Sidney Sheldon's Chasing Tomorrow (Tracy Whitney #2)(105)

“Christ. Okay, stay where you are, Tracy. I’m on my way.”

“NO!” The vehemence in her voice took Jean by surprise. “Forget me! I’m fine. We have to find Jeff. There may not be much time.”

“Okay, okay. Calm down.”

“No, Jean. You don’t understand. Cooper’s done something to him. Hurt him. I tried to get him to tell me where he was, but I . . . I couldn’t. Jeff’s out there somewhere, alone, maybe dying. We have to find him.”


Jean Rizzo took a breath. “What did Cooper say? Exactly?”

“Nothing that meant anything. It was just . . . religious rambling. He was semiconscious.”

“But he said something?”

“He said Golgotha. Golgotha, Golgotha . . . Place of the skull . . .” Tracy closed her eyes, trying desperately to remember. “It was all about the crucifixion. He said Jeff was being sacrificed for my sins, just like the women he killed. He said he killed them all for me. That it was my fault.”

“It wasn’t your fault, Tracy.”

“Death on the cross, death on the hill . . . something about a lamb . . .”

“Wait.” Jean Rizzo interrupted her. “I remembered something. There was an incident today. A farming hamlet, up in the hills outside the city. Someone reported hearing screams. The local police checked it out but said there was nothing but sheep up there.”

Tracy’s mind whirred into life.

Sheep.

Lambs.

The hill.

“What’s the name of the hamlet, Jean?”

“I can’t remember. Oreshak or Oreshenk or something like that. I’ll find it. You just stay there, Tracy, okay? I’m sending someone to get you. An ambulance.”

“Are you out of your mind? I’m not staying here! And I don’t need an ambulance. How far is the place, Jean? Jean?”

But Jean Rizzo had already hung up.





CHAPTER 27



JEFF STEVENS LOOKED AROUND him. The tiny chapel was beautiful. Its walls were covered with frescoes and the sun streamed in through the stained glass windows, throwing rainbows onto the altar like confetti.

Jeff thought, How appropriate. Confetti for my wedding day.

Tracy walked in then, the sunlight blazing behind her like a halo. She’d outwitted Pierpont and she was about to become his wife. Her chestnut hair fell to her shoulders in loose waves and her green eyes danced with happiness as she glided up the aisle toward him. Jeff felt a wave of happiness wash over him.

I love you, Tracy. I love you so much.

THE VIDEO WAS PLAYING. Tracy was leaving the hotel after her assignation with Dr. Alan McBride. McBride had white-blond hair and was always smiling. He made Tracy smile too.

Jeff hated him.

The hatred settled in his chest, making his heart feel tight. The pain grew acute, then unbearable. Jeff’s hatred was killing him. It was if someone were tearing him in two right down the middle, like a piece of paper, ripping effortlessly through his organs.

Jeff screamed.

He heard a woman laughing. Elizabeth Kennedy? Or perhaps it was his first wife, Louise? It was all so confusing. But it didn’t matter now because soon the pain would end and he would be dead.

HIS MOTHER WAS DEAD,

So was the baby.

Which made it rather odd that his mother and the baby were playing chess together.

“Your move.” Jeff’s mother smiled at the baby and waited.

The baby was a girl. She was much too young to play chess. Jeff reached out to pick her up but she slipped through his fingers, like a ghost. She picked up a piece, a black knight, and banged it down on the board, again and again and again. Jeff’s head started to ache.

“Why did you die?” Jeff asked her. “Tracy wanted you so badly. We both did. Why didn’t you live?”

The baby ignored him and continued banging. Bang, bang, bang.

Jeff’s mother started to cry.

Bang, bang, bang.

Jeff was crying too. The noise was awful.

Stop! Please stop!

“STOP!”

Jean Rizzo grabbed Tracy by both shoulders as she tried to force her way into the barn. He’d watched the squad car arrive, looked on in horror as Tracy jumped out of the backseat and tried to run across the moonlit field toward him. She was limping, dragging her left leg behind her, but sheer determination drove her on.

“You shouldn’t be here, Tracy. You need a doctor.”

“Let go of me!” Tracy kicked him hard in the shin.

Jean grimaced but held on to her. “I mean it. You can’t go in there.”

Bang, bang, bang. Tracy heard sledgehammers pounding away behind Jean, inside the barn. It sounded as if his men were trying to smash down a wall.

“Is he in there? Have you found Jeff?”

“We don’t know. There are signs that he was here but . . .” Jean’s voice trailed off. “It looks like Cooper may have built a false wall. Perhaps to conceal a body.”

Tracy let out a wail of anguish. She went limp in Jean’s arms.

“What happened?” Jean hissed at the Bulgarian policeman who’d driven the squad car. “I told you to take her straight to the hospital.”

The man shrugged. “She wouldn’t go. The ambulance take the suspect, but this lady refuse.”