Christine grabbed Jennie’s ankles and dragged her into the hall.
The doorbell rang. Jennie screamed and kicked as hard as she could, connecting with Christine’s thighs.
“Shut up, you idiot. You’ll ruin everything.”
The door burst open. Agent Tucker, gun drawn, yelled for Christine to stop. “Get away from her—now!” The moment Christine let go, Jennie rolled onto her stomach, and despite the pain in her neck and shoulders, she got to her feet.
“She’s Sonja,” Jennie panted. “She has guns and bombs in a command center in the basement. Sal’s down there.” She quickly filled them in on the details.
Christine leaned forward against the wall while Tess patted her down, read her her rights, and handcuffed her.
Christine straightened and held her head high. “It won’t end with me, you know. Someone will come in and take my place, just like I took over for the last Sonja. You can arrest me, but you’ll never end the movement. Never. We won’t stop until every animal is safe and free.”
Jennie shuddered at the vehemence in her voice.
“That may be”—Tess holstered her gun—“but at least we’ve got you. That’s a start.”
“This is your fault, Jennie McGrady. You’ll have the blood of murdered animals all over the world on your hands.”
“Enough!” Tess turned to the FBI agent. “Go ahead and check on Sal. I’ll stay up here with her.”
Jennie led Tucker down to the hidden room. He untied Sal while Jennie called for an ambulance.
“You took a big chance coming here, Jennie,” Tucker said when she hung up.
“I know. I came to bring her a casserole. I should have left right away. I underestimated her. I was just going to look at her car and leave. I really don’t think she meant to kill us. She was planning to leave tomorrow after the funeral.”
Tucker shook his head. “I doubt she intended to take you along. She’d have left you here, but how long do you think you’d have survived in this hole?”
Jennie grimaced. “Yeah, but it wouldn’t have been her fault.”
“What?”
“It would have been mine for coming here. That’s how she justifies what she does. It’s never her fault.”
He put in a call to another agent asking him to bring an officer in to examine and gather the evidence. “We shouldn’t have any trouble putting her away with all of this. And unless I miss my guess, her computer system will give us access to other key members. We may even be able to thwart some of their plans.”
“I’m glad to hear that. Scott will be too. Do you think Aleshia knew about her mother? It still seems impossible for her to have kept it a secret so long.”
“Amazingly enough, I don’t think she had a clue.” Agent Tucker cast her a lopsided grin. “Much as I hate to say it, Jennie, without you, we might not have caught Christine. She covered her tracks well and she was right about one thing. Even with a search warrant, we might not have found her little hiding place.”
“I’m just glad you showed up,” Jennie said. “Which reminds me, why did you come?”
“Wanted to ask her a few questions about Sal’s working for them. We thought he might have an affiliation with ARM and been sent to scope out the place. I also thought he was the one who ambushed us.”
Jennie tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Christine did that. She also instigated the release.”
Jennie hung around until Tess had taken her prisoner and the ambulance had come to get Sal. He’d be fine, they’d said. Crystal and her mother would meet them at the hospital. Agent Tucker offered her a ride back to the Bergstroms’ and Jennie took it.
Four days later, Jennie entered the Trinity pool area and dove into the clear, inviting water. She’d finished school early and wanted to get in some extra lap time. Except for her and Coach Dayton, who was holed up in her office grading papers, the place was deserted.
Jennie swam her laps with far less enthusiasm than she should have had. The investigation still weighed heavy on her mind. Bob Sutherland’s killer was behind bars. Sonja had been captured along with a hundred or more commandos’s who’d terrorized the fur farming industry over the years. Aleshia and Crystal were no longer ARM members.
After her ordeal with Christine, Jennie had gone back to the Bergstroms’. Mary blamed herself for sending Jennie to her near death, which was fine with Jennie as it meant she wouldn’t get into trouble with her parents. Instead, they hailed her a hero. She’d even gotten a call from the Fur Commission commending her actions.
As a bonus, Tess Parker had called the day before to tell Jennie she was leaving Thompson. Her husband had called the day after reading about the bust to tell her about a job opening for a police chief in a small town east of Seattle. If everything went well, she’d be back with her family within the month.
Everything had turned out well, except one small detail—Scott Chambers. She hadn’t heard from him and still had no idea where he was. Calls to the FBI proved fruitless. Last night she finally resorted to calling Gram, who said she and J. B. would look into the matter.
Finishing her laps, Jennie hit the wall and started to pull herself up. She saw a jean-clad leg, a leather hiking boot, and a flash of white before her head went under again. Jennie struggled for a moment, then reached up, grasping the hand that held her down. Bracing her feet against the pool wall, she pulled her attacker off balance and into the water.
Hearing his yelp, Jennie hoisted herself out of the pool. A wide smile played on her lips as she watched him right himself and grab the edge of the pool.
“Hey, what did you do that for?” Scott shook the water out of his dark hair. “You got my cast wet.”
“Serves you right, sneaking up on me like that.” She wrapped a towel around herself and stepped back when he reached for her leg.
“Okay, you win.” He dragged himself out of the water. “No more games. You don’t play fair.”
“Me!” Jennie gaped at him. “You’re the one who tried to drown me.”
Scott straightened and smiled at her. Jennie smiled back. “I missed you.”
“Yeah?”
“So why didn’t you call?” She grabbed another towel to dry her hair.
“FBI wanted me to lie low for a few days to be sure I wasn’t in any more danger.”
“You could have let me know…”
“Jennie.” His green eyes met hers, and she forgot all about her anger. She forgot about everything except that he was standing there looking so cute and …
His arms went around her and in the next instant he was kissing her.
“You’re wet,”
“She said when they finally drew apart.
Scott tipped his head back and laughed. “Thanks to you.”
She glanced at his still-dripping cast. “Sorry about that.”
“Hey, no problem—it’s been through worse. But if you’re really broken up about it, you can take me to the clinic after practice and stay with me till I get a new one, then take me out to dinner. I want to hear your side of the story.”
“You’re on!”
Desperate Measures Page 21
