Trading Secrets (27 page)

“I think the lady has cause,” Matt murmured in heartfelt tones. “Jesus! I can’t believe it. She actually took Brad and left town? What about the two who tried to pick him up?”

“Griffin and Shadwell. At least that’s what Sabrina said they called themselves. Came on with a real official line and then told her you were heroically dying in some hospital. They wanted to take Brad to his critically injured father’s bedside.”

“And Sabrina didn’t buy it?”

“She didn’t know what to believe. Called your parents and your ex-wife. No one seemed to know about brave Matt August being wounded in the line of duty,” Alex said sardonically. “And then there was the malfunctioning right arm.”

“Okay, Alex, try that one again,” Matt ordered with a patience he wasn’t feeling. “What arm?”

“Well, I took Brad to the ballet a couple of nights ago—”

“The ballet! My God, whatever made him go to the ballet?”

“Sabrina thought it would be good for him. I think she had some theory about countering the more macho influences in his life. At any rate it didn’t work because two rednecks hassled us in the parking lot afterward and I used a little karate on them. Brad got his two cents’ worth in, also, by the way. In the clutch that kid has guts. I know I was scared to death, myself. We sent them packing, but the next day Griffin and Shadwell turned up on Sabrina’s doorstep looking like they’d been in a parking-lot brawl.”

Matt inhaled sharply. “I owe you one, Alex.”

“Put in a good word for me when I get my salary review from Sabrina.”

“So she dashed off to Oregon with Brad.”

“I think Griffin and Shadwell really blew their case when they told her they worked for Coyne. She doesn’t like that man.”

“Nobody does,” Matt informed him absently. He studied the milling crowd of people and chickens and tried to think. “Give me the directions to that place in Oregon. I’ll head straight out there.”

“Where are you now?”

“Island hopping,” Matt replied. “I’m trying to get to an island that’s big enough to have decent airline connections. It’s going to take a while. Supposedly there’s a small charter plane leaving here in fifteen minutes. If they can get the pilot out of the bar.” His hand clenched and relaxed as he forced back the frustration. “Any sign of Griffin and Shadwell since Sabrina left town?”

“They haven’t shown up here at the store. Think they might be on her trail?”

“I don’t know what they’ll do. Have to assume they’ll keep trying to get Brad. Those were the last instructions from Coyne.”

“The last instructions?” Alex inquired delicately.

“Mr. Coyne has gone on to new levels of diplomacy. Listen, does Sabrina have a phone at that cabin?”

“No, but she said she’ll be checking in sometime this morning. She said there was a pay phone she could use at a local store.”

“Okay. Tell her I’m on my way. Tell her to bolt the doors and sit tight until I get there.”

“She was nervous about trying to explain everything to the police.”

“She’s right. Griffin and Shadwell could easily outtalk her, and once they start flashing the government ID, most local cops would back off. With any luck she shook them off her trail when she flew to Oregon. Just tell her to stay put and not open the door to anyone until I arrive.”

“Got it. When should she expect to see you?”

Matt gazed disgustedly at the empty runway out in front of the tin shack. “Damned if I know. As soon as I can get there. Just tell her… tell her I’ll be there,” he finished, not knowing how else to say all the things he wanted to say to Sabrina.

“I’ll tell her,” Alex said calmly.

“I’ll see you when I get back to Dallas with Sabrina and Brad.” Matt replaced the receiver, grimly grateful that he’d finally found a working telephone, and then picked up Coyne’s briefcase and his own flight bag. He walked purposefully through the noisy crowd of the airport and out the back door. The nearest bar was a block down the road. With any luck the pilot hadn’t had time for more than a couple of shots. It was, after all, only ten o’clock in the morning.

“She and the kid landed at Portland late last night. Rented a car and headed for the coast,” Griffin said, glancing at the notes he’d been making while on the telephone.

“Did the contact in Portland follow orders?”

“Sure. What else would a loyal, hardworking government man do when faced with a polite request from another department? He tailed her to the coast. She and the kid are in a beach cottage. Isolated and remote.”

