Tangled Threat ; Suspicious

by Heather Graham

  “Do you want to be eaten?” Jesse demanded.

  The animal had apparently been wounded, because it continued bellowing. Its senses were far better than his own, Jesse knew, but it seemed to be disoriented. He tried desperately to get a sense of its whereabouts.

  Then he threw himself on the animal.

  He aimed accurately, hitting the back just behind the neck. But the creature was powerful and began thrashing. Right when Jesse thought that he was going to be tossed aside like a blown leaf, Jack landed behind him.

  “What now?” Jack shouted.

  “I’ve got to get on the jaws.”

  “I can’t hold the weight!”

  “You’ve got to.”

  “Wait! I’m here!” Lorena cried.

  “Lorena, you don’t—” Jesse began.

  “We’ve done something sort of like this before,” Jack panted. “Kind of.”

  There was a flurry of motion as the alligator gave a mighty bellow, tossing its head from side to side.

  Lorena landed on the animal’s back behind Jack.

  “Now what?” Jack demanded.

  “The jaw,” Jesse said.

  “You’re mad,” Jack responded.

  “What? We can’t ride this damned thing forever,” Jesse said.

  “But—”

  “Big or little, if I can get the jaw clamped, we’ll be safe.”

  “Yeah, yeah...if you don’t get eaten first. Go for it.”

  He did. He had no choice. He tensed, feeling every inch of the creature beneath him, sensing with all his might, trying to ascertain what the creature’s next twist would be.

  And then he moved. He leapt forward, landing heavily on the open jaw, snapping it shut. The creature was mammoth; the jaws extended well beyond his perch.

  He’d snapped the jaws shut, and still the animal was trying to fight him off. Its strength was incredible. It would shake them all off if they weren’t careful.

  Trying to maintain his seat, he reached into his pocket for a new clip. The animal bucked. He nearly fumbled the clip.

  He tried again.

  “Hurry,” Jack breathed.

  The alligator made a wild swing with its tail.

  Lorena screamed. Jesse heard the whoosh as she flew through the air, the thud as she slammed against the mud wall of the pit.

  The alligator bucked, fighting him wildly, beginning to get its jaws open, despite his weight.

  “Jack, hold him!” he cried.

  “Damn it, I can’t. I can’t!”

  Then he heard Lorena, rising, breathless but as tenacious as the creature beneath him. “I’m coming.”

  “Watch it!”

  The alligator swerved, knowing exactly where Lorena was, trying for her.

  She moved like the wind, flying past him, landing behind Jack once again.

  He could barely hold the gun, much less insert the clip. He had to. He had to, and he knew it.

  He locked the clip into place.

  He felt for the eyes, and he fired.

  The ferocity of the bellow that erupted from the creature nearly threw him. The sound of the bullet exploding was terrible, almost deafening.

  But he shot again.

  And again.

  At last the gator ceased to move.

  For long, awful moments, none of them moved.

  Jesse’s ears were ringing when he finally said huskily, “Lorena, try getting up.”

  She did so, slowly, carefully.

  The creature remained dead still.

  “Jack.”

  Jack moved, but Jesse stayed. He groped around and found the base of the skull, then warned them, “I’m shooting again.”

  He delivered two more bullets into the creature.

  Then, at last convinced that the creature had to be dead, he moved, too.

  In the darkness, he felt her. But she didn’t collapse against him the way a lesser woman might have. She strode over to him, and her arms wound around him as his wound around her.

  Only then did she start to shake.

  He heard Jack sink to the ground. “I think I’m moving north,” Jack muttered. “Somewhere with ice and snow and no alligators.”

  Jesse allowed himself a moment to revel in simply holding Lorena, in feeling her, breathing her scent above the gunpowder and the muck.

  “What the...?” Jack said suddenly. “Hell.”

  “What?” Jesse demanded sharply.

  In the darkness, they could hear Jack swallow.

  “What?” Jesse demanded again.

  “There, uh, there was someone else down here,” Jack said very softly. “There are...body parts.”

  “Oh, God!” Lorena breathed.

  “Hey, we’ve got to keep it together,” Jesse said sharply. “It’s not over yet. We’ve got to get out of here. Quickly. They’ll be back.”

  “They?” Jack said dully. Then he added, “Of course. They.”

  “Come on, Lorena,” Jesse said. “I’ll hike you up first.”

