When I Find You: A Trust No One Novel (27 page)

“Ready? For what?”

“Didn’t Walker tell you?”

“He went for a run. What was he supposed to tell me?”

“I got a call from a colleague of mine at the Marshals Service. They’re moving Johnny today. If you don’t catch that bus this morning and let him know you’re coming, you’ll never see him again.”

“No. They can’t move him. I called yesterday and left a message. He was supposed to call me back. We aren’t going until Friday.” Darcy rattled off the itinerary, so sure everything would go the way they’d planned.

“Then you’re going to miss him.” Cooper paced back and forth in front of the door, looking out every few seconds.

“I can’t leave without Walker. Why didn’t he tell me?” Darcy glanced at her watch. Seven forty. They only had twenty minutes to catch the bus. The deputy’s urgency gripped her, and she couldn’t think straight.

“He’s coming with us?” Anger hardened Cooper’s voice.

“Yes.” Darcy had no time to worry about his problems with Walker.

“I just talked to him a few minutes ago. That must have been what he meant when he told me to take you to the bus and he’d be five or ten minutes behind us. He said he’d call you. Have you had your phone turned off or were you someplace where you couldn’t hear it ringing?”

“The shower.” She took her phone from her back pocket. There was one missed call and a message waiting.

“We don’t have time for that now.” Cooper grabbed her phone from her hand. “You can listen to your messages after we get on that bus and you contact Johnny, but we have to go now if we’re going to make it. So, decide.”

He was being a jerk and she didn’t like it one bit, but the bottom line was if she delayed she’d forfeit her last opportunity to see the Fontanas and say good-bye to Nick and Eddy. She couldn’t let that happen.

“All right. Let’s go.”

A
COUPLE OF
miles were all Walker had made before the jarring of his wounded side got his attention and he slowed to a walk. Joe finally noticed he was MIA and stopped to let him catch up. The two fell in step together.

“So, what’s going on between you and Darcy?” Joe didn’t waste any time getting to what was on his mind.

“I’d be stating the obvious if I told you it was none of your business.” Joe had been his friend a long time and knew him better than anyone else. Still, the question surprised Walker.

“It is my business as long as you’re working for me—and she’s the job.”

“It’s good that Reggie Allen is out of the picture then, because you said my working days are numbered.”

“Come on. Give me a break here, Walker. Cara and I are worried about you.”

“Well, why didn’t you say so?” Walker slapped Joe on the back. “It’s still none of your business.”

“I’ll be damned. Cara’s right. You’re in love with her.”

Walker drew up suddenly and turned to face his friend. Words of denial died on his tongue in the face of Joe’s delighted grin.

“Shit! I am so fucked up!” Walker started down the trail again.

“What are you talking about?” Joe caught up with him and fell in stride.

“I’m no damn good for her. Hooking up with me would be the worst mistake she’s ever made. You know better than anyone what my life has been like. Couldn’t you just see her bringing me home to her parents?” Walker laughed harshly.

Joe shrugged. “She’s a nice girl . . . sweet . . . pretty . . . a little naïve. I don’t see anything saying she’s better than you, or even that she thinks she is. How does she feel?”

“She’s just getting started in life. She has no idea what she’d be giving up if she settled for someone like me.”

“You’re wrong. She’s an adult. Are you going to tell me you honestly think it’s right to make the decision for her?”

“I just don’t want to see her screw up her life.”

“I don’t want to see you screw up yours. The past is the past, Walker. If you’ve got a chance to be happy, don’t mess it up.”

Walker wanted to agree with him—wanted to think he had a chance with Darcy. It was easier while he held the solid, down-to-earth gaze of his friend, but then that gaze slipped away. Joe fixed his eyes on something over Walker’s right shoulder and a wariness he’d seen a hundred times on his friend’s face made another appearance.

“What the hell is that?” Joe pointed into the pine trees that lined the trail.

Walker swung around and saw what Joe was looking at nearly hidden by the trees about a hundred feet off the trail. A body. Just then the wind shifted toward the west, bringing the smell of decomposing flesh. Moving carefully, they covered the intervening distance. Whoever left the body here was probably long gone, but it was never a good idea to take chances.

