Secretive (17 page)

Zoe wrapped her fingers over the scissors as she grasped the chair arms. Two heaves brought her so close to Jack that the tip of the scissors nearly stabbed him as her chair came down. The metal point gouged the wood near his wrist as Jack jerked his hand away as far as the plastic ties allowed.

“Well, that should do it,” Zoe said between breaths. She worked the scissors into the groove of space between Jack’s wrist and the plastic and sawed away with the scissors. The plastic was thick, and it took her several strokes with the scissors for the metal to bite into the plastic. Then the scissors snapped closed, and the plastic tie fell to the carpet.

A creaking sound came from the hallway.

Zoe’s head snapped up. “He’s back.”

Jack grabbed the arms of the chair and began shifting it back into the position it had been when Costa left the room. Zoe managed to bring her chair around so that it was facing the desk, but she was far closer to the desk than she had been, but it was too late. She couldn’t move anymore because the door swung open. Costa entered.

Zoe pushed the handle of the scissors up under her wrist and tried to calm her breathing, not that it would do much good if he looked directly at her. She was sure the flush on her translucent skin matched her hair, which was probably twice its normal size.

But Costa didn’t even look at them. As he crossed the room to a tall bookcase, he checked his watch then he moved several books to the side, revealing a safe. He punched in a code, opened the door, and removed an envelope. He closed the safe, replaced the books, then returned to the desk where he put the envelope in the bottom left drawer of the desk.

Zoe had her breathing under control and was trying to figure out what to say—if there was anything to say—that would convince him to let them go, but before she could decide on an approach, Costa slung the man bag over one shoulder, grabbed the leather tube, and picked up the set of keys from the desktop.

He paused, fingered the Mercedes logo on the remote key fob, then seemed to come to a decision and replaced it on the desk. He left the room without once looking at them.

He left the door to the hallway open, so Zoe whispered, “He’s leaving, isn’t he?”

Jack nodded.

“He doesn’t want to be here when...” Zoe trailed off, and Jack gripped the arms of the chair.

“Right. Back at it,” Zoe said, but before she could gather her strength to move the chair, Sam entered the room with his attention focused squarely on them. Jack kept his free arm positioned exactly as it would have been if the tie still held it in place. He wanted the element of surprise, she realized. It was all they had left, she supposed, except for the scissors. If only she had handed them to Jack, he would have had a weapon. He was the one who’d taken years of martial arts. She’d only had a few piddly lessons. If one of them was going to take on Sam, she wanted it to be Jack.

The metal handles of the scissors felt cold on the inside of her wrist. She didn’t think she could be very effective with them unless Sam got really close to her, and if he did...could she stab him? Would she be able to do that?

Sam paced over to them. He held the gun loosely in his right hand. It dangled beside his leg as he studied them. “Been working hard, I see. You’ve discovered those chairs are good, sturdy German craftsmanship.”

Zoe managed to sneak a look at Jack’s wrist and saw the cuff of his sleeve covered the missing plastic tie, but the tie itself lay on the carpet under the chair. Zoe hoped the intricate pattern of the carpet would hide it.

She looked up from the carpet. “Everything is in place, ready to go. You are going to have a very bad car accident,” Sam said with mock sadness. Then his voice changed. “But I do believe we have time for a little fun before you have to go.” He fixed his gaze on Zoe. “You have no idea how long I’ve looked forward to this,” he said, his voice going thick.

Yes, I think I can stab him, no problem
, Zoe decided. She licked her lips. “Sam, you don’t want to be part of this. Costa can’t run from the police forever. He will get caught, and you’ll go down with him.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Zoe saw Jack’s fist clench.

Sam didn’t reply. It was as if he hadn’t heard a word she’d said. He came around the desk on Zoe’s side. He propped himself up, legs splayed on either side of her chair, and reached out.

“You don’t want to do this,” Zoe said again.

“Yes, I do.” He ran a finger along her cheek, then trailed his fingertips down her neck to the base of her throat where her pulse fluttered. Zoe gave up on talking and concentrated on not gagging. He wasn’t listening; it wouldn’t do any good to try to talk her way out of this situation.

His attention focused only on Zoe. “You had no idea, did you? I had you so convinced I was a sensitive, caring, metrosexual type that if I’d told you the things I’ve done, you never would have believed me.”

He leaned close to her face. “Would you have believed I had it in me to kill a man?”

Zoe had a feeling that this was one of those trick questions that she’d answer wrong, no matter what she said, so she kept quiet.

He exhaled and leaned back. “Killing is easy, simple even, if you do it with a gun or a knife.” He lifted the gun as he spoke and pointed it at her chest. Zoe’s breath caught, and she tried not to move an inch.

