The Devil To Pay (Hennessey.) (89 page)

He looked down at his hands befor
e looking back at her, ‘we’re not in Mississippi any more.’

Her shock was plain to see as
she stammered, ‘not…not in Mississippi.’ He shook his head. ‘You’re lying. We couldn’t have driven out of the state; you wouldn’t have taken such a risk transporting me so far.’

‘Depending where you are in a particular state the next isn’t really so far.’

He could see her trying to figure out how far they might have been travelling and where they might be in relation to Eden. He was right, she was, but she was also thinking what a consummate liar he was, he might be lying now, he probably was. They might have only been driving twenty minutes before all she knew, they could even be in Gulfport. Yes, he was just trying to disconcert and scare her, as if she wasn’t disconcerted and scared enough as it was. She said. ‘I still don’t believe you. Taking a kidnap victim over a state line is a federal offence; you wouldn’t want to have the FBI hunting you as well as the Mississippi police department.’

He looked at her for a moment his face imp
assive before he smiled, ‘I forgot your fondness for crime novels. But your concern for me is very heartening.’

She glared at him, ‘I’m not in the least concerned about you. In fact I hope we
have
crossed the state line then you don’t stand a chance of escaping.’ She tried to sound confident but her eyes belied her words.

He smiled and shrugged simultaneously, ‘having a federal agency hunting me is an occupational hazard.’

Her blood turned cold at his words, so he was a criminal, a con man, a fraudster, she didn’t even want to think about what else he might be. She wondered whether to mention the raincoat she had given to Detective Leyton but thought that was something she should keep to herself for now. She said, ‘I still think you’re lying, if we’re so far from civilisation why the need for this?’ She gestured over her shoulder to her bound hands.

He leaned towards her over th
e back of his chair, ‘they're mostly for your protection, I don’t want you thinking you can just leave this cabin and find help, you’ll get into trouble out there.’

‘And I’m in no trouble in here of course.’

He sounded a little exasperated now, ‘all you need to know is that we’re a long way from civilisation, the nearest town is fifteen miles away and that’s so small it isn’t even on the map, the inhabitants probably haven’t even heard of phones. Not to mention that we’re surrounded by thick dense woods full of dangerous animals, panthers being only one of them. And surrounding the woods are dangerous swamps.’ He leaned back and finished, ‘so please don’t get any ideas about trying to escape; you wouldn’t get half a mile.’

She kept his gaze with difficulty but she wanted her eyes to convey her disgust for him.

He sighed and ran his hand through his hair, ‘look, I
am
telling you this to frighten you, but only because I don’t want you to get any stupid ideas about running from me, you’ll get hurt or worse, far worse.’

She looked away not wanting to look at his face or hear his words any longer.

There followed a short silence until she said, ‘do you know that Dean might be crippled for life.’

Again he seemed taken aback by the sudden change
of subject but shrugged, ‘he got what he deserved.’

She sprung back in her seat astounded, ‘what he deserved? Because you don’t like him, because you resent him, that makes it all right for you to beat him into unconsciousness?’

‘My not liking him or resenting him had nothing to do with it.’

‘Then what did?’

He studied her for a long moment then shrugged, ‘it really doesn’t matter now. But the only thing I regret about that day is hurting you, I never meant that to happen.’

Sh
e ignored the last part, ‘maybe it doesn’t matter to you, you’re not the one lying in hospital waiting to hear the results of tests to tell you whether you’ll be confined to a  wheelchair for the rest of your life or not.’

‘I’ll bet if I ask if you wish I were you wouldn’t say no would you?’
She opened her mouth then closed it biting her bottom lip and looked away. He smiled an ironic smile and said, ‘see.’

She looked up and into his eyes before saying, ‘I would never wish such a fate on anyone, no, not even
you
.’

He looked back frowning obviously trying to figure her out. He said, ‘you care a great deal about people, that much was obvious from the start when you defended that silly little waitress.’

She said nothing but lowered her eyes not wanting to be reminded of that day, the day she had met him. Eventually she

said, ‘I don’t understand. I don’t understand why you would take such a risk to kidnap me just to prevent me from testifying against you. You could have left the state, even the country by now, why risk being caught?’

His eyes searched hers and hers his, what he saw in hers she didn’t know, but what she saw in his was a certain gentleness and also a touch of sorrow mixed with regret and this frightened her more than any amount of menace or anger could have done.

His tone was gentle but firm as he said, ‘that’s not why I abducted you, this has nothing to do with Dean Maxwell.’

She frowned not understanding. If that wasn't the reason he had abducted her then why? The only other thing that came to mind was that he was going to ask her family for a ransom for her.

He took a deep breath and said, ‘this is about Desdemona, I believe you would know her as Desi.

CHAPTER 29.        

          He watched the emotions flicker across her face, confusion, realisation, horror, panic then the blood drained slowly from her face leaving it white and blanched and for a moment he thought she was about to pass out. He made to rise from his chair to catch her before she fell but she suddenly took a deep breath and seemed to rally although she couldn’t hide the shaking of her body. She swallowed several times before saying not very convincingly, ‘I...I have no idea what that means.’

He sat back down and smiled, ‘of course I would expect you to deny it, you’re hardly likely to admit it up front. But
I
know that
you
know exactly who I’m talking about.’

Her voice was slightly firmer that it had been, ‘I don’t. The only Desdemona I know is a character in Shakespeare’s Othello.’

