Brother? Jed and Max were brothers?
There was a moment of tense silence inside the room, and Faith edgedcloser. Were they facing away from the door? Could she slip past withoutbeing seen?
"I had to take the heat off us, Max. You"d done a d.a.m.ned fine job ofstirring everybody up until we could hardly breathe, until it was only amatter of time before Kane or one of his bloodhounds figured it allout."
"So I took a chance with the pipe bomb, so what? What was I supposed todo after she hooked up with Kane-ignore it? Sit around like you wantedto, Connie, and wait to see if she got her memory back and spilledeverything to Kane?"
Connie. Oh, G.o.d ... it is Conrad. That realization stabbed throughFaith; she knew how this would hurt Kane.
"You could have waited! For Christ"s sake, Max, even an idiot could haverealized that every time I you went after her and failed, you gave them more reason to look foranswers-and more time."
"Look-"
"No, you look. I had to scramble to find evidence to make the story hangtogether and point away from us. Jed had to be sacrificed. It would haveworked, Max. But then you had to blunder in once again, grab the girlfrom under Kane"s nose. And if you don"t think he"s turning Atlantaupside down right this minute looking for her-"
"So what? He didn"t find Dinah, did he?"
"You"re a fool," Conrad said.
Faith risked a quick glance into the room and felt her heart sink. Theywere facing each other no more than a few feet inside the door, andchances were very good that both men would see her if she darted past.
"I "just want the box back, Connie, that"s all."
"If i she remembered where she"d put it or knew where Dinah put it afterthat accident, don"t you think it would be in the hands of the police bynow?"
"She"ll remember quick enough once I get my hands on her. She"ll talkthen."
"Oh? The way Dinah talked?"
"Surely you don"t think this one will be that tough? She"s no biggerthan a minute, and it"s easy to see she"d jump out of her skin ifanybody yelled boo."
"She survived that car accident, didn"t she?
She came out of a coma when she should have ended up a vegetable. Iwouldn"t underestimate her if I were you."
"She"ll talk," Max repeated stubbornly. "We"ll get the box, and thenwe"ll be safe. If you think it"s necessary, we can plant the box so itlooks like Jed had it- all that clear evidence of blackmail. He gets theblame for that, Cochrane gets the blame for killing him, and we lay lowfor a few months."
"And what about Faith Parker? They"ll know exactly when she disappeared,Max, and you told me yourself Cochrane"s still at the police stationbeing questioned. He has an alibi for the time she vanished.
"You can fix it so it looks like he hired somebody," Max said,impatient. "You"ve always been able to fix things, Connie, ever since wewere kids back in Seattle. Should be easy enough."
Conrad swore viciously. "Easy? Do you realize how many rabbits I"vealready pulled out of my hat for you?
Christ, if you"d "just killed her in Seattle or, better yet, hadn"t beencareless enough to leave that envelope in a secretary with too muchcuriosity for her own good? Once she saw the note from me to him it wasonly a matter of time before she figured out the insurance scam. I hadto get rid of her."
"But you didn"t get rid of her, did you? You didn"t even make sure whatshe looked like, killed the sister instead and the mother with her."
"Look, never mind all that, it"s water under the bridge. I"ve got hernow, and I don"t intend to stop until she"s told me where that G.o.dd.a.m.ned box is."
You hid it in the only place you felt really safe.
That"s why I couldn"t tell him. He wouldn"t have been able to get intoHaven House, and so he would have burned it down to destroy theevidence. They would have been killed, all of them. Karen and Eve,Andrea and little Katie. I couldn"t let that happen ... Faith closed hereyes briefly, then opened them and tried to figure out her options. Shehad to get past the open door and the men "inside the room ... and shehad to get out of this house. Unaware of where the windows and doorswere, she was bound to make mistakes, especially if she was running.
But what choice did she have? She risked another look into the office where she was bound to see it-"
"How was I to know Jed had-Conrad had turned toward a desk against the far wall, and Faith could have laughed aloud when Maxturned in the same direction. Both their backs were now to the door.
Now or never.
Holding her breath, Faith slipped quickly and silently past the doorway.
"If you"re determined to be stupid, at least don"t be insane," Conradwas saying angrily. "To bring her here! There"s no way I"ll allow you-"
"I didn"t know if you wanted another bodyon Cochrane, so ... Faith reached the foot of the stairs and wentup them swiftly. From what had been said in that room, she gathered shewas at Conrad"s lakeside vacation home somewhere outside the city. Whichmeant she had no idea where she was.
Away. just get away. Worry about where you are later.
At the top of the stairs she found herself in a small hallway, which ledto a dining room and a kitchen, where there appeared to be an exteriordoor. At the end of the hall was a living room, with another stair- casegoing up.
Don"t go up. The nitwits in the movies always climb the stairs, and howthey expect to get off the roof when someone"s chasing them- "I don"t know,"Faith whispered. She continued to move carefully, desperate to makecertain no squeaking floorboard betrayed her to the men below. The frontdoor, she thought, was probably near the living room, but this door outof the kitchen was closer.
