I had a restless night. It must have shown in my face, because the next morning Alexandra Campbell told me, “You look terrible.”
“I’ve had a lot on my mind,” I said. “Where’s Hayley?”
Alex called the girl’s name, and a moment later she bounded down the staircase.
“Good morning,” Hayley said.
I had to admit she looked a helluva lot better than I did in her tight jeans and pink pullover. She was smiling, but I wasn’t.
“What is it?” she asked.
“Time to go home,” I said.
“To Axis Mundi?” Hayley shook her head as if she couldn’t think of anything more distasteful.
“You don’t have to stay there,” I told her. “You’re over eighteen. An adult. But you need to at least make an appearance. Too much has happened.”
“They’ll never forgive me.”
“They already have.”
“How could they?”
“Your family knows that you had nothing to do with the blackmail attempts, that it was all on Sean and Chad. They also know that when you discovered what they were doing you stopped them. That scored a lot of points.”
“I’m the one who started it all because I wanted the world to know what they were doing.”
“Your stepfather and the others don’t know that part. They think that you might have spoken out of turn about family business with your friends, and your friends acted on their own. My advice, what they don’t know won’t hurt them.”
“I won’t live a lie.”
“Hayley, how did you think this was going to end? What did you think was going to happen when you threw your family’s secrets up on the World Wide Web? Did you think you would be regarded as a hero? Did you think society would rise up as one to applaud your honorable intentions? Edward Snowden is still living in exile. Julian Assange is in virtual prison in the Ecuadorian embassy in London.”
“It was the right thing to do.”
“Go home, Hayley. Despite what you think, the people there love you. At least they’re trying to. If nothing else, you’ll soon have more money than God. Your stepfather told me so himself. Think of what you can do with all that cash, the good you can do. Change the world.”
Hayley pivoted toward Alex.
“What should I do?” she asked.
“Taylor’s right, you don’t have to stay at Axis Mundi. If things get intense, you can always come back here to me.”
Hayley smiled as if she couldn’t think of anything more wonderful. She moved toward Alex and fell into her arms. They kissed, but not as friends kiss. They kissed like lovers, with passion and hunger, their bodies pressed hard against each other. I wish I could say I found the scene heartwarming. Or even erotic. Instead, I was appalled, my brain screaming, “Alex, what are you doing?”
I tried mightily not to let it show, though, especially when they broke the kiss and Hayley pivoted toward me. She held out her hand. A flash drive was resting in the palm.
“Here,” she said.
“Are you sure?”
“Why didn’t you take it from me when we were at the Library, or later when we came here?”
“It doesn’t belong to me.”
“You could have taken it. I wouldn’t have been able to stop you.”
“That’s a poor reason to steal, because you can get away with it.”
“It was your job to take these files.”
“I like it better that you’re giving them to me.”
I took the flash drive from her hand and slipped it into my jacket pocket without looking at it. I told myself that Freddie would be so pleased.
“I don’t get you at all,” Hayley said.
“That’s okay. Sometimes I don’t get me, either.”
“Hayley,” Alex said, “don’t forget your backpack.”
Hayley squeezed her hand and headed upstairs. As soon as she was out of earshot I spoke up.
“Jesus, Alex, what are you thinking?” I said.
“About what?”
“You know about what.”
“The girl is over eighteen, Taylor. She’s not one of my students. She doesn’t even go to the U.”
“That’s your threshold? That’s where you draw the line?”
“Did it ever occur to you that she was the instigator? That Hayley crawled into my bed looking for comfort and not the other way around? For God’s sake, she saw two men killed in front of her, men she knew personally.”
“That doesn’t make any difference. She’s a child.”
“She’s a woman with needs just like the rest of us.”
I heard Hayley at the top of the stairs.
“You and I are going to have a talk later,” I said.
“Funny, Taylor,” Alex said. “You never struck me as the jealous type.”
“That’s not what the talk will be about.”
“I’m ready,” Hayley said. She descended the steps, the backpack slung over her shoulder. It didn’t get in the way as she and Alex hugged again.
