by Nora Roberts
“You’re really not supposed to be on that side.”
She straightened, walked over to speak to the man who’d addressed her. “I’m Lil Chance.” She offered a hand. “This is my place.”
“Oh, sorry.”
“No need. I was just checking on our newest addition. We don’t have her plaque up yet. This is Delilah, and it’s her first full day here. She’s a Bengal,” she began, and indulged in one of her rare guided tours.
By the time she’d finished and passed the new group on to a pair of interns, Brad was ready for her.
“You’re online, Lil. Fully operational. I want to go over the whole system with you and your senior staff.”
“I’ve let them know they may need to stay late tonight. I’d rather wait until closing, if that’s okay with you.”
“Not a problem, especially since Lucius said I could help with tonight’s feeding—if you cleared it.”
“It’s a lot of work.”
“I’d like to go back to New York and say I’ve fed a lion. I can dine out on that for a long time.”
“Then you’re on. I’ll walk you through that, then you can walk us through the system.” She turned back toward the habitat. “Even though I saw the design, I was afraid it was going to look intrusive, high-techy, and well, institutional. It doesn’t. Everything’s nicely camouflaged. It doesn’t intrude.”
“Aesthetics count, but so does efficiency. I think you’re going to find we delivered both.”
“I already do. Let me take you to the commissary.”
AFTER FEEDING, AFTER closing, Lil worked through the controls of the security system, under Brad’s tutelage. For the late staff meeting, she’d broken out the beer, provided a bucket of chicken and some sides. It might’ve been serious business, but there was no reason her people shouldn’t enjoy it.
There’d been enough stress.
She went through sectors, then elements, switching on lights, alarms, locks, cutting them again, varying the camera view on the monitor.
“Aced it,” Brad told her. “Not as fast as Lucius. He still holds the record.”
“Geek,” Tansy accused.
“And proud of it. Split screen, Lil, four views.” Lucius bit into a drumstick, pushed his glasses back up his nose. “Let’s see what you’re made of.”
“You think I can’t do it?”
“I’ve got a buck says you can’t first time out.”
“I’ve got two she can,” Tansy countered.
Lil rubbed her hands together, and quickly ran over the codes and sequence in her head. When four images appeared on-screen, she took a bow.
“Luck. I’ll put five down Mary can’t run the sequence.”
Mary only sighed at Lucius. “I’d bet against me. Key cards, security codes. Next thing it’ll be retinal scans.” But she stepped up gamely. Inside thirty seconds, she had the alarms shrilling. “Damn it!”
“Thank God.” Matt swiped a hand over his forehead. “That takes the pressure off me.”
As Brad walked a frustrated Mary back through the drill, Lil eased over to Tansy. “You’ve got it. You can cut out any time.”
“I want to run through it one more time. Besides”—she held up her paper plate—“potato salad. I’m not in a rush. What?” she said when Lil frowned at her.
“Nothing. Sorry. I was thinking of something else.” Which would be the ring burning a hole in Farley’s pocket. “You know, it’s going to be quiet around here tonight. No guard duty.”
“Well.” Tansy wiggled her eyebrows when Coop came in. “In a manner of speaking. Maybe you should break out the sexy lingerie and give it one more wear.”
Lil gave her an elbow bump. “Quiet.”
She muffled a laugh as Mary managed to shut down the monitor. “It’s going to be a while.”
“If he could put the security on a spreadsheet, she’d kick ass.”
“Meanwhile . . .” Lil eased a hip onto Lucius’s desk, and nursed her beer.
It was full dark, with the three-quarter moon on the rise, when she saw off the last of her staff. She hoped they all managed the key card on the gate in the morning, but for now, she wanted a quick pass at some of the work she’d had to neglect during the day.
“I’ll be by tomorrow,” Brad told her. He lingered on the porch while Coop sat on the rail. “Work with Mary a little more, and make sure we don’t have any glitches.”
