You Can't Escape (9781420134650)

by Bush, Nancy

  Marriage . . . She shook her head, kind of surprised at her own dark thoughts.

  She’d taken off her ring to do the yard work and now she looked at her bare finger. Why was she having such a hard time? It wasn’t like her to mull over things too long. The whole thing was making her half-crazy.

  Jake appeared on the back porch. “It’s gonna rain again,” he warned. “Come in and have a glass of wine.”

  “It isn’t five o’clock yet,” she said, but she stood up and picked up the gloves she’d stripped off.

  “My family’s in the wine business. There are no rules.” He was amused, his smile lazy.

  For a moment, she just looked at him, her heart swelling with emotion. “You know that I love you, right?”

  “Yeeesss . . .” he said cautiously.

  “We’re engaged, and I want to marry you.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “And you want to marry me. That’s what we’re doing.”

  “Where are we going with this?” he asked, gazing at her hard.

  “I don’t know,” she admitted, then rushed out, “I’m just having a helluva time with the ring!”

  “The ring?” He glanced down at her hand and saw it wasn’t on her finger.

  “Don’t ask me why. It’s nuts. I’m nuts. The ring’s beautiful. That’s not it. I don’t want a different one. But when people remark on it, I just want to rip it off and hide it. I’m probably the only woman in the galaxy that feels this way, but it seems like . . . I’m trying to prove something.”

  They stared at each other a moment; then Jake started to laugh.

  “What’s so funny?” she demanded.

  “Not a damn thing. You don’t want to wear the ring, don’t wear it. I don’t care, if that’s all it is, and if it’s something more, spit it out.”

  “No, that’s it. I just feel like I’m flaunting it, or something. I know it’s what everybody does, but it’s not me.”

  “You still want to get married.”

  “Yes.” She heard the note of uncertainty in her voice and cleared her throat. “Yes.”

  Jake’s gaze narrowed. “You’re lying.”

  “I want to get married,” she said positively, walking up to him and slipping her arms around his waist. “I just don’t want it to be the first thing somebody sees about me. The ring’s like this invitation to talk wedding. And I don’t like perps staring at it, either. I don’t want them to know anything about me.”

  He pulled her close and dropped his chin to the top of her head. “Don’t wear the ring, then.”

  “I want to be clear on this. I love you, and I want to marry you, and I kind of want it just to be between us . . . for a while. I don’t want the spotlight on me. It drives me crazy every time Pauline Kirby wants to put me on television. She’s been chasing me down about this Saldano bombing, even though I’m not anywhere on that case anymore. I just want to be anonymous. If that’s a flaw in my character, so be it.”

  “I kind of like your flaws, among other things,” he said, a smile in his voice.

  She pulled back and looked up at him. “You’re not upset.”

  “I don’t give a damn about the ring. I just want to make sure that’s all we’re talking about.”

  “That’s all we’re talking about,” she assured him, pulling his head down to kiss him. He gathered her close and they stumbled back into the house together. September started chuckling and Jake half carried her over to the couch, where they both sank down, still embracing.

  She was lying on his chest and she leaned down and pressed her nose to his. “How about we skip the wine and go straight for dessert?”

  “What kind of dessert would that be?”

  She slipped her hands down his chest and around to the strong curve of his back. “Pineapple upside-down cake?”

  He grinned. “Not sure what that means, but I’m all for it.”

  And then they were both laughing.

  Jordanna expected Kara to be waiting for her at the homestead when they got there, but she was nowhere to be seen. “I thought Kara was stopping by here first,” she mused, while she put their burgers on paper plates. Then she picked up her phone and placed a call to Kara’s cell. After four rings, she was sent to voice mail, so she clicked off. “Maybe she went to my father’s, first.”

