“Come on, move along,” Lewis ordered.
Slowly she continued down the hall. To her relief he didn't notice the earring left behind.
“Through there,” he said, indicating a door to her left.
She opened it to discover wooden steps leading into a blackness below. He switched on the lights. It was a basement converted into a recreational room.
“I didn't have any trouble carrying you into the house, but I figured I could get us both killed if I tried to carry you down those,” Lewis said.
He was smiling triumphantly and her stomach knotted. “If you're planning to kill me, you'll never make contact with my aunt.”
He gave her a patronizing look. “I'm not going to kill you. I'm simply going to make sure I don't have to worry about you while I'm at work.”
She started to teeter as she took the first step. The pills were making her very unsteady, forcing her to hold onto the rail.
“Quit dawdling,” he grumbled.
“You've got me doped up on pills,” she hissed back.
“I'm sure you've tried your share of drugs. Those sleep ing pills should be nothing.”
“I've never used drugs!”
He gave a short of disbelief.
When she reached the foot of the stairs, he had her cross the rec room and go through the door into the unfinished part of the basement where the laundry area was. At the far wall a metal cabinet had been pulled out and turned sideways exposing a door the cabinet had obviously been concealing. “That's our destination,” he said.
She frowned in confusion. How could there be a door there? The basement should have ended at that wall.
“Open it,” he ordered.
The door was heavy and looked as if it was made of metal. It took all her strength to obey.
“There's a light switch to your left,” he said.
She flipped it and a cold shiver ran through her.
“Bet you can't guess what this is?” he challenged jovially.
“It looks like a solitary confinement cell only larger and with more stuff inside,” she replied, his pleasure giving her the creeps.
“It's a bomb shelter.” He patted the walls. “Fifteen inches of solid concrete. I had it built underground, adjoining the house so we could enter without having to go outside. In case the bomb was dropped, I didn't want to fight off those who were less prepared.”
She looked around at the interior. Shelves stocked with dehydrated food and bottled water lined the wall. In one corner was a small chemical toilet.
“Don't waste your time searching for any kind of weapon. I moved anything useful out to the garage.” Lewis motioned toward a counter where a couple of bottles of water and a six-pack of high nutritional drinks were sitting in a row. “Drink down one of those cans,” he instructed.
Knowing she needed sustenance if she was to survive, she did as she was told.
“Now sit.” He motioned toward a cot in the center of the concrete tomb.
Her legs still too shaky to make an attempt at escape, she seated herself.
He held out a pill of the same kind she'd taken before and one of the bottles of water. “Now be a good girl and swallow it down.”
“You promised no more pills.”
“So I lied. Now take it.”
Again she tried to hold the medication under her tongue.
“Now why don't I trust you? Must be your heritage.” He held her nose forcing her to open her mouth. Scowling threateningly, he released his hold. “Swallow it!”
Katrina knew from the hatred in his eyes that he was only keeping her alive to get the evidence. He'd planned to kill her all along. Again she considered trying to make a play for the gun but her body felt leaden. All she had on her side was time. With any luck, Lewis would keep her here until close to the time to meet with her aunt Saying a silent prayer that Boyd had understood her message, she took another drink of water, this time letting it carry the pill down.
“Now open wide.”
She opened her mouth.
With a nod of satisfaction, Lewis motioned for her to lie back down.
“Oh, by the way, if you're thinking Boyd might rescue you, forget it. He's furious that you left. As far as he's concerned, he never wants to see you again.”
Hopelessness threatened to overwhelm her. She reminded herself that if Boyd had understood her message he would know not to trust Lewis. But what if he hadn't understood? What if his faith in her did not run deeply? What if he did believe she'd been tricking him all along?
The bit about the intimacy and the earring had to have tipped him off, she assured herself. Or, he could decide she had a weird definition of intimacy and maybe he'd missed the earring. No! She refused to believe that. Boyd would find her, she assured herself.
