Evie rose as nonchalantly as possible under
the circumstances. When she reached the door, she glanced at the
cops’ table. Detective Proctor’s hard stare was pinned on her. She
pushed the door open and walked across the wooden decking. A quick
scan didn’t reveal Matt anywhere. Since she didn’t want to look
obvious in her search for him, she focused on the long dock. A
woman with blond hair waited twenty feet on the other side of the
first landing, the glow of her cigarette like a homing beacon.
“You got it?” Brianna asked when Evie was
within earshot.
“Yes.” Evie took the media card from her
jeans pocket and held it in her palm before dropping it inside
again. “Where’s my sister?”
“She’s fine.”
“When will you let her go?”
“Soon as I confirm.” Brianna took out her
phone.
Bitterness coated Evie’s tongue with acid.
This woman had worked for her. Shared breathing space on a daily
basis for four months. Worse, Evie’d kind of liked her. She had a
funny streak, a keen sense of irony. She must be laughing her ass
off at this turn of events.
“I don’t understand, Bree. How’d you get
tangled up in this? I thought you were honest.” She couldn’t help
the words that spilled forth, the anger.
Brianna flicked the cigarette butt into the
bayou. “It’s not personal, okay? It’s just a job.”
“A job that involves hurting people.
Killing
people. Did you kill David, or did someone else do
it?”
Brianna laughed. “Oh God, you’d be surprised,
sweetheart. But no, it wasn’t me.” A second later, she had the
phone to her ear. “A media card. No? Thanks.”
Evie’s heart felt as if it would leap from
her chest as Brianna slid her phone into her pocket with a scowl.
“Nice try, but that’s not what I want.” She reached behind her and
Evie stumbled back, envisioning a gun.
“Relax,” Brianna said. “Got a card for you
from your sister.”
She handed Evie a thick white envelope, then
strode past her toward the restaurant.
“Wait! What about Sarah?”
“Get what I need,” she shot back. “I’ll be in
touch.”
EVIE WAS ONLY IMMOBILIZED FOR a second. Then
she sprang into action, deciding to follow Brianna. Since the only
way to the parking lot was through the restaurant, maybe she could
catch up with the other woman as she threaded her way through the
tables and demand more information. Or maybe she could at least see
how Brianna left the premises. Was someone waiting for her? What
was she driving?
Evie yanked open the door, nearly colliding
with a man as she rushed inside. He steadied her. When she looked
up, her heart dropped into her toes. His dark eyes were alight with
interest.
“The devil on your heels, Evie?”
She focused on his bulbous nose and decided
he must like his liquor pretty well considering the redness of it.
“Not at all, detective.”
“What’s that?” He gestured a stubby finger
toward the envelope.
“Just a card from a friend.”
“You didn’t have it when you went
outside.”
Evie dropped the hand holding the envelope to
her side. “No, I didn’t. If you’ll excuse me, I need to get back to
my table.”
His eyes narrowed as he studied her. “You
know what I think?”
She almost didn’t answer him, but she was
frustrated at losing Brianna and pissed this guy was so smug in his
opinions that he couldn’t consider alternatives. “Yeah, you think I
killed David because I was angry with him. And you’re wrong.
Instead of looking for the real killer, you’re focusing on me while
he’s getting away.” Or she. No matter what Brianna said, Evie had
to consider that she was perfectly capable of murder.
Where was Matt? She hoped he’d seen her with
Brianna and was following the woman right now. Maybe he’d call,
telling her he’d found the place they were keeping Sarah.
“No, that’s not what I’m thinking at the
moment,” he said patiently as if she were a child and he was
explaining a very simple concept. “I’m thinking you’re hiding
something.”
She resisted the urge to clutch the envelope
to her chest and looked him square in the eye. “I think you’re
reaching for excuses.”
“Let’s assume you didn’t kill David West.
You’re still tied to this somehow. And that’s what I want to figure
out—how
you
fit in.”
“Hey,
chère
, sorry I took so long.”
Matt seemed to appear out of nowhere. He put his arm around her.
“Detective, you bothering my girl?”
My girl
. She loved the way that
sounded. She wanted to melt into his warmth but settled for leaning
into him just enough to prolong the delicious contact.
