Shauna heard her voice coming through the recording.
“No, no, I’m okay. Really. Nerves. Mack deserves justice, and I want Austin in jail if he had anything to do with it. Let’s just get this over with.”
He clicked off the phone.
“You bugged my house?”
He nodded toward the dress. “Not all those beads are for decoration. I suspected something was up after you told me you talked to Butler, so I did some research and called a friend of mine who confirmed the FBI has a major sting going on tonight, but it was all hush-hush, no details, no location. It wasn’t hard to figure out after listening to you and Agent Hale that it was me who was going to be stung. Baseball. Now.”
Shauna walked slowly behind the bar and reached for the Babe Ruth baseball sitting next to the cash register. “Why didn’t your thugs take it when they killed Mack?”
“They were idiots. Gleason said it was fake, and Pete just left it. But after going through the bar and Mack’s apartment, it only made sense he would hide the data in that damn baseball.” He sneered. “You think I would date someone like you, a low-class trampy bitch, if I didn’t have a good reason? Mack was getting cold feet, and I needed you for leverage. Then you dumped me? Me? With my money and contacts? I knew you were flaky, your taste in men proved it. I can see the allure of Jason Butler, he’s an attractive sort and wealthy from a good family, but he got caught. Not very smart. But Sam Garcia? A low-class cop?”
“You’re not half the man Jason and Sam are,” Shauna said.
“Sticks and stones.” He looked at his watch. “One minute. We’d better leave or Mr. Butler will be fish bait.”
She clutched the baseball in her hand. She wanted to throw it and knock the gun out of his hand. She thought she might make it. Or hit him hard in the head. But she absolutely believed him when he said Amelia would kill Jason.
He held his hand out for the baseball.
“What’s in it?” she said as she reluctantly handed it to him.
“A code. A very important code.”
He motioned for her to exit the way they had come.
“You could have come tonight and got the ball yourself,” she said.
“I could. But then I wouldn’t have had as much fun, because I wouldn’t be able to kill you. Now move.”
#
The limo drove around the block twice and Sam realized the driver was waiting for Davis. He called John. “Where are you?”
“Here.”
“The black limo, license plate CH2, is circling. I think Jason and Shepherd are both in there. And a driver. I have an idea, but we don’t have much time.”
“Give it to me.”
“Pull him over, quietly, but you have to do it before he gets back to Dooley’s.”
“Are you sure about this?”
“You want Amelia to turn state’s evidence? This is the time to do it. As soon as Austin gets Shauna back into that car, she and Jason are both as good as dead, and you know it.”
“I see it, on First Street. We got it.”
“I’ll meet you there.”
He ran down the block, trying not to bump into the hordes of people walking up and down the historic sidewalks.
John had already flashed his grill lights on the limo. He and Hooper were approaching the vehicle, guns drawn. Hooper opened the driver’s door and the driver gave up without any struggle. Hooper cuffed him as Sam arrived.
Hooper called into the back of the car. “Amelia Shepherd, come out with your hands up.”
Silence.
“Shepherd! I’m giving you thirty seconds!”
Silence.
Was Sam wrong? He glanced at John. Maybe Jason and Shepherd weren’t in the back of the limo.
Then Hooper’s cell phone rang. He answered and Sam leaned over and listened.
“It’s Jason. She wants immunity.”
“I can work on that,” Hooper said. “But I need her out of the limo now.”
A moment later, the door opened. Amelia Shepherd came out with her hands up. John cuffed her and put her in the back of his car. He pulled over a beat cop to watch her.
Sam looked into the limo. Jason was tied up and lying on the floor. He said, “We’re already late picking Davis and Shauna up. Hurry!”
Sam took the cap off the driver and put it on. He got behind the wheel. Hooper began to untie Jason, but he said, “Just get in. He’ll kill her. He has a back-up plan. I just don’t know what it is.”
#
Shauna had no choice but to obey Austin—though she didn’t stop looking for a way out. The main problem was that he had a gun—he could shoot her, as well as innocent people who walked around the quaint historic area, oblivious to Shauna’s predicament.