“Sounds simple enough,” Shadwell mused, studying the shopping center outside his window. He’d never seen so many shopping centers in his life as he had in Dallas. Apparently shopping in air-conditioned comfort was how most of the locals amused themselves. When they were finished for the day they piled their Neiman-Marcus packages into their air-conditioned
Cadillacs
and went home to their air-conditioned houses. It seemed a somewhat limited lifestyle to Shadwell but, then, what did he know? Vaguely he felt for the handle of his knife and relaxed when he touched the leather-wrapped surface. Things were getting messy, and Shadwell got nervous when things got messy.

“I’ll book us a flight to Portland. We’ll be there by late this afternoon.” Griffin picked up the phone again.

“No rush. We won’t want to move until tonight, anyway. Wonder what Coyne’s going to think when he tries to check in with us this evening.”

“There’s no way I can tell him things have gotten this screwed up. I can’t get a call through to that goddamned island.”

“Maybe it’s just as well,” Shadwell speculated. “He doesn’t like excuses.”

“He also doesn’t like loose ends. For that matter, neither do I. We’ve got to get this under control before it explodes in our faces.”

“And if we can’t?” Shadwell asked reflectively. “Then we’ll cut our losses.”

“Making sure there are no loose ends left dangling,” Shadwell concluded.

***

It was not paranoia, Sabrina told herself. It was simply heightened tension that had made her suspect that every third car on the road behind her had been trying to tail her last night. She lay in bed, aware of the musty smell of the sheets and blankets she’d dug out of the closet. She and Brad had finally arrived at the cabin at three in the morning. Brad was apparently still asleep in the other bedroom. The poor kid had been absolutely exhausted.

Sabrina knew she’d needed sleep, but other than a couple of hours of dozing she’d grabbed on the jet, she hadn’t managed to get any. It was dawn now and she’d been lying awake since she’d gone to bed. Might as well get up. She glanced at her Mickey Mouse watch, which she hadn’t bothered to remove. In another couple of hours Alex would be opening the shop in Dallas. She’d call him after she and Brad had eaten breakfast.

Pushing back the covers, Sabrina picked up her jeans and the shirt she had been wearing last evening.

She was going to have to do some washing this afternoon. Neither she nor Brad had a change of clothes.

But the shower worked, and standing under the pounding hot water revived her somewhat. By the time she emerged, Sabrina was feeling more alert. She strolled out into the kitchen of the old cottage and rummaged in the cupboards for the packages of instant coffee her father always left behind.

As she heated water she glanced around at the familiar rustic walls, the worn throw rugs, and the miscellaneous furniture with which the cottage had been furnished. She’d spent a lot of weekends here when she was younger. Bennet Chase had brought his children to the coast as often as possible.

Looking back now, it struck Sabrina that her father probably hadn’t enjoyed those trips nearly as much as his children did. There were undoubtedly several weekends when he would have preferred to unwind in the comfort of his own home, after a hard week’s work, rather than get into the car and make the long drive to the coast with three kids. It couldn’t have been easy for a staid banker to keep track of a bunch of lively children at the beach.

But her father, for all his domineering tendencies, had never made her or his sons feel they were a burden to him. Bennet Chase had chosen to raise his children alone, and he’d done it to the best of his ability. Sabrina still remembered that day during her twelfth year when he had taken her aside and tried to explain in a gentle, matter-of-fact manner the changes that were taking place in her body. She had been acutely embarrassed at the time and had hastened to inform him that the school nurse had already gone over the matter. Bennet Chase had been greatly relieved. But she had to admire him now for the way he’d been determined to carry out his responsibility.

Sabrina poured the boiling water over the instant coffee and sat down at the round oak table in front of the window. The cabin didn’t get used very often anymore. Jeffrey and Nolan occasionally occupied it on holidays, but not very frequently. And Bennet Chase was currently dating a widow in Portland, so he spent most of his weekends there.

Strange how, when she’d needed a place to run to, this was the place that had seemed to offer a haven. This was where she had been allowed to run free. Here she had learned to swim and dig clams. Here her brothers and father had seemed more relaxed and playful, less inclined to tell her what to do and how to do it. It was here that she’d seen the side of Bennet Chase and the Brothers Grim that she liked best, Sabrina realized; a more casual, less authoritarian side.

