Promise Not To Tell(77)

Fleming froze at the top of the staircase, gun in hand. He was clearly trying to make sense out of the fact that his captive was no longer lying on the floor in front of the hearth.

Then he saw Cabot.

“What the fuck?” he said.

“Drop the gun,” Cabot ordered. “Now.”

But Fleming scrambled backward, firing wildly to cover his retreat.

The shots were all over the place, but that didn’t make them any less dangerous. Cabot moved next to Xavier and flattened his back against the side of the fireplace.

He squeezed off a couple of shots but Fleming was already disappearing into the hallway at the top of the staircase.

“That money is mine, Sutter,” he screamed. “Do you hear me? That money is my inheritance. I’m Quinton Zane’s son.”

Cabot kept his attention on the staircase. He heard pounding footsteps overhead. It sounded like Fleming was fleeing along the upstairs hall. He was intent on escape. He would go down the back stairs and most likely make a run for his vehicle, which was parked at the front of the house.

“Change of plans,” Cabot said to Xavier. “We wait until he’s gone. Then we leave.”

“Okay, but I think there may be a problem.”

“What?”

“The guy is full-on crazy,” Xavier gasped. “I think he was wiring this place to explode. He said something about a blast from the past.”

“We need to leave. Now.”

The muffled whoosh of the explosion rumbled through the house. The fire exploded around them.

“How far did he get setting the explosive devices?” Cabot asked.

“He did the downstairs first. Then he went upstairs.”

Cabot thought about the woodshed.

“It’s a big house,” he said. “And he was in a hurry. He didn’t have time to cover every exit point. Let’s go.”

He ran for the mudroom, Xavier hard on his heels.

CHAPTER 56

“I knew you’d have a knife,” Xavier said.

Cabot glanced at him. “You did?”

He and Xavier were in the front seats of his SUV, watching the fire crew deal with the remnants of the blaze that had destroyed the big house. The rain was falling steadily now, soaking the surrounding area and ensuring that the fire would not spread.

He had called Anson immediately after he contacted the local authorities. Anson had put Virginia on the phone.

“You’re sure you’re both okay?” she had asked.

“Xavier is a little shaken up, but yes, we’re both all right,” he said.

“You saved his life, Cabot.”

“It’s my fault he got into trouble.”

“No,” she had said.

“Yes,” he said.

He’d ended the call before she could pursue the argument because a detective from the Wallerton Police Department had arrived. Meanwhile the search for Tucker Fleming was under way.

“I kept thinking that if I’d had a knife, I would have been able to cut the duct tape,” Xavier said. “I told myself that you would have had one.”

Cabot did not take his eyes off the smoldering ruins of the first compound.

“Fleming would have found a knife when he wrapped the tape around your ankles.”

“Yeah. Probably.”

“The lantern?”

“It was sitting on a table at the end of the couch,” Xavier said. “I rolled across the floor until I could sit up and reach it. Probably wouldn’t have done me any good but I couldn’t see anything else that looked useful.”

“Smart move,” Cabot said.

Xavier gazed morosely through the windshield. “I fucked up, didn’t I?”

“I should have kept an eye on you.”

“It’s not your fault. Not Mr. Salinas’s fault, either. I fucked up.”

“You found Tucker Fleming. That was good work.”

Xavier brightened a little at that. “I followed his trail. Reversed the app he’d installed on Ms. Troy’s phone.”

“So, there was a tracking app on Virginia’s phone?”

“Oh, yeah. He hid it in a subfolder so she never saw it. By enabling it he opened the door for me to track him.”

“Nice job. But at Cutler, Sutter and Salinas we’re a team. Going off on your own the way you did not only puts you in danger, it puts other people in harm’s way as well. Next time keep your team members informed of your findings at every step.”

“Yeah, sure,” Xavier said. “A team. I get it.” He paused. Cleared his throat. “Next time?”

“Forget I said that. There won’t be a next time because when your mother finds out what happened, she’ll make sure you’re on the next plane back to San Francisco, even if she has to come to Seattle to put you on it.”

Xavier groaned. “We don’t have to tell her.”

“Yes,” Cabot said, “we do have to tell her. And what’s more, we have to do it soon, before the cops get in touch with her. She’s going to be mad as hell at me and she’ll have every right.”

“But it wasn’t your fault Fleming grabbed me.”

Cabot exhaled slowly. “Yes, it was my fault. Forget that part. Let’s get back to the case.”