by Diana Palmer
She took a deep breath. He couldn’t be blamed for all her plants. The police department had walked over several while they were searching for footprints out there. “Okay,” she said, gritting her teeth.
“When this is all over, we’ll go to the garden supply store and I’ll buy you ten flats of flowers,” he promised.
“I grew these from seed…”
“Don’t start that again!”
She put her hands on her hips and glared at him. “You have no idea what a garden represents, do you?” she burst out, furious.
He moved forward, caught her by the waist, swung her against his tall, powerful body, and kissed her fiercely.
She struggled for a few seconds, went still, and then slowly began to lean into him. Her hands rested at his belted waist then slid, caressing, into the small of his back. Her mouth opened under his, and his arms contracted, hard.
It had been a long time since he’d enjoyed kissing a woman so much. He hadn’t realized how long it had been until she began protesting his bruising hold.
He lifted his head, dazed, to stare down into her misty eyes.
“You do that very nicely,” she commented breathlessly.
“Thanks. So do you.”
She searched his dark eyes. He looked back at her with barely contained passion.
“A garden represents the children you don’t have,” he murmured, watching her swollen lips instead of her shocked eyes. “You have to have something to nurture, so it’s vegetables and flowers instead of kids.” He kissed her again, hungrily. “You could try nurturing me,” he suggested against her mouth. “My mother’s tired of dirty socks on the bedroom floor and wet towels under the sink.”
She laughed huskily. “You think I’d like wet towels under mine?”
“Why not?” he murmured, kissing her again. “We have similar professions and we’re both nice people. We could raise lettuce and hell.”
She nibbled on his full lower lip. “I’ll think about it.”
“You do that. In the meanwhile,” he added wryly, moving her gently away from him, “we might get to the matter at hand. Which is, I’ve bugged your barn and my mother’s basement and wired both yards. A dog can’t walk around here without setting off alarms.”
“How about a cat…or a mouse?” she asked with a pert grin.
He tapped her nose with his forefinger. “Don’t make fun of my elaborate preparations. I’m going to catch somebody tonight, even if it’s only a Peeping Tom. My reputation’s at stake.”
“I wouldn’t say that,” she said with a demure smile.
He grinned from ear to ear.
* * *
But although Curt sat in his basement until the wee hours, his board didn’t light up. Nothing happened in the neighborhood. The dog slept like the dead beside Matilda Russell’s bed.
Curt fell into bed at dawn, so tired and worn-out that he couldn’t manage to keep his eyes open. It was early afternoon before he woke up.
He opened his eyes to a wet spot on his bare arm. He rolled over and there he was, the dog, sitting calmly beside the bed, hassling right over Curt’s prone body.
“Oh, yuck,” Curt muttered, wiping his arm on the sheet. “What’s with you?” he demanded.
The dog kept panting. It really looked like he was trying to grin. He was beating time with his large tail at the same time. The thump-thump-thump was oddly calming.
With a sigh, Curt reached out a lean hand and rubbed Big Red’s head gently. “You’re not so bad, I guess…hey, what’s this?”
He felt a lump on the clasp of the collar that had gone unnoticed. He sat up, wide-awake now, and unfastened the collar. There was something taped there. He removed the black tape to reveal a thin tube. It twisted open.
“This is a hell of a thing,” he muttered to himself. He pulled out a thin roll of paper with writing on it.
“Curt, I’ve got lunch, dear!” his mother called from the kitchen. “Are you awake?”
“I’m awake!”
He opened the paper and looked at it with mounting curiosity. There were letters and numbers on it, but in no sort of order. It was like a code.
He got out of bed, securing the tube back on the dog’s tossing neck as he protested the motions of Curt’s hands.
“Found something,” Curt told his mother as he strolled into the kitchen. He’d already swept it for bugs the night before, and he was certain they weren’t being overheard. “Look at this.”
He handed her the paper. She studied it with narrowed, intelligent eyes and handed it back. “Code?” she asked aloud.