  He lifted her, and with Jack’s help, he got her to his shoulders. From there, a shove sent her out of the pit.

  “Hey! I found a big branch,” Lorena called. “You guys can use it as a ladder.”

  She nearly hit Jesse in the head with it, but as soon as they got it in place, Jack reached upward, bracing against it. Jesse gave him a push.

  They heard the tree limb cracking, but Jack was nimble for his size, and grasping for both the ground and Lorena’s hand, he managed to throw himself to the edge of the pit. He turned then, ready to help Jesse. “Come on!”

  Jesse eyed the height of the pit, the broken branch, and the length of Jack’s arms. “Back off,” he said.

  “What?”

  “Back off.”

  He gave himself a few feet, then ran at the tree limb, using it as a stepping-stone and no more.

  He just made the rim of the pit, then hung there.

  His grip slipped in the muck.

  “Jack, where the hell are you?”

  Jack didn’t answer.

  Jesse dangled. Then he got a grip, and at last, straining, he dragged himself over the rim of the pit. He rolled, then lay panting in the bright sunlight.

  “Damn you, Jack,” he said, turning.

  And then he fell silent, knowing what had happened to Jack.

  Both Jack and Lorena were still there. Completely covered in black muck and mire.

  But the true killer, the thief, the one determined on getting rich at the expense of so many lives, had at last arrived himself.

  Jesse made it to his feet, aware of the Smith & Wesson pointed at his face, and the grim features of the man he had once respected.

  “Doc,” he said. “Doc Thiessen. I’ve been expecting you.”

  “Damn, Jesse, why do you have to be so hard to kill?” Thorne Thiessen demanded.

  “Hell, I don’t know. I just like living, I suppose.”

  Sally was standing right behind Thiessen. Jesse noticed that she hadn’t gotten rid of both airboats. There were two on the little hummock, his own and the one Doc had come in.

  “So, Doc... I kind of figured you were involved in this,” he said smoothly. He was playing for time now, but Doc didn’t know that. Doc didn’t know that the troops were already on the way.

  “Oh, bull! You didn’t have the least idea,” Doc Thiessen said.

  “Yeah, I did, Doc, but I was awful damn slow putting it all together. At first I thought it was Harry, because Harry has money. But so do you. I admit, I didn’t figure out right away who you had working for you, and I sure as hell didn’t suspect Sally, but after I talked to Jim Hidalgo a few times, I knew you had to be involved. He gets whacked on the head, and the first one he sees is you. And those samples... You should have had t
hem all prepared and studied and on their way somewhere else. You had to steal your own samples. And I’m willing to bet that by now Lars Garcia has found out that you own a helicopter, though I doubt you were the one flying it around, looking for your gators. That was probably John Smith. I’m willing to bet that the altered gators are marked somehow. They would have found out just exactly how if the one I shot had reached the veterinary school, as it was supposed to. I didn’t suspect Sally at first, but I should have. She was the one who gave Roger a shove, wasn’t she?

  “So let me see if I’ve got it worked out. You were the leader, and Sally and John were working for you. Who did all the dirty work for you? The killing, Doc. Who killed Maria and Hector—and Lorena’s father?”

  “I really don’t have time for this,” Thiessen said, shaking his white head. The face that had always seemed so kindly was now twisted in a mask of impatience and cold cruelty.

  “Come on. You beat me.” Jesse tried to assess the situation. Doc was the only one with a gun, and it was now aimed at him. Jack and Lorena were standing to one side, where they’d been forced in the last seconds while he’d been getting himself out of the hole.

  But neither Jack nor Lorena looked as if they were about to collapse. As if they had been beaten. They were survivors. Lorena had a steely strength to have gotten this far.

  In fact, she looked both defiant and angry. She wasn’t going to go down easy.

  And he couldn’t count Jack out, either.

  Thiessen smiled. “Actually, you’ll find out who does my dirty work in just a minute or two. But first I’ve got to decide how to do this. You killed my gator, Jesse. In fact, damn it, you’ve killed two of them.”

  “C’mon, Doc, what else could I do?” Jesse said. “But listen, since I’m going to die anyway, do me a favor. Explain it all to me first, will you?”

