by Aimée Thurlo
Diane nodded. “You suppose Elka will be going after the drivers who saw her kill the Corrales cop? Or at least the second one who must have gotten a good look at her.”
“While driving around with a body in the back of her car?” Lee shook his head. “I think Elka will want to get rid of the body and the car instead of worrying about a witness.”
“Maybe she’ll just toss the body into a trash bin or an irrigation ditch.”
“She’s obviously a pro, and knows the consequences of taking out a police officer. She’ll go to ground as quickly as she can if she has any common sense. We’re getting bulletins and color photos out now, and the entire state has been alerted, especially up and down the valley,” Logan said. He reached into his jacket and pulled out two full-color flyers, giving one to each of them.
“The ex-CIA man, Rogers. He’s been told?” Lee asked, looking at the photo of the vampire woman casually.
“Yes, almost immediately. And if the IDs from the motel staff where Rogers was staying in Los Alamos are accurate, Elka was even a guest there until all the extra security arrived and the ex-spook moved out. They remembered her accent, which tipped the scale on a positive ID,” Logan said. “I’ve already been in contact with the Secret Service but you two watch your backs as well. We just don’t know for certain where shell strike next.”
“Everyone knows to be especially vigilant at night?” Diane added, glancing over at Lee.
“Yes, but it didn’t help the Corrales cop that much, did it?” Logan crossed his arms across his chest. “Now tell me what you were up to last night that has Officer Hawk smelling like a gym locker.”
Bridget was driving south, now across the river in Albuquerque’s North Valley. Elka had killed a policeman—a very stupid thing to do for any number of reasons. Usually Elka was very smooth with men, so the only reason Bridget could think of for killing the officer was that Elka had been identified.
To make matters worse, Bridget knew that many American police units carried video cameras. The Corrales officer’s vehicle had probably had one as well. If she hadn’t thought of this and taken the videotape when she fled the scene, Elka—and anyone associated with her—would become the object of an intense statewide search.
It would be too risky going to Elka’s apartment now. If Elka’s photo had been shown on TV, one of the tenants or the rental-office clerk might lead the police to the apartment she’d rented on Montgomery Avenue.
She couldn’t go near Elka now without making certain it was safe. Getting caught would mean going to jail, and in the lockup she’d have no access to sunblock. The first time she was forced outside, she’d go up in flames like a 105-pound Fourth of July sparkler. The real problem was that Elka’s survival instincts were taking second place to her desire for revenge, but she wouldn’t be pulled into that kind of craziness. Her own safety and well-being were tops on her list. Retribution at any cost was nothing short of suicidal and Bridget wanted no part of that.
She pulled over into one of the parking spaces beside a restaurant on Fourth Street and turned off the engine. No sense in wasting gas while she evaluated the situation. As Bridget replayed her meeting with Elka and the killing of the officer over in her mind, she suddenly realized that her own vehicle would probably show up in the tape as well. It would be dangerous to assume her vehicle tag hadn’t been recorded. She had to get rid of the vehicle immediately, or at least switch plates.
But she was a vampire, and even in the minute or less it would take to get into somebody’s car or remove the rear plate, she could burn to a crisp. She’d be better off finding some quiet, shady spot where she could park among other vehicles. An apartment complex would do fine, one with carports. She’d just have to make sure she didn’t get somebody else’s spot and attract attention.
Then Bridget remembered Agent Lopez’s address—an apartment. It was worth a look. A new plan started to form in her mind as she started the car engine.
Less than an hour later Diane and Lee arrived at her apartment in the small complex in Albuquerque’s Northeast Heights, weary, hungry, and both in need of a bath.
Diane climbed out of the car quickly, moving ahead of Lee a few feet to unlock the door. As he followed her up the sidewalk he took the opportunity to look around, especially alert for Elka now. Ahead on the sidewalk a young man in a business suit was carrying an infant strapped into a car seat as his wife, girlfriend, or whatever hurried along behind him, digging through her purse and grumbling about the car keys. She was wearing one of those real-estate-agent jackets, so it wasn’t hard to guess where she worked.
In one of the parking slots beneath the facility’s carport a pretty blonde who either was ditching high school or looked young for her age was putting on lipstick in the rear-view mirror of her car. The girl glanced over and smiled, then went back to the makeup. He didn’t remember having seen her before, but maybe it was because he and Diane were usually elsewhere by this time of the morning.
“You need a shower more than me, so I go first,” Diane said, taking a quick look around her apartment when they stepped in to make sure it hadn’t been disturbed.
“You first? Where is the logic in that? I thought Logan was going to spray me with disinfectant.” Lee chuckled as he closed and locked the door. It smelled a little musty in here, but at least he knew they were relatively safe.
Diane kicked off her shoes, removed her jacket, then started to unbutton her blouse. Looking up, she saw Lee watching and turned red. “Sorry, still not used to having a man around,” she mumbled, then walked into the bedroom.
Out of his view now, she answered his question. “Here’s my unshakable reasoning. You ran to Mexico and back, crawled around the desert for the good part of two days, then went hand-to-hand with a wolf. Obviously you’re going to get the bathroom all filthy and muddy and it will take hours to get it clean again. I can be in and out of there in ten minutes. Besides, you can get breakfast started. You think you make better coffee than I do, and you’ve got to be hungrier than me.”
