Heron's Cove (32 page)

“People won’t just get sick,” Emma added. “They’ll die. Dmitri and anyone else who drank the cider need immediate medical help.”

Natalie put her hands in front of her, palms down, defiant now, insulted. “If you think I tried to kill anyone, put me in handcuffs. Arrest me.”

Colin shrugged. “Sounds like a good idea to me.”

Kevin Donovan and his colleagues in the state and local police swarmed the pier.

Yuri glared up at Colin. “I should have killed you when I had the chance.”

“Yeah. You should have.” He turned to Emma. “Let’s go find Dmitri and anyone else who had a taste of the cider.”

* * *

They located Dmitri Rusakov in a small study next to the master stateroom, slumped on the floor amid a pool of fresh vomit. Emma had heard his moan, and she and Colin smashed in the locked door.

She knelt next to the Russian billionaire. He was having difficulty breathing and was clearly weak, in pain. “Tatiana,” he mumbled. “My sweet girl.”

“She’s safe,” Emma said. “Ivan’s with her. Are you alone?”

Colin checked the room, nodded to her. “It’s clear.”

“He needs a hospital, fast,” she said.

Dmitri fumbled for her hand. “Tatiana is not responsible for this. She didn’t try to kill me, herself. Anyone.”

“I know, Dmitri. Hang on, okay? Help is on the way.”

Tears ran down his cheeks but he was too weak to answer. Colin squatted down next to him. “I bet Natalie and her friends managed to get botulism into him and Tatiana last night. Damn. The sick bastards.”

They made Dmitri as comfortable as possible as the state and local police checked the yacht, discovering sick crewmembers but no Pete Horner or Boris, then let in the paramedics.

“Boris and Pete are waiting for Yuri and Natalie to join them,” Colin said as he followed Emma out into the sprawling master stateroom. “Boris and Yuri stopped in Rock Point early this morning in a dinghy.”

Emma paused at the foot of the king-size bed. “So they have a bigger boat.”

“Yep.”

He was already on his way out of the stateroom. Emma followed him to the gangway and disembarked the
Nightingale
with him.

Natalie was on the pier, handcuffed, screaming. “You all think you’re so smart, don’t you? Damn you! Damn you to hell. I want you all out of my brain. I want you all dead. Dmitri, Ivan, Tatiana, Emma, Colin, his family, her family. All suffering. All dead.”

Colin grimaced next to Emma. “I guess that’s the real Natalie,” he said. “Glad I showed up?”

“Yuri should be. I was about to lose my temper. I don’t like getting hit.”

“I don’t like you getting hit, either,” Colin said in a low voice, close to her. “You had everything under control.”

“More or less. You saved Tatiana.”

“Ivan would have found her in time,” he said.

She touched his arm. “We’re not keeping score, right?”

“Right. A jug of poisoned cider was meant for us, too, Emma.”

“I love cider, just without botulism.”

Kevin Donovan approached his older brother. “We think we know where Pete Horner’s boat is. Want to come with me?”

Colin glanced at Emma. “I used to be with the marine patrol.”

“That much I do know about you. Go, Colin.” With more local and state police descending, and Matt Yankowski en route, she resisted kissing him. “Get the bastards who tried to kill you.”

Kevin grinned at her, then clapped his brother on the shoulder. “See why we all like Emma?”

* * *

“My turn,” Colin said an hour later as he sat across from Pete Horner at a table in the
Nightingale’
s lounge. A cool breeze that tasted of salt and smelled of home floated off the water, but Colin stayed focused on what he was there to do. Emma stood by the bar. He liked having her there and knew she liked being there, seeing into a corner of his world as an undercover operative.

Matt Yankowski was in the vicinity but hadn’t yet come aboard the luxury yacht. Colin had reported that he, Kevin and a contingent from the Maine State Police had found Horner, Boris and a stash of illegal weapons on a boat about to cruise out of Heron’s Cove into the open ocean. The use of overwhelming force had convinced Horner and Boris to surrender without a fight.

Now Colin hoped he could convince Horner to talk, too.

“Going to feed me to the alligators?” Horner asked with a smirk that was half bravado, half for real.

Colin shook his head. “Nope. We don’t have alligators up here in Maine.”

“Water’s cold, though. How long would I last?”

“A beefy guy like you? Longer than you deserve.” Colin sat back against the cushioned, elegant chair. “You look tired, Pete. Rough few days, huh?”

The pilot’s watery, bloodshot eyes leveled on Colin from across the table. “You have no idea.”

