Toss Up (The Toss Trilogy) (25 page)

“True, but Mike volunteered that Saturday.”

“Well, Mike stays on the list, then. What about Harry?”

Sally raised her eyebrows and stared at Jim. “I refuse to believe that old Mr. Zorn has anything to do with this. He’s one of the sweetest men I know.”

“That’s not very logical, Sally… but I’m inclined to agree with you.” Jim hesitated a moment. “What about Smith?”

Sally tensed. Was she responsible for Jim’s suspicions of Daniel? “He wasn’t here when the notes started.”

“No, but he could have come here occasionally, specifically to leave the notes.”

That sounded like a stretch. “He could have, but if it’s Daniel, why didn’t he do anything creepy the night I went out with him?”

“Well, he might not have done anything creepy, but his behavior that night wasn’t exactly what one could call normal either.” Jim paused. “Sal, I’m not trying to crucify the guy—not anymore—but did you expect the reaction you got?”

“Well, no, but—”

Jim glanced at her. “Look, all I’m saying is that we can’t take him off the list yet.”

Sally sighed and nodded. “Okay, so what does that leave us with?”

“Not much, just some names for the police, I guess. I don’t think it’s Jamal, but he should go on the list. Phil and Mr. Zorn can probably come off, and Mike can be checked on easily. But Daniel was here the night
the note was put on my truck, and I was distracted for a while. He could have walked to my truck, put on the note and come back to his Hummer without me seeing him. He seemed uncomfortable when I told him I’d seen the two of you from here.”

Sally glared at him.
“And you think that’s odd?”

“No, there’s just something about him… He seems okay, but there’s something below the surface there.”

“Well, we can’t do anything about it tonight.” Sally reached over and stroked Jim’s shoulder, wanting to change the topic. “Why don’t you tell me how you plan to take my mind off all this when we get back to your place?”

She saw Jim smile into the darkness. “Why don’t you put your head on my shoulder and take a little nap. You’re going to need your rest.”

Sally laughed and switched into the center seat to snuggle up and breathe in the rich, warm scent of him. “That sounds promising.”

chapter nineteen

Jim pulled the truck into his parking spot.
Home
. With Sally snuggled next to him, the word seemed to have new meaning. Her fingertips trailed down his arm as he slid from the truck, leaving a tingle behind. When he opened the door on her side, she slipped neatly into his embrace, and he kissed her. The warmth of her body melted against him, the scent of lilac teasing his nostrils. He wrapped an arm around her waist, turning her toward the elevator. Two blocks away traffic hummed along the thoroughfare, giving depth to the silence that surrounded them.

At the push of a button, the elevator doors
whooshed open, blending their gentle sound into the peaceful mix. Sally lifted her head from Jim’s shoulder to step into the shiny steel box, then stumbled back with a gasp.

Jim tightened his arm, steadying her, and reached out with a hand to stop the elevator doors from closing. “Damn it, what now?”

A worn bomber jacket lay in a heap on the floor, a note on familiar paper taped to it.

“It’s Daniel’s,” Sally said. Her voice sounded tight and strained.

Jim stepped forward, bringing them both into the elevator. As he bent to pull the stalker’s note off the jacket, he heard the soft thud of the doors closing behind them. “It’s addressed to me,” he said and read aloud:

‘Tell the slut I have her other lover. She can have him back if she can find him before he freezes. It is a cold night in hell. No police or his blood will be on her hands.’

Sally stood rigid, still staring at the jacket on the floor of the elevator.

Jim scooped
the coat up, wrapped a strong arm around her waist and pushed the button to reopen the door. “Come on.” He urged her forward. “Get back in the truck.”

“He’s got Daniel,” she said.

“He says he does, at any rate.” Jim tried to ignore the jealousy that rose, snake-like, inside him at the tightness in Sally’s voice. He pulled his cell phone out.

She turned to face him, a crease between her brows. “What are you doing?”

“Calling Smith.” The phone rang five times, then switched to voicemail. Jim ended the call and punched more numbers.

“Who are you calling now?”

“Demarco.”

Sally grabbed his wrist, pulling the phone away from his ear.
Her voice was shrill. “But the note said no police.”

He shot her a hard look. “They always say no police. It doesn’t mean anything. The police are our best chance of finding Smith. We won’t go to them—he could be watching us—but it would be insane not to call and tell them what’s happening.”

The look on her face had him snapping his phone shut. Her generous mouth pinched tight, a frown creased her brow, and she was pale in the darkness.

“Why would he grab Daniel?” Her voice shook. “It’s my fault. We have to find him.”

