by Jana DeLeon
“How far away is the camp?” I asked.
“There are two down here,” Ida Belle said. “The exit for the first is coming up soon. There!”
She slowed down and I studied the dirt but couldn’t tell if anyone had just passed there. “Which one has deeper water?” I asked. No way Natalia was trying to escape on a bass boat.
“The next one,” Gertie said. “The channel gets wider there.”
“Are you sure?” Ida Belle asked.
“Positive,” Gertie said. “I lost a new rod and reel there. It was too deep to fish it out.”
“That one,” I said. “The deep one.”
Ida Belle pressed the accelerator a bit more and we continued straight. “What’s wrong?” she asked as she glanced over at me.
“I’m afraid we might have been mistaken,” I said.
“About what?” Gertie asked.
“Everything,” I said.
All of a sudden, Ida Belle’s SUV rounded a corner and burst into a clearing, almost on top of Larry’s car. Gertie yelled and Ida Belle slammed on the brakes. We slid to a stop just inches from his back bumper and Gertie pointed and yelled.
“Over there!” she said.
I looked to the right and saw Natalia grab a backpack from her car. A speedboat was waiting at the dock, a man I didn’t recognize behind the wheel.
“Where’s Larry?” Ida Belle asked.
“There!” I pointed to a figure slumped on the ground in the brush just to the side of Natalia’s car.
“We can’t let her get away!” I yelled and jumped out of the SUV.
“What?”
I heard Ida Belle and Gertie yelling behind me but I couldn’t stick around to explain. I dashed over to Larry and saw the gunshot wound in his stomach. He groaned and stared at me, disbelief filling his expression.
Ida Belle and Gertie rushed up behind me and dropped down next to Larry.
“Get pressure on that wound,” I said as I jumped up.
“He doesn’t even have a weapon,” Gertie said. “Why would Natalia shoot him?”
“That’s not Natalia!” I yelled as I took off for the dock.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Annika heard my decree and swung around. She sneered when she saw me and fired a couple shots. I dived behind a tree, rolling over, and popped up as she ran for the dock. The driver of the boat had ducked down when the shots began and now peered over the edge of the boat, his expression full of shock and fear. Clearly this was not what he’d signed up for, which gave me an idea.
I shot a single round over the boat, just inches from his head. He screamed and reached for the starter. A second later, the boat roared to life and in his desperation, he gunned it. The boat shot away from the dock, but the steering wheel must have gotten turned because the boat swung around in a tight circle, then came straight back at the dock.
Annika dived out of the way as the boat hit the old ramp and launched up the incline and onto the bank. The boat prevented me from seeing where Annika was but I assumed she would make a run for her car. Sure enough, a couple seconds later, I heard her car engine rev and she threw it in Reverse. The car shot backward for a couple feet, narrowly missing Ida Belle and Larry, then seemed to lag before moving forward.
I ran from behind the tree, ready to shoot out the tires, when I realized the tires were already flat and the car was barely able to move in the dirt and rocks that formed the driveway. Annika jumped out of the car, took another shot at me, and sped off for the woods. I leveled my gun but couldn’t pull the trigger. She had fired at me, but she wasn’t now. And given my credentials, I couldn’t afford to shoot her in the back. That was a hole even Carter couldn’t dig me out of.
I turned up the speed as I ran after her but just before she reached the tree line, her feet flew out from under her and she tumbled backward onto the ground. She scrambled up but her fall had given me time to close the gap. She spun around as I approached, her foot aimed firmly at my head. I ducked and moved in, punching her in the gut. She staggered back and lifted her pistol. But before she could fire, I delivered a blow with my foot directly onto her knee.
I heard the crack and her eyes widened before she screamed in pain. She dropped her gun as she fell on the ground, scattering Mardi Gras beads as she hit. I hurried to grab her pistol, then trained it on her as she writhed on the ground, clutching her knee.
“That’s the problem with you Russian spies,” I said. “You always think you’re better than American spies. Checkmate.”
