I was so focused on its gyration that I nearly jumped out of my skin when Mike fired his gun. When I turned my head, I could see another bottle smashed by his bullet. This time, a fine white powder-cocaine, no doubt-poured over the side of the divided vessel, like grains of sand running through an hourglass.
Why was Mike wasting a bullet that we might desperately need in the coming seconds?
“Here goes your fortune, Danton. There’ll be blow all over the floor of this goddamn place,” he said. “What vintage is it? Château Calamari 2012?”
Danton fired again, this time lowering his aim to try to get a piece of Mike.
I directed my attention back to the steel entry. The handle was still, but someone was pushing against the door. As it opened into the room, the man who’d been pressing on the door fell forward onto the ground, grabbing his left leg as he rolled on his right side.
He was dressed entirely in denim-blue work shirt and jeans-and I guessed him to be one of the Stallion Ridge staff. He was bleeding profusely from his leg, and although the soundproofing kept his voice from penetrating the space before the door opened, he was howling now.
Behind him, standing in the doorway with a rifle pointed directly at Mike, was Gina Varona.
FIFTY-SIX
“Put it down, Gina,” Mike said, before he was able to lift his revolver.
I hadn’t liked the woman from the moment her name had come into the mix, and now we were all at her mercy.
“Tell me what’s going on,” she said, never flinching as she held her position. “Where’s Peter?”
Gina was Brigitte’s best friend. Of course they were all in this together.
“Getting high,” Mike said, since there was no answer from Danton. “What else did you think he’d be doing?”
She had ignored me at first, but still holding the gun on Mike, Gina spoke to me directly. “Get off your knees, Alex. Out of that row, over to Chapman.”
I looked at Mike for direction and he shook his head at me. I didn’t move.
“Tell me where Peter is,” she asked again.
Another blast from Danton’s shotgun, this one missing Gina Varona’s head by only inches. I was almost as stunned as she seemed to be, and suddenly there was more commotion as Danton-having moved shelves and worked his way out of one dead-ended row-emerged from the next one into the narrow main corridor between Mike and Gina, trying to make his way to the door.
“Stop!” Mike shouted at him.
But Danton ignored the command, and with his weapon steadied on Gina, he continued his mad charge.
It was Mike who fired first, missing Peter Danton altogether, his bullet ricocheting off the end of a wooden crate.
But Gina Varona got off a shot before Danton could pull the trigger, and the killer crashed to his knees-his chest ripped apart by the impact-falling to the cement floor a foot away from where I kneeled.
FIFTY-SEVEN
“I’m so sorry, Gina. I didn’t trust you from the minute we were introduced,” I said.
“I didn’t like you much either. What did you walk into here today?”
We were standing together next to the large barn, in the sunlight-Gina, Luc, Mike, Jim, and I. The township police-who had responded to the panic alarm within ten minutes-were swarming around the shed. Two ambulances had left for the local hospital, one with Josh Hanson and the injured foreman on board, and the other with the body of Peter Danton.
“Mike and I drove up here looking for Luc, but we interrupted a business meeting between your partners.”
“I found out a little late that I didn’t get the invite,” Gina said. “Don’t you hate when that happens?”
She had an arm around my shoulder, trying to lighten me up.
“Totally.” I was taking deep breaths, trying to keep an eye on Luc, Jim, and Mike as they walked away from me to talk with the cops.
“Luc and Jim Mulroy drove up together,” I said “We came because Luc was supposed to spend the day in town, but left the city without letting us know. We certainly weren’t expecting Armageddon at Stallion Ridge, or we’d have brought reinforcements.”
“Josh Hanson’s the new kid on the block.” Gina said. “Peter’s been trying to push me out. I think Josh is more his type, in terms of a business partner.”
“What made you come up here today?”
“I called the gallery to speak to Peter this morning,” she said. “We haven’t been getting along too well lately. That’s when Eva told me he’d had a call from Jim, and that he disappeared quite suddenly. Said he had to check something here in Connecticut. I decided to drive up and protect my own interests. Nothing’s been right since that girl was killed in Mougins.”
“But you thought to bring a gun,” I said, still wary of Gina.
She smiled. “That’s the Tiro a Segno in me. The Rifle Club. I’ve always got one in the trunk of my car. You never know when you’ll get a chance for some target practice.”
“So you shot the foreman?” I asked.
“When I drove into the parking lot, I recognized him. He’s always been perfectly friendly before. This time he was running into the shed, but came back out when he saw me get out of the car. He threatened me, actually. He was carrying a shotgun and told me to stay away.”
“Why?” I said. “Did he say?”
“Just that Peter had set off the panic alarm, and he was going to open the door. I asked him if that was unusual-I mean, had it happened before-and he said it never had. When I asked him who was inside, the guy said there was a detective and-well-you must have been the young woman he mentioned. I didn’t have a clue what was going on, but I didn’t like the sound of it,” Gina said. “But I obeyed him.”
“You did?”
She smiled. “Well, I returned to the car, anyway. I came back with my rifle, but he didn’t notice me coming because he was unlocking the vault. I got up real close behind him, and when he realized I was there-and armed-he really didn’t like the sight of that.”
“So he refused to open the door?” I said.
“I nudged him a few times, but he wouldn’t change his mind. Most men don’t take me seriously until they see me shoot,” Gina said. “I just grazed him, Alex. It got the job done.”
Mike was making his way back over to us.
“Before I came into the shelter, did Peter Danton tell you anything at all about the skulls?” I asked him. The ancient bones had haunted me since I first saw them in the moonlight in Mougins.
“I never got to that, Coop. They must have been a diversion, cooked up by Lisette and Luigi to keep everyone’s attention on the restaurant wars. Luc would be so busy looking for enemies around town that the drug trafficking wouldn’t get any attention. It was a good ruse. The bones were old enough so the police didn’t have to worry about dead bodies, but spooky enough to be a distraction.”
“The one you brought to my apartment, Mike,” I said, “was that the only one on the houseboat?”
“Yeah. I guess Luigi just wanted a souvenir.”
“How did he get it on a plane?” I asked.
“It was sitting on a Mylar blanket-you know, the kind runners use after a marathon? It probably didn’t even scan going through X-ray. And in customs, it was tagged with an ‘antiquities’ stamp, so nobody even looked inside the wrapping.”
I glanced over at Luc, being questioned by one of the police officers. “Poor Luc, the skulls alone made it look like he was connected to both murders. Those skeletons worked for the bad guys on every level.”
Mike turned his attention to Gina. “I haven’t thanked you properly for what you did in that vault. I’ll find a way to do that.”
“It’ll be easy, Detective. I’ve got lots of time on my hands.”
“In the meantime, I know these guys have questions for you,” he said. “And I told them how cool you were under pressure, Gina. I had that gun pointed right at you and you didn’t blink.”