I shrugged. “Yeah, you can stop doing that anytime. It’s pissing me off.”
Labelle leaned closer. “Did it piss you off enough to kill him?”
Arlene Widdenback was too smart to admit to murder.
“Get a grip.” I put on a suspicious expression. “What are you, a fucking cop?”
“Hardly,” he said through his teeth. “But my man’s tires mysteriously exploded just as he glimpsed you behind his vehicle. And later he disappeared. Never called in, didn’t show up for work, isn’t at home.”
“So what? Your staffing issues aren’t my problem. Maybe you should hire better people.” I stared straight ahead, wishing I had another ice cream cone. Didn’t know what to do with my hands. My heart vibrated up in the vicinity of my throat.
Hoping I looked casual, I yawned and hooked my thumbs into my back pockets.
Apparently I didn’t do casual well. Labelle made a sudden aborted movement.
I shot him an annoyed look. “What’s your problem? You think I’m going to wave my magic wand and make you vanish, too? Trust me, if I could, I would.”
“About that magic wand of yours…” He leaned into my personal space again and I stepped away involuntarily, my hands twitching out of my pockets. His hands twitched, too, jolting adrenaline into my system.
Was that a gun tucked under the lightweight summer sport jacket he wore?
Fuck, mine was in my ankle holster, far out of reach. Sweat tickled my backbone.
He was still talking, and I jerked my attention back to his words. “…what did you use?” he asked. “There was no bullet or visible projectile, but the tires exploded. I find that fascinating, because weapons are a bit of a hobby of mine…”
My heart rattled my ribs. He was going for it. He was going to-
“Aydan! Hey, Aydan, wait up!”
Shit!
Teeth clenched, I turned to see Lola trotting across the street behind us, waving and smiling. Labelle turned, too, and Lola’s smile widened as she recognized him.
“Oh, hi, Fred!” She hurried up and greeted him with a handshake. “It’s nice to see you again. I see you caught up with Aydan.”
“Yes.” Labelle’s big smarmy smile was back and smooth sweetness dripped from his voice. “How nice to see you again, Lola.”
“Well, I won’t keep you long if you’re talking business…” she began, and I fervently hoped she meant it. She went on, “…but I just wanted to let you know we’ve been in touch with the RCMP.”
Labelle made a small movement that wasn’t quite a start, and Lola turned to him. “Our community hall burned down last night, and we think it’s suspicious,” she explained.
“Ah.” Labelle regarded her with gooey brown cow-eyes. “Yes, that certainly does seem like an unusual occurrence in a small town like this.”
His voice held an odd intonation, and my blood went cold.
Labelle had been at my party. He had talked to everybody. He would know where and when the wedding was taking place. He knew Spider and Linda were close to me. What if he was instigating their run of ‘bad luck’ just to keep me off balance? Or worse, what if he was planning to control me by threatening them?
And what else might he have planned?
Pulse pounding in my ears, I tuned back into the conversation just as Lola said, “…no crime in this town anymore. We’re going to stop the scumbag who’s doing this!”
Oh, no, Lola, don’t make yourself a target…
“Well, that’s great…” I began, frantically racking my brain for a distraction.
I got one, but it wasn’t the kind I wanted.
Lola glanced over and exclaimed, “Oh, hey!” She put her fingers to her lips and let fly with an earsplitting whistle. Then she waved enthusiastically in the direction of the street and called, “Hey, Sandy, over here!”
With a sense of impending doom, I turned slowly to see Officer Peters return a cheery wave and pull her cruiser to a stop beside us.
Fuck.
Labelle was still wearing his genial smile, but it didn’t quite fit his face anymore.
Peters got out and strolled over, still smiling. “Hi, Lola. Hi, Aydan.”
“Um… hi, Sandra,” I croaked. “What’s up?”
She flashed a smile down to Lola. “Oh, I just finished up a great orientation with the new Neighbourhood Watch group. There are so many volunteers, and so they’re all so keen.” Her smile widened. “It’s wonderful to see a community dedicated to watching out for each other. Nothing’s going to slip by this group.”
