“Keep Richard close and don’t go hiking on your own. Are you going to check up on Matt?”
“Yeah, his girlfriend should be back in town. I’ll give her a call.” She swung Travis out of his high chair and hitched him on her hip. “Are you ready?”
Travis nodded and then held his arms out to Ian, who half rose from his chair. “Should I…does he want…?”
“He wants you to hold him. He was pretty excited to see you here this morning—not traumatized at all.” She winked, showing she’d seen through his excuse to hightail it out of her bedroom the other morning.
Ian stumbled to his feet, nearly knocking over the kitchen chair. He reached across the table and Travis stretched toward him. Ian plucked him from Meg’s arms, and the boy burrowed into his shoulder. Inhaling the scent of him—baby shampoo and sticky hands—Ian squeezed Travis’s soft body against his hard chest.
Travis squirmed, bumping his head on Ian’s chin, where his beard caught strands of Travis’s brown hair. Travis leaned back in Ian’s arms and opened and closed his hands.
“That’s bye-bye.” Meg slung Travis’s backpack over her shoulder. “Can you say, ‘bye-bye, Daddy?’”
Travis repeated it in his high, clear voice, “Bye-bye, Daddy,” and that’s all it took for Ian’s throat to tighten. He thrust Travis back into Meg’s waiting arms.
She kissed Ian’s mouth and whispered, “You’re doing great.”
He held the door open for her. “I’ll give you a call when Buzz gets here, and then I’ll give you another call when it’s all over. In the meantime, stay put at the office or at home.”
“Gotcha, boss.” She leaned in closer and cupped the side of his face with one hand. “You be careful up there. I’ll be waiting for your call.”
As she strode to her car, she pointed to the steel-gray sky. “It’s going to snow today.”
Rubbing his unshaved chin, Ian watched Meg pull away. He’d return to his hotel room, prepare for his climb and then stake out the cliff. Then he’d tackle the really hard part—preparing to be a husband again—a good one this time—and shouldering the awesome responsibility of parenthood.
WHEN MEG REACHED Eloise’s Day Care, Eloise was scurrying around the rooms, picking up toys and stacking blocks.
Her daughter Felicia rolled her eyes at Meg. “She always gets like this when prospective parents drop by.” Felicia cupped her hands around her mouth. “Hey, Mom, the kids are just going to mess it up anyway, and if that couple is going to carry on like they did yesterday, they won’t notice anyway.”
Meg laughed, glad that Travis might have another toddler to play with—hopefully another talkative girl. She waved to Travis and took off for the Rocky Mountain Adventures office.
When she walked into the office, Richard looked up from a mountain climbing magazine. He ducked back behind the pages. “Scared me for a minute. I thought you might be another irate tourist.”
“It’s a good time to cancel hikes anyway.” Meg jerked her thumb over her shoulder. “I think it’s going to snow today.”
“Early snow, good ski season, more money.”
“You have your priorities straight.” She hitched her backpack on a hook by the door. “Any news about Matt?”
“No, but Ali is back. We’ll get more out of her than Sheriff Cahill.”
Meg blew out a breath and hunched over her desk. As Richard flipped through the pages of his magazine, Meg powered on her computer and started processing refunds.
AN HOUR LATER, the office phone rang and Richard picked it up after trying to ignore it for five rings. “Yeah, hold on.” He held up the phone. “It’s Ian Dempsey, for you, and I’m going out on the trail for a while. I’m going stir-crazy in here.”
As Richard dropped the phone on her desk, Meg checked the time on the computer. Buzz couldn’t have made it here that fast. Maybe Ian saw something on his surveillance, but he was supposed to stop in before heading out.
“Ian? Everything okay?” She swallowed, as uneasiness tickled the back of her neck.
“Everything’s fine. I tried you on your cell phone, but you didn’t pick up. Buzz isn’t here yet, but I wanted to share some interesting information with you that I got from Colonel Scripps. Luckily, he caught me before I started hiking down into the gorge.”
