Naked Frame Part 22

"No. You're right. It's the only lead we've got. I just hope we don't p.i.s.s off anybody else, and make them want to kill us too."

CHAPTER 36 - Tuesday, 11:48 p.m.

Gabby drove slowly along the black abyss between two fields of moonlit gra.s.s. The vibration from the tires a.s.sured him they were still on the dirt road.

Rebecca leaned forward and squinted. "There's the barn. See the light? And I think there's car out front. Let's park here and walk the rest of the way."

Gabby pulled over and killed the engine. They got out and started walking toward the barn. "Don't you think I should have a gun too? I could carry your dad's old gun."

"Have you ever fired one?"

"No. But I'm sure I could do it-if I had to. We don't know how many people are in there, or what kind of weapons they have."

"But we've got the element of surprise."

"I hope that's enough."

Rebecca stopped walking and reached into her pocket. "Here, take this."

Gabby held out his hand. "A pager? What am I supposed to do with this? Throw it at him?"

"It's not a pager. It's a high-voltage stun gun. Don't let the size fool you. That thing is powerful."

"Yeah, but I have to be close enough to touch him with it, right? I'd rather have a gun. A big gun."

"Look. You turn it on here, press the electrodes against his skin, and push this b.u.t.ton."

"What if he touches me when I do it? Won't it shock me too?"

"No."

"Okay. Thanks." He put it in his pants pocket.

Now within twenty feet, Rebecca realized there was no light coming from the barn. What she had seen was moonbeams reflected off the metallic blue finish of a brand new Mustang parked out front. And right beside it was a black Maserati GranTurismo. Big Bill's car.

Gabby followed Rebecca to the back of the Mustang. Before Rebecca could decide what to do next, lights came on. Powerful lights, all around them. She and Gabby might as well have been standing on the pitcher's mound in Rangers Ballpark. There was no place to hide.

An amplified voice said, "Why it's Rebecca Ranghorn and her sidekick, Gabby G'Blee."

They looked at each other and said it in unison. "Big Bill."

"Don't be afraid, guys. Would you like to come in?"

The front of the barn didn't look like a barn at all. More like a fortress. The door opened.

"Come on in."

They walked into the building.

"Walk forward, then right, please," said Big Bill over the speakers.

The door automatically closed behind them. They followed Big Bill's directions, which led them into a large room. There was a young man working at a computer terminal with his back to them. He seemed oblivious to their arrival.

And there was Big Bill, to the right, sitting atop a two-foot high platform, in a huge Captain Kirk style swivel chair. "Welcome."

The back wall was covered with large flat-panel displays of what appeared to be live video feeds from cameras in Cafe Nue, including one in Joey Ketrousie's office. Another camera captured Phillipa Thagery working in a lab coat. Still another was trained on Kimberly Smotherburn's bedroom. She was sitting at a dresser, brus.h.i.+ng her hair. Even Calvin Cinaway's garage had been equipped with a hidden camera.

Then Rebecca saw her office. "You b.a.s.t.a.r.d."

Big Bill chuckled. "I suppose you'd like an explanation."

"Yeah," said Rebecca, "and I'm really disappointed that you're not dead."

"Well, I would think you'd be relieved that you won't be charged with my murder."

"You sure looked dead to me," said Gabby.

Big Bill laughed. "Yeah, Wiley is quite talented with special effects makeup-the kind they use for movies. He used to scare the neighbors half to death at Halloween. One time a lady called 911. She thought somebody had taken an axe to his face."

"But what was the point?" said Rebecca. "Why did you go to all that trouble just to make us think you were dead?"

"I wanted to frustrate you-to put you on the defensive, and make you do crazy things. And it worked."

"But somebody fired her gun," said Gabby.

" Oh, yeah. Sorry about the hole in your ceiling, Rebecca." said Big Bill. But I guess it doesn't matter since you're going to prison."

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about the fact that you murdered Carly Cinaway for $100,000."

Rebecca stared at him in disbelief.

"The police have an eye witness-the desk clerk. They also have your DNA at the scene. Two of your lovely, long hairs were found in her hotel room."

"You pulled those hairs from my head while I was pa.s.sed out in my office. Then you planted them in Carly's hotel room."

"Do you have any proof of that?" Big Bill laughed. "And hiding the money in Gabby's saving account was just lame. Didn't you realize it was one of the first places the cops would look? What were you thinking?"

Gabby took out his smartphone.

Rebecca frowned at Gabby. "What are you doing? He's lying."