Proctor looked annoyed. “Just chatting a
bit.”
“Hope you’re finished then.”
“For now.”
“Good. See you around.” Matt ushered her
through the restaurant and out the front door. Brianna was nowhere
to be seen. The crowd out front had scattered somewhat. No one
looked at them twice as they hurried down the sloping plank ramp to
the parking lot. Matt didn’t say anything until they reached the
car and stood beside it.
“Open it, Evie.”
She ripped the envelope. Inside was a musical
birthday card. She pulled the flap open, unsure what she’d find.
There was nothing inside, no writing, no instructions. She tugged
the card open farther to hear the music. Maybe that was the
clue.
Except it wasn’t music. It was Sarah’s voice.
“Evie, help me, I want to go home. Don’t let them kill me. Don’t
call the police.”
Hot tears filled Evie’s eyes as Sarah’s voice
broke on the last word. Sick assholes!
Matt closed the distance between them, his
arms going around her, squeezing as he held her close. “I’m sorry,
chère
.”
“How could anyone do that? Poor Sarah’s
scared out of her mind.” She sucked in a breath, trying not to cry.
“It’s all my fault.”
“It’s not your fault.”
“If I’d been satisfied living here, if I’d
never left Rochambeau, never dreamed there were bigger things—”
“It doesn’t work like that, Evie, and you
know it. You left because you had dreams. There’s nothing wrong
with that. And even if you’d stayed, you couldn’t keep her safe.
You can’t keep anyone safe forever.” He spoke with the conviction
of someone who knew.
“Did you see Brianna?”
“Yeah. You know her?”
Evie pushed away from him, swiping her eyes.
“She was my bartender, but I guess she was a bit more than that.
Another person put in place by Rivera.”
Matt looked frustrated. “I couldn’t get close
enough to bug her vehicle before she left. But she’s driving a
Chrysler sedan. Dark, blue or black maybe.”
“We’re back where we started, aren’t we?”
Hopelessness threatened to close around her throat and choke
her.
“We’ve got the card, Evie.”
“I don’t see how that’ll help.”
He took it from her and ripped it at the
seams. A small device dropped into his hand. “This is a flash media
device, just like that media card. The recording is digital, so
it’s pretty pure. We’ll load it onto the computer and send it to my
guys for analysis. If we’re lucky, they can isolate the background,
maybe narrow down the area where your sister’s being held.”
She stared at him, awestruck. “This is just
like one of those military techno movies, you know that? I thought
they made all that stuff up.”
“Not all of it.”
“Next you’ll tell me Elvis is alive and
living in Mexico or something.”
“Tahiti, actually.”
Evie laughed through her tears. How did he do
it? How did he make her laugh even when she was falling apart on
the inside and shaking from fear? She wasn’t sure, but thank God
for it.
“Wait a minute,” she said as he opened the
car door for her. “You never asked me what happened out there when
I met Brianna.”
“Didn’t need to.” He grinned. “I saw the
whole thing and heard most of it.”
“But you weren’t on the dock.”
“No, I wasn’t.”
His gaze strayed up and she turned to follow
it. “The roof? You were on the roof?”
“Best place to watch from. I could hear her,
but not you since your back was to me.”
“What if she’d pulled a gun on me, forced me
into a boat?”
“I told you I wouldn’t let that happen.”
She decided not to ask him how he planned to
get off the roof and thwart an abduction in the space of only a few
seconds. It had to be twenty feet from the roof to the dock. Evie
shook her head. There were some things she was probably better off
not knowing.
“Let’s get back to Reynier’s Retreat,
chère
. If luck’s on our side, we’ll have this file analyzed
before Brianna calls you again.”
A new awareness was dawning. “We’re not going
to find David’s files, are we?”
“Probably not. Someone knows what form they
take, but they aren’t sharing the information. With anyone.”
“Maybe that’s who was in the guesthouse when
we returned, the person who knows what to look for.”
She saw respect in his eyes as he nodded. It
made her feel warm inside. “Yeah, that’s what I think. He knows
where you’re staying and thought you might have the information
with you. It also means he knew we’d left, which means he was
watching from the bayou. He waited, in case we returned, then broke
in when he deemed it safe.”
