Cut and Run 08 Ball & Chain (29 page)

Zane snorted. “Understandable.” He waited a beat, glancing at Nick again. “I’ll hold him down for you if you decide to go for it.”

Nick barked a laugh and smiled wryly. He jutted his chin out toward the laptop, scratching idly at his arm. “Okay, so what are we looking for here?”

Zane turned his attention back to the computer. “We’re . . . we still need a place to start. We’ll go through the other emails, see if we can make a timeline, see if there are any keywords or numbers that repeat. Did you come up with anything like that in your interviews?”

“Keywords or special numbers?” Nick asked.

Zane nodded.

“Not really. Only number I got out of it was the time on the watch. Goddamn, why am I itchy again?” Nick rolled his sleeve up and frowned at his arm. He’d scratched it almost to the point of bleeding. He glanced over his shoulder at the wall where he and Kelly had emerged. “It’s got to be something in those walls, man.”

“Kelly’s not itchy. I wonder why you are.”

“Curse of the red hair, I guess,” Nick said wryly. He stopped scratching, staring at the desk and his notepad for a second before looking up at Zane with wide eyes. “I’m not the only one on the island who’s been itching.”

Ty and Kelly made their way to the dining room, where a sort of buffet lunch had been set up. With the cook dead, the head of the house still sedated, and the staff all frightened and grieving, everyone else was just doing whatever could be done to make life easier. The buffet was being cleared up already, though. Ty checked his watch.

“I didn’t realize it was so late,” Kelly said under his breath.

“Yeah, time flies when you’re in a freezer playing with someone’s intestines.”

Kelly snorted. “Tell me about it. Every time.”

Ty glanced at him, but Kelly was maintaining a straight face. He met Ty’s eyes and grinned impishly.

“I think almost dying did something weird to you; you’re like the beginning of a horror movie,” Ty told him. He returned his attention to the large dining room, searching for Stanton or Burns. He didn’t see either man, but he did spot Deuce and Earl, sitting in a corner eating. He tapped Kelly’s chest and gestured for him to follow as he wound his way toward their table.

Deuce saw them coming and gave them a halfhearted smile. Ty and Kelly both pulled up chairs and sat down.

“How’s the investigation going?” Deuce asked.

Ty shook his head. “Not too good.”

“What have you found?” Earl asked.

Ty shifted uncomfortably. How the hell should he even get into this with his dad, who had known Burns since they were teenagers? It would be like someone telling him that Nick had been doing all the things Burns had been doing for years, using his son to do it. He licked his lips, stalling until he could come up with something.

“Milton was a spy,” Kelly told them before Ty could speak. Ty gaped at him. Kelly reached out and plucked a cucumber from Earl’s plate. He pointed it at Earl. “For your buddy, Burns.”

Ty stared at him as he crunched down on the cucumber. Deuce and Earl were both wide-eyed, mouths hanging open.

Earl finally turned to Ty. “What?”

“I . . . basically, yeah.” Ty glared at Kelly, and Kelly shrugged. “Burns runs certain operators for jobs that . . . aren’t really aboveboard.”

“You’re talking about black ops,” Deuce said. “Uncle Dick runs black ops for the FBI? It’s not just you?”

Ty cleared his throat, wondering why it had suddenly gotten so damn hot in this place. “Yes. And the dead man was one of his.”

“And you’re one of his?” Earl asked in a stunned voice.

Ty met his father’s eyes and nodded.

Earl sat back, exhaling slowly. “That rat bastard.”

Ty put up a hand, trying to calm himself more than anyone else. “Let’s just focus, here. Do you know where Dick is right now?”

“I haven’t seen him since Zane and Nick came to talk to him,” Earl said through gritted teeth. “He came back to the table, said he had to get something from his room. Haven’t seen him since.”

Ty shook his head, glancing at his brother. Should he tell Deuce what they’d found on the laptop? One more glance at his father’s angry face and Ty decided he’d lit a fire under enough of the Grady family for now. He pushed back in his chair. “If you see him, tell him we need to talk to him, okay?”

“Oh, I’ll tell him all right,” Earl growled.

Ty nodded, retreating with Kelly toward the great hall. Once they rounded the corner, Ty turned and smacked Kelly in the arm. “What the hell was that, Doc?” he hissed.

Kelly rubbed at his arm, scowling. “What? You were going to take a fucking week before you got around to telling them. Wasn’t it more painless my way?”

Ty rolled his eyes. “Nick is going to strangle you in your sleep in the first six months, I guarantee it.”

Kelly shrugged. “He tries that every night.”

Ty squeezed his eyes closed, holding his head. “I told you, no sex stories and I won’t freak out. That was our deal!”

Kelly was laughing, an evil little giggle that Ty knew well.

“I have a very graphic imagination, okay? Do you want me to freak out?”

“It’s kind of fun to watch you freak out. Reminds me of the old days.”

“I hate you so much right now,” Ty grumbled.

They made their way toward the back patio in search of Burns or Stanton, but it was deserted. It seemed people were staying inside, sticking close to where they felt safe.

“Everyone must be locked in their bedrooms or something,” Kelly observed wryly. He and Ty shared a frown. “What if they’re rooming with a killer?”

Ty snorted and surveyed the patio one last time. Then Kelly’s words truly sank in, and a cold dread began to settle in his stomach. He turned to Kelly. “Locked doors don’t mean shit in this place, not with the passages in the walls. Even if they’re not rooming with a killer, they’re still in danger.”

Kelly nodded and shrugged. “Hasn’t that been true from the beginning?”

He and Ty stared at each other, then Kelly began to nod when he saw the look dawning in Ty’s eyes.