Big Bill said, "Well, if you're not the one who killed Carly, why didn't you call the police when you found her body?"

"You know why."

"Oh, you mean because you thought the cops were looking for you in connection with my murder?" He chuckled. "Is that it?"

"b.a.s.t.a.r.d." Rebecca searched the displays on the wall. "You were watching everything. We're all just little ants to you-living in your personal ant farm."

Big Bill laughed. "Oh, I like that. That's a good one, Rebecca."

"You know who really killed her."

"Yes, I do. It was you."

"Did you record it? Let's see the video. Show me the video where I killed her."

Gabby stepped closer to Rebecca. "Look." He handed her his phone.

Rebecca could not believe her eyes. "Where did this money come from, Gabby?"

Big Bill interrupted. "It's your payoff, Rebecca. For killing Mrs. Cinaway."

"And who is supposed to have paid me?"

"My guess would be Harvey Hamstel. He was worried that Carly would sue the company into bankruptcy over my relations.h.i.+p with her daughter."

"Relations.h.i.+p? You were raping her."

"So, apparently Harvey paid you to kill her. And now he's dead."

"Harvey Hamstel is dead?" said Rebecca. "Oh, and I suppose I killed him too."

"The police will think so-after they find a little silver charm on the floor of his kitchen, among the broken gla.s.s-you know, from a charm bracelet, like the one you're wearing."

Rebecca held up her left arm, checking each charm on her bracelet. The pistol charm was missing. "You son of a b.i.t.c.h. You took it off while I was pa.s.sed out."

"But what I don't understand is why you killed Calvin."

"I didn't," said Rebecca.

"No, not you, Rebecca. Gabby killed him."

"Huh?" said Gabby.

"Maybe Calvin suspected Rebecca had killed his wife, Carly, so in order to protect Rebecca, you s.h.i.+sh kabobbed Calvin with that big screwdriver. It must have taken a lot of rage to jam it all the way through his body."

"I didn't do that."

"Tell it to the cops. They received an anonymous tip that Calvin had been murdered."

"From you, no doubt," said Rebecca.

"And they found somebody's fingerprints all over the handle of the screwdriver. And I happen to know they're Gabby's."

Rebecca turned to Gabby. "Did you touch that screwdriver?"

"No. Of course not." He thought for a moment. "Unless..."

"What?"

"Unless that was the screwdriver I accidentally knocked off the workbench this morning. I picked it up and put it back."

"c.r.a.p, Gabby."

"c.r.a.p, indeed," laughed Big Bill. "But that's a great story for the cops. Be sure to practice it, so you'll sound believable."

Rebecca whipped out her pistol and pointed it at Big Bill. "Laugh at this, you son of a b.i.t.c.h."

"Take it easy, Rebecca. You should be thanking me for sending the police out to that marina to pick you up before Bobby's guys had a chance to kill you."

"The cops couldn't find us," said Rebecca.

"Yeah," said Big Bill, "congratulations. You did a great job of hiding from them. I don't know how you pulled that off."

"But how did you know Bobby took us to the marina? Did you have a camera on Bobby's van?"

Big Bill grinned. "No. Just a tracking device-thanks to a loyal employee at Cafe Nue."

Rebecca took another quick scan of the wall displays. "So, you saved all the incriminating videos, and deleted the ones that would prove our innocence."

Big Bill grinned. "We didn't do much deleting. But we did a good bit of editing. Daniel is quite a wiz at it."

"Any reason why I shouldn't put a bullet in your head?"

"If I really thought you were capable of murder, I wouldn't have let you in here. Oh, and if you're having any crazy thoughts about erasing my little video collection, forget it. All of my videos are automatically backed up to a remote server. Not only that, Daniel is prompted for his pa.s.sword every four hours. And if he doesn't enter it, a prewritten email will be automatically sent to the cops with a pa.s.sword and link to my remote backup database."

Rebecca studied the display of Kimberly in her bedroom. "So, I guess you know what your lovely young wife has been up to. And Joey Ketrousie."

"Yes, I do. And they're going to pay dearly for their disloyalty. Believe me."

Out of the corner of her eye, Rebecca saw Daniel moving. He was going for a pistol in the drawer. But she kept her gun pointed at Big Bill.

Gabby was on top of Daniel immediately. He jammed the electrodes against his neck and pushed the fire b.u.t.ton.

Daniel lost control of his muscles. He dropped the gun, and fell out of his chair.

Gabby s.n.a.t.c.hed the pistol, and stored it in his waistband.