The Queen of Cool (45 page)

“
And you do?”

“
Of course,” Lo
said.

“
You’re not a fool?” he
sneered.

“
What I don’t know is,
where is Leroy Hudson?” Lo looked Jaden up and down. “What did you
do with him?”

“
Who’s Leroy Hudson?” Jaden
asked.

Lo sat back in the chair to look up at
him.

“
That’s right Lorraine,”
Jaden said. “I’m not the mastermind of all of this crap. If Don had
ever come to me, trusted me, I could have…”

“
Not killed him?” Lo
asked.

He shook his head at her and looked around
the room.

“
What is this place?” he
asked.

“
I think Don was chemically
neutralizing the VX,” Lo said. “Or wanted to.”

“
Is that possible?” Jaden
asked.

“
Leroy Hudson would know,”
Lo said. “Any ideas what happened to him?”

He shook his head.

“
You knew how to turn on
the video surveillance,” Lo said.

“
We have the same system at
the office,” Jaden shrugged. “But computers? Raw code? I can barely
run my desktop. Ask Jane if you doubt me.”

“
Jane?” Lo raised her
eyebrows pretending not to know who he was talking
about.

“
Kincaid,” Jaden said.
“Don’t pretend with me. Who do you think got you those
diaries?”

“
You gave them to her?” Lo
shook her head.

“
And the ticket to your
party,” Jaden said.

Keeping his handgun trained on her, he
walked to the glass wall and looked inside.

“
There’s a body there,”
Jaden used his left hand to point. “Next to the big round metal
thing.”

Lo stood up to look. A crumpled form lay in
the dim light. She could just make out the bottom of the man’s
shoes. There was no way to know what had killed him from this side
of the glass.

“
I bet that’s your Leroy
Hudson,” Jaden went to the door in the glass wall.

“
Did you shoot him?” Lo
asked.

“
No,” Jaden
said.

“
Kill him with VX and
Albuterol?” Lo asked.

“
No,” Jaden said. “Wait,
who died from VX and Albuterol?”

“
Oh, give me a break,” Lo
shook her head at him.

“
Lorraine, who died from VX
and Albuterol?”

Lo gave him a long hard look. He raised his
eyebrows to ask the question again.

“
The dogwoods were in
bloom,” she said. “He was terribly allergic to those stupid trees.
He must have had an attack because he used his inhaler and inhaled
VX instead.”

Jaden fell back as if he’d been hit.

“
I have to hand it to you,
Jaden, you’re a pretty good actor,” Lo clapped at his
performance.

“
Lo, I… No, I didn’t know.
I…” He rubbed his lips together and shook his head. “No, you have
to be wrong.”

“
The FBI confirmed what the
Tarrant County Medical Examiner reported,” Lo said. “I’ve seen the
reports.”

“
And your parents too?” he
asked.

“
Not Albuterol,” Lo said.
“But the FBI found traces of VX in their bodies.”

“
That’s bad.”

For the first time since they’d entered the
room, he turned away from her. She ached to attack him, but her
instincts told her to wait. He was upset and liable to do
anything.

“
Bad?” Lo asked.

When he turned back, she read fear on his
face. She felt only disgust for him.

“
Why are you afraid?” Lo
asked.

“
Why aren’t you?” he
asked.

“
I… “ she shook her head.
“What are we doing here? I mean this is interesting, but if you
wanted to hang out, you could have just asked.”

“
Hang out? Asked?” Jaden
face was marked with surprise. “You?”

“
What are we doing here?”
Lo asked.

“
I came to try to stop you
from doing something stupid,” Jaden said.

“
You killed that man out
there,” Lo said.

“
He was paid to kill you,”
Jaden said.

“
What?” Lo shook her head.
“If you’re not involved, how’d you know that? Or that we’d be here
in the first place?”

“
I didn’t say I wasn’t
involved,” Jaden said. “I’m not in charge.”

“
You are in charge,” Lo
said. “Jane said…”

“
Someone must have gotten
to Jane,” Jaden said.

“
Wait, just wait,” Lo said.
“It’s late. I’m cold. We’re under the horrible Swift Packing Plant
and you still have that stupid gun. You seem to be telling me
something but…”

“
My father was
a Supply Sergeant for the Air Force,” Jaden said. “He was drafted,
and he stayed in. I don’t know why he stayed, but he did. We
traveled with him from city to city until he was assigned to
Carswell Air Force Base, here in Fort Worth. He walked into this
whole VX mess. He believed he was doing his duty; for his
country;
I
believed he was doing his duty for
his country.”

“
By keeping all of this…
junk?” Lo asked. “By selling it to dictators?”

“
By doing what he was
told,” Jaden said. “Listen, my dad and I weren’t close. We weren’t
even sort of close. I didn’t know about any of this until he was
dying. He paid for my education with VX money. He used the money to
pay for college and Harvard Law and… That’s how I got involved. I
went to see my father on his deathbed and he told me the whole
story.”

“
What whole story?” Lo
asked.

“
He found the stash of VX,”
Jaden said. “He asked his command what to do with it. They went to
Henry Downs. He set the whole thing up. Henry Downs and his old CO
controlled the entire thing from sale to shipment. My dad did what
he was ordered to do. He told me he was defending the country from
her enemies.”

“
Defending the country?” Lo
asked. “He was lining his pockets and killing people to
boot!”

“
That’s just what he said
about Henry,” Jaden said.

“
And you?” Lo sniffed at
him. “You lined your pockets plenty.”

“
Sure,” Jaden said. “So did
Don.”

Lo gave him a sour look and shook her
head.

“
Who’s in charge?” Lo
asked.

