Edge of the Heat 5 (25 page)

She came in on all fours, pushing his pack out of the way. She covered the hole she had come in from with his plants and laid still for just a second. Then she started going through her pack again. Jerry could hear the helicopter coming closer.

Sara pressed a gun into his hand. “If they land, we shoot. They will have bigger guns and they will probably be shooting to kill, but so will we.”

Jerry held his breath as the helicopter seemed to fly directly over the top of them. He couldn’t see it, but his ears told him where it was.

It flew on.

Jerry tried to relax and breathe again. “They’ll make a few more passes,” Sara said.

“Won’t the aluminum foil make it easier for them to see us?” Jerry whispered. He couldn’t help it. He knew no one in the helicopter could hear him, but talking normally still seemed like a risk.

“They aren’t searching for us with a spotlight. They are searching for us with FLIR. It’s a small Forward Looking Infrared Radar camera mounted under the helicopter. It’s almost foolproof in the desert. It picks up body heat. At night, this desert cools to about 40 or 50 degrees in the summer, but our bodies are still 98 degrees. Unless we found a hole in the ground or a cave to hide in, they know they can spot us, even in a grove of trees. But as long as we don’t touch the aluminum foil, our heat won’t transfer to it, and all they will see is the heat signature of it, which will look just like the ground to them.”

Suddenly Jerry was sorry for every nasty thought he’d had about the cot he had been dragging.

He reached out in the dark and grasped Sara’s hand. She laced her fingers through his, warm and comforting.

Jerry listened to the helicopter pass overhead three more times, holding his breath each time it came close. Finally, it seemed to move on. “Will they be back tonight?” he asked Sara.

“Maybe. It depends on whether they think we are here or not. I’m betting they think we are heading North, but are just being thorough by checking this area.”

“Oh.” Jerry wished this made him feel better.

After a few more minutes Sara crawled out from under their shelter. “Let’s have a drink and then we’ll pack up and move on.”

Jerry nodded and dragged their packs out.

***

3
0 minutes later, they walked on at Sara’s swift pace. She didn’t say anything. Her silence stretched across Jerry’s brain, making it hard for him to think. Finally, he had to ask. “So what’s the plan now?”

She looked at him, her eyes unreadable. “Which plan?”

“You know, the plan to get Thorpe and Carruthers arrested and their plots exposed.”

She gave him a flat look. “I’ve given up on that.”

“Given up? You can’t give up!”

“It’s impossible.” She shook her head. “What’s that saying? You can’t fight city hall? Well you really can’t fight a corrupt city hall.”

“Craig and Hawk could help us.”

She gave him another steely glance. “Or we could get them killed.”

“Yeah, you said that already, but Sara, we have to do
something
! What are we going to do when we get to Vegas?”

“I don’t know,” she said softly.

Jerry suddenly realized something that made his mouth go dry. “Wait, if you’ve given up, what does that mean for me? I can’t go home, can I?”

Sara didn’t answer. She didn’t have to.

Jerry raised his head to the sky. “I don’t have 5 identities waiting for me. I don’t have a million dollars stashed away.”

“We could run, Jerry.” Sara grasped his hand as they walked. Squeezed it. “We could go somewhere - anywhere. Spain, Norway, Switzerland. We could just ... disappear.”

Jerry studied the darkness over him. The stars, a million miles away, so high above this mess he was neck-deep in. Never seeing his friends or family again. Never even talking to them. Emma. His sister. Craig. Quitting his job. Leaving the United States forever. No.

“No.”

Sara dropped his hand. “I don’t know then.”

They walked in silence for hours. The helicopter did not return.

As day broke over the horizon, Sara found them another place to bed down, to hide from the sun, to rest. They dug the holes for water in silence. Cautiously, she laid out the day’s sleep schedule, knowing he finally hated her, now that he had fully grasped what she had gotten him into.

So when he asked if she would lay down with him for a few minutes as he fell asleep, she thought she must have misheard him. She tilted her head to the side and looked at him, wide-eyed.

“I just want to hold your hand,” he said, smiling at her with that grin that stole her breath.

“OK,” Sara stammered.

She held his hand for an hour, until he shifted position and pulled it away. Then she got up and prowled the ridge line from their new vantage point, her mind spinning uselessly in circles.

