Lady Deception

by Bobbi Smith

  Cody started for the door.

  "Miss Jameson?"

  She looked back at Sarah.

  "Thank you. If anybody can find Elizabeth, I'm sure it's you."

  Cody managed a small smile, knowing there was nothing she could say to ease the pain of betrayal and heartbreak for Sarah Gregory. She was going to do all she could to catch El Diablo as fast as possible.

  There were two more names on the list she'd garnered from Jonathan, and after short interviews with those women, Cody figured she had all she was going to get on the subject of Elizabeth Hadley Harris.

  Now she had to meet with Luke. She wasn't looking forward to it.

  Luke stayed with Jack another hour, filling him in on everything he could remember about the gang.

  "So tell me about Jameson and how she caught you," Jack finally ventured, wanting to hear firsthand how one young, pretty woman had gotten the upper hand with a man as smart as Luke.

  Luke grimaced. "What do you want to know?"

  "Everything. I'd only heard of her reputation be fore I hired her and found out she was a woman. How did she do it? What tricks does she use? Obviously any man who wanted to could overpower her. But she's so damned smart and quick and good, she must catch you before you realize what hit you."

  "Something like that."

  Jack shot him an impatient look, so Luke elaborated.

  "When I first met her, she was disguised as a revivalist preacher."

  "You're kidding." He grinned widely at the thought.

  "I'm dead serious. Then she got one of the gang members mad at her, and I had to keep her out of trouble with him."

  "So you ended up saving her?"

  "Looking back now, I'm sure she could have saved herself if she'd wanted to. As good as she is with a gun, she could have shot him and been done with it. But then I had to go and rescue her."

  "You really thought she was a preacher?"

  "Yes."

  "And what happened?"

  Luke quickly told him about the general things that had happened while she'd been in camp and how he'd let her escape when he'd gotten the chance. "That's when she transformed herself into Armita."

  "Armita?" Jack was enjoying himself tremendously at Luke's expense. "Who was Armita?"

  "A singer in the cantina in Rio Nuevo."

  "And?"

  "And that's when she shot Sully when he came after me."

  "Jameson saved your life?" Jack was impressed.

  "Yes," he admitted. "And then we had to run together because I didn't know if the gang had found out about me, and I was worried that if they discovered she'd shot Sully, they'd hurt her. So we stayed together until we were found by the other bounty hunter."

  "Who was it?"

  "A man named Reid, but Cody outsmarted him. He thought she was just a cantina girl so he left her behind when he took me. I tried to get away, but I was wounded."

  "I saw your forehead."

  "My shoulder, too," Luke told him, testing it and finding it still sore.

  "You'll be all right?"

  "I've had worse. I'm definitely better off than you are. At least I'm up and moving."

  Jack grunted. "Go on."

  "Somehow Cody managed to get ahead of us the next day. She was posing as a little old lady with a broken-down buckboard when we came across her. Reid stopped to help, and she got the drop on him. He was not a happy man."

  "And neither were you right then, I imagine."

  Luke shook his head as he remembered his shock at discovering Cody's many faces. "It was quite a revelation, learning all this time I'd been played for a fool-that Sister Mary was Armita, was the little old lady, and was now the bounty hunter Cody Jameson. You're right. She is damned good. She can change her looks like a chameleon. Who knows who she's going to be when she comes through the door next?"

  "But she brought you in alive, and that's what I was paying her for," Jack concluded with satisfaction.

  "I'm real happy she got her bounty. I wouldn't have wanted her to lose any money because of me.

  "If you're going to work with her, you'd better start realizing her strengths can help you. With her ability to disguise herself, she can get into places you can't."

  Luke grudgingly conceded that he was right, but that didn't make him like Cody any better.

  "You're going to need her. Bringing Elizabeth and her brother back is not going to be easy. But the two of you together can't fail. I know you can do it."

  "I'm glad you think so."

  "Let me know what your plans are."

