Stuck On You

by Christine Wenger

  Kate took a seat. "Don't hurt yourself."

  He chuckled and wanted to joke back, but he might as well get this over with. "Someone is trying to kill me."

  "That's the best you can do? We already know that." Kate looked at him in mock disbelief, her hands on her hips. "And I suppose that you only now realized that Tom Murray got in the way of a hit on you? Oh, for heaven's sake, tell me something I don't know."

  He saw the light dawn in her eyes.

  “You-You think it’s a cop don’t you? Or many cops? Or Pete Nash? That’s why you wanted me to get into the cop computer. And it’s about drugs. You must have been getting too close to something.”

  He took her hand. "That's why I don't want you near me. That's why if I stay in one place, I'm a perfect target. And I agree with you about Tom. I think he did get in the way of a hit on me. So that's why I don't want anything to happen to you." He leaned forward, took her hand, and rubbed the back of it with his thumb. "I figure that they'll try it again out here. So that's why I keep telling you to get away, Kate. I don't want you hurt."

  “But only Pete Nash knows where we are.”

  “And whomever else he told. And whoever might have followed us.”

  She sighed. “I still can’t believe you suspect Pete.”

  “I told you that I suspect everyone.”

  "You have a plan, don't you?"

  "I figure if they want a target, here I am."

  Kate closed her eyes and removed her hand from his. She rubbed her forehead as if a headache was starting. "Oh, no," she said quietly. "You wouldn't set yourself up like that." She shot him a sharp glance. He stared back unwavering. "Oh, yes, you would."

  Mack got up and paced, catching a glimpse of himself in the mirror over the mantle. He had looked better in his lifetime. There were bags under his eyes and he needed a haircut. Either that or a rubber band to pull it back in a ponytail.

  "Don't worry about the cabin," he said. "I'd bet a paycheck, if I had one, that they won't blow up the place. That'd be too coincidental. I figure that next time, they'll try–"

  Bang! Zing! Zing!

  The window behind Kate and the mirror in front of him shattered into a thousand pieces. Mack took a running dive over the couch and yanked Kate out of her chair and onto the floor. He covered her body with his. Another gunshot exploded. A lamp shattered.

  "...a high-powered rifle, like the S.W.A.T. Team would use," he continued as if he'd never been interrupted. "Something that could take me out from a long distance. And now I have seven years bad luck, as if I didn't have enough." He pulled his gun from his back waistband, and hoped his hands would stop shaking.

  The bastard had almost hit Kate.

  She struggled underneath him.

  "Stay down!" he ordered.

  "Let me get my gun, will you?" "It isn't a cow shooting at us, Kate."

  "Very funny. Now get off me!"

  Mack thought he heard a car drive off in the distance. He got up, peeked out the window, and saw a cloud of dust off in the distance, but couldn't see the vehicle.

  "I think he’s gone, but I can't be sure. Stay down, just in case, please?

  "I will," she promised. She leaned her back against the couch and sat cross-legged on the floor.

  "Where's your gun?"

  She pointed to the kitchen table. "In my purse."

  Still crouching down, he retrieved the brown leather bag and handed it to her.

  He hunkered down in front of her. "I never understood why women carry guns in their purse. If you need it, you can't get to it."

  She was as white as a sheet and was shaking.

  "Maybe you'd best leave the gun where it is for a while and calm down." He rubbed her arms to warm her up. Her lips looked ice blue. He felt sick inside to see her so scared because of him.

  Kate took a deep breath and nodded. "Maybe I do need to calm down."

  "I'm going to go outside for a while and check around. Stay down and stay put. Clear?"

  She mustered a weak smile. "Crystal."

  "Good. I'll be right back. And when I come back, don't shoot me. I have enough problems right now."

  Kate tried to laugh, but it came out as a nervous snort. Mack went out the back door and sprinted into the pine trees, gun drawn. He allowed himself a few seconds to calm his nerves and erase from his mind the picture of Kate lying cold and dead. His knees went weak when he remembered the shattered window pane behind her head. Just another couple of inches and...

