The devil and Jessie Webster

by Lydia Burke

"Well?" Jessie demanded impatiently. "Do you resent my being here?"

  She looked cute when she was mad at him, but Ben knew bettor than to tell her that. He placed a steaming mug into each of her hands and picked up the other two.

  "No," he said, dropping a quick kiss on her mouth, "I don't." He turned and strode into the living room, leaving a befuddled-looking Jessie to follow.

  "Rory here tells me the two of you played football together in high school, Ben." Leutzinger accepted the mug Ben handed him.

  Ben glanced at Rory. "Yeah, we did."

  "That's right," his old rival said heartily. "Old Ben here was our star quarterback, weren't you, Ben? They called him 'Struttin' Sutton.'"

  Ben shrugged and took a sip of his coffee.

  "Come on, don't be modest." Douglas smiled at him and said to Leutzinger, "The teachers and coaches all loved this guy. They used to hold him up to the rest of us as a model of what we all should be."

  "That's a slight exaggeration," Ben said warily.

  "Not too many of us were cut out to be men of the cloth, though, not like Ben," Rory went on doggedly. "Did you know that Ben had studied to be a minister, Miss Webster?"

  Jessie said faintly, "No, I didn't, but I don't think—"

  "What happened, Ben? You could have knocked me over with a feather when a buddy told me at our ten-year reunion that you'd become a cop. Everybody in the old gym was hoping you'd show up that night, so we could get the scoop on what changed your mind."

  Ben masked his irritation behind a tight smile. Douglas's eyes were fairly glowing with unholy speculation. Evidently he was nursing old grudges and still retained his bullying tendencies from the old days. Well, Ben thought, this time he had underestimated his opponent. Ben Sutton had stopped turning the other cheek a long time ago.

  "If s a dull story," he said. "Yours is far more interesting, Rory. Why don't we talk about the old neighborhood? The stories we could tell, right? I'm sure Cal and Jessie would be fascinated."

  Douglas opened his mouth, then closed it. Ben mentally chalked up the point. Just as he suspected, Rory was touchy about his humble beginnings.

  Ben let the silence go on for an uncomfortably long time before he said, "No? Oh, well, come to think of it, high school nostalgia is pretty boring stuff to outsiders. Sorry, Jessie...Cal."

  Rory looked furious, but Leutzinger only shrugged.

  Jessie caught Ben's eye and he winked at her. She winked back, surprising a grin out of him.

  Ben suddenly felt expansive toward his guests, even Rory. "Anyone for more coffee?"

  Sometime later, Jessie wandered to a window to gaze out at the November morning. The sky was overcast, and she could

  almost see the frost in the stiff wind that bent the bare branches of the trees in Ben's yard.

  "Bored?" Ben asked softly. She turned around and found him standing close.

  "I'm not into golf," she whispered back, glancing over her shoulder at the match Douglas and Leutzinger were watching on TV. Neither man seemed aware of the conversation going on behind them.

  "What's between you and Rory Douglas, anyway?" she asked.

  "A lot of bad memories I'd just as soon not talk about," Ben said. He, like Jessie, kept his voice low.

  "I knew there was something I didn't like about the man. What did he do to you?" She was firmly on Bra's side, whatever had happened.

  "Nothing, really, at least nothing specific. You know kids. We were friends once, but then he turned against me. He grabbed every chance he could to make me look stupid or uncomfortable in front of other people."

  Jessie remembered Douglas's type from her own school years. "He was probably jealous of you and tried to put you down to make himself look better. When he didn't succeed, he disliked you all the more."

  Ben smiled and brushed her cheek with his knuckle. "You could be right. I was an overachiever in those days and usually got what I went after. More times than not I was in competition with Rory."

  "Is it true you wanted to be a minister?"

  The smile disappeared, and Jessie saw the shadow in his eyes just before he turned away to look out the window. The light from outside turned the coffee-colored locks at his forehead to shining strands of silver. "That was a long time ago," he said quietly. "I realized when Maddie died it was a bad career choi-"

  The telephone rang, and their eyes locked. Jessie said, "Al-lie."

