Читать книгу Dangerous Alliance - Lindsay McKenna - Страница 6

Chapter Two

“Chaos.” Dan muttered under his breath so no one passing his office door could hear him. “Utter chaos.” He’d been at Reed exactly three days, and everything was a mess. The officer whom he’d replaced, Captain Arthur Jacobs, had somehow managed to transform his fifty-person contingent into a surly group who were bordering on disrespect—except for Donnally, who was turning out to be a godsend.

His desk was scattered with papers. The In basket was full and teetering with files begging for his attention. It was only a matter of time until the pile toppled.

“Captain?”

Dan looked up. Rose Tannison, his GS-12, government civil service secretary, stood in the doorway. She was a civilian who worked for the military. Her bulk filled it amply. “Yes, Rose?”

“We’ve got a problem.” She removed her bifocal glasses from the end of her nose. “Mind if I come in and shut the door while we talk?”

Groaning inwardly, Dan guessed it to be another personnel problem. Right now, he wanted to strangle Jacobs, a short-timer whose bitter attitude toward the Marine Corps had rubbed off on the enlisted people who worked under him. “Sure.” Dan glanced at his watch: 1145. For once, if this didn’t take long, he was going to be able to grab some lunch.

Rose smiled and sat down after closing the door. She fluffed her full pink cotton skirt. “Have you met Howard Parker, the police chief from Oceanside, yet?”

“No.” Oceanside bordered Reed’s territory and was a military town with all the inherent problems that accompanied such a dubious title. And Dan knew working closely with civilian law enforcement would be vital for his plan to be successful.

“Well,” Rose said, placing her glasses back up on her bulblike nose and peering over them at him, “you’d better pull out a big box of Band-Aids. He’s on his way here.”

“What does that mean?” Dan rested both his elbows on the desk.

“May I be frank?”

“Yes.” Rose had worked in Reed HQ for eighteen years, and Dan was finding her indispensable for the straight scoop on what was going on around the base.

“Trouble with a capital T. His wife was formerly married to a marine sergeant. Unfortunately, the sergeant died and she married Parker on the rebound, six months later. The chief has never forgotten his wife’s first love was a marine. He’s always been the jealous type.”

Mouth quirking, Dan leveled a stare across the desk at Rose. Her black hair was pushed up into a haphazard knot on top of her head, and she wore long, dangling red earrings that matched her red-and-pink cotton blouse. “And so,” Dan said, “he doesn’t like marines very much at all and is a pain in the rear in any working relationship with marines. Right?”

Rose beamed. “Go to the head of the class, Captain Ramsey.” She grinned impishly. “They said you were a tough officer. But I think you’re smart and tough.”

Grinning, Dan leaned back. “Being tough isn’t going to smooth out this problem, Rose. Do you think a little diplomacy will work with Parker?”

“Captain Jacobs hated the police chief, and vice versa. But then, Jacobs couldn’t get along with his own shadow. I think if you appear willing to work with Parker and let him think he’s running the show, there’ll be room to maneuver.”

“I don’t know what I’d do without you, Rose. Okay, so handle Parker with kid gloves and pull his strings without him knowing it. Can do.” He frowned. “I just wish my own people weren’t so damned sluggish and morale wasn’t so low.”

“Joe Donnally’s squared away,” Rose assured him. “He and Captain Jacobs got along like a dog and cat. He’ll level with you the way I do. But he needs your permission to speak frankly, while I don’t. Ask him for his opinion and use his suggestions. He’s been at Reed for two years. As a brig chaser and a people manager, he’s the best. I think if you shower your people with a little attention and pats on the back for a job well done, they’ll snap back into line real quick.”

Laughing softly, Dan nodded. He picked up a pen and tapped it against the desk. “At least there’s some light at the end of the tunnel.”

“You got handed a can of worms when you came here, Captain.” She grinned lopsidedly. “But then, I feel you’re just the kind of man to handle a can of worms. My money’s on you.”

Glancing out the venetian blinds, Dan saw a police car pull into the parking lot. A heavyset man in a dark blue uniform stepped out. He had a bulldoglike face, jowls and all. “Keep telling me that, Rose. I think Parker’s arrived.”

“Uh-oh.” Rose got nimbly to her feet. “I’m outta here. Want me to send him in and get coffee?”

He nodded. “Yes, thanks.”

“Good luck.”

Dan smiled and watched her leave as silently as she’d come. Rose must weigh at least two hundred and fifty pounds, he thought, but for all her bulk, she was surprisingly agile and quiet. As he pulled the blind aside a bit more to take a good look at Parker, Dan’s mind shifted unexpectedly to Libby Tyler. Her file was still sitting in his Out basket. He just hadn’t had time to contact her yet with the results of Donnally’s investigation. That was one woman he wanted to see, but the pressures and demands of his job were drowning him. She probably thought he’d buried her investigation in the circular file. He’d have to get the report over to her soon.

