She told him which things to take and which to leave, grateful that he wasn’t fighting her on leaving. “Do you feel at all uneasy here, Gunther? It’s a beautiful home, but I just need to be somewhere else.” It hadn’t bothered her when Wilhelm was there. She’d spent the night without hesitation. Now, it seemed too dark and bleak.
Gunther loaded the double stroller into the trunk of his car. “I’ve always been uncomfortable here, but after what’s happened, even more so.”
“I know, but I mean today. Do you feel like something’s wrong?”
Gunther stopped for a moment and looked at the mansion. “Maybe? It’s hard to tell with all the bad feelings surrounding this place.”
They put the babies in their car seats in the back of the Mercedes, and Gunther patted his pockets. “Wilhelm should be touching down at any second. I’ll let him know we’ll be at your shop.” He checked his inside pockets. “Must have left my phone on the table.”
As Gunther headed back inside, Juliette pulled her phone out. “I’ll call him while you’re getting it.” She closed the back door on Thomas’ side and turned her back to the car as she dialed Wilhelm’s number. It might not go through if he was still in the air, but she’d probably be able to leave a message.
It was still ringing when a loud click sounded through the air, and she and Gunther both froze for a split second.
The front windows and doors of the mansion exploded outward. Glass, wood, and brick flying through the air narrowly missed her, and the blast knocked Gunther backward. He caught himself and stayed upright, but turned and dove toward Juliette, screaming, “Get down!”
Another blast, louder than the first, sent more shrapnel peppering the front lawn and driveway, pinging off the car. Glass cracked, and Juliette managed to see past Gunther that the passenger side window had shattered in a tight spiderweb of lines.
Both babies cried inside the car, and she scrambled to get out from beneath Gunther to check on them. When they stood to see the flaming, smoking ruins of what was once a gorgeous mansion, Juliette’s breath caught.
If not for the sheer extravagance of it, with its circular driveway and long walk to the front door with hedges and statuary, they could have all been killed. If they’d been twenty or thirty feet closer to the blast, maybe even the babies in the car …
She rushed around to the opposite side of the car and pulled Leah out. Juliette passed her to Gunther before crawling across the seat and picking up Thomas.
“There could be more,” Gunther said, pushing her to hurry down the drive as far away from the mansion as possible. Gunther spied her phone where she’d dropped it during the blast and snatched it from the ground. He held it up. The screen was badly damaged, but it was on.
“I’ll try 911,” he said as they rushed away from the burning mansion. Juliette held Thomas tightly to her and thanked whatever gods were listening that she’d felt the need to get out of that house when she had.
Chapter Seventeen
The ride from the airport to the mansion felt almost as long as the flight to Aspen. Wilhelm called Gunther to reassure himself everything was fine. When Gunther didn’t answer, he started to dial Juliette, but his phone rang before he could finish it. Detective Frasier sounded like he might be in a bar.
“We’ve got him,” he said. “The guy who shot at you spilled everything—how he’d been paid to rig your brother’s car and then eliminate you when you weren’t willing to hand over the kids. Combined with Ralph Marcoby’s financial records, it won’t matter if he fights it to the end. We’ve got him.”
Relief washed over Wilhelm. “Thank you, Detective.”
“Considering he made an attempt on your life today, he’s not going to get approved for any kind of bail, so he’ll be sitting in a cell until trial. And depending on how hard he lawyers up and how many motions they file, that could be a couple of years.”
He couldn’t wait to tell Juliette that the nightmare was over. And it relieved him even more that right after telling her about Ralph’s threat to take him to court to get custody, he could explain how that was impossible now.
That relieved him even more than the idea that his brother’s apprehended. In a couple of short days, he’d grown so attached to the twins, he couldn’t imagine losing them.
He hung up, and thought about calling Juliette, but they were only a couple of miles away from the mansion. News like that was best delivered in person.
He sniffed the air, curling his nose at the acrid scent of smoke. He was already weary of the scent, but this was different. This wasn’t from the morgue in Aspen. There was smoke in the air.
“Wilhelm!” Sven’s hands white-knuckled the steering wheel as he stared ahead, agape. They were a hill and a few curves away from the mansion, but the black smoke cloud hanging in the air was directly above where it must be.
No. No, no, no.
They rounded the last curve that would bring the mansion into sight, and Wilhelm’s heart stopped in his chest. It looked like someone had scooped the building out with a giant-sized shovel. The top half of the front face of the mansion was completely gone, and what was left was in flames.
The driveway was lined with emergency vehicles. Police cars, fire trucks, an ambulance. They blocked in the black Mercedes Gunther drove along with a white Toyota.
Juliette’s car.
Wilhelm opened the door and leapt from the car while it was still rolling, pushing aside the first police officer who grabbed his shoulders to stop him. Another shouted “Sir!” and grabbed his arm, but Wilhelm slung him away like a rag doll, his only thought to get inside that house.
“Juliette!” he bellowed, fighting through the police and firefighters intent on blocking his way. “Juliette!”