Meg clutched the phone. “What?”
“Hans Birnbacher must’ve been in the wrong place at the wrong time, or he tried to scam the wrong people. Turns out the cops in Phoenix and in Albuquerque picked him up for trying to run some con. He was supposed to leave the country, but he wasn’t detained and he slipped through the cracks.”
“That’s comforting to know.” Meg released a shaky breath and strolled to her backpack to retrieve her cell phone. “What does that have to do with his death?”
“Who knows? Maybe he saw something. Maybe he figured this was his big break, but he had no idea who he was dealing with.”
“I can almost feel sorry for the guy.” She dropped her phone on the desk and then dropped back in her chair.
“Yeah, but there’s more.”
Meg’s fingers, which had been tapping the desk, froze. “More?”
“The police in Colorado Springs discovered a couple murdered in their hotel room.”
Meg gasped and gripped the edge of the desk with damp fingers. Her pulse throbbed in her temple as a shaft of pain shot through her. “Wh-what does that mean?”
“It means we had the wrong tourists all along.”
Meg waited, her throat too dry to eke out a simple question.
“Are you still there, Meg?”
She managed an animal noise, something between a groan and a whimper.
“The names of the dead couple were Russ and Jeanine Taylor. Do you remember that pair on the hike? The supposedly honeymooning couple, all lovey-dovey?”
“Uh-huh.”
“They’re the ones, Meg. They killed Kayla and then they killed Birnbacher. But first they killed the real Russ and Jeanine Taylor to steal their identities and get on that hike.”
New couple. Lovey-dovey. Affectionate.
Meg’s head felt stuck in a fog. Her tongue grew thick and mute in her mouth.
“Are you all right? I know it’s a shock. They must’ve had the same idea as Kayla and I had—show up as a couple, deflect suspicion. I just want to know where they’ve been hiding out all this time. Probably figured it was only a matter of time before the police in Colorado Springs found the Taylors’ bodies.”
She swallowed and drove her fingers into her temple. “Ian. Eloise told me that a new couple was looking at the day care for their daughter.”
“Yeah, so?” He sucked in a sharp breath. “So what, Meg? Lots of couples shop around for day care.”
The pain was dancing around her head now, with pinpoints of light stabbing her eyes. “Eloise and her daughter both described the couple as very affectionate and lovey-dovey, more like honeymooners than parents shopping for day care. Sound familiar?”
Ian’s voice rasped across the phone. “Call Eloise now. Do it on your cell phone. I’ll wait on the office phone.”
Meg’s fear solidified and lodged like a boulder in her belly. She’d wanted Ian to shrug off her anxiety and suspicions, dismiss them as the loony ravings of an over-protective mother. But he’d taken her seriously. He saw the same possibility that loomed in her imagination.
“Hang on.” She placed the office phone on the desk and picked up her cell.
Eloise answered after three rings. Meg took a deep breath to steady her vibrating nerves. “Hi, Eloise. It’s Meg O’Reilly. I’m just calling to check on Travis.”
“Travis is down for his nap in the back room, Meg. Did you want to speak to him?”
“No. I thought he had a little runny nose this morning. Did that couple come to check out the day care?”
Eloise sniffed. “They came. Didn’t bring their daughter though, and they were very picky. Looked into everything.”
“They’re gone
now?” Meg’s blood still raced through her veins and she had to close her eyes against the dizziness that threatened to lay her out.
“They left just a little while ago, and I have to say I’m glad. I didn’t care for them at all.”
Meg flattened a hand on her belly and squeezed her eyes. “What were their names, Eloise?”
“Taylor. Russ and Jeanine.”
Meg’s stomach rolled and she gritted her teeth, nausea sweeping through her body like an avalanche. With her chest heaving, Meg covered her heart with one shaky hand. “Eloise, can you please check on Travis for me? Just have a look at him.”
“Okay, dear, but he didn’t seem sick at all to me this morning.”
