When All The Girls Have Gone(48)

Ethel's eyes narrowed. "You're in danger, aren't you?"

"Yes. And so is Jocelyn. Whatever happens, the driver of the car must not see you take the photos."

"You're being kidnapped."

"Yes."

Ethel didn't argue. She rummaged around inside her bag, which was attached to the walker, and pulled out her cell phone with a shaking hand.

"Don't you worry," she said. "I'll get the picture. Hell, I used to hold bleeding wounds together with my bare hands while we were taking fire."

"I know. Call that number right after you take the photos."

Charlotte opened the door and hurried through the lobby. Ethel clanked along behind her, making excellent speed on her walker.

Two minutes, Charlotte thought. She did not dare take time to alert anyone else. There were only seconds left.

She rushed outside, barely noticing the snap of the chilly wind. She saw the gray car waiting at the curb, its engine idling. An eerie, light-headed sensation swept over her. Part of her could not believe what was happening.

The windows of the vehicle were tinted, but when she got closer she could make out the impression of a man behind the wheel. She opened the passenger-side door.

She barely had time to register the fact that he looked familiar before she saw the gun.

"Get in the back," he ordered.

She slammed the door shut and opened the rear door. For the first time she realized there was a second man inside the vehicle. He, too, held a gun. Something about him was off. He looked excited. His eyes were a little too bright. His face was flushed.

"You're not as pretty as the other one," he said. "Give me your phone."

He was high, she thought. In that instant she realized that he, too, looked vaguely familiar.

She gave her phone to him.

"What do you want me to do with it?" he said to the driver.

"Toss it out the window. Cutler might be able to use it to find her. Can't have that."

The jittery man with the gun lowered his window and threw the phone into the street.

"Don't make any sudden moves," the driver said. "Nolan, here, is a bit unstable. If you make him nervous, he'll pull that trigger. You'll be dead long before Jocelyn Pruett is."   





 

"I recognize you," Charlotte said. "You were here at Rainy Creek Gardens the other day. You stopped me just as I was leaving. You asked questions about the community. Who are you?"

She was almost certain she knew the answer, but there didn't seem to be any reason to let him know that she had figured out his identity.

"Trey Greenslade," Trey said. He pulled away from the curb. "I'm touched that you remember our meeting the other day. I wanted to get a good look at you because I realized you might be the bait I needed to force Pruett to come out of hiding. This would have gone a lot more smoothly if you hadn't brought that damned PI into the picture."

The jittery guy with the gun wiped the sweat from his forehead.

"I think I need another hit, Trey," he said.

"Take it, but don't take your eyes off her," Trey ordered.

"Okay, okay."

Trey met Charlotte's eyes briefly in the rearview mirror.

"His name is Nolan Briggs, by the way," he said. "He's been assisting me in exchange for some very good meds."

"I thought I recognized him," Charlotte said quietly. "There are photos of him on the mantel in the Briggses' cabin." She looked at Nolan. "You do know your father is dead, don't you?"

"Yeah." Nolan popped a couple of tablets into his mouth and swallowed hard. "No loss."





CHAPTER 61




Max studied the maps and the timelines he had spread out on his office desk. After all the murk and confusion, the picture was finally starting to come into focus.

There had been a Loring-Greenslade sales rep convention taking place on Maui during the time period that Madison Benson had traveled there. One more data point had just fallen into place. Madison had gone to the islands to meet her lover-Trey Greenslade. Greenslade was not married, as Drew Irby had speculated, but he certainly had an excellent reason for keeping his relationship with Madison off the radar.

The real question was whether Madison Benson had ever realized that the man she was seeing was a stone-cold rapist and murderer.

Max took out his phone and texted a message to Charlotte. May have a new lead. She would be excited, he thought. That knowledge buoyed his spirits.

When she didn't return the text, he started to get the old edgy feeling that told him something was very, very wrong. She was probably busy, he thought; but he had never been good at lying to himself.

He tried a phone call-and wound up in voice mail.

He took the gun and holster out of his desk drawer, pulled on his windbreaker to conceal the weapon and headed for the door.

