Booby Trap (26 page)

Fighting back tears, I willed myself to think straight. He couldn’t kill me; I’d just found love and happiness. And my father needed me. And what about Zee? Who’d aggravate her to distraction? I didn’t even care how much time I owed Steele, as long as I could be around to fulfill our bargain.

“Give me the damn phone,” Harper barked. At the same time, both Charles and Maria held out the phones in their hands. Harper snatched the cell.

“Paul’s number on this damn thing?” he asked Charles.

Paul? He couldn’t mean Paul Milholland, could he? But then, why not? If Jane was involved with the smuggling, maybe Paul was, too. Given Gordon’s mood, I didn’t think I should ask
Paul who?

“Yeah, boss. Just scroll down.”

This call didn’t go into voice mail.

“It’s me,” Harper snapped into the phone. “I need you to do something.” He listened. His face flushed again. “I don’t give a flying fuck if you’re busy. Go by the Stevens’ place. See if Kirk’s there. If he is, put him on the phone to me pronto.” A pause. “Give me a call either way. Got it?”

I stole a glance at my watch. The movement caught Harper’s attention.

“What? You got a bus to catch?”

“Just a nervous gesture, that’s all.”

Although it felt like it’d been hours and hours since we’d left Newport Beach, it had only been just over two hours. I wondered if Dev had gotten my voice mail yet and whether or not he and the police had gone to Lisa’s place. They’d find my abandoned car and tote bag, unless they’d been stolen. They might even find a kid babbling about guns and missing cats. I hoped Silas was okay. If I ever got out of here, he was going to get a stern lecture about sneaking into people’s cars.

I peeked at my watch again, this time breathing a sigh of relief. It was too early for Greg to be home. At this point, I didn’t care if the creeps ransacked my house, as long as no one got hurt in the process. I thought about the two cats. I didn’t know what Muffin would do, but Seamus would go into hiding as soon as he smelled a stranger. I hoped the younger cat would take her cue from him.

Harper ordered Maria to pour coffee all around and then check on Lisa. She returned to report that Lisa was sleeping. Harper’s face and skull returned to its normal pale.

Time dripped by, ticking in beat with the painful pulse growing inside my skull. We sat in Crystal Lee’s living room sipping coffee as companionably as old friends awaiting the arrival of good news.

Charles sneezed. Two of us said
bless you
.

The call came after
the coffee was gone and my captors had each taken turns strolling down the hall. I’d even asked permission to tinkle and again Maria Santiago was sent to keep watch. And yet again I had to perform at gunpoint.

This time, she’d remained silent. Even when I asked about her face and if she was okay, she merely stared at me with dead eyes, as if she couldn’t hear a word I said. On this trip to the potty there were no promises to help me live. It was almost enough to make my bladder seize.

Gordon Harper had placed the cell phone on the coffee table. When the call came in, it didn’t ring but instead vibrated, sending the same hum of dread through my body as a dental drill. Had Kirk been found? Was Jane with him? Had the diamonds disappeared? Were my home and pets intact? Inquiring and terrified minds wanted to know.

Harper picked up the phone and studied the display before answering. “Yeah.”

He listened for quite a while, saying nothing. But again his face and bald head turned scarlet.

“Are you shitting me?” he yelled into the phone. He listened some more, then said, “Any sign of Jane Sharp?” More listening. “Okay. Get the hell out of there. Just go about your business. I’ll be in touch, but I’m not sure when.”

After he hung up, Gordon tossed the cell on the table and paced. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one in the room curious about what had happened to Kirk. Finally, Charles broke the silence.

“What’s up, chief?”

In reply, Gordon Harper grabbed the coffee tray, mugs and all, and flung it against the wall. The pieces hit, breaking into a cacophony of crashing, jagged porcelain. I ducked my head and covered it with my arms as soon as the tray went airborne.

I didn’t know what was going on, but it couldn’t be good. For any of us.

“That stupid piece of shit got himself arrested for breaking and entering.” Harper glared at me. “Seems some old local bum takes his neighborhood watch seriously and called the police.”

