“Entirely up to you, as usual. But if you don’t mind, I’m a little bored. I believe I’ll go back to my office.”
“No, don’t do that.” Nicos took a step closer to Rosa and pressed the gun to her temple. “I assure you that things are going to perk up at any minute.”
“No!” Rosa was sobbing. “I don’t want to die. I’ll do anything.” She gazed frantically at Margaret. “Make him stop. He’ll listen to you. Tell him not to do it. I’m begging you. Do whatever he wants, but don’t let him kill me.”
“You heard her,” Margaret said as she took a step closer. “She’ll do anything. I’ll do anything. Just don’t kill her because you think I made a mistake.” Her voice was shaking. She could see that she wasn’t getting through to him. If anything, his expression was wilder than before. It reminded her of her father’s face on the night she had run away. The night she had known that she had to run or be killed. Only she couldn’t run and leave Rosa. “Isn’t what you’ve done to her enough?” She swallowed. “Do you want me to beg you? Okay, I’m begging you. Please, don’t kill her.”
“Yes, please. Margaret won’t do it again,” Rosa said frantically. “Do anything else you want with me, but don’t kill me.”
“Too late.” Nicos met Margaret’s eyes. “She has to pay for her mistake. Or rather, you do.” He smiled. “Remember this, Margaret.”
He pressed the trigger.
Margaret screamed.
Blood on the black-and-white tiles.
Rosa’s blood.
Rosa lying on the tiles with her skull half blown off.
Blood everywhere.
Nicos eagerly drinking in Margaret’s expression.
Salva smiling in the background.
Blood on the black-and-white tiles …
*
Blood …
Margaret found that she’d sunk to those tiles and was leaning huddled against the wall in the darkness as memory after memory flowed over her. She was shaking, shuddering, as she had that night.
So much evil.
She had felt so helpless to save Rosa. Nicos had saddled her with the blame, and she had been so numb that she had accepted it rather than face thinking or analyzing. She’d been so traumatized that it had been over a year after she’d escaped from Nicos before she’d even been able to think of that night. It was a long time after that she’d been able to be objective enough to realize that she’d not been at fault for that savage act. She’d thought that somehow she should have been smarter, been able to find some way out for both of them. The one time that she’d persuaded Rosa to try to escape from the island, they’d been caught and Rosa had been beaten unmercifully. After that, Margaret had kept an eye out for another opportunity, but it had never come.
And then it was too late.
Too late. That was what Nicos had said that night before he’d put a bullet in Rosa’s head.
I’m sorry, Rosa. I don’t know if someone else could have helped you more than I did. I think I tried as much as I was able at the time. And I’m sorry that I was afraid and ran away from that night as well as from Nicos.
She closed her eyes as she felt the tears run down her cheeks. She could see Rosa, smiling, gentle, full of fun, the way she’d been when Margaret had first met her at that petting zoo in New Orleans. So different from the slave Nicos had made of her toward the end.
It was so evil. They mustn’t be allowed to do that ever again to anyone else.
Not ever. No matter what she had to do to stop it.
I promise you I’ll never run away again, Rosa.
Port of Spain
Trinidad
4:35 A.M.
The small, cream-colored house had a terra-cotta tile roof. It was half a block from the ocean and surrounded by an ornamental wrought-iron fence.
“Not bad,” Mandell murmured. “The houses this close to the beach sell for a pretty penny in Trinidad. Nicos must be paying him well.”
“Then Zwecker is in his pocket and not being threatened or intimidated,” Lassiter said grimly. “I’m glad. We don’t have to feel in the least hesitant about doing anything we have to do to get the information I need.” He looked at the cobalt blue front door. “You go in the front door and disarm any alarms. I’ll take the back door and hit the bedroom.”
Mandell nodded as he opened the ornamental front gate. “No problem.” He glided down the walk.
Lassiter went around to the backyard, climbed over the fence, and in another moment was at the back door. He was about to take care of the lock when the door swung open.
“What kept you?” Mandell whispered. “For a computer expert, Zwecker leaves much to be desired in the alarm department. Do you want this to be a dual assault?”
“No, find his office and start looking through his notes and computer files.” He was moving silently down the hall. “I’ll go after Zwecker.” He silently opened the door to his right. A bathroom. He opened the next door down the hall.
Bedroom. A bed, empty, with covers rumpled, pushed hastily aside, one on the floor—
Not good.
Lassiter dove down and forward into the room, then rolled to the side against the man standing behind the door.
A knife descended toward him.
He reached up and grasped the man’s wrist and twisted it. The knife dropped to the floor.
Obscenities.
He swung his legs in an arc that hit the man’s knees and brought him down. Then he was straddling him, his hands on his throat. “Zwecker?”
“Let me go.” He was tearing at Lassiter’s hands, grasping his throat. “Do you know who you’re dealing with? I have friends who will like nothing better than to cut your throat. I have protection.”
“I don’t doubt you had it,” Lassiter said grimly. “Past tense. But you’ve lost any protection you might have had the moment we found out you worked for Nicos. That made you vulnerable. Nicos won’t like the idea of anyone being able to tap someone who knows his secrets.”
“I don’t know anyone named Nicos.”
Lassiter’s hands tightened on Zwecker’s throat until his eyes bulged. “I don’t have time for this bullshit.” He loosened his grip and let Zwecker take a deep breath. “Would you like to go over that again?”
“Maybe I do work for him.” Then he spat, “But he won’t care that you’ve found out about me as long as he can rid himself of you. And he’ll do that. I’m important to him. He knows I’d never betray him. I’ve been working with Salva for the past three years and he trusts me. Now let me go.”
“What’s all the uproar?” Mandell stood in the doorway. He reached over and turned on the wall switch, lighting the room. “You didn’t handle this at all smoothly, Lassiter. You should have left it to me. I take it that’s Zwecker?” He took out his phone and checked the photo Cambry had texted them. “Fortyish, skinny, Vandyke beard, receding brown hair. Yes, at least you got that right.”
“I’m glad you approve.” Lassiter got off Zwecker and pulled him to his feet. “Did you find the office?”