“I appreciate all you’ve done.” She looked out toward the habitats, the streams of lights, the red blink of motion detectors. “It’s a relief to know the animals are secure.”
“You’ve got the local number if you have any problems. And you’ve got mine.”
“I hope you’ll come back, even if there aren’t any problems.”
“You can count on it.”
“I’ll see you tomorrow.”
She went to her own cabin. Considering the time, she opted to make a pot of tea to get her through the hour or so of work she hoped to put in.
In the kitchen, on her rugged table, stood a vase of painted daisies. Pretty as a rainbow.
“Damn it.”
Was she weak, was she simple, for going a little gooey inside? But really, was there any more direct hit than flowers on a woman’s table put there by a man?
Just enjoy them, she ordered herself, as she put the kettle on. Just accept them for what they are. A nice gesture.
She made the tea, got a couple of cookies from her stash, then sat at the table with her laptop and the flowers.
She brought up her refuge e-mail first, as always amused by the letters from children, and pleased by the ones from potential donors asking for more details about certain programs.
She answered each in turn, and with equal attention.
She opened the next, caught her breath. Then slowly read it through a second time.
hello lil. long time no see at least for you. you’ve sure been doing a lot around the place, it gives me a good laugh to watch. i figure we’ll get reacwainted. i figured on it being a surprize but seems like the locals figured out i was around. i’m haveing fun watching them chase there fat asses in the hills and will be leving a present for them soon. i have to say im sorry about the cougar but you never should of caged in that way so it’s your fault it’s dead. you think about that animels are free spirits and our ancesters knew it and respected them. you vialated the sacred trust i thougt about killing you for that back aways but i got sweet on carolyn. she was fine and she gave me a good game and died well. diing well is what counts. i think you will. when we are finished i will free all the animels you have put in prison. if you give me good game i will do it in your honer. stay well and strong so when we meet we will meet as equels. good old jim was good practise but you will be the mane event. i hope this gets to you ok i am not good with computers and have only borrowd this to send you this messag. yours truely ethan swift cat
Carefully she saved the post, copied it. She took a moment to make sure she had her breath, and her calm, before she walked out to get Coop.
She saw the taillights of Brad’s rental car as Coop strolled toward the cabin porch. “Brad wanted to get back to the farm in time to sweet-talk my grandmother out of a piece of pie. He’ll—” He broke off as she stepped into the light. “What happened?”
“He sent me an e-mail. You need to see it.”
He moved fast, shifting her aside to go through the door and straight back to the kitchen, where he angled the laptop around to stand and read the message.
“Did you copy it?”
“Yes. It’s saved to the hard drive and the thumb drive.”
“We’ll need hard copies, too. Do you recognize the e-mail address?”
“No.”
“Should be easy to trace.” He crossed over, picked up the phone. Within a moment, she heard him giving Willy the details in a flat, expressionless voice that went with his face. “I’m going to forward it to you. Give me your e-mail.” He scrawled it on the pad by the phone. “Got it.
”
He passed the phone to Lil on his way to the computer.
“Willy? Yes, I’m all right. Would you arrange for a drive-by? My parents.” She glanced over at Coop as he tapped keys. “Coop’s grandparents. I’d feel better if . . . Thanks. Yes, we will. Okay.”
She hung up, barely stopped herself from twisting her hands together. “He said he’ll trace the e-mail and check it out right away. He’s going to call or come by as soon as he knows something.”
“He knows he made a mistake with Tyler.” Coop muttered it as if speaking to himself. “He knows we’ve identified him. How does he know? He’s got a way to get information. A radio maybe. Or he risks coming into town to hear the local gossip.”
Eyes narrowed, Coop reread the message. “Several places in town you can buy comp time, but . . . That’s a stupid risk. We’d find the source, then find someone who’d seen him, talked to him. That gives us too much more. So a break-in’s more likely. He sent it at nineteen thirty-eight. Waited for dark. Scoped out a house. Maybe one with a kid or a teenager. They tend to leave their computers on.”