  An hour and a half later, she phoned Kara again. This time the call went directly to voice mail. She was sitting on the couch beside Dance, and she tossed the phone on the bench she’d pulled over to use as a table again. They’d eaten their meal and had desultorily talked over the case. She knew he thought she should call her father and now, feeling frustrated, she gave in and grabbed up the cell phone again, scrolling to Jennie’s number. After two rings, her stepmother answered in surprise, “Jordanna?”

  “Hi, Jennie. I’m calling because I’m looking for Kara.”

  “She’s not here yet, but I’ve got a place set for you, too, and your friend. Please come by. Your father’s looking so forward to it!”

  “Okay . . . well . . . I need to talk to Kara. If she shows up, will you have her call me?”

  “Okay.” She sounded a bit crestfallen, but Jordanna was trying to tamp down a low-grade worry.

  “I think I’m going to have to skip dinner,” Jordanna said, “but I’ll call you again. And I want to talk to Dad, too.”

  “Oh? Good.” Jennie instantly perked up.

  “We’ll talk later,” Jordanna said hurriedly, hanging up. She didn’t want Jennie thinking it was going to be any hug fest between them.

  Dance asked, “Is it like Kara to go dark like this? Turn off her phone?”

  “I don’t know. I only see her occasionally. It’s surprising we’re all in Rock Springs at the same time.”

  Jordanna managed to wait around for another hour, walking the rooms like a caged lion, while Dance sat on the couch, his eyes closed in thought. Finally, Jordanna said, “I want to go find the kid on the ATV.”

  He said, “I may need a pain pill.”

  She quickly got him a pill and a glass of water. “You should have been taking these.”

  He nodded slowly. “I’d like to go with you.”

  “Stay here. I won’t be long.”

  She put another text through to Kara, her third, and wished she’d paid more attention to what Kara had said on the phone. And had she really seen the guy she thought was Emily’s boyfriend? Why did that chase chills along her spine?

  Ten minutes later, she was in her RAV and heading south and then east toward the base of the mountains.

  Todd Douglas liked to hike, and he preferred the rocky tors in the lower Cascades above and around Fool’s Falls to the flattened foothills near his hometown of Malone. He’d chosen a Saturday hike, had packed his backpack with a cheese and roast beef sandwich and a water bottle, a first aid kit, a flashlight, and his cell phone. A half-day hike, he’d told himself, and had done just that, starting about 11 AM and ending up above the falls about four. He’d thought about God a lot during his trek. He was religious in a way that his cousin, Rusty, poked fun at, though he struggled with the super-duper religious nuts, the kind that tended toward Green Pastures Church, which he suspected wasn’t even enough for the truly fanatical. No, Todd’s idea of heaven was nature. In his mind, what lay beyond the Pearly Gates was clear mountain streams, sheer granite cliffs, and verdant foliage gilded by sunlight and refreshed with silvery rain. He would never admit to such thoughts, as Rusty would think there was something seriously wrong with him. If you weren’t a carousing, drinking cowboy type with thoughts of screwing women, wrestling livestock, raising crops, and toting firearms, Rusty wasn’t completely sure you were a man.

  So, Todd didn’t let on to his thoughts when it came to his spirituality, though today, even with the beauty of the mountains all around him, his mind had certainly run down a more carnal path. Jordanna Winters had stirred some too-long-dormant sexual interest in him. He’d been reviewing their conversations at the coffee shop and Braxton
’s counter grill over and over again, every word and every nuance. He understood that she hadn’t been thinking about him that way at all, but that was okay. The hike today had cleared his mind, and he’d pretty much decided he was going to ask her on a date. He didn’t have her cell number, but he knew she was at the house where she’d grown up, so he thought he might amble on by.

  His mind was awash in these pleasant plans, his ears full of the rush of the falls, which tumbled and splashed down to the town below while he stood at the viewpoint parking lot above it, next to his truck. Because of the falls, he didn’t hear the car until it was almost in sight, and only then did he turn, waiting for it to come around the hairpin bend where the parking lot sat. Instead, its engine wound down and became indistinguishable over the roar of the water, as if it had been shut off.

