No One Else to Kill (Jim West Series) (25 page)

I didn’t know what I should say, so I remained silent.

“I know Colt has talked to you about me.
 
I’m okay with that.
 
I woke up this morning feeling more refreshed
than I have in a long time.
 
That also
must sound bizarre. I can’t really explain it.”

“No need to explain anything to me.”

“Thanks. I hope Colt didn’t indicate that I’m a total
basket case, because you know, for years I’ve lived alone and have taken care
of myself.
 
For a while, just after the
incident, I do think I was in some kind of shock. I didn’t really understand it
at the time.
 
That’s when I needed Colt
the most, but none of us except maybe Sandra saw it.
 
I only talked to Colt a few times back
then.
 
When Sandra left me, that’s when
the depression really sank in.”

“My wife left me.
 
I
know how it feels.”

“I tried a couple of times to end it all.
 
I guess I didn’t try too hard. Colt refers to
them as gestures or calls for help.
 
I
guess they were.
 
That’s when he started
working hard with me. Did he tell you that I lived on the streets for three
years?”

“No.”

“I guess it was my way to escape.
 
One day, though, I realized that life would
be more comfortable under a real roof.
 
For the past seven years, I’ve been doing fine, although Colt may argue
that point.
 
I’ve worked a few different
jobs and have paid my own way.
 
I know
there’s a big difference between the old Sean and the current one, and Colt has
seen that as something that can be fixed.”

He stopped talking for a while.

“Has it been?”
 
I
finally asked.

“I don’t know.
 
I
wanted to go on that hike this morning.
 
Hard to explain, but I don’t know the last time I wanted to simply go
for a walk and explore the outdoors.”

“Sounds positive,” I said, having no real idea what it
meant.

“Yeah.”

“Can you drink coffee at night?
 
I mean, will it keep you awake?”

“It doesn’t bother me.”

“Will you have a cup of coffee with me in the dining
room?
 
I won’t force you to listen to any
more of my stories, and I’d like to stay away from the press.”

I wasn’t in the mood for coffee or more conversation with
Sean, but I heard myself agreeing to the coffee.

“Let me run back up to my room for thirty seconds, and
then I’ll meet you in the dining room,” said Sean.

“Okay, I’ll be in in a minute.”

He left, and I stayed there leaning against the rail.
 
The night was pleasant, and I wondered if the
slightly warmer than expected air foretold the arrival of a front.
 
Thick clouds moved slowly to the northeast,
barely above the tree tops.
 
Sean’s
prediction of rain seemed likely.

“I still don’t know why you want to leave tonight!” Geri
and Vic walked out onto the front porch.

“I told you, I’m sick and tired,” he noticed me standing
there and didn’t finish his sentence.
 
“Come on.”
 
He carried two
suitcases, and Geri had a small carry-on.

“I’m not getting in that car.”

They walked by me.
 
Neither acknowledged my
presence,
and I decided
not to interfere.

“You’re not thinking straight, Geri.
 
There’s no reason to stay another night.”

“We all agreed.”

Vic responded, but they had moved far enough away that I
only picked up pieces of their conversation.
 
He tossed the two suitcases into the trunk of the car, took the carry-on
from Geri, and placed it with the others in the trunk.

I started to walk into the lodge when their discussion
took a nasty turn.
 
Geri may have said
something or maybe not, but suddenly Vic backhanded her hard across her
face.
 
She swung back at him, but he
caught her arm and with his free arm, smacked her again.

“Hey!”
 
I shouted,
walking toward them.
 
“That’s enough.
Break it up.”

“You’re getting in the car,” Vic snarled at Geri.

“Screw you!”

“Let her go, Vic.”

He looked at me.
 
His eyes didn’t look quite right.

“You couldn’t stay out of this, could you?”

“Guess not.
 
Now let
her go.”

“Maybe you both better get in the car.”

I didn’t know what he was getting at, but then I saw the
gun.
 
A nasty looking thing, bigger than
it needed to be, a revolver, at least a .44 caliber, pointed directly at my
stomach.

“You shoot that here, and you’ll have the whole lodge out
here in seconds.”

“So what?”

So what?
 
I
wondered.
 
What did he mean, so
what?
 
Did he really not care?
 
The way he said it, it would have been a good
bluff, but was it?
 
The sight of the
revolver being pressed out ever closer to me brought me back to reality. It
didn’t matter if he meant it or not.
 
I
wasn’t going to challenge him.

“Get in the car.
 
You in the front passenger seat.
 
Geri, you drive, now!”

“Vic.”

“Shut up.”

Geri moved around and got in the car.
 
I climbed into the front passenger seat.
 
Vic popped in behind me.

“Now drive.
 
I’ll
tell you where.”

Geri started the car and drove it out onto the paved road
that led out to Highway 63.

“Go north on the road.”

“Which way is that?” she asked.

“To your right, and don’t speed.”

“What’s going on, Vic?” I asked.

“Just shut up and no one will get hurt,” he said.

It didn’t take a brain surgeon to realize he might not be
telling the truth.
 
“Hand me the purse,”
he said.

I felt like he addressed his remarks to me so I passed the
purse to him.

“Now give me your cell phone.”

“I left it in the room,” I said.

“Don’t lie to me. Give me your phone or start passing all
your clothes back here to me.”

I handed him my phone.

“Now everyone
take
it easy,” he
said.

Geri had apparently had enough of his bull.

“You killed them! Victor, you killed both of them didn’t
you?!” she screamed.

“Keep us on the road,” he roared from the back seat.

