Without Warning (26 page)

“Of course.”

“Last thing. You have to swear that you’ll stay exactly where I tell you to and not come in until I give you the all clear. It is going to get violent, and I don’t want a dead journalist on my conscience. Not even if it’s you.”

“I’ve been evenhanded about this, Jake.”

“Bullshit. But that’s okay; it makes you right for this situation. No one will think you’re favoring me. Now will you stay where I tell you?”

“Certainly. Getting shot is not part of my job description.”

“Good.”

I told him the location of the motor lodge, with instructions for him to meet me there in an hour and a half. I could just about hear him reaching for his car keys as we were getting off the phone.

My next call was to Hank, who told me that Jimmy Osborne was nowhere to be found. He sounded upset at having let me down, but I told him not to worry about it. What I didn’t tell him was that I knew where Jimmy Osborne was, because I didn’t want him coming to help.

Before we got off the phone, he said, “Jake, Mary admitted she was leaking information to Matt.”

“Why did she confess now?”

“Said it was her conscience. She’s going to leave the department and head down to live with her sister in North Carolina.”

“That’s probably the best result,” I said.

“She said that she only gave him stuff that she didn’t think was important, and she did not tell him about Katie’s phone message to you. She said she didn’t know about that until it was in the paper, same as me.”

I was actually glad to hear that; the puzzle pieces were falling into place. I got off the phone, leaving me with the third, most important call to make. But first I had something else to do.

I left the room and drove to the area where the cabin that I didn’t know I owned was located. I didn’t get too close, because I didn’t want to reveal my presence, at least not yet. I was just looking to get the lay of the land.

The setup was as I imagined it would be: a dirt road leading one way into the cabin, with the only exit back the other way through the same road. It was perfect for Katie’s captor. If he was watching, as I knew he would be, he’d know I was coming.

But it was also fine for me, because what he didn’t realize was that this was going to be a head-on operation.

Satisfied that I knew as much about the area as I was going to, I headed back to the room to wait for Matt and make the third phone call.

It took five minutes to get patched through to Agent Bennett. I told the phone operator to tell him it was “his favorite small-town police chief,” since I was afraid that giving my name would trigger them tracing the call. I didn’t care if they knew where I was, I just didn’t want them getting there too soon.

Timing was going to be everything.

When Bennett finally picked up the phone, he was all business. “Identify yourself,” he said.

“Jake Robbins, fugitive.”

“Well, the calls you get when you least expect it. You know, you running like this has strained my belief in your innocence.”

“You know better than that. But either way, we don’t have much time,” I said.

“You have the floor.”

“I want you to get a whole basketful of agents and meet me at a designated location.”

“What for?” he asked.

“Maybe armed intervention, maybe a mop-up operation. We’ll have to see how it goes.”

“That isn’t going to get it done, Jake. You aren’t in charge of deploying agency resources.”

“I’m going to hand you Katie, and the guy who took her.”

“Right now the United States government thinks that you took her.”

I didn’t have time to argue with him; I had to get him to move immediately. “Okay, then I’m going to turn myself in, but you have to come to get me.”

“Why do I doubt that?”

“It’s true, and I’m going to resist arrest, so you better bring plenty of backup.”

“I need more information,” he said.

“And I’m about to give it to you. But you’ve got a long way to travel, so you need to get your ass moving now.”

I proceeded to tell him what I had in mind, but only pieces of it. I didn’t fill it all in, because I didn’t know it all myself. This was a work in progress, and I was going to be doing a lot of improvising. You won’t find much about improvising in the police manual, because it’s not generally encouraged. That’s because it doesn’t usually work.

“We can be there in two hours,” he said.

“No good. I need you in an hour and a half.”

“Then you’re out of luck.”

“You have access to a chopper?” I asked.

“You’re talking to the United States of America. Of course we have access to choppers, when we need them.”

“You need one now. There’s a small airfield in Bremington; radio ahead for cars to meet you there.”

“Who are you? General Patton?”

“Just do it. You’ll be a hero.”

Before he got off the phone, he asked me to identify the killer. All I would say was, “It’s a guy that has been dead for a lot of years.”

“Drazen?”

“Nope. This is another live dead guy.”

It was going to be a while before Matt got there, but I hoped he was hurrying. The timing was such that we needed to begin the process in advance of Bennett’s arrival, or Katie was going to be in additional danger.

I couldn’t even be sure she was still alive, though I had reason to believe that she was. Because if I was right, then the plan was going to be for me to kill her. One way or another, I was going to change that plan.

I used the time I had remaining to think about anything I might not have accounted for, but the list was so long that it was depressing me. I like to quantify things in my own mind, and I estimated that with all the parts I had put into motion, the chances of everything going exactly as designed were about twenty percent.

There were countless ways that the other eighty percent could come into play, and I would just have to deal with them in the moment. I always considered myself tougher than bright, and that toughness would be tested. Which was okay, because I was sure I was tougher than the assholes I would be up against.

Thinking of Katie in that cabin, scared with no idea what would happen to her, got me angrier and angrier. Her captors were treating her as bait, as less than human, and they were going to pay for it. I just needed to control that anger; it wouldn’t help for what I had to do. I didn’t need extra incentive, or what football coaches called “bulletin board material.” I was motivated enough.

Matt arrived about five minutes earlier than I expected. Through the window I could see his car driving slowly along, checking numbers on the cabins. Then he must have seen my car, because he started driving faster, until he pulled into the spot next to me.

I was surprised when he immediately got out of the car and started walking toward the cabin door. There was no hesitation, though he couldn’t possibly have been sure what he was walking into. At the very least, he must have assumed I would have anger toward him over what he had written.

I opened the door as he approached and said, “Come on in.”

