Look Again

Chapter Seventy-six

"Let's get this party started." Moore gestured toward the kitchen with the muzzle of his revolver. "In the kitchen, ladies."

"I could kill you!" Carol shot back, scrambling to prop herself up on an elbow. "You kidnapped my baby!"

"Boo hoo, princess." Moore snorted.

"I got you the money, and you were supposed to give the baby back! That was the deal. You were never supposed to keep the baby. Never!"

"The deal changed."

Ellen looked from Moore to Carol, dumbfounded. They had a deal? She straightened into a sitting position, incredulous. Meanwhile she wracked her brain for a way to save W. She had to get him out of this alive.

"Why did you do it, why?" Carol cried. "All you had to do was give him back to me. You got your money."

"My girlfriend wanted him. She was always sayin' she couldn't have a baby, and when I tol" her no, she split with him."

Ellen needed to stall, to give herself time to think. "Was that Amy? Was Amy Martin your girlfriend?"

"Yeah. The dumb bitch."

"You killed Amy?"

"Duh," Moore answered.

"And the lawyer, too? Karen Batz?"

"Sure."

"But why? Did she know?"

"I wasn't leavin' a loose end. If she figured it out, she woulda squawked. Carol woulda had the best lawyers money could buy, and I woulda gone to the joint."

"You bastard!" Carol's gaze bored into him. "That was my baby! I thought about him every minute! You ruined my life!"

"You ruined your own life, you brat. You went through your money like water."

"This isn't about me, it's about you. You told me you'd give the baby back. You lied! You took him!"

Ellen kept thinking about how to save W. Sooner or later, she'd get an opening.

"Do you know what you did?" Carol scrambled to stand up, and Oreo Figaro walked into the dining room. "You almost killed my husband. You ruined my marriage."

"You shoulda told him the truth, then. You shoulda said to him, "Honey, wifey-poo isn't the good girl you think." I used our kid to pay for my little hobby."

"She used her kid?" Ellen said, stalling. "She did it?"

"Yeah, it was all her idea." Moore sneered. "You didn't think that, did you? You didn't figure that out. Little Miss Goody-Goody here, she gambled up all her money, so she needed to tap her kid's."

"Shut up!" Carol shouted, but Moore ignored her.

"She knew me from the casino, Miccosukee. I was parkin' cars for rich bitches, and she hired me to kidnap her kid. She got the ransom from the kid's trust fund. She told me the nanny would be there and-"

"Stop it, stop it!" Carol shouted louder, startling Oreo Figaro, who ran under the dining room table. "You weren't supposed to kill her. You weren't supposed to keep the baby!"

"Enough!" Moore gestured with the gun, his gaze shifting toward the kitchen. "You wanna see your son? He's in there."

"He is?" Carol's face flooded with happiness. She rushed to the kitchen, and the sudden movement sent Oreo Figaro scooting to Ellen.

Just then a lethal glimmer flickered through Moore's eyes. Ellen didn't have time to think, only to act.

And everything happened at once.