She thought about Matt, who hadn’t called his parents in months. For all her attempts to sidestep her family’s efforts to control her, she had never lost contact with them. Sabrina grimaced wryly, thinking of the regular weekly phone calls. God knew she hadn’t lost contact!

Growing up in an all-male household had been a chore, to say the least, but she had survived quite well, all things considered. And eventually she had established a clearly separate lifestyle. She knew she had disappointed her father with her change in career and that her brothers disapproved of her direction in life, but they had never withdrawn their affection or support. That support had remained unwavering, even when her name was being plastered across the newspapers. She had avoided the rift that seemed to have developed between Matt and his parents.

Looking back from the comfort of this cottage, it occurred to Sabrina that the only reason she had avoided the same fate was because her family had refused to let it happen. In spite of scandal, disapproval, and disappointment, no one had any intention of cutting off the black sheep of the family.

It said a lot for Bennet Chase and the ties he’d forged among his children that nothing had completely severed those bonds.

Sabrina thought about that, seeing her father from a slightly new perspective. Whatever else had happened, there had never been any hint of rejection; not the kind Brad had suffered and not the kind Matt had endured. Bennet Chase had accomplished something special in spite of the fact that he was a sober, domineering, autocratic banker.

He had created a home.

It was odd, Sabrina thought, sipping her coffee—she hadn’t quite realized that until this minute. It was even stranger, after all these years of sidestepping the various and assorted pressures of her family, that she suddenly thought it might be satisfying to create a home for someone else. Someone named Matt August.

She wondered idly if Matt realized how much he needed a home for himself and his son.

Sabrina glanced at her watch. Time to call Alex. “Brad? Are you awake?”

The answer took the form of a sleepy rumble from the second bedroom, the room that had been Nolan and Jeffrey’s.

“We have to go call Alex.”

“Can’t I stay here?” Brad muttered into the pillow.

Sabrina went to the bedroom door. She didn’t want to tell him that she didn’t dare let him out of her sight until she’d heard something about his father. “Sorry, kid. Up and at ‘
em
. You can take a nap later on today.”

One of the things Sabrina was learning about adolescent boys was that they seemed to take as much time in the bathroom as women who were dressing for an evening out on the town. Twenty minutes later Sabrina was still waiting impatiently for Brad to emerge. When he finally ambled out wearing the fatigues he’d had on yesterday, she gave him a sardonic glance.

“Looks like two bathrooms are going to be a minimum for this family.”

He looked at her, surprise in his eyes. “Yeah?” Then he nodded, as if digesting the implications of the remark. “Yeah, I guess that would be a good idea.”

“Come on, kid, let’s go call Alex and see if he’s heard anything.”

Fifteen minutes later Sabrina was standing in the old phone booth outside the small general store that was the sole source of the community’s groceries. Her fingers clamped fiercely around the receiver as Alex came on the line.

“Sabrina! Am I glad to hear from you. Hold tight, lady, the cavalry’s on its way.”

“What are you talking about?” she demanded, hardly daring to hope.

“Just heard from Matt.”

“Oh, my God, Alex. He’s all right, then?” Sabrina sagged against the phone booth and tossed a weak, reassuring grin at Brad, who was sitting in the car.

“Other than the fact that he’s doing a bit of unscheduled island-hopping. He’ll be there as soon as possible. The bad news is that he isn’t sure when that will be. At any rate, I have instructions to tell you to bolt the doors and hold the fort until you see the whites of his eyes.”

Alex quickly explained what Sabrina had already guessed—that Coyne’s two men in blue were indeed after Brad, with the intention of holding the boy as insurance for Matt’s cooperation.

“Hang on, Sabrina. It’s all going to be over soon. Remember the Alamo!”

“Geez, Alex, you’re so inspirational.” But the relief flowing through her was enough to make her light-headed.

“I try,” Alex said modestly. “How are you and the kid holding up?”

“Much better now that I’ve talked to you. Take care, Alex, and thanks for everything.”

“Are we talking a raise here?”

“We’re talking warm gratitude. Don’t soil the purity of the moment with talk of money.”

“It would make my mother happy.”