Glancing up with a frown, she said coldly, “What do you want, Allen?”
“You heard Ken. He wants us to work together on this story, so I thought it might be time we came to some kind of an understanding.”
His new conciliatory attitude didn’t fool Kaitlyn one bit. Beneath the Dockers, loafers and blazer, he was still the same old Cudlow.
Even though she couldn’t stand the man, his choice of attire always amused her. He would have looked more at home on an Ivy League campus than the wilds of Montana. Kaitlyn wondered if the man even owned a pair of boots. She was pretty sure he’d never been on a horse.
“So what do you say? You want to bury the hatchet?”
“Considering that you’ve tried your damnedest to get me fired for the past five years, I don’t think you want to know where I’d like to bury the hatchet,” Kaitlyn said.
“Even if it’s for the good of the paper?”
She narrowed her eyes. “You don’t fool me. Two days ago you couldn’t stand the sight of me. Somehow I don’t think your feelings have changed that quickly just because Ken wants us to work together.”
Something flickered in his eyes as he planted his hands on her desk and leaned forward. “You’re right. My feelings about you haven’t changed. I still think you’re a spoiled little rich girl trying to impress her important daddy.”
“Is that so?”
“Yeah, that’s so. You couldn’t cut it back East so you came out here.”
“That’s funny, because last time I checked, you and I work for the same paper. I don’t exactly see the suits at the Times or the Post beating a path to your door, either.”
Cudlow’s face went tight with anger. “There’s one big difference between you and me. I got this job on merit, not as a favor to my hotshot father.”
“Where are you talking about?”
He smirked. “What? You didn’t know that’s how you got the job? The publisher owed Logan Wilson a favor and he called it in. For you.”
Kaitlyn clenched her teeth. “You’re lying.”
“Why don’t you call Daddy and ask him?”
“You know what, Allen? If what you say is true, then I can understand why you might resent me. But what I don’t understand is why you feel so threatened by me.”
“Threatened? By you? I don’t think so.”
“But you are. Especially when I started working on my investigative piece about local involvement in the MMFAFA. If I thought about it long enough and hard enough, I just might start to wonder about the timing of your animosity.”
Cudlow leaned in even closer, his eyes going dark with fury. “You still have no idea who you’re dealing with, do you?”
“Get out of my face, Allen.”
He straightened and glared down at her. “Before this is over, you’re going to regret making me your enemy.”
“That almost sounds like a threat.”
“Take it any way you want.” He turned and stalked off.
“Ooh, I’m so scared,” Kaitlyn muttered as she watched him leave the room.
“Kaitlyn?”
She jumped, her hand flying to her heart as she whirled. “Good grief, don’t you know better than to sneak up on a person like that?”
“Sorry,” Aidan said. “I didn’t mean to startle you. The receptionist said I could come on back.”
Kaitlyn glanced around him to where Sherry was craning her neck to get a better look at his backside. “Yeah, I’ll just bet she did.”
“It seems I’ve come at a bad time.” Aidan paused. “What was that all about, if you don’t mind my asking?”
“Oh…nothing. Just an editorial disagreement.” Kaitlyn stopped to draw a breath. Her heart was still pounding, but not so much from being startled now.
Aidan Campbell was looking better than ever. Dressed in faded jeans and a black sweater, he was about as hot as a man could get. “So…what are you doing here?”
“We need to talk.” He glanced around the small newsroom. Everyone had stopped what they were doing to stare at him, although they pretended to be busy when he glanced their way. “Could we go somewhere more private?”
“Uh, yeah, that’s probably a good idea.” Kaitlyn grabbed her purse and headed out of the newsroom.
As she breezed through the reception area, she said over her shoulder, “Sherry, I’m going out for a little while. If you need me you can call my cell phone.”
Out on the street, she said, “We could go to the diner if you feel like coffee.”
“Coffee sounds good, but I don’t want anyone overhearing what I have to say.”
