Chapter Eighteen

Eighteen

"I don't know," Jules said, looking from his mother to Daniel and shaking his head. "I'm afraid to say too much. I mean, I am obviously biased against these people. I may be exaggerating the way they behave because they have not been nice to me. Oh, they were okay until they realized I really intended to hire a manager if...when... I mean—" He broke off, wincing, "Sorry, Maman. If and when—"

"There's no if about it, son," Delphine said. "I will die. And that's the natural order of things—it's horrible when a parent outlives a child. What I never understood was why they were so disapproving." She turned to Daniel. "Jules never intended to sell the vineyard. He just intended to hire a manager and...the vineyard wouldn't have gone out of the family."

"Curious," Daniel said. "Neither the Deauville couple or the Montague pair have children. Do you think that's why they're so bitter about a child who exists and isn't willing to take over?"

"Oh, they have the future of their vineyards secured—the children of their siblings are due to come and take over here. They want family in charge forever," Delphine said. "In a way, what they want is good. They want the small and unique wineries to go on. They don't want everything to be owned by giant corporations. That is one thing about being family-owned—our dedication to the quality of our product means everything to us."

Daniel felt a buzz and looked down. Jeannette's number popped up on his phone—but there was no message.

He gazed at the phone and looked at Delphine, trying to keep his conversation going while determining if Jeannette needed help.

"We've tasted your wines," he told Delphine and Jules. "And they are wonderful."

"Excuse me," Delphine said, looking at her own phone. "It's one of my managers. I'll handle whatever is happening and be right back."

She left the dining room.

"My mother is good," Jules said. "She is involved every step of the way, and she means what she says. She wants to produce quality."

"Well, now it's my turn," Daniel said. "I'm sorry, Jules, I need to find out what is going on with this phone call!"

He stood and quickly headed out of the room.

He had thought he'd see Delphine speaking on her phone in the elegant parlor.

She wasn't there.

It was then that he saw the spirit of Jake Clayton hurrying down the stairs to the dining room, appearing more than distraught.

"What's happened?" Daniel asked. "Where did Delphine go? Were you with Jeannette? There's a call from her on my phone, but—"

"Come, come, hurry, get your whole team out here!" Jake told him. "She—she's gone now! She came up to Delphine's room while I was trying to see who the hell it was sneaking around the house. And then I went into the room and there's something... She's out, she's on the floor."

Daniel raced up the stairs.

"Far room, right wing!" Jake Clayton called, hurrying after him.

Daniel reached the bathroom. The first thing that drew his attention was the bathtub, filled with a sticky red substance. From the look of it...

Bloodred blood.

But Jeannette was nowhere to be seen. And as he stood there, he noticed a scent and realized that someone had released a filtered gas into the room, a knockout gas of some kind.

Jake said that Jeannette was on the floor. Knocked out, not dead. Now, she's been taken and...

He turned back into the bedroom and saw the open French doors to the balcony.

Racing to it, he looked out.

The balcony featured steps that led down to a garden.

And beyond that...

The fields, some planted, some harvested, some wild. Fields led to woods where high trees grew and extended deeper and deeper into overgrown green darkness.

But how much of a head start could the attackers have?

He pulled out his phone, quickly letting Gervais and the Blackbird team know what had happened.

Jeannette was gone.

And so, he realized, was Delphine Matisse.

"Daniel!"

It was Jules calling to him, and he paused to look back and glared at the man.

"What in God's name... That tub... My mother didn't do that!"

"She's gone, too, Jules, and so help me, if you're involved—"

"But she didn't do this! She would never do this!" Jules protested.

Daniel started down the stairs, aware that the ghost of Jake Clayton was behind him. "Take the back entrance from the house. If Delphine Matisse has gone that way, she might lead us to the others."

"They took my mother, too!" Jules cried. "I'm telling you... Oh, my God. She's gone, too. It's not my mother! There's no way my mother could have lifted Jeannette, forced her to do anything. It's not my mother!"

And that was true. But their modern-day Báthory kept "servants" as well—those paid, threatened or bribed to acquire victims...

