Rainey took the chance he wouldn’t smack her square in the nose, and knelt down closer to his level. He approached the last few steps with caution and then pointed a tiny finger at her face.
He said, “Boo boo, Nee Nee.”
Rainey smiled. “Yes, Nee Nee has a boo boo.”
Timothy turned back to the others. “Boo boo. Ouch.”
This seemed to appease the reluctant ones and all three charged at full speed. Rainey stood up quickly and let them wrap around her legs. Katie walked over to the table, picked up the mask, and held it out to Rainey.
“I told you to put this on,” she said, smiling. “Mom and Dad dropped them off. They said tell you they are happy you are home safe. They didn’t want to intrude on the reunion, so they went back home.”
Rainey patted her children as they giggled and squealed at her knees, saying “Boo Boo” and “Nee Nee” loudly.
She turned to Katie, “Thank you. This is the best Valentine’s present ever. I’m sorry yours is around some other woman’s neck, but I’ll get you something else.”
“I know you love me, honey. When I see you with them, I know.” Katie chuckled. “Besides, if I had you to myself, I’d probably give you a nose bleed.”
Rainey leaned over and kissed Katie. Then she slipped on the mask and stepped back from the kids so they could see.
Katie helped out by pointing to the protective shield and saying, “Nee Nee has a boo boo. Be nice. No hitting.”
The triplets were back to being stunned by yet another strange thing on Nee Nee’s face. Rainey smiled under the mask to ease their anxiety and dropped to her knees.
She threw her arms open and said, “Rugrats.”
The giggling trio stormed her, and though her nose was in jeopardy, Rainey wrapped them in her arms and hugged them tight. “I missed you guys.”
“Nee Nee home,” Mac said, looking up at Katie.
Katie knelt down beside Rainey and brushed a stray hair from Mac’s forehead. “Yes, Nee Nee is home.”
Rainey sighed the breath of total relief. She survived again. The luck had to run out sometime, but for now, she kissed each child and then her wife.
“Yes, Nee Nee is home.”
Chapter Eleven
May 10, 2014
Elysian Fields, a beachfront bar west of Cozumel, Mexico
2:43 p.m.
Scattered Clouds, 86oF, Heat Index 91.8oF
The bartender, Bren, as it identified him on his nametag, came by to check on her again. “Would you like another beer?”
“No, thank you. I’m still nursing this one.” She kept her back to him, watching the waves crash into the shore.
“If you can tell me who you’re waiting for, maybe I can help you locate them.” The bartender laughed easily.
“She’ll be along soon, I’m sure.”
There were only a few other patrons in the beach shack bar. The bartender—a young American, freckle-faced, surfer type on his quest for endless summer—hung around to talk to her. Apparently she was an anomaly.
“We don’t get too many high-end women like you in the shack. Most of the women with money are at the resorts closer to town.”
“What makes me high-end?” She sipped her beer and waited for his reply.
“That black credit card I saw in your wallet when you paid for the first beer. Our clientele are mostly locals and the expats down here, working like me. Let me try to guess where you’re from. Accents are kind of my hobby.”
Another sip. “I’ve lived in several places, but go ahead. This could be interesting.”
“You’re definitely southern. Even if you are educated and cleaned it up, you still have a touch of drawl.”
She sat up a little taller on the barstool, but remained facing the ocean, with Bren at her shoulder. She glanced at him from time to time, but focused on the waves. Behind the shades and under the ball cap, her features were indistinguishable. Still, she didn’t want to give him a good long look, just in case. This had to be a surprise.
She responded to his assessment of her origins with, “Southern can mean a lot of places. It’s the largest accent group in the United States. You’ll have to get closer than that for the prize.”
Surfer boy took that as a suggestive statement, as all twenty something men might do. “How close do I have to get for a date?”
“Oh please, I could be your mother.”
“That’s hot,” was Bren’s witty reply.
“Hey Bren,” a voice called out behind the bar.
Bren turned away to greet the newcomer. “Good afternoon, boss lady. Hey, I want you to meet my new southern friend. I’m trying to guess where she’s from.”
