The Inner Sanctum (39 page)

Slowly she walked back to her mother's room.

"What's wrong, Jesse? You look like you just lost your best friend."

"It feels like I did, Mom." Suddenly she noticed that her mother was alone. "Where's Todd?"

"He said he was going downstairs."

There was only one option left, Jesse realized. And it wasn't a very good one. "Mom, I have to go. I'll stay until the ambulance gets here to take you to the hospital."

"I'm not going to any hospital."

"Yes you are. There'll be no argument." Jesse turned and headed out of the room and down the stairs, then walked quietly through the first-floor hallway to the kitchen. She stood in the kitchen doorway for a moment watching Todd as he talked on the phone with his hand cupped over the mouthpiece.

Todd saw her, said a quick good-bye to the person at the other end of the line, and hung up. "Is your mother feeling better?"

"I think so." She stared at him, considering whether to ask who he had called. "As soon as the ambulance gets here, we've got to get to the Stenersen Farm Store over in the Worthington Valley." She had told Todd about David's instruction to meet him there as she and Todd drove to her mother's. She had said she wouldn't go near the place. But now the information in the IRS bag was gone and everything had changed.

"What the hell's going on?" Webb barked into the phone.

"I went to the Towson Motor Inn, to the room Finnerty said the call had come from, but they were gone," Roth yelled, clutching the cellular phone in one hand and the steering wheel in the other as he guided the car up Interstate 83 north from Baltimore. "It looked like they cleared out of there pretty fast. I swear to you, Carter, I was at the motel within four minutes of Finnerty's call."

"I'm sure you were." He pounded his fist on the table. This damned Hayes woman was always one step ahead. His eyes narrowed. And there was probably a good reason for that, he suddenly realized. "Where are you headed now?"

"To the Worthington Valley." Roth smiled as he whipped past two cars as though they were standing still. "I've got good news. Our boy called me. Jesse Hayes is going to be out at a little store in the valley." Roth checked his watch. "And in about twenty minutes she's going to be dead."

The Worthington Valley lay thirty miles north of Baltimore. Its rolling grasslands were home to Thoroughbred horse farms and sprawling apple and peach orchards. The Stenersen Farm Store sat nestled in the midst of the beautiful valley in a grove of huge oak trees at the intersection of Shawan and Falls roads. Shawan Road ran east and west, through the length of the valley, while Falls snaked out of the forest covering the valley's south side. It was the primary thoroughfare for city dwellers visiting the picturesque area on weekends.

For generations the Stenersen family had owned thousands of acres of the valley, their property stretching out in all directions from the intersection's four corners. The main house, a huge stone mansion, overlooked the intersection from high atop a hill to the northeast. From this vantage point the family could look out over its expansive orchards and the store at the bottom of the hill. On weekends the small clapboard store would be mobbed, but on a weekday there were typically only a few shoppers, which was the case today.

"Do you know what kind of car David drives?" Todd asked as Jesse guided the rental into the store's gravel parking lot.

"Yes, a black BMW. It's right over there." She motioned at the sleek car, gleaming in the brilliant noon sun, parked directly in front of the store.

"He certainly isn't trying to hide the fact that he's here. But I don't see him." Todd scanned the lot as Jesse backed the vehicle in between two other cars parked against a tall rail fence behind which several horses grazed. "We've got to be careful. This could be a trap, Jess."

"But as you said, he's made the car obvious. He's not trying to hide his presence."

"Don't be fooled. Remember, he told them you were at the Towson Motor Inn just an hour ago. He sent that guy to kill you."

A gentle breeze swept Jesse's hair across her face as she stepped out of the car. Tall oaks spread their limbs over the store like a canopy. Their leaves were just beginning to take on a hint of fall luster. Behind a stone fence to the right of the store was an apple orchard, the trees laden with fruit almost ready to be harvested. And to the left of the store the lush pasture rolled away from the fence up a hill to the mansion atop the rise.

Jesse removed her sunglasses and peered into the darkness of the orchard grove again. Something in there had caught her eye, but as she looked again she saw nothing. It was just her imagination working overtime, she told herself.

"Jess."

She turned to Todd. "What?"

"There he is." Todd pointed to the store's front doorway. David calmly walked out through it with a brown paper bag in his arms.

David waved as he saw them. He placed the bag on the BMW's hood and jogged toward them. Twenty feet away, he stopped, sensing that he wasn't welcome to come closer as Todd stepped forward. "Hi, Jesse," he said.

"Hello," she answered coldly.

David glanced warily at Todd, then back at her. "Jesse, I need to talk to you alone, without him. Come with me to my car. I've got something to show you."

"Don't do it, Jess," Todd said quickly. "You know he works for them. He's on their side. It's a trap."

"You don't know what the hell you're talking about," David snapped. "I know about you, pal."

"You don't know anything."

Todd made a move toward David, but Jesse caught him by the arm. "Why can't you bring whatever it is here, David?"

"I need to talk to you alone. Come on, Jesse." David was insistent. "It's important."

She began to answer, then out of the corner of her eye noticed a figure walking slowly toward them from the store, little more than fifty feet away now, a large bag obscuring the figure's face and upper body.

David turned his head, following Jesse's gaze. From where he stood he could partially see the face behind the bag. Instantly, he took a step back.

Slowly the figure came closer, and then suddenly Jesse recognized the limp. She had watched that limp after the man had almost run into her that day coming out of her office at the branch, supposedly on his way to Sara's office. Jesse knew exactly who this was. She didn't need to see the face.

She tried to point and scream, but the scene suddenly became surreal, and she seemed caught in a nightmare, her actions slowed by some unseen force and her voice muted. She became acutely aware of every movement, because Todd, David and the approaching figure all seemed to be going in slow motion.

