Dan thought a minute. “I’ll see what I can do.”
Melissa pushed off the couch. “Can I use your bathroom?”
“Sure.” Dan gestured with his chin. “I’ll show you where it is.”
She hesitated. “I’ll need my purse.”
“I’ll need to take the gun out.”
Melissa shrugged.
“Hang on a minute.” Dan left the room and returned with a dish towel and sealable plastic bag. Using the towel he extracted the handgun from Melissa’s purse and slid it into the bag. Sealed it shut.
Melissa watched his every move. “I thought you said you weren’t going to use that against me.”
He faced her. “I won’t. As long as you keep your end of the bargain.”
She cast him a sullen look, as if ticked off that he still didn’t fully trust her. Dan picked up the purse from my lap and handed it to Melissa. “Follow me.”
They left the room, half the air sucking away with them. My lungs felt like bricks. I slumped in the chair, elbow on the armrest, and leaned my head against a fist.
“You did it, Joanne.” Perry spoke in low tones. In the distance I could hear Dan talking to someone on the phone.
I managed a weak smile. “We did it. I’d still be stuck in that hotel room if you hadn’t rescued us. Plus you were smart enough to figure out my message.”
“Ah, that was easy. Eagles’ One of These Nights album, song five.” He chuckled. “ ‘Lyin’ Eyes.’”
“You did great. Just went along with everything.”
“I know you don’t have a brother.”
I lifted my head off my fist. We smiled at each other.
Dan returned. “One of my investigators is going to meet us at my office. We have recording equipment there.” He scratched the side of his face. “Man. Baxter Jackson. If we find that body, this case is gonna be a doozy.”
“And Cherisse’s death,” I reminded him. “If Baxter’s charged with Linda’s murder, they’ll reopen that case, won’t they?”
“Yeah. We’ll have to. I’ll get a second pair of eyes to look at the autopsy findings. And a court order to disinter the body, if necessary.”
I leaned my head back against the armchair. A minute passed in silence, each of us busy with our own musings. I imagined Dan peering down the road, envisioning Baxter’s trial for Linda’s murder, the prosecutorial arguments. Baxter would be sure to hire an expensive attorney. It would be a hard fight.
The thought made me dizzy. I couldn’t go there now.
I needed sleep.
Dan looked toward the entryway. “She’s taking a long time.”
My head came up. He was right. “I’ll go check on her.”
“It’s down that hall to the left.” Dan pointed.
I stood up on rubber legs, crossed the room into the hall. At the bathroom door I knocked. Called Melissa’s name.
No answer.
“Melissa? Melissa.” I knocked harder. “You okay?”
Silence.
My heart stumbled. I slapped both hands on the knob and shook the door. “Melissa!”
Dan and Perry appeared at my side, concern on their faces. “Melissa!” Dan pounded on the door. “Open up!”
No, I thought. No. What had she done to herself?
Perry pushed in. “Melissa.” He rattled the door knob. “Open up right now, or I’m coming in.”
We waited, hardly daring to breathe. Listening for the slightest sound.
Nothing.
Perry raised his eyebrows at Dan. The district attorney nodded.
“Stand back.” Perry positioned himself and kicked the door viciously. It splintered but did not fully give. Chilly air seeped past my shoulders. Perry aimed a second kick. The door shot open. A cold breeze tumbled out.
Perry jumped into the bathroom. Dan and I crowded behind. I saw the toilet and sink—empty.
And an open window, curtains fluttering.
FORTY-SIX
He paced the kitchen, fingers dug into the sides of his scalp. His special cell phone, clipped to his belt, sat maddeningly silent. The last call he’d received on it had sent him on a rampage through the house, alternately cursing and begging God for a break. The sound of his own voice cussing dropped lead into his veins. He never did that. It was beneath a man of his morality.
“I lost them,” the caller had said. “And I got shot.”
“You what?”
“I got shot in the leg, man. I got to go to the hospital.”
“Don’t you dare leave a trail by going to the hospital. You do that, I’ll find you. I’ll put you away myself.”
“I got a bullet in my leg!”
“Better than one in your heart.”
The exchange still buzzed in his head. He’d wanted to reach through the invisible connection and strangle the caller. And if that wasn’t bad enough, his house phone had rung less than an hour later, a taunting voice on the line. A voice that wrenched such hatred through his gut he nearly threw up.
Right now he wanted to hit somebody. He wanted to bellow and scream.
Another curse spit from his lips.
He strode to the sink, filled a glass of water, and guzzled it down. Pull yourself together, man. This would all still work. He’d figure it out—didn’t he always? Didn’t he always come out on top?
The house phone rang.
He swung around and glared at it.
A second ring.
He took a deep breath and walked to the end of the counter. Picked up the receiver to check the ID.
Melissa Harkoff.
He raised his hand to throw the phone across the room, then caught himself. Maybe he could pull out some inkling of usable information.
With a growl in his throat he hit talk. “What makes you think I’m not recording these calls?”
“I’m sure you are, Baxter. Every word.” Melissa sounded out of breath.
“Blackmail’s a crime, in case you didn’t know it. I could take the tapes to the police.”
“Sure you will. Including all the parts in which I talk about you killing Linda.”
“I—”
“Would you like to record where you buried the body? Let me start with instructions on how to get there.”
“Shut up, Melissa.”
“You listen to me.” Melissa’s voice turned acid raw. “Because you’ve got very little time left—”
“I’m not paying you one dime!”
“You don’t have a choice anymore. Your sloppy mess of a killer missed, remember? I got him instead, remember that?”
Back to the taunts of her last call, some three and a half hours ago. When she claimed she’d been on the run with Joanne Weeks and had holed up in a hotel bathroom just long enough to “give her favorite hypocrite an update.”
There are plenty more hired killers I can find to hunt you down, girl.
“Where are you now? Still with Joanne?”
“Oh, Baxter. Are you sitting down? You won’t believe where I’ve just been.”
He wouldn’t dignify her ridicule with a response.
“Joanne took me to the district attorney’s house.”
Yeah, right.
“In Joanne’s car?” Baxter knew that couldn’t be true. For the last two hours his hired man had been watching the SUV, traced through the GPS to a hotel in Mountain View.
“Oh, right, like we’d leave in that wired car. You think we’re stupid? Joanne had a friend come get her. We escaped out a back door.”
Slow heat trickled down Baxter’s spine. They’d gotten away again? What kind of incompetent fool had he hooked up with?