‘Told you we should have baked them,’ the other woman said. ‘Oven would have finished the job, kept ’em hot.’
The first woman growled in annoyance and agreement. But she performed a valuable service for Mouser – she flashed her light toward every entrant into the lobby from the stairwell, as regular as a sentry. So he would see Aubrey and Eric before they saw him, and they would be blinded for a second or two. His hand in his coat pocket held a Glock 18. He could kill the woman immediately, hustle Eric to a place where he could be questioned, and find the missing money. If the two elderly women got in the way, too bad. Darkness and chaos would give him cover enough to escape with Eric.
Then the job would be done and he could take Snow someplace safe. They would have their reward; they could start to reshape the world. Make Hellfire happen and begin to truly kill the Beast.
Sooner or later, his targets would come.
Ten minutes went by and they hadn’t appeared.
The stair door clanged again and the old woman shone light against unfamiliar faces and he knew he’d worried too much about extracting Eric quickly onto the street. Wrong approach in the blackout. He headed for the stairwell.
22
When Eric got the flashlight, Luke realized. Aubrey had a gun hidden in the apartment and Eric grabbed the gun when he got the flashlight.
‘Aubrey, come here,’ Eric said.
Aubrey stayed put. ‘This is insane, Eric. Just – stop it.’
‘He’s going to force my hand. I’m not going to the police. Neither are you. If he’s gone, we’re free.’
‘Free?’ Luke said.
‘They’re not here for us. They’re here for him.’
‘Bull. They’re here for Eric and their fifty million bucks, and he knows it,’ Luke said. ‘That’s why he offered to go talk to them. Unless that was just his way of abandoning you, Aubrey, and he was going to run for his own sorry life once he hit the front door.’
‘That’s a lie!’ Eric snapped.
‘Eric, stop it,’ Aubrey said.
‘Don’t you switch sides on me, Aubrey, not after all I did for you.’
Luke shone the light on her face and her expression had turned angry. ‘You’re an asshole,’ she told Eric. ‘I should have broken up with you ages ago. You are not a hero.’
‘Stop this, we need each other,’ Luke said.
‘Spare me the idiotic let’s work together sentiment,’ Eric said. ‘Aubrey. Move away from him.’
‘And go where?’ Aubrey stayed at Luke’s side. ‘Where are we supposed to hide? How are we supposed to live that way? There’s no rock quite big enough for us to set up housekeeping.’
‘I could have left you to die, Aubrey.’ All the warmth bled out of Eric’s voice. But it wasn’t replaced by anger. Luke heard anguish and bitterness. ‘I gave up everything for you. Even after you dumped me.’
‘Eric, it’s not too late.’
‘I killed a man for you! Jesus, you don’t get a do-over. I killed him.’
‘Under coercion. Under stress.’ Aubrey’s voice went soft, cajoling. ‘You could get everything back, but this is not the way to save our lives.’
‘Give me the gun,’ Luke said.
‘I know you’re a good man at heart, Eric,’ Aubrey said, ‘I know you’re scared. I know what you wanted for you and me. But this isn’t the way…’
Luke moved the light towards Eric’s face, thinking he could blind him, break his resolve. ‘We have to get out of here. Assume they want to flush you out of hiding, force you to tell them where the money is. That means they might be waiting down in the lobby, or the street.’ It wasn’t so different he thought, when he stole food in his runaway days. If you had to hide, you did not hide in an obvious place. ‘We need another way out; we need to hide where they won’t expect us to be.’
‘I have an idea,’ Aubrey said.
23
Mouser hurried up the stairs and as he hit the door the lights surged back into life.
The power company had overridden the darkness he’d been promised.
No matter. He reached the Crosby apartment, tested the knob. Unlocked. He opened it, scanned the room with his Glock, moved from room to room. A shattered glass, a gush of red wine, a fire extinguisher, blots of blood on the carpet.
The apartment was empty. They had not exited through the lobby; he’d have seen them in the windows as he approached. They must still be in the building.
So where would they hide? A neighbor’s? Unlikely – this wasn’t Aubrey and Eric’s real home, they wouldn’t know the neighbors. So they had to be on the roof or in the basement.
The roof would be a dead end. The basement would offer service exits. Maybe onto a back entrance or alley.
Mouser hurried down to the lobby, then across it till he found the basement entrance, and headed down the stairs. A faint red glow from the emergency lights led downward, the red gleam like a mockery of hell.
‘Trust me, I can cut a deal,’ Eric said. ‘I can reason with them. I’ve been planning on it.’
Of course he was, because he was treating the money like a bulletproof shield, Luke thought. ‘They don’t want to negotiate. They’ll force you to hand over the money and they’ll kill you.’ Luke pushed him along into the depths of the basement. Part of the floor was being renovated into ground-level units, but an open stretch of space at the back contained electrical equipment, a nesting of pipes and a set of industrial water heaters. The disorder created a maze of construction junk, half-walls and maintenance equipment.
The power surged back on.
‘Maybe he’s gone,’ Aubrey said. Luke reached to the switch and killed the lights again.
‘Let’s see if we can wait him out. Eric, give me the gun,’ Luke said.
‘No.’
‘If this is the same guy who’s after me, if he sees you with a gun, he’ll just shoot you. No time for a deal,’ Luke said.
‘I know what I’m doing. I’m keeping the gun. I’m not going to let them hurt Aubrey.’
Luke heard a door open above.
They hid in the labyrinth of pipes, kneeling to the cool concrete floor. In their hiding place Aubrey was further back, then Luke, then Eric, close to the front. Luke raised a finger to his lips.
Luke listened. Hard. A footstep. Another.
In the trickle of the light he peered between the pipes and a black form passed between the far wall and a table of tools. Stopped. Listened.
In the thin red light Eric stood and came out from the hiding place and walked toward the figure. Luke went still. If he yelled he would betray himself and Aubrey. But Eric was already betraying them.
‘Hey,’ Eric said quietly. ‘Night Road?’
The shadow gave no answer.
Luke stifled the urge to run in blind panic. Eric was either going to save them or hand them over to this enemy.
‘I’m Eric Lindoe.’
‘I know who you are.’ It was Mouser. ‘I’ve been carrying your picture in my pocket. I thought I was gonna get
