“Hello?” Goldie called, voice cracking with terror.
“Security!” a man’s voice came back through the door. “Mind if we check the place again, Goldie? We sent you an e-mail, but you never answered, so we thought we’d check on you.”
“Could you come later?” she choked out, shaking so violently the knife knicked her throat in a thin red line. “I’m not well. I slipped and fell and can’t move around much.”
“Do you need a doctor?” the security officer called back, sounding worried, now. “I’ll send for someone . . .”
Lachley pressed the steel tighter against her jugular. “No!” Goldie cried. “I’m fine! Just bruised and shaken, is all.”
“Open the door, Goldie,” the man demanded maddeningly. “We’ll let the doctor decide. And I have to search the apartment, no exceptions allowed.”
Lachley cursed under his breath, then shifted the tip of the knife to Goldie’s spine and slid around behind her. “Open it,” he hissed.
Goldie’s hands trembled violently as she reached for the locks and the doorknob. Lachley stood hidden from sight as the door swung open. She shuffled aside for the security team. Wally Klontz and a BATF agent stepped inside, the BATF officer entering first. Wally had barely crossed the threshold when Lachley shoved Goldie brutally to the floor. Lachley sank his knife into the BATF officer’s throat in a lightning attack, leaving Goldie screaming and covered with spatters of blood. Wally flung himself at the killer, but Lachley twisted aside and slashed out. The blade tore Wally’s shoulder to the bone, sending the security officer reeling back in shock and pain. Then Lachley was out the door and running. Wally fumbled with his radio while blood poured down his arm and spread across the front of his shirt.