“
I thought Don was,” Jaden
said. “I swear to God, all this time, I thought Don was in charge.
But Don… We met for drinks before the Board of Directors dinner for
the Opera last September. You’ve got to remember, because it was
just before you left for Vegas. I was really pissed. I wanted out.
I was sick of the games, sick of the lies, sick of the money... He
didn’t know what I was talking about. Not a damned thing. And all
this time, I… thought I was doing it for him.”

“
If you’re so innocent, why
are you holding me at gunpoint?” Lo asked.

“
There’s no other way to
get you to do anything,” Jaden said. “You’d go out there and get
yourself killed.”

“
That’s my daughter,” Lo
pointed to the door.

“
Ask yourself Lo,” Jaden
said. “Just take a moment and ask yourself. If Don wasn’t in charge
of this whole operation, who was? It has to be someone from Henry
Downs’s inner-circle. It has to be someone close enough to let
people into your home and then watch it burn. I spent quite a bit
of time with Alisha in unguarded moments. She knows a lot more,
about a lot of things, than you give her credit for.”

“
Sue Ellen?” Lo shook her
head. “Sue Ellen is in charge of this operation?”

“
Finally, the child wakes
up,” Jaden clapped his free hand against the hand holding the
gun.

“
You’re just trying to
manipulate me so you can have me for yourself,” Lo said.

“
What?”

“
You’re in love with me,”
Lo said.

“
You?” Jaden looked
shocked. “In love with you? Me? No.”

“
Jane Kincaid told me,” Lo
said.

“
I told you someone got to
Jane,” Jaden said.

“
Well, you’re not in love
with Alisha,” Lo said. “That’s for sure.”

Jaden shook his head at Lo.

“
Then who?” Lo
asked.

“
Don,” Jaden said. “Since
the moment I met him in high school.”

“
But you’re ubersexual.
You’re a different-woman-every-night straight guy,” Lo
said.

“
I am. And I hate women,”
Jaden nodded. “You’re the one who always says I hate
women.”

“
Did Don... Were
you…?”

“
We were never lovers. But
he knew. He was the kindest person I’ve ever met.” Jaden’s eyes
filled with tears. “He knew… about my proclivity; that’s what my
father called it, my proclivity. Don used to cover for me at Law
School. It’s hard to believe now, but having gay dalliances weren’t
exactly legal when we were at Harvard. And he… he knew… how
strongly I felt about him. He was always very gentle around my
heart. I used to think there might be a chance but…”

Jaden smiled at her.

“
He met me,” Lo said.
“That’s why you’re always so… yucky with me. Jealous. I used to
think you were jealous of us.”

“
I knew the
moment he met you,” Jaden said. “And truthfully? I
was
jealous. And… I was happy for him. He was so broken by…
everything that had happened to him. You made him whole. I wished
that
I
could have been the person who made him whole. I
didn’t realize it until he died, but I was really glad he had you.
I couldn’t have ever given him what you did. That’s why I tried to
help you with the estate and all this mess after he died. If I
loved him, I should take care of what he loved the most –
you.”

“
Why did you tell everyone
the baby was Sy’s?” Lo asked.

“
I didn’t,” Jaden said.
“Who would believe the baby was anyone’s but Don’s? That’s just
stupid.”

“
Jane said…,” Lo
said.

“
Shit.”

“
You never said you’d kill
me rather than see me with someone else?”

“
No,” Jaden gave her a look
of sheer disdain. “Why would I make such a ridiculous statement?
Think Lorraine. I’m a lawyer. Even if it was true, I would never be
stupid enough to babble my plans to my lesbian office
manager.”

“
I…”

“
Did you get Marilyn’s
diaries?” Jaden asked. “This whole thing is spelled out, even about
me and Don, in the last one.”

“
I didn’t get the last
one.”

“
Shit,” Jaden shook his
head.

A loud boom came from across the building.
The foundation shook and brick mortar rained down on them. Jaden
turned to Lo with an intensity that frightened her.

“
Do you know how to make
this thing work?” Jaden asked.

“
I think so,” Lo said. “I
minored in computer science. The program that was on the screen is
ready to run. We just have to…”

“
Do it.”

Jaden gave her a little push toward the
keyboard. Lo turned on the monitor. She read the code again and
pressed the Enter key. The machines in front of them gave a high
pitched whine as if they were warming up. The screen scrolled green
lettered code.

“
What does it say?” Jaden
asked.

“
Lo,” Alisha’s voice came
from the other side of the door. “Stand away from the door. We’re
coming in to get you.”

“
It’s a manual start,” Lo
said. “We have to keep hitting enter to make it go.”

Lo looked at Jaden. With one look, they made
the silent commitment that they would see this through, no matter
what. Lo hit Enter. The code scrolled by.

“
The machines are ready for
us,” Lo said. “Do we want to use them? Yes.”

She hit Enter.

“
Do we know if the VX is
loaded there?” Jaden asked.

“
It says on the screen,” Lo
scrolled up. “Loaded and Ready. That must have been what Leroy was
doing. Can you put the gun away?”

Jaden looked at her and set it down.

“
The safety’s on,” he
said.

“
Good to know,” Lo said.
“Begin neutralization?”

The door to the antechamber banged open.

Time slowed.

Lo’s head jerked toward the door. Two men in
full body armor with their faces covered in black balaclavas, ran
into the room firing their weapons. Bullets flew around the
room.

Jaden reached for the Enter key. His hand
hovered over the key before his body bounced off the Plexiglas and
fell to the ground.

Lo hit Enter.

Her sight filled with the movement of the
machines as they began the neutralizing process and a round hit the
back of her chair. A red rose bloomed on her shirt where the bullet
pierced her skin.

“
NO!” Alisha screamed, as
she ran in the door. An armed man grabbed her and lifted her off
the ground.

The bullet struck Lo’s vertebrae and
shattered. Lo gasped for breath.