He dropped his arm to his side. “It’s killing without leaving a trace that’s difficult. Like what I did to Bent. They’ll never know he was dead before the fire began.”

“You did that to him?” Zoe couldn’t help asking. “You poisoned him?”

“Noticed that, did you? Well, there won’t be any evidence of it for the police to find. The fire erased any trace of the poison or my presence there.” With one hand, Sam reached out and popped open the top button of her coat.

She scrunched back in the chair as far as she could. Sam laughed. “Oh, don’t go all timid on me.” She worked the handle of the scissors into the palm of her hand. He was so focused on her face and neck that he didn’t even notice. If he’d just come a little closer she could shove the metal point into his leg.

The sound of a car engine carried through the slightly open window. The engine struggled, then died. Sam’s attention strayed from the second button of Zoe’s coat as he tilted his head toward the window. There was a beat of silence, then the engine labored again and caught. It sputtered as if were about to die again, but the driver revved the engine, and it settled into a bumpy rhythm. Zoe’s grip tightened on the scissors.

Sam turned away, caught sight of the keys on the desktop and snatched them up, his face confused. He sprinted to the window, pushed it wide. “Not that car! No!”

––––––––

S
AM dropped the keys, leaned over the ledge of stone that protruded out from the window, and waved his left arm as he shouted. He still held the gun in his right hand down by his leg.

Jack reached across Zoe and took the scissors in his free hand. He quickly cut the ties on his other arm, his ankles, and cut Zoe’s hands and ankles free as well. Sam, his back turned to them, waved and shouted, but the engine continued to run. A yellow glow brightened the windows. The driver had turned the headlights on, but the engine continued to idle.

Jack shoved the scissors in his back pocket, handles down, then untied the knot holding the gag in place. He yanked it off as he moved to the fireplace and took the poker from the hearth, the carpet masking the sounds of his movements. By the time Zoe stood up, Jack had crossed the room to Sam.

Sam turned slightly, caught sight of Jack, and raised his arm with the gun. Jack froze as Sam leveled the gun at him. Frantically, Zoe looked around. What could she do? The chair was too heavy for her to do more than shove it a few feet. She’d never be able to throw it through the air and hit Sam. He was too far away. Jack had the scissors. The desk had nothing on it except a few pens, the blotter, and the marble box with the chess piece.

The car engine continued to idle. The corners of Sam’s mouth turned up. Zoe snatched the pens and threw them, reached for the blotter and tossed it. The cascade of office supplies didn’t deter Sam, he only raised his shoulder to block the pens from hitting him in the face.

Her hand closed on the marble box. She heaved it across the room. This time, Sam raised his arm and ducked his head. The box sailed over his head and crashed into the stone window ledge. Jack lunged forward and brought the poker down on the back of Sam’s head. He dropped to the floor.

“Is he...?” Zoe asked as she tried to catch her breath.

Jack picked up the gun then pushed on Sam’s shoulder with his foot, rolling him onto his back. Jack cautiously placed two fingers at Sam’s throat then looked up. “He’s alive,” he said, his voice scratchy.

“That’s...good. I guess.”

Jack ran a hand down over his mouth and cleared his throat. “As long as we get out of here before he wakes up.”

The things from the desktop that Zoe had tossed at Sam were scattered around him. One of them, an index card, caught her eye because of the neatly printed word, Evergreen. She picked up the card. “Hey, look at this. It must have been under the blotter on the desk—”

She stopped speaking because the noise of the car engine, which had been filtering into the room, changed tone. A flash of headlights cut through the black square of the window. Jack stepped over Sam, and Zoe joined him at the window. It was the little blue car that Sam had driven up the road. “Do you think Costa’s in that?” Zoe pushed the index card into her pocket as she looked to the parking area where a sleek black Mercedes rested beside the red Fiat.

“Sam thought he was.”

As the car neared the gates, the red brake lights flared, but the car didn’t slow. It continued to roll. The car swung onto the road that curved to the right and ran alongside the castle wall, dropping steeply to the first hairpin turn on the side of the mountain with the village below it.

The brake lights continued to glow red, but instead of slowing, the car picked up speed. It swung wide into the turn. One wheel slipped off the surface of the road and bumped along the dirt and leaves. The driver corrected and the car was back on the asphalt surface, picking up even more speed as it barreled toward the next hairpin turn.

The car careened down the steep descent, racing toward the drop off and the icy lake below. It reached the turn and sailed straight into the air, disappearing over the precipice into the sky, brake lights shining red. Zoe felt her heartbeat thud twice in the silence then there was a distant splash.

