Читать книгу By Request Collection April-June 2016 - Оливия Гейтс - Страница 89

TAKING A HIKE HAD BEEN Duncan’s idea. Piper had been motivated to agree when she realized that after making love three times, she would have been perfectly content to lie curled up with him on one of the couches in the library until they’d recovered enough for round four.

The sex on demand she’d fantasized about at nineteen was supposed to be convenient, not addicting. One of its benefits was they should actually be able to get some work done. So far they hadn’t made much headway in the Lightman files. So it was probably a good idea to take a break and clear their heads.

It was one of those perfect days in the Adirondacks. The sun was high in the sky, the lake a perfectly matching blue below them. By the time she’d showered and changed, Duncan had already packed their lunch into a backpack and was waiting for her on the kitchen terrace. The man was meticulously organized.

His pace was brisk, but in spite of the fact that his legs were longer, she had no problem keeping up with him. The path he’d chosen was a familiar one that wound upward through the woods to the cliff face bordering the lake.

“Have you visited those old caves lately?” Duncan asked.

“No.” She’d run along the cliffs frequently when she was in high school, but she’d never climbed down to revisit the caves after that summer he and his brothers had visited. She shot him a sideways glance. Maybe he’d forgotten how she’d frozen on the cliff face that day. “It was never one of my favorite places. If you’ll recall, playing damsel in distress wasn’t exactly my cup of tea.”

“I do. After the first time we played pirates there, Reid and I tried to talk Cam out of playing it again. We thought it was too dangerous for you girls.”

“Good thing you didn’t tell us that. And I take it you didn’t convince Cam, either.”

He laughed as they came to the part of the cliff path that cut inland through the woods for a bit. “Not much chance of that. Cam was attracted to adventure and danger even back then. And Reid and I were certainly not immune to it. Plus, we got to take turns killing Cam in order to win back the treasure and rescue little Nell. Not a bad day’s work. We did reach a compromise on the safety issue. After the first time, Reid made sure that Nell always drew the short straw and then offered to climb with her to the cave before you or Adair jumped in to protect her yourself.”

Piper thought back, seeing the game through a different lens now. “As I recall, Reid spent a lot of his time that whole summer making sure that Nell was safe.”

Duncan nodded. “Six was a little young to be rock climbing, not to mention some of the other things we did, and it turned out to be good practice for him. Even at ten, he already knew he wanted to go into the Secret Service. Now he’s working on the vice president’s detail.”

She heard the pride in his voice and asked, “When did you know you wanted to be FBI?”

There were a couple of beats of silence before he glanced sideways at her and replied. “I probably decided the day the FBI came to our house and arrested my father for embezzling from his family’s investment firm.”

Surprise had her stumbling. But Duncan gripped her arm just in time to help her regain her balance. “How old were you?”

“Nine. It was the summer before we all came here. My father had always put his business as his first priority, especially after my brothers and I were born. He traveled and entertained a lot. He even kept an apartment in Manhattan. Every time he came home for any length of time, he would make my mother very unhappy.”

He took a bottle of water out of the backpack, handed it to her, then fished another one out for himself. “I’d hear her crying in the middle of the night, and I felt helpless because there wasn’t anything I could do.”

She studied him as he sipped water. “Makes sense that you’d want to protect her. So you admired the FBI agents who took him away and wanted to grow up to be like them.”

He began to walk again, this time veering off the path to take a shortcut to the cliffs. “I may not have been fully aware of it at the time, but I wanted to know what made someone do what my father did. Not just the stealing part. Greed is one of the things that makes the world go round. I wanted to know why he made my mom cry.”

Understanding moved through her and tightened something around her heart. “So you were attracted to behavioral sciences.”

“Ultimately.” They stepped out of the trees into the sunshine. A few feet away, the earth fell away in a sheer drop to a strip of sandy beach below. “Sorry to put a dent in your white knight theory.”

He hadn’t. But she was prevented from pointing that out to him when her cell phone rang.

He put a hand on her arm before she could answer the call. “I meant to tell you before. Don’t let anyone know where you are—not even your boss. I’ll explain.”

A glance at her caller ID told her that it was Abe. Guilt moved through her when she realized that she hadn’t bothered to check her messages since they’d arrived at the castle. That wasn’t like her at all. “Hello?”

“Piper, where are you?”

