Last Ride on the Merry-go-round

by Judith Rochelle

  Dino hunkered further down, grabbed the microphone and whispered, “Stay put, Jen. Don't move. Do not move."

  "We know you're there, Brancuzzi,” a voice shouted to him. “Just give us the woman and there won't be a problem."

  Yeah, right.

  "Okay,” the same voice said. “I just want you to know I hate doing this."

  Another row of bullets sprayed the cockpit, shattering glass and splintering wood.

  Dino shifted the rifle, rested it on the edge of the cockpit, pointed downward and answered with his own round of fire. The motor on the speedboat roared to life and it moved far enough away so he could just see it. Two men, one with the assault rifle. He aimed and fired again but the boat was moving away from him too fast. Then it turned and headed back toward the inlet, coming from a different direction.

  If he could just hit the gas tank...

  Then he heard the most welcome sound of his life. The distinctive whine of a helicopter's rotors, coming closer and closer. And Angel's deep voice booming over a loud speaker.

  "You on the speedboat. Cut your engine and drop your weapons before I forget myself and blow up your boat."

  Dino waited the space of a heartbeat. Then another one. He heard rifle fire but couldn't tell whose.

  "That's just a warning."

  Angel's voice. Thank God.

  The speedboat engines died and Dino raised himself to eye level. He shouldered the gun and pointed it down at the two men. “If he doesn't get you, I will,” he shouted.

  "Hey, compadre." Angel's voice again. “You'll owe me plenty for saving your ass just like I always do."

  Dino waved his free arm.

  "You in the speedboat,” Angel's voice boomed. “Throw your keys overboard and your weapons. Right now. My trigger finger is very, very itchy. And I don't think my friend is too happy about what you did to his boat."

  As if to emphasize his words, he laid down another round of rifle fire, spraying it in a circle around the speedboat while Mike held the chopper in a hover.

  Dino watched the guns and keys hit the water. In a moment Angel and another man fast-roped onto the deck of Dino's boat.

  "Shoot them if they so much as twitch an eyebrow,” Angel told Dino as the two men climbed down and jumped aboard the speedboat. The man in the passenger seat looked up at Dino with hatred on his face. Dino smiled at him and dipped his head a fraction of an inch.

  When the two men were handcuffed, Dino picked up the microphone. “Jen? Honey, come up on deck. It's okay."

  In a moment he heard her footsteps approaching. When she reached him he used one hand to pull her behind him.

  "My God, what happened here?” He heard the shock in her voice. “Are you okay?"

  "I'm fine. Just fine. Just a couple of kids who don't know how to play nice in the sandbox. Say hello to Angel. You remember him, right?"

  "We'll socialize as soon as we get the trash bagged,” Angel said.

  They had the passenger, who seemed to have been calling the shots, climb up to the boat last, the muzzle of Angel's gun in his ear more than compensating for any reluctance. Dino kept his rifle pointed straight at them, not moving until the handcuffs had been switched from front to back. Angel and his friend escorted them into the salon and five minutes later Angel climbed up to the cockpit.

  He and Dino shook hands.

  "Saved your bacon again, compadre,” he grinned.

  "Yeah, yeah.” Dino clapped him lightly on the shoulder. “Thanks.” He waved to Mike, who lifted off and headed toward Key West.

  "Our friend Michael will have a nice reception party waiting for the boys downstairs when we get back,” Angel said.

  "Good.” He set his rifle down and reached for Jennifer, pulling her into his arms. He wanted to wrap her up and never let her out of his sight again. “You okay, cara?"

  "Yes. I'm fine.” Her voice was steady but she couldn't hide the faint tremor in her body.

  He kissed her lightly on the cheek, ignoring Angel's raised eyebrows. “No comments,” he said.

  Jen held out her hand. “Nice to see you again. Thanks for the rescue. I'm glad I didn't have to crawl into a carton this time."

  "Or end up in one,” Dino said, his voice grim. “All right. Let's get the hell out of here. Call Ethan and give him an update, okay?"