“He’s been dead awhile.” Walker studied the single entry wound of the bullet that blew the back of the man’s head off. “There’s not enough blood here for a wound like that. He was killed somewhere else and dumped here.”

“Do you recognize him?”

The man wore a white dress shirt, complete with tie, but no suit jacket. Walker shook his head and knelt to check the man’s pockets. Joe bent down on the other side and did the same.

“No wallet. A thief wouldn’t have taken the time to hide the body. I’m thinking whoever did this didn’t want to make it too easy to ID him.” Walker checked the ground around the body for anything that might have been dropped.

“Wait, I’ve got something.” From the man’s front pants pocket, Joe produced a half dozen crumpled business cards. He glanced at the top card then flipped it so Walker could see it. “What did you say your deputy marshal’s name was?”

Walker stared at the bold lettering and the official emblem on the card.
Deputy U.S. Marshal Brian Cooper.

Chapter Eighteen

W
ALKER DIALED
D
ARCY’S
cell, hanging up as soon as the call went to voice mail, then changed his mind about leaving a message and dialed again.

“Darcy, listen carefully. Go to the safe room, right now, and stay there until I come for you. I’ll explain everything, but you need to know Cooper isn’t who he says he is.”

Joe’s phone vibrated. He answered and listened a moment before he put the phone on speaker.

“I was just getting out of the shower and I heard a car out front.” Cara sounded short of breath. “When I looked out the window, Darcy and some guy were getting in, and they drove away before I could get downstairs.”

“What kind of car?” Walker was pretty sure he already knew the answer.

“A late model Taurus—black.”

“Cooper’s car—or whoever the hell he is. Did he force her to leave with him?”

“No. It looked like she was in as much of a hurry as he was. What’s going on?”

“We found the real Deputy Cooper in the woods—dead,” Joe said.

“Whoever Darcy just left with has spent some time and energy on figuring out how to get to her. He apparently doesn’t do things impulsively, so I’m betting he’s got a plan.” Walker swore again. There was something off about that guy from the beginning. Why didn’t he stay with her? Why did he leave her alone? Goddamn it! If anything happened to her . . . he couldn’t let anything happen to her. He had to think. Walking in a circle just to be doing something, he sifted through the information he had.

Joe put a hand on Walker’s arm and stopped his useless movement. He’d taken the phone off speaker and held it to his ear now. “Thanks, Cara. I doubt they’ll be back, but be ready just in case. We’ll be there as soon as we can.” Joe closed the phone and dropped it in his pocket as he met Walker’s gaze. “We’ll find her.”

Walker nodded. “The fake Cooper was all about finding Johnny—and he knew Johnny was alive before Darcy got the call.”

“He has to be on DeLuca’s payroll. If he finds Johnny, he’ll kill him.” Joe turned and set a quick pace back toward the house.

Walker fell in beside him. “He’ll kill Darcy, too, as soon as he doesn’t need her anymore. Damn it! She said she wouldn’t go without me. He must have spun quite a story to get her to leave with him.” He glanced at his watch. “The bus Johnny told her to get on leaves at eight—in five minutes. Johnny told her someone was using her to get to him. She thought he was talking about me, but he meant Cooper all along. Come on, Joe. With the chopper we can stop him.”

They ran the two miles back to the house. Walker ignored the dull ache in his side as he tried to figure out how the imposter had gotten so close. The most likely scenario involved the fake Cooper finding the real deputy marshal out somewhere alone. He killed him and dumped his body out back. Then he assumed the dead man’s identity, supposedly to take Darcy into protective custody, but it was all an elaborate ploy to get Darcy to lead him to Johnny. All he had to do was kill Johnny and Darcy . . . and no more loose ends. No wonder he was so pissed when she refused to go with him. DeLuca was probably on his ass.

One thing didn’t make sense, though. If Cooper wanted Darcy, why didn’t he kill Walker when he had the chance? He’d given him ample opportunity. Cooper could have come up behind him anytime and stuck a knife through his rib cage.

Walker was a loose end, just like Darcy. A hit man worth his wage wouldn’t leave a witness that could lead back to the man who hired him. Walker slowed as his brain tried to wrap around the thought. Cooper took Darcy and left him alive. Why? He had to know Walker would follow. A warning bell went off in his head. Cooper wasn’t a fool. He couldn’t have intended to let Walker leave here alive. What would he do? A bomb would be the most efficient method of elimination. Wire the car so it exploded when Walker started it? The house? He had to warn Cara—get her out.

