Glass Houses (28 page)

A stab of pain burned through his right wrist. Where was she? On foot? In trouble?

He hit redial.

Four rings, then, “The party you’re—“ and Aiden depressed the cradle.

“Get it together, baby,” Fats said. “No, leave that for last. I gotta make sure I can see ’em in my sleep.”

He had to get himself back on the bed.

Using both hands on the receiver again, he rotated it and lined it up with the base before gently setting it down. Gritting his teeth against pain, he resumed his position on the bed and was grateful to be still and close his eyes.

Hopelessness wasn’t a luxury a police officer allowed himself, but he sure couldn’t see any way out of this now. Not a chance without a miracle.

The handle on the door to the room shook. He hadn’t heard the key turn in the lock but it must have because the edge of the door rattled against the chain.

“Shit,” Aiden heard Kitty say distinctly. “Hurry up.”

“Damn it,” Fats sounded ready to cry, “Oh, baby.”

“Baby and Fats are going to be dead if we don’t move it,” Kitty said.

Aiden managed to make himself sink into a more deeply relaxed state.

The chain was in danger of being yanked from the wall. “Open this,” Ryan said. “Now. Open the goddamn door.”

Kitty and Fats erupted from the bathroom. Aiden could
hear their labored breathing. “He won’t know, will he?” Kitty whispered.

“You’d better hope not,” Fats told her. “Co
m
in’, Ryan.” Fats fumbled the chain off, and from the thud that followed and the man’s cry, Aiden visualized Ryan smashing the door into his partner and knocking him down.

“What’s the chain for, you cretin?” Ryan said. “And don’t tell me you’re making sure Flynn doesn’t go anywhere. He looks like he’s dying to me. You two were screwing, weren’t you?
”

“No, Ryan,” Kitty said. “I was frightened someone else might come, so I asked Fats to put on the chain. I don’t know what to expect next.”

“Really?” Ryan’s footsteps were heavy. The sound of fabric tearing followed. “Just helping you out, baby. That shirt was buttoned all wrong. And will you look at that? I must be losing it. Last time I was in there I could have sworn you were wearing a bra. Remember that, babe? When we stopped for Fats to take a leak, and you and I waited in the truck?” Silence reigned.

Then Kitty gasped.

“You don’t like being pinched?” Ryan asked. “I kinda wondered how sensitive plastic ones were.”

“Watch your mouth,” Kitty said. “They’re very sensitive.”

“I’ll have to run more tests,” Ryan said. “Any calls from that husband of yours and his partner?”

“No.”

“Time to call them. They’re inconveniencing me. People who inconvenience me make me vindictive.”

“I don’t want to call them,” Kitty said.

“I didn’t ask what you wanted. Did you hear me ask what Kitty wanted, Fats?”

“I sure didn’t, Ryan. She must have imagined it.”

“Yeah,” Ryan said. “Just like you’re imagining I’m blind. Did you enjoy fucking Kitty, Fats?”

“Kitty?” Fats asked, sounding stupid.

“Yeah. Kitty. You feeling good now? Ready for a long, warm sleep? Too bad there won’t be time for the sleep, but I’m
a reasonable man. I insist you get a good fuck in. Frustration isn’t good for a man. I’d never ask that of you. Go on, get it done. Don’t mind me.”

Aiden had detested Ryan from the day they’d met. He’d thought Ryan crude then, and by now he knew the man had a filthy mouth and a mind to go with it.

“You’re all wrong about this,” Fats said. “Isn’t
he, Kitty?”

“All wrong,” Kitty said, and laughed. “You wouldn’t want to watch us doing it, Ryan. You’d hate that. Anyway, it’s sick. We’ve got plenty of other stuff to think about.”

Kitty cried out.

“Don’t hit her,” Fats said. “She’s not worth the effort, Ryan.”

“Shut up,” Ryan said. “Bitch. Leave the shirt the way it is. You like showing your tits off, and Fats is going to need something to hold on to. Ever seen any good snuff?”

Fats said, “You’re making too much out of this.”

“Great stuff,” Ryan said. “Best sex you’ll ever see. I’ve got a new disk with me. If I watch it later, I may let you see, too. In the meantime, I’ll be the director and you two get to be the actors. Sometimes the women don’t really die. Sometimes they do.”

“How’d it go with the dog?” Fats asked quietly, sounding shaken.

“It went. Took too long, but it’s gone.”

Aiden made sure his face didn’t move but he felt tears in his eyes.

“Unzip it, Fats. A good live show is exactly what I feel like.”

“Well, I don’t feel like it,” Kitty said.

“But you love putting on a show,” Ryan told her. “That’s what you do best. Have you shown Fats how you can—”

A cell phone rang.