Shit, shit, shit!
“That’s great,” I said feebly. “Well, it’s been nice talking to you…”
“Oh, yes, and I meant to ask…” She sobered. “How’s John holding up? We’ve been worried about him at the detachment and I meant to call, but…”
Jesus, if she mentioned Kane was an RCMP officer, my cover would be cooked like a bug under a blowtorch.
“He’s having a rough time,” I said hurriedly. “I’m sure he’d appreciate a call.”
Like right now. I mentally bombarded her with psychic messages.
Go. Go away and call Kane. Now. Right-fucking-now.
“I’ll do that,” she agreed. “Well, I’d better get back to work. Nice to see you again, Aydan; and Lola, I’ll look forward to our next meeting. Take care, and stay safe.”
“You, too,” Lola replied cheerfully as she turned away.
Labelle twitched as though he’d been suddenly released from paralysis. “Well, it’s been pleasant to see you again, Lola,” he said in his smooth voice. He turned to me with a nod that practically dripped sarcasm. “Aydan.”
Then he turned and strode away.
“Flaming fuck-monkeys!” I growled under my breath, my heart hammering.
“Sorry, what?” Lola looked up at me with innocent eyes. “Did you say something?”
I unclenched my teeth with an effort and pasted on a smile. “Uh, I just said it’s so hot out here it’s flaming my undies.”
Lola nudged me with a lascivious elbow. “Are you sure you don’t just have hot pants for Fred Labelle? He’s a good-looking guy. I’d take him for a drive around the block any day.”
I managed not to choke. “Nope, I’m pretty sure it’s not that.”
Worry seized me at the thought of Lola cozying up to Labelle. The last time she’d been unwittingly caught up in one of my ops, it had nearly cost her life.
Never again.
“Hey, Lola,” I added, “Stay away from him, okay? He’s not nearly as nice as he seems. He’s got a mean streak a mile wide.”
She sobered, frowning. “How do you know? And why are you even giving him the time of day, then?”
I grimaced. “Business. I don’t want to, but he’s a financial guy and I’m a bookkeeper. Sometimes our paths cross whether I want them to or not.”
“Oh.” Her frown deepened. “Well, if you don’t trust him, make sure you’ve always got somebody with you when you meet him. Call me or one of the other CRAPS members, and we’ll watch out for you.”
My stomach squeezed at the thought of little Lola or frail Bud Weems trying to intervene with a guy like Labelle. When I spoke, my voice came out slightly choked. “Thanks, Lola, but it’s financial stuff. Confidential. So you can’t sit in on my meetings, but I’ll be sure to always meet him in public places.”
“You do that, and if you want one of us to watch from across the street or something, you just give me a call.” She patted my arm, smiling up at me. “We’ll keep you safe, honey.”
I managed not to groan aloud.
Back inside Stemp’s office again, I slouched gloomily in the chair while I finished my report. “…so he just gave me this look and walked away. I’m such an idiot. I should have met him somewhere else; somewhere we wouldn’t have been interrupted.”
And if I’d been a real agent, I would have known enough to do that. I sank my chin onto my chest, waiting for Stemp’s well-deserved rebuke.
The silence lengthened, and I dared a glance at him. Was he too furious to even speak?
As usual, his face betrayed no emotion. He stared into middle distance for a few more moments before saying, “Perhaps. Perhaps not. Remember that Nicholas Parr was widely known as a model citizen and generous benefactor of the Police Fund for widows and orphans. Labelle would know that, and very likely expect the same of an arms dealer of Arlene Widdenback’s…” He hesitated, humour sparking in his eyes before he finished, “…calibre.”
I groaned in acknowledgement of the pun, then said, “Well, let’s hope so.” Hauling myself upright, I hesitated. “Did, um… did you get an email from John?”
Stemp’s lips thinned. “Yes.”
Uh-oh.
“That’s, um… that’s good, right?” I asked cautiously.
“It would have been good on Monday. Today is Thursday.” He eyed me as if it was all my fault, which it probably was. “It’s too little, too late.”
