So far, other than the weather, that had been the only glitch in the well-laid plans, and even that had its upside. At least having Charly in labor provided an excuse for the tension that permeated the house like an electronic squeal… a hum of sound just off the register of human hearing.
As the antique clock on the mantelpiece launched into the Westminster chimes, Summer automatically checked her watch. Soon it would be time to set out the Christmas Eve buffet, but before that there were still a few last-minute things she had to do. A few more presents to be pulled from their hiding places and wrapped and put under the tree-which was already in danger of being buried beneath the mound of packages heaped around it. All day long people had been tiptoeing and scurrying, scuttling in and out of rooms, giggling behind closed doors, the children whispering in each other’s ears, beckoning for help from the adults while sneaking stealthy sideways looks at each other.
Which was, Summer thought with a sigh, just as it should be on Christmas Eve. Like almost every other in the country that night, theirs was a house full of secrets.
Chapter 15
From their command post, Jake and Birdie followed Summer’s progress through the beautifully decorated house. They watched her enter the bedroom where her sister Mirabella was wrapping packages, listened, with the volume turned low, to the faint background murmur of their voices.
It was quiet in the attic room, and a little too warm even though outside the dusty dormer window the long and early dusk brought on by the approaching storm had finally given way to full darkness. The volume on all the mikes had been turned off, with the exception of the rooms occupied by Sonny and his thugs, and there was very little sound even from those. One of the bodyguards-Ricky-sat hunched on the foot of a twin bed staring intently at a NASCAR recap on television. The other, the Russian, Sergei, was sprawled on his back on his own bed with headphones on. His eyes were closed; whether asleep or absorbed in what he was listening to was impossible to tell. The room next door-Cis-neros’s room-was empty; Sonny, at the moment, was in the library enjoying a brandy with his host.
Eve was in her host and hostess’s bedroom, doing something mysterious with a dual-deck VCR. Everyone else, Jake noted after a cursory check of the monitors, appeared to be engaged in last-minute preparations for the holiday-wrapping presents, tiptoeing in and out of rooms like characters in a French farce.
He pushed back his chair, reaching for the thermos Summer had thoughtfully left for them that morning. He poured the last few teaspoons of coffee into his cup, screwed the cap on the bottle and sighed. “Helluva way to spend Christmas.”
“Yeah…” Birdie rocked back his chair for a bone-cracking stretch. “‘Course, Margie being Jewish, our really big celebration was a while ago.”
Jake grunted a reply. He was wondering how he could have been partners-and friends-with a man for almost five years and not know his wife was Jewish. He wondered how many other things he didn’t know about Birdie-or Don Coffee, or Agent Franco, or any of the other people he worked with, for that matter. That made him think again about what Eve had said to him that day in the hospital in Augusta, about this case being like a cancer in his life. He’d thought about that a lot during the last couple of weeks. That, and a whole lot more.
He drained the last of the coffee and gave his head a brief shake. “Partner, I’ve got to tell you, I am impressed.”
Birdie looked at him in surprise. “What for?”
“You and Margie. I mean, you’ve got a great marriage. That’s hard enough to manage in this line of work, you’ve got to know that. Okay, so on top of that, you’ve got the problem of two different religions to deal with?”
Birdie twisted uncomfortably in his chair. “Well,” he mumbled, “I guess we don’t really see it as a problem. It’s just…you know, part of who we are. No big deal.”
Jake didn’t say anything for a minute; personal conversations didn’t come easy for him, and he already knew this one was probably going to give away more about himself than he wanted it to. Then he decided there were questions he wanted the answers to badly enough to risk it, so he laced his fingers together behind his head and hauled in a breath. “It really isn’t difficult for you, is it? Marriage, I mean. You and Margie-you make it look so easy.”
“Oh, Lord, I wouldn’t say that.” Birdie’s bark of laughter brought his chair upright with a thump. “It’s never easy, partner. Don’t kid yourself. You’ve always got to work at it.”
“Okay, so how do you make it work?”
“Aw, hell.” Birdie was squirming again. “I don’t know. Why’re you asking me? I’m no expert.”
