COLLATERAL CASUALTIES (The Kate Huntington mystery series) (34 page)

            Kate hesitated. She couldn’t just not show up. The woman would be devastated if she thought her therapist had abandoned her. “I at least need to call my clients.”

            “I should check our messages at the agency,” Rose said. “And Rob needs to call that FBI agent. I’m thinking the three of us go someplace random, a good ways from here. We need to get more phones, too.”

            Skip still didn’t look happy. “What vehicle you going to take? The driver of that Taurus got a real good look at Liz’s car yesterday. And they know your car for sure. Plus the cops may stop you if you take it.”

            “I’ve got an idea,” Dolph said. “We could trade license plates with a neighbor’s car. People don’t look at their own plates. It’d be days, maybe weeks before the switch would be noticed.”

            Rose flashed him a quick smile. “Good thinking. My car and Liz’s. Do it.”

            Dolph headed for the door to the garage to find a screwdriver.

            “Just don’t get caught,” Skip called after him.

            “Oh, goody, now we can add theft to our list of crimes,” Kate muttered under her breath.

~~~~~~~

            As Rose followed Rob and Manny, in Liz’s car, around the beltway, she occupied her mind by making a mental list of the vehicles they’d need to retrieve when this was all over. Skip’s Expedition was still on the Eastern Shore. Lilly’s truck had been abandoned on a side street in Towson. Kate’s crumpled car was at Janice’s building, if it hadn’t been towed by now. Was that all of them? Where the hell had they left Claude’s car?

            She was trying to distract herself from thinking about Skip and the Randolphs back at the house with just one guard. She’d considered calling in more of the agency’s people but had decided against it. Most of their guys were ex-cops who still monitored the police radio frequency. They would have heard the BOLO on their boss by now. She didn’t want to risk one of them turning Skip in if they knew where he was.

            Manny took the Pikesville exit. Rose followed him into the first shopping center parking lot they came to. They’d brought both cars so Kate and Rob could make their calls in private but at the same time. She didn’t want to be away from the safe house any longer than necessary.

            Rose got out and walked over to where Manny was standing next to Liz’s car. Rob was in the passenger’s seat on the phone. “Keep a sharp eye out,” she told Manny. She knew the instruction was unnecessary but it made her feel better to say it out loud.

            Rob lowered his window. “Billings gave me some mumbo jumbo but basically he doesn’t know any more than he did yesterday. I need to call my five guys.”

            “Give me the phone you used to call the FBI,” Rose said. “I might as well use it to check messages, before we destroy it.”

            It took a few minutes for Rose to work her way through the backlog on the agency’s voicemail. As she listened to the last message, she sucked in her breath.
Damn it!
She called another number. No answer.

            She motioned Manny over. “I need you to check on something for me.” By the time she’d given him his instructions, the others had finished their calls.

            Rose walked back to her car. “Rob’s riding with us,” she told Kate. “Manny’s running an errand for me. Everything okay with your client?”

            “Yeah. She’s feeling better. I’ve arranged for her to call a colleague if she starts feeling shaky again. She’s the only one in crisis at the moment so I’m not going to call the others. They’ll just be confused and annoyed when they show up and find my office locked.”

            “Good. The fewer calls, the better,” Rose said. “There’s a Best Buy up the road where we can get phones.”

            They had completed that errand and were almost back to the safe house when Manny called her. “She’s not home. Her neighbor said she took her to get her truck last night. Wall’s thin between their apartments. Old lady says she can usually hear Lilly moving around in there. She doesn’t think she’s been home today at all.”

            Rose resisted the urge to bang her head against the steering wheel. “Thanks. Come on back.” She debated about telling Kate and Rob what was going on, but decided to wait. She really didn’t want to explain the sorry mess twice.

            At the house, she waited until Rob had given his brief report on his call to the FBI.

            Then she told them. “We’ve got a new development. Lilly left a message at the agency last night. Said she knew she’d screwed up and would have to regain our trust, so she was going to, quote, ‘make the problem go away, once and for all.’”

