Nine

51

Malibu, California

Thursday, May 22, 8:37 P.M.

He felt the color drain from his face. He couldn’t hide his shock. But he pulled himself together and said, “Kit’s dead.”

“No!” she shouted, and kicked over a chair. “No!” Just as quickly, she calmed down. “I don’t believe you.”

“You’ve met up with Cameron,” Everett said. “Look at his neck, Ciara.”

Everett had called her by name twice now. Alex felt his stomach knot. There would be no backup, no SWAT team, no hostage negotiators. Just another hostage, unless he was convincing. Everything depended on that, and on Kit. “Kit wasn’t so lucky,” he said, letting his anger at Ciara find its way into his voice. He took a chance, and indicated the front of his suit. “I tried to stop the bleeding, but I was too late. At least I had the pleasure of evening the score.”

Everett held his head to one side. “Cameron is dead?”

“I thought you’d be all broken up about it.” So, he thought, Everett didn’t know about Hamilton. Maybe Hamilton was telling the truth after all.

“Cameron and I had a bit of a falling-out,” Everett said. “He told me he was going to deny me my long-awaited revenge, that he could set a trap for you and Kit in the woods that would be just as effective as my invention.”

Invention? Alex looked at Ciara, but she only frowned at him.

“Obviously,” Everett went on, “it was an inferior plan. Poor Cameron. Far too emotional when it came to hurting children. He was upset about what I’ve done to your nephew and-as I found out far too late-the female Kit adopted.”

Alex’s fists clenched, even as he fought a wave of nausea. What I’ve done to your nephew…

Everett laughed and said, “In any case, Cameron was intent on spoiling my fun. And I must say he did spoil it-most of it, anyway. But just in case you aren’t telling the truth, I think we’ll bring you along to the office. Handcuff him, Ciara-no, in front.”

She had started to pull Alex’s wrists behind him, and at this command, gave Everett a look of annoyance. But she did as he asked. Alex began to wonder why Everett had insisted on it.

“Take the daypack and any weapons from him,” Everett said, “and give them to me. Be quick about it.”

“Look here, Everett-” she began angrily.

He raised a brow. “Yes?”

She subsided and did as he asked.

“I take it your cell phone works fine?” Alex said as she searched his pockets.

“It was easy to put a dead battery in it after I had checked in with Everett,” she said. “I would have asked for yours if you hadn’t offered it.”

“Hurry up,” Everett said.

She shoved Alex forward, steering him toward the administration building.

“I’m just trying to figure out what I ever did to you,” he said to her, unable to keep the rage from his voice.

She didn’t answer.

He thought back to her reaction to his saying that Kit was dead. Her anger was toward Kit, then. But what could she have against Kit? That first night in Lakewood, she had obviously coaxed Alex into talking more about the similarities between the way Adrianos was left and the Naughton cases.

He suddenly recalled something she said on the day they visited Shay Wilder. She said it had been overkill when Kit attacked Naughton-and that she had read the files. But how could she have read the files on him? Those were sealed because Kit was a minor then, and there had never been an arrest. Those details had not been in the papers or in court records. She must have investigated Kit Logan on her own, at some earlier time.

He watched for an opportunity to escape, but they made sure he didn’t have one. He hoped for a while that Kit might take a shot at one of them. But he saw no sign of Kit.

He was shoved into a room with a long counter in it. It was a typical school office. He could see a small infirmary through one door, a room with filing cabinets through another. Against one wall was a public address system. A microphone sat on a desk near it.

“I take it you provided all the screams?” he asked Ciara.

“I began to wonder if you heard them.”

“I imagine everyone living up above this canyon heard them,” he said. “Including the guards at Kit’s house.”

“He has a point,” Everett said, glancing at his gold Rolex. He moved to a metal storage cabinet and locked up Alex’s pack and weapons. “I’m not sure I should listen to any more of your ideas.”

