Kill Jill (23 page)

Leeds Road, Willow Lake, Arkansas.
Present Day, Present Time.

Bobby’s man on the ground, Ryan Decker, removes his night vision goggles and places them in the boat. Then gives Mike the Pilot the go-ahead, which means Decker has thirty seconds to get the rocket launcher in position.

More than enough time.

Mike flies over Jack’s house, disengages the canister, and the initial bomb detonates just as it was programmed to do.

No surprise there, Decker knows his shit.

He’d love to take a few seconds to marvel at the mushroom cloud, but since he needs to blow Mike out of the sky, he can’t spare the time. He fires the warhead, tosses the rocket launcher in the boat, and ducks underneath, just in case he miscalculated the distance.

He didn’t.

The explosion rocks the sky. As predicted, when Decker surfaces, he sees half the neighborhood in flames. Jack’s house has been leveled, as have the vacant houses on both sides. To the left, several other vacant homes are on fire. If he had done it Bobby’s way, dozens of bystanders would be dead, dozens more would be in flames, running and hopping about like fireflies.

Ryan gets his cell phone from the boat, takes a short video, texts it to Bobby. Ten minutes later, he calls from the blast site.

Bobby says, “I got the video. Fuckin’
amazing
!”

Decker says, “I’m standing behind Jack’s house. The area’s too hot for me to get closer right now, but I have some information for you.”

“Will it make me happy?”

“I think so. Is Jack Tallow still with you?”

“He is, but he’s unconscious. I just had his vocal cords removed.”

Decker pulls the phone away from his ear and stares at it a moment in disbelief. Then puts it back to his ear and says, “
Why
?”

“I gave him a choice of losing his nuts or his vocal cords.”

“And he chose his vocal cords?”

“Surprisingly, no. He chose to lose his nuts. So I took his vocal cords. I’ll take his nuts in a few days. Give him something to look forward to. Cool, huh?”

“I’m at a bomb site, remember?”

“Right. Sorry. What’s the good news?”

“Jack’s house had a secret room.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s a fall-away lot to the lake. He built a secret room beneath the main floor that’s hidden behind the retaining wall.”

“How do you know?”

“Because the blast took out the ceiling and front wall.”

“Why’s that good news for me?”

“Your wife was in the secret room when the bomb went off.”

“No shit? That’s great! Wait. You’re sure it’s her?”

“Yeah, I’m sure. The secret room goes under the ground on one end, and butts up against the retaining wall that faces the lake. There’s a metal door below it, and maybe Jack had a way to use the door as an escape route. But if he did, Jill didn’t know about it, because she’s still in there. It’s freaky the way the blast affected the secret room.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s like I’m looking at the back half of a kid’s doll house. Half the secret room is still intact. That’s the part that was partially underground. Jill’s lying on her side on the cot like nothing happened, except that most of the organs that used to be inside her are splattered all over the room.”

“You’re sure she’s dead?”

“Trust me. Her body imploded from the power of the blast. If I could get closer, I’d drag her out and throw what’s left of her on the ground and send you a photograph.

“Can you try?”

“Not to complain, but I’m still at the bomb site, remember? I originally planned to haul ass after firing the warhead. Now you’ve had me drive the boat ashore, engage in a discussion about severed nuts and vocal cords, and I’ve taken the time to find and positively identify your wife’s body, which I managed to do only because of the secret room. And yes, she’s thoroughly and completely dead. Had she been anywhere else I wouldn’t have been able to ID her. But I’d prefer not to take the time to work my way into the wreckage and pull her out. It’s a very dangerous area. Also, I wouldn’t have time to get her DNA off me.”

“You could make it look like you’re searching for survivors.”

“True, but there’s the issue of my bass boat tied to what’s left of Jack’s boat dock. Not to mention my sniper’s rifle and rocket launcher are in the boat, and I have to get them and myself out of the area.”

Bobby sighs. “Okay, leave her there. But photograph what you can, and send it to me.”

“Will do.”

Decker takes some pictures of the general area and forwards them to Bobby, knowing in advance his cell phone can’t provide definitive details because he’s too far away, it’s dark, and there’s smoke and pockets of fire everywhere.

Decker turns off his phone and removes the battery so no one can trace him. Then he runs to the front yard, searches to make sure no one else was killed or injured in the blast. He sees no one in the yard, but there’s a man and two women lying by the side of the road a short distance away. They’re rolling around, disoriented, but generally unhurt.

He recognizes one of them. Abbie Rhodes. Abbie says, “Emma Wilson must’ve flashed her tits again.”

The young man says, “My parents run the grocery store.”

Decker assumes the second woman is Milly Reston, town gossip.

Decker flips them onto their stomachs, pulls down their pants, takes a black grease pen from his pocket and writes the letters BWC on their asses. After photographing his work, he runs to the dock, jumps in the boat, pushes off. Fires up the motor and says, “Bobby thinks you’re dead.”