            “Not good,” Dolph muttered.

            Rose repeated what Manny had found out from the neighbor.

            “What the hell does she think she’s doing?” Skip said.

            Rose shrugged. “I don’t know but she’s likely to get herself killed. If we aren’t able to reach her by tomorrow morning, Dolph and I’ll go look for her.”

            “Where will you look?” Skip asked.

            “That’s the part I haven’t figured out yet.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

            Dolph and Rose set out early the next morning. Once they were far enough away from the safe house, Rose called Lilly’s apartment, hoping to hear a groggy voice cussing her out for calling so early.

            That didn’t happen. After five rings, it went to voicemail. No answer on her cell phone either.

            Twenty minutes later, they were banging on her door. A plump, gray-haired woman stuck her head out of the apartment next door. “She never came home last night.”

            “Are you sure, ma’am?” Rose asked.

            “Most definitely. I don’t sleep much these days, and when I do, I don’t sleep sound. I’d have heard her if she’d come in.”

            Rose walked over to the woman and offered her hand. “Rose Hernandez. Lilly works for me and my partner. This is Dolph Randolph, our associate.”

            “Your partner the big buff guy Lilly talks about?”

            “Yes, ma’am. Would you happen to have a key to her apartment?”

            The older woman looked Rose up and down, then gave Dolph the same perusal. “I can let you in, but I go with you.”

            Rose hesitated before nodding. She hoped the woman wouldn’t end up seeing her neighbor’s dead body.

            But the small apartment was empty. It had the feeling places get when no one’s been around to stir the air for awhile. A quick search turned up no clue as to where Lilly might be.

            They thanked the woman and Rose gave her a card with a throwaway cell number written on it. “Please don’t give that number to anyone else, but if you see or hear from Lilly, call me.”

            “Guess we’re driving to Washington?” Dolph said when they were out on the sidewalk in front of the building.

            “Yeah,” Rose said through clenched teeth. She wasn’t sure which was stronger, her anxiety that one of her people might be in trouble or her fury at the damned woman for making a messy situation a whole lot more complicated.

            Unable to think of any better approach, they walked up to the gate of the Colombian embassy and rang the bell. A torrent of Spanish interspersed with static spewed from the speaker next to the button.

            Rose asked to see the ambassador. She was told that this was not possible without an appointment. The disembodied voice asked for her name.

            “Maybe not,” Rose muttered under her breath. No way was she going to identify herself and then wait patiently for the killer to come and get them. She asked instead that the ambassador be informed that she had an important message from a concerned friend.

            The voice told her the ambassador was not available.

            Dolph had been looking around nervously while she was conversing with the gatepost. “Let’s look for her truck,” he said.

            Rose nodded.

            It took them awhile to find it, parked several blocks from the embassy. They approached with caution and peered inside. It was empty, but something was tucked under the driver’s side windshield wiper.

            Rose scanned the area. No one suspicious looking, just people walking on the sidewalks minding their own business. But she’d bet big bucks someone was watching the truck, if for no other reason than to make sure the message was received by the desired party.

            She plucked the cream-colored envelope from under the wiper. “Let’s get out of here.” Back at her car, she pulled away from the curb while Dolph was still scanning for bugs.

            “Clean.”

            Rose passed him the envelope. She wanted to know what was in it, but she wanted to put some distance between them and the Colombian embassy even more. She wound through the labyrinth of streets in Washington, her eyes flitting between the traffic ahead of her, the rearview mirror and Dolph. He was skimming whatever was written on the sheet of expensive stationery, and cursing under his breath.

            She didn’t like the look on his face. “Damn it! Read it to me.”

