by Wendy Stone
“So you thought you’d call me...I don’t know whether I should be complimented or irritated. I’ll figure it out later.”
Lexi laughed, her eyes still on the door to her office. “You heard about the Blandon family massacre?”
“Yeah, I heard that was quite the mess. Husband, wife and two kids slaughtered in the house. What about it?”
Lexi let her finger play in the phone cord when she heard nothing more from outside her office. It was probably one of the cleaning crew. It wasn’t the first time they startled her in the office at night. “I was wondering if you’d heard of anyone else killed on that same night?”
“Well, one of his employees was hurt pretty bad, but that’s about it.”
“I was thinking it was a girl; her name would have been Teri Milner, Mac. This is kind of important.” She sank back down in her chair.
“Nope, I haven’t heard of anything. Tell you what, Lex. I can make a couple of calls and see what I can find out.”
She sighed. “No, it was just a shot in the dark. I’ll go through the proper procedures and find out, Mac. We’ll have to get together soon, as soon as I get off this case.”
“You got it. Gideon is waving goodbye.”
“Oh, and now that’s so sweet, you taught him to wave bye-bye.”
Mac laughed and hung up the phone. Lexi stared at it for a moment before replacing it in the base. She could call in tomorrow and get the info she needed, or she could make a couple of discreet inquiries to the correct district right now.
While she was trying to decide, another sound outside her door startled her. She got up slowly, pulling her weapon from her back. Slinking over to the door, she stood listening for a moment, waiting until she heard the telltale squeak of a rubber-soled shoe. She opened the door, whirling out and into the outer office, her eyes searching every square inch. It was empty, not even a cleaning cart left in the hallway.
Before she allowed herself to relax, she darted across the outside office, throwing open the door to the hallway. The door barely closed behind her when something flew past and hit the wall just beside her head. She rolled, coming up behind Stella’s desk, and looked further down the hall. The outside door was closing, and she dashed toward it, hearing the unmistakable sound of a pistol shot.
The door opened under her grasping hands, and she slid outside, reaching for the phone on the desk. When there was no dial tone, she growled, tossing the useless piece of plastic on the desk. With a snarl of pure rage, she rose, going back toward the door she just rolled through and opening it slowly, using the wall as protection.
“This is the only way out,” she said loudly. “Your best bet is to give yourself up.”
The voice that came from the darkness beyond was male and deep, with an accent. She listened intently, unable to place the accent as she deciphered the words he spoke.
“Where is he?”
“He, who?” she bluffed, trying to figure out where the voice was coming from.
“Gabriel Elliott. Do not lie and tell me you don’t know him. I know you do. Where are you keeping him stashed?”
“I’m not keeping anyone anywhere.” She spun in front of the door, taking that second to stare down the hallway, searching for the owner of the deep voice. “I’m a U.S. Marshal. Throw your gun out and put your hands on top of your head. Walk out here very slowly.”
The intruder laughed, the sound not doing much to comfort her.
“Now that wouldn’t further my cause,” he said. A moment later she heard the sound of feet pounding on the hallway floor and then glass shattering.
“He didn’t,” she breathed as she reached into the hallway, flipping on the light switches. It was empty. Hurrying to her office, she felt the draft before she saw the broken window. “No way! It’s eight storeys onto cement. There’s no way he thought he’d not be hurt.”
Papers from her desk were blowing on the floor, and she moved to the window to glance down. She could see the faint glint of glass on the sidewalk, but no one in sight. Holding onto the frame, she leaned out, checking the side of the building and glancing up.
“Okay, disappearing bad guys.” She shook her head slowly and grabbed her cell phone off the desk to make a couple of quick calls. The first was to Jack, the second to the police.
She opened the door as soon as the cops arrived, letting in the crime-scene team. She was standing over them, watching everything they did, when Jack showed up.
“Well, this is a fine fuck up,” he growled as soon as he saw her.
“Oh, Jack, no worries, I’m just fine. They didn’t hurt me at all.”
