Trifecta

by Pam Richter

  No one else knew Quijada, personally, like she did. He could have gotten away with it, at least for a while. Jay thought he had the right guy. The two policemen had probably never met the real Quijada.

  She was astonished at the number of blue uniformed officers running toward the house. The swat team must have had radio communication because they were leaping off the walls and sprinting toward the house, rifles pointed forward. Some of them had disappeared behind the house. Julia was taking swift shots of it all, turning around and around, getting pictures of the police holding back onlookers trying to get inside the gates; pictures of the cuffed man being ushered into a police car; pictures of uniformed policemen rushing inside the front door of the home.

  Julia was out of film. She ran back to her camera bag within the circle of trees where she had been hiding. As she bent down to reload, there was a rapid burping noise, no louder than the birds chirping in the trees, and then a splintering crash. Julia felt blinding pain for only an instant, and then everything went black.

  Several of the policemen rushed forward to help her, and the branch was lifted and thrown aside. When she did regain consciousness, she felt the weight of someone covering her with his own body. She had a sense of deja'vu for a moment, believing she was on the hillside with Quijada's gunmen searching for her and Robin, because Robin was the human shield. It was as though he had imprinted her. His presence felt comforting.

  She heard the words, Sniper, and Got Him, but she didn't know if they were referring to the person who tried to shoot her or Quijada.

  "Julia? Julia, please be all right." It was Robin speaking in her ear, asking, and then demanding, over and over again, for her to wake up. She could feel his breath on her cheek. His hand was in her hair, stroking her head. She wondered if she had been shot. Her shoulder hurt horribly.

  "Automatic rifle sheered the branch right off. Doesn't look like she was hit. It would have cut her in half," McQuery was saying from somewhere up above.

  How totally comforting, Julia thought as she finally understood what hit her. She wanted to go back to sleep she felt so groggy. Then she remembered they were arresting the wrong man and everything came rushing back. There was a terrible pain in her shoulder.

  "I'm fine," Julia said. The branch was right beside her face. She looked with horror at how the end had been shredded. She felt the warmth leaving and knew Robin had moved off of her. Trying to sit up was an ordeal because one arm seemed unresponsive, but Robin helped prop her up to a sitting position. He was kneeling on the ground beside her. There was a ring of policemen around the two of them, backs turned with guns pointed outward in a circle.

  "What's happening?" Julia asked. She turned her face to smile at Robin. He was going to get very angry in a minute.

  "You scared me to death," Robin said softly. "Why do you do these things?"

  "Help me," Julia said. She was trying to pick up her camera as she made the effort to stand. Her left arm was totally useless. "You'll have to take the pictures, Robin. My left arm isn't working."

  A paramedic had been standing by, watching, and he came forward and began patting her arm and shoulder. "Hurt here? Here?"

  "Yes," Julia grimaced when he got to her shoulder.

  "Dislocated. I can fix it now, but it'll be painful for a moment."

  The medic did something violent to her arm that hurt like hell. Julia tried not to cry, but she could feel tears running down her cheeks. The medic was checking her head, parting her hair to look for lacerations.

  Robin looked like it hurt him too when the guy relocated her shoulder. He handed her a handkerchief.

  "These things gave you away, you know," Julia said as she wiped her cheeks. She saw Robin's quick grin for a moment. She was breathing in little gasps from the pain.

  There was a swelling noise from the crowd. She had to push through the police barricading her to see the real Quijada emerge from the mansion, handcuffed. Robin took her camera and wordlessly took the pictures as Julia told him exactly what to do. He was tight-lipped and angry again.

  "You do these things on purpose," Robin said, between camera shots. "Put yourself right in the line of fire. McQuery told you to stay back." He was shaking his head.

  Julia felt guilty for a moment, but it was because she might have endangered the baby. "I've been in South America, with rebel snipers all around. I've been in Russia and Bosnia. This situation was nothing in comparison. Besides," Julia smiled at him and pointed out another shot, "you wouldn't like me if I changed."

