Live No Lies (Lawson & Abernathy 2)

“I thought your colleague did that?”

Mack scowled. “You can drop the act Dimitri. Unlike you, some people don’t stay fools for long.”

Simon covered the space between Mack two bounds, and smacked the detective across the face with one meaty hand. Nothing could’ve prepared Mack for the sting of the blow. It was as painful as the hand was huge. He groaned as blood spilled from his mouth.

“Mack!” Brenda yelled, bending toward him as far as her bonds would let her.

“Brenda?” Mrs. Cumming called. “Brenda, what’s going on?”

Brenda faced Dimitri.

“We’re the ones you want,” she told him. “You don’t need her. Let her go.”

Dimitri started to laugh. Simon joined in. Even Boyce did, which Mack and Brenda found odd. However, nothing felt as odd as when Mrs. Cumming joined in the laughter. Brenda and Mack exchanged worried glances. They both had the same thought. Something had gone wrong with Mrs. Cumming. She had to have gone insane.

“Oh, I love ironies,” Dimitri said.

Something even stranger happened to Mrs. Cumming when she finished laughing. The fear that had consumed her was absent. Vanished. Like it was never there. In its place, her eyes and stature held a purposefulness that Brenda had not encountered before.

“Are you alright, Mrs. Cumming?” she asked.

Mack studied the woman. Unlike Brenda, he’d never met her. However, he didn’t need to have met her to know that what she’d just displayed was weird.

“Now I think I’ll do the honors myself,” Dimitri said. “Special Agent Brenda, meet Officer Abigail Cumming. She’s the past sheriff of Palm Island, and an excellent actor, though you should know this by now.”

Brenda felt herself go slack with unbelief. She stared shell-shocked at the woman she’d known as Mrs. Cumming. Brenda couldn’t believe that she'd been played this deeply.

“Don’t be so surprised, honey,” Mrs. Cumming said, pretending to comfort her.

“Come on,” Dimitri turned facing her. “You should be flattered. The look on her face says that you did your job perfectly. Unlike that fool, Greg. If you hadn’t told me about his deal with Detective Mack here, he probably would’ve gone ahead and betrayed me.”

“What?” Mack questioned. He was finding it difficult keeping up with Dimitri. He hadn’t seen Mrs. Cumming in the precinct on the day he’d taken Greg in. In fact, he’d never seen her.

Dimitri read the confusion on Mack’s face.

“Mrs. Cumming still has access to the precinct as former sheriff. She was at the interrogation room, behind the mirror. After we set you on the run, we decided we had to do something to get the agent. And Mrs. Cumming came up with the brilliant idea to pose as the mother to the headless body we used to threaten your boyfriend here.” He slapped Mack on the face. “Then we created the police report and deliberately slipped in discrepancies that would set you on the search.”

Brenda gave Mrs. Cumming a furious look.

“You set me up to follow that Greg guy, didn’t you?”

Mrs. Cumming smiled.

“We didn’t know there would be two of you. The goal was to capture you, but the Detective showed up and made our day even merrier.”

Overwhelmed by spite and resentment, Brenda spat at Mrs. Cumming. She flinched as drops of spit hit her across the face. Brenda got a blow from Simon that almost snapped her neck. Blood poured from her mouth, which she spat out.

“Easy there, Simon,” Dimitri cautioned. “I may still have plans for this one.”

Dimitri walked over and reached out to grab one of Brenda’s breasts.

“Get your filthy hands off of her,” Mack seethed and struggled against his bonds. Another blow from Simon knocked him halfway senseless.

Dimitri laughed. Then he walked towards the table of tools and picked up a pincer. He brandished the tool in his hand as he walked back to both his captives.

“Do you know how long it took my father, and his father before him, to build the empire I now expressly enjoy?” he asked. “Loads of hard work, of calculation, of sacrifice and suffering. We grew. We made this island what it is. We own it, and whoever is in it. Don’t you get it? You people are the real thieves. You’re trying to meddle in affairs that don’t concern you.”

He laughed out loud.