With a sigh, he released the blind and went over to his desk to tidy up the piles of work. Might as well make a good first impression on the police chief. At least his summer uniform was perfectly pressed, the ribbons on the left side of his chest in order and straight.

Rose knocked on the door and opened it. “Captain Ramsey,” she sang out, “Chief Parker’s here to pay his respects.”

Dan rose and smiled. “Thanks, Rose. Chief, come on in.”

Parker glared as the door shut behind him and Dan offered his hand. Grudgingly, he shook it.

“Captain.”

“Sit down, Chief. Rose will bring us coffee.”

“I’m not staying that long, Ramsey.” He took off his cap and tucked it under his left arm. “I’m making this call because it’s necessary, not because I want to do it.”

Resting his hands on his hips, Dan coolly held the chief’s belligerent stare. “Okay, Chief. What can I do for you, then?”

Parker stared at him. “I hope you’re nothing like Jacobs.”

“I didn’t know the man.”

“We didn’t get along.”

“So what will it take for us to mend some of those bridges, Chief? We don’t have a choice in this matter.”

Parker looked around the office and then back at the marine. “You got any background in law enforcement?”

“I’m a lawyer.”

Parker’s eyebrows rose and fell. “What else?”

“Drug enforcement is my jurisdiction, Chief, which is why I’ve been assigned to Reed. I’m interested in stopping any trafficking going on inside the base or around it. I’ll need your support and, sometimes, your help.”

“Captain Jacobs didn’t give a damn about anything except how much time he had left before he got out.”

“I’m looking at a thirty-year career, Chief, and I can promise you I’m in for the long haul, particularly in regards to drug enforcement.” Dan saw Parker’s face turn a dull red. “Have a seat, Chief,” he coaxed. “I’m interested in your assessment of drug traffic through your city. And I want to know how we can help you. Of course, I’m primarily interested in marines either selling or using drugs, but I’ll work just as hard to see to it we help you nail civilian drug pushers, too.”

“Humph, sounds like a lot of bull to me, Ramsey.”

Dan sat down. “Try me, then. I don’t mind being put on the hot seat. I’m used to being there,” he offered, letting a grin leak through his professional demeanor. Gradually, Parker was losing the chip on his shoulder. Dan was confident of his diplomacy skills. What excited him most was getting the best out of each person he met. Parker was no exception, so Dan took up the challenge of changing the chief’s perception about working with the marines of Reed.

* * *

Rose poked her head around his door after Parker had left. “Not bad, Captain. He stayed a whole hour. What’d ya do? Hog-tie him?”

“Almost,” Dan said dryly. He pulled his sack lunch out of a drawer in his desk. “I’m starving to death.”

“Sorry, Captain, but you’ve got another visitor.”

Frowning, he unwrapped the beef sandwich he’d fixed for himself earlier that morning at his apartment. “Who now?”

“Don’t get that unhappy look on your face. This one will make you smile. Libby Tyler’s here.”

Libby. Dan set the sandwich aside. “God, I promised her I’d get back to her before this.” He started rummaging frantically through the teetering stack of files on his desk. “Send her in, Rose.”

“Sure thing, boss.”

Locating the file, Dan pulled it out. Just as he opened it, Libby entered his office and suddenly his pressured, demanding day melted away. Her sable hair was caught in a loose ponytail tied with a yellow ribbon, and she looked like a freshly scrubbed college girl. Escaped tendrils curled at her temples, and the thick bangs across her brow emphasized her large green eyes. She wore a long-sleeved, pale yellow cotton blouse that complemented her canary yellow riding breeches. More than anything, Dan liked the flush to her freckled cheeks and her sensual mouth.

He stood quickly, nearly tipping over his chair as he rose. Grimacing, he caught it and dropped the file on the desk. “Hi, come on in.”

Libby hesitated in the doorway. Yes, Dan Ramsey was still just as pulverizingly handsome as she’d remembered. For three days now, she’d been trying valiantly to push him out of her mind—and heart. “I was in the neighborhood and thought I’d drop by, Captain.”

“Sure, no problem,” he said, bending down to retrieve the file. “Sit down. I’m glad you dropped by.” He liked the way she walked, with a fluid kind of grace. Despite her height, she reminded him of a quietly flowing river. Did horseback riding impart that ballerinalike quality? It must. “I’ve got to apologize,” he said, motioning to his overflowing investigation files. “I think everyone on base heard I was here. The cases coming in have been more like an avalanche than a dribble.”

