She kept hearing the federal agent’s words. He’s dangerous, and he’ll do anything to get to the diamonds. She hadn’t liked him. Hadn’t liked his arrogance. Was that why she hadn’t listened? Much less believed? But now there was the mysterious phone call Jake hadn’t shared with her.
Still, this was a man who’d saved her life twice. That gave him the benefit of the doubt.
And, God help her, she wanted to be with him.
But she would be more cautious when they reached their destination. She glanced over at him. He appeared to be asleep. So quick. But then she’d learned that about him. He was obviously trained to grab sleep whenever he could. She knew, though, that he would waken at the slightest unusual sound. He was uncanny about that.
She turned all her concentration on the road.
CHAPTER 25
Jake checked his primary cell phone at a rest stop just over the Texas line. He no longer kept it on nor would he make calls on it, but he could receive messages with no risk of being pinpointed.
He had a new phone, purchased in Louisiana, to make necessary outgoing calls.
Among the messages was one from Kirke’s friend Robin. The other was from Sam.
He handed the new phone to Kirke and walked away so she could have privacy.
She called Robin first.
“Kirke, I tracked down the bar and found its address. It closed five years ago. I Googled Dallas Haley’s name. Went through about a million of them and finally had a hit. Wouldn’t suspect there were so many women named Dallas, or so many other Dallases of one kind or another. It was Haley, spelled H-a-l-e-y. Finally found a story in a local Williamsburg paper on her. It’s one of those small, neighborhood newspapers. I can e-mail it to you, or just read the pertinent parts.”
“Pertinent parts,” Kirke replied.
“It looked like one of the paid news stories about a business, the ones that look like a news story but is really a paid advertisement. Interviewed several people. Never mentioned CIA, but did say the majority of its customers came from surrounding military bases. The name, of course, is a dead giveaway to anyone who knows CIA history and the breaking of the Enigma code during World War II.” Kirke heard the glee in Robin’s voice when she talked about the name of the bar. Robin loved history.
“Anyway,” Robin continued, “the story mentioned the manager named Dallas. Last name Haley. It quoted her as saying the bar was like a big family, that everyone looked after each other.
“I called down to the paper, said I was doing an article for the travel section and found the article. The writer of the article was editor of the paper, and she remembered Dallas. She’d gone to the tavern several times with friends, and on one visit the owner said business wasn’t so good. She thought she would help by writing the story.”
“Did she know it was a CIA watering hole?”
“I asked her that. She said it was rumored, but then they also got some military people in there. Said maybe the powers that be at CIA heard the rumors and made it off-limits. Not good for security to have CIA agents drinking in a place everyone knew about. Business dropped off, hence the story. She said this Dallas managed the place until the owner sold it. When she was writing the story, she asked Dallas if she’d been born in Dallas, and Dallas said no, Denton, Texas. Her mother had the habit of naming the kids after places where they were born, but the father said no to Denton. So she was named for nearby Dallas.”
Kirke was awed. Robin always had a way with people. She obtained information no one else could. Politicians would spill the damndest things to her. “Much more than I expected,” she said. “Thank you.”
“I couldn’t find anything on her after she left Williamsburg, though. No property or tax records. No wedding license. No records at all in Texas.” She paused. “There’s something else.”
Robin’s tone warned her. “What?”
“There was a murder at the shopping center you mentioned yesterday. As I was talking to the reporter, she was working on the story. A woman was killed in the shopping area where the Enigma used to be. Police believe it was a robbery. A Closed sign was on the door during business hours, and the woman was found in the kitchen. She’d been stabbed.”
“What was her name?”
“Edna Caswell,” Robin said, then, “I don’t know what you’re mixed up in, but I would like more information.”
Kirke’s heart beat rapidly, and she stifled a cry. Edna. The cheerful woman who’d met her husband at the Enigma. She and Jake had stopped there, and now she was dead. She could barely breathe for a moment. When it was only her life, she could justify trusting Jake.
Could she still justify it?
“I’ll call you back,” Kirke said.
“Where are you? No, you don’t have to tell me. Texas.” Robin’s voice held resignation. “Do you know what you’re doing?”
No. “Yes,” she said, ignoring the other voice in her head. She needed to talk to Jake. Then she would decide.
“Kirke, if this is something illegal …”
Kirke decided to hit beneath the belt. “Remember when you were breaking a few laws on the officer slaying story?”
“You’ve broken laws?”
“Not unless helping someone is breaking a law.”
“Except sometimes it’s called being an accessory. Be sure you know what you’re doing. Murder’s involved now.”
If only she knew. Not one murder but, to her count, four now. Maybe more.
She ignored the comment and, instead, she tried to divert Robin. “When it’s over, you’ll have the biggest story since your Pulitzer nomination. Might even win this time.”
“I would rather have a live friend.”
Kirke had no answer for that. “I have to go. I’ll call you tomorrow. I swear. Everything might be over by then.”
“What about your job?” Robin asked.
“I have a few weeks’ leave after the sniper incident.”
Silence.
