Cut to the Bone(97)

“Really?” she said, brightening.

“Absolutely. We’ll go visit Grandpa as soon as the doctors fix him up.” She didn’t mention he’d probably be arrested for mass murder. One mountain at a time. “Your mama’s taking the next flight from Boise and will be here soon . . .”

Catfish watched, stone silent, hardly breathing, till a water cannon swept him away.

Annie led two explosive entry teams - NPD and army - toward the witness room. Tactical boots pounded the concrete. Cross met them outside, explained the situation.

“The man with the knife is Jason Trent,” he explained, pointing him out on the closed-circuit monitor. “He goes by Leonard Hill.”

“The chief witness is Corey’s brother?” Annie asked, stunned. “How’d he get inside?”

“Trojan horse,” Cross said. “Hill wrote many a fat check to Wayne’s private electric-chair fund. As thanks, Wayne invited him as a witness today and asked him to read the death warrant. Essentially, he brought in his own executioner.”

Annie’s lip twitch said, play with matches, you get burned.

Cross didn’t disagree. “Like his sisters and parents, Jason publicly disowned Corey after the 1991 conviction, and broke off all contact. No visits, letters, calls. Nothing through Corey’s lawyer, either - we checked. Jason fell off everybody’s radar screen.”

“But now he’s back. To save a man he hasn’t seen in nearly two decades,” Annie said, mulling and discarding rescue options. “In an action he knows may kill them both. Why?”

“Brotherly love,” Cross said. “Madness. Ego. Revenge. Suicide by cop. Take your pick.”

“All this to kill Covington,” she muttered. “Would have been easier to shoot him at a parade.”

“I don’t think it’s about Wayne.”

“Who, then?”

“Marty. Jason hasn’t given details, but I’d bet my badge he’s here to avenge Marty’s putting Corey in the chair to die. I believe he’ll kill Emily and Wayne, and make Marty watch.”

“Bastard.”

“Jason wants Marty to suffer the rest of his life,” Cross said. “What better way than humiliating him with all those serial killings, then murdering Emily and the governor?”

“Emily’s armed. Can she take him out?”

“Had her finger on the trigger. I backed her off. Even with an eyeball shot there’s too much risk of Jason slitting Wayne’s throat. We have to dig them out another way.”

“The chamber doors and windows are bullet- and bomb-proof,” Annie said. “The entire electrical system is triple armored against terrorist assault. The burst battery has even more armor. The air scrubbers in the chamber prevent using knockout gas.”

“If this was easy, I wouldn’t need you.” Cross explained what he had in mind.

Annie’s grin was wolfish. She snapped off a salute and rapid-fired orders.

“You know what the worst part is?” she said as the troopers checked equipment and radios.

“What?”

“Devlin Bloch’s innocent. We have to turn him loose.”

Cross snorted, and the teams moved out.

“I’m really, really unhappy you did this to my brother,” Jason said.

“Then he shouldn’t have killed that mother and child,” Covington snapped.

Jason opened a half-dozen capillaries.

“Keep in mind you’re alive only because he is,” Emily warned, releveling the Glock.

“Dead bitch talking,” Corey sneered.

“I thought you wanted to kill me, Trent,” Marty said, slamming the glass.

“Same thing,” Jason said.

11:59 a.m.

“Castle to Bird Nest.”

“Nest,” Branch said.

“Rioters are in full retreat,” Annie’s deputy reported as the crowd flailed away from the mountain. “Water cannons and announcements are working. We won’t have to shoot.”

“Roger that, Castle,” Branch said, relieved. He’d rather die himself than have to massacre 20,000 unarmed civilians who weren’t guilty of anything but being scared. “Nest out.”

“All right, Emily,” Jason said. “Unbuckle my brother from that chair.”

“No.”

Jason sawed deeper. The governor whimpered as blood soaked his bespoke shirt. “Do as I say, Detective. I dissect cattle for a living, and you know exactly what I did to those twelve grandkids. With knives I crafted myself. Slicing Wayne-o ear to ear won’t bother me a bit.”

“How about a bullet in your eye?” Emily said, shocked to find herself so calm. Annie’s lessons were really paying off. “Think that would bother you?”