Intimate Betrayal (39 page)

“What are you going to do?” Annie asked. Her hand had slipped into Matt’s, and he could feel the perspiration on her palm
mixing with his own.

“Well,” said Sam, “I can’t blow the place until I’m at a safe distance, can I? You and Matt and the kids are going to
stay here and enjoy the last couple of minutes of the cathedral’s short but glorious life. Jack and I are going to leave.”

“Don’t listen to him, Jack,” said Annie. “He’ll kill you too. The last thing he wants is a witness to the fact that Sam Brody
isn’t the man everybody supposes him to be!”

“Don’t bother,” Sam said. “Jack and I trust each other.”

“Yeah, and you’re not going to let him die in the explosion because you need him alive in the aftermath,” said Matt. “Someone
other than you has to be a convincing candidate for using that detonator. You’ll survive tonight, Fletcher. Sam’11 wait till
morning to serve you up to the authorities as the perpetrator of all
his
crimes.”

Fletcher’s eyes flickered speculatively. He seemed dazed, and he was acting like an automaton, stiffly obeying orders from
Sam. He brought the rope and, at gunpoint, grabbed Annie, jerking her away from Matt. Matt lunged after her, but Sam stepped
forward and put the barrel of his gun to the side of Matt’s head. Vico, standing protectively in front of Paolina, eyed the
guns in both men’s hands and wisely decided to do nothing for the moment. But his handsome face was set in rage.

Fletcher threw one arm around Annie’s neck and backed away with her. “You can do what you want with the rest of them,” he
said to Sam. Now that he was touching Annie, his voice was more animated. “But Annie is mine.” He wrapped the rope around
her body, passing it lovingly over her breasts, her waist, her hips, while she struggled futilely to free herself.

“Fine,” Sam said calmly. “Do what you want with her. It’s her lover I’m interested in.”

“Annie and I have worked hard on this cathedral,” Fletcher said unexpectedly. “Now you want to blow it up. I don’t
think that’s a very good idea, Sam. I don’t think I’m going to help you do it, either.”

“You’ll do what I damn well tell you!” Sam said.

Matt focused on the feel of the hard round cylinder of Sam’s gun against the side of his head. He kept a gun and knew how
to use it, although he certainly didn’t consider himself an expert with firearms. But he knew that if you had the gun, you
should never press it to your victim’s body, because your victim could reach out and grab it. At least half the time, he could
deflect it before you reacted fast enough to pull the trigger.

Half the time. The other half, you got a bullet in your brain.

On the other hand, if you were about to die anyhow… And Sam’s attention was on Fletcher, who was continuing his plaintive
objections to the destruction of the cathedral.

Matt raised his right hand, grabbed the gun barrel, and wrenched at it. The noise of the gun going off was deafening,but he
heard it, he heard it, and he heard Annie scream, so he must still be alive…

The recoil tore the gun right out of his grasp, but out of Sam’s as well. He heard it clatter as it hit the stone floor, and
at that same moment he swung around and smashed his fist into Sam’s face. Matt felt the shock reverberate through his own
body.

Then, out of the corner of his eye, Matt saw Vico spring toward the suddenly distracted Fletcher. With a bloodcurdling roar
bursting out of his young throat, he tackled Fletcher and knocked him to the floor, where they rolled over several times,
wrestling wildly.

Matt got off another blow, but Sam took it standing. He backed up a pace and struck back. Matt felt Sam’s fist glance
off the side of his head as he twisted away from it. Gasping, he came back with a tight combination, two lefts and a right,
the final blow catching Sam cleanly on the chin and driving him back against the scaffolding, which he grabbed and clung to,
to keep from sliding to his knees.

Matt hadn’t boxed since college, but Sam probably hadn’t either. He felt pumped up, almost cocky.

Then Sam fumbled in his pocket for the detonator.

Shit!
Matt dived to the floor, grabbed the gun, and pointed it at Sam. “You can’t blow it now. You’ll die too.”

Sam laughed. “Stop me,” he said. And, ignoring the gun in Matt’s hands, he swung himself up and began to climb the scaffolding.

Great,
thought Matt.
He’s going to kill us all, and to hell with his own life.
“Stop right there, Sam,” he shouted. “If you don’t, I’ll blow you away.”