“Got to go, Robin. Thanks. I owe you.” She hung up before Robin said anything else to her, but her heart was still pounding.
“What’s wrong?” Jake was next to her. “Kirke?”
“Edna from yesterday is dead. Stabbed. A robbery, police said.” She looked up into his eyes. “But we know otherwise.”
He closed his eyes. He reached out to touch her, then dropped his hand to his side. “God, no,” he said.
“Robin has offered several times to talk to her husband. He’s a good guy, Jake. A really good guy.”
Jake opened his eyes, and his gaze met hers. “He might want to help, but I’m a convicted felon, Kirke. And I’m now officially a fugitive. My reasons for breaking the release conditions won’t matter to the government, not unless I can prove I was innocent. But I want you out of it now. I have some friends. They’ll take care of you.”
“You’re not going to stop?”
“I can’t. I’m getting close. Adams might know about Dallas now. If they do, she’s in as much danger as Edna.” He gave her a searching look. “Did she tell you anything else?”
“Our Dallas’s last name is H-a-l-e-y. She comes from Denton, Texas. Robin couldn’t find any records for her. No marriage records. No property records.”
She found herself swaying. She was still stunned by the news about Edna and filled with grief for the woman and her husband.
Jake put his arm around her and held her close for a moment. “I’m sorry,” he whispered in her ear. “If I could go back in time …”
She heard a slight break in his voice. Maybe no one else would realize, but she knew him now. He felt Edna’s loss as much as she. One moment she would feel that strong attraction, even a closeness she’d never felt with anyone else, and then he turned into a stranger.
He did that now. He walked a few feet away and made a call with the new phone. She heard only a few yeses and nos, then, “I’ll be there.”
Not we. I.
“You want to tell me about that?” she asked whe
n he finished.
“No,” he said, and this time the side of his lips moved upward in a sexy, tantalizing smile. “But I will. We’re meeting two people I know. Both were in Special Forces with me. One’s been doing his damndest to help me these past years. I asked them to come down and take you somewhere safe.”
“That was the conversation you had yesterday?”
“I was afraid you’d heard,” he admitted. “I didn’t think you would agree. I thought you would try to find some way to avoid them.”
“You didn’t think I should have a say in it?” she said, outraged now. “Were you going to kidnap me? Is that why you said, ‘Whatever it takes’?”
“Yes, dammit.”
“Why tell me now?”
“Edna Caswell is dead because she talked to us. I figured that would scare sense into you.”
She hauled off and hit him. Not as hard as she could but hard enough to make a point. She had given him everything she had. Her trust, her friendship, even her heart. She had put her life on hold. She had put friends in jeopardy. She might have lost her home. She’d been assaulted, shot, and almost kidnapped. All the while he was planning to take decisions away from her, to dump her with friends like so much unwanted baggage. She wanted to hit him again. Instead, she struggled to keep her dignity and stepped back.
He looked stunned.
Heads turned their way. A man did a double take. A woman grinned. Another looked concerned.
Still another couple approached.
She stepped away from Jake. “Nothing to be concerned about,” she said as lightly as she could. “He just said something really stupid.”
Jake straightened and tried a grin. “I should have learned,” he said. “Unfortunately she’s smarter than I am.”
The women chuckled. Two men looked uneasy.
Kirke went to the car and got in the passenger’s side. He followed.
“Did it occur to you,” she said, “that I have a job? That I have to return to Atlanta? I have, at best, ten days? You can’t just haul me away and store me like a piece of meat. What if you don’t find this Adams or whoever he is? I can’t live in fear the rest of my life. I won’t live in fear. And right now I’m the best chance you have to draw him into the open. He wants me because he doesn’t know what I know. He needs me more than he needs you. As you said, no one will believe you.”
“I’ll turn myself in then,” he said. “My life isn’t worth yours.”
“And just how will that help me?” she asked, not bothering to hide her anger. “I’m still a danger to him until he knows what I know, or what I have or what he thinks I have.”
She didn’t mention her doubts, her questions. Even her fear that he, too, wanted the missing diamonds. Maybe he thought he deserved them. But she was going to be there when he met Dallas.
Back in the car, she fastened the seat belt. “Now where are we going?”
His silence was louder than any words.
“I want to be there to talk to Dallas. I’m going to be there. You brought me on this trip. Now I’m going to finish it.”
“God help me,” he muttered, just loud enough to hear.
“I doubt it,” she said, still infuriated that he had gone behind her back, still not entirely sure of his intent.
“If they killed Edna Caswell, they might well know where we’re headed.” he said, his breathing a little heavier than usual. He moved in his seat and winced. “You throw a nasty punch.”
“If you’re a woman, it’s the only kind to throw. And I did figure that they are probably on their way. That means we’ll have to find her before they do.”
“Tell me everything your friend said,” he said, surrendering for the moment, although she knew the subject wasn’t closed.
She thought about withholding some information, then shrugged and told him everything.
“Your friend says she couldn’t find any legal records,” Jake said when she finished. “If she did return to Denton, maybe she’s using another name.”
“Or she married again,” Kirke said.