“He may have killed someone else. He may have murdered someone, more than one, just to send me that. Oh, God, Coop.”
“We don’t go there until we have to. Put it outside,” he ordered, and coldly. “Focus on what we know, and what we know is he made another mistake. He came out of the shadows because he was compelled to connect with you. He learned we know who he is, so he felt free to make that connection, to communicate with you.”
“But it’s not me. It’s his warped idea of me. He’s talking to himself.”
“That’s exactly right. Keep going.”
“He, ah . . .” She pressed a hand to her forehead, shoved it back through her hair. “He’s uneducated, and unfamiliar with computers. It had to take him some time to write that much. He wanted me—his version of me—to know he’s watching. He wanted to brag a little. He said he laughed at what we’ve done here. The new security. At the manhunt. He’s confident neither will stop him from the goal. The game. He said Carolyn gave him a good game.”
“And Tyler was practice. Everything points to his driving Tyler off the trail, way off, pushing him toward the river. Tyler was a healthy man, in good shape. And bigger, heftier than Howe. The conclusion would be Howe had a weapon. A knife doesn’t work, not if Tyler managed to get any distance away. What’s the game if you force-march some guy miles?”
She could see it now, the steps and the layers. And seeing it helped her stay calm. “We know he has a gun, and he knows the hills. He can track. He . . . he hunts.”
“Yeah, you’d’ve held your own on the job. That’s the game—the hunt. Pick the prey, stalk the prey, make the kill.”
“And he’s picked me because he believes I’ve violated sacred ground, sacred trust by building the refuge here. Because we share, in his head, the cougar as spirit guide. It’s crazy.”
“He also picked you because you know the land. You can track and hunt and elude. So you’re a major prize.”
“He might have come here before, for me, but Carolyn distracted him. She was young and pretty and attracted to him. She listened to his theories, certainly slept with him. And when she saw through enough to be afraid, or concerned, to break things off, he went after her instead. She became his prey.”
Shaken, she lowered to the bench.
“It’s not you, Lil. Not your fault.”
“I know that, but she’s still dead. Almost certainly dead. And there may be someone else dead tonight just so he could get his hands on a computer to send that to me. If he goes after anyone else, any of my people, I don’t know what I’ll do. I don’t know.”
“I’m less worried about that than I was.
“He’s put you on notice,” Coop said when she looked up at him. “He doesn’t have to show you any more. Doesn’t have to bait you or taunt you.”
She took a breath. “Tell me. Is Brad staying at your grandparents’ just because he likes Lucy’s cooking, or did you ask him to so he could keep an eye on things there?”
“The cooking’s a bonus.” He got out a bottle of water, twisted the top off, and handed it to her.
She drank. “He’s a good friend.”
“Yeah, he is.”
“I think . . .” She steadied herself with another long breath. “I think you can get an idea about someone by their friends.”
“You need an idea when it comes to me, Lil?”
“I need an idea when it comes to ten years of you.” She glanced toward the phone, wishing she could make it ring, make Willy call and tell her no one was hurt. No more death. “How do you stand waiting like this?”
“Because it’s what comes next. This place is locked down. If he tries to come here, he’ll trip an alarm. You’re safe. You’re with me. So I can wait.”
Trying to keep her calm, she reached out, smoothed a finger over the petals of a daisy. “You brought me more flowers. What’s that about?”
“I figure I owe you about a decade’s worth of flowers. For fights, birthdays, whatever.”
She studied his face, then went with impulse. “Give me your wallet.”
“Why?”
She held out a hand. “You want to get back in my good graces? Hand it over.”
Caught between amusement and puzzlement, he reached back to pull it out of his pocket. And she saw the gun at his hip.
“You’re carrying a gun.”
“I’m licensed.” He passed her his wallet.
“You had clips in my drawer. They’re not there anymore.”
“Because I have a drawer all of my own now. Nice underwear, Lil. How come you never wear it?”
