Frames Per Second (38 page)

“Let’s get out of here,” Teri said, to him. “Come on, baby, let’s find a way to break free.”

He shoved her away.

“Talk to your uncle,” Ben said. “I expect he’s putting something together for you. A private jet, maybe. Probably send the two of you to Europe or South America. Arrange for new faces, new I.D. I don’t know. You’ll be alive and rich, you just won’t be here.”

“Jimbo?” Teri said. “Your uncle could do that, right?”

“What about your contacts?” McGuire said to her sharply. “What about all the people you’ve told me about who can make things happen?”

She laughed, shortly. “Those people would make us dead. No one’s going to want to be tied to us when this comes out.”

“Seven minutes,” Ben said.

“If
it comes out,” McGuire said.

To Ben, he said, “How do I know you haven’t already sent it? How do I know the place isn’t crawling with cops out there?”

“Because all we care about are the children.”

“I want to hear you make the call to your guys telling them to drive away from my house,” Sarah said. “If I don’t go out to Kurt and wave my arms, letting him know you’ve done that, the same thing happens. He pushes the button.”

“Maybe I’ll just send Paulie up and pop old Kurt. Save me a lot of trouble right there.”

Ben shook his head. “He can see the whole house from the woods. Paulie tries to make that hike, Kurt will see it, and run down one of about a half dozen trails to his car before Paulie even starts up.”

“So why hasn’t my uncle called me if he’s got this big plan together?”

“I don’t know,” Ben admitted. “But I expect he’s been busy. It sounded like he was going on the run himself.” Ben reached in his pocket and drew out a piece of paper with Clooney’s car phone number. “He gave me this.”

The blood drained out of McGuire’s face. This more than anything Ben had said seemed to convince him. The number he probably knew by heart, sitting in Ben’s pocket.

“Five minutes,” Ben said. “Make your call fast.”

CHAPTER 45

MCGUIRE TOLD BEN AND SARAH TO LEAVE THE ROOM WHILE HE made the call.

The two of them went into the hallway, and Andi looked up from the kids who were sitting on the last two steps. The gunman moved back slightly, letting Ben and Sarah come forward.

“What’s happening?” Andi whispered.

“Daddy, I want them to go away,” Lainnie said. “Please.”

“Dad?” Jake said. “They’ll let us go, won’t they?”

Ben knelt beside Andi. “We wait. If all goes right, you and the kids will be leaving in a minute.”

“What about you?” Andi said.

“We’ll go with him.”

Her face blanched. “What does that mean?”

“It means we get the kids free,” Ben said, quietly. “Bear in mind this goes for Sarah’s girl, too. No arguments.”

Andi looked up at Sarah and stood.

“Strange circumstances to meet,” Sarah said, wiping at her eyes.

“Your girl’s in this?” Andi asked.

“There are men outside my apartment.”

Andi touched Sarah on the shoulder. Then she leaned forward abruptly and the two women hugged each other.

Ben looked at his watch. Less than two minutes left.
 

He said to the gunman, “It’s time. I’ve got to tell him.”
 

“You stay here,” Paulie said.
 

“You don’t understand …”
 

“No,
you
don’t.” The guy raised the gun.
 

Ben started toward the library door, and he heard the gun cock behind him.

The library door swung open and McGuire and Teri stood there. McGuire’s face was impassive and he held his gun up to Ben’s face and said, “Me and Uncle Pat had a better idea.”

Paulie had Ben sit on the floor, his back to the wall. Then the gunman propped the hallway door open so he could watch McGuire take Andi out on the back deck. Paulie said, “This should be good.”

McGuire threw Andi against the sliding glass door as soon as they stepped out and screamed out into the darkness. “Right now, Kurt! Get down here right now!”

Ben started to move and Paulie cocked his gun. “Stay still.”
 

“Come on!” McGuire screamed. “I’ll spread her brains and then I’ll do the kids.”

“Boy’s a nut,” Paulie said. “He’ll do her, too.”
 

“Mom!” Lainnie cried.

“Shut up,” Teri said. Her voice was cold and flat. “Shut your goddamn mouth.”

Sarah moved up the stairs and put her arms around both kids.
 

“Mom!” Lainnie screamed again at the top of her lungs.
 

Ben saw McGuire lift the gun and put it right to Andi’s ear.
 

Ben made it to his feet before Paulie regained control. He deflected Ben’s grab for the gun with his left arm, stepped in, and cracked Ben behind the ear with the gun butt. Ben fell to his knees.

Paulie slung him back against the wall and placed his foot on Ben’s chest.

“Sit still,” Paulie said. “Jimbo’s got a plan. You’ll see.”
 

Paulie cocked his head toward the deck, a half smile on his face. “There we go,” he said, abruptly. “Your boy is down.”

Paulie took his foot off Ben and leaned back against the doorjamb, laughing. “That Reynolds. Guy’s the size of a frigging moose, but he’s a ninja when he wants to be.”

Ben looked out onto the deck.

Standing beside Kurt was the big guy with the Hawaiian shirt who had been handling security for McGuire.

“Fucking Reynolds,” Paulie said. “Fucking Reynolds to the rescue. Jimbo had him waiting up there in the woods to watch out for cops before you ever showed up. Taking out old Kurt was just a phone call away.”

Kurt was standing there, the notebook computer open in his hands. Reynolds gestured for him to stand beside Andi. He took the computer from Kurt, looked at it briefly, and then smashed it on the deck. He kicked it against the side of the house, and then stomped on it repeatedly, reducing it to a mass of flattened metal and splintered plastic.

“Oops,” said Paulie. “There goes your picture.”