“Or she isn’t there,” he said. “She could be anywhere in the world.”
“But if we can find her maiden name, perhaps we can find relatives who know where she is,” she said. “You said it was rumored she was married to a CIA agent killed in the field. Wouldn’t she be receiving some kind of benefit?”
He nodded. “It would be classified, though.”
“You said Gene Adams might have help in the CIA.”
She could tell from his face he’d already considered the possibility. Which was why they crossed half the country without stopping.
“So he has resources we don’t?”
His silence again told her he was miles ahead of her.
“And you think Edna told them what she told us?”
“Yes,” he said simply. “They must have seen us leave and went inside to see what we wanted.”
“We’re in a race to beat them to Dallas then.”
He nodded.
“What about college?” she suggested, trying to think of every possibility. “Maybe she attended a college around Denton. She married a CIA agent. She probably had more than a high school education.” She looked at the map they had. “Looks like there are two colleges in or around Denton.”
“We don’t even know what she looks like now. Or when she graduated.”
Jake was a warrior. She’d been a newspaper reporter. She’d always had an instinct for finding what she was searching for. It had been part of the job. She supposed that he, on the other hand, had a more direct approach to confronting a problem.
“Robin said she would e-mail a copy of the article, or we should be able to find it. Maybe there’s a photo.” She looked at him. “Could you pick her out of a crowd?”
“I don’t think so. It was ten years ago. I was drinking. Mostly I remember the red hair.”
“So we have the name Dallas and the color of hair,” Kirke said. “Not much to go on. But we have two options. Yearbooks, if we can narrow down the years she might have attended. Second, alumni associations. They might have a current address on someone named Dallas Haley.” She glanced at him. “Is either of your friends a good hacker?”
“Just so happens Cole is.”
“Then I suggest he check alumni records. Maybe he can do that while we check yearbooks. The university libraries should have copies, and most are open to the public.”
The look he gave her sent rivers of heat through her. There had always been heated attraction between them, almost from the very moment they’d met. There had been respect. But now there was much more than that.
“Thank you,” he said simply.
She didn’t think he had ever said that before. It didn’t sound natural on his lips, but the look in his eyes made it real.
His hand went to hers for the first time since they’d left the deli, and she realized he’d been trying to put a distance between them, just as he had when they first met. He’d been preparing to say good-bye.
“Did you mean what you said? Get rid of me any way they could?”
“Yes. I still do. You’ve almost been killed several times now because of me. I can live with a lot of things, but you being hurt is not one of them.” He paused, then added, “Adams is a chameleon. He’s CIA-trained and can be anyone he needs to be.”
She swallowed hard. His voice was low and husky, almost aching with feeling. She had no doubt he meant it.
He would try to protect her. She knew that. What she wasn’t sure of was his end objective.
It wouldn’t matter if they didn’t reach Dallas Haley before the bad guys did.
CHAPTER 26
Kirke felt immediately at home inside Bob’s Barbecue Barn. The restaurant was similar to one she liked in Georgia. Emphasis was obviously on its barbecue, not ambiance. Seventies music blasted from a vintage jukebox in the corner, and wooden picnic tables provided the seating. Table decorations were mostly hot sauce bottles.
&nbs
p; After days of fast food, the aroma of smoked meat was heavenly.
She and Jake didn’t have to identify themselves. The moment they entered, a burly man approached them and nodded his head toward the back.
“Go through the door in the back. The one that says No Admittance.”
Jake simply nodded, and together they walked to the office. Jake knocked once, then opened the door.
Two men lounged in chairs, looking as if they had not a care in the world, yet she didn’t miss the immediate alertness that flickered across their eyes as she entered. It was obvious they trusted the owner of the restaurant, but caution was as much a part of them as the color of their eyes.
Kirke had become all too familiar with the same quality in Jake. Even when he slept he was alert, strange as that sounded.
“Cole Ramsey … Dane MacAllister—everyone calls him Mac—meet Kirke Palmer,” Jake announced.
The man named Dane made a mock salute to indicate which one he was. The other just studied her, head to foot, as Jake had done on their first meeting. It didn’t have the same hot impact as Jake’s perusal.
Both were lean and trim and looked as if they did the Iron Man competition every month or so. They were also attractive. Not traditionally so, but with that same self-assuredness that Jake possessed. They had that pantherlike caution and lethal quality as if danger lay behind every corner.
“Miss Palmer,” Dane acknowledged the introduction. “I understand you’ve had something of an eventful week.”
Jake had obviously filled them in during one of his calls. “You could say that,” she said.
Cole offered his chair.
“Thanks, I’d rather stand,” she said. “I’ve been in the car for more than twenty hours.”
Cole leaned across a desk that was covered with papers. “Hungry? Bob’s barbecue is the best ever. You’ll think better on a full stomach.
“I could eat a buffalo,” she said. “We’ve been surviving on donuts.” As the words came out, a lump formed in her throat at the memory of who’d sold them the donuts. She didn’t want the same thing to happen to Bob.
Catch a Shadow Page 22
