by Diane Bator
She paused midstep. If Al and Chevy were downstairs, chances were they’d shoot her before she got a crack at anybody’s skull.
Something snagged her shoulder near the bottom of the stairs. In a moment of temporary insanity, Katie flicked on the light switch, realizing too late the burst of light would blind not only the intruder, but her as well.
Hilda stood near the front door dressed in an old grey jacket and black rubber boots. She held a flashlight in one hand and clutched a black tote bag in the other. She looked like an antique cat burglar. “Did I disturb you?”
Katie struggled to find her voice. “What was that noise?
“Sorry, honey. I knocked over the lamp when I turned it off.” She pulled a dark blue baseball cap over her silver hair. “Are you okay?”
“Where are you going at this time of night?”
“I need to check on a friend who isn’t feeling well.” Hilda opened the front door. “She lives up the street and I said I’d stop by after the meeting. You go on up to bed. I’ll be back soon.”
Cold air swirled under her nightshirt and sent goose bumps up her legs to the rest of her body. “It’s pretty late. Let me change. I’ll go with you. You’re not safe out there alone. Not with Al and Chevy running around hunting for me.”
“No.” Panic filled Hilda’s wide eyes then her face softened and she smiled sweetly. “Thanks for offering, but you go to bed. I could be a while. She’s very ill.”
“I could help.” Katie moved down a step.
“No.” Slowly, her expression softened again. “You have enough on your mind right now, dear. You go to bed. I’ll let you know how she is in the morning.”
The knot in Katie’s stomach grew. She didn't want to be alone. “I don’t mind coming with you.”
“Why don’t you pour yourself a glass of wine and relax?” Hilda shifted her weight as though the bag was heavy. “I’ll be back in no time. We can talk later.” She slipped out the front door and turned the key in the lock.
What was she thinking letting an old woman roam the streets at night? Katie had the nagging feeling her landlady was up to something and she should follow even though Al and Chevy could be out there watching her every move. If she stayed, they’d know she was alone, but Hilda had been adamant.
She glanced at the corner liquor cabinet and sighed. Alcohol hadn’t crossed her lips in months. With Maddox out of her life, she hadn’t had the need until tonight but now desperately wanted to cave in.
Halfway across the room, she caught sight of her reflection in the bay window then closed the heavy blue drapes. She peered outside, searching for movement. There was none. Not even Hilda. She was alone in a creaky old house with her suitcases packed. She could leave now and never come back.
“I’ll stay until Hilda comes home. Then I’ll call a cab and go.”
Go where? Maddox and company were probably still looking in all the obvious places. Her leaving town wouldn’t keep Al and Chevy away from anyone here. They’d get mean to get answers.
She could run, but they’d follow.
She could stay, but they’d…
Holy Mary, Mother of God...
Katie let the curtain fall back in place. She stared straight ahead, not seeing the drapes anymore, but reliving the last meeting at the party in Maddox’s beach house office. The clearest image was of the bottle of champagne on his desk and the incredible urge to drink it. Chevy handed her a glass she’d knocked away.
Why did she dump her drink? Her stomach churned when she remembered.
Maddox had drugged her and wanted Dunnsforth to kill her.
Why hadn’t she planned ahead and gotten a fake ID and passport long before that night? She could have gone to Fiji, taken a cruise on the Mediterranean or a six-month hike across Europe. Even riding camels in Egypt would have been a great idea yet, she’d ignored her gut instinct. Dismissed every alarm bell in her head that told her to run off into the sunset. What on earth was she thinking? It definitely wasn’t for love. Money maybe.
Katie closed her eyes and sighed.
Margaret had barged into their meeting that night at the cottage, something she’d never done before. Usually she sat in the corner, sipped martinis and told her husband and partners they were all losers and could all go to hell. Katie had always brushed her off before. Ignored her the same way Maddox had. Was he dead and Margaret had stepped in to replace him? She would have heard something on the news if that were the case.
