Last to Die

THIRTY-TWO

IT WAS THE DOG WHO ALERTED THEM. THROUGH THE DOOR OF THEIR cell, Claire heard Bear start to howl again, loud enough to echo through the wine cellar and funnel up the stairs. She did not know what had set him off. Maybe he understood that their time had run out, that Death was even now making His way down the steps to claim them.

“He’s coming back,” Claire said.

In that airless room, she could smell the fear, sharp and electric, the scent of animals awaiting slaughter. Will pressed closer to her, his flesh moist with sweat. He had finally worked the tape off his mouth, and now he leaned in and whispered to her: “Get behind me and stay down, Claire. Whatever happens, just play dead.”

“What are you doing?”

“I’m trying to protect you.”

“Why?”

“Don’t you know why?” He looked at her, and even though this was the same chubby, spotty Will she knew so well, she saw something new in his eyes, something she hadn’t noticed before. It was shining there so brightly it could not be missed. “I won’t get another chance to say this,” he whispered. “But I want you to know that …”

The padlock clanged. They both froze as the door squealed open and they saw the barrel of a gun, clutched in gloved hands. The weapon swept an arc around the room, as though seeking a target, and not finding it.

A man with a shaved head stepped into the room and called out, “He’s not in here! But the others are.”

Now a woman entered, sleek and graceful, her hair hidden under a watch cap. “That dog had to be howling at something down here,” she said. They stood side by side, two invaders clad all in black, surveying the room of bound prisoners. The woman’s gaze fell on Claire, and she said: “We’ve met before. Do you remember, Claire?”

Staring up at the woman, Claire suddenly thought of headlights rushing toward her. Remembered the night turning upside down and the sound of shattering glass and gunshots. And she remembered the guardian angel who had magically appeared to pull her from that ruined car.

Take my hand, Claire. If you want to live.

The woman turned to Will, who was staring openmouthed. “And we’ve met, too, Will.”

“You were there,” he murmured. “You’re the one …”

“Someone had to save you.” She pulled out a knife. “Now I need to know where that man is.” She held up the blade, as though offering it as a reward for their cooperation.

“Cut me free,” snapped Sansone, “and I’ll help you take him down.”

“Sorry, but this game’s not for civilians,” the woman said. She looked around at the faces. “What about Teddy? Does anyone know where he is?”

“Screw Teddy,” said Claire. “He’s a traitor. He led us into this trap.”

“Teddy doesn’t know what he’s doing,” the woman said. “He’s been lied to, corrupted. Help me save him.”

“He won’t come out. He’s hiding.”

“Do you know where?”

“On the roof,” said Claire. “That’s where he’s supposed to wait.”

The woman glanced at her partner. “Then we’ll have to go up and get him.” Instead of freeing Sansone, the woman knelt down behind Claire and sliced her bonds. “You can help us, Claire.”

With a gasp of relief, Claire rubbed her wrists, felt the welcome rush of blood into her hands. “How?”

“You’re his classmate. He’ll listen to you.”

“He won’t listen to any of us,” said Will. “He’s helping that man.”

“That man,” the woman said, turning to Will, “is here to kill you. To kill all of us. I’ve spent three years trying to catch him.” She looked at Claire. “How do we get to the roof?”

“There’s a door. In the turret.”

“Take us there.” The woman yanked Claire to her feet.

“What about them?” Claire said, pointing to the others.

The woman tossed the knife on the floor. “They can cut themselves free. But they have to stay here. It’s safer.”

“What?” Claire protested as the woman pulled her out of the room.

“I can’t have them getting in the way.” The woman swung the door shut.

Inside the room, Sansone was cursing, shouting. “Open the door!”

“It’s not right,” insisted Claire. “Leaving them all locked up.”

“It’s what I need to do. It’s best for them, best for everyone. Including Teddy.”

“I don’t care about Teddy.”

“But I do.” The woman gave Claire a hard shake. “Now take us to the turret.”