  His stomach was queasy. He couldn't live with himself if something happened to her. Could not. It was tough thinking of Tom Murray in the hospital, barely alive.

  He scanned the area around the cabin, but didn't see any signs of crushed grass or broken twigs. The shot had to have come from a fairly good distance away, somewhere south of the mirror and the window.

  He didn't want to leave Kate alone any longer, so he decided to go back.

  He knocked on the back door. "It's Mack, Kate. I'm coming in."

  "Okay," said a faint voice.

  Kate was sitting on the floor with her back against the sofa. Her Glock was drawn, and pointed at the floor. She was still as white as a sheet.

  "You can put that down. They're gone," he said.

  "How do you know that?"

  "Because they would have shot again the second I came out the back door."

  "Not if they were in the front."

  "But they weren't."

  She raised her eyebrows. "Gee, you're good. Just like Superman with your x-ray vision."

  "Actually, I checked out the front."

  "So you are human after all."

  He offered her a hand and helped her up from the floor.

  "Now do you understand why I don't want you near me?"

  "Yes, and thanks for thinking of me, but I can take care of myself. I'm sticking with you."

  CHAPTER 8

  Kate swept up the glass, while Mack studied the area around the broken mirror until he found what he was looking for. With his pocket knife, he pried the slug from the wall.

  Kate took a look at the bullet in his hand, and her face drained of all color. "That could have killed you, or me. "Wait." She fished in her purse and handed him a lipstick case. "It's evidence. Put it in this."

  "We'd better get out of here," Mack said, dropping the metal in the case, snapping it shut, and handing it back to her.

  "I know, but where should we go?"

  "I can always rent a hotel room. You can go back to living in your office or you can stay here. I'm sure you'll be safe as long as you're not with me."

  "No way."

  "Look, Kate. I'm not going to fight with you. I have to find out who set me up to take a fall and who's trying to kill me. I'm running out of time. Now try to trust me again, please? I'm going to need a little freedom. I need to go back to that computer in the basement of the cop shop, and I want to head out to the storage facility at the Heliport and look around. I promise I won't disappear."

  "Let me help you."

  "I can't."

  "Yes, you can. I'm better on the computer than you'll ever be. Besides I know what you're looking for now. I can save it to a jump drive and we can be out of there in no time. Then we can look at it when we have more time." Kate raised an eyebrow and tilted her head. "You don't know how to save to a jump drive, do you?"

  She had him up against a brick wall. He didn't know squat about computers and she knew it.

  Maybe it did make sense to have Kate do this one little piece of his investigation. He doubted if anyone would harm her in the basement of the sheriff's department. Nevertheless, he'd protect her with his own life. "It would be proof to take to the District Attorney," he said, thinking out loud.

  "Yes, it would," Kate said.

  "Well, then....damn." He ran his fingers through his hair. "Since I have no choice, I'd appreciate your help."

  "And I'll go with you to the Heliport, too."

  Not while I have a breath left in me!

/>   "We'll talk about it later," he said. "Now how about closing this place up and we'll head out?"

  "Let me call Pete Nash," Kate said. "I have to tell him where we are going."

  "No way," he snapped. "There's no time. We need to get out of here."

  It was only noon and it would probably make sense to wait until shift change to go to the cop shop. But he hated to wait that long. Since someone kept upping the stakes, every second was precious. But what would they do in the meantime?

  If he were alone, he'd go there in the daylight, but since Kate was going to be with him, he didn't want to chance it.

  "I'll board up the broken window," Mack said. "You lock up."

  Finally, they were ready to leave the cabin. Mack pushed his troubles to the back of his mind and tried to concentrate on the task at hand: lunch. He always got hungry after his adrenaline dropped, and the fast food egg-things that Kate had bought for breakfast didn't do a thing for him.

  "How about if we grab something to eat?" he asked.

  "Okay."

  "Since we're out this way, let's go to the Lakeport Diner. They have the best fish dinners around."

  "Sounds good to me," Kate said. "But aren’t you afraid that someone will see that you’re still alive?”

