COLLATERAL CASUALTIES (The Kate Huntington mystery series) (35 page)

            Kate took his hand and held it against her pounding heart. “Bottom line, the note says we both have to show up. There’s no point in one of us risking our life when that may not accomplish anything.”

            Skip stared at her, his thoughts in turmoil. Then he pulled her against him. The ache in his chest was almost unbearable as he heard his daughter’s plaintive voice in his head,
When are you coming to get us?

           
Maybe never, Pumkin.
He choked back a sob.

            They clung to each other for several minutes. “We’re assuming the worst case here,” he finally said into her hair. “We’ll have plenty of back-up. We’ll be okay.”

            Kate nodded against his chest.

            He lifted her chin and kissed her tenderly. She deepened the kiss. After a minute, she pulled back and whispered, “Change what you can, accept what you can’t and enjoy the hell out of life in the meantime.”

            He hadn’t intended to make love to her. The others were waiting. But when he looked into her eyes... “Dear God, I love you,” he said, his voice raw with emotion, as he eased her back onto the bed.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

            While the Canfields were fighting and making up, the others, in consultation with Mac, had decided that Essex and Catonsville were too far apart. Dolph found the address for the Hendricks Marina online and located a motel nearby. That would be their base for the operation.

            It had also been decided that Kate and Skip would wear the Kevlar vests. Their light-colored jackets would be too visible at night, however. Sue had been dispatched with Claude and some cash to buy dark jackets loose enough to cover the vests.

            Manny had asked to be included in the operation. Rose hated the idea of leaving Sue and Rob with just one guard. But then again, Kate and Skip would definitely be at much more risk.

            When they finally surfaced, Rose filled them in on the plan. Over dinner, for which none of them had much appetite, they ironed out the details.

            “Dolph and I are your back-up,” Rose said. “We take my car, even though it’ll be tight.” Both her car and Skip’s truck had been custom built for them a few years ago. She wanted the advantage the bullet-proof glass and steel plates in the doors would give them should they end up in a car chase with the bad guys. “Manny will stay with the car, keep it running in case we need to leave fast.”

            “Wish we had one of those tracking devices like these assholes keep putting on our cars,” Kate said. “So you all could follow if the ambassador tries to take us elsewhere.”

            Dolph’s eyes lit up. “Actually, we do. It’s in my glove box. I ordered it along with the debugging scanner, but I haven’t had a chance to test it yet.”

            Despite the tension of the situation, Rose almost laughed out loud. Dolph did so love his gadgets.

            Skip turned to his wife. “Please hear me out, darlin’. We’re in this together but I’ve been thinking that this
machismo
man is going to expect me to show up first and check things out. Make sure it’s safe before I allow my wife to be present.”

            “He’s right,” Rob said before Kate could protest.