He studied the numbers again. “Yes,” he said. “It makes some sort of sense, but I can’t untangle it.”
“Where did you find it?” she asked.
“In a little tube taped under your new pet’s collar,” he told her. “And it looks as if it’s been there for a while.” He was worried. “What if the federal witness was trying to get in touch with me, and the dog was his messenger? I’ve blown days, because I didn’t understand why the dog was here!” he exploded.
“None of us would have thought of looking for a message on a dog, dear,” Matilda told him with an amused smile. “Sit down and have lunch. We’ll look this over some more. Hear anything last night?” she added.
He shook his head. “It was as quiet as a church on Monday,” he murmured, accepting a cup of hot coffee from his mother. “No lights, no sound, no nothing. It’s the damnedest thing. I know somebody was hiding out in Mary’s barn. I’m almost positive we had somebody in our basement. But everybody vanished. Including Hunt’s cousin, who left fire trails getting out of the neighborhood.”
“The cousins are back.”
“What?”
“They drove by while I was having breakfast this morning,” she said easily. “I watched them get out of the car. It was just him and her and their two kids, the boy and the girl.”
“Nobody else?” he asked suspiciously.
She shook her head. “I kept a fairly decent watch on the station wagon, just to make sure nobody crawled out of it,” she added. “But I didn’t see a soul.”
“Maybe they helped Hunt to go somewhere and then left him,” he was thinking out loud. “That would explain the lack of activity.”
“It would,” she had to confess. “But what is that message all about?” she added, indicating the slip of paper in his hand.
He grimaced. “I don’t know. The letters and numbers are jumbled. It isn’t a combination,” he added absently, studying them. “Or a locker number, of any sort I recognize.”
“Coordinates?” she suggested.
He shook his head. “Not possible.”
“Read them to me.”
“LPST23LBSDB129,” he murmured. He shook his head. “See? No sense.”
“Was there anything else in the tube?” she pondered.
“A piece of brown paper, apparently put there to hide this little slip of white paper…wait a minute!”
He got up and ran down the dog, who was wolfing down water. “Sorry, guy,” he murmured as he untwisted the tube again. He opened it and had to use a car key to extricate the stiff little tube of brown paper that was concealed. He replaced the tube, stood up, and unfolded the stiff tube.
“Eureka!” he exploded.
CHAPTER FIVE
Curt barely took time to explain his find to his mother and put on his clothes before he rushed out to the car and drove himself, at unlucky speeds, to the courthouse in Lanier County.
Fortunately, Mary’s court case had concluded early with a quick verdict. She was shuffling papers in the courtroom when Curt burst in.
“I need you,” he said, barely giving her time to gather her briefcase before he took her hand and tugged her out of the courtroom and right out of the building.
“But I have to see the court clerk,” she protested.
“You can phone and get your assistant to do it. We’ve got a break!” He put her into his car, got in, started it, and handed
her the folded slip of brown paper.
“It’s a pawn ticket!” she exclaimed.
“Yes! I’ve got something else, too.” He fumbled in his pocket and handed her the jumble of letters. “Can you make out the code from what you’ve got in your hand?” he challenged, having already made the connections himself.
“Yes. Let’s see… It’s the Lanier Pawn Shop, this is the ticket, then there’s another set of letters and numbers…” Her head came up. “If I’m right, this is a pawn ticket for a safe-deposit box key, which is located at the Lanier City Bank!”
He grinned. “Sharp girl.”
“What do you think it is?” she exclaimed.
“I have no idea. But with any luck, it’s something concrete that will prove Hunt’s mob boss committed murder to stop an investigation.”
She was as excited as he was now. They rushed into the pawn shop with the ticket. As they expected, they received a safe-deposit box key from the clerk at the shop. They then sped to the bank. They produced credentials and still had to get the bank president to preside over the opening of the safe-deposit box.
