Potassium cyanide.
‘Crap!’
Knowing he had to act fast, Finn roughly flipped Jutier over and wrapped his arms around him from behind. He then yanked violently upward to induce vomiting.
The Frenchman went limp as Finn lost the battle.
Furious that he’d been bested, Finn plunked the dead bastard into the black leather swivel chair. He searched methodically through Jutier’s coat pockets and removed an engraved lighter, a set of keys and a gold Mont Blanc pen.
Hearing the hinges on the office door creak, Finn peered over his shoulder.
Jesus H! What was she doing here?
Face as pale as February snow, Kate Bauer stood in the doorway. Clearly stunned, she stared at the dead man sprawled in the chair … then shot Finn an accusing glare.
‘My God … you killed him!’
7
‘I know how bad this must look, but it’s not what it seems,’ Finn McGuire said as he closed the office door.
‘Don’t come near me!’
‘Keep your voice down, will ya? I’m not going to hurt you.’
Refusing to trust a cold-blooded killer, Kate darted over to the sideboard and grabbed the first weapon she saw – an ornate letter opener.
‘If you take one step in my direction, I will not hesitate to use this!’ she exclaimed, grasping the letter opener like a dagger.
Instead of heeding the warning, Finn lunged in her direction, parrying her reflexive thrust with his left forearm. In a dizzyingly fast move, he gripped her right thumb and twisted. Like magic, the letter opener instantly slipped through Kate’s fingers and bounced off the red carpet.
‘You bastard!’ Refusing to surrender, she used her nails like talons, slashing at his face with her free hand.
With a muttered expletive, Finn grabbed both her wrists and twirled her clockwise. With her arms now crossed over her breasts, he pinned her to his chest, the buttons of his uniform jacket pressing into her backside.
‘Calm down!’
Instead of complying, she kicked him in the shins. He retaliated by lifting her several inches off the ground.
‘If you promise not to do anything harebrained, I’ll let go of you.’
Her heart painfully thumping in her chest cavity, Kate nodded.
‘Good girl.’ Finn lowered her, her feet once again making contact with the floor. ‘Sorry for being so rough.’
Tottering unsteadily on her heels, Kate turned round to face the uniformed Goliath. ‘What were you planning to do after you killed him? Rejoin me in the reception hall, drink a little champagne, then call it a night?’
‘I’m only going to say this one time … I didn’t kill him.’
‘I’ve got two eyes. I can see what happened here.’
Finn McGuire’s jaw tightened. ‘Assuming you haven’t lost your sense of smell, you can verify for yourself that I didn’t kill anyone.’ Seeing her quizzical frown, he elaborated. ‘Walk over to the desk and take a whiff. You should be able to smell almonds. Although it wasn’t almonds that killed him; it was a fatal dose of cyanide which emits the telltale scent of almonds.’
Wondering if he might actually be telling the truth, Kate walked over and peered at the dead man sprawled in the leather chair. With a frothy ribbon of spittle lodged at the corner of his open mouth, he bore little resemblance to the elegantly attired man she’d seen earlier in the reception hall.
‘Well, what do you smell?’
‘Almonds.’ Shuddering, she stepped away from the desk. ‘But that doesn’t tell me what you’re doing here or why this man committed suicide.’
‘You wanna know what happened? Fine. Last night, two Delta troopers were brutally murdered and I’m next in line for execution,’ Finn said matter-of-factly. ‘Fabius Jutier was the mastermind behind the murders. As to why he killed himself … I have no idea.’
The explanation stunned her. ‘Have you alerted the authorities?’
Rather than answer, Finn walked over to the computer work station on the other side of the office. Wordlessly, he picked up a notebook computer and tucked it under his arm.
‘What are you doing?’
‘Spoils of war.’
His answer was so coolly detached, it made Kate wonder what war she’d stumbled into.
‘I am not going to stand idly by and watch you pilfer from a – Now what are you doing?’ she demanded to know as he began to unbutton Jutier’s shirt.
‘It’s called a costume change. This army uniform is like having an “Arrest Me” sign pinned to my back. I’ll be less conspicuous in Jutier’s black suit.’
‘Meaning you have no intention of contacting the authorities.’ She turned her head as he started to disrobe. Out of the corner of her eye she caught a flash of bronzed skin and a quick glimpse of a bunched bicep.
‘Whoa!’ Finn exclaimed. ‘The bastard’s got some ink. Check out the tat on his left pec.’
Kate glanced in Finn’s direction. Confirming that he was decent, she walked over to the desk. A moment later, her breath caught in her throat. Transfixed, she stared at the strange tattoo centred above the Frenchman’s heart.
‘I think those are Norse runes and – my God!’ Her eyes opened wide. ‘I’ve seen this sun-wheel design before! Unless I’m mistaken, it has something to do with Nazis and the occult.’
‘Well, do me a favour and take a photo of it, will ya?’ Still in the process of getting dressed, Finn handed his cell phone to her. ‘The tat is too weird not to be significant.’
Kate snapped the shot.
‘According to a documentary that I saw on TV last year, many of the high-ranking members of the Third Reich practised occult rituals. Not only that, but they were obsessed with the magical power of runes. Given the tattoo, I think it’s safe to assume that Fabius Jutier was involved in an esoteric Nazi –’
‘Later,’ he interjected, snatching the cell phone and depositing it in his coat pocket. ‘Right now, we need to get the hell out of here.’
Kate shook her head adamantly. ‘I’m not going anywhere with you.’
‘If you don’t come with me, they’ll kill you.’
‘I don’t believe –’
‘You have to believe.’ He cupped her cheek, the gesture curiously paternal. ‘I’m sorry, Kate. I never intended to involve you in any of this. You weren’t supposed to have walked through that door.’
‘But I did.’ Afraid of what might happen if she was left behind, she reluctantly acquiesced. ‘All right, I’ll go with you.’
Shoving his rolled-up uniform and Jutier’s laptop under his arm, Finn walked over and opened the office door.
‘The elevator is to the left,’ she informed him.
‘We’re taking the stairs. You never know who’ll greet you with a loaded gun when the elevator door slides open.’
8
Passing a trash receptacle, Finn nonchalantly shoved the wadded bundle into it. Uniform disposed of, he said, ‘Scrunch down a few inches.’
Kate’s eyes opened wide. ‘What?’
‘Just like this.’ Bending his knees, Finn instantly reduced his height to six feet. ‘If we each shave a couple of inches, we stand a better chance of slinking out of here undetected.’
Like fishes and loaves, the crowd inside the ballroom had doubled during their absence. Navigating their way through the throng was slow going at best. Worried that he might lose Kate amidst all the schmoozing and networking, Finn took hold of her right hand. In his other hand was the pilfered notebook computer. It was probably a long shot, but he was hoping there might be something on the laptop that could help him track down Dixie and Johnny K’s murderer.
‘In case you haven’t noticed, there are guards posted at all the exits,’ Kate hissed out of the side of her mouth.