            Dolph nodded his agreement. “Skip’s got to go down that pier first, but we’ll be as close as we can get. I’ll set things up with Judith. See if she can get the Coast Guard on alert as well. I’ll have to give her the general area at least. Rob, you’ll call her with the exact location of the marina if we haven’t checked in by a certain time.”

~~~~~~~

            When Dolph’s former partner answered her cell phone the next morning, she let out a long-suffering sigh.

            “Why Judith, you don’t sound all that thrilled to hear from me. My heart is broken.”

            “I’d like to be breaking something else of yours about now.”

            “Now is that any way to treat the man who’s gonna solve your murder case?”

            “Which one? I’ve got three of them at the moment.”

            “By nine tonight we’ll have the name of Jamal’s murderer,” Dolph said with far more confidence than he felt. “But we need you to organize the cavalry for us, in case things go wrong.”

            Judith was silent for a moment. “This better not be bullshit or I
am
gonna track you down and break some body parts you’re probably fond of.”

            “No bullshit. I need you to have some people in the Essex area, near the water, by nine.” He gave her an intersection five blocks from the marina. “And the Coast Guard needs to be alerted that some criminals may attempt to flee from that area by boat,
with
hostages. Rob Franklin will call you with the exact location, if things go south.”

            “And where will Canfield be during this operation?” Judith’s sarcastic tone implied she didn’t expect an honest answer.

            But Dolph gave her one. “Right in the middle of it. If you get nothing else out of this, you’ll have him. But you gotta promise to do this our way. A lot of lives are at stake. Innocent lives. His wife’s for one, and mine and Sue’s. If you flood the area with cop cars and try to find him, you’ll scare off our quarry at best, and get a bunch of us killed at worst.”

            She sighed again. “He’s really gonna turn himself in this time?” She still sounded skeptical.

            “Judith, sweetheart, if we have to call you, he’ll be totally thrilled to see you because you’ll be saving his hide at that point.”

            “And if things go right?”

            “He’ll turn himself in if you still want him to, but we should have the real killer for you at that point. And no matter how it goes down, the risk of someone trying to kill him in jail will be gone by tomorrow. At that point, he’ll be willing to come in and help you get the mess straightened out. You really don’t have much of a case against him. Your witnesses are phantoms and he’d reported the murder weapon stolen before the crime.”

            “I still want a sit-down in an interrogation room with your boy,” she said.

            “You’ll get it, one way or the other.”

            “Okay. I’ll set it up. I’ll have to notify the City since that’s close to the harbor, and maybe bring in the Transportation Authority’s Marine Unit. Lord, what a jurisdictional nightmare. I’d better get that sit-down out of this, Dolph.”

            “You will.” After disconnecting Dolph stared sightlessly at the phone, praying that
his boy
would live long enough to face Judith across a table in an interrogation room.

~~~~~~~

            The Super 8 Motel wasn’t exactly hopping on a Thursday afternoon. They were able to get two adjoining rooms.

            Skip held the transmitter of Dolph’s tracking device in his hand, trying to decide the best place to hide it. It was roughly the size and shape of a book of matches. He leaned over and slipped it into the side of his sneaker. Yup, that would work.

            “That works,” Rose echoed his thought. She was staring at the screen on the receiver, that looked like a cell phone with an oversized antenna. “Give it to me.”

            He fished it out again and handed it to her. She passed it to Manny. “Take this for a ride. We’ll see how well it works and for how far. Then we’ll check out that marina, while it’s still daylight.”

            Rose turned back to Skip. “Meantime, you nap.” She pointed at Kate and Dolph. “You too. You all need to be on your toes tonight.”

            “When are you going to nap, Rose?” Dolph asked.

            She gave him a teasing grin. “Don’t need much rest. I’m not as old as you.”

            “Ouch.” Skip chuckled. “She gets mean when she’s in charge.”

            Rose narrowed her eyes at him. “
Am
I in charge?”

            “Yes,” he said, his tone now serious. He knew she was the one most likely to be able to keep her cool.

            “Good, ’cause when we’re in the middle of this, there won’t be time to convene a committee meeting. This is a military operation and everyone’s safety depends on discipline.” Her eyes flicked from his face to Kate’s. “The point may come when one of you is in danger, and the other one may not be able to think straight. So you do what I say, even if it’s to run in the opposite direction. And if I tell you to stay put, you better be where I left you when I come back.”

            She looked at Dolph, then back at them. “So who’s in charge?”

            “You are,” Dolph said. Kate nodded.

            Rose put her hands on her hips and scowled, but Skip had caught the impish glint in her eye.

            “I can’t
hear
you! Who’s in charge?”

            Kate snickered. “You are,” she and Dolph chorused.

            Rose turned her scowl on Skip.

            He stood at attention. “Yes, ma’am. You are in charge, ma’am.” He gave the Army private impersonation his best shot, but he was having trouble keeping a straight face.

