Swingin' in the Rain (26 page)

  I hit the redial.

  “Where are you?” Carver demanded.

  “On the way, but I want to talk to Sarah.”

  “Forget it.”

  “How do I know she’s okay?”

   “Okay, okay,” he said, annoyed, “just hold on. I’ll get ’er.”

  I looked at Jakes and nodded.

  “Okay,” Carver said, “you get to hear a few words. That’s all.”

  “But—“

  “Hi, Mommy,” Sarah said, “me and Tonja are still hidin’ from you—“

  “Oh, Honey, are you—“ but she was gone.

  “Okay,” Carver said, “you heard her. Now get over here.”

  The line went dead, and I couldn’t stop the tears.

  “How did she sound?” Jakes asked

  “Fine. She thinks we’re playing a game, that she and Tonja are hiding from us.”

  “Okay,” he said, “at least she’s not scared. That’s something.”

  “Oh God oh God, Jakes. What if...”

  “Not gonna happen. We’re getting our girl back. She’s gonna be okay.”

  He gave me a quick, firm hug and then started the car again.

  “Ready?” he asked, pulling away from the curb, “let’s get this over with.”

  I turned and looked at the DVD’s on the back seat, There were two. I had hid them in plain sight, in a cupboard, inside the movie DVD boxes, along with Sarah’s other animated films. Obviously while Tonja had blown through my house looking for them she hadn’t used much imagination.

  One of the DVDs would be of interest to Carver, but the second was just one we picked at random. Jakes said we had to hold one back, because Carver and maybe Rockland were going to try to take us and the DVDs without setting Sarah free. We needed an ace in the hole. Jakes had hidden it as well as he could, in the trunk of the car. He said somebody would have to take the car apart to find it.

  When we reached the house, there was an absolute deluge happening, with strong wind. This was the kind of downpour that caused flooding, and landslides.

  The lights were on in Randy’s house.

  “Okay,” Jakes said, “Let’s go.”

  “But—we don’t know what we’re doing.”

  “We’re getting Sarah back,” he said, looking at me. “No matter what happens, that’s number one. Understand?”

  I nodded.

  “So we’ll go in there and make the trade, and see what happens.”

  We got out of the car, my heart pounding, the .38 he’d given me heavy in my purse. Would I be able to shoot someone, even to save Sarah? We were going to find out.

CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN

  We were soaked through and through by the time we got to the front door, which was ajar.

  “Let me go first,” Jakes said. With his gun in his hand he pushed the door open and entered. I followed. It was warm in the house, and all the lights seemed to be on.

  “Carver?” Jakes yelled.

  “In here,” a man’s voice called back. “Just keep comin’.”

  We kept moving down the hall until we came to the large living room. In the center of it stood Carver. He was alone.

  “Where’s my daughter?” I asked.

  “She’s fine.” Carver said.

  “I want to see her. Please.”

  “You bring the DVDs?” he asked.

  I held up the DVDs. What were the chances he’d want to check them before we made the exchange?

  “Walk down the hall. Both of you, slowly.”

  He had a gun on Jakes and me as we headed down the hallway. He stopped in front of Sarah’s room and opened the door a crack.

  Sarah was on the floor playing with some of her Barbie’s Randy had gotten for her. Tonja looked up at me from where she was sitting next to Sarah and gave me a defiant look.

  “Hi, Mommy. You found us!” She jumped up and we hugged each other.

  “Hello, Sweetie, are you okay?”

  “I’m fine,” she said, with a shrug, “I’ve been playing in my room with Tonja. It makes me miss Daddy, though. Being here.”

  I put her hair behind her ears and kissed her. “I’m sure it does, Honey,” I said. “We’ll be going home soon, don’t worry.”

  “Yeah, we’ll all be going home soon,” Carver said. “Let’s go.” He pulled me out of the room.

  “I’ll see you in a minute, Sarah!” I yelled out as he closed the door. He pushed us back into the living room.

  “Mommy!” I heard her yell, and for the first time she sounded scared.

