Double Blind (32 page)

“Bill, let her go!”

“Shut up, Patti.” Hilderbrand eyed me, his head tilted. “Come on, Ms. Newberry.” My name sounded like a snarl. “Tell me.”

His fingers dug into my arms. My muscles screamed and my legs shook. I was going to faint again.

Hilderbrand jerked me off the wall and banged me back against it. My head rattled. “
Tell
me.”

What if he broke my stitches open? “I . . . the date on your watch. Today.”

He screwed up his face. “That's it?”

“Huh-uh . . .” The trembling slithered up to my stomach. My chest.

“What, then?”

“You . . . b-bought the dragon ring. You lied.”

“How do you know that?”

Would he kill them too? The men at the jewelry store?

My eyelids fluttered.

Hilderbrand shook me. Patti grabbed his arm, trying to pull him off. He elbowed her away.

“
How
do you know, Lisa?” The vein in his forehead still pulsed.

“I . . . just did. The watch date. All the l-lies you told. Your threats.” Plus Patti's fear of him. And the jewelry store guys. But I couldn't say that.

“Did
you
tell her anything?” He threw the words at Patti.

“No.”

“When you saw her at the hospital?”

“
No
. I only said what you told me to.”

Told her to?

Understanding roared through my head. The TV screen. The two of them watching the scenes from my brain . . .

They'd played me. From the very first minute to the last. Both of them. He hadn't planned to kill her today. They'd
filmed
those scenes. Staged everything.

And put it on my chip.

“Looped over and over . . .”

Hilderbrand's fingers dug deeper into my arms. I cried out. “You saw the watch, you said. Today's date. You told Patti.”

Tears slipped down my cheeks. My breathing shallowed. “Yes.”

“When did you see it?”

When? I tried to remember. My brain slogged through mud. “I don't know.”

“After you and I talked?”

“Uh-huh.”

“That day?”

What difference did it make? My knees buckled. A wail rolled up my throat.

“\Tell
me!”

“Yes, later. That day.”

Patti cowered back, hands to her mouth. Why wouldn't she do something? Maybe the two of us—

The knife.
Where was it?

My terrified gaze rolled to the floor. I'd dropped it when I fell. If I could just get it. If Patti would just pick it up . . .

Fury twisted Hilderbrand's face. “
Why
did it take so long?” He wrenched me from the wall and flung me back again. My body shrieked.

“Wh-what?”

“Stop!” Patti grabbed his arm. Her expression softened to coaxing. “Come on, Bill. She doesn't even know what you're talking about.”

“It shouldn't have taken that long! She should have seen that sequence sooner.”

“Okay. You'll figure it out.” She tugged at him. “Look at the chip again.”

“Let go of me, Patti.”

“Just calm down.”

“Let go.”

“But you can't—”

“I
said let go
!” He shook her off.

I searched again for the knife. There. Kicked across the floor, a good ten feet away. Too far from me. Too close to him.

“Bill.” Patti looked scared to death. “You have to let her go.”

“Go where? Straight to the police? She
knows
.”

“She doesn't know. And they won't believe her anyway.”

“After all I've done.” Hilderbrand raged in my face. “All my research and work. I'm
not
going to let you mess this up.”

I swallowed. My arm muscles flamed under Hilderbrand's grip. “Sh-she's right. The police think I'm crazy. They won't listen to me.”

Nobody listened to me. Nobody. Now I was going to die.

“Do you have any idea how long I've waited for this? Huh?” Hilderbrand shook me again. “How dare you think you can stop me. You're
nothing
.”

“I . . . won't t-tell.”

“You're nobody.
I'm
going to change the world.” His lips twisted. “Go upstairs, Patti. Get the suitcase.”

“What?”

“
Get
it.”

“No, Bill. No.”

He growled and shoved me sideways. I stumbled, then banged into the hallway corner. Crumpled to the floor.

The knife lay about eight feet away.

Hilderbrand jumped toward Patti, his back to me. His hands circled her neck. Her eyes bugged, her fingers scrabbling to pull him off.

No.

I fumbled to my knees. If I could just crawl . . .

Patti backed up. Hilderbrand stuck with her, hands circling her neck. “Do you want to die for real, huh?
Do
you? Because it sounds to me like you can't handle this.”

She shook her head. Her cheeks whitened.

“Are you with me or not?”

“Y-yes.” She panted.

“You sure about that?”

“Yes!”

My knees started to move.

Hilderbrand let go of Patti and pushed her. “Get the suitcase.”

She grasped her neck, chest heaving.

“Get it!”

Thoughts swooped and dipped in my mind.
The suitcase.

Patti sucked in air. “She won't fit in that thing.”

The big black one. With the whirring zipper. It had swallowed Patti. But she was much smaller.

I crawled soundlessly. Shaking. My legs wouldn't hold me for long.

“She'll fit when I'm done with her,” Hilderbrand sneered.

I moved another foot. My hands trembled against the floor. I could picture the heavy suitcase thrown off a boat. Sinking in dark water. That would be me.
Me . . .

“Get it
now
!” Hilderbrand yelled.

He wanted Patti upstairs so he could kill me. So she wouldn't have to watch.

Don't go!

She fled toward the staircase.

The knife was three feet away. I heaved toward it—and slipped. I went down, my elbow banging the floor. Electricity shot up my arm.

Hilderbrand spun around.

I rolled to my side and grabbed the knife.

He cursed and strode toward me. I pulled myself up on my good elbow.

His face blackened, his voice low in his throat. “Oh, you have done it now.”

On the stairs, Patti turned. Hilderbrand stomped across the hardwood.

