Hours later
While in Anchorage, Payton had arranged for a private charter to make the trip to Chicago later that evening, but he couldn’t leave without first seeing Susannah and explaining what had happened with the schoolteacher, Claire Hanson. Once he got home, he’d have just enough time to pack, see his sister, and pick up Joe on his way to the Talkeetna airport. He’d arranged for the charter to meet them at the small local airstrip, saving him a trip back to Anchorage by car.
When he walked through his front door, he gazed at the mess he’d left behind, remnants of his self- indulgence. A life without consequence.
“You’re a piece of work, Archer,” he mumbled to himself.
He tossed his truck keys on a kitchen counter next to a half-empty bottle of Macallan scotch and noticed the red blinking light from his answering machine. His first thought was that the message might be from Susannah. Without hesitation, he punched the button to hear it.
With garbled noise in the background, it took a while for a voice to come on the line.
The faint voice of his niece caught him by surprise.
Knowing how she’d left town, he recognized the background noise as the Anchorage airport, with part of a flight announcement recorded. He checked the time stamp for Nikki’s call and a cold fist of sadness gripped his heart.
She’d called when he was out drinking. If he’d been home, would things have turned out differently? Had this been her attempt to reach out one last time? Anger and frustration surged under his skin.
“And you picked me, Nikki. God help you.”
He grabbed for the bottle of scotch, not bothering with a glass, and took a long pull. It burned his throat all the way down, the heat swelling through his chest and belly. Gasping, he came up for air and wiped his lips with the back of his hand. Guilt closed in without mercy.
Until now, he thought he’d only done harm to himself with the choices he’d made, but that wasn’t true. He’d cut himself off from the people he loved, and there had been consequences.
Chicago
Early evening
From Seth’s place, Jess drove to a library on the way to her apartment to access the Internet. Her home computer had been a casualty of Baker’s deranged payback.
She checked into flights leaving Anchorage bound for Chicago that day. Several carriers fit the bill, with destinations to Chicago’s O’Hare, Midway, and Rockford airports. If Baker had a kid booked on an inbound flight from Alaska, most arrivals had already touched down. And the odds weren’t in her favor for the few remaining flights. Even if she picked the right airport, she couldn’t be in two places at once. She and Madame Luck had parted company in a big way.
“Shit.”
She wasn’t sure why she tortured herself with the flight information. It wasn’t like she could do anything. Even if she narrowed the search, she was only playing a hunch about Baker and his so-called Alaskan delivery to Chicago being an unfortunate kid.
More than likely her diversion to the library had been nothing more than procrastination, pure and simple. The wasteland of her apartment awaited her attention.
“Let’s get it over with.” She left the library and drove home to suffer the indignities of a full-blown pity party. Once and for all, she had to face clean-up duty, deal with it and get on with her life.
Back at her place, Jess worked for another couple of hours, filling the apartment complex Dumpster with the remnants of her life. It pained her to do it, and little remained after Baker’s rampage. Her apartment almost echoed with emptiness. She never had much, but until now hadn’t appreciated her mixed bag of furnishings and a lifetime of remembrances. And having a lunatic in her home had brought back a familiar sense of violation that would be hard to shake.
Sam called mid-shift to see how things were going, and Jess lied.
“I’m okay. I needed new stuff anyway.” She had sloughed off her friend’s concern so she wouldn’t worry, but mostly Jess knew she needed to convince herself that she could get her life back to normal, whatever the hell that was.
“When I get off duty, I’m bringing Chinese takeout and the two of us will finish cleaning up, okay? Nothing says love like Kung Pao.” Sam did her best to keep the pity from her voice, but Jess knew better.
“Sounds good. And I’ve got you a new key to my seriously humble abode.” She took a deep breath, exhausted after her stressful day. “See you soon, sista. And…thanks.”
Jess ended the call and took out another couple of trash bags. Tomorrow she’d get a fresh start hunting Baker. She’d look under every rock for the lowlife weasel, contact his known associates, and visit his old haunts to search for leads. She’d found him once before, she could do it again.
But now all she needed was a hot bath, something to eat, and time to heal—in that order.
Her body had taken a beating from her confrontation with Baker. And the trips up and down the stairs hauling garbage and maimed furniture hadn’t helped. To catch her breath, she leaned against the railing outside her apartment door and stared down at her life in a Dumpster.
She ached down to her soul. It had been one helluva day.
Overhead, a jet engine rumbled. A Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 reflected the molten orange of sunset against its fuselage until it faded into the horizon. That’s when she finally took stock. Her arms glistened with a thin layer of sweat and she felt perspiration on her forehead and down her back. And with the sun going down, a cool breeze had inspired a wave of goose bumps. She needed a long soak in a tub to scrub away the remains of her butt ugly day.
But it wasn’t meant to be. Clipped to a belt loop, her cell phone rang. Caller ID displayed the name.
Seth Harper.
She grinned as she answered the call, an interruption she didn’t mind.
“Don’t tell me. You’ve done a scientific study and found clarity of mind comes after three Rock Bottom lagers,” she teased with a grin. “What did you forget, hotshot?”
“He forgot to mind his own business. So did you.” A man’s voice. “Have you missed me, darlin’?”
One thought was crystal clear, and it made her sick to her stomach. If the twisted bastard had Harper’s phone, then she was responsible for placing Seth in Baker’s crosshairs. And for that, the kid might pay a terrible price—
CHAPTER 9
Jess struggled to keep panic from her voice. Career criminals like Baker smelled fear and knew how to draw first blood.
“Yeah, guess you could say I’ve missed you…about as much as I’d miss a frontal lobotomy with a Phillips head screwdriver.” Taking the first shot, Jess went on the offensive. Anything short of that would’ve been a sign of weakness.
“You sound pissed. Don’t tell me you didn’t like the way I redecorated your shit hole. With that dump, I was doing you a favor.”
The sleaze bag had the nerve to gloat. Baker had a smile to his voice mixed with a heavy dose of contempt, enough for her to picture his ugly sneer.
“You had it comin’, but we ain’t done yet, darlin’. You got somethin’ of mine and I want it back. I figure we’ll trade for it.”
She heard a heavy scrape and a loud thud in the background. But the muffled gasp and moan of a guy’s voice