  "I'll be in touch before we leave."

  "Good." He watched as Luke stood to go. "And Luke?"

  Luke glanced back.

  "Thanks."

  He nodded and left the room. He was not pleased with what he had to face, but he would do it. They were going to bring El Diablo to justice, and that part he was going to enjoy.

  Luke was on his way from the hotel, intent on heading out to the Trinity to meet with Jessy, when he came face-to-face with Cody on her way back from her interviews.

  "How soon can you be ready to leave?" she demanded immediately upon seeing him.

  "Why? Where are we headed? Rio Nuevo?"

  "No. There are a few things I want to show you. Come on up to my room, and I'll go over these with you."

  Luke went along with her. When they were in her room, she spread the pictures and diary out on the bed for him to look over.

  "These are things that Jonathan said I could take. I haven't had the chance to read all the diary yet, but I've got a gut feeling that I know where she went."

  "Gut feelings are great, but they're not going to catch you many criminals."

  Cody shot him a disgusted look. "Call it insight or instinct, whatever. It works for me. I'm telling you right now that Elizabeth Hadley Harris did not head for the border."

  "How can you be so sure?"

  "Number one, this woman needs to disappear. She knows she's going to be a suspect, and she needs to get somewhere quickly where no one will connect her with El Diablo. Two, having just sold the guns to the Mexicans, she's got money. She can go wherever she wants. Funds are not going to be a problem. Three, over and over to her friends and in her diary, she talks about how much she misses living in `civilization' and how much she wants to go back to New Orleans. I'm almost a hundred percent certain that she's headed east, and not south or west."

  "How do you intend to prove that?"

  "By riding for San Antonio at sunup. I've already wired my father's friend Nate Thompson, the sheriff in San Antonio. With any luck, he can do some checking for us before we get there. The railroad comes into San Antonio now. If Elizabeth is heading to New Orleans, that's where she would have gone to catch the first train east. Are you with me on this or not?"

  "And if we discover that she and Hadley were in San Antonio, then what?"

  "Then we follow them as far and as long as it takes. We are bringing her back."

  "That two thousand dollars means a lot to you, doesn't it?"

  Cody glared at him. "Get out of my room. I'll meet you at the stable half an hour before sunup. Be ready to ride." Her words were a challenge.

  "Don't worry. I'll be there." He accepted.

  Luke took a room in the hotel, too, rather than try to make the trek out to the Trinity and back. There was no time for a visit with Jessy. It would to have to wait until they'd returned with El Diablo and Hadley.

  Once he'd settled in, Luke lay awake for hours going over in his mind all of the new information Cody had gotten talking to Elizabeth's friends and husband. He had to admit Jack was right. She was good at her job. He'd had his doubts about her plan to begin with, but after talking with her, he'd understood what was pointing her toward New Orleans. He only hoped they were able to track Elizabeth and her brother down before they reached the city. He had been there a few times, but was by no means familiar with it. It was a big town, and finding Elizabeth and Hadley there would be a challenge.

&n
bsp; When Luke roused himself long before dawn, he thought he was going to be early meeting her at the stable. He headed there an hour before sunrise, but discovered he was wrong. As he neared the place, he could see that Cody was already there with Stalking Ghost. Her horse was saddled, and she was ready to ride.

  He didn't speak right away, but watched them from a distance for a moment. They were talking in earnest, and then Cody pressed an envelope into his hand that Luke could see was filled with money.

  Luke had been thinking about how good she was at her job, but seeing the exchange of money just now reaffirmed his first opinion of her. This was all a job to her. She was in it for the profit, and cared nothing whether justice was served.

  "Are you ready to ride?" Luke asked as he strode forward to make his presence known.

  "Do you want to have breakfast first? It's a day and a half ride to San Antonio, and this will be our only chance for a good meal between here and there."

  "No. I'm fine. We need to ride. El Diablo's already got too much of a head start on us."