"Please, you must find her, too. It's not my mother!" Jules cried again, running behind Daniel.

At that moment, Daniel didn't care who the hell it was.

They just had to be stopped.

The gas had been strong. Coming to, Jeannette opened her eyes once and then determined quickly that she had to keep them closed. Because someone else could show up and her current situation could change at any time.

Her first emotion was anger—at herself.

How the hell did I let this happen?

But anger now wouldn't help her. No matter how stupid she had been. She was a trained agent! One who had not thought out every possible detail...

Not helpful now.

Dealing with her current situation did. Staying alive, surviving, was now the main issue.

She was slung over the shoulder of a man, a big man. She felt herself bouncing along as they walked.

Walked.

Walking was good. It meant that even if his footsteps were long and he was walking quickly, Daniel's footsteps were probably longer; and he could move like a bullet when he wanted. Also, he'd have every police officer and the rest of the team after her in a matter of minutes.

I need to play this carefully, very carefully, weigh every moment and wait until my best opportunity to escape or fight.

But...

Delphine Matisse had been down in the dining room, talking to Daniel, when she had found the bathroom and the blood and the...

Gas that had wiped her out.

Then again, they knew many people might be involved; and when they were involved and failed their master, they were killed in return.

So...

This was one of the workers. One of Delphine's workers? Was Jules in on it?

They bounded along. She knew she wasn't at her full strength yet. She didn't have the power to simply bang on this man's back and free herself. But she could play it out. She felt herself becoming more clearheaded by the minute.

Now she felt the slap of leaves and branches that they passed through. Now she could reason. And again...

She had to wait. Find her moment.

Jeannette quickly peeked to see where they might be. They were heading through more overgrown fields and into a forested area. And then...

He shifted, swinging around, and she opened her eyes again to determine where they were going now.

They had come to a structure. Something that resembled a charming little cabin in the woods, like a place in the Blue Ridge Mountains back home.

The man carrying her shoved against the door, heedless of her across his shoulder. She forced herself not to flinch or react and closed her eyes to just a sliver, allowing her some sight.

A second later, she was tossed down on something soft. A bed, a cot...

Yes. A cabin. Possibly the home for a long-ago worker? Maybe a little getaway for the master of the fields if he or she needed a break from work.

There was a cot near the one she lay on, just across from her. And a second later, a body was tossed down on the cot. She couldn't see who was there...

The slit in her eyes allowed her only to know that someone was there...

And there were now two people in the room, two men who had brought them there.

Then...

There was a third person. Someone smaller...a woman.

She desperately wished her understanding of French was better, but she began to get the gist of the conversation. She recognized the woman's voice, but she couldn't determine from where or when. She was asking them questions, demanding to know if they'd really gotten away without being seen.

The men told her they had—but reminded her that the other agent was still with Jules at the house.

So, this has been orchestrated by Delphine Matisse! Does Jules know? Was his job to keep Daniel busy while all this went on?

But then as she lay there, the situation changed. The small woman switched her language to English after telling the men the gas in the bathroom had been too strong.

"Ah, still out, Special Agent Jeannette LaFarge! That's all right. The master isn't here yet, and as much as I would like to begin, I must wait. But rest assured, I will rejoice, clap, applaud every agonizing hurt that comes your way. One would think, well... I didn't think I'd be free when you slipped in to check on the home of our, oh, so sickeningly sweet Delphine! But that bastard who doesn't know that he's every bit as bad as those he disdains doesn't realize he's hiding his greatest talent, holding back when...well, when I could outdo him on any stage!"

The voice.

Of course, she knew the voice.

Managing things as they awaited the "master" was none other than the lovely assistant Marni, Jules's helper who had, in retrospect, been suspicious from the beginning. So easy to look back and see the minor things they had missed.

Minor things that turned out to be so major.