“I already miss you,” Hayley said.
“You know where I live.”
“I do.”
They kissed again, this time with affection. I opened the door, and Hayley stepped out. I glanced at Alex before following her. Alex gave me a shrug as if to say, “What’s a girl to do?”
I maneuvered my Camry to I-94 and eventually to I-394, heading west toward Lake Minnetonka, with neither of us I having much to say until we were in the suburbs.
“I’m sorry,” Hayley said.
“For what?”
“For putting you to so much trouble.”
“It’s part of the job.”
“No, your job was to get the files, and you could have done that without helping me.”
“I like you, Hayley.”
“Even though I stole your girlfriend?”
“Is that what you did?”
“Alex and I slept together.”
“I got that impression.”
“She wasn’t the first woman I’ve had sex with, but she is the only one that I actually cared about. I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay.”
“Sight is what most people use to avoid bumping into the furniture, but Alex, she sees things, you know?”
Hayley didn’t speak again until we were passing through Wayzata. “She’s not the one, though, is she? Alex. She’s not the one.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“If you really cared about her, you’d be angrier than you are.”
I didn’t know what to say to that, so I didn’t say anything. The truth is, I wasn’t even thinking about Alexandra Campbell. I was thinking about Claire Wedemeyer and the fact that I had put her and her daughter in danger simply by knowing them. It made me feel gloomy. Possibly Hayley could see the gloom in my face.
“I wish you’d say something,” she said.
“The devil is inside all of us. With some he resides very near the surface and can be easily released by alcohol, drugs, politics, even bad traffic. With others it requires more powerful motivations like fear, hate, loneliness, ambition, greed. Love.”
“The devil made me do it. Isn’t that a seventies thing?”
“Are you calling me old again?”
Eventually we reached Orono and turned south toward the City of Mound.
“Taylor,” Hayley said, “I like you, too.”
The first time I had driven to Axis Mundi I had followed Melissa and Fisk. We had paused at an iron gate that they opened and closed with a remote control. This time there were armed guards outside the gate with the patch of a private security firm stitched to their shoulders. One of the guards approached my car while two others watched, their automatic weapons held with the muzzles pointing downward. I opened my window.
“What’s your business here?” he asked.
“Holland Taylor and Hayley O’Brien. We’re expected.”
The guard looked at both of us and then into the backseat. Hayley leaned forward to look at him.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
“Pop the trunk,” the guard said.
I did, using the latch on the floor between my seat and the door. He looked inside and slammed it shut again. He returned to the window.
“Don’t move,” he said. “Keep your hands where I can see them.”
I did. He pulled a cell phone from his pocket and made a call. I don’t know who he spoke to, but the conversation lasted less than ten seconds. He returned to the window.
“Drive directly to the house,” he told me. “Do not stop. Do not leave the road. Do not step out of your vehicle until you’re told.”
The guard waved at his two companions. They opened the gate. I drove through it. It was shut tight behind me. The private road ran straight as a ruler through the forest that surrounded Axis Mundi. I followed it to the driveway, passing at least two armed guards as I went.
There were several other cars in the driveway, including one with the emblem of the City of Orono Police Department and another with the blue, yellow, and red stripe of the Hennepin County Sherriff’s Department. I parked the Camry. Several more guards approached. Hayley didn’t wait for permission, though. She released her seat belt, hopped out of the car, and started running toward the huge house, not even bothering to close the door behind her. The guards seemed peeved yet kept their weapons pointed down just the same.
Hayley’s mother must have been watching for us. Maura came out of the house and started sprinting toward her daughter. They met in a splendid collision, and I thought, whatever their problems, mother and daughter should be fine. Melissa and Kurtis Guernsey followed close behind. Additional hugs were exchanged and I thought some more. From a distance it looked like a loving family greeting a favorite child home from a faraway land.
“Looks can be deceiving,” I said aloud.
A guard had approached the Camry and was standing close to my window.
“Huh?” he said.