Zoe realized she’d reached for Jack’s hand. “That was supposed to be us.”

Jack nodded and glanced at Sam.

“What about him?” Zoe asked.

“Leave him.” The words came out rough, and Jack cleared his throat. He used the edge of his coat to wipe the gun clean, then dropped it beside Sam. “We’ll be gone before he’s awake.” He plucked the Mercedes keys from the carpet.

Zoe took one more look at Sam then hurried to catch up with Jack, who was already across the room, pushing the door open. Zoe thudded into Jack’s back when he stopped abruptly.

“Wh—? Jack threw his hand up and his shoulders were so tense that Zoe instantly went quiet. She heard the sound of footsteps in the hall, then a door nearby—in the next room?—opened and closed.

Jack grabbed her hand, and they moved to the door in the paneling where Anna had entered the room. “There’s a man checking every room. He just looked in here,” he said as they slipped through the door in the paneling. The next room was another office, set up with a desktop computer, filing cabinets, and a copier.

Before Jack could close the door in the paneling completely, a man entered the office where Sam was still sprawled on the floor. Jack held the door open a few centimeters. Zoe ducked under his arm, so she could see, too.

He was a short man; the black overcoat he wore flapped around his ankles a few inches above the ground. His gelled black hair was combed straight back from his fleshy face, which was covered in shallow pockmarks, probably scars from bouts with severe acne. He studied Sam then closed the window with a solid click.

Zoe looked up at Jack with her eyebrows raised.

Jack shrugged and mouthed, “Don’t know who he is.”

The man stood over Sam for a moment then reached inside his coat, pulled out a gun, and shot Sam in the chest.

Zoe sucked in her breath then clamped a hand over her mouth. They must have been too far way for the man to hear her, because he didn’t look their way. After checking for a pulse, he put the gun in his coat pocket and pulled on a set of gloves.

He moved around the desk, opened a bottom drawer on the left, and removed the envelope Costa had placed there. He lifted the flap and flicked his fingers along a thick stack of paper. Even from across the room, Zoe could see the blue color and the flash of a silver stripe. They were euros, a huge stack of twenties. The man replaced the money in the envelope then tucked it away in an interior pocket of his coat. He shoved the drawer closed with his knee then removed the gloves, stuffing them in his pocket.

Footsteps pounded along the hallway. The man removed the gun from his pocket and went around the desk, knelt beside Sam, and reached out as if he were checking for a pulse.

The door opened and several men in police uniforms moved cautiously inside, their guns raised. Zoe expected them to arrest the man in the overcoat, but they relaxed and holstered their weapons when the man in the overcoat spoke to them in German.

“What is going on?” Zoe mouthed.

Jack put his lips to her ear. “The guy says he’s with the federal German police force, I think. The other men in uniform are local. The Federal guy says he came to arrest Sam Clark because he’s wanted in connection with an arson and murder in England. He says Sam charged at him, and he had no choice but to shoot him.” The man produced papers as he spoke, which seemed to satisfy the uniformed men. One of them nodded and gestured to the hallway.

Jack eased the door closed, but still whispered. “They’re fanning out to search the building. They’re looking for a woman with black hair in her late twenties who is also wanted by the Federal German police.”

“I don’t want to stick around and try to explain why we’re here, especially after watching that guy shoot Sam.”

Jack nodded in agreement, still trying to listen through the door.

“I suppose the hallway is out?” Zoe said.

“Unfortunately, yes. And there’s no convenient secret passage way either.”

“Then that means we either hide or go out a window,” Zoe said, looking doubtfully at the windows, which were the same as the ones in the other office, set deep into the thick stone.

“We’re not both fitting under the desk. It’s got to be the window,” Jack said, grimly. “No other choice.”

They crossed the room, and Zoe crawled onto the ledge then pushed one of the windows open.

“Okay, it’s not too bad.” Zoe stepped through the narrow opening and found a foothold. “It’s not a straight vertical drop. Only about a foot down and then the wall flares out.”

“That’s called the talus.” Jack twisted his shoulders sideways and maneuvered through the window. “Made it harder for enemies to scale the wall and build siege works, not to mention the thicker walls were harder to break through.”

“Well, you’re a font of interesting information.”

“I had quite a bit of time to read all the brochures on the castle.”

Zoe threw her head back to check his progress. He was still perched by the window, hanging onto the stone ledge. “Come on, you’re delaying. There’s toe holds and everything. The mortar or grout or whatever you call it has worn away between the stones, and you can climb down it just like a ladder.”

