It didn?t make any difference to Mike. He wasn?t going to wait for sunshine. He was going to see this thing to the end. Tonight. Come hell or high water.
* * *
Although the first team of killers had been little more than clumsy amateurs, they had still served as a wake-up call for Nikki Enders. She rechecked the mansion?s security system and planted firearms in specific locations for easy access? bedroom, library, kitchen. She hoped her mother wouldn?t find one of them and take a sudden dislike to the paperboy.
She made a point to keep her eyes open, her radar up, which is why she noticed the sedan parked across the street. It had been there the day before too. Sometimes it was farther up the street, but it was definitely the same car. It might be nothing, or it might be trouble. At the moment, everything made her suspicious. She had a trick up her sleeve that might work on the sedan but decided to save it for later.
It also worried Nikki that she hadn?t heard from either of her sisters. She?d long ago accepted the possibility that something untoward had happened to Meredith, but she?d expected Lizzy to check in long before now. Nikki felt the mansion had become a fort. She was afraid to go out, and no news was coming in. It bothered Nikki to be on the defensive, an unfamiliar and uncomfortable position.
Nikki found her mother in the library, knitting her scarf in the shadow of her husband?s portrait. Lightning in the windows. A clap of thunder rattled the windows.
?Why don?t you go to bed, Mother??
?The storm will keep me awake.? The click of her knitting needles was lost in another sharp crack of thunder.
Nikki looked at the portrait, back at the old woman. ?I always thought the eye patch made him look cool. Do you miss Daddy, Mother??
Tonya?s smile was enigmatic. ?He?ll be home soon enough. Back from his mission.?
Nikki shook her head. Usually she steadfastly refused to indulge Mother?s delusions. But not tonight. Nikki didn?t have the energy or the heart to force reality. ?What will you do when he gets home, Mother??
The old woman sighed. ?Murder the son of a bitch, I suppose.?
* * *
The storm battered the nondescript sedan parked across the street from the Garden District mansion. Jack Sprat sipped tepid coffee from a styrofoam cup and checked his wristwatch. Soon. First Mavis would cut the power and the lights would go out. The outage would probably get blamed on the storm. Then they?d go in. He felt bad about the old girl out in the rain, but there was nothing for it. She had to be in position to handle the alarm. He glanced at his watch yet again.
Soon.
36
The sleepy Marriott desk clerk told Mike getting a taxi would be tough. Two in the morning and the worst storm of the year. Neither man nor beast was out and about. Mike found the Cadillac in the parking garage and checked the trunk. Shotgun, shells, pistol, and a New Orleans Saints rain poncho he?d picked up at a tourist shop on the way into town. In addition to keeping the rain off him, it would serve to hide the shotgun. He put some extra shells into his pocket.
Mike?s plan was simple. He?d drive to the place and kill the person who set the hounds on Andrew. If anyone got in the way, Mike would sweep them aside with the twelve-gauge. The shotgun had always been Danny?s weapon of choice, but Mike knew how to use one too. He preferred the jitterbug dance of the tommy gun, the .45 caliber scat. The shotgun was more of a bass drum boom, the thunderous punctuation for some fat lady?s song.
So be it, thought Mike. It was a time for thunder. He drove the Caddy out of the garage and into the storm.
* * *
For a moment, Nikki thought the sedan had gone, but she spotted it up the street, almost to the next block. She knew in her gut there was somebody in the car, watching the place, somebody she would probably not like and maybe even need to kill. It was time to use the trick with the phone.
She picked up the phone, dialed in a special code before calling 911. An emergency operator answered.
?There?s a suspicious car parked in my neighborhood. I think he?s dealing drugs.? She described the sedan and told the street to the operator.
