Catch a Shadow (29 page)

She hauled off and hit him. Not as hard as she could but hard enough to make a point. She had given him everything she had. Her trust, her friendship, even her heart. She had put her life on hold. She had put friends in jeopardy. She might have lost her home. She'd been assaulted, shot, and almost kidnapped. All the while he was planning to take decisions away from her, to dump her with friends like so much unwanted baggage. She wanted to hit him again. Instead, she struggled to keep her dignity and stepped back.

He looked stunned.

Heads turned their way. A man did a double take. A woman grinned. Another looked concerned.

Still another couple approached.

She stepped away from Jake. “Nothing to be concerned about,” she said as lightly as she could. “He just said something really stupid.”

Jake straightened and tried a grin. “I should have learned,” he said. “Unfortunately she's smarter than I am.”

The women chuckled. Two men looked uneasy.

Kirke went to the car and got in the passenger's side. He followed.

“Did it occur to you,” she said, “that I have a job? That I have to return to Atlanta? I have, at best, ten days? You can't just haul me away and store me like a piece of meat. What if you don't find this Adams or whoever he is? I can't live in fear the rest of my life. I won't live in fear. And right now I'm the best chance you have to draw him into the open. He wants me because he doesn't know what I know. He needs me more than he needs you. As you said, no one will believe you.”

“I'll turn myself in then,” he said. “My life isn't worth yours.”

“And just how will that help me?” she asked, not bothering to hide her anger. “I'm still a danger to him until he knows what I know, or what I have or what he thinks I have.”

She didn't mention her doubts, her questions. Even her fear that he, too, wanted the missing diamonds. Maybe he thought he deserved them. But she was going to be there when he met Dallas.

Back in the car, she fastened the seat belt. “Now where are we going?”

His silence was louder than any words.

“I want to be there to talk to Dallas. I'm going to be there. You brought me on this trip. Now I'm going to finish it.”

“God help me,” he muttered, just loud enough to hear.

“I doubt it,” she said, still infuriated that he had gone behind her back, still not entirely sure of his intent.

“If they killed Edna Caswell, they might well know where we're headed.” he said, his breathing a little heavier than usual. He moved in his seat and winced. “You throw a nasty punch.”

“If you're a woman, it's the only kind to throw. And I
did
figure that they are probably on their way. That means we'll have to find her before they do.”

“Tell me everything your friend said,” he said, surrendering for the moment, although she knew the subject wasn't closed.

She thought about withholding some information, then shrugged and told him everything.

“Your friend says she couldn't find any legal records,” Jake said when she finished. “If she did return to Denton, maybe she's using another name.”

“Or she married again,” Kirke said.

“Or she isn't there,” he said. “She could be anywhere in the world.”

“But if we can find her maiden name, perhaps we can find relatives who know where she is,” she said. “You said it was rumored she was married to a CIA agent killed in the field. Wouldn't she be receiving some kind of benefit?”

He nodded. “It would be classified, though.”

“You said Gene Adams might have help in the CIA.”

She could tell from his face he'd already considered the possibility. Which was why they crossed half the country without stopping.

“So he has resources we don't?”

His silence again told her he was miles ahead of her.

“And you think Edna told them what she told us?”

“Yes,” he said simply. “They must have seen us leave and went inside to see what we wanted.”

“We're in a race to beat them to Dallas then.”

He nodded.

“What about college?” she suggested, trying to think of every possibility. “Maybe she attended a college around Denton. She married a CIA agent. She probably had more than a high school education.” She looked at the map they had. “Looks like there are two colleges in or around Denton.”

“We don't even know what she looks like now. Or when she graduated.”

Jake was a warrior. She'd been a newspaper reporter. She'd always had an instinct for finding what she was searching for. It had been part of the job. She supposed that he, on the other hand, had a more direct approach to confronting a problem.

“Robin said she would e-mail a copy of the article, or we should be able to find it. Maybe there's a photo.” She looked at him. “Could you pick her out of a crowd?”

“I don't think so. It was ten years ago. I was drinking. Mostly I remember the red hair.”

“So we have the name Dallas and the color of hair,” Kirke said. “Not much to go on. But we have two options. Yearbooks, if we can narrow down the years she might have attended. Second, alumni associations. They might have a current address on someone named Dallas Haley.” She glanced at him. “Is either of your friends a good hacker?”

“Just so happens Cole is.”

“Then I suggest he check alumni records. Maybe he can do that while we check yearbooks. The university libraries should have copies, and most are open to the public.”

The look he gave her sent rivers of heat through her. There had always been heated attraction between them, almost from the very moment they'd met. There had been respect. But now there was much more than that.

“Thank you,” he said simply.

She didn't think he had ever said that before. It didn't sound natural on his lips, but the look in his eyes made it real.

His hand went to hers for the first time since they'd left the deli, and she realized he'd been trying to put a distance between them, just as he had when they first met. He'd been preparing to say good-bye.

“Did you mean what you said? Get rid of me any way they could?”

“Yes. I still do. You've almost been killed several times now because of me. I can live with a lot of things, but you being hurt is not one of them.” He paused, then added, “Adams is a chameleon. He's CIA-trained and can be anyone he needs to be.”

She swallowed hard. His voice was low and husky, almost aching with feeling. She had no doubt he meant it.

He would try to protect her. She knew that. What she wasn't sure of was his end objective.

It wouldn't matter if they didn't reach Dallas Haley before the bad guys did.

CHAPTER 26

Kirke felt immediately at home inside Bob's Barbecue Barn. The restaurant was similar to one she liked in Georgia. Emphasis was obviously on its barbecue, not ambiance. Seventies music blasted from a vintage jukebox in the corner, and wooden picnic tables provided the seating. Table decorations were mostly hot sauce bottles.

