He quietly slid his feet as he moved across the room in an attempt to keep the hardwood flooring from creaking. He eased from the bedroom doorway onto the landing to evaluate his next move.
He heard it and felt it simultaneously. Cold steel against his temple and Collins’s voice saying, “You so much as blink and I’ll splatter your brains all over the wall.”
CHAPTER 52
Jake needed to buy them some time, he needed a distraction. His mind was filling with questions. Questions about the logistics of the murder of O’Rourke. He needed to keep them talking while he formulated a plan.
He noticed Jillian was in tears, her hands shaking. She had broken down as she explained the events that caused her intense hatred for Laurence O’Rourke. She motioned to McGill to watch Jake and Beth while she went into the bathroom.
“I’ll be back in a couple of minutes,” she said. “Keep an eye on them and don’t do anything stupid or Ian will kill you too.”
“They’re not going anywhere,” McGill replied.
“Pat, I don’t understand how you could possibly have coordinated all this. The bomb, the weather in the northeast, the Skyhawk. How could you be sure it would all fall in place?”
McGill turned toward him and Jake sensed his internal conflict. Clearly, the entire situation had snowballed out of his control.
“The bomb was the easy part,” McGill said, after a pause. “Ian had information about O’Rourke’s movements. We knew he was coming here from Dallas to disclose some sort of information he claimed would expose the New Northern Ireland Assembly as a sham, and he threatened to expose the parties as a bunch of liars.
“Ian has sources, reliable sources in Ireland that know every move O’Rourke makes before he makes them and they were worried about this ‘revelation’ that O’Rourke had. Ian was hired with a contract on O’Rourke, to take him out in Savannah. His employer codenamed it the Savannah Project.
“Ian first contacted Jillian, who in turn called me,” McGill went on. “He wanted to know if we wanted to exact our revenge. He said he would split his take with us three ways if we helped him. Jillian and I didn’t really care about the money. Our vendetta was different.”
McGill glanced away toward the door, as though checking to make sure Ian wasn’t standing there.
“He said he would handle all the details. All we had to do was follow his instructions. A few weeks ago Ian went to Dallas and researched the airport and the operators. He posed as a mechanic and got a job. I don’t know how he does most of the stuff he does, but he is good at it,” McGill said. “He had all the pieces shipped to him for a radio-controlled bomb. He had the transmitter sent here, to Jillian. She’s the one who detonated the bomb, from her car at the airport.”
Jake interrupted, “What about the Skyhawk? How could you plan that?”
“We couldn’t,” McGill said. “That was dumb luck. He was a victim of ‘wrong place, wrong time.’ It was perfect for us, though. It would have helped to explain away the whole accident if you hadn’t kept going behind my back. I could have closed this out in a couple of more days, we could have gone home and none of this would be happening now.”
“How could you know the Go Team from D.C. wouldn’t come down?” Jake asked.
“I didn’t. I actually had planned on the D.C. team coming down. But I also knew I would be assigned to the investigation and would come down from Atlanta. I figured I had enough pull to steer the investigation along in a certain direction and could compromise any evidence that would suggest otherwise. I knew it wouldn’t be easy, but I could have handled it. The snowstorm just made it easier.”
Jake slowed his drinking but kept mimicking intoxication while he worked on Pat’s resolve. He would try to wear Pat down, and then maybe he could appeal to Pat’s conscience.
“What about Dave? Why did you let him kill Dave?”
Jake set his bottle down. He reached over and took Beth’s hand, worried that she was so silent. She was staring down at the floor, looking almost dazed. He pulled a tendril of hair away from her face and tucked it behind her ear, “Beth, are you okay?”
Beth looked at him with watery eyes and nodded. A tear ran down her cheek.
He wiped the tear away with his finger.
“That wasn’t supposed to happen. Dave‘s death was unfortunate,” said McGill. “Ian had followed the wreckage over to Gulfstream and somehow got past the guards. He saw Dave examining the area under the forward part of the cabin, the same area where Ian had placed the bomb. Dave pulled some stuff from the kit and started taking samples. When he heard Dave call you, Ian overreacted and killed him. I didn’t know about it until it was too late. That was never part of the plan — none of this was.”
McGill lowered his head.
Jake was making progress, Pat was becoming remorseful but Jake needed a little more time — then heard something move behind him.
“What the hell are you telling them?” Collins said. “They don’t need to know anything.”
Collins shoved Kaplan forward, forcing him to sit beside Jake on the sofa along with Beth. Jake stared at Kaplan.
Kaplan shrugged his shoulders. “Sorry, I didn’t figure out about Annie until this morning. That’s why I called.” He looked at the beer bottles. “What’s this?” He motioned with his head. “A little early for drinking, huh, Jake?”
Jake surprised himself when he shot back, “Yeah, well, it beats the hell out of dying.”
Jillian came out of the kitchen and immediately saw Kaplan.
“Gregg,” she ran across the room toward the sofa.
Collins stepped in front of her and said, “Stay away from him.”
“No, let him go. He doesn’t know anything.”
“I caught him sneaking in from the third-floor balcony. He wouldn’t be here if he hadn’t figured out what’s going on?”
Collins pushed Jillian away from the sofa.
McGill yelled, “Dammit, Ian, you just keep making the situation worse. We can’t get away with killing all of them.”
“Yes, we can and we will. We have no choice,” said Collins.
Jillian placed her hands on her hips. “What are you going to do? Plan another accident?”
Collins moved over next to Jillian and McGill, still pointing the gun at the three prisoners sitting on the sofa when a voice called out from behind Ian.
“Drop the weapons, all of you.”
Jake’s face froze. He knew that voice.
CHAPTER 53
Jake looked up from the leather sofa at the man holding a silenced Heckler and Koch USP 45CT pointed at Collins. It was the first time he had gotten a good look at Michael Sullivan. His previous encounters had been in the cover of darkness or from behind, offering no visual clues, only a voice. This was the second time Sullivan had rescued him from Ian.
Sullivan walked into the room behind Collins and McGill and Jillian. “Place the guns on the floor, each of you. Now with your right foot, slowly kick your guns over toward the sofa.”
McGill and Jillian kicked their guns toward the sofa. Collins made no move.
Sullivan placed the silencer close to Collins’ head and said, “Do it now.”
Collins tried to make a move — a move Sullivan had already anticipated. As Collins spun around, the butt of Sullivan’s H & K smashed against his right temple. He fell to the floor unconscious, blood running down the side of his face and around his ear.
Sullivan pointed his gun at McGill and Jillian. “You two, back away from Ian.”
They backed up two steps from where Ian lay. Sullivan kept his gun trained on Ian.
He looked at Jake and motioned. “You, pick up the guns and bring them here. Carefully.”