Chapter 24 #2
He glanced wildly around, clearly assessing his chances of getting out.
“Stay right where you are, William. I have plenty of ammo left in this gun for you.”
William stopped moving. He practically stopped breathing. If Althea hadn’t been coolly holding her finger on the trigger, Gabe might have laughed. Chuckled anyway. William looked like he was the only player in a life-or-death game of Red Light, Green Light.
“Wow, and here I thought Rizzi was a POS,” Gabe said casually.
His mind raced, brimming with thoughts. He was right, Althea had to have been party to some of Rizzi’s dealings.
Hell, she probably was his personal assistant in all that mess even as she was working her own business too. Having Rizzi go down had to hurt.
Althea turned back to him, waving the gun Gabe’s direction for the umpteenth time.
“Have you tried growing old in this forsaken country? The rising cost of health care? Groceries? Housing? It costs, young man, believe me. I need this. Do you think working at the Twana County Sheriff’s Office for as long as I have has done anything for me besides give me a few decent connections? ”
“Probably sucks that Stevens grew a spine and confessed, really put you in a bind.”
Randy was moaning and writhing on the cement floor, and an expression that informed Gabe she really wanted to shoot him again and shut him up for good this time crossed the old woman’s face.
Meanwhile, William had taken a step to the left.
Gabe figured he was trying to get close to the side door without Althea realizing until it was too late to shoot him too.
Time to keep talking, Chance. This old bitch needs to go down.
“Not to judge or anything but if it were me, I’d have some mad money squirreled away, wouldn’t have relied on a crooked cop or stolen artwork to finance my retirement.
But as you pointed out, I’m not quite there yet.
Have you considered investing in stocks or bonds?
Does the term mad money bother you? Personally, I think it suits you. ”
“Shut the fuck up, or I’ll pull the trigger.”
“See, you won’t. If you shoot me, I won’t be able to tell you anything about the missing artwork. Not one single fucking word.”
“So you do know something.”
Gabe lifted one shoulder and let it drop again. “Maybe.”
With her attention off William, Mr. Sidekick had edged a few feet closer to the exit. Gabe was trying very hard not to glance across the room at him. Damn it was difficult looking a killer in the eye.
Althea narrowed her eyes at him. The crow’s feet from her years of living became even more pronounced. Gabe was tempted to point out that scowling had a negative effect on her countenance, but he was too busy watching William out the corner of his eye and trying to make sure Althea didn’t notice.
Two more steps, William.
He must have given himself away or William made a scuffing sound.
Regardless of what had alerted her, Althea swung around, and the gun went off a third time.
Luckily for William, Althea’s spin made the shot go high and the bullet hit the wall about six feet over his head.
Lunging for the door handle, he wrenched the door open and disappeared into the early morning twilight.
Cold air rushed into the building, displacing the air that Gabe hadn’t registered as warm. What he wouldn’t have given for his Casey coat right now.
“You could have at least provided me with some of those pocket-sized hand warmers. If I freeze to death, you will—and I promise you this—never find what you’re looking for.
The secret will go with me to my grave. Nobody knows what I know.
” Deep inside, Gabe knew he shouldn’t enjoy sounding mysterious in this fucked-up situation, but he did.
For his part, Randy moaned again and tried to roll to a sitting position, but one glance from his crazy relative and Randy lay back.
“Yeah, what he said.”
The guy was in pain, and there was visible blood on the concrete flooring. He needed medical attention sooner rather than later, but Gabe didn’t think Althea planned on calling in an ambulance. However, Gabe had noticed several boxes marked First Aid among the MRE storage.
“If you untie me, I could check his wound. He’s still conscious, so that’s good, but you don’t want him bleeding out, do you?”
Fuck, maybe she really was a psychopath and just didn’t care.
“Stay right where you are,” Althea ordered.
As if he could go anywhere zip-tied and handcuffed to a chair. When he did get free, he’d probably end up face down on the floor. He was seriously too old for this shit.
Without being obvious about it, Gabe was keeping his attention on the now open door. He thought he’d seen movement out there, something furtive in the shadowed morning. With his run of luck, it would turn out to be the world’s last surviving werewolf or maybe Bigfoot.
Who was he kidding? With his luck, it would be Larry Colavito.
“If Holly didn’t have the paintings in these boxes, where are they?” She returned her attention to Randy who looked suspiciously still. “You missed something.” She waved the gun Gabe’s direction, something Gabe really wished she’d just stop doing. “He has to have it. Holly made sure he did.”
Althea crossed to where Randy lay, now curled up in as much of a ball as he could manage, and kicked him. He screamed and writhed again.
“Answer me when I’m talking to you.”
“Nothing, there was nothing,” Randy gasped.
Gabe didn’t think it was his imagination that the tiny bit of sky he could see through the cracked-open door looked infinitesimally lighter. The trees outside were less dark, which meant it could be after six a.m., maybe even close to seven.
Gabe just hoped Elton and Casey had an idea of where he was although he didn’t know how they would. He didn’t even know where he was.
Gabe also hoped they’d bring coffee with them.
Out the still open door, Gabe thought he saw movement. Movement that wasn’t tree branches dancing in the wind. Before he could focus on it, whatever it was faded away. He blinked. Was he hallucinating? Not out of the realm of possibility.
“So, I think I’ve got this sorted out, at least a rough draft.
I’ve had hours to think about it, after all.
Your sisters pulled off a heist fifty years ago and you knew about it, maybe you helped.
At the very least, you were jealous they’d come up with the idea.
Something went sideways, maybe there was disagreement?
The art went poof. Into thin air. My mother was the smart sister, wasn’t she?
I’ve long suspected we came from a family of grifters, and I think I’m on the right track. ”
Too many grifters in the kitchen ruin the con, Chance.
Althea made an indeterminate grunt that Gabe interpreted as go ahead and keep talking. He was going to keep talking because he’d seen the movement again and was certain there was a person, maybe more than one, just outside. The gun was still pointed at him, and Gabe was ready for it not to be.
“Moving right along. Way back when you came back to Heartstone, you got into bed with Eli Rizzi for reasons only known to the two of you. Maybe he knew something or you had something on him, it doesn’t matter now.
Last fall, he fell from grace and now you risk exposure.
All you have to help you get out of here is maybe some artwork that my mother may have left to me. ”
Gabe was enjoying this in spite of himself. Now he knew how those detectives felt at the end of the show, when they gathered the suspects and laid the crime out in front of them.
“Time’s running out. You can’t keep your deeds hidden from Eagan and the investigators she brought in.
So you’d come up with this locket scheme so you could search my house, I guess, except that I didn’t have any of Heidi’s things at that time.
Was Mia acting on her own? Or was that a contingency plan? I still can’t figure out that part.”
“Why’d you kill her, Auntie?”
“Fuck off with the Auntie bullshit, Randall. Even after the Crevans went AWOL, I thought I’d finally escaped this backwater by marrying Frederick Martine.
But then Carla and her kid died, and I was stuck with Randy and Mia.
Raising kids is expensive these days. I deserve the money from that artwork.
Mia agreed to approach you, see what she could find out.
When you sent her away, she came crying to me.
At the station, believe it or not, like the utter moron she was. ”
Althea turned back toward Randy, her gun hand slightly lower than it had been, and three men burst in through the door.
One took Althea to the ground and relieved her of the weapon, then spun her onto her front and used zip ties to secure her.
The second headed for Randy, kneeling beside him, and set down a boxy first aid kit.
The third, Ranger Man, headed straight for Gabe. He’d never seen anything more magnificent in his life.
“I’d stand up and lay a kiss on you, Ranger Man, but I’m kind of tied up.”