Even In Darkness--An American Murder Mystery Thriller (23 page)

‘He's next on the list.'

‘You'll stay right there. In the bathroom, right? You won't move till Woods gets to you, do you promise?'

‘Hal, he'll take me to the girls if I play this right.'

‘You'll be another hostage. Call Woods and let him handle this, Joy. Going anywhere with this guy would be completely insane.'

‘Woods is as unpredictable as the kidnappers, Hal. I don't like leaving everything up to him.'

‘What makes you so sure this guy is taking you to the girls? And, Joy, I'm sorry, but what makes you so sure they're still alive? Don't make this any worse than it is. Let Woods handle it. Promise me.'

‘I don't want to go with him. But I don't want the girls to die because I'm a coward.'

‘You're too involved in this, you're not thinking straight. Trust me. Call Woods. I'll call him as well. And then I'll be right behind him. Just stay in the bathroom, OK?'

I shut my eyes tight. Take a breath. Remind myself that a sociopath tells you what you want to hear because it is so effective.

‘You're right. You're right. OK.'

I hear Hal's sigh of relief as I break the connection.

Woods answers on the first ring. He has agents at Spindletop, sure that the kidnapper will be one of the faces in the crowd. He wants to know where I am.

‘Agent Woods, do you work with a forensic consultant named Jonathan Goodwin?'

‘How do you know that?'

‘I've met him.'

‘No you haven't. Goodwin has been in Singapore the last three weeks.'

‘I've met a man who says he's Goodwin, Agent Woods. But I think he's one of the kidnappers. You figured that out already, right? There are two?'

‘Where are you?'

I explain for the third time while my cell battery begins to run down.

Woods is professional and quick on the uptake, and for once the two of us are in sync. He gives me the same advice Hal did. Stay in the bathroom. Leave the cell phone on.

‘And Joy. If he tries to get you out of there – and he may – scream your head off. Don't go out, don't talk to him through the door, whatever threats he makes, ignore them. He's tricky and he's smart. If you go back out to him you'll only make things worse, and he'll have three hostages instead of two. Go with him and you're lost. You get me?'

‘I get you.'

I hear him giving instructions, voices in the background. I feel better. I'm not so alone.

‘Stay as calm as you can, Joy. I've got people on the way.'

As soon as I hang up, another call comes through. It's a blocked call, and I answer immediately, thinking it will be Hal.

‘Hello, Joy. It's Johnny Goodwin.' I recognize the voice. The Dark Man. ‘Joy, I need you to do something for me. For Andee, really. I know you're calling in the cavalry. That's OK. I'm not mad.

‘Please understand that if you don't come out right now and get in the car with me to go get your girls, I'll make a call to my partner and you'll never see them again. Cletus has to be handled carefully, Joy. He doesn't leave witnesses. You met him, years ago, in Wal-Mart. You don't want him cutting his losses and moving on.'

I
hesitate in the doorway of the Pilot station. I don't see Goodwin's car at the pump. But then I spot it. He's parked it by the propane tanks, but I don't see Goodwin inside.

‘Did Woods tell you not to come out of the bathroom?'

Goodwin's voice. He is right behind me.

People are getting off work and the Pilot station is a hive of activity. There are people all around. Goodwin puts one hand on my elbow and the other on my shoulder and guides me, smiling, to the car.

He opens the door, tucking me in like a child at bedtime. He is even going to fasten my seatbelt, but I push his hand away. He trots smartly around the back of the car, and in the time it takes me to think about running again he is settled into the driver's seat and putting the key in the ignition.

We are quiet, but soaked in tension. He catches a green light and pulls out of the Pilot station, driving effortlessly, a man without nerves.

‘The trunk,' he says finally, with a long drawn out sigh.

‘You have a
gas
can in there. A
new
one. You used it to burn down my house.'

‘That was Purcell, not me, and he was supposed to have gotten rid of it.' He shakes his head. ‘I always let my guard down, around you.'

‘So you're not Purcell. You're not Goodwin. And you're not the man I saw on the web cast.'

