Assignment: Marriage

by Jackie Merritt

  The bottom line, which Hannigan couldn’t seem to get through his thick skull, was that no one knew she was here. She just couldn’t believe that someone had managed to follow their circuitous route from Las Vegas to northern Idaho. By the same token, Hannigan seemed so in control, certainly not an alarmist. The truth was, she didn’t know what to believe.

  A second truth was that she wasn’t feeling particularly safe here and she didn’t know what she should do about it, if there was anything she could do about it. Not when he wouldn’t even let her use the telephone. Taking off on her own, going somewhere all by herself, hiding out, was a horrifying thought. How had she ever come to this, a person like her? She’d always abided by the law, lived by the law.

  She grimaced. That was how she’d gotten into this fix, doing her lawful duty. She had to rely on Hannigan’s judgment, irritating as it was. What else could she do? And he’d only been playing it safe by pulling her out of the water. She shouldn’t be an alarmist, either.

  Up and pacing the main room of the cabin, Tuck was having similar thoughts. His, however, were tinged with uneasy questions about himself, really only a repeat of the same questions that had been badgering him since the convenience-store shootings, all of them revolving around his reactions, judgments and instincts. He hadn’t expected to be playing detective during this job and that was what he was doing, suspecting everyone and every incident. Was he right, wrong, or somewhere in between?

  Like Nicole, he felt the urge to call Joe Crawford. Were they making any headway in Vegas, proving that Spencer had been with Lowicki that night? He was still mulling it all over, worrying about it, looking at it from all angles, when Nicole walked in. She was dressed in yellow shorts and a white blouse, and her expression was not friendly.

  “I want to go to town,” she said without preamble.

  He regarded her with a questioning and unblinking look. “What for?”

  “I need to pick up a few things, some personal items.”

  He thought about it. He didn’t want to take her to town but he certainly couldn’t let her go by herself; he couldn’t keep her locked up in this cabin indefinitely; and he didn’t want her swimming in the lake anymore. His nerves were raw and jagged, and maybe without any good reason. In his own way he was as confused as Nicole, and he didn’t like the feeling.

  He finally conceded to her wishes simply because he was tired of saying no. “All right, we’ll go to town.”

  This time he left lights on even though it was still early in the day, just in case something kept them away until after dark, made sure the doors were locked, and took his gun, playing it as safely as he knew how.

  They got in the car. “Thank you,” Nicole said stiffly.

  He didn’t answer. They drove the winding road around the lake to the city that was becoming more familiar with each trip. He drove directly to a large shopping center, which contained one of those huge drug complexes that should carry any personal item a woman could possibly need.

  He pulled into a parking slot. “You don’t need to come in with me,” Nicole said. “I’m perfectly capable of doing a little shopping on my own.”

  Tuck was tired of arguing the same points with her, over and over again. Saying nothing, he got out of the car, locked it, and followed her into the drugstore.

  She tried to ignore him as he trailed her up one aisle and down another. She picked up some shampoo and toothpaste, and some things she didn’t need, like a bottle of nail polish and a lipstick. She fussed around in the cosmetic department for a while and finally said, “Okay, I’ll go check out now.”

  He’d tried not to let his impatience show, but hanging around the cosmetic department of any store was definitely not a favorite pastime of his. Relieved that she was through with her shopping, he followed her to the checkout stand.

  It wasn’t long before they were in the car again. Nicole tossed her package into the back seat and fastened her seat belt. With a sidelong glance at Hannigan, she said, “Let’s not go back to the cabin yet. Please.”

  He heard the plea in her voice. If his nerves were raw and jagged, so were hers. Before starting the car, he turned his head and looked at her, and felt that sympathetic tug again. Only this time it was accompanied by personal feelings that were developing regardless of his private arguments against any such thing. He didn’t want to get involved with Nicole Currie, and yet it was happening. Not just because she was a pretty woman. Not because she was a woman in trouble. There was something connecting them, something he didn’t have a lot of experience with, something that was felt, not seen or heard or tangible in any way. Just something that was felt, deep inside of him.