Donovan Wild was there that night too. Her stomach lurched again. He’d brought her wine on the terrace and tried to take her home. Or had he tried to talk to her? Tried to explain who he was and how he wanted to protect her?
She’d been to drunk and too focused on Maddox to care. As Paulina, she’d ignored a lot of things. In the end, she woke up alone and naked in a cheap motel room with no idea how she’d gotten there. Someone had helped her, but the memories wouldn’t come. Maddox wanted to kill her. Wild wanted to…
A wave of nausea overtook her. Her body didn’t want her to remember. She’d blocked the memories out for so long it probably didn’t matter anymore. She had to get away from it all.
Katie paced the living room and ran through a mental list of allies. Her list came up pathetically short. She didn’t want to endanger anyone else’s life. She filled her body with a deep breath then released it slowly. Much better than a bottle of alcohol.
“Who am I kidding?” She let out a deep sigh and walked over to the cabinet. Among the half-empty bottles of hard liquor stood a full bottle of Pinot Grigio. She grabbed the corkscrew and bypassed the glasses. Why dirty a glass when she had no one to share it with?
Katie double checked the locks on the doors, flicked a light on for Hilda then carried the hockey stick and wine upstairs. She slid between the sheets and pulled her notebook from beneath her mattress. It was time to make plans.
Plan number one: find the bad guys.
Plan number two: shoot the bad guys.
Plan number three: take that hike across Europe she should have taken months ago.
Katie reread her plan and took a swig of wine. She crossed out the whole list, tore the page out of her book and started over. In reality, no matter where she went, they’d find and probably shoot her, which looked far worse than her original plan.
The next gulp of wine didn’t help her think any clearer. This plan wasn’t going to be pretty no matter how she wrote it. Her hand fluttered across the paper with a mind of its own. She wrote until the bottle was empty and her pen ran out of ink.
Katie let out a sigh and shut the book. So this was how it was going to end. Out of ink, out of wine and out of time. Hopefully, Maddox’s men would kill her in her sleep rather than turning her death into a proverbial three-ring circus.
Chapter 32
Danny
Dinner was late due to Danny’s trip to the hospital. While Hannah and Nate prepared the meal and spoke in low tones, Danny made a few phone calls. Leo didn’t answer. Neither did Katie. He wasn’t sure which bothered him more.
“Sorry, duty called.” Bobby had dealt with two domestics and a drunk driver who’d wrapped his car around a pole and hadn’t seen Katie all day. “I’ll stop by the store tomorrow.”
Danny dropped onto the couch next to Ray. “Did you see Katie before you left town?”
“No. Hilda and I went straight to the home after we left here. She ranted about a writing meeting tonight. Something to do with Katie. I told her to leave me out of it.”
“A writing meeting?” He raised his eyebrows. “At least they’re both out of trouble for the night. Did you see Al or Chevy lately?”
Ray flipped channels to a baseball game. “Not since they were at the store earlier. Do you think that’s important?”
Danny hoped they hadn’t already returned. “Let’s go find Katie.”
Nate leaned back in his worn recliner. “Not in the condition you’re in. Hannah will strangle you. Why don’t you just call her at Hilda’s?”<
br />
He had. Twice. “It’s either Hannah or Katie. I’ll take my chances.”
“I’d stick with Hannah, if I were you. Katie has a gun.”
Danny frowned. “She does? Since when?”
Hannah pinched Danny’s ear and steered him to a chair before Ray could answer. “You’re full of painkillers and have a broken wrist. If you think you’re going off to save damsels in distress tonight, you have another think coming.”
“Ray can drive.” Danny sniffed his sister’s homemade spaghetti sauce and garlic bread and couldn’t resist. He’d tucked into his second helping when his cell rang. He ignored it, but the ringing persisted. “Sorry, guys. It’s probably Leo.”
“I have information about Paulina Chourney.” The caller spoke in a muffled voice making it hard to tell if it was a man or a woman. An uneasy feeling rocked his stomach. Didn’t Katie say Maddox had been replaced by a woman? If his hunch from his meeting with Maddox was correct, Margaret not only controlled Maddox but the DMR empire as well.
