by Diana Palmer
“Gosh, lucky me,” she drawled.
“Don’t start that again, or I’ll dribble honey into your bedroom and pour it over your feet. Remember the ants…?”
“You can’t threaten women,” she pointed out. “It’s against the law.”
“Who’s threatening women? I’m only planning to feed ants.”
She glowered at him, but he was already out the door with Jack while she was fumbling with her laptop’s power switch.
* * *
It wasn’t rainy, but the woods were damp at night. Curt was uncomfortable in his bed of leaves, with his cell phone in his pocket and his listening device in one ear. All he heard were crickets. There wasn’t even an occasional loud howl from Big Red in his mother’s living room. Since last night, the dog had been oddly silent.
When he’d returned home, after being arrested, he’d begged her to phone the pound and have the hairy menace taken away, but she was already attached to the big dog. In fact, she went out later in the day and bought the animal the premium dog chow in defiance.
Curt, taking matters into his own hands, had phoned veterinarians’ offices asking about the big dog, but nobody had reported one missing. Probably, he summed up, the previous owner was enjoying his sleep and didn’t want the nuisance back again.
After spending the evening fighting for enough space to sit on the sofa, and with a long-suffering sigh, Curt got up to prepare for his evening’s work. When he left, Big Red was headed into his mother’s room with her. He moved quietly to the dark back door, and went out to play spy.
He was watching the barn covertly, but it was empty and it remained empty. He knew he’d seen sign, positive sign, that the culprit had been skulking around the outbuilding. But he had no proof. And because he’d tipped off the man by alluding to a visit by the police, all the clues had been skillfully lifted.
That caused him to wonder if he had the right man. The potential federal witness, Abe Hunt, was a city boy, born and raised in Miami. He had no background that included outdoor activities, including scouting or other boyhood faculties. So how could a guy like that obliterate signs of his occupation?
There was another curious thing. The man’s cousin, who lived down the street, had packed up his wife and kids and left town. Curt had gone by the house tonight, sneaking around its perimeters to make sure the family hadn’t vacated it so the cousin could hide out there. But there was no sign whatsoever that anything had been disturbed since the family’s abrupt departure.
The barn was empty and it remained empty. Oddly enough, the big dog wasn’t howling at the window tonight. Everything was sublimely peaceful. Curt leaned back against a tree with a quiet sigh and watched the night go by.
CHAPTER FOUR
Curt dragged himself through his mother’s back door at daylight, to be met by a wagging tail and a bark from the huge red dog.
“Isn’t he sweet?” Matilda asked from the stove, where she was flipping pancakes on a griddle. “Come in and have breakfast, dear. You must be tired.”
“Tired and all for nothing,” he said, removing the black cap and jerking a paper towel from the roll to wipe off his camouflage paint. “There wasn’t a peep out of anybody.”
“I noticed. Big Red didn’t bark.”
He scowled. “Think that’s why?”
“Well, he was howling and barking like crazy the night you and Mary got arrested, and you said somebody took food out of her kitchen. He even woke me up, just as they were driving away with you.”
“He was outside,” he pointed out.
“He was under my bedroom window, dear, where the basement door is,” she corrected. “He’s very loud.”
“Yes, he is. Odd, isn’t it, that he was barking there,” he said almost to himself.
“Wash your hands, Curt.”
He did, absently, at the kitchen sink. “You don’t suppose that our fugitive tried to hide out in our basement while we were tracking him down, do you?” he asked, to himself.
“We don’t lock the door,” she replied.
“Today, I’m going to get a padlock and put it on,” he said as he sat down to the table. “If he did, he won’t do it again.”
“Isn’t it curious that a fugitive would try to hide out near an FBI agent,” she mused as she served breakfast.
“I was thinking the same thing. And all the while his cousin lives down the street—when he isn’t fleeing the scene—but there are plenty of safer places.”
“Just what I thought.”
* * *
After breakfast, and an errand that took him to the hardware store, Curt drove down to the district FBI office in Lanier County to see Hardy Vicks. He arrived just before lunch.
“I’ve had a wild thought,” he told his superior.
“Yes?”
Curt leaned back in his chair. “I’m not going to put it into words until I’m sure. But can you spare me two men for an around-the-clock stakeout?”
The reply was so loud that the secretary stuck her head in the door to see why her boss was laughing his head off.
“Never mind,” Curt muttered. “I’ll ask the local police or the GBI or the sheriff’s department. And if we catch who I think we might catch, the newspapers can give them the credit!”
“Russell, you’re always sure you know what’s going on,” his superior reminded him, “and most of the time you haven’t got a clue. You were still chasing down the blonde in San Antonio in that high-profile Texas murder case, when the lieutenant governor’s wife was being booked for murder.”
“She was a material witness and I caught her,” he reminded the other man. “I even managed to have her extradited from South America to stand trial.”
His superior’s eyebrows rose. “Yes, I suppose you did.” He thought for a minute. “Okay, I’ll see what I can do about a surveillance unit, since this is a federal case. Where can we put them?”
“In my basement,” Curt replied.
