The Good Die Twice (29 page)

“I was going to call, J.C.,” Edie
stammered.

“Oh really, now?”

“Oh my god,” Eric moaned, covering his
face.

“Well, now I know it wasn’t my imagination
that someone was following me.” A nervous laugh escaped from Edie’s
throat.

“Amazing way to connect the dots. I just
followed your father-in-law from Dagger’s house and I followed you.
Best way to find out who all the players are.” J.C. fanned the gun
at his audience, “Please, everyone sit down.” To Edie he said,
“Drop the necklace nice and easy.”

One by one the Tyler brood sank back into
their chairs. Lily clung to Robert’s hand. Eric huddled close to
Nick.

“She ain’t giving you jack shit.” Luke pulled
her tighter. Edie gasped as she strained her eyes in the direction
of Luke’s gun.

J.C.’s eyes smiled. He had a trusting face
and a sincere cadence to his voice. “I do detest violence. It is so
messy. But there are circumstances when the situation warrants it.”
He fired one shot. Edie and the necklace dropped to the floor. He
fired off another and Luke dropped to the floor.

All the men jumped to their feet. Eric cried
out, “Edie!” Lily screamed.

“Anyone else?” J.C. asked.

“Sara was right about you,” Dagger said.

J.C. bent down and scooped up the
jewelry.

“And what was that?”

“She Emailed the last museum you worked at
and suggested they check their most valuable collection to see if
it was moissanite. Imagine their surprise when they did your little
flame trick and those suckers turned bright yellow. We then
discovered that moissanite, the fake diamond you used, was never
available in pink. You, however, were a pretty good gemologist in
your own right and I figured you found a way to make pink ones. No
one had ever heard of a pink moissanite so they would never suspect
the set you had in the Argyle Museum was fake.” When J.C.’s
cheshire grin confirmed the revelation, Dagger added, “Edie must
have hired you.”

“Actually,” J.C. explained, “we sort of found
each other. Birds of a feather they say. What a perfect way to get
the diamonds out of the country. She arranges for her sister-in-law
to be the model, I exchange the wonderful replicas for the real
thing, and Edie retrieves the jewels back in the states. We find a
buyer, split the profits. What a country.”

“But,” Padre interjected, “Rachel suspected
they were real when Edie became obsessed with getting them from
her.”

“When Edie quarreled with Rachel, she
accidentally pushed her and she hit her head.” J.C. looked down at
Edie’s lifeless body. “I helped Edie deliver Rachel to that
retreat. I wanted to make sure she actually did have amnesia.
Couldn’t trust Edie, really.” J.C. turned to Eric. “Don’t you find
that to be true, Mr. Tyler?”

“Can’t trust the cops, either,” Padre
confessed.

Puzzled, J.C. furrowed his brow and gripped
his gun tighter.

Smiling, Padre said, “We never come alone.”
Three members of Cedar Point’s elite Swat Team had just
arrived.

Dagger raced his pitted Ford Torino to the
forest preserve. He had played Sara’s message over in his head
while the events unfolded at the Tyler residence. He had taught her
to be prepared for anything and to be observant. Dagger was sure
Sara was somewhere in Possum Woods.

The sun was setting as he gunned the Ford
through the downtown streets and headed for the outskirts. Possum
Woods was on the other side of town, a little-known woods except in
the fall after the first frost when all the mushroom pickers were
out in droves. The creek wasn’t deep enough for boats and there
were no large picnic areas. No walking or jogging trails. The woods
would be isolated enough to do whatever Joey wanted to do without
any witnesses.

He gripped the steering wheel tighter as he
thought of Joey. If things got bad, he knew Sara’s instincts would
be to flee, to shape-shift. Dagger felt confident until something
popped into his head. Sara’s instincts would save her, provided she
was conscious.

“I have to go to the bathroom,” Sara
pleaded.

Joey stopped pacing and stared at her. His
eyes drifted down her sundress and traced the body beneath the
fabric. Slowly he unbuttoned the bottom two buttons of her dress.
The fabric fell away, revealing shapely thighs, tan and firm. His
lips parted as he exhaled slowly, his eyes closing briefly with
thoughts Sara didn’t want to imagine.

