Alien in the House (50 page)

“Your bigger issue is the public death, yes?” the Dingo asked.

“Yes. Because it seems out of character for the rest of what's going on.”

“I agree. It was very . . . showy, yes?”

“Yes,” Raj said. “In a very horrible way.”

“The question is why? Why kill Edmund Brewer in such a public way, when every other murder has been done so quietly?”

The Dingo shook his head. “That is not the right question. The correct question is this: Who had the most to gain from the situation?”

“The Mastermind,” Gower said promptly.

The Dingo shook his head again. “No. The Mastermind wants the quiet deaths. His plan is insidious, yes, but it is a quiet plan. I would presume the Mastermind would have preferred no one notice that these deaths, any of them, were murders.”

“One of those trying to become Apprentices,” White suggested.

“Logical,” the Dingo agreed. “However, which one had the most to gain?”

“We don't know who any of them are,” White said.

“Find out who had the most to gain and you find your aspiring Apprentice.”

“I would have said Pia had the most to gain,” Raj said. “Only she was killed, and we think it was because this murder attracted too much of Kitty's attention.”

“How was she killed?” Surly Vic asked.

“She blew up in a car bomb intended for the Head of Special Immigration Services for Homeland Security.” Figured it was better to use Cliff's title—it could trigger something for my Assassin Agatha Christies. “We don't know, but presume, that she was dead before the bomb went off.”

“Was the politician killed as well?” the Dingo asked.

“No, because he used his new remote starter function. The blast was unreal. My husband and I and one of our friends would have been in the car with him, too.”

“Was that known?”

“No, it was pretty impromptu, so I don't think the three of us were the targets, just Cliff.”

“So Raul was cleaning things up,” Surly Vic said.

“You think that's his signature, too?” Because I sure did.

“Yes,” the Dingo said. “As I told you, he has done much work for the C.I.A., and other government agencies. Another showy death, but presumably sending a different message than the other.”

“You think it's not connected to all of this?”

He shrugged. “I have no way of knowing. However, it sounds separate, other than that your presumed aspiring Apprentice was in the car.” He shook his head. “Determine who had the most to gain from the one man's death, or from the other man's capture.”

The Dingo was going to say something else, when Rahmi shouted, “Down!”

So I wasn't too surprised when I heard gunfire.

F
ORTUNATELY,
A-Cs had really great reflexes. Despite Christopher's lack of faith in their abilities in a Field Situation, White tackled me and Gower, Raj tackled the two assassins, while Rahmi and Rhee moved so fast they were two blurs. So the bullets missed all of us. Barely, to be sure, but barely was darned well good enough.

The princesses were blurry, but I could still make them out. They were spinning their battle staffs while they ran in a sort of circle, creating a perimeter around us. As near as I could tell, the staffs were moving fast enough that they were deflecting bullets.

“Two attackers,” Rhee called. “Both with projectiles.”

“Girls, take out the projectiles if you can safely,” I shouted. This earned another flurry of bullets. I couldn't see anyone, and that meant the probability of one of the attackers being Clarence was much higher. The princesses were still managing to deflect and avoid bullets.

The six of us were still on the ground, though now all of us were on our stomachs. The two assassins had gotten their guns into position before they'd hit the ground. We scooted and scrambled and got behind a couple of large headstones nearby. They weren't offering a lot of shelter, but something was better than nothing.

“Do you have a secret hideout nearby that we can get to?” I asked as I dug my Glock out of my purse and hooked said purse over my neck.

“We're blocked from it,” the Dingo replied tersely.

“That's Raul shooting at us, isn't it?”

“Probably. He's anticipated us.”

“And has likely discovered our hideout,” Surly Vic added.

“Awesome. Think he's figured out you're trying to protect me?”

“Or that we're trying to stop him,” the Dingo said. “Either way, either he or we die tonight.”

“Super. Let's make sure that it's him. Richard, Raj, Paul, I think it's time for us to do something here.”

“Raj, protect the Pontifex,” White said. “Missus Martini, I believe I can see our shooters, and I meant the plural.”

“Oh, good. Raul's new chick's along for the ride?”

“Presumably. Can you see where the shots are coming from? I can, but I want to make sure you can as well.”

“They're in some trees. Dude loves to perch, doesn't he?” As I said this, it occurred to me that I had no idea where Bruno was. Or Harlie and Poofikins, for that matter. “So, do we run up into the trees or just shake them really hard?”

“You both stay down,” the Dingo said, as he aimed and fired. The bullets didn't stop coming at us.

