Chapter Ten

Rand sat in the passenger seat of the Denali as Frank sped through town. Since McGuire stepped back into their lives everything seemed surreal. He couldn’t believe Paddy and The Black Rail were one in the same. The man had killed women right under his nose. The how and why of it tumbled through his brain. He knew Paddy was gay, but the few gay men he knew from college weren’t violent. Mild-mannered and low-profile, they seemed to cherish friendships with women.

He glanced at Frank out of the corner of his eye. "You scared the hell out of me the night you broke into my apartment."

"You call that flea-infested place an apartment? You don’t have any idea what you’ve put your mother through these past few months, do you?"

Rand looked out the side window.

"I hope you realize now you were throwing your life away, and for what, the freedom to smoke pot?"

"Guess I wasn’t thinking about anyone but myself."

"Glad you said it so I don’t have to." With a frown, Frank snuck a peek at him. The expression was not lost on Rand and added to his guilt. "Besides," Frank added, "I had to see the contents of that box."

"I’m grateful you broke in and stole the box." Rand chewed on his lower lip. "I’m scared shitless we’ll be too late." At Frank’s silence, he turned to look at him. "Do you have a plan once we get there?"

"To find your sister," he replied. Frank took the next corner on two wheels. "You said you knew the building. Where would he keep her if he has her?"

A shiver ran down Rand’s spine. He didn’t want to think about it, someone harming Marlow, someone as evil as The Black Rail touching her. He’d seen the pictures in the paper, read the accounts. "If he plans to kill her, you mean. There’s a basement and several rooms."

"Have you been down there?"

"Crates of liquor and beer are stored in the main part of the cellar, but I’ve seen a door to a room at the end of the long hallway." Rand slapped a hand to his forehead. "Damn, I wondered about that room a hundred times." He groaned. "Splinter told me Paddy keeps the room locked, said he’d break my neck if I as much as jiggle the handle."

"Splinter, who’s that?"

"The bartender. He’s a weirdo. I think he fancies dressing up in women’s underwear."

"A transvestite?"

Rand nodded.

The image of the bartender surfaced in Frank’s mind. So he’d been right. The effeminate man with the dark aura did have something to hide. He couldn’t put his finger on it at the time. He’d been too caught up in finding Rand, but it was there all right, emanating from him like a black curse from Satan.

For safety, Frank parked a block away from Paddy’s. They jumped from the Denali, Rand dogging his heels. "While I waited for you in the alley that night, you exited through a back door."

"It’s always unlocked," Rand said. "Think we should enter through that door?"

"Why announce that we’ve arrived?" Frank replied. "You point me in the direction of the door to the basement and then check out the bar. If this man called Splinter is behind the bar, keep him busy; tell him you’re making progress retrieving the box."

Rand pulled the metal door open and they entered. He pointed to a door to their right. When Frank headed toward it, Rand turned left and slipped into the billiard hall and bar area. The room stood empty. Even Splinter had disappeared from sight. Rand ducked under the doorway and crept down the long hallway leading to the basement. His sneakers creaked with every step. He stopped once or twice and listened, but not a sound reached his ears. His heart thrummed in his chest. He’d never been so scared, or worried. At the bottom of the stairs, he entered another hallway, so dark at times he felt his way along the wall. Familiar voices drifted toward him. Frank’s and Paddy’s.

The confidence in Paddy’s voice sickened Rand. “You been sticking your nose in where it don’t belong."

"A bad habit of mine," Frank said. "No matter, sooner or later, someone would have caught up with The Black Rail."

"Me? The Black Rail?" Paddy’s familiar laugh bounced off the walls. "You got the wrong man."

"Right, and my name is Rumpelstiltskin."

"Believe what you want but don’t say I didn’t warn you."

With his back pressed against the wall, Rand froze outside the room. Shit, what should I do? He wasn’t sure if he should jump in or wait to see what happened next. Without making a sound, he pulled the Glock from his jacket. He had to see if Marlow was in the room. He hadn’t heard her voice and shuddered to think they were too late.

"Cut the bullshit, Murphy," Frank said. "I picked the lock and I know what’s in the box."

"Oh, that. Nothing more than circumstantial evidence, doesn’t prove a thing."

"How about that girl you have tied to the chair over there? She circumstantial too?"

Rand closed his eyes and sent a prayer skyward. Let her be alive, please let her be alive.

