Mind Games (42 page)

He swiped the dampness from his eye with the back of his hand, but the two women saw. Diana kept on, doing exactly what Alice said—getting inside Macon’s head. “Your mother loved you, and you loved her. That’s natural. Sons love their mothers.”

“Kill her, Harley,” Alice demanded. “What the hell’s the matter with you? Forget your mother. She didn’t love you. Sold you out to fuck the first real man who came along.”

Macon paced back and forth, never taking his eyes off Diana, waving the gun in a shaky hand. “I told you to shut the fuck up, Alice.” He glared at her. “You don’t quit, do you?”

Alice looked like she’d been struck by lightning. For a minute she didn’t move; her mouth hung open. Then the spark turned into a slow burn. “You fuckin’ pussy,” she hissed. “I thought you were a man. Why, you’re nothing but a pussy-whipped mama’s boy.” She grabbed her purse. “If you don’t kill her, I’m walking, and I’m taking the car. I ain’t spending the rest of my life in jail over some dickless man-boy who’s so stupid he can’t see what’s going on in front of his crazy nose.”

Diana backed away. Stupid and crazy in one sentence, not to mention mama’s boy.
This is not good.

Macon’s face turned purple. He opened his eyes so wide they looked like they were going to pop right out of his head. His arm trembled; the gun wobbled in his hand. The gun aimed at Diana.

“Doesn’t matter what I do now,” he said to Diana. “I could kill you on my way to hell, because as far as I can see, there’s no other place to go. He took aim and cocked the gun.

* * * * *

L
ucier wished it were nighttime. Then they might see a light, a shadow, something to know they were right. But it wasn’t night. It was a quiet Sunday. So quiet he heard the underfoot crunch of dead weeds and broken glass trashing the deserted area. The sun shone down on them as if they were under a spotlight, hot and bright and relentless.

Lucier pointed Halloran and Cash to the far side of the building to check for other exits. He and Beecher made their way to the side stairway. Cash and Halloran came around the back and reported that the other entrance was boarded up, but motioned Lucier to the back and the two cars under the building. Beecher pointed to the old Mustang and mouthed
Dree
, but Lucier’s interest settled on the Volvo. Macon was here. Diana too.
Please, God, let us not be too late.
When Beecher indicated the dark stain on the trunk, Lucier waved him off.
Later
, he mouthed.
First things first.

Cops should never allow emotions to interfere with their duties. Lucier knew that. Agreed with it. Yet here he was, about to lead an attack that conflicted with everything he believed. He felt neither calm nor reasonable as he crept up the stairs, hoping to save the woman he loved. His head felt on the verge of exploding.

A spine tingling scream followed by a gunshot shattered the silence of the peaceful day.

Chapter Fifty-Eight

Harley’s Way

D
iana’s scream echoed in her ears. Horrified, she watched Alice Mayburn’s expression change from defiance to disbelief as she clutched her stomach. The woman pulled her hands away, apparently mesmerized by the bright crimson staining them.

Alice slowly panned to Macon. “Why, Harley?” she asked as she slumped to the floor into a motionless heap.

“Because you just wouldn’t fucking shut up,” Macon answered. “And goddamn it, how many times have I told you to stop saying my name in every sentence?”

Macon seemed to wait for an answer, but Alice lay as still in death as she was vibrant in life. Blood formed a dark stain on the pine floor beneath her. Macon, as if he’d just realized what he’d done, leaned down and put his finger to her throat. “Damn you. Why couldn’t you just shut your mouth?”

Diana inched toward the door, the promised escape route a short scramble away. The sound of footsteps barreling up the outside stairway stopped her.
God, please, let it be Ernie.
Then she realized Macon would shoot whoever charged through the door. “Don’t come in,” she yelled, and hoped the thudding charge wouldn’t block out her warning. The assault stopped.

Lucier’s voice broke the silence. “Diana, are you okay?”

“I’m okay. Stay back.”

“She’s okay for now, lover boy,” Macon said. “She’s my ticket out of here.”