They climbed out of the wine cellar into the kitchen, where Bear was barking again, looking pitiful and half strangled as he struggled to free himself from the leash. Claire wanted to untie him, but the woman dragged her away toward the servants’ stairway. The man took the lead, his gaze constantly sweeping the steps above them as he climbed. Never had Claire known people who could move as quietly as these two. They were like cats, their footsteps silent, their eyes always moving. Sandwiched between them, Claire had no view forward or backward, so she focused on the steps, on moving as soundlessly as this man and woman. They were some kind of secret agents, she thought, here to save them. Even to save Teddy, the traitor. She’d had a lot of time to think about it while sitting in that room with her hands bound, listening to the cook’s whimpers, to Dr. Pasquantonio’s nasal whistles as he breathed. She’d thought about all the clues she’d missed. How Teddy never let anyone see his computer screen, but always hit ESCAPE as soon as she walked in the room. He was sending the man messages, she thought. All this time, he’d been helping the man who’d come to kill them.

She just didn’t know why.

They were on the third floor now. The man paused and glanced back at Claire for guidance.

“There,” she whispered, pointing to the spiral staircase that led to the turret. To Dr. Welliver’s office.

He moved up the stone steps, and Claire crept up behind him. The stairs were steep here, and all she could see of him was the back of his hips and the commando knife dangling from his belt. It was so quiet she could hear the soft rasp of their clothes as they moved step by step.

The door to the turret was ajar.

The man gave it a nudge and reached in to flick on the light switch. They saw Dr. Welliver’s desk, her filing cabinet. The sofa with the flowery upholstery and the plump cushions. It was a room Claire knew well. How many hours had she sat on that very sofa, telling Welliver about her sleepless nights, her headaches, her nightmares?

In this room that smelled of incense, decorated in soft pastels and magic crystals, Claire had felt safe enough to reveal secrets. And Dr. Welliver had listened patiently, nodding her head of frizzy silver hair, a cup of herbal tea always beside her.

Claire stood near the door as the man and woman quickly searched the office and the adjoining bathroom. They checked behind the desk, opened the closet. No Teddy.

The woman turned to the door that led outside, to the roof walk. The same door Welliver had exited to take her fatal plunge. As the woman stepped outside, the summer wind blew in, warm and sweet with the scent of pine trees. Claire heard running footsteps, then a cry. Seconds later the woman came back in, dragging Teddy by his shirt, and the boy sprawled onto the floor.

Teddy looked up at Claire. “You told them! You ratted me out.”

“Why wouldn’t I?” Claire shot back. “After what you did to us.”

“You don’t understand who these people are!”

“I know what you are, Teddy Clock.” Claire aimed a kick at him, but the woman grabbed her shoulder and dragged her into the corner. “Stay there,” she commanded, then turned to Teddy. “Where is he?”

Teddy folded himself into a ball and shook his head.

“What’s his plan? Tell me, Teddy.”

“I don’t know,” the boy moaned.

“Of course you do. You know him better than anyone. Just tell me, and everything will be fine.”

“You’ll kill him. That’s why you’re here.”

“And you don’t like to see people killed. Do you?”

“No,” Teddy whispered.

“Then you wouldn’t want to see this, either.” The woman spun around and pressed her gun to Claire’s forehead. Claire froze, too shocked to say a word. Teddy was stunned just as silent, his eyes wide in horror.

“Tell me, Teddy,” the woman said. “Or I’ll just have to splatter your friend’s brains all over this nice sofa.”

The woman’s partner looked just as shocked by this turn of events. “What the fuck are you doing, Justine?”

“Trying to get some cooperation here. So, Teddy, what do you think? Do you want to see your friend die?”

“I don’t know where he is!”

“I’ll count to three.” The gun dug deeper into Claire’s forehead. “One …”

“Why are you doing this?” Claire cried. “You’re supposed to be the good guys!”

“Two.”

“You said you were here to help us!”

“Three.” The woman lifted the weapon and fired into the wall, sending a drizzle of plaster onto Claire’s head. With a snort of disgust, the woman turned back to Teddy.