But when they inserted their key, there was a surprise waiting. The key didn’t work.
“How can that be?” Curt exploded. “This is the right number. It’s the right key!”
The bank president was scratching his head when the young woman who had been standing uncomfortably behind them spoke up tremulously.
“It wasn’t my fault, sir,” she moaned. “They had credentials, too. They said they were from the Justice Department. They had the box drilled and the contents removed, and then we had to have the lock changed…”
The bank president was livid. “You didn’t say anything about this, Miss Davis!”
“Sir, I told my supervisor. You’ve been out of town,” she added defensively. “It was three days ago!”
Curt cursed under his breath. There went his evidence.
“We can have the box drilled again,” the bank president said, disturbed.
“Don’t bother,” Curt replied quietly. “By now, every piece of evidence in it is gone. We’ve been beaten to the punch, royally. But thanks for your help.”
* * *
“Damn the luck!” he exploded when they were driving back to the courthouse. “If I’d just examined the dog three days ago!”
“Who would have expected a stray dog to carry evidence of a crime?” she comforted him. “You’re not superhuman, you know.”
He grimaced. “I could kick myself. The evidence is gone, the witness is gone, and I’m in the doghouse again.”
“I didn’t see any other federal agents doing much better,” she pointed out. “At least you’ve been trying!”
“For all the good it did me. I’ve been up all night staking out the neighborhood, and I have nothing to show for it. Except a few dead marigolds,” he added with a rueful smile.
“I’ve got plenty left,” she assured him. “Don’t beat yourself to death over it. I could make supper for you tonight,” she added. “Then we could go and play billiards in your basement. I love billiards.”
“You do?”
She grinned. “My girlfriend and I used to be the terrors of the tables when we were in college.”
He sighed. “That would make a nice end to the day. Something to actually look forward to,” he added with a slow smile. “Thanks.”
She shrugged. “What are friends for?” she asked, and she smiled back.
* * *
In the end, Mrs. Russell cooked for all of them. Over ham and potato salad with Matilda Russell’s homemade bread, they had a lively discussion about the criminal justice system and the excesses of the twenty-four-hour news stations.
Afterward, leaving the dog with his mother, Curt led the way down to the basement and racked the balls on the billiard table.
“I never asked,” he murmured. “Did you win your case?”
“Not my most recent one,” she replied with a tiny smile. “I fought hard, but the jury didn’t believe the poor man would do something so dishonest as to get his neighbor drunk and steal his land. However, I did win the one over the drug traffickers.” She shrugged. “You win some, you lose some. That’s life.”
He let her go first. He was sorry when she cleared the table with expertise. He chuckled as he racked the balls again and cleared it himself.
Neck and neck, they shot for points until it grew late.
“I’m having a very good time,” she said finally, “but I have a meeting at nine tomorrow morning. I’m going to have to…Curt?”
“Hmm?” he murmured, nudging balls into pockets to clear the table.
“What are those lights?”
He turned, only half concentrating on what she was saying. Then he noticed where her eyes were, and his heart stopped and started again. It was his board, the one he’d made and forgotten in the disappointment over the safe-deposit box. The grid pattern in Mary’s garden was lighting up like a holiday ship making port.
“Somebody’s in your barn again!” he exclaimed.
“How do you know?”
He explained, briefly, the grid pattern and how it worked. “See? He’s just gone into the barn. We’ve got him!”
She gaped at him. “You’re going in there all by yourself, huh?”
He went to the coat stand where he’d hung his shoulder holster without a word. He whipped it around his chest and checked his .45 automatic. His dark, serious eyes met hers. “This is where you go upstairs and phone Jack. Have him get in touch with Hardy Vicks. I don’t care if he has to be dragged out of bed. I need backup.”
She swallowed. “My dad taught me how to shoot.”
He smiled gently, taking her by the arms and bending to kiss her with fierce delight. “I wouldn’t risk you for all the tea in China, sweetheart,” he whispered, and kissed her again when she smiled up at him.
