Silencing Eve (39 page)

She swallowed as she handed Gallo’s phone back to him. “Very convincing. Now let’s get to the damn place and find Eve.”

Sandhurst Airport
Washington

THE GULFSTREAM’S ENGINE WAS STILL
whining as Jane, Trevor, Margaret, and Caleb ran down the steps and moved toward the blue-and-white hangar. The pilot immediately taxied into the hangar to get out of sight.

Caleb craned his neck, his gaze searing the sky. “If Venable is correct, Harriet could be arriving at any moment.”

“We just have to hope that they didn’t have a last-minute course change.” Jane glanced around the small single-runway airport located southwest of Seattle. “I thought you’d arranged a car for us.”

“I did.” Caleb pointed to a black Range Rover parked next to the hangar. “Curb service.”

A portly man in a gold shirt emblazoned with a rental-car-company logo climbed out and walked toward them with keys and contract. Caleb had barely finished signing the paperwork when Jane heard the sound of a jet in the distance. The next moment, Caleb’s iPad made a pinging sound in his satchel.

“They’re back in range,” Jane said. She looked up at the approaching plane. “That has to be them. Let’s move.”

Trevor snatched the keys from Caleb’s hand. “I’ll drive.”

“I gathered that,” Caleb said dryly.

“Come on!” Margaret had already opened the Range Rover’s rear door and was climbing into the car. “I think I see a car coming toward the airport. That may be Harriet’s welcoming committee. We have to get out of sight.”

Less than a minute later, they were idling in a small lot near the airport’s exit. Two minutes after that, a Cadillac Escalade drove past and headed toward the Learjet that had just landed.

“Whew,” Trevor said softly. “Entirely too close.”

“Two men in the front seat,” Caleb said. “That shouldn’t be too much of a problem.”

They watched as Harriet came down the steps of the Learjet carrying her overnight bag and the box of Kevin’s letters. One of the two men who had met her politely tried to take the bag from her, but she waved him aside and got into the Cadillac.

A few minutes later, the Escalade drove past their Range Rover as it exited the airport.

“Okay, here we go,” Caleb said as he looked at the iPad. “And we have a strong signal.”

Trevor slowly turned the wheel and waited until the Escalade had turned the corner before he started to follow it. Five minutes later, they had left the small town behind. Twenty minutes later, the scenery became sparse and barren, with tall grass lining the two-lane highway. The sky was overcast with a damp blanket of marine layer and only an occasional sliver of moonlight as they drew closer to the coast.

“Faster, Trevor.” Jane’s hands were clenching with tension. “I think we’re losing her.”

Trevor shook his head. “If I get any closer, she’ll see us. It’s been five minutes since we’ve seen another car.”

“No worries.” In the backseat, Caleb raised the iPad screen. “I still have her right here. Strange, she’s heading south, not north toward Seattle. But she can’t make a move without my knowing it. She’s moving fast, but not—”

Margaret’s phone rang. “It’s Catherine. Should I—”

“Not now,” Jane said, her gaze on the road ahead.

But after Margaret’s call had gone to voice mail, Jane’s phone rang. It had to be important if Catherine was going through her list trying to reach them. “Catherine, what is it?” Jane asked.

“Something good at last,” Catherine said. “I think we’ve located Doane’s cottage.”

“What?” Jane’s heart leaped. “That’s fantastic. Where is it? Are you—”

“Harriet’s stopped,” Caleb said.

Trevor eased off the gas pedal. “You’d better be sure of that.”

“Positive.”

“I’ll call you right back, Catherine.” Jane hung up.

“Where?” Trevor asked Caleb.

“About half a mile ahead. Probably just around that bend.”

Jane leaned back to glance at the iPad screen. “What’s there?”

“Nothing as far as I can tell. Absolutely nothing.” He waved his hand toward the tall grass along the road. “More of the same.”

Trevor cursed under his breath. “They may have seen us.”

“Unlikely, considering how careful you were,” Caleb said. “For once, your conservativeness may have been an actual benefit, Trevor.”

Trevor thought for a moment. “Okay, everyone get down. I’m going to do a drive past.”

“Now, that’s not a conservative move,” Caleb said.

“Do it,” Trevor snapped.

Jane, Caleb, and Margaret slumped far down in their seats so that Trevor appeared to be the only one in the car. He stepped on the accelerator and roared around the bend.