After days of fast food, the aroma of smoked meat was heavenly.

She and Jake didn't have to identify themselves. The moment they entered, a burly man approached them and nodded his head toward the back.

“Go through the door in the back. The one that says No Admittance.”

Jake simply nodded, and together they walked to the office. Jake knocked once, then opened the door.

Two men lounged in chairs, looking as if they had not a care in the world, yet she didn't miss the immediate alertness that flickered across their eyes as she entered. It was obvious they trusted the owner of the restaurant, but caution was as much a part of them as the color of their eyes.

Kirke had become all too familiar with the same quality in Jake. Even when he slept he was alert, strange as that sounded.

“Cole Ramsey … Dane MacAllister—everyone calls him Mac—meet Kirke Palmer,” Jake announced.

The man named Dane made a mock salute to indicate which one he was. The other just studied her, head to foot, as Jake had done on their first meeting. It didn't have the same hot impact as Jake's perusal.

Both were lean and trim and looked as if they did the Iron Man competition every month or so. They were also attractive. Not traditionally so, but with that same self-assuredness that Jake possessed. They had that pantherlike caution and lethal quality as if danger lay behind every corner.

“Miss Palmer,” Dane acknowledged the introduction. “I understand you've had something of an eventful week.”

Jake had obviously filled them in during one of his calls. “You could say that,” she said.

Cole offered his chair.

“Thanks, I'd rather stand,” she said. “I've been in the car for more than twenty hours.”

Cole leaned across a desk that was covered with papers. “Hungry? Bob's barbecue is the best ever. You'll think better on a full stomach.

“I could eat a buffalo,” she said. “We've been surviving on donuts.” As the words came out, a lump formed in her throat at the memory of who'd sold them the donuts. She didn't want the same thing to happen to Bob.

“Bob can take care of himself,” Mac said, obviously reading her face. “Used to be a cop. A damned good one. He's aware there might be danger. But practically the entire police department is over here sometime during the day. There's five cops in the other room as we speak.

Kirke darted a look at Jake. Had he told the two about Edna Caswell? Or had they learned in some other way?

Dane caught the look. “We backtracked you two to Virginia. It was all over the news there. Murder is not common in Williamsburg. It was easy enough to connect the address to the info you gave us on the Enigma.

“Find out anything else?”

“Dead ends. It's like Dallas Haley tried to get lost. She
was
married to a spook. A friend in the CIA was able to discover that, but he couldn't get any info on a settlement or her current address.

“Will anyone else find the same brick wall?”

“Depends on how high it goes.”

“High enough that I was neatly trapped,” Jake said. “That job had to be planned way in advance by Adams. I didn't want him on the mission, and my superiors said the CIA insisted on it. Maybe he was just waiting for an opportunity, but I personally think he planned that mission for a long time. I doubt now whether there ever were any missiles.

“And you think this Dallas has information. Maybe even proof of what happened?”

“All I know is that Cox died trying to reach me, and he asked Kirke to tell me something about Dallas.”

Kirke listened as Jake told his friends all that had happened. In about ten terse sentences, starting with the hit-and-run, then the numbers, the sniper, the explosives in Kirke's home, the attack at the truck stop, and finally the visit to Williamsburg.

When he finished, there was a silence. Then both looked at Kirke with new interest.

“A paramedic?” Cole asked.

She nodded. “But a journalist before that. I can't seem to stop letting curiosity get the best of me.”

Jake broke in. “Kirke has some ideas about finding Dallas. She thinks that Dallas may have returned to Denton because she grew up there and possibly has family there. Also, there's a strong possibility she might have gone to one of the colleges around Denton. If so, the name Haley may be on alumni lists as her married name, or we might try finding her photo in college yearbooks. If we can find her maiden name, maybe we can find family, then her. We can divide the tasks. You guys take the alumni lists. We'll take the yearbooks.

“I can also search marriage licenses in Virginia and in Texas,” Cole said. “If she married a CIA agent, there's a good chance the marriage took place in Virginia.

“Or in Texas,” Kirke said. “We don't have her maiden name, but we have his name. Haley.”

“What's his first name?”

“We don't have that,” she admitted. “Her husband died twelve, thirteen years ago. The woman we talked to just knew Haley.”

“There has to be a godawful number of Haleys getting wed in both states,” Cole said. “And how are you going to get a photo of her?”

“Kirke's reporter friend found an article in a local newspaper. Maybe there's a photo. She can e-mail it to me if we have an address.”

“Reporter friend?” Cole interrupted.

“I used to work with her,” Kirke said. “She's great with research. I asked her to try to find something about Dallas. She's the one who came up with the right spelling of the last name, along with the Denton connection.”

Dane stood. “If she's made queries, she might be in danger, too,” he said. “My contact says there's been a flurry of interest there about Mitch Edwards and Dallas Haley. More than one query about the wife of a dead agent might ring some alarm bells.”

Kirke's heart stopped. She'd thought that Robin's search for a former bar manager innocuous. Could her queries have attracted the notice of Adams's contact in the CIA? Her eyes met Jake's.

Jake stood, a muscle in his throat throbbing. It was obvious that he, too, had not thought Robin's queries would be noticed, much less tracked. And perhaps they weren't, but after Edna …

“I have to call her,” she said. She looked at Jake. “That probably means alerting the FBI. She most certainly will call Ben.”

“Do it,” Jake said without blinking. He handed her the phone.

“Ben?” asked MacAllister.

“Her husband's an FBI agent.”

“That gives us even less time to find Dallas,” Jake said, “but she has to know. She may not be on their radar, but I'm not willing to take that chance.”

Kirke used the new prepaid phone to call Robin. She could take risks for herself, but she wasn't going to get another person killed. Especially not Robin.