Tangled Threat ; Suspicious

by Heather Graham

  “To each his own,” Jesse said. “Thiessen must trust him. Anyway, you feel safe enough out here alone now?”

  “I’m not alone.”

  “Oh?”

  Jim gave a whistle. A huge dog came crawling out from beneath the desk where Jim sat. He was quite a mix. Evidently a little bit shepherd, chow and pit bull. Whatever else, Jesse didn’t know, but it made for one big beast of a canine.

  “I just got him,” Jim said happily. “I call him Bear.”

  Bear wagged his tail.

  “He likes you,” Jim continued.

  “I’m glad,” Jesse said.

  “Anyway, he makes me feel safe. He was sniffing and woofing before you got out of your car. When I told him it was all right, he sat right back down. Got him from the animal shelter.”

  “Great.”

  “Doc isn’t too fond of him,” Jim admitted. “But he knows I’m not happy anymore about holding down the fort by myself on the days he’s gone and at night, so...” He shrugged happily.

  Jesse nodded. “See you. Don’t forget—”

  “Yeah, I know the drill. If I think of anything, I’ll call you.”

  “Yep. Thanks.”

  When he reached his patrol car, Jesse put a call through to the office.

  The van with the alligator carcass was still missing. And nothing had been found of the samples taken from the vet’s office.

  There were no known leads on the murders.

  He clicked off, hesitated, and at last called his house.

  She wasn’t answering. He hung up, then called back, and spoke when he heard his own message. “Pick up, Lorena, please. It’s Jesse.”

  But she didn’t pick up. She might have been in the pool, in the shower or in another part of the house.

  Or she might have called someone to take her in to work.

  He tried her cell phone.

  She wasn’t picking up.

  Okay, so she was angry.

  He put a call through to the alligator farm. Harry answered. “Hey, Harry. I’m surprised to hear your voice.”

  “It’s still my place, you know. Despite the goons crawling all over it,” Harry said. But he sounded cheerful.

  “You just don’t usually answer the phone.”

  “This place is doing twice the business we used to. No one here but me to pick up. The feds said I didn’t have to close, just as long as they could go through what they wanted. Hell, they can go through anything, as far as I’m concerned.”

  “I’m glad you’re happy, Harry,” Jesse said. “I guess it would be tough for you to find someone to search the throng of tourists and find Lorena for me, huh?”

  “Yes, it would be. But I can put you through to the infirmary, in case she’s there.”

  “So you’ve seen her?”

  “Not this morning. But I’m sure she’s working, no thanks to you.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You’re trying to seduce my help away from here, aren’t you, Jesse Crane?”

  “Harry—”

  “Hang on, I’ll put you through. How do you work this ridiculous, pain-in-the-ass thing?” he muttered.

  Harry didn’t put him through. He hung up on him. Irritated, Jesse snapped his phone closed.

  His house was between the vet’s and the alligator farm, so he decided to make a quick stop, see if she was there fuming and swearing at his furniture, then head out to the farm.

  A sense of genuine unease was beginning to fill him. It was as if puzzle pieces were beginning to fall together, yet they didn’t quite seem to fit.

  He closed his eyes for a moment. Someone from Harry’s was definitely involved. There had to be a money connection. And someone who knew the Everglades well.

  There was more than one person involved, for sure. A connection through Harry’s, a money man, someone with a knowledge of genetic engineering, and someone else, a hired goon.

  Thoughtful, he picked up the phone to make one last call, then hit the gas pedal.

  * * *

  THE PHONE RANG, and Sally answered it.

  “Hey,” she said cheerfully. Then she glanced sideways at Lorena. “Sure... No... Yes, of course.”

  She clicked off, then offered Lorena a rueful smile. “Jesse,” she said.

  “Jesse?”

  “Yeah, he wants me to make a quick detour.”

  “Uh-uh. No way. Let’s go in to work.”

  “I think he’s found something.”

  “What?”

  “I think he’s made a discovery. Something to do with...if I heard him right, your father.”

  “My father!” Lorena said, startled.

  “Yeah. I didn’t know Jesse knew your family. Hey, it’s your call. He wanted me to bring you out to what they call Little Rat hummock. It’s barely a piece of land, but they have names for every little hellhole and cranny out here. From the days when they were running and hiding out here, I guess. Anyway, what should I do? Jesse sounded all excited.”

  Lorena’s heart flipped; her pulse was racing. She was still furious with him. But if he had discovered something and needed her in any way, she had to be there.

  “If Jesse were calling me,” Sally said, sounding wistful, “I’d sure be going.”

  “I’m supposed to be working,” Lorena murmured.

  “Okay, we’ll go to work.”

  Lorena lifted her hands. “No. Little Rat hummock it is.”

  “Good thing I brought the Jeep,” Sally said. “There’s no real road out there.”

  There wasn’t. Lorena thought they were going to sink in mire once and, if not, be swallowed in the saw grass.

  But Sally knew the terrain. Right when Lorena was gritting her teeth, certain they were about to perish in the swamp, the wheels hit solid ground. Ahead, she saw a cluster of pines.

