Playing Dead

He pushed her into the freshly dug grave, a scream coming from her chest, but without the power to project beyond the dirt walls of her eternal prison.

He walked over to the backhoe and turned the ignition. He refilled the grave.

It was better this way. They died quickly, within minutes he was pretty certain. And he didn’t have to touch or see their dead bodies.

He drove the backhoe back to its place next to the shed. With a hoe, he returned to the fresh dirt and smoothed it out. Then he planted a new rosebush at the head of Claire’s grave. Finally, he spread the rocks out so no one at a glance could tell that there were fourteen graves in his rose garden.

By the time he was done, he was physically tired but mentally alive. He returned to his house and checked the status of Claire’s Jeep. Still at her house. Good. It was late, he doubted she’d be going anywhere tonight.

He showered under scalding water, scrubbing the dirt from his pores. Then he turned the water icy cold, before stepping out. He dried off and walked downstairs, naked. Poured a glass of dark, rich cabernet. Then he went back to his bedroom and lay naked on his bed, the air moved by the ceiling fan caressing his body. He turned on his special disk. Claire filled the screen. A teenage Claire nude in her old bedroom, standing in front of the closet trying to decide what to wear. He watched her dress and undress for hours, working himself up into a frenzy.

“You’re mine, Claire. I protected you. You’d be dead if it weren’t for me. Dead!”

That’s why he knew he could kill her now without remorse. She should have died fifteen years ago. But when he saw her photograph, he knew he couldn’t kill her.

All these years, she had been living on borrowed time. Time he’d given her.

He was ready to take it back.

TWENTY-FIVE

Mitch’s cell phone woke him. 1:00 a.m. Good news never came after midnight.

It was a blocked number. “Bianchi.”

“This is Tom O’Brien.”

Mitch swung his legs over his bed, wide awake, and grabbed a pencil from the nightstand. Where was the paper? He’d put it there. . he picked the pad off the floor.

“Where are you?”

“I’m surrendering tomorrow. I have a new attorney and she’s going to meet with the Sacramento district attorney in the morning. I was hoping you might be able to help.”

“I’ll do what I can. I can pick you up now-”

“No. I need a few things before I come in.”

“I can help-”

“I saw you watching Claire’s house the other morning.”

Shit. Tom O’Brien had been that close and Mitch hadn’t seen him! Hadn’t even felt him. Was he losing his touch? Or maybe he was just too preoccupied with Claire.

“It’s my job. To find you.”

“You almost had me a couple times. After the warehouse shoot-out you were right on my heels most of the way north. Sheer luck had you looking the wrong way in Salt Lake City.”

“Why didn’t you tell me where Doherty and Chapman were?”

“I didn’t know exactly where they would be, and if they thought the Feds were on their tail, they would have gone under. I had to find them first, then it all went to hell. Believe me, Bianchi, if I could have changed things I would have. I wish people didn’t have to die.”

“I wish you’d let me pick you up right now. There’s a lot of new information we’re trying to get a handle on. Oliver Maddox was murdered-”

“I know. That’s the reason I’m calling you. I made a huge mistake. I wrote to my daughter and told her everything I knew about Maddox’s investigation. I didn’t know he was dead. I was transferred from North Seg the day after he was supposed to meet me, and I couldn’t get phone access to find out why. Then the earthquake hit, and I didn’t try to approach Maddox, fearing he’d be under surveillance. If I’d thought for a minute he was dead, I’d never have given Claire the information I did.”

“What did you tell her?”

“Oliver believed that Taverton was the target and a man named Frank Lowe was the key. I asked her to find Maddox so he could convince her he had something to prove I was innocent. I thought with her knowledge and resources at Rogan-Caruso she could help him, then I could come in free and clear. But Claire told me-through my attorney,” he quickly added, “that Lowe was dead, killed in a fire the night after Taverton and Lydia. And their coroner’s reports are missing. There’s more, but I don’t have time.”

Mitch wrote it all down. “Of course you have time, I’m not going anywhere.”

“Bianchi, we’re on opposite sides right now.”

“I believe you’re innocent.”

O’Brien continued, “My attorney told Claire that I plan to surrender tomorrow after we make arrangements with the D.A. I told Claire-my attorney told her-to leave it alone. If Maddox’s killer knows Claire is retracing his footsteps, she’s in danger. Protect her, Bianchi. You have to keep her safe. She’s not going to let this go.”

Mitch’s heart pounded in rhythm with his growing headache. “I’ll try, but-”

“You have to do better than try! Put her in protective custody. Arrest her for, for- hell, you can come up with something! Tell her to back off. Anything to keep her safe.”

Mitch wasn’t surprised that Claire had made progress on the investigation. She had additional information that could help them track Maddox’s killer. “I’ll bring her in for questioning. Find out what she knows and go from there.”

“Thank you. I’m counting on you to keep Claire safe.”

Click.

Jeffrey Riordan woke up before dawn in the San Francisco hotel room he’d been living out of for the last three days while he met with every major donor in the area. He hadn’t planned on returning to Sacramento until Sunday, but his meetings were over and the situation at home was dire.

Damn Hamilton and Richie. Hamilton was supposed to have made sure that Tom O’Brien died in prison so no one would be interested in pursuing his cause. If he didn’t die, there was always the possibility that someone would dig into the files. Between appeals and do-gooders like the Western Innocence Project, they couldn’t be certain that the case was dead unless O’Brien himself was dead. They’d done a damn good job of covering their tracks, but nothing was foolproof.

Too many people were involved. Someone was going to talk. It was just a matter of time. And it wasn’t like they could kill everyone who had a piece of the puzzle.

Jeffrey didn’t think the authorities could trace Taverton’s murder-or any of the others-to him. That bastard law student had been too close, knew too much. But he was dead and he should have stayed buried.

Less than four weeks! Three weeks from Tuesday was the primary, and then he could focus on the general election, where he was a shoo-in. No Republican had won a U.S. Senate seat in California in more than twenty years, so Jeffrey wasn’t worried about his right-wing competition. All Jeffrey had to do was win this primary and it was smooth sailing.

He slid out of bed and started packing, fuming that the primary wasn’t in the bag. Everyone had some skeletons in their closet. Sheryl Browne couldn’t possibly be as squeaky clean as she came off. She had been in college during the sixties, for shit’s sake. While long-ago drug use wouldn’t damage her, if she had hit someone while drunk driving or high. . or had an affair with a married man. . and what about her ex-husband? What had happened there? And if not that, what about her current husband? He’d made his money in the dot-com boom and sold out before it fell apart. He was ten years younger than the bitch. What was up with that? If Harper found out he was cheating on the bitch. . no, that might generate sympathy for her. What about her public record? She’d been