“You’re right,” she said, smiling. “Would you like some cookies?”
“You didn’t make those apricot ones, did you?”
“A double batch.”
Smiling, Jeff went to the kitchen and Cassie nodded toward the refrigerator. He opened it, shifted the plastic wrap, and came out with three fat cookies. “I don’t know what we’d do without you,” he said, then kissed her on the cheek on his way out of the room.
“Then don’t throw me out,” Cassie said under her breath as she started cleaning up the kitchen.
5
THE SECONDJEFFwas out of Cassie’s sight, he practically ran down the hall to his bedroom. As soon as the door was closed, he flipped open his cell phone and speed-dialed Roger’s number. “What the hell have you done?” he asked as soon as Roger answered. “Cassie’s ready to skin you.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I went fishing with you today, remember?”
“Yeah, and in case you’re asked, you caught two fish.”
“So who came up with that one?”
“Elsbeth.”
“How did you create such a dear, smart child?”
“I married well,” Jeff said quickly. “Where are you?”
“You know where I am.”
Jeff groaned. “Okay, get out of there ASAP. Something’s up with the womenfolk.”
“No!” said Roger in a voice that was mostly groan. “Anything but women trouble. I can take it all but that.”
“You and me both,” Jeff said.
“If that were true, you’d ditch Skylar.”
“Would that I could, old buddy. I really wish I could. Meet me on the landing in ten minutes.”
“Better make it thirty,” Roger said. “Her Royal Highness has me, and you know how that is.”
Jeff grimaced. He knew that Roger and Althea had a chummy relationship that he’d never developed with the woman—and had never wanted to.
“Okay, thirty minutes,” he said, then hung up.
The house was quiet, and he had papers to grade, but he didn’t feel like doing it. He had no idea what had happened, but something had agitated Cassie today. He well knew that she and Skylar hated one another, but it seemed to be more than that. Whatever it was, Cassie hadn’t been herself.
He felt the vibration of his phone and looked to see who it was. Leo. Or rather, code name 386. None of the people Jeff worked with used their names. He flipped the phone open.
“Hey, old friend,” Jeff said. “What’s up?”
Leo didn’t waste time on preliminaries. “I need a favor.”
Jeff smiled at Leo’s elegant English accent. Leo could say horrible things and it came out sounding as though he was inviting a person to afternoon tea. “Shoot.”
“You remember that cabin you and I had the meeting at about four years ago?”
“Sure. Roger’s place.”
“Does he still own it?”
“Yes. You want to borrow it?”
“I want you to meet me there the weekend after this coming one. The twenty-eighth. I need you to take delivery on something for me.”
“Me? This is an honor.”
“Don’t get your knickers in a twist. My contact is an old man, and he only trusts your father. I talked him into handing it off to Thomas’s son. Can you do it?”
“I don’t see why not. Fax me the details and I’ll arrange it all with Roger.”
“Great. Thanks a lot. I’ll owe you one.”
Jeff waited for Leo to say more, but he was silent. “Anything else you need?”
When Leo still said nothing, Jeff understood. Years ago, he and Skylar were an item. “You want me to bring Skylar, don’t you?”
“I wouldn’t mind seeing her again.”
And I wouldn’t mind turning her over to you, Jeff thought but didn’t say. “So who will you be?”
“Myself,” Leo said, laughing. “I look forward to a whole weekend of no disguises and time with my friend and a pretty girl. When we get back from the drop, I’m going to get into swim gear and laze in the water with Sky. Tell her to wear that tiny purple suit of hers.”
“Gladly,” Jeff said as he hung up.
He looked at his watch. He still had twenty minutes before he was to meet Roger, and since he was with Althea, he’d probably be late. Leaning back in his chair, Jeff closed his eyes for a moment and thought back to the time he’d told his father about Skylar.