“You’re not making me feel better about this,” Jack said, but dropped his leg down and wiggled his foot around until he had it wedged into an opening.

“Now, your other foot,” Zoe coached, shifting to the left so she could see him better. He moved lower, and his booted foot came down level with her head, the untied shoelaces dangling on either side of the shoe.

Zoe decided it would be better not to mention the untied shoelaces. Instead she said, “You’re doing great. Move your hands down now. We’re on the flared part, so it’ll be easy now.”

“Speak for yourself,” Jack muttered.

“So don’t think about the climb. Tell me what you think happened up there. You saw the money? It can only mean one thing, right?”

“Costa set up Sam and Anna,” Jack confirmed.

Zoe continued to move her feet and hands at Jack’s slower pace.

“Do you think they’ll find Anna? Could she still be in the castle?” Zoe paused to look at the parking lot below them. “The cars are still there—except for the blue one,” Zoe said and felt a little sick, remembering the flare of useless brake lights against the night sky.

“She’s probably already on a train. It doesn’t take long to walk down to the village. There’s a trail I’ve used many times. Only takes about fifteen minutes. She probably left before Costa. She seemed like the type who could figure out when she should disappear.”

“She was intent on getting out of there,” Zoe said as she checked their progress. “Just a little farther.” To keep him talking she said, “Even if Costa paid off the guy in the overcoat, won’t it be obvious that he shot Sam while Sam was on his back?”

“Somehow I don’t think the investigation will be very thorough. I bet the overcoat guy will make sure there’s only a cursory inquiry. Of course, Sam was supposed to finish us off before the overcoat man arrived.”

“Costa did check his watch several times while he was with us like he had an appointment to keep.”

“Or like he wanted to be gone before the overcoat guy showed up.”

“We’re down.” Zoe’s feet touched the ground of the parking lot, which was more crowded than when they arrived with two police cars and another brown car with no official markings on it.

Jack dropped down beside her and dusted his hands off. “We really must stop making a habit of this,” he said as he pulled the Mercedes key fob out of his pocket and pressed a button. There was a corresponding click from the sleek black car parked near the gates as the doors unlocked.

“We’re taking Costa’s car?” Zoe asked uneasily.

“Unless you want to walk back down?”

Zoe moved to the passenger door. “Not really, but what if there are more police on the road? What if they recognize the car?”

“That’s what I’m counting on.”

Their doors closed with a solid, expensive sound. Jack started the engine and drove forward a few feet, then stopped abruptly a few times. Zoe clutched the dashboard.

“Just checking the brakes,” he said easily. “I didn’t think Sam would have messed with this car, but I wanted to make sure.” Jack hit the headlights as he pulled through the gates and drove to the hairpin turn where the blue car had gone over the edge. He put the car in park, and they got out. Zoe edged up to the side of the road.

Jack looked over his shoulder at her. “Don’t tell me you’re nervous, standing here. You’re not the one who is afraid of heights.”

“It’s the fall that I’m worried about,” she quipped, and he smiled at her. She looked at the drop, and her smile faded. “And a fall off this...” she shivered. The rock dropped in a sheer face down to the flat plane of the water.

“Would be fatal,” Jack finished for her. “Look,” Jack said, pointing to a smattering of lights about a quarter of a mile farther along the edge of the water where there was a strip of flat ground.

“Are those headlights?” Zoe asked.

“I think so. Probably heard the crash and went to investigate. They won’t be able to do anything except pull the car off the bottom.” Jack turned to the Mercedes. “Time to go.” This time, Jack took the sweeping hairpin curves in a carefree manner, his hands loose on the steering wheel. The car slalomed to the base of the mountain, and Zoe reminded herself that she liked exciting rides. Of course, this descent was very different from her favorite rollercoaster rides.

As they approached the village, Zoe saw a lone police car slanted halfway across the narrow road. “It’s a road block.” An officer stepped from the car as they approached.

Jack slowed the car, rolled closer. Zoe braced herself, sure that Jack was about to floor it and make the officer jump out of the way, but the man stepped aside and waved them forward. “Not for this car, it isn’t.” Jack said. “He thinks we’re Costa. Put your scarf over your hair and look away,” Jack said as they neared the officer. Zoe fumbled with her scarf and managed to cover most of her hair then looked down at the stitching on the leather seats. The car came even with the officer, and Jack raised his hand in a wave that also managed to block his face. Jack nosed the car through the small gap between the grill of the police car and the stucco wall of a building, then accelerated into the town square. “And, we’re out of here,” Jack said following the sign that pointed them in the direction of the
Autobahn
.