Dead Even

by Mariah Stewart

  CHAPTER

  TWENTY-TWO

  Mara sat on the ottoman in front of the wing chair and studied her daughter’s face. Julianne had barely moved since their arrival. Wide-eyed and confused, she had stood at the end of the cobbled walk for a long time, staring at the house. The only spark of life she’d shown during her homecoming was when Spike, Mara’s Jack Russell terrier, had danced around her feet, greeting her wildly.

  “You have a dog,” Julianne had said, even as she avoided looking at Mara.

  “His name is Spike,” Mara told her, forcing a steady note into her voice. “I bought him after you . . . went away. You always wanted a dog, and I wanted him to be here for you when you came back.”

  Julianne had merely nodded, sitting down on a chair to allow Spike onto her lap. He lavished her with dog kisses, bringing the first true smile to her face.

  “He likes me,” Julianne said softly.

  “He does,” Mara had agreed.

  Mara sat quietly and watched as her dog won over her daughter, knowing that she, as Julianne’s mother, would need to take things a little more slowly than Spike did. She wished she could hug her daughter again, wished she could gather her back into her arms as she had at the airport, but after that first connection, Julianne had begun to withdraw. She’d barely spoken in the car on the way home, and once at Mara’s house, she had said nothing until Spike had welcomed her home.

  The front door opened cautiously, and Mara’s sister stepped inside.

  “Hi,” she said. “May I come in?”

  She addressed the question to Julianne, who openly studied her face, then nodded slowly.

  “I’m your aunt Anne Marie,” Annie told her as she closed the door behind her.

  Julianne nodded slowly. “Ammy.”

  “You remember me?” Annie dropped her briefcase and overnight bag near the door and exchanged a fleeting glance with Mara. As a child who had found “Aunt Anne Marie” too much of a mouthful, Julianne had called her Ammy.

  The girl nodded again.

  “Do you remember this house, Julianne?” Mara asked.

  Another nod.

  “There were plants there.” She pointed to the wide windowsill behind the sofa. “And a picture of a lighthouse there.” She pointed to a space near the stairwell that now held photographs of Julianne as a baby.

  She stared at the photographs for a long moment, then turned to Mara for confirmation.

  “Yes,” Mara told her, “that’s you.”

  Julianne got off the chair, Spike still in her arms, and stood on the bottom step to more clearly see the photographs.

  “Do you want me to take them down?” Mara started to get up.

  “No. I can see them.” She touched first one, then the next, then turned to Mara and said, “There’s you and Ammy, but not Daddy.”

  “No,” Mara answered, not wanting to look at Annie, afraid to risk finding approval or disapproval in her psychologist’s eyes. “No. There are no pictures of you with your father in this house.”

  “You’re really angry with him,” Julianne stated matter-of-factly.

  “Yes. I am still angry with him.”

  “I’m angry, too.” Julianne turned to her, that anger burning in her eyes. “You must have done something really bad for him to take me away.”

  Shocked, Mara sat back as if she’d been shot.

  “You must have been a really bad mother.” Julianne aimed at her heart again.

  “Julianne, sometimes people do things for their own reasons, reasons that have nothing to do with what someone else might have done or might not have done.” Anne Marie stepped in immediately. “Do you remember when you lived here? Do you remember when you were little?’

  Julianne’s face hardened.

  “Do you, Julianne?” Annie pressed her.

  “Yes. I remember.”

  “What is it that you think of when you remember living here?” Annie walked toward the stairs.

  “I want to go to my room. Do I still have a room?”

  “First door on the left,” Annie told her.

  Julianne ran up the steps and, seconds later, slammed the bedroom door.

  “That went well.” Mara grimaced.

  “Actually, it didn’t go badly at all.” Annie sat down behind her sister on the chair that Julianne had vacated. “Julianne remembers you, she remembers the house—”

  “She hates me.” Mara covered her face with her hands. “She blames me for all this. She thinks it was my fault that Jules ran away with her. You heard her—”

  “It’s not an unexpected reaction, honey. She’s a very, very confused little girl. You’re just back from the dead, as far as she’s concerned, remember? She’s been with Jules all these years, and regardless of what else he has done, she loves him. He’s her father. She’s feeling betrayed by him right now, and finding it really, really difficult to understand how her loving, wonderful father could have done something so terrible. So instead of blaming him, she has to blame you.”

  Mara broke into tears.

  “Sweetie, I’m sorry. I told you this was going to be very hard for both of you.”

  “I know, but I want so much for her to love me again. I want her to know how much I love her, how I never gave up hope—”

  “That much, I’m sure she knows. After all, you did send someone to find her. She’ll think of that, by and by. But for now, her life is a huge jumble, a huge mess of a puzzle. She’s been totally upended. You need to give her time to think things through.”

  “I don’t want her to hate me.”

  “She doesn’t. She’s just afraid and confused. It’s normal. It’s exactly what I expected her to do.”

  “You could have warned me.”

  “I thought I had.” Annie massaged her sister’s shoulders for a few minutes, then told her, “By the way, Aidan is here.”

