Evil Deeds (Bob Danforth 1) (38 page)

Bob drove the winding streets of his neighborhood, feeling exhausted after fighting traffic and taking a longer route home because of an accident on I-95. When he turned onto his own street, he saw the parked car and recognized Bart Newcombe, the CIA employee Jack had assigned to watch his house. He stopped in the middle of the street next to the car, lowered his passenger side window, and said, “How ya doin’?”

“Everything’s fine, Mr. Danforth. Coupla cars came by. I’m waiting for a callback on the most recent one. The DMV’s computers are down, so I haven’t heard anything yet. I checked on your wife about an hour ago.”

“Thanks! I’ll bring something out for you to drink.”

“I’d appreciate it.”

Bob pulled into his driveway and parked next to Liz’s Tahoe, and for the thousandth time told himself to clean out the garage so they could park the cars inside.

The sound of a door slamming brought her partially alert. The room spun around her. She tried to scream but something was stuffed in her mouth. Her hands and feet were bound to the bedposts with Bob’s neckties. She lay naked, spread-eagled and helpless.

“Honey, I’m home,” Bob yelled.

Oh, God! Don’t come up, she wanted to scream. Go outside. Get the man guarding the house. Call the police. Do anything, but don’t come up here!

Bob went through the rooms at the back of the house. He looked out at the fenced backyard. No Liz. Her car was in the driveway, so she must be upstairs. Passing through the living room, something glistening caught his eye. Water ran across the ceiling in a beaded procession and streamed down one of the walls, soaking the carpeting.

“Liz!” he yelled, racing up the stairs. Maybe she’d fallen in the tub. His shoes squished on the water-soaked carpeting outside the bathroom. He threw open the bathroom door. The water was running, the tub overflowing, but Liz wasn’t in it. He turned off the spigot and stepped out of the bathroom. The door to their bedroom was almost completely closed. Liz never closed that door, unless they had houseguests.

Bob felt a surge of adrenaline. There was a gun in the house, but it was in his dresser on the other side of the bedroom door. He turned around and went to Michael’s old room at the other end of the hall and grabbed a baseball bat that had been leaning in a corner there for years.

He ran to the master bedroom and threw himself against the door. It slammed back, but hit something softer than the wall, something that went “oof.” He swung around the door, holding the bat above his head.

Vitas bent to pick up the 9mm the door had knocked from his hand. Just when his fingers touched the pistol grip, a bat smashed into his left arm with incredible force. Despite the shock, he grabbed the weapon with his right hand and rolled with it, at the same moment ducking another swing of the bat. He came up on his knees and aimed the gun.

“Drop it,” he said through clenched teeth, his left arm hanging at his side.

Danforth hesitated, then dropped the bat on the carpet and backed away. His wife moaned and Danforth turned to look at her. Vitas loved the way Danforth’s face turned gray at the sight of his bound, gagged, and naked wife.

“Sit down,” Vitas ordered. “On floor. Now!”

When Danforth hesitated, Vitas stepped forward and kicked him in the groin. While Danforth fell, groaning, Vitas shook his injured arm to get feeling back into it. When he felt his hand tingle, he flexed the fingers and placed the pistol on the foot of the bed. He needed to tie up Danforth while the man was still incapacitated. He jerked Bob’s arms back and tied them with the belt from the woman’s bathrobe. Then he retrieved the pistol.

“All right, Danforth,” he said. “I vant to know about General Karadjic’s abduction. Who gave order for mission? Who carried it out? Your sweet little Olga could tell me only so much.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Danforth protested.

“Answer me or I vill cut your lovely little Elizabeth.” Vitas put the gun on the nearby dresser and took the switchblade from a pocket. He pressed a button to open the blade and laughed at the look of desperation in Danforth’s eyes.

“I came up with the plan to kidnap Karadjic,” Danforth said. “The people who grabbed him were military. I don’t have a clue who they were.”

“Now, now, Danforth, I know better. I spent hours vith Olga Madanovic. You remember Olga, don’t you? What a luscious creature she was. But her heart gave out. Spoiled my fun.”

“You bastard!” Danforth growled. The words rushed out like air escaping from a balloon.

“This is not really time for compliments, Mr. Danforth. I vant name of man who led Marine unit into Kosovo. Olga told me you vere along on mission. You must know Marine leader’s name. Answer me now, or I start cutting Elizabeth.”

“How am I supposed to remember the name of some kid I ran into in the middle of Albania?” Danforth said.

“You are fucking vith me!” Vitas dragged Danforth by the back of his jacket around to the side of the bed, so he could see his wife. He used his knife to cut a strip from the woman’s robe and bound Danforth’s ankles. Then Vitas bent over the bed and ripped the gag from the woman’s mouth. With just the tip of his knife, he cut her skin-deep from her navel to her pubic area.

At first, the woman didn’t react. Then the pain and the sight of her blood seeping along the fine incision must have hit her. She screamed.

Danforth struggled against his restraints and yelled, “Don’t!”

Vitas smiled while looking at the blood leaking onto Liz’s abdomen and dripping down her side. He reached over and slid a finger along the blood trail, then sucked on the finger, smacking his lips. “Isn’t this fun?” he asked.

A feral sound came from Danforth, making Vitas laugh. He tossed the knife on the bed between Elizabeth’s legs, walked over to where Bob lay on the floor, and said, “I am going to enjoy your wife, and you vill have the pleasure of vatching. Then I vill kill you. And, when I get back to the Balkans, I vill find a way to murder your precious son.” He punched Danforth in the face and watched him fall backwards. He kicked Danforth’s leg but got no response. The man was unconscious. Vitas then stuffed the gag back into Liz’s mouth and walked down the hall to the front bedroom. He stepped to the window and parted the curtains a few inches. The man in the car was still parked out front.

Liz desperately pulled on the ties around her wrists and ankles while the man was out of the room. One of the ties around her wrist began to rip. Straining again, she felt the fabric tear some more. Scrunching her fingers together to make her hand as small as possible, she tried to yank it free. It wouldn’t come. She raised her head. Bob lay motionless on the floor.

Come on Liz, she thought, you can do it. Try harder! She jerked her arm with all her strength and felt her hand pull free. She reached over with her now-free hand and loosened the knot to free her other arm. Once again she glanced in Bob’s direction. His eyelids were fluttering.

Liz sat up and grabbed the knife. She sliced through the ties holding her ankles. Squishing sounds came from the hall. The man was returning.

She rolled off the side of the bed and crouched against the wall. When the man stepped into the room, she launched herself at him and plunged the knife into his thigh until it hit bone, then wrapped her arms around his leg and sank her teeth through his pants into his calf.

The man bent, grabbed her hair, and violently yanked her head back. “You bitch! You will pay for that.”

He lifted her off the floor, one hand clutching her hair, the other around her neck, and threw her at the bed. She landed facedown on the mattress.

He wrapped his hands around her ankles and pulled her back off the bed. She felt her nose break when her face hit the floor.