“Wh…” I gulped. “What do you mean?”
“The chain of command met at thirteen hundred today. They are not insensitive to Kane’s situation, but…” Stemp’s lips twisted. “…neither are they willing to risk a potential security breach. Kane has until end-of-day tomorrow to report to me and undergo the requalification lie-detector test. If he does not comply…”
We stared at each other in bleak silence while I mentally completed his sentence: ‘…he’ll be either in jail or dead by Saturday morning.’
Chapter 35
I stared at Stemp, my mind racing. No point in begging him to intercede with the chain of command on Kane’s behalf. He had already done as much as he could. But maybe if Kane ran out of names to investigate, he’d take the time to come up here and do the lie detector test.
So I needed to start eliminating names as fast as possible.
Drawing in a deep breath, I met Stemp’s reptilian gaze and held my voice steady. “I need to go into the network this afternoon. Do you have time to spot me?”
He pinned me with his expressionless scrutiny. “Why do you need to go in yourself? Why not send your requirements to Brock?”
I started to invent a lie about researching Labelle, but I couldn’t force it past my lips.
God, I was so tired of lying to him and evading his questions. And he’d find out that I’d lied anyway; if not now, then next year when I took the lie detector test for my annual requalification.
But if I told him the truth now and he arrested me, I wouldn’t be able to help Kane. And if Kane refused to come in because he was still researching names tomorrow…
I sighed. “I can’t.”
Stemp frowned. “Can’t what?”
“I can’t use Brock to find out what I need.”
Stemp sat eyeing me in silence, and despair dragged my heart into the pit of my stomach. He would demand clarification and I would lie and he would know I was lying. He’d hook me up to the lie detector, and very shortly after that I’d be imprisoned for the rest of my life.
And Kane would go to jail or die because I’d failed him. I might as well have shot him myself.
Stemp spoke, his words like the release of a guillotine blade. “I presume you’ll be using some personal leave time…”
We locked eyes and I knew that he knew.
“…to research Daniel Kane’s case,” he finished expressionlessly.
And there it was.
I envisioned the blade hurtling toward my neck.
“Yes.” My voice came out completely flat.
“I see.”
Silence balanced precariously on the razor-edge of my approaching doom.
“We’re not violating orders,” I explained without much hope. “We’re not interfering with the police investigation at all. John hired a private investigator, and we’re researching names that the moms and exes supplied in our interviews. We informed all of them that we weren’t doing this in any official capacity, and everything they told us was completely voluntary.”
“A private investigator.” Stemp’s voice was dangerously mild. “Helmand?”
My heart sank even farther. “Yes.”
His upper lip twitched, but I couldn’t tell whether it was humour or disgust. “I see,” he repeated. His gaze bored into me, his tone completely flat. “Your actions are contrary to the spirit, if not the letter, of your orders. Moreover, I already warned you of the potential consequences of neglecting your assigned mission.”
I raised my chin, exposing my throat for the killing blow. “Yes, you did.”
We regarded each other without speaking.
After a long moment Stemp sighed and leaned back in his chair, massaging the bridge of his nose before speaking. “Well, it so happens that I have a great deal of personal leave time accumulated, too. Shall we begin in, say…” he consulted his wristwatch. “…ten minutes? I’ll retrieve the network key from the secured area and meet you in your office.”
For a paralyzed moment I just sat and stared at him. Like a decapitated body. No brain attached.
Then I drew a breath of the sweetest air I’d tasted in a very long time.
“Thank you.” My voice trembled, and I swallowed hard to control it. “Ten minutes would be perfect.”
I sprang up and hurried out before I could fall apart in front of him.
Several hours later I trickled sluggishly out of the internet’s data tunnels and forced my aching avatar into visibility. Stemp looked up from his work in the virtual file repository and released my hand.
“Any luck?” he asked.