  There was no doubt about who he was. He was the man I’d seen stab Patti. He was the man with the blue-tipped cowboy boots. He had a cadaverously thin face and long, lifeless brown hair that hung past his shoulders. This time he was wearing his cowboy hat, again.

  Jakes had his gun down by his leg, where Sarah hadn’t been able to see it. I didn’t see a gun in Carver’s hand. I looked around but there was no sign of Rockland.

  “It’s obvious Tonja trashed my house trying to find these,” I said. “But why did she become my neighbor?”

  “That was easy,” Carver said. “Rockland found out the house down the street from you was available, so we rented it for Tonja.”

  “To keep track of me through Alex?” Jakes asked.

  Carver laughed. “You have a big opinion of yourself, Jakes. No, we wanted to keep track of Randy.”

  “Through me?” I asked. “I had nothing to do with Randy.”

  “Yeah, well,” Carver said, “Rockland didn’t know that. He said ex-wives and husbands were always connected. Guess he was wrong. You two hardly ever saw each other—that is, until he filed for custody.”

  “Wait,” I said, “you, Randy, Rockland, you were partners?”

  “We bought that club together,” Carver said, “and we all used phony names. It was supposed to be the first of many joint ventures. Randy was using money from his various investors, Rockland used his police contacts and knowledge to get us cheaper prices, and I . . . well, I was supposed to be some kind of . . . enforcer. But I was too smart for that.”

  “Rockland used his position to force sellers to sell at low prices?” Jakes asked.

  Carver shrugged. “Everybody has skeletons, you know. Your colleague was really good at finding them.”

  “But you,” Jakes said, “you found his, didn’t you? You were blackmailing him with these DVDs.”

  “And Randy,” I said. “You were blackmailing him?”

  “Randy, your precious daughter’s father, was even more bent than we were.”

  “He stole,” I said, “but he didn’t kill. You killed him.”

  “Rockland killed him,” Carver said.

  “Giving you more to hold over his head,” Jakes said.

  “Enough background. Bring those DVDs over to me,” Carver said.

  “No way,” Jakes said. “We get Sarah first.”

  “That ain’t the way it’s gonna work, Detective,” Carver said.

  “Then send Sarah over and I’ll bring you the DVDs at the same time,” Jakes said.

  Carver gave it some thought, then said, “No, I want Alex to bring them to me.”

  “No way,” Jakes said, again. “Then I’ll have Sarah but you’ll have Alex.”

  Carver looked at me. “Why don’t we let the lady decide?”

  “I’ll take them to him,” I said.

  “Alex—“

  “Just get her out of here, Jakes.”

  “And put your gun away, Dude,” Carver said. “Your hands should be empty to take that little girl.”

  Jakes didn’t move.

   “Put it away,” Carver said to Jakes, and suddenly his gun was in his hand. “Hey, I’m not even askin’ you to drop it.”

  Reluctantly, Jakes stuck the gun into his belt.

  “Okay,” Carver said, “Alex, bring me those DVDs.”

  “Give us Sarah, first”

  “We’ll go down the hall and get her as soon as I have the DVDs in my hand.”

  He didn’t say he wanted to check them, just that he wanted to hold them. I walked over and handed the 2 DVDs to him.

  “Now I want Sarah—“ I said, backing away.

  “Hold on,” Carver said. “You two may think I‘m stupid, but I ain’t. I’m willin’ to bet that at least one of these is bogus.”

  Jakes and I didn’t move, or say anything. 

  “I think I’ll keep both these ladies,” Carver said to Jakes, pointing his gun at me, ”and you go and get me the real DVD.”

  “What do you care about the DVDs?” Jakes asked. “They implicate Rockland, not you.”

  “Which means he’d pay me a lot of money for ‘em.”

  “On a cop’s salary?”

  Carver laughed. “You ain’t looked at your buddy Rockland’s finances, lately,” he said. “He’s turned that badge into a lot of money over the years.”

  “So why’d Rockland have you kill Randy?” Jakes asked.

  “You got that wrong, Dude,” Carver said. “Sure, I did some wet work for Rockland, but I didn’t kill Randy. I told you. That was your colleague. He graduated from shady real estate deals to murder.”

