Santa Fe Edge (31 page)
“Yeah,” Cupie said, brightening. “She’ll do that, and we’ll do that.”
60
T
odd Bacon landed at the Manassas, Virginia, airport on Sunday night and left the keys to the Bonanza at the FBO desk for pickup by the Agency the following day. He checked into a nearby hotel for the night. Then, the following morning, he was at the Langley headquarters by eight thirty. He killed a little time in the lobby, then checked in with security and took the elevator up to the executive floor.
HOLLY WALKED into Lance Cabot’s office.
“What do you hear from our man in Santa Fe?” Lance asked.
“He’s our man in Sedona now,” Holly replied. “I had an e-mail from him.”
“Why Sedona?”
“He didn’t say. I suppose he had some trail to follow.”
There was a knock on the open door, and both Holly and Lance looked that way. Todd Bacon stood in the doorway.
“Good morning,” he said. “I’m reporting as ordered.”
Lance stared at him, uncomprehending. “Reporting for
what
?”
“As ordered,” Todd said. “For reassignment.” He took a folded sheet of paper from his inside pocket and approached Lance’s desk.
Holly took the paper from him and read it, then handed it to Lance. “Something you want to tell me, Lance?”
Lance read the e-mail, and his face fell.
“That’s the e-mail you sent me,” Todd said.
“Oh, my God,” Holly said.
“I thought you were in Sedona,” Lance said.
“Well, I was going there, but then I got your message. It was in my Agency mailbox.”
Lance had turned quite red. “Have you got any vacation time coming?” he asked.
“Yes. I’ve got two weeks,” Todd replied.
“Take it,” Lance replied. “Go. Report for reassignment when you get back.”
Todd looked at Holly questioningly.
Holly made a shooing motion with her hands.
“Can I keep the Bonanza for my time off?”
“Yes,” Holly said.
Todd watched as Lance fed the e-mail into his deskside shredder, then he got the hell out of there.
“Well?” Lance said to Holly. “What are you looking at?”
“Absolutely nothing,” Holly said, rising.
“None of this ever happened,” Lance said.
“Of course not,” Holly replied.
She went back to her office and started looking for something to take Lance’s mind off Teddy Fay.
ED EAGLE GOT DOWN a suitcase from the top shelf of his dressing room and started packing.
Susannah entered the room and watched for a moment. “Going somewhere?” she asked.
“I’ve got some business to take care of,” Eagle said.
“Where?”
“It’s better if you don’t know.”
“I want to come with you,” she said.
“I’m sorry, no.”
“Ed, if you’re going to do this you’ll have a better chance of bringing it off if there are two of us.”
Eagle closed his suitcase and stared at her. “Listen to yourself. Where do you think I’m going?”
“San Francisco,” she replied.
“Why San Francisco?”
“Because that’s where Barbara is.”
“Do you think I’m going to Barbara?”
“I think you’re going
for
Barbara.”
Eagle thought about that for a moment. “No. You have to stay here.”
“What makes you think you can tell me what to do?” she asked, her hands on her hips.
“I don’t know,” Eagle said. “I never tried before.”
She walked over and put her arms around his waist and her head on his shoulder. “And don’t you ever try again,” she said.
Eagle sighed and kissed the top of her head. “All right,” he said. “Pack a bag.”
She ran to her dressing room.
Eagle went back into his dressing room and opened his safe. There was an old .45 in there, one he hadn’t fired for years, one somebody had given to him, one that couldn’t be traced back to his ownership. He checked the magazine, pocketed another, then put the weapon into a holster and threaded it onto his belt.
When he came back into the bedroom he saw Susannah about to close her suitcase. Her little Smith & Wesson Ladysmith was lying on top of her clothes. “You ready?” he asked.
“More than ready,” she said, zipping the bag shut.
Eagle called the airport and asked that his airplane be pulled from its hangar and refueled, then he and his wife got into his car and headed out.
TEDDY CRADLED LAUREN in his arms. They had just made love, and this was the time he liked most.
“Teddy,” Lauren said, “do we live in Santa Fe now? Is this our home?”
“It is,” Teddy replied. “Until it isn’t.”
AUTHOR’S NOTE
I am happy to hear from readers, but you should know that if you write to me in care of my publisher, three to six months will pass before I receive your letter, and when it finally arrives it will be one among many, and I will not be able to reply.
However, if you have access to the Internet, you may visit my website at
www.stuartwoods.com
, where there is a button for sending me e-mail. So far, I have been able to reply to all my e-mail, and I will continue to try to do so.
If you send me an e-mail and do not receive a reply, it is probably because you are among an alarming number of people who have entered their e-mail address incorrectly in their mail software. I have many of my replies returned as undeliverable.
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Please do not send me your ideas for a book, as I have a policy of writing only what I myself invent. If you send me story ideas, I will immediately delete them without reading them. If you have a good idea for a book, write it yourself, but I will not be able to advise you on how to get it published. Buy a copy of
Writer’s Market
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, where the tour schedule will be published a month or so in advance. If you wish me to do a book signing in your locality, ask your favorite bookseller to contact his Penguin representative or the Penguin publicity department with the request.
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A list of my published works appears in the front of this book and on my website. All the novels are still in print in paperback and can be found at or ordered from any bookstore. If you wish to obtain hard-cover copies of earlier novels or of the two nonfiction books, a good used-book store or one of the online bookstores can help you find them. Otherwise, you will have to go to a great many garage sales.
A Holly Barker Novel
A Stone Barrington Novel
A Will Lee Novel
An Ed Eagle Novel
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