“No.” I let out a whoosh of breath and slithered down the wall to sit on the floor, arms limp, head hanging. “I’m no good at this. I can look up information easily; that’s only sniffing around and following trails, but cross-referencing…” I dragged my head up to give him a hopeless grimace. “That’s just not the way my… talent… or whatever you want to call it… works. That’s why I always need Spider to work with me. I’ve been looking up each name individually but I can’t keep all the names in my mind at once, so I could be missing all kinds of potential cross-links.”
Stemp gave me a critical scrutiny. “Your avatar is fading at the edges. You need to stop now.”
I let my head fall back against the wall, defeated. “Yeah. I’m not getting anywhere, and anyway, I’ve got hungry people at home expecting me with pizza in half an hour. I’m going to be late already.”
He rose and reached down a hand to pull me up. “You have houseguests?”
There might have been a tiny lilt of hope in his voice. Hope lifted my heart in return.
“Yes, Spider and Linda are staying with me, and so are your mom and dad. They didn’t leave town because your mom had offered to fix Linda’s wedding dress.” I hesitated, trying not to sound too eager to push him and his parents together. “Would you like to join us for supper? I’m only picking up pizza, so it would be easy to get a bit more.”
Stemp turned away. “Thank you, but no. I have some work to catch up on this evening.”
“Oh.” I trudged behind him toward the virtual portal, trying not to be disappointed. “Okay. Well, thanks for your help this afternoon. It really meant a lot to me, and I know it will to John, too.”
“You’re welcome.” He stepped through the portal, leaving me unhappily contemplating the misery to come.
Clenching my teeth, I stepped through after him and jerked into a profanity-spitting ball as the pain exploded inside my head.
When firm fingers began to knead my temples I was so startled I actually stopped swearing.
My initial impulse to pull away from Stemp’s ministrations evaporated as his massage worked down to the base of my skull, seeking and extinguishing fiery paths of pain along the way. Eyes closed, I slowly relaxed under his sure touch, the last of the agony diminishing to its usual deep ache.
“Thanks,” I mumbled as soon as I was capable of speaking. I dragged my eyes open and focused on him with only a slight effort. “That really helped.�
��
“You’re welcome.” He hurried out without making eye contact as if afraid to be caught in a compromising position.
Or in an expression of friendship.
I let my head fall back against the sofa to stare at the ceiling. Holy shit, where had that thought come from?
Friendship? With Stemp?
God, I must be more tired than I’d thought.
Hauling myself to my feet, I headed for the door.
An hour and a half later, I pushed my chair back from my kitchen table and began collecting empty plates and pizza boxes. Four satisfied faces smiled back at me, and I carried the plates over to load them into the dishwasher before returning to the table.
“Anybody want tea or coffee?” I inquired.
“Herbal tea would be lovely, dear,” Moonbeam agreed with one of her luminous smiles. The others concurred, and we were soon sipping tea comfortably in the living room.
“So is there any news on the kidnapping case?” Moonbeam asked, tacitly lifting the moratorium on shop-talk she’d imposed at the beginning of our meal.
I sighed and slumped back in my chair. “No. Like I told John, I’m no good at cross-referencing.”
“Wait, what?” Spider sat forward abruptly, almost spilling his chamomile tea. “Why didn’t you tell me? I can help with that! What are you cross-referencing?”
“Just a bunch of names. And, uh… sorry… I didn’t think of passing it on to you. You’re on holidays. And you’ve got all your wedding stuff to think about…”
“Aydan!” Linda shot me a severe look. “A wedding is nowhere near as important as a missing child. Tell Spider what you need, and he can get to work on it right away.”
“But… can you get into…?” I hesitated, not sure how much to say with Moonbeam and Karma listening. They knew I’d been back and forth to Sirius Dynamics in my cover as a bookkeeper, but if Spider and I weren’t careful with our words they might also guess that Stemp was more than a clueless civilian manager. And he’d been very clear about the consequences of that.
I suppressed a shudder.
Fortunately Spider interrupted. “Of course I can get in; I have my laptop. It’s not quite as good as my command centre at home, but I can still do it. ‘Course, it’d be better if I could go home…”
The Spies That Bind Page 28