  He eyed her father’s fishing gear: hats, slickers, boots. “We can go in disguise.”

  “Good idea.” She picked up a hat covered in lures and plopped it on his head. “What time do you want to try that computer?”

  "About three o'clock. Just after change of shift. Gilmartin will be on. He'll go for a few cigarettes about three-thirty. We'll park away from the station and go by foot, since they know your Blazer by now. I'll keep watch, and you can get to work on that jump drive. And we have to make it quick."

  "Got it."

  Kate had to admit that this was exciting. It was even more exciting that Mack was beginning to trust her and finally letting her help him.

  They didn’t say much on the way back to the Lakeport dinner and said even less at lunch.

  After they ate, they lingered over coffee and Kate tried to pull some information from Mack.

  "I suspect that someone is re-selling drugs that have already been confiscated,” he finally told her.

  “And you think it's an inside job, but do you have any idea as to who has access to everything?" Kate asked.

  "Yes, I have a couple of people in mind, but I can't tell you just yet. I hope you understand."

  Kate did understand his thinking, even though she thought he was wrong.

  "Is your suspect a bomb expert? Or a SWAT expert?"

  "Kate, I can't–"

  "Okay, never mind."

  Mack chuckled.

  "If you can connect a bomb expert with access to the drugs, someone with access to the jail and someone who can shoot like a S.W.A.T. expert, you'll have your man–or woman."

  "Just like that, huh?" he asked. “That describes most of the Rose Lake Sheriff’s Department.” "Oh."

  He studied Kate intently. She always was smart and studious. “Kate, the less you know about this, the better."

  "I disagree." She put down her coffee mug. "I think that the more you tell me, the better off we'd both be. I'm in this, too, you know."

  "How do you figure that?"

  "He, she, or they were shooting at me, too."

  "I don't think they were. I'm the target, and you were too close for comfort–my comfort," Mack said.

  Mack looked toward the door of the restaurant and tensed. He was in his full alert mode, and Kate knew him well enough to know that something was wrong.

  He stood up and tossed some bills on the table. "I'll meet you in the car." He didn't even look at her.

  "But–"

  "Just go sit in the car, please? I'll be right there."

  He was already ten steps ahead of her, but she didn't hesitate to follow him.

  "Hello, Marty. What brings you way out here? A little out of your jurisdiction, isn't it?"

  Crowley seemed shocked to see that it was Mack under the hat with the dangling lures and the olive drab slicker. His eyes darted to the door behind him, then he scanned the restaurant.

  Mack held out his hand and the captain shook it. Then Crowley seemed to relax. "It's good to see that you're all in one piece, Mack."

  Mack's eyes narrowed. "Is it?"

  "Why of course it is. When I heard your house blew up, I was worried sick, especially with you being under house arrest and all." Crowley smiled at Kate. "He's still under house arrest, isn't he?"

  She expected Mack to glare at her because she didn't go sit in the car like a good little girl, and glare he did. She nodded to Crowley and smiled. "Yes, Captain, he's still under house arrest. It'd be a little easier if he had a house, but we're making due. I’m sticking to him."

  Crowley studied Mack, then glanced over his shoulder. "Well, I'd better get going."

  "But you just got here, Captain."

  "Naw...it looks too busy. I'd better get back to the office."

  "We're leaving," Mack said. "You can have our table. It's a table for two. Is someone joining you?"

  "Um...no. I was going to eat alone, but there's no time now," Crowley said, checking his watch and walking toward the door. "You take care, Mack. And I'm sure you'll be back on the job soon. You got a good lawyer?"

  "I won't be needing one."

  Crowley paused on the steps outside and raised an eyebrow. "Why's that?"

  Kate was right behind Mack when he followed Crowley down the stairs and out into the parking lot.

  "Because I'm going to find out who set me up and who's trying to kill me before my case ever comes to trial. That's why," Mack said slowly, evenly.

  "Good for you!" Crowley punctuated his enthusiasm with a slap on Mack's back. Soon he drove away in one hell of a hurry.