  He eased the boat out of the inlet, then pushed the throttles all the way forward, kicking the engines up to maximum speed.

  Mike had landed the helicopter in the marina's parking lot and was waiting for them when they pulled into the slip on the pier. With him were four men whose casual dress contrasted with the grim looks on their faces.

  Dino kissed Jen lightly on the cheek. “Stay up here out of sight until I tell you."

  "Let me introduce you to my friends from the federal government.” Mike grinned as Dino jumped down to the pier. “They'd prefer it if you didn't ask for their names or the particular agency they work for. They're very happy to take your guests off your hands."

  "Can't be too soon for me.” He looked back at the boat. “Here they come now."

  Angel and his companion had half-walked, half-dragged the two men up on deck and guided them down the ladder to the pier. Two of the nameless men stepped forward.

  "Happy to make your acquaintance,” one of the team members said. “We've got just the place for you to visit."

  Dino waited until they were gone before motioning Jen down from the cockpit. He knew she was putting on a front for his friends but she nearly collapsed in his arms when he reached up to her.

  "Almost done, cara," he whispered into her hair.

  "Ethan wants us all at the compound,” Mike told him. “Stuff's happening.” He smiled at Jennifer. “And I'll bet you'd like to see your daughter."

  "Oh, yes. Thank you.” She looked at Dino. “Should we go get my stuff first?"

  "No. Leave it here. You'll be coming back.” He tightened his arm possessively around her as they walked down the pier.

  * * * *

  Ethan was waiting at the pad when the chopper landed, Deanne next to him clutching his hand. Jen was the first off the bird, racing to scoop her daughter up in her arms. Dino swung down and shook Ethan's hand.

  "Thanks for the help.” His words were simple but there was a wealth of friendship behind them.

  Ethan nodded. “We're not finished yet. Come on in the house. I've been making phone calls and twisting arms. I think we're finally at the end of the road. And you'll be surprised at what Sean Garrett has for you."

  Lisa was waiting for them in the kitchen, giving the men a quick smile before guiding Jen and Deanne to the room Deanne had been sleeping in so they could have some privacy. The men followed Ethan to the den where Sean Garret stood beside the desk, a small closed carton in front of him. Trying to wipe the grin from his face, he opened the carton and carefully removed two very old pieces. One was a gold dagger with a lapis lazuli handle and sheath. The other was a statue head, cast in copper.

  "Are those what I think they are?” Dino asked.

  Ethan nodded. “And you can thank young Mr. Garrett for inventive ingenuity. He's the one who found them."

  "Where the hell were they?"

  "I'll let our super agent here tell you since he was the one who figured it out."

  Garrett looked as if he was about to explode. “They were in that van all the time. The one Mrs. Sutherland drove down here?"

  Dino's eyebrows climbed almost to his hairline. “You're kidding me. Where in the wagon?"

  "Apparently, Sutherland yanked out the back seat, padded it very well, stuffed these in there, and glued the seat back in place."

  "What made you think of that?” Dino wanted to know.

  Garrett looked from one man to the other. “We, uh, used that same thing on an op once before. It suddenly occurred to me that maybe Sutherland had figured it out as a hiding place, too. Remember, he had planned to be leaving the cabin with his wife and child. He'd want those items with him."

&
nbsp; "Damn fine work,” Dino said. “I'd like to tell Jen. And then what do we do with these things? How do we get them into the right hands?"

  "We're going to take a little trip, and those pieces will go with us."

  "Trip? Exactly who is going and where?"

  "You, me, and Jen. I figured Jen especially would want to be in on the finale."

  "You know who it is? You figured it out?"

  "With some very official help. Mike will chopper us to the airport where a private plane will be waiting for us. With a few people on board."

  "E, what the hell is going on?"

  "I can do some pretty fair arm twisting myself, when I need to.” He motioned for Garrett to close up the box. “Now we can go tell Jen. Lisa's fixing us some sandwiches. After we eat we have to get going. Come on."

  * * * *

  Jen was sitting on the bed with Deanne on her lap. She was holding her so tightly the child finally squirmed in her arms.