My mind did an internal scan of the names and faces of our neighbors, and none fit the description of
bum
. Then I thought about Pops. Our house was just a few blocks from the beach, his usual haunt. I didn’t think he knew which house was ours, but maybe he did. Or maybe he was strolling the nearby area and simply saw Kirk and reported it. It wouldn’t have been difficult. The police station was almost spitting distance to everything. Although we weren’t sure where Pops spent his nights, everyone in the area knew he was pretty territorial about Seal Beach and its inhabitants. He knew who belonged and who didn’t.

“Was the Sharp woman with him?” It was Maria, daring to ask for further information.

Harper shook his egg-shaped head. “No. Paul just saw Kirk being led away in cuffs and asked some of the locals what was going on.”

I just had to confirm the suspicion nagging at me like a hang nail. “So Paul Milholland works for you, too, huh?”

Harper stood in front of me, hands on his chunky hips, his barrel chest less than a foot away. He looked to be studying me but his eyes were active, displaying the plotting and planning going on behind them.

“Who in the hell do you think was tailing you?”

It took a moment before clarity sunk in. When it did, I wanted to slap myself upside the head. The van. Those mornings at the bakery. Pops wasn’t babbling about Greg’s van, he was trying to warn me that a van was following me. A van that didn’t belong.

“What now, boss?” asked Charles.

“We need to get the hell out of here,” Gordon announced. “Pronto. The fool’s probably spilling his guts right now.”

Charles jerked his chin in my direction. “What about her and the other one? Do them here or someplace else?”

“Why kill them at all?” Maria interjected.

The men looked at her as if she’d lost her mind.

She shrugged. “They don’t know where we’re going or any real details. Anything this one knows,” she indicated me, “Kirk Thomas knows more, and he’s the one who’s going to talk.”

Sounded like a reasonable argument to me.

Charles looked disappointed. Gordon scowled. He went to a nearby desk, opened a drawer, and pulled out a good-sized handgun. This was it. Since I wasn’t being offered a blindfold, I scrunched my eyes closed.

“Leave the other broad,” Gordon ordered. He reached down and grabbed me roughly by the arm, yanking me to my feet. “This one’s coming with me for insurance.”

I didn’t relish the idea of another road trip, especially with this bunch, but at least it meant I could live a bit longer.

We were about to pile into the service elevator when a loud noise came from outside, from above. It grew louder by the second. Charles stepped quickly to the window and looked out. Immediately, he scooted to the side of the window, with his back to the wall.

“It’s a chopper. Cops. Right overhead.”

“Can’t be,” Gordon shouted. “They’ve barely had time to get Thomas to the station.”

Gordon Harper moved to the window and looked up, then down, before he also moved away from the window. “The place is crawling with cops.”

“Grab the other broad,” he yelled to Charles, “and bring her in here. We have hostages. The cops won’t do anything stupid. If we have to, we’ll use the two of them as shields to get out of here.”

I felt like I was center stage in a rerun episode of
S.W.A.T
.

As Charles took off down the hall to get Lisa, the cell phone on the table vibrated. My heart about stopped. Gordon picked it up and looked at the display. His puzzled look made me think he didn’t know who was on the other end. He handed the phone to Maria.

“You answer it,” he ordered.

Maria took the phone and said a tentative hello. She listened, then said to Harper, “It’s the police. Downstairs.”

After a short pause, he took the phone from her. “What?” he shouted into it.

He listened briefly before shouting again into the phone. “They’re alive now, but they won’t be for long unless you clear out!” He snapped the phone shut.

Charles came back half-dragging a groggy Lisa Luke. He tossed her on the sofa. Lisa stirred and moaned.

“She’s too out of it to drag around,” he announced.

The phone vibrated again. Gordon looked at Charles, then Maria. “It’s not just LAPD downstairs, it’s the feds.”

“How’d they get this number?” Charles asked.

“Who gives a shit!” Gordon yelled at him. “They got it.”

He picked up the phone. “Yeah?” A short pause. “No,
you
listen to
me
. I’m getting out of here, and you’re letting me. Otherwise both of these women will be shot and dumped out the window. You want that?” He listened some more. “That’s more like it. I’m coming down. I’ll have the Stevens woman with me. When I get downstairs, I’m getting into my car and driving away. It’s that simple. Otherwise, she gets a bullet to the brain. Got it?” He hung up.

Bullet to the brain.
I felt as green as Kermit the Frog.