  “Nicole,” he said. “I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

  She looked slightly surprised. “I believe that. I think you’re doing everything you can. In fact, as I told you before, you’re probably doing too much. I—I feel smothered.”

  “Yes, I’m sure you do. It’s going to get worse before it gets better, Nicole.”

  “How can it?” she asked with a heavy sigh.

  “Any way you look at it, we’ve only gotten started. It took a couple of days to get here, we’ve only been here a few days so far, and it could go on for weeks. They told you that in Vegas.”

  “Yes, they did,” she said. “But I think that something like this isn’t something you can visualize when you’ve had all the freedom in the world. Until recently I’ve never been afraid of anything. I don’t live my life in fear, and that’s what I’ve had to do ever since I made that call.”

  “I know,” he said quietly. “I’m really sorry about that.”

  “Is this what happens to everyone who reports a crime, or the possibility of a crime?” she asked.

  “No. No, of course not. This is unusual. Most witnesses or people who call in…they’re in no danger whatsoever. It’s handled through the secret witness program, and their name doesn’t even have to be known. But in your case, this whole thing is different because they want to put away Spencer as well as Lowicki. That was explained to you, wasn’t it?”

  “Yes,” she said with a sigh. “It was explained to me. Repeatedly.” She looked out the window. The parking lot was crowded; it was a busy shopping center. “I still don’t want to go back to the cabin. Not yet. Please.”

  He couldn’t say no, not when she sounded so forlorn. “Okay. We’ll take a ride.”

  “Another ride,” she said, disappointed. “There must be something to do. This is a tourist town. You can see it everywhere you look. There are restaurants, shopping, swimming, boating, golf. Look at all the people.”

  “I know, Nicole, I know. And while we’re supposed to appear to be a couple on vacation, we’re not a couple on vacation. Those are things people do on vacation. We are not on vacation.” There was a note of impatience in his voice, reinforced by the way he had repeated himself.

  “Fine,” she said. “Fine. Just drive somewhere, then. I don’t care where.”

  He started the car, put it in gear, backed out of the parking slot and started driving toward the street.

  “Wait a minute,” Nicole cried.

  He slammed on the brakes. “What?”

  “There’s a bakery right there. See it?”

  He saw where she was pointing. “I see it.”

  “Let me run in and buy something good, something sweet.”

  His patience was getting very thin, and he had an awful knot of apprehension in his gut to deal with, as well. Damn! Was he going to live on the edge for the rest of his life? But he couldn’t shed the feeling that they shouldn’t be there.

  Though his lips were pinched from stress, he nodded. “I’ll pull up in front of the bakery, you run in and get what you want and come right back out.” The bakery was one of the smaller businesses in the massive shopping center and he figured he could wait out front, she could run in, and he would be able to see her every second of the time.

  He did as he’d said; drove over to the bakery, st
opped right in front and parked in a No Parking area. She wasn’t in there more than two minutes when along came a security guard. He tapped on Tuck’s window. “Sir, you can’t park here. Move along, please.”

  Tuck glanced into the bakery shop, saw Nicole standing in front of a glass case, obviously deciding what she wanted, and he rolled down his window. “Just a few minutes, sir? My wife is in the bakery. She won’t be long.”

  “No, sorry, but this is a fire lane, mister. We have to follow the directives of the fire department, and there’s no parking permitted along here. There’s a space right over there, sir. Look over there.”

  Tuck saw the space to which the guard was referring. It wasn’t very far away, so he nodded. “Okay, fine. I’ll move.” He drove to the parking space with the intention of jumping out and running over to the bakery to escort Nicole back to the car.

  She came out from the bakery and looked around. Tuck tooted the horn to catch her attention, but his horn wasn’t the only one tooting and she kept looking for him. All of a sudden she spotted him. He was getting out of the car and he waved at her, telling her by gesture to wait there, that he would walk over to her and then walk her back to the car.