As soon as she opened it, Faith detected the unmistakable odors of agarage. A closed garage.
And garage doors were very noisy when they opened.
She swore "inwardly and drew back "into the kitchen, just as she heardheavy, quick footsteps on the bas.e.m.e.nt stairs and Max swearing grimly.
With no time to do anything else, Faith slipped through the door intothe garage, closing it silently behind her.
He"s very good at playing cat and mouse. Don"t hide. Get away.
The garage was dark; Faith had to feel her way.
Moving as fast as she dared, she nearly fell over the hood of a sportscar. Were the keys in it? She tried the doors but they were locked.
Growing accustomed to the darkness now, she made out the garage door,which was closed, and two windows, which were high up and also closed.
Nothing to stand on.
Was there an automatic door opener? She peered up at the tracks abovethe car and made out the box.
So there would be a remote in the car, most likely, and one by the doorto the kitchen.
She felt her way back to the door, fear growing, horribly aware of theminutes ticking away. She heard the voices inside rise in a violentargument, heard them get louder as Max and Conrad came in her direction,and then a deafening gunshot.
Terrified, Faith punched the panel of the garage- door opener.
Instantly, the garage was filled with bright light, and the big doorbegan to move up laboriously and loudly.
Nearly blinded, Faith lunged for the garage door and ducked under itjust as the kitchen door opened and she heard a curse behind her.
She ran.
It was dark and cold and wet; the rain must have stopped only recently,because water dripped every- where. The drive was narrow, hardly morethan two rutted tracks, and treacherous because of the mud.
The woods pressed "in toward her on both sides; she had no idea in whichdirection the lake lay.
She ran.
All she could hear was her heart thundering, her breath rasping in herthroat, but Faith was certain he was behind her, gaining on her. Maybehe"d be in the car, maybe he was on foot, but he was behind her, sheknew that. More than once she slipped, but miraculously kept her footingwell enough to continue moving forward, away from the house.
Something loomed up out of the darkness ahead of her, reaching for her,and for an instant of sheer terror Faith thought one of them had circledaround and gotten ahead of her.
"Faith. Jesus, Faith-"
She found herself caught tightly in Kane"s arms, so tightly she wasn"tsure if it was her heart or his pounding so wildly, and gasped, "Behindme. He"s behind me-"
And then everything happened very, very fast.
Kane swung her around so that his large body shielded hers. She heard anengine roar, and bright lights stabbed suddenly through the darkness,pinning her and Kane in the stark glare. She heard the sounds of tiresspinning wildly on slippery ground, saw headlights coming drunkenly atthem, and then the engine screaming louder, and she saw Kane"s armstretch out, saw something gleaming in his hand.
His first shot made gla.s.s shatter, and then there were other guns, othershots, and he was moving, carrying her away from danger as the carcareened off the drive and plowed into the trees with a sickening crunchof metal.
The engine screamed again, then gurgled and died.
"It has to be later than midnight," Faith said. "It just has to be. This has been the longest day of my life."
"I wish you"d let me call a doctor," Kane said.
"You heard the EMS medic. I"m fine. No injuries, no shock, not even aftereffects of the chloroform."
Faith curled up in the big chair before the fire Kane had lit while she"d been in the shower, and watched him as he stood gazing at the flames.
"Still," he said. "Like you said, it"s been a very long day. @, "And I should be exhausted. But I"m not." She paused, aware of his silence and the tension between them. "Did you say Bishop was flying down in the morning?
"Yeah. He would have come tonight, but we were able to find you fairly quickly. Guy already had the information on Conrad"s lake house, and I couldn"t think of any other place he"d go, so ... "The cops were shooting too, Kane. It might not have been your bullet that killed Max Sanders."
He turned his head and looked at her. "I hope it was mine."
" Revenge? "
"Justice. Now he"ll be rotting in the ground."
She drew a breath. "What about Conrad? They say he might pull through."
"I hope he does," Kane said calmly. "I want him in prison. I want him
to spend the rest of his life in a small, bare cell."
He probably will. Once Richardson sorts through their blackmail box, he"s bound to find Conrad"s prints on the photographs and papers. He and
Max wouldn"t have been so desperate to get the box back if they hadn"t been positive what was in it could convict them."
Kane shook his head. "All this time, the box was hidden in Haven House."
"The only place I felt really safe," Faith murmured. "I"m sorry, Kane.
Sorry I dragged Dinah into this, sorry I didn"t tell her that I"d found
the box snooping in Conrad"s office because I"d seen Max go in there.
I"m sorry it"s taken me so long to remember."
"Do you remember everything now?"
It was her turn to shake her head. "No, just bits and pieces. But it"s a
beginning. I guess Dr. Burnett was right-it"ll all come back eventually."
Kane returned his gaze to the fire and was silent.
"Now that the story has an ending of sorts," Faith said, "I guess we won"t have to worry about reporters following us around."
"It isn"t over yet. I still have to arrange a memorial service.