The Winner

  killing him on the spot. It would have been extremely easy.”

  LuAnn’s face turned white and she licked dry lips. “There’s no reason to do that.”

  “You have no way of knowing that. I’m going to check him out and if I find anything in his background to suggest trouble for me, then I will eliminate him. It’s that simple.”

  “Let me get that information for you.”

  “What?” Jackson looked startled.

  “Riggs likes me. He’s already helped me, probably saved my life. It would be natural for me to show my gratitude. Get to know him better.”

  “No, I don’t like it.”

  “Riggs is a nobody. A local builder. Why trouble yourself with him? Like you said, you’re busy.”

  Jackson studied her intensely for a moment. “All right, LuAnn, you do that. However, any information you obtain better be reported to me in a timely fashion or, with respect to Mr. Riggs, I will take matters into my own very capable hands. Clear?”

  LuAnn let out a deep breath. “Clear.”

  “The other man, of course, I must find. It shouldn’t be too terribly difficult.”

  “Don’t do that.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “You don’t have to do that. Find him.”

  “I am very much certain that I do.”

  The memory of Mr. Rainbow came flooding back to her. She did not want another death on her conscience. She wasn’t worth it. “If he shows up again, we’re just going to leave the country.”

  Jackson refolded the paper and replaced it in his pocket. He made a precise steeple with his hands. “You obviously do not fully understand the situation. Were you the only one he was onto, then perhaps your simplistic solution might resolve the matter, at least temporarily. However, the man has a list with the names of eleven other people with whom I worked. I would submit that a resolution involving all of them fleeing the country almost simultaneously would be essentially unworkable.”

  LuAnn drew in a sharp breath. “I could pay the man. How much money can he want? That would take care of it.”

  Jackson smiled tightly. “Blackmailers are a bad lot. They never seem to go away.” He added sharply, “Unless they receive extreme persuasion to do so.”

  “Mr. Jackson, please don’t do it,” she said again.

  “Don’t do what, LuAnn? Ensure your survival?” He glanced around. “And with it all of this?” He rested his gaze back upon her. “How is Lisa, by the way? As beautiful as her mother?”

  LuAnn felt her throat constrict. “She’s fine.”

  “Excellent. Let’s keep it that way, shall we?”

  “Can’t you just let it go? Let me handle it.”

  “LuAnn, many years ago we were confronted with a situation regarding another would-be blackmailer. I took care of that incident and I will take care of this one. In matters like this I almost never opt for delegation. Count your blessings that I’m allowing Riggs to live. For now.”

  “But that man can’t prove anything. How can he? And even if he could, they’ll never be able to trace anything to you. Maybe I’ll go to jail, but you won’t. Hell, I don’t even know who you really are.”

  Jackson stood up, his lips pursed. He took a moment to rub his left hand delicately along the edge of the bedspread.

  “Beautiful needlework here,” Jackson commented. “Indian isn’t it?”

  Distracted for an instant by his query, LuAnn was suddenly staring down the barrel of a 9-mm, a suppressor attached to its muzzle.

  “One potential solution could involve my killing all twelve of you. That would certainly qualify as a startling dead-end for our inquisitive friend. Remember that the ten-year period is up. The lottery’s principal amount has already been returned to a Swiss account that I have set up in your name. I would strongly advise against transferring that money into the United States.” He pulled another slip of paper from his pocket and put it down on her bed. “Here are the authorization codes and other account information that will enable you to access it. The funds are untraceable. There you have it. As agreed.” Jackson’s finger curled around the trigger of his weapon. “However, now I really don’t have any incentive to keep you around, do I?” He advanced toward her. LuAnn’s fingers tightened around the letter opener.

  “Put it down, LuAnn. Granted, you’re remarkably athletic, but you’re not faster than a bullet. Put it down. Now!”

  She dropped the letter opener and backed up against the wall.

  Jackson stopped a few inches from her. While he lined up the pistol with her left cheekbone, he ran a gloved hand along her right cheek. There was no sexual content to the motion. Even through the glove, LuAnn could sense the purely clinical chill of his touch.

  “You should have thrown it the first time, LuAnn. You really should have.” His eyes were mocking.

  “I’m not going to kill someone in cold blood,” said LuAnn.

  “I know. You see, that is your greatest shortcoming, because that’s precisely when you should strike.”

  He removed his hand and looked at her.

  “Ten years ago I felt you were the weak link in the chain. During the intervening years, I thought perhaps I was wrong. Everything was going so smoothly. But now I find my initial intuition was correct. Even if I were in no personal danger of discovery, were I to let this man blackmail you or perhaps even expose the manipulations of the lottery, then that would be a failure on my part. I do not fail. Ever. And I do not let other people have any control whatsoever over plans of mine, for that, in itself, would be a form of failure. Besides, I couldn’t bear to let such a grand performance be ruined.

