Killjoy

  “He played all of us,” Sara said. “Did you tell your niece the name of the property?”

  “Yes,” Carrie answered. “I don’t know if she got the message because she might have already left for the airport. What if he was there waiting for her?” Her voice broke on a sob.

  Sara reached across the table and patted Carrie’s hand. “If he had been waiting for her, wouldn’t he have driven her here? Maybe that’s what they’re waiting for,” she added. “Maybe that’s why they haven’t . . .”

  “Haven’t what?” Anne asked.

  “Killed us,” Sara said bluntly.

  “But you said they left us food in the pantry and in the freezer, so they obviously want to keep us alive a little while longer,” Anne argued.

  Sara disagreed. “The food . . . that’s what’s so alarming. Doesn’t it seem more frightening to you that they didn’t empty the cabinets?”

  Carrie hadn’t thought of it that way, but now she agreed with Sara. “I think that means they’re going to blow the house soon. They’re not going to let us sit in here until it’s all gone. They left the water on too,” she pointed out. “We have to get out of here.” She buried her face in her hands and whispered, “I’ve got to get to Avery. If that monster has her . . .”

  “Concentrate on finding a way out, Carrie, so that you can help your niece.”

  Anne straightened in her chair and nodded. “As long as you both agree I’m innocent, I’ll help and I won’t do anything crazy, like opening a door. I promise, but you have to say it.”

  Carrie lifted her head. “Say what?”

  Anne straightened in her chair. “That I’m innocent.”

  She was, of course, implying Sara and Carrie weren’t. It was infuriating, her holier-than-thou attitude, but Carrie caught Sara’s nod and decided she had to get along with Anne if she wanted her cooperation. “Yes, you are innocent,” she said.

  After Sara concurred, Anne turned to Carrie. “You should try to make amends with your sister, fix the wrong you did.”

  Oh, how Carrie hated the woman. She held her tongue as Anne preached on. “Family is the most important thing of all. I recently learned that truth. Being able to lean on someone . . . like my husband when times get difficult . . . that’s very important. I’m very fortunate,” she continued. “My husband adores me.”

  She was excited when she turned to Sara. “He’ll sound the alarm. My husband calls every single day. He’s never missed. I told him not to bother while I was at the spa because I’d be doing all those treatments, and it would be difficult for him to get hold of me, but he wouldn’t listen. He said he couldn’t go to sleep at night unless he talked to me. So don’t you see? If we can just wait it out, my husband will have the police tearing Colorado apart looking for me.”

  “We can’t wait,” Carrie objected.

  Sara shook her head at her for losing her cool. “You sound like you have a wonderful marriage,” she told Anne.

  “Yes, I do. We’re blissfully happy.” There was a note of defiance. “And he will search for me.”

  “Yes, I’m sure he will,” Sara placated. “But we might not have time to wait for the police to find us. Colorado’s a big state.”

  Anne nodded. “Yes, you’re right. We have to help ourselves. All right,” she said as she untied the cord around her right arm. “What can I do? I don’t know that I can be much help because I’m just getting over a long bout of illness. I’ve lost weight, and I don’t have my strength back yet. I’m an excellent cook, though. I could fix us something to eat.”

  “That would be wonderful,” Sara said. “Thank you, Anne.”

  Carrie wasn’t as trusting. Maybe Anne had come to her senses. Then again, maybe she was simply playing them. The stakes were too high to trust her. Carrie decided that either she or Sara had to keep an eye on the woman at all times.

  “Is anyone hungry now?” Anne asked as she stood.

  “I am,” Sara said.

  Anne didn’t seize the opportunity to make a sarcastic remark about Sara’s weight this time. In fact, she apologized for what she had said earlier, and damn if she didn’t sound sincere.

  “I never should have called you a fat pig. I was overwrought, but that is a poor excuse for hurting your feelings.”

  “Sara, why don’t you stay here and keep Anne company while I search the house again,” Carrie said. “I’ll start at the top and work my way down. I’ve got to be missing something.”

