The fire escape creaked as she made her descent to the ground. Rather than ghost herself any further, Willow dropped the last few feet to the alley below. Davis rushed out into the fire escape. Stepping back into the shadows, she waited for him descend. When he went back inside Willow felt a sharp needle jab between her shoulders and the world went black
Davis snatched the first bottle of vodka he saw from the back of the bar and poured a drink. He tossed the drink back and poured another. He was about to down that tumbler when he caught his reflection in the mirrors behind the bar. Davis hurled the tumbler with such force that it not only shattered the mirror but two of the larger bottles of rum and scotch exploded, sending rivers of the alcohol spluttering through the racks and down onto the floor.
He was about to round the bar to assess the damage and start cleaning up when his telephone upstairs started ringing. He stared at the ceiling waiting for the rings to stop. But no sooner had his phone upstairs gone quiet than the phone in the bar started ringing. He turned his back and was about to head back upstairs when the phone on his hip jittered.
Even before he put the phone to his ear, he could hear Beth screaming on the other end. He bolted for the door still getting snatches of the conversation from her. At last, her husband came to the phone.
“She never made it here. Her phone was still on as of forty minutes ago. They found her on GPS. She was heading back toward parent’s house. Beth could hear Kevin Francis Greer in the background.”
Davis hung up and called England.
A hint of roses and jasmine called to Davis from the garden. He checked his service weapon. Movement in the bushes off to his left alerted him to a sniper stationed in the trees on the adjacent property He counted two men guarding the front door and another posted near the back entrance.
“I count three around the house.”
“Another on the roof.” England ‘s voice emanated from the earpiece wedged in Davis’s ear.
“Have there been any calls downtown?”
“No, and no demands via the web or anywhere else. Look, he has his audience. Davis, stay put.”
“The first crime scene was near my club. You know what happens at the second crime scene.”
Davis snatched the earpiece out as he cut silently across the lawn, blending into the shadows. When he was close enough to the dining room window, he peered in. Willow was slumped over at the head of the table, her hands strapped down to the arms of the chair. Behind her on the wall sat William’s fireman equipment, right down to his yellow fireman’s jacket. On the wall above where she sat was a fireman’s blanket with the engine company insignia on it. He saw a shadow move over to the window and he flattened himself against the trellis.
“You have to understand, I never meant to kill Audrey. In my own way I had loved her. She was sweet and quiet, absolutely bovine. She’d plod along and agree to everything I asked for... made her do. You see, she believed in the sanctity of marriage. She was easy enough to get, as all lonely women are.” Greer gazed out the window for a moment longer.
“Pour a little honey in their ear to make them forget. Hold them a little, make them think all their fantasies are coming true. Then chase it with a little lye just to make her scream. She wanted a child so badly in the beginning, someone she could take home to her precious New York. I only agreed because it would give me the perfect cover.
“When he was born, I... I was afraid of him. Imagine. This tiny baby staring at me as if he knew. She hid him from me, told me he’d died in the night, but there were no tears. I guess I’d stolen that last indignity from her. Kept asking her. Even when there was nothing left of her face but blood and bone. She kept saying he was gone, that he had died.
“Fatima was the one that told me where he was. She was useful even back then. Told me my Audrey gave our son to a friend because she was married to a man of means. He would be sheltered and taken care of. She never saw the bruises on his face or the bloody noses, but I did.”
Greer glanced over his shoulder to find her out cold. He charged back over to the table and grabbed a hank of her hair and yanked her head back so hard that the cords in her neck stood out.
“Are you listening, my queen? I’m getting the impression that you’re ignoring me!” He dug his fingers into the side of her neck, feeling for a pulse. And then he released her. “Sorry darling, I don’t mean to be so rough. If I wasn’t so heavy handed with the dart gun, then maybe... maybe.” He pressed a kiss to her cheek, and she cringed. He breathed her in again and ran his face along hers.
Greer made yet another circuit around the living room, taking in the pictures on the mantle and the artwork on the walls. Each time he passed by Willow he let his fingers grace the back of her chair.
“Fatima just wanted to belong here, but you knew that could never be. After a while, I think she knew that.”
“Where is she?”
“Do you really want to know?” He settled down on the edge of the coffee table and gazed at her.
Willow whimpered and swung her head in the direction of the window. She detected movement beyond the curtains.
“Couldn’t get close enough, so I waited, made myself indispensable. That way I could watch him grow up. Everyone thought it was about the money. That was only part of it. Cappy Red thought they could escape to Audrey’s hometown, Harlem. It was what she named him. Not Camden or Bronx.
