Aim to Kill (43 page)

“Sounds interesting, but tedious.” He kissed her cheek.

“It can be, but it’s absolutely exhilarating when everything comes together.”

Olivia’s house phone rang and she reached over to answer it. “Hello?”

Zack heard a male voice on the other end.

“Olivia, it’s Greg. I didn’t wake you, did I?”

She sat up and said, “No, not at all. Thank you for the groceries.”

Zack stood. While he knew there wasn’t anything going on between Olivia and her ex-husband, he didn’t feel comfortable listening to their private conversation. “I’m going to check downstairs and talk to
Hoge
,” he whispered.

She nodded and he left.

Okay, maybe he was still a
little
jealous, but he’d get over it.

Olivia frowned as Zack closed the bedroom door. She hoped he wasn’t still insecure about her relationship with Greg.

“Olivia? Are you there?”

“Sorry, Greg. Will you be at the meeting with Rick tomorrow?” They needed to formally report their activities to their boss and hope for nothing more serious than a reprimand. However, any punishment wasn’t Rick’s decision. The investigation would ultimately go to a review board for action.

“I already gave my report this morning. Are you well enough?”

“What makes you think I’m not?”

“Maybe being thrown from a moving car or stabbed, pick one.”

Olivia sighed. “I’m definitely not cut out for fieldwork. But really, I’m in one piece and am barely sore.” That wasn’t completely true, but she wasn’t going to let on to Greg or Zack that she felt more than a little battered.

“I can come by, maybe pick you up in the morning.”

“That’s all right. Rick assigned security and they’ll drive me to the office.”

“Rick said that a Seattle cop came out with you.”

Word travels fast, Olivia thought. “Yes.”

“Isn’t that unusual?”

“Not really.”

Silence. Olivia felt distinctly uncomfortable, but she didn’t want to explain to Greg about Zack over the phone. She’d tell him tomorrow, in person.

“I’m tired. I think it’s time I go to bed,” she told Greg. “Thank you again for sending over the groceries.”

“Anytime, Olivia.”

She clicked the
OFF
button and rested the phone on its charger, then yawned. She was exhausted. She wouldn’t mind a hot bath, though. Maybe Zack would join her. She smiled at the thought and walked over to the adjoining bathroom. She turned on the water, added some bath salts, then crossed over to her bedroom closet for her robe.

She brushed past the bed and something grabbed her ankle.

She fell hard on the carpet, her brief scream silenced when her breath was knocked out of her.

Someone scrambled from under the bed, pinning her body to the ground with his. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a hand clutching a gun.

Hall.

She pounded on the floor with her fists, hoping Zack could hear, though the carpeted floors muffled the sound.

“Stop that!” Hall ordered in a low whisper. “Stop it right now. Make another sound and I’ll shoot you.”

Through her terror, Olivia detected a hint of fear in Hall’s voice. He had to know there were cops in the house. He’d been hiding under the bed while she and Zack were talking.

She shivered, feeling violated and uncomfortable at the thought of Hall spying on their intimate moment.

“What do you want?” she asked.

“It’s your fault.” Hall rolled off her, but still aimed the gun at her. “You fucking bitch. You made me a killer. You did this to me!”

She wouldn’t have to make noise to alert Zack, she realized. Hall’s voice was getting louder.

She slowly sat up, moving away from him at the same time.

“You don’t want to kill me,” she said. She catalogued the items in her room. Nothing lethal. Her gun, which she rarely used, was still packed in her suitcase.

Dumb move, St. Martin.
She’d relied on Zack and the agents to protect her. She needed to protect herself.

“Brian, you need to be smart right now.”

He ignored her. “Okay, this is what we’re going to do,” Hall said. “We’re going to walk out of here and you’ll take me to your bank. Then we’re done.”

Olivia shuddered. He was going to kill her after getting some money. And she wasn’t about to be a hostage again. Once in a lifetime was more than enough.

Hall glanced around the room. “Your boyfriend is going to be back. How can we get out of here?”

Olivia would have found it hard to take Hall seriously as they sat on the floor facing each other but for the fact that he had a gun pointed at her.

And he
had
killed Gary and Hamilton.

“You don’t want to do this,” she said. “You don’t want to go back to prison.”

“I
dunno
. Maybe I do,” he countered. “Free food, movies, little work. Why shouldn’t I go back to prison? I have no life outside.”

“All right. Well, I can arrange it.” If she weren’t so scared, she would have laughed. She didn’t need to
arrange
anything. Hall had already killed two people. “I work for the federal government. I have a lot of friends in high places. Hand me the gun and we can talk about which prison you’d like to go to.”

He shook his head. “You don’t get it. My life is over.
You
stole it from me. I got out and had nothing. I’m too old to do anything. My own ma thinks I’m guilty. But I’m not!”

Regardless of the recent crimes Hall had committed, Olivia felt sorry for him. He’d been in prison well over half his life and no longer knew how to function in the real world.

“Brian,” she said softly, “I really feel awful about what happened after my sister was killed. I hope you understand that I was just a little kid. I only saw the tattoo. Everything else was based on the evidence.”

Hall’s lips tightened. “It was all made up.”

“No, it wasn’t made up. But you’re right. They should have pursued other suspects. They weren’t thorough enough.” They didn’t have the tools thirty-four years ago to be as thorough as law enforcement was in the twenty-first century. But still, Hall had created part of his problem by lying to the police about his whereabouts the night of Missy’s kidnapping.

Olivia wasn’t about to remind him of that, though.

“Brian, listen. You did a good thing back in California. You helped us catch Driscoll. You helped save a girl’s life. That’s worth something. That’s worth a lot.”