The derelict building was roofless and had a thousand bullet holes in the walls. The floor was covered with chopped bark that made footsteps soundless. Four men and one woman, all clad in black and wearing ski masks, slipped about in the shadows. They each carried a handgun held at arm’s length. Their breathing was as controlled as they could manage, but their hearts were pounding with anticipation and fear.
Suddenly, a lean, agile form came around the far corner of the building, and in an instant, there were three blasts from his gun. Behind him came another person, but the man spun and shot. They saw the man quickly raise his gun and fire the fifth round, this time at the figure crouched on top of the wall.
“Damn it!” said the man as he jumped to the ground. “I thought I had you that time.”
Their teacher, Jefferson Ames, had shot all five of them with the red paint slug, then removed his mask and was now reloading. “I heard you and I saw you.” He looked up at them, their masks now removed and their young, eager faces looking at him with wide eyes.
“Have any of you reloaded?” His voice was full of the frustration of having to tell them the same things over and over.
“No, sir,” three of them said sheepishly.
“A good agent—” Jeff began, but then he saw the face of the girl. She was good at the book work, but she had a long way to go with the physical aspects of being an agent. Right now her eyes were open wide in astonishment, as though she saw something behind her teacher.
Jeff spun, but not fast enough to shoot first. The intruder’s gun went off. Exactly over Jeff’s heart, in a perfect shot, a red blob of paint marred his black running suit. In front of him was a man wearing a pair of khaki trousers and a dark brown leather jacket, his face hidden under a black ski mask.
Behind Jeff were his five students, and he could feel that they were standing absolutely still. Who had had the audacity to shoot their teacher? And who had been able to sneak up on him and get that deadly shot off?
Jeff turned to the students. “May I introduce my father? Thomas Ames.”
Jeff smiled at the respectful silence that hit his students. His father’s name was in the textbooks and on award plaques around the school. Thomas Ames was a legend to those training at the CIA school, the school that the United States government said didn’t exist.
Thomas pulled his ski mask off, revealing his handsome face and thick gray hair, and smiled at the students, who still hadn’t recovered enough to speak.
“Our guest lecturer for the next hour,” Jeff said, and he was pleased to see his father’s slight frown. Thomas hated teaching. He was a man who learned by doing and thought others should learn that way too. Jeff knew his father had come to have lunch with him, but the elder man couldn’t resist showing off by shooting his own son in front of his students. So his punishment was to have to teach for an hour while Jeff showered and changed.
Thirty minutes later, Jeff went back to the classroom to find his father reading a book, his feet propped on Jeff’s old desk.
“What did you do with them?” Jeff asked. “They didn’t deserve a holiday.”
“You’re too hard on them. That blond boy has potential.”
“Maybe. He’s too impetuous for my taste.”
“I seem to remember saying that to someone else.”
Jeff smiled. For all that his father said he hated teaching, when Jeff was growing up, they had played endless games of “find the spy”—or whatever name they came up with. By the time he was in the second grade, Jeff was figuring out simple codes. When he was tw
elve, he started training with weapons.
In their house, what his father did for a living was never spoken about, but Jeff and his mother knew. There were many nights when Jeff had sat by his mother and held her hand while she waited nervously for a call from her husband. Three times the call had come from agents to tell her that Thomas had been injured.
It was an injury to Thomas that had caused Jeff to be at the conference where Margaret Madden and her daughter were. As a favor to an old friend, not on official business, Thomas had agreed to work on security that weekend. Tempers were high over jobs that were being lost and others that were to be gained. Jeff was young and wasn’t a CIA agent then, but he’d had a lifetime of training, so when his father was incapacitated, Jeff went in his place, and he’d done an excellent job. Not one argument had gone past the shouting stage.
When Jeff first mentioned Skylar to his father, they had gone to downtown Williamsburg to The Trellis restaurant. Jeff knew that after lunch his father would want to go to the William and Mary bookstore and spend hours browsing.