Something was wrong with all of this. It was like we were in an Old West shootout. We had the poorer ground—we were low, the enemy was high. And yet, the bullets weren't really coming near us. If we'd been standing up we'd likely be shot, but the shooters hadn't altered their aim. At all.

Meaning there wasn't anyone actually shooting.

“Richard, there's no one manning those guns. Can you get to them without being hit?”

“As long as the friendly fire ceases.”

“Uncles Peter and Victor, please stop shooting. You're wasting ammo we're going to need.”

They stopped and White took off. He had to run around Rahmi in order to not get hit by bullets or battle staffs, but he was up in one of the offending trees in just a couple of seconds. The shooting from that tree stopped. White climbed down the one tree and up the other. The gunfire stopped completely. The princesses stopped spinning their staffs.

“Why the elaborate charade?” Gower asked.

Been asking that myself. “My guess is that we need to turn around and be ready for an ambush.”

“You do.” The voice wasn't Clarence's. It was Doreen's. “Stand up, too, please.”

Did as requested to see Doreen and Irving standing there. It was dark out but my eyes were adjusted and A-Cs had better night vision, which I'd also inherited, so it was easy to see that they were holding guns. Clarence was between them.

“Wow. Did not see this one coming.” Though, as I thought about it, I hadn't seen Doreen and Irving all day or night.

She shrugged. “Clarence was my father's Chief Aide. He was like a second father to me. When you told me he was back, I used an old method I'd heard my father talk about to reach him.”

“You nursed him back to health?”

“No,” Clarence said. “That was my new friend who also hates you.”

“Raul, or someone else?”

“I don't know,” Doreen said. “I haven't cared enough to ask. We only connected yesterday.”

There was something about the way Doreen was talking, her choices of words. And her tone of voice—she was Over-The-Top Evil Genius About To Twirl Mustache. And yet, there were three of us holding guns, and she hadn't told us to drop them. An idea nudged. “Is Raul here, too? Or is he killing Esteban Cantu?”

“I took care of that already,” Clarence said with a grin. “And your mother and the two kings with her are dealing with the blame.”

“Who tipped you off that they were going there?”

“Clarence says he has friends in high places,” Doreen answered, sounding incredibly impressed. The idea solidified. Now, how to share it with the others?

“Like who? Langston Whitmore?”

“That idiot?” Clarence laughed. “He's not as important as he thinks he is.” But since Clarence knew who he was, it was likely Whitmore was one of the Apprentice Wannabes.

“How did you get in? I mean, it's impossible. I wanted to go there, but realized there was no way any of us here could manage it.”

Doreen snorted. “Especially since everyone with you is really untrained in any kind of Field work, let alone the skills needed to do what Clarence did.” Hoped the others were catching the clue by now, but couldn't risk looking at their expressions.

“Don't buy it. Clarence has never struck me as that smart.”

He smirked. “Your mommy had to call for clearance. We have the right people on our side, and they contacted Raul. It's hard to get into the Pentagon, sure, if you're a human,” he sneered the word. “But I just waited around until they showed up and ran past them.”

“Just like you did in order to kill Edmund Brewer earlier.”

“Yeah, and you'd think your genius of a husband would have thought of that, but it didn't occur to him at all. So, once in, it was easy enough to move so fast no one could see me and get where I needed to go.”

“Oh, I'm sure it wasn't easy,” Doreen said. “Did you have to kill a lot of people?”

“No. That wasn't my part to play in this instance. Stole a keycard off of someone and used it to get down levels. Card stopped working? Grabbed another card. Places like that, once you're in, they think you should be in. Found Cantu's cell, gave him a nice drink filled with arsenic. Your ‘team' came in, I left. Cantu died while they watched.”

“Why kill him?” Was clear on why they'd use arsenic—Reyes had died from arsenic poisoning at our party and every person there with Mom had been at that party, too. They were going to be questioned, potentially for hours. Brilliant move, really. Therefore, I knew Clarence hadn't come up with it. “Uncles Victor and Peter, you said you thought Cantu was the Mastermind.” They hadn't, and I hoped that would give them a clue.

“Him? He was never in charge. He wanted to be, but he got on the radar too fast. He was useful, but if the boss had wanted him out of lockup, he'd have been out a long time ago. He'd played his part, and his usefulness was done.”

“By boss, you don't mean Ronaldo al Dejahl, do you?”

“No idea what happened to him. Don't care. He didn't cover my back when I needed it.”

“Who did?”