“What do you see?” Jane asked.

“Her car’s parked on the roadside. No one’s inside. Caleb’s right, there’s nothing else around here.”

Jane sat up and looked around. Just as Trevor said, there was the car but no trace of Harriet and the two men. “I was hoping when they stopped that it was at Doane’s cottage.” Had they changed cars? Jane felt the muscles of her stomach tighten. To come all this way and possibly lose her … “Stop the car. Now.”

“I don’t like this,” Caleb said slowly.

“There’s another curve up ahead,” Trevor said. “We’ll park on the other side and walk back. We’ll find them, Jane. They couldn’t have gone far.”

“Unless they changed cars.”

“If they did, they left Kevin’s letters in that Cadillac. I’m still getting a ping,” Caleb said. “And that’s not likely.”

Trevor rounded the bend and pulled over. He, Jane, and Caleb got out of the car. Margaret was about to follow them, and Jane shook her head. “No, you stay here.”

“I go where you go,” Margaret said quietly.

“Not this time. I’m not protecting you, Margaret. I’m just trying to be sensible. What if something goes wrong?”

She frowned. “Then I’d want to be there.”

“No, we’d want someone to be able to sound an alarm, to call Venable or Catherine, anyone who could help. You’re that person.” Her voice became firm. “I’m not asking, I’m telling you. Stay here.”

She finally nodded. “For a little while. Until I know if you’re in trouble.”

Jane hurried to join Trevor and Caleb as they moved through the tall grass at the roadside.

Caleb’s eyes were narrowed, darting like those of an animal on the hunt. The sleek panther had returned. “Stay low. We want to see them before they see us.”

They crouched and moved through the grass. Only now did Jane realize just how close to the beach they were. She heard the crashing of waves and felt sand beneath her feet. She peered through the grass to see that a tall dune was all that separated her from the narrow beach. She started to move toward it when Caleb grabbed her arm. “Stop.”

Jane pulled away. “Like hell. What if there’s a boat beyond that dune? Or maybe Doane’s cottage? If they’re over there, I—”

“They could see you, and it would ruin everything. Let me run back to the road and come back from the other side of their car.”

Trevor nodded. “Good idea. I’ll circle around this dune and approach from the other side.”

Jane looked between them with exasperation. “What am I supposed to do? Sit here and do nothing?”

Trevor smiled. “I wish I could talk you into that, but I know better.”

“Damn right, I’ll go straight up and over and see if I can spot them on the beach.”

Caleb stepped toward her and handed her his revolver. “Stay low. There’s a good stand of grass on this side of the dune. Use it for cover. And if you see them, wait for us before you try to follow.”

She looked at the weapon in her hand. “I can’t take your gun, Caleb.”

He pulled a seven-inch LHR combat knife from his ankle sheath. “I prefer this. Messy, but quieter. I’ve never been one to attract attention to myself.”

“We both know that’s not true.”

“We’ll discuss it later.” He nodded to Trevor and sprinted back in the direction from which they’d come.

Jane put the gun in her waistband and turned back to Trevor. “Be careful,” she whispered.

He hesitated. For an instant, she wasn’t sure he would leave her. Then he gave her a quick kiss. “You, too.”

She watched as he ran down the length of the long sand dune. She dropped to her hands and knees and started her climb to the top.

She suddenly cocked her head, listening. Had she heard a woman’s voice?

Hard to tell over the sound of the pounding surf.

She continued slowly up the dune, an inch at a time.

She reached the top and drew a deep breath, listening.

No sound but the surf.

She raised her head to peer down at the beach.

A gun was leveled at her face from only a foot away!

“Welcome.” The man crouching there was one of the men who had met Harriet at her plane. “She’s been waiting for you. Now be very quiet, and you might live for another few minutes.”

Shit. If she tried to jerk her gun out of her waistband, he’d pull the trigger.

“That’s right, freeze.” He rose unsteadily to his feet, slipping on the loose sand. He turned to signal someone below.

Use the distraction. Move.

She hurled herself over the dune and toppled the man who was already precariously balanced on its face. She heard him cursing as they both tumbled down the other side toward the beach.

Rolling, twisting, turning …

She was struggling to grasp the revolver in her waistband. She grabbed the handle just as she hit the beach and rolled over to her feet. She leveled the gun at the man who was still flat on his back but struggling to sit up. He’d lost his gun on the way down, and it was several feet away. Don’t let him get near that gun again.