It wasn’t Abe but an annoyed Richard Starkweather, her coworker. And he was using Abe’s cell phone. “Hi, Richard. Is Abe all right?”

“Where are you? I stopped by your apartment to check on you last night and you didn’t answer. So far, I’ve left three messages on your cell.” There was concern in his voice, but beneath it, she heard a trace of annoyance.

“I’ve been … busy.”

“Very busy,” Duncan murmured in a voice only she could hear. She made the mistake of meeting Duncan’s eyes and the glint of laughter had her choking back on a laugh.

“Where are you?” Richard asked again.

“Where’s Abe and why are you using his cell phone?” she countered.

“Abe asked me to call. We need your help on the Bronwell case. You have to make yourself available. We need to know where you are.”

Piper kept her tone patient. “Richard, you were in the meeting I had with Abe yesterday afternoon. I’m taking a few days off at Abe’s request. As far as the Bronwell case goes, I turned over all my files to you. It’s all there. Why aren’t you using your own phone?”

“Because you haven’t returned any of my calls. Obviously, you were avoiding me. If I have questions, I need to get a hold of you.”

She bit down hard on annoyance. “You’ve got hold of me now. What do you want?”

“How long will you be out of town?”

“Until the publicity fades and Abe thinks I can return.” But in her head she said, Until I can take over second chair again. Then you won’t have to ask me any questions.

“Sorry, I’m losing the connection,” she said aloud. Then she broke the connection and took a long drink of her water.

“You don’t like Richard,” Duncan said.

She paced away, and then whirled to come back to him. “Actually, I think it’s the other way around. In Richard Starkweather’s view, I have two strikes against me. He was Abe’s right-hand man until I was hired, and then I refused to go out with him. Several times.”

“What was the I’m-so-concerned-about-you act he put on in your apartment yesterday?”

“That was about impressing Abe.”

“Some men don’t take either rejection or competition well. Does he dislike you enough to stage that scene yesterday morning and send the flowers?” Piper stared at him. “Good heavens, no. Why would he?”

“To get you out of the way so that he could take over second chair at the Bronwell trial. My boss, Adrienne, suspects that someone in Abe’s office may have leaked the fact that you wrote the brief—to either the Macks family or to one of the other victim’s families. No one in my office was aware of your involvement. I didn’t even know you worked for Abe.”

“I can’t believe that Richard would do something like that,” she said.

“Abe’s a suspect, too. It’s very convenient that the media is focused on you now and not him. He can go forward with the Bronwell trial with a cleaner slate, so to speak.”

“That’s ridiculous. Abe would never do anything like that.”

“Maybe not. But until we figure out who staged that scene in your apartment and is sending you flowers, my boss would like to keep your location a secret, even from your coworkers.”

“How? This is my home. Even Richard could guess that I might come here.”

“Yeah.” Duncan smiled slowly. “I’ve given that some thought. I didn’t mention it to Adrienne, but it might work to our advantage if our RPK imitator does follow us up here. In D.C., it’s fairly easy to remain anonymous. Up here, strangers are remarked upon. Earlier today, I spoke with Sheriff Skinner in Glen Loch and filled him in on the situation. He’s putting the word out through Edie at her diner. He claims she’s his best investigator.”

Piper didn’t like the fact that their conversation had started the nerves dancing in her stomach again. “I want this all to be over.” She shifted her gaze down to the lake and let the view diffuse some of her anger. “But I’m not going to run any farther than this.”

Duncan got that. He’d seen that quality in her when she’d been eight and he’d come upon her clinging to the cliff face for dear life. His heart had nearly stopped. But she’d held on until he’d been able to reach her, and she hadn’t panicked. Then she’d followed his directions like a trooper as they’d climbed down together.

He placed his hands on her shoulders and turned her to face him. “You’ll be fine here. Thanks to whoever it was paying nocturnal visits to the castle library, the security is currently CIA approved, and Vi says that Daryl Garnett will be here for the weekend because of that photo shoot. As head of the CIA’s domestic operations, he’s the best when it comes to white knights. But so are you.”

She frowned at him. “What are you talking about?”

“That time you had to play damsel in distress in the cave all afternoon? You did that to protect Nell. And you told a bald-faced lie when you claimed that you’d always dreamed of being rescued.”

“Maybe.”

“Whoever this guy is who’s sending you flowers, he picked the wrong person to mess with. But I suggested we come out here to get your mind off everything else for a while. And I have an idea of just how we can do that.”

