Cold Case

“Walter!” the Senator called after him. “Son!”

He turned a glare on Matt that should have incinerated him. “Weakling,” Callivant muttered.

For a long moment the Senator sat in stormy silence, thinking. Then he stabbed a finger down on the armrest of his wheelchair. “Daniel? You heard it all?”

“Yes, sir,” Daniel Callivant’s voice came through a speaker hidden somewhere in the chair’s circuitry.

“He’ll be no use to us,” the old man’s voice thickened. “Again. We’ll have to — take care of the situation.” Matt didn’t like the look Callivant suddenly turned on him. “I think the intruder scenario—”

“Marcus saw him come in with my daughter,” Daniel Callivant interrupted over the speaker.

“Can’t you handle him?” the Senator demanded impatiently.

“And create another Clyde Finch?” Daniel asked. Walter Callivant’s hands turned into clawlike fists on the armrests. “Come here!”

A moment or two later Daniel Callivant appeared in the hallway behind Matt and Nikki. “Grandfather.”

“I’ve thought it through,” the Senator said. “Nikki unwisely brought this boy home. He attacked her, and while we tried to subdue—”

“No!” Nikki screamed the word. “I won’t—”

“Of course, she had to be sedated,” Walter Callivant’s voice remorselessly rolled along. He glared at his son. “The alternative, of course, is that the young animal killed her.”

Daniel Callivant went pale, looking at his daughter. “No. Grandfather—”

“You heard how she betrayed us. She’ll betray us all. Choose, Daniel. The family, or this little—”

“Grandfather! Please!”

“You’re a Callivant! You have no choice!”

“I–I can’t—”

“You expect me to?” Walter Senior smashed a hand down on his withered legs. “I tell you again, Daniel. You have no choice.”

Daniel Callivant’s tightly wrapped facade was gone. His lips trembled as he looked at his daughter.

Nikki’s eyes went back and forth between the family patriarch and her father, the horror in them growing.

Matt began to prepare himself for a hopeless leap. If Daniel was armed, he was probably dead already. But he had to fight!

Daniel Callivant opened his mouth to answer.

But he was cut off by a harsh blatting sound from the speaker in Walter Senior’s chair. He pushed a button, and a different voice came out of the speaker.

“Sir! The police are here — they say there’s an intruder!”

18

A wild look passed between Walter and Daniel Callivant. But Nikki spoke first.

“Let them in, Marcus!”

The noise Walter Callivant made would have been more appropriate coming from an animal. “Marcus!” he shouted when he got control of himself.

But Nikki was already on her knees, tearing something loose from the wheelchair. Wordlessly she held up the transceiver speaker.

“You—!” The Senator sent his chair into a wild pivot, knocking Nikki to the floor.

Matt leaped forward, grabbing both of Walter Callivant’s wrists, keeping them from the wheelchair controls. “Try that again—” he threatened.

Behind him, he heard the door slam open and heavy footsteps coming their way.

Daniel Callivant stepped aside.

Walter Callivant wrenched himself loose, turning to the excited-looking young police officer who accompanied Marcus the gate guard.

“The intruder—” the Senator began.

“We’re after him!” the cop exclaimed. “He came barreling out in a car the second the gate opened! My partner’s in pursuit. I’m here to preserve the scene until the investigators come.”

His voice began to wind down as he looked around at the tableau in front of him. “Everything all right here?”

Nikki Callivant got up from the floor. “My great-grandfather had an accident,” she said. “My friend Matt went to help him.”

“But who drove out?” Walter Callivant suddenly sounded like the stereotype of the confused old man. He suddenly looked up at Daniel. “Walter!”

He means Walter G., Matt realized.

“My son,” the Senator clarified. “He’s been under some strain preparing his candidacy. Perhaps — ah, perhaps a mistake was made—”

Matt watched the man fumble desperately, trying to construct a story.

Walter G. called the cops and made sure that they would chase him. The question is, where does he intend to lead them?

“You’d better contact your superiors,” Daniel Callivant spoke up. “Tell them my father is in the car they’re after.”

It was neither a high-speed pursuit nor one of those notorious slow-speed chases. Walter G. Callivant left Haddington driving exactly at the speed limit. Local cops were joined by Delaware State Police, and then by Maryland troopers.

And, of course, a fleet of news choppers circled overhead. Matt, Nikki, and the other Callivants were able to follow developments on HoloNews.

The house was filled with various police representatives, legal advisers, and P.R. people. Somewhere along the line, Captain Winters showed up.

“Your parents got in touch with me,” he said. “And I got that delayed message you left. You might want to know that I’ve dispatched agents to keep an eye on Finch until he’s fit to take into custody. I assume you’ll be pressing charges? Then I scrambled a chopper — just in case it might be advisable to come by.”

He was talking with colleagues when the chase came to its climax. Walter G. Callivant drove his car through the gates of the Cowper’s Bluff Nature Preserve. He took an old path directly to the bluff and drove his car over the precipice and into the Chesapeake below.

“That’s where they must have hidden his real car,” Matt whispered to the weeping Nikki.

“And why they put it off-limits all these years,” she choked back.

“I’m very sorry for your loss,” Captain Winters told Daniel Callivant.

“My father must have been under more of a strain than we thought.” Nikki’s dad looked desperate to get out of the room. Maybe he was afraid there was a suicide note with dangerous confessions upstairs.

Winters maintained his grip on the man’s hand for an extra second, giving him an appraising look.

Sure, Matt thought. He’s got to be checking him out over that EMP gizmo.

Winters turned to Matt. “Can I give you a lift home?”

“I’ll drive him home.” Nikki Callivant wiped the tears from her delicate cheeks. “And I won’t be back, Father. Mom has some relatives in Washington. I’ll arrange to stay with them.”

She took a deep breath. “Remember how we were discussing whether I’d take my senior year abroad? I’m going. And when I come back, I’ll be of age to use the trust fund Uncle George left me. It’s not Callivant money.”

Nikki paused. “But then, I’m not a Callivant anymore.”

Daniel Callivant stared, stricken, as his daughter began leading Matt to the door. “Nikki! You can’t be serious! We have to talk—”

She looked over her shoulder. “Not now,” Nikki said. “Not ever.”