She nodded and sat down. “Then you must be very good at what you do.” Her pulse bounded when he smiled ruefully and sat, opening the file in front of him. Libby found herself wanting to stare deeply into his amused azure eyes. The crow’s-feet around Dan’s eyes were deep, as were the lines around his mouth. This man knew how to laugh, how to find the positive in life, she thought, violently fighting the desire to like him even more.

Seeing the opened sandwich and paper bag at his right elbow, she felt bad at having interrupted his late lunch. “What did you find out about the horses?” she asked eagerly.

Dan rapidly read Joe’s typed report. “Mr. Garwood feels it’s a group of teenage dependents doing it, Libby.”

Libby stood up. “Boys! He told me the same thing four months ago! I didn’t buy it then, and I don’t buy it now.”

Dan held up his hand. “He promised my sergeant that he’d post one of his men at the stable for the next seven nights and catch them.” Looking up, he saw Libby’s disgust and agitation. “Isn’t that enough?”

“Oh, I don’t know. My gut feeling tells me it isn’t a bunch of rowdy dependents looking for a good time.”

Sitting back, Dan absorbed her fiery beauty. She had the most beautiful green eyes he’d ever seen—like emeralds held up to sunlight. Right now, they were narrowed, reflecting her agitation. “Listen, I haven’t even had lunch yet. How about I take you over to the Officers’ Club and we’ll grab a bite to eat and discuss this issue further?” Dan suggested, as surprised as she apparently was that he’d asked her out. After grieving for the loss of his marriage, he’d carefully avoided any kind of relationship—until now. He noted the way her lovely eyes had gone wide at his invitation, a pink flush delicately tinting her freckled cheekbones.

Was it Libby who had aroused this sudden change in him? Or was it the fact that he was finally starting to come out of his long tunnel of grief? Dan digested the possibilities, acutely attuned to her reaction.

She motioned to his desk. “What’s that on your desk, Captain?”

“Er…oh, that.” He grinned sheepishly. “Just an old beef sandwich. Something I threw together this morning. I’m not much of a cook,” he offered. He’d forgotten that it had been sitting at his elbow all along. Not a very smart move, Ramsey. Not smart at all. He hoped Libby would buy his explanation.

“I doubt very seriously we would have anything to discuss about this investigation that would take up a whole lunch hour,” Libby said, her words clipped.

She was angry. Why? “I just thought that if there was any background information you didn’t fill me in on that might help this case, we could do it over lunch.” Dan was damned if he was going to let go of the opportunity and back down. He wanted to know Libby a hell of a lot better.

Squirming, she shoved her hands into the pockets of her breeches. “Captain, I don’t date marines over issues of business or for pleasure,” she rattled in a low, off-key voice. “And I don’t like you trying to take advantage of the situation to maneuver me into going to lunch with you.”

Dan felt heat rushing to his face. Was he blushing? Maybe he ought to be, under the circumstances. “I just thought that—”

“Captain, I don’t date marines. Is that clear?”

“Sure is.” He cocked his head, holding her furious gaze. “My invitation just kinda slipped out.”

“I don’t know whether to be insulted or complimented,” she admitted.

“It was a compliment, believe me.”

Libby avoided the warmth in his voice and eyes. “Never mind, Captain. I’ve got a short fuse about the topic of marines, that’s all.”

“I didn’t mean to imply that if you didn’t go to lunch with me, the investigation would be dropped. It won’t be, I promise.”

“I know, I know. I’ve just got some touchy spots in my life regarding the Marine Corps,” Libby muttered. The frightening thing was, a part of her did want to go to lunch with Dan. She couldn’t figure out why he wasn’t married. Perhaps he was divorced? Libby told herself she shouldn’t care one way or another.

“Mind if I ask why?”

Hurt rose in Libby at the softness in Dan’s voice. Then tears unexpectedly stung her eyes. She turned away so he wouldn’t see them. “Captain Ramsey, I won’t discuss my personal life with you or anyone else. I just want whoever is riding those horses caught!” If she stayed one more minute, she was going to break down and tell Dan everything. Worse, she wanted to walk into the safety of his arms and be held. Just be held… In desperation, Libby walked out the door.

Dan looked down at his uneaten sandwich. He began to wrap it up again, his appetite gone. The tears in Libby’s eyes had torn at him. “Sometimes, Ramsey, you can be a first-class jerk. Do you know that?”

“What?”

Dan looked up. Rose was at the door again.

“Nothing. What’s wrong now, Rose?”

She grinned. “You’re catching on fast, Captain. When I show up, you know trouble ain’t far behind.”

Dan sighed. “Come in and shut the door.” What he wanted to do was follow Libby to the parking lot and make an apology—somehow patch up the trust he’d broken between them. It was too late now. What a hell of a welcome to Reed.