Standing, leaning against the door frame, Lewis studied her like she was some kind of insect. “I called my Brenda âPrincess' because that's what she was to me. A princess. And Garduchi and his ilk killed her.”
In spite of the fact that she knew Lewis deserved some of the blame, Katrina admitted he was right about Garduchi and people who worked for him. They ruined young lives to line their own pockets. That she'd even cared about her aunt showed a weakness in her.
You can care about someone and not like what they do,
she argued. But that didn't make her feel any better. She was almost glad when the pill took effect.
Chapter 11
T
uesday morning, knowing Lewis would recognize his car, Boyd sat in a rented vehicle down the street from Lewis's house. When Lewis came out, dressed for work, he followed him, always careful to stay well behind. Lewis drove straight to the office.
Entering the building a couple of minutes behind him, Boyd again told himself he must be on the wrong trail. Lewis appeared perfectly at ease. And the friendly way he'd invited Boyd into his home the evening before was a strong indication that Katrina wasn't there.
So, maybe he has an accomplice who has her stashed somewhere. A
quarter of a million bucks, even split two ways, was a lot of money.
He drew a terse breath. If Lewis had taken her, it was because he thought she knew where Leona was. What would he and his accomplice, if he had one, do when they found out she didn't? Or had they discovered that already? They couldn't let her go free. The thought that he might already be too late to save her caused his stomach to tighten. Purpose showed in his eyes. He refused to believe she was dead.
Schooling himself to show no suspicion, he went into the operations room to check on any phone calls that had come in during the night.
“You still look like hell,” Lewis said, solicitously. He motioned toward the others in the room with his eyes. “Why don't we go get a cup of coffee,” he encouraged, clearly wanting to get Boyd alone.
“Sure.”
In the hall, Lewis nodded toward his office. “In there. You and I need to have a talk.”
Was Lewis feeling guilty and wanted to confess his part in Katrina's abduction? Boyd wondered hopefully.
Closing the door to ensure their privacy, Lewis looked at him with a fatherly expression. “I didn't have a chance to get to know Katrina, but she seemed real nice. I believed her when she said she didn't know where her aunt was. I can understand how she fooled you. She was one terrific actress. But you can't let her departure get to you.”
Lewis seemed so sincere, Boyd's doubt that he was on the right trail increased. “I know you're right.”
“There's something else you have to brace yourself for.”
Boyd didn't like the sound of that.
“When she does join up with her aunt, that will make her a target as well. It's likely that if we find Leona dead, we'll find Katrina alongside her.”
Boyd felt as if he'd been kicked in the stomach. If Lewis did have her, he was obviously planning to kill her along with her aunt. “She doesn't deserve to die.”
“Garduchi has caused the death of many innocents. However, you have to realize that Katrina is not as innocent as you want to believe. After all, she did lie to us. She said she didn't know where her aunt was and she does.”
Boyd experienced a ray of hope. Clearly, Lewis believed Katrina knew where Leona was. That meant that if he was her abductor, she'd convinced him of that and, being the clever woman she was, she would also have convinced him that they had to keep her alive in order to contact Leona.
Lewis placed an arm around Boyd's shoulders. “I don't like being the bearer of bad news, but I wanted you to be prepared.”
Boyd forced himself to sound grateful. “I appreciate that.”
Lewis released him. “Now, let's get back to work.”
“I'm going to stop by my office for a while,” Boyd said as they started down the hall.
Lewis gave him a fatherly, knowing look. “When this is all over, I'm going to find you a nice girl. Barbara down in accounting might suit you.”
“I think I'll stay away from women for a while,” Boyd returned.
A headache had built by the time he reached his office. Lewis had seemed so sincere. If he was in on the abduction, there had to be a side of the man Boyd had never glimpsed. Again doubt assailed him. He could be wasting his time and the one thing he was certain of was that he didn't have time to waste. He scowled at the chair behind his desk. He couldn't sit around and wait, he had to do something.
