‘Speaking of which,’ she said, ‘it’s not getting any warmer in here and I’m starving. You have any more of those gourmet peanut butter sandwiches you made this morning?’
‘I just happen to have a couple,’ he said, pulling out of her. ‘I’ll give you the recipe if you’d like.’
In a few minutes they were dressed and headed back to Portland, polishing off the rest of the food Harris had packed and the last of the coffee as they drove.
Chapter Twenty-Six
‘Nothing left in the freezer but a couple of frozen lasagna dinners and some Tater Tots,’ Dianna yelled down the stairs.
Kenny looked up from channel surfing in the middle of the couch in Harris Walker’s TV room. ‘Jesus, I didn’t think they’d be gone this long or I’d have laid in supplies. Did you think they’d be gone this long?’
Dianna came down the stairs and leaned against the wall with her arms folded across her chest. ‘Well, they were looking for mountain lions, and Flannery did say they might spend the night. Plus they’re fucking each other so I’m not surprised, no.’
‘Then why didn’t you bring supplies if that’s what you suspected? Did you know that the place is too far out for deliveries?’ he asked, turning off the TV.
She gave a non-committal shrug. ‘I can call Bud and have him get us something if you want. He’s always up for it.’
Kenny grunted, tossing the remote onto the coffee table. ‘It isn’t that. Fuck, I’m just going stir crazy. All that lovely outdoors just beyond our window and we can’t even take advantage.’
‘It’s dark,’ Dianna said. ‘What are you gonna take advantage of?’
‘How ’bout a breath of fresh air? Hmmm? How ’bout just not being caged up all day and night.’
She shrugged again. ‘I can forgo fresh air and the great outdoors for what I’m being paid, thank you very much. I’ll heat up the lasagna.’
‘Wait,’ he called after her as she turned to the stairs. ‘How ’bout I go bring back something?’ He reached for a hooded sweatshirt hanging on a hook next to the stairs. ‘I could wear this, pull the hood up, you know. I’m already dressed like Walker.’ He slipped into the jacket and pulled the hood up.
His partner shook her head. ‘Dressed like that you’ll have any respectable takeout place thinking you’re there to rob them. Anyway, I’m fine. I don’t mind whatever’s in the freezer.’
‘Eat like a bird, do you, Di?’ he asked.
She flipped him off.
‘Well, I’m not fine. I’m starving and I want … I don’t know. At least I want a really good pizza, or there’s that Chinese takeout we passed to get here, you know the one I’m talking about?
‘Yeah, the one in the all-night Chevron station.’
‘That’s the one. Strange combination, but how bad can it be? What do you say? At least it’ll be different. You up for it, Di?’ He looked around the room, still wearing Harris Walker’s sweatshirt. Here, I’ll wear this.’ He found a battered canvas hat he imagined the man wore for outdoorsy sort of things and put it on. ‘What do you think? I look just like him, don’t you think?’
Di stood once again with her arms folded across her chest, looking him up and down. ‘Flannery won’t like it.’
‘Flannery doesn’t have to know. I’ll just take the Jeep. I mean, Walker left me the keys and I’ll be back before you even know I’m gone. What do you think?’
She gave him a bored look. ‘You bring it, I’ll eat it,’ she said. ‘But it’s your ass if Flannery finds out.’
‘Fair enough.’
In less than five minutes, Kenny was rattling along the sorry excuse for a road that led to Walker’s cabin. You’d think with a house like that on a lake like that the man would at least have some work done on his road, but who knew how these environmentalist types thought. Anyway, the Jeep was a nice one, fully loaded, and, in all honesty, Kenny had driven a whole lot worse. He’d love to take it off road and put it through its paces. But, sadly, for tonight, a sweet and sour chicken run was the only pace the Jeep would get put through.
He had a suspicious mind, Kenny did. But in his business that was definitely a job requirement, so when an SUV pulled out behind him from the next road up, he kept one eye on it and the other eye on the road. Just in case. He couldn’t really imagine anyone following him on this no-brainer of a job, but it was his training. There was always the little niggle that something might not be right. That niggle passed when he signaled and pulled into the turning lane to the Chevron station and the SUV signaled too, but turned into the street just beyond. There, no worries, he reassured himself and turned his attention back to Chinese food.