Meg could hear babies fussing and the voices of other children, as Eloise moved through the playrooms toward the nap room in the back of the house. The nap room with the side door leading to the gravel driveway that curved from the front of the house.
Eloise whispered, “He’s in the corner with his favorite blanket.”
Just as Meg began to slump in the chair and grab the office phone to give Ian the good news, Eloise’s voice came back sharply. “Travis is gone.”
Adrenaline pumped through Meg’s system, propelling her out of her seat. She clutched both phones in her hands and yelled into one. “Are you sure, Eloise? Look in the other cots.”
The other phone scorched her hand, as Ian barked out questions over the line. She couldn’t bring herself to tell him the son he’d just discovered had been kidnapped.
Eloise’s voice caught. “I can’t find him, Meg. Maybe he got out of the nap room and wandered into another part of the house.”
Meg’s breath came out in short spurts. Or maybe the Taylors kidnapped him.
“Please, Eloise…” Meg’s voice trailed off as “Russ Taylor” sauntered through the front door of the office, pointing a gun at her.
Chapter Fifteen
Ian’s voice squawked over the office phone, and Meg shoved it behind the computer’s keyboard and pressed the speaker button with stiff fingers. She had to let Ian know what was happening, but she’d have to keep the open line a secret from the man with the gun.
She had her cell phone on speaker also, and now Eloise’s voice strained across the line. “Meg, do you want me to call the police?”
The man sliced a finger across his throat and whispered, “Tell that old witch the boy’s safe.”
Meg nodded. “Eloise? I’m sorry. I just got a call from Travis’s father. He took Travis. He doesn’t know the rules.”
Eloise let out a gush of air. “Oh my God, Meg. You had my heart racing. If your husband is going to stick around, please explain protocol to him.”
Meg ended the call and placed her cell phone in the middle of the desk. “I told her. Now what do you want from me?”
She couldn’t hear Ian’s voice over the line anymore, but hopefully he’d caught on and could hear her.
The man took a step forward. “It’s simple, Meg. I want you to do a little rock climbing for me, so I can claim what’s mine and be on my way.”
“Can you get that gun out of my face?”
“Would you prefer a knife?”
Meg gasped. “Matt. Why’d you attack Matt?”
“I had the same simple request of him, but he refused me. You won’t be foolish enough to refuse me, will you Meg? After all, I have Travis as collateral. Matt’s girlfriend was out of town, so I couldn’t use her.”
She trained her gaze away from the open phone line near the computer, but said a silent prayer. “Is that why you’ve been hanging around Crestville? You’ve been waiting for someone to retrieve the case?”
“I’m not a rock climber.”
“Where is it? Maybe nobody can get it now.” She’d have to pretend she didn’t know the location of the suitcase or he’d figure Ian knew its location.
“That’s not what Matt told me…when he was still talking. He said people lead climb and solo climb that rock face all the time.”
“Kayla saw the suitcase that first day on the hike, didn’t she?” Meg whispered.
The man edged closer to the desk, keeping his weapon pointed in her general direction. “We came upon her on the lookout, with her binoculars zeroed-in on our suitcase. We knew where it had fallen since we’d enclosed a tracking device in the case. We offered to take her picture and then pushed her over.”
“And what about the German tourist?”
The man laughed, a booming sound that made Meg flinch. “He tried to blackmail us. Can you believe that?” He muttered something in another language… Russian? “Who are you?”
“You can call me Mike. It’s closer to my real name than Russ.”
“Where’s my son, Mike?” Meg tried to speak directly into the phone. Then she held her breath, hoping the man wouldn’t notice.
“He’s with my lovely wife.” Mike chuckled. “I’ll give her the all-clear to release him when you make that climb and hand over our property.”
“No.” A plan was forming in Meg’s mind, bit by bit. As long as Ian was still on the other end of that line listening, it just might work.
Mike’s eyebrows shot up and he steadied his weapon. “No?”
“Your lovely wife is going to bring Travis to our location, or at least a safe place where I can see him from where we are. The suitcase is near the upper falls, isn’t it?”