“Just thinking out loud. What the hell’s going on, anyway?”
“There’s been a threat against Mr. Guernsey’s life.”
“By whom?”
“Man named Fisk.”
For a moment I didn’t know what to do. My first thought was that I should get Hayley out of there. Take her back to Alex’s house where she would be safe. But was it really necessary to do that? Besides, the job was finished. We kept the hacked computer files from reaching NIMN, which is what the lawyers had hired Freddie and me to do. I told the hacker that the mayor of Minneapolis was willing to be her pal, for which we were paid five thousand dollars with the promise of five thousand more. Plus, we had delivered Hayley to her mother, fulfilling the contract we made with her. It was time to go home. Yet I couldn’t bring myself to start the Camry and drive away. The guard helped me out.
“Are you Taylor?” he asked.
“Yeah.”
“Cops are running a command post out of the garage. They want to talk to you.”
He opened my car door as a way to stifle any argument. I slipped out of the car and followed him to the huge garage off the driveway, telling myself that there was probably a practical reason they had gathered there instead of inside the house besides the danger of bruising the carpets. A Hennepin County sheriff’s deputy with sergeant’s stripes was looking over a map. Orono Police Officer Arthur Cerise was standing at his shoulder. That was the extent of any official presence. One deputy and one cop. Everyone else was wearing the insignia of the private security firm.
The deputy watched as I approached. When I was near enough that he could speak to me without raising his voice, he said, “Taylor?”
“Yes.”
“Private investigator from Minneapolis?”
“That’s right.”
“As you can see, we have a situation. A disgruntled employee named Fisk has threatened to kill his employer, Robert Paul Guernsey. We’re trying to prevent that from happening.”
“Just the two of you and an army of hired guns?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“A man of Guernsey’s resources, I’d expect a greater official presence.”
“Mr. Guernsey insists that we maintain a low profile for publicity’s sake. He said you were present when Fisk made terroristic threats against him and his family.”
“No.”
“Are you calling Mr. Guernsey a liar?” Cerise asked.
“I’m saying I wasn’t present when Fisk made terroristic threats against him or his family.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“What I saw, Fisk was upset. He didn’t like being fired. There were no threats, though, not by him or Guernsey. Guernsey said he’d take care of Fisk financially, and Fisk left.”
“That’s not the way we heard it,” the deputy said.
“That’s the way I heard it, what I’ll tell the Hennepin County attorney should I be asked to make a statement. I might even be persuaded to tell him everything else I heard, too, if it comes to that.”
Cerise was clearly angered by my stance. The deputy seemed confused.
“Is there a warrant for Fisk’s arrest?” I asked him.
“I … I don’t know.”
“This isn’t the way things are supposed to work, is it? It goes against all protocols and procedures.”
“The bosses want it kept quiet,” he said.
“Are you supposed to cooperate with Guernsey, or is he supposed to cooperate with you?”
“I was told—”
“Yes?”
The deputy didn’t finish his thought.
“The security guards are well armed,” I said.
“We put no faith in slingshots.” Officer Cerise grinned broadly because he thought he’d said something clever.
“What are their orders?”
“To protect—”
“They were told to shoot on sight, weren’t they? Shoot to kill.”
“If that’s what it takes.”
“Is it possible, do you think, that Guernsey doesn’t want the county attorney to hear Fisk’s side of the story?”
The deputy gave it a moment’s thought before he answered. “If he’s innocent, Fisk won’t come anywhere near the place.”
He had me there, except Fisk wasn’t innocent, was he? What’s more, from what I was told, Guernsey rarely strayed from Axis Mundi. If Fisk really did want to kill the old man, he’d have to come here.
None of us could think of any reason for me to keep hanging around. I left the garage and headed for my Camry. My job was done. The problems of the Guernsey family no longer meant anything to me. I was just a bystander now. The Guernseys were still engaged in their love fest, although the old man was nowhere to be seen. Maura waved at me, and I waved back. She beckoned for me to join them. I didn’t want to, yet I did anyway.