  She was actually beginning to feel a little optimistic as she ran up the stairs. She hurriedly dressed in her designer sweats and then methodically rechecked each opening. There was a tiny window high up in the corner of her bedroom. It took her a long time to move the bureau over to the wall and then climb up, but she still wasn’t tall enough. She ran downstairs to get one of the dining room chairs. She noticed Sara was standing on a chair in front of the double-pane living room windows. She had a lipstick and was printing the word “help” across the glass.

  Carrie stopped her. “If Monk, or whatever the hell the bastard’s name is, has put a triggering device outside . . .” She didn’t have to finish her thought.

  “The house will blow when help arrives.”

  “It’s a possibility,” Carrie said as she lifted the chair and started back up the stairs.

  “I’ll stop,” Sara said. She got off the chair and went to get a towel to wipe off the letters she’d just written.

  “What about trying to cut through the glass?” Carrie heard Anne ask as she continued on up the spiral staircase.

  Carrie’s arms ached from the exertion of lifting the chair on top of the bureau. It took her three tries, and she was panting because she was so terribly out of shape. She fell trying to climb to the top, but fortunately, she landed on the bed. She propped the chair against the wall and tried again. When she was finally able to reach the window, she burst into tears. The son of a bitch had wired that tiny little egress too.

  She wouldn’t give up, no matter how hopeless their situation was. Maybe Anne’s suggestion would work. Maybe they could cut through the glass without disturbing the wires. Wiping the tears from her eyes, she gingerly scraped her diamond ring against the sliding glass door. Fifteen minutes later she stopped. All she had managed to do in that time was make a small scratch on the glass.

  Carrie walked down a flight to the next level and proceeded to examine Anne’s room and then Sara’s. She spent hours trying one thing and then another before she finally gave up. She’d wasted the afternoon and part of the evening on the impossible.

  Chapter 12

  JILLY WALKED AROUND THE STONE BENCH NESTLED IN THE grotto facing the serenity pool. She paused to watch an instructor dressed in white tai chi clothing lead his students in an ancient exercise. The teacher was quite graceful, but his students were obviously novices, and their movements were stiff and awkward.

  She continued on to where Monk had parked the all-terrain Mercedes. Flowers were in full bloom wherever she looked. There were even large patches of flowers along the back parking lot. Utopia was enchanting, and perhaps when this business was concluded, she could come back here for a full week of pampering.

  Her phone rang just as she slid behind the wheel of the new car. She had been waiting for Monk to call from his satellite phone, and she answered before the first ring ended.

  “Hello, darling.”

  Monk smiled. He loved the sound of her throaty voice and the way she whispered the endearment. “Has she arrived yet?” he asked.

  “Yes, I’ve just sent her on her way, and I’m leaving now. I’ll take the shortcut you found for me, and I’ll be there a good forty minutes ahead of her.”

  “Did you enjoy talking to your daughter?”

  “Oh, it was lovely,” she gushed. “She’s afraid. Thank you, darling, for letting me do this. There is one little worry, however.”

  “Yes?”

  “Avery wasn’t alone.”

  “What?” he asked sharply. “Who was with
her?”

  “A man,” she answered. Adjusting her phone against her ear, she started the car and pulled out of the parking lot. “Her lover, no doubt,” she speculated. “I had to include him because he knows that Carrie is missing. He went into the manager’s office with Avery. Did I do the right thing? Did I?”

  He knew she needed reassurance. “Yes, of course you did the right thing. Did you happen to get his name? Do you know anything about him?”

  “No,” she answered. “I thought about asking the clerk or the manager, but then I decided to wait and talk to you first. Do you want me to go back and find out who he is?”

  “No, no, don’t do that,” he said. “You’d only draw attention to yourself. You’re so beautiful, people will remember you . . . and you do look like Avery. I’ll find out who he is.”

  “Yes, all right. Are you ready for both of them?”

  “The plan’s changed.”

