The Broken (The Apostles) (35 page)

“Thank you,” she said around a tsunami of gratitude in her throat because Leroy had offered something. And as she drove home, she thought about that
something
.

Her life with Mike wasn’t what she expected or even wanted, but it was
something
, and right now, it was all she had.
He
was all she had. He might think he was nothing, but she didn’t. Not yet. She wasn’t ready to give up hope.

“Mike!” She hopped out of her car and ran into her rundown house. Maybe they needed to give up the ruins of their old life, of this house, and strike out down new roads. She raced up the steps, almost tripping on the torn runner. “Miiiiike!”

She ran into Mike’s bedroom, where stale air and gloomy shadows greeted her. She turned on the light, expecting to find him passed out in his chair, but the chair was empty, and so were his bed, his bathroom, the kitchen, and every other room in the creaky Victorian. Her husband was gone.

On lead-lined feet, she went back to his bedroom. How far “gone” depended on one thing. She opened the bottom drawer of his dresser, rummaged past the oxfords he never wore anymore, and found the box he’d hidden there.

With trembling fingers, she slipped through the pictures of his faces, and just as she expected, the ones of Katrina Erickson were gone.

*  *  *

Friday, June 19, 11:30 a.m.
Dorado Bay, Nevada

Cool gusts of wind and the promise of rain to a region that had for months been blanketed in sun and heat greeted her as she and Hayden left the Dorado Bay police station. She wrapped her arms around her chest and wondered if Smokey was cold.

She felt calmer now, but still shaken. By leaving the mask with Smokey’s one-winged angel, the Butcher finally made his move. Tonight he wanted her at the Hope Academy fundraiser, because tonight he would attempt to finish the job.

The mask sent Hayden into a whirl of activity. All morning he’d been at the station with Hatch and Evie making plans. Those plans included bringing in Parker Lord and others from his Maine-based SCIU team.

As they hurried through the parking lot toward the car, a broadcast reporter Kate recognized from one of the Reno network affiliates fell in step next to Hayden.

“Agent Reed,” the reporter said, “is it true Jason Erickson’s footprint was found on the tarp surrounding the dead Hope Academy student, Eddie Williams?”

“No comment,” Hayden said.

“Does the Williams boy’s death have anything to do with the Broadcaster Butcher?”

“No comment.” They reached the car, and Hayden tucked her inside.

“A trusted source has informed me that Hope Academy director Kyl Watson is missing. Is it true that you questioned Watson previously in Butcher-related—”

“Dammit, I said no comment!”

The reporter took a step back, and Kate watched in stunned silence as Hayden got in the car.

“You swore,” she said.

Hayden gunned the engine and pulled out of the parking lot. “And…”

“I’ve never heard you swear.”

He turned to her and frowned. “Is there some point to this?”

“The point, Hayden, is you’re upset.”

“Of course I’m upset.” He slapped his hand against the steering wheel. “I have eleven dead bodies, the latest belonging to a fourteen-year-old boy, which may or may not have anything to do with the Butcher. I have a seventy-four-year-old blind man bludgeoned and snatched from right under my nose. How many more dead bodies will I find before I get this son of a bitch? How many more will he kill before he sinks a knife into you?”

The rambling admission, more so than the Butcher’s one-winged angel message, sent a stiffening resolve through Kate’s spine. Hayden, the rock, was on shaky ground, but he didn’t need to be. She’d been to hell and gotten banged and bruised along the way. In the end, she found a way out, sometimes running, sometimes fighting, but she survived.

“We’re going to get him.” She ran her fingers through the soft, black folds of his hair mussed by the wind. “We’re going to get the Butcher, and we’re going to get Smokey Joe.”

Hayden’s head leaned into her cupped palm. “Is that hope I hear?”

She pictured tough old Smokey Joe. Another survivor. “Damn right.”

As they drove from the station toward the lake, some of Kate’s resolve faltered when she realized they weren’t going back to their lakeside cottage but to the pricey estates to the north. A kick of panic jolted her as he pulled the car into the drive of her grandparents’ mansion.

“Why do we need to see
her
?” Kate asked. Her grandfather was out searching for Smokey Joe, and she had no desire to visit the woman who had left her and Jason at the mercy of their sick mother and turned the entire town of Dorado Bay against her father.

“We’re not visiting your grandmother,” Hayden said. “We’re here to see Parker.”

