Private Affair(96)
“Clever of you,” Jack said.
“Yeah, I’ll bet you hate that I’m so smart.”
Max reached the mouth of the tunnel and motioned for Olivia to wait.
“Is he in that cabin?” Davidson demanded.
“I don’t know. We went separate ways.”
“Well, suppose I spray the place with bullets?” Davidson said.
Max looked down at Olivia and gave her a look that warned her to stay below ground. Then he clicked off the phone because he didn’t need it to hear what was going on outside.
As Jack kept the guy talking, Max climbed the ladder to ground level and moved to the corner where the siding was loose. Gently he pushed at it and looked out, seeing two sets of men’s legs and wondering if he could get out before Davidson shot him. And also wondering why he wasn’t seeing Shane.
“Hard to shoot the cabin and keep me covered,” Jack said.
“I can kill you first.”
“You could, and go to jail for life. Did you like it in the slammer so much that you want to die there?”
“I won’t get caught this time.”
“The Baltimore cops already know you’re after Max. They’ll get you.”
“And you’ll be dead.”
Jack raised his voice. “This is kind of an explosive situation.”
Max knew what that meant. Shane must have gone into the woods to carry out the emergency plan they’d previously discussed. Although they hadn’t needed it for Masters, they needed it now.
Max glanced back to make sure Olivia was still in the tunnel. He wanted to tell her to lie down, but he’d give himself away.
Outside, Davidson asked Jack, “What the hell do you mean by that?”
For answer, an explosion shook the ground, and Max was hurled against the wall. Assuming the men outside were similarly thrown off balance, he righted himself and dived through the hole in the siding in time to see Davidson bring his gun hand up, aiming at Jack, who shot first, and the ex-con went down.
He saw Shane running out of the woods.
“Everything all right?” he called.
“Yeah,” both Max and Jack answered.
“And Olivia?” Shane asked.
“Right here.”
She crawled out of the back of the cabin and looked at the man lying on the ground.
“Davidson? The man who cut you?”
“Yeah. He’s not going to bother anyone again,” Jack answered, then turned to Max.
“What about Masters?”
“The same. He had Olivia down in that hole. She whacked him with the chain he’d used to tether her. When he went after her with a knife, I shot him.”
Jack and Shane nodded. Maybe they could tell they weren’t getting the whole story, but they didn’t push for more.
“And now?” Jack asked.
Before he could answer, uniformed cops swarmed out of the woods, surrounding them.
Chapter 30
“Christ, not again,” Max muttered, raising his hands. He wasn’t sure what had brought the cops. Maybe the guard hadn’t checked in.
As he put down his gun and raised his hands, the other men did the same, and Olivia raised hers as well.
Max had been hoping they could get the hell out of there before they were discovered. He understood now that that had been wishful thinking, born of his desire to protect Olivia from any more trauma.
He glanced at her and mouthed, “Hang in there.”
She gave a little nod.
Behind the uniformed officers was a slim, blond man in a sports jacket and crisp white shirt who came striding forward. Max breathed out a little sigh, partly from relief and partly from weariness. It was a Howard County detective, a guy named Fisher, and Max had also worked with him. Unlike Hamilton, he was one of the good guys. Which didn’t mean he was just going to let them walk away from three dead bodies without a lot of explanations. Hopefully he wouldn’t know that Jack had been at Larson’s house, where there were two more.
Fisher started by inquiring, “Weren’t the four of you at that murder scene a few days ago?” Before anyone could answer, he added, “What the hell is going on now? We got a call about a gunshot up here.”
So that was how they had gotten here so fast, Max thought as he watched the detective looking at the men on the ground.
Before Max could answer, Olivia spoke. “Like at my house, this is about the murders of people in my Donley High reunion class.”
The detective swung to her, taking in her bedraggled appearance. “Do I know you?”
“I’m Olivia Winters, a member of the ten-year reunion class.”
“And that famous model.”
“Is that relevant?”
“Maybe it’s more relevant that trouble is following you around.”