Colin was unsympathetic. “My baby brother and I probably just saved your life. Yuri’s and Boris’s, too. You’ve got some pissed-off bad guys on your tail. Now you’re going to tell me who they are.” He leaned forward. “Who’s your buyer, Pete?”

“Why should I tell you?”

“Well, if saving your life isn’t enough, then because I’m a federal agent and it’ll be better for you if you do.”

He coughed, then yawned as if he didn’t have a care in the world. “Natalie and these crazy Russians went after your family. I didn’t.”

“Emma talked to her brother in Ireland. Your guy there is under arrest. He’s talking.”

“I don’t have a guy in Ireland.”

“Yeah, you do. Another Russian. One of Yuri’s and Boris’s friends. We have their real names now. We’re learning more by the second. By ‘we’ I mean the FBI and my friends in the Maine State Police.”

“You don’t have to remind me you’re a fed.” Horner’s eyes were hard now, despite his obvious fatigue, his obvious disgust with himself. He hadn’t shaved since he had tried to kill Colin, or probably showered, either.

Colin glanced at Emma, but she didn’t give away anything she might be feeling. She would still be processing just how close her brother and grandfather had come to getting killed that day, too. Colin knew it would take time for him to process having poisoned cider delivered to his family.

In the call from Lucas Sharpe, Emma had also learned about Katya Rusakov and her tragic death.

Something Yank’s Vulcan mind meld with old Wendell Sharpe would have turned up.

Colin shifted back to Horner.

“My friend Finian Bracken will recognize you from the other night when you followed him.”

“So? I talked to a priest. I didn’t do anything wrong.”

Colin supposed he had a point. “You went into the wrong business and you fell for the wrong woman.”

“Natalie was in Paris in April,” Emma said, as if on cue. “We figure she drove to London when you were there with Vladimir Bulgov. Is that when you two met?”

Horner gave Emma a strained smile. “Love at first sight.”

“She found out Dmitri Rusakov was in London and drove over,” Colin said. “You can do that now. Did she see him?”

“No. Ivan Alexander headed her off at the pass, so to speak, and persuaded her that wouldn’t be a good idea. I ran into her crying into her champagne at the hotel bar.”

“Sucked you right in,” Colin said.

“Oh, yeah. I fly planes. Your basic nobody. Natalie made me feel… Hell.” Horner coughed, fatalistic. “After Bulgov’s arrest, Natalie got the idea about picking up some of his loose ends, making a few bucks. I told her we had to wait for things to cool down.”

Colin stretched out his legs but there was nothing casual or nonchalant about how he felt. “You got the cart before the horse and started spending too much money. An expensive house in Florida. A woman with expensive tastes and big ideas.”

“I make good money flying planes.”

“Maybe, but with Bulgov’s arrest, you were out of a job. Maybe you missed the action of working for him.”

“Doesn’t mean I knew what all he was into. I thought I was flying rice and beans to feed the hungry and medicines to heal the sick.”

“Right,” Colin said, not bothering to hide his sarcasm. “You found out about my alter ego’s orphaned weapons.”

“Yeah. That lying bastard.” Horner grinned but there was no humor in his eyes. “It felt like everything was starting to fall into place. Natalie says you’re the devil. I think she’s right.”

“You flew up here to meet her after I cleared out. Was that always your plan?”

He nodded. “Get the weapons from you. Meet her here.”

“She promised you money.”

“She thought she could get a bundle for the collection,” Horner said, matter-of-fact.

“Boris and Yuri believed her, too?”

“Sure. Why not? Her mother used to be married to Rusakov. She was a piece of work but he liked Natalie. What was the worst that could happen? He’d tell her to take a hike. She’d sell it to someone else. You and I had a deal. We weren’t in any big hurry.”

“Then our deal fell apart and suddenly you needed money fast,” Colin said. “There you were with no weapons and an anxious, impatient, dangerous buyer who wasn’t going to let you fail without consequences.”

Horner grimaced as if he were in physical pain. “I’d have been happy with whatever we could get for the collection, maybe bleeding Rusakov a little more, but Natalie wanted it all. She liked to think big, she said. She liked the action.” He sat back in his chair, as if they were discussing golf handicaps. “She’d tell me people often make the mistake of assuming she’s stupid and weak. That’s what her mother thought. Natalie sees herself as sensitive and intuitive.”

“Turns out she’s just like her mother,” Colin said.