  “Oh?”

  “The river store is open, and business, I’m afraid, is booming. It’s been busier than a 7-Eleven since early morning.”

  “How can that be?” she cried. “You checked. The owner was mauled by a bear and won’t get out of the hospital for at least another week. You checked,” she repeated.

  She was becoming upset. He hurriedly tried to quiet her fears. “It’s going to be okay.”

  She wouldn’t let it go. “But how can the store be open?”

  “The owner’s cousin from Arkansas opened the store this morning. The owner must have called him. It doesn’t matter,” he stressed. “We’re simply going to plan B. You remember, I told you I always have a contingency plan in mind whenever I take on a new assignment.”

  “I remember,” she said, relieved. “You’re so clever, darling.”

  The least little praise made him want to please her all the more.

  “Wait,” she said urgently. “The package with Carrie’s red scarf. Is it still there on the counter?”

  “No, but that doesn’t matter now,” he said. He had already thought the matter through. The original plan had been to lure Avery into the store by placing a large manila envelope with her name on it on the counter by the window so she would see it when she looked inside. She would be desperate and break in. Monk would be waiting for her, and after he had killed her, he would bury her in the forest about a hundred yards behind the store. He’d already gone to the trouble of digging her grave. The hole was deep enough to accommodate her lover as well, he supposed, but now that the store was open and there was a steady stream of customers coming and going, Monk knew he couldn’t kill them there.

  “Do you have Carrie’s wallet with you?” he asked.

  “Yes, it’s in my purse.”

  “Good,” he praised. “We’ll use it, then.”

  “Do I get to help? You promised me,” she reminded him.

  How could he deny her? It would have been so much easier if she’d agreed to stay at the spa and let him do his job. Jilly complicated his life, made him scramble to get everything done the way she wanted it done, but she was such a joy to be with, he didn’t mind. He had tried to talk her into blowing up the house before they left it last night, but she wouldn’t hear of it. She wanted her sister to wake up and know who was killing her and why.

  Monk didn’t like leaving the women, but he couldn’t be in two places at once, and Avery’s unexpected arrival had thrown him a curve. He hadn’t let Jilly know how unsettling and worrisome those last-minute changes were, but now that he’d worked it all out in his mind, he was feeling in control again. He wished he had more time to go over the plan, but that wasn’t possible.

  “Darling, did you hear me? I get to help, don’t I?”

  He pushed his concerns aside.

  “Yes, of course you can help. How would you like to talk to Avery again?”

  She laughed. “Oh, I’d love to,” she said. “I’m hurrying to you. I’m already turning onto that little road you found. I won’t be long. When I get there, you have to tell me exactly what you want me to say to her. I don’t want to mess up again like I did in Virginia when I took that old woman’s car.”

  “Hush now. Don’t fret about that. It’s water under the bridge. Besides, you’re a rookie,” he said with a chuckle. “You were bound to make a few mistakes.”

  “I only wanted to please you, and I thought that, if I could immobilize her, I would make your job so much easier for you. You could have broken into her apartment and killed her there. I thought you could make it look like a robbery.”

  They had been over this topic at least ten times, and each time he tried to reassure her that he had forgiven her misjudgment. She never should have gone after Avery with that car, not only because of the danger to herself, but also because she very well might have killed her. Jilly had been so proud of her careful research. She’d done her own surveillance, discovered the dusty old Cadillac was owned by a woman who never drove it, and had been so clever in the way she’d gotten into the apartment and stolen the keys. She’d had fun too, dressing up as a policewoman collecting for the widows’ fund.

  Still, Jilly hadn’t thought the plan through. When he gently pointed out that if she had killed Avery, Carrie certainly would have canceled her vacation plans, Jilly was mortified. Now she always checked with him first so that she wouldn’t do anything rash. He liked the way she looked up to him, trusted him to know what was best.

  “I’ll meet you at our designated spot. Now, here’s what I want you to do,” he began.