"She took a nasty bump to the head." The blatant evil lacing Paddy’s words sent butterflies nosediving in his stomach. "I assure you, she’s alive, but you won’t be in about ten seconds."

Rand peered through a one-inch slit between the door and frame. With his peripheral vision cut off, the only thing he saw was Frank and the gun in his hand aimed at Paddy.

Frank nodded toward the concrete blocks at the far end of the room. "Untie her, and then get up against that wall."

Everything happened so fast, Rand didn’t have time to react. A baseball bat sliced through the air and he thought Frank’s head would explode before his eyes. A sixth sense must have warned the hardened P.I. He ducked a second before it connected to his skull, but his right shoulder took the brunt of the downward blow.

Rand heard a bone snap and watched Frank fall to his knees. He fired off a shot before he crumpled into a heap. From the chair, a woman’s muffled moan echoed in the room, followed by a series of ghastly wheezes and agonizing groans from a man. Every muscle in Rand’s body tensed as the seconds ticked by. A woman hovered over Frank, her pink dressing gown billowing about her in a maze of silk and satin. She raised the club over her head about to bring it crashing down on Frank’s skull.

Rand kicked the door open and barged into the room. "Freeze!"

The woman’s head jerked up. Illuminated by a thin shaft of light coming through the block window, a chill coursed through Rand. Gurgling sounds spewed forth from Paddy lying on the floor to Rand’s left, but he couldn’t take his eyes off the painted ghoul standing before him. The features were familiar, even in the dim light of the room. It wasn’t a woman.

"Jesus. Splinter?"

The bartender rushed Rand, swinging the bat before him as if he held a lethal weapon in his hands. Raw evil masked his contorted features. Rand pulled the trigger and delivered three rapid shots at close range. Splinter staggered back, his expression one of shock and disbelief. Blood poured from the wounds in his chest, turning the pink satin into a deep shade of red. The man fell to his knees and then toppled backward to the floor. His head made a popping noise when it hit the cement.

Rand dropped to his knees and looked at Frank’s shoulder. "Your collarbone is broken."

"Don’t worry about me." Frank drew a deep breath, whether from pain or relief Rand didn’t know. "See to your sister. Get that gag out of her mouth and untie her."

Moments later, Rand tore the filthy cotton from Marlow’s mouth, untied her hands and feet, and drew her into his arms.

"Oh, God. Rand. The bartender told me you were down here and I followed him. I didn’t know, I thought―"

"Shush, now, Marlow. Everything is going to be all right."

Rand pulled his cell phone from his pocket and dialed 911. With labored breath, he gave the dispatcher the address and told her to send the police and an ambulance. He helped Marlow to the dirty cot and then crossed the room to kneel beside Frank again.

"Damn, this is a fine mess. I can’t get up, never been in so much pain. I think the bone’s popping through the skin." Frank gave him a forced smile. "You did good Rand. really good. Your dad would be so proud of you."

Five minutes later, the sound of feet pounding the floorboards above reached their ears. A blessed sound. Footsteps rushed down the stairs and sped through the hallway outside the room. With guns drawn, five of Baltimore’s finest rushed in.

"Jesus!" The sergeant looked at the dead bodies. "What the hell happened here, St. Valentine’s Day massacre?"

Frank forced the words through clenched teeth. "Just about."

Rand stood by like a lost lamb when the blue uniforms lifted Marlow from the cot and carried her from the room. A stretcher arrived for Frank. They rolled him onto it and hustled from the room. Homicide arrived to gather evidence and tape off the crime scene.

Rand’s eyes lingered on Paddy for a brief moment and next Splinter. He ducked under the archway of the dungeon and walked up the stairs. So much had happened in the last few days he had a hard time grasping reality. He’d have to deal with his mother’s wrath and endless questions from the police later. For now, he had to be thankful Marlow was unharmed and Frank alive.

"Here’s the keys to the Denali," Frank said from the back of the ambulance. "Pick up your mother and bring her to Baltimore Memorial.”

Rand smiled down on him. “Still a bossy bastard, I see.”

Amid the flashing squad lights and the roar of the siren, Rand blew a long sigh of relief and headed for the Denali. The thought of facing his mother frightened him more than facing Splinter twenty minutes ago.

He couldn’t do anything about the past, had to take one day at a time now. Before the ambulance whisked him away, he promised Frank that whatever lay ahead, he would face. Rand picked up his pace, opened the driver’s door of Frank’s car and settled in behind the wheel. He plucked the cell phone from his pocket and dialed his mother.