Malice Times Read online

  He stepped into the light that was being cast from the emergency light in the stairwell. The massive heap of man had sweat pouring down his square face, causing his blond hair to mat against his forehead. Tom Watkins was breathing hard. He had an unmistakable hunted look on his face. His eyes were wide, mouth open, nostrils flaring, and tongue hanging gently from his swollen lips.

  He walked across the room. He disappeared into the darkness. After a few minutes I could see him walking down the wall. He knelt down and did something and then stood back up. He walked across the room to the other wall and did the same thing. He moved further down the wall and did the same thing again. I watched him unable to register what was going on.

  He turned and started a little when he saw me sitting there. He must have thought I was dead at first. Watkins walked in a heavy manner holding something other than a gun in his hand now. Apparently, he was unable to make out who sat in the darkness behind the desk by the way he was squinting. He approached me and slammed his fists down on Regina's desk. The picture of her mother toppled off the desk. The glass shattered as it hit the floor.

  "It's you," he said. He continued looking around the office. I couldn't figure out whether it was for other people or for a place to hide. I gave up trying to figure out. He never really focused his eyes on me. They kept darting around the room.

  "Is anyone here other than you?" he asked. His attention wasn't on me, but on a noise that came from outside.

  "No, just us mice," I said.

  "Good," he said. And for the first time his eyes were on me alone. Maybe he would eat my shoes, after all. I hoped not, shoes are expensive. He sat down and laid the duffel bag on Regina’s desk. The gun was in his hand again. Sitting on the desk where he had slammed his fists down was a bundle of explosives with a timer.

  "You know," he said, his voice hollow and cool. "From the moment you came to town you have been a pain in my ass. Why couldn’t you just go back home? I have nothing against you."

  “Is that what you used to blow up the Dempsey boat?”

  “Yes,” he said. “And it is what I’m going to use to blow this town back to hell.”

  “And you are going to start with The Malice Times?”

  “Well, not just The Malice Times. I’ve got a lot of explosives in this little bag.”

  “You blew up that little house in New York that collapsed on Brian Prater.”

  “It is my specialty.”

  "What are you going to do now?" I asked. "Kill me like you killed Lynda.”

  “Do you have any idea how long I’ve been wanting to kill her?”

  “But why Dempsey and Rae?”

  “Dempsey and Lynda had the diamonds. They got to them before I could. I watched them leave The Malice Times that night. I didn’t know it at the time or I would have killed them right then and there. After they were gone, I snuck back up here and saw what they had done to the cuckoo clock. I went berserk and busted that stupid clock up. I followed them, kept my eye on them. It was obvious they were getting ready to bolt.”

  “So you killed them for taking the diamonds?” I asked.

  “Yeah, I killed them.”

  “So the diamonds are at the bottom of Malice Lake? That’s going to do wonders for your relationship with Regan.”

  He took a black bag from his pocket and tossed it on the desk. I picked it up, opened the bag and poured the contents into my hand. Glittering cut diamonds filled my hand. “These aren’t the diamonds you’re looking for,” I said.

  “No, they’re not. I watched them take them to the boat. After they left, I searched that boat and found these. I rigged a device to blow them to tiny little bits and that was the end of that.”

  “How did you know Michael had them?” I asked.

  “Because he took them from me. He blackmailed me for them. It was all the diamonds that Graber had on him. He was going to give them back to me. Michael told me he was going to give them back to me, but then someone killed him.”

  “Did you kill Brad?” I asked knowing the answer.

  “No, he was dead when I got there and the diamonds were gone. I grabbed a duffel bag that I thought had the diamonds in it, but all that were in them were muddy clothes and that bag of diamonds. When I went back to try and find them, the lights were on. Regan flipped. Told me and Drake that one of us had to have killed Graber. That one of us had to have the diamonds. So, he made us stay in this podunk town keeping an eye on one another. If either one of us tried to leave, we were supposed to kill the other. He gave us a year to get the diamonds from the other person. But then, I realized that Drake didn’t have the diamonds and I didn’t have the diamonds. So, I started searching for them. I hate this damn building. Do you know how many hours, days, I have spent looking through this damn building for those fucking diamonds?”