“But if it was the person on the other end of
the phone, he didn’t get what he wanted.”
“No, but he’s convinced you have it… and I
think he may be right.”
* * *
“Mendez is asking questions, Richie.”
Matt rubbed one shoulder. He was just a
little stiff after pulling himself onto that slippery corrugated
roof. Not that it wasn’t something he was unaccustomed to doing,
but sometimes his muscles protested anyway. Especially when he had
a months-old gunshot wound on his side that still throbbed from
time to time.
“What’d you tell him?”
“Nothing yet.” Kevin MacDonald grunted. “The
Kid’s on board though. He knows our asses will be in a sling, but
he doesn’t give a good goddamn. Hawk said he’d be glad to come
shoot somebody for you.”
In spite of everything, Matt laughed. Hawk
could blow a flea off a dog at three kilometers without hurting the
dog. “Yeah, if I need someone shot, I’ll call. Look, this one’s
more difficult, but I need you to trace a Chrysler.” He gave the
make and model and the possible colors. “It’s probably a rental.
See if you can find any cars fitting that description that have
been rented in New Orleans or Baton Rouge lately. Look for a
Brianna Sweeney on the rental, but don’t limit it to that name.
We’ll expand the search if nothing appears in either of those
places.”
“How big you want to go?”
“These people are from California, though
Sweeney was a bartender in Florida for a few months. I doubt they
drove from California, so I’m thinking they must have flown in and
rented it at the airport. If they’d driven from Florida, they’d
have found an opportunity to intercept Evie before now.”
And didn’t that thought just give him a
shiver? No matter how tough and resourceful Evie was, she’d have
been unprepared for an ambush on the road. They could have killed
her. Probably
would
have killed her to get what they
wanted.
“So we’ll check the airport rental counters
first. It’s too bad about the cell phone.”
“Yeah, but maybe this digital recording will
yield something.” The phone Brianna and her accomplices used to
communicate with Evie was a dead end. An unregistered burner that
couldn’t be traced. But maybe there was another way to learn
something about these people. A long shot but worth a try.
“Hey, can you check David West’s phone? Find
out who he made calls to before he came to Rochambeau.” West called
Evie from phone registered to him. If he’d been in contact with his
killers, and they’d been using burners, it wouldn’t matter. But
maybe, just maybe, there’d be something in the log Matt could make
sense of. Matt didn’t know why the guy wasn’t using a burner too,
but maybe he’d been too arrogant or cocky—or too careless—to be
more careful.
“Yeah, can do. Anything else?”
Matt swallowed the lump in his throat. God,
was he getting sentimental in his old age or what? After everything
that had happened, these guys would still risk their asses for him
without a second thought. He felt like he didn’t deserve that kind
of loyalty, and yet not one of them had ever pointed blame at him
for what had happened to Jim and Marco. They were men, not boys,
and they all knew what they’d signed on to do. Death was a constant
companion in their line of work.
Matt knew it, and he knew Jim and Marco went
out doing something they loved—but that didn’t stop him from
feeling he should have called off the mission when he’d known in
his gut that it was compromised.
“Not yet,” he said. “Keep me posted.”
“Hoo-ah. I’ll let you know if I find
anything.”
“Kev,” he said before the other man could
hang up.
“Yes, sir?”
“Thanks.”
There was silence on the other end of the
line for a moment. “You’d do the same for me. For any of us. We all
know it.”
* * *
Evie sat at the kitchen island, stirring up a
batch of chocolate buttercream frosting. She was going to frost
these cakes she’d just baked if it was the last sane thing she did.
Because there’d been plenty of insane moments over the last few
hours and she just wanted to feel normal, at least for a little
while. So long as she did something she knew how to do, she didn’t
feel so helpless while they waited for Brianna to call back.
Matt looked up from the laptop he’d borrowed
from his sister. She didn’t know what he’d been doing, but he’d
been silent since he’d ended his phone call with his teammate. When
they’d first returned to the house, he’d checked it thoroughly,
creeping off to do his military thing before coming back to tell
her all was clear. He’d also procured a pistol, presumably when
he’d gotten the laptop. It lay beside the computer along with a box
of bullets. She’d been trying not to focus on it.