"Ah, well, my beautiful but dignified and, oh, so professional agent! It will be soon, so soon. And I can't wait. And then...then so much fun when the rest are taken to manage this wonderful fantasy. I want to see you pay, oh, yes, I do! You have no right to be here in France! But at the end, I will really have my revenge because it will be my turn to swallow my tears and take over!" She started to laugh softly with delight. "I do hope you can hear me. No help will come, you know, because your brilliant detectives will be certain we've headed for the roads!"

She straightened and moved away, heading to the front of the cabin to await whoever was coming.

Delphine Matisse? Jules? Leticia and George, or Giselle and Tomas?

But carefully shifting ever so slightly and daring to open her eyes, Jeannette looked over to the other cot to see who had been taken as well, praying that it wasn't Daniel.

It was not.

And it also told her that she now knew at least one person who would not be coming.

Because they were already here.

Gervais was the first to arrive, quickly followed by Carly and Luke within minutes, and then Mason and Della.

Daniel didn't see them; he was already moving far from the house, certain that time might mean everything. If they made it to a road, God alone knew where they might go and how hard it would be to find them.

He described his location to Mason, who told him Gervais already had a forensic team in and, yes, the substance in the tub was blood. Pints and pints of it...gallons. More than could come from one human body.

"We've got everyone fanning out, heading back," Mason told him. "You might want to wait for backup—"

"Can't, Mason, you know that," Daniel told him. "And I have backup. A friend from World War II is with me."

"Ah, make sure that..."

"He will go ahead if we find anything," Daniel promised, glancing over to the ghost who was keeping pace with him. "Are you holding Jules?" he asked Mason.

"Jules isn't here. We found no one in the house or on the immediate environs," Mason told him.

"Jules kept screaming that his mother didn't do any of this, but there's blood in that tub, and the bathroom was filled with gas. Maybe he's involved. Maybe he isn't," Daniel said and paused. "Then again, Jake said there were people outside the house looking in. He was trying to see who they were and what they were up to, but...then I discovered that Jeannette was gone."

"Keep going and know that a small army is following. We're leaving Gervais here to deal with the house, and the teams are heading out after you. Be careful—Gervais suspects they're heading for the road. He's sent patrol cars out to block traffic, but..."

"But there are work roads that weave in and out of the fields," Daniel said. He heard a sudden shriek and swirled around, looking through the brush that had grown denser as he had walked farther into the forested area from the fields.

He could see patches of fabric and people perhaps fifty yards from him, and he glanced at the ghost of Jake Clayton. Together, they began to hurry through the thick brush and trees. As he moved, he could hear Jules speaking hurriedly, choking now and then, his French barely comprehensible.

But as he listened...

He knew Jules was the one being attacked. He was warning his attackers they needed to let him go, to come to the police with him and turn in whoever was making them do what they were doing. And while under attack himself, he was swearing he would kill them if they harmed a hair on his mother's head.

The man in turn laughed, telling him he should be worrying about himself more than his mother.

There was someone who really wanted Jules to pay and...

He would pay. And dearly.

"I'll go ahead!" Jake Clayton whispered to Daniel, although, of course, he didn't need to whisper. Only Daniel could hear him. "I'll give you a count and weapons check," he added.

Daniel nodded, keeping pace, glad that Jules seemed to be putting up a good fight and keeping them where they might be quickly reached.

Jake moved on past the last trees and called back to Daniel.

"Two men, swearing at Jules, trying to drag him with them. They're both occupied with him. If you could come up behind... One has a knife, so be careful."

Daniel was careful. He went into stealth mode, escaping the trees for the little trail, drawing out the Glock that Gervais had returned to him after the shooting incident was cleared.

He didn't want to shoot. Rather, he flipped his weapon around, moving swiftly and silently forward once he reached the narrow dirt trail, and headed for the man with the knife. The one man started to turn, but a minute too late.

Daniel slammed the butt of the gun down on the head of the man with the knife, and he went down.

The knife fell to the ground.

Jules took the opportunity to break free from the second man's hold and give him a right hook that would have done any fighter proud.

He stared at Daniel. "I told you, I told you, I told you! Don't you understand? They have my mother, too. Oh, yeah, thank you! Good timing."