Clarence grinned. “You get to die without knowing. I know the saying—curiosity killed the cat. You'll hate dying even more because you won't know who's in charge, and who's going to be raising your daughter.”

“Always with you people it's the stealing of babies and little children. Pathetic.”

“Raul will be coming soon,” Doreen said. “He had to take care of some other business. Someone was looking for Clarence at Georgetown. I think his new partner will be with him, too.”

Belayed worry about Reader and that team. Hopefully they were still all alive and unharmed. “So, you're waiting for Raul?”

“Yes,” Clarence said. “He wants the confirmation of who actually killed his wife before we kill all of you.”

So he didn't know for sure. Or he suspected and wanted proof. Or else that's what Raul told Clarence and there was something else going on. I voted for whatever was behind Door Number Three. “How does his new chick feel about his slavish devotion to a dead woman? And have you been the one killing all the various politicians?”

He shrugged. “She doesn't mind. And, no, that wasn't me. I have a different part to play.” He was in love with this phrase. I'd never heard it from him before, so my bet was one of his new besties liked it and Clarence had picked it up.

“Yeah, trying to blow up the Embassy, and killing Cantu. Seems like they're not utilizing you a lot or giving you the lead parts.”

“Oh, I cleaned up the mess with Brewer.”

“I thought that was someone else's plan.”

Clarence looked angry. “Someone else who screwed up. Took care of her, too.”

“So, you killed Pia Ryan and then you set up the car bomb in Cliff Goodman's car and dumped her body off to blow up along with him?”

“Yeah. Too damn bad he had that remote starter thing. Would have been nice to get rid of you, the big king, and the know-it-all jerk at the same time.”

“Doesn't that count as you screwing up?”

He shrugged. “It won't matter. They'll end up deciding Pia was the one who set the bomb and that cleans her part up nicely.”

Presumably because the authorities would be thinking the wrong person had tried to kill Cliff and then could assume she'd killed anyone else that was convenient. “Have you seen your wife and children?”

“No. She chose her family over me, turned my children against me.”

She had? Good for Sylvia. “So, who's been killing all the representatives? Pia did some, right? But not all. And Cantu's gone, too, at least according to you. So I'm not buying it—you and Raul must have killed the rest of the representatives.”

“Pia did her share.” Clarence shrugged again. “It's a game. Raul thinks it's funny. None of them are as important to the boss as he is. And as I am,” he added with smug pride. “Pia's gone, yeah, but there are plenty who want to work with the boss. Raul's even given them a few pointers. From a distance. Some people understand how to utilize talents and some don't.”

“So why did you guys allow Eugene Montgomery to try to kill Edmund Brewer at my party? I get why killing someone there would be bad for American Centaurion, but really, it just seemed stupid. Every other death looked natural or accidental.”

Clarence's eyes narrowed and the smile left his face. “Some people insist on using the easy resource that's at hand. Though her plan worked. The boss might even be impressed, but then again, the others screwed up so badly, she might be ahead by not being as far behind.”

She. And the she he was talking about sounded very much alive, so it was doubtful he meant Pia. “Who else besides Pia and Cantu screwed up?”

“Wouldn't you like to know? I'm not telling you anything.”

Refrained from mentioning that he'd already told me a lot. “How did you hit Malcolm Buchanan with that drug?”

“It was easy.”

Doubted that. In order to get Buchanan, Clarence would have had to slow down. And there wasn't a mark on Buchanan. There hadn't been a mark on Juvonic, either. “You used a blowgun.”

Clarence looked surprised. “Yeah.”

“Why did you dump him in the tunnels under the Gaultier Research facility?”

“For me to know—”

“And me to never find out, yeah, yeah. So let me guess. Someone from Gaultier is trying to get in good with your boss, and you don't like them.” His mouth twitched. “Either that, or you have friends who are working there now, and you were showing off.” His mouth twitched again, but he didn't respond. No worries, had a feeling both guesses were right. “So you did kill Representative Juvonic.”

“No, that wasn't me.” Interesting what made him talk.

“I saw someone up on the roof right before he was hit.”

“Wasn't me. Wasn't Raul, either. Our jobs are to clean up their messes, not to help them.” Them again. There were at least two still vying for the Apprentice job—Whitmore and our mystery woman. Mystery woman could be from Gaultier, but if she wasn't, then we had at least three vying for the job. Considering what was going on at Gaultier, we could have twenty vying for the job.

“And Raul's going to be here really soon,” Doreen said. Got the impression she also wanted to say, “Hint, hint,” but was smart enough to control herself. We probably didn't have any more time for me to plumb the rest of Clarence's information well.