Sam looked back at him and laughed again. “No you won’t,” he said. “I know you, Carlyle. You’re no killer. Now that’s a perfect
piece of irony, isn’t it?”

The gun vibrated in Matt’s hand.
Do it,
he ordered himself.
Just do it, for chrissake!

He swung the gun instead at Fletcher, but Vico had him disarmed and subdued on the floor. Seizing a piece of the man’s own
rope, he trussed him up, pulling callously at the rope and ignoring Fletcher’s cries of pain and protest.

“Nice work,” Matt said. “Unfortunately, though, Sam is going to blow up the cathedral and all of us in it.”

“He must be crazy,” Vico said. “He has chained and padlocked all the exits.”

Could he shoot the padlocks off the chains? Matt wondered, as, from somewhere behind Fletcher, Vico produced a knife
that was huger than any Matt had ever seen before. He used it to slice through the ropes that bound Annie. She ran to Matt’s
side, and Vico turned back to Paolina. The teenagers grinned at each other as if unaware of the danger still hanging over
them all.

Matt glanced up at Sam, who was now high on the scaffolding—the same scaffolding, he realized, where Giuseppe had spent the
last few moments of his life.

“You’d better shoot him before he gets out of range,” Vico advised. He examined the explosives taped to the column. “That
stuff looks lethal,” he said calmly.

“Matt, if you shoot him and he falls with the detonator in his hand, it’ll probably go off with the impact,” Annie said.

“Maybe not,” said Vico. “His body might cushion the detonator.”

They all stared at Sam as if they had all the time in the world to contemplate the intricacies of the problem.

In fact, Matt knew they couldn’t get out in time. Sam had the detonator, and he could use it the moment any of them made a
move toward one of the chained doors.

The real question was: Was Sam willing to die?

If he was, there was little they could do. If he wasn’t, perhaps they could talk him down, make him surrender, get a hostage
negotiator in here or something.…

High on the platform above, Sam was watching them. Matt cleared his throat and called up, “Look, we can talk about this, Sam.”

His answer was a chilling laugh that, aided by the building’s superior acoustics, echoed through the building.

Annie pressed against Matt’s side and he held her hard
against him with his free arm. He loved her, dammit. There had to be a way out of this.

“Annie?” a new voice called out, and Matt swung around, staring in confusion at the exits, all of which were chained shut.
But somehow or other Darcy appeared, running up the steps from the sacristy and stopping short when she took in the scene.
“Jesus Christ! What’s going on?” she cried.

“No, Darcy!” Annie screamed. “Get out of here! Hurry—get out!”

But Darcy did not get out, and neither did Barbara Rae, who was right behind her.

“How did you get in here?” Matt barked at them.

Darcy didn’t answer. She was staring up at Sam, high on the scaffolding, with the detonator in his hand.

“There’s another exit,” Vico said in a low voice. “It’s through the basement. It’s a secret passageway that leads to the youth
center next door. That must be how they got in.”

Thank God! “Take it, then. Get the women out. Hurry.”

“Matt, there’s no time,” said Annie.

“There’s time if he’s afraid to die. And most of us, when faced with it, are.” He gazed up at Sam, who looked, from this distance,
like a golden-haired angel. “Give it up, old friend. Any chance you had of covering this up is gone. We made several copies
of both CAD files. There’s no way out for you except an honorable surrender.”

“Do you seriously think I’d subject myself to a trial?” Sam shouted down. “After what
you
went through? I’d rather end it now and have the satisfaction of knowing that I’ve finally finished you too.”

Not wanting to endure the agonies of a murder trial was something Matt could understand.

“Besides, you’re all here now, aren’t you?” Sam added. “Dear Darcy, and Barbara Rae as well. It couldn’t have worked out better
if I’d planned it. The only person who’s not here is Sid Canin, but I’ve already taken care of him.”

“You killed him,” Darcy said, her voice flat as she stared up at the man she had loved to distraction.

“Regretfully,” said Sam, “he too was in love with Francesea. He thought Matt killed her, of course, until he got wind of Giuseppe’s
suspicions about the structure.” He smiled, as if remembering. “It may be a while before they find his body, though. He ended
up in the foundation of one of our other projects, just before the concrete was poured. Only his furniture went to NeW York.”