  Or, now that she was outside, he could drive over and pick her up. That made more sense. He got back into the car, started it and had just begun backing out of the parking space when he noticed Nicole starting across the road, the fire lane, according to the security guard.

  A black van appeared out of nowhere. Tuck caught it out of the corner of his eye. He saw it speeding toward Nicole. The security guard, who hadn’t gotten very far away, also saw it, and seemed to freeze in his tracks. Nicole, apparently, was the only one who didn’t see it.

  Sweat broke out on Tuck’s body. That boat hadn’t been an accident, and neither was this. Lowicki and Spencer knew Nicole was in Coeur d’Alene and this was another attempt on her life!

  Tuck jumped out of the car and started running. Somehow, God only knew how, he rushed in front of the van and pushed Nicole to the sidewalk. The van sped on past.

  She had skinned knees. The breath was knocked out of her. The palms of her hands were stinging, and the cookies she had purchased were scattered all over the sidewalk. The security guard came running over. Other people began gathering.

  Tuck tried to get the license number of the van and saw that the plate was smeared with mud. But it was a black van with darkly tinted windows, and the one thing he knew for sure was that it was driven by a person with long red hair, possibly a wig. He put that out of his mind for the moment. The van was gone. There was nothing he could do about it.

  He turned to Nicole. “Are you all right?”

  “No, I’m not all right,” she said angrily. “I’m hurt, I’m confused. What in hell is going on?”

  The security guard interrupted. “Ma’am, are you all right?” Nicole just looked at him without answering. “I’m going to call the police,” the man said.

  Tuck looked up at him. “Do whatever you think is right, man.”

  As soon as the guard hurried away, Tuck said to Nicole, “Come on. Let’s get the hell out of here.” He pulled her to her feet, dragged her over to the car, which was still running, put her in the front seat, and drove away.

  Nicole started crying, sobbing quietly. “That van tried to run me down, didn’t it?”

  Tuck’s lips were in a thin, grim line. “Yes.”

  “And so did the boat.”

  “I think so, yes.”

  “They know I’m here.”

  “In my opinion, yes.” It was a relief to have faith in his own opinion again. In fact, he felt like a burden had suddenly vanished. He knew how to protect Nicole, only he couldn’t do it here. After a moment he said, “We’re going back to the cabin. I need to make a phone call. While I’m on the phone, I want you to start packing your things.”

  “Pack! Where are we going now?”

  “I don’t know, but we are leaving. Somehow they followed us to Coeur d’Alene. If they didn’t follow us, Nicole, there’s been a leak in the department in Vegas and Lowicki knows where you are. There’s someone here, someone they either knew to contact or sent from Vegas, and I’m not going to gloss it over for you anymore. You’re in grave danger.”

  His features were rigid with determination. “But at least I know what to do about it now.” One thing was in his favor: whoever was trying to shut Nicole’s mouth for good had been given instructions to make it look like an accident. That was the reason there’d been no gunplay, why no one had invaded the cabin. Yeah, he knew exactly what he had to do now.

  Eight

  Nicole was crumpled in the corner of the seat, almost against the door. “Hook your seat belt,” Tuck told her. Her hands were trembling, but she managed to latch the belt. Then she dug in her purse for tissues, wiped her eyes, blew her nose and shook with debilitating fear. Her life was in jeopardy. She was in grave danger, Hannigan’s own words.

  Maybe she hadn’t really believed it before, though certainly she’d been told how far Lowicki and Spencer would go to keep themselves out of prison. Detective John Harper had presented the situation in kindly terms, however, warning her without any ghoulish details. He should have been more explicit, she thought while sopping up another onslaught of tears. He should have said, “They’ll use any weapon to get rid of you, Nicole, so watch out for cars. And boats.”

  It was suddenly too much. “I can’t go on like this,” she sobbed.

  Tuck drove with one hand and reached out to her with the other, laying it on her shoulder. “You won’t have to. You have my word.”

