Travis looked away. His eyes were beginning to sting. “Even if you let yourself be bought off, why the hell did you drag me into it?”
Dan’s head tilted to one side. “Of course, the mob is the reason I gave you your job in the first place. I felt … responsible.”
“Responsible?” Travis brushed the dampness from his eyes. “For what?”
Dan seemed genuinely surprised. “Haven’t you guessed? That robbery you interrupted four years ago. The disturbance created by Jack Gable. That was a mob operation. They were robbing a building—I owned—for a reason. They had to create a cover story for the disappearance of some key corporate documents. To protect the integrity of the merger.
“You see, the IRS was after Elcon. They didn’t know about the mob ties—but they knew there was something suspicious about the merger, and if they plowed around in the records long enough, they would’ve figured it out. We couldn’t allow that to happen. So we created a robbery, to excuse our failure to produce the requested corporate documents. We told them they were all stolen. It worked.”
Travis stared back at him, his head trembling. “Angela died … so your goddamn corporation could duck a tax audit!”
“Believe me, Travis, I had no idea you and Angela would be there that day. It was just a simple robbery. No one was supposed to get hurt. When it all went bad, I felt awful. Don’t you see? That’s why I put you through law school. That’s why I gave you a job. I owed you.”
Travis didn’t know what to say. His heart felt as if it might pound its way out of his chest. “Did you know,” he finally managed, “that your … partners were trying to kill me?”
“I found out. After you disappeared. From Mario Catuara, the acting head of the corporate entity. He was president, I was the CEO. That’s how we set it up.”
“You could have told me!” Travis shouted. “When I called you, you could have told me what was going on! You could have told me who was trying to kill me!”
“That would have been very difficult for me, Travis. Very difficult.”
“No wonder you kept trying to get me to drop the Moroconi case. You knew all along.”
Dan looked away.
Travis’s teeth set on edge. “I’m turning you in, Dan.”
“I … don’t think you mean that, Travis.”
“I do. I’m telling the FBI everything about you and Elcon.”
“No.” Dan rose suddenly from his chair. “No, you’re not. Let me show you something.” He walked to the rear door from which he had entered.
Travis saw a light click on. He pushed himself out of the chair and slowly walked to the other room. Before he entered, he removed his gun from his shoulder.
When he entered the library, his eyes were immediately focused on two persons just to the side of a large oak desk. The first was Staci. She was tied to an armchair; a gag was taped across her mouth. The second was Dan. He was pointing a small revolver at her head.
“You couldn’t possibly fire before I put a bullet in this little girl’s head,” Dan said. “I want you to drop the gun, Travis. Now.”
Travis hesitated. Police training told him never, under any circumstances, to relinquish his weapon.
“I’m serious, Travis!” Dan’s hands were shaking. His finger was curled ominously around the trigger. “I want you to drop the gun!”
Travis bent down and placed the gun on the carpet.
“Thank you.” He wiped the perspiration from his brow. “You can’t imagine how sorry I am about this, Travis. I never wanted this poor girl to be taken. It was all that sadist Kramer’s idea.”
Travis took a careful step toward them. “Let her go, Dan. You don’t need her now. You have me.”
“I’m afraid I disagree. My life here in Dallas is shot. Just at the time when I was planning to settle down, I’m going to have to uproot myself. But I’m not going to be penniless. I—” His voice became high-pitched and strained. “I’ve worked too hard for that. I’m going to take all the money out of my personal bank accounts—and the Elcon corporate accounts—and disappear. But I can’t do that until the banks open Monday morning. That means I have to prevent you from going to the police between now and then.”
Travis bit down on his lower lip. “And how do you plan to do that?”
“This is so hard,” Dan said. “So, so hard. You do see the dilemma I’m in, don’t you, Travis? I don’t want to hurt anyone. But I can’t stand by and watch my life fall apart at the seams.”
“You’re going to kill me, aren’t you, Dan?”
“I—don’t see that I have much choice.”
Travis nodded. The two men stared at one another from opposite sides of the room. There seemed to be very little left to say.
“At least let Staci talk to me for a minute before you kill me,” Travis said finally.
“I—I’m sorry, no. I don’t think that would be a very good idea.”
“Then let me talk to her. Let me kiss her goodbye.”
“I—I don’t know—”
“I won’t even remove her gag. All I’m asking for is one minute. Surely you owe me that.”
Travis could see the confusion and despair in Dan’s face. He was tearing himself apart, unable to decide what to do. “All right,” he said finally. “One minute.”
Travis approached Staci in calm, measured steps. “Hi, sweetheart,” he said. He could see her eyes tearing, her hands shaking. She was scared to death.
“Sure I can’t loosen her gag?” he asked Dan.
“I guess—I don’t—” He swallowed. “No, I don’t think I should let you do that.”
“Suit yourself.” Travis moved closer to Staci and crouched down to her level. “Don’t worry about a thing,” he said to her quietly. “Everything’s going to be all right.”
Staci rocked back and forth. Hard as she tried, she couldn’t get free.
“When you get out of here, Staci, I want you to look up a friend of mine. Her name is—well, Cavanaugh. That’s her last name. She knows who you are, and she’ll make sure you’re taken care of. I think you’ve been with Aunt Marnie long enough. Cavanaugh will help you make other arrangements. I don’t think Marnie will protest much.”
Tears spilled over the rims of Staci’s eyes and trickled down onto her gag.
“You’ll be fine. Don’t worry about me. Really.”
“Thirty seconds,” Dan said.
“All right, all right.” Travis winked at Staci. “How about one last trick, just for old times’ sake?” He reached into his pocket. “Don’t panic, Dan. These are just marbles.” He slowly removed the marbles from his pocket, then opened his palm so that Dan could see that was all he had. “Two harmless oversize aggies. That’s all.”
He placed the marbles in his left hand, then held out his hands before Staci, knuckles up. “All right now. Watch closely.” Travis’s hands were a blur. They crossed, crisscrossed, turned upside down and right side up, one palm over the other, faster than the eye could follow.
“All right, Staci. Which hand are the marbles in?”
She shrugged. Travis knew her eyes were so blurred with tears she could barely see.
“What about you, Dan? Which hand do you think the marbles are in?”
“The left,” he said, his voice squeaking. “They never moved.”
“Well, let’s just see.” Travis extended his left hand to its farthest point and slowly unfurled his fingers, one by one.
The second he saw Dan’s eyes divert to his left hand, he swung his right arm around and hurled the marbles at Dan’s face. Dan instinctively raised his hands to block them. The gun fired; the shot went high. A second later Travis tackled him and knocked him onto the parquet floor.
Travis sat astride Dan trying to wrestle the gun from his hand. Dan did everything he could to aim the gun in Travis’s direction. Neither was making any progress; it was a stalemate.