  "You don't understand," Robin answered grimly. "I thought some bastard shot you. I swear, you'll give me a heart attack one day."

  "This was personal, getting the pictures of Quijada's arrest. I had to do it."

  "I know," Robin said. "But you walked right up to that guy impersonating Quijada. He might have killed you himself. These drug people are crazy. You knew Quijada had a contract out on you."

  They were silent for a while, taking it all in. Two policemen were carrying an arsenal of weapons, guns and rifles, out of the house.

  "This is so satisfying," Julia whispered to Robin, as the real Quijada passed them on the driveway. They could hear him talking to Jay, imperiously asserting that he wanted his lawyer with him before they took him downtown.

  Unlike his double he was looking around him haughtily, saying this was all some impossible mistake. He stared at Julia and Robin in the pathway with narrowed eyes as he passed. Julia felt herself shiver. She glanced down and saw the shredded edge of the huge, thick branch lying at her feet, but pushed the image away. She had been fighting not to look at it, how the heavy branch had been savagely tattered by bullets.

  "I never really believed it would happen," Julia said with pleased satisfaction.

  Robin rolled his eyes and took more pictures. They watched as Quijada was guided into a police car and it drove off. Julia could hear a helicopter thumping up above. It was making an amazing cyclone of wind and she could feel her hair blowing around wildly.

  People were leaving their viewing positions at the gates and rushing back to their vehicles. McQuery was talking with the policemen around them, who would be meeting downtown at Parker Center, where Quijada would be taken for questioning.

  "We should take you to the hospital. You might have a concussion," the medic was saying as the press closed in like hungry sharks. Flashbulbs were going off in her face. She tried to blink away green afterimages as they shouted.

  "What's your name? What's your relationship with Quijada?""How do you feel about having miraculously avoided being mowed down by automatic rifle fire?"

  "Why would a sniper be after you?"

  Julia grabbed Robin's arm. "We have to leave. Right now."

  Robin turned to her with a questioning look. Her face had blanched white and perspiration sprang out on her upper lip.

  "Please, Robin. Get me out of here." She started moving toward the gate and almost fell over when her knees buckled.

  "What's wrong! Are you all right?" Robin asked urgently. He grabbed her around the waist when she almost fell.

  "This is embarrassing," Julia whispered to him, looking up at him pleadingly. She leaned against him. The press were still circled around them, snapping pictures, lights flashing in their faces. "I can't walk. Please take me to your car."

  Robin put his arm around her and half carried her outside the gates. Her feet were barely brushing the ground as Robin rushed her away. McQuery followed them with his gun still drawn, looking tensely around in the trees and squinting back at the house.

  Robin leaned her gently against his car and opened the passenger door. Julia slid inside. Then he ran around the car and got in, too.

  Julia was shivering so much her teeth were chattering.

  "What's wrong?" Robin asked anxiously. "Does something hurt? I'll take you to the hospital, right now."

  Julia smiled but she didn't stop shaking. "I'm fine, Robin. You diagnosed it before."

  "Oh." He slid over and put his a
rms around her and hugged her tightly, stroking her hair.

  "An emotional reaction," Julia said. She buried her head into his neck where it was warm. She felt cold all over. His skin was wonderfully warm against her face. "It usually doesn't happen this fast. But no one's ever come close to cutting me in half with a machine gun."

  "You were like an ice woman out there," Robin said soothingly, propping his chin on top of her head. "So very brave. Anyone else would have been cringing on the ground. But you had me aiming those shots like a movie director."

  "Now I'm falling apart. Can't control my own body. It's shaking, and I can't make it stop."

  "Shh. Shh. It's like combat fatigue. It'll pass."

  "I didn't mean to make you angry." It was wonderful to be held when her mind had finally realized it was terrified, and was now overreacting belatedly, with a serious case of nerves. If she hadn't bent over to get film from her camera bag, she would be dead right now, cut in half like that oak branch.

