Killer Love (52 page)

Wil stared at him for a moment in disbelief. “You didn’t...she’s not...” He loosened his hold, shock and helplessness momentarily making him numb.

Wil was aware of the sound of a door opening and turned briefly to see Lindsey disappear out the back. Perry took advantage of his distraction and shoved against him.

Wil almost lost his hold on the gun, but tightened his hand around the butt as he stumbled back. Perry rushed Wil and knocked him to the ground, landing on top and punching him in the jaw.

Wil’s head jerked and pain exploded in his cheek, but it was just enough to snap him out of the inertia that gripped him. He slammed his fist into Perry’s already bloody face and knocked him backward. Wil lunged on top of him and shoved the gun in his neck.

“Tell me how the fuck to stop it.”

Perry shook his head. “You have two hours, asshole. Figure it out for yourself.”

Wil heard movement behind him and looked around. Lindsey was slowly entering through the door from which she’d escaped.

Diane stood behind her, holding a pistol.

Chapter Seventeen

“Let him go, Wil,” Diane commanded.

Shit!
Wil looked at his daughter. Her face was bone-white and she trembled violently. One knuckle of a crooked index finger was clamped tightly between her teeth.

Wil climbed off Perry and stood, the gun hanging limply in his right hand. He tried to give Lindsey a reassuring smile but it probably looked more like a petrified grimace.

Perry rose, wiping the blood from his face. “Oh, baby,” He gasped out a relieved sigh. “God, am I glad to see you.”

He stepped toward her but Diane lifted the gun, pointing it at his chest.

“Don’t move!” she screamed, her voice sharp with venom. “You sorry son of a bitch. You were going to let my child,
our
child, die.”

“No, sweetie, no way. I knew Wil wouldn’t hurt her. I wouldn’t—”

Diane placed her other hand on the grip of the pistol. “Shut up.”

Wil eased away from Perry and calmly said to Diane, “Okay. We have him now. He’s going to prison. Let’s call the police.”

“What about Abby?” Diane asked, her gaze still on Perry. “Because of him, she’s going to die.”

“We’ll figure something out. We’ll make him tell—”

“I’m not telling you jack shit,” Perry spat. He said to Diane, “They have to pay. You know that, don’t you? He murdered my sister!”

Diane’s mouth stretched into a humorless smile. “Ah yes, your beloved sister. Good news, Perry. I’ve arranged a reunion.”

Before Wil could react, the gun went off. A neat, round hole appeared in Perry’s forehead and his eyes widened, then he dropped to the ground.

Wil looked from Perry’s still twitching corpse to Diane, stunned surprise keeping him momentarily frozen.

Diane’s gun hand still pointed at Perry and tears rolled down her ashen cheeks, but there was no emotion in her voice when she said to Wil, “I’ll wait for the police. Go save Abby.”

****

Wil used his cell phone to call Abby as he and Lindsey raced to the truck. “Abby, hon, listen to me carefully,” he said when she answered. “I need to tell you something very important.”

“Yes?” Her voice held puzzlement and a hint of concern.

“Do you feel any different?”

“Different? No. Why?”

He didn’t want to tell her about the bomb being detonated, didn’t want her to panic, but he had to tell her something. “Where are you?”

“I’m at home. Wil, what’s going on?”

“I’ll explain everything when I get there. Right now, just sit tight. Be very careful, just stay put and take it easy.”

“Oh, God.”

“It’s okay, hon. It’s going to be okay.”

“It’s been detonated, hasn’t it?”

“Everything’s going to be fine. Don’t panic. I’ll be there soon and we’ll get that thing out of you.”

“Oh, God,” she said again, her voice a choked whisper. “How long before it goes off?”

“Abby, stay with me, baby. That doesn’t matter because I’ll be there shortly with help. We’re going to take care of everything. You have to trust me.”

Her next words scared him more than anything else had.

“Wil, I love you,” she whispered.

Then the line went dead.

Chapter Eighteen

Wil fished out the business card Ross Novak had given him and dialed, keeping an eye on the road, and on Lindsey, who sat silent and pale in the passenger seat.

He identified himself when Ross answered, then asked, “Where are you?”

“I’m at home.”

“Give me your address. I’m coming by. What do you have there in the way of surgical equipment, anesthesia, that sort of thing?”