“Thanks, Ryan,” Jill says. “I owe you.”

Thirty Minutes Earlier…

Sheriff Cox wants Jill to provide Jack’s phone number?

It’s over.

The yard’s crawling with people, and there are at least five others in the house. Jill was lucky to make it into the closet without being detected. There was a terrifying moment when she was completely vulnerable after sliding the freezer away from the wall. As she scrambled behind it in the dark she lost her shoe. She thought about leaving it in the closet, but doing so would be like painting an arrow that points to her location. She had to go back and find it, put it on, and start over.

And somehow she made it.

She must have been crazy to think Jack’s stupid lake house idea would work. Nor did Jack do her any favors by failing to mention he fucked the backwoods child bride Abbie Rhodes, who was basically half-receptacle, half-punching bag for her primitive Neanderthal husband, Darryl.

Jesus, Jack. Could you really be that careless with Abbie? This is a small town. Everyone knows everything.

Jill has no idea who killed Darryl, but it had to be someone connected to Bobby.

Which means she’s no longer safe.

Not that she had much of a chance to live a quiet, happy life in the first place. Coming here without Jack instantly raised the sheriff’s suspicions. It took him less than a day to determine her ID was fake.

Sheriff Cox said the deputy’s going to be stationed up on the hill out front?

Perfect!

Because the last thing Jack mentioned about the secret room was the small trap door under the cot. You move the cot, lift the door, and drop six feet to the concrete floor of the storage shed. Then you slip out the metal door, run to the water, and swim the fuck out of here.

So she does.

Except that when she opens the storage shed door, she runs smack into Milly Reston, the snoopy lady who brought her the broccoli casserole.

“Jesus, Emma!” Milly says. “You scared me half to death!”

“Sorry.”

“The Sheriff’s been looking for you for more than an hour.”

“What a coincidence! I was just looking for
him
!”

“He thinks you ran away.”

“That’s silly. Where would I go? I need to tell him something amazing. Something I never would’ve found if not for you.”

“What?”

“Jack’s secret place.”

“
Really
? You found something?”

“You have no idea, Milly!”

“Tell me!”

“You’d have to see it to believe it.”

“Show me!”

Jill opens the door to the shed and points to the open trap door. “Jack has a secret room, filled with treasures and detailed information about half the people in town!”

“I’ve got to see it!”

“Well…”

“No. I’m serious. I have to see it. Can you give me a boost?”

“What about Sheriff Cox?”

“
Fuck
Sheriff Cox!”

Jill pretends to think it over. Then says, “Okay. I guess I can give you ten minutes before telling Sheriff Cox.”

“You’re a peach, Emma!”

Jill says, “There’s a light on the left wall, by the built-in ladder.”

She boosts Milly high enough to gain access to the secret room.

As Milly hoists herself up, Jill says, “Have fun snooping!”

“You know I will!” Milly says.

She closes the trap door, and Jill runs to the edge of the water, starts wading in…

…And hears a man whisper, “Jill! Over here!”

The man says his name’s Ryan Decker, and he’s the one who shot Darryl. He says, “Stay quiet, and I’ll get you out of here safely.”

“I’ll die before I let you take me back to Bobby!” Jill says.

She starts wading toward shore, but stops cold when Decker says, “I’m a friend of Jack’s.”

She turns toward him. “Where’s Jack? Why didn’t
he
come?”

Decker tells her to hang onto the side of the boat and be quiet, and he’ll take her across the lake.

Except that when they get a quarter mile from the house he tells her the truth. He’s not here because of Jack, but because of Bobby. “I don’t work for your husband,” he says, “but I’m
affiliated
with him.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m doing a job for him tonight, but I’m not on his payroll.”

“What job?”

“He hired me to blow up Jack’s house.”

“
What
? You came here to
kill
me?”

“
He
thinks so. But if I thought so, you’d be dead.”

She pauses a moment, then says, “You killed Darryl?”

“Yes.”

“You saw my boobs?”

“Not really.”

“Either you did or you didn’t.”

“I did. But I didn’t let it affect my aim.”

“How did you know I’d run to the lake just now?”

“I didn’t, but I’m not surprised. Bobby said you always find a way to fuck up his plans.”

“How’s Jack involved in all this?”

“He’s not.”

“So you lied about being his friend?”

“Yes.” He pauses, then says, “We’d probably be friends if I knew him. It’s just that…”

“You don’t.”

“Right.”

“You deliberately lied to me.”

“Yes. But only because I didn’t want you to run off. Your only chance to get away is with me.”

She says, “Where’s Jack?”

“Bobby’s got him.”

“Shit! I knew it. Who turned him in, the crop duster guy?”

“Yeah, Mike. I’m going to blow him up in a few minutes.”

“Excuse me?”

Ryan starts to answer, then says, “There’s too much to explain. Here’s what you need to know. Jack’s not going to make it, but you are.”

“Is he alive?”