She stared at him. “You want to have sex here?”

With a grin he glanced around. They were on the steepest part of the cliff and while there was no one in plain sight, anyone with a good pair of binoculars or a camera with a telephoto lens could see them. “Tempting, but that’s not what I had in mind.”

Instead, he swung the backpack off his shoulder and sat down. “I thought we might share some lunch before we climb down to explore those caves.”

“You want to climb down to the caves.” She walked over to him and took one of the sandwiches he held out. “Why?”

He sat down on the grass near the cliff edge and gestured for her to join him as he pulled out his own sandwich. “I want to check something out.” He explained his theory about it being Eleanor who’d hidden her dowry.

She took the time to chew and swallow the first bite of her sandwich while she mulled it over. “You’re profiling her.”

“I suppose I am in a way. I’m looking at what we know and trying to theorize what might have happened.”

“Okay, I see your point. Eleanor wore the sapphire in her wedding portrait, and there’s no record, either visual or written, of their existence after she died. So it’s logical to think she’d be the one who hid them. It also stands to reason that if she split the earrings and hid just one of them in the stone arch, she hid the two other pieces of her dowry elsewhere. Otherwise, why split them up in the first place?”

“Exactly. And if she hid one of them outside the castle, it seems logical that she’d hide the other pieces somewhere else, also.”

“Very logical,” Piper said around a second bite of sandwich. “That’s why we’re here. You figure Angus would have known about the caves. This was land he chose. It stands to reason he would have explored all of it. Heck, it didn’t take you and your brothers more than a week to find them. So Eleanor would have known about the caves also. You showed them to Adair and Nell and me the same day you discovered them.”

“Right.”

“But if any part of the Stuart Sapphires is in the caves, surely one of you would have found it.”

“We scoured both of those caves, but we were looking for some kind of treasure box, not something as small as a leather pouch.”

“Both of them?” She turned to meet his eyes. “Didn’t any of you ever look in the third cave?”

Duncan stared at her. “There’s a third cave down there? We only knew about two. How did you find a third one?”

“Boredom is a strong motivator. The tunnel leading to it was pretty much blocked off by a boulder in the second cave. I couldn’t budge it, but I managed to squeeze behind it. The third cave is the biggest one and it was empty. But then I wasn’t focused on finding Eleanor’s dowry at the time. Finish your sandwich and let’s climb down and take a look around.”

PIPER’S ARMS WERE ACHING AS she wedged her fingers in between two rocks and searched for the next foothold. She could do this. She wasn’t a scared eight-year-old anymore.

“To your left,” Duncan called from below her.

In true white knight style, he’d pointed out the narrow rock ledge about one hundred feet below them, and then he’d insisted on going first and she’d let him. She was betting he’d already reached it. He’d been halfway there when she’d swung her legs over the edge. But she didn’t dare look down to check his progress.

“A little more to the left,” Duncan called.

Her shoe found the opening, then slid out. The sudden shift in her weight had her fingers gripping the rocks and her heart leaping up to lodge in her throat.

“You’ve almost got it,” Duncan called.

What was the matter with her? This wasn’t any different from climbing to the ground from her balcony. Except there weren’t any vines and it wasn’t soft ground that she would land on if she slipped.

“Don’t worry. The ledge is directly below you now. If you slip, you won’t fall far.”

Good to know. If he was telling the truth. She glanced up at how far she’d come and realized that it would take as much effort to go back up as continue.

And wasn’t that exactly what Macbeth had realized during his famous dagger speech?

“Shakespeare always comes back to haunt you,” she muttered.

“What?” Duncan called up.

“Nothing.” This had actually been easier when she was eight. And with that depressing realization came a surge of determination.

Muscles straining, she jabbed her toe into the crevice and lowered herself another foot.

“Directly below you, there’s a flat rock you can step on,” Duncan called.

The instant her foot connected with the narrow ledge, she heard a rumble above her. Pebbles and small rocks clattered down. The first one hit her knuckles so sharply that she nearly lost her grip. Another bounced off her shoulder, and as she glanced up, a third grazed the side of her head. She had to blink dust out of her eyes, but for a moment, she thought she saw a figure on the cliff above. By the time she blinked again, Duncan was at her side, his arm around her waist, his voice murmuring. “On three, we’re going to jump. The ledge is just below us. Ready?”

