Chris Mooney - The Dead Room

'I sprained it playing tennis.'

The footsteps moved away from the chest, stopped.

'Who's in the box?'

The man with the effeminate lisp – Peter. She couldn't see him or Ben's driver. He had moved away.

'Linda Burke and some other broad whose name I forget,' Ben's driver said.

'I'm surprised your mother didn't smell anything.'

'We buried them deep and covered them with lime.'

'Burke… I remember the mother. Dianne. She moved out of town, what, a year or so after her daughter disappeared?'

'Something like that.'

'Whatever happened to her?'

'We buried her next to her daughter.'

'Lovely.'

'How about we skip the trip down memory lane and get down to business?'

'Have you talked to Jack?' Peter asked.

'No. I decided to lay low, wait for you guys to call me. Where is he?'

'Watching the house. Tell me what you saw last night.'

'I wasn't anywhere near the house. I was parked up the road, on Claremont. When Kendra's Honda pulled on to Walton, I called Ben and gave him a heads-up. Then I sat in the car and waited for the call. Next thing I know there's a squad car pulling on to the street. What did Tony have to say?'

'Not much. When he called, he said someone shot their way inside the house. Got hit twice in the chest and was bleeding out. He thought the shooter was a woman.'

Jamie blinked the sweat from her eyes and flipped the switch on the Glock to semi-automatic fire.

No, not yet. Wait. Listen.

'I wouldn't put too much stock in it,' Peter said. 'The guy was delirious from blood loss. He called again to tell me he was in the woods. By the time Jack and his team arrived, Tony was dead.'

'He didn't say anything about Ben?'

'No. Has he called you?'

'Not yet. You?'

'Neither Jack nor I have heard from him. We need to find his body.'

'Ben's alive.'

'What makes you say that?'

'There's a puddle near the front door, and the basement light is on. I turned it off when I left this morning. I gave him a set of keys to the house. He was going to hang here for a day or two before heading back to Phoenix or San Diego or wherever he's living now.'

'He should have called one of us by now.'

'Maybe he lost his mobile. All the numbers are programmed in there.'

'There's a GPS unit in his phone. The phone keeps turning on and off at odd intervals. The signal doesn't stay on long enough for us to track him.'

She had been right about Ben's mobile. It had a GPS unit and they were trying to track it.

'Maybe it's broken,' Ben's driver said. 'Or maybe Ben's playing it safe. He's old school. He never trusted mobile phones, thinks the signals are too easy to pick up. I agree with him. You can buy the equipment you need at a RadioShack.'

'Those mobile phones are encrypted. There's no way anyone can randomly listen.'

'You need me to take care of Tony's body or did Jack take care of it?'

'Jack took care of it. When was the last time you spoke to Tony?'

'After I dropped him off at the house,' Ben's driver said.

'When you saw the police, did you call him?'

'What do you think?'

'How many times did you call?'

'I don't know, Peter, I wasn't keeping track. And what were you thinking, busting into the kid's hospital room like that?'

'If the Sheppard boy ended up talking to that McCormick woman -'

'Who?'

'Darby McCormick,' Peter said. 'Thomas McCormick's daughter.'

'What was she doing there?'

'She's the head investigator for Boston PD's Criminal Services Unit – and she's the one who heard Tony's phone ringing in the woods. Her training is in forensics. Not a good development, Kevin.'

Ben's driver, Kevin, didn't speak.

A long silence followed.

'It couldn't be helped,' Peter said. 'I had to do something.'

'So you say.'

'She doesn't know who I am. And there's no way she'll find out either. My actions last night proved to be beneficial. The McCormick woman taped the conversation with Sean. I confiscated the recorder. Sean didn't tell her anything. She thinks his name is John Hallcox. There was no mention of Kendra. Personally, I don't think the boy knew anything.'

'Where he'd get the gun?'

'I don't know yet. Why did Kendra come back here? Do you know?'

'Nope. I want to listen to the tape. Ben will too.'

'You should have followed her.'

'We didn't have much lead time. Jack had to get his gear and -'

'Then you should have waited. You never were good at operation planning. Or patience.'

'It was Ben's call, and Tony went along with it.'

'I'll remind you, again, that you work for us. What happened last night in Belham, what happened here in Charlestown and in this basement – this glorious blight is because of two people. You and that serial killing psycho.'

'Glorious blight,' Kevin repeated. 'Are you a K-Y cowboy, or did they teach you to talk that way at Yale?'

'All that time standing on the side of the fence has really warped your brain.'

'What are you going to do about Big Red's daughter?'

'We'll figure something out.'

'Yeah, and you'll have Ben and me clean it up. You Ivy League pricks don't like getting your hands sticky.'

Someone – Peter, Jamie suspected – started jingling change and keys.

'Whatever you're going to do, don't take too long to decide,' Kevin said. 'I'm planning on going to the Caribbean next week after I put my mother's house up for sale.'

'I'll tell you when you can leave.'

'Yes, sir. Is there anything else, sir, or may I leave now? I'd like to go to the Tap.'

'The what?'

'The Warren Tap. It's a bar. Not the kind you'd hang out in, mind you, but back in the day, if Ben had a problem, he'd leave a message there for me. Don't worry, it's in code. All that secret shit you guys like.'

Footsteps moved across the floor.

'Here, take this,' Kevin said.

'What's this for?'

'It's a shovel. You use it to dig up things. There's one more in that hole. Get to work and I'll help you with the other one when I get back. You can use those gloves there on the workbench so you don't ruin your manicure.'

'I don't think so.'

'Your boss offered your burial removal services,' Kevin said. 'Welcome to my side of the fence, champ.'

The front door slammed shut. Jamie listened to the man breathing somewhere near the armoire as she replayed fragments of the conversation. The man named Peter had tried to visit the boy named Sean and ended up speaking to this McCormick woman from the Boston PD. How had he gained access to the room? Had he posed as a cop? Was he a cop?

Enough thinking. Time to act.

She was about to sit up when she remembered the keys and phone tucked inside her jacket pocket. If she sat up too fast or moved too quickly, the keys would make noise. If the man heard anything, it might give him enough time to reach for his gun – or swing his shovel.

He started digging. She lifted her head, looked through the gap: she saw tanned hands gripping a shovel, and white shirt cuffs with gold cufflinks sticking out from a blue suit jacket. She couldn't see his face.

Too close, she thought, panic fluttering against the walls of her heart. The moment I stand up he'll see me.

I'll be back in a few minutes, Kevin had said.

Jamie placed one hand on her right pocket, feeling the keys and phone beneath the nylon fabric. Hugging her body close to the back of the chest, she slowly moved up to a sitting position. A pins-and-needles sensation worked its way through her legs.

Peter kept digging.

Do it now and do it fast. If he reaches for the gun or tries to run, drop him.

She got to her feet fast, blood rushing to her head, making her dizzy.

'Freeze.'

The man jumped, dropping the shovel. He was taller than she expected – his lisp and soft, effeminate voice had conjured up an image of a short man with flabby arms. The middle-aged man standing in front of her had a lean build. He wore a dark blue suit without a tie. The jacket was unbuttoned and she could see a shoulder holster.