Gertie ran up and handed me a set of handcuffs. I secured Annika, who was now sobbing silently into the dirt. I heard sirens in the distance as we hurried over to Ida Belle. Larry was scary pale when I dropped down next to him.
“His pulse is getting weaker,” Ida Belle said. “I hope that’s the ambulance because the sheriff’s department isn’t going to do us much good right now.”
She’d no sooner finished speaking when the ambulance rounded the corner and slid to a stop right in front of us. The paramedics rushed out and I explained the gunshot wound and approximate time. They secured Larry onto a gurney, shoved him into the ambulance and were gone in a matter of minutes.
As they disappeared around the brush, Carter’s truck swung into view. He jumped out and ran over to us.
“Are you all right?” he asked. “What happened? Who was in the ambulance?”
“Larry,” I said.
“His wife shot him,” Gertie said, and pointed to Annika.
“What?”
“Not his wife,” I said. “His sister-in-law.”
All three of them stared at me.
“You really think that’s Annika?” Gertie asked.
“I’d bet my grill on it,” I said.
“Gertie shot a hole in your grill,” Ida Belle said.
“Okay, then I’d bet Carter’s grill on it,” I said. “I broke her leg when I kicked her. It’s not compounded so she won’t bleed out but that has to hurt. You should probably arrest her and get her to a hospital to have that set. She’s going to need to be able to walk when she goes on trial.”
“Annika?” Carter said again, looking dumbfounded.
I nodded and he shook his head. “I’m going to secure her in my truck and call for another ambulance. Then the three of you are going to tell me what the heck is going on.”
As he walked off, I heard a groan and we swung around as the boat driver struggled to stand.
“I’d completely forgotten about that guy,” Ida Belle said as we hurried over.
We all had our weapons out but it was clear as we approached that he was still scared to death and no threat at all. We holstered our weapons and helped him out of the boat.
“Are you all right?” I asked.
He looked up and down his body, feeling his chest and head. “I think so. Maybe. I don’t understand what happened.”
“Join the party,” Gertie said.
“Are you with a women’s rescue?” I asked.
He nodded. “Natalia contacted our organization about six months ago, saying she had suffered years of abuse and needed to get away before he killed her. She had pictures from a hospital stay where she sustained a head injury and a broken arm. Neighbors we contacted at previous locations described a situation that mirrored most abusive homes. She called us last night to say she couldn’t wait any longer and we pushed up her date.”
“Why did you meet her here?”
“She was afraid her husband would follow her. And given only one road in and out of Sinful, it seemed safer to extract her by boat. I do it a lot.” He glanced back at his boat and frowned. “Or I used to. When I saw that man show up and Natalia shoot at him, my first thought was getting her out of here. Then she shot at you and things got crazy. What happened here? Was she lying about the abuse?”
I laughed. “She was lying about everything.”
“Then maybe it’s time you explain,” Carter said as he stepped up.
“Some of this is speculation o
n my part,” I said. “You’ll have to have Annika fill in the blanks, but this is what I think happened. Natalia, Annika, and Katia all worked for the same shady corporation, but when they’d been there long enough to be groomed into the shady parts, Natalia bailed, not wanting any part of it. Then she met Larry and turned on the charm, figuring marrying an American, especially one in intel, guaranteed her safe passage out of the country and protection for life.”
“But something happened and she went to New Orleans to meet Annika,” Ida Belle said.
I nodded. “Yes. I think Annika wanted out, which is why she came to the US when she never had before. The hit went out on Annika but Natalia was the one who was killed. Then when Annika awakened in the hospital, she heard her sister was dead and insisted on seeing her. That’s when she realized both their heads had been shaved. Annika wore her hair shorter than Natalia but without the hair, they looked exactly the same.”
“So she pretended to have a head injury so any differences would be attributed to that,” Ida Belle said. “And she went home with Larry and became Natalia. Wow. That’s seriously ballsy.”
