Chapter Ten #3
“You didn’t have any qualms about using a hypodermic or taking ten percent of the purse from the Bluegrass Stakes.”
“Amphetamines is one thing, cyanide’s another. That horse dies and Logan’s not going to rest until somebody hangs for it. It ain’t going to be me.”
“Then use the drugs.” The voice was impatient, dismissive. Erin found her hands balled into fists. “Find a way, or you won’t see a penny. If the colt’s found drugged in the Derby, he’s out for the season. I need this race.”
And she needed to get to Burke. Erin stayed still and waited for them to pass on. But luck wasn’t with her. As she saw the two figures enter the stables, she straightened her shoulders and moved forward. It was a gamble, but the best she could hope for was a bluff.
“Good day to you, Mr. Durnam.” She made her lips curve even when she saw the shock come into his eyes. She glanced at the groom, too, one of the new ones Burke’s trainer had hired.
“Mrs. Logan.” Durnam smiled in return but was already calculating. “We didn’t see you in the stables.”
“Just thought I’d look over the competition. If you’ll excuse me, Burke’s waiting.”
“I think not.” He took her arm as she tried to pass. Because she’d been half expecting it, Erin was already primed to scream. With surprising speed, his hand clamped over her mouth.
“Good God almighty, what are you doing?” the groom demanded. “Logan’ll have your head.”
“He’ll have yours as well if she goes to him and blabs. She heard everything, you idiot.” Because Erin’s struggles were making him pant, Durnam thrust her at the groom. “Hold on to her. Let me think.”
“We’ve got to get the hell out of here. If someone comes in—”
“Shut up. Just shut up.” Durnam’s face was already sheened with sweat.
He took out a white handkerchief and mopped it.
He was a desperate man who had already taken desperate measures.
Now it was time to take another. “We’ll put her in the van until the race is over tomorrow.
By then I’ll have thought of something.” Taking the handkerchief, he pulled it around her mouth.
As an extra precaution, he took the groom’s grimy bandanna and tied it over her eyes.
“Get some rope. Hurry, tie her hands and feet.”
Erin choked on the gag and struggled against both of them, but she was already aware she’d lose. On a desperate impulse she worked her wedding ring off her hand and let it fall to the ground. Then ropes bit into her wrist and she was smothered inside a blanket.
She felt herself being lifted but could do no more than squirm. Even that was futile as the more she resisted, the harder it was to breathe. She heard a door open just before she was lifted up and set inside on a hard floor.
“What the hell are we going to do with her?” the groom demanded as he stared down at the heap inside the blanket. “The minute we let her go, she’ll talk.”
“Then we won’t let her go.” Durnam leaned against the side of the van and this time mopped his brow with his sleeve. Everything was going to go his way, he told himself. He’d come too far, risked too much to have one woman destroy it.
“I ain’t having no part in murdering a woman.”
Durnam dropped his arm and gave the groom a long, narrow look. “You just take care of the horse and leave the woman to me.”
They were going to kill her. Erin struggled to work the blanket from her face as she heard them shut the van door and walk away.
She’d heard that in his voice. Even if he’d promised the groom that he’d cause her no harm, she would have known.
Whatever had pushed Durnam to this point, he wouldn’t hesitate to do away with any obstacle.
Her baby. With a half sob, Erin twisted her wrists and fought against the rope. Mother of mercy, she had to protect her baby. And Burke.
The panic welled up, and for a moment she lost herself in it completely.
Before she’d regained control, her wrists were raw and her shoulders bruised.
Panting, Erin lay quiet in the dark and tried to think.
If she could get up somehow and find the door, she might find a way of forcing it open.
She inched her way over to the wall; then, using it as a brace, she managed to get to her knees.
She was soaked with sweat by the time she’d struggled to her feet.
Keeping her back to the wall, she slid along it, groping with her fingers.
She almost wept when she found the knob.
She twisted, straining on her toes before she could fit her fingers around it.
Locked. She had to shake her head to keep the tears from coming.
Of course it was locked. Durnam might be a brute, but he wasn’t a fool.
She tried thudding against the door, hoping to draw some attention, but trussed up tightly she was unable to get the momentum to make more than a quiet bump.
Erin slid to the floor again and, closing her mind to both panic and pain, continued to work at the ropes.
“Have you seen Erin?”
Travis continued to run his hands down his colt’s leg as he looked up at Burke. “Not since this morning. I assumed she’d gone back to the hotel.”
“Maybe. She could have taken a cab.” It was logical, Burke reminded himself. There was no reason for the sick feeling in his stomach. “We came in together this morning. She usually waits.”
“She was looking a little tired.” Travis straightened. “She could have gone back to get some rest before tonight.”
“Yeah.” It made sense. She was probably soaking in a hot tub right now, thinking about the party that night. “I think I’ll drive back and check on her.”
“Ask her if she’ll take pity on a lonely man and save a few dances for me.”
“Sure.”
“Burke?”
“Yeah?”
“Something wrong?”
His hands were cold. Ice-cold. “No, nothing. See you in a couple hours.”
They stayed cold as he drove from the track toward the hotel.
It wasn’t like Erin to simply go off without a word.
But then, they hadn’t been exchanging a great many words lately.
His fault. He accepted that with a shrug.
He didn’t feel right about her being there.
And he hated seeing her brace herself against the gossip that would certainly swell before it diminished.
If she wasn’t so damn stubborn about maintaining a social position... but then, that was one of the things he’d promised her when they’d married. He couldn’t help but be grateful that she was sticking by him, whatever her reasons, but with gratitude came only more guilt and responsibility.
He was no fonder of responsibility now than he’d ever been. Maybe it would be a relief to head the car west and keep going. To start from scratch as he’d done so many times before. Nothing had ever held him back before. But then, there hadn’t been an Erin before.
