Princess (14 page)

“What if she’s got backup in there?”

“If so, they’re silent and invisible. My people have been watching the place for the last twenty-four hours.”

Hawk studied the Laundromat across the street from his vantage point of a vacant building they had commandeered for this purpose. One of the Laundromat windows was boarded up and the
D
was missing on the neon sign. A tall woman was counting change near the front desk.

“I’d still like to ride shotgun, Teague.”

“Forget it. If there’s a man within a hundred yards, she’ll clam up. Given what’s happened to her, I guess she’s entitled to hate men.” Izzy finished sliding a line of duct tape in place across his chest, rearranged his dress and picked up his cane from the floor of the Jeep. “How do I look?”

“Don’t ask.” Hawk gave a tight grin. “The makeup’s pretty good, I have to admit. Just look flustered and helpless. And remember to hide the cowboy boots.”

“Everyone’s a fashion critic.” Izzy patted the big brown dog in the backseat. “Ready to move out, L.Z.?”

Instantly the dog sat up, ears raised.

Hawk felt like he was watching an ultrasecret weapon go into full combat readiness, and it was an awesome sight. “I’ll be listening to the relay from your mic. If you run into trouble, just say
kiwi.
”

“Say what?” Izzy turned. “A fruit code, Mackenzie? You couldn’t come up with anything better than that? Hell, I at least expected
tango-two
or
code bravo.
”

Hawk crossed his arms. “Keep it simple, stupid.”

Izzy straightened, giving his ample chest a shake. “Ain’t nobody simple around here, is there, L.Z.?”

The big brown dog barked once.

Izzy hiked his purse up onto his arm. “Time to go to work, boy. Let’s go track down our princess,” he ordered.

chapter
20

H
awk touched his earphone as Izzy and the dog crossed the street. He worked the transmit button. “You read me, Teague?”

“Clear as Tina Turner pounding home the national anthem,” came the low answer.

“Nice image. Bet her legs are better than yours.”

Izzy muttered a few choice words as he hunched over his cane, moving slowly. Anyone watching would have sworn he was at least seventy.

The door to the Laundromat opened, and the owner looked out, studying Izzy warily. Hawk listened to every word that followed, impressed with Izzy’s performance, which appeared to be working like a charm. When he mentioned his arthritis, the woman offered him a rolling cart. Then Izzy explained that he had to bring a load of dirty clothes in from his car, and the woman even offered to help. Izzy apologized haltingly for causing her any bother and said he’d handle the clothes himself.

So far there had been no response from L.Z., but it was still too soon to be conclusive.

Hawk tried to be patient.

“How is he, doctor?” Jess waited anxiously, pacing the waiting room of the Victorian house on Bright Creek’s main street. It had taken her less than ten minutes to make the drive and another five minutes to find the doctor’s office. Now the wounded government agent was on an I.V., waiting for medevac transport to the county hospital. After all that had happened, Jess was feeling a strange sense of anticlimax.

“He’ll be well taken care of. Beyond that I can’t say. I’m only a general practitioner, and surgery is far from my specialty.”

Jess glanced at the row of maps on the wall and then noted the framed medical school diplomas. University of Washington. UCLA. Ohio State. The wounded man was in good hands, she decided.

“Pardon me, but you look like you could use some rest yourself.”

Jess looked down, startled to see that her pants were still wet, streaked with mud. “It’s a long story.” Remembering Hawk’s warnings, she decided the less she said the better. “We had an accident. I’d rather not say more until I speak with the local police.”

“I’ll have to report the gunshot wounds, of course.”

Jess nodded, her eyes moving back to the framed maps. She frowned when she realized one of them looked familiar. “Can you tell me what that town is?”

He glanced up and shrugged. “It’s Bright Creek. Our whole area, actually. Now I’d better get back to work. You’re welcome to rest here as long as you like. By the way, you dropped this paper bag when you came in.”

Jess reached out for the bag, which she’d found wedged under the front seat of the Jeep Rubicon along with old newspapers and food wrappers.

“If your friend is taking any of those medicines, I’ll need to know that. Some of them are highly experimental, not approved for general use.”

“Medicines?”

The doctor frowned. Opening the bag, he shook half a dozen bottles on the table. “None of these have patient names, so I assume that they are being used for a double-blind clinical trial.”

“Not that I know of.” Jess turned one bottle in her hand.

“Very well, I’ll get back to work now.” The door closed.

As she stood staring out at the street, a wave of exhaustion hit Jess.

Her fingers closed over a piece of metal she’d picked up from under the tire, forgotten in her pocket. Without thinking, she traced the smooth outlines and then went very still.

It was a boot buckle, she realized.

Wavy lines crossed the half-circle, with the letters TEK etched in the middle. Just like the boot ornaments she’d seen in the pictures Hawk had shown her.