“Shoot him,” Vico said. He raised the handgun he’d taken from Fletcher. “If you don’t, I will.”

“No!” Barbara Rae said, her voice low but insistent.

No!
thought Matt. Vico was too young to have a man’s blood on his soul.

Sam moved on the scaffolding. He laughed, sounding manic. “Let’s all count down from three,” he called to them. “Then we’ll
go out together. If there’s an afterlife, I hope Francesca has learned how to make up her mind.”

It’s up to you. Decide.

“Three!” Sam yelled. “You ready down there? I’m gonna press the button on ‘One,’ folks.”

Barbara Rae stepped to the foot of the scaffolding. “Whatever you’ve done, Sam, it’s never too late to find the love and the
mercy of God. Release yourself into the Almighty’s hands. Feel His love.”

Sam laughed wildly. “Two!” he shouted.

“You lousy bastard!” Darcy shouted. “Maybe God still loves you, but I sure don’t!”

Matt raised the gun and took careful aim. He steadied his arm, he held his breath, and just as Sam was saying “One!” and Barbara
Rae was saying, “No, Matt,” he pulled the trigger.

As if in slow motion, Sam fell. Gracefully, like a diving bird.

And as he fell, something small and dark flew out from his body and fell also, arcing gently down to the floor of the cathedral.
There was nothing to do in those few seconds—which seemed to stretch out forever—but watch and wait for the explosion that
would kill them all and turn the house of God into a fireball.

Sam’s body struck the stone floor only inches from where Giuseppe had come to rest.

The detonator landed perfectly and precisely in the newly installed baptismal font, and as it hit, a silver splash of water
rose into the air.

They waited for the fire, thunder, an earthquake of violent sound.

They heard only silence and the drip of holy water from a font that, to Annie’s knowledge, had never been filled.

Annie slipped into one of the back pews of the cathedral and pulled down the kneeling platform. She sank down on it and folded
her hands together on the back of the pew in front of her, and briefly she closed her eyes.

When she opened them, she let the full beauty of the finished building seep into her soul. It was radiant with color and light.
The fresh paint gleamed. The wooden pews were polished to a high gloss. The magnificent altar cross glittered like gold, and
the dozens of chandeliers over the nave and bright sconces on the north and south walls banished any hint of darkness. The
sun slanted, muted, through the stained glass windows, creating a wondrous pattern of color directly down the center aisle.
And above, the bells in the tower rang out joyously as the hour changed.

The cathedral now was a very different place from the dark
and gloomy unfinished interior that had almost been blown out of existence. It had opened officially last week for services,
after Darcy had worked hard with a new contractor to reinforce the existing structure and resolve the safety problems. The
building had been certified as structurally sound, and tomorrow it would be the site of a special celebration.

Annie heard a step behind her and turned her head.

“I figured I’d find you here,” said Matt.

He came into the pew and sat down. Unlike her, he did not kneel. She leaned back and felt the comfort of his knee against
her back.

To her knowledge, he hadn’t been inside the cathedral since the day he’d fired a gun at his oldest friend and watched him
fall to his death in almost the same spot where Giuseppe had died. Annie’s memory of the events right after that moment were
a little fuzzy now, but there was one exchange she recalled with perfect clarity:

“There was no gunshot wound on your friend,” Detective Sullivan said to Matt “Looks like he either fell, or jumped. “

“What?”

“Yeah, Carlyle, you’re a lousy shot We recovered your bullet from the wooden platform above where the guy must’ve been standing.
You missed by at least a yard “

That had been a mercy, Annie knew. Despite everything, Matt hadn’t wanted Sam’s death on his conscience.

“Are you going to be okay about it?” she asked him now.

“About tomorrow? Yes. This place has been finished beautifully, Annie. I’m so very proud of you.”

“The shadows are gone, I think. I hope so, anyway.”

“The shadows are gone.”

“I love you, Matt.”

“I love you too.”

“Vico and Paolina will be coming. And they’re bringing the baby!”

“Well, we went to their wedding, so they’d better show up at ours.”

She rose from the kneeling platform and sat beside him on the red-cushioned pew. He slung his arm around her and pulled her
close.