John Miller - Smoke and Mirrors

Winter cursed himself for screwing with something he had no business getting involved with.

Alexa’s head throbbed where Styer had pistol-whipped her unconscious. She opened her eyes to find herself lying on her stomach on the polished wooden floor of Hamp’s bedroom. In the dim light from a TV set with the sound turned off, she could see the figures of Hamp and Cyn lying on two beds whose heads met at a corner desk, a flat L-shaped piece of furniture with a writing surface and bookshelves that rose to the ceiling. The Gardner children faced her with their hands behind them and ankles secured. Hamp’s were tied with thin cord. Like her, their mouths were taped shut. At least Styer hadn’t killed them, but why had he not finished her off?

Hamp lifted his head, and his eyes opened wider in alarm. Alexa nodded at him, and he lowered his head. Alexa saw that Cyn was crying, tears glistening on the bridge of her nose, her body shaking. When Alexa tried bringing her cuffed hands under her body, the pressure on her neck made her realize that Styer had looped a cord around her neck and tied the other end to the cuff chain. Her ankles were bound with thin nylon cord, probably cut from the Venetian blinds in the room.

She pressed her face against the polished oak floorboards. If she could catch the sticky edge of the tape on the floor, she could use pressure and movement to peel it off her cheek. That way she could at least comfort the children.

She knew Winter, Leigh, and Brad would walk in soon and Styer would have the drop on them. She had seen him shoot two men with no more effort or hesitation than a horse flicked his tail to shoo a fly. She knew she was no match for Styer, but she had to become one, no matter what. She concentrated her energy on the tape. The headache slowly drifted away as she told herself, Don’t rush and don’t make noise.

When Brad and Leigh finished talking outside the grocery store, they hugged for a long time, and Winter saw Leigh wipe tears from her eyes. The sleet was coating the windshield, being cleared by the wipers. If the sight of the sheriff and the plantation owner embracing outside the grocery was shocking, you couldn’t tell from the woman who walked past them and nonchalantly said hello. They returned the greeting while they were still hugging each other, and Leigh laughed after the woman went inside. After Brad took the grocery bags, they ran to the Jeep and jumped inside.

“I guess I should be mad at you,” Leigh said to Winter. “I thought I was the only one who knew how much Cyn resembled Brad.”

“I’ve got a daughter,” Brad said wonderingly, smiling at Leigh in the backseat. They clasped hands momentarily.

“I was sitting here thinking I’d screwed up,” Winter said.

“It’s fine,” Leigh said. “Better than fine.”

“Better than fine,” Brad repeated.

“I’ve always wondered if I would ever be able to tell Brad,” she said. “Now, I just have to tell Cyn. I’ve had some strange conversations with my daughter, but this one is going to take the cake.”

“How do you think she’ll react?” Brad asked almost sheepishly.

“I think she’ll be pleased after it sinks in. She’s always liked you.”

With a wave of panic, something occurred to Winter that should have hit him much earlier. The deputy said Alexa was with Dr. Barnett and Cynthia. He didn’t know how they all three had ended up together at the plantation. Thinking about it now, he realized how odd that was.

Styer felt the doctor’s cell phone in his pocket vibrating, and took it out and read the display. He decided he had to answer it, because this time it was the sheriff. He tested his voice, decided it was right, and pressed the green button.

“What?” he answered.

“I’m with Leigh and Winter,” Brad said. “We’re heading out to Leigh’s. Daddy, I didn’t ask before, but how did Alexa wind up with you and Cynthia?”

“Right after I talked to you, Alexa, who was heading out here, saw us getting into my car at the Blue amp; White and she stopped. She offered to drive Cyn home. I hitched a ride, thinking I should stay with Cynthia. Like I said, Cyn was upset and…”

“Winter wants to talk to Alexa. She close by?”

“She’s upstairs with Cynthia. I think Cyn’s taking a bath.”

“We’re still a few minutes out. Leigh picked up some steaks. You hungry?”

“I could eat,” Styer said.

“By the way, do you know if Woody let Ruger out?”

“Yes,” Styer said. “Woody told me he was going by to ‘walk him.’”

Styer hung up and smiled. The rain was really coming down now. He inclined his head and listened for any sound from the boy’s bedroom directly above the kitchen. He wondered if Alexa was still out cold. He had thumped her pretty good. He hadn’t needed to kill her, but she would die anyway in short order. While he’d been talking to Barnett, he’d heard Gardner and Massey talking in the background. Leigh Gardner and Winter Massey. Styer smiled. Life was good. Life was very, very good to those who deserved it.

All he had to do was add the explosive from Cyn’s belt to the bomb that he had placed in the basement and, after Massey and the sheriff and the woman were down, he’d get clear and set it off. The explosion would bring the deputy from the road, but Styer would deal with him and be long gone before anybody suspected it was a bomb and not a natural gas explosion.

Afterward, he would change into the benign salesman he had ID for and fly to New York, and from there he’d make his way to his apartment in Paris for a well-deserved rest.

After no more than a minute in the basement, Styer went back up into the kitchen, set down his Ruger, covered it with the maid’s tabloid, and took off the doctor’s wide-brimmed Stetson.

Opening his valise, Styer lifted out the cell-phone remote trigger and slipped it into the left pocket of his cardigan. He also removed the other tools he would need when Massey showed up.

Walking to the front, Styer looked out the open shades of a window and saw the cruiser at the base of the driveway.

He thought he heard the creaking of floorboards and listened, trying to get the direction of the sound.

Alexa worked to free her mouth, realizing that if Styer’s disguised voice was carrying through the floor that her cheek was pressed against, then he would hear any loud movement from the room above. He was talking to someone, but since nobody had come in, she was pretty sure he was on the telephone.

She looked up at the children and saw that Cyn had stopped crying and was watching her. Hamp continued to wriggle and she shook her head, hoping that he would understand that she wanted him to be still. If he fell off the bed, Styer would come up and see the tape, which was beginning to roll toward her mouth.

She saw Hamp stop moving and look at her. Moving faster, she felt the tape stick fast and she pressed her cheek against the floor and pressed down hard as she moved her head. The tape stuck fast to the floor and remained there as she moved her face as far as she could move without rolling.

“Guys,” she whispered. “Hamp, be still. He can hear us.”

Hamp shook his head and started wriggling again.

While she was trying to figure out the next step, Hamp sat up and brought his hands around from behind him. Loose cord hung from his left wrist until he pulled it off and removed the duct tape from his face. As soon as it came free, he smiled at Alexa.

“The Great Mephisto,” he mouthed, taking a bow.

Alexa smiled.

Cyn nodded. Hamp tore off the tape that was binding his sister.