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She was looking around, hands on hips, when she heard a noise outside. She glanced around the room, searching for a place to hide and not finding one. She ducked back in a corner, hoping that would be enough and whoever was coming in would get what they needed and leave quickly.
Her heart sank when Jude entered the room. He locked the door behind him and stood there, scanning the room.
“Come out, Sophie. I know you’re here. I saw it on the camera,” he said.
Busted. She slipped her hand into her purse, her grip going to the gun, and stepped into the light. “Jude.”
“What are you doing here?” he demanded. At one time, she’d thought he was a good man, now she could see he was just a scared one.
“You know why I’m here. I need the knife that you hid.” She was suddenly so angry at Jude and his willingness to betray her and his principles. “Micky’s been taken, and the kidnapper wants the knife. Where is it?”
“I’m not telling you.” There was a snarl to his voice, but she wasn’t intimidated by it.
“I’ll rip this room apart then because I’m not leaving here without it.” She watched him closely and noticed that his eyes had gone to the same place twice. Jude wasn’t a hardened criminal and probably was unaware that he was indicating the hiding place. “Micky’s life is at stake.”
“Not my problem.” He lunged toward her, but she’d anticipated his move and yanked the gun from her purse. When she pointed it at him, he stopped in mid-stride. “Keep your hands where I can see them and take a step back.”
Jude’s expression shifted from shock to fear. “You should never have come here, never investigated this. You have no idea what these people are capable of.”
“I do. I’ve seen it, which is why I have to blow the whistle on Wilson. Where’s the knife, Jude? Show me.”
“I can’t.” Jude’s voice had become a whine. “They’ll kill me.”
Sophie found it an ironic statement since she was holding a gun on him. But he was probably right to think that she wouldn’t be able to bring herself to kill him. Scare, maybe even wound, but not kill. “What does Wilson have on you?”
Jude sucked in a breath and then the story all came tumbling out. “It started out as no big deal. I squashed an unfavorable story about Wilson, and in exchange, he got an exclusive interview for me with one of the members of the museum board.” Jude named a man who had been a professional sports player and become a local philanthropist. “It escalated from there. More trades—exclusives for the paper in exchange for suppressing certain stories. You know the drill.”
She wanted to point out that she didn’t since she’d never engaged in that sort of favor swapping, but she let Jude keep talking.
“Then, he found out that I was having some money troubles. Illegal gambling,” Jude admitted. “Wilson became relentless after that. He offered to pay my debts in exchange for killing a corruption story about one of his high society friends. I did it, and Wilson just kept asking for more. I couldn’t tell him no because then he’d broadcast my failings to everyone.”
“Blackmail,” she said.
“And it got worse. I was ordered to push reporters into writing stories that flattered Wilson and his cronies—and to suppress investigations into all sort of crimes.” Jude shook his head. “By the time I figured out just what I’d gotten tangled up in, it was too late to get out. If I’d refused to do what he asked, I’d have lost everything.”
“Youhavelost everything,” she said. “There’s no coming back from this.” Her eyes were still focused on his, which had darted twice more to the same place. “So I’m curious. Why did you allow me to begin this investigation? Why didn’t you kill it from the beginning?”
“I didn’t realize when I approved it that Wilson was going to be center stage. You said you were tracking an influx of designer drugs. I suspected Wilson was involved in the drug trade, but I didn’t know he was connected to the new drug. Once I realized what you were doing, I knew that you had to be stopped. I’m sorry, Sophie.”
“You are indeed,” she said. He was a pathetic excuse for a newspaper editor. “Why did you keep the knife? Why not turn it into the police?”
“It was my only leverage. If, like you said, it tied Wilson to a murder, I could hold it over him to stop his blackmailing of me. Sounds stupid, I know, but I was desperate. It’s the only way I can even the scales with Wilson and get my life back.”
She almost…almost felt sorry for Jude. He’d made a series of mistakes that had escalated into a shitstorm. But even if she could muster a little pity, she didn’t forget what her mission was. “Give me the knife.”
“I can’t,” he whispered. “You’ll exchange it for Micky, and I’ll have no hope left.”
“You’d trade Micky’s life for your career? I can’t believe you.” She was sure she knew where the knife and briefcase were now, so she moved toward a cabinet that held old microfiche files. She’d skipped over it on her initial search since no one even looked in there anymore. She realized now that was made it a brilliant place to hide something.
Keeping her gun trained on Jude, she opened the cabinet with her left hand and spied the briefcase among cardboard boxes. She pulled it free, ignoring the look of terror on Jude’s face. Carefully, she put the case on a table and flicked the locks open. Inside, she found the bloody knife wrapped in the towel just as she’d given it to Jude. She closed the lid and turned back toward him.
“Put your keys and your phone on that filing cabinet and back away,” she ordered him. When he’d done as she asked and was standing in the far corner, she grabbed up the items and edged toward the door, briefcase in hand, keeping the gun trained on Jude the whole time.
Outside the room, she turned the key, locking Jude in. Later, she’d let someone know where he was, but she needed him contained for now. She jogged back up the stairs and let herself out the back exit. When she checked her watch, she was surprised to see that only fifteen minutes had passed. It felt like so much longer. She had plenty of time to meet Owen and get to the rendezvous spot.
She tossed the briefcase into the truck. Just as she went to climb in, she felt something cold touch her skin just behind her ear.
“Nice to meet you, Sophie Carter,” a cool voice said.
