Elizabeth Lowell - The Wrong Hostage

“Where have you been in Mexico?” The question was sharp, meant to be intimidating.

“Tijuana, Ensenada, and back,” Faroe said, meeting the inspector’s eyes straight on.

“Pull over underneath that sign, the one that says ‘Secondary Inspection.’ Don’t leave your car, either of you. Someone will be along in a minute.”

He frowned at Faroe, then reached for his phone as the Mercedes crept forward onto American soil.

“Now what?” Grace said, her voice anxious.

“The guys who followed us this afternoon probably put a border watch on us. Either they intend to pick up the surveillance again, or they just want to know when we crossed back.”

“Does it never end?”

“Not for a while.”

Not while you’re breathing.

Faroe parked under the sign. He’d barely turned off the ignition before the inspector stepped out of his booth and trudged across the tarmac to them. He gave the interior of the vehicle a cursory glance, then said, “Okay, you can go.”

Faroe hit the accelerator.

“He didn’t even ask for papers, which means they already know who we are, or at least who you are,” Faroe said. “How is this car registered?”

“To Ted’s company until I get it transferred to my own name.” She shrugged. “Just one of those details I haven’t gotten around to.”

“That might explain it,” Faroe said, “but even so, the inspector let us off too easily. No long wait, no car search, no papers, no pat-down, no body cavity search. Just a short stall at the border while he checks our faces against the ID he called up on his computer.”

“You suspect everything, everybody. Can’t things just happen?”

“Not if you want to stay alive.”

“We’re in the U.S.!”

He gave her a sideways look and kept his mouth shut.

“Right,” she said, angry with him, herself, and everything that had happened since Calderon had telephoned her about Lane. “What are we going to do about Ted’s call? We’re late.”

“I don’t think he’s going to call.”

“Then why would he want to make sure I’m at-” She stopped, swallowed hard, and said, “I don’t like what I’m thinking.”

“Good for you,” Faroe said. “Your ever-lovin’ ex has your cell number. He can call you at midnight no matter where you are. I think he just wanted to make sure you’d be there at Lomas, all alone, at midnight.”

“He wouldn’t have the guts.”

“To do what?”

She shook her head. She really didn’t want to go there.

“You don’t think he has the cojones to kill you in cold blood?” Faroe asked.

“I know he doesn’t.”

“How about hiring it done?”

The coastal fog gave them a clammy embrace when they dropped down onto Interstate 5. At least Grace told herself that was why she felt chilled.

Faroe reached over the seat, snagged his jacket from the back, and dropped it in her lap.

“Put it on,” he said. “And no, I don’t think he intends to murder you. No benefit to him. If that changes, I’ll change with it.”

Grace pulled the jacket over her shoulders. “Should I feel good about that analysis?”

He glanced at the dashboard clock. Grace was right. At this speed they wouldn’t make the ranch by midnight. He started checking the exit signs on the freeway.

“What are you looking for?” she asked.

“A nice anonymous motel. I’ll drop you off, St. Kilda will have someone with you real quick, and I’ll go to Lomas and do a little moonlight snake hunting.”

“No.” Grace’s voice was low.

Faroe looked over, not sure he’d even heard her speak.

“No, you’re not going to stash me in some nice safe motel,” she said distinctly. “It would be like Ted to show up at Lomas instead of calling. If that happens, I want a little time with him.” So I can rip his face off.

“That might be dangerous,” Faroe said.

“Maybe for him but not for me. He keeps a nine-millimeter in his bedside table at Lomas. Last time I checked it was still there. If not, there’s a fancy shotgun over the mantel that works just fine, and the birdshot is in the pantry with the caviar.” She looked at Faroe. “Unlike you, I don’t play against long odds for the hell of it.”

Faroe threw back his head and laughed. “Damn, amada, Hector was right. You’re hoping Ted makes a try for you.”

Grace didn’t answer. The longer she thought about what Ted had done to Lane, the colder her anger got.

Maybe I never climbed out of the gutter violence after all. Maybe it’s still in me.

God, I hope so. I have to be like Faroe.

Ruthless.

For Lane’s sake. Lane, who didn’t do anything to deserve this.

“Remember,” Faroe said, glancing at her expression, “right now, Ted is worth more to Lane alive.”

“How about wounded?”

“Are you a good enough shot?”

“Yes.”

Faroe smiled. “Wounded works for me.”

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

SUNDAY, 11:51 P.M.

GRACE PULLED THE NOZZLE out of the gas tank, racked it on the gas pump, and waited for her receipt.

“Ready,” she said.

“Almost done.”

She watched while Faroe removed a translucent plate and loosened a lightbulb in the back of the SUV. He put the plate aside with the others he’d worked on.

“You drive,” he said.

“Thank you, God,” she said, sighing.

“Hey, I got us here on time, didn’t I?”

“At slightly less than the speed of light,” she muttered, climbing into the driver’s seat.

Faroe slid into the back of the SUV and left the tailgate ajar. “At least I’m positive that nobody followed us.”

“Is that good?”

“No. They should have been all over us like a rash.”

“I had to ask, didn’t I?” Grace turned the key and the big engine growled to life.

She turned onto the city street and drove in silence. After five minutes she turned onto a two-lane county road.

“You’re sure Ted hasn’t installed any security since the last time you were in Lomas?” Faroe asked.