  “So, you’re going to kill the building?”

  “I will take great satisfaction in watching this particular building go up in flames.”

  “You thought Michael had them?” I asked.

  “For the longest time, I did. He was there. Who else could have had them?”

  “You said for the longest time,” I said. “You came to a different realization?”

  “I did. Which leads me to my next question. Where is Archer?” The look on his face proved to me that I had been right in getting Archer out of town.

  “I have no idea where Archer is,” I said. “You think Archer has the diamonds?”

  “You know where the diamonds are as well as I do, but that is a big garden, and I’m out of time.”

  “You’re going to take the diamonds for yourself. You have no intention of giving them to Regan.”

  “Why would I after what he has done to me? It is all Regan’s fault. All of this. His little game. His little revenge. I’ve never known anyone so full of hate. He did this. After I’m done here, I might just pay him a visit.”

  “Done here?” I asked. “Haven’t you done enough?”

  “Not yet. I got some more work to do here.”

  “This isn’t about the diamonds anymore and saving your own neck. You just want to hurt as many people as you can before the end comes for you. You want to kill everyone and everything. And you think Regan is full of hate.”

  Then the most beautiful sound in the world came from below. It was the sound of the door opening and closing. The sound of feet walking up the steel steps echoed up through the broken door.

  Watkins looked around frantically until his eyes came upon Daniel’s desk on the opposite side of the room. He said, "Don't even think about telling him I'm here. You can still make it out of here alive. After all, you did get me out of jail and I really have nothing against you." He ran and crawled under Daniel’s desk. It was a tight fit. I put the diamonds back in their pouch and dropped it in my pocket.

  The footsteps stopped outside the door. I could see a taller, skinnier man in the doorway. He hesitated for a moment and then stepped over the glass and into the office.

  I don't know how he saw me or even when, because he was looking back at the glass on the floor when he said, "Hi, Joe." Joshua carried a gun in his hand. I was sobering up quickly. "Who does your decorating?"

  “She’s dead.”

  He turned away from the glass and walked over to the desk and sat down with his back to Watkins. I waited for the shot that would drop Joshua forever, but it never came. I could see Daniel Miles’ desk move slightly.

  "Have you seen Watkins?" he asked.

  "He's hiding under a desk behind you," I said.

  A rustling sound came from behind Joshua. Before I had even finished my sentence Joshua rolled out of the chair and fell to the ground. Watkins leaped out shooting upwards. He let loose with four bullets that whizzed above my head. Joshua fired at Watkins. Watkins took one on the right shoulder and ducked back behind the desk and fired a shot back across the room. I dropped behind the desk. Joshua scurried behind the desk with me.

  From across the room, Watkins said, “It
wasn’t me.”

  “You killed Rae,” I said.

  “Yeah, that was unfortunate. Collateral damage.”

  I could hear the desk across the room move. Another shot whizzed above the desk and plunked into the door of my office. I peeked around the corner and could see Watkins stumbling towards the door. Joshua was up and out from behind the desk and pumped a single slug that blasted through Watkins' head and out the other side.

  A substance that I only assumed was blood and brains sprayed the area on the other side of Watkins. He fell to his knees and sideways to his left. His head hit the wall and he slid slowly face first until he was hunched up in a ball face flat against the floor. I grabbed the wastepaper basket that was beside Regina's desk and vomited. I felt better after that. I'm not sure if the feeling came from Watkins' death or the vomiting. Probably a combination of the two.

  Watkins' gun had stayed in his right hand. Blood made its way across the floor in our direction. I doubted very seriously if he had ever even heard the shot. I couldn't even remember hearing it. Joshua walked over to Watkins and searched through his pockets. I looked down at the duffel bag on my desk and opened it. It was filled with explosives, the timers dark. There was enough time.