“That’s the truth,” Lee yelled as he heard the bathroom door close. He was already in the kitchen area.
“What’s wrong with my coffee?” Diane yelled back, getting the last word before the water started running in the shower.
As Lee added coffee to the small percolator, he thought about how much he was getting used to spending time with Diane.
Not much more than forty minutes later Lee walked back into the kitchen area. A fresh coat of sunblock, clean clothes, and the .45 in his pocket made him feel invigorated and at ease. He’d developed the ability long ago to go without sleep for days at a time. Diane was buttering the French toast he’d begun earlier while sipping on a mug of coffee. He picked up his own mug, topped it off again, and took a long sip.
“Well, we know from what Logan told us that Elka was watching Rogers. I’d say that tends to rule out you, me, or the President as targets, wouldn’t you?” Diane asked, handing him a plate with six pieces of French toast and several pieces of microwaved bacon.
“Hell if I know.” He took the plate, then joined her at the table, handing her the maple syrup. “Muller apparently communicated with her during the time he was in New Mexico, but we have no way of knowing how much, if anything, she knows about us. Elka might be on somebody’s payroll right now. Paul Rogers must have made a lot of enemies when he was a case officer in the Company. Even when Muller and his people were after us they kept their focus pretty much on the job at hand.”
“If she’s not here on a personal vendetta, that means her target has to be Rogers or the President.”
“Rogers is ex-CIA. Anybody in the Middle East who’s been a target of the Agency could have hired her. Or maybe she’s just out for revenge. She was watching him, not us. Then again, what we did had some lethal consequences that led to the death of her husband, brother, and his wife. So we may be on her list somewhere, but unless there are more in her family the CIA doesn’t know about, it’s just Elka n
ow.”
“And now that her presence in known, her plans could change,” Diane said.
Lee nodded; then, after a moments pause, he spoke. “For the next few days, in addition to our work on the Silver Eagle case, we need to keep an eye out for anything that might indicate that there’s a link between what happened to Muller and his people and the President’s visit. We have to make sure the President is protected. As for Rogers …”
Diane nodded. “He has his own stepped-up security and, as a CIA case officer, should know how to protect himself at some level. The only problem is, a vampire is many times more dangerous than a simple trained assassin. And we can’t tell him what he’s dealing with.”
“Agreed,” he said. “I recommend that we press your SAC to recommend that the President cancel his visit or send someone else in his place. But there’s a problem with that too.”
“If Elka is really targeting the President and is tailing Rogers just to create a diversion, she’ll make her move later on in some other state, or D.C., and we—well, you—won’t be around to counter her special abilities,” Diane said.
“Yeah, it puts us in a tough situation. Then again maybe she’s doing all this just to smoke us out,” Lee suggested. “Muller could have told her all about us before he died. What if it’s personal, and everything else is the diversion?”
“I hadn’t thought of that. Meanwhile, we have this other little matter to deal with—skinwalkers and cop killers.”
“I know.” He glanced at his watch. “Guess we’d better finish up here and head for the office. We’re going to have to spring the trap, and for that to happen, we’ll have to convince Silver Eagle to change their delivery plans.” Lee swallowed the last bites of French toast, washed it down with coffee, then sat back while Diane continued to eat.
“You don’t have to wait for me,” Diane said. “Start cleaning up and loading the dishwasher and I’ll join you in a minute. Then make that call to the local state police office and let’s see if we can get the ball rolling.”
As soon as they arrived at their downtown jewelry business Diane made a call to the Silver Eagle number, with Lee listening in case something was said in Navajo in the background. Stump answered almost immediately, and Diane looked over at Lee, who shrugged. They’d both been expecting Angela to answer.
Diane requested an additional set of matched stones for squash blossoms and was told that they were already separating the order placed two days earlier. They should expect a delivery later in the day and to have the cash ready.
“There’s a complication I think you should know about,” Diane said before Stump could hang up.
“We don’t like complications. You’ll only get what you can pay for. Don’t make me have to tell my boss about this,” Stump grumbled.
“It has nothing to do with money.” Diane looked over at Lee, who held up his hand, palm first, to remind her to wait and let Stump think about it for a few seconds.
“Get to the point then,” Stump pressed.
“An officer from the state police department called us this morning as soon as we arrived at our business. He had all kinds of questions about some illegal activity in the local jewelry wholesale business, and because we’re new in the business he wanted to know if anyone had approached us about making deals under the table. I think you’re being investigated. Is that going to be a problem? We don’t want to have the stuff delivered, then as soon as we open our wallets a SWAT team kicks in the door,” Diane added.
Lee smiled.
“Shit. Think they’re watching your building?”
“I doubt it, they can’t have anything on us, not unless one of your people rolled over on us and, even then, nothing has changed hands yet. It may have just been routine because we are new. But let’s try to come up with something without talking about this on the phone. If they get suspicious and bug our telephone line, then we’re all screwed,” Diane emphasized.
