Suspicion (38 page)

  "He shot him!" Horrified, Kate started to scramble to her feet. "That maniac shot him."

  "Shh." Mitch yanked her down. "Don’t move. Don’t let him know we’re here."

  Moving farther into the brush, Mitch and Kate watched as Bruno, rifle in hand, came down from the deck and walked toward the embankment. Something icy clutched at Kate’s heart. "My God, he’s going to kill him."

  "Go get Alison," Mitch told Kate, helping her to her feet and pushing her forward. "I’ll take care of Bruno."

  "He’ll kill you, too!" Before she could stop him, Mitch had drawn his gun and was running after Bruno.

  Her feet sinking into the snow, Kate started toward the deck. Suddenly, a shot rang out, followed by another. Turning around, she saw Mitch grab his arm as the gun fell from his hand.

  "Mitch!"

  With an angry grunt, Bruno, who had been firing from behind his car, tossed the rifle aside. Then, coming out in the open, he held himself low, the way he had in the garage when he had come after her, and lunged at Mitch. The two men fell down and rolled onto the snow. Wounded and favoring his left arm, Mitch was clearly at a disadvantage.

  "Get the gun, Kate!" he shouted.

  She looked wildly around her. "I don’t see it!"

  The sound of a solid punch made her wince. Knowing she’d never find the gun in all that snow, she started looking around her for some other weapon. Her gaze fell on a stack of firewood under the deck.

  Half walking and half crawling, she made her way to the pile, grabbed the biggest log she could find, then went back to where the two men were still wrestling. Holding the log like a baseball bat, she started swinging at Bruno’s head. She missed, hitting Mitch’s forehead instead.

  Mitch fell flat on his back and just lay there.

  "Mitch!" Kate cried. "Oh, my God."

  At the sound of her voice, Bruno turned around, realized what she had tried to do and came after her, an angry scowl on his face. "Bitch."

  Kate dropped the log, stumbled and fell. As the huge man moved toward her, she started to crawl backward like a crab. "Mitch! Help me!"

  Her call remained unanswered. Numb with fear, she watched Bruno’s long arms reach for her. In a desperate effort to hold him off, she kicked, aiming at his face. The pathetic attempt only made him laugh.

  He was going to kill her, she thought as he grabbed her ankles and started to drag her toward the house. He was going to kill them all.

  "Let her go, Bruno."

  Still holding Kate, the big man turned around. Mitch was standing up, his legs apart, his gun steady as he held it with both hands. There was a bullet hole in the upper part of his left coat sleeve from which blood was seeping out. He wasn’t paying attention to it.

  "Let her go," he repeated, "or I’ll blow your brains out."

  There were some things even a stupid man understood quickly. Bruno let her go. Half-dazed with terror, Kate crawled away from him.

  Holding the gun with his left hand, Mitch reached behind his back with the other and produced a pair of handcuffs. Then, not taking a chance that Bruno would try something, Mitch hit him on the back of the head with the.38 before cuffing him to the deck.

  The moment Kate saw Bruno crumple to the ground, she started running toward the house. "Alison!" she cried, going from room to room. "Alison, baby, it’s me. Where are you?"

  "Mommy!"

  Relief washed over her as she ran toward the sound of her daughter’s voice.

  "In here, Mommy! At the end of the hall."

  Kate threw the door open and let out a small cry. Alison sat on the floor, tied to the bedpost. She was shivering.

  "Oh, my baby." Kate was beside her in an instant, struggling to untie her, crying with joy and relief and frustrated that her fingers, stiff from the cold, couldn’t work any faster.

  In a moment, Alison was in her arms, crying softly. "I’m sorry, Mommy," she kept saying between sobs. "I’m sorry."

  "Shh." Kate held her tight, rocking her the way she had when she was a small child. "It’s all right, baby. You’re all right now." Removing Alison’s wet coat, Kate took a blanket from the bed and wrapped her in it. "Did he hurt you, darling? Did he do anything to you?" The thought that he might have raped her made her blood run cold.

  Alison shook her head. "No, he was just mean, that’s all."

  Tears of relief spilled onto Kate’s cheeks.

  "Where is he, Mommy? Where’s Bruno?"

  "Mitch Calhoon handcuffed him to the deck." She kissed the top of Alison’s head. "He won’t hurt you anymore. No one will ever hurt you again."