Jim’s lips tightened. There wasn’t time to sugarcoat this. She’d just have to be strong enough to deal with it. “He grabbed Smith because he thought it would hurt you. He’s watched you long enough to know you don’t back down from a challenge.

“Look.” He took a firm grip on her shoulders
and waited for eye contact. “He wants you, not Smith. He wants to get his hands on you, and he’s hoping that in the search for Smith he’ll get a chance to grab you. He might not be far from us right now.” Jim squeezed her tensed shoulders. “This bastard’s not hiding, Sal—he’s hunting.”

Sally’s voice rose in pitch. “It’s my fault! We have to find Daniel. Let’s go!”

She was more panicked than he’d thought—not at all the response he’d come to expect from her—and she had to get past it. “Hey! Look at me. You have to hear what I’m telling you. Smith is only bait. This guy is hunting
you
. Do you understand? Can I trust you to stay where you’ll be safe? I have an idea where Smith might be. We have to stay together. Right?”

S
he still looked disoriented, but she reached for her own phone. With a small smile she punched a button and offered it to him. “Police station. Speed dial.”

With a nod of acknowledgement, he
took the instrument and asked for Demarco as he steered the truck out of the parking lot. He refused to go to the station, though the officer wanted them to come in right away. “No. She’s safe with me, and she’s staying that way.

“Smith planned to go to Mark’s Spot tonight to watch the games. Can you check and see if anyone saw him leave? His Hummer will stand out, if it’s there. His jacket was in the elevator at my place. Sally and I are g
oing to stay together and keep moving.”

Handing the phone back, Jim turned the truck around.
Driving through the dark streets, he doubled back a few more times to see if they were being followed. No one seemed to be trailing them. Probably the stalker was with Daniel…somewhere.

Sally’s voice broke into his thoughts. “W
here are we going?”

“Smith’s apartment, for starters. If the bastard has Smith, then he’s got keys for access.
” He flicked her a glance. “Besides, he wants you to be able to find him.”

“What if it’s a trap?”
Her voice still trembled on the edge of panic. Jim frowned. Her state of mind could tilt the odds heavily in the stalker’s favor.

He
pulled the truck into an empty space and parked it. Turning toward her, he took her cold hands in his. “Wait. Take a minute and process what’s going on. You have got to stay strong. I know this is the first time you've had to deal with this kind of situation, but you’ve got to get your head wrapped around it. Talk to me. Tell me what you see happening. Tell me what you think we should do.”

“But we have to hurry—”

“No, love. The bastard wants us to hurry. He wants you to run off in a panic. Don’t give him that. Take a minute to think. Come on. Think. What’s going on here?”

Jim’s gaze was steady, his grip on her hands firm and warm. The i
ncoherent fear that had been driving her settled as she met his determined gaze. She took several steadying breaths and concentrated on putting her emotions back in their box. Now was not the time for them. Now, she needed a clear head.

Jim didn’t move or
speak, yet strength and calm reached out from him and surrounded her. The quivering in her chest quieted, and her hands ceased their nervous trembling. Rational thought reasserted itself. “He knows I went out with Daniel. He might know Daniel came into the house with me. He thinks grabbing Daniel is a way to get me.” The lid popped off her emotions, and her voice became strained and tight. “Jim, if he knew, he might have taken you. He might—”

Jim squeezed her hands. “Settle down, love. I can handle him. You know that, don’t you?”

What had she been thinking? “Yes, I know that.” Calmer now, she went on. “He’s after me. Daniel is bait. It is a trap.” Odd, how saying that aloud made the whole situation deflate. They were matching wits with a person, not some all-powerful god of evil. They could beat this guy. “So we have to spring the trap without getting caught, find Daniel and get him out. The creep doing this won’t make Daniel too hard to find. He wants me to find him, and he can’t know for certain if I’ll be with you or on my own.” She forced herself to relax and raise steady eyes to Jim’s. “I’m ready now.”

Jim leaned forward and kissed her. “I love you,” he said. “Now and always, whatever happens.
”

Looking into his eyes, she repeated the words and the promise. “I love you too. Now and always, whatever happens.
”

He squeezed her hands and released them. “Let’s go find Daniel.”

Jim pulled the truck back onto the road, continuing toward Daniel’s apartment. Sally shivered. The temperature was dropping rapidly as the promised cold wave moved in. The heater on the truck was roaring away, but fighting a losing battle. She thought of what the note had said: ‘find him before he freezes’. How could he freeze in his apartm—“Jim! Does Daniel’s apartment have a balcony?”

“Yes, why?”

