Stealth Moves (29 page)

“Don’t worry about Brent. I’ve got him under control. Just get Mike and…” Dan stuffed the weapon into his belt before he unbuckled Kyle’s legs and lifted the boy to his feet. “…join us up front.” Dan marched Kyle toward his room.

“I told you everything would work out,” Holly told Mike as she cut through the last of his wraps with the plastic knife. “Except we haven’t found Ariel.”

They looked at each other. Mike said what Holly was thinking. “Let’s hope she’s alive.”

He had to wiggle his feet before standing. Shaking out his right hand, Mike asked, “What did Dan say about an intruder?”

“I don’t know. I was so excited to see him, I didn’t pay attention. Can you walk now?”

Mike said he was fine, but Holly watched him rub his left arm and shoulder all the way to front room. When they entered, the boy was handcuffed to the desk chair, looking furious while Dan inspected the hammer-shaped weapon. Dan turned toward them, lifted the hammer and waved it at Mike. “Other side of the room. Sit on the bed. Both of you.”

Holly yelled, “What are you doing?”

Dan gazed at the weapon’s barrel. “Not entirely sure. This gizmo has a couple of settings. Must mean it goes from bad to worse. Can’t guarantee I’ll get it right, so you’d better stay put and shut up.”

Day 14—Friday night

“Everything’s gone to shit,” Dan said. He pushed the armchair to the head of the table and sprawled in it, setting the weapon close to his right hand. Eyes flitting between Kyle to his left and Holly and Mike to his right, he propped his chin on his knuckles. “Cryin’ shame,” he muttered. “I had damage control all squared away. Brent takes off with the van and bike. He drops the kids somewhere, then calls me and I ‘find’ them. I lose the reward money because I’m a cop, but I move to the head of the line for detective.”

“Where’s Ariel?” Holly asked. “Is she all right?”

Kyle jerked his chin toward the doorway in the room’s front right corner. Dan turned his head. “What’s that—a bathroom?”

Kyle nodded. Dan said, “Girl’s probably giving herself a mani-pedi. Has she seen Brent?” Kyle shook his head.

“Perfect. Nice, neat wrap until you two showed up. Now what am I to do with you?”

“Release us,” Mike said. “Arrest Brent. Do your job.”

“What happened to you, Dan? I thought you were a good cop,” Holly said.

Dan slammed his fist on the table. “I
am
a good cop—a damned good cop—or I wouldn’t have figured this out! Oh, I had a little help from that one.” He pointed at Kyle. “He just
had
to cut the school emblem from the jacket he left behind. No kidnapper takes trophies during a snatch.” Dan turned a sour face to Mike and Holly. “And he couldn’t ditch his backpack with phone and tablet inside because he wanted those things. Amateur, runaway moves.”

“The Kelly girl went without a fight on a busy street in broad daylight. I pegged them as lovers, heading out together. The Israeli aunt hanging around and the mother who wanted to return to her homeland added up to a family conspiracy.” Dan stopped, watching Kyle jiggling in his chair. “No? You took her against her will? Why?”

Kyle pursed his lips, pushing the gag forward.

“Holly, go over there and take the sock out of his mouth. I want to hear this.” Dan trained the weapon on her.

She yanked out the gag and stood beside the boy, gauging her distance from Dan: no more than six feet, but the table was in the way.
Not time yet.

“I’m warning you, Blake,” Dan said, “no whining. Just answer the questions. Why did you kidnap Kelly?”

Kyle ran his tongue around his mouth. “I was lonely. Hiding all week while the aide was downstairs got old. It was like the play we were in,
The Diary of Anne Frank
. I thought about Ari and how she’d handle being penned up. When I got stuck on weapon design, I decided I needed her. We’re making sonic weapons,” Kyle noted. “Old tech, mostly ignored because no one found a way to keep the size down and the power up. We did,” he said proudly.

“Yeah, yeah,” Dan said. “We got that. Go on.”

“Ari sees multiple solutions to problems. She’s really hard to beat at chess, and—”

Dan looked at his watch and made a wind-it-up circle in the air. Kyle spoke faster. “I thought she wanted to disappear, that she’d be glad. I mean all she did this year was rave about Israel and bitch that her dad wouldn’t let her live there. So we give her a way out, and what does she do? Shuts up. Won’t talk; won’t listen. Won’t help at all.”

“You tried to pick her brain but she refused,” Dan summarized. “Interesting. When were you going to kill her?”

“Kill Ari?” Kyle’s eyes popped. “Never! Stealth says we have to test the weapon before we sell it to the feds tomorrow, but it’s ready now. It shouldn’t hurt her. At least,” Kyle said slowly, “I don’t think it will.” His face turned gleeful, sly. “They’re coming here—the men who want the weapon.”

