The Winner (56 page)

Roger was two years younger and slimly built but wiry like his older brother. He also shared the same shock of dark hair and delicate facial features. He was certainly curious about his brother’s abrupt return to his life. “I couldn’t believe you called like that out of the blue. What’s up, Peter?”

“Shut up, I need to think.” He suddenly turned to his younger brother. “Have you seen the news?”

He shook his head. “I don’t usually watch TV. Why?”

He obviously didn’t know of Alicia’s death. That was good. Jackson didn’t answer his brother; he settled back in the seat, his mind racing through a seemingly infinite number of scenarios.

In a half hour they were at La Guardia Airport. Soon they had left the Manhattan skyline behind on their way south.

The FBI did converge on Roger Crane’s small apartment building, but a little too late. Yet they were far more intrigued by what they had discovered at Peter Crane’s penthouse.

Masters and Berman, walking around the massive penthouse, came across Jackson’s makeup and archives rooms and his computerized control center.

“Holy shit,” Berman said, his hands in his pockets as he stared at the masks, makeup bins, and racks of clothing.

Masters held the scrapbook gingerly in his gloved hands. FBI technicians roamed everywhere collecting evidence.

“Looks like Riggs was right. One guy. Maybe we
can
survive all this,” Masters said.

“So what’s our next move?”

Masters answered immediately. “We focus on Peter Crane. Put a blanket on the airports and train and bus stations. I want road blocks posted on all the major arteries heading out of town. You’re to instruct all the men that he’s extremely dangerous and a master of disguise. Send out photos of the guy everywhere, fat lot of good that’ll do us. We’ve cut off his home base, but he’s obviously got enormous financial resources. If we do manage to track him down, I want no unnecessary chances. Tell the men that if there’s the slightest threat, to shoot him down.”

“How about Riggs and Tyler?” Berman asked.

“So long as they don’t get in the way, they’ll be okay. If they get mixed up with Crane along the way, well, there’s no guarantee. I’m not going to jeopardize my men to make sure they don’t get hurt. As far as I’m concerned LuAnn Tyler belongs in jail. But that’s why we’ve got some ammo with her. We can send her to jail or threaten to. I think she’ll keep her mouth shut. Why don’t you go oversee the rest of the evidence collection.”

While Berman did so, Masters sat down and read the background information on LuAnn that accompanied her photo.

He was finishing up when Berman returned.

“You think Crane’s going to go after Tyler now?” Berman asked.

Masters didn’t answer. Instead he looked down at the picture of LuAnn Tyler staring back at him from the photo album. He now understood why she had been picked as a lottery winner. Why they had all been picked. He now had a much clearer idea of who LuAnn Tyler was and why she had done what she had. She had been destitute, stuck in a cycle of poverty, with an infant daughter. No hope. All of the chosen winners had shared this common denominator: no hope. They were ripe for this man’s scheme. Masters’s features betrayed the emotions he was feeling. Right at that very moment, and for a number of reasons, George Masters was starting to feel immense guilt.

It was nearing midnight when Riggs and LuAnn stopped at a motel. After checking in, Riggs phoned George Masters. The FBI agent had just returned from New York and he detailed to Riggs what had happened since they had last spoken. After receiving this briefing Riggs hung up the phone and looked over at a very anxious LuAnn.

“What happened? What did they say?”

Riggs shook his head. “As expected. Jackson wasn’t there, but they found enough evidence to keep him in prison for the rest of his life and then some. Including a scrapbook on all the lottery winners.”

“So he
was
related to Alicia Crane.”

Riggs nodded grimly. “Her older brother, Peter. Peter Crane is Jackson. Or at least everything points that way.”

LuAnn was wide-eyed. “Then he murdered his own sister.”

“Looks that way.”

“Because she knew too much? Because of Donovan?”

“Right. Jackson couldn’t take a chance on that. Maybe he shows up disguised or maybe as his true self. He gets what he wants out of her, maybe he tells her he killed Donovan. Who knows. She apparently was dating the guy. She might have gone nuts, threatened to go to the police. At some point he murdered her, I feel sure of that.”

LuAnn shuddered. “Where do you think he is?”