“Because that’s where he’ll be—freezing on the balcony. If they’re there at all.”

Jim nodded. “He lives on the third floor.
To the right. See if you can see anything.” Jim slowed the truck to a crawl as they passed the apartment complex.

Sally craned her neck, peering at the balconies three stories above the street, the weather advisory they had heard minutes before running
through her mind: Fifteen degrees Fahrenheit, wind at thirty miles per hour, wind chill of minus five. How much time to frostbite, half an hour? How much time to hypothermia? Or death?

“I see him!” Lights from the apartment illuminated the silhouette of a coatless man, sitting facing the apartment’s sliding glass doors. He seemed to be at ease, leaning back with his arms stretched out along the top of the wrought iron railing. Sally remembered Daniel’s skilled hands as he had rescued Mugs’ pups, and thought of the blackened, gangrenous fingers that severe frostbite could cause. She shuddered. “We have to get him in from there.”

“Not we,” said Jim. “I don’t want you anywhere near this. Call Demarco.”

Sally speed-dialed the police and asked for Demarco. Jim held out his hand for the phone.

“This is Donovan. They’re at Smith’s apartment. Third floor, Newberry Manor. He’s got Smith out on the balcony. I’m going after him. Sally’s driving my truck. Make it fast.” He set the phone down and turned to her.

“When we get out of sight of the apartment windows, I’ll slip out and go get Smith. You keep driving around the block. Not too slow. And don’t stop for anything. If anybody looks like they could even try to a
pproach the truck, speed up and get the hell out of there, understand?

“When I get Daniel, I’ll bring him to the spot where I got out. Don’t stop for us anywhere else. If the stalker realizes I’ve gone for Smith, he’ll try to come after you. Don’t let anyone get close. I shouldn’t need more than ten minutes, and Demarco will have men here soon. But don’t stop for them either, uniform or not.”

He pinned her with a demanding glare, warrior mask firmly in place.

“Promise me, Sally. You won’t stop the truck.”

“I promise...”

They rounded the corner.

“…just hurry…”

For a moment the truck was still as he slipped from the seat and she slid over to take the wheel.

“Don’t stop,” he said. Then he was gone, melting into the shadows like a figment of her imagination.

“Be safe, Jim.” But she was alone.

Sally’s gaze traveled down the deserted street. She circled the block, moving from street lamp to street lamp, and straining to see into the darkness between. When she neared the apartments again, she looked up. Daniel still sat on the balcony in the cold. But it would take Jim time to get in, and time to get to Daniel. She drove on, passing the spot where Jim had slipped out, turning the second corner, and the third.

Would Jim have reached Daniel yet? She remembered the speed and silence with which he could move. Maybe the nightmare would end soon.

As she rounded the final corner, she caught a glimpse of movement to her left. Her head whipped around and her arms tensed, pulling her chest toward the steering wheel. Heart racing, she watched a stray dog limp down the road. Light burst onto the street from the right, and she hit the gas in near panic, racing past the couples who had flung open the townhouse door to say their goodbyes. She didn’t slow down until she rounded the next corner again. Had Jim gotten to Daniel? She hadn’t looked.

Hands shaking, she tromped on the gas pedal, wrenching the truck around three corners, then slowing down to peer at the balcony. Daniel’s silhouette remained, outlined by light that filtered out of the apartment. It looked identical to before—no change, no movement.

Her gut tightened.
Why isn't he moving? Are we too late?

She gripped the steering wheel with sweaty hands, trying to stop their trembling. Where was Jim? Each time she glanced up, hoping to see an empty balcony, she saw Daniel instead. She lost count of how many times she’d driven around the block. The emptiness of the streets
became a live thing, closing in on her, stalking her sanity. Where were the police?
It’s been too long. Something’s wrong.

The truck rounded the corner again and Sally looked upward as the apartments drew near. The light spilling onto the balcony shifted—Daniel’s silhouette looked different. Sally slowed the truck and ducked her head to get a better view. The shadowy form resolved itself into two separate shapes. A second shirtless man sat on the balcony, a rangy, broad-shouldered man. Her heart stopped, then raced as adrenalin surged. It was Jim on the balcony, his arms stretched out along the rai
ling like Daniel’s, his head rigidly upright.

Frantic, she looked around for the police officers
that were supposed to arrive, but the street was still empty. The truck was moving at a crawl. She stared upward and saw the drapes part—a man stepped into view. The light was behind him, leaving his face in darkness, but his upraised hand held a gun. When Sally’s cell phone rang, she jumped, then stared at it blankly. Caller ID said Jim.