Stopping by the operations room, he told them he thought he was coming down with the flu and was going home.
“Sounds like a good idea,” Lewis said approvingly.
Driving directly to Lewis's neighborhood, Boyd parked near a small park, then carefully made his way to the back of Lewis's house. Even though he'd reasoned that Katrina wouldn't be there, during the drive he'd let his hopes that he was wrong grow. The place was big enough an accomplice could have been hiding with her in one of the rooms the night before. And, maybe he and Katrina were still there.
Picking the lock on the back door, Boyd entered stealthily and made a cautious but quick sweep of the entire place including the attic and basement. There was no one there.
Going out the back door, he entered the garage by the side door. There was no one there either.
He fought a rush of disappointment “So now I go back through the house and make a thorough search,” he ordered himself. He wasn't certain what he was looking for. But if Lewis wasn't involved, then he was back to square one with no idea where to look next.
Going from room to room, he found nothing unusual. Granted, the pink and white room was a little out of the ordinary. It had obviously been Lewis's daughter's room and it looked as if everything had been left the way it was when she died. But maybe neither Lewis or his wife had been able to bring themselves to go through the girl's things and, after his wife left, Lewis had simply found it easier to leave the room as he'd found it.
Again standing in the hall, Boyd looked upward at the string from a ceiling ladder giving access to the attic. The undisturbed dust he'd seen up there on his first sweep of the place convinced him making a search there would be a waste of his time.
Descending into the basement, he made another walk through, this time looking more closely. The recreational room offered nothing to support his suspicions. Continuing into the utility and laundry area, he could find nothing out of order there as well. It was, in fact, neat as a pin. His gaze paused on the three-shelf, metal utility unit against the far wall. He'd checked it on his first sweep. It was fully stockpiled with boxes and packages of spare laundry and paper products. Lewis was clearly a well-organized housekeeper.
Returning to the upper level, Boyd again worried that he'd misinterpreted Katrina's note. Or maybe he was playing the fool and the note was a red herring. Maybe she was having drinks with her aunt right now and laughing at the gullibility of men. He realized that he was actually wishing that was the case. All he wanted was for her to be alive and safe. “Boy, do I have it bad,” he admitted, glumly. He also wasn't ready to believe she'd deceived him.
Returning to the garage, he looked around. There were some boxes of camping equipment. He'd never thought of Lewis as a camper, but then he'd never expected to suspect Lewis of being one of the bad guys either.
Convinced that if Lewis was involved, he had an accomplice who was watching over Katrina, Boyd returned to the house and went through Lewis's desk. There was nothing to indicate who the accomplice might be or where he was. Picking up the phone, he hit the redial number. He got a pizza parlor. Apparently Lewis had ordered a pizza.
Recalling that there was a phone by Lewis's bed, he went in there and hit the redial button. He got headquarters. Feeling more and more as if he was following the wrong trail, he started back down the hall.
At the door of the bedroom decorated in pink and white, he paused. There was a phone by the bed in there as well. Still, he hesitated. The room gave him the creeps. It had the air of a shrine. “I suppose everyone has to deal with their grief in their own way,” he muttered.
He doubted the phone in that room had been used in years. But on the verge of desperation, he went inside. Lifting the receiver and looking at the buttons, he saw that it was too old a model to have a redial. He dropped it back in the cradle and strode toward the door. Frustration raged within him. Nothing! He'd found nothing.
Abruptly he stopped. He'd been glowering at the floor and a glint of blue in a corner of the door frame had caught his eye. Almost afraid he'd imagined it, he bent down for a closer view. It was an earring...the mate to Katrina's earring. She'd been here. But when?
Turning back, he began to search the room for clues. There was nothing to give him a time frame. Going into the bathroom, he noticed that the pink hand towel had been used. He felt it. It was still damp and there was a small puddle of water on the floor as if someone had been using the sink and splashed water around. He'd been watching the house since before dawn. No one other than Lewis had left.
