Hearts in the Crosshairs (19 page)

“But it’s two miles down the river to the other lake. And if we have to walk all the way around the lake…”

It would take a healthy man hours to make that walk through unbroken forest, following the stream and then the lakeshore. He saw no other solution. “Pray,” he said.

He rolled to his knees and tried to lift Penny gently, but she let out a groan.

“I’m sorry, Penny.” He eased her onto his shoulder and looked at Jillian. “Stay close.”

He staggered through the woods, keeping the stream as close to his left as he could, and trying to avoid roots and rocks. With only sporadic moonlight through the foliage, the going was slow. After ten minutes, he stopped and lowered Penny carefully to the ground.

“Sit,” he told Jillian. She shivered uncontrollably.

“Maybe I should go first.” She sank down beside Penny. “At least if I tripped over something, you’d know it was there and not fall with Penny.”

Dave took three deep breaths before he trusted himself to answer. “The truth is, I don’t know how far I can carry her. We’re all soaking wet.”

“Does your radio still work?”

He fumbled with it in the darkness. “Afraid not.” He tried Penny’s with no better results.

Penny lifted one hand and croaked, “Leave me.”

Dave knelt beside her and took her icy hand. “We can’t do that.”

“Yes, you can. I’ll be the decoy. Put me on the riverbank. If I see them, I’ll flag them down to come and get me. Maybe they’ll think I’m Jillian.”

“Forget it,” Jillian said. “Any fool can see you’re not a blonde.”

Even Penny cracked a smile. “You can come back for me.” Her hoarse voice caught. “Go. Send help for me. I’ll be okay. I’ve got my gun.”

“Will it still fire, even though it’s wet?” Jillian asked.

“It should,” Dave said, “unless it’s full of river muck.”

“So leave me,” Penny said again.

Dave scowled at her. “Just because it’s the end of May doesn’t make you immune to hypothermia. Besides, you’re bleeding.”

“I know it. It hurts like crazy.”

“We’re not leaving you,” Jillian said.

Penny grasped her sleeve. “Look, I’ve got to tell you something. A confession, sort of.”

Jillian’s eyes glistened, anticipating what Penny was about to say. “Don’t worry about that.”

“I have to. I’m the one who told the boss you were seeing Dave. And I leaked it to the radio station.”

Dave stood and edged toward the water, staying beneath the trees. He was furious with Penny, but now was not the time. He studied the stream and the terrain. How many were out there, and where?

“I think we may be halfway down to the landing at the lower lake. I can carry you that far, Penny,” Dave said.

“Maybe I could run from there to the warden camp to meet the backup team, and you could stay with her,” Jillian said.

Dave shook his head. “I can’t let you go off alone.”

She sighed. “Okay. We might as well move, though. If we stay here, we’ll either get bushwhacked or freeze to death.”

“Hold me up,” Penny said. “Maybe I can walk.”

Dave pulled her to her feet. She leaned heavily against him, then crumpled to her knees.

“I’m sorry,” she sobbed.

Dave said nothing, lifting her in his arms. Jillian set off, parallel to the stream.

Jillian trudged onward, running on sheer willpower and prayer. Thanks to Dave’s waterproof watch, they could check the time. It was after four in the morning when they reached the mouth of the stream. She could see the broad expanse of the lake ahead, and she gave a little whoop as she burst from the underbrush onto the shore.

Dave followed her and lowered Penny again, on a sandy spot close to a large boulder.

“Can we rest here until daylight?” Jillian felt wearier than she could ever remember feeling. If only they could light a fire.

Dave sat down with a thud. “We shouldn’t. It’s too open here.”

Jillian sat and leaned over to look at Penny. “I think she’s unconscious.”

Dave felt for Penny’s pulse at her throat.

“Look, I could head for the camp now.” Jillian watched his face anxiously.

“No. I told you. Besides—look how far it is.”

She looked across the lake. It was much larger than the one where they’d camped.

“Hey, I can see the other shore. That means the sun will rise soon.”

Dave looked at his watch again. “Four-twenty. The backup should be there.”

Jillian stood and squinted at the dark water. The small waves looked much friendlier than those they’d battled a few hours ago. She peered again toward the far tip of the lake. “How far is it by land?”

“Four or five miles, maybe. Rough miles.”

She looked down at Penny’s inert form. “Do you think she’ll make it?”

Dave didn’t answer.

Jillian turned back to the lake. “Hey.”

“What?” Dave looked up.

“I see something.”

“Get down.”

“No, it’s way down there.” She pointed down the lake. “I think it’s a boat.”

Dave stumbled to his feet and stood beside her. “Where?”

“There. See it? I wish we had the binoculars.”

“You and me both.” He stared for a long moment, and she held her breath, watching him.

Dave let out a chuckle. “It’s a warden’s boat. They’re probably towing a canoe so they can paddle upstream to us.”

Jillian wanted to yell and dance and wave her soggy sweatshirt, but the thought of the assassin that had stalked them kept her still.

“We’re on the wrong side of the inlet.” Dave pointed to a large rock that jutted into the water. “You stay here out of sight. I’ll get up there and flag them down.”