“Don’t get shot,” she admonished firmly.
His eyebrows lifted. “I wouldn’t dare. Go on.”
She went up the inside staircase and he turned off the lights. A minute later, he eased out the door, and the genial man of minutes before was eclipsed by a trained federal officer with nerves of steel and years of experience in risky situations.
There was, fortunately, enough cover to keep him hidden. He moved from his mother’s backyard, past the carport, past the house next door, behind its carport, and into the small thicket of hedge bushes that led to the street. The view from Mary’s barn was hidden by a growth of dogwood trees and boxwood shrubs, so he was able to duck and slide across the paved street. But then it was a matter of waiting for noise to camouflage his footsteps.
He waited until the sudden loud roar of a truck going along the highway a few hundred yards away disguised his movements. He rushed to the side of the barn, drew his weapon, took off the safety, and waited for another noise.
It wasn’t long in coming. He heard a soft, whispery movement from inside the barn, as if someone was leaning against a wall.
His heart was rushing in his chest. It sounded loud enough that it could be heard a block away, although he knew it couldn’t. He closed his eyes to concentrate on what he could hear.
The whispery sound came again. There was a flicker of movement, barely audible at all.
Curt had been shot once, early in his career. It had been a shoulder wound in a shoot-out with racketeers in New York City. It was the worst possible time to remember how much it had hurt. He couldn’t think about pain. He had to think about his mother and even Mary.
He took two quick breaths when he heard the approaching echo of another big truck. It’s now or never, Russell, he told himself firmly. He set his lips, took another breath, and rushed into the barn.
A big, heavyset man with wavy black hair gasped and threw up his hands in the bare gleam of light from the streetlight—the one that worked—nearby.
“Don’t shoot!” the man squeaked.
Curt’s blood was pumping madly. He had the pistol leveled at the ma
n’s gut. “Federal agent,” he clipped. “Identify yourself!”
“Abe…Abe Hunt!”
Curt frowned. “Hunt?”
“Ye…yeah! Could you, uh, put that thing down?” he stammered, indicating the pistol with a nod.
Curt lowered it with a curse. “You idiot! I could have shot you! What the hell are you doing in here?”
“Trying to outrun Daniels,” Hunt groaned, looking around wildly as he went toward Curt. “Man, you are slow as Methuselah! Didn’t you get the message? I sent the dog…!”
Curt wasn’t touching that. “Where have you been for the past few days?” he demanded. “You weren’t here! The damned dog hasn’t made a peep. Well, until now,” he added, as the dog suddenly began to bay and howl so loudly that he could be heard even through the walls of Matilda Russell’s living room.
“Oh, my God!” Hunt exclaimed. “It’s him! It’s Daniels! Redbone smells him…!”
Curt wasn’t going to ask how the dog could smell a man through a house. He’d seen bloodhounds track people in cars. Sloughed off skin was detectable even from the open window of a moving car, although most people wouldn’t have believed it.
“Get down!” Curt yelled, pushing Hunt ahead of him to the floor of the barn. It was dusty and dirty and, above all, safe. For the moment at least.
Hunt started to speak, but Curt snapped a faint blow against his arm, silencing him.
His eyes were growing used to the dark. His heartbeat was deafening him, but he knew his capabilities. If he could get a glimpse of their stalker, he could drop him. He was an expert marksman. Of course, there were other dangers—for instance, the man, Daniels, could just set fire to the barn and end the standoff. Old, dry, full of combustible material, it would go up in seconds with both men trapped inside.
Curt lay listening. If the man struck a match, in the silence unbroken except by the howling dog, he could hear it. He’d try shooting right through the walls if he had to. But he didn’t hear a match.
He did hear a faint footfall, barely an echo of a leaf crunching. He closed his eyes, aware of Hunt’s strained, loud breathing next to him. He jabbed the man again and made a motion with his finger to his lips. Hunt’s breathing quieted.