“By the front way,” he growled at himself. But they could have left by the back. If they'd crossed the back lawn, keeping to the right, and come out on the street running parallel to this one, he wouldn't have seen them.
Striding through the house, he went out the back door and, with the skill of a man who had learned to track almost before he'd learned to walk, he studied the wet grass. His footprints were the only ones he could find. Most likely Lewis's accomplice had taken Katrina out of the house while he was following Lewis to work.
His hand formed a fist crushing the earring into his palm until it cut into his flesh. He'd been so close and he'd let her slip out of his grasp.
Dropping the earring into his pocket, he called headquarters from his cellular phone and asked to speak to his partner. When Lewis came on the phone Boyd said that he was running a temperature and would be staying home for a few days. Lewis was solicitous as usual. He offered to bring by some chicken soup from the deli on his way home, but Boyd said he just wanted to sleep. After ringing off, he drove back to headquarters and parked where he could keep an eye on Lewis's car.
When Lewis left, he tailed him...first to the grocery, then to the movie rental place and then home. When he was certain of Lewis's destination, he continued past Lewis's street, circling the block coming in from the opposite direction. Before reaching Lewis's house, he pulled into a driveway on the opposite side of the street. During his early morning vigil, he'd noticed that this house was for sale and unoccupied. High hedges to one side of the driveway and overgrown forsythia bushes at the front edge of the lawn and along the side gave him some cover from nosy neighbors and Lewis. Settling in, binoculars in one hand and the hero sandwich he'd bought at the sub shop while Lewis was picking out movies in the other, he began his vigil. He had a clear view of Lewis's front door and the walkway from the house to the garage.
Â
Katrina again felt herself being shaken awake.
“Time for another pill.” Lewis's insistent voice broke through the fog.
“No,” she groaned.
“Yes. Now be a good girl and swallow.”
He shoved the pill into her mouth and held a glass of water to her lips. Her mouth was too dry to resist the temptation to take a drink. The pill went down and she felt herself again being lowered onto the cot.
Â
Boyd yawned and looked at his watch. It was midnight. All the lights in Lewis's house had been turned off about an hour ago. The last had been in Lewis's bedroom, indicating his partner had settled in for the night.
Abruptly, Boyd cursed under his breath. A police patrol car had pulled into the driveway behind him. They hadn't used a siren but they did have their lights flashing. Hoping Lewis was sound asleep, Boyd quickly climbed out of his car.
Jacketless with his gun in its shoulder holster in clear view, he held his hands above his head with his FBI badge in his right hand. “I'm here on an FBI surveillance. Could you fellows turn off those lights?” he asked keeping his voice as low as possible.
The patrolman, who had gotten out of the car and was walking toward Boyd, waved to his partner and the lights were turned off. “What's going on?” he asked, reaching Boyd and playing his flashlight on Boyd's ID. Meanwhile his partner exited the patrol car, drew his gun and took a position where he had an easy shot at Boyd, in case Boyd wasn't on the level.
“It's my partner. He's been working on a dangerous case and his life's been threatened. He refused to let the department put a guard on him. He can be real bullheaded when he wants to be. Doesn't like to feel like he's being nursemaided. So I'm doing it on my own without his knowledge. You guys know how it is, partners should watch each other's backs.”
“Yeah, you're right on that one,” the patrolman nearest him said, giving his partner a nod to let him know everything was okay. “We'll let Mrs. Riker know you're on the level.” He grinned. “I'd call her a nosy busybody but, the truth is, she's a real help. She keeps an eye on the neighborhood and lets us know if anything isn't kosher.”
“Thanks.” Boyd said, keeping an eye out for any lights coming on in Lewis's house. None did.
Hours later, Boyd watched the sun come up. Once he was certain Lewis was in for the night, he'd let himself doze at fifteen-minute intervals. He'd dreamt of Katrina. Always she was calling out to him for help.