Steven James - The Queen

A moment later I heard Tessa’s footsteps on the stairs.

“I never meant to hurt you,” I said to Sean and I meant it. Facing him, I wiped some of the blood from my lip. He was a powerful man and he hadn’t held anything back. I felt dizzy from the blow. “I’m very sorry.”

“You kept this from me all this time.” Now the anger in his voice had turned into something harsher, deeper-a sense of betrayal.

It’s your fault, Pat. This is all your fault!

Amber’s eyes were wide with tears, and she had her hand over her mouth. She took a step toward us but paused as Tessa appeared at the doorway.

“What’s going on? I heard-” She saw my bloody, already-swollen lip. “What happened to you?” Her eyes tipped toward the shattered picture. “Oh…”

Sean cut into me with his eyes. “What you did wasn’t right.” Just those five final words, and that was all. It was as if he’d forgotten that Amber was even in the room with us.

“I wish it’d never happened. Believe me. I knew it wasn’t right.”

“This is…” Tessa said, putting two and two together. “Oh man.”

Sean brushed past me and headed for the stairs that led to the garage.

“Where are you going?” Amber’s voice was slight and uneven.

He didn’t reply, just snatched his truck keys from the peg board at the bottom of the steps, and then he was out the door. He could have slammed it, but instead he let the door drift closed slowly, and that seemed to accentuate his anger even more forcefully than if he’d banged it shut.

Amber retreated to her bedroom, and even from this end of the hallway I could hear her sobbing. Lien-hua left to console her.

You did this, Pat.

Five years ago you set this all into motion!

My cell phone sat on the end table beside me. I picked it up to redial Burlman.

“Are you okay?” Tessa said.

“Oh, I’m on the brink of perfection.”

I tapped at the screen to get to the missed calls.

“I mean your face.” She sounded quite concerned.

Frankly, I felt like I’d been blindsided with a two-by-four. I touched my split lip gently. “I’m fine.”

Sean’s truck roared to life in the driveway.

“Well, go after him.”

“This isn’t the time, Tessa.”

“Are you kidding?” She pushed my arm, lowering my hand holding the phone. “This is so the time. Go make things right.”

“Tessa, there’s nothing I could say right now that would make things right.”

“Tell him you’ll do whatever it takes. Because you love him. Because he’s your brother. Quick, do it. Before he drives off.”

Our conversation earlier about forgiveness and denial and guilt seemed to be fueling her admonition for me to make amends.

She was staring at me beseechingly, waiting for my reply. “Well?”

If there’s any way to fix this, Pat, you should at least try.

I processed everything for a second. “Okay.”

I retrieved the keys to the cruiser and redialed the last incoming number, then grabbed my jacket and jogged as quickly as I could manage on my taped ankle down the steps.

A man answered the phone, but it was not Hank Burlman; it was Alexei Chekov. “Agent Bowers, I’m going to tell you where Kayla Tatum is.”

“I’m listening.” I threw open the door. “Talk to me.”

“Kayla is at the Schoenberg Inn.”

“No.” I stepped into the frigid night. “We already looked there.”

“There are rooms that would not have been searched.”

“Where?”

“The basement.”

“I don’t believe you.”

I fought my way through the seething snow toward the police cruiser. Why is he using Burlman’s phone and not the phone from the station?

“The Eco-Tech team paid the manager for exclusive use of certain rooms,” he told me. “I offered him substantially more than they did. When you get there, ask about the rooms in the south end of the basement.”

Wouldn’t the officers who searched the hotel have known about them?

Maybe, maybe not.

Cranking open the car door to the cruiser, I climbed inside. “Is she all right?”

“I anticipate that she should be fine.”

Key in the ignition. “How did you get Burlman’s phone?”

“The laces in my boots have metal-tipped ends.”

I froze.

He picked the cuffs, the cell’s lock. Tait didn’t listen to me. He let Burlman stand guard!

“What did you do to him?”

“I spent a few minutes with him. I didn’t need five.”

My teeth clenched. “You killed him?”

“No. But I’m not sure he’ll walk again. Both of his tibias are quite severely fractured.”

The bone gun. He got into the evidence locker!

I knew that Tait had left the station earlier, but the man working in the dispatch room would’ve still been there. “What about the dispatcher?”

“He’ll be all right. The dispatch system, though, I’m afraid that will be down for a bit.”

The taillights from Sean’s pickup were a quarter mile down the road already. Once again I thought that even if I did catch up with him, I was the last person on earth he would want to see right now.

Unsure what to do, I let the engine idle.

“Why are you telling me all this?”

“I want you to find Kayla. I never wanted to harm her. I’m sorry we won’t have the chance to work together.”

I could tell he was about to wrap up the call. “Alexei, what room is she-”

“Good-bye, Agent Bowers.”

The line went dead.

I redialed the number.

Nothing.

Tried 911.

No signal.

I smacked the steering wheel, then punched in Tait’s cell number. “Where are you?” I said.

“Just south of Woodborough.”

“Alexei called me.”

“What!”

“We need an ambulance at the station ASAP. He’s free and there are two men down-Burlman and the dispatcher. It’s serious, but I don’t think their injuries are critical. Alexei also took out the EMS dispatch channel. And we’ll need to get some officers to the Schoenberg. Kayla’s there.”

“We looked-”

“No. The basement. Alexei said she’s in a room on the south end.”

“All my men left the Schoenberg when we came up dry an hour ago. What did he do to the guys at the station?”

“Burlman’s legs are broken, I’m not sure what he did to the dispatcher. How long till you can get someone back out to the Schoenberg?”

“Twenty minutes. Maybe fifteen.”

No!

I calculated the distance to the hotel from where I was.

It’d be a long shot, even if I hurried, but if it took the officers twenty minutes, I might be able to beat them there.

As long as the roads haven’t drifted shut.

Get there, Pat.

Now. Go.

“I’m heading over there,” I told him. “If your officers arrive first, tell them to have the manager take ’em to those rooms in the basement. And they need to keep an eye on him; Alexei said he bribed him, but the manager might be more involved than that.”

Bring Lien-hua. She’s better at interviewing victims and suspects than you are. Kayla might open up to her; give us an idea of where to look for Alexei.

Hanging up with Tait, I left the car and hastened toward the house.

Get the GPS ankle bracelet and the biometric ID card. This doesn’t end with finding Kayla.

I burst through the door. “Lien-hua,” I called, “grab your coat.” Then I was on my way up the stairs. “We need to go.”

7:43 p.m.

1 hour 17 minutes until the transmission

“Why didn’t you go after him?” Tessa asked as I stepped into the living room.

I could still hear Amber crying at the end of the hall. Even though I felt like I needed Lien-hua with me, considering how rough the week had been on both Amber and Tessa, I wasn’t excited about leaving the two of them here alone. However, at the moment it didn’t seem like I had a choice.