The Devil To Pay (Hennessey.) (107 page)

He studied her, she looked so small and fragile, so frail and delicate, and yet she had proved that she was as tough as his old leather boots and as cunning as that damn coyote that snuck in here at night and tried to kill his animals. There was more to this English woman than met the eye. And yet for all that she had fallen for a man’s charm and flattery, just like… no, she was nothing like Adrianne. S
he
had had no compassion, no tender feelings, no pity, she would not have done what this woman had done for that girl, she would have given her up to Hennessey in a heart beat and probably wound up splitting the fee with him.

Thoughts of Adrianne made his tone brusquer than he had intended as he said, ‘you left out one very important piece of information.’

She frowned, ‘oh?’

‘Yes, who paid Hennessey to get the information about the girl and to kill you?’

She looked even more frightened than when she was telling her story and looked away from his penetrating gaze. Her tone was a whisper as though to say the name out loud would conjure him up like some kind of Demon. ‘Glissando, his name is Dashiel Glissando.’

His voice seemed to come from deep in his throat as he said, ‘Hennessey told you that Glissando had hired him?’ She nodded wondering if he knew Glissando too.

‘Are you sure?’

She looked offended now, ‘of course I’m sure, I’m hardly likely to forget the name of the man who did what he did to Ol…Desi, or hired a man to kill me.’

Adela could see he was struggling to believe her, which he was. He watched her face closely looking for any sign of deceit, there was none. But he had been fooled by a woman’s innocent, open face before. He knew women could look at you with that guileless look whilst all the time plotting and planning to deceive you. Though he knew even as he thought it that men could do the same too, he knew that better than anyone. But being deceived by a friend was supposed to be easier to swallow and a hell of a lot less painful than being betrayed by your wife wasn’t it? Still this woman wasn’t his wife was she?

She broke into his thoughts by asking, ‘why, do you know him?’ He didn’t answer but continued to regard her with mistrust until she snapped, ‘it’s the truth, everything I told you is true and I don’t care whether you believe me or not.’

He looked taken aback but narrowed his eyes as if weighing up her words then said, ‘why would Glissando want this girl back so badly?’

‘I told you, he believes she belongs to him, he’s insane.’

Still the scepticism was obvious in his eyes and she said sarcastically, ‘if I ever meet him I’ll ask him. Or maybe we could ask Sterling Hennessey, because he’ll come here you know, he won’t give up easily. He brought me back to Alabama for a reason; he knows his way around these parts that much was obvious from the location of the shack he kept me in, it was quiet and isolated and off the beaten track. He might track me here, you’re in danger, Mr. Lando, and the longer I stay here the more that danger increases.’

He noticed how she kept referring to the danger he was in and not her own which was far greater than his.

He said, ‘one thing you haven’t told me, how did you find this place?’

She looked away then back at him, she certainly wasn’t going to tell him that she heard voices talking to her in the woods, voices that they had forced her to go on when she had all but given up and was just waiting for death to claim her.

She said, ‘I wandered around in the woods for, oh so long I don’t even know. I was about to give up again when I saw the stream, it looked familiar then I realised it was the same one in which I had,’ she looked away, ‘I had first seen you. So I knew that your place could not be far, I just kept walking until I found it.’ She looked at him and said earnestly, ‘but I didn’t lie before, not about that, I really couldn’t remember how I got here, it was only when I…when I was running away from you that I heard water then I remembered.’

He looked at her in an odd way, she wasn’t sure if he believed her or not. Eventually he said, ‘what time did you leave the shack he held you in.’

She was surprised by the question, ‘I don’t know about 10.30.’

He looked at his watch, ‘and you arrived here at 12.30 this morning, two hours that means the shack could not have been too far from here, unless it’s
very
close by and you went round in circles for an age.’ She knew he was thinking about the time she had done just that and had run into him.

She said, ‘no, not 10.30 last night, 10.30 yesterday morning.’

He looked at her a stunned expression on his face then the amazement turned to disbelief, ‘Jesus Christ, lady, you’re trying to tell me that you walked around in the swamp for twelve hours in the height of summer without water? I just don’t buy that.’

She stiffened at being called a liar but said calmly, ‘I didn’t say I had no water.’ She told him about the bottle. He still looked disbelieving as he studied her face looking for the lie she knew.

He was in fact thinking, I’ll either have to review my earlier opinion of her and say she’s the
best
liar I ever met or she’s telling the truth. In that case she had done what a lot of people, including himself, might not have done, survive the swamp for fourteen hours in the height of summer with just one bottle of water. But then she had been desperate and desperation caused people to do things they would not otherwise be capable of.

He looked at her annoyed and hurt countenance and felt bad for showing his scepticism but he would reserve judgement on this strange woman. Then she took him by complete surprise when she said sternly, ‘and please don’t blaspheme.’

He stared at her in open mouthed astonishment, one, that she had endured his profanities but had told him off for what she called blasphemy. And two, that she had told him what to do in his own home, the cheek, the audacity. He snapped, ‘excuse me?’

He expected her to look embarrassed and she did but no where near as much as she looked stern. She said, ‘I…I don’t like it, it’s insulting to…to God.’

He regarded her with amazement then said sarcastically, ‘well thank you for teaching me how to be a better Christian, Ma’am.’ His aggressive look gave the lie to the words.

Her face reddened but she held his gaze defiantly.

He treated her to an icy glare before eventually saying, ‘I think the best thing to do would be to get the police involved and they’ll contact the FBI. Even if this Hennessey guy is not Blakemore’s killer, they’ll still be interested in the kidnapping; he took you across state lines, that’s a federal offence.’