“Here? Nothing.”

“Okay. We’ll have to go by the hospital. I’ll need you to call them and have someone gather what you’ll need. Is your wife there?”

“Yes, she is. Need for what? What’s this about?”

“It’s Abby. The bomb’s been detonated and we have...” He looked at the clock on the dashboard. “...an hour and forty-five minutes to get it out of her and defuse it. If you can get it out, I can defuse it. Can my daughter stay with your wife?”

“Your daughter? She’s okay? She’s safe?”

“Yes. And if you’ll help me, we’ll save yours.”

Novak was quiet for a moment, but Wil could hear his breathing and it sounded like he was struggling with tears. His voice was raw when he spoke. “Of course I’ll help you. Of course your daughter can stay here. I’ll call the hospital now.”

Novak gave Wil the address and Wil disconnected the call.

Wil tried Abby’s phone again, aware that making calls while driving wasn’t the wisest thing to do, but the urgency of the situation took precedence over road safety.

The call went straight to voicemail. She had her phone off.

Don’t panic, it’s okay. Maybe she’s there waiting like you told her to be, but she’s on another line. Maybe the phone was dead. Maybe...

He tried to convince himself of a number of non-frightening scenarios, but he knew better.

Wil, I love you,
she’d said.

Not long ago, that had been exactly what he’d wanted to hear her say. But things were different now. He’d come to realize she was right to end things. All he could offer her was uncertainty and danger. After what she’d been through, she deserved peace...security. No matter how he’d tried to run from it, he was a cop. One day, he’d return to that life. He knew Abby couldn’t handle it and it wasn’t fair for him to ask her to.

Mainly, he hadn’t wanted to hear those words from her because she’d never said them before, and it scared him that she now felt the need. She’d sounded resigned...fatalistic. He pushed that thought aside. She was okay, she had to be. He’d help her, then he’d say goodbye, set her free.

When they arrived at Novak’s house, Ross met them outside. An older, attractive version of Abby followed behind.

Quick introductions were made, then Wil hugged his daughter. Lindsey clung to him until he finally had to pry her arms away. He held her face in his hands. “I’ll be back, sweetheart. You’ll be fine here with Charlene, okay?”

She nodded and he left her there, praying he wasn’t abandoning her too soon after her ordeal, knowing he didn’t have a choice.

He and Ross sped to the hospital. Wil waited impatiently in the pickup while Ross disappeared inside.

It wasn’t long, just under ten minutes by the dashboard clock, but it seemed like hours before Ross reappeared, holding a white plastic bag with large green letters printed on the side that read, ‘St. John’s Hospital’. Minutes later, they pulled up to Abby’s house.

Her car wasn’t in the driveway and Wil’s heart plummeted to his shoes.

He banged on her door, rationalizing why her car wasn’t there, but she still could be. She didn’t respond and he tried the knob. It was unlocked.

Inside, instead of Abby, he found a letter.

Dear Wil,

I’m doing what has to be done.

Please don’t try to find me and don’t blame yourself. I know you. You would try to save me and I can’t let you. Lindsey needs you. She’s already lost one parent. She shouldn’t lose another.

It’s not fair to you, either, to lose two women you love in one lifetime. You deserve better. And, yes, I know you love me, even though I wouldn’t let you say it. I love you, too.

Tell my stepfather and my mother I love them, and I’m so sorry I only recently realized how much.

Goodbye,

Abby

Wil felt a slow steady hum start in his head, blocking out all other sounds.

He looked around the room and the desperately ridiculous hope surfaced that maybe she was just hiding from him, not realizing how limited their time was.

Novak took the letter from Wil’s shaking hand.

“Oh God,” he moaned when he read it. “Where could she be?”

Wil rushed to the door. “She’s on the water. She has to be. It’s the only place she’d feel she wouldn’t harm anyone else.”

But when he ran to the dock, her boat was in its slip. His shoulders slumped in defeat. What now? They were running out of time and he was at a dead end.

His choice of phrase made a chill run over his spine.

No
. She wouldn’t die. He wouldn’t let her.

“Little Match Girl,” Novak said and Wil turned to him, narrowing his eyes in confusion.

“I beg your pardon?” Wil said.

“The boat. I gave it to her a few years ago for her birthday, but she didn’t want to take it. It’s actually a yacht. I named her Little Match Girl because that was Abby’s favorite story when she was a child. I bet she’s on it.”

