Too Little, Too Late (37 page)

“I didn’t give a damn about your family’s money,” Kate told him, tasting blood in the back of her throat. “All I wanted was for Karl Bauer to own up to what he had done.”

“And what an incestuous lot we are! Father had you and then he and Irving fucked you. You had Maria and then I fucked her.” He laughed hysterically. “Nothing like keeping it all in the family—”

“No!” Kate stared at Leo in horror as the significance of what he just said sunk into her weary brain. “Then that means that Liz—
You sick, perverted animal—Maria—that was my Sonja!”
Kate had reached the end of her limit as devastation engulfed her.

Rina suddenly grunted several times in rapid succession through the tape covering her mouth. Leo went over and checked between her legs. He began undoing his belt buckle.

Kate barely noticed.

“The head has crowned,” he told her in a monotone. “I need to get ready.” He pulled off his shirt, followed by his pants. When he went to remove his underwear, Kate tried turning her head but that proved futile when he came and stood directly in front of her, grabbing a fistful of her hair so that her face was directly in his crotch. There was a purple rope tied around his scrotum and penis that restricted their circulation, making them bulge against their binding.

His attention was suddenly claimed by the strange primeval noises coming from Rina. Her breathing was ragged as she fought for air in between each contraction. Her heaving body contorted as it struggled to deliver the life inside of her.

“Look, she’s about to give birth,” Kate implored half-heartedly. “Untie me so I can help her!”

“No!” he barked. “I don’t want you touching that baby.”

The baby’s head was almost entirely through her vaginal opening as Leo slipped an armband on. The cap soon followed. “I’m ready now.”

Kate shook her head in horror. The armband had a swastika and the cap was part of a uniform worn by Nazi soldiers. “You’re crazy,” she whispered in fear.

He went to the basin under Rina’s feet where her fluids were collecting. Dipping his fingers into the bloody liquid, he stood in front of Kate and imprisoned her head while drawing the outline of a swastika on her forehead. “Our father was a Nazi. We’re part Nazi. You can no more deny that than I can—”

“Don’t you dare include me in your twisted perversions!”

He ignored her outburst. “This child will soon be our salvation.” The look he gave her wasn’t human as he briefly touched his swollen genitals.

The room filled with a series of deep-throated grunts as Rina began bearing down. Leo put on a pair of latex gloves and picked up the hunting knife lying on the table.

“What are you going to do with that?” Kate demanded.

Leo ignored her question as he went and squatted behind Rina, his hand cupping the back of the baby’s bloodied head. Two more primeval grunts were torn from Rina’s throat before the tiny human was thrust from between Rina’s legs in a bloody gush of fluid, directly into Leo’s hands.

“It’s a boy.” It was a statement devoid of any emotion.

Kate held her breath, fearing he would drop the baby. It was slick with mucous and blood and he struggled to get a hold of it. Taking the knife at his side, he cut the umbilical cord after tying off the baby’s end with a shoelace he’d pulled from his sneaker. Opening the baby’s airways with some Q-tips, he carried the baby over to the small table, where he wiped it with a length of paper towel before wrapping it in an old dish towel he’d found in a corner of the cellar.

Whether Rina had been aware of the fact that she had just delivered a boy was difficult to tell. Her head was slumped forward, her eyes closed, in a semi-conscious state as exhaustion overtook her.

“Rina, hold on,” cried Kate, hoping to get her attention. She turned to her captor. “She’s had the baby, now let her go.”

“It’s not your choice to make,” Leo told her as he counted the baby’s fingers and toes.

“You talk about salvation,” Kate spat out at him, “yet you’re willing to let the source of your salvation die!”

This seemed to get his attention. “You have it wrong, Sister Kate.” He pointed a finger at Rina’s semi-conscious form. “She’s not the source of our salvation.” Before Kate realized what he was about to do, he took the knife and plunged it into Rina’s stomach. “She was merely the instrument to achieve it!”

“No!”
 

But it was too late. Rina’s body jerked twice before going limp. Eyes stared back at Kate unseeingly. In the space of a few short minutes, Rina was dead.

“You animal!”

“Why? Because I killed her?” he asked. “I’m no more crazy than you were when you did it.”