“What about our cases? Were any of them hurt?”
Lexi knew exactly what he was asking. “No, everyone is fine. I’ll be moving him in the morning.”
“And moving in with him, Lex. He has to disappear, and if they know you’re working him, then they’ll always know how to find him. You’re one of my best caseworkers, and you know the job. I trust you when you’ll say you’ll get it done, that it will get done. You know as well as I do what has to be done. You also know how you’ll have to do it.”
She wanted to argue. Being stuck babysitting mob guys was not her idea of a twenty-four-hour-a-day vacation, but Jack was right. It would only take a single mistake and she could end up killing the witness or getting herself kidnapped, tortured and maybe even killed. She sighed. “You’ll water my plants?”
“This isn’t going to be easy, Lexi, especially if they are watching you.”
She nodded. “I figured that out myself, Jack. Is tomorrow soon enough, or are we going to do this tonight?”
“It’s gotta be tonight, and then I’ll set up transport for both of you. You’re going to have to go deep with this one, Lexi. You’re going to have to die.”
Chapter Four
Lexi Hunter carried her briefcase to her car, sliding in and stuffing the key in the ignition. Her mind was racing with so many things that had to be done before she could disappear. She made a mental list. Turning over the key, she felt as if she’d been smashed into a wall. There was a noise―a tha-whump sound that felt as if it would shatter her eardrums―then there was nothing but blackness.
* * * *
The van pulled into the downstairs lot leading straight to the County morgue. Two men jumped out, going to the back and tugging out a gurney holding a plain black plastic body bag. They rolled the gurney into the building, signing in at the logs before depositing it back with the medical examiner.
“What’s this?” the older man asked.
“Explosion in the parking lot at the federal building; A U.S. Marshal was blown up.”
The M.E. nodded, pulling his wire-rimmed glasses off his nose, cleaning them on the edge of his scrubs. “I take it that accounts for the smoky smell.”
“Yes, sir,” one of the two men said. “She was little more than a charred husk.”
“Do we have a positive identification?”
“Alexandra Hunter,” one of the men said, glancing down at the paperwork on the clipboard. “She got into her car, and that’s all she wrote.”
“Okay, thanks, gentlemen. I’ll take her from here.” The M.E., a Doctor Rupert Cabot, pushed the gurney back toward the autopsy room, humming to himself. Locking the gurney wheels next to one of the stainless steel autopsy tables, he readied to move the body from the body bag to the table.
He tugged on the zipper that held the bag closed, slowly lowering it. The smell of burned pork grew in the room, and Dr. Cabot blinked his eyes, pulling his mask on over his lips and nose to filter out some of the stench. He flipped back the front of the bag, his eyes growing wide as the body stirred and sat up.
“I’m Lexi Hunter, Doctor. I’m sorry if I startled you.”
“Well, my bodies usually don’t sit up on me on my autopsy table or talk to me.”
She held out her hand, letting the doctor help her down. “I’m betting you don’t usually have U.S. Marshals on your table that often either.”
<
br /> “You’d win that bet.”
“Well, I don’t want to put you in any danger, so if anyone asks, I’m a crispy critter.”
“I can’t falsify official documents, Miss Hunter.”
“It’s Agent Hunter, Doctor. This is a life and death situation, otherwise I wouldn’t even be asking. My boss will be here soon to fill you in on what is need to know.”
There was the sound of voices arguing on the other side of the door, and Lexi smiled, pushing her hair back and away from her face. “That would be my boss, Doctor.”
Jack pushed through the double door, a gurney in front of him. “Doctor...”
“Rupert Cabot, sir. I’ve been M.E. for Monroe City for a few years now.”
“Well, Doctor Cabot, I have Lexi Hunter in this bag. She is a U.S. Marshal and deserving of your respect and attention, but not too much of your attention, if you know what I mean.”
“I’m an officer of the law as much as either of you. I cannot falsify records.”
