“Aye. Thank you so much, ma’am,” Nina said, smiling as Purdue wet her lips.
“Call me Ami,” the lady said. “But don’t thank me yet. You’re not out of the woods yet. We’re just keeping you ticking so that you can make it to the Faroe Islands.”
Nina fell asleep again, unaware that the three people with her were rushing to get her out of there before Guterman and his animals came to assassinate them all.
Chapter 31
Christa was beyond furious. She’d drugged Daniel and locked him in the house so that he could not get in her way when she and Clara annihilated the snooping buyer and the threat from Edinburgh. When she came calling on Clara in the archive room she’d found it empty, with the secret door open. A sick feeling of defeat crawled over her spine and curled up in her stomach. Christa Smith stopped dead in her tracks when she found the bloody corpse of her daughter, Clara, gunned down by three bullets in strategic places.
But Christa did not weep for her child. She readily became incensed that she’d lost the Vial she’d been trying to locate for so long, her last chance to reclaim her fading youth. Marrying Daniel had yielded nothing but an annoyingly kind husband who worshipped her to boredom. Until he included her in his will as benefactor to inherit St. Vincent’s Academy, she could not waste him. What was the point of being married to him if the fountain on his property had run dry? Well, Christa Smith had hoped that digging a little deeper would redeem the former splendor of the stream.
Now she, too, had lost a daughter.
“Anna, I know you sprung that nosy bastard from my guestroom,” she sneered out loud under the soothing disturbance of the rain. “And when we catch up, you will not grow a minute older, you old hag!” In Clara’s limp hand Christa found her cell phone. By the looks of it Clara had been busy writing a text message to her mother before she perished.
‘anna cotsw purdue Vial tt Faroes sorryyyyyyyyyyy’
Christa looked up at her daughter’s unrecognizable face as she took her phone. “I’ll miss you, sweetie,” she said softly, draping one of the operation sheets over her. “At least you were good for something in the end.”
She stormed out to her car and in the cracking rumble of the storm made a call to Guterman.
“It’s me. Did you take care of Argyle?” she asked.
“Not yet. I’m having her snuffed by a police officer next week when she shows her traitorous face in court,” he replied. “But not that I need to explain my plans to the likes of you, Dr. Smith. There are more important issues to be discussed. Is the Vial tapped out?”
“I need you to not freak out. I have a lead,” she said.
“A lead to what?” he barked. “I knew you would fuck this up.”
Christa took a deep breath. Guterman was not someone to talk back to, even when he was wrong. “Guterman, I know exactly where they are going. Meet me at Farnborough in two hours and bring your passport.”
“Where are we going?” he asked, sounding a bit more content.
“I’ll meet you when we land there. Your reputation does not allow me to be generous with information,” she admitted. “Your pilot will have the coordinates. See you there.”
“Smart woman,” he approved. “No wonder you’ve survived the leech pond this long. I’ll see you there. And Christa, don’t make me wait.”
When Purdue’s pilot announced that they were entering Faroese air space the billionaire could not help but smile. Nina’s pulse was strong and Anna Patterson looked confident that she would make it to Sam’s sworn wonder well.
“You think my grandson is safe with that witch?” Ami Cotswald asked.
“I hope so. She won’t kill him until he’s overwritten my clause in my Testament, Mum,” Anna smiled. “Until then, she’ll keep him alive. Or until I find a way to kill the cow.”
“That wish might come sooner than you think, Mrs. Patterson,” Purdue smiled. “Guterman is following us here, and no doubt Christa is accompanying him so that they can tap Nina’s blood for good this time.”
“How is that a good thing, deary?” Mrs. Patterson asked.
“You’ll see,” he winked, wiping Nina’s face gently with a moist towelette.
After they had touched down in Vágar in the dead of night, the crew helped the Faroe Island’s ground staff move Nina from the plane to the vehicle that Sam Cleave had arranged.
“Thanks, gentlemen,” Sam said to the ground staff after Nina was safely seated between Ami Cotswald and Anna Patterson. He and Purdue exchanged a quick handshake and embrace before the two men got into the front of the vehicle. Ami and Anna were taken by the good-looking men who introduced themselves as Sam and Heri.
“You ready, ladies?” Sam asked.
The naughty Mrs. Patterson was eager to answer, “Oh yes, deary. Please, go ahead and drive us.”
Purdue laughed as Sam’s face turned red. “Go on, old boy. Time is of the essence.”
Shortly behind them Christa’s helicopter landed. She could see Purdue’s jet taxi to the bays.
“Get ready,” she told her four passengers, Black Sun operatives who were on retainer for unforeseen excursions like these. “We have to swoop down and retrieve the Vial before they know what hit them. In and out! Are we clear?”
Her colleagues cocked their concealed firearms as the helicopter touched down. Briskly they rushed to Purdue’s jet to take their places under it. Oddly, there was no ground staff outside and security was wonderfully lenient, taking little notice of the new arrivals. Christa stepped out of the chopper and approached the private jet, eager to load Nina back into her craft and rip Purdue’s head off for killing her daughter.
“Excuse me, madam?” a voice said behind her.
“I don’t have time,” she snapped. “I have to meet those passengers when they disembark.”
“I’m afraid you’ll have to make time for me,” the man insisted. Christa turned to face him, scowling from vexation. “Did Guterman send you?”
“He did. But I haven’t seen him here yet, have you?” he asked.
“No, naturally not. I just arrived here, you idiot,” she grunted. “Once he arrives you can bring him on board Purdue’s jet. That would be this one, right here. Okay?”
Her sarcasm was wasted on the man. Calmly he pointed out, “You will not find them there, Dr. Smith.”
She swung around. “Why not?”
“Because they landed in an unmarked plane thirty minutes ago. They’ve gone.”
“Then who is in Purdue’s jet?” she shouted, but the shouting of arrest officers soon got her attention as her colleagues were taken down and arrested.
“That would be Interpol, madam,” the man affirmed. Christa, seething at Guterman’s betrayal, turned to run, but the officer simply grabbed her and cuffed her. “Welcome to Vágar.”
Chapter 32
When the clock struck 2:30 a.m., Johild saw the headlights of her cousin’s car appear over the hillock behind the house.
“They’re here! Come Papa, we have to hurry!” she whispered as hard as she could to wake her father, who’d been waiting by the kitchen table for Sam Cleave’s friends to arrive. He jerked back, waking harshly. “Sorry,” she winced. “But come, we have to get Sam’s friend to the Empty Hourglass.”
Gunnar jumped up and gathered up his car keys and phone. “Is everyone ready?”
“Everyone’s ready,” she confirmed.
She jumped into the 4x4 with her father and they led the way. The two large vehicles trekked over winding roads and hills that rose and fell in the cold dark that breathed saline air through the slits in the windows.