  His hand on her shoulder and empathetic tone of voice startled the tears from her eyes. But then she remembered how uncooperative she’d been, balking at his every order, and her eyes filled again. There’d been no real need to go to town today. She’d been resentful, bored and obstinate, and had decided to push him just as hard as he’d been pushing her.

  Well, her adolescent rebellion had almost gotten her killed. Groaning out loud, she held a handful of tissues to her eyes.

  “Take it easy,” Tuck said quietly.

  “I’ve been such a damned fool,” she said bitterly. “You’ve not only had to watch out for me, you’ve had to put up with my bad humor.”

  He couldn’t disagree, and they drove the rest of the way to the cabin in silence. Tuck parked as close to the back door as he could fit the car. Not close enough, in his estimation, but it would have to do.

  Inside, he went directly to the phone. “Start packing,” he told her when she stood by with a downcast expression.

  “All right, but first I have to ask you something. How did the driver of that van know we were in town? How did the driver of the boat know I was swimming? People are watching us, aren’t they?”

  He’d been hoping she wouldn’t figure that out. He drew a breath. “Yes, I believe they are.”

  “Then how are we going to drive away without being seen? They’ll follow us again. Wherever we go, won’t the same thing happen?”

  He picked up the phone. “Trust me, Nicole. I know what I’m doing.”

  “I…trust you,” she whispered, and stumbled out of the room.

  Placing the phone back onto the receiver, Tuck stared after her. Just knowing they had to leave this place wasn’t enough; he had to come up with a feasible way of doing it.

  But what worried him now was that the animals trying to kill Nicole and make it appear accidental had tipped their hand today. They had failed at two different attempts, and they had to know that the cop guarding her was on to them.

  Tuck frowned. Did they know the cop’s name, as well? He’d had a run-in with Nick Lowicki a few years back, having busted that lowlife on a drug charge. Lowicki had gotten off on a technicality, but Tuck would bet anything Lowicki remembered him.

  More important, though, now that Nicole’s stalkers had given themselves away, would they forget about “accidental” and come after her with a weapon? Tuck scowled. The cabin�
�s doors and windows were all locked, but it would take him about two minutes to break into the place if he were so inclined; he couldn’t discount the assassin’s ability to do the same.

  Getting to his feet, he went to one of the drapery-covered windows and moved the fabric aside just enough to see out. Someone was watching them, but from where? Behind the cabin was a forest of trees, the road, and then a sharply ascending, heavily treed mountain. Someone could be perched up there on that mountain, but with such a density of trees and brush, he wouldn’t have an unobstructed view. It seemed more sensible to think that they were being watched from the front of the cabin, which meant the lake.

  Tuck studied the scene. Boats and water skiers crisscrossed the water; only what he’d come to expect on a sunny day. His gaze went farther out and lit on a beautiful white cabin cruiser. His pulse began a faster beat. He’d seen and admired that cruiser before. It appeared to be anchored. With high-powered glasses, a person on that craft could see everything that occurred on shore.

  That’s where they are, Tuck thought with a sudden instinctual conviction, out there on that beautiful boat. From there they had seen Nicole appear in her bathing suit and wade into the water. From there they had issued hasty instructions to a person in the speed boat. From there they had seen them get in the car and head for the city. The driver of the van must wait in town for his or her instructions.

  So…how many lowlifes was he dealing with? Tuck wondered with an angry twist to his lips. Two? Five? A dozen?

  “Damn right there’s a leak,” he muttered as he dropped the drapery back into place and returned to the phone. Sitting in the chair, he dialed Captain Crawford’s private number.

  It rang five times before it was answered. “Hello?”

  “Joe, this is Tuck.”

  “Uh, hello. I can’t talk right now. I’m in the middle of a meeting.”

  “You don’t have to talk. Just listen. Lowicki knows where we are. There’ve been two attempts on the lady’s life and we’re getting the hell out of here. I don’t know where we’ll end up, but I’ll call in periodically. You can hang up now, if you want.”