Ryan said, “Shit, that had better be the call we’re waiting for. You’re on, Kitty.”

Kitty said, “Hello,” and her voice was shaky. She didn’
t say anything else for some tim
e.

“Hey,” Ryan whispered. “Tell ’em to hold on, and give me a rundown.”

“Just a minute, Rupert,” she said, then to Ryan, “They’re at Bobby Mobo’s. They’re exhausted, they say. Kept getting lost. They’re going to get a room and sleep for a few hours. Then they’ll—”

“They’re coming here,” Ryan said. “Now. I know they said the FitzDurham woman fobbed ’em off with just a few photos and she kept the rest. I want to see what they’ve got. If Flynn decides to come out of his long winter’s nap, he’s going to help us get the rest. That woman’s got to be wandering around out there not knowing what to do next. She won’t go far at night, but come morning she’ll try to take off.

“Tell Fish where we are. Very specific instructions. Dangle the promise of a night’s sleep—with you. But you want to meet them in the caf
é
first. I’ll make sure you and Fats know exactly what to say, but I’ll be close enough to hear just in case something backfires. Tell them.”

“I don’t want to meet them.”

“And I don’t care what you want.”

Kitty sighed. “What about him? You can’t leave him here alone. I’ll stay and watch him.”

“As soon as you finish on the phone, I’m putting Flynn back in the truck and making sure he can’t move,” Ryan said. “Any other questions?”

Kitty said, “No,” and gave remarkably good directions to Fish and Moody. Then she brushed off their obvious complaints. “I’m looking forward to seeing you, Rupert,” she said at last. “I miss you, and I’ve been frightened. Well, anyone can get mixed up in something, then be out of their depth. We’ll work things out. See you soon. Bye.”

“
Very good,
”
Ryan said when the call was finished.
“
Fats, make sure she doesn’t open her mouth about me. We’d lose our trump card if she did. Can you stop her?”

“It’ll be my pleasure,” Fats said.

“Why can’t we just kill them when they get here?” Kitty asked.

Devoted little wife,
Aiden thought.

“Because they can be useful. We’re going to leave them holding the bag. We get their pictures and the ones FitzDurham has. Then we leave Fish and Moody with Flynn and the woman—and Flynn’s gun. Nice of him to bring it for us. Fish is the cold one. He’ll pull the trigger if he’s told to. Probably enjoy it. We’ll make sure someone finds out about it—when we’re far enough away to enjoy the headlines. Sweet, huh?”

“Yeah, sweet,” Fats said.

Nineteen

T
he battery in the Rover was deader than dead. Chris had worked over it, using the Harley battery, but there had been nothing. They were left with the bike and might as well make the best of it.

Chris did spare a thought for how difficult it would be to return the Harley to the Chicago friend who’d brought it to him at O’Hare. If he and Olivia were lucky enough to find Aiden alive, they’d never get to the airport with the three of them on the bike, not without being stopped by the police. It was a risk he wouldn’t take anyway.

He’d face that one later.
“
You’re sure that’s the same car?” he asked Olivia. He hadn’t moved the bike an inch yet, but she sat stiffly on the pillion seat, clutching her hat in both hands, and each time he looked back at her, there was no change in her petrified expression.

“Same car,” she said. “Rupert Fish and Winston Moody. They’ve been following us in it.”

The car, a big black Caddy, was parked at the motel office. One man had gone inside; another stood outside talking on a phone and showing signs of agitation. Finally he opened the
passenger door and threw the phone inside. Then he went into the office and returned shortly with his companion.

T
heir voices carried clearly. “
I’m not going anywhere now, Rupert,” the second man said. “That’s the trouble with you, you’re too easily pushed around. And by that dreadful wife of yours, too.”

“They always shout,” Olivia told him. “Really, they never stop shouting.”

“Just as well right now.”

“She’s with that Fats Lemon,” Mr. Fish said. “He’s dangerous, I tell you. Kitty sounded frightened. She said we had to come at once. I’ve got the directions.”

“You’re telling me we’ve got to go at once because that round-heeled sex addict is frightened? Don’t be absurd, Rupert. She won’t have any trouble finding someone to cuddle her.”

“Don't,”
Rupert said. “No, Winnie, just don’t say anymore. We’re leaving now. It’s not far. They were waiting for us to make contact.”

“How touching. Must be because they miss us. All right. Let’s go, but if they kill us, I shall blame you.”

Chris held his tongue on the subject of what he thought about idiots with the power to cause trouble. “Give me your hat or you’ll lose it,” he told Olivia, and s
tuffed it inside his jacket. “
Hang on to me. Lean against my back. You’ll probably like the ride. My wife was a real skeptic, but she loves it now.” The Cadillac took off, and Chris didn’t give it much time before following. He drove along the access road and eventually turned onto the highway.