“Thank you, Taylor,” she told me. “Thank you for bringing my daughter home.”
“You’re welcome.”
“I can’t believe the change in her. Is that your doing?”
“No.”
“She looks so pretty,” Kurtis said.
“She was pretty before. You just didn’t notice.”
Hayley smiled at me yet said nothing. Her face was flushed, and her eyes were bright. She seemed happy, the only time I’d seen her happy since we met. Well, except for when she was playing tongue hockey with Alex. I was still unsure what to think about that.
“I couldn’t help but notice all the security,” I said.
Melissa took my arm, led me two feet away, and spoke softly. “We don’t wish to frighten Hayley,” she said.
“I’m standing right here,” Hayley said.
Melissa looked at her as if she was surprised.
“Yes, of course,” she said. “My father, your stepfather—”
“Where is he?”
“In the maze,” Kurtis said. “He went there just a few minutes ago.”
“Is he hiding from me?”
“Hayley,” Maura said. She draped her arm over her daughter’s shoulders, and for a moment she was Claire Wedemeyer shielding Amanda. “He loves you.”
“We’ll find out in a little bit.”
“What do you mean?”
Hayley looked me in the eye and smiled, and I knew that she was going to go all in. She was going to tell the old man everything she had done and why and see what became of it. I wanted to watch. Besides, I told myself, the girl might need a ride back to the Cities.
“You say he’s in the maze,” I said.
“Taylor, terrible things happened after you left yesterday,” Kurtis said. “Father contacted the Orono Police Department and spoke to an acquaintance of Maura’s. He said that Fisk had become irrational and violent. He said that Fisk had threatened the family. Fisk heard this. He hadn’t left the house, yet. They argued. Fisk told Father that all he had to do was write a check and this—he didn’t say what ‘this’ was, but he said that it would have gone away. Father said he doesn’t pay losers. Fisk left, but he said that he would be back. Father said if he was smart, he’d start running. You know what kind of man my father is, what kind of man Fisk is. We’re all very upset.”
“Did you tell this to the police?”
Kurtis answered sheepishly. “Some of it, but not all. Father was … he was standing there. Later—what happened—this morning the security system crashed. For ninety minutes, all of our cameras and alarms were off-line. Father called the security company, of course, and their people searched the house and grounds thoroughly and found nothing. No one. Still, we’re all on edge.”
“I bet Fisk knows everything there is to know about your security system,” I said.
“That’s why we have so many armed guards now. We’re sorry, Hayley, to bother you with all of this.”
“It’s all right,” she said. “I’m probably to blame, anyway.”
“How could you be?”
“I want to talk to Stepfather. Taylor, will you come with me?”
“I wouldn’t miss it.”
“I’m coming, too,” Maura said.
Inside the maze, the silence was almost absolute. Shadows lay softly from one hedgerow to the next. We moved casually while in my head I chanted right-left, right-left, right-left and then left-right, left-right, left-right. Hayley led the way, with Maura close behind her, and me behind Maura. I heard Maura say, “I never come in here by myself. I’m always afraid I’ll never get out again.”
“That’s why people take wrong turns,” Hayley said. “They become afraid.”
We didn’t hear them until we reached the opening. Hayley halted. Maura and I were jammed together behind her. I watched the scene unfold over her head.
“I said you’d be well compensated,” old man Guernsey said.
“You put the cops on me,” Fisk replied.
“I was protecting myself.”
“Like you were protecting yourself when you had me kill Cowgill and all the others?”
“You know who I am. You know how I do things.”
They were standing near the fountain. Fisk was pointing a handgun at Guernsey. The old man was standing off to the side with his back to us. He looked like he didn’t care about the gun.
In that moment I knew what had happened. Fisk cut the camera feeds just long enough to hide himself in the maze, knowing that none of the security guards would have dared to patrol it, knowing that it was where the old man enjoyed hiding from the world for which he had such contempt. A single gunshot from a small-caliber weapon might go unnoticed, and then Fisk would hide inside the maze, which he probably knew very well after all those years working at Axis Mundi, until escape was possible.
