Dark Places (34 page)

“You'll blow up Willie if you do. You don't want to do that. Put it down on the ground, Wilma. You and Willie can survive this. I'll help you get a lawyer.” I started moving toward her.

“No, no, Willie knows the quick way out. McKay's the one who's gonna die.” She laughed and pressed the button. My slug hit her at midchest and sent her crashing backward into deep snow. I heard a terrible roar behind me and took off running but the concussion of the explosion slammed me from behind and tossed me forward into the air. I hit hard against a snowdrift and covered my head as the burning timber and debris from the lodge rained down all around me and made hissing sounds in the wet snow.

My ears rang from the blast but eventually I heard shouts from the hill past the stream and knew it was Charlie and the guys. I felt the heat on the back of my parka and rolled in the snow to put out the flames then started a fast crawl away from the burning structure. More of McKay's explosives went off underground in muffled blasts about five seconds apart, caving half the hillside in on the caves below.

I looked back at what was left of the burning building and hoped to God that McKay had gotten Elizabeth out in time. Then I lay my head back in the cold snow and waited for somebody to find me.

The hospital stay wasn't so bad, considering. I got a cubicle in critical care next to Bud's, which was pretty nice because of that buddy thing we've got going on. Black showed up quick enough to bawl me out for getting myself in trouble some more. I couldn't mind too much; after all, I was alive. Black was at the foot of my bed, arrogantly scanning my chart, ready to critique my doc's prognosis and order the nurses around. Right now a couple of the nurses were eyeing him appreciatively and whispering and smiling. He had that effect on women, especially nurses.

He said, “You're lucky you got out of that hellhole alive. And it looks like only one recluse bite is showing necrosis. That'll mean less scarring at the wound. And the broken bone in your ankle will heal fine now that it's set, if you stay off it. And trust me, you will.”

He meant business and for once I was ready and willing to listen to his medical decree. I had been worried about spider bites, and a vision of Simon Classon's corpse rose in my mind, the horrible, deep holes eaten into his flesh. “Am I going to have a big ugly hole in my leg?”

“No, they cleaned out the necrosis pretty well. It's going to hurt like hell for a while but you won't need a skin graft. It'll probably just leave a shallow scar.”

“I can handle scars.”

“Yeah, you've had way too many.” His expression was generally pissed off. “We've got to talk about this penchant you have for putting yourself in the hospital. You know that, right?”

“Yeah, sure. Anytime.”

Next door, I heard Bud's side rail rattle, then a groan.

“Hey, Bud, you okay?”

“Hell, no. I got bit by a goddamn timber rattler. How'd you think I feel?”

Good, he was better. He was cussing.

“Well, I'm banged up, too. No snakebites, though.”

His next words cinched that he was on the road to recovery. “Hey, Claire, you know why cobras sway to flutes?”

“No, why?”

“It's not the music. It's the movements of the flute.”

“I guess you got that outta that book I bought you, huh?”

“Nope, I saw it on the Discovery Channel last night while you were in surgery gettin' your ankle set.”

Black and I smiled at each other. When Joe McKay walked in, a big bandage wrapped around his head, Black stood. “Hell, it looks like an Iraq triage unit around here.”

“Tell me about it,” Joe said. He looked down at me. “I hear you're gonna make it.”

“Yeah. I'm okay. How's Elizabeth?”

“Some bumps and scratches but, thank God, that's all. It could've been real bad.”

“Yeah. I thought you both were dead.”

Black said, “You think Willie got out?”

“I knocked him down and took off with Elizabeth. I doubt very much if he made it out before the blasts started going off.”

I said, “He's sick in the head. So was Wilma.”

McKay said, “Yeah, I knew he and Simon were dangerous but I didn't realize how bad they really were. All I wanted was to prove they killed my little brother for pushing Willie into a grave when he was little. Simon got him out and that's why Willie was so blindly loyal to him. We went to the same church they did. Did you know about any of this?”

I shook my head. I didn't know much about Willie Vines except that he was a dead psychopathic, angel-loving serial killer.

“Were you really going to blow up Wilma and Willie with the cave?”

“I was going to blow them both to hell.”