  Before, when Julia had been on photography assignments in war zones, she had to hide her fear. Now she could let Robin know how she felt. He would protect her, and he seemed to have an uncanny ability to understand just how she was feeling.

  "I wasn't angry," Robin said. "I was out of my mind. My response was inappropriate. Getting mad at you. Stupid. I wasn't angry at all."

  "Maybe a little peeved?" Julia said. "How about exasperated, or greatly annoyed?"

  "You do seem to get yourself in some awful tense situations," Robin acknowledged.

  "Tense," Julia repeated, nodding at his understatement and snuggling closer. They were quiet and content for a few minutes. McQuery was standing outside Julia's window with his back toward them, guarding the car from snipers but considerately turned away. Robin rubbed Julia's back softly and she could feel herself starting to calm down.

  "We have to watch out. We could end up having a serious misunderstanding," Julia said with some irony, trying to keep from laughing. Now she felt hysterical. She wanted to laugh, but thought if she started she might not be able to stop.

  "Yeah. Like getting separated for months and months," Robin said gloomily. "Now that would be really dumb."

  "Only two. I don't like being one of many," Julia said.

  "It was more like years and years." He stopped talking to push her away from him so he could look seriously into her eyes. He held her shoulders and gave them a little shake. "You were never one of many. I was trying to explain that last night. I made sixty-two calls to you in Boston. I counted. And each night, you were right here with me, in my mind and thoughts."

  "I promised myself, each day, that I wouldn't listen," Julia said. It seemed like danger made her understand things more lucidly, like it had at the cabin when Juan Carlos had almost killed her. That time it had been the realization that she was in love with Robin. This new danger had brought that back into focus. She had to fight to keep him and make him love her again.

  "Each night I vowed I would go out someplace, so I wouldn't hear your voice. But I was always at home, waiting. I counted too, and it was sixty-three calls. I'm sure, Robin."

  "Are you counting last night, when I said Quijada was being arrested?"

  "Of course," Julia said.

  "Oh. I wasn't. That's the most important one, I guess."

  "No. The most important one was the night when I went to a play. At the intermission I called up my answering machine, sure you wouldn't have called again."

  "What did I say?" Robin asked.

  "You found out why I went back to Boston. You said we shouldn't throw everything away. After that call you got kind of impersonal."

  "By that time I realized I would have to come and get you myself. Dam, it's good to have you back here. Even when we fight."

  "With all the drug busts you guys initiated, Quijada should be broke by now. Fifty-eight arrests. Everything you told me on the phone calls is in my book. That information was my excuse to listen to your calls. Over and over again." She glanced up and could see him smiling.

  "You're such a stubborn, willful person. But you're right about one thing. I wouldn't like it if you changed."

  "I am going to change," Julia said. She was thinking about the amount of traveling she usually did for her work that would be curtailed since she was having a baby.

  "Well, don't," Robin said gruffly. He looked down at her hand. "I see you're still wearing that silly fake ring."

  "Didn't want to take it off last night, for some reason."

  "Are we talking around each other?" Robin asked.

  "We're just being very careful, now."

  "I like it when we're not being careful," Robin said. He had pulled her against him again and was talking into her hair. His arms tightened around her. "I want to get you somewhere where we can be alone. I know how to stop the shivering."

  It was interesting how near fatal danger, past and survived, made her want to be close with Robin, Julia thought It had never happened that way on dangerous photography assignments before. She took a deep breath and decided she better remain cool. There were policemen, press and officials running around the car. Some guy from the news media had already tried to take pictures of them through the glass. McQuery had stopped him. Robin was pretty well known, being the son of a senator, as well as a prominent defense attorney. Whatever he did turned into headlines in this town. It didn't hurt that he was a handsome and eligible bachelor either.

  "That time it was from the cold," Julia reminded him gently. "Besides, your magic's already worked. I'm not shaking any more."