Hall’s back was to the door, but Olivia saw it slowly inch open.

Zack was on the other side.

“That asshole Chris Driscoll! How could he do that? How could he set me up like that?”

“Driscoll was a sick killer, and he definitely set you up. But you might not have heard the news. He’s dead. He was shot and killed outside the courthouse today.”

Hall nodded. “I heard it on the news. He deserved it, the fucking pervert. I’m not like him. I’m not a killer.”

“You’re nothing like Driscoll,” she agreed. As she said it, she realized the difference between the two killers. Driscoll took intense pleasure in killing. Hall had killed Hamilton and Gary quickly and quietly, and in relative darkness.

She wasn’t out of the woods yet. Hall had traveled three thousand miles to kill her. But the longer she kept him talking, the better her chances of surviving.

Out of the corner of her eye, she watched Zack step silently into the room.

“I’ll tell you what. Put the gun down, and I’ll do everything I can to get you in any prison you want. Any prison in the whole country. You know where the good prisons are, right? New facilities, comfortable beds, good weather.”

“I heard about this one down in Texas. One of the transfers was talking about it.”

“Exactly.”

“Though I got pals in Folsom.”

“Whatever you want.”

Zack caught Olivia’s eye. Even though he had a gun aimed at Hall’s head, if Zack fired Hall could easily get a round off.

“I don’t believe you,” Hall said. “You can’t do that. You can’t set me up in a federal prison. You’re trying to fool me.”

Olivia had thought she’d had Hall ready to acquiesce. So close!

“Brian, what can I do or say for you to believe me?”

“Nothing. You’d lie in a heartbeat. How do you think I got here? I didn’t kill no one and no one believed me—my own mother, even now, even after evidence proved I didn’t do nothing wrong.”

He sniffled, his body shook.

He used his gun arm to wipe his nose.

Olivia tilted her head to the right and Zack nodded. He was just two feet from Hall. Ten minutes ago, Olivia had cursed the carpeted floors; now she was grateful for them.

“I don’t know what to do.” Hall looked defeated.

Olivia moved quickly to the right and Zack tackled Hall from behind, grabbing his gun hand and slamming it against the nightstand.

“
Oww
!” Hall cried, and his gun fell to the floor.

Olivia hurriedly crawled over and snatched Hall’s gun while Zack threw him on his stomach and knelt on his back, handcuffing him.

“It’s not fair!” Hall cried. “You lied to me again.”

He sounded like a petulant child.

“What is it you want?” Olivia asked.

“Don’t talk to him, Olivia. He’s not worth it.”

She shook her head. “No, I want to know.”

Hall looked skeptical, but asked, “Can you really help me get into a decent prison? One that has good food and television and maybe video games?”

“Yeah, I really can,” Olivia said. “I know the people who can make it happen. I’ll make it right for you, Brian.”

Pete
Hoge
came into the room and hauled Hall up by his arms. “I’ll take him into federal custody,” he said, “while they work on extradition to California.”

“Federal custody?” Hall’s face lit up. “Hey, do you really think I can get into a federal prison? They’re even better than the place down in Texas my pal told me about. I hear the food’s really good.”

Hoge
looked ready to hit Hall over the head. Zack clapped him on the back. “Take him away.”

Olivia watched
Hoge
take Brian Hall out of her room, and she sank onto her bed. She didn’t know how she would ever sleep again without checking under her bed, just like a child.

Zack took Hall’s gun from her and put it in his waistband. She’d forgotten she was holding it.

He sat next to her, wrapping his arms around her. “Are you okay?”

She nodded. “You know, I feel kind of sorry for him. I mean, I hate him for what he did to Gary and Hamilton, but . . .” She shook her head. How could she explain? “I can’t help but wonder if he would have been capable of killing if he had never gone to prison in the first place.”

“He was caught up in someone else’s game. I hate the thought that the taxpayers are going to be footing his bill for the next twenty to thirty years, until he croaks.”

“He killed a cop, Zack. He could get the death penalty.”

“He helped us find Driscoll. A good attorney could probably get him life without parole.”

“Which is what he wants.” Olivia rested her head on Zack’s shoulder.

“You seem to attract danger like a magnet,” Zack said, kissing the top of her head.

“Me?” She laughed, and the release made her feel a thousand times lighter. “Oh, Zack, I’m actually a boring person.”

“Is that supposed to be a selling point?” he teased.

Olivia smiled into his chest, then heard something that sounded like running water. She jumped up.

“What’s wrong?”

“My bath!” She ran to the bathroom. The overflow drain was working, but water still poured from the tub. She shut it off, standing in half an inch of warm water.

Zack came up and wrapped his arms around her. “You were taking a bath without me?”

“I’d planned on inviting you to join me.”

“Good.” He spun her around and kissed her forehead, her nose, her lips. She sighed and leaned into him.

“We’re still going to have a vacation, darling,” Zack told her. “I’m not counting today.”

“Let’s hope the rest of our vacation is less eventful,” she said, smiling.

They looked down at the water all over the bathroom floor and laughed.

A siren cut into the night and Zack sighed. “We’re going to have to hold off on that bath for a while.”

Olivia unbuttoned her shirt and dropped it to the wet floor.

“You deal with it. I’ve had enough of Hall for tonight.” Olivia slid out of her clothing and stepped into the full tub. “I’ll wait here for you, if you don’t mind.”

Careful to keep the bandage on her chest dry, she sank into the warm water and sighed.

“Hold that thought. I’ll be back as soon as I kick everyone out of the house.”

Olivia smiled as Zack fled the room.

Twenty minutes later he was back. He entered the room naked.