The Lazarus Trap (32 page)

Val raised his gaze. Arthur had lifted his head free of his hands. Bert and Dillon were stationed by the rear door. The three men watched him with knowing eyes. Val swallowed against the hurt and the helplessness. “I'd made my choice. I wasn't going to be one of the good guys anymore. Audrey accused me of allowing Terrance to remake me into himself. She was right.”

From behind him Gerald said, “So you sent her away.”

Val nodded to the accusation in Gerald's tone. “Audrey never told me to stop going after him. But she wanted me to do it for the right reasons. To save the pension. To protect the company and the employees. But that wasn't enough for me. I wanted . . .”

“Vengeance,” Arthur murmured.

“Everything,” Val said, shamed by his confession. “I wanted it all.”

“You wanted back what the man had stolen.” This from Bert. “Audrey knew you couldn't have it. She offered you something else. You turned her down.”

“Guilty,” Val said.

Gerald came around to look Val in the eye. “Explain to me why you didn't go to the authorities as soon as you knew the money was missing.”

“If I couldn't pin the loss on Terrance, from inside the company and knowing the books as I did, no outside examiner would find enough to put him away, much less recoup the losses. I couldn't blow the whistle until I had both hard evidence on Terrance and knowledge of where the funds had been hidden. But the more I looked, the more I realized . . .”

Gerald gave him a tight moment, then pressed, “What?”

“I realized the only way to track him was to put myself in his shoes.”

“You mean steal funds yourself.”

“That's right.”

“Sounds very convenient to me.”

“Gerald, mate, give it a rest.”

“No, it's okay. He's right.” Val stared at Gerald but saw only the past. “It wasn't Terrance that I first discovered at all. There was a woman in my department, Marjorie Copeland was her name. She had a severely disabled son and no life whatsoever. The last person you'd expect to be caught dipping. She revealed that she had found out someone else was taking huge sums. She was three years from retirement, and her son could not survive without her pension. I started looking and discovered she was not only right, but it was far worse than she had thought. Enough had been stolen to bring down the entire company. I knew it was Terrance. But I couldn't prove it.”

Bert was growing impatient. “So you went after him by following his tracks. Sounds simple enough.”

But Val kept his gaze on Gerald, his judge and jury. “It started off that way. But I knew the life Terrance had stolen from me was gone. Demolished. So I decided to take my own share of the pension, expose Terrance, and disappear.”

Gerald repeated, more softly this time, “So you sent Audrey away.”

“My life was over. I wanted to leave and never come back. I wanted to start over and do right all the things that had come out so wrong the first time.”

He stopped then. And sat listening to his past and the ticking of the clock.

Gerald still challenged, but the heat was absent. “You said you have a plan.”

Val took a breath, and stared into his dimly lit future. “That's right. I do.”

TERRANCE D'ARCY PACED A DARKENED BEDROOM. THE ROOM'S only illumination came from a cheap bedside clock radio and light slipping beneath the closed door. He heard soft voices somewhere in the distance. His two suitcases lay open beside the bed with his clothes heaped on top. Such disorder would normally have sent him into a tailspin. Right now, however, he had more pressing issues on his mind.

When they had returned upstairs after the attack, Loupe had explained in his mildest voice that their struggle had attracted the wrong sort of attention. He asked if Terrance would temporarily relocate to their rented cottage. The silken voice had left no room for complaint. The police would be coming around, asking questions. Bound to happen, what with five of them involved in a dust-up in the hotel lobby and Terrance brawling in the lift.

His jaw throbbed where Val had struck. His body felt stiff with hints of pain yet to come. The bedside clock taunted him with red eyes that blinked out the minutes. He turned on the overhead light. Still the darkness would not go away. He was desperate for answers and had no one with whom he could talk. Wally had remained at the hotel. Don was still not answering his phone. But Terrance's mind was such a muddle he needed someone to help him strategize.

Terrance stopped his pacing and stared at the side wall. To even consider such a move revealed just how frantic he had become.

Terrance stripped off the clothes trashed by his battle with Val. From the pile on the floor he selected a freshly starched shirt. A navy suit of finest gabardine with a slight hint of charcoal pinstripe. Baume et Mercier watch. Gold stud cufflinks. Donning the only armor he possessed.

He exited the room. Two of Loupe's men were seated at the kitchen table. They greeted his appearance with vacant gazes. “Everything all right, Mr. d'Arcy?”

“I just wanted to speak with my sister.”

“Mr. Loupe didn't say nothing about that.” The two men exchanged glances. “Think maybe we should call it in?”

“Look here. I was the one who ordered her brought in. She's my sister. If she is going to tell anyone where Haines is, it will be me.”

The men looked doubtful but did not stop him as Terrance walked to the other bedroom and opened the door.

Audrey was handcuffed to a bedpost. She had risen to a seated position at the sound of his voice. She greeted him with, “I wouldn't dream of telling you anything.”

Terrance gently shut the door. He picked up the room's one chair and carried it to her side of the bed. Audrey drew her legs up under her at his approach, as though fearful of contamination. “There is nothing I could possibly say of any help to you,” she said.