  "I want to go home, Mommy. Our home."

  "Yes, darling." Kate closed her eyes. "Oh, yes."

  Suddenly, Alison pulled away. "Detective Calhoon. You’re bleeding."

  Kate turned around. Mitch stood in the doorway. His face was pale, but the bloodstain hadn’t gotten any bigger.

  "Let me help you with that," she said, getting to her feet. ‘There should be a first-aid kit somewhere in the house."

  Mitch shook his head. "Don’t bother. It’s just a flesh wound."

  She looked at the red scrape on his forehead. "What about your head? Did I hit you hard?"

  "No, it was just a glancing blow. Fortunately." His expression softened as he looked at Alison. "Are you okay?"

  Alison nodded. "I’m fine. I was scared. I heard all those shots."

  Suddenly, Kate shot Mitch a panicked look. "Where’s Eric?"

  "Oh, Christ," Mitch mumbled as he hurried out of the room, "I forgot all about him."

  Running past Bruno who was still out, Mitch rushed toward the embankment. Eric sat on the ground, his back against a tree. His left leg was drawn up and the wounded one was stretched out in front of him and bleeding, although not too badly.

  Eric glared at Mitch. "About time you got here," he said testily.

  "I was busy."

  "This is all your fault, you know. If you hadn’t shouted so loud, that guy wouldn’t have come out with his guns blazing. Some cop you are." Not giving Mitch a chance to reply, he looked toward the house. "Is Alison there? Is she all right?"

  "She’s fine." Mitch knelt in front of Eric’s leg and started to finger the wound. "How bad is it?"

  "Bad enough. I can’t put any weight on it."

  Mitch reached into his back pocket and pulled out a handkerchief. After unfolding it, he grasped it by each end and twirled it around a few times. Then, wrapping it

  around Eric’s leg, just above the wound, he knotted it. "There, that should stop the bleeding." Sliding his good arm around Eric’s back, Mitch pulled him up. "Come on, work with me, Logan. I can’t carry a dead weight with just one arm."

  "I’m trying, all right?" Holding on to Mitch, Eric pushed himself up on one leg.

  "Daddy!" Running toward them, Alison threw herself into her father’s arms, nearly sending both men into the snow.

  "Hello, princess." Standing on one foot, Eric hung on to Mitch with one arm and grabbed his daughter with the other.

  "Oh, Daddy, you’re shot, too."

  "I’ll live."

  Up on the deck, as snow kept falling and dusk began to change the landscape, Kate watched the scene in silence as tears streamed down her cheeks.

  Alison, Eric and Kate’s arrival at Georgetown University Hospital three hours later had all the drawing power of a major event. Somehow the news of Alison’s abduction and dramatic rescue had leaked to the press and dozens of reporters and television crews were already there.

  A team of doctors and paramedics had been alerted and were waiting by the emergency entrance when Kate pulled up, driving Megan’s Jaguar with Alison in the front seat and Eric stretched out in the back. The Saab, deeply entrenched in the snow, would have to wait for its own rescue.

  Mitch had gone directly to the police department with his prisoner and had promised Kate he’d have his arm looked at as soon as Bruno was booked.

  "No questions until later," Kate said sharply as a camera crew pushed forward. "Right now, we have an injured man to take care of, so please get out of the way."

  Surprisingly, they parted to let them through. Rose, Frankie and Megan were standing together just inside the wide glass doors. Rose saw her granddaughter first and ran to her. "Oh, pumpkin, thank God you’re all right." She enfolded her in her arms. "I was never so scared in my entire life." Then, seeing Eric, who had been placed on a gurney, she let out a small cry and rushed to his side.

  Frankie came forward and ruffled the top of Alison’s

  head. "Hey, kid. You’re okay?" When Alison nodded, she glanced at Kate. "How about you, Boss? You didn’t say much on the car phone."

  Kate wasn’t in the mood for a long, drawn-out explanation of the afternoon’s events. In fact, in spite of her relief at having Alison back safe and sound, she wasn’t in the mood for much of anything. Her mind had been preoccupied with Mitch and on how she had fouled things up between them.

  "I’m fine," Kate replied as Frankie continued to observe her. "Just tired, that’s all."