  "It was magic," Robin whispered.

  There was a knock on the window.

  Julia turned around reluctantly. McQuery was leaning down, looking into the car.

  "Can you come outside? We need you to see if you recognize someone," McQuery said.

  "Are you okay?" Robin asked. "You can do it later."

  Julia nodded at him and got out. There were three policemen behind McQuery with another man who was handcuffed.

  "He's the sniper," McQuery said, indicating a muscular young man wearing old jeans and a work shirt. He was very dirty, smeared with black all over his face, hands and clothing. "The police in the helicopter spotted him up on the roof. They caught him with the semi-automatic, trying to climb inside one of the chimneys."

  The sniper looked ordinary, not like a deadly hired assassin, with his brown hair and eyes. He had been roughed up some. His left eye was reddened and almost closed by swelling. The police hadn't been very gentle with him.

  Julia was greatly relieved. She wouldn't have to be wondering when she would get a bullet in the back. "I don't know who he is."

  "He's from Boston. Probably one of the people who ruined your apartment," McQuery said.

  Julia felt sad and sick when she thought of the small, bloody decapitated animal on her bed. Robin was whispering in her ear, "Come home with me now. The caterers will be at my house soon, and then I'll have to get everything ready for my dad's party."

  Julia looked up at him and shook her head. "If I went with you now, you'd lose all respect for me later."

  He laughed. "You think I would take advantage of you? After what you've been through today?"

  Julia smiled back at him sweetly. "I know you would."

  CHAPTER 29

  Julia hurried into the shower as soon as she got back to her hotel room. She had agreed to arrive early and help Robin with the cooking and party arrangements. Maybe it would make her feel less nervous about meeting his friends, and especially his parents.

  When she got out and glanced in the mirror she let out a piercing cry, horrified to see that her hair had turned a hideous bright orange. The brown-colored dye, which was supposed to come out with one shampoo had left her looking like a circus clown. Julia got back in the shower and lathered frantically. This time it was almost as light as her real color so she washed it a third time and it finally appeared natural.

  Julia agonized over what to wear. White was too virginal, pi
nk too youthful and prissy. Her black suit was beautiful, but all wrong for an outdoor celebration by Robin's pool. After trying and discarding many outfits, strewing clothes all over the hotel room, she finally she chose a summery, blue flower patterned dress with a flared skirt and pearl buttons down the front. As she shrugged into the matching jacket she stood sideways, peering in the mirror, and didn't think she appeared pregnant.

  Julia grabbed her camera bag, making sure she had plenty of film. She didn't have a present but decided she could be the official photographer and make an album of picture memories for the senator's birthday.

  Julia drove west down Sunset Boulevard toward Beverly Hills in her rental car. As she turned up the hill toward Robin's house she remembered the last time she had gone over this road, driving like a maniac in her own little blue car with Robin. Quijada's goons had been chasing them. At that time she'd had a fantasy of Robin being the ideal man for her, believing it was a playful illusion. Now she knew that her subconscious mind had already recognized the truth. With the fear she had experienced during that crazy chase it leaked the true facts about Robin, before they were almost killed in the cabin at Lake Arrowhead. She wouldn't have had to go through all the agony in Boston if she had just trusted her instincts.

  Julia was still worried and tense as she parked near the gate and pressed the button to the intercom. If Robin actually was serious, and this wasn't just a physical type of infatuation, she would have to spring a baby on him.

  Even with all Tony had said about Robin being miserable without her, he'd had plenty of time to change his mind and let himself be consoled by many beautiful women in the last couple of months.

  The gate opened and Julia started walking up the long driveway. The seasons changed almost imperceptibly in California and she could barely perceive a difference in the beautiful green trees in the enormous front yard. The lilacs had stopped blooming, which was the only indication that it was now officially winter, because the sky was bright blue without any clouds and the thick flower beds along the driveway were blooming riotously.