Olivia clung. She put her arms around Chris Talon’s wide back and clutched his jacket. He had plugged Aiden’s phone into a place on the motorcycle that was meant for it.

Her legs felt boneless. Chris drove fast, and the wind and rain tore at them. Several times he patted her hands. Another nice man with a gruff exterior. She liked him, but then, making snap decisions about people was becoming a habit. She’d even managed to make the kind of snap decision that had allowed her to feel wonderful about sleeping with a man she scarcely
knew. Naturally, she had moments of awkwardness when she thought about what they had done, but she was a good judge of character.

And she’d fallen in love with Aiden.

The wind blasted inside her too-big helmet, turned her ears icy and made them ache. She almost welcomed the discomfort because it pulled her attention from the outrageousness of what she’d begun to admit to herself. If this could all be cleared up, she’d return t
o London and resume her life…
wouldn’t she? Trying to forget Aiden would be the hardest thing she’d ever done
…
if she had to do it.

He was a good, decent, absolutely stunning man and he’d taken risks for her. Look where he was now. He could die because of her.

How could there be so much air and wind around when she couldn’t seem to catch her breath?

Aiden Flynn would have put himself out there for anyone he thought was in danger and whom he believed he could help. No. Yes, he would do that, but although almost anyone would scoff at the way their intimacy had happened, she believed he felt something more than casual sexual attraction for her. He wasn’t that kind of man.

Wouldn’t that theory make a lot of people she knew laugh? And she wouldn’t be able to blame them.

He might already be dead. The tears in her eyes weren’t all the work of the wind.

Olivia wondered how far they’d ridden. She couldn’t see the road ahead, or wouldn’t. There was absolutely no question of her leaning one way or the other on the nasty bike in order to look.

Chris slowed down, and Olivia prayed that meant he was stopping.

He veered right, tipping at a terrifying angle, and they roared around a circular exit from the motorway. The exit kept turning and turning and Olivia closed her eyes.

The bike straightened.

A lighted green arrow flashed on and off, advertising the
Sleep In Peace Motel. Chris passed the entrance, drove the motorcycle onto a verge, and stopped. He got off, kicked down a stand, and helped Olivia remove her helmet.

“What a horrid name,” she said. “Sounds like an undertaker’s.”

Chris smiled. “Off you come,” he said.

She tried, but nothing would move.

Chris lifted her from the bike and held on while she waited to feel her legs. “That happens,” he said. “Stamp your feet.”

Obediently, she did as she was told. “Is this where they went?
”
She took off the helmet and hooked it on the handlebars.

“This is where they turned in.” Chris chuckled. “You’re right about the name. I thought the same thing. We’re going to find somewhere out of the way and see if we can figure the place out. Can you handle that? Being cold but keeping quiet?”

“Of course I can.” He might have asked if she could also keep quiet when she was really, really scared. She could do that, too. “You’ve got to be cold in your suit. At least I’ve got this awful leather stuff on.”

Chris held her hand and they slipped along close to a hedge that smelled like fir trees. “I don’t feel the cold,” he said. The darkness was complete now.

Lighted windows showed through an opening in the hedge. Chris stepped to the other side of the gap, pulling Olivia after him. They made a rapid tour around a building with a coffee shop and office at the end nearest the road, and a single story of rooms that formed an L shape.

Chris didn’t like anything about this. Too many unknowns. “We stay here,” he told Olivia when they’d reached the cover of some prickly bushes near the last unit. No lights showed there, and there wasn’t a car parked in front. Occupancy looked to be low tonight.

“That’s it,” Olivia said, pointing. “The truck Fats and the other man were driving with that woman. With Aiden and Boswell in the back.”

Only one vehicle matched the description she’d given. It
stood in front of a room where light glowed through an orange print curtain. “Stay put,” he told Olivia.

“
No.
”
She made a grab for his sleeve and held on.

So much for even one thing being uncomplicated. “Yes,” he told her quietly. “I won’t be longer than it takes to see if Aiden’s in the truck.”

She released him immediately. “I’m sorry,” was all she said.

Chris took off, blessing the darkness. He kept his lapels folded over his white shirt, but prepared to fall back on being a civilian motel guest on his way to the caf
é
if he walked into someone. There was no need. He got a good look into the empty truck and made it back to Olivia without incident.

“He’s not there, is he?” Olivia said. “I don’t know if I’m relieved.”

Neither did Chris. “The Cadillac’s still near the office, which means those guys aren’t checked in yet.”

