Colton Manhunt

by Jane Godman

“I’ve got it.” Katrina reached for the specially adapted bottle and held it to Hannant’s lips. Spencer was in awe of the way she could help a man who had put her in danger and then threatened her. It took a remarkable person to show that kind of compassion. He was figuring out fast just how special she was. And what a jerk he’d been for doubting her.

  “That’s better.” Hannant leaned back. “Yeah. They started hanging around the place. What were their names? Randy? No. That’s not right. Randall. And his buddies. The one with the muscles and the cool dude.”

  So Randall Cook had been visiting Joe’s Bar? It was an interesting piece of information. That made it seem likely that the “one with the muscles” was Bart Akers. But the “cool dude”? Spencer had no clue who that could be.

  “Ken? Kenny?” Hannant mused. “I’d had too many beers by that time. Now I think of it, he was the guy who was doing the buying.”

  “And this Kenny, you’re sure he was with the other two? The one called Randall and his buddy with the muscles?” Spencer asked.

  “Could have been. Like I said, it’s a blur. I’m tired.” Hannant was starting to whine. “I need to sleep.”

  Figuring that he’d gotten about as much information from him as he could, Spencer decided to leave it there. If he was honest, he hadn’t expected as much. Would what Hannant had revealed hold up in court? A man who’d admitted he was drunk had said two guys who could have been Randall and Bart might have heard him boasting about past misdemeanors. It was a big leap from that to linking the AAG to the threats against Katrina.

  And the mysterious Kenny? If he existed at all, he could be anyone.

  When they got outside the room, the expression on Katrina’s face told him she shared his frustration.

  “He didn’t tell us anything we hadn’t already guessed,” she said. “What do we do next?”

  “I don’t know about you, but I’m hungry. Let’s grab some lunch, then go back and check on Leigh, as planned. After that, we can find out if there are any AAG members called Ken or Kenny.”

  “Police work is not as interesting as I imagined it would be,” she commented as they headed toward the exit.

  He laughed. “Believe me, you don’t want to be around when things get exciting.”

  Chapter 12

  After they’d shared a pizza in Lucia’s Italian Café, Spencer suggested they head toward the opposite end of Mustang Boulevard. His reasoning was that Leigh had been working to a system that morning and, if he was correct, she should have reached Bubba’s Diner by that point.

  “What if you’re wrong and we’ve lost her?” Katrina asked.

  “Then she’s probably up to no good and we were right about her all along. Plus, we know where to find her. She’ll turn up at the AAG Center sooner or later.” His cheerful mood was unrelenting, even though trailing Leigh was proving to be boring and unproductive. “But I’m not wrong.”

  Katrina followed the direction of his gaze. Leigh was standing on a shady corner near Bubba’s, studying her cell phone. Every now and then, she glanced up and down the street in both directions.

  “She has the look of a woman who is waiting for someone,” Spencer said.

  “Maybe she has a hot date?”

  “Or a meeting with the boss lady?” He lightly gripped her shoulders and turned her to face the other way. “That’s Micheline Anderson.”

  The woman approaching Leigh looked to be in her midsixties. She was blonde, attractive and well groomed. Nodding and smiling to people who called out as she passed, the AAG leader clearly knew plenty of people and was very sure of herself.

  “She’s not what I expected,” Katrina said. “I thought she’d be tougher, more hard-edged. She looks like someone you’d want to confide all your problems to. Although I guess that’s a prerequisite in her job.”

  “You know what they say about appearances.”

  When Micheline reached Leigh, the two women embraced and exchanged a few words. Leigh excitedly showed her boss something on her cell phone and Micheline patted the younger woman’s shoulder.

  “Pictures of the posters she’s been putting up?” Katrina said, hazarding a guess.

  “You could be right.”

  When Leigh tucked her cell into her purse, the two AAG members walked arm in arm toward the silver Toyota that was still parked near Java Jane’s.

  “I guess we’re on the move,” Spencer said.

  They were heading toward their own vehicle when a man coming out of Java Jane’s almost bumped into Micheline and Leigh. He halted immediately, holding his hands up in apology. As Spencer and Katrina got closer, they could hear the conversation.

  “Sorry, ladies. I hope I didn’t startle you.”

  Leigh giggled. “Just watch where you’re going next time, Kenyon.”

  He gave a mock bow before walking away.

  “Kenyon?” Spencer kept his voice low. “Sounds enough like ‘Kenny’ to be worth checking out.” When he saw her expression, he frowned. “Is something wrong?”

  “I’ve seen that guy before. It was the first time I went to the AAG Center.” A cold sensation started in the pit of her stomach and spread outward. “I noticed him because he looked just like the sort of guy Eliza would be attracted to. I remember thinking she’d have stuck around just to get close to him.”

  Spencer narrowed his eyes, watching Kenyon as he strutted along the sidewalk, then paused to study his reflection in a store window. “I think we may have found our cool dude.”

  “I have a bad feeling about this,” Katrina said as they got into the car. “Eliza had poor judgment when it came to men. She always had a thing about bad boys. Even in kindergarten, she’d be drawn to the kid who pulled her pigtails.”