He pulled up and reached for his phone, turning toward Joe in time to see him veer off and head for the chopper. The answer hit Walker like a sledgehammer. The helicopter. Cooper would have seen it, and he’d know they’d try to follow in the chopper. He wouldn’t necessarily need a bomb—sabotage would work just as well.

“Joe, wait!”

Joe stopped and turned to look at him.

“Unless I’m wrong, there’s a problem with the bird.”

“I’ll check it out.” Instant understanding registered in Joe’s eyes.

“I’ll get Cara out of the house and then check the car.” Walker sprinted the few remaining yards to the house and didn’t even feel the pain from his wound. He was too busy worrying about Darcy and what she might be going through.

Cara was waiting in the kitchen, nervously sipping a cup of coffee. “What’s happening?”

“I’ll explain on the way, but you need to clear out of the house in case there’s a bomb.”

Cara set her cup down. “Where will you be?”

“I’m just going to give the Land Rover the once-over, then back it out of the garage—just in case.”

“Be careful, Walker.”

“Aren’t I always?” He opened the door and ushered her out. “Joe is with the chopper. I’ll meet you there in a few.”

He hurried through the house to the garage, checked under the car and in the engine compartment, then in the trunk just for good measure. Confident it wouldn’t blow, he started it and moved it from the garage to park several feet down the drive. If the chopper was disabled, he wanted some kind of transportation because sitting around here doing nothing wasn’t an option.

A minute later he joined Cara and Joe by the landing pad.

“You were right. C4 set to go off as soon as the engine starts. We can defuse it, but it’ll take a while.”

“The car’s clean. The house would be harder for him to rig without being seen. My bet is he’s counting on the chopper to do the job, and now I know why he was so eager to leave here yesterday. It takes a little time to put a good bomb together.”

“This guy means business.” Cara slid her arm around Joe’s waist.

Walker scowled. “Which means I have to get to Darcy before he finds Johnny. He’ll kill her once he gets what he wants. The chopper’s out of commission for now. I’ll never catch them in the car. Hell, they might not even be on the bus anymore. They could be anywhere.” For a moment, the fear of losing Darcy threatened to overwhelm him. He fought back, moving his memories of her to the remotest part of his mind, and purposely released the cold, calculating, merciless man he’d become in the Afghan foothills and the jungles of Asia. He hated that part of himself, but if ever there was a time he needed to be that man, it was now.

“Joe, do you still have the number you gave Darcy for the Fontana boys?”

Joe dug in his wallet and handed him a card. Walker dialed and it went straight to voice mail as he expected it would.

“Johnny, we need to talk. The name’s Walker. I’m a friend of Darcy Maddox. You’ll be getting a call from her anytime now. I’ve got some information you need before you meet her. You, your family, and Darcy are all in danger. Call me at this number as soon as you get this.”

“Do you think he’ll call?” Cara’s worried gaze met his.

“God, I hope so. It’s the only card left to play.”

“He’ll call. He won’t take a chance with the lives of his family.” Joe sounded as though he really believed that.

“Let’s get that bomb off the bird. I want to be ready to go if he does.” Walker rolled up his sleeves and went to work.

D
ARCY FEARED FOR
her life on the way down the hill. Deputy Cooper drove too fast, careened around corners, and slammed on the brakes one second, then hit the gas. She was white-knuckled and her heart hammered in her chest by the time they reached the city center. Even at that, they had to run to catch the bus after they parked the car. Cooper jumped out in front of it and waved his arms just before it turned south onto Highway 101. The driver shook his head, motioning Cooper out of the way until the deputy flashed his badge. Then the driver threw his hands in the air and was still swearing when she caught up and followed Cooper onto the bus. Luckily, he’d purchased two tickets in advance. She didn’t bother to ask what he would have done if she’d said no.

“Sorry.” She flashed her best smile as she hurried past the driver. He glared and barely waited until she was inside before he closed the door behind her. The bus resumed its motion while they worked their way toward the back. Several passengers grumbled as she passed. Finally, Darcy gave up trying to make amends and followed Cooper down the narrow aisle.