Part 31 (1/2)
She also had to leave because if she didn't, she was going to tell him that she had just lied to him. Whether he cooperated and helped them nail Northrop or not, he would probably still be facing the death penalty. She wanted to tell him because she wanted to see the look on his face when he realized he'd just been had.
But she didn't. She didn't attack him, and she didn't mock him. Her determination to control that primal part of herself was the only difference between her and the guy in the chair.
And she would be different from him. She would.
”He's all yours, Chief,” she said.
Then she turned and ran out the door, in desperate need of sunlight and fresh air.
”This is going way better than before,” Granny said as she sat in the big, comfortable pa.s.senger seat of Ryan and John's surveillance van and watched the action through the winds.h.i.+eld.
Behind her, manning two different recording devices, were Savannah and Dirk. Chief La Cross was watching through a small side window with a pair of binoculars.
Directly ahead was William Northrop's big gla.s.s house. Hank Jordan was walking up to the front door.
On the lawn a couple of gardeners were raking the flower beds. They looked a heck of a lot like Ryan and John.
Two utility workers examining a nearby telephone pole bore a striking resemblance to the patrolmen Franklin and Rhodes.
”That's true, Gran. It wouldn't take much to improve on our last surveillance job,” Savannah replied.
”I thought we weren't going to talk about that.” Dirk was still decidedly grumpy about the topic.
”Would this have anything to do with the bruises on your faces?” La Cross asked.
Savannah sniffed. ”It was a contributing factor.”
La Cross lowered her binoculars and gave them a teasing look. ”Good. I thought maybe you'd had a newlyweds' quarrel.”
”Hey, don't even talk like that!” Dirk snapped. ”Real men don't hit women. Real men hit men who hit women.”
”Sometimes real women do, too,” Granny added with a snicker.
”Amen,” Savannah replied.
”You know, I like you two better than I did at first,” the chief said.
”That, too, was an easy improvement. No place to go but up,” said Savannah.
La Cross waved an arm, indicating all of Ryan and John's expensive equipment. ”This is a nice setup your friends have here. Wish I had something like this.” She sighed. ”h.e.l.l, I'd be happy just to have that gadget that triggered the gate to open.”
”Shhh,” Dirk said. ”I'm getting something here.”
He pressed a b.u.t.ton on the recorder. A blue graph danced on a computer monitor in front of him as Hank Jordan's voice came in loud and clear.
”Hey, I gotta see you,” Hank said. ”Right now. We got a problem.”
”You can't come here to my home, you idiot!” was the equally clear response from William Northrop. ”How did you get through the gate?”
”It was open.”
”Well, get the h.e.l.l out of here now before somebody sees you!”
”No, seriously, we've gotta talk!” Hank insisted. ”This guy I know at the motel, he figured out what I did for you, and now he wants in on it, too.”
There was a long pause; then Northrop said, ”Get in here.”
Hank disappeared into the house and the big door closed with a finality that would have bothered Savannah if it had been anyone other than a heartless murderer inside. She figured she should conjure up some concern for Hank Jordan's well-being, but she couldn't.
If a battle ensued, she wasn't sure which party, if anyone, she would be rooting for.
”You told somebody about it?” Northrop was asking Hank. ”You had to go and shoot your mouth off to some other moron?”
”Hey, watch who you're calling names here. I didn't tell anybody. He got into my stuff, and he saw the backpack full of money you gave me. Now he's saying if I don't give him half, he's going to the cops.”
”So give him half.”
”I don't wanna give him half! That ain't enough for doing a murder. Especially of a woman. It wasn't easy killing a woman as good-lookin' as your old lady.”
Everyone in the van held their collective breaths for the next response.
Come on, Savannah thought. Come on, Billy boy. Don't stop now! Dig that grave of yours a full eight feet deep.
”Listen to me, you stupid a.s.s,” Northrop said. ”You've gotten all the money out of me that you're ever going to get. Don't forget, if my wife's murder comes back on me, you'll go down for it, too.”
”But I-”
”You nothing. You deal with this idiot friend of yours any way you have to, but don't you ever come back to me again. If you do, I swear, I won't even bother to hire somebody to kill you. I'll do it myself! You hear me?”
”Oh, darlin', we hear you,” Savannah said, bouncing up and down on her seat. ”We all hear you! And I can't wait till the jury hears you, too!”
”That's enough. Let's go get him,” Chief La Cross said as she opened the van door and jumped out. Dirk hopped out with her.
”You go ahead, Chief,” Savannah said. ”You've got enough good backup there without me.”
La Cross didn't have to be told twice. In a heartbeat, she was running toward the house. Dirk, Ryan, John, and Patrolmen Franklin and Rhodes swept en ma.s.se up the sidewalk to the front door with her.
”That's not like you, sweet pea,” Granny said, ”holding back when it's time to grab the bad guy.”
Savannah smiled, watching La Cross charge through the front door, gun drawn, followed by the rest of her team.
”The chief there's the one who got her heart broken,” she said. ”He bedded her and betrayed her, and that kills an important part of a woman's soul. She needs this a lot more than I do.”
”I love you, Savannah girl.”
”I love you, too, Gran. You're the best!”