“When it comes to marriage you are. Especially in this business. Cops have a lousy record when it comes to marnage-it’s a known fact. You guys are known far and wide as the exception that proves the rule.”
Birdie looked pained. “What the hell does that mean? ‘The exception that proves the rule…’ There is no rule.”
“Then,” Jake persisted, “tell me how you do it.”
His partner leveled a long, thoughtful look at him. “You’re really serious about this, aren’t you?”
“Yeah,” said Jake, returning the look, “I really am.”
“Yeah… okay, well.” Birdie cleared his throat; obviously, personal conversations weren’t all that easy for him, either. He leaned back and folded his arms above his expanding middle. “It helps if you marry the right person. For the right reasons.”
“The right reasons… love, you mean.”
Again Birdie grimaced as. if he’d felt a sharp pain. “Well…see, now, the trouble with love is, everybody’s got a different idea what that means. Who even knóws what it means? And some people are always gonna mistake it for something else.”
“Sex, you mean.”
Birdie gave a grunt of laughter. “Trust me, one thing you do not want to do is marry somebody because the sex is great.”
Well, hell, even Jake knew that. He nodded wisely. “Yeah, I guess that never lasts.”
Birdie smiled and looked away, kind of a smug and secretive look. “Well…let’s just say…it changes.”
After a vibrant pause, Jake cleared his throat and said impatiently, “Okay, so if not love, what do you consider the right reason to marry somebody?”
Birdie shifted around to face him and leaned forward, like someone about to impart a great truth. “Turn it around. Say you marry somebody who’s married you because she wants-or needs-something she thinks you can give her. Money, say. Security. Kids. Whatever. At the same time, she’s got no idea in the world about what you need, or giving anything back to you. Think you’d be happy?”
Jake gave a distracted snort. He was thinking that the scenario had all too familiar a ring.
“Not that you shouldn’t do for your partner-try to make her happy. I don’t mean that. I just mean, there’s got to be a give and take. You’ve got to take care of each other.” Birdie chuckled. “Margie, now-she’s always worrying about me…harping at me to take my vitamins, wear my vest, keep my feet warm, eat breakfast…yada yada yada. Drives me crazy. But I’ll tell you this-not a day goes by I don’t know she loves me. Not a day goes by I don’t think about how glad I am to be married to her. She’s my mate, my partner, my best friend, and I can’t even imagine not having her around, having her there when I wake up in the morning, crawling into bed beside her at night.” He stopped, gave his nose a quick back-and-forth swipe with his hand and finished gruffly, “As far as I’m concerned, that’s the only reason for marrying somebody. The only good reason, anyway.”
Jake didn’t say anything; he was experiencing some emotions he knew were going to embarrass him and Birdie both if they got out. In need of distraction, he turned back to the monitors.
A moment later he was reaching for the volume control and muttering, “What’s she doing? What the hell’s she got?”
“What is that?” Mirabella asked. “What did you find?”
Summer, on her knees beside the bed,
didn’t answer. She stared at the objects in her hands-three smallish shrink-wrapped boxes in a nest of brightly colored wrapping paper.
“You put ‘em away and forgot, I’ll bet,” said Mirabella, coming to her own conclusions. “I’ve done that. Who’s it for?”
Summer rose slowly and sat on the edge of the bed, ignoring paper and scissors and tape dispensers. Discarding the gift wrappings, she held up one of the shrink-wrapped boxes, turned it over so she could read the back. “I did forget,” she said in a shaking voice. “I must have put them under here last summer-this was my room then. Hal brought it just before he…died. It was a present for the children. Computer games, see? I put them away because I didn’t think they were appropriate for kids their age. Damn Hal-he never did have any sense. Way too violent…I don’t know what he was thinking!”
“Let me see that.” Mirabella snatched the box out of her hands, quickly examined it, then reached for another. “Don’t you know what this is?” she whispered excitedly. “It’s what they’ve been looking for. Whatever Hal had, he probably hid it in one of these!”