  "Mommy, you're squishing me."

  "Sorry, baby. Sorry, sorry.” She relaxed her grip. “I'm just so glad to see you.” She wiped away the tears that kept leaking from her eyes and took a good look at her daughter. “Are you doing okay?"

  "Uh huh. They're very nice to me here."

  Jen drank her in with her eyes. The fear was gone from her face and she actually had some color in her cheeks.

  "They're nice people,” Jen agreed.

  "They said you were helping them find out what happened and you were very important to a lot of people."

  No kidding. A lot of the wrong people.

  "I just want to be important to you, sweet pea.” And a lean, dark man with an earring and a ponytail.

  "Is everything over now? Can we go home?"

  "Almost, honey.” Jen smoothed her hand over her daughter's hair. “What if we didn't go back to Michigan to live? What if we went someplace else?"

  Deanne wrinkled her forehead. “You mean like here? Where Jamie and his parents live?"

  "Not exactly. Maybe someplace further south. Where it's warm all the time and you could go swimming every day."

  "And you'd never have to leave me again? And no bad men would come after us?"

  Jen hugged the slender body again. “No, baby. I'd never have to leave you. And I think we're all done with the bad men."

  "More than you know."

  Jen looked up and saw Ethan in the doorway, Dino behind him.

  "I don't understand."

  "Deanne.” Ethan moved into the room, speaking to the little girl in a calm voice. “I'm going to borrow your mother for one quick trip, okay? And then she's all yours."

  "A trip?” Jen looked from one man to the other. “What kind of trip? Where are we going?"

  Now Dino came into the room and crouched down in front of Jen and her daughter. “Jennifer, our good friend Ethan has pulled a lot of strings to get at the truth here, and we'll finally get the answers we want. Don't you want to be in on the grand finale?"

  She felt a tightness in her chest and looked up at Ethan. “You know who did all this? Who's responsible?"

  "Close enough. The people we'll be taking the trip with know more than we do. They're the ones running this little show.” He gave her a tiny grin. “And taking all the credit, of course."

  "What about the two items that John ... took?"

  Dino chuckled. “Safe and sound, believe it or not.” He lifted his gaze to Dino who explained to Jen where and how the pieces had been found.

  "You mean I've had them all this time? I drove all the way from Michigan with them practically under my rear end?"

  "So it seems."

  Deanne wriggled on her mother's lap and looked up into her face, the worry again clouding her eyes. “Why do you have to leave, Mommy? You just got here."

  Dino took one of Deanne's hands, holding her small one gently in his larger one. “This is a very important trip, little one. But I'm going with your mother and I promise not to let anything happen to her, okay?"

  She cocked her head at him and Jen noticed she left her hand in Dino's. “You took care of Mommy while she was gone, didn't you."

  "Yes. The very best I could."

  "He took excellent care of me,” Jen assured her, and turned her daughter around on her lap so they were facing each other. “See? Don't I look okay?"

  Deanne looked hard at her mother, then turned back to Dino. “You said you're going with her on this trip. Right?"

  Dino nodded.

  "And Mr. Ethan, too?"

  A tiny smiled played at the corner of Dino's mouth. “And Mr. Ethan."

  Deanne hopped off her mother's lap. “Then it's all right. You can go. But Mommy, you better get Miss Lisa to lend you some clothes. You can't go anywhere looking like that."

  Everyone laughed, the little girl's words breaking the tension that was so tight in the room.

  [Back to Table of Contents]

  Chapter Fifteen

  Jennifer was still in shock and they hadn't even reached Detroit yet. Mike had deposited them at the private aircraft section of Tampa International Airport and Ethan had led them to a gleaming Gulfstream poised on the runway like a bird ready for flight. Which indeed it was. She was trying to control her nerves as she climbed the stairs to the plane between Ethan and Dino, wearing a shirtwaist dress and sandals borrowed from Lisa. She hadn't had much chance to do anything with her hair except brush it out, but Lisa had added a clip on one side and a pair of pearl earrings.