When he finally arrived at the Chevron, it was completely deserted and the dumpsters had been pushed to the side of the building for the morning trash pick-up. If he didn’t know that the place was open 24 hours, he’d have driven on by thinking it was closed. He parked by the scrub of rhodies out of the way of the gas pumps, though it wasn’t like there was a crowd. Oregon had no self-service pumps, so if he’d parked by the pumps, the attendant would come out. Having moved up from Texas, he still couldn’t quite get used to someone else pumping his gas.
Inside, his order hadn’t taken long, since it was the only order. The chef, who looked like he could use a nice long sleep, offered Kenny a tired smile as he handed over the takeout bags. Kenny wondered how such a place stayed open, but he figured in tourist season they made up for the slow times. He walked longingly past the cooler proudly sporting some of the area’s best micro-brews. Sadly, he was working, so he picked up a couple of two-liter bottles of Coke, then thought better of it and made one of them diet. He grabbed a handful of any kind of candy bar that might pass the time more interestingly and a couple bags of chips. He was contemplating getting some brownie bites when the cook ran toward the door shouting “fire”.
Kenny shoved his stash on the counter, nearly upsetting one of the takeout bags, and ran after the clerk, who followed the cook yelling something about damned kids having no respect any more and something really rude about what should be done to their parents.
It was then Kenny saw the blaze in the dumpster. As he ran to help put it out, what he didn’t see was the man sneaking from the shadows beyond the rhododendron thicket, the man who squatted, then slid flat on his back beneath Harris Walker’s Jeep.
* * *
Harris hadn’t really planned to get them back home so late. But he discovered, after their adventure with the mountain lions and the incredible lovemaking that followed, he wasn’t willing to give up having Stacie all to himself just yet. He couldn’t think of a safer place, nor a more exciting place than the Painted Hills unit of the John Day Fossil Beds to keep her mind off of everything for a few more hours. They’d feasted on a picnic they’d bought in Mitchell. They found a place in the protection of several of the multi-colored hills where the biting breeze couldn’t get to them and the autumn sun could. Then they’d driven the extra miles over slow winding roads through the exquisite emptiness of the high desert with its intriguing play of color splashed liberally across distance, color that was barely green and barely blue, yet always guaranteed to mesmerize. On the narrow twists and turns of the high roads there could be no speeding even if they had wanted to, and they didn’t. They arrived in time to catch glimpses of the palisades of the Clarno Unit of the fossil beds just before the sunset. They’d had the remains of their picnic on the long drive back to Portland, after which Stacie dozed in the passenger seat – seemingly dream-free this time. For that Harris was relieved. He knew she had to be exhausted and way beyond stressed out. If she could rest, that was the best thing for her.
He found himself driving slower and slower the closer they got to his house. There had never been a time when he wasn’t happy to return to the cabin on the Water Hole. It was home, and he had loved the place since he was a little boy when it still belonged to his grandfather. But this was different. He had managed to keep Stacie away from thoughts of Jamison an
d all that they had to return to. It had felt good to be able to ease her burden for just a little while, though he had to confess it was a burden he still didn’t fully understand – other than the trouble that Ingrid Watson was now in with Jamison. But even Marston had said that Ingrid had walked into that herself.
Stacie was a fortress of secrets, and with every little bit she did share, he found himself feeling more and more fearful of what she still kept hidden. He let her doze, though he noticed from time to time that she wasn’t dozing at all, that she was staring out the window, lost in her thoughts. He pretended not to notice. It had been hard enough for her, what she’d had to reveal these past few days. He wouldn’t make it harder by prying.
They were about to turn down the road toward his house when his cell phone rang, and they both jumped. He nodded to Stacie, who picked it up.
‘It’s Flannery,’ she said, putting it on speaker phone without asking.
‘Walker.’ The man’s voice sounded strained. ‘Are you and Stacie all right?’
‘Yes, we’re fine. We’re almost home.’ Harris felt the hair on his arms prickle. ‘Why?’