“Watch out, Ciara,” Alex said. “Che Guevara Junior here has a rapidly shrinking number of partners-or haven’t you noticed?”

“The old divide-and-conquer routine?” Ciara asked, pushing him toward a door marked PRINCIPAL.

The room was a large, carpeted one. Heavy curtains were drawn across the windows. Meghan Taggert sat bound and gagged in a chair turned to one corner.

“Alex, we’ll have you sit here,” Everett said, pulling out a second chair.

Ciara shoved him hard into it.

“Ciara,” Everett said, turning Meghan around, “I know my darling resisted you, but did you have to strike her face?” Meghan’s left cheek and eye were a little swollen, Alex saw. It would have taken more than one blow. However many had landed, it hadn’t knocked the defiance out of her.

Everett caressed her cheek. She pulled as far away from him as her bonds would allow.

“Doesn’t look as if you’re satisfying him in bed, Ciara,” Alex said. “But then, it doesn’t look as if his new courtship is going all that well, either.”

Everett smiled. “Things will go better now that Kit is dead.”

Meghan shot a look of despair at Alex, then she seemed to notice the blood.

“I’m sorry,” he said, meaning it.

She shook her head, but tears were welling up in her eyes.

“You know, you have a point, Meghan. I think I’ll bring his body in here. It will give you closure. And then maybe you’ll feel like telling me where your brother the loser is.” Everett turned his attention back to Alex. “And for the record, Ciara and I have a strictly professional relationship.”

“The story of her life,” Alex said, and Ciara slapped him. He smiled. She struck him again, harder. That time he laughed. “This is obviously hurting you more than it does me.”

She folded her arms, visibly resisting the urge to hit him again.

“Ciara owes much of her career as a detective to me,” Everett said, as if nothing had happened. “Didn’t you ever wonder how she solved so many cases?”

“Actually, Internal Affairs is investigating her,” Alex lied. “She would have been fired long ago, but we wanted to catch those who were helping her. No one believed she was capable of that on her own.”

“You’re full of shit,” Ciara said.

“He’s envious,” Everett said. “They all are. Do you know what we’ve done? The best law enforcement agencies in the country couldn’t do what my small, select team could do. You see, Alex, your partner had an intelligent, privately operated, well-financed team on her side. Your underfunded lab with its six-month backlog? We could have answers in a week. I could hire men who could focus entirely on one case, while you had to take whatever came your way, whenever it came your way. And your stupid rules! When you’re dealing with lawbreakers, what could be more ridiculous than worrying about rules? Why not level the playing field? Look what we’ve accomplished. Wiretapping? No problem. Electronic tracking devices? Not to worry. Need to inflict a little pain to get a guilty party to talk? We could do it. It worked perfectly.”

“Not exactly perfect,” Alex said. “You only caught nine out of ten.”

“Oh, but one hundred percent of our goal-the truly guilty ones. It’s really an incredible fluke that Gabe ended up on the Ten Most Wanted list. He was at that robbery, of course. So technically, he can be tried for murder. But anyone who believes Gabe Taggert could murder anyone, let alone a family with small children-Why do the police always take the easy way out?”

“One of his partners named him-” He broke off, seeing Everett’s smile.

“Exactly. The whole thing went much bigger than we expected.”

“Are you so deluded, you think none of this will catch up to you?” Alex said. “We were already looking at you and Cameron as suspects before you had my ex call me.”

“She’s a really fine fuck, by the way.”

“If you don’t mind leftovers,” Alex said.

Everett laughed. Ciara made a sound of disgust and walked toward the door.

“Stay for a moment, Ciara,” Everett said. “I’ll need you to keep an eye on them while I check out his story about Kit.”

Remembering what Kit had told him about Everett, Alex said, “The body is in the woods. Cameron’s, too.”

He saw Everett hesitate.

Ciara saw it, too. “Let me look for him.”

