Night and Day (23 page)

The motion of the horses going up and down, up and down.

She could see the edge of the swan seat as it began to come around the corner.

“No!”

A bullet splintered the head of the swan!

“Cara!”

The carousel was still moving, bringing the swan chair in full view.

Another shot!

“Keep low,” Joe said. “That was a sniper bullet from one of the outbuildings. Maybe a Remington…”

“She said assassin. Cara…”

“It's okay, Eve,” Joe said over his shoulder. “Cara's not in that swan chair, thank God.” He jumped up on the carousel stand and ran past the splintered chair to a crumpled heap lying on the floor by one of the brass poles.

Cara's guard, Eve realized dazedly. Dark hair. Black leather jacket …

And a broken neck.

“I believe that answers your question,” Joe said grimly. “Jock.” He glanced at the open elaborately painted red door in the center of the carousel that allowed for maintenance. “He must have been hiding in there, just waiting for his chance.”

“Where are we—” She stopped. She'd made a promise, and she had to keep it. Trust Jock. He'd saved Cara so far. But, dammit, it was so hard. “We have to get out of here. It won't be long before they find out something has gone wrong. He said that Cara would make it harder for him to save her if she thought I was still here and might be in danger. You know how protective she—” Joe wasn't moving. “Joe, I promised.”

“I didn't.”

“Joe.”

“Shit. Okay.” Joe was holding her elbow and running at top speed toward the side entrance, where Jane had parked the rental car. He glanced back over his shoulder at the turmoil going on at the carousel. “All that confusion will help us. Natalie will be expecting there to be a body on that carousel, and there's definitely a body there. Maybe they'll think that there's some kind of mistake about its being a man.”

Maybe. But Eve wasn't going to bet on it. Natalie had managed to slip out of any number of tight places, and she might be able to find a way out of this one. “And, if she thinks that we've arranged ahead of time to get Cara away from them, they may take a closer look at that treasure chest. They'll let loose all the dogs if she thinks we've cheated her.”

“Without a doubt.”

They'd reached the rental car and Jane already had the car started. “No Cara? What happened?”

“A case of Natalie major betrayal.” Joe jumped in the backseat, and Eve followed him. “Not entirely unexpected. But it's not as bad as it could be.”

“You don't have Cara.” Jane pulled away from the curb. “That sounds pretty bad to me.”

“But neither does Natalie,” Eve said. “And Cara is alive. Natalie set up a shooter to kill her and hang the blame on us. But it didn't happen. It has to be Jock who screwed up her plans.”

“Jock?” Jane looked at her in the rearview mirror. “He was there?”

“He was there,” Eve said firmly. “He got to Cara first. He said he'd be there, and suddenly, there was no Cara. That's proof enough for me.”

“And for me,” Jane said. “We'll have to wait and see what he—” She stopped as her phone rang. “Caleb.” She answered the call and pressed speaker. “No, it didn't go as well as we hoped,” she said before he could speak. “But Jock has Cara, and we'll go on from there.”

“Then may I suggest that you get the hell out of Moscow and let
him
go on from there,” Caleb said. “My Gulfstream is at Skovski Airport north of the city. I'll be waiting for you.”

“No,” Eve said sharply. “I'm not leaving her here.”

“Look. Our Natalie will be out to get you as soon as she finds out you've cheated her. She has all the cards on her side while she's in Moscow under her father's protection. If she manages to take you captive, she'll have a way to get Jock to give her Cara back.”

“I'm not too sure of that,” Eve said dryly. “Jock may not think I'm worth it.”

“Then there will be a brouhaha to end all brouhahas,” he said. “And that's not good either. Get out of there and trust Jock.”

“
Trust me,
” Jock had said.

“Maybe.” She looked at Joe. “But I won't go back to Scotland. No way.”

“Then I'll fly you to Helsinki,” Caleb said. “Finland is an hour or less from Moscow. And you can wait there for word from Jock.”