Jillian sat down, noting that Penny’s bluish lips trembled. If only they had a blanket. The officers coming would bring something dry.

A sudden noise in the woods startled her. She whipped her head around. Only a few yards away, a man crept stealthily between the trees. He carried a rifle with a scope on it. She shrank against the rock that sheltered her and Penny. The man wasn’t looking her way. He was focused on Dave.

She swallowed back the scream that nearly choked her. If she yelled to save Dave, the man would kill her. After all, that was what he had come for.

Dave had reached the rock by the water and climbed up it. He pulled off his wet jacket and swung it over his head. “Hey!”

Jillian saw the gunman halt and look down the lake. He had advanced beyond where she and Penny hid—he wouldn’t see
them unless he turned around. Jillian reached for her pocket with trembling hands and fumbled with the zipper.

Her cold fingers didn’t want to cooperate. Grasping the pistol with both hands, she raised it and leaned against the rock. At almost the same time, the man with the rifle put the stock to his shoulder and sighted in on Dave.

Jillian pulled the trigger.

Too late, she saw the second man step out of the woods, swinging his rifle to his shoulder, taking aim at her.

T
wo reports echoed over the water almost at once as Jillian dove for the dirt. She lay low, sheltering Penny’s head. Distant yells told her the men in the boat were close to shore. Footsteps scrabbled over the rocks. Her heart thudded and she pulled the pistol up before her, expecting a killer to round the rock.

“Jillian!”

Her breath whooshed out of her. She let the gun fall and jumped into Dave’s arms.

“It’s okay.” He held her close.

“There were two of them.”

“I know. When you fired, I turned around in time to take down the second gunman. You’re safe now.”

The boat nudged in to shore, and two uniformed men leaped over the side, but Dave stayed with her, holding her head against his chest and stroking her hair. Jillian collapsed against him with a sob. “Penny?”

“It’s okay,” Dave said. “We’re all going to make it.” He bent his head and kissed her cheek, where the chip of granite had grazed her in January. “You saved my life.”

She eased away from his embrace. One officer had reached Penny and knelt beside her. The other rushed toward the fallen man who had tried to kill her. Dave tightened his hold around
her waist and moved her down the shore, toward the boat. At the edge of the water, he pulled her into his arms again. Jillian clung to him, wanting never to be separated from him again, and they waited in silence.

When they moored at the warden camp’s dock, an ambulance, two more state troopers and a game warden were waiting.

Dave helped Jillian out of the boat, and the four troopers who had come across the lake for them lifted Penny out and onto the EMTs’ stretcher.

“Go inside and find some dry clothes,” Dave told Jillian. “As soon as they’ve loaded Penny and the wounded man in the ambulance, I’ll make a fire in that woodstove.”

Jillian wore a jacket one of the troopers had loaned her in the boat. In the cabin, she found nothing to put on, other than blankets and one ragged hunter-orange vest.

She huddled in a wool blanket and managed to start the fire herself. By the time Dave entered, the fire was roaring. She handed him another blanket, and he draped it over his shoulders.

“How’s Penny?” she asked.

Dave shrugged. “Hard to say. She was conscious when they put the IV in. They took the wounded man, too. Half a dozen men have headed up the lake. They’ll bring in the other gunman.”

“They’ll have to take a canoe up to our camp to get Jerry, won’t they?”

“I think there’s enough space to land a helicopter near the tents. They’ve got one coming from the Bangor National Guard station.”

She nodded. Engine noises outside the cabin were followed by doors slamming and loud voices.

“Could be some media coming,” Dave said.

“Way up here?”

“You’re a hot story.”

She swallowed hard and looked down at her clothing. “Wonderful.”

“Hey, before we’re inundated…” He looked into her eyes, and her stomach fluttered.

“Yeah?”

“I need to tell you something. I’ve been thinking—”

The door burst open.

“Jill! Are you all right?”

Jillian spun to face the whirlwind of Naomi and her mother. Naomi threw her arms around Jillian’s neck and buried her face in her shoulder, sobbing. Jillian patted her back gently and looked at her mother.

“Thank God,” Vera said. “My dear, you look splendid.”

Jillian laughed and tugged at Naomi’s clinging arms. “Come on, Naomi. I’m okay.”

Naomi pulled away, wiping her blotchy face with the backs of her hands. “I’m so sorry, Jill. I have to tell you. This is all my fault.”

Dave frowned at Naomi and set a straight chair out from the table.

“Sit, Miss Plante.”

Naomi looked back toward the other room, where Jillian and her mother stood by the stove in a hug.

“Start at the beginning. Why is this your fault?”

Andrew Browne straddled one of the other chairs and laid a notebook on the table. Dave was glad he’d arrived in the first wave of reinforcements. He didn’t think his fingers had thawed enough yet to hold a pen.

“I knew where you were going this weekend, and I mentioned it to a friend. I had no idea it would lead to this. Do you think—”

“Who?” Dave bent toward her and stared.

Naomi gulped. “Jack Kendall. I didn’t tell anyone else.”

“Did you know who he was?”

“What do you mean? He’s Jack.”