Wil decided not to think too deeply about that. From what he remembered from story time with Lindsey, The Little Match Girl hadn’t ended all that happily. “Where did she moor it?”

“I don’t know,” Novak said frantically. “Maybe somewhere nearby?”

Wil flipped open his cell phone and called a friend at the Coast Guard. “Jim, need a favor. Would you issue a possible distress signal on a forty-foot Sea Ray?” He relayed the information as Novak gave it to him. “Registered as Little Match Girl out of Florida. No, don’t have the registration number, sorry.”

As he spoke, Wil hurried inside and found the keys to the Bayliner in their usual spot by the door. He grabbed them and rushed back out, hanging up his cell after Jim assured him they’d report back if they found the boat.

“How long will it take for her to go under with the anesthesia?” he asked Ross as they climbed aboard the Bayliner.

“It will take effect immediately.”

“And to perform the surgery?”

Novak shrugged. “Hard to say for sure. I won’t know until I get inside, but anywhere from thirty minutes to an hour would be my guess.”

Wil looked at his watch as he guided the boat onto the water. Half an hour or more for the surgery, at least five minutes to defuse the bomb, depending on what type of explosive it was.

That left them, at the most, forty-five minutes to find Abby and convince her to let them save her life.

A cold sweat broke out on Wil’s skin in spite of the ocean throwing a mist of cool water onto the boat. His bowels clenched with fear as he clutched the cell phone, willing it to ring with news the coast guard had found Abby.

When the call came, he nearly melted with relief.

They had less than an hour.

Chapter Nineteen

The Little Match Girl was a beautiful boat and Wil had the irrationally mundane thought that Abby was a fool for refusing such a magnificent gift.

He pulled the Bayliner up beside it and shouted for Abby.

Silence.

A rush of panic swept through him. Abby may have decided not to wait for the explosion. She may have ended her life already, loathe to tick off the seconds until she died a violent and horrific death.

His heart nearly stopped when he saw her appear above them. Her face was pinched, and even from this distance, he could see her beautiful brown eyes were dull with grief. She wore jeans and a loose fitting yellow blouse. She looked so lost, so vulnerable.

“You need to leave,” she said quietly, so quietly Wil barely heard her above the sounds of the waves and the creaking of the boat.

“Abby, we’re here to help you but we don’t have much time,” Wil said calmly. “You need to cooperate and let us save you.”

“Is Lindsey...?”

“Lindsey’s safe. She’s with your mother.”

Abby’s eyes closed. “Thank God.” She opened them again and said, “I appreciate what you’re both trying to do. But I can’t let you risk your lives for me. Mom and Lindsey need you. I’m ready for whatever happens. Please don’t worry about me.”

Tears moved from Wil’s throat to his eyes, threatening to spill over. He couldn’t speak.

“Abby, sweetie,” Novak said. “You mean the world to both of us, and to your mother. There’s no way we’re leaving you to die.” His breath hitched and Wil knew he was close to tears, too. “Dammit, we’re running out of time.”

“Then, just go,” Abby said, a sob tearing through the words. “Please, just go.”

“No. We’re not leaving,” Wil said harshly. “We’ll circle the ship until we all die if that’s the way you want it. The longer you argue, the more you risk all our lives.”

Abby’s features tensed, then crumpled. Wil watched in grateful relief as she hurried over and lowered the steps, moving back so they could come aboard.

When Wil climbed on deck, he pulled her into his arms and brushed a hand down her silky hair. With his lips against her ear, he whispered, “I won’t let anything happen to you, I promise.”

Novak hurried toward the galley. “Follow me. We need to get started right away.”

They walked down a steep, short flight of stairs into the cabin. A bed hung from one end of the wall and Novak motioned for Abby to lie down. She did and he opened his bag.

“How much time do we have?” she asked shakily.

Wil looked at his watch. He didn’t want to answer.

“How much?” she demanded.

Sighing, he responded, “We have just under an hour before the explosives are due to detonate. It will take thirty minutes, maybe more, for your stepfather to remove the device. At least five for me to defuse.”

Tears swam in her eyes but she nodded slowly and said to Ross, “Don’t wait for me to go completely under. I can handle the pain. Just get it done.”