Rainey spun slowly on the bar stool, while she removed the sunglasses and hat. She grinned at the boss lady Bren was so eager to have her meet.
“Hello, Ellie.”
Bren was confused. “Ellie? Who’s Ellie?”
“Shut up, Bren, and go wait on somebody. That’s what I pay you for. It certainly isn’t your pencil-thin dick.”
Bren objected, “Damn, who pissed in your cereal today?”
Rainey slapped a one hundred dollar bill down on the bar. “Here’s your tip, Bren. Go find another job. This one is about to come to an end.”
Ellie walked over to the cooler behind the bar, grabbed two cold beers, popped the tops, and slid one in front of Rainey. Bren, though mostly clueless, knew the telltale signs of a catfight he wanted no part of. He snatched up the hundred and bottle of tequila and hit the beach running.
“What shall we drink to, Rainey? Your good health? The nose healed nicely, by the way.”
Rainey slid the freshly opened beer back across the bar. “If you don’t mind, I’d rather not accept a beverage from you after that last time.”
“Suit yourself. Drink the hot one. So, to what shall we toast?”
“I’m drinking to my father. He was murdered five years ago today.”
“You picked today to come see me. I’m honored and I will drink to that,” Ellie said, tipping her bottle in salute.
She tilted her head back for a long draw. Rainey took another sip of her safe, but warming beer.
“Here’s what I know,” Ellie began. “You’re in Mexico, so if you’re armed, it’s illegally. Bounty hunting is illegal also, so unless you have the local police or an FBI agent with a warrant in his pocket, you can’t detain me. I know you don’t have the locals with you, or I would have known. I pay them handsomely to watch my back. Damn, I enjoyed this life. Oh well, on to the next.”
Rainey saw the glint of the diamond pendant around Ellie’s neck. “I came to collect my wife’s necklace.”
Ellie reached for the clasp at the back of her neck. “I guess if you came all this way to get it, you deserve to have it. I was saving it for a rainy day.” Ellie laughed. “I guess this is a Rainey day.”
“You could call it that,” Rainey said, glaring at the woman that tried to kill her.
Ellie removed the necklace and laid it in front of Rainey on the bar.
“So, does that conclude our business?” Ellie asked, and then sipped her beer.
“Not quite,” Rainey answered. “Aren’t you curious how I found you and who else knows where you are?”
“I could use the info, so I don’t make that mistake again.”
“For someone who claims not to make mistakes, you’ve sure made a lot of them.”
Ellie had lost none of her arrogance. Faced with being caught, she maintained her superior attitude. “Not putting a bullet in your head was probably my biggest one, but do tell, what other mistakes have I made?”
“For starters, you should have made sure Graham Colde was dead. He is the one who wrote the program that found you. He spent two months combing through every moment of your life, compiling data. He’s going to be working with the FBI now, using the program he wrote to analyze evidence. You’ve actually made him quite the star in criminal investigative code writing.”
“Good f
or him,” Ellie commented, as she eyed the exits.
Rainey continued. “Using Cassie Gillian’s identity was a stroke of genius, but ultimately your undoing. You built a whole life for her, after you took hers. We found her bank accounts, real estate holdings, and the deed to this bar she bought from Ely’s estate long after her death.”
“Hmm, probably should have let that bitch die back in 2001. It was just so easy to be her. I knew everything I needed, family and medical history, important dates, and of course having her social security card and driver’s license helped immensely. Her parents always wondered where her wallet went.”
“Yes, we talked to them and everyone else you’ve ever associated with. The wives in Wilmington were more than willing to spill all they knew about you. Nobody knew too much, but all together, it was plenty. One of them in particular hates your guts, especially after you befriended her and then slept with her husband. It might have been a mistake to mention your brother owned a bar down here.”
“That had to be Katrina. She was such a spoilsport.”
“You leaked, Ellie. Your narcissism compelled you to delight in your duping of others, too much, as it turns out. You leaked information like a sieve and we just followed your trail.”
