True Evil

that could push it to ninety knots, which was almost flying.

'Me and Jim did this many a time,' Will said. 'Thousands of times, I bet, if you count domestic calls.'

Alex's abraded elbows stung as though the rain were acid. 'That's Bill's Hummer,' she said, pointing to a splash of yellow sticking out of the distant garage. 'He's got a pair of them. H1s.'

'I know,' said Will. 'I used to see them when he'd drop off Jamie to go fishing with Jim.'

'I forgot you used to go with them sometimes.'

Will nodded, then started marching across the open ground. 'Jamie's a good boy. Never liked his daddy much, though. Loudmouthed prick, you ask me.'

'You know what I think,' said Alex, following closely.

As the house grew larger, a low growl crossed the space between them. It was Will's voice, she realized, speaking in an entirely different register.

'If Bill tries to stop us taking Jamie out of there,' he said, 'you go outside and wait for me.'

'Uncle Will, you-'

'Hush, girl.' The detective turned toward her as he walked, his eyes flat and hard. 'None of that hostage- negotiator bullshit. You get out of there and let me do what needs to be done.'

Alex had never heard Will speak this way. He was talking to her across a generation. But she understood. Will Kilmer had worked homicide for two decades, and he knew that a murder trial was a notoriously unreliable business, especially if the defendant could afford top criminal lawyers. But if Bill Fennell perished in the confusion of a domestic disturbance, there would be no custody battle over Jamie. It was an inhuman train of thought, she knew-or was it essentially human? Either way, Will had a point. All that mattered now was Jamie.

They moved like shadows through the rain. Will walked faster, breathing hard but showing no sign of slowing. When the house was twenty meters away, they halted behind some tall evergreen shrubs.

'Up the porch steps?' Alex asked.

Will shook his head. 'Circle the house and try to get a look inside.'

'Split up?'

'Normally, I'd say yes. Today? No. When we reach the right corner of the house, we'll climb onto the porch so we can see through the windows.'

They moved out from behind the shrubs and started toward the right side of the house. Will pushed through the thick hedge below the porch, then climbed over the rail at the corner and waited for Alex. He moved with surprising grace, she noted, clambering over behind him.

Through the first window they saw only an empty room. They moved lightly along the wall to the next window. Again, she saw no people.

'Put your hands in the air,' said a commanding voice from behind them. 'I'm pointing a sawed-off twelve- gauge shotgun at your backs.'

Utter blackness descended in Alex's soul.

'Keep facing the wall, but toss your weapons back over the rail. All of them.'

'Where did he come from?' Will whispered from her left.

The hedge, she realized. He was waiting behind the hedge.

Will half-turned and in a tough voice said, 'Listen to me, Bill Fennell. You're already in a bucketful of shit. You don't want to-'

'That's not Bill,' Alex told him.

Will looked over his shoulder, then closed his eyes and shook his head.

Alex had to admire Dr. Tarver's strategy. He had sent the 'message from Jamie,' then waited behind the porch hedge to assess the response. Simple but brilliant, since it would have prevented him from being trapped in the house had an army of SWAT agents descended on it. But no such army was coming. The question was, why was Tarver here at all?

'Don't try to play hero, partner,' said the doctor. 'Chivalry is expensive, and you're past the age for it.' Tarver took a step to his right. 'I have a picture of you in my cell phone, Pop. You're sleeping soundly after a few beers.'

Will muttered something unintelligible.

'And you, Agent Alex. You remember what it feels like to be hit with buckshot, don't you?'

The right side of her face tingled. She could feel Will tensing beside her, like a cat preparing to spring. She closed her eyes and tried to reach him by force of will. Don't try it…you can't beat a bullet, not even buckshot-

'Get those guns over the rail!' Tarver snapped again. 'Now!'

'Where's Jamie?' Alex asked, tossing the Sig over her shoulder.

'You'll see.'

Dear Lord, let him be alive…

'I love you, baby girl,' said the faintest whisper beside her.

Baby girl? That was what Will had called his daughter, before she died in the-

In the same motion that Will tossed his shotgun over his shoulder, he whirled away from Alex with all the speed that a seventy-year-old man could muster. He fired his pistol as he spun, trying to disorient Tarver as much as possible while he bought Alex one chance. Her hand was almost to the.38 in her ankle holster when the artillery- like boom of the shotgun blotted out the reports of Will's pistol. The sound hurled her back to the Federal Reserve bank, when a desperate man had shattered her closest friend and half her face in a matter of seconds. When she came up with her.38, the smoking mouth of Dr. Tarver's shotgun was only two feet from her eyes.

'It would be a shame to ruin the other half,' he said.

Moving only her eyes, Alex glanced down to her right.

Will lay on his stomach, a dark pool spreading beneath him. Several ragged exit wounds revealed splintered white bone from his scapula. One hole was almost directly over his spine.

'Aaahhhhh,' Alex moaned, her eyes stinging. 'You son of a bitch!'

'He chose his fate,' Dr. Tarver said. 'A brave man.'

He died like my daddy did, said the voice of the little girl inside her.

'What?' asked Tarver, snatching the.38 from her hand.

Had she spoken aloud?

'Into the house,' Tarver ordered. 'Go.'

Alex started to step over Will, but Tarver shook his head and pointed to the front of the house-the reservoir side. As she walked, she stared along the pier, wondering if the Carrera was in the boathouse. Bill often left the key out there. If she could get Jamie out of the house…then get him to the boathouse-

The front section of the wraparound porch was screened. She opened the door to the protected area, walked in, then stopped before the stained cypress door that led to the main house. What nightmare lay on the other side of it?

'Go in,' Dr. Tarver said.

She turned the knob and pushed open the door.

Bill Fennell lay sprawled at the foot of the main staircase. His long legs were bent at odd angles, and his mouth appeared to be frozen open. As Alex swept her eyes across the room, frantically searching for Jamie, the shotgun barrel prodded her between the shoulder blades, driving her forward.

'Why did you kill him?'

'He's not dead,' said Dr. Tarver. 'I sedated him.'

True or false? 'Where's Jamie?'

Tarver pointed the shotgun across the room to a hall that led to the rear of the house. 'That way.'

A paralyzing numbness made itself known in her lower trunk. It was spreading upward fast. She looked back at the doctor. 'Are you taking me to Jamie?'

A chiding smile in the gray beard. 'You're not here for a reunion.'