‘Only
that
Desdemona was never called Desi was she, and this one was. However, I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt and say you might have known her by another name. But whatever name she gave you her name
is
Desi, although that wasn’t her given name of course. So since I
am
giving you the benefit of the doubt I’ll describe her to you, about five eight or nine, slim, shoulder length dark hair, brown eyes, very pretty, very pretty indeed.’

‘I still don’t know…The denial died on her lips as he held up his hand, ‘please, Miss. Faraday, don’t deny it again, your face, not to mention your reaction when I mentioned her name gave you away. You went as white as a sheet.’

‘That’s because I…I feel unwell.’ There was a lot of truth in that statement.

He looked at her for a moment then got up and reached for the water bottle he had put on the table, unscrewed the top and put the bottle to her lips. This time she did not refuse but drank until the bottle was almost empty.

He removed the bottle from her lips and put it back on the table and sat down again. He said softly ‘better?’ She nodded, ‘look, I know bringing up Desi’s name was a shock to you,’ she opened her mouth to refute his claim that she knew Desi but he held up his hand again, ‘no please, don’t waste your breath. Whichever name she gave you I know for a fact that you know who I’m talking about. So let’s not waste time and energy arguing about it.’

She closed her mouth again and he said, ‘thank you, or should I say, much obliged?’

She gave him a disdainful look and he smiled then reached into his pocket and pulled out something which he held out in front of him his arm extended towards her, ‘I found this and I recognised it immediately. It’s a buckle from a shoe I’ve seen Desi wear a few times; there were two on each shoe. Now of course there’s one shoe with a missing buckle.’

She stared at the buckle; she too had seen it before, on Olivia’s shoes when she had been in the cabin in
Alabama. She fought the wave of nausea that overcame her as she stammered, ‘you…you’ve been in my cabin in Alabama.’ As soon as she’d said it she knew she had made a mistake, but her fear and terror was so great she was incapable of thinking rationally. He gave a rather pitying smile, he had her and she knew it, she bowed her head in defeat. She was doomed.

He said, ‘I met your friend there.’

Her head snapped up, ‘m…my friend?’

‘Yes, Jonas Lando.’

He didn’t think it was possible but her face whitened still further and her voice came from deep in her throat as she said, ‘you…you didn’t…didn’t…

He helped her out, ‘kill him?’ He shook his head, ‘no, I didn’t kill him. In fact he got the drop on me as I was coming out of your cabin, held a rifle on me while he searched me, he found my gun of course but I talked my way out of it. Told him I was the realtor, it helped that I disguised myself as the real agent. Although I’m not sure if he bought it, probably not, but then he knew where you were going next so if he had been suspicious he would have found some way to contact you, or called the police. But then he being the unsociable, unfriendly hermit he is he perhaps wouldn’t bother, too much like getting involved with something that doesn’t concern him. Anyway, I was most impressed by your Mr. Lando. You know I was right about him, he
is
an ex -con, he’s also an ex -cop but had to quit the job on account he had to spend time in prison for murder.’

Her eyes widened, ‘mu…murder?’

‘Yes, killed his wife, apparently.’

She was stunned but said, ‘you’re lying, if he’d been to jail for murder he would still be there.’

‘There were mitigating circumstances apparently. But he got the maximum sentence for his particular crime, three years.’

She looked away from him thinking about Jonas Lando. She did not right then realise the incongruity of thinking about someone else’s problems whilst she herself looked death in the face. Because she suspected that Hennessey intended to kill her, but not before he had squeezed every last piece of information about Olivia out of her. Well that was one thing she wouldn’t tell him, she knew now there was no use lying about her connection to Olivia, she had walked right into his trap…again. But there was one thing he couldn’t get out of her and that was where Olivia went.

But maybe he wouldn’t kill her. He was an expert at deceit and subterfuge but she had seen sincerity in his face and eyes when he had told her he never meant to hurt her. Maybe when he had got what he wanted or at least all she could tell him he would just leave her here, calling the police anonymously once he was out of the country.

Hennessey watched her face closely. There was shock there, about Lando being a murderer no doubt, but there was also something else that surprised him…although knowing her as he did it shouldn’t have, there was compassion in her eyes too, compassion for Lando.

Although he had come to know her quite well in the days they had spent together she still had the power to amaze him, which was rare with the women he met. He had expected her to cry and plead and beg to be released when she had realised her situation but instead she had looked at him with a disgust she did not attempt to hide. She had stood up to him and told him what she thought of him in no uncertain terms. Although she had been terrified when she had woken in the truck she had not panicked and cried, except for that one little sob which had wrenched at his heart before he had hardened it again.

He had not lied to her when he’d told her he had been very impressed with her spirit back at the cabin, she had fought damned hard getting in a few good hits before he had overcome her. Neither had he lied when he’d said he was sorry that he had had to hurt her, he had not meant to be so rough with her. He had felt terrible when he had shocked her. Although he knew it was only temporary pain, over in a few seconds leaving only a headache and a lassitude that’s why he had chosen that method of immobilizing her, although he intended to use it only as a last resort.

But he had soon realised that she would continue to fight when she regained consciousness and even when she was tied up so he had had to resort to knocking her out, but punching her had been asking too much, so he had used an old trick he had found useful in the past. Nevertheless, he had hated doing it, hated himself, just as he had when he had tied her up and gagged her. He knew in that moment that he should have done this at the start before he had gotten to know her, to like and respect her. But instead he had done what he had never done in his life before, well, not since Carson anyway, and let his emotions become involved, let his feelings override his common sense.

But it was done now, he could not go back and alter it, just as he could not go back and alter anything that was happening now.

He cleared his throat and said, ‘you should be proud of yourself, Miss. Faraday.’