Kate went still. “What are you talking about?”

“I was there that night you came to our house to see Father.” Leo’s eyes gazed at her unseeingly. “The bastard was drunk, as usual. Neither one of you saw me on the other side of the library door.” His eyes suddenly focused and stared at Kate with laser-like precision. “I saw you pin him down until that bastard choked on his own vomit.”

As his words sunk in, Kate began to shake. “You don’t know what you’re talking about!”

He leaned forward until he was less than an inch from her face. “Don’t worry, Kate. Your secret’s safe with me.” Reaching for the baby, he gently pulled out the baby’s left arm.

“If you hurt that baby, I’ll kill you!” Kate yelled, to no avail.

Using the sharp blade of his hunting knife, he gently punctured the baby’s delicate skin, making it bleed. He smiled in satisfaction. Removing his gloves, he dipped his finger into the blood before walking over to Kate. “Exorcizo te, creatura aquae, in nominee Dei Patris omnipotentis, et in nominee Jesu Christi, Filii ejus Domini nostri.” Very carefully, he drew the symbol of a cross over the dried swastika on her forehead. He stood back to admire the effect. “Be patient, Sister Kate. Salvation is within our reach.”

The time for screaming had long passed. Kate knew for certain it was only a matter of time before she met the same fate as Rina. Strangely enough, she no longer cared. She had lost the will to live.

“
What do you mean the police can’t find her?
” asked Eve in desperation.

Paul shrugged. “Warner says she told her maid she was going out but didn’t say where.”

“This is insane!” Eve’s shoulders slumped forward as she cradled her head in her hands. “My mother’s life is riding on Olivia Johnson and she’s all but disappeared.” She looked at Paul. “I don’t suppose she’s answering her cell phone.”

“I doubt it.” Paul rubbed wearily at the day-old stubble covering his chin. “I have a feeling old Irving has probably hidden her away somewhere far from her brother’s reach.”

Eve and Paul and Liz and Otis were sitting in Paul’s car, grateful to be out of the small confines of the command center trailer. The stress had taken its toll on Eric and Brooke had driven him home despite his protests.

“We’re wasting precious time waiting around while they try to track her down,” Eve remarked bitterly, “especially if she’s in hiding.”

“And all Leo has to do is turn on a television and see all the cameras and reporters outside the gate,” Liz added.

“Maybe the cops have another plan,” Otis suggested, “or maybe we need to come up with one.”

“Like what?” asked Liz and Eve in unison.

“Creating a
different
diversion,” he answered.

“Any ideas?” Paul asked.

“What about going through the service entrance at the back?”

Paul gave him a suspicious look. “How do you know about the service entrance?”

“Where else do you put out the trash?” he asked reasonably. “When I first came to this town, I used to go through people’s trash to make some extra dough. Did you know your neighbor two doors down is a rock star with amazing garbage? I could probably make a fortune on eBay hawking his used condoms alone.”

Paul was quick to interrupt. “I think we get the picture.”

Otis’ idea had set the wheels in motion in Eve’s mind. “I think Otis may be on to something.”

“About the service entrance?” asked Liz.

Eve nodded. “Right beside the service entrance is that huge walnut tree,” Eve told Paul. “Do you know the one I’m talking about?”

“I think so.”

“If we were to scale the wall in front of it, it should give us enough cover, don’t you think?” she asked, warming to her idea.

“And what would we do once we scaled the wall?” he asked skeptically.

“The gardener’s work shed is right beside it,” she told them excitedly.

“So?”

“Inside the shed is the golf cart your gardeners use along with the remote control for the cart.”

“You mean use the cart to create a diversion.” Paul finally caught on. “That might just work.”

“I was also thinking about the alarm,” Eve continued. “The task force wouldn’t have to deal with neutralizing the alarm if we were to shut it off from the inside.”

Paul’s brow shot upward. “And how do you propose we do that?”

“By getting in through the doggie door in the north kitchen,” she replied.

He shook his head immediately. “No way. That opening is much too small for anyone to fit through.”

She turned to Liz. “Liz could probably fit through it.”

Paul shook his head slowly. “I want your mother back as much as you do but that’s simply too risky.”

