door, I forced my hands to stop shaking long enough to slip the key into the lock. Once inside, I took the stairs three at a time up five flights. I unlocked the door to apartment 7A, and in I went.
I saw Ruby right away. She was lying on the hardwood floor, the ball gag in her mouth secured around her head by leather straps, her arms pulled behind her back, bound with climbing rope. Her legs were tied together at the ankles. Then I saw the video camera attached to a computer—a live broadcast, I presumed. It was set up on the table, the only piece of furniture in an otherwise completely empty two-bedroom condo. I remembered the instructions. If I tried to untie her, the Fiend would see it, and boom would go the dynamite—or homemade explosive, in this case. There were no rules about kissing, though, so I pressed my lips to Ruby’s forehead, overcome with relief that for the moment, she was alive.
No matter what it takes, or how far I have to go, I’m not going to let her die.
“I’ll be right back, baby,” I said. “He’s watching us. If I try to untie you, he’s going to blow the bomb Dobson is wearing. I just have to go out onto that ledge for a second.” I pointed to the window. How nonchalantly I said that! Ah, just a quick little jaunt out on a narrow ledge five stories up, when I got sick to my stomach looking out a window.
Ruby rolled her head from side-to-side in a frenzied motion, screaming through the gag, twisting her body to get free. Of course she didn’t want me to go. Of course she worried that I would fall. I worried the same.
“Trust me,” I said. “I’m going to do it. I’ll be all right.” I kissed her forehead once more, rose from my crouch, and headed for that open window.
CHAPTER 65
My fear hummed hard enough to shake my legs. I walked to the window as though crossing a tightrope, one foot in front of the other. A sense of dread redoubled with each slow and purposeful step. Before I knew it, I was standing in front of an open window. I forced myself to look all around and saw the scene from an entirely different vantage point. The police looked like specks from up here; the helicopters were distant planets. I heard Higgins call through the bullhorn.
“John! Are you all right?”
Where was Clegg?
I nodded and gave the thumbs-up sign, even though I couldn’t speak. Glancing to my right, I saw Dobson plastered flat against the brick exterior. He had his eyes closed, nostrils flaring, while his cheeks puffed in and out like fireplace bellows. Sweat had darkened his light blue shirt to navy. Every muscle, every limb on his body was trembling wildly.
“Henry,” I said. “It’s me. It’s John.”
Dobson opened his eyes and moaned, “John. Help me. Please. Help me.”
“Henry, I’m going to try.”
The vest was made of a green canvas fabric secured to the body by Velcro straps at the sides. Canvas pockets on both the front and back of the vest held at least a dozen steel pipes with threaded caps at each end. Clear plastic pockets running across the front and back of the vest provided a window into a showcase of nails and ball bearings that would become deadly projectiles upon detonation. Red and white wires were connected to the top of each threaded cap and terminated inside an opaque plastic case, which I assumed hid a button or switch to arm the weapon.
I didn’t know how powerful the blast would be or if the nails and ball bearings stuffed inside the plastic pockets would rip through the windows fast enough and accurately enough to kill Ruby. I didn’t care to find out. The padlock securing access to the plastic case wasn’t an expensive type, but rather something common in the locker room of a local YMCA. Nothing fancy. It should be easy enough to pick for somebody who knew how to pick a lock.
Unfortunately, that somebody wasn’t me.
“Henry,” I said. “I’m told I’ve got to get that lock open, but I don’t have anything to open it with.”
“It’s in . . . my . . . pocket,” Dobson said between uneven breaths.
A rattling gust of wind forced Dobson to claw at the brick for balance, his fingernails digging into the mortar until they came away gray.
I said, “I’m going to come out