At once Claire scrambled away and dropped down behind the desk, trembling. Why is this happening? Why have they turned against us?

“Since that didn’t work,” the woman said. “Maybe you really don’t know where he is. So we go to plan B.” She grabbed Teddy’s arm and dragged him toward the roof walk.

Her partner said, “This is fucked up. These are just kids.”

“It needs to be done.”

“We came for Icarus.”

“Our target is whoever I say it is.” She yanked off Teddy’s communications headset and dragged him out the door, onto the exposed roof walk. “Now we dangle some bait,” she said, and swung him over the railing.

Teddy screamed, frantically scrambling for a toehold on the steep slate roof. All that kept him from plummeting to his death was the woman, gripping his arm.

She spoke into the boy’s headset. “No, this isn’t Teddy talking to you. Guess who I’ve got hanging off the roof? Such a sweet boy, too. All I have to do is let go, and he’ll be nothing but a stain on the ground.”

“The kid’s not part of this,” her partner protested.

The woman ignored him and kept talking into Teddy’s com unit. “I know you’re on this frequency. And you know what’s happening. You also know how to stop it. I never liked children anyway, so it’s no big deal to me. And he’s getting heavy.”

“This is way over the line,” the man said, moving toward her. “Pull the kid back.”

“Stand down,” she ordered him. And she barked into Teddy’s microphone: “Thirty seconds! That’s all you’ve got! Show yourself or I let go!”

“Justine,” the man said. “Pull the kid back. Now.”

“Jesus Christ.” The woman yanked Teddy back over the railing and set him down. Then she aimed at her partner and fired.

The force of the bullet sent him flying backward. He collapsed against the desk and slid off, his head thudding to the floor right next to where Claire was cowering. She stared down at the hole above his left eye. Saw blood streaming out, soaking into Dr. Welliver’s rose-colored rug.

She killed him. She killed her own man.

Justine bent down, scooped up her dead colleague’s weapon, and tucked it into her waistband. Then she tossed aside Teddy’s headset and spoke into her own com unit. “Where the fuck are you? The target’s on his way up to the turret. I need you here now.”

Footsteps were moving up the stairs.

Instantly the woman hauled Teddy to his feet and held him in front of her, a human shield against the man who now stepped through the doorway. The same man whom Claire had earlier thought was the enemy. But nothing made sense anymore, because Claire had thought this woman was their rescuer. And she’d thought this man who’d tied her up, with his black-smeared face and camouflage clothes, had come to kill them. Which one is my friend?

The man advanced slowly, his weapon trained on the woman. But Teddy stood in the line of fire, pale-faced and trembling in the woman’s grip.

“Let him go, Justine. This is between you and me,” he said.

“I knew I could make you finally surface.”

“These kids have nothing to do with it.”

“They’re my trump card, and here you are. Still looking fit, I see. Although I liked your old face better.” She pressed the barrel of her gun harder against Teddy’s temple. “Now you know what to do, Nick.”

“You’ll kill him anyway.”

“But there’s always the chance I won’t. As opposed to a sure thing, which you’d have to watch.” She fired and Teddy screamed, blood trickling from his bullet-torn ear. “Next time,” she said, “it will be his chin. So drop it.”

Teddy sobbed, “I’m sorry, Dad. I’m so sorry.”

Dad?

The man dropped his gun and now stood unarmed before her. “Do you really think I’d walk into this without a fail-safe, Justine? Kill me, and it all blows up in your face.”

Claire stared at the man, searching for any resemblance to the Nicholas Clock she’d seen in the photo with her father. He had the same broad shoulders, the same blond hair, but this man’s nose and chin were different. Plastic surgery. Hadn’t Justine said it? I liked your old face better.

“You’re supposed to be dead,” Claire murmured.

“I thought for certain you’d show yourself after Ithaca,” said Justine. “That you’d make some move to save Olivia’s boy. But in the end, I guess it all came down to saving just your own flesh and blood.”