  Wondering what had happened, Todd walked back around the curve, the late-afternoon sunlight warm on his back. Maybe he’d bring Jordanna to the top of the falls. She’d probably seen the view before many times, but it was still a breathtaking sight. Or, maybe he’d literally ask her to take a hike with him. She was bent on a story, but sometimes taking time off was a great way to gain perspective, charge up the old batteries.

  Around the bend from Fool’s Falls, Summit Ridge Drive rode a narrow ridge, the spine of a smaller mountain with deep cliffs on either side. It was a bitch to travel this route in the winter, but on a sunny day in May it was scenic, if a bit of a challenge for an inexperienced driver.

  The car was a late-model sedan and it was stopped across both lanes, facing toward the edge of the cliff that looked over the ranch and farmland south of Rock Springs. Todd thought it might be aimed over the Sazlow Ranch. Immediately he jogged forward, concerned. “Put the brake on!” he yelled. “You don’t want to go forward. You gotta get turned around!”

  The driver’s door opened slowly and the driver tumbled out onto the ground on the opposite side of the car from Todd.

  “Hey, you okay?” he called, worried. He hurried around the rear of the vehicle, not trusting the front, and was surprised when the injured driver suddenly popped up.

  “What?” Todd muttered. It was a man, and he suddenly came at him fast. “Whoa, whoa.” He was wearing boots, jeans, and a cowboy hat dipped over his face. “What happen—” he got out just before the man’s arm came up and smashed a large, jagged rock against Todd’s temple. Todd’s vision blurred and he went to his knees, crumpling like sand.

  Then his backpack was yanked off his back and he was being dragged by his arms, picked up and set in the driver’s seat. His head lolled backward. He tried to talk, but his brain couldn’t send messages to his tongue. His mouth sagged open.

  “Tell the Lord His work is being done,” the man said, holding up the huge rock in a gloved hand, the same one he’d smacked against Todd’s head, now covered with blood.

  Todd wasn’t sure, but thought he might have been crying when he said it. Todd thought, I know you . . . as the man tossed his backpack into the passenger seat and bent forward into the footwell. Todd heard the engine rev and dimly realized the man had placed the stone on the accelerator. Just as Todd’s dulled brain registered he was in real trouble, the stranger reached across his body and shifted the car from park to drive. With a hard jerk the car leapt forward, spun gravel and then charged over the lip of the cliff, plunging downward.

  Auggie said into his cell phone, “What did you say?”

  Diane sighed dramatically. “I said Jordanna Winters grew up in Rock Springs. Her mother and older sister are deceased. I couldn’t find an address for the younger sister, but her father, Dr. Dayton Winters, still resides in town, which is where he has a medical practice. You got it this time?”

  “Yeah. Thanks,” Auggie said distractedly as he clicked off. He was staring across the kitchen at Liv, who was bent down, examining the interior of the refrigerator.

  “We’re going to have to go out,” Liv said, her voice muffled as she directed her voice to the sad-looking carrots she’d pulled from the crisper.

  “That was Diane. I asked her to dig into some information for me.”

  “On the Saldano case?” Liv glanced around at him.

  She didn’t sound like she particularly cared if he answered or not. She was just making conversation. But he answered her anyway. “The woman who left the hospital with Jay Danziger is from Rock Springs.”

  Now she turned fully and looked at him in surprise. “Really.”

  “Did you know the Winters family?” he asked.

  Liv shook her head. “I think I remember a Dr. Winters, but we didn’t go to him. Those were tough years for me.”

  “I know. Just wanted to ask.”

  It was as a result of Liv’s past that Auggie had first met her. She’d lived in Rock Springs as a young child, but that very childhood held terrible memories for her.

  “You think that’s where they are?” she asked him now.

