murders?”

  LuAnn nodded. “I saw them. After my first encounter with the man, I wasn’t very surprised to see that.”

  “I wasn’t either.”

  “Apparently there was more, though.” She looked at him pointedly at the same time she sat down on the sofa, folding her hands in her lap and collecting her nerves as best she co
uld.

  There was a haunted look in Charlie’s features, as though he had awoken from a nightmare and attempted to laugh it off, only to find out he wasn’t dreaming. “I saw some names. A list of them in fact. Yours was on there.” He paused and put the glass down. His hands were shaking. LuAnn braced herself. “Herman Rudy. Wanda Tripp. Randy Stith. They were on there too. I escorted them all in New York.”

  LuAnn slowly rested her head in her hands.

  Charlie sat down beside her, put one beefy hand on her back, and slowly rubbed it.

  She sat back and slumped against him; a painful weariness laced her words. “We have to go, Charlie. We have to pack up and go. Tonight.”

  He considered the request before running a hand across his forehead. “I’ve been thinking about that. We can run, like we’ve done before. But there’s a difference now.”

  LuAnn’s response was immediate. “He knows about the lottery fix and he knows LuAnn Tyler and Catherine Savage are one and the same. Our cover isn’t going to work anymore.”

  Charlie nodded glumly. “We’ve never been confronted with both of those before. It makes disappearing a little trickier.”

  She suddenly stood up and started her ritualistic pacing, moving in fluid circles around the room. “What does he want, Charlie?”

  “I’ve been thinking about that too.” He went over to the liquor stand with his empty glass, hesitated, and decided against a second round. “You saw the guy’s setup. What did it look like to you?” he asked.

  LuAnn stopped pacing and leaned up against the fireplace mantel. In her mind, she went through every detail of the place.

  “His car was a rental, under an assumed name. So he doesn’t want us to be able to trace his real identity. I didn’t recognize the man, but there must be another reason he’s going incognito.”

  “Right.” Charlie studied her. Over the years, he had learned that LuAnn missed almost nothing and her instincts were first-rate.

  “He tried to spook me, which he did. I take that as a warning, a message that he’s a player and he wants us to be aware of that for the next time he calls.”

  “Go on,” he encouraged.

  “The place, the little I saw of it, was set up like an office. Very neat, very orderly. Computer, fax, printer, files. It was like he had made all of this some special research project.”

  “Well, he would’ve had to do a ton of research to figure out the lottery scam. Jackson is no dummy.”

  “How do you think he did it, Charlie?”

  He rubbed his chin and sat down in front of his desk. “Well, we don’t know for absolute certain that he has figured it all out. I just saw the list. That’s all.”

  “With the names of all those lottery winners? Come on. How long did Jackson run the scam anyway?”

  Charlie shook his head. “I don’t know. I mean, I was there for nine of them, including you. Started in August. You were Miss April, my last gig.”

  LuAnn shook her head stubbornly. “He knows, Charlie; we have to assume that to be true. However he did it, he did it.”

  “Okay. So it seems pretty clear the guy wants money.”

  She shook her head. “We don’t know that. I mean, why would he set up shop here and bring all that stuff with him? He didn’t need to do that. He could just send me a letter from parts unknown with the same info, and a demand for money to be wire-transferred to his bank account.”

  Charlie sat back, his face carrying extreme confusion. He had not looked at the matter in that light. “That’s true.”

  “And I don’t think the guy’s hurting for money. He was wearing really nice clothes. Two leased cars, the rent on that cottage isn’t cheap, I’m thinking, and all that equipment he had. He’s not digging his dinner out of garbage cans.”

  “Right, but unless he’s already a millionaire, going after you would significantly enrich his bank account,” said Charlie.

  “But he hasn’t done that. He hasn’t asked for anything. I wish I knew why.” She was lost deep in thought for a moment and then looked up. “How long did Pemberton say the cottage had been rented?”

  “About a month.”

  “That makes it even more unlikely he was going to blackmail us. Why wait? Why come right out and warn me that he knows everything? How does he know I won’t just disappear in the middle of the night? If I do that, he’s not going to be filling up his bank account with my funds.”

  Charlie sighed deeply. “So what do we do now?”

  “Wait,” was finally the answer from LuAnn’s lips. “But make arrangements for us to leave the country on a moment’s notice. By private jet. And since he knows about Catherine Savage, we’re going to need another set of identification papers. Can you get them?”

  “I’ll have to look up some old contacts, but I can do it. It’ll take a few days.”

  LuAnn stood up.

  “What about Riggs?” Charlie asked. “The man’s not going to let it go now.”

  “There’s nothing we can do about that. He doesn’t trust us and I don’t blame him.”

  “Well, I doubt if he’ll do anything that’ll end up hurting you.”

  She looked sharply at him. “How do you know that?”

  “Look, LuAnn, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see Riggs has a thing for you.” A hint of resentment tinged his response. His tone softened, however, with his next words. “Seems like a nice guy. Under different circumstances, who knows. You shouldn’t spend your life alone, LuAnn.”

  A flush swept over her face. “I’m not alone. I’ve got Lisa and I’ve got you. I don’t need anybody else. I can’t handle anybody else.” She looked away. How could she invite anyone into her life? It was impossible. Half truths competing with complete falsehoods. She was no longer a real person. She was a thirty-year-old shell, period. Everything else had been bartered away. Jackson had taken the rest of it. He and his offer. If she hadn’t made that call way back when. If she hadn’t panicked? She wouldn’t have spent ten years turning herself into the woman she always wanted to be. She wouldn’t be living in a million-dollar mansion. But as ironic as it sounded, she would probably have far more of a life than she had now. Whether it was to be spent in another wrecked mobile trailer or slinging fried foods at the truck stop, LuAnn Tyler, the pauper, would probably have been happier than Catherine Savage, the princess, ever dreamt of being. But if she hadn’t accepted the offer, Jackson would have had her killed. There was no way out. She turned back to Charlie and spread her arms wide.

  “That’s the trade-off, Charlie. For this. For all this. You, me, and Lisa.”

  “The Three Musketeers.” Charlie attempted a smile.

  “Let’s pray for a happy ending.” LuAnn opened the door and disappeared down the hallway in search of her daughter.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  “Thank you for meeting with me on such short notice, Mr. Pemberton.”

  “John, please call me John, Mr. Conklin.” Pemberton shook the other man’s hand and they sat down at the small conference table in Pemberton’s real estate office.

  “I go by Harry,” the other man said.

  “Now you mentioned over the phone that you were interested in a house, but you really didn’t say what area or price range.”

  Without seeming to do so, Pemberton looked Harry Conklin over. Probably in his sixties, expensive clothing, air of assurance, undoubtedly liked the good things in life. Pemberton swiftly calculated his potential commission.

  “I got your name on good reference. I understand that you specialize in the upper-end market around here,” Conklin said.

  “That’s correct. Born and raised here. Know everybody and every property worth knowing about. So would that be the price range you’re interested in? The upper end?”

  Conklin assumed a comfortable look. “Let me tell you a little about myself. I make my living on Wall Street and it’s a damn good living if I do say so myself. But it’s also a young man’s game and I’m not a young man anymore. I’ve made my
fortune and it’s substantial. I’ve got a penthouse in Manhattan, a place in Rio, a home on Fisher Island in Florida, and a country estate outside London. But I’m looking to get out of New York and radically simplify my life. And this place is about as beautiful as they come.”

  “Absolutely right,” Pemberton chimed in.