  "Then let's go. Stalking Ghost will be riding with us as far as San Antonio."

  They mounted up and headed out of Del Fuego.

  Cody was aware of Luke's disapproval of her, but she forced herself not to think about it as they covered the miles to San Antonio. She had a job to do. Jack wanted her to bring in El Diablo, and she would. No one should be allowed to get away with what that woman had done. No one.

  Memories of the time when her father had been killed in a jailbreak returned, and she remembered how outraged she'd been at the law's inability to find the one responsible. She'd gone looking for the man who'd killed her father, and she'd found him, too. It had been her first case, and her most painful. As miserable as her father's killer had been, he had been more stupid than anything. El Diablo, on the other hand, was as cunning and savage and vicious as they came. Cody had never run into anyone who killed with such cold deliberation before-and with such obvious enjoyment.

  "When we get to San Antonio, the first thing we need to do is check all the hotels to see if she's been there. We'll use pictures of her rather than her name, because she's probably using an alias."

  "What if no one recognizes her?" Luke played devil's advocate.

  "I'm betting they will." Cody was confident.

  They rode until dark, having stopped only to rest and water the horses during the day. They ate a cold meal and bedded down early. They needed to be riding out again at dawn.

  The following morning they arose and started off again. When they were a few miles out of town, Cody reined in.

  "You're not coming to the house with me?" Stalking Ghost asked.

  "No. There's no time. But tell them I'll be back as soon as I can."

  "They will not be happy."

  "Just explain that it was something I had to do, that I'm working."

  The old man nodded, glanced toward Luke, and then rode off. She watched him go, a part of her longing to be with him, to go home to her aunt, brother, and sister, but she couldn't. She had to hunt down El Diablo. Urging her horse on toward town, she told herself she had a job to do.

  San Antonio was bustling and busy as they rode in. Cody was eager to check with Nate Thompson to see if he'd found out anything for her. They stopped at the sheriff's office first, but to her disappointment, the deputy told her that Nate had been out of town for several days. Her telegram was there waiting for him, unopened on his desk.

  As they left the office, Cody was frustrated, but ready to start from scratch. "Do you have the picture of Elizabeth I gave you the other night?"

  "Yes."

  "Good. I've got mine, too. I'll check the train station on Austin Street and then take the hotels on the north side to see if anyone recognizes her."

  "Then I'll do the rest."

  "Let's meet at the Menger Hotel and register there for the night."

  "Fine."

  They started off in two different directions, and it was more than an hour later when they finally met in the lobby of the Menger Hotel.

  "Any luck?" Luke asked. He had had no success at all in his endeavor to find her.

  "No. But I'm not ready to give up yet." Cody marched up to the desk and smiled at the clerk. "Good afternoon. We need two rooms for the night."

  "Yes, ma'am."

  As he began to take down their names, Cody drew the picture of Elizabeth out of her pocket.

  "I was wondering if you could help me with something?"

  "Of course."

  "I'm trying to locate my sister. She was supposed to meet me here two days ago, and I was delayed and just arrived in town. Have you seen her? Do you recognize her?" She slid the picture across the counter toward the clerk.

  He picked it up and studied it for only a moment before recognition dawned. "This is Miss Hadley. She was here last night."

  "Is she still in town? I desperately needed to see her before she left."

  "I'm afraid not. She checked out this morning."

  "Did you happen to hear her say where she was going? I really need to catch up with her."

  "No, I'm afraid not. She wasn't as friendly as you are. She rather kept to herself."

  "Thank you for your help. I'll just have to keep looking for her. She might have gone on home."

  "Come to think of it, I did hear her say that she would be glad to be home as she was walking away from the desk, but I have no idea where `home' is."

  Cody flashed him her most brilliant smile. "You've been most helpful. Thank you."

  "Your rooms are on the second floor, two-ten and two-eleven. If there's anything else you need, just let us know."