“Yes. The summary of assets for the divorce was exhaustive.”

“Remember the signals we discussed?”

“Yes.”

Faroe shut up.

When Grace turned off the road into the long paved driveway, he looked over her shoulder. The dashboard clock read 12:04.

“If I’d been driving, you’d be on time,” Faroe said.

Grace gave him a look in the rearview mirror.

He smiled, touched the nape of her neck beneath her short hair, and heard her breath break. Her responsiveness made him want to haul her into the back with him for the kind of sex that would steam every window in the fancy SUV.

“As you approach that big oak up ahead,” he said in a husky voice, “slow down to walking speed. When you hear the hatch close, pick up the speed again. Act like you’re alone. Go ahead and get the weapon out of the bedroom, but keep the gun out of sight, somewhere he won’t expect you to have it. He or someone else may be watching you from somewhere outside the house. If you see anyone, signal me.”

“Where are you going to be?”

“Out in the brush, right behind anyone who’s watching. I’ll start well outside an ordinary surveillance perimeter.”

Grace was still traveling at more than five miles an hour when she heard the faint whisper of fabric as Faroe stepped out of the back of the vehicle. In the dark glow of the taillights, she saw him come out of a running crouch and match the speed of the vehicle as he punched the button that automatically lowered and closed the tailgate. Then he slipped into the shadows of the big oak tree, vanishing into the spaces between moonlight and darkness.

Motionless, Faroe watched the Mercedes continue on up the gravel driveway to the deserted ranch compound. The chaparral lay on the coastal foothills in giant camouflage patterns, inky black and gray-green in the light of the moon.

He settled into the night. It was like going back to war again, where the choices were simple and the battle lines clear.

Infiltrate and exfiltrate, thrust and parry, win and lose.

Live or die.

I’ll let Ted take care of the dying part, Faroe thought. He has to be good for something, right?

Silent, motionless, Faroe watched the taillights of the Mercedes flicker when she made the turn into the little traffic circle. The turnaround ran in front of the large California-style Tuscan villa. He bit back a laugh at some architect’s idea of a ranch house. The stucco monster held the high ground overlooking the stables.

When Grace stopped, porch lights and several interior lights snapped on in welcome.

Motion sensors, right on time.

He watched her get out of the car and stretch like she’d gone a long time without a break from driving.

Okay. Nobody in sight.

She went into the house. Over the next several minutes, Faroe tracked her by watching lights come on downstairs and then on the second floor.

Nobody inside, either.

Faroe climbed soundlessly over a paddock fence beside the oak and headed for the stables a hundred yards away. He stayed in the shadows of the fence line and the cover of a head-high oleander hedge.

Something exploded under his feet.

Jesus, what-

A rabbit raced off, kicked out of its midnight nibbling by Faroe’s boot.

It took thirty seconds for Faroe’s heart rate to return to its normal measured pace.

He circled the stable quickly. Finally he reached a row of pencil cypress trees that burned like black flames against the moon-bright sky, defining the inland side of the property. He was about to slide into their cover and approach the house from the uphill side when he realized that he wasn’t the only predator at work.

Cool night air slid down the slope toward him. He smelled the faint edge of recent, yet not fresh, tobacco smoke. Someone had been smoking nearby.

Faroe froze, waited, heard nothing.

He took a slow look around a cypress trunk. Thirty yards away, a figure materialized from the shadows of the tree line.

Someone was watching the house from the same spot Faroe had chosen to be his own observation post.

LOMAS SANTA FE

MONDAY, 12:12 A.M.

MOTIONLESS, FAROE RECALCULATED THE ODDS.

Not good.

But not surprising, either.

The man was dressed in some kind of night cammie suit. He had a long gun slung on his back, like he didn’t really expect to need it. When he looked in Faroe’s direction, moonlight sent a whisper-glow over the greasepaint that disguised the pale skin of the man’s face.

A professional night predator, all decked out in the tools of his trade.

If the man had had his weapon trained on the house, Faroe would have found a way to take him down. But the intruder was acting more like a bored guard than a paid executioner.

So whose setup is this? Who is screwing who, and with what tools?

Motionless but for the very slow turning of his head, always keeping the gunman in his sight, Faroe began a thorough visual inspection of the ranch compound. He paid special attention to the places he himself would have chosen to hide.

The man in the tree line quietly cleared his throat. A smoker’s trait, unconscious, and deadly in the wrong circumstance.

Bad operational discipline.

But it suggested the dude was indeed relaxed. Even though Grace had already arrived, the main event hadn’t begun.

Then what-or who-is the target?

Faroe identified two more hides, one in the brush at the edge of the clearing north of the house and another in the paddock area. He had just begun to examine the stable building itself when he noticed a brief green flicker in the partially open hayloft door.

An impatient sniper had just uncapped his starlight scope.

The telltale phosphorescence lit up his eye and the straight line of a watch cap on his forehead. He had spooled up his magical viewing device one last time, just to make sure it was still working properly.

All the bells and whistles, but their discipline needs a serious kick in the ass.

Faroe was familiar with the problem. It came from doing it too many times in practice and never doing it for real.

Okay. So we probably have some kind of government field office’s special weapons team on a low-octane run, a step above routine drill, but not balls to the wall.