Kaitlyn’s heart skipped a beat. “That sounds…ominous.”
He nodded as he slipped on his sunglasses. “Not to sound melodramatic, but it could be a matter of life and death.”
Chapter Ten
Five minutes later, they were at Kaitlyn’s apartment. Aidan had barely said a word to her on the way over, and now as Kaitlyn unlocked her front door, she realized how nervous she felt. What could he want to talk to her about that was so important? So…ominous? A matter of life and death?
Finally getting the door open, she stepped inside and motioned for Aidan to enter.
“Excuse the mess.” She grabbed up newspapers on the way to the kitchen. “Make yourself at home while I put on some coffee.”
As Kaitlyn puttered about the kitchen, she kept sneaking glances at Aidan. Her living room was small, and he seemed to fill up the entire space. It wasn’t so much his height or those broad shoulders, but the man had presence. He dominated every room he entered, no matter the size, making it impossible to focus on anyone but him.
And being alone with him in her apartment certainly did nothing to calm her nerves, Kaitlyn realized as she dropped one thing after another.
Finally she had everything ready, and she carried a tray to her dining-room table. “You take your coffee black, right?”
“Black is fine.” He came over to the table to join her.
Kaitlyn handed him a cup, then poured one for her. Sitting down at the table, she placed a plate of oatmeal cookies her landlady had brought over that morning on the table between them.
One brow lifted slightly. “What, no Hungry Man Special this morning?”
She appreciated his attempt at humor, but it fell a little flat. “I don’t eat like that every morning.” She waited a heartbeat, then said, “What did you want to talk to me about? It sounds serious.”
He immediately sobered. “Before I get into it, I want to ask you something, and I’d like you be completely candid with me.”
Kaitlyn frowned. “Why would you assume I wouldn’t be candid?”
“I don’t assume anything. But I need to know that you’ve told me everything you remember about your accident.” His expression never changed, but his eyes seemed to darken. “Including whether or not it was an accident.”
Kaitlyn looked at him aghast. “What? Of course, it was an accident. What else could it have been? You don’t think I jumped into that ravine, do you?”
“Just tell me if you’ve remembered anything else.”
She shrugged. “No…not really. I’ve had some flashes, but nothing concrete and nothing that makes any real sense. But…” She trailed off and glanced out the window.
“But what?” he pressed.
Her attention was still on the window, but she couldn’t seem to focus on anything outside. “It’s like…I know there’s something I should remember, but I can’t. The memory is right there, but I just can’t grasp it.” She turned back to Aidan. “Why do I get the feeling that you know what that something is?”
“I don’t. Not really. What I do know is that a body was found near Devil’s Canyon yesterday.” He watched her closely, waiting for her reaction.
“I know. When I heard that it was two bounty hunters who’d found the body, I wondered if one of them was you.”
Now it was his turn to be surprised. “You already know about this?”
She g
ave him a tense little smile. “You forget, I’m an investigative reporter, and I have a lot of contacts in this town. The pathologist who was scheduled to do the autopsy is a friend of mine.”
Aidan sat back and frowned. “Sheriff Granger wanted to keep a lid on the investigation until they could ID the body. I doubt he’s going to appreciate a leak.”
“He doesn’t have anything to worry about from me,” Kaitlyn assured him. “Dr. Lake and I have an understanding. I won’t print anything about the John Doe or the investigation until I get Sheriff Granger’s okay. But it’s out of his hands now that the FBI has taken charge of the investigation.”
“The FBI?” Aidan’s tone sharpened. “What are you talking about?”
“Two FBI agents came to the morgue while I was there yesterday. They had a court order authorizing them to take possession of the body. But Aidan—” Kaitlyn gave him a warning look “—that’s off the record, too.”
He didn’t seem to hear her. “Why would the feds be interested in this John Doe?” he mused.