Dan’s eyebrows arched. “Not much time, then. Why did you kill Natalie Porcini?”

“I didn’t!” Kyle cried. “I wasn’t even here when it happened. Natalie was supposed to help us with math, but she cried all the time, Brandon said. He wanted her to shut up, thought someone would hear. He used the weapon before it was finished when Stealth told him not to. And no one knew about that aneurism thing in her head. We only heard about it later from the news.”

“Stealth? Brandon? Who the hell are they?”

“It’s complicated.” Kyle sighed. “You call him Brent, but Stealth hates that name. Said he stopped being Brent when his brother died and the shrinks pounced. He had to be stealthy so they wouldn’t discover Brandon was still with him.”

“Bullshit. I went to Brandon Tinsley’s funeral.” Dan frowned. “Don’t tell me there’s a ghost here. Seriously. You start talking ghosts, you get that sock shoved down your throat.”

“No, no!” Kyle sputtered. “No ghost. Brandon’s...” He paused, searching the ceiling for the words he wanted. “Brandon’s like, uh…like Stealth’s other half. They take turns being out—I mean taking control of their body. Stealth was always in charge because he grew up. Brandon’s still the age he was when he died—fourteen? Fifteen? But lately, Brandon’s been out a lot.”

“You didn’t think this was over the top? This whole double identity thing, I mean.”

“Oh, how can you understand? You’re not like us. You’re not smarter than everyone else. It’s isolating; other people bore you. But when I met Stealth online, and later, at the café, it was…” A look of wonder came over Kyle’s face. “It was—”

“Love at first sight,” Dan interrupted. “I knew more than brain games were going on here. You two got a thing?”

Kyle hung his head. “Stealth can’t touch anyone, and Brandon… Brandon likes girls. But maybe, in time—”

“Enough.” Dan looked at his watch again. “Where the hell is Brent? I told him to pack his shit and get up here. He’s taking too long.”

“You think you can make Stealth leave me behind?” Kyle cried. “Leave this house? He won’t. Brandon can’t live anywhere but here. Stealth needs the money to buy the house so Brandon will always be with him.”

“This just keeps getting better and better.” Dan rolled his eyes. “One guy; two personalities. Both nuts. Which one told his mother he was buying a motorcycle?”

“Sounds like Brandon.”

“You remember the motorcycle wreck I had just after high school?” Dan asked Mike. “No? Maybe we’d lost touch by them. Anyway, I was laid up for a month while they rebuilt my jaw. Karina told me to warn her brother off bikes, but when I came here to see him, he sounded funny, like a little kid. Looked like a kid, too, with a Tripl Thret tee shirt and a silly grin. Kept asking questions about how to ride old-style bikes.”

“That’s how you knew he was planning to steal my dad’s motorcycle during the concert,” Holly gushed. “You realized he was the kidnapper!” The longer Dan bragged, the more time she had to disarm him. He wasn’t going down easy like Kyle. Dan was trained, alert, experienced. He knew how to protect himself.

“The bike thing clinched it, but the damned dog was the real giveaway,” Dan said. “Karina bought a puppy for her mother. Brent said it ran off. Then an identical dog appears during the Kelly kidnapping and in the building with Porcini’s body. Later, you tell me it balks at the Tinsley garage. Still didn’t make the connection until Karina complained about Brent leaving her to babysit their mother two weekends in a row. The van broke down on the way home from Maine, Brent told her. He left it in Portsmouth for repairs. The pick-up date was the day you found the body—a body that had been there about a week.”

“Van…Portsmouth.
Brent’s
the asshole who broke my arm,” Mike growled.

“How do you know so much about Portsmouth?” Holly cut in. “The news didn’t mention the dog or us.”

“Friend in the FBI.”

“So there was something you didn’t lie about,” Holly observed.

Dan’s lip curled. “You are such a pain in the ass, Holly. I thought a little charm would throw you off the scent, but really—” Dan looked at Mike. “Who’d want her when he could have Karina? We’re getting married soon as she shakes you loose.”

“You’re Karina’s
back-door man.” Mike’s eyes narrowed. “I knew there was someone even when we were living together, just didn’t know who.”

Dan’s face turned savage. “I told you I wanted her, way back in the Sidley days. You laughed.”

“Every guy wanted Karina.” Mike shrugged. “You were a sophomore; we were seniors. Snowball’s chance in hell.”

“So she picked you, you sonuvabitch, and then you dumped her when her brother died, when she needed you most.”

“Karina shut down. She pushed everyone away. Six years went by before we reconnected.”