  “You’re not scared out here, are you?” Sally asked her. “You don’t need to be. Well, maybe you should have worn boots, but don’t worry—the snakes won’t get you, not if you leave them alone. Besides here, in the pines, all you really have to worry about are the Eastern diamondbacks and the pygmy rattlers. Well, and the coral snakes, but they don’t have the jaws to bite you unless they get you just right.” She glanced at Lorena, who could feel herself turning pale. “Sorry. I’m out in the Everglades all the time, and I’ve never been hit by anything more vicious than a mosquito.”

  Sally brought the Jeep to a halt.

  Lorena looked around.

  There was nothing. Nothing but a patch of high ground, a bunch of pines and the saw grass beyond.

  “I don’t see Jesse.”

  Sally was frowning, staring ahead.

  Lorena heard the noise, too, then. A throb of engines.

  “Airboat?” she murmured.

  “Yeah. What the hell...?” Sally murmured.

  “It’s probably Jesse,” Lorena said, getting out of the car.

  Sally got out, as well. She walked around the car, staring ahead, still puzzled.

  “It’s not Jesse,” she murmured after a minute.

  The airboat came around the cluster of pines that lay ahead. “It’s Jack. Jack Pine,” Sally said.

  “So it’s Jack. Maybe Jesse asked him to come out here, too,” Lorena said.

  But Sally shook her head. “No...no...something’s wrong here.”

  Jack brought his airboat to a halt and leapt out.

  “Oh, man,” Sally murmured. She turned again. Lorena realized that they had walked some distance from the Jeep.

  “Hey!” Jack called. “Hey, Lorena! Stop!”

  Sally shook her head wildly. “Run!” she advised, and immediately took her own advice.

  Lorena stared from Jack to Sally, then back again.

  There was a large machete hanging from Jack’s
belt.

  “Run!” Sally called back to her.

  “Run where?” Lorena cried, chasing after Sally.

  “Follow me. I know where I’m going!”

  * * *

  THERE WERE TIRE tracks in front of his house. Jesse hunkered down and studied them.

  A Jeep. Harry’s had a number of Jeeps. Any of the senior staff had access to them.

  He checked the house quickly, but he knew the minute he entered that she wasn’t there. He paused in back, though.

  There were tire tracks in the front, but the broken foliage in back indicated an airboat had been by, as well.

  At that instant, his heart seemed to freeze in his chest. He headed back for the car, already flipping open his cell phone.

  “George, I’ve got Lars checking on a few things, and I’ve asked him to get men out here. But we know the area better than they do. I want everyone available out here. Something is going down now. Cut a swath from the vet’s to Harry’s, pie-shaped, fanning south.”

  “Jess, what the hell...?”

  “Do it. Just do it.”

  * * *

  LORENA STOPPED BECAUSE she couldn’t run anymore. Sally, ahead of her, had stopped, as well.

  She looked back at Jack Pine, who’d been closing in on them.

  Jack had stopped, too.

  “What are you doing out here, Sally?” Jack demanded.

  “Jesse called,” Sally said.

  Jack shook his head. “No.”

  “What the hell are you doing out here, Jack?” Sally demanded in return, sounding frightened.

  “Following you. I saw the car from the airboat. I was on my way out to pick up Lorena, so I couldn’t help but wonder why you were heading out there, too. What’s going on, Sally?”

  “Jack, you’re a liar and a murderer!” Sally cried, her tone hysterical. “I couldn’t let you get Lorena. I couldn’t let it happen.”

  Jack shook his head, looking puzzled. “Lorena, get away from her. She must have been listening on the phone. She had to get to you before I did.”

  Lorena looked from one of them to the other.

  Sally wasn’t armed.

  Jack was carrying one frighteningly big knife.

  She had no idea where she was, only that she was far from the car.

  “I have an idea,” she said. “Let’s all head back to the alligator farm and discuss this whole thing.”

  “Lorena, don’t be ridiculous,” Sally said.

  Lorena realized that Jack was moving steadily closer to her.

  “Get away, Jack,” she said.

  “Don’t you get it yet?” Jack said.

  “You’re going to kill her—and me!” Sally cried. “Lorena, don’t you see? He’s going to chop us up and feed us to his alligators.”

  “No!” Jack cried. “You’ve got it all wrong. You have to listen.”

  “Come on,” Sally cried. “Lorena, move! One swing of that machete...”

  “Lorena,” Jack pleaded as he took another step toward her.

  “This way!” Sally cried to her.

  Lorena tried to maneuver around the three pines that separated her from Sally.

  “No!” Jack cried. “No!”

  He was coming after her.

  She turned to run more quickly.

  But as she did, she was suddenly running on air. There was no earth.

  No hummock, no ground.

  She was falling through space.

  Falling, falling, into the darkness of a pit.

  She hit the ground with a thud, but after a moment of breathless shock, she realized that she hadn’t broken any bones. The ground was not hard. It was muck and mire. Of course. They were below sea level. It would be impossible to dig a dry hole.

  She let out a sigh of relief, then heard the thud next to her.

  Someone else was in the hole.

  And then...

  She heard the noise. Loud. A grunting sound, like a pig. No, not a pig. A huge, furious boar. Or...