“What if it would save a life, Doctor?” Lexi stepped up beside him and touched his hand, which was covered in a latex glove. “What if it would save my life?”
He stared at her, and she could see the concern as well as the confusion in his face.
“My life is in danger, Doctor Cabot. The only thing that will save it is if I disappear. You can help save my life. Just do what Jack asks and forget you saw me.”
Jack reached out, pulling the zipper down on the body bag and showing Doctor Rupert a badly burned, female body. What little of her hair that hadn’t been sizzled off was dark brown, but every inch of her skin was burned. She looked a little like a charcoal left in the fire too long. “If you compare dental records, she will be Alexandra Hunter, Doctor. There shouldn’t be any viable DNA to make a comparison. If you are concerned about the real identity of the girl, she was a vagrant, a drug user. She was killed in an apartment fire that almost burned down the entire building. She has no family, and the County would have had to bury her. Instead, the U.S. Marshals will bury her with honors. There will be people at her funeral who care for her. No one will be hurt by this, and you will have saved Lexi’s life as well as the lives of those she protects.”
Lexi saw the doctor glance at her and knew Jack had won. The doctor would do what he would be asked to do. The girl would be determined to be Lexi and then cremated and given to her parents.
“You will tell my parents I am not dead,” she said when they were walking out of the morgue about half an hour later. Lexi looked entirely different. A gray haired wig covered her brunette curls, and a pair of thick wire-rimmed glasses covered her amber eyes. She walked using a cane, leaning on it as if it were the only thing holding her up. An ancient dress covered the body-suit she wore to add weight to her frame, and a pair of black orthopedic shoes were on her feet.
Jack held on to her arm as if helping her walk. When he didn’t say anything, she glanced up at him from behind the glasses. “Jack?”
“How do I know they can be trusted, Lexi?”
She stopped walking and turned toward him. “They are my parents, Jack. You will tell them I’m not dead, or I quit. Got me? I quit.”
“I’ll tell them, Lex. Now let’s go. You remind me almost too much like my grandmother.”
“Should I be complimented?”
“Uh, no. Grandma liked cigars and younger men.”
She just shook her head. She was relieved when they finally made it out to the car and Jack shut the passenger door behind her. He got in the driver’s seat and drove a long, winding route to the safe house, making sure they weren’t being followed. He pulled into the driveway at the same time as the curtain at the window of the house was pulled back a few inches.
“Your men?”
“Gerald and Joe. Two of my best,” Lexi said, getting out of the car. She was looking forward to getting inside and out of this getup, though she doubted she’d ever live it down. Going to the trunk, she waited for Jack to open it and then grabbed the duffle bag of her clothes. Her .45 was in her purse, though there was nothing else in there. She’d been treated like her witnesses; everything had been left behind. She’d been amazed Jack had not forced her to get rid of her gun.
Going to the back door, she used her key to open it, seeing the look on Gerald and Joe’s faces. “Problems, boss?”
“I’m Gabe’s new roommate,” she growled. She tugged at the wig, wincing as one of the pins pulled at her hair. Dropping the glasses and the wig on the table, she sank down on one of the chairs and tugged off the shoes.
“She was targeted by someone who was looking for Gabe. It just seemed most feasible to make her disappear, at least until this case is done.”
“So that’s the reason she smells a bit on the smoky side? It wasn’t some funky perfume used to attract firemen?”
Lexi got up, reaching out and smacking Joe across the back of his head. “I was in my car when it blew up. You’d smell smoky too.”
“Oh, yeah, sorry, boss.” Joe glared at Gerald, who was laughing into his open bottle of soda.
“I’m going to get a shower,” she growled. “Jack can fill you two in.” She got up and headed out of the kitchen toward the downstairs bathroom that held the shower. “You two can get your jokes in while I’m gone, and then I don’t want to hear anymore about it.”
She headed out of the room, hearing Joe say now he thought she looked like his favorite teacher in elementary school; Sister Mary Katherine. Shaking her head, she closed the bathroom door just a touch harder than necessary, locking it before she turned to the shower. She set the temperature to just a hair past scalding and stripped off the rest of her disguise.