  "May I ask you what that was all about," I said.

  "You know very well what that was about," he said. He removed a piece of glass from his hand. “Why did you tell me he was there?”

  “You know very well why.”

  “So, you got your revenge and I got mine. How does it taste?”

  “Like tequila.” But then I knew what Watkins was trying to say. He had screamed that he didn’t do it. He wasn’t talking about my brother or even Brad Graber. He wasn’t even talking to me. He was talking to Joshua.

  “Let’s go,” he said pointing the gun at me.

  “You’re going to kill me after I just saved your life?” I asked.

  “I’m not going to kill you, but Mr. Drake wants to have a little talk with you.”

  “Mr. Drake, my aren’t we being formal tonight.”

  He waved his gun towards the door. I got up and looked back at the bag of explosives. There was nothing I could do about it now. I wondered if I wanted to do anything about it. Watkins’ thoughts on Malice Grove jived pretty much with my own.

  “What’s in the bag?” he asked. He walked over and looked into the duffel bag. “Yours?”

  “No.” I looked over at the inert body of Tom Watkins. “His going away gift.”

  “The timers aren’t on,” he said. “They’re safe.”

  We walked towards the door. As I walked, I looked down the long room. In the darkness from this angle I could see the red flashing lights of the timers down the walls of the room. I almost said something, but I didn’t. We walked down the steps. I looked through the door into the printing room. I could see red blinking lights throughout. He pushed me with his gun and we walked out of the door and into the cool early morning air. Dusk was almost upon us. He pushed me towards my Jeep and I got in to the driver’s seat. He carefully got into the passenger seat, his gun trained on my body.

  “Where to?” I asked.

  “You know where,” he said.

  “Couldn’t we just have walked.”

  “You don’t really want to leave your Jeep in front of this building, do you?” He was smiling. I looked at those sapphire eyes. There was a glint of mania in them.

  “It was you,” I said. “You killed Brad.”

  He nodded.

  “You killed Daniel.”

  He nodded again.

  “And you killed my brother.”

  He didn’t nod this time. He just looked down at the floor. “That was unfortunate,” he said. “I lost my temper. Drive.”

  I drove down and parked in front of The Diamond Schooner. I understood now why my brother died. He died because of one side of a phone conversation. If I didn’t act quickly, I would end up like Tom Watkins. He got out of the car and motioned me out with his gun. I obeyed. By the time I was out, he was on my side of the Jeep.

  “I really have to tell you something," I said.

  “You can tell me and Bruce." He rammed the gun into my lower back and pushed me forward. “Move.”

  “This is something that I have to tell you before we get there.”

  A night wind blew briskly off the lake. Joshua grabbed my arm and led me towards The Diamond Schooner.

  "You know, Watkins and Graber weren’t the ones in cahoots. They didn’t even know each other,” I said.

  “I saw them together. I heard Watkins tell Graber to get out, that he would take care of dad’s body. No one would ever track it to him. It would all look like an accident.”

  “You heard a brief conversation, but your addition was off.”

  The gun was firmly in the small of my back. I looked over my shoulder. His eyes were squarely on the Diamond Schooner. There wasn’t even a glimmer of reaction.

  “Watkins was doing what your Uncle Paul told him to do,” I said. “Watkins was just following his orders.”

  His eyebrows furrowed. Something was beginning to dawn on him. Off in the distance a bolt of lightning struck out over the lake. I could see the rain falling on the lake in the distance as darkness started to turn to light.

  “The explosion was Watkins’ handiwork,” he said.

  “Of course it was. Don’t you think Uncle Paul would have known that? You want to hear something even worse,” I said, pausing like I was loading a gun. “Drake knew it the whole time.”

