Bloodlines

“God damn it!” he shouted, and aimed his gun at my head.

Ethan shouted, “No, don’t… please…”

“Ian!”

Ian turned toward the man who had called his name.

Mitch Yeager was not frail. He stood straight and tall, his large, dark eyes boring into Ian’s. His skin looked a bit translucent and his hair was on the thin and weedy side, but he was not, despite my hopes, someone who looked ready to pop off at any moment. He had been handsome in his day, but there was little sign of that now. His mouth had a bitter set to it that seemed to pull all his features into following its lead.

He was a big man, but a little shorter than his nephews. That he still stood in command of Eric and Ian was clear. Ian lowered his eyes and moved back from me, unable to meet his uncle’s stare. Mitch glanced at Eric, who ducked his head as well. I looked for some sign of the rebelliousness Eric had shown in the past and didn’t see it.

Mitch turned the stare on Ethan, who wasn’t hiding his feelings so well now, and I knew that any second, the old man would notice the fear and remorse I was seeing on Ethan’s face. I slowly maneuvered myself to my feet again and tried to convey to Ethan, with nothing more than a look, that I was okay, that he should calm down.

He got the message. He pulled himself back into his ace bullshitter mode.

He smiled at Mitch. “I’m glad you can see there’s no need to hurt anyone. This is all just a simple misunderstanding.”

“Is it?” Mitch Yeager asked.

“Of course it is. I can see that you might misunderstand our intentions, but we just needed a little traveling money, that’s all. We both want to get as far away from Frank Harriman’s reach as possible, and you know, that’s not going to be cheap. We have to relocate outside the U.S., right, honey?”

I smiled weakly. It hurt my mouth.

“A little old for you, isn’t she?” Mitch asked.

“No,” Ethan said simply. I was relieved he didn’t try to oversell that. I was feeling embarrassed enough as it was.

It seemed to work, because after Yeager looked between us, he said, “We haven’t got time for your romance, Mr. Shire. Now. You have something of mine.”

“It’s in a storage unit not far from here.”

Mitch looked at Ian. Ian hauled off and punched Ethan.

He lost his balance and fell onto the concrete.

Ian kicked him, making him cry out in pain. He curled his legs up to his chest, trying to protect himself from another blow.

“Stop it!” I shouted. My voice echoed throughout the structure, a voice lost in a concrete canyon. That earned me a gloved hand clapped over my mouth. I bit it. That won a slap hard enough to make me dizzy.

“Get him on his feet,” Mitch said. He turned to me. “You shut your mouth, or I’ll have him tape it shut, you understand?”

I nodded.

“Now,” Mitch said to Ethan. “Where is it?”

Ethan’s eyes were starting to tear up. He said, “I told you.”

Mitch nodded. Ian hit him again.

Ethan hit the ground and groaned as he lay there. His mouth and nose were bleeding now.

“Hit him again,” Mitch said.

“No, wait,” I said. “Wait!” Eric reached into the pocket that held the duct tape.

Mitch turned toward me and motioned Eric to wait.

“It was never necessary for matters to reach this point,” Mitch said. “You’ve forced all of us to do things we’d prefer not to do. But since you’ve brought all this trouble about, I should warn you that I don’t mind the idea of killing you both. And it really wouldn’t bother me at all to see you suffer before you die. I may only have a few minutes to do that, but I know ways to make your last few minutes seem like hours. Do you understand? Now, what were you about to say?”

I tried not to let him see how scared I was. He was an expert in suffering, all right-I thought of what he had done to O’Co

“The cemetery.”

“What?” Mitch said. “What the hell did you say?”

“Municipal Cemetery.”

Ethan’s eyes had widened. He clearly thought I was crazy.

Yeager looked at him and perhaps misread his reaction-believed Ethan was upset that a secret had been told. He studied Ethan, then said, “Now, why should you pick a place like that?”

I tried mental telepathy, prayers, you name it, hoping he could see some reasons-the cemetery was not near here, so getting over there would give us some time. Ope

“I wrote a story about it,” Ethan said. “I go there a lot.”

“Why?”

“It’s closed now, because of the investigations they did after the story broke. But who knows what they might find there? So I know which graves they’re working on, and which ones they’ve finished with.”

“An investigation, and they just let you have the run of the place?”

Ethan smiled up at him, his battered face not affecting his ability to look cocky. “They wouldn’t have an investigation at all if it weren’t for me, would they? And they’re used to seeing me around, supposedly doing follow-up, so they don’t pay much attention to me or anything I’m doing.”

“Get him off the floor.”

He groaned again as Ian pulled him up by an arm. He didn’t look too steady on his feet this time.

“Keep talking,” Mitch said. “Make it fast.”

“There are a lot of empty crypts and graves. There are others that have too many bodies in them. Some vaults that don’t have coffins in them-a nice place to store something if you need to. No one is going to be buried in Municipal Cemetery any time soon-the state is taking forever, having a forensic anthropologist work on it, all of that. Ben Sheridan. He’s taken over part of one of the buildings just to sort bones.”

I realized that some of what he was saying must be true-he must have gone by the cemetery fairly recently, or he wouldn’t know about Ben.

“Never mind that,” Mitch said.

“I’m just saying, I’m one of the few people allowed in there.”

“At this time of night?”

“No, but I know a way in.”

“No night watchman?”

“That’s the beauty of it. The people who were robbing the graves and moving bodies around were with the company that operated the cemetery. The night watchman was in on it. He was fired.”

“And not replaced yet?”

“No. There are police patrols. At first they came by a lot, but it’s been over a month now, so they’ve cut back. The cops have already seen me there, too, supposedly hoping for a follow-up story, trying to get the mood of the place at night right. They think I’m kind of pitiful, really. If we’re careful, they won’t be a problem.”

“Seems like too much trouble for a hiding place. Maybe I should have your apartment searched, just in case you’re full of shit.”

“Go ahead. You won’t find what you’re looking for. You ought to know why I chose the cemetery.”

Mitch’s eyes narrowed. “Me?”

“I got the idea from you,” Ethan said. “From the orange grove. Let someone else do all the digging, right? What’s a better place to bury something than a grave?”

Mitch smiled. “Or bury someone.”

He walked back to his limousine. If he left us in the garage with his nephews, we were as good as dead. Or, considering the Yeagers’ ideas about suffering, maybe not that good.

He halted, then called Eric over to him. I felt a cold sweat break out on my forehead. I thought of ru

I glanced over at Ethan. His face was still bleeding, but he held his head up. When he saw that I was looking at him, he managed a small smile-not a cocky one this time. It seemed to say, So far, so good. Hang in there.