“Another man bought it for me.” She smiled humorlessly when annoyance flickered over his face. “Or some of it. It didn’t seem quite appropriate to use it on you.”
“I’m here. He’s not.”
“And now, if I slipped that little red number on, for instance, it wouldn’t pass through your mind as you’re slipping it off me again, how he’d done the same?”
“Throw it out.”
For very small, smug reasons, his clipped suggestion made her smile and mean it. “If I do, you’ll know I’m ready to take you back—all the way back. What will you toss out for me, Coop?”
“Name it.”
She shook her head and opened the wallet. For a time, for her own satisfaction, she studied his driver’s license, the PI license. “You always took a good picture. Those Viking eyes, and the hints of trouble in them. Do you miss New York?”
“Yankee Stadium. I’ll take you back for a game sometime. Then you’ll see some real baseball.”
With a shrug, she flipped through, and found the picture. She remembered when he’d taken it, the summer they’d become lovers. God, how young, she thought. How open and wildly happy. She sat by the stream, wildflowers spreading around her, the verdant green hills behind her. Her knees drawn up, her arms wrapped around them, and her hair free and tumbled over her shoulders.
“It’s a favorite of mine. A memory of a perfect day, a perfect spot, the perfect girl. I loved you, Lil, with everything I had. I just didn’t have enough.”
“It was enough for her,” she said quietly.
And the phone rang.
24
Willy followed up the phone call with a personal visit. Lil opened the gate for him by remote, and had a moment to think, At least, this is safer and easier. She’d switched from tea to coffee, and poured Willy a cup even as Coop went to the door to let him in.
She carried it to the living room, offered it to him.
“Thanks, Lil. I figured you’d want to hear the details in person. He used Mac Goodwin’s account. You know the Goodwins, Lil, have the farm on 34.”
“Yes, I went to school with Lisa.” Lisa Greenwald then, she thought, a cheerleader, whom she’d disliked intensely because of Lisa’s constant state of “perk.” It made Lil’s stomach twist just to think of how often she’d sneered at Lisa
behind her back.
“I got a call from Mac not five minutes after I got yours. Reporting a break-in.”
“Are they—”
“They’re all right,” he said, anticipating her. “They’d gone out for dinner and to their oldest boy’s spring band concert. They got back and found the back door broken in. Did the smart thing, went right back out again and called me from the cell phone. Anyway, it seemed like too much coincidence, so I asked him if they had an e-mail account that matched the one I got from you. Sure enough.”
“They weren’t home. They weren’t hurt.” She sat then as her knees went shaky.
“They’re fine. They’ve got a new pup since their old dog passed a few months back, and he was closed up in the laundry room. He’s fine, too. I went by to talk to them, take a look at things. Left a deputy there to help Mac board up that door. It looks like he busted in, found the computer. Mac didn’t shut it down before they left. Kids carrying on, he said, and just forgot. People do.”
“Yes. People do. They went together all through high school. Mac and Lisa, Lisa and Mac. And got married the spring after graduation. They have two boys and a girl. The girl’s still a baby.”
Wasn’t it funny, Lil thought, dazed, how much she knew about the once-detested Lisa.
“That’s right, and they’re all fine. The best they could tell on first look was he took some food supplies. Bread, canned goods, Pop-Tarts of all things, some beer and juice boxes. Left the kitchen in a state. Got the two hundred in cash Mac kept in his desk, and the money the kids had in their banks, and the hundred Lisa kept in the freezer.”
He watched Lil’s face, glanced at Coop, then just kept talking in that same easy way. “People don’t seem to realize those are the first places any thief worth his salt is going to check. They need to take a second look when they’re not so upset, to see if anything else is missing.”
“Weapons?” Coop asked.
“Mac keeps his guns in a gun safe. Locked up tight. So that’s a blessing. We got prints. We’ll eliminate the Goodwins’, and I’ll go out on what I think’s a damn sturdy limb and say we’ll match the others to Ethan Howe. I’m planning to call the FBI in the morning.”
