Сандра Браун - Thick as Thieves

After folding several changes of clothing into the suitcase, she opened the closet and bent down to get a pair of shoes. When she straightened up and turned around, she came face-to-face with Rusty, who was leering at her.

Before she could make a sound, he raised his hand to the side of her head, and the lights went out.

Chapter 40

Ledge drove at a speed that would have been incautious on dry pavement. It was suicidal on wet. His windshield wipers were on high, and it was still like driving through a car wash. He steered with his left hand while using his right to place a call to George’s cell, holding out little hope that he would get an answer.

He was shocked and relieved when George answered with, “Yo. Cap’n. You all right?”

“Yes, but how are things there?”

“Under control.”

“You caught him?”

“Caught who?”

Ledge’s heart bumped. He braked, causing his truck to hydroplane and fishtail. He maneuvered it onto the shoulder and stopped. “Somebody from the center called the bar, said that you were chasing a guy from the building, that—”

“Cap’n, I’m sitting here with your uncle Henry. We’re watching a rerun basketball game on ESPN.”

“ Fuck ! I mean, damn, I’m glad you’re both okay. But, oh, fuck, George.”

“You were suckered.”

“Big time. The dude got to somebody there on staff to fake an emergency call.”

“I’ll find out who and make them cry for their mama.”

“For now, stay with my uncle. Don’t leave him alone until you hear from me personally.”

“Copy.”

Ledge didn’t let himself become distracted by either his temper or self-castigation. He went into combat mode and focused on the job at hand.

He wheeled his truck around, barely avoided getting stuck in the ditch on the other side of the road, and was soon speeding in the direction from which he’d come.

He thumbed his phone to call Don, who answered immediately. Without any preamble, Ledge asked if any of the retired Texas Rangers were within shouting distance.

“All of them.”

“Dispatch them to the Maxwell place. Like now . I’ll need witnesses who’ll bear out that I was given no choice.”

“To do what?”

“Kill Rusty.”

“Arden?” Lisa called.

Where Arden lay with her ear against the floor, she could both hear and feel the vibration of her sister’s footsteps as Lisa entered the kitchen from the direction of the living room.

Rousing, Arden tried to sit up, but she was dizzy and off balance. Her hands were bound behind her back. Flex-cuffs, she thought.

“This place looks even worse upstairs, if that’s possible,” Lisa said as she came through the kitchen.

Arden tried to warn her, but only managed to croak her name.

“Are you—” When Lisa pushed open the door, she froze in place on the threshold and gripped the doorknob for support.

“Hi, Lisa.”

Arden’s synapses were operating sluggishly. From where she lay on her side on the floor, she looked up and blinked Rusty into focus. He was wearing disposable gloves. Her nine-millimeter looked very dark and menacing against the bright blue latex on his right hand.

Her own gun was aimed at her? How and when had Rusty gotten it?

Lisa said, “Don’t, Rusty. Please don’t.”

“Don’t pull the trigger, you mean?”

“Please.”

“Look at that, Arden.” He nudged her hip with the metal toe of his boot. “Did you think you would live to see the day that this bitch would beg?”

He bent down and hooked his free hand in Arden’s elbow, then yanked her to her feet with a suddenness that made her nauseated. He shoved her down onto the side of the bed. She sat, swaying, but raised her chin and gave him the fiercest look she could muster.

“Ledge is on his way here. If you hurt us, he will kill you.”

“Ledge is speeding in the opposite direction to rescue his poor ol’ senile uncle Henry.” He poked the barrel of the pistol between her breasts. “If you move, you’re dead.”

Lisa raised her fingers to her mouth and whimpered. “Arden hasn’t done anything to you.”

“Not yet, but she and Burnet are cooking up a bad batch of hassle for me. The only reason I haven’t killed her yet is because, first, I want to expose her to the devious bitch you are.”

As he said that, he reached into his shirt pocket, then opened his hand so they could see what it held. “These little buggers are the best invention ever. You stick them someplace like underneath a kitchen table, and you can hear conversations clear as a bell. Well, not quite that clear, especially with this damn weather. But clear enough.

“Unfortunately, I didn’t get this one planted soon enough to be privy to everything Arden and Burnet have been discussing over the last few days, but I’m guessing they’ve been plotting my never-gonna-happen downfall.

“However, I did get it in here last night after taking care of some other, rather urgent business.” He winked down at Arden as though they shared an inside joke. Dwayne Hawkins. “While I was here, I helped myself to this.” He brandished the pistol. “So when I kill her,” he said, indicating Lisa, “it’ll look like you did it before shooting yourself.”

“What a foolish plan,” Arden said. “Nobody will believe that I killed my sister. I have no reason to.”

“Yeah, you do. You just don’t know it yet.” He gave her a wide grin. Then going back to Lisa, he said, “Where was I? Oh, the bug.” He bounced it in his palm, then returned it to his pocket. “Luckily, I successfully planted it last night. Because, today, I caught you lying through your pretty porcelains.”

“I confessed that I was in on the burglary, not our dad.”

“Oh, I know. I heard. And it was touching. Truly. But, no, see, what I’m referring to came later in the conversation, when you were telling her and Burnet about me coming here, ranting and raving like a man possessed. Et cetera.”

“Do you deny it?”

“No. Not at all. If I’d’ve found Joe and the money that night, I probably would have killed him, and you with him, taken the money, and been a happy camper.”

He pursed his lips and frowned down at Arden. “Wouldn’t have made a very good Easter morning for little Arden, though, would it?” Then his features became taut with malevolence as he turned back to Lisa. “Did baby sister’s welfare cross your mind when you were murdering her daddy?”

Arden’s stomach heaved. She had to swallow quickly to keep from spewing bile.

Lisa fell back a step, her spine landing hard enough against the door frame to make a knocking sound. “You’re demented.”

“I’m crazy like a fox is what I am. I pick up on things. Like when you told your appreciative audience that I went into the kitchen there, looking for Joe, and all that was left of him were muddy footprints just inside the back door and a wet patch where the bag of money had been.”

“So?”

“There were no footprints. No wet spot.”

Arden looked over at Lisa, whose lips had gone as white as her fingers still gripping the doorknob.

“When I heard that,” Rusty continued, “it got me to thinking that the rigmarole about you hearing him come in, finding him in the kitchen with the money, and telling you the jig was up, yada yada, was bunk. He never made it back to the house that night, did he?”

Lisa’s throat worked. “I told Arden the truth. Dad—”

“Okay,” he said, cutting her off. “Have it your way. One thing you did tell the truth about, I did warn you that, if you betrayed me, I would kill her with you watching.”

“No!” Lisa cried as she thrust her arm out toward him.

Arden surged to her feet and raised her knee, trying to knock the pistol out of Rusty’s hand, but dizziness made her uncoordinated. She did no harm to Rusty. He secured her around the waist with his free arm, pulled her back against his chest, and jammed the pistol up under her chin.