“Joe?”

“I want you out of here,” Joe said roughly. “I saw her face when she was talking to you. It was like a cat toying with a mouse. You were willing to trust Jock before. Trust him now.”

She thought about it. No, that wasn't the right word. She was agonizing about it. There was no way she wanted to leave Cara in this huge city, where Natalie had all the advantages. She wanted to find her, scoop her up, and take her home.

Advantages. That was the key word. And if Natalie managed to capture Eve, then that would be another advantage for her since Cara had a fixation on taking care of Eve.

“Stay clear,” Caleb said. “And then go in and save the day. That's always been my favorite game plan.”

But Caleb had not seen how fragile and pale Cara had looked sitting there in her pleated skirt and wool jacket, her hands folded on her lap.

Trust me.

All right, Jock, you'll get your way, but, dammit, you'd better pull it off.

“Okay, no more than an hour by jet away from here,” she said. “If Finland is really only an hour, I'll leave Moscow.”

“Done,” Caleb said. “Bring them to me right away, Jane. By now, Ivan Sabak will know the airport you flew into, and they'll go there first.”

“And that's why you wanted to take your own plane,” Jane said. “Other than that, you always like to be in control.”

“But I'm not in control. Eve made the decision. I just entered a humble plea. I'll see you in twenty minutes.”

DROSTKEY PARK

“Follow me,” Jock whispered as he crawled behind the bushes that bordered the refreshment stand. “No noise, Cara.”

He didn't need to tell her that, she thought in panic. She was too scared to utter a word. She had been terrified from the minute that Jock had come out of that maintenance closet on the carousel. She had never seen him like that. He had moved with lightning speed, and she had not realized what he was doing until the man in the black jacket had grunted and fallen to the floor. He had killed him, she had realized dazedly. Jock had killed that man as easily as she would have snapped a pencil in two. Then he had dragged her back into the maintenance closet and covered her mouth with his hand.

A shot.

Two shots.

Screams.

Jock had dragged her to the floor and pulled her to the crawl space beneath the ornate seats, trains, and carousel horses. “Let's go. There will be a crowd, but they'll be looking at the body, not at us.” He rolled out from beneath the carousel to the ground.

She rolled after him.

He grabbed her hand and started to crawl behind the shrubs. Jock was right. There was a big crowd, but no one was looking at them. They were all excited and chattering and looking in curiosity and horror at that man Jock had killed.

Don't be afraid.

Don't think about that man.

Don't think how easy that kill had been for Jock.

Just follow Jock.

Trust Jock.

“We're behind the refreshment stand now, and there are stairs that lead to a storage room on the second floor. Stay here and wait. I think it's safe, but I have to be sure.” Jock moved up the stairs and disappeared inside. He came out a second later and motioned for her to come.

She almost ran up the stairs. She might have been a little frightened of him, but it was nothing compared to what she had felt without him.

“This is the safest place in the park for us right now.” He drew her inside and put his fingers on his lips. “The refreshment stand closes at five,” he whispered. “I think the owner is probably over at the carousel seeing what all the fuss is about, but we won't take the chance. We'll just sit here and not talk until we hear him closing up for the evening. Okay?”

She nodded and curled up against the wall. It was dim in this small room that had only the one window. It smelled of plastic cups and bitter chocolate.

There was something underneath her left palm.

She looked down and lifted her hand.

A shell casing.

She felt shock ripple through her. Her gaze flew to Jock's face.

He went still. Then he put up two fingers.

Two shots.

Somewhere in this storage room there was another shell casing from a shot fired at the carousel.

Had that shot been aimed at her?

Her gaze flew to Jock's face.

He nodded slowly.

Death. Someone had wanted her to die as she sat on that seat in the swan chair.

Natalie.

She closed her eyes tightly as she started to shake.