Then McGuire went to work on Kurt.

He was brutally efficient, whipping Kurt across the face with the gun with steady, powerful blows. Once, twice, and a third time.

Ben saw Kurt’s knees buckle.

Andi cried out, and tried to help him, but Reynolds grabbed her arm.

McGuire shoved Kurt’s bloody face against the glass door with the flat of his hand and said, “I’ll know the truth when I hear it. Did you push that button? Did you send that picture?”

Ben leaned forward. His own vision was clear now, and though his head ached, he was fairly certain he was all right. He stared at Kurt’s face. Trying to divine the truth by looking at him.

And so when Kurt spoke, Ben slumped back against the stairway even as Paulie chuckled, even as McGuire looked over his shoulder at Reynolds and said, “All right. Well, all
right.”

“No,” Kurt said. “He got to me first.”

Reynolds shoved Andi into the kitchen, and then pulled Kurt away from McGuire and shoved him in, too. The big man stepped into the hallway and took in all the people watching him.

Reynolds shook his head. “Jesus Christ, Jimbo. Six people. What a goddamn mess.”

“I’ve worked it out so far,” McGuire said. “You keep doing what I tell you, we’ll get off clean.”

Reynolds rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Yeah? This I’ve got to hear.” He took McGuire by the arm and gestured toward the library. “There any more people in there that I need to know about?”
 

“No.”

“Good. Then how about we go in there and you tell me this plan. Your uncle called and said I was supposed to get you out of the shit one last time, but I’m damned if I know how I’m gonna pull it off.”

CHAPTER 46

JAKE HAD TO PEE.

It was crazy, with all that was happening, but there it was. Now that his mom was back sitting beside him, he didn’t want to move. He just wanted to stay with his arms around her.
 

But his leg was jiggling.

When the new guy they called Reynolds came out of the library, he was wearing glasses. He had something in his hand, and it looked familiar. Jake looked at it, his curiosity running parallel to the urge to run up to the bathroom and relieve himself.
 

It was his mom’s appointment book.

Reynolds tipped down his glasses on his nose to read it. Somehow, this made him look nicer, but Jake knew that wasn’t true.

“I see you have a cleaning lady coming in tomorrow morning, is that right?” he said to Jake’s mom.
 

She hesitated, then nodded.
 

He made a face.

“I tell you, right there,” McGuire said, pointing to the picture of Lainnie standing in front of the fireplace with their dad up in Maine. “They’ve got a place up there. Sounds like it’s private. No other cabins within a mile.”
 

“Says who?”

“Says her,” McGuire said, pointing to Lainnie. He grinned. “Back when she was saying that her dad was going to bury me up there once he showed up.” McGuire looked at Jake’s dad, and there was a little smile on his face. He said to Reynolds, “I tell you, it’ll work.’’

“Huh.” Reynolds looked at the photo closely. He too looked at Jake’s father, and then at Lainnie and Jake. His eyes narrowed. Jake pulled back against the wall, trying to escape his gaze. It was as if the breath was sucked right out of him, being stared at by those cold gray eyes. Still, Jake’s leg jiggled.

“You got to pee, son?” Reynolds said.

Jake looked at his mom.

She nodded.

“Yeah,” he said.

“All right,” Reynolds said, sighing. He looked at Jake’s dad again. He didn’t seem to be angry like before. More like he was just thinking.

“All right,” he repeated. “I can see it. Paulie, take the kid upstairs, and watch him while he takes a piss. Then follow him into his room, see that he packs one bag, and takes the stuff you’d usually take on a vacation. Underwear, socks, shorts, bathing suit, toothbrush, all that shit.” He jerked his chin at Teri. “You do the same with the little girl. You think you can handle her without a weapon?”

Teri said to McGuire, “Who’s running this, you or him?”

McGuire said, “He’s just implementing my plan. Do what he tells you. Reynolds’s great at logistics.”

Reynolds seemed to laugh, like it was to himself. “That’s me,” he said.

Jake’s bladder felt like it was going to burst. He stood up. “Can I go?”

“Paulie,” Reynolds said, waving his hand.

As Jake hurried up the stairs, Reynolds’s voice drifted up: “Lady, show me where the keys are to your van, then go pack for you and hubby. You better hit the head too, because from what I hear, it’s a long drive to your place and we’re not stopping once we get started.”

* * *

Jake filled a soft canvas bag. “You heard the man,” Paulie said. “Hurry up. Vacation stuff.”

Jake felt that he might puke. Now that his bladder wasn’t full, that’s what occupied him next. Would he blow lunch right in his room?

His mind kept seeing Kurt’s face.

Jake felt like he should be doing something. Something heroic like the kids he saw in movies. Fighting the guy, or tricking him by locking the door and climbing out the window, running for help.

But then he would come back to Kurt. The way he was sitting downstairs on the hallway floor, his head down. He was a grown-up and they handled him like he was nothing.

And then Jake saw the Buck knife his dad had given him the year before last. It was sitting on top of his dresser right behind his digital camera.

Without giving himself time to think, he swept both into his bag.

“You about ready there?” Paulie said.

“Uh-huh.” Jake slung the bag over his shoulder and the man followed him down the hall to the stairway. Everyone looked up at him as he came down. His mom, his dad. Kurt. Those two men. All looking at him, just a kid, not knowing that he now had a weapon.

CHAPTER 47

THE RAIN HAD STOPPED AND THE STARS WERE OUT. PAULIE HAD backed Andi’s van out of the garage, and faced it outward beside McGuire’s car.

“OK, you take the wife, hubby, and kiddies,” McGuire said to Reynolds. “I’ll take Harris and Ms. Taylor.”