  “Just think about the wonderful life I’ve given you, LuAnn. Remember what I told you all those years ago: ‘Go anywhere, do anything.’ I gave that to you. The impossible. All yours. Look at you now. Flawless beauty.” His hand went to the front of her robe. With slow movements he undid the strap and the robe fell open, fully exposing her quivering breasts and flat belly. He slid the robe over her shoulders and it fell to the floor.

  “The most prudent action on my part, of course, would be to kill you. Right here and right now. In fact, what the hell.” He pointed the gun directly at her head and pulled on the trigger. LuAnn jerked back, her eyes slamming shut.

  When she reopened them, Jackson was studying her reaction. She was shaking terribly; her heart was thumping around inside her, she couldn’t catch her breath.

  Jackson shook his head. “Your nerves don’t seem to be as strong, LuAnn, as when we were last together. And nerves, or a lack thereof, really are the whole ball of wax.” He looked at the pistol for a moment, slipped off the safety, and continued speaking calmly. “As I was saying, the most prudent thing, when one is confronted with a weak link, is to snip it out.” He paused and then continued, “I’m not going to do that with you, at least not yet. Not even after you’ve disobeyed me, jeopardized everything. Would you like to know why?”

  LuAnn remained planted against the wall, afraid to move, her eyes fixed on his.

  He took her silence for assent. “Because I feel you have a greater destiny to fulfill. A dramatic statement, but I’m a dramatic person; I think I’ll allow myself that. It’s really as simple as that. And in very large measure, you are a creation of mine. Would you be living in this house, speaking and thinking as an educated person, traveling the world on a whim, without me? Of course not. In killing you, I would, in effect, be killing part of myself. That, as I’m sure you can appreciate, I am loath to do. Nevertheless, please keep in mind that a wild animal, when trapped, will ultimately sacrifice a limb in order to escape and survive. Don’t think for one moment that I am not capable of that sacrifice. If you do, you’re a fool. I sincerely hope that we are able to extricate you from this little problem.” He shook his head sympathetically, much as he had ten years earlier during their very first meeting. “I really do, LuAnn. However, if we can’t, we can’t. Problems come up in business all the time, and I’m counting on you to do your par
t, to do all you can to ensure that we successfully navigate this one.” Jackson’s tone once again became businesslike as he ticked off items with his fingers. “You will not leave the country. You obviously went to a great deal of trouble to get back in, so stay and enjoy it for a while. You will immediately report to me any further contact with our mysterious stranger. The number I gave you ten years ago will still reach me. I will be in touch on a regular basis. Whatever additional instructions I give you, you will follow precisely. Understood?”

  She quickly nodded.

  “I’m quite serious, LuAnn. If you disobey me again, I will kill you. And it will be slow and unbelievably painful.” He studied her reaction to these words for a moment. “Now go into the bathroom and compose yourself.”

  She started to turn away.

  “Oh, LuAnn?”

  She looked back.

  “Keep in mind that if we do fail to contain this problem and I have to eliminate that weak link, there will be no reason that I can see to stop there.” He glanced ominously in the direction of the doorway leading to the hallway, where barely twenty feet away Lisa lay sleeping. He turned back to her. “I like to give my business associates as much incentive as possible to achieve success. I find that they’re much more likely not to disappoint.”

  LuAnn ran into the bathroom, locking the door after her. She gripped the cold marble of the vanity, every limb shaking uncontrollably, as though she had left her skeleton back there with him. Wrapping a thick, full-length towel around her, she sank down to the floor. Her natural courage was tempered with a strong dose of common sense and she understood quite clearly the serious personal jeopardy she was in. But that was far from her greatest fear. The fact that Jackson might set his murderous sights on Lisa made her nearly delirious with terror.

  Curiously enough it was with this thought that LuAnn’s features grew deadly still in their own right. Her eyes stared across at the doorway, on the other side of which stood a person to whom she was probably more similar than dissimilar. They both had secrets; they both were incredibly rich from ill-gotten gains. They both had mental and physical abilities above and beyond the norm. And perhaps most telling, they both had killed someone. Her act had been spontaneous, survival the only motive. Jackson’s had been premeditated, but survival of sorts had also been his motivation. Perhaps not as wide a chasm as it looked on the surface. The results, after all, had been the deaths of two human beings.

  She slowly rose from the floor. If Jackson ever came after Lisa, then either he would die or LuAnn would; there would be no other possibilities. She let the towel fall to the floor. She unlocked the door. There seemed to exist an ethereal connection between Jackson and LuAnn Tyler that defied a logical explanation. It was as though, even after all this time apart, that their synapses had become fused together at a certain, almost psychic level. For she was absolutely certain what she would find when she returned to the bedroom. She threw open the door.

  Nothing. Jackson was gone.