“You’ll never get away, Macon. My people are all over the place.”

“Well, then. I’ll take her with me. No problem.”

Diana’s heart pounded.
It’s just Harley and me. Get inside him, Diana. You did it once, you can do it again.
“You don’t want to hurt me, Harley. I understand you. We’re alike. Two of a kind.”

Macon snorted. “Don’t patronize me. You were right when you said we’re nothing alike. You’re Diana Racine: famous, rich, respected. I’m Harley Macon. My name will be linked with the worst of them. Twisted murdering pervert, they’ll say.” He looked off, pensive, as if he saw something behind her. “And they’ll be right. Everyone’s been right about me all along.”

She reached out her hand and touched him. He didn’t move. A vision played before her. She saw tears in his eyes, and something, she didn’t know what exactly, passed between them. Could he have seen what she saw? Contact worked both ways with someone like him, didn’t it? Like the night of the Marigny ball. Like the murder of Eleanor Hartman.

She kept her voice low. “I know what it’s like to see inside people, just like you. We share a curse, don’t we? To sometimes know what will happen before it happens.”

“And what do you see when you look inside me, Diana? What are you seeing now?”

“Same thing you saw.” From his expression she knew she’d been right. “Give me the gun. Prove the vision wrong.”

He flashed a cynical smile. “I don’t think so.” Leaning toward her, he spoke in a whisper. “I can’t go back there. I’m fucked whatever I do. Been fucked forever.”

“You need help. I’ll help you.”

The lipstick-smeared smile twisted on his ghoulish face. “Nice try, but help won’t undo everything I’ve done.” He pulled her up. “Come on, get up. If you really want to do good for me, tell your boyfriend and his friends to keep their distance.”

“You know they can’t.”

He pushed her in front of him. “Then we’ll both die, I’m afraid.”

When they turned toward the door, Lucier stood with his gun pointing at Macon. He’d been as silent as the night, but she knew he’d be there. Maybe Macon did too.

“The door wasn’t locked,” Lucier said. “Let her go, Macon.”

“So the knight in shining armor saves the damsel in distress once more.” Macon wrapped his arm around Diana’s neck. “You’re good, Lieutenant. I never thought you’d find us.”

No, no.
“Get out of here, Ernie. He’s going to shoot.”

But Lucier was a cop, and a cop doesn’t turn and run because a psychic tells him to.

“Right you are, Diana,” Macon said. Without a word of warning he fired at Lucier, hitting him in the chest. The shot sounded like a cannon exploding. Like her life exploding. Lucier went down with a groan.

“Ernie,” she screamed. That’s exactly how she’d seen it happen, and that’s where her vision ended. She had no idea what would happen next. She tried to run to him, but Macon held her firmly in his grip.

It’s all instinct now, Diana.

Lucier was trying to get up, and Macon took aim at him again. His arm tightened Diana in a choke hold, and she gasped for breath. Then she saw Lucier panting on the floor. She summoned all her strength and unleashed a well-placed backward kick at Macon’s knee. The cont
act threw him off balance just enough to loosen his hold, allowing her to wrestle free. Without thinking, she dove for Lucier’s gun and twisted around.

Macon struggled to regain his equilibrium. When he did, he aimed the gun shakily at her.

“You sick―” She
took her shot at the same time Beecher and the others barged through the door.

The bullet slammed into Macon’s shoulder and put him down, but he didn’t stay down. He lost hold of his gun and stretched for it, wincing as he did, then forced himself to a sitting position. Blood oozed from his shoulder. He laughed. “Well, if that don’t beat all. You are a piece of work, Diana.”

“I got him, Ernie,” Beecher yelled.

Lucier grunted. “He’s mine.”

Macon raised his weapon and glanced at Diana, then pointed the gun at Lucier with his finger on the trigger. Lucier snatched his gun from her hand, but just before he unloaded three rounds, Macon fired into the ceiling. He went down and stayed down. Lucier went down too.