Her earlier fatigue forgotten, Eve became animated as she warmed to her plan. “It’s not that risky. You give Liz the security code. She slips in and deactivates the alarm before opening the kitchen door and we’re in.” She smiled at them triumphantly. “It’s that simple.”

“It’s never
that
simple,” Paul argued. “We don’t know what we’re up against. For all we know, this nutcase could have each entrance in the house booby-trapped.” His blue eyes locked into her stormy ones. “We’d be taking too big a risk. Besides you haven’t even asked Liz if she’d do it.”

Three pairs of eyes turned to Liz.

“I’m willing to give it a shot.”

Eve searched the young woman’s features. “Are you sure, Liz? Paul’s right. It’s a huge risk.”

Liz nodded.

Eve turned to Paul triumphantly. “Can you think of a better plan?”

His silence gave her the answer she needed.

***

Leo had been gone for a long time, or so Kate thought. The baby’s incessant crying earlier had kept her alert but he’d been quiet for quite some time now. She wasn’t sure how long she’d been drifting in and out of consciousness, especially since the throbbing inside her head had become much worse.

“Baby, cry or do something,” she cooed. “Let me know you’re okay.”

There was only silence from the small bundle.

What if Leo had hurt the baby?
Kate couldn’t tell from her vantage point whether the baby was even breathing but she knew she couldn’t let him die. If only every bone in Kate’s body didn’t ache. It would’ve been so much easier to just close her eyes and float away. Her head flopped to one side, her eyes coming in contact with Rina’s limp body. The blood had stopped flowing from the wound in her stomach and small rivulets had coagulated into her pubic hair and down the front of her thighs. Her remains were like a macabre three-dimensional painting wrought by the madman that had imprisoned her. Somehow, Rina’s mutilated body gave Kate the strength to attack the bindings at her wrists with renewed vigor.

Her wrists were chafed and sore from the tightness of the rope but after years of playing the piano, her hands and fingers were still fairly nimble. Kate twisted and turned them, slowly loosening the bindings. She gave a small cry of triumph as she slipped her thumb and index finger free. A minute later, her left hand was out, followed quickly by her right hand.

Managing to get herself up onto her knees, they immediately threatened to buckle under her. She grabbed on to the post for support, unprepared for the nausea that assailed her. It eventually subsided, allowing her stand up slowly. She listened for the sound of Leo’s footsteps but didn’t hear anything. Overcome by the shakes, Kate painstakingly made her way over to the baby.
It
looked as though the baby was dead!
Putting her ear to the baby’s mouth, she heard his shallow breathing and knew she had to get him to a hospital quickly.

Scooping him up with shaking hands, Kate fervently prayed he wouldn’t pick that moment to start crying but he barely whimpered. Propped up against one of the shelves, she spied what looked like an old paddle, except that the paddle part was made from metal. Holding the baby in one arm, she tucked the paddle under her armpit, using it as a crutch. Awkwardly making her way over to the door, Kate stuck her head out, scanning both ends of the hallway. It was empty. She closed her eyes, praying for the strength to get them through this.

***

Paul was the first one over the fence, followed by Eve. Liz came a minute later. Directly in front of them was the ancient walnut tree.

“So far so good,” muttered Eve.

“What now?” asked Liz.

“The garden shed is about a hundred yards away, give or take,” he told them. “We’ll have to make a run for it, one at a time, to the side of the shed closest to the fence. The security cameras don’t get that angle.” He looked at the two women grimly. “I’ll go first, followed by you, Liz, and then Eve. Is everyone ready?”

They nodded.

Paul sprinted across the lawn and quickly made it to the shed. Somewhat out of breath, he motioned for Liz, who scurried gracefully across the lawn, followed a minute later by Eve. Eve tried the door. Thankfully, it was unlocked and the three of them slipped inside. In a matter of minutes, they located the remote for the golf cart.

Eve picked up the remote, looking at it dubiously.

“Do you know how to work that thing?” he asked.

“It’s all in the wrist,” she joked, feigning a confidence she was far from feeling.

The grooves around his mouth had deepened and he wiped at the sweat that had collected on his brow. “The way I see it, we’ve got about 500 yards from here to the north kitchen. Once Eve gets the golf cart going towards the south end, we make a dash for the kitchen door.”