  Cody's expression was triumphant as she turned to Luke and handed him one of the keys.

  "They're a day ahead of us, and they're `heading home,"' she said, relieved that she'd been right. She didn't usually doubt herself, but Luke's skepticism and lack of trust in her had undermined her confidence a little.

  "New Orleans..."

  "But no one at the train station recognized her picture."

  "That doesn't mean anything. The people you questioned could have been working on a different shift when the two of them boarded. When's the next train to Galveston?"

  "Tomorrow morning, early. I already checked when I was there."

  "Then let's get the tickets now, and be ready to go."

  They went together to the station to purchase the tickets, but on the way back, Cody realized she should stop and buy some clothes for the trip. She had few things with her and desperately needed a few different outfits if she were going to successfully mingle in Galveston. If there was one thing Cody was, it was prepared when she went to work on a case.

  "If you don't mind, Luke, I'd better do some shopping while I'm here. Do you want to meet for dinner a little later?" Cody prepared herself for his refusal.

  "All right. When?"

  "Let's meet at seven. That should give me the time I need to get everything put together. I'll see you then."

  She stood outside the dress shop watching Luke walk on. He moved with a male grace that held her gaze even when she wanted to look away. He was mesmerizing, tall and handsome as he was, and she wondered how she was ever going to forget that they'd been lovers.

  Cody stopped to amend that thought. They had never been lovers. He had made love to Armita. He had never made love to her. In fact, he'd made it plain that he had little use for her, and she had to keep reminding herself of that. She'd managed to maintain a businesslike attitude around him so far, but it hadn't been easy. The most important thing was bringing in El Diablo, and she would concentrate on doing that. If nothing else, when they were through working together, he would know that she was very good at what she did.

  Turning away from the sight of his broadshouldered, narrow-hipped form retreating in the distance, Cody entered the dress shop. It was time to plan for what might happen next in Galveston, and she needed to be prepared. It was over an hour later that she emerged from the shop w
ith two new dresses to wear.

  She returned to her hotel room and ordered a bath. After a long, luxurious soak, she scrubbed her hair until she was sure it was clean and then dried herself with the thick, soft towels the hotel provided. It felt wonderful just to be herself again as she settled in at the dressing table in the room. With gentle strokes, she worked the tangles from her hair and was pleased when she finished to find that it was completely back to its normal auburn color. She studied her own reflection, trying to see if her adventures had changed her at all, but the only difference she could see in herself was a shadow of sadness around her eyes. She lay down across the bed to rest for about an hour before she had to meet Luke for dinner. Cody wanted to be at her best tonight.

  Luke had stopped on the way back to the hotel to buy himself some more clothes, too. He knew Cody was right. Once they got to Galveston, they had to be prepared for anything and everything. At seven o'clock, shaved, cleaned up, and wearing the new suit he'd bought, Luke was ready for a good, hot meal. He knocked on Cody's door and waited.

  "I'm ready," she was saying as she opened the door to find him standing there, looking more devastatingly handsome than he'd ever looked before. In his suit he was transformed. No longer was he the gunfighter; now he was the gentleman. She couldn't stop herself. She smiled up at him.

  Luke was staring at her in amazement. He hadn't known what to expect, but it wasn't this delicate beauty who stood before him. Cody Jameson was tough, quick-witted, and good with a gun. This woman was lovely and feminine, and his reaction to her was so strong that he grew angry with himself.

  "And just who do I have the pleasure of dining with tonight?" he asked sarcastically. "Surely not Sister Mary, and the hair is all wrong for Armita or the old lady."

  Any pleasure Cody had been feeling at seeing him was dashed. She kept her smile in place as she moved out of the room and closed the door behind her. "You're dining with the same person I've always been. You didn't know me before, and you still don't know me now."

  As she moved past him, the faint scent of her perfume teased him, and his iron control over himself weakened a little. Luke was scowling as he followed her downstairs to the dining room.