I didn't blame him for that but I didn't want to say so, either, not exactly a police-officer kind of remark. Instead, I said, “Where's Elizabeth now?”

McKay lowered his voice. “She's at Charlie's house. Jacqee's watching her.” He glanced at Black then back to me. “Could I have a private word with you? Won't take long.”

I knew then why he'd come. And again, I couldn't blame him for what he was about to do. “Mind giving us a minute, Black?”

Black minded, all right, but he's a stand-up guy, so he said, “How about a Pepsi? Bud, you want me to get you anything?”

“Yeah, two Big Macs and fries, super size it.”

Black kissed me on the cheek; his alpha-male way of staking his claim, I suppose. Surprisingly, I didn't mind. Joe McKay sat down and pulled the chair close to my bed. He kept his voice low.

“Charlie's gonna work with me on the California warrant. He got me bail until the hearing and said he's willing to back me up and help me get Elizabeth back. So I got to ask you. You gonna help me out, too? Talk to the judge?”

There it was,
the
question. “What about Elizabeth's mother? She has legal custody, right?”

For once McKay wasn't putting on the charm. His blue eyes were serious, pleading, even. “Delia's a hard-core addict. Got into all kinds of illegal drugs after I left for the Persian Gulf. I didn't even know Elizabeth existed until I got back to the States and looked Delia up. She's in jail now for possession. Her loser boyfriend had Elizabeth. I've got a DNA analysis in the works to prove she's mine. You vouch for me along with Charlie, and I'm pretty sure everything will work out. My clean military record's gonna help. And the fact that I tried to help you solve Classon's murder.”

I thought of my baby. The pain I felt when I lost Zach. The hole in my heart that never heals over. “Does Delia love Elizabeth?”

“She's too strung out now to love anything but the drugs. Her boyfriend was slapping both of them around, but she stayed with him for the hits he gave her. She had Elizabeth living in a crack house, for Christ's sake.”

“You should've gone through the courts with this, McKay. Grabbing her like that was stupid.”

“I didn't have much choice. Social services gave her back to Delia twice. I had no legal claim then, but I will as soon as I prove paternity.”

I stared at him, not liking the position he was putting me in. It went against my grain to buck the system but this time there were plenty of good reasons. “I'll talk to Charlie and see what we can do. I can't promise you anything, and I won't do anything illegal. But I'll vouch for you.”

McKay looked mightily relieved. He smiled. “I'm thinking about settling down around here and raising her. Maybe you could be her godmother or her favorite Aunt Claire, something like that.”

Again, I thought of my own little Zachary, how he'd felt the last time I held him, when blood was leaking out of his chest. I looked away. “I'm not so good with kids.”

McKay said, “I owe you big-time for this, Claire. I mean it. Anything you ever need, ever, just let me know.”

“Tell me the truth then. You really a psychic?”

McKay grinned. He picked up my hand and held it flat between both of his. “I'll tell you this much. I've seen the two of us getting pretty hot and heavy together in the future. Which sounds damn good in my book. So you tell me, Claire. Is that gonna happen?”

Now I was really embarrassed but not as embarrassed as when he pressed his lips to the back of my hand about the time Black walked in with my Pepsi. I jerked my hand away, and McKay's dimples went wild. “Keep in touch, Claire. I plan to.”

“Right.”

McKay nodded to Black, who stared him out of the room. Black walked to the bed and popped the tab on a can of Pepsi and poured it into a cup of crushed ice. I didn't say anything.

“Want to tell me what that was all about?”

“Sure. He asked me to marry him and move to Rome, the one in Italy, actually, so we could be private investigators together and help Interpol solve cases. You know, I catch 'em. He blows 'em up.”

He cocked an eyebrow and handed me the cup. I took a sip.

“And?” he said.

“And, I told him that I liked you better so I was going to stick around here and let you buy me some more expensive gifts. Like my own personal Humvee.”

He smiled and adjusted my straw. “Good answer.”

From the next cubicle, Bud said, “I was serious about those Big Macs, Doc. And get me a couple of fried apple pies, too. They're two for a dollar now.”

Black and I laughed, then I laid my head on the pillow, shut my eyes, and hoped to God that Willie Vines had died in that explosion.

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