Geri steered the car back into our lane and somehow did
manage to calm down a little.
 
I didn’t
see another car on the road in either direction.
 
Darkness dominated the landscape.

“You had already figured it out.
 
I saw it in your eyes earlier today.
 
That’s why you had to come with me.”

“No, Vic, I may have had my suspicions, but I didn’t
figure out anything.
 
I certainly
wouldn’t have said anything to anyone.”

“At some point, you would have.”

“Why Vic?
 
Why?”

“Just drive.”

“But why would you want to hurt Cross?”

“Besides the fact that you slept with him, you mean?”

I looked at Geri.
 
She looked surprised by his remark.

“Vic, if you know about that, then you know it happened
years ago. Nothing has gone on between us since then.
 
We both saw it as a mistake.”

“And he wasn’t the only one.”

Geri looked more shook up by his comments than by the fact
that he sat behind us with a big, fat revolver in his hands.

I wanted to say something, but I knew our presence in the
car had little to do with Geri’s past indiscretions.
 
Vic had killed Cross and Randi.
 
Nothing else made sense, but why? I thought
playing dumb couldn’t hurt my already bleak chances of getting away from him
unhurt.
 
Geri squashed that plan right
away.

“Why?
 
Why, Vic, did
you do it?”

“Oh come on, Geri, certainly you can figure that out - the
money, of course.
 
With Cross out of the
way, a lot of money is shaken loose that comes to us if we dissolve the
company.”

“But we aren’t going to dissolve the company.
 
The money is there to take care of the
company.”

“That’s just it sweetheart, you don’t get a vote.
 
That’s why I needed you to come along with me
on this ride.”

The threat seemed to pass Geri by without her registering
it.
 
“You’re talking nonsense.
 
Did you kill Randi, too?
 
Poor, harmless Randi - why
would you hurt her?”

I wanted to turn and look Vic in the face.
 
I also wanted to know why he killed her, but
I needed him to think he had me too terrified to do anything.

“Randi was just a tool, a simple tool, a pawn to be used
and discarded.”

“I thought you…” Geri paused for a minute, and Vic
answered for her.

“You thought I was having an affair with her?
 
Ha!
 
Sure I slept with her and even spent a buck or two on her, but that was
just the plan.
 
Talk about emotional
baggage. She was loaded with it. She was as easy as a kid to manipulate.
 
I told her we could get married, that I would
take care of her, that we just needed the money to be free.
 
She believed me, too.
 
All she had to do was close the window after
she discovered the body and then keep her mouth shut.”

“But she didn’t say anything!
 
I spent a lot of time with her, and she never
said anything.”

“She would have.”

“How could you?” Geri asked.

“You dumb bitch,” Vic snarled. “You’ve always had
money.
 
You’ve put everything into the
company, and we have to live like everyone else, like common folk.
 
Well, when I get the money, I’m spending it
all on me, just me.”

“We haven’t suffered any.”

“I’ve suffered just having to live with you.
 
If I could’ve come up with a better plan, I
would’ve killed the whole lot of you in an explosion.”

I had no doubt he had looked into it.

“Do you plan to kill me, too?” she finally asked.

I felt like saying “Duh?” like my neighbors’ teenage
daughter has said to me a few times when I had made a not-so-witty remark.

“Of course, my dear, and your boyfriend here has given me
so many ideas.”

Geri took her foot off the gas.
 
“Then you might as well shoot me now.”

“Don’t think I won’t.
 
I have nothing to lose. But how about if I shoot your boyfriend first.”

I looked over at Geri.
 
She looked at me.
 
The car had
slowed considerably. She looked at Vic and the way she looked right behind my
head I sensed he had the weapon aimed at me.
 
She pressed the accelerator down and we drove on.
 
I felt the sweat on my body.

“Turn right just up here.”

Geri took the lone turn off and we started driving on a
narrow, thinly paved road. I looked to my right as we turned and saw the head
lights of a car in the distance.
 
Too far
to be of any assistance but one could always hope.

“Take it slow, it won’t be far from here.
 
Yeah, having your boyfriend along gives me a
lot of ideas.
 
Maybe after I shoot you
both, I’ll tear up your clothing and scratch his face with your
fingernails.
 
Make it look like you
killed each other after he tried to sexually assault you.
 
You know, boyfriend, if you want, maybe I’ll
let you take her, as long as you promise to be rough.
 
Might be a nice way to go.
 
What do you think?”

I didn’t say anything, and he rapped the back of my head
with the gun barrel. It got my attention but didn’t seriously hurt me.

“I’m sorry,” I said, keeping up my pretense of fear, “but
I suffer from an old war injury and am pretty useless down there, if you know
what I mean.” I lied, but I didn’t want him to pursue any of his crazy ideas.

“Then maybe I shouldn’t call you boyfriend,” he said.
 
I felt like agreeing since I was already very
tired of his saying it. “What do you think Geri? Guess you should just consider
him one of your girlfriends now.”
 
He
laughed at his dumb joke.
 
Neither of us
did.

“Slow down,” he instructed.

I knew at some point I would have to make my move.
 
He had already killed two people, and I had
no doubt he intended on killing the two of us. However, I needed to get outside
the car to have any chance at all. Luckily, the last thing Vic probably wanted
was to leave any blood evidence in the rental car.

“I figure you’re worth about two million to me dead,” he
said.
 
“Does that sound about right?”

“I can’t believe you think it’ll be that easy,” Geri said.

“You mean getting the money?”

“Yes.
 
There’ll be
inquiries.”

“Oh I have that covered, too.
 
Here, stop here.”