Slowly he took his knife from his pocket,
walked around in back of Sara’s chair and knelt down. He inhaled
the scent of her hair and closed his beady eyes as he drank in the
smell of her perfume. His bony fingers slid languidly down her arms
and when he reached her fingers, he clasped one between his teeth
and sucked hard.

Sara fought back the urge to vomit.
Everything about him made her skin crawl. He seemed to rarely
blink, his eyes appearing psychotic, dangerous. Finally, she heard
the knife cutting and felt her wrists released from their
binding.

“You leave the door open though.”

“Why?”

“Because I said so.” His gaze never left her
chest as it rose and fell with each labored breath.

“I can’t go if you watch.”

“Too bad.” He checked the time. “I don’t know
why Luke isn’t calling.”

She entered the small closet, which contained
only a rusty toilet and tank. It hadn’t been used much and was
rusty from water stain. She closed the door slightly but Joey
pushed it open. He stood straddling the threshold between the two
rooms, his knife whittling away at the wooden door jam.

Sara started to cry. Her tears were huge and
fell like rivers down her cheeks. “I feel sick,” she cried. She
held her stomach as she neared him. Joey backed away. Moaning, she
held a hand to her mouth, and when he least expected it, kicked
hard at his groin.

Joey doubled up in pain and Sara proceeded to
give him another sampling of what he had received when they had
broken into her house. Another kick sent Joey halfway across the
room. Sara spun, kicking out again with her leg, planting a foot
into his throat.

As Joey hit the floor, Sara ran to the door,
unfastened the bolt, and fled.

Flashes of sunlight skipped in and out from
between the trees as Dagger raced the car down a dirt road. Dagger
pounded the steering wheel. “Think, dammit.” He pulled the car to a
stop and killed the engine. Leaning over the steering wheel, he
stared into the woods, looking for some sign, some hint of
movement.

Sara? He tried to reach her telepathically
but there was no response. Then he remembered…the lodge! A small
house had been used as a storage lodge. It had been vacated over
ten years ago but was never torn down.

He checked his gun and rushed out of the
car.

Sara’s strong legs carried her swiftly away
from the house. There were more woods there in which to hide and in
the cloak of the dense forest she would be able to shape-shift and
get away from him.

“Sara!” Joey’s voice echoed off the trees. He
gave a shrill yelp as if he were on some fox hunt. “I love it when
you fight.”

His voice sounded close. She looked back
quickly and saw him running like a deer up the hill. Sara speeded
up, branches catching her clothing and whipping across her face.
Just as she reached the top of the hill and a clearing, she heard
Joey closing in.

“That’s it, Sweetie. Tire yourself out so you
won’t fight too much when it counts.” His voice cackled, taunting,
teasing.

The rushing of the creek grew louder and Sara
ran toward the sound. But she stopped quickly and wrapped an arm
around a narrow tree. The creek was fast and about thirty feet
below. She didn’t think she had climbed that high.

“My god.” Her heart pounded in her chest. She
could jump and shape-shift as she fell, she thought. But it was too
late. Joey tackled her from behind.

“Gotcha!” Joey turned Sara around. She kicked
furiously struggling to get up. But Joey threw a punch and
connected with her chin. Sara fell against a tree and slid down to
the damp ground.

She felt hands tearing at her clothes. Her
head felt groggy and she tried to shake herself conscious but it
hurt too much. Warm air caressed her exposed breasts. She moaned
when she felt her panties ripped off her and Joey pushing her legs
apart.

“You are going to pay, Sweetheart.”

Joey’s voice was husky, depraved, as he
pressed his mouth against her throat. When she felt his hands
fumbling with his zipper, she cried out and forced her eyes open,
shook the grogginess from her head.

She gathered all the energy she could, and
just as he was ready to penetrate her, she shape-shifted.

“Whaaa?” Joey rocked back on his heels and
watched in horror as Sara shifted into a hawk, slipped out from his
hold, and flew up to a high branch. He had been too busy
concentrating on Sara to hear Dagger rushing up the hill. Sara had
no sooner shifted than Joey felt Dagger’s body slam into him.

Dagger’s adrenaline was on high. He pummeled
Joey, punching him in the midsection several times. Joey staggered,
turned and lunged for Dagger. They rolled partway down the hill,
over fallen branches and wet leaves. Joey pulled himself up and
kicked at Dagger’s head. Like the skinny weasel he was, Joey
scampered back up the hill and away from Dagger. It would have been
so simple to just shoot the sonofabitch but Dagger thought that
would be too easy.

