The Inner Sanctum (38 page)

Todd wasn't capable of something so terrible, Jesse thought to herself. David was. It was as simple as that. "I know you're lying, David."

"No, I'm not." He looked straight into her eyes. "Look, if I could steal this information from them and be certain they wouldn't kill me too, I'd go to the authorities with you. I swear it. But we're better off agreeing to what they've proposed."

"You bastard! You gave me away to save yourself. I hate you." She lunged at him.

But he was too strong for her. He caught her arms and held them against her body as she struggled. Finally, she gave up and he let her go. She raced to a corner of the room and stood there, her back to him, wondering how she would get through this. And then she heard his voice. It was devoid of emotion.

"Don't screw with them, Jesse. They're more powerful than you can imagine. You have until eleven o'clock tomorrow morning to respond to their generous offer. I suggest you reply in the affirmative."

** Chapter 32

He stole silently down the hallway toward the small master bedroom, and hesitated for a moment in the darkness outside the door as he withdrew the ether-soaked rag from his pocket. Then he moved into the bedroom purposefully, pushed the rag against Connie Hayes's sleeping face, and stared down into her petrified eyes through the stocking mesh pulled tightly over his head as she struggled in vain against his strong hold.

It was over quickly. When he was certain she had lapsed into unconsciousness, he removed the rag, put it back in his pocket and began a systematic search of the house.

An hour later, he was rewarded for his determination when the flashlight's gleam fell on the IRS bag between the stacks of board games and jigsaw puzzles. He pulled it down, unzipped it, and shined the light inside. Pay dirt.

Quickly he removed the pile of papers and transferred them to another bag, then put the IRS bag back where it had been. This discovery was going to make him a rich man. He smiled widely, then looked out the window. First light was just seeping across the horizon.

"We've got it." Mohler slammed down the conference-room phone triumphantly. "Apparently there was quite a pile of stuff. Quite a bit of information. The Doub check to LFA. Information about how we rigged the Coleman Technology IPO through Sagamore, and about how we were trying to manipulate Coleman's election. Things we definitely would not have wanted out in the open. But now it's in our hands. Jesse Hayes has nothing left to bargain with."

Finnerty heaved a sigh of relief. "Thank God." He turned to his right. "It's over, huh, Carter?"

Webb rubbed his forehead, then glanced at his watch. Seven-thirty in the morning. "When will we receive the material?" The war wasn't over yet. He knew that as well as he knew the halls of Congress. It wasn't even close to celebration time. Only after he held in his own hands what had been taken from Connie Hayes's home, and Gordon Roth had assured him that Jesse Hayes was dead, would he relax.

"He said he'd arrange a meeting after he spoke with the Hayes woman." Mohler had convinced himself during the night that it was over, that everything they had built was going to unravel. Now Sagamore seemed safe again.

"He was quite helpful," Finnerty commented. He turned to his left. "You were right on the button about him, Elizabeth. Good job."

"Thank you." She held a hand to her mouth and coughed twice.

"Are you all right?" Finnerty was suddenly concerned. "You look a little pale."

"I'm fine," she said softly. "Just a bit tired. It's been a long night."

Webb watched her for a moment, then reached inside his suit coat for a cigar. She was hiding something. He had been reading faces too long, and hers was telling a story. He sliced off the cigar tip with his sterling silver cutter and turned to Finnerty. "You can reach Roth at any time, right?"

Finnerty nodded. "Yes. On his cellular."

"As soon as we hear back, I want him on Jesse Hayes. I want her taken care of as soon as possible."

"Right, Carter."

They had moved from the Sheraton to the Towson Motor Inn just to be safe. And fortunately, by means of a small bribe, they'd been able to persuade the man at the front desk to take cash and not a credit card so they couldn't be traced. Jesse reached for the phone. It was nine-fifty and the deadline would expire in a little over an hour. As the line began to ring at the other end, she glanced at the door. Where the hell was Todd? He had been on the couch when she'd fallen asleep last night, but gone this morning when she awakened at six. She wanted to talk to him before she made the call, but she couldn't wait for the last second. She'd kept the whole ugly affair to herself this long. She couldn't let them destroy her mother and her after so much pain.

"Hello," David answered on the second ring.

"It's Jesse."

"Jesse, I have to see you right away."

He was speaking so softly she could barely hear him. "What are you talking about? I'm calling because the deadline is only an hour away. I'm going to accept what they've proposed. What you've proposed. I don't know what choice I have. It would devastate my mother to know everything, and for all her friends to know. It would devastate me too, for God's sake. I couldn't handle it. I'll accept their proposal and learn to live with it. But you can tell them to go to hell with their two-million- dollar bribe."

"Shut up, will you? And forget the deadline."

"What?"

"I can't talk too long right now, but don't worry about the deadline. I've bought you some extra time." He was breathing hard into the mouthpiece.

"Do you want the world to find out what happened to me? Is that what it is?"

"Stop questioning my loyalty, dammit," he said angrily. "Here's what you're going to do. Are you familiar with the Worthington Valley?"

"Of course."

"How about the Stenersen Farm Store?"

"You mean the little country shop out on Falls Road?"

"Yes. It's at the intersection of Shawan and Falls."

"I know."

"Meet me there in two hours."

"David, tell me what this is about," she begged.

"I can't. Just be there. And for Christ's sake, don't go outside of wherever you are until you come to meet me. Don't leave that room until then. When you do leave, be very careful. They're probably everywhere." He paused for a second. "And come alone. You can't trust Todd. I mean that."

"David!" But he was gone. Jesse's hand shook wildly as she pressed down the receiver button to access a new dial tone. She punched his office number again, but this time the phone rang four times until his voice mail message answered.