  She listened, growing more excited as he explained the details. When he was finished, she giggled. “It’s perfect, darling. Absolutely perfect.”

  Chapter 13

  HIS NAME IS DALE SKARRETT,” AVERY SAID, “AND HE’S IN prison now.”

  “Where?” John Paul asked.

  “Florida,” she answered. “He came up for parole a couple of years ago, and Carrie and I went to the hearing. We each spoke to the board, and they listened to what we had to say. We’re the reason he didn’t get out.”

  “So he has a real good reason for wanting both of you dead.”

  “Yes.”

  “What’d he do?”

  She hated bringing those memories back to the surface. It made the wounds fester again.

  “I’ll explain later,” she said, buying herself time.

  “What’d he do?” he calmly repeated.

  She turned away from him to stare out the window. “He murdered my grandmother,” she answered. She anxiously looked at the watch. “We have twenty-three minutes left to get to God only knows where. What should we be looking for?”

  He knew she was trying to make him focus on the problem at hand so that he wouldn’t ask her any more questions. Eventually she would tell him what he wanted and needed to know if they were going to get through this alive, but he didn’t press her now for the grim details. Like she said, they had only twenty-three minutes to go.

  “We look for anything that doesn’t belong.”

  They were still climbing higher and higher as they wound around the mountain. Avery had lost her sense of direction, but thankfully, John Paul hadn’t.

  Sunlight was streaming in through the branches again, and the area wasn’t quite as thick with evergreens. She thought they were getting closer to an open area or a summit. Would they be sitting ducks?

  “We’re going to get nosebleeds if we keep climbing. Are you cold?” she asked.

  “No.”

  He knew she was. He’d noticed her rubbing her arms a minute ago. He reached over and flipped on the heater. Avery immediately adjusted the vents so the hot air would blow on her arms.

  “What do you think she meant?”

  “What?”

  “When the woman said ‘boom.’ I keep picturing those women tied to chairs with explosives.”

  “Maybe,” he said. “Or maybe they’re inside something that’s wired.”

  “There are caves and old shafts around here, aren’t there?”

  “Yes,” he
said. “There are hundreds of them.”

  She checked the time again. “Twenty-one minutes.”

  “I’m aware of the time,” he snapped.

  “Can’t you go any faster?”

  “You want to drive?”

  “No,” she said. She realized her frustration and fear were misdirected. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to criticize. I know you’re doing the best you can.”

  It occurred to her then that she didn’t know much about the man she had so eagerly jumped into the car with. No, that wasn’t true. She knew enough to trust his ability. He had proven himself capable when he was in the military. Hopefully, the skills he’d learned would come in handy, if he still remembered them.

  She decided to find out. “Were you any good at what you used to do before you took a leave of absence?”

  The question jarred him. “What are you talking about?”

  “You were in the military.”

  He gave her a sharp look. “How do you know that?”

  “I had a friend look you up in the computer where she works.”

  She waited for a reaction. She was ready with a good reason for invading his private life if he asked. He didn’t, though. In fact he didn’t say anything for a while.

  “When did you do that?”

  “Look you up? When I was in the manager’s office at the spa. You had left to go find Cannon.”

  “You did a background check on me.” He seemed to be having trouble believing her.

  “Yes, I did.”

  The glare he cast her should have scalded her face. “Where does this friend of yours work?”

  “Quantico.”

  Uh-oh. He didn’t take the news well at all.

  “Son of a . . .” he began.

  “You were a Marine,” she blurted.

  She watched him take a breath and knew he was trying to keep his temper under control. Oh, yes, he was angry; his neck had turned pink. It didn’t matter to her, though. She had done what she had to do, and he was going to have to deal with it.

  The muscle in his jaw flinched. Lord, he was good-looking. The thought came out of nowhere. Jeez, Avery, get a grip. For all she knew, the man could be paying alimony to eight ex-wives. She quickly discounted the Henry VIII notion right away. There couldn’t possibly be eight women in the United States willing to marry him. No way.