Once the race and the scandal were behind them, they would talk.
The air had to be cleared, the rules had to be reset.
Maybe, just maybe, after it was all done, he’d tell her about his past. The way he’d grown up, the things he’d filled his life with.
It was better to have it out, to make it clean now and let her walk away, than to continue waiting for her to find out for herself.
He’d never thought of his past as anything to be ashamed of. That was something else she’d done to him. She’d forced him to look back at his past a little too hard. And he didn’t like what he saw.
His mood hadn’t improved by the time he reached the hotel.
He knew it was ridiculous for him to be angry with her for leaving the track when he’d demanded she leave altogether.
But, damn it, she’d made him depend on her.
The days were easier to get through when he knew he could look around and see her. He didn’t care for that, either.
By the time he walked into their suite, he was primed for a fight. It had been too long since they’d developed a polite veneer and no substance. He was going to shout at her and let her shout back. Then they’d both vent the rest of their frustrations in bed.
“Erin?” He slammed the door behind him, but had gone no farther than the center of the parlor before he knew she wasn’t there. And his hands were cold again.
Cursing himself, he walked into the bedroom.
Had she left him? Had he pushed her away far enough, consistently enough, that she’d decided to take that final step?
He didn’t want to lose her. That admission left him shaken as he reached for the closet door.
No, he didn’t want to lose her any more than he wanted to need her.
He had to make himself pull open the door of the closet, and was nearly dizzy with relief when he saw her clothes undisturbed.
She’d gone shopping, he told himself. Or to have her hair done. But those thoughts didn’t relieve his mind as he closed the closet door.
He was pacing the suite nearly thirty minutes later when the phone rang. Burke pounced on it, ready to rail at her no matter what her explanation.
“Burke, it’s Travis.”
“Yeah?”
“Is Erin back at the hotel?”
“No.” And now his mouth was dry. “Why?”
“Lloyd Pentel just brought me her wedding ring. He found it on the floor in the stables.”
“What? The stables?” He was lowering himself into a chair, unaware that he’d moved at all. “That’s not right. She wouldn’t go in the stables. She’s afraid of horses.”
“Burke.” Travis kept his voice calm. “Has she been back to the hotel?”
“No, she hasn’t been here. I want to talk to Pentel.”
“I already have. He hasn’t seen her. Burke, we may be jumping the gun, but I think you should call the police.”
She’d lost track of the time. Once she’d thought the ropes had loosened, but had had to accept it as wishful thinking.
More than her wrists hurt now. There were bumps and bruises all over from a fall she’d taken while trying to maneuver standing up.
Because the fall had scared her badly with the thought of what might have happened to the baby, she no longer tried to stand.
For a time she closed herself off and thought of Burke, as if she could will him to find her.
Would he be worried? Had enough time passed that he would begin to wonder where she was?
Would he care? She may have prayed, then slept a little while, dreaming first of Ireland and the farm.
Why had she wanted to leave so badly what had been safe and secure?
Then she dreamed of Burke and knew that part of the answer was that she’d been meant for him.
“Mrs. Logan.”
Her body jackknifed as a hand touched her shoulder. The blindfold was loosened, and she had to blink and struggle to focus. In the dim light she made out the face of the groom, and panic flooded back. He’d come to kill her. And her baby.
“I brought you some food. You gotta promise to be quiet. Durnam would have my hide for coming in here like this. If you promise not to scream, I’ll take the gag off so you can eat. If you make noise, I put it back and you get nothing.”
She nodded, then drew in fresh air when her mouth was free. It wasn’t easy to smother the instinct to cry out, but she could still taste the gag he’d pulled from her mouth. “Please, why are you doing this? If it’s money you want, you can have it.”
“I’m in too deep.” He had a sandwich that was rapidly going stale. “Eat some or you’ll get sick.”
“What difference does it make?” Just the smell of the meat between the bread made her stomach turn. “You’re going to kill me anyway.”
“Now, I don’t have nothing to do with that.” She saw the panic in his eyes and the sweat beading on his lip. He was as afraid as she was. If she could use that, she might yet have a chance.
“You know what Durnam’s going to do. He can’t let me go.”
“He just wants to win, that’s all. He needs to.
Got himself in some financial trouble, and his stable isn’t as good as it was.
Charlie’s Pride is his best shot, but Logan’s colt is better.
That’s why he had me hire on at Three Aces, so I could keep an eye on things and make sure the race went wrong.
But that’s it,” he added, glancing around.
He was talking too much. He always talked too much when he got nervous.
And he wanted a drink. The saliva in his mouth had dried to nothing.
“I just sweetened the horse some. That’s what Durnam wanted.
He just needs to put him out of the running.
You gotta understand, this is business. Just business. ”
“You’re talking about races. I’m talking about murder.”
“I don’t want to hear about it. I got nothing to do with that. Now you eat.”
“Mr.... I don’t know your name.”
“It’s Berley, ma’am. Tom Berley.” Ridiculous as it was, he lifted his fingers to his cap.
“Mr. Berley, I’m begging you for my life. And not just for mine, but for the baby I’m carrying. You can’t let him kill my baby. Now you’ll only be in trouble about the horse, but this is murder. An innocent child, Mr. Berley.”
“I’m not going to hear no more talk about killing.
” His voice had roughened, but his hands weren’t steady when they pulled the gag up again.
He no longer wanted a drink, he needed one desperately.
He started to replace the blindfold, but the look in her eyes had him hesitating.
There was nothing for her to see anyway, he told himself.
The back of the van was windowless, and the cab was blocked off by a wooden partition.
“You don’t want to eat, that’s your business. I’ve got my own to see to.” He stuffed the sandwich in his pocket. Erin saw him look both ways before he stepped out the door again and left her in the dark.