Beecher moved quickly for a big man and kicked away Macon’s gun; Cash knelt and checked for a pulse. He shook his head.

“Ernie’s hurt,” Diana cried. “Get an ambulance. Hurry.”

“I’m all right,” Lucier muttered. He rose slowly. “But Jesus, that hurt.” He shrugged out of his jacket and opened his shirt. A bullet hole punctured the Kevlar vest. “Hurt like hell.”

“You’d have hurt a lot more if he’d aimed for your head,” Beecher said. “Then I would have said, ‘Told you so.’”

Diana went limp with the release of tension. She crawled over to Lucier and threw her arms around him. “Oh God, Ernie. I knew he was going to shoot, but I didn’t know what would happen after.”

“When I heard that scream, I thought…I don’t want to say what I thought. It’s over. Harley Macon will never hurt you or anyone else again.”

“He aimed at the ceiling on purpose. He wanted you to shoot him.”

Lucier looked at Macon’s still body. “You heard him. He wasn’t going back to prison.” He pushed a spiral of hair from her eye. “You look gray. Are you all right?”

“I shot someone, but I’ll be fine. As soon as I have a double scotch, straight up.” Then she fainted.

Chapter Fifty-Nine

A Vision to Die for

L
ucier sat holding Diana’s hand in the hospital room. When he saw Captain Jack Craven peek through the door, he knew what was coming, and rightly so.

“How is she, Ernie?”

“Sleeping off the sedative they gave her. She’s been to hell and back, but she’s tough. She’ll be okay.”

They moved away from the bed and spoke in hushed tones. “When Ms. Racine is feeling better, get her statement, then you take some time off. Time you should have taken eight years ago.”

“Not necessary, Captain, really.”

“This isn’t a suggestion, Lieutenant. It’s an order. You’re a good cop, Ernie, but you were too close to this case, and I’m not sure that didn’t affect your judgment. Make you take chances you wouldn’t ordinarily take. If I’d have been paying closer attention, I would have taken you off this one.”

“Is this a suspension, Jack?”

“Not unless I put myself on one. There’s too much going on in this city to micromanage every problem, but I dropped the ball here. I relied on my people to do their jobs.”

“That’s what I was doing.”

“Maybe everything would have gone down the same way with someone else in charge, I don’t know. Who’d have thought to chain Ms. Racine to her sick bed so she couldn’t go off to meet Macon? If she’d told you about the meeting, we could have caught him in the park, and three people would still be alive.” Craven thought a moment. “But he wouldn’t have given up without a fight, and others might have been killed in the process.”

“I take full responsibility for that, Captain. I ordered her not to go, but she went anyway. I should have chained her to the bed myself.”

“I thought of putting her and that father of hers in jail for obstruction of justice, just to cool their heels for a night or two, but I’m afraid what the two of them might have done inside.”

In spite of the dressing down, Lucier smiled at the thought of Galen in jail with the prison brotherhood.

“Macon wasn’t predictable,” Craven said. “They never are when they’re obsessed. But in spite of my bitching, you and your men did some excellent police work. If you hadn’t taken him down when you did, he would have killed Ms. Racine and who knows how many others on his route out of the country.” Craven headed for the door and turned. “There are still some matters I haven’t figured out, and no one’s talking. So do yourself a favor, Lieutenant, and take the time off. There’ll be plenty waiting for you when you get back.”

“I appreciate the consideration, Captain.”

“I wonder what happened in there to make him turn on the Mayburn woman. Write your report, then I don’t want to see you for three weeks.” Craven winked. “That should give you and Ms. Racine enough time to get to know one another without Macon looming in the picture. Oh, and welcome back to the land of beating hearts, Lieutenant. She’s quite a gal, and right now I think you need each other.”

“Yes, she is. Thanks, Jack. You may be right. She needs someone other than her parents this time.”

“By the way, they’re waiting outside.”

Lucier rolled his eyes. “Oh, no. I don’t know if I can deal with them right now.”