The water felt like heaven against her skin, the heat loosening muscles tightened by the blast and by nerves. Being trapped in this house would not be pleasant, but it was a hell of a lot better than being dead. She could still feel the compression blast that set off the explosion in her car, giving her a few precious seconds to climb out and hide before the main blast ignited. The car went up in a ball of fire, and if she’d been caught inside, she’d have been barbequed. There was no doubt about that.
She reached down, picking up the small bottle of shampoo she’d kept in her office. Pouring some in her hands, she began the long process of washing her hair. It was a Hunter curse. Soft, thick hair, which was great, but it was curly and liked to snarl if washed the wrong way. She’d had one boyfriend who loved to wash her hair and on days like today, she missed him and his hands.
Dipping her head back, she rinsed out the soap, and then lifted a lock of her hair to give it an experimental sniff. Lexi couldn’t tell if she was smoke free or not. She grabbed the sponge she used in her showers and put a good dollop of body wash on it, and cleaned her body quickly, moaning a little when the muscles in her back and arms protested the exercise. She was going to hurt for a few days, she had no doubt, but then again, being in custody of the marshals meant she wouldn’t have all that much exercise ahead of her.
The idea of being trapped in this house, and under Jack’s thumb until she got Gabe through this entire process, had her feeling antsy. She wanted nothing more than to get dressed and tell Jack to drive her to her house, to take her chances, but that was stupidity, and Lexi was nowhere even close to being stupid.
She finally got out of the shower, drying off quickly. Reaching into her bag, she grabbed the bottle of lotion she used every day after her shower. Rubbing it on, the semblance of normalcy of the actions calmed her shattered nerves. She got dressed, throwing on a pair of pajama pants and a tank top and sliding a sweatshirt jacket over the top. She put on a pair of socks and packed up her shower stuff, and then hung up the towel she’d used and opened the door.
She could hear Jack and Joe talking sports in the kitchen. She knew that a dutiful marshal would have gone back into the kitchen and found out about the particulars of the next day, but amazingly enough, she didn’t feel like being a good, dutiful marshal. She felt like being irrational
, of thinking of herself for once in her life. Turning toward the stairs, she ignored Gerald’s call and headed up as quickly as her sore body would go.
Instead of going into a bedroom, she headed toward the room she knew Gabe was using. She stepped inside and saw him in the bed. His shoulders were naked above the blankets, and he had one arm thrown above his head covering his eyes.
Lexi felt a surge of pleasure at the sight of him. He was a handsome man, one fact she was sure he knew. He groaned in his sleep, moving as if he was in pain, his feet catching in the blanket and pulling it down to just below his stomach.
Her breath caught, not just at the sight of his half-naked form, but also at the sight of his wounds. From the reports she read, he’d been stabbed three times and shot once when he refused to die right away, but his attackers hadn’t appreciated the man they’d gone after. He was stubborn, and his constitution showed it. What would have killed a man in less sturdy condition, laid Gabe low to be sure, but hadn’t even put him in the hospital for over a week.
She admired that. She came from a family of strong and stubborn men and women, and she admired the same attributes in the people she kept around herself. Jack had been strong until he’d had his heart attack. The attack and the operation afterward had taken a lot out of the man. She could understand that, otherwise she wouldn’t have been able to continue working for him.
This man in front of her, and what little she’d come to know about him, she found extremely attractive. Yes, he was a criminal, but he’d also taken the stab wounds to the gut for a friend. When they couldn’t kill him that way, they shot him as well. That spoke a lot to her about his devotion to the man he’d been willing to die for. It told her about exactly what kind of man he was.
She found herself walking closer to the bed, sinking down next to him. She put out her hand to touch his shoulder. “Gabe?” she whispered.
He moaned again as he slid his hand from his stomach to cover hers. “Lexi,” he murmured, still half-asleep.