His phone rang just as he emerged from the lobby elevator. For a few seconds he knew an almost overwhelming sense of relief. Then he saw the unfamiliar number on the screen.

"Cutler," he said.

"Mr. Cutler, this is Ethel Deeping, Lieutenant Ethel Deeping."

The voice on the other end was hoarse with age but firm and resolute.

"I remember you, Mrs.-I mean, Lieutenant Deeping. What's the problem?"

"A couple of bastards in a gray car just kidnapped Charlotte. Charlotte said to call you."

Everything inside him went ice-cold.

"I'm on my way," he said.

"I've got pictures."





CHAPTER 62




"You shouldn't have let him take you," Jocelyn said.

But she didn't sound angry or even fearful, Charlotte thought. Instead Jocelyn's voice was dulled with bleak despair-and for some reason that was more worrisome than anything else that had happened.

She had seen Jocelyn in a variety of moods. Anger, excitement, delight, outrage, laughter-Jocelyn did them all well. But never had she sounded like a beaten woman.

A fresh wave of alarm swept through Charlotte. "Is he keeping you drugged with something?"

Jocelyn frowned. "What?"

Charlotte studied her closely. In the gloom cast by the low-watt bulb in the overhead fixture, Jocelyn appeared exhausted.

"I asked if he had drugged you," Charlotte repeated. "I've never seen you like this."

"Madison Benson drugged me. That's how I wound up here. But Greenslade hasn't used any more drugs on me."

"You do know that Madison Benson is dead, don't you?"

"He murdered her, too?"

"Well, Greenslade has a perfect alibi. He was in Loring at the time. But now that I've met Nolan Briggs, I think I can understand how he pulled it off."

"He sent Nolan to kill her?"

"Evidently. She was shot twice."

"She must have been working with Greenslade all along. Why kill her now?"   





 

"Maybe because he didn't need her any longer. She had become a liability. She probably knew too much about him."

"Louise and Madison are both dead. I'm sitting here in this basement with you. What about Victoria and Emily?"

"Victoria is still in the hospital, but according to the last report, she's going to recover. As for Emily, there's been no word. Max says that's probably a good thing. He says it indicates she's still alive."

"Charlotte, I am so damned sorry. The last thing I wanted was for you to get sucked into this quagmire."

"Yeah, well, what are sisters for, right? Anyhow, the good news is that Trey Greenslade needs to keep both of us alive until he can figure out how to get rid of Max Cutler. And that won't be easy."

"Why does he have to get rid of Cutler?"

Charlotte felt a rush of icy certainty. "Probably because he realizes that Max won't stop looking until he finds me."

Jocelyn's eyes tightened. "You're sure of that?"

"Positive."

"For all the good it will do. The problem is, I'm pretty sure Greenslade has gone crazy and his partner is a junkie. That is not a good combination."

"Jocelyn, why did you try to disappear and make me think you were on some sort of tech-free retreat? What scared you?"

"I freaked out one day when I realized my computer and probably my phone had been hacked. Someone was watching me-Greenslade, as it turns out. But at the time I had no way of knowing who was spying on me or how long he had been doing it. I didn't even know why someone was watching me. But I was convinced it had something to do with the past."

"Your past in Loring."

"Yes."

"What made you think that?"

"The two murders that I was investigating," Jocelyn said. "Both occurred in recent months. I was sure they had been committed by the same man who had attacked me all those years ago. The question was, why, after all these years, had he suddenly started killing his victims?"

"He was escalating."

"Yes."

"You should have told me what you were doing."

"You would have worried about me."

"No shit."

"I'm sorry," Jocelyn said. "I thought I was protecting you. The only person I told was Louise."

"Why only her?"

"She was my closest friend in the club. She had helped me do some of the research on the two murders and the three most recent rape cases. We were trying to find some sort of pattern-methods and locations. I didn't tell the others because I didn't want to drag them into it."

"Just like you didn't want to bring me into it. Jocelyn, I love you like a sister, but at times you are an idiot."