A shot rang out.

Pain seared the flesh of Jane’s lower arm and her own gun dropped from her hand. What the hell? Jane spun around.

“In the end, a woman always has to take care of things herself if she wants them done well.” Harriet was walking toward her. “Look what you’ve done to poor Craig. Of course, he deserved it for letting you take him by surprise.”

“She didn’t do anything. I … slipped.” The man Harriet had called Craig was scowling.

“Shut up, Craig. I should have known Cartland would send me two bunglers.” Harriet moved forward, her gun extended before her. “I’ll take care of this from now on.” She glanced at Jane’s arm and smiled with satisfaction. “Good shot. Just a flesh wound, as I intended. Hardly bleeding at all. Kevin taught me, you know. I didn’t want you to die before I could talk to you.”

“So talk to me.” The gun she’d dropped was only a few feet away. Could she reach it before Harriet pulled the trigger?

“I wanted to tell you that you’ve lost. That I had won.” Harriet’s face was full of triumphant malice. “And I wanted to see your face when you realized what a fool you were. You thought you were so clever. When Cartland told me that you’d followed me to my hotel, I had to wonder how you did it. When I got back to my room, I searched it very carefully and found all your little bugs. But that didn’t tell me how you’d followed me from Muncie.” Her lips twisted. “And then I thought about my Kevin’s wonderful letters and how you must have committed the final desecration by going through them. And had even planted a GPS bug in the lid of the box. Can you imagine how angry that made me?”

“I don’t really care.”

“You’ll care when I pull this trigger. Kevin and I beat you. We used your own trick to lure you out here. Kevin would have been proud of me.”

“I don’t doubt it. You’re two of a kind. I don’t know who is the more evil.”

“You thought you were going to stop me?” Harriet leveled the gun at her. “You’ve caused me so much trouble. I wish I could take more time with you. But I can’t afford to indulge myself.”

She was going to pull the trigger. Jane couldn’t wait any longer. She gathered her muscles to leap for the gun she’d dropped.

“Harriet.” Trevor’s voice. “Don’t touch her. Drop your gun.”

Harriet whirled, startled, at this new attack. Her hand tightened on her weapon as she saw Trevor with a gun in hand. “Keep back. I’ll kill you. I’ll kill both of you.” She was spitting venom. “You must be her lover, rushing to the rescue. How fitting that you’ll die with the little whore.”

“Get away from her, Harriet.” Trevor moved a step closer. “We both have guns, but you’ll be a dead woman the instant you pull that trigger. My gun is pointed at your heart, and you’ll be dead in seconds. I don’t think that’s what you want. You have all those grand plans. Or maybe you’re expecting help from that gorilla who was guarding the other side of the dune? He won’t be coming. I took care of him before I moved on you.” He glanced at Craig, who had made a motion toward his gun in the sand a few yards away and told him, “And there will be a bullet between your eyes if you’re not very, very still.”

Craig froze.

A flicker of uneasiness crossed Harriet’s face. “I don’t need him. I don’t need either of them.” She reached in her pocket and pulled out a large, clumsy-looking cell phone. “I don’t need anything but this detonator. I was saving it for the grand finale after I kill Zander, but I’ll set it off now if you don’t put down that gun. And, if you shoot me, I’ll activate it as I’m falling to the ground.”

Jane inhaled sharply, her gaze on that antique phone. Millions of deaths, she thought. One touch, and millions of deaths.

“So it’s a game of chicken? I won’t put down my gun,” Trevor said. “Don’t be foolish. I couldn’t be sure you wouldn’t use your gun to shoot Jane. That’s what this is all about. But I’ll let you walk away from here. We’ll be right behind you, but you’ll have a little head start.”

“You fool. Can’t you see as long as I have this detonator that I’m the one who gives the orders?”

“No, all I see is a danger to Jane.” He met Harriet’s eyes. “And I won’t risk her life no matter what you threaten. Look at me. I don’t care about anything else but Jane. Can’t you see that? Now turn around and walk away.”

She hesitated, staring at him. “You really mean it.” Then she shrugged. “It’s only a postponement. I swore on Kevin’s soul that I’d kill the bitch.” She moved away from Jane, toward the road. “And that’s what I’ll do. As quickly as I—” She suddenly whirled and the gun in her hand was belching fire.