“But explains why Larry was saying she’d never been the same since the attack,” Gertie said. “She wasn’t the same person, so she couldn’t possibly be.”
Carter narrowed his eyes at me. “How do you know these things?”
“Later,” Gertie said. “I want to hear the rest of the story. How did you figure out that it was Annika and not Natalia?”
“I didn’t until the nurse called and made that comment about the shaved heads, then all the things that didn’t quite fit suddenly did,” I said. “And then there was her vocabulary. Natalia made a couple of comments that stood out. Like when she was talking to Larry she said maybe Katia needed to ‘regroup.’ And when he got mad at her, she said, ‘the enemy is dead.’ While on the phone with the rescue organization she said, ‘I can’t hold any longer.’ The choice of words is more military than civilian.”
“Oh, you’re right,” Gertie said.
“And then there were the fireworks,” I said. “Remember at the Sinful Ladies booth, Lina got scared when the illegal fireworks went off, but Annika said immediately that it was just fireworks and they weren’t close by. Only someone with a lot of ballistics experience could have made that determination in the split second she did.”
“That also explains why she could make that shot in the first place,” Ida Belle said. “Lina wasn’t her child.”
“Exactly,” I said. “And think about this—if we’d known from the beginning that it was Natalia that had been killed three years ago and Annika was pretending to be her, then who is the most likely person to have killed Katia?”
Gertie’s eyes widened. “Annika.”
I nodded. “Because even though Larry was willing to accept the changes just to have his wife back, Katia, who’d known her their entire lives, would have seen right through her.”
“So why was Katia there in the first place?” Ida Belle said.
“My guess is for the same reason Annika went to New Orleans three years ago, but we’ll probably never know. Still, I think the fact that Fedorov was trailing Katia is a clear indication that she was in trouble with her superiors.”
“So who killed Fedorov?” Gertie asked. “We know Larry was at the motel last night.”
“You know what?” Carter asked.
I waved my hand. “Later. Yes, Larry was at the motel because he used the tracker on the car to follow Annika to the motel. He probably arrived shortly after Annika completed her mission.”
“He assumed she was meeting a rescue organization,” Gertie said.
“Or another man,” Ida Belle said.
“Well, she sorta was,” I said. “But she was there to put a bullet in his head. I’d bet money Fedorov wasn’t going to leave Louisiana without knowing who beat him to the punch with Katia and what she might have divulged before they did. And the longer he stayed, the more chance there was that he’d realize Natalia wasn’t Natalia.”
“That all makes perfect sense,” Gertie said.
“But how much of it can be proven?” Ida Belle asked. “I don’t see Annika breaking down over this. Someone who can pretend to be her dead sister, live with her husband, raise her daughter…that’s a person with no conscience.”
“I’m sure the Feds will be taking over with Annika,” Carter said. “If everything you say is true, they have ways to make her talk.”
“Once Larry gets over being depressed and mad, he’ll be able to help,” I said.
Gertie shook her head. “I don’t think Larry will ever get over being depressed and mad. Right now, he thinks his wife tried to run away from her family and was willing to shoot him to do it, but that’s not half as bad as the truth.”
The second ambulance pulled up in the clearing, and Carter went over to help them load Annika, complete with handcuffs on the gurney.
“I’m going to follow them,” Carter said. “Just in case she gets a second wind, then I’ll have to come back and deal with whatever this is.” He waved his arm at the collection of cars and boat. “But as soon as I get home, we have got some serious talking to do.”
“Uh-oh,” Gertie said as he headed off. “You’re in trouble.”
“That’s sort of my default,” I said. “Hey, who flattened Annika’s tires?”
“I did,” Gertie said. “I have a nail gun in my purse that I keep charged.”
I grinned. “Of course you do. Throwing the beads on the ground was genius. If Annika hadn’t tripped on them she might have gotten away.”
“I think you would have caught her,” Gertie said. “But I’m glad I could help, even though I had to sacrifice my best beads to do it.”
I threw my arm around her shoulder and squeezed. “How about you let me buy you some more? Just this one time.”