  As Eric was wheeled away to an operating room, one of the doctors, a young intern by the name of Dr. Drucker, took Alison behind a curtained partition and gave her a thorough examination. "She’s fine," he told Kate when he came out a little while later. "All she needs is a good night’s sleep."

  Kate kept her arm around her daughter’s shoulders. "Shall we do that, Alison? We can come back in the morning-"

  Alison gave an emphatic shake of her head. "I want to stay here until Daddy is out of surgery." She looked up, her gray eyes partly worried and partly apologetic. "I’ve got to, Mom."

  Kate smiled. "All right, then. We’ll go on up and wait with Grandma and Megan."

  "I’ll come with you," Frankie said.

  In the waiting room, Alison went to join the other two women, while Kate and Frankie walked over to the coffee machine.

  "What’s the prognosis on Eric?" Frankie asked as she fed quarters into the slot.

  Kate shrugged. "We don’t know. Mitch thinks the bul

  let is still in there. But Eric was in good spirits during the entire trip."

  "I guess he should be. He’s no longer a suspect, is he?"

  "Not really, but nothing can be finalized until there’s actual proof that someone else killed Gina and Lilly. It all depends on how much they can get out of Bruno."

  "They have more than Bruno, Boss. Didn’t Mitch tell you?"

  "Tell me what?"

  "Maddy Mays was arrested. And Lieutenant Jarvis, who’s apparently been on her payroll for years, was suspended pending an investigation by Internal Affairs. Oh, and Mitch was reinstated. He and Detective Spivak are working on the case together now."

  "What about the McKackneys?"

  "In custody. Both of them. The senator was at the White House meeting with the president when all hell broke loose. The U.S. attorney called the president and told him that McKackney was about to be arrested and why. Needless to say, both the White House and the Senate are in a state of shock, and our phones haven’t stopped ringing since the news broke out. Not even Washington was prepared for a scandal like this, Boss. Everything else pales in comparison." They sipped their coffee in silence. Then Frankie, her face grave, asked, "Did Rose tell you about Douglas?"

  Kate nodded. "I haven’t said anything to Alison yet."

  "I can’t believe it," Frankie continued. "What in the name of God could he have been thinking of? A lawyer of his reputation, involved in murder."

  "Any word on him?"

  "The last I heard, the police had an all points bulletin out, but other than that, there’s been nothing."

  Kate glanced at Alison, whose head was resting on Rose’s shoulder, and felt a pinch in her heart. She looked so innocent, so trusting. How in the world was she going to explain to that sweet child what Douglas had done and not shatter that trust forever?

  Looking slightly less glamorous than she had at the time of her arrest three hours ago, Maddy Mays glowered at Mitch as she was escorted into an interrogation room.

  "You’re going to pay dearly for this, Detective Calhoon. In fact, it’d be safe to say that you’re going to curse the day you ever met me." She glanced at Tom Spivak, who had just laid a tape recorder on the table. "And the same goes for you. You’re all going to pay."

  His arm in a sling, Mitch waited until she was seated before doing the same. "You’re in no position to make threats, Maddy. Bruno is in custody, we have Alison Logan’s statement that you ordered her abduction, and your good buddy, Lieutenant Jarvis, is singing like a canary."

  Although Jarvis had, in fact, come clean about his dealings with Maddy Mays and his involvement in Sean McKackney’s release, he had sworn he had no knowledge of her participation in any of the murders or who Bruno was. As for Bruno, he hadn’t uttered a word since that last grunt at McKackney’s cabin. Unless Mitch could somehow convince Maddy to confess, he wouldn’t have enough to charge McKackney or Douglas with conspiracy to murder.

  "You’re lying," Maddy said.

  "No, I’m not. He’s already told us some pretty incriminating stuff."

  The color left Maddy’s face. "I’ve never even met Lieutenant Jarvis."

  A corner of Mitch’s mouth twisted into a smile. His

  eyes still on Maddy, he leaned toward the tape recorder and pushed a button. Jarvis’s voice, although not nearly as offensive as it used to be, came out loud and clear.

  "I met Maddy Mays at a police benefit in 1978," he began. "After about five minutes of small talk, she asked me point-blank if I would like to earn some extra money in exchange for protection when and if she ever needed it. The amount she quoted me at the time was twice what I was making as a detective. I guess the thought of making so much money blinded me. I know what I did was wrong, but I had three kids and another on the way…"