“Difference is, we know they’re in danger now,” Kelly said.

“Shit.” Ty turned to head back inside, striding for the dining room and Deuce. There were still a few people perusing the buffet, but for the most part the house felt deserted. Ty placed both hands down on the table where Deuce and Earl still sat and sighed heavily. “We have to get everyone in one room.”

“What? Why? What’s going on?” Deuce demanded as he took to his feet.

Ty shook his head. “Don’t panic. Will you just help us gather everyone for me, get everyone together in that big sunroom? I promise I’ll explain.”

“Wait, the sunroom?” Kelly asked. “That doesn’t sound safe at all.”

“You can see through the walls, Doc,” Ty whispered.

“Oh, good point,” Kelly huffed, then patted Ty’s shoulder and jogged away.

Deuce stared at Ty for another moment, then nodded. “Okay.”

Ty left them there without further explanation, running after Kelly to head back to Zane and Nick. Finding the killer amongst them wasn’t the priority right now. Making sure no one else wound up in that freezer, that was Ty’s goal.

They met Nick and Zane emerging from the study, both men looking like they’d discovered something important.

“We need to get everyone together,” Ty called to them.

“We need to get to the freezer,” Zane told Ty as he and Nick brushed past them. Ty and Kelly shared a confused frown, then turned and followed.

They were almost to the kitchen steps when the lights flickered around them and went out.

The entire house was thrown into near darkness. The great hall had no windows, nothing to let light in except for the patio doors at the very far end, which were still covered with the massive tent. The storm was darkening the horizon, and the winter light was waning. Zane couldn’t see a goddamn thing. He turned and reached out, cracking his knuckles against someone’s hard muscles and earning a surprised whoof in return.

“Sorry!” he whispered, grabbing at the man he’d hit.

“You better know it’s me if you’re grabbing me there,” Ty responded wryly.

Zane snorted and pulled him closer, hugging him tight.

“What the shit is this?” Kelly asked.

“Goddamn it!” Nick shouted. Something banged in the darkness as they all remained still to let their eyes adjust. “Unfuck your shit, Scotland!”

“Storm hit the generators?” Ty asked hopefully.

“Or someone hit them,” Zane said softly.

“This place is run off a single power generator?” Kelly asked incredulously.

“It’s run off wind, solar, and hydro power, just like all the other island communities in the Hebrides.”

“How do you know so fucking much about these islands?” Ty shouted at him.

“I watch Discovery Channel when I can’t sleep!” Nick shouted back.

“I . . . I did not know that,” Ty said, sounding both angry and apologetic at the same time.

Zane grunted. “Okay, everyone calm down. The power being out isn’t a big deal. We need to get to the freezer to check that body. We have a theory.”

“And we still need to gather everyone in the sunroom,” Ty added.

“Why?”

“No one’s safe in this house alone. And right now everyone is separate and alone. Hell, it’s the only place with light now. Why are we going to the freezer?”

Nick flicked his phone on, shining the light of the flash on the floor.

“Just . . . you two head for the generators, see what’s going on out there,” Zane said as he trailed after Nick and his light. “We’ll meet you in the sunroom and help gather everyone.”

“Hold on,” Ty hissed, following and grabbing Zane’s elbow. “Are either of you even armed?”

“O’Flaherty has his gun.” Zane squeezed Ty’s arm. “We’ll be fine.”

When Nick disappeared down the steps, the light went with him, and Ty’s face was enveloped by shadow. “Well that’s great, Zane, but Doc and I aren’t armed so I’d rather not go out into the stormy night to check the generators that some psycho with an ax probably just killed, not without at least a sharp stick or something.”

Zane nearly laughed. “We’ll stay together then. Come on.”

The flashlight reflected off the stainless steel of the kitchen, and Nick moved carefully toward the freezer, checking any blind spots and making certain they were alone down there. Kelly pulled the freezer door open, and Nick shined the light inside.

“What the hell are we doing down here, anyway?” Ty asked again.

Zane glanced at his shadowed face. “Nick is itchy.”

“Again?” Kelly asked.

“It’s the walls,” Nick said. He had his knife out, cutting through the thick plastic bag they’d wrapped Nikki Webb’s body in. He and Zane moved closer, handing their phones off to Ty and Kelly.

They examined the girl’s arms and legs, finding several scratches. The skin was reddened and torn in some places, just like Nick’s forearm.

Nick was nodding as he looked her over. “She mentioned being itchy when I interviewed her. I didn’t think anything of it. But whatever’s making me itch, it got to her too. She’s been inside the walls.”

“Wait a minute, so she’s one of our doers?” Ty asked. “Son of a bitch.”

“Looks like,” Zane said. “She could be the woman we saw on the beach. Means her partner killed her. He’s tying up loose ends.”

“Allies being killed means the endgame,” Ty pointed out. “And we don’t even fucking know what game we’re playing yet.”

“Hide and seek?” Kelly suggested.

“Shut up,” Ty huffed.

“Watch it,” Nick growled. He sounded truly angry. He and Ty stared at each other in the light of Kelly’s phone.

Zane could sense something coming to a head. He just hoped it waited until they were off this island.

Kelly subtly moved to stand between them. “We could be after just one person now. That’s good, right?”

“We shouldn’t assume that,” Zane told him. He took his phone back from Ty. “Let’s get back upstairs, check the power, and get some questions answered.”

They vacated the freezer, closing it carefully behind them. Zane took Ty’s arm and held him back as Nick and Kelly went up the stairs. “What’s going on with you two? What set him off?”

“What do you mean?” Ty asked, though he sounded a little too nonchalant to truly be clueless.