Riggs shrugged. “The Feds got to his house, but from the looks of the place the man has money to burn, a million different places he could go, a dozen faces and identities he could go there under. It’s not going to be easy to catch him.”

“To finish our deal?” LuAnn’s tone was slightly sarcastic.

“We handed the Feds his friggin’ identity. They’re at his ‘world’ headquarters right now. When I said we’d deliver him, I didn’t necessarily mean in a box with a ribbon on it, laid on the doorstep of the Hoover Building. As far as I’m concerned we’ve lived up to our end of the bargain.”

LuAnn let out a deep breath. “So does that mean everything’s square? With the FBI? And Georgia?”

“We’ll have some details to work out, but yeah, I think so. Unknown to them, I recorded the entire meeting at the Hoover Building. I’ve got Masters, the director of the FBI, and the attorney general of the United States herself, acting upon the authority of the president of the United States no less, all on tape agreeing to the deal I proposed. They’ve got to play straight with us now. But I’ve gotta be straight with you too. The IRS is going to put a big dent in your bank account. In fact after so many years of compounded penalties and interest, I’m not sure how much money you’re going to have left, if any.”

“I don’t care about that. I want to pay my taxes, even if it takes everything I’ve got. The truth is, I stole the money to begin with. I just want to know if I have to keep looking over my shoulder for the rest of my life.”

“You’re not going to prison, if that’s what you mean.” He touched her cheek with his hand. “You don’t look too happy.”

She blushed and smiled at him. “I am.” Her smile quickly faded though.

“I know what you’re thinking.”

She blurted out, “Until they catch Jackson, my life’s not worth spit. Or yours. Or Charlie’s.” Her lips trembled. “Or Lisa’s.” She suddenly jumped up and grabbed the phone.

“What are you doing?” Riggs asked.

“I need to see my daughter. I need to know that she’s safe.”

“Wait a minute, what are you going to tell them?”

“That we can meet up somewhere. I want her near me. Nothing’s going to happen to her without it happening to me first.”

“LuAnn, look—”

“This subject isn’t open for discussion.” Her tone was ferocious.

“All right, all right, I hear you. But where are we going to meet them?”

LuAnn passed a hand over her forehead. “I don’t know. Does it matter?”

Riggs said, “Where are they now?”

“The last I heard, they were heading back into southern Virginia.”

He rubbed his chin. “What’s Charlie driving?”

“The Range Rover.”

“Terrific. It’ll hold all of us. We’ll meet them wherever they are right now. We’ll leave the rental and head out. Go somewhere and wait for the FBI to do its thing. So call them and I’ll run up to that all-night burger place we saw on the way in and get us some food.”

“Good enough.”

When Riggs got back with two bags of food, LuAnn was no longer on the phone.

“You reach them?”

“They’re at a motel on the outskirts of Danville, Virginia. But I need to call them back and let them know when we’re going to be there.” She looked around. “Where the hell are we?”

“We’re in Edgewood, Maryland, north of Baltimore. Danville is a little over a hundred miles south of Charlottesville, which means we’re about five or six hours from Danville.”

“Okay, if we start right now—”

“LuAnn, it’s after midnight. They’re probably in bed, right?”

“So?”

“So, we can catch some sleep, which we both really need, get up early, and meet them tomorrow around noon.”

“I don’t want to wait. I want Lisa safe with me.”

“LuAnn, driving when you’re exhausted isn’t real safe. Even if we start right now, we won’t make it until five or six in the morning. Nothing’s going to happen between now and then. Come on, I think we’ve had enough excitement for one day. And if Lisa knows you’re coming tonight, she won’t get a wink of sleep.”

“I don’t care. I’d rather she’d be sleepy and safe.”

Riggs shook his head slowly. “LuAnn, there’s another reason we might not want to hook up with them right now, and it has to do with keeping Lisa safe.”

“What are you talking about?”

Riggs put his hands in his pockets and leaned up against the wall. “Jackson is somewhere out there, that we know. Now, the last time we saw him he was running off into the woods. He could have easily come back and followed us.”

“But what about Donovan and Bobbie Jo Reynolds and Alicia Crane? He killed them.”

“We believe he killed them, or had someone kill them. Or he could’ve killed all of them personally and hired someone to follow us. That man has a deep pocketbook; there isn’t much he can’t buy.”

