“I feel like such a fool. I just want to die.”
“No, you don’t. You have a long life ahead of you.”
“Right. For what, prison?”
“What exactly have you done wrong? You haven’t killed anybody. As far as I know, Morse kidnapped you too and held you here.”
She looked at him. “Why are you doing this for me?”
He hesitated, then said, “Because I did take your father away from you. I was only doing my job, but when you take someone else’s life, doing your job doesn’t seem a good enough explanation.” He paused. “And you did try to help us. You knew the story you told us about the 1974 war protest wouldn’t wash, didn’t you? You knew you were way in over your head in something really bad. I’m right, aren’t I?”
“Yes,” she said quietly.
They heard the dumbwaiter coming back down.
“Okay, let’s get out of here,” said King.
As he helped her up, Kate’s scream made him whip around.
Coming at them out of the smoke was Sidney Morse. He swung his metal
pole at King; however, King threw himself to the floor, and Morse missed.
King pulled Michelle’s gun and pointed it at Morse.
“No more bluffs,” Morse said with a sneer.
“No more bluffs,” answered King.
The bullet hit Morse in the chest. Looking astonished, Morse dropped to his knees and let the pole fall from his hands. He glanced down, touched the blood streaming out of the wound, then stared dully back up at King.
King rose slowly, pointing his gun squarely at the man’s heart. “The first shot was for me. This one’s for Arnold Ramsey.” King fired and Morse fell backward, dead.
“And you really should have had more respect for the Secret Service,” said King quietly as he stood over the body.
When King saw the blood on the end of the metal pole, he froze for an instant, then turned and stared in disbelief. Kate lay against the wall, the side of her head crushed in. Morse had missed him and hit her. The young woman’s lifeless eyes stared at him. Morse had killed both the mother and the daughter and orchestrated the death of the father. An entire family wiped out. King knelt down and gently closed her eyes.
He could hear Michelle screaming for him through the dumbwaiter shaft.
He looked at the dead woman for a long moment. “I’m so sorry, Kate. I’m so damn sorry.”
King picked up Joan and placed her in the dumbwaiter, then got inside and pulled the rope with all his strength.
Inside a room off the basement corridor, the detonation timer that Morse had engaged before his murderous attack clicked to thirty seconds and counting.
On the third floor King lifted Joan out of the dumbwaiter and explained to Michelle what had happened with Kate and Morse.
“We’re wasting time,” said Bruno, who obviously couldn’t have cared less about the young woman’s death. “How do we get out of here?”
“This way,” said Michelle as she ran down the hall. They reached the end, and she pointed to the garbage chute attached to the window opening. “There’s a Dumpster at the end of the chute.”
“I’m not jumping into a garbage bin,” said Bruno indignantly.
Michelle said, “Yes, you are.”
Bruno seemed about to explode in anger before he noted the deadly serious look in her eyes. He climbed into the chute and with a shove from Michelle rocketed down, screaming all the way.
“You’re next, Michelle,” said King.