She dug her driver’s cell phone out of her pocket and hit the redial button on the chance that the driver’s last call had been work-related.

“Central.”

“Central
what
?”

After a pause, the man on the end cleared his throat. “Where is Worthington?”

“Agent Worthington is in Bright Creek receiving a transfusion. He was shot about twenty-five minutes ago.”

“What is your name, ma’am?”

“Jess Mulcahey.”

“I see.” Papers rustled. “Would you please hold?”

Jess sighed and sat down in a chair facing the big picture window. Two cars parked. A bakery van lumbered past.

“Ms. Mulcahey, where are you now?”

“In Bright Creek at the doctor’s office on Main Street.”

“I see.” Again she heard the hesitation in the man’s voice. “I’ll have someone sent over as soon as possible.”

“There’s something else you need to know. The men who attacked us had a bag full of special medicine. It may be important to Lieutenant Mackenzie. Could you call him and tell him that I—”

“Hold, please.”

Jess tapped her foot impatiently, glaring at the street as the minutes ticked past. Abruptly the line went dead.

“Very funny, pal.” Angrily, she stood up, hitting the redial button as she paced in front of the window. The phone rang a dozen times, but no one picked up.

She was redialing when she noticed one of the dark sedans across the street was the same one she’d seen at the house where Hawk had driven her earlier. The old lady walking toward the car looked oddly familiar.

She leaned closer, watching the slow, shuffling feet. The blue-gray hair.

Izzy.

Jess shoved the phone in her pocket, shifting the paper bag from hand to hand. She couldn’t walk away until she was sure that Hawk had these medicines. They had to be important, and since no one seemed to care about what she had to say, waiting around wasn’t an option.

She opened the door and walked cautiously toward Izzy.

Hawk scanned the street, one hand on his earphones. L.Z. was out of the car now, and Izzy had just picked up his bag of “dirty” laundry, which had been placed in the backseat earlier. As he listened, Hawk continued to scan the roof and the nearby alley, assessing threat possibilities.

A flash of color drew his eyes back to the street. He cursed at the sight in front of him.

“Something wrong in there?” Izzy asked quietly.

“This isn’t possible. Jess Mulcahey is walking out of the house behind you. Damn it, what is
she
doing here?”

When Izzy kept walking, Jess trotted across the street, cutting him off.

“You shouldn’t be here,” Izzy said curtly.

Hawk touched his low-profile earphones, picking up every word.

“I had to talk with you. Your agent was shot by two men in a broken silver Rubicon. He’s at the doctor’s now. They’re sending him off via medevac helicopter.”

“Are you hurt?” Izzy demanded.

Hawk realized his hands were clenched. What in God’s name had gone wrong?

“No, I’m fine. The men took my Jeep, but I got out in time. Then I found this bag that they’d left behind in their car.” Jess held out the brown paper bag. “When the doctor told me that these are some kind of experimental medications, I thought it might be important. I tried using the agent’s cell phone, but they hung up on me.”

“I’ll take them,” Izzy said tensely. “Now you’d better go. I’m a little busy here.”

“I understand. There’s just one other thing,” Jess added quickly. “I found this buckle beneath the Rubicon. It’s exactly like the one on the boots that man was wearing in the diner. See the lettering? It says TEK. And they both have that wavy design on the edge.”

“Okay,” Izzy said shortly. “I’ll relay that information on to the relevant parties.”

“Consider it relayed,” Hawk said tightly, aware that only Izzy could hear him. “Now get Jess the hell out of there.”

“Jess, you need to go back to the doctor’s office and wait. Someone will be by shortly.”

“Sure.” They were almost outside the Laundromat, and L.Z. seemed restless, ears forward, sniffing the air.

Hawk saw Jess look down. “Is something wrong with your dog?”

“No, he’s fine,” said Izzy.

“Get her
out
of there, Teague.” Hawk saw the manager, Luellen, come around the counter holding a floppy nylon purse. She raised a dirty metal blind and looked out at the street.

Izzy bent his head toward Jess. “You need to go, Jess.”

“Okay, I’m out of here.” When Jess turned around, Hawk breathed a sigh of relief. Things were getting too damned complicated without her being added to the mix.

The Laundromat door opened, and the manager gestured to Izzy. “Honey, you sure you don’t need help with that laundry?” She glared at Jess. “Why don’t you grab the other end? Can’t you see that bag’s too heavy for her to handle?”

“Oh. Sorry.” Jess glanced uncertainly at Izzy. “Do you want me to—”

“No, no. I’ll be fine.” Teague’s voice had suddenly morphed back into grandma mode.

Luellen sniffed and swung her big purse onto her shoulder. “Like hell am I letting a nice old lady like you carry all that laundry.” Sweeping past Jess and the dog, she grabbed the heavy bag away from Izzy. As she did, L.Z. growled and went flat on the sidewalk.