“Up to their necks in dirt with the snakes and spiders,” the other man exclaimed.
Curt glared at him. “It’s a walk-in basement. There’s even a billiard table, if they’re so inclined.”
The other man grinned. “In that case, I might take the assignment myself. I’m partial to billiards.”
Curt almost forgot himself and suggested that might be because the older man’s head bore a striking resemblance to a cue ball.
“I’ll get back in touch. It might take a couple of days, though.”
“Okay,” Curt said. “Let’s hope the fugitive doesn’t get spooked and run for it meanwhile.”
“That’s why we pay you, isn’t it, Russell?” he was reminded blithely.
* * *
On his way out of the courthouse, Mary Ryan caught up with him. She was wearing a gray pantsuit and looked very professional.
“Any news?” she asked.
“Yes. My boss likes to play billiards,” he said irritably.
She chuckled. “So does mine.”
“It may take a couple of days to line up a surveillance team,” he said impatiently. “But I think our fugitive’s likely to take a powder long before then. When the police carried us off, the dog was howling under mother’s bedroom window—right where the basement door is.”
She whistled. “You think he might have been under your house?”
He nodded. “I went in this morning after breakfast to check it out,” he said. “There were no obvious signs, but a couple of books were misplaced and the balls were set up on the billiard table. I always leave them in the pockets.”
Her eyes narrowed. “He’s blatant, for a fugitive, isn’t he?”
He nodded slowly, with his hands in his pockets. “I was thinking that very thing. He acts less like prey than a predator.”
“They won’t want Abe Hunt to talk,” she continued. “He could send his mob bosses to prison with what he knows.”
“He could send one of them to his death. And Hunt might not be hiding from us at all,”
he added for her. “There might be a hit man after him, and that’s why he’s running scared. He’s afraid of someone named Daniels.”
She whistled. “Oh, that’s just great. I’ll sleep so nicely, knowing there might be a hit man parked in my barn or your basement!”
“It doesn’t make me any more comfortable,” he told her. “And my mother’s in the line of fire, too.”
“At least you have the dog,” she remarked.
He pursed his lips. “Another odd piece of the puzzle,” he agreed. “Where did he come from? Where’s his owner? Why is he living with my mother?”
“Because she likes dogs?” she ventured.
“He turned up at a strange time.”
She glanced up and down the street. “I’m going to have a nice salad. Care to join me?”
He looked at his watch. “I might as well. By the time I get home, that soup mother promised to save for me will be in the dog.”
She laughed delightedly. “Your mother’s a character.”
“You have no idea. When I was a kid, I never knew where she’d call from to say she was going to be late. Once she was behind a bank of police cars waiting for a sniper to be taken down. Another, she was racing to the scene of a drug-related bombing.”
“It sounds like an exciting life.”
His dark eyes sparkled as they walked into a nearby café. “It was. She had law-enforcement types around her half the time, men and women. It didn’t take much guesswork to understand why she got so many scoops right from under the noses of the other reporters.”
“But she retired.”
“When I got in my middle teens, I started giving her fits,” he confessed. “She gave up a higher-paying job to do feature work so that she’d be around when I needed her. I guess it was a good thing. I was headed straight to hell for a while. No matter how good a mother is, there’s no real substitute for a father when boys are involved. That’s not a politically correct statement,” he added with a long glance. “But it’s my opinion.”
She smiled sadly. “I can’t imagine life without my father.”
“I’d like to meet him.”
“Would you?” Her eyes brightened.
She was pretty when she was animated. He smiled down at her, and watched her cheeks color just slightly before she moved along in the line with her tray. When she lifted a glass to fill it with ice, there was the nicest little tremor in her long fingers. He felt pleasantly flattered.
Seated at their table, sharing a side order of vegetable chips, they talked about the mob case in Atlanta.
“If there really is a hit man camped out in our neighborhood,” she said, “our fugitive must know it. So why is he there?”
“That’s a question I wish I could answer. I didn’t dare tell my boss what I suspected.” He grimaced. “I got into some trouble in my last case. They’ve been giving me grief ever since I joined.”
“From what they say at the courthouse, you had some help joining,” she fished.
“Yes, from Marc Brannon. He was with them for two years. He’s a Texas Ranger. I, uh, sort of worked with him on the Texas murder case. Actually, he’s related to the vice president and the state attorney general, too.”
“You pulled strings,” she guessed.
“It was the only way to get into the Bureau and stay out of prison,” he chuckled. “They had to agree that I did a decent job of investigation, just the same. But they think they’re punishing me by sticking me up here in north Georgia, away from the action.”
“Seems to me you’re right in the middle of the action, if what we’re guessing is true,” she commented.
“Just what I thought. So we have to handle this just right.”
“We?” she queried, with her tea glass held suspended at her lips.
“I’ve had assigned partners who were less supportive,” he pointed out, pursing his lips. “Besides, you have connections. The police actually like you.”
She grinned. “I never told you what my dad did for a living, did I?”
He shook his head, entranced.
“He’s a cop.”
He chuckled. “Now, why didn’t I guess?”