“That’s the money question,” Kaitlyn agreed. “But you found the body so you must know this is no ordinary John Doe. The man’s face was mutilated and his fingerprints were burned off to keep him from being identified. We’re not talking a run-of-the-mill homicide here.”
Aidan’s jaw hardened. “It’s worse than that. We found the body near Devil’s Canyon, buried behind an old hunting lodge. Devil’s Canyon, Kaitlyn. Do you get what I’m saying?”
Her heart quickened at the look on his face, the note of something in his voice that might have been an indictment. Then her face went red with anger even as her blood turned cold. “What exactly are you accusing me of here, Aidan?”
“I’m not accusing you of anything. I’m trying to find out what the hell happened up on that mountain.”
“From me? Why in the world would you assume I’d know something about this man’s murder? Just because you found me near Devil’s Canyon doesn’t mean anything. It’s just a weird coincidence or something. This guy could have already been dead when I got there. His body could have been buried for—”
“Days? Weeks? Try forty-eight to seventy-two hours. It was a fresh kill, Kaitlyn. Trust me, I know these things.”
A shiver snaked up her spine at his words. She hadn’t given much thought to Aidan’s past. There hadn’t been time. But here they were, alone, discussing matters of murder.
When he reached over to take her arm, Kaitlyn jumped a little.
He didn’t remove his hand. Instead his grasp tightened. “If you’ve remembered anything, anything at all, you need to tell me.”
Kaitlyn didn’t much care for his tone. She wasn’t the type of woman to meekly submit to a man’s demands. In fact, more often than not, a note of authority brought out the rebel in her. She thought about telling Aidan where he could stuff his accusations, but another side of her, a more reasonable side, decided that it might be smart if she found out what was going on, too.
She nodded. “All right, there is something. When I first heard that the body had been found near Devil’s Canyon, I had a flash…this image of an old, rustic building with a light in the window.” She shrugged. “I have no idea if it’s a real memory or not.”
“Oh, I think the memory is real, all right.”
She glanced up. “How do you know?”
“You said when you left the highway after you were stranded, you headed due north, toward Eagle Falls. If you stayed on course, you would have seen that lodge.”
She frowned. “So?”
“The canyon is to the west. It runs parallel to the highway. For some reason, you veered off course.”
“If you’re asking for an explanation, I can’t give you one,” she said defensively. “Like I’ve already said a hundred times, I don’t remember how I fell.”
“Then we have to find a way to make you remember.” Aidan’s eyes burned into hers. “Because I think you witnessed that murder, Kaitlyn.”
She gasped. “What?”
“We found blood inside the lodge. And I found this buried in the mud outside the front window.” He pulled a cell phone from his pocket and handed it to her. “Do you recognize it?”
“It looks like mine,” she admitted. “I thought I lost it when I fell.”
“I don’t think so. I think when you stumbled upon that lodge you decided to check it out before you went inside. Maybe you heard something. I don’t know what drew you to the window, but I’m guessing whatever you saw made you run.”
“You think I was trying to get away from the killer?” Kaitlyn’s heart was beating so hard now she could hardly breathe. Could it be true? Had she witnessed a murder? But…how could she forget something like that?
Suddenly, something Phillip Becker told her about PTSD came rushing back to her. “Any fearful trauma can produce symptoms. Think of it as the aftershock of an extremely threatening event.”
Kaitlyn had assumed the fall had triggered the hallucination she’d experienced in the hospital and the acute sense of danger she’d been unable to shake in her own home. But what if something far more sinister had been the cause?
“Kaitlyn.”
She jumped again.
“You saw the killer. His identity is locked somewhere in your memory. I think your subconscious has been trying to tell you who he is.”
“What do you mean?” she asked fearfully.
“You told me you had a hallucination while you were in the hospital.”
“But that’s all it was, Aidan. A hallucination. It wasn’t real.”
