“I doubt if anything justifies this,” Mark replied darkly. “If it is him.”
“I didn’t tell you. There was a feather on Malcolm’s body. The feather belongs to Blue,” Aidan said as he stepped on the dock. “There were only two. I had one and Blue had the other.” Aidan turned toward the village. “It’s indisputable. Rare and African. I got it on safari.”
“I remember. You were twelve when your mother took you to Africa,” Mark said. “How did Malcolm get it?”
“I don’t know.” Aidan twisted the straps of his pack. He couldn’t contemplate where the evidence was leading.
“Strange for him to have met up with Malcolm unless it was planned. I hate to say it, but I wouldn’t rule out the possibility.”
Mark might be right but Aidan had no wish to talk about it. Blue was his brother and he owed him, without evidence, some sort of loyalty, but not at the expense of Garrett or her team. “I don’t think they could have gotten too far. Blue can’t keep his usual pace with them in tow.” Aidan pulled on his pack. “I’m hiking in.”
“The weather.” Mark scanned the cloudy sky. “It’s not a great time . . .”
“The weather could cut it short. It is the rainy season,” Aidan agreed, thinking of the monsoon that was already threatening to cut a swath down the east coast of Borneo.
Mark grimaced and picked up his pack. “Let’s go.”
“I’ll go alone.” Go back was on the tip of Aidan’s tongue and he wasn’t sure why, except that because of Blue, he was reluctant to trust anyone. The brother of his heart might be the biggest betrayal of his life. It was a hurt that ached deep and ragged and for now felt completely irreparable.
“No, you won’t.” Mark hefted his knapsack and slipped his arms through the straps. “It’s too dangerous.” He chuckled dryly. “Just try to stop me.”
“I won’t argue with you. If you’re coming, let’s get going.” Aidan picked up his pack and headed out without looking back.
It took over three hours before they came upon fresh tracks. The tracks were less than an hour old. “They’re just ahead of us,” Aidan began and stopped at the odd expression, almost one of fear, that flickered on Mark’s face.
“You want to stay here?” he asked and clapped a hand on Mark’s shoulder.
“Nope. I’m with you all the way. I just hope we make it in time,” Mark said grimly.
Aidan nodded and pushed ahead. He had the same reservations as Mark. He feared they would be too late.
* * *
“I didn’t want it to come to this.” Blue’s brown eyes gleamed sadly behind the confines of the wire-rimmed glasses.
“I don’t understand,” Garrett began, but something had been odd about Blue’s behavior from the beginning. And despite trekking for hours, nothing about the route he was taking seemed familiar. She had questioned him a number of times but every time he had snapped at her. Finally she had settled in and followed. After all, previous experience had shown that she was no judge of jungle trails. Blue was Aidan’s brother, and despite a slightly strange and oddly cantankerous disposition she would trust him for that reason. That and she had no choice. They would never find their way out alone.
“I’m heading back.” The unseen river now masked by layers of foliage tumbled in angry torrents immediately behind him.
“Going back? We haven’t reached the site yet. We can’t go back.”
“You’re not,” Blue replied softly. “I’m sorry.”
“I don’t understand?”
His eyes were glazed over and shimmered again as if on the verge of tears. “I’m going back. Alone.”
For a minute she froze, immobilized by the enormity of what he had said. “You can’t.” It was all she could say and she knew that it was not enough. “Blue?”
“Don’t.” He held up his hand. “I’m not immune to female pleading. But it won’t work this time. The only woman I cared about is dead.”
“Anne?” She jumped on the only soft spot she could see, her one chance to change his mind.
His smile was wistful, more regret than happiness. “It won’t work.”
“Who was she, Blue?”
For a minute the thin lips softened. “She was my wife.”
“What happened?” she asked as her thoughts spun and her heart hammered.
“Plane crash. Look, stalling won’t change my mind. But I won’t kill you.” He smiled. “I’ll let this.” His hand swept wide, indicating the forest around them.