Gordon Harper stuck the phone into his shirt pocket. We piled into the service elevator and started the trip to the ground floor, leaving Lisa behind. Gordon kept me directly in front of him and had a steel grip on my arm. The others were posted on either side of us. When the doors of the elevator opened, the hair on the back of my neck stood up. The place looked the same but my personal radar was picking up on something, almost like the air in the place was charged. Gordon must have felt it, too, because behind me he stiffened and tightened his grip. Yet ahead of us, everything looked the same as when I’d arrived earlier.

We moved quickly in a single file through the maze of sewing machines, fabric presses, and rolls of material towards the small door next to the large delivery door. Charles led the way, his gun poised and ready. I followed with Gordon close behind me, still attached to my arm with a death grip. Behind him was Maria Santiago.

Gordon gave final instructions. They were to take the SUV. We’d go in the Mercedes. He said they’d rendezvous in the usual place. I didn’t know if the final rendezvous plans included me or not.

At the door, Charles unlocked it and pulled it open.

That’s when things changed.

Instead of pushing me forward behind Charles, Gordon yanked me to the side and gave Charles a shove from behind with a foot to his backside. He stumbled out the door alone. Gordon then slammed the door shut and locked it, leaving Charles virtually naked in front of the armed police squad.

I pictured Charles with his hands up, surrendering, but knew that wasn’t the case when we heard gunshots, many of them. They hit the other side of the door and wall where we were standing fast and furious, like raindrops on steroids. The three of us instinctively took a dive to the floor.

When the shooting stopped, I felt myself being tugged and pulled. It was Maria Santiago. Without a word, she gestured for me to stay down and crawl away from the door, in the direction of the front office. I didn’t know whether I should do it or not, but I sure didn’t want to stay where I was. I thought about sneaking off towards the stairs and going back to the apartment. Thoughts of barricading myself in the back bedroom with Lisa until everything was over entered my brain. But Lisa was now passed out on the couch, and by the time I moved her to safety, Gordon would have gunned us both down.

I felt Maria push me from behind. She was on her feet and had her gun still drawn, but it was not aimed at me. It was aimed at Gordon Harper, who was just now getting to his feet and hadn’t noticed it yet.

That was enough to get me moving. As Maria had directed, I started crawling off on my hands and knees, trying to get behind a nearby machine for cover as fast as I could.

“Federal agent,” I heard her say.

I poked my head up just enough to see what was going on. Maria had moved behind some large boxes, her gun still trained on Gordon Harper. “It’s over, Harper.”

Maria Santiago was a fed? An undercover federal agent?

Gordon Harper was standing up now, leaning against the wall near a panel of switches.

“You’re shitting me. You?” The disbelief in his voice was thick and mocking. “I was sure the snitch was Charles.”

“Drop the gun and put your hands on your head.” Maria’s voice was even and controlled.

At this point, I expected Gordon to yell
you’ll never take me alive, copper,
and start shooting. Instead, he started to raise his hands above his head, one still holding the gun.

“Drop the gun,” Maria ordered again.

Instead, with the same speed as the earlier backhand to her face, Gordon simultaneously hit several switches on the panel, plunging the factory into darkness save for a few low-level security lights scattered throughout the place. The security lights were about as effective as the nightlight in our bathroom.

At the same time, Gordon fired his gun towards Maria. The gunshot flashed in the darkened space. She fired back. I shrunk in fright so intense I thought my hair would fall out. From Gordon’s direction came more shots, this time scattered. One of the bullets hit a box next to the machine I was behind, and I nearly fainted.

I’d been shot at before, but it’s something you never quite get used to.

Shouts from outside could be heard when the shots died down.

I didn’t know how many shots had been fired, or if any in the short barrage had come from Maria. But even if I had counted the bullets, I had no idea what type of weapons were being used. To my gun-ignorant mind, Gordon could have none, two, or one hundred bullets left.

I peeked out to see if I could make out a silhouette of Harper against the wall, but I saw none. I heard slow movement among the aisles but had no idea if it was Gordon Harper or Maria Santiago. I wasn’t about to open my mouth to find out.

Then I heard Gordon talking. “I don’t care if he’s dead. I still have the Stevens woman and that skank agent.” He must have been talking into the cell phone to the people outside.

I didn’t think the police would bust into the place as long as they thought Gordon had hostages. If they couldn’t get to me, I had to get to them, or at least to Maria. But if Maria was still near Harper and the door, there was no way I was going in that direction.