For the first time since Marie’s death, Timmy actually looked at him. Tears blurred his eyes, but he gave a small nod. Miles’s heart broke.
“What about Jordan?” he asked, his breath stalling in his chest.
“You saw the boy, now I want to see that chopper,” Dugan said.
Then he disappeared back inside the barn with Timmy, leaving Miles to wonder if Jordan was alive or if he’d killed her.
* * *
JORDAN FOUGHT A WAVE of dizziness as she pushed herself up from the floor to a sitting position. Near the barn door Timmy was sobbing softly as Dugan held him by the collar. She wanted to go to him, but she couldn’t chance spooking Dugan.
Pain ricocheted through her shoulder where the bullet had struck, and she pressed her hand to the wound to stop the blood flow. Her hand felt sticky and damp, but she wasn’t bleeding badly. Maybe just a flesh wound...
Timmy tried to twist away from the man and she called his name. “Timmy, it’s okay, sweetie. I’m all right.”
Dugan spun around and glared at her, then slammed the barn door shut and shoved Timmy. He ran to her and collapsed at her side. She cradled him next to her.
“It’s going to be all right.”
“B...ut y...ou’re hurt,” Timmy said with big eyes.
They’d waited so long to hear Timmy speak again, and now he was worried about her. Tears blurred her eyes, but she blinked them away.
“It’s not bad,” she said gently. “I’m going to be fine and so are you.”
Dugan paced again, his agitation obvious with his jumpy movements. “I know you didn’t mean to hurt me,” Jordan said, determined to calm him. “It was an accident. I’ll tell them that when the police come.”
“You’re a fool, lady,” Dugan said. “The police...McGregor...no one is going to lock me up again.”
He wanted to go to Mexico. Again, she wondered if someone was waiting on him there.
Timmy quieted beside her, and she wrapped her arm around him and held him close. He had tried to protect her. Poor little guy. Had Dugan’s attack on her triggered memories of his attack on Marie?
“There must be someone you want to see now you’re free,” Jordan said.
“Free?” Dugan growled. “I won’t be free till I get rid of McGregor.”
Timmy shuddered next to her, but she stroked his arm. “I don’t understand why you came after him and why you killed his wife,” Jordan said. “You were out of jail. All you had to do was walk away.”
Dugan’s face twisted into a nasty grimace. “Walk away? McGregor ruined my reputation, my name. He convinced everyone I was guilty.”
“But the courts freed you.”
“Do you think that changed the way people looked at me?” He waved the gun wildly. “Janet even left me.”
“Janet?”
“Yeah, the only woman I ever loved believed him over me,” he said bitterly. “I’ve lost everything.”
He was delusional, still not able to confess that he was a murderer. Her best strategy would be to play along. Feed his ego.
The mind was like a puzzle—if she could figure out where the pieces went, she could complete the picture.
That would help her know how to deal with him...to reach him.
“So far you haven’t hurt anyone here,” Jordan said. “And Miles believes there’s a copycat, that someone else killed those women. Maybe someone who wanted to set you up.”
A fire lit Dugan’s eyes. “Yes, yes, that’s what happened. I told them that over and over and over.”
Jordan nodded. “I think he’s on the man’s track now.”
Hope warred with the anger in Dugan’s eyes. “You’re lying.”
“No, I’m not. Miles knows you didn’t kill June Kelly. That made him start thinking that maybe you were innocent all along. That this other man committed the murders and framed you.”
“He thinks that?” Dugan’s voice trembled.
Jordan nodded again. “But holding us hostage only makes you look guilty.”
He was, of course, for killing Haddock. And Lee...she had no idea if he’d survived.
“Just let us go, and take that helicopter. You can leave, meet that woman you love and explain that we were wrong. Then the two of you can build a life together in Mexico.”
“Yes, Mexico,” Dugan said. “I have to go to Mexico.”
Jordan continued to stroke Timmy’s hair. He had finally stopped crying and looked stronger now, as if speaking had relinquished some of his fear. She only hoped that he could fully recover once this nightmare ended.
“Why Mexico?” Jordan asked, resorting to the calming voice she used with patients.