Page 109 of Target Acquired
“Does Oscar know?”
“Of course not! He’s so straight, he’d never approve of this. In fact, he’ll probably never understand that I’m doing it for him. I’m sick of your family always taking what’s ours.”
Kenzie frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“It started with my father, Stephen Woodruff. Your grandfather got him fired and was hired to take over the hospital. Your father was chief of police, the mayor’s choice, but when I asked him for feedback as to why I didn’t get the position, he consoled me with the fact that if it hadn’t been for Ben King, I would have been the one in that office. Even your mother chose King over me. Dumped me as soon as she could and went to build a life with him. When I told my father about it, he was furious. That’s when I learned all about your grandmother. She’d done the exact same thing to my father. And then you . . . you steal my boy’s chance to live his dream.” His hands flexed around the wheel. “It was just too much. Too much. I had to do something again. Stop the cycle once more.”
A cold chill started in her gut and spread through her limbs. “What do you mean, do something again? Stop the cycle once more?” But she had a feeling she knew.
“It doesn’t matter.” He aimed the weapon at her. “Now, climb out from the driver’s side after I’m out.”
“No. Not until you explain.”
He shuddered and swallowed. “Things happen for a reason.”
“You set my father up, didn’t you? You had the brakes cut? You threatened Cliff Hamilton to falsify the documents?” She pulled in a ragged breath. “You killed my mother,” she whispered.
“She wasn’t supposed to be in the car!”
“But she was!”
“And there was nothing I could do about that.”
“But that evidence combined with my father’s injuries gave you the opportunity you’d been waiting for.”
He shrugged.
“But you didn’t take the offer of chief when it was up for grabs. You let someone else take it.”
“I had to. How would that look if I’d just jumped at the chance?” He shook his head. “No, I knew my time would come, and four months later, after a tragic hunting accident, it did.”
Kenzie stared. “You had him killed, didn’t you?”
He opened his car door, started to get out, and paused. Then he looked at her with a cold grin. “I’ve always been a very good marksman.”
Once he was standing by the car with the door open, she hesitated. Was he going to kill her now that he’d confessed it all?
“Out!”
She kept her hands where he could see them and did as ordered, climbing over the console to the driver’s side.
He motioned with the weapon. “Around to the back. Get in the trunk.”
“Harold, I’m cooperating. Why make me get in the trunk?”
“Now!”
She walked to the back of the sedan, and he pressed the button on the fob. The lid lifted.
“Boy, you sure had everyone fooled into thinking you were just a harmless old man, didn’t you?”
He snorted. “Who’s going to suspect an old guy with a bum knee who uses a walker or a cane to get around?” He pointed to the empty trunk. “Get in.”
She didn’t think he was ready for her to die just yet. He’d kept her alive this long because he needed her for something. And she needed to find Cole. She climbed in and shifted to sit upright while, with one hand, she pulled her work phone from her back pocket. She gave it a shove all the way to the back of the trunk, hiding the motion by stretching out to lie down.
Harold held out a hand. “Give me your phones. Both of them. If you fight me, I’ll simply knock you out and search for them.”
“I only have my personal phone. I didn’t have time to grab my work one before you were ushering me out the door.” She didn’t bother to fight him and handed over the personal one, praying he wouldn’t search her for the second one. He studied her for a second and she thought he might pat her down.