"Got it!" she said, slapping something against the palm of her hand. One of the flashlights.
There was no time to discuss strategy. I took it on faith that we were thinking the same thing. If she saw the night-vision goggles over his eyes, she"d blind him with the light. If not, the flashlight would remain off and we"d have a fair contest. No one could see.
All I could hear now were the footsteps getting closer. The door of the cabin was to my right; the window-or at least what remained of it-to my left. I had my back jammed hard against the knotty-pine paneling, almost as hard as I was gripping my gun.
Breathe, O"Hara, breathe.
A split second-that"s all Sarah and I would have. Crouched down low, I felt like a defensive lineman trying to antic.i.p.ate the snap count of the quarterback. Time it right, we"d win.
But time it wrong?
I kept listening, the footsteps getting louder and louder. Then it was the strangest thing. It caught me so off guard all I could do at first was freeze.
The footsteps stopped getting louder. They were softer now. No; that wasn"t the right word.
They were disappearing.
He wasn"t running at us, he was running past us. And now he was getting away.
Sarah and I both jumped up, bursting out of the cabin with the light of her flashlight leading the way. We couldn"t see him; he had too much of a head start. But we knew where he was heading.
About a hundred yards down a dirt trail was a small clearing off the access road where our Jeep was parked. The glove compartment even had a registration in the name of my alias, Zach Welker. We presumed we"d thought of everything.
"d.a.m.n!" I yelled as we heard the sound of the engine at the end of the trail. He was already at his car. The son of a b.i.t.c.h probably parked right next to us.
"You have the keys, right?" asked Sarah, midstride. She was booking along ahead of me and barely breathing hard. She was obviously no stranger to a treadmill.
"Got "em," I said, double-checking they were still in my pocket. I was huffing and puffing. My chest was burning.
In my head I was already behind the wheel, the car chase in full swing. The setup was perfect, a winding and narrow road at night lined with unforgiving trees. I"d cut my headlights and follow his taillights, and if he tried to do the same I"d still have his brake lights to guide me. What he"d have, though, would be the broad side of a pine tree.
Let"s see if you drive as good as you shoot, a.s.shole.
Sarah and I reached the small parking lot. Our Jeep was sitting there waiting for us. I pulled out the key fob to unlock the doors when, even in the pitch-black darkness, I noticed something.
Sarah saw it, too.
The Jeep was too low to the ground.
Sarah shined the flashlight on the front tires. Then on the back two. Each was flat to the rims.
I kicked the s.h.i.t out of the door in frustration while Sarah looked up to the night sky.
"Dammit, not again!" she screamed.
Chapter 92
IT DIDN"T TAKE long for the deal Dan Driesen and the Bureau struck with the New York Times to fall apart. Disintegrate might be a better word.
The paper had agreed to sit on the story of the Honeymoon Murderer so we could set the trap for him. In return, they were to receive an exclusive on what should"ve been his capture. Should"ve been.
Unfortunately, life doesn"t always go as planned.
Now the story was right there on the front page-in the far right column, above the fold-for all the world to see.
"Don"t do it, O"Hara. Don"t beat yourself up," said Driesen. Sarah and I were in his office at Quantico. Flags were at half-mast. Spirits were even lower. "It"s not your fault."
Sarah had already told me the same thing-a few times over, in fact. I answered Driesen the same way I answered her.
"It was my idea," I said. How could it not be my fault?
The only names mentioned in the article were those of the dead. The number stood at ten; the three newlywed couples plus the four agents. As for the paragraph on Agent Carver, it said he was married with two boys. The older one was thirteen, the same age as John Jr.
While I was getting my shoulder st.i.tched up at Shenandoah Memorial Hospital it occurred to me that the very last word Carver ever spoke was help. If only I could have. I knew I"d be haunted by that forever.
Driesen leaned back in his chair, folding his arms. He blinked slowly, his chin dipping toward his chest. I was pretty sure what he was thinking as he looked at me. What the h.e.l.l am I going to do with this guy?
He and I had only met face-to-face a few days earlier, but he"d read my file. He"d been briefed on me. I was John O"Hara, the agent so overcome with thoughts of avenging my wife"s death that I got myself suspended by the Bureau-only to then become the target of a serial killer stemming from an old case that had nearly gotten me fired because I slept with the suspect.
But wait. Tip of the iceberg, folks. There"s more.
While on suspension I got hired freelance to solve the murder of Warner Breslow"s son and his new bride, only to stumble upon yet another serial killer who ended up killing four agents in a plan I devised that went terribly, horribly, and downright appallingly wrong.
h.e.l.l, were it not actually happening to me I never would"ve believed it myself.
The worst part-and this, too, I"m sure Driesen was aware of-was that now, in addition to being obsessed with revenge, I was consumed by guilt. That"s a one-two punch from which a lot of people don"t get up.
Was I one of those people? Was I down for the count? Lost?
That"s what Driesen surely wanted to know.
"Tell me something, John," he said. Before he could continue, however, the phone on his desk buzzed. His secretary apologized for interrupting, but there was a call she thought he needed to take.
"Who is it?" asked Driesen.
"Detective Brian Harris with the NYPD," she said.
Driesen"s eyes narrowed. Clearly, he didn"t know who that was. He picked up. "Dan Driesen," he said.
I watched as he listened. Whoever this Detective Harris was, it didn"t take long for him to prove that, yes, this was a call Driesen wanted to take. In fact, Driesen reached for a pen so fast he nearly knocked over his coffee mug.
I couldn"t see what he was writing, but as he glanced up and nodded with a slight smile I knew one thing for sure.