Deadly Dozen: 12 Mysteries/Thrillers (150 page)

“Where is your loser brother?” I took a step back, trying to get between him and the door just in case he tried to run.

“Where do you think? Figure it out—you’re smart enough.”

I lifted the gun and closed one eye. He lifted his right hand defensively and grimaced. “Stop, fine, just stop!”

I lowered the gun and waited.

“My guess is that he’s halfway to Bali by now. He doesn’t like to get his hands dirty—he’s more of an observer.” Hank coughed and spit, grinning up at me. “Come on, Sarah, you know you want to, but you, like most women, are weak …”

Something wasn’t right. He was stalling, and not just to keep me from shooting him. Hank chuckled and that same look I saw in court crossed his face, the one that was not worried, not scared, as if he knew the ending.

Before I could react, the bedroom door exploded inward, throwing me forward. I hit the ground and rolled and managed to hold on to my gun. Hank crawled away from the door, and through the smoke a tall man in a suit stepped into the room. It was the same man who had kidnapped me during the trial.

“Kill her!” Hank bellowed.

The tall man nodded and lifted a pistol. I threw myself toward the foot of the bed and turned as a gunshot sounded. The room became a barrage of noise as I looked down the sights and fired three times at the tall man’s chest.

His body jerked and he stumbled. He fell onto his back and didn’t move. I got to my feet and turned toward Hank. He was crouched in between the nightstand and the bed, blood still dripping from his face.

“You have been tried by a court of law,” I said. “But it did not carry out justice to completion. Now there is only one thing left to do.”

“No, wait—”

Hank lunged forward and grabbed my ankle, throwing me to the side. I lost my balance and fell. Hank was faster than he looked and was on top of me before I could get to my feet. He hit me in the face, and the pain paralyzed me momentarily.

His face grew pale, his eyes glowed, and he bared his teeth at me. “Die!”

I couldn’t see—it was just pain and a blur of blood and fists. Kicking up with my knee, I connected with something and Hank grunted and rolled off me. I took the chance—it could be my only chance. I groped for my gun. When I couldn’t find it, I panicked.

I was on my knees and Hank grabbed my shoulder and spun me around. My vision cleared. I balled my fist and punched him as hard as I could in the throat. I felt his windpipe collapse and he gasped. I followed it up with my other fist and hit him again in the throat, remembering what my kickboxing instructor had said: “You can’t do anything if you can’t breathe.”

Hank doubled over, clutching his throat. I stood up, panting, and looked for my gun. I found it under the bed. Holding it with both hands, I pointed it at the dying man. He was on his back making gurgling sounds, and his eyes looked like two glowing embers. They were full of hate, and rested on me.

My body shivered as Hank Williams took his last breath. It sounded like someone trying to suck in air through a straw. His body went limp and I stood over him for what seemed like a long time. I was not going to be like one of those girls in the movies who assumed the bad guy was dead only to have him come back and kill them.

Leaning over, I felt for a pulse.

Hank Williams was dead.

Looking around the room, I walked over to the tall man who was on his back, breathing hard. I pulled the trigger and put one bullet through his heart. The room smelled like gunpowder and sweat. I wanted to throw up, but I held it down.

Leaving the room, I put my back to the wall and slid down to a sitting position. All the emotions of what just happened hit me full force. I didn’t cry, but a groan came from deep in my soul.

What had I done? All the anger buried deep inside me was gone, and the coldness scared me.

CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO

BEFORE THE SWEAT HAD dried on my face, I’d called Detective Monroe. I told him that there’d been a break-in at Mandy’s, two men were dead, and one of them was Hank Williams.

I went back and stood in the doorway to my room. Blood was soaked into the carpet and the tall man in the middle of the floor stared up with soulless eyes. This time I couldn’t hold it in. I bent over and threw up in the hallway.

#

TWENTY-FIVE MINUTES LATER, the detectives and policemen found me curled up on the couch in a daze.

“They’re upstairs,” I whispered.

Detective Ross ran up the stairs two at a time. I could see his profile as he looked in the room. Revulsion flooded his face, and then he entered.

Detective Monroe stayed beside me. He didn’t say a word, but I could see it in his eyes: pity. He knew I’d been through hell, and he wanted to help.

I’d already gone through an abridged version of the story in my mind. As an attorney, I knew what I could tell them and what I had to keep to myself. But I was too weak to tell them anything.

“Can I give you my testimony later?” I said in a thin voice. My eyes could barely stay open.

He took a throw blanket from the end of the couch and settled it over me. As it collapsed around my shoulders, I completely relaxed. I barely even heard him say, “Of course.”

I closed my eyes and fell asleep.

CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE

I WOKE TO SEE Mandy’s loving face above mine. With a gasp, I threw my arms around her shoulders and squeezed her as hard as I could. Tears silently streamed down my cheeks. My face was so bruised that even the tears hurt.

“There, there, baby,” she said, her voice cracking. “You’re okay now. Everything’s going to be fine.” They were the same words I’d said to Angela not twelve hours earlier.

I sat up and then winced. My rib felt cracked, and it hurt to move.

“Do you need to see a doctor?” Mandy asked, wide-eyed with concern.

“No.” I groaned. “I don’t want to move.”

Their living room was swarming with cops and forensic techs. Monroe sat in the lounge chair across from me, writing his notes. Ross was in the kitchen, drinking coffee with Rick.

“I think it’s time we heard that story,” Monroe said.

I told them every truth I could. I left out the part about following Hannah—I said that after I left their office, I went to the bed-and-breakfast where I was staying. Then, after I texted Mandy, I came straight here.

“Rick says you silenced a security breach just as Hank arrived.” Monroe eyed me with one eyebrow raised.

“I thought it was just a bird hitting the window. The alarms go off sometimes when that happens.”

Monroe nodded and urged me on. I told them, in the most sparse language possible, how Hank had attacked me in the bedroom, but I’d had a gun. And then this tall man showed up, and I’d shot him several times. And then I went into more detail recounting how Hank had tried to kill me with a knife, but I got a deathblow in before he had the chance.

Mandy’s face was horror-stricken. No doubt it mirrored mine.

Ross, who had been listening from the kitchen, finally entered. “You shouldn’t have had to deal with that, but you handled it well.” He eyed me strangely. “You’ve had a lot of blood on your hands in the past twelve hours.”

I looked away. There was no need to remind me of something that would haunt me for the rest of my life. Did he suspect something?

“You’ve silenced a very evil man, Sarah Steele. He deserved what he got. A woman named Heather Dade came to the office yesterday,” Monroe said. I perked up at the familiar name. “She told us that she was a friend of yours, and that you wanted her to testify against Hank Williams. Then she went on to tell us everything he’d done to her as a child.” He shook his head. “He’s been a monster for a long time—we just didn’t know it.”

Mandy hugged me again, clutching me as if she’d never let go. I was so glad Heather had come forward. Now she might feel some peace after all these years.

“Well,” Monroe snapped his notebook shut, “I have good news for you. Our boys caught up with Glen Williams at the airport while you were sleeping. He’s in jail now. If the DNA is a match, he’ll be going away for a very long time.”

Joy shot through me. All the work Joshua and I had put in the case was now seeing fruition. “Will he go down for what happened to Tracy in the barn?” I asked.

“He sure will,” Ross said. “Certainly as an accessory to murder, if not for the murder itself.”

I grinned. I would love to be on that case. I’d like to watch his smug face as he realized there was no getting out of it this time. The justice system had failed once, and I didn’t have high hopes that it would win out again. But I wasn’t ready to give up on Lady Justice yet.

Leaning back into the soft cushions, I felt my heart slow for the first time in days. It was as if a great weight had lifted from my mind.

Two killers had been on the loose. And now they wouldn’t be hurting anyone ever again.

The wild urge in me was gone. It had been placated.

For now.

CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR

MANDY FUSSED OVER ME and told me to take a week off, but I bargained for a day instead. I slept the longest I ever had, a full eight hours, and woke up feeling like a new woman.

At the breakfast table, Mandy served me warm cinnamon rolls with green tea just the way I liked it.

“How long are you going to spoil me like this?” I asked, taking a big mouthful.

“Don’t get used to it,” she said. “But we are going on a trip to Rio next month. You know we’ve always wanted to go there together, and we’d better do it soon before you’re attached to another case.”

I gave a small smile. Another case. I was looking forward to my next one. Where would it take me this time?

I snapped back to the present. “Okay, we’ll go,” I said. “Let’s book the tickets right away before Dan calls me in.”

She grinned and spooned some sugar into her coffee. And then her eyebrow creased.

“What is it?” I asked, my stomach dropping.

“There’s just something I don’t understand, something that doesn’t add up,” she said. “If you came here from the bed-and-breakfast, why didn’t you bring your bag?”

I hesitated a beat to think up a lie. “I left my bag because I wanted to sleep there tomorrow night.” But the hesitation was all she needed to know that something was up.

Silence stretched between us. I took a sip of tea, and it tasted more bitter than normal.

“I know you’re withholding something from me,” she said. I was about to speak when she held up a hand. “And that’s okay. Just know that I’m here.”

I moved my roll from one side of the plate to the other. My heart felt full. Those words meant more to me than she’d ever know.