He pushed back his chair and left the table for the quiet of the living room. “Who are you? How did you get this number?”
“Can’t tell you that over the phone. Meet me.”
Danny frowned. “Where are you?”
“In Packham.” The caller stopped to cough. Apparently disguising the voice strained the vocal cords. “Meet me at ten. South end of the skateboard park.”
Bad idea. Dark would set in long before ten and the painkillers blurred his vision and slowed his reactions. “How do I know you have information I want? Why can’t you tell me over the phone?”
“You need to see it to believe it.”
“Can’t we meet…?” he asked, but the caller hung up.
Danny stared at the flowered couch. His grandmother’s from when she moved here seventy years earlier. If the caller actually had information, a late night meeting was worth the risk. Even if he wasn’t at the top of his game. He could drive Ray home then keep the Honda for the night to work on later. He tried to call Leo but got no answer. Danny cursed under his breath and returned to the dining room.
“Everything okay?” Hannah asked.
“Yeah.” He frowned. There was no way she’d let him out of her sight.
“I’ll drive Ray home after dinner,” Nate said. “I’m sure you don’t feel up to it after the dose of painkillers they gave you.”
“I’m okay,” Danny insisted. “I need to make a stop in town anyway. I won’t be long.”
“You’re in no shape to drive.”
“No. I need to go.” He met Ray’s curious gaze. “Ray can help me.”
Aside from pleasantries to Nate and Hannah, Ray never spoke a word until Danny stopped in front of the home. “There’s nothing you need except a good cuff on the back of the head. You’re hopped up on painkillers and shouldn’t be driving. What’s worth the risk?”
“I have a meeting with someone who has information about Katie—I mean Paulina.”
“Can’t it wait until morning?” Ray frowned. “You don’t even know who called, do you?”
“I’ve gotta go.”
“You need backup.” He refused to get out of the car.
Danny sighed. “I’ll call you after the meeting. Just let me go or I’ll be late.”
Ray eased his body out of the passenger door then turned and scowled. “I don’t think you should—”
He didn’t bother waiting for Ray’s instructions. He drove around town to think then pulled into the parking lot at a quarter to ten, hoping to catch the perpetrators off guard if it was a setup. The lot was empty.
He wandered around and noticed shards of glass beneath the four street lamps around the skate park. His stomach clenched. Something was wrong. His hunch was right. He took a step back toward the car to go back to Hannah’s then paused.
He should find Katie and make sure she was safe. They could sit somewhere quiet and he’d tell her everything he should have blurted out earlier, whether anyone overheard them or not.
Leaves crackled behind him. The mysterious caller was already nearby. Sharp pain filled his head and he collapsed to the ground. Movement bustled around him and a voice whispered. Something pinched his arm and the burn of drugs coursed through his system before everything went black.
Chapter 33
Katie
Katie made a face at the empty bottle of Pinot Grigio on the nightstand, frustrated for giving in to the fear. Once again, she’d drunk herself half-crazy in a lame attempt to forget everything. Once again, it hadn’t worked.
A weary sigh crept from her lips and escaped the many layers of blankets she was burrowed beneath. The cool air made her snuggle deeper into the bed. Today she’d try to run the store from the comfort of her room. Laura could get out of bed and she’d take the day off. Wasn’t that one of the benefits of being the boss?
Her heart sank. Al and Chevy would come in and trash the place. She should phone Laura and tell her to stay home indefinitely. If anyone was going to man the store when they arrived, it would be Katie. Alone. Bait for the sharks.
A sharp metallic noise made her jump. She clutched her throbbing head. Either Hilda had dropped something or her radio was louder than normal. She narrowed her eyes. Something was missing. For a change, the smell of Hilda’s jolting coffee and the odor of burnt toast didn’t hang in the air. She must have come in late.
Katie gave a reluctant groan and shoved back the blankets. She stumbled over the half-packed suitcase in the middle of the room, got dressed and slid her feet into a pair of socks. Creeping down the stairs, she kept her voice soft. “Hilda? Are you awake?”