‘Listen very carefully. I need you to turn around, wherever you are, and go to the Pneuma Building to the private entrance. Wade’ll meet you there. Don’t go home first. Under no circumstances are you to go home first. Do you understand?’
‘OK. I’m on my way.’ Harris was already off the road and turning around. ‘What’s going on?’
‘I’ll explain when you get there. Just do it, OK?’
‘On my way,’ Harris repeated, shooting Stacie a questioning look.
It was after 2 a.m. when they arrived at the Pneuma Building. Wade was at the private entrance waiting for them. He gave Stacie an uncharacteristic hug and offered Harris a nod.
‘You wanna tell us what’s going on?’ Harris said.
Just then, Flannery’s SUV pulled up beside them, and he got out looking tired and frayed. But when he saw Stacie and Harris, he spoke without greeting.
‘It’s Kenny.’
‘What, you mean Kenny out at Harris’?’ Stacie asked, her grip on Harris’ arm tightened.
‘He’s dead.’
Stacie gave a little gasp and Harris felt her knees give as she braced herself against him. ‘Dead? What happened?’ he asked.
‘Look, I’ll tell you everything, but I think it’s better if we do this inside.’
No one spoke again until they were in Wade’s Dungeon. Ellis, Dee, and Marston were waiting there already. There was a whirlwind of hugs and someone thrust coffee cups at each of them as they all settled on the sofa and in the chairs Wade had pulled into his lounge area. He took point in a ratty recliner that was always his favorite.
‘What happened?’ Stacie asked again, setting her coffee cup on the end table untouched.
‘It was an explosion,’ Flannery told them. His face looked ashen and the lines of his mouth were hard. ‘Your Jeep, Harris. The man decided he wanted some takeout Chinese, so he took your Jeep, wore your jacket and hat just in case.’
Stacie blinked twice, as though she was in bright light, then shoved her way off the sofa and made a run for the door. She might have made it if she hadn’t tripped over Harris’ foot and practically fallen in his lap, struggling to get away as he closed his arms around her. ‘This is all my fault, my fault. This is all my fault,’ she said over and over again, her voice breathless. ‘I have to leave. I have to get out of here. He did this, Jamison did this, and it’s all my fault.’
‘It’s not your fault, Stacie. If it’s anyone’s fault it’s mine for thinking up such a scheme.’ Harris held her tight, taking a knee to the inside of his thigh before he settled her down onto the sofa next to him, still holding her.
‘It damn well isn’t your fault. Either of you,’ Marston said. ‘The sonovabitch has crossed the line this time. He can’t get away with this.’
‘Yes he can.’ Flannery spoke quietly. ‘They caught the man who did it. I did a little background check. He claimed to work for some obscure group called the Valderian Liberation League. Claimed his efforts were all due to some bullshit he’s been told about Walker helping Ellis take jobs away from honest, hardworking Valderians.’
‘That’s hogwash. There’s no such movement,’ said Wade. ‘If there were, we’d know, and there’s certainly no one in Valderia who would welcome what Jamison would bring.’
‘Of course it’s hogwash,’ Flannery said. ‘But it’ll pass to get Jamison off the hook, and anyway, it doesn’t matter. One of the policemen who caught him got a little bit too handy with his gun, so he’s dead. No one can cross-examine him that way. More people in Jamison’s pockets, I suppose.’
‘The point is,’ Harris said, ‘it was supposed to be me.’ He felt strangely calm about that fact. He could hardly feel happy when someone had died in his place. All he was really happy about at the moment was that Stacie was safe next to him, and he wasn’t about to let her out of his sight.
‘That’s exactly the point,’ Flannery agreed. ‘And though you may not believe it, the fact that it was supposed to be you gives us a little bit of a grace period.’ Instantly the man had everyone’s attention. ‘Maybe for at least a little while we can let Jamison and his thugs believe they accomplished what was intended, that it was Harris Walker killed in the explosion.’
Stacie gripped Harris’ arm and shivered.
Flannery continued, ‘That means, at least for the moment, Walker’s safe.’
Stacie’s grip got even tighter on Harris, and he couldn’t say he didn’t like it.