  “What about you?” he asked, glancing her way as he pulled out into the traffic. “Were your choices any better, or did you bond with a rebel over the sandbox?”

  The teasing note was almost irresistible. Almost. Just in time, the hurt he’d caused her kicked back in and she turned away. “I didn’t bond with anyone.”

  An uncomfortable silence followed, lasting for a few minutes. When Spencer spoke again, any trace of humor was gone. “You think Eliza could have gotten mixed up with this Kenyon guy?”

  “I think he’s the sort of man she’d have been drawn to. And if he was involved in getting Hannant to intimidate me...” She turned her head to look out of the window. Did she want to put her darkest fears into words? It felt like saying them out loud would somehow make them more real. “That doesn’t look good for Eliza.”

  He reached out a hand and briefly touched her knee. The fleeting contact warmed and comforted her more than she cared to admit.

  “If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s not to jump to conclusions. Although you haven’t heard from your sister, you shouldn’t assume the worst. Although that guy may be her type, that’s a big step from her hooking up with him and him harming her.”

  “You’re right.” She relaxed a little into her seat. “I know it. I just wish she’d get in touch.”

  “If my siblings ever did what I wanted, I think I’d pass out from shock,” he said. “Twins, triplets—people assume that bonding thing means you do everything in perfect harmony.”

  “I read somewhere that fraternal girl twins are supposed to have the second strongest bond after identical girls. Eliza and I must have missed that class in twin school. We were always fiercely individual. We didn’t hate each other.” She managed a smile. “We just never had that real closeness that other people told us we should.”

  “Me, Jarvis and Bella were close—and we grew more so when we went to live with our aunt Amelia—but we still have our differences.” He nodded at Leigh’s vehicle, which was a few cars in front. “They are headed in the wrong direction for the AAG ranch.”

  As he spoke, Leigh turned left. She was following the road t
oward Mesquite Canyon, a development of low-budget houses and apartments that had been hit hard by the earthquake.

  “Are they on another recruitment drive?” Katrina asked.

  “It’s possible they’re being more caring than that.” Spencer indicated a delivery truck that had pulled up outside a row of houses. Leigh stopped her car behind it and she and Micheline alighted. “We’ll get the best view from that incline over there.”

  He drove past Leigh’s vehicle, turned around at the end of the short street and parked under a clump of trees. They watched as a few home owners emerged and shook hands with Micheline and Leigh. After a few minutes, more cars arrived and other AAG members, including Randall and Bart, got out. Everyone donned hard hats, then the truck doors were opened and kitchen fittings and appliances were off-loaded.

  “I think we just spent a day trailing Leigh Dennings only to stumble on her and her fellow AAG members’ deepest secret. They’re rebuilding the kitchens of some earthquake victims,” Katrina said.

  * * *

  As they drove back along Mustang Boulevard, Spencer was lost in thought. If the AAG was a cover for something, he had no clue what criminal activity was being hidden. On the whole, Mustang Valley was a run-of-the-mill southern Arizona town. Crime rates were average for the region, although there had been a recent upsurge of unusual activity. The police force was busy, but not stretched beyond capacity.

  Of course, hiding a criminal enterprise behind a respectable organization was a clever way of duping law enforcement. He’d have to check it out with his colleagues in other local police departments and find out if there was any new activity he should be aware of. Drugs, firearms, the usual organized-crime stuff...

  “Stop!”

  Katrina’s exclamation startled him out of his thoughts and he slammed on the brake.

  “What is it?”

  “That woman.” She craned her neck to get a better look at the house they’d just passed. They were almost out of town now, and the last few houses straggled along a final stretch of road with a clear view of the Mustang Valley Mountains.

  Katrina turned to him with a stunned expression. “It’s Christie Foster, the woman who said she knew Eliza at the AAG ranch.”

  The highway behind him was clear, so Spencer put the vehicle into Reverse and went backward until they were almost alongside the house she had indicated. There was a woman standing by the front gate, shielding her eyes against the sun as she looked along the road. A suitcase sat at her feet.

  “Are you sure?” Spencer asked as he looked in the rearview mirror. “You said she looked nervous and bedraggled.”

  From what he could see, the woman at the gate was well dressed and wore full makeup. She certainly didn’t look like the insecure waif Katrina had described.

  “It’s her.” Katrina was already on her way out of the car.

  “Hey—”

  He was talking to a closed passenger door. With a resigned sigh, he followed her. Katrina was walking briskly toward the other woman. When she reached her, she stopped in front of her.

  “Remember me?”

  The woman at the gate flicked her a glance, then looked past her at the road. “No.”

  Katrina’s outraged gasp lasted several seconds. “You pretended to know my sister. You pretended to be scared out of your wits. I felt sorry for you, Christie—”

  “My name isn’t Christie.”

  Spencer decided it was time to intervene. “What is your name?”

  “I don’t have to answer that.”

  “You can answer it here, or you can answer it down at the police station,” he told her. “I don’t mind which.”

  She gave an exaggerated sigh. “My name is Cordelia Mellor. I’m an actress. I was hired to approach you and pretend to be this Christie Foster girl.” She shrugged. “I’m sorry about your sister, okay? I didn’t know that was part of the deal until I’d already agreed.”