On the ground, the first man was groaning. Daniel dropped down and wrenched him up to a sitting position. He was barely conscious.

"Where were you taking him?" he demanded.

"I'm a dead man!" he said in English. "It doesn't matter!"

"You're not dead if you help! That will matter," Daniel told him.

But the man shook his head. "No, no... I have children, I have...a wife. I can't!"

Daniel rose swiftly with his Glock as he heard a rustle in the trees behind them.

"It's me, Mason!" a voice called out, and Daniel knew that it was, indeed, the Blackbird agent.

"The police will protect you!" Daniel quickly told the man before calling out to Mason. "Here! We've just stopped a few fellows trying to drag Jules to wherever they're heading.

"There it is," Daniel told the man. "An army of cops are coming. If anyone dies because we can't get there in time, I promise I will testify when you are sentenced and you can forget about your children!"

Mason came through the trees with Della right behind.

Daniel rose. "Deal with them. Jake and I will move forward."

"Who, uh, who is Jake?" Jules muttered, shaking his head. "You mean me, Jules? I'm coming with you. They have my mother!"

"You'll hold me back. Stay with Della and Mason, and they'll send others on forward while these two are arrested."

"But you're Americans—" sputtered one of the men who grabbed Jules.

"I'm not an American. I'm a Scot," Daniel told him. "But no matter. We will turn you over to the French, and there will be no mercy. Did they head for the road?"

The man groaned and the one Jules had punched suddenly spoke.

"Eventually, but...no time yet. They were waiting."

And the man Daniel had knocked down with his Glock suddenly decided that he was going to be more giving, too.

"A cabin...deep in the forest. There's a cabin. They were waiting..."

"For?" Mason demanded sharply.

"The Countess," the man said.

"Countess?" Daniel snapped. "Who the hell is a countess?"

And the man sounded as if he were laughing and crying at the same time. "The Countess, the Blood Countess!" he told them. "Reincarnated to carry out all that has been left undone!"

Jeannette believed she had her full faculties about her, but as Delphine Matisse was still crumpled up on the cot across from her and hadn't begun to move, she determined she could feign her unconsciousness a while longer. The two large male vineyard workers had stepped out to the porch along with Jules's assistant, Marni.

Jeannette dared to shift; to her astonishment, they hadn't realized she had her Glock in its little holster in the waistband at her back.

She started to move to reach for it, but there was a commotion at the door. Marni turned, staring straight at her.

Had she caught her going for the gun, or was she worried about the sounds coming from the door?

And then, apparently, someone arrived.

And everyone moved back as if the Queen of the World had arrived.

Her eyes were barely open a slit. It took her a minute to make out who it was.

And then she knew.

But she lay very still, and the woman came first to perch on the end of the cot where Delphine lay, just coming to.

The vineyard owner began to mumble in French.

"R é veillez-vous!" the newcomer demanded.

Wake up! Jeannette thought.

"What happened? What's going on?" Delphine cried out, confused and still half out of it. "Where am I?"

The other woman laughed and switched to English, too.

"You are at the end, Delphine. But don't worry! You will go down in history. You will be here with your last victim, the American law girl who thought you were the good one. Alas! Poor Delphine. You knew you were about to be caught, and rather than be arrested, you took your own life!"

"What?" Delphine said incredulously. "Leticia Montague! You have been rude to me, cruel to my son, and each time, I forgave you and moved onward for the sake of...of our product! Of our holding on to precious pieces of land. Are you mad? My son—"

"Your son!" Leticia spat out. "He will pay! I could not bear a son and yet you had one and still! You let him become a grown child, playing endless games instead of loving the vineyards as he should, becoming nothing more than dirt! But... Oh, alas! He is going to be your last murder, Delphine. I do love all this working out so very well. Gervais LaBlanc! Our great French inspector! He knows about the roads; he will be searching high and low—in the wrong place. But, alas..."