E
mma stepped off the plane runway into the Westwood Harbor airport and headed towards baggage claim, lost in her own thoughts, her strawberry-blonde hair uncharacteristically curly from the Hawaiian humidity. Beside her, Craig pressed a button on his cell phone. “We’re here,” he said into it. He listened for a moment. “OK, see you then.”

Emma jerked out of her head and looked at him. “See who when?”

“Hawk and Vivian are coming home too. They’ll be here this afternoon.”

Emma moaned. “Oh no. I’m so sorry I ruined our honeymoon, Craig. I just
know
something happened to Jerry. He never would ignore my calls. He never would go without answering his phone for almost 3 full days.”

Craig pulled her into a one-armed hug as they walked. “I know he wouldn’t. I wanted to come home too. Besides, we have a lifetime of second and third and fourth honeymoons. Or we could just go on this one again once we find Jerry.” He smiled at her and kissed her cheek.

“But now I’ve ruined Vivian and Hawk’s honeymoon too. My sister will never forgive me,” Emma almost whispered, her eyes frantically searching for their baggage carousel.

Craig grinned. “You’re right, Vivian will never forgive you.” Emma looked at him sharply. He held up a hand, laughter in his eyes. “There’s nothing to forgive! You didn’t tell them to come home. Hawk said she wanted to, and he agreed. They can’t enjoy themselves either knowing Jerry is missing."

“I know, I just feel so bad.”

“Don’t feel bad. We were right to come back here. I’ve got a bad feeling about Jerry disappearing too.”

“You don’t think he’s ...” Emma trailed off.

“No, I don’t. But maybe he needs some help. It does sound like that woman he brought to the wedding was involved in something weird.”

Craig’s phone buzzed. He looked down at it. All his messages were flooding in from the 5 hour plane ride. He checked their carousel. Not moving yet. He hoped they would hurry. He felt as anxious to start looking for Jerry as Emma did. 

“Lionel called.”

“Oh, maybe he’s got news on my brother.”

“Maybe. If anyone can find your brother, he can.”

“If he finds him this soon after letting Vivian and I know we were actually triplets and not twins, it’s going to take some brainpower to get used to. I at least knew Vivian
existed
all these years, even if I hadn’t found her. A brother though - I never imagined I had a brother too. I wonder what he looks like.”

Craig looked at Emma’s face, wondering also. Emma and Vivian were fraternal twins, and did not look very much alike. Except for their startling light-blue eyes.
Triplets
, he reminded himself. They were triplets, not twins. He laughed to himself. It would take some getting used to for him too. He guessed if two of the triplets were fraternal, that meant they all were? Or could the brother be identical to one of them. He shook his head. It was too complicated to think about right now.

Craig pushed the button to call Lionel back. The red light on the carousel flashed and the notification alarm brayed.
Later
. He hung up the phone and scouted for their luggage.

***

C
raig and Emma drove to Jerry’s house from the airport. It was locked up tight. “Let’s talk to his neighbors,” Craig suggested, although he knew what they probably would say. He had told Jerry maybe it would be a good idea to take a vacation on Wednesday. It was now Saturday, and no one had heard from him since. He was betting the neighbors would say no one had been at Jerry’s house since Wednesday. He was mostly right.

Mrs. McKinley, a sweet, 82-year-old widow from directly across the street, told them that she hadn’t seen
Jerry
at his house since Tuesday night. But plenty of other people had been there. A big, black Suburban had come every day except for yesterday. “I didn’t like the look of that man,” she told them, over sweet lemon scones and big glasses of iced tea. “He looked shifty, like he was up to no good,” she said.
Detective Gagne
, Craig thought.

She said another car had come by on just Wednesday, but no one had ever gotten out. The man had just sat in front of the house for over an hour. She showed them her chair she sat in during the day, in front of the window. “I could see his car but not his face because the angle was bad.”

“You didn’t happen to be able to see the license plate did you Mrs. McKinley?” Craig asked.

“As a matter of fact I did,” she said. “And I wrote it down. Hang on.” Mrs McKinley walked to the small, round table next to her chair. She pulled out a drawer and then a piece of paper, handing it to Craig. “There’s both the license plate numbers. I keep a good watch on the neighborhood, seeing as how I’m always here.” She indicated her chair in front of the window.

