Two hours later, they turned onto a long dirt drive that climbed through thick spruce woods and then opened up to a rambling two-story house set in a meadow of uncut late-summer hay. There was a spectacular ocean view and Sarah realized that for all the sense of isolation, they were actually close to Halifax. The city spread out below them, appearing and disappearing as a light fog drifted in from the North Atlantic.
“Nice place,” Alvin said. “Private, but you can be on the Halifax waterfront in ten minutes.”
The hay was overdue for cutting and flitted from gold to auburn and back again as the breeze whispered across the field. An SUV sat in front of the building with writing on the door. Sarah got out, took a breath of spruce-perfumed air, then read the writing. It said
GLOBAL
R
ESOURCES
and had the company’s logo.
She stared at it. “Why is that here?”
Then the front door opened and DeMaio came out and stood on the porch. Sarah had never seen him before, yet she knew instantly who he was from Kitty’s description. She whirled around to see Alvin now holding his pistol loosely in one hand, pointing it generally in her direction.
“Shouldn’t you be pointing that at him?” she said, gesturing to the cold-faced man on the porch. “What’s going on, Alvin?”
The diminutive Mountie ignored her. “Where do you want her?” he said.
“Put her in the front room,” said DeMaio.
Sarah began to back away, but Alvin stuck the pistol in her side and pushed her forward.
“You?” She said. “
You
are the bad cop?”
“Depends on your point of view, I guess. Hard to make a decent living on a cop’s salary,” he said. “Global pays a whole lot better.”
“You’re the one who got my husband killed.” Sarah’s eyes blazed and she slapped him across the face just as hard as she could. His cheek turned red and he instinctively started to strike back.
“That’s enough,” DeMaio said. “She owed you that. Get her inside.”
Five minutes later, Sarah sat alone across from the man who had raped Kitty. Alvin had gone back outside.
“What are you going to do?” she asked. “Why did you take me?”
“Leverage,” said DeMaio. “And maybe, after a while, a little fun. Your friend Miss Wells has got herself pretty well protected. I can’t get to her, so I got to you instead. Now we’ll see if she’s as good a friend as you think.”
Sarah was mesmerized by his face. It was distinctive mainly for being devoid of expression. The eyes were calculating and black, like those of an animal.
“You must be mad,” she said. “The whole world is looking for you.”
“Why I stayed in Canada,” he said. “No one expected it.”
He stood abruptly and moved closer to her. He put one hand on her hair and stroked it.
Sarah stiffened.
“Haven’t had a woman in three weeks. Longest drought of my life. You’d think my body could use the rest. But I guess no man ever really gets enough. You any idea how many women I’ve been with?”
“None that count,” she replied. “No woman would ever be with you voluntarily. It’s small wonder you can only get them by force. You’re a pathetic excuse for a man.”
His eyes blazed and he struck her with the back of his hand, sending her sprawling onto the floor.
He pulled out a cell phone and dialed a number. When someone answered, he asked to be put through to Kitty Wells. He listened for a moment, then said, “She’ll want to talk to me. Tell her it’s her old friend Anthony.” Then he turned the speakerphone on. “You might as well hear this,” he said.
After a moment, Kitty came on the line. “Who is this?” she asked.
“Surely you haven’t forgotten me so soon.”
Kitty felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand straight up. After a moment, she said, “I don’t know what you think you’re doing, but trust me, you won’t be doing it for long. Every law enforcement officer in the country is after you.”
“Yes. Thanks to you and your pathetic little TV show. But no one’s found me yet. Been kind of lonely staying out of sight for so long. Thought you might like to come entertain me.”
“Your cellmate will entertain you soon enough, you sick bastard!”
“Got a friend of yours here,” DeMaio said. “Why don’t you say a few words, Sarah.”
“Sarah?” Kitty said. “Is that you? Are you really there?”
“I’m sorry Kitty. They tricked me. It was Alvin, Garrett’s former partner. He was the bad cop.” She hesitated, then said in a rush, “Don’t you come out here, Kitty. He’ll rape you and kill you. You can’t help me.”
“I can’t leave you there, Sarah.”