  An alligator.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Jesse chose to take his own airboat, trying to follow the broken foliage across the Everglades, certain that time was of the essence. His heart felt heavy. There was so much ground to cover. The river of saw grass seemed endless. He’d already seen so much evil done out here. You could search forever to find a body.

  No, he refused to think in that direction. She had to be alive. He was certain that Lorena had been lured somewhere, but where, he didn’t know. Or even why. Except that she was a piece of the puzzle; she’d been the first to know that something very wrong was going on, and that they were talking technology.

  Dangerous stolen technology.

  They weren’t going to find anything at Harry’s Alligator Farm and Museum.

  Because Harry wasn’t guilty.

  And if all went as the thieves had planned it, they wouldn’t find the van or the alligator carcass, nor the specimens from Doc Thiessen’s lab.

  He still didn’t have all the facts, but he was certain of one person who might be involved. And that person didn’t intend for any of this to be discovered, and it wouldn’t matter just how many people died. The frightening thing was that no matter how many people died, mysteriously or otherwise, the techno thief clearly believed he couldn’t be caught.

  Ahead, he saw one of the airboats from Harry’s. And there was someone beside it, gesturing madly.

  He cut his engine.

  Sally.

  “Jesse, Jesse! Help! Quickly. It’s Lorena.... Help!”

  His heart remained in his throat. “Lorena...?”

  “Come with me. For the love of God, hurry. And be careful. It’s Jack...he’ll kill her!”

  Jack? Jack Pine?

  Sally was running. Jesse ran after her in a flash. She circled around the pines, then shouted to him.

  “Hurry!”

  He did. And then he plunged into the hole.

  He should have seen it. Even concealed as it had been with bracken and brush, he should have seen it. Hell, this was his country. This god-forsaken swamp was his heritage. He knew it like the back of his hand. He should have seen the damned thing, and realized that it wasn’t any natural gator hole.

  No. This one had been dug intentionally. And it was deep. In the rain, it would flood. But in the dry season...

  He landed hard. The hole was deep, and the thatch covering above kept out all but a hint of light.

  “Oh, God, Jesse!” Lorena cried, recognizing him in the meager light. In a second she was next to him, warm and vital. He held her, damning himself a thousand times over. She’d come flying into his arms with such trust.

  And he had no idea how to get them out of this mess. He pulled out his cell phone. No signal. Damn!

  “Jesse?” Jack Pine moaned.

  “What the hell?” Jesse said. He eased himself away from Lorena.

  It was pitch black, and he wasn’t a trigger-happy kid or a rookie, but Jesse pulled his gun, just in case.

  “Stay where you are, Jack. I’m armed.”

  “I’m not your problem,” Jack said.

  Jesse blinked, trying to accustom his eyes to the eerie lack of light.

  “Stay back,” he said softly, his mind going a hundred miles an hour as he tried to figure out what the hell was going on.

  Lorena backed up until she and Jack were both flat against the wall of earth and muck.

  Above them, Jesse suddenly heard laughter.

  Sally’s laughter.

  “What a pity I can’t see you all down there. Sorry, Jack. You were really kind, likable. You shouldn’t have been so determined to help Lorena. And Jesse...so gallant. See, Lorena? You were the problem. Everything was going just fine until you appeared. But it doesn’t matter. They’ll rip Harry�
��s apart, but they won’t find a thing. They’ll just have to accept the fact that we’ve grown some big gators in the Everglades—and that they ate you all up.”

  She sounded as if she were happily reading a children’s fairy tale.

  “I have to go now. I have to get rid of both those airboats. Goodbye. Nice knowing you.”

  Jack exploded. “Dammit, Jesse. Do something. She’s insane. I mean...she’s not the brains behind things, I’d swear it, but when I realized she had Lorena, I knew something wasn’t right.”

  It was then that Jesse heard it. The grunt...the grunt followed by the roar.

  He’d been listening to alligators since he’d been a kid. He’d learned a lot about the sounds they made.

  Those that had to do with mating.

  And those that had to do with territoriality...and hunger. Or both.

  “Hell,” he muttered under his breath. He could barely see the other two. “Stay back,” he warned them.

  “Jesse,” Lorena said softly. “What are you going to do?”

  “I’m armed,” he reminded her. But he was worried. Bullets at almost immediate range had barely pierced the tough hide of the alligator they had bagged two nights before.

  He wanted to rush over to Lorena. He wanted to hold her, to place his body as a barrier between her and the creature in the darkness. He wanted to say a dozen things to her. He wanted to tell her that he loved her.

  He stood dead still, listening, waiting.

  The animal was moving. He heard it moving slowly at first, but he knew just how fast a gator could be.

  Then there was the rush.

  He spun, blinded, but going on instinct. He emptied the clip. The sound was deafening.

  The animal bellowed and paused, then slammed into him.

  In the dark, he heard the jaws slam shut.

  Close. So close that he felt the wind the movement created....

  He jumped back.

  “Jesse!” It was Lorena, shouting his name.

  “Jack, we’ve got to straddle it!” Jesse yelled.

  “Are you insane?” Jack shouted back. “These are monsters. They can’t be wrestled down like a five-or six-footer.”