Craig couldn’t wait to be off. He wanted to run the second plate through a computer right away.

“Thank you Mrs McKinley, you don’t know how much you’ve helped us.”

Emma murmured her thanks and they headed to the door.

“You’re welcome. You just make sure that handsome young man comes home soon. I’ve missed seeing him.” She winked at them, making Emma look up suspiciously. She looked at Mrs. McKinley’s view out the window. Jerry’s kitchen and bedroom window were clearly visible from Mrs. McKinley’s chair. Emma tried to catch Craig’s eye. He wouldn’t look at her though. His face was set in a broad smile and Emma thought he already knew what she was thinking.

They made it down the walk and into the car before collapsing into laughter. “Jerry’s got a secret admirer,” Craig said.

“I wonder if he ever closes his bedroom curtains?” Emma giggled, thinking about Jerry’s parade of girlfriends through that house - well, at least until the last year when he had met Sara. Thinking of Sara sobered her instantly. Emma was horribly afraid Sara had mixed Jerry up in something dangerous.

Craig stopped laughing too. “Let’s get to HQ and see what comes up on these license plates.”

On the way there, Craig called his contact at the Westwood Harbor Police department again. He hung up after a short conversation. “He still hasn’t been arrested here. He must have taken my advice and gone somewhere. Too bad he didn’t tell me where.”

At he and Hawk’s headquarters, Craig punched the license numbers into the computer. The first one came up as registered to the Westwood Harbor Police Department. The second one was a rental car. “Come on, we’re going to the rental car company to see who rented that car,” he told Emma. “If I can show them my badge we will get information a lot quicker than if I try to call.” It could be a dead end, but at this point it was the only lead they had.

***

C
raig examined the driver’s license the Avis employee gave him. He didn’t recognize the face or the name. “Can I get a photocopy of this?” he asked, holding the card back out to her.

“Sure,” the sleek, young woman smiled at Craig just a moment too long and made sure her fingers brushed his when she took the license. Emma folded her arms on the counter and watched this with interest and a little irritation. Craig winked at her. He probably hadn’t even noticed. Did the woman not see the wedding ring on his finger? If she did, she didn’t care. Emma shook her head. She was going to have to get used to this, being married to a man as good-looking as Craig. And don’t even get her started on the badge bunnies. Emma had been appalled to find out there was a subset of women in this country whose sole purpose in life was to sleep with as many cops or law enforcement agencies as possible. Emma took a deep breath. She wasn’t a jealous person. And she wasn’t going to start now just because she was married to the hottest man on the planet. She knew he would never think of cheating. He just wasn’t wired that way. She caught his eye and smiled at him. He smiled back and tipped her another wink.

The woman returned with the copy. She batted her too-long, probably-fake eyelashes at Craig and tossed her stick-straight hair.

“When was the vehicle returned?” Craig asked.

“Let me check the computer.” The woman’s fingers flew over the keyboard in front of her.

Emma held her breath, peeking over Craig’s shoulder at the driver’s license. Greg Fuller from Atlanta, Georgia. He looked mean - his neck was too big for his head and he wasn’t smiling.

“Oh,” the young woman said, sounding surprised. “It wasn’t returned. We reported it stolen yesterday.”

“Do you have a phone number for the renter?”

“Yes, here I’ll write it down for you Agent Masterson.” She took the photocopy back and wrote a phone number on it, her heavily lined eyes never leaving Craig’s face. Suddenly Emma felt like winding her body around Craig’s and shoving her tongue down his throat, right here. Marking her territory. She restrained herself - barely.

“Thanks,” Craig said. He slipped her his card. “If he returns the car, call me right away, would you?” She smiled and touched her tongue to her top lip. “Of course.”

Emma bit back an urge to punch her in the eye. She backed up from the counter, a little surprised at her anger. She was going to have to get a hold of herself. This surely wouldn’t be the last time some bubble headed beauty flirted with her husband.
Her husband
. The thought made her smile and deflated some of her anger. Craig stepped away from the counter too. She took his hand and walked to their car. She imagined she could feel the eyes of the counter cutie on Craig’s backside, but she ignored it.