The Woman (31 page)

“I’m not certain, mind you, just suspicious. His delays in his current assignment seem plausible, yet untypical. He normally gets things done clean and quick. In and out, you know. Not this time.”

“Well, if you decide he needs to be taken out, I’m your man.”

“You realize I’ve always considered Ryan number one, ahead of you.”

“As I said, sir, should you decide, I’m your man.”

“Thank you, Victor. That’ll be all for now.”

* * *

To Linda, her heartbeat alone seemed loud enough to announce their approach. With each step the wet underbrush grabbed at her ankles, impeding her stride, twisting her feet. She strode forcefully, pulling her legs through the dense wet growth. The overhead trees, a palette of greens and browns, hung heavily with water. In the daylight, she imagined, the area might be pretty in a rugged sort of way. Tonight it seemed a graveyard.

As they moved closer to the outside wall around Webster’s estate, Linda, startled by sounds nearby, pulled her gun and pointed it toward nothing more precise than the darkness.

Ryan put his hand on her arm, turning her until their faces were no more than three inches apart. “Now we went over this. That gun is useless unless the target is close. When we’re inside, keep it in your pocket. Your hands now and again coming out, then going back in. You remember what we talked about?”

“I know how to handle a gun.”

“This is not about how to handle a gun, but about when to use it. If you can’t follow orders, go back to the car and wait. I can’t have you putting us both in jeopardy.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Can you follow orders?”

“I’ll do whatever you say.”

“There will be some improvisation, but I will always take the lead. Don’t hesitate in anything I tell you. Don’t question. Don’t think about it. Just do it.”

“I’m okay. Really. Really I am.”

The wind forcing its way through the underbrush whipped Linda’s black pants against her legs. She kept her head down, the rain dripping off the lowest point in the front of her hat.

Ryan touched the front side of her left shoulder. They were at the wall of the estate, beneath an old large oak. Linda could see meager light dancing about in the higher branches of the tree. Light that had to be coming from somewhere on the estate, but standing this close to the wall, they were in its shadow.

Ryan had told her the horrible weather was perfect for what they were about to do. Linda wanted to believe that, but had trouble balancing horrible and perfect in the same description.

“This wall,” he said, “has sensors built into the top of it. If anything bigger than a bird or a squirrel touches it, a security alarm will go off inside the house. We won’t hear it, but they will. If that happens the advantage swings from us to them. Do not touch the wall, not even down low, not even if you are falling. Do you understand?” Linda nodded. “Not even a light hand to steady yourself. No contact whatsoever.” She nodded again.

“Stay here. I’m going over.”

“Don’t leave me.”

He opened his hand and showed her a rock. “See this?” She nodded. He put it in his pocket. “In ten minutes, I’ll arch this rock back over the wall. When it falls, you climb into the tree just as you’ll see me do in a moment. I’ll be on the other side to catch you when you drop feet first. Remember, don’t touch the wall.”

“What if you’re not back in ten minutes?”

“Then run back to the car and drive like Lucifer himself is on your tail. Forget about me. It’ll be too late.”

“That’s a comforting thought.”

“The hell with comfort, its good advice. If it comes to that, do it. Ten minutes. Not eleven. Do you understand me?”

Linda grabbed his arm, started to open her mouth, then shut it and just nodded.

Chapter 47

Linda watched Ryan easily gain height in the tree and move out onto a main branch that had to be more than a foot thick.

She moved a few steps to her left where she could make out his silhouette against a cloud backlit by the moon. He didn’t move. He just sat there. Motionless. Large. Powerful. She believed he had the physical strength to do whatever they had come to do, and from what he had told her about his life, he also had the mental strength. She remembered when he took out the two thugs in the alley in what was no more than ten seconds. He was capable all right, but was he capable enough for both of them?

Then Ryan dropped out of sight, down on the other side of the wall. It might as well have been off the edge of the planet. Except for glancing at her illuminated watch, she didn’t move, her eyes remaining on the spot in the tree from which he had disappeared.

The next time she looked two minutes had already passed.

Did he mean ten minutes after he climbed into the tree or ten minutes from when he dropped down?

* * *

The guard shack sat near the entrance to the estate, about fifty yards from Ryan’s current position. A person leaving Webster’s home would drive roughly the same course as Ryan now took on foot, parallel to the driveway with one side of the estate wall to the right. The area between him and the guard shack was planted in grass studded with an irregular pattern of large shrubs. Ryan moved from one shrub to the next, angling to always keep the next shrub between himself and the guard shack.

He stopped behind the closest shrub, five yards short of the shack, ten yards from the point where the block sidewall joined the rod-iron fencing that fronted the estate, that iron fencing included the gated entrance itself.

Mark was wearing a down jacket and sitting with his arms crossed. A soda can on the side table, a clipboard hanging on a hook. Had those in the house detected anything, they would have warned Mark and he would be standing, at least sitting alert. But Mark was slouching down in a tilt-swivel chair. So far their presence had gone undetected.

Ryan had walked down from the house several times to visit Mark in this shack. He knew that on cold and damp nights Mark used a plug-in space heater. The noise from the heater was not loud, but enough that with the rain, Ryan would be able to get right up to the shack without being heard.

In a silent move, Ryan stepped into the doorway of the shack, the noise suppressor attached to his Beretta. Mark was asleep. Ryan made his rest eternal.

* * *

Five minutes. Ryan had now been gone five minutes.

Six minutes.

Seven.

At eight minutes, a tuft of leaves above Linda’s head moved enough to release a load of water that struck Linda’s hat and her shoulders. She stepped back. Her heart quickened. Her hand tightened on the gun in her pocket. She looked up.