“Why?” she asked even as her mind went through options for getting them out of this mess. They were too deep in the jungle for them to find their way out. The route Blue had taken had been convoluted and impossible to remember. “You planned this from the beginning,” she accused.
“You saw me that day, didn’t you?” he asked softly. “The day you found Malcolm.”
She shook her head and realized it was futile. He wouldn’t believe her. “You were there? Why?”
He paused in the act of hitching his belt and instead pushed his glasses further up his nose. “Don’t play innocent.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about, Blue.” But her heart pounded at the thought of what he had implied. He had been there the day Malcolm had died, and she couldn’t even consider why without the suspicion showing on her face. She took her mind from that place. The place that screamed that Blue just might be a murderer.
“No matter what you say there’s no proof one way or the other. But as long as you’re here, Aidan will stop at nothing to solve this crime.” He held up his hand, staving off anything she might have said.
“Why?”
He grimaced before she could interject with either a question or a plea. “Because it affects you. He loves you.” This time there was an obvious glimmer in his eyes. “Because of that you’re going away, like Anne.”
He turned away.
“Blue, no.” She rushed forward, taking his arm as if that would stay him.
He spun around, throwing her to the ground, and around her the jungle came alive as brush crashed beneath her and something screeched a dark warning.
“Bastard!” It was Ian.
Garrett tried to lift herself but her head spun and her consciousness registered only a whirl of motion and more crashing as she struggled to get to her feet.
“What the hell is going on here?” Sid demanded. Branches crushed in angry snaps as he broke at a run into the clearing.
He glared at Blue as he helped Garrett up. “You’re okay?”
She nodded as ahead of her she saw Ian trying to regain his feet, bent on all fours and obviously struggling. “Sid, get back.” She put a staying hand on Sid’s arm while her attention remained on Blue. “Blue, please.”
Blue shook his head as he backed up.
Garrett frowned as she saw the odd reflection of something by the river. Aluminum glinted as strands of sun filtered across the river, a boat. “You planned this,” she accused.
“To leave you here,” Blue agreed.
For a minute she couldn’t breathe. She hadn’t realized he could possibly be serious until now.
“You wouldn’t.”
And as she asked the question, Sid charged Blue and was met with a punch that had him flat on his back, motionless.
Garrett rushed to him and was stopped by Blue. “You don’t want to do that.” The words were devoid of emotion.
Metal glinted from a knife and Garrett faced Blue and fought for calm. But as the knife slashed down, seemingly toward her, she couldn’t help herself, she screamed.
And it was the scream that she later came to regret, for it was the scream that determined the course of the tragedy to come.
Chapter Twenty-nine
The scream resonated in the still heat and Aidan broke into a run. Behind him, foliage snapped as Mark tried to keep up. At first, Aidan barely noticed that. The scream was familiar and it was Garrett.
Finally, reason began to overlay the panic and he stopped and signed to Mark to sto
p. They didn’t need to alert anyone to their presence.
Mark nodded and Aidan went forward alone, slipping quickly and silently through the trees. But the scene in front of Aidan was incredible and unbelievable. He barely registered that Sid lay motionless on the ground. It was Blue and Garret that riveted him. Blue, as he faced Garrett with a knife in his hand.
The roar in Aidan’s ears was like nothing he had experienced before. He was reacting instead of thinking when he charged into the clearing.
“Blue!” he shouted instinctively as anger and disbelief propelled him forward.
The interruption was all Garrett needed to slip out of Blue’s reach. And seeing her in temporary safety was enough for Aidan to control his emotion. Reacting would help no one. But as Blue’s eyes met his, he almost recoiled at the hatred that was so quickly directed at him.
“Aidan.” There was no inflection in his name. This wasn’t his brother’s voice nor was the hate in his eyes.
“Blue. What happened here?” His gaze swept over Garrett. He ached to go to her and knew he couldn’t. Blue’s posture was defensive, the knife glinting in his hand, and he slipped quickly to Garrett and was suddenly behind her with the knife at her throat.