  “So you’re saying Rockland’s the killer,” Jakes said.

  I wondered if Sarah could hear us discussing her father’s murder from behind the closed door of her room.

  My purse was slung over my shoulder, hanging down around my waist. I wondered if I could get the gun out without Carver realizing what I was doing.

  “He’s the man you want,” Carver said.

  “And why would you be telling me that if you’re plannin’ on squeezing some money out of him?”

  Carver grinned and shrugged. “I guess maybe I got somethin’ planned, huh?” He gestured at me with his gun. ”Now you go and get me that last DVD.”

  “Wait a minute,” Jakes said. “If you’re not the killer, then you’d be a fool to kill anybody right now.”

  “You think I wouldn’t kill your girl here if you don’t bring that DVD back to me? Is that what you’re sayin’?”

  I saw from the look on Jakes’ face that he thought he might have pushed Carver too far. I knew he’d kill me, because I saw him stab Patti.

  “Okay, wait--” Jakes said.

  “Maybe I should make an example of one of these girls, huh?” he asked. “Maybe I should bring Tonja out and put a bullet in her right in front of the little girl. She’s a stupid bitch, anyway. She wasn’t supposed to leave you alone in the club that night, but the dumb bitch got excited . . . okay, never mind. Maybe I’ll just put a bullet in somebody.” The gun wavered. “Who should it be?””

  “Carver,” Jakes said, “don’t do anything stupid.”

  “You ready to get me that DVD?” Carver asked.

  I slid my hand into my purse and closed my fingers tightly around the gun.

CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT

  My fear was that once there was shooting, Sarah would hear and be frightened. She might even come running out of the room. But there was no way I intended to leave—or have Jakes leave—without her. Still, my hand just would not come out of my purse.

  “Carver! Hold it!”

  We all looked at the man who had stepped through the doorway from another bedroom. It was Detective Sam Rockland, and he had a gun in his hand, pointed at Carver.

  “Sam,” Carver said, “you were supposed to stay in that room.”

  “I’m not gonna stay in there while you kill people,” Rockland said. “And I sure as hell ain’t gonna stay in there while you try to pin a murder on me.”

  “This was supposed to be my show, Detective,” Carver said. He was still pointing his gun at me. “They’re supposed to believe everything I say, not what you feed ‘em.”

  “Well, I don’t like the way you’re runnin’ it,” Rockland said. “Jakes, get your girls out of here.”

  “Sam—“

  “And take Tonja, too. She’s just a stupid bitch who does whatever Carver tells her to do”

  “Jakes,” Carver said, “don’t you move.  Sam, are you crazy? We need those DVDs.”

  “What makes you think we don’t already have ’em?” Rockland asked.

  “Like I said,” Carver replied, ”I ain’t stupid. Neither are these people. They wouldn’t walk in here with everything I want, and trust me to give ‘em back the kid. Hell, I wouldn’t trust me to do that.”

  “Look,” Rockland said, “I was willing to set Tonja up to watch Alex. But we never said anything about kidnapping her daughter.”

  “Well, things got complicated, didn’t they?” Carver pointed the gun at Rockland. “And they’re about to get even more complicated.”

  I kept my eyes on Jakes, waiting for him to pull the gun from his belt, almost hoping that he wouldn’t. Maybe these guys would shoot each other and save us all a lot of trouble.

  He met my eyes, then looked at my hand in my purse and shook his head slightly. He didn’t want me to take it out.

  “Rockland, don’t be a fool. You’re makin’ this harder than it should be.”

  “No, Carver,” Rockland said, “I’ve been makin’ it harder than it should be, but not anymore. Put down your gun. You’re under arrest.”

  “What?”

  “You heard me.”

  “Now?” Carver said, incredulously. “You’re actin’ like a cop now?”

  “It’s what I should’ve done a long time ago, when you first told me you killed Randy.”

  “Shut up!” Carver yelled. “Damn it, Sam—“ And he fired.

  The bullet struck Rockland in the chest. A look of pure surprise came over his face. He slumped against the door frame, then slid down to a seated position on the floor. The gun dropped from his hand.