  Ben hurried to answer. The caller was indeed her twin, Jessie gathered. Ben wasted no time in introducing Leutzinger and passing the phone over to him.

  Allie apparently had her speech prepared, because after identifying himself, the agent stood listening for what seemed to Jessie a long time. Finally he glanced at Rory Douglas and said, "I have the prosecutor for this case right here. I'll have to okay it with him first. Where do you want us to meet you?"

  Allie's answer did not please him. He lowered the phone and covered the mouthpiece with his palm. "She won't give us a location until we agree to her terms," he told Douglas grimly. "And that's not all. She says she's got enough dirt for a hell of a story whether we play her way or not."

  "Meaning?" Douglas asked.

  "Meaning we give her what she wants, or she writes the story before she hands over the evidence."

  "And there goes our case," Ben said.

  "Your case? What about Allie's safety?" Jessie's voice was strident. "Don't any of you caie that somebody may be out there looking for her and that journal?"

  "Of course we care," Leutzinger told her patiently. "But your sister is being extremely bullheaded, Miss Webster. We've offered her protection, and she's refused by choice, strictly out of her own interests. Now she's jeopardizing an investigation that could put away some major crime figures. It takes time to build sufficient evidence to convict in these cases, time that your sister is threatening to take away from us."

  "She's giving us a good case for obstruction of justice," Douglas added.

  Jessie began to see the magnitude of the trouble Allie was in. "Let me talk to her." She took the phone. "Allie?"

  "Jessie? Jeez, I was beginning to think Leutzinger had fallen asleep over there. He's not tracing this call, is he?"

  "No, of course not. Listen to me, Allie. You've got to forget about this story and cooperate with the FBI. They told me you're breaking the law. Please, tell them where you are so they can come and get you. There are people who would kill you to get that journal. I want you to be safe!"

  There was a long silence. "Don't worry, sis, I'm safe. I'm wearing a disguise so good even you wouldn't recognize me," Allie finally said in an sardonic voice. "But I don't get it. These

  guys make deals with criminals all the time—why not with me?"

  "Forget about the deal! Your life is in danger!"

  "Settle down, Jessie. Fm okay, really. Listen, do you think these guys are really serious about charging me with something?"

  Jessie looked at the three men watching her. "I don't know. I think so."

  "Then you tell Leutzinger I've just upped the ante. The journal plus freedom from prosecution for my exclusive. Damn, this is no good over the phone. What does this guy look like?"

  "Who, Leutzinger?"

  "Oh, never mind what he looks like. Tell him to wear a flower in his lapel and stand by the elephants in the museum at two o'clock sharp. I'll find him. Bye, Jessie. Don't worry about me."

  Jessie took the phone from her ear. ' 'She hung up."

  "Dammit!" That was Leutzinger.

  "Did she give you a meeting place?" Douglas asked.

  "Yes, but there's more." Jessie related Allie's demands.

  The men looked at one another.

  "She has us over a barrel," Douglas said.

  Leutzinger snapped, "So she thinks. Fm still concerned about the integrity of our investigation. This woman is hungry to make a name for herself. I don't think we can trust her to hold the story until we're ready for it to break."

  "We can if we keep her in protective custody," Ben sai
d.

  "Wouldn't she have to agree to that?" Allie asked.

  "Good point," said Douglas. "She doesn't seem to be overly concerned about her safety, and there's not much chance she'll voluntarily turn herself over just so we can keep an eye on her. You'll have to arrest her."

  "But what about the deal?" Jessie was alarmed by the turn of the conversation.

  Leutzinger said, "We haven't made a deal yet. Where does your sister want us to meet her?"

  She thought fast. "You'll have to get a flower for your lapel so she'll know who you are."

  "A flower!" Leutzinger rolled his eyes. "Okay, where will she be?"

  Jessie crossed her fingers behind her back. "By the elephants/' she said, quavering inside, "at Brookfield Zoo."

  Chapter 11

  -Heart pounding, Jessie straggled to keep her deception from showing on her face. She'd never been a good liar, and now she avoided looking Ben in the eye. Of the three men, he was the one most likely to see through her subterfuge.