She had heard nothing beyond, “Get the police involved.” She sat up straight and leaned towards him, ‘no, no, Mr. Lando, you can’t do that, you
can’t
,’

The suspicion was back in his eyes as he said, ‘why? I would have thought they’d be the first people you’d want involved. They’ll protect you from Hennessey or anyone else who wants to harm you; they’ll escort you to the airport and see you safely home. What about that Leyton guy? He knows you and you him; you seemed to have quite a rapport going with him.’

She ignored the obvious sarcasm because she was desperate now; she stood up and looked down on him her dismay a palpable thing, ‘no! He might be…no, Mr. Lando, no police.’

He stood up too towering over her and demanded, ‘why? Just tell me that. You’ve been kidnapped, terrorised, you’ve got a hit out on you, you barely escaped with your life so why don’t you want the police involved.’

‘Because…because he,’ her shoulders slumped, ‘Hennessey, he made it look as though I was involved with the attack on Dean and that I helped him to escape from Eden. A police officer watching my cabin was injured, he maybe dead I don’t know. But Hennessey made it look as though I had attacked him, he left something of mine close by the…the officer. He took my purse with my passport and credit cards, he even brought a ticket to Brazil in my name, everything to make it look like I had gone with him willingly. But I didn’t, Mr. Lando, I
didn’t
.’ She stressed this last word her eyes pleading for him to believe her.

He stared at her in astonishment, this Hennessey guy was something else, not only had he subjected her to a horrifying ordeal but planned it so that the police would look for her as his accomplice. Why?

He said, ‘you’re panicking for nothing, lady, no one seeing you in the state you’re in would believe that you went with him willingly. I’ll explain how you staggered into my barn half dead with exhaustion and dehydration. They’ll believe me.’

Even as he said this he wondered whether they would believe him, an ex- con, a loner, a hermit, a murderer. Lomax would believe him maybe, but he was only a small town sheriff and for something as important as this he would have to get the Alabama P.D involved, and they in turn would involve the FBI. God, he could just see the look on the faces of his ex -colleagues, they would just love to see him entangled in this. He had made phone calls, he had called Sheriff Taylor of
Eden, he had impersonated a police officer, he had lied to him. He had made enquiries about a man who in all probability was a hitman, God; they could make it look like he had been involved from the start. But nevertheless he had to try to calm her; he didn’t want her agitated and making herself ill again.

She watched his face closely and knew he did not believe what he had just said; in fact she was thinking some of the same things he was.

She said, ‘but that isn’t the most important thing, Mr Lando.’

He looked down at her as if he had forgotten she was there. He said curtly, ‘then what is?’

She took a breath then looked him in the eye and whispered, ‘Glissando has them in his pay.’

‘What?’ His look was almost pitying and she knew how she must sound, like a nutcase, a neurotic, but she had to make him see that involving the police was a big mistake. She said, ‘Ol…Desi told me that Glissando had police officers, FBI agents, even judges in his pocket and Hennessey confirmed it. He said I would never be safe, and if I’m with you
you
won’t be safe either. He might even have the sheriff of Eden working for him.'

The scepticism turned to irritation but she ploughed on, ‘Hennessey told me that someone in
Eden had been spying on me and reporting back to Glissando, it could have been anyone, even the sheriff.’

He looked askance at her then the scepticism took over again but before he could say anything she rushed on, ‘I’m not saying it
is
him, only that if Glissando has law enforcement people in his employ it
could
be him. He may even have been working with Hennessey and persuaded the detectives that I was in collusion with him.'

He took a step closer so that she had to tip her head back to look up at him. He stared into her eyes then he surprised her by giving a twisted smile, ‘I think you’re still feeling the effects of your ordeal.’

She glared at him exasperated and snapped, ‘why won’t you believe me. Hennessey is a killer, a ruthless, heartless killer, but he was right when he said that once I was in their custody Glissando would get to me. I would be doomed.’

He actually laughed but it was loaded with derision, he said, ‘you’re being paranoid, lady.’

She stood up her face contorted with frustration and anger, ‘maybe I am, but can you blame me? Maybe if I had been a little
more
paranoid I wouldn’t have endured what I have and I wouldn’t be standing here now trying to convince a stubborn, condensing, belligerent, sceptical idiot not to get involved, to let me go before something
really
bad happens to him.’

His face grew dark as did his eyes as he took another step crowding her space, but she did not retreat. They stared at each other, Lando with amazement and anger and she with impatience and anger. Then taking her by surprise he said quite mildly, ‘you’d better sit down before your feet start bleeding again. And I’m running out of socks.’

He eyes opened wide in confusion thrown by the change of subject. But then her shoulders slumped as she shook her head, ‘you’re a fool.’

‘Huh,
I’m
a fool.’

Her head snapped up and she stared at him then opened her mouth, but once again the fight seem to go out of her and she closed it again then sat back down on the sofa with a bump.

He stood watching her for a moment regretting his words then went into the kitchen. A few minutes later he retuned and handed her a fresh mug of coffee which she took distractedly and without thanking him. He sat down in the armchair leaning forward, his elbows resting on his thighs the mug of coffee in both hands. He looked relaxed and unconcerned. Adela sat in the exact same way but tense and frightened envying Lando his composure.

But in fact Lando’s mind was racing with everything she had told him. He said, ‘you ought to rest.’

She shook her head, ‘I ought to leave’ He said nothing so she went on ‘if the police are after me they may think you’ve been harbouring me, you might be arrested as an accomplice.’

He was surprised that she had put into words his own thoughts and fears but before he could reply she continued, ‘though if Hennessey gets here first you won’t have to worry about the police.’

He shrugged, ‘if he was coming after you he would have been here long before now, he would have been waiting for you, he would never have let you get as far as my barn would he?’