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To make his act more convincing, Daily began to beg. “Don’t hurt me. Please. I had to do it. I’m scared shitless of him.”

“Who?”

“Bondurant. He told me that if I fucked up, he’d kill me. And he will, too. Have you ever looked into his eyes? They’re spooky as hell. The man’s a natural born killer. If he finds out I brought you here, he’ll kill me.”

“Knock it off!” the leader snapped.

“Please, take me home,” Daily pleaded. “If they’re not here, I don’t know where they are. Bondurant probably lied to me. Maybe he lied to Barrie, too. He could’ve been setting a trap for her. Have you thought of that? But what do I know? I’m just an old man. I don’t know anything.”

“He’s lying,” one of the agents said.

“Hell, yes, he’s lying,” said the leader. “Let’s go.”

In the car, the leader used his cellular telephone. “Welsh was lying about the motel. They weren’t there.” He listened for a moment, then said, “Yes, sir. I’m sure you can get more out of him than we’ve been able to.”

Daily didn’t

like the sound of that. He liked even less what the gauge on his oxygen tank indicated. “I haven’t got much air left,” he said as soon as the man was off the phone.

“Sounds like a personal problem to me.”

The other two didn’t even bother to respond. From the floorboard, Dolly stared up at him with wide, dead eyes.

It was a long drive back to the city. Their destination turned out to be an innocuous-looking office building. As they escorted Daily to an emergency exit door at the rear of the building, he looked up at the sky. No stars could be seen, of course, because of the city lights. But there was a pretty moon.

That was nice.

They took a service elevator to the seventh floor. Their heels echoed along the deserted corridor as they marched Daily to the door at the end of it. The wheel on his oxygen trolley was squeaking. He never had gotten around to oiling the damn thing.

One of the men moved out in front and knocked on the door. A voice ordered him to come in. He opened the door, then stood aside. As Daily crossed the threshold into the room, he had a fleeting thought as to what form his torture and death might take.

His ominous host was backlit by the single lamp in the room, but Daily recognized him by his silhouette. “Mr. Welsh,” he said in a voice that was almost friendly. “You’ve been awfully busy tonight. Aren’t you almost out of oxygen by now?”

And Daily thought, Oh, shit.

Chapter Forty-One

The broken water pipe in the storage room on the third floor of Tabor House produced the desired effect. Nurses and aides congregated as near as they could get to the door of the flooding closet. For as many staff as were involved, there were that many suggestions on how best to solve the problem. A nurse said she’d seen a janitor working in the storage room a few minutes before the geyser erupted, but he couldn’t be found to assist in the containment and cleanup.

Barrie hadn’t known what Gray intended when he left her in the stairwell, telling her to wait for him there and to “look busy” if anyone came by. When he returned several minutes later, his overalls and cap had been discarded, and he was once again in suit and tie. A water pipe had mysteriously burst. It wasn’t too difficult to figure out what he’d been doing.

“Come on,” was all he said. She followed his lead through the door to the third floor.

Because of the commotion in the south wing, nobody noticed them as they headed for the north wing. But when they rounded a corner, they saw two Secret Service agents standing guard outside room 300.

This is when we get shot, Barrie thought.

But Gray was cool. “Evening, gentlemen,” he said crisply, walking right up to them.

They recognized him immediately. “Mr. Bondurant?” one said.

“How are you?” Gray flashed his grim smile.

“I thought you had retired. When did you—”

“I’ll be glad to tell you all about it later. But we’ve got to move Mrs. Merritt immediately. There’s been a small accident in the other wing. I don’t think it’s serious. This is strictly a precautionary measure. The President doesn’t want to take any chances.”

He held up his hand as though for silence, and pressed his fingers against the portable earpiece he was wearing. “They’re ready downstairs,” he said. “Nurse?” He nodded Barrie toward the door of the room.