Jan Burke - Nine

With great effort, he bit back every word of anger. He managed to say, “Where?”

“He owns a school…”

He knew the answer even before he asked, “What school?”

“He owns Sedgewick.”

He swore. “Corey owns Sedgewick. And you wanted Chase to go there?”

“I didn’t know! I didn’t know he would do something crazy like this! I swear it. I never meant…oh God, I’m so sorry!”

He wanted to tell her that her sorrys weren’t worth shit, that they never had been. That for a fling with a man more than ten years her junior, she had let her son fall prey to someone who tortured and killed his captives. Images from the videotape from Oaxaca ran through his mind, and he suddenly felt bile rise in his throat.

And then he remembered what Shay Wilder had said and wondered if maybe it wasn’t Clarissa’s fault after all. Had Everett Corey used her to try to get to him? Taken Chase for the same reason?

“Alex?”

“I’m here, Clarissa. I’ll do what I can.”

He hung up. He tried to put his thoughts in order, but for a brief moment, could not. The images of the past week were too fresh, his fears for Chase too well founded. Everett Corey would not be kind to his captives.

He heard from the backseat, “I know Sedgewick.”

He turned to see Kit Logan studying him.

“I know Sedgewick,” Logan said again. “If your nephew is being held there, then I think Spooky’s probably there, too. I’ll come with you. I’ll help you find them. We’ll have about an hour’s head start on whatever they have planned for you-they don’t know you’re already in Malibu. They’ll be counting on the fact that it should take you an hour or more to get here from your home in Manhattan Beach.”

“Alex-” Ciara began to protest.

“What if it was your sister in there?” Alex asked.

She was silent.

“Drive us closer to the school,” he said. “Take a right at the next corner.”

As they made the turn, she said, “Do me a favor, hit redial on my phone. I need to tell them I’ll be later than I thought.”

He felt guilty for forcing her to come along, but Laney would be cared for by experts, while God knew what was happening to Chase and the girl, and maybe Gabe Taggert as well. He tried turning the phone on. It wouldn’t work.

“Something’s wrong with it,” he told her. “I think your battery is dead.”

She swore.

“You can borrow mine.”

She didn’t reply. She was concentrating on the shadowy, curving road, slowing as a set of gates came into view. “Is this it?” she asked.

“No,” Kit answered. “Farther up the road. It’s at the back of the canyon. Hurry.”

She shot him a look of annoyance, but speeded up. Alex glanced at his watch. Only ten minutes had passed since Clarissa’s call-it had seemed much longer.

At the last bend before they would be within sight of the school’s gates, Alex said, “Stop here. Don’t go any closer.”

She pulled over. “Alex, think for a minute-you’re making a mistake.”

Alex didn’t answer. He left his phone with her, then got out of the car, even as she continued to protest.

He went around to the door behind the driver and tried to open it. He pounded his fist on the roof of the car. “Unlock it, Ciara!”

He heard the locks go up. He opened the door and helped Kit out. He un-handcuffed him.

Ciara rolled down her window. “Alex, are you nuts?”

He didn’t answer.

“I’m calling for backup,” she said. “This should be handled by a crisis intervention team, and you know it. We need hostage negotiators-”

“Call them, then!” he snapped. “But I’m not waiting around for the cavalry.”

“Do you have a Kevlar vest?” Kit asked. “Cameron is an excellent shot.”

Alex swallowed hard, thinking of the shooting in Long Beach. “Open the trunk, Ciara.”

She hit the release, and it popped open. He reached beneath the bag that held his climbing gear and found his vest. He held it out to Kit.

“No, you should wear it,” Kit said. “He’ll probably go for a head shot with me. Or he might try garroting-that’s how he killed his father. And my dog.”

Alex, hearing nothing but cool deliberation in Kit’s voice, stared at him for a moment, wondering what kind of partner he was taking on now. He put the vest on.

“Bring a flashlight, too. And-do you have a first aid kit?”

Alex found each.

Kit looked down at Alex’s shoes. Before he said anything, Alex said, “I’ll change them. But I can’t do anything about the suit.”

“Keep the coat buttoned if you can-your white shirt will be easy enough to see as it is. Leave your pager here, please.”

“Good point.”

“I’m keeping his girlfriend hostage,” Ciara called out. “You hear me, Mr. Logan? Anything happens to Alex, Ms. Taggert here is going to meet lethal force while resisting arrest.”

“Cut it out, Ciara,” Alex said. Still handcuffed, Meghan Taggert moved her elbow to press the control that lowered her own window-Ciara must have released that lock, too. “I’m not his girlfriend,” Meghan said. “I want to be, but I’m not.”

Kit blushed furiously. He reached out, though, and Alex saw him drop something into the backseat, next to Meghan. The rabbit’s foot.

Ciara rolled the windows back up and locked the doors.

Kit took off walking at a rapid pace, and Alex followed, feeling strange wearing his lightweight hiking boots with his suit. Soon, though, he was glad to have them on-the ground was uneven. Logan had a strange way of pausing a little every few steps. Before long, Alex figured out that there were seven steps between each pause.

They avoided the gate, staying out of view from the school, and continued along the wrought-iron fence that fronted the entrance. When they reached a wooded area, Kit found a stick. He began making a quick sketch in the dirt.

Speaking softly as he drew a rough layout of the school, he said, “Sedgewick has been around for a long time. Some of it was built in the nineteen twenties, but most of the buildings are newer than that.”

“I thought I saw signs of construction work when I was here earlier.”

“You were on the campus?”

“No, just looked through the gates. There’s a sign saying it’s closed for renovations.”

“That’s strange.” He thought for a moment. “I don’t understand why he bought it. Everett always hated Sedgewick. He considered himself above it.”

He pointed to a place near the center of the map.

“Here’s the bell tower-the tallest building. You can see it from here if you look through the trees. It’s in the center of campus. The tower and most of the buildings around it are made of fieldstone. When I was here, enrollment was declining. Only these four buildings were in use.” He pointed out buildings close to the tower. “The others were locked up, but most of the boys broke into them at one time or another.”

“Keeping their skills up.”

“Or learning them. The old crooks train new crooks.”

“Like prison.”

“In many, many ways,” Kit said.

Alex looked up at him.

“Not for me, really…I had been in worse situations. And I would have gone to any school as long as I could come home to my grandmother. Gabe and I were day students. Everett, Cameron, Frederick, and Morgan lived on campus.”

“But their families lived in Malibu, didn’t they? Or close by?”

Kit shrugged. “Their kids weren’t in the way if they lived here, were they?”

Alex stared down at the sketch on the ground.

Kit added some buildings at some distance from the others. “These are the old stables. When it was a better school, they used to give riding lessons. No horse has been in any of those stalls for decades. There’s a way into the property near there, a gate leading out onto an old trail. We’ll go in that way-if you don’t object? There are lots of trees and bushes between there and the campus. That will give us some cover, at least until we get to the baseball field.” He drew a diamond. “That’s out in the open, but if we can get past it, we can start working our way through the buildings while they’re still watching for us to come in through the front gate.”