  42

  He led me up the gangplank. Drake stood at the end of the ship looking out over the lake. Joshua led me over to him. Drake looked over his shoulder. When he saw me, he looked away.

  “You’ve been a nuisance, March,” he said.

  “I was just minding my own business,” I said. “There are so many guns in this place and so little self-control.”

  “Watkins is dead,” Joshua said.

  “The diamonds?” Drake asked.

  “I told you I don’t care about the diamonds anymore,” he said.

  He looked at Joshua. There was fear in his eyes. I wonder how long he had known. He couldn’t have known this entire time.

  “How long have you known that Joshua killed Brad?” I asked. His gaze turned to me and there was no longer fear, just contempt. “It hasn’t been long, has it? Was it the night he came here to tell you that he was going to kill Watkins? That he was tired of waiting.”

  He looked at Joshua. Joshua looked at me. They were both confused. I said, “Oh, yeah, I was kind of eavesdropping. Sorry. I guess it runs in the family.”

  “Take him below,” he said.

  Joshua led me down to Drake’s office and sat me down in the chair. He shook his head at me. “Being smart isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, is it?”

  “I’m not smart. I’ve bumbled my way to the truth. You killed Graber because he murdered your father. You witnessed it happen. I’m sorry about that. No one should have to see their father killed. Were you part of the heist team? Is that how you figured out who he was?”

  “I was supposed to be the getaway driver for Bruce after he knocked off the cashier’s cage. It was a pretty easy gig. I just picked him up at the loading docks and we drove off. If the cops were on us, we didn’t have anything on us.”

  “What about the cash and chips from the cashier’s cage?”

  “That was just a diversion. All that money went to the people who helped get Bruce out of the casino safely. It was always about the diamonds. So we are driving away, but Bruce wants to make sure that Graber got away, too. This wasn’t part of the plan. He has me drive to a different hotel and park. We wait and then Graber shows up with the duffel bag. I recognize him immediately. Bruce is satisfied. My brain is going a mile a minute. I start asking Bruce a dozen questions. Finally, we are all going back to New York, but we are going to stop in a little town called Malice Grove where we are all going to get our slice of the pie.”

  “But you
don’t care about your slice anymore,” I said. “All your mind can think about is killing Brad Graber.”

  “That’s right. I knew when it was going to happen. I figure I can get there and kill Graber before the pickup man gets there. The pickup man gets the diamonds and that’s that. Except for one thing. The pickup man is Tom fucking Watkins. I see him going into the Archer house as I am walking away.”

  “So for a second time, a chance sighting sets you on a course for murder.”

  “Yes, but Uncle Paul wants him alive. He’s not sure who has the diamonds, whether it is Bruce or Watkins. I knew it was Watkins. I begged Uncle Paul to let me torture him to get the diamonds. He tells me that if he has the diamonds, prove it, get the diamonds and then kill him.”

  “But Watkins didn’t have the diamonds.”

  “No,” he said. “I guess he didn’t.”

  “And Bruce didn’t have the diamonds, because you didn’t take them.”

  “No, I didn’t.”

  “What is taking Drake so long?” I asked.

  “He’s trying to figure out if he has the stomach to actually kill you.” I guess I had a worried look on my face, because he started to laugh. “Don’t worry, he doesn’t. He’ll come in here trying to act tough, but he’s not.”

  “He does want those diamonds,” I said. “It’s his inheritance.”

  Drake entered the office. “You’re right. I want those diamonds. So why don’t you tell me where the diamonds are?”

  “Me? I don’t know where they are,” I said. “I think Watkins had figured it out though.”

  "Watkins is dead," Drake said. “So you’re going to have to do better than that. Regan thinks you know where they are. In fact, he is kind of counting on you. So instead of you giving them to him, you’re going to give them to me.”

  "You’re not thinking about double-crossing Regan, are you? His nephew is very fond of him even if he allowed Brad to kill his father.”

  “What are you talking about?” Drake asked.