“If you insist,” Everett said, glancing at his watch again. “You’ll have to hurry. And we’ll need to make sure we aren’t sending you into some sort of trap. There’s a big switch that turns on the baseball field lights out there somewhere. Near one of the dugouts, I think.”

Alex lowered his head to hide his reaction. He was sure Cameron had turned the lights on, after hearing Hamilton fire his gun. But when the lights had gone out again, he had assumed Everett had been the one to plunge the woods into darkness again. If it hadn’t been Everett, was it Kit?

No, Kit wouldn’t have been able to get to the switch to turn the lights off, and then back into the woods so quickly. But if it hadn’t been Everett or Kit or Hamilton…

“He knows something,” Ciara said, watching him.

“I know you’ve partnered up with a lunatic.” He looked at Everett. “I told your old man to get help for you, but I guess he didn’t listen.”

“Don’t try to pretend you had my best interests in mind,” Everett said. “You wanted to destroy me then, but you learned that it wasn’t so easy, didn’t you? And in case you haven’t noticed, the public doesn’t think I’m so crazy. The public loves what we’ve done. We’re heroes.”

“Martyrs, most of you,” Alex said. “There is that difference. Has he got another Bora waiting for you, Ciara? Who’s going to take care of Laney when that happens? You sold your soul-and your sister-to have the highest clearance rate in Homicide?”

“You don’t get it at all, Alex,” she said angrily. “You never did. That’s why people who should have been punished went free.”

There was a sound in the outer office.

Ciara and Everett tensed. “Check it out,” Everett ordered.

Alex saw the look of rebellion on Ciara’s face, but she went out, leaving the door open. They heard her moving, opening and closing other doors.

When she came back she said, “No one inside.”

Everett looked at Alex. “You know, Ciara, I think you’re right. I think he lied about Kit Logan being dead.”

“I’ll look for him,” Ciara said, and moved toward Alex. She pulled him to his feet.

“What are you doing?” Everett asked sharply.

“He’s going to be my bait.”

“You’d be better off using Meghan. If Kit Logan is alive, nothing will bring him more quickly to surrender than the threat of killing her. If he’s dead, it will be good for her to see it for herself. Besides, I don’t trust you, Ciara, dear. You might end up taking that badge of yours too seriously.”

“You sure I won’t just take off with your long-lost love?” she asked.

“You have no interest in her. But you do in Kit, and in Alex, here.”

“What the hell do you have against Kit Logan?” Alex asked her.

She shoved him hard back into his chair. “Jerome Naughton-how many victims were there?”

“Eight.”

“Wrong.”

“We never found Serenity Logan’s body, but we’re sure-”

“Oh, I count her. But you’re wrong.”

“If you’re telling me there may have been more, all the investigators agreed that was likely. Is this about some unknown victim of Naughton’s?”

“No, I’m talking about known victims.”

He was puzzled. She put the barrel of her gun to his temple. “Think, damn you!”

Alex’s pulse raced, and his mouth went dry. He looked into her eyes and saw nothing but a desire to pull the trigger.

Everett must have seen it, too. “I’d ask you to remember that I have plans for him, Ciara. Besides, we may need a hostage to get out of here-especially after your screaming broadcast.”

“How much time do we have?” she asked, her gaze not leaving Alex.

“A little more than an hour. So let’s not waste precious moments. You’ll have to spell it out for him, I’m afraid.”

But Alex had kept watching her face and said, “The woman who lived.”

“If you can call it that,” Ciara said.

“Laney.”

“He left her hanging there! Upside down. Do you know what happens when a person hangs upside down for a long time? It’s really not good for you. You aren’t designed for it-it’s all wrong for your circulation. Pressure builds, your head swells, eventually your eyes are damaged, your throat swells up. It strains the joints you’re hanging from, of course.”

Alex lowered his gaze.