LuAnn reflected briefly on Anthony Romanello. Jackson had hired him to kill her. “So Jackson could know about your meeting with the FBI? He could know where we are right now?”

“And if we go running off to see Lisa, then we lead him right to her as well.”

LuAnn slumped down on the bed. “We can’t do that, Matthew,” she said wearily.

He rubbed her shoulders. “I know.”

“But I want to see my little girl. Can’t I do that?”

Riggs thought for a few minutes and then sat on the bed beside her and held her hands with his. “Okay, we’ll stay here for the night. It would be a lot easier for someone to follow us at night and remain unseen. Tomorrow, we’ll get an early start and head down to Danville. I’ll keep an eagle eye out for anyone remotely suspicious. As an undercover agent, I got pretty good at that. We’ll take secondary roads, make frequent stops, and occasionally take the interstate. It’ll be impossible for anyone to tail us. We’ll meet Charlie and Lisa at the motel and then we’ll have Charlie take her directly to the local FBI office in Charlottesville. We’ll follow in our car but we won’t go in. I don’t want them getting hold of you just yet. But since we struck a deal with the Feds, we might as well avail ourselves of some of their protection resources. How’s that sound?”

She smiled. “So I’ll see Lisa tomorrow?”

He cupped her chin in his hand. “Tomorrow.”

LuAnn called Charlie back, setting the meeting time at one o’clock the following day at the motel in Danville. With Charlie, Riggs, and herself around her little girl, Jackson could just come on and try something, because she liked their odds of survival under those circumstances.

They slid into bed and Riggs wrapped his good arm around her slim waist and snuggled against her. His 9- mm was under his pillow, a chair wedged tightly under the door lock. He had unscrewed a light bulb, broken it, and sprinkled the remains in front of the door. Although he didn’t expect anything to happen, he wanted as much advance warning as he could get if it did.

As he lay next to her he was both confident and uneasy. She apparently sensed this and turned to face him, her hand gently stroking his face.

“Got something on your mind?”

“Anticipation, I guess. When I was with the FBI I had to work hard to keep my patience. I seem to have a natural aversion to delayed gratification.”

“That all?” Riggs slowly nodded. “You sure you’re not sorry you got involved in all this?”

He pulled her closer to him. “Why in the world would I be?”

“Well, let me list some things for you. You’ve been stabbed, and came within an inch of dying. A madman is probably going to try his best to kill us. You stuck your neck out with the FBI for me and your cover is blown, with the result that the people who tried to kill you before may try again. You’re running around the country with me trying to stay one step ahead of everybody and your business is going to hell and it doesn’t look like I’ll have two dimes to rub together to even begin to repay you for everything you’ve done. That cover it?”

Riggs stroked her hair and figured he might as well say it now. Who knew how things were going to go. He might not get another chance.

“You left out the part about me falling in love with you.”

Her breath caught as her eyes drifted over him, taking in every subtle quiver, trying to give them all simultaneous meaning. All the while his words echoed in her head. She tried to say something but couldn’t.

He filled in the silence. “I know it’s probably the world’s worst timing, but I just wanted you to know.”

“Oh, Matthew,” she finally managed to say. Her voice was trembling, everything about her was.

“I’m sure you’ve heard those words before. Lots of times, from guys probably a lot better suited—”

She covered his mouth with her hand but she didn’t say anything for a long minute. He gently kissed her fingers.

Her voice was husky as though she were reaching down deep in order to utter the words. “Other men have said them. But this is the first time I’ve really been listening.”

She stroked his hair and then her lips searched out and found his in the darkness and sunk in, slowly and deeply. They blindly undressed each other, their fingers probing and gently caressing. LuAnn began to softly cry as the unlikely twins of nervous fear and intense happiness fought for dominance. Finally, she just stopped thinking and gave herself over to what she had been looking for for so many years, across so many countries; from precious dreams that rudely dissolved into nightmares, which viciously framed realities that never came close to inspiring in her any more than an extreme ambivalence about her life. She clutched Matthew Riggs hard, as if realizing that this might be her last chance. Their bodies gripped each other for a long time before relaxing. They fell into an exhausted sleep safely in each other’s arms.