The world slowed. My blood chilled . . . turned to slush. Every muscle weakened. A distant part of me saw Hilderbrand close in. Saw the rage in his eyes.

“Lisa, don't!” Patti started running down the steps.

He rushed on. The space between us melted.

Patti hit the bottom stair.

Hilderbrand ground to a halt and raised his foot to kick the knife from my hand.

Inside me a switch ignited, and my icy veins blazed into fire. In one frantic motion I sat up, bent forward and plunged the knife deep in his thigh.

Patti screamed. Hilderbrand bellowed and shuffled backward. Blood spurted onto his pants. His hands flew to the knife. Stiff-fingered, he grasped it. Pulled it out. It dropped to the floor, spattering crimson. He flailed for footing. The wound pulsed, pulsed, his slacks staining wet.

I scooted forward, toward the knife. Couldn't let him get it . . .

“Bill!” Patti scurried to his side.

Curses sprayed from his mouth. “Help me!” He pressed both hands against his leg. Red oozed through his fingers. “Get something. For . . . tourniquet.”

Patti ran toward the kitchen.

I scrambled to the knife. Picked it up. The handle was sticky.

Hilderbrand listed sideways and slammed to the floor. The blood came hard and fast. On his pants. The hardwood.

Patti appeared with a dishtowel. She fell to her knees in the puddling red beside him, furiously tying it above the wound.

I tried to get up. My legs wouldn't work. Tried again. Nothing. The third time I made it. I shuffled toward the kitchen, still clutching the knife, seeking a phone. It took me forever to get there. Behind me, Hilderbrand grunted and cursed in the same breaths.

There—on the counter. A phone. I dropped the knife into the stainless steel sink. It clattered like the end of the world. My coated hand yanked up the receiver and punched in three digits.

“911, what is your emergency?”

“He's . . . bleeding . . . to death. Hurry.”

“Who?”

No time for stupid questions. They could see the address. “He'll
die
, do you hear? Come
now
!”

I threw down the phone. My legs felt like water, and my heart quivered. On borrowed time I listed into the hallway. Patti had tied the tourniquet and was pressing both hands against Hilderbrand's leg. His eyes were closed, his face pale.

“Has the bleeding slowed down?” The words barely came out. I leaned against the wall.

Patti threw me a look of rancid hatred. “If he dies, I'm coming after you. I swear it.”

Great. Now two people wanted me dead.

I pushed off the wall. Dragged myself in an unending journey to the front door. When I finally arrived I opened it wide—and found myself face to face with two policemen, preparing to knock.

I gasped. They stared at me. I could guess how I looked: disheveled and head-bandaged, like walking death.

“We're looking for Lisa Newberry.” One officer stepped forward. “We got a call there might be some kind of disturbance.”

My mind wavered. Sherry. She'd called the police to protect me from myself.

I raised my bloody palms. The officer's hands reflexed toward their guns.

“Need . . . ambulance.” I staggered backward. “In there.”

My legs gave out. One of the policemen caught me on the way down. The other one shoved past us into the hallway.

Darkness and nausea swept through me. The policeman lowered me to the floor.

“Call Officer . . . Bremer. Redwood City.” My pleading fingers plucked at the man's wrist. “Tell him . . . I'm not. Crazy.”

The room crumbled to black.

Chapter 39

For the second time I awoke in Hilderbrand's house.

Sound and movement curled as a policeman helped me up and into the TV room. He was tall and muscular, and practically had to carry me. My body felt like lead. I sagged onto the couch and stared at the blank TV. Hilderbrand must have switched off the murder DVD when I fainted the first time. Was it still in the player?

Officers' voices mixed with Patti's, then Hilderbrand's. Police radios squawked.

“She stabbed him.” Patti's voice pulsed with panic. “You have to arrest her!”

The chip.

I eased myself to lie down on the couch, eyes fixed on nothing. Vaguely I registered Patti's accusations. Realized I may be going to jail. If Hilderbrand died . . . I couldn't even grasp the concept. My brain would barely function.

An ambulance shrilled up the street, the shattering noise dying to a strangled wail. More footsteps and voices, the clank of equipment.

“All right, get back now, let us look at him.”

An efficient exchange of medical findings followed. Blood pressure, heart rate.

“Will he be okay?” Patti sounded like she was crying.

“You may have saved his life, ma'am. But we've got to get him to a hospital right away.”

I heard the metallic sound of a gurney.

“Where is she? Lisa Newberry?” Patti's voice rose. “You arrest her, you hear?”

“We'll look into it.”

“Can you get my statement at the hospital? I'm going with him in the ambulance.”

“We'll catch up to you.”

Lies. She'd feed them lies. There was only one thing that could prove my story. Even the murder DVD wouldn't do that on its own. I needed the chip they'd taken out of me.

Footsteps approached the back of the couch. I looked up to see the policeman who'd caught me when I fainted.

He walked around the sofa and faced me, hands on his hips. “How are you feeling?”

Marvelous. “D-did you call Officer Bremer?”

“Not yet.”

“He'll tell you. At least the first half of the story.”

The officer regarded me. “What's the second half?”

I pushed up the sleeves on my shirt. “Look.” Dark bruises covered my upper arms. You could almost see the outline of Hilderbrand's fingers.

“How did that happen?”

“Hilderbrand. He was going to kill me. I grabbed the knife to defend myself.”

“Miss Stolsinger said you broke into the house and had that knife in your hand.”

“Didn't break in.” How to explain all this? “Walked in.”

“And the knife?”

“He was going to kill her. Patti. I had to stop him.”