There was a pause while Stump was obviously speaking to someone else. But he must have had his hand over the mouthpiece, because they couldn’t hear anything. Fifteen or twenty seconds went by, and then he spoke again. “At nine tonight be where you were when we first met. Then we can arrange a place for the delivery. Bring the cash with you,” Stump added.
“I was hoping to get this done earlier. How about this afternoon instead?” Diane responded.
“Nine tonight or never.”
Diane shrugged and Lee nodded reluctantly.
“Fine. But no goods, no money,” Diane replied.
There was another pause. “Just be there. And don’t bring any company except for your partner. We won’t be alone.” Stump hung up.
Lee and Diane both hung up. “There goes our hope of goading them into a shootout during daylight. Had it gone down that way, we could have put them out of business forever,” he said. “I wonder if they want to make the transaction in the parking lot at Cabezon’s? We can’t risk a fire fight in a crowded place like that.”
“If they’re paranoid now—and they have good reason to be—they’ll probably bring the stuff in a separate vehicle. Once they confirm that we’re alone, they’ll send us to another location to conduct business. They’ll probably have some of their people watching us too. I’d guess some isolated location, with some of the watchers shape-shifted,” Diane answered.
“It’ll make it a lot harder getting any backup close enough to be any help. If some are in wolf mode, they’ll have a better chance of getting away too. Our people aren’t likely to shoot what they think is just a big dog unless it attacks us or them.”
“So we’ll have to take the responsibility ourselves, even if the animal rights groups are going to hear about it,” Diane said. “We can’t just shoot those who are in human form without provocation. Any ideas on how to set them into a frenzy to make sure they get hostile?”
“No sweat.” Lee smiled, knowing she’d know exactly what he meant.
CHAPTER 16
ess than an hour went by before they received another call. Lee picked it up. “You recognize my voice?” Stump snapped.
“Yes. Recognize mine?” Lee replied, pressing the button on the speaker so Diane could listen in.
“Smartass. We won’t be meeting with you tonight.”
“Why not?”
“It’s crowded in that neighborhood today. Check the news. Well meet at the same place and time tomorrow night instead.”
Stump hung up.
“All the law enforcement roaming around the area must have bothered them. The Corrales patrolman was killed within a mile of that restaurant,” Diane said. “And he’s probably thinking about our phone being bugged. He didn’t want to name another meeting place. Notice how cryptic he was?”
“It’s all for the better, I guess. The President is still coming in tomorrow for the ceremony at the base,” Diane added, “and the search for Elka has moved farther south, closer to the airport and base. This change of plans by Silver Eagle will give us the opportunity to humor Logan and spend some time out of the office searching for any sign of Elka Pfeiffer.”
Lee nodded. “In a metropolitan area with nearly a half-million people, there’s only a slim chance that well come across any of the skinwalkers. Hopefully by the time we make our last move on the Silver Eagle pack, the President will be safely on the way to Washington, Texas, or wherever he’s going next.”
After coordinating their efforts with other law-enforcement officers in order to eliminate duplication of efforts, Lee and Diane cruised through all the city neighborhoods within rifle reach and sight lines of the airport. Diane went door to door to question people at home while Lee checked out those businesses where he could go inside, out of the sun. No one reported having seen a stranger in the area matching Elka’s description.
Later that afternoon, the Corrales police officers body was discovered in the Rio Grande bosque north of Corrales. Then, around five-thirty, as downtown parking garages finally emptied for the day, Elka’s car was di
scovered by an attendant. Both sites had immediately been inundated with personnel from several agencies, so Lee and Diane stayed clear.
A building-to-building search began in the downtown area, but Lee doubted Elka was huddled somewhere in an office or the shadow of a building. Three cars had already been reported stolen in the area, and one had probably been taken by the vampire woman.
“Well, if Elka Pfeiffer has a partner, all she would have had to do was call and arrange for a meet in the underground parking area. Or there could be a fourth stolen car that hasn’t been discovered missing yet. Security cameras in the garage don’t show any problems, apparently, but they didn’t cover the entire level, just the entrances and exit. There’re lots of possibilities,” Diane said.
“She could be anywhere, and once the sun sets, in about a half hour, Elka will be free to roam. Your suggestion to Logan that base security bring out their night scopes to check for a sniper tonight was a good one,” Lee said.
“What do we do next? Silver Eagle is on hold until tomorrow,” she said. “We could always check with the hotel and motel desks in the metro area and see if anyone recognizes Elka.”
“APD and the sheriff’s department have people working on that, supposedly. Why don’t we pay a visit to the CIA man, Rogers? Maybe he can tell us something he doesn’t even know he knows about Elka and the rest of her terrorist group.”
“I’ll call and find out where he’s staying at the moment, then let him know we’re coming.” Diane made a quick call to the Bureau’s local office, then contacted Rogers at the number she was given—a local hotel.
They were headed south on 1-25, less than a mile away from the new high-rise hotel just northwest of the airport, when an ambulance, sirens wailing, flew by on the northbound section of the freeway. The emergency vehicle was escorted by two police cars, following close behind.
“Oh crap, Diane. You think something’s happened to Rogers?” Lee glanced in his rearview mirror. “There are two hospitals in that direction.”