Page 31 of One Cry Too Loud (Coastal Crime Unit #9)

M y entire body tensed as I began to understand what was going on. This man, the man standing in front of us at the crosswalk, was none other than Joe. He was Holly’s first love, the father of her child, and very likely the computer terrorist known as Nefarious.

My hand went for my gun, settling on the holster.

I didn’t pull it out though. We were in public, surrounded by people, and in a foreign country.

This was trouble I didn’t need. More than that, it was probably the reason Joe ambushed us here in this first place.

On this very crowded street, with innocent people passing us by the second, our options were limited.

“I should shoot you where you stand,” Kat said, her teeth ground together and her face as red as the setting Florida sun.

Joe’s eyes flickered over to her. “Are you-are you talking to me?”

“Do you see the gun on my hip, Joe?” Kat asked, keeping her eyes pinned on the man.

“Do you see the gun on the hip of the man standing next to me? I’m not sure why you did this.

I’m not sure why you came out into the open like this, but now that you have, I promise you that this is over.

There’s nothing you can do. There’s nowhere left to run, no computer screen to hide behind, and no weird ass old vaults to trap people in.

This ends with you going to jail and us getting that little girl back.

So, if you know what’s good for you, you’ll step into the alley over there, and you’ll do it quietly.

Otherwise, I’m not above pulling out my gun. ”

Joe stood there for a long moment, his eyes moving from one of us to the next. It was like he was trying to calculate his next move, trying to figure out what would be in his best interest.

“Okay,” he finally whispered. “I’m going to do what you ask. Just don’t shoot me okay?”

“Walk,” Kat said.

Joe did as the woman asked, walking slowly, cautiously into the alleyway.

He turned when Kat told him to, settling beside a set of large green dumpsters that were filled with something that wafted rancid scents through the air.

It was in stark contrast to the amazing aromas I enjoyed when first walking into Dorset.

Still, looking at the man in front of us, it was very clear that smells weren’t the most rancid things here today.

“I think your friend might be drunk, Holly,” Joe said, his voice shaking, his hands trembling. Was he-was he afraid?

“Where is she, Joe?” Holly asked, tears welling up in her troubled eyes. “Where is Cindy?”

“Cindy?” He asked, more resigned than curious.

“You’re after Cindy.” He shook his head.

“You could have told me, you know. I know I wasn’t fair to you when you got arrested.

I know I left you holding the bag, and that wasn’t fair of me, but I was young.

I was young and terrified of what was happening to you.

Still, you could have told me that I had a daughter. ”

“Is that what this is about?” I asked. “You’re angry that Holly didn’t tell you she had a baby?”

“Of course, I’m angry!” Joe shouted. “Wouldn’t you be angry? Wouldn’t you be devastated to find out that there was a piece of you out there somewhere that you never knew existed? That you had been lied to about it?”

“You hurt me, Joe!” Holly answered angrily. “You destroyed my life, and I didn’t want you doing the same thing for our daughter. That was why I didn’t tell you. It’s why I didn’t want you to ever find out.”

“Well, I did find out,” Joe said. “And I tracked her down.” He looked down at the ground of the alleyway.

“I even lived with her for a time, her and the woman who adopted her. I was a part of her family.” His lips thinned into a single, bitter line.

“You’ll probably be happy to know I freaked out though.

I couldn’t handle it. So, I left. I just ran away from Cindy and from her adopted mother.

I just left them. So, I guess you were right to want me to stay away from her.

I guess I did do her more harm than good. ”

“So, then why would you take her?” Holly asked. “If you knew that she was better off without you, why in the world would you kidnap her?”

“Kidnap her?” Joe balked. “I didn’t kidnap her, Holly. I didn’t kidnap anyone. Our daughter is in Florida. She’s living with a very eccentric woman who-”

“Stop this!” Holly shouted. “You have lied enough! You’ve done enough! You have hurt enough people! You will not hurt anyone else! You will not hurt me ever again!”

“Holly, I-”

“Shut up and let her talk,” I said, motioning down to my gun.

Joe’s mouth closed quickly.

“I know who you are, Joe. I know what you did. I know what you’ve done since the moment we parted ways,” Holly said.

“I know you think you’re doing the right thing, that you’re some kind of vigilante who is making the world a better place.

You’re not making it a better place for Cindy right now, though.

You’re not helping our daughter by holding her hostage. ”

Joe took a deep breath. He held his hands out in front of him. “I literally have no idea what you’re talking about. None of it. Not a single word. Our daughter is in Florida, Holly. I thought that’s where you were too. Last I heard, you were-”

“You’re Nefarious,” Holly cut him off.

“That is certainly a word you could use to describe me,” Joe said. “I’ve definitely been nefarious. I’ve also been cowardly. I’ve been shamefully weak. I won’t deny any of it. If I thought you would have accepted my apology, you’d have gotten it years ago. I just didn’t-”

“Not that!” Holly screamed. “Stop playing games. I know that you’re Nefarious! I know you’re behind all of this! Now just admit it!”

“Nefarious?” Joe asked, blinking a few times in a row. “Are you talking about that cyber terrorist? You think that’s me? You think I’m-”

“I know it’s you!”

“Holly, I haven’t touched a computer in that way in years,” he said.

“Since shortly after you were locked away. I think the last time I did any digging at all was the check on you. That was when I found out about Cindy, when I tracked her down.” He pulled a small back block from his pocket.

“I even have a flip phone. Seeing what happened to you, knowing it could happen to me, that was enough. I was an alcoholic who needed to stop the drink. I was an addict who needed to flush the drugs. I haven’t done anything like that in a very long time.

I’m not Nefarious, Holly. I’m a car mechanic in Wales. ”

“Wales?” Holly asked.”Don’t lie to me!”

“It’s not a lie,” Joe said.

“Then why are you here?” Holly contested. “If you’re really some car mechanic in Dorset, what are you doing here?”

“I’m here because you asked me to be here,” Joe answered, acting confused.

“You called and said you needed to meet me here. You said it had to be here. Well, you said it had to be on that corner to be exact. You said there were things we needed to talk about that couldn’t wait and that it had to be in person.

I drove for four hours to get here in time. ”

I looked at the man, at his eyes and at the way he was moving. A thought hit me then. If he was Nefarious, why would he do this? Why would he put himself out in the open like this?

“That corner?” I asked. “The person you talked to said it had to be that corner?”

“Yes,” Joe said. “But it was Holly. It sounded just like-”

“And you had to be there at the time we met you?” I asked.

“Well, I was a bit early. I’m anxious a lot of the time, and-”

“What time?” I asked. “What time did the person on the other end of the phone say you had to be at that corner?”

Joe looked down at his flip phone. “As a matter of fact, she said right now.”

I turned quickly and ran back out of the alleyway. With my heart in my throat, I rushed back onto the street.

“Run!” I screamed. “Get away from the-”

The crosswalk light turned in the middle of my sentence. As it did, the whole thing exploded.