Gertie brightened. “Maybe just this once.”
“Let’s get out of here,” Ida Belle said. “I need a drink and a shower. In that order.”
“Uh, excuse me,” the rescue driver interrupted, “but do you think I could get a ride?”
I looked at him. “You like things that go fast, right?”
Chapter Twenty-Five
It was a long night filling Carter in on everything, especially with all the interrupting he did to either ask where I’d gotten information or complain about the answer after I’d told him. But when everything was said and done, he finally admitted that without our help, Annika would have disappeared and Katia’s murder would probably have gone unsolved. I suggested he suck up to the Heberts a little and maybe they’d give him inside information, but he didn’t look excited about the idea. He was even more disconcerted over the laser but he knew he wasn’t winning that argument.
The Feds gained custody of Annika the next day and it took them only twenty-four hours to convince her to turn state’s evidence on the corporation in exchange for leniency and to be tried in the US rather than deported back to Russia, which would have been certain death. The Feds had given Carter enough information to know that my theory was pretty much how everything had played out, but all the questions about the nuances of the situation would have to remain unanswered.
Larry was touch-and-go for a bit but pulled through. Three days after the big showdown, he was moved into a private room at the hospital and asked to see me. It was one of the hardest things I’d ever done, explaining my theory to Larry. When I saw his reaction, I knew that deep down, he’d known something was horribly wrong but either didn’t want to face it or couldn’t bring himself to believe it. He kept insisting that even though he knew Natalia had married him to get out of Russia, she’d softened after marriage and he was certain she cared for him.
I hadn’t felt that sorry for someone in a very long time. I had no idea what he was going to tell Lina, and I could tell by his reaction to what I shared with him that he didn’t either. The Feds and Carter had already picked his brain over everything but hearing it from me was somehow differ
ent, and I could see his previous denial had turned to resigned acceptance by the end of our conversation. Maybe because I was former CIA. Maybe because I was a Sinful resident. Or maybe because Ida Belle, Gertie, and I had saved his life.
Larry had admitted that he’d been in contact with Natalia’s shrink she saw after the attack in NOLA. Her behavior had been so much more erratic since Katia’s death, he’d been trying to get a psych hold to have her evaluated. I told him to contact any of us if we could help but I had a feeling that once Larry was better, that house would be for sale and he’d put Sinful in his rearview mirror. I wouldn’t blame him. Why stay with all the reminders? It was better to take Lina somewhere completely different and start over.
We paid a special visit to Phyllis and filled her in on what we were allowed to repeat—basically that Natalia wasn’t Natalia and Larry was as much a victim of Annika’s actions as everyone else. Phyllis shifted from thinking Larry was the worst man in the world to cooking baked goods to deliver when he got home. Another reason I figured that For Sale sign would be going up soon.
We also visited Big and Little Hebert and Mannie and brought them up to speed on everything the Feds wouldn’t let leak. They were shocked by the turn of events but happy that the role they played helped expose everything and save a decent man from certain death. Mannie had shown them the video of the ambulance theft and the car explosion, and Big had declared me to be the most interesting hurricane that had ever blown into Louisiana. I took it as a compliment. I’m pretty sure he meant it that way.
And finally, we made a short trip back to New Orleans so Gertie could meet with the casino manager and get her motorcycle on order. It was supposed to be delivered in a couple weeks. Gertie had already told Ida Belle she was giving it to her, but we were keeping that tidbit from Carter because his expressions when Gertie talked about it were priceless.
So life in Sinful sort of drifted back into normal, and every day that passed, we were one day closer to the coup. Morrow and I had exchanged conversations a couple times. He indicated my father was still in the DC area but had used the code word “dad,” so I knew he’d received the magazines. He attempted to sound normal on our phone calls, and to anyone listening in, he would have. But I knew him better than anyone else at the CIA. After all, he’d helped raise me. I knew he was strained. And I worried about him every day, but there was nothing I could do but wait.