As a primal scream finally tumbled from her mouth, the bag fell away from the man's face to the ground, spilling its contents of fruit. David brought his hands up before him, turned and fell to the ground. Todd lunged against the car next to the rental as the man brought a handgun up and fired. The slug smacked the rail fence behind them as Jesse threw herself to the ground, and suddenly everything accelerated to real time.

Jesse scrambled on her hands and knees toward the fence, then jumped to her feet and began running, hunched over at the waist, in the tight space between the cars and the rail fence. Horses in the pasture behind the fence bolted in different directions at the crack of another gunshot, and an instant later one of the Thoroughbreds stumbled to the ground, the victim of a stray bullet. It kicked savagely for a moment, then lay still.

Jesse sprinted wildly on, racing past the last parked car, then past the storefront and behind David's BMW to the low stone fence in front of the apple orchard. She threw herself over it, vaguely aware of several more pops from the gun, and landed on her hands, arms and chest.

And then Todd was next to her, prone on the ground. He had followed her down the line of cars to the fence and tumbled over it just a second after her.

Jesse was on her feet again instantly, crouched behind the stones. They couldn't stay here. The man would be on them in no time. She grabbed Todd's arm as he reached inside his shirt and into the shoulder holster for his .38. "Come on, Todd!"

"One shot," he snarled, rising up behind the rocks as he withdrew the gun. "Just one shot."

"No!" She tried to pull him back down, but it was too late.

The slug tore through the right side of Todd's chest before he could even aim, spraying blood on Jesse's blouse and jeans. The powerful impact threw Todd backward, and the .38 flew from his grasp into a thick clump of bushes. For a moment Jesse considered going after it. But what if she couldn't find it? The assassin would be over the fence and she'd be defenseless--and dead.

Todd struggled to his knees, holding his right side with his left hand as blood poured down his shirt. "Go, Jess! Get out of here!" he yelled.

"No!" She raced to him, grabbed his left wrist, and began pulling him back into the thick grove of trees. "I'm not leaving you."

"I can't run." He coughed, spitting blood.

"Come on!" she screamed, grabbing and pulling at his thick wrist until he made it to his feet and began stumbling into the dense underbrush after her.

She ran frantically through the low hanging branches, leading Todd deeper into the orchard, hoping to lose the assassin she knew was tracking quickly behind them. Todd tripped over a downed branch as he struggled to follow her, falling heavily on his side, screaming as he went down, giving away their position.

Jesse stopped, turned and pulled him to his feet again.

"I can't keep going, Jess," he gasped, collapsing back to one knee. "Save yourself."

"You're going to make it." His face was already ashen from the loss of blood and she had no confidence he would survive, but she had to keep helping him on. She couldn't leave him here. He would be killed.

"I can't go any farther."

Jesse saw the blood covering his shirt and fingers. He wasn't going to make it much further. She looked around quickly. Down the grove she spotted a particularly full tree. Its branches were so thick the tree's trunk was completely obscured. "Come on. We don't have to go far. Just a few feet."

He moaned as she helped him to his feet once more and led him through the tall weeds to the tree. She looked up and down the grove quickly, saw no one, and pulled several of the low hanging branches aside. "Get in there," she ordered.

Todd stumbled through the branches and fell onto the bare ground beneath the tree. Jesse darted in behind him, and from inside the canopy pulled the thick branches together again to hide any sign of their presence. Then she helped him crawl to the trunk, where they sat, backs against the tree, listening for any sound, trying not to breathe heavily and give away their presence.

For several minutes there was only silence, except for the gentle rustle of leaves as an early-afternoon breeze drifted through the huge orchard. Then someone sprinted past the tree, footsteps pounding heavily on soft earth. Jesse followed the sounds as they passed, trying desperately to see who it was, but she could discern nothing except the flash of a shirt through the leaves. And the sound of the footsteps faded until she and Todd were left with nothing but the rustling of leaves again.

She turned toward Todd. He sat with his head back against the trunk, perspiration pouring down his face. Every few seconds his face would contort as the pain from the wound tore through his body.

"We've got to get you to a hospital," she whispered.

He let his chin fall to his chest. "I don't know if I can even get up, much less make it back to the car."

"You can't stay here."

"The people at the store must have seen what happened. They will have called the police. That guy can't--"

Suddenly she thrust a hand over his mouth and put a finger to her lips. He nodded slowly and she pulled her hand away.

For a moment Jesse saw nothing, and then, through the leaves, she caught quick glimpses of someone moving slowly around the perimeter of the branches. A piece of a white shirt through one tiny aperture, a boot through another opening in the leaves close to the ground. Jesse held her breath as the figure moved. It was death and she knew it. And then she lost sight of the figure. There was no longer any movement or sound. But still she held her breath, unable to believe they had escaped a second brush with the assassin.

Thirty seconds passed before she finally let out a long breath. Instantly the branches parted and Gordon Roth's face, arms, then chest appeared between the leaves. Instinctively Jesse backed up against the trunk. She tried to look away but couldn't. Her eyes were drawn to his hideous smile and for what seemed like forever they stared at each other. Then slowly he raised the gun, aimed and pulled the trigger. As he fired she turned away, closed her eyes and threw her hands before her face, expecting to feel excruciating pain.

Jesse heard the gun explode but felt nothing. The bullet had missed her, slamming into the tree trunk directly above her head, shattering the wood and showering her with splinters. Jesse opened her eyes. Amazingly, Roth was no longer before her, no longer peering at her through the branches. He was gone. Then she heard a frantic physical struggle going on just beyond the branches, and then several gunshots in rapid succession. The bullets zipped angrily through the leaves around them, and she flattened herself against the bare earth.