“No one can stay that way forever,” Ciara said, “but in Laney’s case, it was worse. Jerome Naughton had knocked her around-ultimately knocked her out cold-before he suspended her over that tub. So there was bruising, you see? A few places that were weakened by those blows. Normally, they probably wouldn’t have done any long-term damage. But hanging upside down as long as she did? Before Kit Logan decided to let anyone know she was there?”

“Ciara-”

“You met her, Alex. There were nine victims. Nine. And you and everyone else who was impressed with Elizabeth Logan’s money let the man who ruined my sister’s mind and body get away with something worse than murder.”

“I’m sorry Laney went through that, that she suffered as she did…”

“Like hell you are!” she shouted, her face twisted by her anger, her eyes wild and glistening with unshed tears.

“But Naughton was to blame, not Kit. Kit Logan wasn’t a man,” Alex said. “He was a boy. A frightened boy.”

“I saw the pictures Naughton took. You saw them, too. Some of them even in graves-in graves holding dead women! The ones from when they were alive were worse. Those weren’t the acts of a boy.”

“You know what I hated about those photographs? The looks on the victims’ faces.”

“Exactly! Laney was so frightened…”

“So was Kit. You’ve lost count, too, Ciara. Two victims in each of those photos-not one. That kid hated every minute of it.”

“Speaking of minutes,” Everett said, “we’re running out of them.”

“Ciara, think!” Alex said. “What’s going to happen to her now? You go through with this, you’re no better than anyone who abandoned her that night. Who could love her as much as you do? Who’ll take care of her?”

She lowered her gaze and said softly, “Did you think I would leave that to chance?”

He stared at her. “Ciara? Ciara…where is she?”

“It was peaceful,” she said, wiping quickly at her eyes. “And painless. I made sure of that.”

“My God.” His next thought was that Ciara now had nothing to lose.

“Ciara met with us this morning,” Everett said cheerfully, “so that she wouldn’t have to stay in the house with her sister’s body. And that turned out to be a good thing, because I needed her to keep an eye on your nephew. Cameron and I knew his parents would be bringing him home, but we were suddenly given an opportunity we couldn’t pass up-Kit’s little urchin was finally leaving that armed camp he calls home. So when you paged Ciara this morning, she was following a limo, not taking Laney to a doctor.”

“You kidnapped Chase?” Alex asked her.

“No, but I would have, if necessary. You think I care about people who are important to you? You never cared about anyone who was important to me.”

“I think it’s about time we got things set up,” Everett said. “There are two ropes hanging in that bell tower now, Detective Brandon. We’ve detached them from the bells, and tied them over two sturdy beams.”

“We’re going to hang you upside down in there,” Ciara said. “You and Kit Logan, if he’s still alive, and I hope to God he is. The bells will be silent, but before long, you’ll hear a ringing in your ears, Alex. You’ll feel your head pounding, and pressure on your eyes. In a matter of minutes, you’ll be miserable. And it will get worse. You’ll wish for death, Alex. You’ll pray for it-just like Laney must have prayed for it.”

“Ciara, don’t say anything more,” Everett admonished. “You’ll spoil everything. Besides, we don’t have much time left. Take Meghan with you-but don’t strike her lovely face again.”

“Okay-but you leave Alex to me.”

“You get both Logan and Brandon? That hardly seems fair.”

“You want to drag Miss America out into the woods? Fine with me.”

He sighed. “Have it your way. But hurry. I’ll take Brandon to the tower. We’ll wait for you there.”

Meghan stood straight and walked out with Ciara without showing any fear.

“Meghan’s magnificent, isn’t she?” Everett said. “I think we’ll breed well.”

“Don’t count your chickens, as they say.”

Everett smiled and said, “Speaking of offspring-would you like to say a final good-bye to your nephew? You are sure he’s only your nephew, right?”

Alex hesitated, unsure of how to answer this to Chase’s advantage.

“Ah, just a nephew, I see. Then I suppose you won’t mind so much when you discover what’s become of him. Stand up.”