Summer wiped her eyes with her hands. “I know that’s what Jake thought, at first. But I don’t see how they could be. They obviously haven’t been opened. They’re all shrink-wrapped…”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake,” said Mirabella impatiently, “anybody can shrink-wrap. You can do it in your kitchen. Here, take one…” She tossed one of the boxes into Summer’s lap and attacked the other with her teeth.
“Shouldn’t we take them to Jake?” Summer was reaching for the scissors.
“What if we’re wrong? Let’s see if there’s anything in here, first.” Mirabella tore away the transparent wrappings.
They both froze as the door suddenly opened.
“Hi, guys, am I missing anything?” Eve chirped, grinning like the Cheshire cat.
Her sisters both slumped with relief. “Shh…get in here,” Mirabella hissed, grabbing her arm and pulling her into the room. She checked abruptly to gape at Eve’s wrist. “Nice watch.”
Eve shook herself free and said with a grimace, “It’s my Christmas present from Sonny.”
Summer and Mirabella exchanged droll looks. Summer murmured, “A diamond Rolex-must be tough…”
“Look, he insisted I wear it. What was I supposed to do, refuse?” She shook off the whole subject impatiently and put the smile back on. The traditions of Christmas were among Eve’s favorites in all the world, and she was determined not to let Sonny and his thugs, hidden evidence, a houseful of video cameras and listening devices and federal agents, not to mention the unnerving presence of Jake up in the attic watching and listening to everything that was said, spoil it for her. “What’re you two up to in here? Can I play?”
“You’re just in time actually.” Summer picked up the third computer game that had been lying in her lap and tossed it to her. “Here-open it.”
Eve arched her eyebrows. “At this point, aren’t we supposed to be wrapping?”
“Not in here,” said Mirabella, sounding disappointed and at the same time breathless with excitement. She tossed the gaudy box onto the bed. “Sumz?”
Summer passed the scissors to Eve. Her hands trembled as she tore the box open and dumped its contents into her lap. “Here, either.” She looked at Mirabella. “It wouldn’t be a CD, would it?”
“More likely a floppy. Evie, get a move on-open yours.”
“Okay, guys…what’s going on?”
“Maybe nothing,” said Mirabella briskly. “We’ll know in a minute. Will…you…hurry…up?”
“This is the present Hal brought for the kids,” Summer explained. “Last summer, you know, just before he died? If he did have that evidence-whatever it is Sonny was after him for-when he came, it almost has to be in one of these.”
“Oh…my God.” Eve’s heart was suddenly pounding, her hands shaking. She stabbed at the box’s wrappings with the scissors, then tossed them on the bed and tore at it with her hands. A moment later, she and her sisters stood with their heads together, staring at the flat, black, three-and-a-half-inch square of plastic in her hands. “Oh, God,” she whispered.
Just above their heads, in the attic command post, Jake and Birdie were standing, too, their eyes riveted on the monitor.
“Is that what I think it is?” asked Birdie softly.
“Mmm-hmm…looks like it.” Jake’s calm was all on the surface; inside he was a typhoon.
“Show’s over,” Birdie exhaled through his nose. “That’s all we needed…right?”
Jake looked over at him. “We don’t know what’s on that disk. Suppose it’s a dud? I still think it’d be better if we let Cisneros find it-that way, if nothing else, at least we’ve got a shot at getting some kind of admission on tape.”
“Yeah…guess you’re right.” But Birdie was shaking his head. “You’re not actually thinking of letting Cisneros get his hands on that disk, are you? What if he-” A flurry of movement drew their eyes back to the monitor screen.
Jake felt a shock go through his body, almost as if he’d been hit by a bullet. Through the roaring in his ears he heard his partner mutter, in a voice heavy with foreboding, “Houston, I think we’ve got a problem…”
“Sonny…” The name burst from Eve on a gust of breath, as if she’d been punched in the stomach. She turned to face him, her body a shield between him and her sisters, and the small black disk they held in their hands.
“Hey, babe.” He moved into the room with confidence, smiling his charming, Vegas-strip smile. “Whatcha up to?”
“What? Me? Nothing…” But her voice was breathless and afraid-a dead giveaway.