            He cleared his throat. “‘Regrettably, a young woman in your employ has paid me a visit. I have detained her while I complete the arrangements for my trip. I assure you I have no desire to harm her. However, since you persist in interfering in my business, I feel the need for an insurance policy of my own. If you do not wish her harmed, Mrs. Huntington and Mr. Canfield must come alone to Pier 3 of the Hendricks Marina in Essex tomorrow at nine p.m. They will be detained only as long as necessary for me to make my departure. The details of this arrangement must remain confidential. In exchange for your silence and cooperation, I will provide the evidence needed to clear Mr. Canfield of complicity in the death of the young
negre.
’ There’s no signature.”

            This time the urge to bang her head on the steering wheel was much stronger.

            The others descended on them as soon as they came in the back door. Rose gestured toward the table. “Sit down, gang.”

            Still standing herself, she read the note out loud.

            They sat in stunned silence for several seconds, staring at her. Then Skip jumped up and paced across the family room and back. “Shit, shit, shit! What the hell was she thinking?”

            Rose shrugged one shoulder. She wasn’t sure much thinking had been involved. “We’ve got two issues here. How far are we willing to go to save her from her own stupidity? And how much are we willing to risk to get this evidence he’s talking about to clear you?”

            “Assuming,” Dolph said, “this is on the up-and-up.”

            Kate nodded. “There’s no guarantee that he’ll let her go once we show up as substitute hostages.”

            “I’ve been racking my brain to think of a way to get in that embassy,” Rose said.

            “Unlikely. That place is a fortress.” Skip dropped back into his chair. “And they might not even have her at the embassy itself.” He scrubbed his hand over his face.

            His eyes darted toward Kate, then back to Rose. He cleared his throat. “I owe her. She risked a lot by pulling a gun on that cop, to keep me from being arrested. I need to go to that marina tomorrow.”

            Rose had figured he would feel that way. She braced for the explosion.

            Kate crossed her arms and glared at Skip. “So how would getting yourself killed now pay her back for saving your hide before?”

            “I’m sorry, Kate, but I can’t just hide out here and let them hurt her, or worse. Not to mention the other carrot the ambassador’s dangling.”

            Rob leaned forward. “I don’t think Judith can make the murder charge stick.”

            “Maybe not, but I might do time for the other charges, and my PI license, all of our licenses, would be in jeopardy. You might even end up in trouble with the bar association, for harboring a fugitive.”

            Kate narrowed her eyes at her husband. “Let’s get something straight here. If anybody goes–and I’m
not
agreeing to that
yet
–but if we do this, we both go. That’s what the note’s demanding.”

            “Garcia’s culture’s big on
machismo.
He won’t be surprised if I come alone.”

            Kate shoved her chair back and stood up. “Skip, I need to speak with you.” Hands on hips, she turned and stomped toward the master bedroom.

            Skip expelled a long sigh.

            “Go talk to her, son,” Dolph said. “We’ll start hashing out logistics.”

            Skip squared his broad shoulders, then stood up and headed down the hall.

            Once he was out of earshot, Dolph turned to the others. “I think we should assume this is a trap.”

            “We can also assume Kate will win their argument.” Rose pulled out her phone to call Mac. “So let’s work on how to keep them safe, and get Lilly back.”

~~~~~~~

            Kate was sitting on the side of the bed, arms crossed over her chest. Her mouth was set in a thin angry line, but tears trickled down her cheeks.

            Skip sat beside her and put an arm around her unyielding shoulders. With the other hand, he gently turned her face toward him. “I have to do this, darlin’. I wish I didn’t but I do.”

            “Not
I
, Skip.
We
. What happened to Thelma and Louise going over the cliff together?”

            Skip was thinking one should watch what they ask for when talking to God. He played the motherhood card. “One of us has to survive this. Edie and Billy need at least one parent.”

            Fresh tears pooled in her eyes. “Skip, I don’t know if I can do it again, be the strong widow for the sake of my children. Once in a lifetime may be all I had in me.” She bit her lower lip as one of the tears broke loose.

            He brushed the wetness from her cheek with his fingertips, while he desperately searched for another argument.