Except now we were there.
Neither Fisk nor Guernsey saw us.
“Yes, I know how you do things,” Fisk said.
He brought his gun up.
“You’ve always been a loser,” Guernsey said.
Hayley dashed forward. I reached for her, but Maura was in the way.
“You’ve lived too long, old man,” Fisk said.
He took aim.
Hayley shouted, “No,” and leapt in front of her stepfather.
Fisk squeezed the trigger.
The bullet caught Hayley in the center of her chest.
She fell backward against the old man. Blood quickly spread, creating a giant stain on her pink pullover.
Guernsey grabbed Hayley’s shoulders to keep her upright. He released her, though, when he saw the blood, as if he were afraid he’d catch her disease.
Hayley wavered yet did not fall.
The old man stood by her side. He whispered, “Hayley? Honey?”
She clutched the wound, a surprised expression on her face.
I watched helplessly as the life drained from her eyes.
“Mama?” she said.
Hayley pitched forward and fell, sightless, onto the grass.
Her mother screamed and kept screaming until her voice could no longer express her grief.
Fisk turned and dashed into the maze. I shoved Maura out of the way and went after him.
I paused at the opening and pulled my Beretta. I could only stand by uselessly while Hayley was killed, surprised that she had leapt in front of Fisk’s gun, unable to prevent it. It had happened so fast, I told myself. My helplessness festered a rage deep inside me that I could barely contain. I wanted to scream the way Maura had screamed.
At moments like this, your senses become heightened. Sight, sound, touch—it all becomes magnified. The muscles tense, the heart beats faster, breathing and perspiration increase, eyes dilate, and the stomach clenches. The world becomes much smaller, consisting solely of what’s directly in front of you. It’s called perceptual narrowing. At the same time, problem-solving capabilities are reduced, along with your ability to concentrate. For example, it became obvious I wasn’t thinking clearly when I rounded the first turn of the maze too quickly and the bullet clipped the hedge an inch from my right ear, raining splinters and leaves on my head as I ducked down.
The condition is labeled “body alarm reaction” by some psychologists. It’s an automatic and instantaneous response that increases the body’s ability to cope with an emergency. I learned all about it at the police academy. It lasts until the cause of the alarm is removed or the body becomes exhausted. Or until your training and experience kick in.
Soon everything became clear to me. My anger became a weapon instead of a detriment.
I continued to follow Fisk through the maze, advancing slowly, deliberately. I could hear him moving just steps in front of me, yet he remained out of sight.
I took more turns right and left before it occurred to me that we had taken one of the dead-end exits. All we were doing was making ourselves lost. I could imagine old man Guernsey laughing at us.
I crouched low to the ground in case Fisk decided to start spraying bullets through the hedge and spoke loudly.
“Hey, Fisk,” I said. “Fisk.”
There was no answer.
“C’mon, man. Talk to me.”
“Taylor?”
“There’s no way out, Fisk. I’m not trying to be theatrical. There really isn’t any way out of the maze except the way you came in.”
“I know. I panicked and took the wrong exit. Bad judgment.”
“Drop your gun and come out. Things will go badly for you, we both know that, but at least you’ll be able to take Guernsey down with you. Let the world know who he is and what he did.”
“Is Hayley all right?”
“Yes.”
“Don’t lie to me, Taylor. I shot her in the heart. I was trying to shoot the old man and she came out of nowhere. Do you believe she did that? After the way he treated everybody?”
“Drop your gun and come out.”
“I loved that girl. She was so damned fierce. Stood up to the old man, stood up to them all every day of her life. It was fun to watch.”
“Fisk.”
“Why would she sacrifice herself like that, Taylor? After everything that happened. Can you tell me why?”
“I don’t know, Fisk. Maybe in that split second Hayley decided the old man was family after all.”
“Oh, hell.”
Fisk appeared in the narrow path fifteen steps in front of me.
He shot high and missed, but he meant to.
I fired low and didn’t miss, but that’s the way he wanted it.