‘I'd like your cell phone, if you'd pass it this way.'

‘I don't have it with me. We left in a hurry, remember?'

He snatches my purse, pushes the button to unroll his window and throws it out on the road.

‘Just to make sure,' he says.

‘My favorite lipstick was in there. My
only
one.'

‘I'll buy you a new one.'

‘Will that be before or after you shoot me in the throat?'

He says nothing for a while. Just drives.

‘I'm Harvey, by the way. Reginald Harvey.' He leans across to shake my hand, shrugs at my rebuff.

‘And all that stuff with Purcell's history? I take it that was you?'

He shoots a look at me. ‘No, that wasn't me. Everything I told you about Cletus Purcell is true. We're foster brothers, me and Cletus. We both got placed with the Hermans. They specialized in boys like us.'

‘But it was Purcell who came up to me in Wal-Mart.'

‘Yeah, I always use Cletus when the work requires a face.'

‘And Goodwin?'

His face lights up. ‘He's at a conference in Singapore, right now. Serendipity, don't you think? It was perfect. You could be completely honest
with
me
about
me. Say what you think to Goodwin, without worrying about a gun to your head. And I could keep track of the investigation.' He sounds amused. ‘It was Goodwin, you know, who kept telling Woods you were holding back, that there had to be some kind of connection.'

‘And all that stuff about you and Dr Goodwin being in communication?'

‘All true.'

‘Cletus Purcell was part of that?'

‘Nah, it's not the kind of thing Cletus gets into. He's not a big risk taker, and he doesn't like to play. If he knew I was talking to Goodwin, and getting in and out of the computers? He'd take off.' Harvey cocks his head. ‘But he'd kill the hostages first. That's why we have to get out there now. Tonight. Agent Woods had just about nailed the location anyway. And now that you've made your phone calls, he and his two teams are going to be squabbling over the big finale. If we let them get there ahead of us, Purcell will damn sure kill your girls. You should have trusted me, Joy.'

‘Sure. The guy who set this whole thing up and has a gas can in the back of his car.'

He laughs. ‘Goodwin finds me fascinating, you know. He and Woods have been burning up their keyboards, back and forth since late last night.' Harvey flashes me a smile like a movie star. ‘These forensic guys, they can never resist. He studies me, I study him. He has some interesting insights on why I am who I am.'

‘An apex predator?'

‘My
personal
favorite.'

‘And what does the real Dr Goodwin say about your quest?'

Harvey gives me a sideways glance. ‘That was quite the harsh little e-mail you put together.'

‘Don't ask for honesty, if that's not what you want.'

‘Yes, but was it meant for
me
, or Cletus? Because it occurred to me that since you know him, and thought he was the guy you were talking to, your answer might be tainted by that.'

‘That's possible, I guess. What does Goodwin tell you?'

‘You mean about redemption, salvation, that sort of thing?' He looks thoughtful. ‘My impression is that it throws him. He can't really make up his mind how serious I am. He is sorely tempted to mark it all down to the usual manipulation. That was his conclusion in his last report to the FBI.' He grins at me. ‘I'm in and out of his computer as much or more than he is. As you see, it's the same problem over and over. Nobody takes me seriously about this. Which is why I took the trouble to get your undivided attention.'

‘And Darrin Lane? Jimmy Mahan? Gloria Schmid? They didn't take you seriously with a gun to their throat?'

‘You tagged it when you gave me that e-mail this morning. I've tried three times already. It just didn't work.'

‘They told you what you wanted to hear,' I say flatly.

‘Any which way I wanted to hear it, for just a few minutes more of life. And I wondered, thinking about it afterward, if any of them had the right kind of insight, anyway. They went to the same seminary you did, took a lot of the same classes. But they just weren't you. I went to them first because I didn't want things between us … getting all snarled up. I wanted to keep things
clean
between you and me. But I couldn't get there, not without you.'