But the minute their order was placed, Thomas started on his favorite topic: Cassie. As always, he asked Jeff when he was going to ask Cassie out.
“Don’t start on me again,” Jeff said. “Cassie is wonderful, but if I let her get close to me, she’ll find out too much, and you know that she couldn’t handle the truth about my life.”
“Don’t underestimate her,” Thomas said. “There’s more to that girl than you think.”
“Do you forget that I’ve known her for a very long time?”
“Since you never let me forget it, how could I?”
Jeff paused until the waiter had put his salad down and left. “Look, Dad, Cassie is great. I couldn’t like a girl better than I like her, but, face it, she’s a quiet, gentle person. She lives in a world that’s normal. My world would scare her. Look at the way she’s terrified of her own mother.”
“I’ve met Margaret Madden, and she scares everybody.”
Jeff ate a few bites before speaking. “Cassie is an innocent and it’s better that way. She stays at home with Elsbeth and that’s all she needs.”
Thomas smiled. “I’ve seen the way you look at her, and it’s not especially ‘innocent.’”
Jeff grinned. “Who wouldn’t? She’s a knockout.”
“She’s in love with you.”
Jeff put his fork down. “She thinks she is, but it’s just an old-fashioned crush that she’s carried into adulthood. She loves my daughter, and that’s what’s important.”
“Jeff, my son, you’re a fool. Someday that beautiful young woman is going to get tired of waiting for you.”
“She’s not waiting for me . If she finds some nice young man, great. I’ll walk her down the aisle and give her away.”
Thomas looked at his son in astonishment. “I wonder where your mother and I failed in raising you. Or do you think it’s a genetic defect? I must brush up on my Mendel to see how two intelligent people could give birth to an idiot.”
“Are you finished?”
“No. I’m not going to be finished until you come to your senses about Cassie. If you don’t do something soon, someone’s going to swoop down and snatch her away from you.”
“Good. I hope she finds someone nice and safe .”
Thomas snorted in derision. “I’d like to see what you’d do if someone went after Cassie.”
“You don’t know me as well as you think you do. Look, let’s forget this. I have a problem. You remember David Beaumont?”
“I remember his money.”
“The agency wants him to help—” Jeff broke off and looked away.
“I know. You can’t tell me. So what’s the problem?”
“They want me to look after his daughter for a while. Get her settled here in Williamsburg.”
“Is she too old for Elsbeth?”
Jeff smiled. “I guess so. She’s thirty-four and gorgeous.”
Thomas was silent as their entrées were placed before them. “And how were you chosen to be this woman’s escort?”
Jeff shrugged. “I don’t know. She and Roger Craig knew each other in college, so—”
“Couldn’t he and that lovely wife of his, Dana, show this older woman around?”
Jeff frowned. “What is wrong with you today? I’m going to be spending time with a beautiful woman. Haven’t you been complaining that I never go out?”
“No,” Thomas said angrily, “I’ve been complaining that you live with a woman who is equal to both our late wives but you’re too stubborn to see it.”
Jeff’s face was just as angry. “Are you forgetting that the last woman I was in love with was killed because of me?”
Thomas sat back in his seat, his anger leaving him. “No, I haven’t forgotten. Do you plan to go through your life without love?”
“Come on, Dad,” Jeff said. “How’s your fish?”
Thomas sighed. “Excellent, as always.” He lowered his voice. “It’s true that Cassie is an ‘innocent’ as you call her, but she’s only that way when you’re around. When she’s alone with Elsbeth and me, she’s…” Thomas searched for the word. “She’s a firecracker. She’s funny and smart and creative. It’s just when you come into the room that she becomes quiet and subdued.”
“You’ve said all this before,” Jeff said, “but it changes nothing. I don’t want Cassie to get hurt.”
“You’re no longer a field agent,” Thomas said, “so there wouldn’t be the danger that Lillian was in.”