  Mack turned toward her, and Kate knew he was going to harp on her that she didn't sit in the car and wait for him.

  She held up a warning hand. "Yeah, I know. I know. Discussion over."

  Mack rolled his eyes and shook his head.

  “Do you want to wait and see who Crowley was meeting?”

  “No. Waste of time. I’m sure that Crowley called the meeting off.”

  “Do you suspect him, Mack?”

  “I told you–”

  “Yeah, I know,” Kate said. “You suspect everyone. But he sure acted strange.”

  Mack’s eyes suddenly looked weary and his shoulders slumped. “I’d sure hate for it to be Crowley. I owe him a lot.”

  She put her hand on his arm. “You don’t owe him your life.”

  He nodded and smiled. “Thanks.”

  “You’re welcome.” She took out her keys. “Well then, now where to?" Kate asked.

  "Cruise around Pine. I want to talk to Plato Corlett."

  "Why?"

  "I want to see if we can unload this car of yours and get another one. One that can't be traced for a while. I figure that Plato would know what's hot and what's not."

  "And what do we do with my Blazer?"

  "We'll park it where no one will notice it for a while. Maybe a used car lot."

  Kate pulled out of the parking lot and turned onto the highway that led to Rose Lake. “Mack, who do you think Captain Crowley was meeting?”

  “I really don’t want to speculate.”

  About forty-five minutes later, Kate parked by the curb on Commercial Drive, avoiding as much broken glass as she could.

  She got out when Mack did.

  "Kate, I don't suppose you'd stay in the car this time, would you? I don't know if Plato will talk to me if you're there."

  "I can help. Plato knows me."

  "I didn't think you'd listen." He took a deep breath. "Well then, come on."

  As they walked toward the old factory, Mack picked up a stone and threw it against an old rail car.

  Bang!

  Kate jumped as the noise echoed.

  One of the Greeks shuffled out from behind the rail
car, his pants dragging in the dirt and glass. It wasn't Plato, but Antwan "The Ant" Blaisdell. The Ant nodded.

  Mack nodded back. "I'm looking for Plato."

  The Ant eyed Kate, nostrils flaring.

  "She's okay. She's with me," Mack said.

  The youth hesitated, pulling on the hem of his over-sized black tee shirt. He looked around, then stared into Mack's eyes. "Plato's not here."

  "I see that. Where can I find him?"

  The Ant spit into the dirt at Mack’s feet. "You know where he is, man."

  "Look, if I knew where he was, I wouldn't be asking you, now would I?" Mack told himself to calm down, but he didn't have all the time in the world to play games with this kid.

  "It's important," Kate added, with a sincere smile.

  There was dead silence as Antwan and Mack glared at each other. The Ant broke down first. "He's in jail."

  Mack didn't like that news. Plato had been going straight since his daughter was born. "What for?"

  "Selling drugs."

  "But that's not Plato's thing anymore," Mack said.

  "No shit," Ant said. "It's a frame, man. A setup."

  Mack nodded. He agreed. He'd bet his badge that Plato was setup, if he had a badge to bet.

  "Who do you think framed him, Ant?"

  "I don't know, man, but he was checking out something big–something really big–and pretty soon he was snatched out of his crib and taken to jail."

  "Thanks, man. I'll see what I can do."

  "Yeah, sure." The Ant raised a fist in a salute, and disappeared behind the rail car.

  Mack cursed under his breath.

  "What are you thinking, Mack?" Kate asked, touching his arm.

  He loved it when she touched him. It was a small thing, but it showed him that she cared. If only he could open up to her, but he just didn't want to involve her in his troubles.

  Hell, she was already involved.

  He reached for her hand, and held it in his. She smiled and her eyes brightened. That made him feel all warm and fuzzy, and heaven knew he needed some warm fuzzies about now.

  "Tell me what you make of this latest development, Sherlock." He kissed the back of her hand, and watched as her cheeks flushed pink.

  "I think that Plato was helping you. I think that maybe he got too close or whatever, and he was arrested to get him out of the way. Jail would get him out of the way. That's just what happened to you. Right?"