  “Where?”

  “Right out front.”

  “What should I do? What should I tell him? Should he be here?”

  “It’s up to you,” Annie said. “What do you think?”

  “I think I’m glad he’s here, but I don’t think he should stay overnight right now.”

  “I agree. Tell him that.”

  “I will.”

  Mara opened the door and stepped outside. Aidan was leaning against his car, which was parked in the driveway.

  “How’s it going?” he asked when he saw her.

  “I don’t think it’s going so well, but Annie thinks it’s all as she expected.”

  “That bad, eh?”

  He walked to her and took her into his arms.

  “Julianne thinks that her father took her away because I was such a bad mother, he had to save her from me,” she whispered.

  “She didn’t say that.” Aidan rocked her slowly, side to side.

  “That’s what she meant.”

  “She has a lot to think about right now. The changes in her life over the past twenty-four hours must be terrifying her.”

  “That’s pretty much what Annie said.”

  “Annie knows what she’s talking about.”

  “I’m scared,” Mara cried into his chest. “I’m afraid she won’t love me, won’t let me love her. That she wants to go back to her father . . .”

  “Well, since he’s going to be facing federal charges, there’s not a snowball’s chance in hell of that happening. The minute he shows up, he’s going to be arrested.”

  “No shooting, Aidan.” She tilted her head back and looked up into his eyes. “Don’t shoot him.”

  “It isn’t anyone’s intent to shoot him. The government wants him alive and well and singing like a bird.”

  “You mean, about Prescott’s camp or school or whatever it is he has going with these young girls. . . .”

  “Right. There’s lots of money floating in and out of that organization. They want to know where it’s coming from and where it’s going.”

  “Did you know?” Her eyes narrowed as she studied h
is face. “When we were there, in Wyoming, when Miranda came for us. Did she know? Did you?”

  “Yes,” he said without hesitation. “Not until she told me, but yes, she told me that Julianne was in there.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me? Why did you let me believe that we’d failed?”

  “Because I knew that if anyone had a chance of getting Julianne out safely and bringing her home, it was Genna Snow. And there was no way I could risk Genna’s life—and Julianne’s—by telling you what Miranda had told me. I’m sorry, but I had to back away quietly.”

  “And if Genna had failed?”

  “Failure wasn’t an option.”

  “You really believed that?”

  “I did.”

  “You wouldn’t have let anything happen to her. If you’d thought something might happen to her . . .”

  “I’d have gone in myself to get her.”

  “I believe you would have.” Mara reached up to touch the side of his face, and he turned his head to kiss her hand.

  “It’s not always going to be like this, you know.” He answered her unspoken fears. “She’s going to be okay with you. When all of the truth comes out, she’ll understand.”

  “I wish I was as confident as you and Annie are. That I could believe it would be all right. Until then . . .”

  “Until then, you’ll be there for her and answer her questions honestly and let her know that you love her, that you never gave up, that you never would have given up.”

  “It’s not easy.”

  “No one thought it would be.”

  “Which reminds me . . .” She stepped back and held him at arm’s length. “I don’t think you should stay here until—”

  “Until Julianne’s settled?” He finished the sentence for her. “I hadn’t planned on it. I figured this was all going to be hard enough without her finding out that, on top of everything else, there’s another man in your life. Especially since there’s a pretty good chance her father will turn up pretty soon. Mrs. West next door has gone to stay with her sister until this is over. She left the key with me so that we can use her house if any of us need to grab catnaps, so I’ll be getting what sleep I can on her sofa.”

  “That was really sweet of her. But you don’t mind, until things settle down here?”

  “You waited for Julianne for seven years.” He raised her hand to his lips and kissed the tips of her fingers. “I can wait for as long as it takes.”

  “I really love you, you know that?”

  “Actually, I do know that.” He kissed her. “I love you, too. Now, go on back inside and get on with the business of getting to know your daughter again.”

  Mara stretched up to kiss him one more time, then started across the lawn toward the house. Just before she reached the front porch, she turned back to him.

  “Don’t forget. Please, Aidan. Don’t shoot him.”

  “I won’t forget,” he promised her. “Don’t worry. I won’t shoot him.”

  But not because I won’t be tempted to.

  Aidan went back to the car and reached in through the driver’s-side window to retrieve his ringing cell phone from the console.

  “Shields here.” He listened for a long moment. “They lost him where? How long ago was that? Great. Swell.”

  He began to pace slowly, still listening.

  “Tell Fletcher and Cahill I’m already at the scene. I’ll be here when they get here. No, Jayne’s gone. She’s been reassigned. Sure. I’ll keep in touch. . . .”

  He disconnected the call and tossed the phone back onto the car seat. Then he walked to the end of the driveway and stood in the halo of the streetlamp, wondering who would arrive first, his backup, or Jules Douglas.

  CHAPTER

  TWENTY-THREE

  It was just barely dusk when Will stopped in front of the driveway at 1733 Hillcrest Road and turned off the engine.

  “This is the house?” he asked, leaning forward slightly to take a look.