Terrance opened the window wide. The mist floated in, and the room's air chilled. But it was his only hope of not being overheard. Audrey watched his movements but made no protest.

He lowered himself into the chair. He steepled his fingers. He spoke the words, “I am trapped.”

Audrey remained motionless, her gaze guarded.

“I have only just realized how serious the situation has become. I don't know what to do.”

“And you're asking me? For advice?”

“Help me strategize, and I will see that you are immediately freed.” It was a lie, of course. But it was all he had. “I will set you and Father up in luxury and comfort for the rest of your days.”

“You must be in far deeper than I thought.” Audrey untangled her legs, and slid over. The handcuff rattled against the bedstead. “Brother, look at me.” She waited through the long moment it took for Terrance to lift his gaze. “You have been trapped all your life.”

“You don't understand.”

“On the contrary. I understand all too well.”

“Could we please dispense with the self-righteous claptrap for a moment? I am in very serious trouble here.”

“Of that I have no doubt.”

“You have remained persistently determined to misunderstand everything I am and do.” Terrance felt the exasperation of centuries. “Why I came in here is utterly beyond me now.”

“Because you're desperate. Because you have nowhere else to turn.”

“You needn't sound so pleased.”

“As a prisoner counselor, I deal with people in your situation day in and day out. The only difference is, they are wearing the cuffs. And their jailers are not normally in suits. But I have seen this situation more often than you can imagine. So I shall make things easy for you. You are completely trapped. You have nowhere to go. All your normal maneuverings have brought you nowhere but down into a pit of your own making.”

He felt the old anger surge. “You and I are more alike than you ever imagined. You take precise aim for the jugular. Perhaps it's a family trait, one that passed over our dear father's generation.”

“Don't you dare speak of him. Don't you dare.” She stopped, pushed herself back. “Terrance, I have only one hope to offer you. One answer. One way out of the misery you have created for yourself and for everyone around you.” She wiped a hand across her face. Plum-colored caverns had been excavated below her eyes. “Why did you come in here?”

A puff of wind blew night mist over them both. “You're right, of course. I shouldn't have bothered.”

“No, no, that's not what I meant. You came in here looking for answers, isn't that so?”

“Clearly none of those you have to offer.”

Terrance heard the phone ring in the distance. A moment later, one of the guards opened the door and announced, “The boss wants a word. In person.”

“But it's four in the morning.”

The guard shrugged. “The boss never was much for sleep.”

Terrance rose and turned his face to the open window and the squall. The night was such a terrible foe. But he had triumphed over worse enemies. There had to be a way.

Audrey reached over and gripped his arm. “Listen to what I'm saying, will you please?”

Terrance looked down at her hand. He could not remember the last time they had touched. “I was wrong to come here.”

The guard warned, “Best not to keep the boss waiting.”

“Terrance—”

He pulled his arm free. “Farewell, Audrey.”

THE RAIN CAME WITH THE NIGHT. BY THE TIME DAWN SPREAD A COLD, grey blanket over the world, they had worked through Val's plan. Arthur held in there gamely, offering little besides his presence, refusing their repeated request for him to go upstairs and lie down. The five of them sat in grim determination, staring at the many problems for which they had no answers. Audrey's absence was a gaping wound Val saw in all their faces. Sharing this woe was a unifying force, the only answer he could find to whether he had the ability to pull this off.

Finally Gerald nodded once. A very small nod. “This is good.”

Every tick of the clock was a hammer aimed at Val's temple, banging down on the need for speed. But he waited. There was nothing else he could do. To work this plan he needed them all. In truth, he needed an army. But these three men would have to do.

Arthur cleared his throat. “I would ask that you gentlemen do something for me.”

“Anything.” Bert's response was visceral. “Whatever you need, mate. Consider it done.”

“When we got out of the joint,” Dillon explained to Val, “Arthur here landed us both jobs.”

“First honest wage I'd ever earned,” Bert agreed. “You just name it, mate.”

Arthur spoke for ten minutes. When he finished, the room remained locked in stunned silence.

Arthur slid his chair back and used both hands to push himself erect. “And now I fear I really must rest.”

“We'll do it,” Bert said, but weaker.

Dillon's voice was as strained as his features. “Are you certain—”

“Yes,” Arthur replied. “I am. As certain as I've ever been in all my life.”

“We can make this happen,” Val admitted, though saying the words left him nauseous. “But we'll need your help.”

“I thought as much.”

Val followed Arthur down the hall and up the stairs, resisting the urge to help when the older man faltered. Only when Arthur entered the guestroom and sighed his way down onto the bed did Val say, “I'm not doing this for you, and I'm sure not doing it for Terrance. If I'd been the one holding the trigger and Terrance had been upstairs in that bank, I would not have hesitated one instant.”

Arthur did not seem particularly surprised by his words. “And now?”

“I'm doing this for Audrey.”

From the foot of the stairs, Bert called up, “Val, mate, it's time to roll.”

Arthur's pale hands held out the keys to his battered old Rover. “I can only hope her love works on your magnificent stone of a heart.”