“No!” He was suddenly next to her, holding both her hands. His voice was low and fierce. “Don't
look
like that. I had to tell you. Because I won't ever lie to you. Now hold on to me until it gets better.”

Would it ever get better?

“Look at me.”

She opened her eyes and looked up, and she was held, captured, by those shimmering gray eyes. Beautiful eyes. Jock's eyes. If she just kept looking at him, all the bad things would vanish, and they would be all right.

Her hands tightened on his.

Just keep looking at him …

*   *   *

“It's okay now. I heard them closing up downstairs.” He tried to release her hands, but she wouldn't let him. He stopped, and said quietly, “You'll be fine. I know you. This was bad but you're already moving forward. I can feel it.”

“That's more than I can feel,” she said unsteadily. “I'm sorry … I should have—I didn't expect—” She drew a long, quivering breath. “I shouldn't be this weak. I'll try to do better.”

“For God's sake, you watched a man killed in front of your eyes. You were almost killed yourself. I'd say that you deserve a little slack.” His lips tightened. “But I can't give it to you. I warned you that you had to do exactly as I told you, and we have to move fast.”

“Eve. You said this was about Eve and an exchange. Is Eve all right?”

“I think she's okay. She should be if she did what I told her to do. I was a little too busy to check. I'll call her and check once we're halfway out of this.” He went over to the small window and gazed down at the carousel. “The police are there now, and they'll be reconstructing the crime. That means that they'll be coming here.”

“Why didn't they come before? Why was it safe then and not now?”

“When I broke the neck of that guard who was watching you, I took his gun and threw it down beside him,” Jock said coolly. “Any layman would assume that he fired the shots. But the police would realize that the bullet holes were made by a sniper and from this location.”

“But it was safe here for us even though you knew that the shot was fired from here?”

“We weren't hiding from the police then. We were hiding from the people who hired the sniper. And they would know that the first thing a sniper does is get as far away as possible from the scene of the crime. They might be angry with him for screwing up the job, but they wouldn't go looking for him. Which left us with a place to hide while they searched the park for us.”

“The people who—” She couldn't go on and she said, “So how do we leave here?”

“The way we came in. The way the sniper got out. Beyond those ornamental bushes in the back is a gate where the owners of the refreshment stand bring in their supplies. It saves them from going through the park.” He got to his feet. “Come on, time to leave. Natalie is having hysterics and playing the bereaved mother with those police detectives down there at the carousel. She'll distract them for a few minutes while we get through the gate and a block down, where I parked my rental car.” He pulled her to her feet. “Ready?”

She nodded. “Ready.”

Don't think. Just do what he said. She followed him toward the door and down the stairs. It was dark now, but through the falling snow, she could see that the carousel lights were still on, and the music was playing. Shouldn't they have stopped the music? A man had died, and yet the music was still—

Jock had killed that man.

Her mind veered away from that thought. Don't think about that now. Later. She would think about watching that man die before her eyes later. Now she had to make sure Jock was safe. He had saved her, and she mustn't do anything that would cause him to be in danger.

Hurry.

Get him away from this park.

Then they were past the tall hedges, and Jock was opening the gate. He motioned to her, and she followed him out onto the street.

Don't think.

Just move.

Do what Jock was telling her to do.

She was half running down the street beside him.

Don't think …

 

CHAPTER

10

Cara didn't speak again until they were in Jock's car and had driven a few miles through the city. The snow was falling harder now, cocooning them in the car, and she felt somehow safer. “What happened back there?” She was trying to keep her voice steady. “Why … did they want to—”

“Kill you?” He finished. “The same reason that Natalie Castino wanted you dead before. She was afraid you knew too much and would be a threat to her.”

“She said she had a surprise for me.” Her lips were quivering. “Isn't that … funny?”

“Bitch.” His voice was razor-sharp and laden with fury. “No, I can't say I think that's funny. Don't think about her. She's not worth it.”

But how was she not to think about her? “Did Eve give her Cira's gold?”