DeMaio turned off the speakerphone. “Now that’s a sensible attitude, Kitty. You’ve caused me a lot of trouble the last few weeks. I’d like to bring things a little more into balance. Here’s what you need to do if you ever want to see your friend alive again. You’re to slip out of the station right now, avoiding any bodyguards you may have. I know you can do it, and Sarah’s life depends on it. Give me your cell number and you’ll be told where to go. Until you get the call, just walk. When Alvin is in place, he’ll direct you to his police car. Get in and he’ll bring you here. Tell anyone and Sarah is dead.”
“If you want me,” said Kitty, “you have to give up Sarah. Only way I’ll get in that car is if Sarah gets out of it first.”
“That can be arranged,” said DeMaio. He took down Kitty’s cell number, then looked at his watch. “Get going. I’ll be in touch. Don’t carry anything. Don’t put on a coat or even a sweater. If Alvin even thinks you might have a gun, the deal is off and Sarah’s life is over. I don’t want your friend, Kitty. You know that.” His voice took on an even more lifeless quality than usual. “It’s you I want.”
Kitty hung up the phone. She was shaking. It took a minute for the adrenaline to begin to drain out of her system. Hearing DeMaio again had been paralyzing. The last time she’d listened to that awful, toneless voice, it was to respond to his commands to bend over.
She tried to consider her options realistically. He’d ordered her to leave the building immediately. Maybe he already had someone outside, waiting to report her movements. She wanted to tell security. Perhaps they could follow her. But it was no good. If Alvin got even a whiff of a double-cross, he simply wouldn’t show, and Sarah would be as good as dead. Though Kitty had little doubt it would only be after DeMaio used her first.
She’d be damned if she would let that happen. The last thing she wanted was to be back under DeMaio’s control. But there probably wasn’t anything he could do to her he hadn’t already done. Except kill her of course. But if she could save Sarah, she was going to do it.
There was no time. She tried to call Lonnie but he didn’t answer. If she didn’t go now, they’d probably figure she was trying to plan something. She looked at her purse. Lonnie had given her a pistol to carry in it, but it was a bulky thing. There was no way she could hide it on her person. She rummaged quickly in the bag and took out something else Lon had given her: a tiny locator device. She turned it on as he had shown her and clipped it inside the waist band of her pants. He’d made her promise not to go anywhere without it. The last thing she did was to kick off her heels and put on her running shoes.
Making sure no one saw her, she slipped into a storage room at the rear of the station. A window opened onto a back alley. She opened it, leaned out and looked both ways, then sat on the ledge, swung her legs over, and dropped to the ground. She moved quickly away from the building, avoiding the front, where Lonnie’s men sat in their car.
Not having a direction, she walked slowly. There wasn’t a lot of traffic in this part of town and only a few pedestrians. She stared at each car that went by, wondering if someone was tracking her. After ten minutes, her cell rang, making her jump six inches. She answered and listened to a voice she assumed belonged to Alvin.
“You’re doing fine,” he said, as though he knew precisely where she was. “Take your first right up ahead.” He hung up. Thirty seconds later, he called again. “Now you’re approaching a small street on your left. Turn on to it.”
When she did, Kitty saw the police cruiser sitting next to a large trash container, its engine running. The site was perfect. It was lined on both sides by tall, windowless warehouses, and there was not a soul anywhere in sight. As she approached the car, the driver’s door opened and the shortest Mountie she’d ever seen got out. He held a gun down by his side, his eyes sweeping the alley.
Then he pointed the gun at Kitty. “Stand right there,” he said.
She stopped. He opened the rear door of the cruiser and Sarah got out.
“Kitty, I’m so sorry,” she said. “I wish you hadn’t come.”
Alvin motioned Kitty forward. “Get in,” he said.
Kitty squeezed Sarah’s arm as she passed. “Thanks for being my friend,” she said. “It will be okay.”
Then Alvin jumped in the cruiser and they sped away, leaving Sarah staring after them.
“Some friend I am,” she said out loud.
66
T
HE MOMENT KITTY CLOSED THE
car door, she began to think about how she could escape. Sarah was safe. Now she had to find a way to save herself.
The back seat of the cruiser was impregnable, designed to keep prisoners as securely as a holding cell. This left the driver as the sole object of her focus. She could talk to him through a wire mesh that separated the front and back seats.