She went to her knees in the dirt and huddled against the wall. “We don’t know if Aiden’s here at all,” she muttered. “They could already have killed him.”

Chris crouched beside her and patted her back. “I think it’s far more likely they’ve got some good reason for wanting him alive.” In truth, he shared her fears. “I need to get into that room without shooting the place up—and possibly hitting the wrong people. From the description you gave me, the man who ambushed Aiden had to be Ryan Hill. I didn’t know him well, but what I did know, I didn’t like. Cold son
of
…
Cold
guy
.
”

“I keep forgetting you’ve got a gun, too,” she whispered, not wanting to think about guns or what a cold man Ryan Hill might be.

“Cops carry guns,
”
he said with as little inflection as possible. “That doesn’t mean we all love ’em. They’re part of the job.”

A sense that something was gliding through the darkness nearby instantly became a conviction. “Hold still,” he told Olivia. “Do not move a muscle until I tell you it’s okay.”

She didn’t squeal, or even draw in an audible breath. His opinion of her began to climb.

He drew his gun, but before he could even line it up on something, a panting shadow barrelled
forward and slunk rapidly towar
d Olivia.

“Boswell,” she said, much too loudly. “Chris, it’s Boswell.”

“Keep it down. Hey, you old reprobate. Remember me? I met this good guy before I left NYPD. Aiden had a thing for him even then.”

“He’s so sweet,” Olivia crooned, hugging the big, muddy dog.

Chris said, “
Sweet? I don’t suppose anyone else ever called him that. Let’s give him a look-see.”

Olivia said, “I’ll do it. You are a good, pretty, and very faithful dog. Let me look at you.” She ran her hands over him. Boss suffered the indignity until she seemed almost finished. Then he yelped. “Help me see what this is,” Olivia said.

Chris hooded his small flashlight with a hand and trained it on the back of the dog’s neck.

“He cut himself,” Olivia said. “Poor boy. I’m sorry.”

Chris looked more closely. “Bullet crease, I think,” he said. “Winged the back of his neck, but it’s superficial. We’ll get him taken care of as soon as we can.”

He felt Olivia watching him and met her eyes. Da
rn
, he wished she weren’t so pale.

“Aiden’s not in the track,” she said and swallowed. She passed a hand over her eyes. “He could be anywhere. Boswell was with him, and now the dog’s here, alone, and with a—well, a bullet wound. Aiden could have been shot, too.”

She was echoing his own conclusions, but he wa
sn’t about to tell her that. “
He could also be just fine and in that room over there. I’m going to ask you to stay here again. Boss will follow orders and stay with you. He obviously relates to you. I’ll call him if I think he could be useful.”

“
I don’t want to stay,
”
she said, her voice breaking.
“
Please let me come. I want to find Aiden.”

If Aiden was okay, there could be interesting days ahead. This woman had a big-time case on him. If Sonnie liked her, and he thought she would, his wife would be ecstatic.
“
Listen to me, Olivia. There could very well be shooting, fighting, all you could do is get in the way. You could jeopardize the outcome we want. D’you understand?”

“Of course I do,” she snapped. “I’m not an idiot.”

“I didn’t say—”

“Sorry,” she said quickly. “That wasn’t called for. Please do whatever you can. And be careful.”

Chris didn’t waste more time before starting off. He hadn’t made more than twenty-five yards when the door next to the orange-curtained window opened. It wasn’t difficult to recognize Fats Lemon, even after at least five years. The guy walked as if his feet were on springs, and he had a way of jerking his head sideways as if his neck hurt. With him was a woman whose silhouette suggested she was well built and liked to show it off. She had a lot of blond hair. They trotted toward the opposite end of the building.

Chris slipped away from the building and walked, bent over, next to a hedge. When the couple went into the caf
é
, he crossed back and stood close enough to see everything that went on inside. They went to join two men at a window table. Fish and Moody.

Chris knew what he had to do now. Go into that room. Once more he stayed close to the walls.

There was only one way to play this one. Arriving at the appropriate door, he squared off, used a foot to send it crashing open and followed it inside, gun at the ready.

Aiden lay on the bed. Barefoot, wearing a getup that would make his mother pass him by, he was cuffed wrist and ankle. Chris couldn’t believe his luck. The fools had left him alone. “Aiden,” he whispered. “Can you hear me? It’s Chris.”

His old partner’s electric-blue eyes opened, met his, and filled with alarm.

“Olivia’s with me,” Chris said. “She’s doing fine.” Aiden jerked his head to the left, toward another door where
the bathroom must be. Only then did Chris hear water running in a sink and the toilet flushing. He dropped to the floor, put the bed between him and the bathroom, and waited.