Tailspin(112)

She was still some distance from them when, out of their midst, Nate appeared. As he made his way toward her, he didn’t look like his cocksure and overconfident self, however. Without an umbrella, hood, hat, or raincoat, he looked bedraggled and panicked.

“Nate?” She said his name aloud, but she was actually talking to herself, puzzled by his uncharacteristic demeanor.

“He’s a little wound up.”

The statement came from so close behind her, she felt the speaker’s breath in her hair. She turned quickly to find herself face-to-face with Timmy. He was wearing a rain jacket, the hood up.

He said, “Unless you want to get cut, don’t do anything stupid.”

She looked down. The tip of a slender silver blade was pressed against her coat at waist level. “I won’t do anything stupid.”

“More’s the pity.” His evil grin made her shiver.

Nate reached them, near hyperventilating, wringing his hands, almost in tears. “Brynn. Give me the drug.”

“It should go to Violet, Nate, and you know it. Your name is on that exemption application for her as well as mine. You know she’s—”

“For godsake, it’s too late to argue about it,” he said, his voice cracking. “Give it to me or—”

“Or he offs the kid.”

She looked at Timmy with misapprehension. “What?”

“Since Lambert here seems to have lost the power of speech, I’ll explain,” Timmy said. “The situation is this. If you don’t give the potion to Dr. Lambert, he’s going to push air into the kid’s IV. If she’s dead, she no longer needs the drug, right? Right. Freeing it up for you-know-who.”

Flabbergasted, she turned to Nate. “He’s not serious.”

“Deadly serious. Give me the drug.”

Brynn’s mind was reeling. “Have you seen the family? Violet?”

His head wobbled a yes. “She’s all right. Rather tired. Listless. But happy to be at home. I…I…” He cast a nervous glance toward Timmy. “I asked to examine her more thoroughly after…after…”

“Elsa,” Timmy said. “She’s in there now putting on a show. Off and on, you can hear her singing. She and the mayor got here at the same time. Separate limos.”

Nate was breathing as though he’d climbed Everest without oxygen. “When the special guests arrived, everyone else was invited to wait outside. Me included.”

“You’re waiting for the program to conclude so you can go back in and do what this psychopath said? You’re going to murder that child?”

Her voice had risen. Timmy, grin in place, said through clenched teeth, “Pipe down, doc.”

She looked behind her. No one was paying them any mind. The attention of all the media people and other onlookers was focused on the front of the house in order to see the celebrities when they came out. Alerting any one of them to trouble without Timmy’s knowledge would be impossible.

She came back around to Nate and looked at him with unmitigated disgust and condemnation.

His lips trembled. “He came to my apartment!” he said, spraying spittle. “Issued veiled threats. Forced me to drive him up here.”

“On the Hunts’ orders?”

“I thought it up myself,” Timmy replied.

“He talked to Delores around dawn,” Nate said.

“And she sanctioned this?”

“Yes. No, no. She didn’t say anything, just hung up.”

Nate knew as well as Brynn what that indicated. So did Timmy. When she looked at him, he said, “Bosses are pleased as punch.”

“You haven’t got the drug yet.”

“About that, my patience is wearing real thin.”

Nate moaned her name in a pleading tone. “Please do as he says. Richard will get the drug as he was supposed to all along. This will be over.”

“For Violet, certainly.”

“Either way, it’s over for her.”

“You would actually kill her?”

“That’s just it! If I don’t—”

Timmy smacked his lips. “Violet and me are friends. Like this.” He crossed his index and middle finger.

Brynn was horrified. She turned to Nate. “You let him get near her?”

“I didn’t have a choice! He threatened to cut off my ear.”

“He introduced me as his personal assistant,” Timmy said. “I did a magic trick for Violet. She laughed at my knock-knock jokes. Nobody will suspect a thing if I return to her bedroom. She’s wearing a pink nightgown. Has a crown on it.”

Brynn thought she might be ill, but she took a defiant stance. “You kill a child in her own bed. How do you propose getting away with it?”

He snickered. “I won’t have to worry about that, because you’re not gonna let that kid die. We all three know that. You wouldn’t risk calling my bluff, would you now?”

No, she wouldn’t. She recalled Rye telling her dad that Timmy was a twisted kid with a lot to prove.

Nate pulled her from her disturbing thoughts. “Did the family know you were coming, Brynn?”

She shook her head.

“Had you told them we acquired the drug?”

“No. I didn’t want to build up their hopes and not deliver.”