“How do you know that?”
She shrugged. “It makes sense now. Kayla had a clear view of the area from the lookout, and that cliff face is just about the only place for rock climbing in the entire gorge.”
“And you want my partner to bring your son to the gorge? Even Katrina can’t hike down there carrying a child.”
“I wouldn’t want her to try. There’s an easy trail above the falls. We can see it from the gorge. Have her bring Travis there after parking in the turnout at highway marker twenty-five.”
His eyes flickered with recognition. Of course he’d been on that trail. He’d been there when he covered his suitcase with branches and leaves.
“I’m going to have to see my son alive and well before I give you the suitcase, or I’m not going to make the climb at all.”
The man narrowed his eyes. “What kind of game are you playing, Meg?”
“I need to know my son is okay. What are you going to do, Mike? Keep killing people until you find a rock climber to get your case, or call in one of your terrorist buddies who won’t get within a hundred yards of that rock?”
“Where’s your CIA protector?” He straightened his back, widening his stance.
Meg snorted. “He’s not my protector. Like you said, he’s CIA, doing his job. He doesn’t care about my son. All he wants is that suitcase.”
“Where is he?”
“He went to pick up another agent. They’re going to scour that area, and sooner or later they’re going to figure out the location of the case.”
“Then we’d better get moving.”
“My son?” Meg folded her arms across her chest where her heart beat a wild staccato. She had to keep it together.
“He’ll be there. Now come out from behind that desk and get the equipment you’ll need before your coworker returns. We’ve left enough dead bodies in this backwater town.”
Did you get that, Ian? Travis will be there. And you need to save him.
IAN CLENCHED THE steering wheel of his rental car and released a breath. As soon as he’d heard Meg’s words to Eloise on the other line, he knew Travis was in trouble. He’d been able to follow most of the conversation between her and the man who called himself “Mike”— Mikhail most likely, judging from his accent.
As far as Prospero knew, Farouk, who’d been responsible for securing the money for this deal, had always worked with the big-name terrorist groups in the Mid-east. If he now had ties to the Russians, this must be some kind of United Nations of terrorist cells. And that meant bad news for everyone.
When the fact of Travis’s kidnapping had sun
k in, failure washed over Ian like a tide of brackish water. He’d flunked the most basic tenet of parenthood—keeping your child safe. But he had a chance now to make every thing right. Meg had given him that chance, and he wouldn’t fail her. He wouldn’t fail Travis.
Once he rescued his son, he’d have to rescue Meg. Ian needed to get Travis out of the area while he finished his work. He called Eloise’s Day Care and told a mystified Felicia, Eloise’s daughter, to meet him at the trailhead that led to the upper falls.
Then he got on the phone to Buzz to relay the new plan. Ian would need backup, and he couldn’t think of anyone he’d rather have on his side than one of his buddies from Prospero, especially a pilot like Buzz, who could fly a chopper in the most dangerous situations—like this one.
ABOUT AN HOUR LATER, after securing Felicia at the still empty Rocky Mountain Adventures office, Ian crouched behind a clump of bushes that bordered the trail above the upper falls. When he’d passed highway marker twenty-five, he hadn’t seen any cars there, which meant he’d gotten there before Mike’s partner.
By now Meg had to be in the gorge with Mike, waiting for Travis’s appearance. And Ian had a nice surprise waiting for Mike’s wife when she showed up.
A scuffling sound and the crack of a twig had Ian coiling his muscles and rising to his haunches. He could take down a woman easy enough, but he didn’t want to harm his son in the process.
The woman appeared on the trail, and Ian clenched his fists as he saw Travis in a sling across her chest, fashioned from some kind of sheet. He couldn’t see Travis’s face, but his little legs were kicking up a storm. That’s right, buddy, give her hell.
The woman stopped a few feet from Ian’s hiding place, and he held his breath.
“Stop kicking and I’ll let you see your mommy through the binoculars. You want to see your mommy, don’t you?”
Mountain Ranger Recon Page 17