“He’s in administration since he got his degree, but he was a beat cop for years,” she added. “I learned a lot just by watching and listening.”
“That’s how we all learn.”
“What are you going to do next?”
“I’m going to bug my basement.”
She grinned. “How exciting! Care to bug my barn, too?”
“I suppose I’ll have to, if we expect to catch anybody. None of the higher-ups have much confidence in my suspicions.”
She reached across the table and slid a long-fingered hand over his and smiled. “You’ll show them.”
His heart lifted. She made him feel capable of doing anything. His eyes brightened. “Thanks.”
She shrugged. “Sometimes, all it takes is having somebody believe in you,” she said simply, and let go of his hand. “I’ll help any way I can,” she added.
“I’ll give that some thought,” he promised.
* * *
Curt went back home, irritated with his lack of progress on the job.
His mother was sprawled on the sofa with her laptop while the big dog was lolling on its back on the carpet, sound asleep. It barely opened one drooping eyelid long enough to glance at him before it closed it again.
“Some watchdog,” he muttered, sitting down across from her in a chair.
“Where have you been?”
“Trying to convince people to believe I’m not an idiot,” he sighed.
“You’re not an idiot, dear.”
“Thanks.”
“Can I help?”
He gave her a long scrutiny. “Yes. You’ve had plenty of experience covering murder cases and racketeering. Who do you think is hiding out in Mary Ryan’s barn?”
“Abe Hunt, your federal witness who won’t testify,” she replied with a smile. “Is that what your boss won’t believe?”
He nodded miserably.
She shrugged and went back to her keyboard. “His misfortune. You catch your witness, dear, and let the others try to excuse their mistakes.”
“You sound very confident.”
“I raised you to be the best at what you do. And you are.” She glanced at him with a whimsical smile. “So why are you sitting here doing nothing?”
He chuckled as he got to his feet. “I’m off to the basement to convert wire and batteries and lights into covert ops material,” he remarked, stretching. “Good thing I know electronics.”
“And you didn’t even want to go to a technical school,” she scoffed.
“I only did two semesters,” he reminded her. “Just long enough to know that I wasn’t cut out for television repair. But I learned how to make listening devices,” he added wickedly.
She glared at him. “So I recall.”
“I never told anyone except you what I found out,” he protested.
“It was still illegal. Imagine, bugging the police chief’s office!” He grinned.
She waved him off without another word.
* * *
He didn’t tell her that he’d learned most of the craft from an older student who was heavily into covert work, even back then. But he’d paid attention and absorbed all he could, because he figured to do federal law enforcement for a career.
It took most of the afternoon to string the wire—he didn’t have the sophisticated bugs that were powered by tiny batteries. But what he had was workable, including a grid-pattern of weight-sensitive devices concocted of cardboard, wire and tape, which would reveal the presence of anybody weighing more than forty pounds. That left out most of the neighborhood dogs. He hooked his device to a central board with small lights and had his mother walk across to Mary’s garden, ostensibly to pick a radish, but actually to let him test out his equipment.
Of course, if a hit man was really out there, and watching, he’d know what Cu
rt was up to. But Curt was willing to bet that he was asleep somewhere, so that he’d be sharp and awake that night to continue his surveillance—assuming that Hunt was also going to move around at night.
None of which explained what Hunt was doing in this neighborhood in the first place.
If that was why the hit man was here.
If there was really a hit man.
For the first time, Curt was beginning to doubt his own assumptions. He’d made a lot of stupid mistakes, like not being quick enough to stop the Russian premier from being gored by a Brahma bull at the president’s summer home in Texas. A week in the Okefenokee Swamp had cured him of carelessness, but he’d made other mistakes. What if he’d only made assumptions here that weren’t true? If he didn’t turn up the federal witness he was going to have egg on his face. He was going to be the laughingstock of the whole law enforcement community. He blanched at the thought.
Then he remembered Mary Ryan’s words, and the look in her soft eyes when she’d told him she had confidence in him. And then he had his mother walk across Mary’s garden, ostensibly to pick a pepper, and his homemade board lit up like a Christmas tree with every step she took. By gosh, he was good, and he was right, and he was going to prove it to those stuffed shirts at headquarters!
* * *
Late that afternoon, when Mary got home, he went across in his jeans and T-shirt to talk to her.
They went into her kitchen, but before she said a word, he held up his hand and took an electronic device from his pocket. This was an older one, but it worked just as well as it had when he bought it five years ago. He swept the room for bugs and found none.
“Just to be safe,” he assured her, as he put it back in his pocket with a smile. “Be careful when you go out back. I’ve wired the yard.”
She stared at him. “You’ve what?”
“Wired the yard. I’ve planted pressure-sensitive devices all the way to the barn and the street…”
“In my tomato plants?” she exclaimed, horrified.
He glowered at her. “Not in your plants. In the weeds. Those yellow things…”
“My marigolds,” she wailed. “They’re organic pest control!”
“Will you listen?” he asked with pure disgust. “This is no time to get wild about a few flowers. This device might save your life!”