“Not going to happen to me. I’ll protect her, make this scandal disappear. No one’s going to know her crazy brother kidnapped students from the school where she works. I’d do
anything
for her.” Dan thumped his chest. “
I
deserve her.”

“So right,” Mike said easily. “You do.”

Dan sprang at Mike, launched a fist at his face, stopped a hair’s breadth from Mike’s nose. “I should deck you, but I need you awake, Mikey boy. You’re going to help out here.”

Holly saw her chance. She lunged for the weapon on the table.

Dan spun, catching her a straight-arm blow across the chest. She staggered backward, landing on Kyle, who shrieked when she hit his lap.

“Get off, get off!” Kyle howled.

Holly was winded, struggling for breath. She sensed, more than saw, Dan closing in. Fingers grabbed her hair, twisted, and pulled so hard she swung off the boy and whirled to the floor. She was two yards ahead of Dan now, near the place she wanted to reach. The weapon was on the table.

“Don’t try it,” Dan warned.

On all fours, Holly glared over her shoulder. He had his Taser out.

“Leave her alone,” Mike said. “Your quarrel’s with me. Holly’s no part of this.”

“She’s tricky,” Dan told him. “Get up, Holly. I’m locking you in the next room.” As she rose to her feet, he added, “You can join the girl.”

“Ariel?”

“Nah. The other girl—Olivia.”

Holly gaped at him. “Liv’s home in bed.”

“She’s here.” Dan aimed a mirthless grin at Mike. “And she’s given me an idea. Why should I pass on the reward?
You’re
going to claim the money and give me half.”

“Why should I?” Mike asked.

“The boys need a final test of their weapon. Big bucks riding on the sale. They had Kelly in mind, but her value’s gone up. You’ll test the weapon on Olivia. If she bites it, you’re a lot richer, and it’s guaranteed you won’t talk.”

“If it’s safe?”

“Your prints will be on the weapon that killed Natalie Porcini. As for Olivia, kids climbing houses in superhero costumes can get cocky, make mistakes. One wrong step, and it’s ‘Oopsies!’” Dan’s voice warmed, turned conspiratorial. “C’mon, Mike, we both know your niece has been nothing but a bump in the road for you. She screwed up your inheritance from your dad and gave Karina ammunition against you in court. Nasty thing to be labeled a child abuser, isn’t it? What if you could turn it all around—end your money problems and get even?”

“I’m listening.” Mike’s eyes riveted on Dan.

“You can’t be serious!” Holly hissed.

“Dead serious,” Dan answered. “No one’s leaving here and talking. Kyle’s in this up to his ears. He’ll stay shut or go to prison. Kelly’s no problem: She doesn’t know anything. That leaves three of you as loose ends.

“Mike either joins up or takes the fall. In fact—” Dan eyed Mike thoughtfully, “he could be the mastermind behind the whole thing: kidnapping to solve his financial problems, forcing his mentally ill brother-in-law to do the legwork. And then, there’s Mike’s reputation for liking little girls….” Dan grinned. “Oh, this is rich.”

“Except I don’t know Brent,” Mike said. “Couldn’t force him to do anything.”

“Blackmail. You told him you’d turn him in for killing his twin back when we were all at Sidley. No statute of limitations for murder.”

“Brandon’s death was an accident.”

Dan shook his head. “I saw Brent push Brandon in front of the car. He was looking right at it.”

“Jesus,” Mike breathed. “You’re unbelievable.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment. Never did pull top grades like you, but I can think on my feet. Move!” he ordered Holly, jerking the Taser at her. When she crossed her arms in defiance, he shrugged. “Walk, or I’ll drop and drag you.”

“Not until you tell me what you plan to do with me,” Holly declared.

Dan feigned surprise. “Why, Holly, you’re Olivia’s protector. You’ll follow her wherever she goes. Move along,
bodyguard
.”

Day 14—Friday night

I hate that guy, Brandon said. He stole our collection! Why are you letting him tell us what to do?

“Because he’s right: We’re not safe here.” Stealth stomped on the hard drive of his computer. He picked up the pieces and set them inside the pack on his desk. Backups of the research and the prototypes were already in the bag. He looked around the lab to see if there was anything he’d forgotten.

But I can’t go! Brandon cried.

Stealth lifted the backpack. It felt light. Even the room—below ground, windowless, chilly—felt lighter. He’d done everything possible to keep Brandon safe, but at every turn, Brandon fought him. Stealth knew why now. It was time for Brandon to understand. “You’ve changed, brother. You’re not the boy who died. We don’t have to relive the past in this house. We can leave our prison and still be together.”