“But why Boone Fowler? I know what you told me,” he said quickly, suppressing her argument. “He was on your mind because you were headed to that press conference and because you’d seen his picture on TV. I think it was more than that. Like I said, I think your subconscious is trying to tell you something.”
She fell silent for a moment, thinking about everything he’d told her. “Is that why you’re here?” she finally asked. “Because you think I know something about Boone Fowler?”
“I’m here because I want to help you.”
“Help me how?”
“You’re in danger, Kaitlyn. You have to see that.”
“No, I don’t,” she said stubbornly. “Even if I did witness this murder and even if Boone Fowler and his men were responsible…why would they care? They’re wanted fugitives. If they’re caught, they’ll be sent back to prison for the rest of their natural lives. Why would they take a chance on getting apprehended just to come after me?”
“That’s a good question.” Aidan got up and began to pace. “I keep coming back to the fact that, as you said, this was no ordinary homicide. They went to a great deal of trouble to make sure the victim wouldn’t be easily identified. Why would they do that if they weren’t concerned about being caught? And now the feds are involved. There’s something going on here that we don’t understand, and it looks to me like you’ve stumbled right smack into the middle of it.”
Kaitlyn put a hand to her mouth, then dropped it to her lap. She couldn’t seem to sit still. “Even if everything you say is true, it’s not your problem, Aidan. You’re not a cop. You’re a bounty hunter. Now why are you really here?”
He stopped pacing and stared down at her. “Is it so hard to believe that I just want to help you?”
“No, of course, it’s not. You’ve already saved my life, and you have no idea how grateful I am. But…you don’t owe me anything. If I’m in danger, then I can go to the police. Or the FBI.”
“But would you?” Aidan paused, as if choosing his words carefully. “What if you went to the FBI, told them what you know, or what you think you know, and they wanted to put you into protected custody? Would you go along with that?”
She shrugged.
“I thought not.”
She got to her feet. “And what exactly are you going to do, Aidan? Move in here with me? Follow me around twenty-four hours a day? I’m not your responsibility and I can’t help
wondering what your motive is in all this.”
“My motive? What the hell are you talking about?”
“You’re a bounty hunter. Boone Fowler has a price on his head. All you need to draw him out is a little bait, right?”
Aidan looked as if he wanted to deny her charge, then glancing away, he ran a hand through his hair. “Look, I’m not going to lie to you. Yeah, I want to get Boone Fowler. By any means necessary. If I can save your life in the process, so much the better. Do you have a problem with that?”
She sat back down. “No. I’m glad you laid it all out like that. Honesty is certainly the best policy.”
“I’m glad you feel that way, because there’s something else I need to know.” He came back over and stood in front of her. “Before Boone Fowler escaped, you went out to the prison to see him on more than one occasion.”
“How do you know about that?”
“Colonel Murphy has a lot of friends in a lot of places. Why did you go to see Fowler?”
“I’m a reporter. I wanted an interview.”
“Did he give you one?”
“No, he refused to see me, just as he did every other reporter who went out to the Fortress.”
“Then why did you keep going? The log showed you went out there on five consecutive weekends. Why?”
“Because I kept hoping he’d change his mind.”
Aidan squatted, staring directly into her eyes. When she tried to glance away, he took her chin and turned her face back to his. “And that’s the only reason?”
“OH, AIDAN.” Kaitlyn put her hand up to his face, then dropped it almost at once. “You can’t seriously think I had anything to do with Fowler’s escape. That is what you’re implying, isn’t it?”
Her reaction wasn’t at all what Aidan had expected. Anger, yes. Denial, maybe. But the look of disappointment in her eyes was a little hard to take. “I just want to know why you were you so persistent, that’s all.”
“Okay, I’ll tell you.” Very subtly, she removed his hand from her chin. “I wanted to ask him where he buried Jenny Peltier’s body. I know he killed her, but without remains, I’ll never be able to prove it.” Resentment flashed briefly in her eyes. “Satisfied?”
Going to Extremes Page 11