He looks at me, quite seriously. ‘I had to motivate you. Make sure you did take me seriously. But I'd never hurt you, Joy. You should know that. You're the one who put me on this path. And I gave you my word, my promise, do you remember? I told you when your husband hired me to kill you that I wouldn't ever hurt you. That as far as I was concerned you'd always be safe.'

‘Cletus Purcell gave me
his
word.' Actually he didn't, but I'm not bringing that up.

‘It was my word, through Cletus. Purcell doesn't actually
have
a word. He works on a more primitive level. Honor is a concept he does not comprehend.'

‘What a team.'

‘Not a
team.
Purcell follows orders. For the most part anyway. He has an annoying habit of putting his own spin on things. He makes mistakes. They got a
fingerprint
, from your daughter-in-law's house in Arkansas. How stupid is that?'

‘Maybe too stupid, Mr Harvey.'

He gives me a focused look. ‘You're right, I set that up. Sometimes you have to throw those law enforcement types a bone. And it's getting a little iffy now, working with Cletus. The neighbor, for instance. Stupid. No point killing him, all he saw was a tall man with a mask. And then there's your cousin.'

‘Marsha.'

‘She wasn't supposed to be there. Purcell could have waited until she was out of the house.
Should
have waited until she was out of the house.' Harvey sighs. ‘I wasn't too pleased when he called and told me he'd decided to kill her, but there was no point in arguing. Cletus doesn't leave witnesses behind.'

‘They're still at the cave, though, Andee and Caro? You didn't lie about that?'

Harvey's face wrinkles up, his voice steady and stern. His eyes change like a nictitating membrane and the camouflage of humanity drops. ‘I don't lie to you.'

‘Are they alive? Caroline and Andee?'

‘As of yesterday, yes. That's why you and I are headed for the cave, Joy. To save them. Cletus is a wild card. He's got a natural radar for survival and I think he's beginning to sense the FBI closing in.'

‘Then maybe he's killed them already.'

‘We're on our way to find out. But consider that as far as Clete knows, this is a straight-up kidnapping, set up to skim off the donation money you've pulled in with your work. And the one thing I made sure Clete understood was that the girls stay alive till we have the money in hand, otherwise, he doesn't get his cut. So he'll see they stay healthy till he gets paid
unless
he thinks the wheels are coming off and decides to cut and run.'

‘Scares easy, does he?'

Harvey's tone is gentle. ‘You've met him, Joy, you know better than that.'

I look away. It is dark now. Fallen leaves clog the two lane road that takes us the back way to Wilmore, toward High Bridge.

‘So let's get on with
our
business, shall we? We're short on time, let's get finished.' Harvey winks. ‘Is there salvation,
genuine
salvation, for a guy like me?'

I stare out the window again. It takes willpower not to turn my head.

‘Joy?'

Something in the soft way he says my name makes the fear rise up in my throat.

‘Answer my questions, honestly, tell me what I want to know, and then I'll take you straight to Caroline and Andee. You'll get your girls back safe.'

‘Take me to Caroline and Andee first. Let them go, and do it in a way that I
know
they're safe. And then, and
only
then, Mr Harvey, will I answer any question you want to ask. I won't bullshit you, or say what I think will make you happy. But you get
nothing
, you understand me? Until I know my girls are safe.'

He drives along. He is humming.

‘It can't be the daughter-in-law,' he says conversationally. ‘Even you must have some kind of limit on what you'll sacrifice for the woman who killed your son.' He reaches into his jacket pocket and I brace myself for the bullet or blade. He rattles something in my direction, a tin of Altoids gum. ‘Help yourself.'

I smell the cinnamon when he begins to chew.

‘Grandchildren,' he says. ‘On the outside looking in, it doesn't make that much sense. You don't raise them. You don't give birth to them. They're a generation removed from your own child.' He taps his finger softly on the wheel.

‘You know, of course – you must know, Mrs Miller. That I can
make
you talk.'

There is nothing but kindness in his face.

He tilts his head upward, as if he is trying to remember. ‘“The world breaks everyone and afterward, many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure that it will kill you too … but there will be no special hurry.”'