"I got the number!" Finnerty frantically jotted down the telephone number from the caller ID liquid crystal display. It sat on one corner of the huge conference-room table, connected to the phone in David's office. "We'll have the exact location of the call's origin in ten minutes."

"Make it five." Webb drew on the cigar. "There's no way David could know about us hooking this thing up to his phone, is there, Jack?"

Finnerty shook his head.

The knock on the conference-room door was loud, startling Webb, Finnerty, and Mohler.

"See who it is." Webb ordered Mohler to the door.

When Mohler reached the door, he opened it just a crack. "Oh, hello. Come in."

"Thanks." David moved into the doorway. "She called." He directed his words at Webb. It was an indication that he now considered Webb his leader.

"Excuse me." Elizabeth squeezed past David and left the room.

"Certainly, Elizabeth." He stepped farther into the room to let her out.

Once in the hallway, Elizabeth moved quickly away from the conference room toward her office, murmuring the numbers she had seen on Finnerty's notepad over and over. Everything had spun out of control so quickly, faster than she could ever have anticipated. She had given Webb and Mohler information at the end of the last sanctum meeting out of a survival instinct. She had seen them talking and been afraid they were discussing her. Afraid that they had found out about her treason, and were planning her untimely demise. So she had told them about how she had pushed David into getting close to Jesse because of her suspicion that Jesse was somehow involved. And about a man named Todd Colton. They had promised no harm would come to Jesse, but now they were going back on that promise.

Elizabeth moved into her office, closed the door, picked up the phone, and quickly dialed the memorized number. She had to do this. Otherwise Jesse wouldn't be in the land of the living much longer. Then there would be no living with herself.

"Hello."

"Jesse, it's Elizabeth Gilman." She did not await a reply. "Get out of wherever you are. They know where you are."

Jesse raced for the door. David. He had set her up again. Don't leave the room, he had said. Of course. So she would be a sitting target. She threw open the door. "Oh, God!" Someone was standing in the motel doorway. Instinctively she covered her face.

"What's wrong?" He saw her animal fear instantly. The fear of one being hunted.

"Todd!" Jesse clutched her chest, then fell into his arms. "I'm so glad it's you." She caught her breath. "They're coming. We've got to get out of here." She grabbed him by the wrist, pulling him away from the door and out into the parking lot toward her rental car.

"Where are we going?"

"I've got to get something from my mother's house. It's time to end this once and for all."

"What the hell are you talking about?" He stopped her as they reached the line of cars.

"Elizabeth Gilman just called me. She's the woman who recruited me at Sagamore."

"I remember."

"She said they're coming. That somehow they found me here at the motel. We've got to get out of here. Come on!"

"All right. I'll follow you in my car."

"No." She shook her head. "That Corvette would stand out like a beacon. We're both going in my car."

"Okay. But let me get something from the Corvette first. Bring the rental around."

Jesse turned and sprinted to the rental, started it, backed out of the spot, and whipped it quickly behind the Corvette. Todd hopped in and threw the overnight bag he had retrieved from the Corvette into the backseat. As the passenger door slammed shut, Jesse gunned the engine, and they squealed out onto York Road and sped north.

Minutes later, Gordon Roth guided his car into the space Jesse's rental had vacated, jumped from the car and ran to the door number they had specified. He burst in, but was back out in a second.

From the summit of a small hillside overlooking the motel, Jesse watched the assassin through Todd's binoculars. Elizabeth had saved her life. Slowly Jesse allowed the binoculars to drop from her eyes.

"Can you see anything?" Todd stood next to her, squinting down at the motel.

"Yes," she said quietly. "We just made it. That guy who came into the Mercantile Bank branch when I met David is down there right now."

"David set you up, didn't he?"

Jesse nodded.

"I knew he was no good that day I met him outside your office," Todd muttered. "Mr. Limousine," he sneered.

"Come on. Let's go." Jesse handed Todd the binoculars and started back to the car.

Gordon Roth stood before the open motel-room door, scanning the parking lot. Jesse Hayes was gone, obviously tipped off just in time. Suddenly his eyes spotted a familiar sight--the battered white Corvette owned by Todd Colton, the same car he had seen at the farmhouse yesterday when he had killed the two mobsters and temporarily saved Todd's life.

** Chapter 33

"Mom! Mom, wake up!"

Connie's eyes fluttered open. She looked up at Jesse for a moment, then moaned loudly.

"What's wrong?" Jesse knelt down on the bed and held a hand to her mother's forehead. "Are you sick?"

"Oh, God. I feel like I'm going to throw up." Connie sat up and put a hand over her mouth. "The last thing I remember, someone was holding something to my face. The fumes were horrible. I passed out."

"What?"

"Yes." Connie glanced at the doorway. "Todd, could I have a drink of water?"

"Sure." He disappeared around the corner.

"Are you all right, Mom?"

"Other than my stomach, I'm fine." She smiled weakly. "I'm a tough old bird."

Todd returned quickly with the water and handed Connie the glass.

"Thanks, dear."

"Sure, Mrs. Schuman."

This on top of everything else, Jesse thought to herself. "It must have been a robbery. I didn't notice anything missing when we came in, but I wasn't looking, either. We'll have to . . ." Suddenly she stood up and raced from the room.

"Jess, what's the matter?" Todd called after her.

"I'll be right back!" Jesse sprinted down the hallway to her old room and yanked open the closet door. A wave of relief spread through her body when she saw the IRS bag exactly where she had left it. She reached up with both hands and pulled the bag down. Her fears were back instantly. The bag was much too light. She unzipped it and peered inside. Everything was gone. Whoever had attacked her mother had been here for one thing. The information in the bag.