            She flashed him a megawatt grin.

~~~~~~~

            At eight-twenty, Rose’s overcrowded car was cruising the streets near the Hendricks Marina. After sundown on an October weeknight was not a time when boaters were visiting their boats. The waterfront area was deserted.

            Squeezed between her husband and Dolph in the back seat, Kate was trying to get her pounding heart under control by giving herself a silent pep talk. It wasn’t working.

            “Doesn’t look like they’ve posted any lookouts,” Rose finally said. She pulled over and parked two blocks from the marina.

            Rose reached up to switch off the overhead light so it wouldn’t come on when they opened the doors. They climbed out of the car as noiselessly as possible. Manny slid across into the driver’s seat.

            As she’d been instructed, Kate eased her car door closed until she heard the soft click. Then she took a deep breath and joined Rose and the others at the trunk. She and Skip donned the Kevlar vests, then zipped their dark jackets over them.

            Skip put his .38 in his jacket pocket. He leaned over and touched the small bulge in the side of his shoe.

            Dolph was also patting his bulging pockets with one hand, no doubt making sure he had everything essential. A two-way radio–the partner of the one in Manny’s possession–was in his other hand.

            Rose nodded and the four of them moved silently toward the marina. They crept single-file along the dark side of the marina’s main building, Dolph bringing up the rear. As they reached the corner facing the water, Kate almost ran into Rose. In the dark shadows, she could just barely see Rose’s raised hand, signaling for them to wait.

            By comparison the moonlight shining over the water was quite bright. A lawn sloped away from them toward the water where a wooden boardwalk stretched across the width of the property. Several piers extended out from it, with dark, silent boats moored in most of the slips. At the end of the third pier from the left was the only boat showing any signs of life.

            A light shone from it, silhouetting a dark figure moving around inside the cabin.

            “Moves like a woman,” Skip whispered.

            “Ambassador’s wife,” Rose whispered back.

            Another dark form was moving in the open cockpit at the back of the boat.

            Skip’s hand found Kate’s and squeezed it. Rose nodded and he moved past Kate and started across the lawn.

            Dolph stepped up behind her. Kate felt the reassuring warmth of his hand on her shoulder. She realized she was holding her breath and let it out with a soft whoosh.

            They watched the figures on the boat.

            Just as Skip reached the boardwalk, the light went out in the cabin. He was halfway down the third pier when there was a flicker of movement at the top of the boat. For the briefest of moments, the moonlight outlined a thin silhouette. “Someone’s on the upper bridge now,” Rose whispered.

            Skip had stopped, facing the back of the boat. The figure in the cockpit stood up. It looked like the right height and shape to be the ambassador. The two men faced each other, apparently conversing.

            Suddenly Skip wobbled, then fell forward into the boat. The man in the cockpit jumped back. A male voice shouted, “Raul!”

            Kate’s heart leapt into her throat. Tears blurred her vision. She fumbled with the radio Dolph thrust into her hands but managed not to drop it.

            He was stripping off his jacket. “I’m going in the water, if that’s okay with you, Rose. See if I can get on board.”

            “Do it,” Rose said.

            Dolph handed the jacket to Kate. “Take good care of that. It has the GPS receiver in it.”

            “I’m gonna try to get on from the boat next door,” Rose said. “Stay here, Kate. Call Rob.”

            The latter order was hardly necessary. Kate was already juggling Dolph’s things into one hand so she could pull out her phone.

            Rose moved off across the lawn, slipping from shadow to shadow. Dolph had pulled a plastic bag from his pants’ pocket while he was kicking off his shoes. He thrust his gun into the bag and stuffed it back in his pocket. He took off toward the boardwalk.

            Kate punched the speed dial number she’d programmed into the phone earlier. Her heart beat erratically. It was taking forever for the call to go through. She made herself take a deep breath.

           
Come on!

            Finally she heard Rob’s voice. “Hello.”

            “Call Jud–” Pain shot through Kate’s skull. The moonlit scene before her went black.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

            “Kate! What’s going on?” Rob hissed into the phone.

            A deep, heavily accented voice answered him. “Do nothing, Mr. Franklin, if you wish to see your friends alive again. No harm will come to them if you keep your five colleagues informed that they are also to do nothing. You will be contacted in twenty-four hours with the location where you will find your friends. By that time the ambassador and his wife will be safely on their way and you may do whatever you wish.”