“Yep. Obsessive, envious. She didn’t like it when I told her you weren’t a turncoat FBI agent and there were no weapons, that we’d have to start over. Then when you turned up here…” Horner shrugged. “Small world, huh?”

“I’d never met Natalie. You told her who I was.”

“She asked me to check into Emma Sharpe’s FBI guy. She went nuts when I told her who you were. Then she talked to you on the beach. Man, that was it. She wanted you to suffer. Nothing went her way once she got here. The collection, the Sharpes, Rusakov, Tatiana. You. She wanted revenge.”

“And you just went along with her,” Colin said.

“You’ve seen her. It’s like I drank poison myself. Like she put a spell on me.”

Colin gave no hint of the skepticism he felt. Pete Horner was an experienced pilot who had played a dangerous game for a long time. He knew what he was doing. He just hadn’t wanted to stop. He wanted it all: money, weapons, danger, adrenaline and Natalie.

“Could you think straight with her?” Horner asked ruefully. “I’ve never had a woman like that. I wanted to score, then retire to Florida with her….” He trailed off with a moan and blew out a breath. “She had other ideas. Spiraled out of control—”

“Bullshit, Horner.” Colin bolted up out of his chair. “You were thinking just fine when you tried to buy weapons from me at a cut rate and then decided to kill me. I’ll bet you were thinking just fine when you decided to help her kill Lucas and Wendell Sharpe and poison Finian Bracken and my family. What did you hope to gain?”

“Boris, Yuri and I had to go along with her or we got nothing, except maybe a bullet in the head from our unhappy buyer. Natalie…” Horner sighed, philosophical, his anger and entitlement turning into acceptance that he had grabbed for the brass ring and missed. “What does anyone gain by revenge? I told you, Natalie was in a rage. You turn out to be a federal agent. You escape. Then you show up here, sleeping with Emma Sharpe, who, come to find out, told Rusakov that his ex-wife stole the collection. Natalie was so sure she could get him to buy it from her.”

“She knew all along it came from him?” Colin asked.

“Suspected. Maybe more than suspected.”

“She’d charm him,” Emma said.

Horner directed a cool gaze at her. “Yeah. Like her mother had. Then Tatiana Pavlova shows up and your brother goes to London to check her out. Renee Rusakov always suspected there was a daughter, but Dmitri never would tell her the truth. Tatiana rejected her Rusakov inheritance—everything Natalie wants.” Horner, his cheeks red now with emotion, turned back to Colin. “Wouldn’t that get to you, Agent Donovan?”

Colin tried to wrap his head around that one. “Why would Natalie feel entitled to anything from Dmitri Rusakov? She was an adult when he and her mother married. He set her up financially. It’s not his fault she spent all the money.”

“You have to understand how she thinks.”

“No,” Colin said, “I really don’t. How did Natalie find out Tatiana was in Heron’s Cove?”

“I told her,” Horner said quietly. “Words I’d like to take back.”

“You recognized Tatiana from when you were in London in April,” Emma said. “Vladimir Bulgov stopped at the Firebird Boutique and commissioned the nesting dolls from her.”

“Yeah. I knew Bulgov met with a Russian jeweler. I didn’t think anything of it until I came up here and saw her sneaking around. Natalie insisted I get Yuri to have one of his guys in London keep tabs on Lucas Sharpe and find out what he knew about Tatiana.”

“She already suspected Tatiana was Rusakov’s daughter,” Colin said.

Horner nodded. “I think so, too.”

Emma walked over to the table. “We found botulism in Tatiana’s cottage. You all planted it there.”

“Prove it,” Horner said.

Colin shrugged. “I’m sure we will.”

“A little botulism goes a long way,” Emma said, her eyes on Horner. “Did you get it for her, or did one of the Russians?”

Horner crossed his arms on his chest. “I’m not talking to you about botulism.”

Emma stood straight, and Colin noticed how the sunlight played on the honey highlights in her hair, caught the green of her eyes. But he turned to Horner. “Natalie must have had the botulism with her when she arrived in Heron’s Cove. That suggests she was planning to kill someone before she knew I was in the area.”

“Once she unraveled…” Horner sighed heavily. “There was no reasoning with her. I figured just let her do it, then move on.”

Colin shook his head. “Even if she’d succeeded in killing everyone who pissed her off, she still wouldn’t be satisfied.”

“No argument from me. She used to tell me her mother would draw in men, chew them up and spit them out when she had no more use for them. Rusakov was the first man to throw her out first. Natalie will never be free of her mother. She is her mother.”