Sonny jerked in mock surprise. “Keeping secrets from me?”
Behind her, Mirabella said with a brave attempt at scorn, “Duh, it’s Christmas-what do you think?”
“Is that what you got there?” Sonny threw back his head and laughed; a stone in one of his rings caught the light and winked at them as he placed his hand on his chest. “My Christmas present. No kiddin‘.” He came a few steps closer, still smiling. “Maybe I’d like to have my present early. Why don’t you give it to me right now?”
Eve edged backward, shaking her head. His hand snaked out and caught her wrist, the one wearing the diamond Rolex. “Come on, baby-it’s only fair.” And though the voice was soft, the smile was no longer even remotely charming. “I gave you yours early, didn’t I? Now…it’s only fair you do the same for me.” He barely seemed to move, but Eve gave a gasp of pain. “Come on-hand it over.”
Jake was heading for the door when Birdie caught at his sleeve. “Hey-where do you think you’re going? You can‘t-”
“The hell I-” Birdie’s hiss of warning cut him off as he jerked him back to the monitor.
“Don’t…give it to him,” Eve gasped. Above the collar, her face was bone-white.
Summer took a step back; Mirabella moved with her, for once in her life with nothing to say. “It’s mine,” Summer said in a shaking voice. “It belonged to my husband. You can’t…have it.”
But her gaze had slid past Eve, past Sonny, and was riveted now on the two men who had just stepped into the room. Both of them held guns, pointed straight at her and at Mirabella. Their faces wore no expression at all.
“Oh, I think you’re going to give it to me,” Sonny drawled. He reached out a hand and plucked the disk from her nerveless fingers. “There now… see how easy that was?” He tucked it into his shirt pocket, laughing softly.
“How did you know?” Eve whispered.
“How’d I know?” Pleased with himself, he held up her captive wrist. “Your Christmas present, baby. Had it custom-made, just for you-with a little something extra. You’ve been wearin’ a wire-that’s a little idea I borrowed from the feds.” He gazed fondly at the Rolex. “A little flashy, I admit, but then…nothin’s too good for my Evie-girl. Right?”
“It was you.” Summer was still staring at the men with the guns. “Last summer. It was you…” The t
wo men silently returned her gaze, one stone-faced, the other baring his teeth in a chilling smile. “Oh, God…this is all my fault,” she whispered. “If I hadn’t been such a… If I’d just let David have the stupid games, none of this would have happened. Evie, I’m so sorry…”
“For Pete’s sake,” Mirabella snapped, “don’t be an idiot.”
Sonny chuckled. “She’s right, Mrs. Robey. You want to blame somebody, blame your ex-husband. Hal doesn’t stick his nose where it doesn’t belong, nobody gets hurt. Hey-nobody has to get hurt anyway, right? Your sister and me, we’re gonna take a little trip, is all. Sorry we won’t be staying around for the festivities. It’s a shame, too. Everything looks so pretty and nice, all dolled up for Christmas…”
“We have to take ‘em,” Jake muttered through wire-tense jaws. “We have to take ’em now.” His eyes burned; the image on the monitor screen seared on his retinas. Eve’s eyes, like black holes, staring into the camera’s lens…into his soul. He heard Birdie’s words… “I can’t even imagine not having her around…”
His partner’s voice came as a distant rumble. “We can’t Not until he’s cleared the premises. Not with the children-”
“He’s going to kill her.”
“He won’t hurt her until he’s sure he’s home-free. By that time…”
“What about those two?” Ricky’s heavy voice boomed through the mike. “You ain’t gonna just leave ‘em here, are you? You want me to…” He waved his gun hopefully.
The look Sonny gave him was one of extreme pain. “Idiot. What’re you gonna do, off somebody with the whole FBI as eyewitnesses? Place is probably crawlin’ with feds. They’re probably listening to us right now.” He put his arm around Eve’s shoulders and snugged her to his side as he snarled disgustedly, “Let’s get outa here.”
“They’re witnesses.” Ricky was disappointed.
Eve’s Wedding Knight Page 22