She managed a nod as more dust and stones rained on them.

“One … two … three.”

The drop was short, the landing hard. Then he pushed her into the low-ceilinged cave, using his body to block the debris still rattling down.

“You all right?” he asked as the noise subsided. His arms were wrapped tightly around her and her back was against stones. For a moment, she simply held on. She’d move as soon as her heart stopped pounding. Just one more minute.

She made herself breathe. In. Out. “I’m fine.” Other than feeling like Chicken Little, she was. Still, she clung for one more moment, trying not to think of what might have happened if he hadn’t climbed up to get her. “I have to admit that white knights come in handy.”

But it would be very dangerous to depend on one too much. She met his eyes. “I’m pretty sure I saw someone on the top of the cliff.”

“Me, too.” Then he put a hand over her mouth and for a moment they both listened hard. The shower of rocks and pebbles had stopped. All she could hear in the silence was the call of a gull.

Duncan whispered, “Stay here.”

Then he rose and moved to the mouth of the cave. The moment he stepped out onto the ledge, she rose to her feet, but he stepped back in before she could reach him.

“There’s no one up there now, but if we go out on that ledge or try to climb up, we could be sitting ducks. I figured we’d have more time before someone tracked us here.” He pulled out his cell, and then swore under his breath. “No signal.”

“Well, as I see it, we have two alternatives. We can take our chances surviving more rock slides and climb down to the beach. Not my favorite plan. Or we can go ahead with our original idea,” she said. “We did come here to search the cave and look for Eleanor’s dowry. And since we risked life and limb to get this far, I say we forge ahead.”

Duncan gave it some thought. The woman had guts and she was giving voice to his own instincts were telling him. “Whoever we saw up on the top of the cliff may decide to follow us.”

“And run the risk of revealing himself or even getting caught?”

“Point taken.” He pulled a flashlight out of his backpack and handed it to her. “You lead the way.”

“This may be a tight squeeze for you. We’re both bigger than we used to be.”

“I’ll manage.”

Piper switched on the light and swept it over the walls. The area they stood in was roughly five feet deep, perhaps seven wide. The tunnel they entered offered even less space, and while she could walk upright, Duncan had to hunch over.

“Just a warning,” she said. “If I see anything that moves, I’m screaming.”

Duncan chuckled. “But you won’t be running away.”

“Correct.” She stopped dead in her tracks when the tunnel widened into the second cave. “This is different.”

Over her shoulder, Duncan saw the large boulder and the rocks of various sizes that now partially filled the space. Beyond the pile up of debris was an opening that appeared to be another tunnel.

“Look.” She stepped to the side and ran her flashlight over everything so that Duncan could see. “That big boulder was blocking the tunnel to the third cave the last time I was in here.”

“It’s been almost two decades,” Duncan said. “Plenty of time for things to shift around. You still game to lead the way?”

“Absolutely.” She placed a hand against the wall to brace herself as she negotiated the fallen rocks toward the other tunnel.

Duncan had to hunch down when the ceiling abruptly lowered, and before long, the tunnel began to slope upward. In his mind, he tried to picture where they were headed in terms of the land above them. Just when he’d decided they were walking roughly in the direction of the castle, the tunnel took a sharp turn to the left, then widened abruptly into a larger room that allowed him to fully stand for the first time.

“Here’s the third cave,” she announced as she moved the flashlight slowly around the space.

He spotted the small pile of rocks at the same instant that she froze the beam of light on it. The pile lay near a good-size boulder that had shifted and evidently tumbled loose from the arch of yet another tunnel directly across from the one they’d stepped out of.

“I never saw that tunnel before,” she said. “It must have been completely blocked.”

“Alba found the leather pouch containing the earring in a pile of rocks that had tumbled loose when lightning struck the stone arch,” Duncan said, urging her forward. They both dropped to their knees and began sorting through the pile near the side of the boulder. Then they began to work on the stones that were loose at the sides of the newly opened tunnel. Each one they dislodged seemed to loosen more.

“Got something,” Piper said. The sound of her voice echoed in the space. When she pulled it out, Duncan recognized the leather pouch immediately.

“It matches the one that your aunt Vi and Adair found the first earring in,” he murmured.

Piper set it between them on the stone floor and then met his eyes. “Your theory. Maybe you should do the honors.”