‘What about notifying next of kin, that sort of thing?’ Wade said. ‘I don’t mean to be morbid, and I certainly wouldn’t want to cause unnecessary trauma, but if we want to keep up the ruse, that’ll have to happen.’
‘Believe it or not,’ Harris said, ‘my parents are trekking in the Andes. I won’t hear from them for the next week at least. That’s one less thing for us to worry about.’ He turned his attention to Stacie. ‘By the time they get back to civilization the exhibition will be over and we’ll have dealt with Jamison.’
‘Good, that’s good,’ Wade said. ‘Until they can get in touch with Harris’ parents, the cops will keep the identity of the deceased confidential. I’ve seen to that already.’
‘You need to let me go,’ Stacie said in a voice that was barely more than a whisper. ‘That’s the best way to deal with Jamison right now. You need to leave me alone, all of you, and let me do what I have to.’
‘Not gonna happen,’ Harris said. ‘I’ve already told you.
‘Stacie.’ Flannery spoke to her as though she were the only person in the room, the way he always did when every word he said mattered. Harris had noticed that about him. ‘If we’re going to take advantage of this bit of luck –’
‘Bit of luck,’ Stacie interrupted. ‘How can you call it a bit of luck when a man’s dead?’
Flannery flinched as though she had punched him, though his gaze never left hers. ‘Kenny is dead because he broke the rules. He left his post. He knew better. He knew that if he wanted anything all he had to do was ask. In my line of work, a man doesn’t leave his post. And certainly not for takeout Chinese.’ He said the last two words like they were a curse. His chest heaved. He straightened until his back was ramrod stiff in the chair. ‘So, if we’re going to take advantage of this bit of luck, I need you to do what Stacie Emerson would do if it hadn’t been Kenny Hearn in that Jeep. I need you to do what Stacie Emerson would do if it had been Harris Walker in that Jeep.’ The alarm registered in her eyes, but before she could speak, Flannery went on, ‘Look, you’ve told us that you know what you’re doing. You’ve told us that you’ll pay your debts, that it’ll all be over after this exhibition, and I have to say, I’m greatly suspending my disbelief to see how the hell you can make that happen, Stacie. But I trust you. I have from the beginning. And if all hell breaks loose, if there are … other unforeseen events Jamison throws our way, then I want to be read
y. So can you do as I asked?’
Stacie mirrored Flannery’s posture and the panic that seemed about to consume her vanished. She nodded slowly. ‘When Zoe died … I just got on with it. It was a week before a big exhibition. Like now. Things were insane. There was way more to do than there was time to do it, and that was good. That’s what I did. Everything, anything.’
‘Good. Then I’m sure this situation will be the same, and Jamison’s an observant man,’ Flannery said. ‘He’ll think you’re acting out of grief.’
‘He’ll approach me. He’ll probably text me. He’ll be very apologetic that I forced him to do this … thing.’ She shoved her hair back from her face and continued. ‘I can ignore the texts for a while. That’s what I would do. That’s what I did because I was … helpless to do anything else. I was helpless to do what I really wanted to do. If this time is the same, eventually he’ll send for me or he’ll come to me.’
‘That’s not going to happen,’ Harris said. ‘I’m not going to let that happen.’
‘You have no choice, Walker,’ Flannery told him. ‘You’re dead, remember? You have to stay invisible, at least for the grace period we have, which more than likely won’t be long.’
‘There’s no way!’ Harris pulled Stacie so tightly to him that she gave a little gasp. ‘There’s no way I’m gonna hide out back here and do nothing while Stacie’s exposed to that piece of shit.’
‘Harris, Harris!’ Stacie extricated herself from his tight grip and took his hands in hers, this time more gently, this time more in control. ‘Harris, he’s not going to hurt me, at least not physically, and if you’re not in the picture, then he can’t hurt me by hurting you.’
‘Fuck!’ He felt more helpless than he could ever remember. ‘I can’t just sit back and do nothing.’
‘Oh, you won’t be doing nothing,’ Wade said. ‘I promise you that. You’ll be helping me here in the Dungeon. Trust me, we can do more good getting to the bottom of this situation here and finding a way to keep Stacie safe than we could any place else.’
The Exhibition (An Executive Decision Trilogy) Page 25