Her landlady’s keys lay on the floor beside the side table.
Katie turned on the television to see if there were any updates on the DMR scandal. The top story was a plane crash in Texas, no survivors, followed by a story about a missing five-year-old girl from Newville. A cute little thing with a button nose and two blonde pigtails.
She made a cup of instant coffee, toasted a bagel and slathered it with strawberry cream cheese. A small degree of normalcy. Sanity. She and Dunnsforth were no longer in the top five news stories. The update on the search for Paulina Chourney came at twenty minutes after the hour.
Dunnsforth’s widow and children were missing. Either Dunnsforth’s wife was a lot better at disappearing than Katie was or Maddox…She didn’t want to think about what Maddox would do. He and his goons had already killed Dunnsforth. If Heather didn’t give the money back, she’d wish she was dead too.
Katie cleaned up the kitchen and left a note for Hilda before she walked in a daze to the bookstore. If nothing else, she’d make sure to draw Al and Chevy away from her friends.
The overnight rain had made the day hot and humid already. She gave little attention to the raindrops that splashed from the leaves overhead and evaporated on her skin.
The story was Dunnsforth had skimmed a huge amount of money from the corporation and was dead. As far as she knew, Al and Chevy were his killers. Dunnsforth’s widow was long gone and might also be dead, according to the newscasters anyway.
Katie thought it was more likely Heather Lewis-Dunnsforth was on a yacht in the Mediterranean being oiled and fed by olive-skinned hunks with romantic names. Why hadn’t she been brave enough to run off to some little island and live a simpler life? Half a million dollars would go a long way.
Maddox had daydreamed aloud about how the two of them would run off to some tropical island one day. They’d disappear to a small hut where Margaret would never find them. Had it all been a pipe dream? Maddox was in the best position to funnel funds from the DMR accounts into an off-shore bank. Dunnsforth had too much invested in the company to pull such a brazen crime. Maddox also had the connections to create a whole new identity for her.
She unlocked the front door and realized she’d forgotten to phone Laura to tell her to look for a safer job. Working in a bookstore with Katie could be hazardous. She cursed and looked around. The street was still
quiet, aside from the usual shopkeepers opening up for the day. She hung up her coat and reached for the phone.
Ray stormed in and slammed the door behind him. “Okay, where is he?”
Katie shrieked and knocked the phone on the floor. “Where’s who?”
“Danny. What have you done with him?”
She steadied herself against the counter. “What are you talking about?”
He shuffled closer and scowled. “He drove me home last night then disappeared. No one’s seen him since. I had to take the stinking bus to get here. He took my car.”
“I haven’t seen him.” Dizziness washed over her and she wanted to vomit. She assumed Al and Chevy had gotten him and would use him to get to her then kill them both. “Maybe he went to Newville. He does work there.”
“I called his office. Leo hasn’t heard from him. All the cars and his motorbike were parked in the Quonset, including my Honda, which he drove me home in last night.”
“How is that possible? Someone had to drive it back to Nate and Hannah’s house. If it’s at the house, he’d be there too.” Katie shivered at the thought and sat on the stool before she collapsed. “He has a cell phone, right? Did you call him?”
“Several times. No answer.”
“He’s a detective. He’d never go anywhere without his cell phone unless…” She hesitated to voice her idea. “You don’t think Maddox got him, do you?”
Ray shook his head. “He’s smarter than that. Isn’t he?”
“Then where is he?” Katie choked back her fear. She wanted to scream.
“You know those men.” He met her gaze. “Would they torture him or kill him?”
Definitely. “That depends on what he knows and if they need him.”
He drew up his hunched shoulders as if trying to find some hidden courage deep inside. “What do we do now?”
“There’s not much we can do.” There was no one else in the store to overhear their conversation.
“We need to go after them.”
“One, we don’t know for sure they have him. Two, if those guys want to kill me, why would I go after them?” She still needed to call Laura.