“Why are you doing this?” she asked. “You were Garrett’s partner. You must have been willing to give your lives to protect each other when you worked together. What happened to you?”
Alvin turned slightly and glanced at her over the seat. He said nothing for a minute. Maybe she was imagining it, but Kitty thought he looked uncomfortable and maybe even a little guilty. There was a code between RCMP officers and it was only stronger between partners.
“Did Garrett ever do anything to you to justify your kidnapping his girlfriend?” Kitty pressed.
“He was actually a pretty good guy,” Alvin said finally. “I feel a little bad about all this, you’re right, but I made my bed a long time ago. There’s no backing out once you enter into an agreement with DeMaio. Or Global Resources, for that matter.”
“I can’t believe you were a part of that sex trafficking business,” Kitty said, though she could quite easily believe it. “You worked with Garrett
against
prostitution. You must have seen what happened to girls caught up in that system.”
“Going to go on regardless of what I did. Or Garrett. Prostitution’s been around since men started walking upright. It’ll never go away. I just decided to get some of the money for myself. You any idea how many drug busts I’ve been involved with? I’ve only been on the force two years, but the money floating around would just blow you away. Why work for twenty years and a miniscule pension? I’d walk into a room that had hundred-dollar bills tied up in bundles the size of suitcases. The fourth or fifth time, you start to wonder, ‘Who’s going to miss it if I take one of these?’”
He shrugged, made a turn, and they started up a steep dirt drive. “Once you take the first one, everything gets easier and you see reality more clearly. After a while, I worked my way into Global’s organization. They liked the idea of having their own cop. Can’t say I blame them.”
“Why don’t you just stop the car and let me go?” Kitty said. “You don’t have to do this. I won’t bring charges. I give you my word and I can speak for Sarah too.”
He shook his head. “I don’t think so. I’m the guy who made the plant in her house that got her husband sent up. That makes this my last job. How else could I let Sarah go? No way I could do that and expect to stick around. Garrett would have my hide, one way or the other. DeMaio’s offered me a nice bonus to go with the money I’ve already salted away. Soon as I deliver you, he pays me and then I disappear. Forever. I’ve been planning it a long time. No one will ever find me.”
Kitty looked at him in complete incomprehension. “You arranged the murder of Sarah’s husband? Why would you do that?”
“Call it my final exam. The only way DeMaio would accept me into the Global family, so to speak. By setting up Sarah’s husband, I took a step I could never undo. It gave DeMaio something he could always use against me if I ever strayed. It’s how he operates. He doesn’t trust anyone he doesn’t have something on.”
Kitty looked out at the rambling house looming ahead, surrounded by spruce and a large meadow. They were only minutes from downtown Halifax. All around, people were going about their lives, unaware that Kitty Wells, their local newscaster, was about to be brutalized for the second time in a month. She reached down and checked the locater on her belt. It might be her only hope.
The car pulled up in front. Alvin got out, opened her door, and directed her up onto the porch. The door opened just as she got to it and her heart nearly stopped as she found herself face to face with DeMaio once more.
The sophisticated and relaxed demeanor he’d displayed in their earlier encounters was gone. Now, he was all business. He grabbed her by one arm so tightly she cried out as he pulled her inside.
Alvin followed and watched as DeMaio pushed Kitty into a chair and told her to stay put. He carried a gun that he stuck in his pants.
“Give me my money,” Alvin said. “I don’t want to be around when Garrett or that Frankenstein cousin of his show up.”
DeMaio took a long, appraising gaze at Kitty that made her heart go cold. “One last bit of business, Kitty. Then I can devote my full attention to you. We’ll have even more fun than we did a few weeks ago.”
He disappeared into the next room and returned in a moment with a sack filled with cash that he handed to Alvin. “Plenty more where that came from,” he said. “If you want to stick around.”
“No way in hell,” said Alvin. “Sarah’s probably already reported me. I’m going to dump the cruiser and pick up a vehicle I liberated during one of our drug busts. You won’t see me again.” He looked at Kitty. “Sorry, Miss Wells. For what it’s worth, I enjoyed your news show. You were a real professional.”
He left and Kitty heard the cruiser drive away. She could hardly bear to look at DeMaio, but knew she had to try to connect with the man in some way, if only to delay the inevitable. Every second she survived was a second that Lonnie could use to find her.