She paused, leaning closer to Delphine. "You see, there is someone who hates Jules almost as much as I hate you! He has kept her down, just as you have kept us all down, making a mockery of the wonder of what we own, of what we do! Marni! You do know precious Marni, a magician far superior to your son, and yet he keeps her down, claiming that she needs more practice when she could leave him in the dirt. Well, she is a wonderful student, and I have taught her well! Ah, well, not all can be perfect! She wanted to recreate the ant torture, you know...putting honey all over his naked body and leaving him to be consumed by insects and beasts! No time for such fun play! I have taught her about burning and cutting and spikes beneath the fingernails..."

"You will be caught! The foreign agents are at my house—"

"Oh, and that silly woman is going to save you? I might point out she's right there, and I am speaking English just in case she can hear me! I will deal with her and let you watch as Marni takes care of Jules. She's so good at what she does because of me! Then, Delphine, your remorse! Your horror at what you have done... No, no, no, that's not it. Your determination to end it all because you know that you are going to be stopped, that too many of the peasant class are onto you. They don't want their worthless lives mercilessly ended quickly anymore. So, you see, you will be spared torture—you wouldn't torture yourself. I haven't decided yet if you will hang yourself or stab yourself in the heart!"

" Mais non! None will believe it, they will not—"

"Oh, not true at all, Delphine! I'm certain that by now they found the book on Elizabeth Báthory in your closet. And they have suspected all of us... Now they'll know it's you!" Leticia said happily. She stood and Delphine tried to reach out, tried to stop her, to hurt her.

But Leticia merely moved away, laughing as Delphine fell weakly back on the cot.

"No, no...no...no..."

Jeannette knew she would need to make a move soon. Now there were the two large, strong men, those who worked the earth, Marni and Leticia. And if she was here...

"Mon amour!" George said from the doorway. "Il ne faut pas attendre!"

Of course. George was here as well.

Warning his wife they didn't have to wait. Because, of course, if Leticia's plan to finish off her kills and leave a dead Delphine to take the blame for everything was going to work, it had to be accomplished before the police did come upon them.

Leticia snapped back at him. Her men had Jules. They needed just seconds more.

When they arrived...

Jeannette knew she would have to make her move. She couldn't allow these people to kill Jules or Delphine and...

She sure as hell didn't want to be tortured to death herself.

Jake Clayton and Daniel found the cabin easily enough. But even as they arrived, carefully watching from the trees, they saw another man, an older man, arrive at the cabin.

Daniel frowned.

George. George Montague. His arrival probably meant that Leticia was in the cabin.

Had she thought of herself as someone high above what she saw as the unwashed crowd of humanity? Or had he been filled with violence, teaching her his ways?

"I need a count, and what's happening," Daniel told Jake.

"And I am on it," Jake said.

Daniel watched as Jake strode toward the cabin, heading right past the one man who appeared to be standing guard or watch at the door. The man gave a little shiver as Jake passed by, causing Daniel to smile.

There were many people who got a little chill when the dead passed them. But that's as far as they were able to sense anything, that strange chill that might have been a breeze on a calm day.

Daniel knew, of course, that backup would be coming through the woods. But he was very afraid he couldn't wait. Soon, someone would realize Jules was not coming, and that something had gone wrong. They would need to act—and probably do so quickly.

But if he went in just shooting, he could endanger Jeannette's life and that of Delphine Matisse, if she was being held as well.

Jake Clayton returned, causing the guard again to shiver a little before he slipped into the trees, ready to report to Daniel.

"Time to move. George is in there telling Leticia they must give up on killing Jules. Marni is arguing, but she's being told she'd best remember her place lest she be left in the cabin herself. Leticia is ready to start...what Leticia does!" he said.

Yes, it was time to move.

Beyond time!

A shot suddenly sounded from within.

When George won the argument, and Leticia smiled and started to move toward her, Jeannette knew she had run out of time and had to do something.

She turned over quickly, secured her Glock and aimed it at the woman.

Leticia stopped dead, stunned.

Then she gathered herself, producing a knife and falling by Delphine Matisse, quickly bringing the blade to her throat.

"Drop your gun."

"I don't think so."

"I will slit her throat."

