Run, Hide - By Carol Ericson Page 0,69

trembling. “Where’s Beth?”

“Dead.”

“Did you...”

“Yes, I killed her. I tried before, you know, when we were twelve. I threw scalding water at her. I was aiming for her head, but it hit her back instead.” She shrugged. “Then I decided it was better to keep her around and live vicariously through her.”

“If you were the stronger twin, why live through your sister? Why not live your own life?”

She made a face with an exaggerated frown. “They watched me, especially my father. I could always wrap my mother around my little finger. But Dad—” she pursed her lips “—he was always after me to take my meds. You can’t live your life all doped up.”

Cade steadied his gun. She must be seriously mentally ill—and she had Jenna and Gavin. “You’ve been posing as Beth? Why?”

“Why?” She blinked her eyes. “To get you, of course. Well, you and some big bucks from that arms dealer Nico Zendaris.”

“What are you talking about?” His stomach sank. He could handle Beth...Abby, but if she’d called in Zendaris or already turned Jenna and Gavin over to him, he had a bigger obstacle in front of him than some psychotic woman with a gun.

“Beth wanted you. Didn’t you know that? She had a crazy, wild crush on you. She showed me your picture, slobbering all over it. So I told her to go for it, but she’s weak.” Abby put on a childish, whining voice. “He’s married, Abby. I’m just going to have to forget all about him.”

She snapped her fingers. “Why should that stop you from getting what you want? So I set out to prove her wrong.”

“How exactly did you plan on getting me?” Cade’s phone buzzed in his pocket and he pulled it out.

Abby narrowed her eyes and leveled her gun at his heart. “You can call the police or Prospero or all your buddies on Team Three, but I still have your wife and son and I can make them die on my command. If you try to respond or make a call, I’ll make you die, too. Beth might be mad, but I can live with that.”

Cade held up his phone and shifted his gaze to the display—a message from J.D. Another weird factoid Beth’s mom lives in Grenfield 590 Burrows watch your back.

Cade hit the button to delete J.D.’s message and took a deep breath. Jenna and Gavin must be two doors down at Abby’s mother’s house. But who else was there? Zendaris’s thugs?

“I’m not calling anyone, Abby. So what is your plan and what does Zendaris have to do with it?”

She giggled. “I thought you’d never ask. Beth is good with statistics, facts and figures and logic. I’m even better. I like computers, Cade. I like computers a lot.”

“You hacked into my computer and stole the plans.”

“Aw, it was easy.” She hunched her shoulders and almost blushed. “I already had a head start because I had some of your emails to Prospero. From there it was a breeze to get into your computer and lift those plans.”

“You wanted money. Why didn’t you just sell them to Zendaris?”

“I wanted you and the money. Just to prove I could do it. I figured I’d let Zendaris stew a little, blame you, go after Jenna and Gavin and maybe even succeed. But you were too good for him, Cade. The idiots he hired couldn’t keep up with you. So I decided to help him.”

“How was that plan going to help you get to me?”

“You’d be so distraught at losing your wife and son, you’d need a shoulder to cry on, and I would’ve been there for you.”

His laugh was a sharp bark of disbelief. “Never. Would’ve. Happened.”

“Or—” she twirled a strand of hair around her finger “—I could be the bad guy and sell those plans to whoever I want for big bucks. I’d share it all with you. You, Beth and I.”

“Beth’s dead.”

Her brow wrinkled. “No, I’m doing this for Beth, too. I always made things right for Beth. I taught her how to cheat on exams. I...uh...handicapped the competition in a big race she had. This horrible professor was bothering her and I got him in trouble. Beth didn’t know how to go after what she wanted, so I made sure she had it. Now I’m going to make sure she has you.”

Abby’s loose hold on reality could only help him at this point. “You would share that money with me?”

She stopped twirling her hair and yanked some strands from her head.