Claire understood suddenly that this woman had ordered the murders of Bob and Barbara. She’d killed Will’s aunt and uncle, all to make Nicholas Clock come back from the dead. Now this woman would send him back to the dead. She’d send them all.

Do something.

Claire looked down at the man Justine had just shot. The woman had taken his gun, but he’d also had a knife. Claire remembered it dangling from his belt as she’d followed him up the stairs. Justine wasn’t watching her; her complete focus was on Clock.

Claire leaned over the dead man’s belt. Tunneled her hand under his body, feeling for the knife.

“If you kill me,” said Clock, “I guarantee you’ll go down. Every major news agency will find a video file in their in-box. All the evidence I’ve been collecting against you these past few years, Justine. Everything that Erskine and Olivia and I managed to pull together. The Company will shut you in a black hole so deep you’ll forget what the sky looks like.”

Justine kept her grip on Teddy, the gun at his jaw, but uncertainty made her hesitate. By killing him, was she about to set off a disastrous chain of events?

Claire gripped the knife handle. Tried to pull it from the belt, but the dead man’s weight pinned it against the floor.

Nicholas Clock said quietly, reasonably: “You don’t have to do this. Let me take my boy. Let us both disappear.”

“And I’ll spend the rest of my life wondering when you’ll pop up and start talking.”

“The truth will certainly come out if I’m dead,” said Clock. “How you helped Icarus escape from prison. How you raided his accounts. The only unanswered question is, Where did you dump his body after you tortured him for his access codes?”

“You have no proof.”

“I have enough to make it come crashing down on you. We finally put it together, the three of us. You killed your own people, Justine, all for the money. You know what happens next.”

From the stairwell came the sound of running footsteps.

Do it now. It’s your last chance.

Claire yanked the knife free and lunged. Aimed for the closest target she could reach: the back of Justine’s thigh. The blade sliced straight through fabric and sank deep into flesh, almost to the hilt.

Justine shrieked and staggered sideways, releasing Teddy. In an instant, Nicholas Clock was diving for the floor. For his fallen weapon.

Justine fired first. Three pops. Blood misted the wall behind Clock, bright red spray exploding from a gunshot that sent him sprawling. He collapsed on his back, awareness already fading from his eyes.

“Dad!” Teddy screamed. “Dad!”

Face white with pain and fury, Justine turned to Claire, the girl who’d dared to fight back. The girl who’d twice cheated Death, only to meet Him now, here. Claire watched the silencer lift to her head. Saw Justine’s arms straighten as she steadied the weapon to fire. It was the last image Claire saw before she closed her eyes.

The explosion rocked her back against the desk. Not a mere pop this time, it was a thunderclap that made her ears ring. She waited for the pain. For something to hurt, but all she registered was her own frantic breathing.

And Teddy’s voice screaming in desperation: “Help him! Please, help my dad!” She opened her eyes and saw Detective Rizzoli crouched over Nicholas Clock. Saw Justine lying on her back, eyes open and staring, a pool of blood spreading beneath her head.

“Frost!” Rizzoli yelled. “Get Maura up here! We have a man down.”

“Daddy,” begged Teddy, pulling on Clock’s arm, oblivious to his own pain, his own blood, still dripping from his ripped ear. “You can’t die. Please don’t die.”

Justine’s blood kept spreading, moving like an amoeba toward Claire, threatening to engulf her. With a shudder, Claire rose to her feet and stumbled to a corner, away from all the bodies. Away from the dead.

More footsteps came racing up the stairs and Dr. Isles swept into the room.

“It’s Teddy’s father,” said Rizzoli quietly.

Dr. Isles dropped to her knees and pressed fingers to the man’s neck. Yanked open the shirt, revealing the Kevlar vest beneath it. But the bullet had sliced into flesh just above the vest, and Claire saw a river of blood streaming from the wound, forming a lake where Dr. Isles was kneeling.

“You can save him,” Teddy screamed. “Please. Please …”

He was still sobbing that word as the last gleam of consciousness faded from his father’s eyes.