He hesitated slightly at the door, the first sign of nervousness that I had seen, but then walked in. “Thanks for coming,” I said.

He smiled slightly. “This isn’t the kind of thing I’m used to. I guess writing about it and doing it are two different things.”

“All I’m asking you to do is write about it; that’s it. You stay back, and if something goes wrong, get your ass out of there.”

“Why don’t you call in the authorities?” he asked.

“Because it’s been set up for me to take the blame. And if I get arrested, we never get Katie out.”

“This gives Katie her best chance?” he asked.

“That’s why I’m doing it.”

“Do you know who is holding her?”

I nodded. “I do. And you’ll know soon enough. You ready?”

“I guess so.”

I took out my gun, and looked in the chambers to make sure it was loaded. Matt was obviously staring at the gun. “Should I have a gun?” he asked. “Just in case?”

I shook my head. “I only have the one. But don’t worry about it; you won’t need one. All you’ll need is a pen.”

I parked my car in the woods, about three hundred yards from the cabin. The trees were dense; we couldn’t see the cabin from there, and there was no way anyone inside could see us. But I certainly couldn’t take comfort in that, because there was only one way in, and that would leave plenty of time for him to get ready for us.

“Let’s go,” I said to Matt, and opened my door.

“You want me to get out?” he asked.

“Yes. You wait about halfway to the cabin. Stay under cover, but I want you to be able to hear.”

“Hear what?”

“Me yelling for you to come in. But you’ll probably hear gunshots first.”

“What do I do then?”

“Wait three minutes after the shots. If I haven’t called you in, then take off running.”

“Where?”

“As far away from here as you can.”

“What about the car?”

I shook my head. “I can’t give you the keys. I might need it to chase somebody. You never know.”

He looked unsure. “Be careful in there.”

“Yeah.”

We walked about a hundred yards, silently, and I stopped and pointed to an area in the woods, behind a large rock. Matt understood what I was saying, so he nodded and walked over, crouching down behind the rock.

I walked on, alone.

I approached the rest of the way carefully, warily, hiding behind shrubbery and trees as much as I could. I was doing it for appearance’s sake; I had no illusion that I would successfully sneak up on anyone, and it didn’t even fit my plan to do so. But I wanted it to look as if that was my goal.

The cabin came into view, and for a second it was jarring. Not in the way it looked; it was no different from five thousand other Maine cabins. My reaction was from knowing Katie was in there and knowing I was the only one who could get her out alive.

I continued my approach and made it to the cabin without anyone stopping me, or without noticing any sign of life. For a brief instant I considered the possibility that I was wrong, that this was just another cabin in the woods.

But I could not be wrong.

I worked my way around to the side, gun in my hand, looking in windows, until …

“Hello, Jake. You’re right on time to save the damsel in distress. Once a hero, always a hero. Now drop the gun, or you’ll be dead before you turn around. After you drop it, step away from it.”

I dropped the gun and then turned toward the voice. As I expected, it was Jimmy Osborne, real name Randall Dempsey, and he was holding a gun. “Hello, Randall,” I said.

I could see the surprise in his face as he leaned down to pick up my gun and put it in his pocket. “You knew?”

“Obviously. Where is Katie?”

“How did you know?”

“First Katie.”

He smiled a condescending smile, but raised his gun a little. “You still think you’re calling the shots, hero?”

“I think you want me in a room with Katie,” I said.

He smiled again. “Right you are.” Then he pointed toward the front door of the cabin. “After you.”

He told me to make a right as we entered, then said, “Down there.”

There was a panel opened in the floor, with steps leading down to a basement. It was rare for cabins in the area to have basements at all, which is probably why he chose that one. At the bottom of the steps was a metal door with two locks on it. Keys were already in the locks.

“Open it,” he said.

So I turned the keys, opened the door, and went in.

The first thing I saw was Katie. She looked scared and relieved and tough and beautiful.

“Jake!” she yelled, and ran to me, hugging me. I hugged her back and felt her body tense when she saw over my shoulder that I was not alone.

“What a beautiful moment,” Randall Dempsey said, and laughed.

Matt hadn’t heard anything from the cabin since Jake had left him. There was no way for him to know what was happening in there, which was clearly an unsatisfactory situation.

He had his instructions, so he waited in place for another few minutes. No gunshots, no yelling, no word from Jake or anyone else. The quiet seemed deafening.

He got up out of his hiding place and started down the trail toward the cabin. Like Jake before him, he sought cover wherever he could find it, on the off chance that someone was outside and could see him.

But there was no one around, and as he got closer to the cabin, there were no sounds and no sign of movement. He had passed the trees and moved into the open area and was thus able to see the front door.

It was open.

Agent Bennett was worried. Things had not gone completely smoothly for him since he had gotten off the phone with Jake. FBI agents do not walk around with helicopters in their pockets, and the nearest one was in Portland.

That in itself would have been satisfactory, except for the fact that he received a phone call saying that the pilot had detected problems with the chopper’s computer once airborne and had returned to base.

Another one was quickly prepped and sent off, but when it finally arrived and Bennett and two other agents boarded, they were twelve minutes behind schedule.

Bennett asked the pilot to try to make up time in the air, but as they approached the Bremington airfield, a check of his watch said that they were still ten minutes behind.

Jake Robbins had been vague on a number of things, but one thing he was definitive on was the schedule. Bennett tried calling him, but his cell immediately went to voice mail, which meant it wasn’t receiving a signal, or was shut off.

Jake was only going to find out that they were late when they didn’t show up on time. And while he didn’t lay out the entire plan to Bennett, it sounded like their being late might screw it up, big time.

As they approached the airstrip, Bennett was pleased to see that the place itself was tiny, with no activity to speak of, which was another plus. They certainly weren’t going to run into any traffic getting out of there.