“Aidan,” Garrett whispered, an obvious warning and he silenced her with a look.
The tension was thick and unstable in the little clearing as he took a step forward.
“Move again and she dies,” Blue spat.
Behind him he could see Mark was moving slowly through the underbrush, barefoot and silent as they had all learned as children, trapping Blue between the two men.
“Blue, what have you done?” Why was he threatening Garrett?
“You always had everything.” The words were ragged with disdain. “And now you come back for what is mine.”
“Poaching, Blue. Is that what is yours? Is that what you’ve been doing? Is that what the ancestors would have wanted?” This was controllable. His gaze focused on the knife and how close it was to Rett’s throat. It wouldn’t happen. Blue wouldn’t kill, but as he thought it and looked at Blue, he wasn’t so sure.
“How would you know, poor little white boy?”
He had grown up with him and now it was as if he didn’t know him. Aidan’s hands clenched into fists as he tried to ground himself with his world shifting.
“You always had your escape. You could always leave here. You weren’t stuck.”
“Neither were you.”
“You were an interloper with a crazy mother thrust on us way back when. You went back where you belonged when you grew up.”
“You were a brother to me. A friend.” Aidan shifted, trying to be as unobtrusive, as nonthreatening as possible even while he considered options for getting closer, getting the knife from Blue’s hand. The conversation was out of place and yet he desperately clung to each revelation as if that alone would buy time, restore sanity. Except nothing was sane ever since he saw that feather less than forty-eight hours ago. One blue feather was all it took to change everything.
“A long time ago.”
“Why?” And even as he asked the question he still wasn’t sure of the full scope of what Blue might have done.
“You got out of here. Went to school.”
“You could have had the same.” Aidan bit back impatience. He’d play this game. He’d play whatever game it took to get Garrett out of here.
“How?”
“Scholarships.” Aidan paused. “I would have lent you the money.”
“I couldn’t get a scholarship. I didn’t have your marks. And I’d never ask you for money. I made my own.” He spat but his gaze never left Aidan and the knife never left Garrett’s throat. “You weren’t supposed to figure this out.” He spat again. “Bastard!”
“It’s my job. It wasn’t just me, Akan suspected something too. In fact, that was my first clue.” He hadn’t figured it all out, not yet. But he wasn’t telling Blue that. He moved one discreet step forward as Blue pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and held the knife steady with his other hand. “He was worried about you and the time you were spending away from the tribe. He knew something was wrong.” Play to his emotions. He dodged the look of fear in Garrett’s eyes and kept focused on Blue.
“Not much of a clue.”
Damn, Aidan thought. Blue’s voice was flat and he seemed emotionally disconnected. He kept on the same track, hoping to get a flicker of a connection, anything to get Garrett out of Blue’s hands. “You provided the second one when you mentioned taking a tourism class. Not unusual alone, but then I saw you guiding the Chinese, must have been a second expedition. It was you that day when I tracked you to the river, days after Malcolm died. It was your cowboy hat that identified you and I wouldn’t believe it.”
“You’re not the only one who wants a taste of city life now and then. Now I have the business, foreign hunters are very lucrative. Five guides full-time and five or six part-time. If it’s not the Chinese, it’s the Europeans, and both seem to have big bucks right now, at least the ones I’m seeing.”
Dread lodged in Aidan’s gut. “Malcolm was one of your guides.” He continued before Blue could say anything. “What happened?”
“It was necessary.”
“Was it?” Dread locked cold and slick in his belly but his gaze kept trained on Blue. As much as he wanted to look at Garrett, he couldn’t.
Blue shrugged. “Malcolm wanted in on the deal. And he got greedy. There was nothing I could do but plug him. He was expanding his own branch of the business, including other tribesmen. I wouldn’t allow that.” He smiled broadly. “Damn Chinese were gullible enough to believe it was a shot they had fired. Never mind that I used their gun.”
