Sandra Brown - Ricochet

It was all he could do to keep his expression appropriately somber when he made his pledge. “Savich will get what’s coming to him. I’ll see to it.”

Hatcher stared directly into his eyes as though testing his trustworthiness. Finally, apparently satisfied, he glanced at Detective Bowen and nodded. Without a word, she made a three-point turn and drove back toward the courthouse.

Despite his throbbing testicles, Cato could barely keep himself from humming.

The anteroom was empty, Kenny nowhere in sight.

The door to Savich’s private office was ajar. The room was dark except for a small lamp that cast a disk of light onto his desk. His sleek head was bent over paperwork. The part in his hair was so precise it looked like an incision cut by a scalpel.

Sensing he was no longer alone, he reached beneath his desk, where a pistol was secreted, then raised his head and looked at his unexpected guest.

His brilliant eyes widened marginally, but the surprise was quickly shuttered behind the impenetrable blue gaze that was the last thing many had seen in this life.

He said, “I heard the elevator and thought you were Kenny.”

“I look nothing like Kenny.”

He smiled, his teeth glaringly white in his dusky face. “Your sense of humor is intact. A good commentary on the afterlife.”

Elise pushed open the door and walked into his office. “I’m all too alive.”

“So I see. And looking reasonably well. Although I can’t say I approve of the new hairdo, and the outfit leaves much to be desired.”

“You don’t seem all that shocked to see me,” she said.

“I deal in absolutes, Elise. The accounts of your death were sketchy, speculative, and inconclusive. Did Napoli push you from the bridge? Did you jump after killing him? All very muddled.” He raised his hands. “Who knew what to believe?”

They looked at each other for several moments. Finally she said, “You haven’t offered me a seat.”

“Forgive me.” He motioned her into the chair facing his desk. “I guess I am a trifle shocked. Would you like something to drink?”

“No, thank you.”

Both were wary, curious, edgy in the presence of the other because neither could predict the outcome of this meeting. She alone knew the purpose of it.

“Is your husband still in the dark?” he asked.

“You mean, does Cato know that I’m alive? No.”

“I see.”

“You don’t see at all.”

He flashed a smile. “Too true. I suppose you have a good reason for remaining dead. I’m bursting with anticipation to know what that reason is. Where have you been?”

“For the last three days, with Duncan Hatcher.”

He was taken aback, then gave a burst of laughter. “Delicious. Positively delicious. The last time I saw him, he was at wits’ end. I teased him about his crush on you. I thought it was unrequited.” He arched his eyebrow eloquently. “I guess not.”

Laughing again, he said, “I can understand why he would want in your pants. But for the life of me, I can’t imagine what you find attractive about him. Granted, he has a certain animal magnetism. Those shoulders. The square jaw. But he’s so tiresomely good, Elise,” he said with a shade of pity.

Then his smile turned reptilian. “Or rather he was. Until he met you. No wonder he began behaving irrationally. He’d been waging war on his lust, and it seems lust won out over duty.” He licked his lips as though savoring the taste of Duncan’s fall from grace. “How does it feel, Elise, to have a man give up his soul for you?”

“Duncan didn’t give up anything for me.”

“A pint or two of his self-righteousness, surely.”

“Temporarily, maybe.” She lowered her gaze to her hands, which were clasped in her lap. “He wants you more than he wants me.”

Savich leaned forward, resting his forearms on the edge of his desk. “I’m not following.”

She raised her head and looked at him. “You are what he desires, Savich. No one holds a place in his heart like you do. There’s no room in it for anything or anyone else. He has devoted himself to destroying you…one way or the other.”

He studied her for a moment, then stood up and came around the desk. “Yes. One way or the other. Stand up, Elise.”

She did so with hesitation and, guessing the reason for the request, held her arms straight out to her sides. “You think Duncan sent me here? He’d kill me if he knew I was here.”

“Forgive me my suspicious nature.” He patted her down, then raised her top to check her brassiere for hidden microphones.

She stared at him coldly as he pressed his hands against her.

He flashed a grin, then lowered her top and returned to his chair behind his desk. “It’s no news flash to me that Duncan Hatcher has wet dreams about my capture.”

“But now he has a way to make it happen.”

“Oh?”

“I survived Napoli and made it off the bridge that night…”

Since that much was obvious, he waited expectantly for the rest of it.

“But not before I saw you shoot him point-blank.”

“Ahh.” He leaned back in his chair, appearing not at all upset by the bold revelation.

“Based on my eyewitness, Duncan is on his way here to arrest you.”

“Is he?”

“He’s meeting with Cato now, threatening reprisals if Cato goes easy on you and lets you leave his courtroom a free man. Then he’s coming after you.”

Savich kept his gaze trained on her as he ruminated on what she’d told him. “By warning me, you’re betraying Duncan Hatcher.”

“That’s right.”

“Lovers’ quarrel?”

“Duncan and I have different goals. He wants you.”

“And what do you want, sweet Elise?”

“I’m here to offer you a deal.”

“This conversation becomes more bizarre by the moment. I’m intrigued. What sort of deal?”

“If I testify to what I witnessed, you’ll be convicted of murder.”

“Or?”

“Or I’ll recant the story I told Duncan. I’ll claim that I shot Napoli in self-defense, as I did Trotter.”

“Hatcher didn’t believe the self-defense scenario then. He would find it even harder to believe you now.”

“I’ll say that’s why I made up this story about you, because I knew he wouldn’t believe me. In any case, without my eyewitness account, Duncan has nothing on you. No hard evidence with which to charge you. Without me, he can’t get you.”

He sat perfectly still, his eyes unblinking as he stared at her. Long moments passed. Finally he said, “This is an incredibly generous offer, Elise. By recanting, you not only make an enemy out of your new beau, you also risk incriminating yourself.”

“I’ll accept the risk, if you’ll accept my offer.”

He eyed her shrewdly, knowing that such an offer wouldn’t come free, or even cheaply. “What do you want in return? It must be something awfully important to you. Something you want very badly.”

“Yes. And it’s yours to give.”

“Ask.”

She leveled a look on him. “Give me Cato.”

As DeeDee relinquished the key to the Lexus to the judge, she avoided making eye contact, as though that would somehow distance her from what had taken place. On principle, she agreed with Duncan. But his rough handling of the judge was unacceptable. He had crossed a line. And Elise Laird was the reason.

They watched the judge drive away, then returned to her car. “That went exactly as planned,” Duncan remarked cheerfully as he got into the passenger seat.

“Have you lost all sense of what we’re about, Duncan?”

“We’re about getting Savich and then this asshole judge.”

“Getting them by any means, fair or foul?”

“We’ve tried fair. It didn’t work.”