“Your boss?” She turned wide eyes on him.

“Parker and the rest of my team arrived an hour ago. They’re here to help me with tonight’s grab.”

“But why
here
?”

“This is where the Hope Academy fundraiser is being held,” Hayden continued, ignoring the fact that she was digging her heels into the cobbled drive as he dragged her to the stone-lined doors. “Your grandparents have been financial supporters of Hope Academy for a number of years, and this year they’re co-chairing the fundraiser.” He caught her gaze. “And they just put up a twenty-thousand-dollar reward for anyone with information leading to Smokey Joe.”

“Why would they do that?”

“For you.”

She rubbed at the ache between her eyes. “Don’t go there, Hayden.”

“They’re not monsters, Kate. They’re good people. During the hunt for Smokey Joe, I spent some time with your grandfather. Jason and Kendra’s deaths have been hard on them. They realize you’re all they have left.”

“I’m nothing to them.”

“In your eyes, maybe so, but we can discuss your family dysfunction later.” He knocked on the door, which was opened immediately by Kate’s grandmother.

“Agent Lord is on the east patio,” the older woman told Hayden. “He’s waiting for you.”

In a quickness that surprised her, Hayden sprinted through the house, leaving her alone with her grandmother.
Aren’t you supposed to protect me?
Kate wanted to scream at his retreating back.

She stared at Ava Conlan, who stared back, her carefully powdered face unmoving, her coiffed hair stiff. The older woman could give stone-faced Hayden a run for his money.

“How is the search for your friend going?” Ava Conlan asked in a cultured voice, honed by scads of money and a social status unparalleled in all of Dorado Bay.

“Still going.”

“Oliver says they’ll find him. They won’t leave a man behind.” For a moment, the older woman’s gaze softened, and for a moment Kate wondered what it would be like to have a grandmother in her life.

Kate pressed her lips together. Smokey Joe was all the family she needed. “I’d like to join Hayden and the others.”

Ava Conlan nodded and led her into a huge ballroom. The house was probably ten thousand square feet and, on a normal day, a showplace with its fine furnishings and art. But today it wore an extra glittery party face. Black and gold bunting flounced the doorways, and large gold pots with creamy white flowers dotted the floor. Gold Mylar balloons with curling gold ribbons floated high on the ceiling.

As they clicked through the ballroom, a heavy silence pressed on them.

“How—”

“Do—”

They spoke at the same time.

“Go ahead,” Ava said.

“How many people do you expect tonight?” Kate asked.

“About five hundred. Even with the bad publicity, it sounds like people still believe in the academy.”

“Do you?” Kate asked, wondering how someone like her grandmother would support having fifty troubled boys living nearby.

“When the academy first opened, most of us on the lake were opposed to it. Honestly, we were worried about our property, even our lives. They get a lot of rough boys through there.” Her carefully plucked brows knitted. “But the more we saw, the more we realized the amazing success the academy had with turning lives around.” Her lifted face suddenly lined, and Kate wondered if she was thinking about her daughter, Kate’s mother, who had never been able to turn her life around from its destructive course.

Kate realized the other woman was openly staring at her. She wanted to pull her hair across her face, but she stood straighter and thrust out her chin.

“You don’t look like your mother,” Ava said.

“I’m nothing like her.”

“No, you’re not. You’re stronger.” She twined her thin, pale fingers. “But you need to be careful, Kate. This Butcher, he’s a monster.” She shivered and inched to Kate’s side.

Kate didn’t like this conversation or the closeness. “Where are Hayden and Agent Lord?”

Ava Conlan pulled herself together and let out a husky laugh. “Parker Lord is everywhere.”

“What?”

“I take it you haven’t met Hayden’s superior.” The older woman’s eyes glinted like the gold balloons overhead. “This way.”

Kate found Hayden on the patio with Hatch, Evie, and a half dozen people she didn’t recognize. Everyone was focused on Hayden except for a man sitting at the patio table and staring at her with an enigmatic smile. For a moment, everything blurred but him. Black hair, dusted with silver at the temples, sat atop his head in wind-swept waves. He wore a navy polo shirt with some kind of nautical emblem on the pocket. His jaw spoke of arrogance, his chiseled nose of strength, and his eyes of confidence.

This had to be the legendary Parker Lord, and her grandmother was right: he had a power that screamed,
I am captain of the seas, master of the universe.

