Karen Rose - Silent Scream

When do you tell them about the video so they know they need to run?

Tonight. After the job is done.

The warehouse belonged to a guy named Tomlinson who sold plumbing fixtures but who had to have done something bad to be a target of blackmail and arson.

“Albert, come over here and stop pacing like a tiger. People will notice.” Eric sat down next to Mary and patted her hand. “Look, Tomlinson’s warehouse was next on Joel’s list.” Which was so totally not true, but fortunately Joel was not there to refute it.

“He sells plumbing fixtures. What does he have to do with wetlands or habitat?” Mary asked. “Joel never mentioned Tomlinson to me.”

“He mentioned him to me, lots of times,” Eric lied smoothly. “Tomlinson’s an investor in KRB, Inc. One of the bigger investors, in fact.” Of course he was not. But he didn’t expect either Mary or Albert to know how to double-check him. “If KRB goes forward with their project, it’ll be with money this guy gives them.”

“You’re batshit crazy,” Albert mumbled again. “Doing another one, after last night?”

“It’s the perfect time,” Eric said. “Look at it this way. Who knows what Joel told his parents or what they may have suspected? He goes home upset. He’s been going on about saving the wetlands and there’s a fire. You all took showers, but his clothes still smelled like smoke. The Fischers aren’t stupid. If we never do another, they’ll think Joel did the condo fire. If we strike again, they’ll know Joel had nothing to do with it.”

“They’ll suspect you,” Albert said stonily. “You were his friend.”

Hell of a friend. I gave the order to have him killed. “No, they won’t suspect me,” he said flatly. “Mr. Fischer used to say I had no imagination. No passion. Just a number cruncher. He’d laugh about it. Say I was the one safe person to have around Joel. That I kept him from running off half-cocked to do his causes.”

“How could this happen?” Mary lamented. “Joel was upset when I dropped him off last night, but he wasn’t… you know.”

“No, what?” Albert asked.

“Suicidal,” she said. “The road was dry. It was daylight. I think he ran off the road deliberately. If I’d thought he’d hurt himself, I never would have left him.”

Eric didn’t dare look at Albert. “It was an accident, just like the girl. Nobody meant for the girl to get hurt. It was an accident.”

Mary covered her face with her hands. “I can’t watch the news. I couldn’t stand knowing her name. I keep trying to forget her, but I see her there, screaming.”

A shiver slithered down Eric’s spine. The image hadn’t left his mind either. But at least Mary wasn’t watching the news, so she hadn’t heard about the guard yet.

“Mary, listen. Think about what had Joel so fired up. What had you fired up. Those wetlands. Our earth. We wanted to keep one corner of our earth… safe.” He oozed sincerity. He was choking on it. Yesterday he’d believed every word. Today he just wanted it to be over. “We stopped them, but only temporarily. With Tomlinson’s money, they’ll rebuild. Bigger, maybe. That means all of our sacrifice was for nothing. Joel would have died in vain. You don’t want that, do you?”

Mary shook her head. “No,” she whispered.

“He would have wanted this,” Eric murmured. “You know it. We owe it to him.”

She went very still. “What do we do?” she whispered.

Eric wanted to blow out a relieved breath but kept it in. “Meet in the parking lot, same place as before. Tomlinson has a guard dog. We’ll need to bring some steak with some sleeping powder on it. Just to make him sleep, Mary,” he added when she flinched. “I had some muscle relaxants, but they expired a long time ago.”

“I have some sleeping pills,” she murmured. “Just to make him sleep.”

“Absolutely,” Eric assured her.

She squared her shoulders. “Joel’s burial is tomorrow.”

Eric’s brows rose. “Tomorrow? Oh yeah. That’s some Orthodox rule, right?”

“Burial within twenty-four hours. I want to go, but if I go alone his parents will freak. You’re going, right? You’ll go with me?”

If I’m still in the country. “Of course. Get some rest. Don’t watch the news.”

He watched her go, then turned to Albert. “You in?”

Albert looked straight ahead. “What does he have?”

“What does who have?”

A muscle twitched in Albert’s taut jaw. “The guy who shot the guard. He saw us. He’s making us do this stupid crime.” His accent became more pronounced, as it always did when he became emotional. Usually Eric found it a turn-on. Not today. “That’s the only explanation for this ridiculous charade. So what does he have on us?”

What was there to say? “Video. The whole thing. Close-ups of our faces and of the girl’s face in the window. You smacking Joel and us dragging him away.”

“So we are now his bitches?” Albert asked bitterly.

“Either that or we run.”

“Where would we run? The world is a very small place.”

Eric attempted a small smile that fell painfully flat. “ France? They don’t extradite if there is a possibility of the death penalty. And you do speak the language.”

Albert did not smile. “This is Minnesota. We’d just go to prison for life.” He turned only his head, spearing Eric with his eyes. “When did you plan to tell me, mon ami?” What had once been an endearment was now a soft snarl.

“Tonight. After we were finished. I needed some time. If you refused, he’d show the video and I’d be trapped.”

“I, I, I,” murmured Albert. “You took a lot on yourself. When did I get to choose?”

“What would you have done differently, Albert?”

For a moment Albert said nothing. When he spoke, his voice was cold. “I wouldn’t have kept it from you. I’m not going to run. This person, how does he contact you?”

Eric took the cell phone and MP3 player from his pocket. “He texted me on my cell, then told me where to find these.”

“Tomlinson is not a KRB investor.”

“No.”

“That was not a question, Eric. Did you think I was too stupid to check on this myself? Before I agreed to this arson scheme of yours, I wanted to be sure you would remain unhurt. I checked the condo investors to be sure your father’s company was not among them, that they would take no financial loss. That in your zeal you would not bite the hand that feeds you.”

“And that feeds you, too?” Eric asked bitterly.

Albert’s expression remained unmoved. “Did you not wonder why I went along with you?”

Eric shook his head, not sure he wanted to know. “I thought you believed.”

“In saving a lake?” Albert scoffed. “I believed in your future. I thought if you got this… obsession out of your system, you’d be able to go on. I wanted to be sure you’d be safe.” This was said stiffly, accusingly. “So I did what needed to be done.”

“I’m sorry,” Eric said quietly. “I didn’t think.”

“No, you didn’t. Now it’s my turn to think. Tell me everything you know. Somehow we have to figure out who this blackmailer is.”

“And then?” Eric said.

Albert lifted a shoulder. “We kill him. What’s one more?”

Eric drew a breath, nodded. “And then?”

“And then, I’m leaving. Find yourself another toy. I’m not interested anymore.”

Monday, September 20, 12:45 p.m.

Abbott leaned against Olivia’s desk as she hung up the phone. “Well?” he asked. “You get anything from that serial number?”

“The girl’s name is Tracey Mullen,” Olivia said, moving her goddess statue to one side so that Abbott didn’t knock her fedora to the floor. “Tracey was sixteen. Her father lives in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and her mother lives in Gainesville, Florida.”