  “Maybe.” He looked at the time. “The feds have taken over, but I set up a meeting with Maxwell and Victor Saldano. Told ’em I had some information for them, which is a bit of a lie.”

  “Are you going to tell them about Jordanna Winters?”

  “Gotta tell Bethwick and Donley first, and I’m not ready to do that, either. The feds,” he explained to her questioning look. “Then maybe I’ll go out to Rock Springs, nose around. The doctor still has his practice there.”

  “Hmmm. Okay.” She turned back to the crisper and made a sound of disgust. “Never buy something ‘in a bag’ that you’re not going to eat right away.”

  Auggie walked over to her and put his arms around her. She immediately straightened and turned toward him in surprise. On the counter beside her were papers concerning the real estate exam she was getting ready to take.

  “What?” she asked, peering up at him, faintly smiling.

  “I was thinking, maybe you want to go with me to Rock Springs?” His cell suddenly started singing its default tone, and he looked over to where he’d left it on the counter.

  “Take it,” she said.

  He reluctantly let her slip out of his embrace as he scooped up the phone, recognizing the number with an inward groan. “Rafferty,” he answered.

  “Detective, I’m not waiting any longer,” Carmen Danziger’s cold tones reached his ear. “I’ve hired a private investigator to find my husband.”

  Ex-husband, he thought, but let it go. After their telephone tag this morning, Carmen had finally connected with him. The entire conversation had been Carmen firing questions at him that he either couldn’t, or wasn’t prepared to, answer. His lack of cooperation had infuriated her and she’d hung up in a rage. Now, he said, “Do what you gotta do.”

  “You people can’t even do the job we pay you for,” she huffed.

  “I’m meeting with your father later,” he started, but she cut the connection before he could finish.

  “That was . . . ?” Liv asked, this time with more curiosity.

  “Carmen Saldano Danziger.” He headed back toward the room he used as an office, and the drawer where he kept his gun when he was home. Then he gave her a quick kiss and headed out.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Auggie’s initial talk with Maxwell and Victor Saldano had netted very little information and generated a lot of fear and speculation. This time, when he was led into Victor Saldano’s home, he was taking a different tack.

  “I don’t know why you’re here,” the patriarch of the family said peevishly. “We’re dealing with those G-men. That’s enough.”

  Maxwell Saldano was on his feet, moving around the room behind the wheelchair where his father sat. The first thing he’d asked Auggie was if he knew where Jay Danziger was. “Dance just let himself out of the hospital, and now no one can find him,” he said, sounding more bewildered than angry.

  “And who’s this girl who spirited him away?” Victor demanded. “Carmen told us she pretended to be her.”

  Auggie said, “The last time we spoke, you
believed the perpetrator who left the bomb was a business competitor.”

  “Sabotage,” Max agreed. He’d stopped behind his father’s chair, his hands on the handles as if he were getting ready to push the old man away. “Yes, that’s what I thought. But who is this girl? Carmen’s upset. He didn’t tell her anything about where he was going.”

  “As I recall, you missed the meeting with Mr. Danziger because of a health crisis with your father,” Auggie asked him.

  Victor answered before Max could. “Heart ‘event,’ that’s what they call it.” He harrumphed.

  “My father’s nurse called me. Dad didn’t want an ambulance, and I dropped everything and came back. The ambulance was here by then.” He gave his father an exasperated look. “You should have just let them take you.”

  “No need,” he barked.

  “Yeah. I know,” Max said.

  Something in Max’s tone suggested this scenario had happened enough times to inure him to his father’s condition. “Could I talk to you a moment?” Auggie asked the younger Saldano.

  “What don’t you want me to hear?” Victor snapped, his face reddening.

  “I’ll talk to you alone next,” Auggie assured him. Max hesitated only a second before leading Auggie out of the study that was now his father’s bedroom into the circular entry hall.

  “You think your father’s exaggerating his condition,” Auggie said, watching his face.

  “He thinks it’s real.”