“So, what now?” Ellie inquired, growing bored with Rainey’s tale. “Where is your backup? Where are the badges and guns to take me in? Or did you come down here on your own to exact revenge.”
Rainey’s one corner grin crept onto her lips. “Did I mention that my wife is independently wealthy? She was very willing to pay any sum to the local law enforcement officials to cooperate in locating you. It didn’t take that much to buy them off. I can pretty much do whatever I want at this point.”
“Oh, really?”
“Rainey, are you ready to go?” Katie’s voice sounded behind her.
Ellie looked over Rainey’s shoulder and commented, “My, she is more striking in person.”
Rainey did not turn around. She kept her eyes on Ellie, especially her hands. “I’ll be with you in a second, honey.”
Ellie’s sarcastic, “Aw, isn’t that sweet,” compelled Katie to come closer.
Rainey felt Katie place a hand in the small of her back. “So this is Ellie Paxton. I was sure she’d be better looking, but then the sun does age a woman rather quickly.”
Rainey chuckled and said to Ellie, “She doesn’t like you very much.”
“Hey, are you guys coming?” Molly’s voice filled the bar.
Katie spoke to her. “We’ll be along in a minute. Rainey’s just finishing up in here.”
Rainey watched Ellie’s reaction, as Molly and Leslie came to stand beside Katie at the bar. Her armor began to melt away with each passing moment. Her eyes betrayed her fear.
“Is this your posse?” Ellie asked, sizing up the group. “Do the criminals just give up so they can be frisked by these gorgeous women?”
Rainey shook her head. “No, they’re just friends. We’re all here on vacation. I didn’t come here to take you down, Ellie. As you say, bounty hunting is illegal in Mexico. Besides, you aren’t out on bail, you’re a fugitive with outstanding warrants in nine murders, and of course the charges resulting from our last interaction.”
Ellie had been eyeing Molly. “Aren’t you that defense attorney from Durham? Kincaid, I think it is.”
“Yes, but you can’t afford me,” Molly replied. “In fact, with the evidence they have on you, I’d just go with a public defender and throw myself on the mercy of the court. You’re going to prison for hundreds of years, with or without expensive legal representation.”
Ellie challenged with, “Circumstantial evidence at best. OJ walked with blood on his hands.”
“But he left no witnesses,” Rainey countered.
“So I do a little time for trying to kill you. Any confessions you claim I made can be disputed because of the drug I gave you. Graham is a total mess as a witness. He didn’t even remember his name for years. They’ll have a hard time proving I killed anyone.”
Katie leaned closer to Rainey and asked, “May I please be the one to tell her.”
“Yes, you may,” Rainey answered, enjoying Katie’s vengeful desire to sink the dagger in Ellie Paxton’s life of crime.
Katie reached to lift the diamond pendant from the bar and held it up, pinched between two fingers like a dirty diaper. “It’s very pretty, but I hope you know it has to be reset or traded in.”
“Katie doesn’t wear seconds, eh?” Rainey teased.
“Not her seconds,” Katie said, indicating Ellie with a head nod in her direction.”
Rainey laughed and took the necklace from Katie. She slipped it into her shorts pocket, saying, “I’ll remember that.”
Ellie wasn’t impressed with the light banter. “If you two are finished, I’ve got a plane to catch.”
Katie focused on Ellie with a look Rainey hoped she never used on her. “In a hurry? Let me make this short and sweet for you then. When you drove my van into that sandpit with my wife handcuffed inside, you actually solved a murder, one you committed.”
Rainey saw Ellie flush red. She was on the verge of bolting any second.
Katie continued, “Do you know why she survived? The van came to rest on something on the bottom, which kept it from rolling into the deepest water. Just ten more feet and your plan might have worked.”
“I’m not in cuffs. I don’t see badges or warrants. Enjoy your stay, ladies. Drinks are on the house.”
Katie wasn’t deterred by Ellie’s attempt to dismiss her. “Pour yourself a shot. You’re going to need it.”
Ellie glared at Katie. Rainey kept watch, ready to spring should Ellie make a move.