Holy, holy shit.

Hawk’s jaw clenched. The dog was signaling a scent trail for the missing lab animal.

A door opened behind him. “A call just came in for you, Lieutenant. It was a woman named Jess Mulcahey. She said that—”

“Not now. We’ve got a positive alert from L.Z. Get the other teams over here.” Princess could be locked inside the Laundromat or hidden in the woman’s car, maybe even stashed by Luellen Hammel in a different place entirely. It required only a few molecules to trigger a positive response from the dog. Izzy’s job would be to narrow those possibilities so that Hawk could take the animal alive.

Mistakes weren’t an option.

“I need you to scramble two teams,” Hawk ordered. “One for the Laundromat and one for the manager’s house.”

“When—?”

Hawk held up a gesture for silence. Outside on the street, Luellen was staring at L.Z.

“Your dog definitely looks sick,” she said.

Izzy bent down and stroked the dog sitting at attention. “No, she’s just resting, honey. It’s been a long day for both of us.”

Amen to that,
Hawk thought grimly.

“Well, I’ll be going now. You take care.” Jess gave a little wave to Izzy. “It was nice to see you again.” She cleared her throat. “Honey.”

“Just get out of there,” Hawk muttered irritably.

“Hey, wait a minute.” Luellen spun around. “You’re
her,
that woman from the bar. I saw you on TV today.” The manager pushed open the door with one foot, still holding Izzy’s laundry bag. “Honey, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wanted to give one of those creeps a pool cue right at ground zero. Who were those guys hitting on you?”

“Well, I never actually found out who—”

“What’s your name?”

“Jess, but—”

“Look, Jess, why don’t you come on in so I can buy you a Coke? I want to hear this story from beginning to end.”

Jess moved from foot to foot uncertainly. “You mean now?”

Hawk had a sudden glimpse of Jess’s pale face as she glanced across the street. When the manager put down the laundry bag and pumped her hand, pulling her toward the door, Jess smiled some more, murmuring that her husband was waiting and she really had to go.

Luellen looked around. “I don’t see anyone. What’s a few minutes in here going to bother him anyway?” As she spoke she withdrew a gun from her pocket and gestured in the general direction of the street.

“Oh, he’s parked down the street,” Jess said vaguely, staring at Luellen’s gun and allowing herself to be herded into the Laundromat. “He had to get gas.”

“So you two know each other?”

“It’s been awhile.” Izzy laughed brightly. “You know how it is.”

“Damned right I know. And you can let your husband stay worried. Screw all of ’em.” Snorting, the manager leaned down and flipped over the big red sign on her front door. “As a matter of fact, I’m going to close early tonight. Anybody else who comes by can just take a hike. I like things nice and quiet in here. No distractions.”

Something in the woman’s tone disturbed Hawk. Judging from the slur in her voice, she had been drinking.

He studied the topo map of the area near her residence and calculated times and distances. Then he hit a button on his walkie-talkie without moving his gaze from the figures inside the Laundromat. “It’s Mackenzie. Here’s what I want you to do.”

He continued to speak quietly, looking at the map.

L.Z. was now sitting by Izzy’s leg, his body rigid. His keen eyes were locked on Luellen as Izzy gripped his cane and hobbled toward the nearest row of washing machines. “I think I’d better get started on this laundry.”

“I’ve got a better idea.” Luellen glanced outside, then began to nod. “Yeah, that’s exactly what we should do.”

Jess backed toward the door. “Actually, I need to go. I really,
really
need to go.”

“Don’t move.” Luellen lurched in front of Jess and slapped one hand over the door. Hawk heard L.Z. growl, followed by the snap of a round being chambered in a gun.

Jess tried to ease away, a smile pasted on her face. “Is s-something wrong?”

“Damned right. There’s a man across the street. He’s been over there watching us ever since you two came in here.”

Shit.

The manager was clearly nuts, but she was also shrewd and seemed to have eyes in the back of her head. Jess and Izzy would be history if they weren’t careful.

“Izzy, anytime.”

“Oh, I’m sure you’re mistaken.” Calm as always, Izzy hobbled across the room, trying to wedge his padded body between Jess and the angry manager. In the process, he drew Luellen’s attention, so that she shifted the gun a few inches away from Jess’s head.

“I’m not imagining anything. He’s there, damn it.”

Hawk saw Luellen’s gun twitch. He watched the muzzle waver, still dangerously close to Jess’s head. “Izzy, get that gun away from her. We need to find out if the bear is hidden inside her trailer. I don’t want to storm the place unless it’s necessary.”

“Honey, you’ll probably want to put that gun of yours away now.” Izzy smiled sheepishly and shook his head. “I don’t want to see anyone hurt by mistake, and I’m not half ready to die.” He spoke as if he were addressing a child.