He winked at her.

She blinked and for the first time noticed he was sitting in a wheelchair.

When Hayden was done talking, he took her hand and introduced her. He was so casual about it. She could do this. She could be around normal people and act like a normal person.

“We’ve actually met before,” a man Hayden introduced as Finn Brannigan said. He wore black jeans and a black T-shirt and moved with the grace of a cat. “Jewelry heist at the Atlantis Resort four years ago. I was the JAG specialist you interviewed for your ‘Justice for All’ report.”

She stared at him, and a hazy memory started to come into focus. The Atlantis was a ritzy resort and spa in Reno, and their penthouse suites housed the highest of the high rollers as well as their jewel-decked spouses. “Yes,” she said with a smile of recognition. “You were the agent who recreated the crime by reenacting the thieves’ escape route. You went out onto the ledge of the twenty-seven-story building and crawled down a rope. Everyone, including the livid hotel manager, was afraid you’d fall.”

“Pretty good, huh?” Agent Brannigan said, but he really meant
It’s so good to be bad.

Before she could answer, the patio doors swung open and out stepped Dr. Trowbridge, followed by her grandmother, who was wringing her hands.

“Get out.” Dr. Trowbridge pointed at Hayden and jerked his thumb over his shoulder. “You have no reason to be here.”

“I do if I plan on catching a murderer.” Hayden’s hand knotted, the pressure intensifying on her fingers.

“Not during the fundraiser,” Dr. Trowbridge said. “The academy is relying on this event to bring in money to keep our doors open for the next year. We can’t have you and half the FBI wandering among our guests looking for a serial killer. Your presence will jeopardize the academy’s future.”

“You’re worried about me jeopardizing your damned fundraiser?” Hayden took a step toward the doctor, but Hatch grabbed his arm.

Kate, along with everyone else on the patio, turned to stare at Hayden, who was visibly shaking. And swearing. He looked like a cannon ready to blast the Hope Academy doctor.

“A man known as the Broadcaster Butcher has left a clear signal that he’ll be here tonight, at this fundraiser,” Hayden said. “And I’ll be here, waiting for him.”

“This is a private affair, by invitation only,” Trowbridge insisted “Since our good director, Kyl Watson, has gone AWOL, I’m the one handing out invitations, and you don’t get one. There is no way you are going to link Hope Academy to the Broadcaster Butcher.”

Hayden threw off Hatch’s hand and took a step toward the doctor. Dr. Trowbridge drew back a fist.

“Fifty thousand dollars a head. Four heads.” The words stilled the entire room, and everyone turned to Parker Lord, the man who’d spoken. “Hayden, Hatch, Evie, and Kate. Those four get admittance into the fundraiser, and I pay Hope Academy two hundred thousand dollars.”

Hayden gave a single stony nod. Hatch flashed his megawatt smile and chucked an arm around Evie. “She cleans up real nice,” Hatch said with a wink. Evie elbowed him in the ribs.

A struggle played out on Dr. Trowbridge’s face, and eventually the $200,000 won. “Three agents.” He looked at Kate. “And her. But no guns.”

Hayden shifted, but both Hatch and Finn reached out and grabbed him by the arms.

“It’s a deal.” Parker Lord wheeled off the patio.

*  *  *

Friday, June 19, Noon
Dorado Bay, Nevada

“Dammit to hell!”

Smokey Joe threw the broken water bottle on the ground. That was the third shovel to take a dump on him. He squatted and ran his fingers over the muddy floor of his underground prison. Where the hell was his last water bottle? He needed to make another shovel.

A day and a half ago, that son of a bitch Butcher snuck into his room through an open window, and before Smokey could rally the troops, the Butcher whacked him in the mouth with the butt of something hard and followed with a thwack to the side of the head. Smokey ran his fingers along the crusted blood at his temple and chin. Didn’t hurt no more.

Smokey didn’t need no eyes to tell him he was in an underground hole—three and a half feet square and four feet deep—and that the top was covered by plywood weighted with a foot or two of dirt. He’d found six bananas and four water bottles in one of the corners and felt a slight but steady stream of fresh air coming from a small mesh-covered hole above him. He heard mallards and not-too-far-off motorboats, so he figured he was close to the lake. He also figured he’d been in the hole going on two days. Two times birds started yammering, telling him the sun rose, but only once did bullfrogs and crickets make a racket.