Ellie instead smiled at Rainey, “She’s cute, real spunky. I bet she’s a firecracker in bed too. Spicy. I like it.”
Molly and Leslie chuckled quietly, but Katie didn’t. She leaned in closer to Ellie for her reply. “She turned you down, didn’t she?”
“Oh, is that what she told you, that she turned me down? My, aren’t we trusting,” Ellie said, trying to unnerve Katie.
Katie waved a dismissive hand and laughed. She smiled at her adversary and said, “Trust? I do trust her, but really, this is simply a matter of a cheap knockoff you can buy on the corner versus haute couture.”
Rainey nearly fell off her chair. She’d never seen Katie in a girl fight. It was amusing, but at the same time, Rainey had to make sure Ellie wasn’t hiding a weapon or planning to jump the bar and start pulling hair. Pretty girls fought differently. The usual dance of taunts before the first punch could turn violent in a flash. When one of them ran out of words for a witty comeback, she could go from mad to “I’m going to snatch you bald” in zero-point-two seconds. Ellie, it appeared, was out of her league with Ms. Meyers. Hair flying was imminent.
Katie left Ellie no time to respond. “Back to the van and your attempt to murder my wife. As it turns out, you saved her. When you dumped Adam Goodwin and his car in the sandpit, you should have made sure it rolled to deep water. The van stopped on the bumper of his car, just fifteen feet from the surface.”
Ellie tried to play dumb. “I always wondered what happened to Adam. Who knew he was in the sandpit the whole time?”
“You did, Ellie,” Rainey said.
Katie shushed her. “I’m telling this.”
Ellie interrupted, “There isn’t a speck of evidence in that car that links me to his disappearance.”
The sly smile on Katie’s face was priceless. “Really? Did you check the glove box?”
The expression on Ellie’s face was proof positive that she had not. She began to take on the wide-eyed look of a caged wild animal. Her eyes darted around, as she planned her escape.
Katie plunged the dagger deep. “You didn’t fool everybody, Ellie. Adam saw you for what you were. In his glove box, in the water tight plastic bag the car manual came in, he slipped a three page document outlining your crimes, with a note explaining he was confronting you with what
he knew and warning that if he disappeared, you were responsible.”
“That’s all you got,” Ellie said, feigning indifference.
Katie twisted the knife. “Well, there was that tape he made of Ely’s drunken confession. Did I forget to mention that earlier?”
Ellie was stunned.
Molly chose this time to step forward. She plopped some papers on the bar. “Ellie Paxton, you have been served. I represent the families of your victims in the civil suit they are bringing to make sure you have not a dime left of your ill-gotten gains.”
“Good luck with that. I’d have to be in the US for that to have the least effect on me.”
Rainey jumped in. “We’ll see you back in Carolina. Time for us to continue our vacation.”
Before Ellie could react, Danny stepped into the shade of the bar, followed by six local law enforcement officers and the Chief of Police. They had been outside listening to the conversation through the microphone on Rainey’s hat, which she had placed on the bar.
“I believe that’s my cue,” he said, grinning at Rainey.
He turned to Ellie as the locals cuffed her behind the bar. “Ellie Paxton Read, you are being taken into custody for extradition to the United States, which the Mexican government is more than willing to do. I have warrants for your arrest on nine counts of first degree murder and three counts of attempted murder.”
Ellie resisted the cuffs, but was not successful. She cried out, “Three attempted murders? Who else are you accusing me of trying to kill?”
Rainey stood, put on her sunglasses, and answered Ellie’s question. “You tried to kill Graham twice. It counts. Enjoy the plane ride back. It will be the last time you see more of the sky than the solitary exercise yard allows.”
Mask of normalcy gone and desperate, Ellie screeched, “I should have blown your head off.”
“But you didn’t. I wasn’t looking for you, but you came looking for me. That was your biggest mistake. My father shared with me some ancient Chinese wisdom years ago, which might have benefitted you before you tried to kill me. ‘The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.’ You should have just kept driving, Ellie, and left me alone.”
Colde & Rainey (A Rainey Bell Thriller) Page 23