Jeff had heard every word before, so he couldn’t bring himself to listen. “Dad,” Jeff said slowly, “I know you’ve come to love Cassie and so do I, but not in the way you want me to. Sure, I’ve had some problems with…” He hesitated.
“Raging desire?” Thomas asked.
“I’m a firm believer that parents shouldn’t say such things to their children, but, yeah, raging desire. It wouldn’t work out between Cassie and me. I really hope that I like this woman, Skylar Beaumont. In spite of being a rich kid, she’s been around. Did you know that she used to go with Leo Norton? And she and Roger were nearly engaged when they were in college.”
“In my day, we had a name for girls like that,” Thomas said quietly.
“I’m not going to argue with you,” Jeff said. “I know what I’m doing.”
Thomas pushed his empty plate away. “I’ve never seen anyone who knew less what he was doing than you. Thank you for lunch.” He stood up. “By the way, when you saw your students’ eyes widen, you should have ducked.”
“And let the bullet go over my head and hit one of them?”
Thomas smiled. “Good boy. You look out for the people in your care. Now, if you just applied that to your home life and took care of—”
Jeff cut his father off with a look, and Thomas went away, shaking his head.
On his way to the bookstore, Thomas thought that the real problem was that Cassie made their home life so very easy. It had crossed his mind many times that what would help them all is if something happened to unsettle their lives. Lately, every time Cassie did something nice for Jeff, like buy him a new set of gym clothes or cook his favorite meal, Thomas wanted to tell her not to do it. Sometimes he wanted to shout “Don’t make him so damned comfortable!”
But Thomas didn’t have the courage to upset their lives. The outcome could be good, but it could also mean that they’d lose Cassie, and he didn’t think that he or Elsbeth could stand that.
He needed to think of something that would make his son see sense!
6
IT WAS COOL BY THE WATER,and Jeff hadn’t brought a jacket. The little landing where he was to meet Roger was secluded but well lit with tall streetlamps. He shoved his hands in his pockets and waited for Roger, who came with his usual loud movements. “You’d never make an agent,” Jeff said, frowning. He wanted to be in his warm house, away from the mosquitoes, but one look at Roger’s face made him forget his complaints. “What’s happened?”
Immediately, Jeff flipped open his phone. “I’m going to kill that kid Goodwin. I knew he was too young to be put on a job like that.”
Roger put his hand out to stop Jeff from calling. “Althea did it. She put on a little play.”
“She did what?”
“After the housekeeper left on a long list of ‘errands’ that Althea came up with, Althea faked a migraine and sent Brent off to get her some pills. Truth was, she saw the girls on the beach, fired some old prop pistol into the air, then arranged herself on the terrace. They came to rescue her.”
“I bet she didn’t muss up her hair while she was being rescued,” Jeff muttered. “What lie did she tell them?”
“Althea made up some cock-and-bull story about her ex-husband, Kenneth Ridgeway, having fired at her because he wanted money.”
“That poor man,” Jeff said. “He hasn’t been near her in…”
“Not since Althea made the whole country laugh at him,” Roger said. “Anyway, our ladies showed up, masquerading as angels, and offered to help. Althea served them tea.”
Jeff groaned. “And I’m sure they had a lovely time.” His head came up. “Could Cassie have seen you at Althea’s tonight?”
“No. Not possible. We were in the back most of the time so—” Roger broke off. “Actually, there were about ten minutes when I was with Althea and Brent in the living room. The curtains were closed, but maybe…What happened to make you think I was seen?”
“Cassie came running into the house, out of breath, and holding on to a basket of cookies as if her life depended on it. Her face was white, and she looked as though she’d seen something she didn’t like.”
“Damn!” Roger said. “Think she was taking cookies to Althea?”
“Yeah, that’s something she’d do.”
“So now what do we do?” Roger asked.
Jeff looked at the river. “It was only a matter of time before Althea broke her promise to stay away from other people.”
Secrets Page 6