"That's what you intend to do, anyway."

Leticia started to laugh at that. "You shoot me...these fellows go for you. Two men, Marni and my husband? Just how good are you, Special Agent LaFarge? Maybe we can talk!"

"I've got a gun—" one of her men began.

And there was no choice. Jeannette shot him in the shoulder before he could go for his weapon. Screaming, he staggered back while the other drew a weapon as well and aimed it at Jeannette.

A bullet whizzed through the air.

But not at her.

Daniel had burst into the cabin. The second man fell. When he did, George Montague started to scream as he fell on his knees, putting his hands up and crying out, "It's her! It's all Leticia! She started to think she was a reincarnation of that woman, that Blood Countess...and... I didn't do it. I didn't do any of it!"

"You weakling, you coward!" Leticia roared. "You fool—"

"You were the one who had to wait for Jules!" George thundered. "We could have driven out, left them all dead—"

"You hired idiots!"

"You hired the idiots, but with a catch. You threaten their families, and you let them see the corpses, so they know what can happen to them, but they're fools! It's all your fault!" He seemed to realize he was speaking English and began to swear at her in French.

Leticia swore back. Daniel stood at the doorway, his Glock trained on her.

One of the wounded guards started to move, as if he might reach for his fallen weapon. Daniel kicked it far from him, his own gun now aimed at the man.

"I will still kill Delphine!" Leticia crowed, her teeth bared like those of a rabid animal as she looked down at the woman on the cot.

She started to move the knife, to pull it back to strike. This time, the knife wasn't against Delphine's throat.

She meant to plunge down with it, and plunge down hard.

Again, no choice.

Jeannette fired. Leticia screamed as her arm seemed to burst apart, and the knife flew across the room, nearly hitting Marni.

The young woman screamed and then stared at them all, and she suddenly bolted for the door.

But Daniel was standing there, and she couldn't get by.

To Jeannette's surprise, he smiled and stepped aside.

Of course , Jeannette thought with a smile, he did so because Gervais LaBlanc was outside with the rest of their team. From inside the cabin, she heard Gervais tell Marni that she was under arrest.

Delphine pushed the wounded Leticia aside and fell to the floor. She crawled over to Jeannette's position and, heedless of the Glock she was holding, threw herself into the agent's arms.

Jeannette holstered the Glock, set an arm around Delphine's shoulder and looked over her head at Daniel. He gave her a grim smile and a nod and stepped aside as police suddenly seemed to swarm the place. EMTs arrived, and it was time for Jeannette to help the weak and sobbing Delphine Matisse out of the cabin.

But just outside, Daniel took Delphine gently from Jeannette's hold, lifted her chin and told her, "He's fine, Delphine. Jules is fine. He's with a police guard, back at the house."

"Merci, merci!" Delphine cried, and she started to collapse.

Mason hurried over to them and collected Delphine in his arms. "I was not much help earlier, but I think they've got this!" he told them, motioning to the French law enforcement.

They were in a crowd, and yet Jeannette and Daniel were left together, facing one another, knowing that it hadn't gone the way they had expected, but...

She had thought they might find some kind of proof in the house.

And they had.

"You scared me half to death!" Daniel told her.

She smiled. "Well, you know. I had to wait for my moment. And I had hoped you'd get here by then...and you did!"

He didn't seem to give a damn about others being around them. He pulled her into his arms and held her close for a moment, pulling apart only when they heard a soft voice.

"Ah, that's beautiful!"

Jeannette turned. Jake Clayton was there.

"Thank you, thank you!" she whispered, with Daniel echoing the words.

"My pleasure and my honor, Special Agent LaFarge! My fight was for the human right to live with peace and justice. You have just allowed me to fight again!"

She smiled and nodded and they all turned to the cabin.

It was going to be the longest day yet. And still...

It was just as Mason said as he walked over to join them. Delphine had been taken by an officer back to her house where she could see her beloved son.

"So!" he announced, nodding his acknowledgment of a job well done to them.

"Blackbird," he said, "has soared once again!"