Ryan had come back.

Thank God
.

“I thought you were going to throw the rock over the wall?” she asked as soon as he dropped down beside her.

“The tree’s a bit slick so I thought you might like me with you while you climbed.”

“Yes. Thank you. What happened over the wall?”

“I took out the guard.”

“Mark? Was it Mark?”

“Yes.”

“Did you have to kill him?”

“The dead can’t hurt you.”

She grimaced and then nodded. She was glad she had never met Mark.

Ryan led her back deeper under the canopy of the tree. “Give me your watch,” he said.

“What?”

“Your watch, woman. Now.”

Linda handed him the watch.

He put it in a zipper pocket inside her jacket and zipped it shut.

“Why did you take my watch?”

“The dial illuminates, I could see the faint glow rising into the tree.”

“No way.”

“Then how did I know you had it? Now get your mind off your watch. Are you straight with your responsibilities?”

“Yes. Sure. Will we also need to kill Victor?”

“Not important.”

“Now wait a minute. I need more than your trite ‘not important.’ This is a man’s life.”

“No one in this business expects to retire with a pension.”

“But is it necessary?”

“I told you Victor and Mark are brothers. Mark had to be eliminated. We could not go in with an unprotected flank. If we killed only Mark, Victor would hunt us. For this to end, tonight, we need to remove both brothers and Webster.”

“Is that it? No one else?”

“It looks that way.”

“When will we know?”

“We’ll know when we know. Now unclutter your mind. Your job hasn’t changed.”

“I know. Just do what you tell me.”

“When?”

“Immediately. Without question. Okay?”

“And your gun?”

“In my pocket. And the bit about my hands, I got it. I got it.”

“But will you do it?”

“If I want to stay alive, I guess I’ll have to.”

“Now you’ve got it. No more do-gooder platitudes. We’ve cut it to the bone. Do it or die.”

Chapter 48

Ryan again shimmed out on the large branch, only this time Linda was moving in front of him, with his hands steadying her. When they were both beyond the estate wall, he spoke into the back of her head. “Grip the tree and stay here until I motion for you. When you drop, keep your arms about a foot from your sides. I’ll help break your fall.”

On the ground, Ryan moved forward until he was behind a large shrub about ten feet from the wall. He held that position to study the house and grounds. The only lights were two floods on the brick facing above the upstairs windows, the light diffused considerably by the vines of kudzu which robbed much of the brightness before it reached the ground. More floods were on the corners of the house, dual units positioned to illuminate each side. Another lit the concrete area where Victor’s and Mark’s cars were parked just north of Webster’s three-car garage. Ryan went back to the wall, looked up at Linda and raised his arms.

* * *

Linda felt confident that her legs, strong from beach running, would allow her to drop the ten feet to the ground, but from sitting on the branch, her head was more like thirteen feet from the ground so the drop seemed more frightening than it would be, or so she told herself.

She looked down again. Ryan motioned again. She dropped. Her arms angled outwardly from her sides.

Ryan eased her descent, then put his arm around her shoulders and moved her about ten feet until they were both behind the large shrub he had a few minutes earlier paused behind to study the house and grounds.

“Are you all right?” he asked, his lips near her ear. She nodded and gave him a thumbs-up.

From in close, the brick two-story house appeared a fortress conjured from some gothic story, the unyielding gaze of the upstairs windows like empty eye sockets. The ambient light reflecting oddly as the wind buffeted the panes.

“You see the front door?” Linda nodded. “The big double French doors to the right, you can see room light diffused by drapes?” She nodded again. “That’s Webster’s office. He’s in there now.”

“How do you know it’s Webster?”

“I don’t absolutely know. But it wouldn’t be Victor in the boss’s office. There are no extra cars at the house, and I’ve never known Webster to invite a guest into his office. The only other thing I know is we don’t have time to discuss everything. If you want to walk away from tonight, take what I tell you as gospel. We are on a schedule based on when the outside security lights come on. Understood?” She nodded.

“When you see those drapes open, that’s your signal to come. The door will be unlocked. Come fast and walk right in.”

“You’re not going in alone?”

“Remember rule one: follow orders.”

“But what if the drapes don’t open?”

“If I’m in there more than fifteen minutes without opening the drapes, get out of here.”

“I know. Back over the wall and run like hell.”

“No. You can’t get over the wall without setting off the alarm. The guard has been eliminated. Run to the front of the property. Out the gate. To the car and beat it.”

“And just leave you?” she asked, with rain spit spraying from her lips with each word.

“If those drapes don’t open within fifteen minutes, you won’t be able to do anything for me. Just get out.”

“You took my watch. How will I know when it’s been fifteen minutes?”

“I’m sure you’ve counted one-one-thousand, two-one-thousand, like that, everyone has. Do like that and use your fingers to keep track of the minutes. That’ll occupy your mind. Help you focus.”

Linda reached up and placed her wet palm against his wet cheek and then touched his lips.

“Okay,” Ryan said, his mouth next to her ear, “the rain’s our friend, and the sky’s dark. I don’t want to talk when we get near the house so let me go over a few more things now. There’s a series of can lights in the roof over the long portico. If he had guests, those lights would be on now. They’re off, so like he told me on the phone, he should be alone. However, those lights, along with landscape lighting around the grounds, come on at ten to act as further security. That gives us an hour, that’s plenty of time. Webster won’t come out in this weather. But Victor could come out to take food to his brother in the guard shack or to go to his car. Stay alert. I’ll keep my hand on you in case we need to move quickly or drop down.”