“No. You’re the one who found it.” Another part of Eleanor’s dowry would be inside, he was certain. But he still held his breath as she folded back the flap of leather and reached in. Even in the dim light, the gold of the earring glistened and the sapphire glowed. She lifted it out and offered it to him. When he clasped his hands around hers, the stone flashed even brighter, and Duncan felt that same, strong, sure connection to Piper that he’d first experienced on his mother’s wedding day. Time seemed to stand still.

Then they heard a clatter of rocks.

“Shhh,” Duncan breathed in answer to the question in Piper’s eyes. Only time would tell if the noise had been caused by some of the rocks they’d loosened on their journey or by someone who’d followed them.

Seconds passed—five, ten, fifteen. Just as he was about to breathe again, there was a second scrape and clatter of stones. He leaned closer to whisper, “Someone’s in the tunnel we just came through.”

If he’d been alone, he would have doused the light and waited at the side of the opening they’d just stepped through. But he wasn’t alone, and he wanted a better tactical advantage and more data before he initiated a confrontation.

He took the earring out of her hand and secured it in the leather pouch. Then he slipped it beneath his T-shirt and tucked it into his back pocket. Finally, he picked up the flashlight and rose to check out the tunnel the stones and boulder had tumbled from. It was smaller than either of the ones they’d walked through. But for now, it would offer some cover.

“We’ll have to be quiet. C’mon.” He spoke the words lower than a whisper, but she rose and gripped his outstretched hand. Ducking his head, he led the way into the cramped space. Being quiet was easier said than done. But he let out the breath he’d been holding when he noted the rocks that had tumbled loose near the entrance gave way to smoother stones in a matter of a few yards. The bad news was that he couldn’t see a curve in the tunnel yet, and he had no idea where it would take them.

But he could swear he felt the warmth of the sapphire through the thickness of the leather that enclosed it. Pausing, he glanced back. They’d come far enough that he could no longer see the room they’d left. But there was another clatter of rocks. He moved on, and within a few steps, the beam of the light illuminated the curve he was hoping for.

Drawing her around it, he spoke in a hurried whisper. “I’m going to have to turn off the flashlight, but first, get the gun out of my backpack.”

She didn’t hesitate a beat, but handled the task with the same ease and efficiency that she might have exerted if he’d asked for his water bottle. When he held out his hand, she placed the gun in it. “Now, switch places with me.”

Once she had, he turned off the light, pitching them into total darkness. And waited. While they did, Duncan put himself into the mind of the person or persons who’d followed them into the cave. Whoever it was had to know that Piper wasn’t alone. If it was the person who was sending the flowers and the death threats, why would he or she make this move? Setting that minor avalanche of stones off the cliff—that he could see. But following them in here seemed reckless. Desperate.

For now, he and Piper had a slight advantage. They weren’t moving. And there was a very good chance that their pursuer still was.

At first the silence was so total that Duncan was sure he could hear the beat of his own heart. Then he heard what he’d been waiting for—the sound of more rocks being dislodged.

But which ones?

In his mind, he pictured the route they’d taken—the first pile of stones had been in the second of the caves he and his brother had played in as kids. So that’s where their pursuer must have been earlier. That meant he had to be in the cave they’d just left, the one that Piper had discovered, where they’d found the earring.

Close, Duncan thought. He listened hard.

Nothing. No more rocks shifted. And there was no conversation, not even a whisper sounded. Then the darkness in front of him lightened fractionally. Whoever it was had seen the tunnel and was shining a light into it. Beside him, Piper placed a hand on his back to indicate she’d seen it, too, but she remained perfectly still. Perfectly silent.

A lone pursuer, Duncan guessed, who was weighing options. And listening for a sound—just as he and Piper were. To go forward or retreat? Pursuing them any farther was risky. Especially if your quarry knew you were coming. And in the silence, he had to at least suspect they did.

Rocks tumbled again. Behind him, he heard Piper suck in a quiet breath. But the darkness was total once more. The next sound of stones came from farther away. Still, Duncan didn’t move and neither did she.

He’d counted to twenty when Piper breathed. “He left.”

“That’s the good news.”

“What’s the bad?”

“We can’t go out the way we came in. Whoever it is could be waiting. And that’s not the worst scenario.”

“It can get worse?”

“He could suspect we’re listening, and he could have retreated just to throw us off. Even now, he could be doubling back. That’s what I’d do.” He took her arm and urged her in front of him. “I’ll bring up the rear just in case.”