  "Perfect,” Lisa pronounced when she scrutinized her handiwork. “You'll knock their socks off."

  "Just whose socks am I attacking?” Jen pried, trying to get some information.

  "People who didn't take you seriously enough. Now go. They're waiting for you."

  In the luxurious interior of the plane, Ethan introduced her to a man he called simply the director. He, in turn, waved at the three men with him in dark suits and smiled as he said, “My traveling companions."

  The plane was set up with work stations and pairs of seats designed to look like easy chairs. Dino buckled Jen into one of them next to him, then took her hand and curled his fingers around it.

  "Almost over, cara. Then you can get on with your life."

  "Yes. My life.” She wet her lips with the tip of her tongue. “And exactly where will that be?"

  He leaned closer, his mouth next to her ear. “I think you know what I want. I don't want to rush you, and Deanne will need a period of adjustment. But I want your life to be part of mine. If you want that, too, the rest is just logistics."

  Jen felt her insides shift and something warm settle inside her. She knew with a certainty that life with this man would finally give her what she wanted—security, stability, and most important of all, love. “Yes. I want that, too."

  He squeezed her hand. “Then working out the ‘how’ will be easy."

  Although Ethan dozed for most of the flight, neither Jen nor Dino could sleep. She kept her hand in his and let her dreams of the future occupy her brain. The director and his men were at the front of the plane, speaking in low tones so they couldn't be heard over the muted sound of the engines, and studying files they had with them.

  When they landed at Detroit Metropolitan, two black SUVs were waiting for them, whisking them all along the expressway to downtown Detroit and the Robert J. McNamara Federal Building. Finally they were ushered into a large conference room and Jen had to cling to Dino's hand to keep from falling.

  Sitting around the table were familiar but very angry faces—the Police Commissioner McWilliams, Senator Mackall and his wife, Mayor Sobol, an attorney name Daniel Hayes, Roger Wellborn, and some other members of the museum board whose names she couldn't remember at the moment. Several faces registered shock at seeing Jen walk in the door and a low buzz of conversation started until a man sitting between the commissioner and the mayor held up his hand and shook his head.

  Was it true? Were these really the people behind the antiquities ring? Who'd ordered John's death and her
kidnapping?

  Five men dressed in suits to match her traveling companions were arranged around the room against the wall at strategic intervals. The director indicated where his men should deploy themselves, and pointed to chairs in one corner for Ethan, Jen, and Dino. Then he walked to the empty seat at the far end of the table.

  "Thank you all for coming today,” he began.

  "Not that we had much choice,” Monica Mackall said resentfully.

  McWilliams fixed a hard look on the director. “I'd like to know what this is about. I'm a busy man. I run a large police department and I can't sit around some table twiddling my thumbs all day."

  "I'm sure all your questions will be answered when you hear what I have to say.” He took the folder he'd been carrying and opened it on the table in front of him. “It appears you've all been very busy people, you and others. Very busy."

  Looking around the table, he launched into a monologue about the antiquities business, the illegal travel in stolen antiquities, and their role in it. He explained what had been learned about John Sutherland's involvement and the scene at the cabin outside Detroit.

  He lifted his eyes from the folder for a moment and scanned the table, coming to rest on one person. “Your cabin, by the way, Senator. And we found Sutherland's grave where your men dug it."

  Jen had to swallow a gasp and Dino's hand tightened on hers.

  The director resumed his little tale, explaining more for Jen's benefit than anyone else's how Roger Wellborn had personally recruited John, knowing he had a gambling habit that could be used to force him to process the antiquities for them. The private games at the men's club where he got in deeper and deeper.

  He looked around the table again. “Figuring out who hired Grant Douglas was a little more difficult.” He smiled at the stunned look on Louis McWilliams’ face. “Oh, yes, we have Mr. Douglas in custody enjoying the fine hospitality of the U.S. government. And while there are four of you who had contact with him—or could have—through your military or ... other activities, we discovered, Commissioner, that you and Douglas had a quite history going way back. When we presented several options to him, some of them very unpleasant, he decided you'd have to handle this one on your own."