Damn Jeffrey Layton for bringing this to her house! she thought with fierce, sudden violence. If she ever got her hands on him, she would choke him to death.
Laboriously they made their way up the steep, narrow attic stairs. His eyes narrowed, Mellor surveyed the crowded space as he pushed Neenah forward. “Where is it?”
“Here.” Cate went to the suitcase and pulled it out. She started to tell him that whatever he was looking for, he was wasting his time, because there was nothing in the suitcase except clothing, but she choked the words back. Maybe it was better to let him think he had what he wanted. Maybe he wouldn’t kill them; maybe he’d leave her and Neenah up here and leave.
Gripping the handle of the suitcase, she turned to face him, and froze.
Calvin Harris stood at the top of the stairs, a shotgun raised to his shoulder as he aimed directly at the back of Mellor’s head.
Cate jerked back, her head banging against the top of the sloping ceiling as she instinctively tried to get out of the line of lire.
Alerted by her actions, Mellor swung around, taking Neenah with him.
“Let her go,” the handyman said calmly. The big weapon in his hands was as steady as a rock, his cheek nestled against the stock, and the eyes she had previously thought of as “washed out” were as pale and cold as ice.
Mellor smiled a little. “That’s a shotgun. You kill me, you kill the women, too. Not a good choice of weapon.”
Calvin’s smile matched Mellor’s. “Except it’s loaded with a slug, not shot. At this distance, it’ll take your head off and not touch Neenah at all.”
“Yeah, sure. Put the shotgun down, or she’s dead.”
“Analyze the situation,” Calvin said softly. “Your buddy isn’t coming up those stairs to help. You can get off a shot, yeah, but not in time to stop me from pulling the trigger. I use this shotgun for deer hunting, so believe me when I say it’s loaded with slugs instead of pellets. You might get me, you might get Neenah, but the bottom line is you’ll be dead, too. So we can either have two dead people, or everyone can live and you get your buddy and get out of here.”
“You can have the suitcase, too,” Cate choked out. Anything to keep them from coming back.
Mellor inhaled deeply as he did the math. The fact was, they were at a stalemate, and the only way he could get out of it alive was to drop his weapon. Cate tried to follow what was going through his mind, but all she could think was he’d have to trust Calvin wouldn’t shoot him after he was disarmed. Mellor himself would probably kill them all in cold blood, but Calvin wouldn’t.
Very deliberately, Mellor released Neenah and clicked the safety on the automatic. She slumped to the floor, unable to even stand. Cate started toward her, but Calvin threw an icy glance at her, and she halted, belatedly understanding that he didn’t want her any closer to Mellor.
“Now drop it,” Calvin instructed.
The weapon hit the floor with a heavy thud. Cate flinched, thinking it would go off, but nothing happened.
“Get the suitcase and leave.”
Slowly, not making any sudden moves, Mellor retrieved the suitcase from Cate. Cate stared at him, her eyes wide. Their gazes met for a brief moment. His was still calm and expressionless, as if this was all in a day’s work.
“Cate,” said Calvin. She blinked at him. “Pick up the pistol.”
She scrambled for the weapon, gingerly picking it up. She’d never touched a gun before, and she was surprised by the weight.
“See that button on the left side? Push it.”
Holding the pistol in her right hand, she used her left forefinger to push the button.
“Okay,” Calvin said, “you just took the safety off. Don’t pull the trigger unless you mean to shoot. Go down the stairs first, and stay far enough away from him that he can’t reach you. We’ll be behind you. Go past the head of the stairs, and keep the gun aimed at him until I’m out of the stairwell and behind him again. You got that?”
The logic of it made sense. If he’d let Mellor go first, either he’d have had to be so close behind that Mellor could grab the shotgun, or Mellor would be out of sight for a few seconds after he reached the bottom of the stairs. Cate couldn’t imagine what Calvin thought Mellor could do in those few seconds, but if he thought there was danger, she was willing to go along with him.
Where was the other man, Huxley? What had Calvin done with him?
She went down the stairs much faster than she’d gone up them, not entirely on purpose. Her knees were still wobbly and she half-ran, half-stumbled down them. She kept a death grip on the weapon, all the while sending up a prayer that Mellor wouldn’t try anything, because she had no idea what she was doing. She went past the head of the stairs and turned, pointing the barrel at Mellor and using both hands to hold the weapon as steady as she could. It wobbled because she was still shaking, but she thought—she hoped—she was aiming it close enough to him that he wouldn’t take any chances.
Calvin followed Mellor at a safe distance, and in contrast to her own trembling, he seemed ice cold and impervious to stress.
“Keep going,” he told Mellor in that same soft tone. They headed down the stairs.
After a moment Cate moved forward to follow. Neenah came down the attic stairs then, moving very slowly and clinging to first the bannister and then the door frame. Her gaze met Cate’s and she swallowed. “I’m okay,” she said in a thready tone. “Go help Cal.”
Cate went down the stairs to the bottom floor. She saw the other man lying on the floor in front of the front door, his hands tied behind him. He was groggily trying to sit up.
“I can’t manage him and three bags at the same time,” Mellor said.
“So untie him. He’ll be able to walk.” Calvin kept the shotgun at his shoulder.
Mellor untied Huxley and helped him to his feet. The other man swayed, but stayed upright. His blue eyes glared hatred at Calvin, but he might as well have saved the effort for all the reaction Calvin showed.
Between them, the two men picked up the three bags and went out onto the front porch, Huxley stumbling and weaving but managing to walk. Following Calvin onto the porch, Cate watched them stow the bags in the Tahoe, then climb into the front seats.
Just before Mellor cranked the engine, she heard the faint, high-pitched sound of her children’s voices, and knew her mother was returning with the boys. She almost burst into tears at the realization of how close they had come to walking into a deadly situation.
Huxley shot both of them a deadly glare as the Tahoe went past. She and Calvin watched until it was out of sight.
“You okay?’” he finally asked, still looking down the road. She wondered if he thought they might come back.
“I’m line.” Her voice was thin with shock, almost soundless. She cleared her throat and tried again. “I’m fine. Neenah—”
“I’m okay,” Neenah said, appearing in the doorway. She was still white, still shaky, but she was no longer clinging to things to walk. “Just shook up, I think. Are they gone?”
“Yeah,” Calvin said. He held the shotgun easily in one hand, the barrel now pointing downward, as he gave Cate a searching look. “That was a good idea, turning the stamps upside down.”
It had worked; her pitiful attempt at signaling for help had worked! “I read… I read that an upside-down flag is a distress signal.”
He dipped his head in a brief nod. “You were nervous and shaky, too. I drove down the street and circled back on foot, figured I’d check things out and make sure everything was okay.”
“I didn’t think you’d noticed.” He’d glanced at the envelopes, shuffling them in his hands, but hadn’t even blinked his eyes to show any reaction.
“I noticed.”
His calmness made her feel her own shakiness even more acutely. She looked at Neenah and saw that she, too, was trembling as she tried to hold things together. With a choked sob Cate dropped the gun she was holding and grabbed Neenah in a tight hug and they clung together for comfort and support. She felt Calvin putting his arms around both of them, murmuring something soft and probably comforting, if she’d been able to understand what he was saying, but the actual words didn’t matter. A part of her brain noticed that he was still holding the shotgun, and that was definitely comforting. For a long moment they leaned into his surprising strength; then she heard Tucker’s piping shout as he raced toward them, Tanner keeping pace beside him.