The problem was that the only thing I could think about was my family. Maybe it was because I was reconciling the fact that I was about to be confronted by an angry man with both a gun and a knife. And I was absolutely defenseless. That gave me an instant flash of all of my children’s faces. I could see Mary Catherine. Maeve. And even my crusty old grandfather.
I shook my head to clear my thoughts. I needed to buy time for Natalie to get away. I heard her shout something from the water, but I didn’t look over the railing again. Now I was focused solely on Christoph. And he appeared to be concentrating completely on me.
Not only did I want to stall, I also needed to get nearer to Christoph. My only chance was to engage him up close. Preferably after he ran out of bullets and somehow lost the knife. Sometimes you don’t get to choose the exact time and place of a fight.
I held up my hands and started to walk toward him very slowly. I called out, “Okay, I’ll come with you.”
I kept walking, desperately praying that Christoph wouldn’t just raise his right arm and shoot me.
As I got closer, I could tell he was confused.
Natalie screamed something from the water.
Christoph casually looked over the railing, raised the pistol, and fired three times into the dark water.
There was no way he could clearly see where she was. But I was scared by the fact that she’d stopped screaming.
I picked up my pace with my arms still in the air. The thought of that girl being shot by this jerk infuriated me. I’d like to say that I had been counting his shots. The best I could think was he had fired six times. But I couldn’t be sure exactly how many rounds his pistol held. If it was a single-stack 9mm he’d be down to at best two shots now, at worst five.
When I was within twenty steps of Christoph, I made up my mind. This was going to be a fight. I didn’t care if I ended up with five bullets in me. I was going to stop this asshole.
Ollie shouted from a field near the approach to the bridge.
Christoph answered him in Dutch. I didn’t follow it exactly. Then I saw Ollie sprint toward the banks of the lake. Christoph had told him to get Natalie.
Ollie’s gait was off. It almost looked like he was skipping the way he moved, favoring his left side. He’d been injured somehow. Probably the car crash. That was information I might be able to use later.
I continued to march slowly toward Christoph. I wanted his attention on me and not Natalie. I came to a stop with my hands still raised.
We were only five feet apart.
CHAPTER 87
CHRISTOPH WAS STILL trying to understand the anger he was feeling. He didn’t just want these two dead. He wanted to do it himself, up close. Everything was boiling over now. And instead of fighting it, Christoph embraced it. Maybe this was what he should have been doing all along, going wild instead of trying to suppress his instincts.
His thoughts of rage beat through his brain like a drum. If Henry complained about anything they did tonight, he might have to go, too. Henry wasn’t so dangerous on his own. He had to hire muscle. Christoph and Ollie were muscle. Without them, he was defenseless. Sure, Henry was trending toward being a psycho. He liked to think of himself as a crime lord. Some kind of drug kingpin. But the fault in his reasoning had to do with surrounding himself with nerds. A true kingpin has to be tough on his own. You never know when someone will try to rise up through the ranks and snatch the throne.
In Henry’s case, there was no one to threaten his power. The computer people he hired wanted nothing to do with violence. Most of them wanted very little to do with other people. That gave Henry a false sense of superiority and security.
But Henry could wait until later. Now Christoph had to deal with Natalie and this infuriating cop. Bennett had tossed the girl from the bridge into the lake. Christoph admired that kind of thinking. Doing the unexpected. Taking risks. That’s what Christoph and Ollie needed to do more.
He’d sent Ollie down to the bank to grab the girl. That meant he could keep his attention trained on Bennett.
Bennett had his hands raised and was walking toward him slowly. Christoph didn’t trust him. But this was falling in line with his own plan. He wanted to see the cop up close. Preferably, he’d use his knife. Instead of one jab to the throat, he’d take a few practice slashes, then take an ear or cut off his nose. Maybe make it last a little while. Then move on to cutting off something more delicate.
He knew Ollie would argue against that. He just wanted to take both of them to the area in Kopli Liinid with all the new houses. A lot of concrete was poured every day; there was always someplace convenient to leave a body or evidence they never wanted found. Having two people walk to the site would be much easier than carrying their bodies, and it would leave less blood everywhere they went. Christoph hated cleaning blood out of the car. And he’d done it more than most people.
All that ran through his brain as Bennett kept walking toward him slowly, his hands clearly empty and up over his head. He didn’t blame the cop for surrendering. The guy had been through a lot. Maybe he’d realized there was nowhere else to run. At least not in Estonia.
Christoph was about to warn him to freeze in place when the cop came to a stop on his own.
Now they were only about a meter and a half apart.
CHAPTER 88
AS WE FACED each other on the bridge, Christoph stared me down, then gave me a little grin. I’d seen it before. He was showing me he was in charge. He had won. I have no idea why these idiots think something is over before it’s even started.
I glanced over the side of the bridge into the lake. I heard or thought I could still hear Natalie, but I really couldn’t see anything in the darkness of the lake. I tried to gauge where the slovenly hit man, Ollie, was on the bank, but I had to deal with a younger, fit, armed killer right in front of me.
The first thing out of Christoph’s mouth surprised me.
He said, “Why did you throw the girl off the bridge?”
“She’s so light I thought she could fly.” Right now I was willing to say anything to buy a few more seconds for Natalie to escape. The problem was I had no idea where she or the other killer were. It had been quiet for too long.
I needed to do something. Fast. I also wanted to make Christoph scream. I was hoping that might bring his partner away from the lake and back to the bridge. It was a lot of speculation on my part.
I kept watching the Dutchman. He seemed pretty confident. Natalie’s blow across his face and my full-body block hadn’t seemed to slow him down too much. Sure, his nose still leaked a little blood. It was clearly broken and almost flat against his face, but that wasn’t affecting his reflexes. At least not that I could see.
Then I realized he was waiting just like me. He was waiting to hear Ollie call up and say he had caught the girl. That wasn’t going to fly with me. I’d taken all the abuse I wanted to take.
Christoph finally turned his head and looked toward the bank, hoping to see his partner. His gun was still in front of him, pointed right at my stomach, and the knife was gripped at the ready by his hip. It wasn’t a long look, but it was enough.
I made my move.
The situation was almost identical to what they put us in during training with the NYPD. It’s tough: a gun is extended toward you, the shooter’s reaction is slower than the captive’s action, and you have no other choice. Though there was the added complication of that knife.