  “Yes. And there’s Aidan, back near the garage. Doesn’t look as if much is happening right now,” Miranda observed. “At least not outside. Inside, I’ll bet there’s plenty going on. I wonder how Mara’s doing with Julianne.”

  “I’ll bet it’s pretty tense all the way around. And on top of everything, here come the Feds to lay a trap for her daddy. I hate using a kid for bait.” He shook his head as he pocketed the keys.

  “So does everyone else, but no one could come up with a better way to lure Jules close enough to pick him up. Besides, those were the orders.” Miranda unsnapped her seat belt and opened her car door. “Let’s hope this goes quickly and quietly.”

  “Hey, guys.” Aidan walked down the drive to meet them.

  “What’s going on?” Will asked.

  “Nothing yet. Rob Flynn got here just before you did. He’s next door changing into what he calls his nighttime surveillance attire. He takes that all-black thing real seriously. The old lady there has offered us the use of her house for as long as we’re camped out here. She’s real close to Mara, and she has had nothing good to say about Jules, so she’s been great about letting us set up in there.” Aidan turned to Will. “Go ahead and pull your car in the drive there behind Flynn’s. That way, if—when—Jules shows up, there won’t be this cluster of vehicles around Mara’s house. We don’t want to scare him away.”

  “Won’t he expect to find someone watching the house?” Mara asked. “He can’t possibly be stupid enough to think that we’d leave Julianne here without a watchdog.”

  “Tough to know what he’s thinking. Keep in mind, he doesn’t know who was sent in to bring her out. For all he knows, it could have been a private investigator, someone hired by Mara. I don’t know what he’ll expect to find when he gets here. But I do expect him to get here as quickly as he can.”

  “Do you think he’ll have help from some of the reverend’s security staff?” Mara wondered.

  “He’s traveling alone. We already know that much,” Aidan told them. “He was tracked to the airport, but he managed to slip past our guy out there. Looks like Prescott loaned him one of his private planes for the trip. What’s that tell you?”

  “That Prescott wants the girl back pronto, before she gets to talk too much about what’s going on out there.” Will nodded.

  “That’s my feeling, too. Now, we know he’ll be headed this way, but there are so many airports within a few hours’ drive of here, it’s tough to know where he’ll be landing. We’re trying to determine where the plane will have clearance to land. We just don’t have as many agents available for this job as we could use, so we’re going to have to be ready for just about anything at any time.”

  Will started toward the car to move it into the driveway next door, pausing near the back of the sedan as a black pickup passed by. He watched it speed up, then proceeded to pull the car into the drive. He was on the phone when he returned to where Aidan and Miranda were still in conversation. He snapped the phone closed and dropped it into his pocket.

  “So what’s the plan here, Aidan?” he asked as he joined them.

  “During the day, two outside. Once Julianne goes to bed at night, there will be two agents inside, two outside. During the day, we’ll be taking turns grabbing what sleep we can on the sofa next door at Mrs. West’s. She also has one of those air mattress things that she made up in her den for someone to catch a few winks on.”

  “Nice of her,” Miranda said, recalling the small, white-haired woman she’d met on previous visits to Mara’s house.

  “Very,” Aidan agreed. “Sleeping in the car gets real old real fast.”

  “I hope we can wrap this up before Halloween.” Miranda watched several children run up the front walk of the house across the street. “I’d hate to see this play out with the sidewalks filled with little trick-or-treaters.”

  “Not to mention big trick-or-treaters,” Aidan said thoughtfully. “You never know who’s behind those masks. You could have someone like Jules slip right in wit
h a crowd of teenage boys, and who’d know the difference if everyone was wearing a mask.”

  “Great. Something else to worry about.” Will grimaced.

  “Just hope Jules moves tonight or tomorrow night, then we won’t have to deal with the Halloween crowd. That could be really dicey.” Aidan didn’t really want to think about just how dicey things could get if Mara opened the door to a masked Jules.

  “So, I take it Julianne doesn’t know any of this is going on?” Miranda nodded in the direction of the house.

  “Annie thought it would be a good idea if she didn’t. Her bedroom is on the other side of the house, so she won’t see us if she looks out the window,” Aidan explained.

  “Doesn’t that leave the other side of the house unguarded?” Will walked toward the back gate to look over the yard.

  “Only during the day, but there are no doors on that side of the house, and few windows, all of which are locked and alarmed,” Aidan pointed out. “Plus, keep in mind that because of the fence across there, anyone wanting to approach the house from the back has to go through Mrs. West’s backyard. There’s no way to sneak across the yard without being seen during the day. At night, we’ll be keeping an eye on the house from inside and out. I don’t think Jules will be able to get too close.”

  “Let’s hope you’re right.” Miranda glanced at her watch. “Who will Julianne think we are if she sees us during the day? And hasn’t she seen you out here? Who does she think you are?”

  “She’ll be told that you and Will are new neighbors, if she asks,” Aidan said. “She already knows that I’m a friend of her mother’s.”

  “Does she know how good a friend?” Miranda asked.