Aidan took a deep breath. He hadn’t expected that. Despite the scene they had come upon and despite hearing Blue threaten Garrett, he had thought, hoped it was all a bluff. “It was an accident.”
“You wish, brother. I killed Malcolm. And I will kill you.”
“Blue, I can’t believe this.” Aidan tried for calm, for a rational discussion, as if that would return everything to normal. Or at least that’s what Blue would believe. Everything was about buying time. “You killed Malcolm.”
“Everyone will think it was the Chinese. They’ll be gone now. They won’t want to be caught in a foreign country with a dead body, accident or not. I’d say they’re in Hong Kong as we speak.”
“You’re right. They flew out of Kuching just a few days ago,” Aidan replied.
“So now the Chinese are gone.” Blue shrugged. “Congratulations, you’ve wrapped it all up quite neatly.”
“I never would have believed it except for the autopsy. Malcolm had something in his pocket that I believe was yours.” Aidan held up the blue feather.
Blue squinted and the knife wavered. “Malcolm had it?” There was disbelief in his voice.
Aidan nodded. “Even then I couldn’t believe it had been more than an accident. The bullet linked to the Chinese, and I thought you were involved in nothing more than illicit hunting.” He had edged closer to Blue, the distraction of his voice hiding the subtle forward movement. “I’ve been away too long.
“The head was removed after death. I’m assuming you had nothing to do with that.” He paused for effect, his attention never veering from Blue, but his instincts homed in on Garrett and a chance to get the knife away from Blue. He knew the moment she took a breath or when her hand went to her mouth in parts of Blue’s confession. Garrett—he wished against everything that she wasn’t here, and there was nothing he could do but trust that his reflexes were fast enough to intervene if needed. “Who did it?”
Blue shook his head.
“Who?”
“I needed the money.” Blue’s tone was sharp, offensive. “And I took Malcolm’s head to divert attention from my hunters.” He smiled wistfully as he provided the contradictory information but he wouldn’t meet Aidan’s eyes. “And from me.”
Another explanation came to Aidan, f
ormed in part by some of what Blue had just said. “You’re covering for someone.”
“Leave it, Aidan. Please. For old times at a minimum.” Blue’s laugh was dry and humorless, cutting jaggedly through the jungle’s constant hum. “It was a good gig while it lasted.”
“Gig? Hardly, Blue,” Aidan said sadly. “It’s over. You’ve destroyed much in your bid for wealth.”
“It wasn’t all me. I wasn’t alone. Mark—”
“Shut up,” Mark snapped behind him.
“Mark?” Aidan’s hand went involuntarily to his gun, concealed beneath his shirt even as shock coursed through him.
“Don’t even think about it.” Mark held a handgun that reflected wet black in the foliage-muted light as he stepped out from behind Blue. The gun waved over Aidan, who sent a subtle look toward Garrett.
“You couldn’t keep your mouth shut, could you?” Mark snarled at Blue.
“I wasn’t taking all the heat.” Blue snapped.
“I should have ditched you months ago.” Mark’s gaze swept the clearing. “You always were a screwup. I would have been better off alone.”
“You? It was my business.”
“I would have let you live, you realize. If you’d kept your mouth shut.”
“What are you saying?”
“Mark,” Aidan said as he moved forward. “We can work this out.” From the corner of his eye he saw Garrett move slightly. He realized she was going to provide a distraction, and with Blue’s knife still at her throat she’d only be putting her life in jeopardy in the process.
“Work this out?” Mark smiled grimly through the slowly enunciated words. “I don’t think so. You’re spun so tightly into her web.” He shrugged a shoulder at Garrett. “I wouldn’t trust a word that you might say.”
“Mark,” Garrett began.
“Shut the hell up! You are why everything has fallen apart.” His gun waved across them all. “I could be in London instead of here trying to make conversation with primitives, but no, you have him panting after you like you were a dog in heat. He dug deeper to solve this crime, because of you,” he spat.
Aidan took a step forward but Mark swung the gun in his direction in mid-tirade.
Fatal Intent Page 16