“Where is she?” Willow she murmured thickly.
Greer turned on her. His brilliant blue eyes seemed a shade lighter as he moved over to the table.
“Upstairs. Dying slowly, painfully... silently.” He leaned in over her and breathed her in. Willow tried to move away from him, and he yanked her closer. “Same with that firebug she hired. You know what they say, clean while you cook. With you in hand and my son on the way, my feast is just about ready.”
Greer paused near the window and peered through the gap in blinds. “He’s out there, you know. I can smell the gun oil. Wonder if he can smell the Astrolite. His parents’ car was filled with it.”
“You have me. Just leave him out of this.”
He hugged her closer. “That is something I cannot do. You tried to take him from me just like she did. You I can forgive because you’ll give me more. My queen, my beautiful queen.”
“I am not your—”
He grabbed another hank of her hair and snatched her head back.
“Do what you want. Harlem’s dead. He’s been dead for years.”
“That’s not what the nurse from ER seven told Kyle Endicott.” He let her go and she fell forward against the table.
“What?”
“Kyle would do anything I said—including kill a nice old woman who ran a sewing shop. All for a little bit of information. Something no one was supposed to know. She saw a body bag being taken from the building, only body bags don’t move. Body bags don’t scream.
“True enough, he’d lost a lot of blood and his face was nothing more than bloody ribbons, but Harlem, my son was very much alive. Even though his new father’s enemies thought they’d done a good job. Had to show them my dark gift for their trouble.”
“Why not just kill me back then?” Davis said.
They both turned to see him standing in the doorway. His eyes burned from the smell of the Astrolite.
“Stop right there,” Greer said. “The house is full of this stuff. The fire department will have to let this place burn to the ground. No water can quench it.”
“Would have made more sense, Greer. Abortion by proxy. Heard the whispers and confronted my adoptive father. Wanted to put us both down like rabid pit bulls, but you were too useful. You could do his dirty work and the insurance companies paid. Me, on the other hand? The only act of kindness that man showed me was pushing my smoldering body through the broken windshield into William Daniels’s arms.”
“And look where it brought you—new face, new life, but the same old nature.”
Davis raised the shotgun and aimed it at Greer’s chest. “Let her go.”
“Poison’s already flowing through her system. It won’t be long now. She won’t even feel the beast as it eats.”
Davis shot a look at Willow who tried to hold her eyes open. She dragged her foot across the carpet beneath the dining room table and she swung her head back in Davis’s direction.
“You wanted me. Here I am, you have what you want. Now please, just give her to me. Let me take her outside.”
“Lower your gun.”
Willow shook her head weakly at Davis, but he sat the gun on the corner and raised his hands. Greer eased over to the gun and just as he moved in front of the window a single shot pierced the glass. Davis threw himself in Willow’s direction, knocking the chair over in the process.
England watched in horror as the place went up in flames.
“Get an engine company in there! For God’s sakes, we got people in there.”
He ran toward the house and a second explosion rocked the entire neighborhood, knocking out windows and windshields. England charged to his feet and several of his men tried to hold him back as he struggled to make his way to the burning building. Just then they all saw a man walking across the law engulfed in blue flames. He took several more steps before he fell to the ground. Firemen raced over to douse the flames.
“Is it him? Is it Davis?”
Layton looked at up at him through the tears streaming from his soot smeared face. “I can’t... we can’t tell.”
Layton stood and walked over to Hollis who was staring at the blue flames as they engulfed the house.
“Not both of them, Bobby. Please God, not both of them,” Hollis yelled.
Just then, they heard someone screaming and they turned to see England and his men aiming at someone moving slowly toward them. Layton and Hollis broke into a run. They reached Davis as he spilled to his knees, clutching Willow to his chest.
“Don’t touch her! Stay back—all of you, just stay away from us!” he roared. “She’s not dead. She’s not. I covered her. I covered us with the blanket.” He cradled her in his arms as the medics stood helplessly by.
“Davis, you have to let us take a look at her.”
He shook his head as he waved them off and continued to rock her back and forth.
“Davis, please you have to let us have her,” Hollis said. “Come on son, you took real good care of her. Davis, let us—”
“Harlem,” Willow croaked. “His name is Harlem.”
Davis crushed her to his chest and sobbed.
The chopper flying overhead panned a single white pool of light on them as the medics and the FBI descended on them.