Rose sat down with a file on her large lap. “You’ve got a new brig chaser under your command, Captain.”

“Let’s dispense with formality, Rose. Call me Dan when we’re alone, okay?”

“Fine. Anyway, this new kid is only eighteen and really green. He’s a potential problem, as I see it. His name is PFC David Shaw.”

Dan put the sandwich in the drawer and closed it. “Go on.”

Rose frowned. “This morning he was to escort a murderer by the name of Coughman from the brig up to Treasure Island on the other side of the San Francisco Bay. He’s driving the prisoner up right now. Just in case you don’t know it, TI is a major prison for military men who’ve committed serious crimes.”

Dan smiled to himself. “I’ve sent a few of them there, Rose. What else?”

“Well, when Shaw came up to me to get the paperwork this morning on this prisoner, he started acting real funny with the set of orders I prepared for him. I showed him what to read and where to sign his name. Shaw got real uneasy and started asking me a lot of questions, so I told him to read the orders. I mean, they were right in front of him, for heaven’s sake. He kinda did, but then he went over to Joe Donnally and started asking the same questions of him that I refused to answer.”

“Maybe the kid’s just nervous, Rose. You know—double-checking before making the drive up the coast with a prisoner. Being responsible for a prisoner isn’t easy, and if it’s his first time, some of his actions might be understandable.”

She shrugged her shoulders. “Maybe you’re right, Dan.” She tapped the file. “There’s something funny going on with the kid. He’s real tall and skinny and built like a rail.” She grinned. “If only that would have happened to me. Anyway, he’s not the brig-guard type of guy, if you know what I mean.”

Dan nodded. Brig chasers were usually big, strapping marines, even tougher and meaner than the criminals they had to guard and move from one brig or correctional place to another. “Keep an eye on him, Rose, but give him a chance. He was probably just intimidated by Coughman’s reputation.”

With a laugh, Rose got up. “You’re probably right. But if you’re going to square this office away, things like this need to be reported to you, Dan.”

“No argument from me, Rose. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.”

She hesitated at the door, giving him a coy look over her bifocals. “I saw Libby Tyler hurrying out of here. Looked like she was going to cry….”

Dan refused to take the bait. “She was a little upset,” he answered shortly.

Rose nodded. “I see.”

“I’m sure you do, Rose.”

She smiled. “Pretty lady, isn’t she?”

“Sure is.”

“She’s a widow, did you know that?”

Dan frowned and looked over at his secretary. “No, I didn’t.”

“Yeah, her husband was a marine helicopter pilot, a real fine officer here at Reed. Three years ago he was with his squad in a helicopter for a night patrol, and they crashed in the hills. Word is that the copilot was flying at the time and wearing those new night goggles. He flew the chopper into some power lines. All twelve men on board died instantly, including Captain Tyler.”

“Damn…”

“Libby really forced the hand of the crash investigators to find out why her husband had been killed. They hid the facts from her at first, but when she threatened a civilian lawsuit, they leveled with her. It was a problem with the night goggles.”

What a jerk he’d been. No wonder his lunch suggestion had proven painful to Libby. Chances were, Dan surmised, she didn’t want a damn thing to do with marines ever again. “They’ve had a lot of problems with those goggles,” he agreed quietly. He owed Libby a genuine apology.

“She’s a real special lady,” Rose went on. “Libby’s program to teach the dependent children how to ride has been a roaring success around here. She’s gotten them off the streets and out of the malls and interested in horses instead. She doesn’t have any children of her own, but the kids just love her. Word on the grapevine was that Libby wanted a child really badly.” The secretary shrugged. “Guess it wasn’t meant to be, but Libby’s really been a positive force here on Reed in the three years since his death.”

If it were possible to feel worse, Dan did. “I guess I’d better drop over to the stables and see her,” he muttered.

Rose’s smile was benevolent. “I knew you wouldn’t let her down, Dan.”

He gave her a pointed look. “Is Libby your daughter?”

She laughed. “No, but I’d be proud to have her as one.”

“Just wondering. The way you’re doting over her, I thought for sure she was a close relative.”

“In my book, Libby Tyler is a good-hearted person. We need more of them on this poor, suffering earth of ours. I just happen to think there’s something nice between the two of you. I saw the way she looked at you.”

Dan felt his skin heat up. This time he knew he was blushing. “Rose,” he said in a growly tone, “don’t you have something to do? Shouldn’t you be getting ready for our meeting with the MP’s this afternoon?”

Giggling, Rose nodded. “Yes, sir, Captain. Just pen some time in your appointment book to visit Libby in the next day or two. I’m sure it’ll do both of you good.”