  Though she wasn't sure where to go from here, she had to try to keep Allie from walking into what amounted to a trap. For once her twin needed her help, and Jessie couldn't let her down.

  Ben, apparently remembering his duties as host at last, went to the closet and handed the other men their topcoats. Leut-zinger checked his watch, grumbling that Allie hadn't given him much time to set things up, a meeting outdoors in November was damned idiotic, and where in the hell was he going to find a flower?

  Jessie had a bad moment when she realized Rory Douglas was watching her during Leutzinger's complaining, but she looked at him with an innocent smile. He returned a bland one of his own and prepared to leave without comment.

  If she wasn't challenged, she'd be fine, she told herself. She just had to hang on.

  In the general flurry of activity, she noticed Ben slipping into his leather jacket. "Are you going, too?" she asked hopefully.

  That would certainly simplify her task. She knew it wasn't enough just to send Leutzinger and Douglas on a wild-goose-make that elephant—chase. Somehow she had to get to Allie with a warning.

  "Nope/' Ben yanked his jacket zipper all the way to the collar. "My job is to look after you. I'm just walking Cal and Rory to their cars."

  So she would have to deal with him, after all, she thought with an inner sigh. Well, she didn't have time to talk him into helping her, if that was even possible. She'd have to work around him.

  He pressed a large squarish button next to the doorjamb.

  "What's that?"

  "It opens the front gate. You stay put. I'll be right back."

  Jessie waited until he'd followed the other men out, then eyed the button he'd just pushed. She hadn't given the gate a thought until now. What else was there lurking in her path that she hadn't considered? For an instant her determination wavered.

  But she shook off her apprehension, deciding that finding out how the gate opened from the inside was a good omen. That was one obstacle she didn't have to face. Anything else, she would confront as it came.

  Knowing there was no time to waste, she hurried to the phone to call a cab. Momentarily stymied when the dispatcher asked for an address, she spied a news journal on the table next to Ben's recliner. A subscription magazine with an address label. She read the address into the phone and hung up, relieved. That took care of transportation.

  Now all she had to do was figure out a way to keep her bodyguard occupied while she sneaked away.

  She was in the kitchen heating a couple of cans of thick, beefy soup when Ben spoke from the kitchen doorway. "What*re you up to in here?"

  Jessie glanced over her shoulder, her insides churning. She hated what she was doing, necessary though it was. "Fixing lunch. This whole thing with Allie has made me headachy, and I thought food might help. Is it okay that I snooped and found this soup in the pantry?"

  Ben came up beside her and took the wooden spoon out of her hand. "Do you need some aspirin?"

  "Oh, no, I'm sure I'll be all right once I've eaten."

  "Let me do this. You sit down by the table and rest."

  He sounded so solicitous, Jessie felt doubly guilty as she let him gently push her away from the stove. Then she remembered what he and his cohorts had planned for Allie. She took a seat at the table, her resolve hardening.

  "You were gone a long time," she said. "What did you have to talk about out there that you couldn't say in front of me?"

  "We weren't hiding anything from you," Ben said. "I was just saving time by walking Cal out. He only has a little over an hour to coordinate the rendezvous and I wanted to see what he had planned." He filled two bowls from the steaming pan, grabbed a couple of spoons out of a drawer, and brought soup and utensils to the table in one trip.

  Jessie picked up her spoon. "What does he have planned?"

  Ben stirred the brothy mixture in his bowl. "If s a pretty standard operation. Nothing more than a couple of extra men to ensure Allie's safety."

  Jessie snorted. "Oh, sure, her safety is a big problem. Right after getting her handcuffed."

  "Hopefully, she'll go along with them and it won't come to that."

  Jessie's head snapped up. "You mean, they would actually put handcuffs on her? In public?"

  "There's a lot at stake here, Jess. Surely you understand that protecting Allie from public embarrassment doesn't rank very high in importance right now. Leutzinger will have to do whatever is necessary to get that journal and keep our investigation quiet. Anyway, if s not likely there will be many witnesses at the zoo in this weather."