  Katrina shook her head. “You did it to trick me?”

  “Hey, it wasn’t my idea. Blame the guy who hired me and paid me five thousand dollars in cash.”

  “Who did hire you?” Spencer asked.

  “It was in a bar at a recruitment fair.” She gave a bitter little laugh. “I haven’t made it into the movies yet.”

  “And who lives here?” He gestured to the house.

  “I have no clue. This is where my cab is meeting me. No offense, guys, but small towns are not my scene. The guy who hired me made me stay hidden at that ranch place for a few days. When he said it would be okay to leave, I walked as far and as fast as I could.” As she was talking, a cloud of dust in the distance signaled the approach of a vehicle. “This is my ride.”

  “Not so fast.” As the cab pulled up, Spencer signaled to the driver to keep going. “That ‘ranch place’ is going to seem like a palace compared to where I’m taking you.”

  * * *

  Darkness was falling as Spencer sat on the bench in Katrina’s yard and watched her put Holly and Dobby through their paces on the training course.

  “Suzie said they did some good work today demonstrating techniques to the dog owners in her classes, but they haven’t had their usual walk,” she explained.

  “Boris doesn’t have the same problem.” He stroked his partner’s ears and the dog rolled his eyes with a blissful expression. “He has a daily workout routine whether I’m there or not.”

  When the dogs had completed their drill, she gave them a treat as a reward, then tossed a few balls across the yard for them to chase. Spencer’s heart gave a glad little leap when she came to sit next to him.

  “Did we learn anything today?” she asked. “Because I’m feeling more confused than ever.”

  He considered the question. “We only spent one day following Leigh, so it was a snapshot of her activities. From what we saw, she—and Micheline—are on the up-and-up.”

  “Are you saying we have it wrong about the AAG? Cordelia said she stayed at the ranch when she was pretending to be Christie Foster.”

  “But Leigh Dennings denied that they had any record of Christie as an AAG member and, to be fair, Christie didn’t actually exist. It’s possible that whoever hired Cordelia could have kept her hidden, even from the other AAG members. Right now, the next great actress to hit our screens is sulking and refusing to talk.”

  “She didn’t strike me as the sort of person who could keep that up for long,” Katrina said.

  “I’ve always said we should be objective.” Dobby dropped a ball at his feet and Spencer threw it across the yard. All three dogs bounded after it. “The AAG could be the socially responsible organization it appears on the surface, or it could be a cover for something darker.”

  “Forget being objective. Just this once, tell me what you really think is going on,” Katrina said.

  “Right now, with the limited evidence available, I think it’s possible a few shady characters have been drawn to the AAG. They could be using a genuine do-good group to disguise their own criminal activities.”

  “Do you develop this open-mindedness during your police training?” she asked. “Do they teach you to give everyone the benefit of the doubt? Oh, hold on. I didn’t get that, did I?”

  The words stung, but it was the look in her eyes that felt like someone was holding a knife to his skin. There must be something he could say to undo the hurt he’d caused, some way of showing her how much he was regretting his stupid mistake.

  “Katrina, let me explain.”

  When she remained silent, he almost didn’t dare breathe. Was she going to let him speak, or was she preparing to walk away? And, now that he had a chance, what the hell was he going to say?

  “You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”

  Not what I expected...

  Katrina was staring at him as though he’d sprouted horns and he couldn’t b
lame her. He had no idea where the words had come from. “That’s your explanation?”

  “No.” He smiled. “But I thought it was worth mentioning.”

  “You’re impossible.”

  “I know.” He hung his head. “Can we just pretend I haven’t been thinking straight since I met you because I was dazzled by you?”

  She gasped. “No, Spencer, we can’t. Trying to get me to fall for that is almost as bad as believing I made up those threats.”

  He sneaked a peek at her face. Her tone was outraged, but her features were less rigid. Clasping his hands between his knees, he stared down at them for a moment or two, trying to find the right words. One chance. That was all he had. She was already halfway to hating him. If he blew this...

  “I didn’t believe you made up the threats, but I did harbor some doubts for a while. And I have no excuse to offer you for that.”

  She remained silent for a moment or two. “I felt sure you’d tell me it’s your job to consider all possibilities.”

  “Would it make you feel better if I did?”

  “I don’t think anything could make this better.” He heard the quiver in her voice and something deep inside his chest snapped like a twig. “You made me feel worthless, Spencer. You went ahead and believed the worst based on what you were told about my sister’s volatility. That was information I freely gave you. I was at least owed a question or two about who I am.”

  “I got it wrong. I’m sorry.”

  For a long time, they observed the dogs’ antics without talking. When the heat got too much for the canines, they drank noisily from the water bowls and flopped down in a shady corner.

  “That guy, the one who broke in here with the knife, said you wanted to move in to stop me from making up any more stories.” Katrina’s voice was soft, her face half-hidden by the curtain of her hair. “Is that true?”

  “I wanted to protect you.” He closed the distance between them, taking her hands in his. “And be near you.”

  There was a sheen of tears in her eyes as she raised them to his face. “When you kissed me, it felt real.”