  LuAnn pulled on some clothes and hurried down the hallway to check on Lisa. The little girl’s steady breathing told her mother that she was asleep. For a while, LuAnn simply hovered over Lisa, afraid to leave her. She didn’t want to wake her. She wouldn’t be able to hide the terror she was feeling from her daughter. Finally, LuAnn made certain the windows were locked and left the room.

  Next she made her way to Charlie’s bedroom and gently roused him from sleep.

  “I just had a visitor.”

  “What? Who?”

  “We should’ve known he’d find out,” she said wearily.

  When the meaning behind her words worked through his grogginess, Charlie sat straight up in bed, almost knocking over the lamp on the nightstand. “Good God, he was here? Jackson was here?”

  “When I finished my shower I found him waiting for me in my bedroom. I don’t think I’ve ever been that scared in my life.”

  “Oh, God, LuAnn, baby.” Charlie hugged her tightly for several moments. “How the hell — how the hell did he find us?”

  “I don’t know, but he knows everything. The man who chased me. About Riggs. I, I told him about the list of lottery winners. I tried to lie, but he knew I was. He threatened everyone in the house if I didn’t tell him the truth.”

  “What’s he going to do?”

  “He’s going to find the guy and then he’s going to kill him.”

  Charlie leaned up against the headboard and LuAnn sat down next to him. Charlie put a big hand across his face and shook his head. He looked over at her. “What else did he say?”

  “That we weren’t to do anything. Be careful around Riggs and to let him know if the other guy showed up again.”

  “Riggs? Why’d he mention him?”

  She looked over at him. “Jackson seemed very suspicious of him. Like maybe he has an ulterior motive for being involved.”

  “Son of a bitch,” Charlie moaned and abruptly rolled out of bed. He stood up and started getting dressed.

  “What are you doing?”

  “I don’t know, but I feel like I’ve got to do something. Warn Riggs. If Jackson’s after him—”

  She reached up and gripped his arm. “If you tell Riggs about Jackson, then all you’re doing is guaranteeing his death. Somehow, some way, Jackson will find out. He always does. I’ve got Riggs safe, at least for now.”

  “How’d you do that?”

  “Jackson and I worked out a little arrangement. At least I think he bought it. Who can tell with him?”

  Charlie stopped pulling on his pants and looked over at her.

  LuAnn continued, “For now anyway, Jackson’s going to focus on the other man. He’ll find him, and it’s not like we can warn him, because we don’t even know who he is.”

  Charlie sat back down on the bed. “So what do we do?”

  LuAnn took his hand in hers. “I want you to take Lisa away. I want both of you to go away.”

  “There’s no way I’m leaving you alone with that guy in the neighborhood. No way in hell.”

  “Yes you will, Charlie, because you know I’m right. By myself, I’m okay. But if he were to get hold of Lisa . . .” She didn’t need to finish the thought.

  “Why don’t you go with her and let me stay here and handle it?”

  LuAnn shook her head. “That won’t work. If I leave Jackson will come looking. Looking hard. So long as I’m around, he’s not going to stray too far. In the meantime, you two can get away.”

  “I don’t like it. I don’t want to abandon you, LuAnn. Not now.”

  She put her arms around his burly shoulders. “My God, you’re not abandoning me. You’re going to be taking care of the most precious thing I have—” She broke off here, as Jackson’s face planted itself squarely in her thoughts.

  Finally Charlie took her hand. “Okay. When do you want us to leave?”

  “Right now. I’ll go get Lisa ready while you pack. Jackson just left, so I doubt if he’s going to be watching the place. He probably figures I’m too frozen with fear to do anything. Actually, he wouldn’t be too far from the truth.”

  “Where do we go?”

  “You pick the place. I don’t want to know. That way nobody can get the information out of me. Call when you get there and then we’ll make arrangements to safely communicate after that.”

  Charlie shrugged. “I never thought it would come to this.”

  She kissed him lightly on the forehead. “We’ll be okay. We just need to be really careful.”

  “And what about you? What are you going to do?”

  LuAnn took a deep breath. “Whatever it takes to make sure we all survive this.”

  “And Riggs?”

  She looked squarely at him. “Especially Riggs.”

  “I hate this, Mom. I hate it.” Lisa stomped around the room in her pajamas as LuAnn hurriedly packed her daughter’s bags.

  “I’m sorry, Lisa, but you’re just going to have to trust me on this.”

  “Trust, ha, that’s a fu
nny one coming from you.” Lisa glared at her from across the room.

  “I don’t need that kind of talk right now, young lady.”

  “And I don’t need this.” Lisa sat down on the bed and stubbornly crossed her arms.

  “Uncle Charlie is ready, you need to get a move on.”

  “But we’re having a party at school tomorrow. Can’t it at least wait until after that?”

  LuAnn slammed the suitcase shut. “No, Lisa, I’m afraid it really can’t.”

  “When is this going to stop? When are you going to stop dragging me all over the place?”