At the top of the hill, Joey struggled for
his breath. His eyes searched the trees, saw Sara’s clothes on the
ground. A strange sneer pulled at his lips as he saw the hawk
through the branches.

Reaching the top of the hill, Dagger charged,
knocking Joey off balance. Dagger popped the palms of his hands
against Joey’s ears. Joey screamed as he felt one of his ear drums
pop. Dagger kicked, sending Joey flying backwards where he lay
motionless for a few moments. But he was like a road kill that
refused to die, arms and legs still twitching.

Exhausted, Dagger crawled hand over hand
through the mud to where Joey lay. The man was still breathing,
eyes fluttering trying to regain his senses. Slowly, Dagger rolled
the limp body over. He pressed one knee into Joey’s back, grabbed
his head, and twisted. Joey died instantly.

Dagger? What are you doing?
Sara’s
voice quivered in his head. The sound of Joey’s neck breaking sent
a shiver through the hawk. Sara had never seen Dagger look that
way…dangerous, feral, frightening. She had seen a similar look many
times in the past when the hawk would watch an animal on the hunt.
Once the prey was killed, the predator would have a menacing,
fierce look as it guarded the remains of its meal.

When Dagger jerked his head up to stare at
the hawk, the hawk took a few steps backward.
Go home, Sara.
Strands of hair, littered with fragments of leaves fell across his
dirt-smudged face. There was pure vengeance in his eyes, and no
matter how many attempts Sara made to communicate with him, he shut
her out. He never spoke again.

But the hawk didn’t leave. It watched
tentatively as Dagger hoisted Joey’s body up and sent it plunging
over the cliff and into the creek below. Then he gathered Sara’s
clothes and carried them down the hill.

CHAPTER 47

Simon rose from the couch the moment Dagger
stumbled through the front door. Dagger had called Simon and asked
if he and Eunie could stay with Sara until he got home.

“How’s she doing?” Dagger whispered, his gaze
drifting toward the upstairs.

“Hard to tell. She’s quiet, you know? Didn’t
say much, least not to me.”

A stocky woman with skin the color of
chocolate teetered down the stairway. She held onto the railing as
though not sure of her footing. Because of her enormous chest
resting over her waistline, she couldn’t see the stairs. Her head
was a wad of tight graying curls.

Eunie’s jovial eyes smiled, but the corners
of her lips frowned when she saw Dagger. “Honey, I hope you don’t
feel as bad as you look.”

Dagger’s shirt was torn and ragged, his
slacks covered in mud that was now drying. He had brushed them off
the best he could before coming into the house.

“I’ve had better days.” He glanced at the
second floor again.

“She’s sleeping, finally.” Eunie wrapped a
strong arm around his waist.

“I really appreciate you two coming over on
such short notice.” He staggered to the couch and sat down on the
arm. Every muscle in his body was starting to awaken and were none
too happy.

“She’s such a precious little thing,” Eunie
whispered. “She just curled up in a ball on her window seat and
stared out into that dark yard. I don’t know what she thought she
was seeing.” She turned to Simon. “She kept asking me if I heard
the rattles. Don’t know nothin’ about no rattles.”

Dagger forced a smile as he brushed his
dirt-caked hair from his face. “Her grandmother is buried out by
the stream. Sara hung some feathers and rattles from the cross. She
said if her grandmother’s spirit travels at night, it will be able
to find its way back to the grave by listening for the sounds.”

Dagger couldn’t even picture Sara right now
other than the last image in his mind of her fighting off Joey. His
eyes settled on Eunie’s and he dreaded asking the question but he
had to know. “Did Sara say...were you able to find out if...?”

Eunie grabbed his hand and patted it. “She’s
fine. That bastard didn’t get to her.”

“Did they get the sonofabitch, Dagger?” Simon
wobbled over to where his wife stood. They were matching bookends
with identical hair, body shape, even their expressions.

Dagger looked sharply at his friend, his jaw
tensed, and just hearing reference to Joey’s name brought the same
savage look to his eyes that the hawk had seen. “Let’s just say he
got his just rewards and leave it at that.” Dagger held Simon’s
gaze and knew his friend understood.