Dave studied her for a moment. “Did he ask you to make him a copy of the governor’s schedule, and to browse her computer?”

Naomi stared at him for a moment, her face stricken, then lowered her face into her hands. “He said…he wanted to meet Jillian.”

“You could have introduced them.”

“He couldn’t come to Blaine House when I asked him to, so he wanted to know where she’d be next week, in case we could arrange it. I didn’t see any harm in it.” Tears streaked Naomi’s face.

Dave sat down opposite her. “Tell me every time you talked to him, what he asked you to do for him, and what information you gave him. But first, tell me how you knew where we’d be on this trip.”

An hour later, Carl Millbridge burst into the cabin wearing a harried expression. He spotted Jillian and strode toward her. By now she had on jeans and a Red Sox sweatshirt. Dave had requested dry clothing by radio, and one of the troopers responding to the call for backup had delivered.

“Governor, are you all right?” Millbridge asked.

“I’m fine, Detective. You didn’t need to come all the way up here.”

Millbridge straightened his shoulders. “I’m taking charge of the investigation.”

“What about Detective Hutchins?”

“I’m told he needs medical attention.”

“I’m fine,” Dave growled from the kitchen doorway.

“I understand you have a prisoner.”

Dave looked chagrined. “Yeah. She’s in the kitchen.”

Jillian stared at him. Millbridge entered the kitchen, and she heard him say, “Is this the prisoner?”

“That’s right,” Andrew replied.

Jillian crossed to Dave, looking into his troubled brown eyes. “You have to arrest her?”

Dave nodded. “The man you shot was Jack Kendall.”

Jillian felt light-headed. Her mother stepped up beside her and slid her arm around her waist.

“Come sit down, dear.”

She walked woodenly to the sofa, and her mother sat beside her. Dave pulled a chair over and sat facing her.

“Naomi didn’t mean me any harm,” Jillian insisted.

“You’re right. She told Kendall where you’d be out of innocence, or maybe out of pride, to prove she knew your business.”

“But Naomi didn’t know.”

Dave sighed. “It seems she did.”

“How could she have? I didn’t even know until we were partway here.”

“She did some snooping in Ryan’s pockets the night before we left.”

Jillian’s jaw dropped. “She picked his pockets?”

“He hung his jacket in the security office at the Blaine House. While he made his rounds, she snooped and got lucky. Ryan had your fishing license and the fire permits with the locations on them in his jacket.”

Vera patted her shoulder. “I’m so sorry, dear.”

A pain started deep in Jillian’s stomach. “Who was the other man? Tanger? They wouldn’t release him without telling us.”

Dave shook his head. “No. But we’ll find out.” He leaned toward her and took her hands in his. “Jack Kendall is still alive.”

She caught her breath. “I’m glad. I mean—”

He nodded. “I’m glad, too. You didn’t kill him. It may take
some time to put it all together, but we hope Kendall will survive and tell us exactly what was on his mind.”

“But Naomi didn’t know he was coming up here?”

“She says she didn’t, and I believe her. They went out Saturday night, but he told her he was busy on Sunday. That’s when he came up here.”

“With a friend.”

“It seems that way.”

“But the parking garage? The inauguration day shooting? And Wesley Stevenson. How does it all fit together?”

“There’s still a lot we don’t know.”

“Can you take us home, David?” Vera said gently. “My daughter needs to rest.”

“Sure, Mrs. Clark.”

“No.” Jillian reached out to him. “Take me to the hospital where they took Penny. I need to see her.”

Dave eyed her keenly, then turned to Vera. “That all right with you, ma’am?”

Vera nodded curtly. “We’ll get a doctor to look Jillian over while we’re at it.”

“Mom, I’m okay.”

Dave smiled for the first time in what seemed like a long, long time. “Mrs. Clark, I like the way you think.”

They dropped Vera off at her home at ten that evening.

“Are you sure you won’t stay here tonight, honey?” she asked Jillian before she got out of the vehicle.

“No, thanks, Mom. I need to go to my office tomorrow and hold a press conference so everyone knows I’m okay.”

“What will you say?”

Jillian sighed. “Lettie will write up something for me.”

Dave saw Vera into the house, then got back in the driver’s seat. He put the key in the ignition and then change his mind,
taking it out and turning to her. “Jillian, this may not be a good time, but there are things I need to say. Things that have been on my mind for some time now. And after everything we’ve just been through, I don’t think I can keep them to myself anymore.”

She looked at him expectantly. “You can say anything to me, Dave. I mean that.”

He took a deep breath, intending to explain how he fell for her, and how torturous it was for him not to be able to see her after Penny reported him, but what came out of his mouth was, “I love you.”

She caught her breath. “Oh, Dave. I…”

“You don’t have to say anything, Jillian. I know this might be strange for you to hear. But I was afraid I’d lose you last night, and I realized that I don’t want a world without you.”

Tears welled in her eyes, and she felt a prickly lump in her throat. “Dave, I love you, too.”

Dave could hardly believe his ears. He leaned over and caressed her cheek. “I’ll do whatever it takes to be with you, Jillian.” His lips met hers, and he kissed the lovely governor of Maine as he’d wanted to for so long.