  Upset at his callous disregard of Allie's sensibilities, Jessie stood up, ready to tell him just what he could do with his investigation. Barely in time she remembered her plan and swallowed her angry words. It was more crucial than ever that her ruse be successful. "Oh!" she cried, lifting a hand to her eyes as though she were in pain.

  In an instant Ben was beside her, one arm around her waist while his other hand gently brushed the hair away from her face. "What's the matter, honey? Are you dizzy?"

  "No," she said weakly, watching him through slitted eyes for a sign of suspicion. "It's this darned headache. Maybe I'd better lie down for a while."

  He made no move to let her go. "Let me get you those aspi-nn.

  "No, please—I'll be fine. I have something in my purse in the bedroom."

  "You suie?"

  "Really, it's only a headache. All this tension and everything...I'm sure I'll be fine once I He down. You go ahead and eat."

  Reluctantly he gave in and let her move away. "Leave the bedroom door open and call if you need anything."

  "I will," she said.

  She had done it! And now it was all Jessie could do not to run from the kitchen, away from the kind sympathy in Ben's eyes.

  Once in the living room and out of his sight, however, she hurried to the porch door to press the gate button. The mechanism engaged with a muted click under her unsteady fingers. Jessie looked over her shoulder to the kitchen, relieved to see or hear no sign of Ben.

  Having opened the gate, she spared a long second wishing she dared to walk out the front door, but rejected that idea as too risky. Ben might hear or walk in from the kitchen unexpectedly. Instead she tiptoed down the hallway to the bedroom. There, contrary to her promise to Ben moments ago, she not only closed the door, but also turned the lock in the doorknob. It was a flimsy barrier at best, and Jessie didn't deceive herself that it would stop him if he should come looking for her. However, it could provide her a few more precious minutes to meet her cab. After that, she would be home free.

  Once again she stopped and listened, her ear pressed to the door. Nothing. So far, so good*

  Jessie dashed first to the dresser to snatch up her purse— she'd need cab money—then to her next hurdle, the window. Uncounted seconds were frittered away while she fumbled to

  lift the sash. Finally she realized it was locked. In a burst of frustration, she flipped the latch.

  And froze. />
  A high, penetrating tone, unbroken and persistent, reached her ears from another part of the house. Oh, no, she'd activated an alarm!

  Panic gripped her, and Jessie was never able to recall afterward any details of how she'd climbed out the window and made her way to the end of the driveway. Only the bitter cold and her mental chant of hurry, hurry, hurry made lasting impressions. Her cab pulled up only seconds after she reached the street.

  "The Field Museum!" she said to the driver as she got into the back seat.

  She heard a shrill, attention-grabbing whistle just before she slammed the door closed.

  "Who's that?" The driver looked up the driveway to the house. Jessie saw Ben running toward them like a sprinter in a race.

  "Never mind! Just go!" she cried, sitting forward on the seat in a futile effort to get the cab moving.

  "We better wait," the cabbie said. "Maybe you forgot something."

  "What?" Jessie looked at the back of his bald head incredulously. She couldn't have been unlucky enough to draw the only considerate cab driver in the universe.

  "See? He's yeUin' something."

  Jessie wanted to reach over the seat and tear the man's ears off. "I didn't forget anything! Go! Go, dammit!"

  But it was too late. Ben opened the door and leaned in with fire in his eyes. "Where the hell do you think you're going?"

  "None of your business!" she snapped.

  "It sure as hell is my business! Get out of this cab!"

  "Hey, is.this guy givin' you trouble?" The Good Samaritan

  the front seat finally realized he might have miscalculated. Jessie shot him a dirty look.

  "There's something I have to do," she told Ben frigidly. She had no alternatives left, not if she was going to meet Allie in time. "Either get in or get out. This cab—" she paused signif-

  icantly and met the cabbie's eyes with a venomous glare "—will be moving in ten seconds.'■

  Ben swore and climbed in.

  "You sure he's okay?" the driver asked her warily.

  Jessie rolled her eyes. This guy was the limit. "Just go."