  Doc shrugged. “Easy enough. Sally heard about the research, made the contacts and came to me, since she didn’t have the expertise to work with what she’d found. I’ve worked my fingers to the bone out here, and you can’t imagine the millions to be made off a formula that can create an animal this size. The old man up in his research lab panicked. He didn’t have to die. But he found out I’d gotten hold of a few of his specimens. Found out that they were growing, and he didn’t keep his mouth shut, the old fool. He had to go and confront me about it. He hadn’t figured out Sally’s role yet, but I couldn’t take the chance he would. She’d worked for him briefly, and if she’d been caught, that would have led back to me. So he had to die. Just the way things go,” he said coldly. “Now, as to Lorena being the old man’s daughter, well, it took me a while to make the connection, I’ll admit.”

  “You bastard!” Lorena said softly.

  For a moment Jesse thought she was going to fly at Doc, but she controlled herself, tense as a whip.

  Her eyes touched Jesse’s. He realized that she was trusting him to get them out of this.

  He couldn’t fail her.

  Thiessen was on a roll. “You should have accepted that accident, Ms. Fortier. The cops would have gone on believing that Hector and Maria had been involved in drugs. As to old Billy Ray, well, I didn’t kill him. The old drunk ran into one my gators, that’s all.”

  “Just how many killer gators are there?” Lorena asked tightly.

  Thiessen appeared amused. “There were four. One died on its own—near Hector and Maria’s. You killed two, Jesse. There’s still one of these beauties out there somewhere, and trust me, I’ll find it. I’ve had Sally eavesdropping all along, and as soon as there’s word, I’ll know. None of this was as hard as you’re trying to make it look, Jesse.”

  “And getting away with it won’t be as easy as you think, Doc,” Jesse said. All he needed was a distraction. He was certain that Doc knew how to shoot, but he was no ace, no trained officer. A distraction, and...

  He swallowed hard. Did he dare? He’d be risking Lorena’s life. And Jack’s.

  Lorena was staring at him, waiting. She still seemed to trust in the fact that he intended to do something.

  And if he didn’t?

  Then they could all be dead anyway, unless the cavalry got here pronto.

  “Lars Garcia will put all these pieces together, Doc.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous. Other people out here have helicopters, and airboats? They must number in the thousands.”

  “People who know reptiles as well as you do are harder to find,” Jesse commented. “And I’ve already mentioned your name to Lars. What was it, Thorne? Not enough money in what you were doing, or not enough glory?”

  “The world is changing, Jesse. Genetic enhancement is being made on a daily basis. Clones are a dime a dozen now. You’re got to be at the front of the flock.”

  “I’m telling you, Lars is on to you,” Jesse said softly. “And you think that Metro-Dade Homicide will let go? You’re out of your mind.”

  Thiessen looked troubled for an instant. “He has no proof.”

  “He will. I figure you marked those gators, tagged them in some way, and then let them loose on purpose, trying to see how they did in the wild. But you wanted to protect them from discovery at the same time, so you tracked them by helicopter, as well as by airboat. They’re territorial creatures, so you probably shouldn’t have let that one get so close to a populated area. That was a stupid-as-hell reason for Hector and Maria to die. Whoever killed Hector and Maria came on their property with an airboat. So tell me, Doc. Who did it?”

  “I did,” Sally offered, stepping around from behind Thiessen. “I did it, you fool. You thought I was nothing more than an attractive piece of ornamentation, a numbers cruncher. Background and nothing more. Well, get this. You underestimated me. You were friendly...you were even warm sometimes. But I could always see it in your eyes. I was nothing to you. But you were wrong. So wrong about me. I know how to be a mover and a shaker.”

  “And a killer,” he said huskily.

  She smiled. “And a killer.”

  She was slightly between him and Thiessen at that point. Jesse cut a quick glance toward Lorena and realized that her eyes were on him.

  She was afraid, but not panicking. She would fight until her last breath. He had never felt such a connection to another individual in his life.

  A diversion. He needed a diversion.

  She was staring at him so intently, he was certain she knew what he needed, how to help.

  He prayed.

  Then he gave a slight nod.

  “Hey!” Lorena cried.

  Startled, both Sally and Doc turned slightly.

  And he made his move. He threw his body hard against Sally’s, slamming her into Thiessen, bringing them all down to the ground.

  The gun went off. A scream sounded sharply.

  Still smoking, the gun lay on the ground in Thiessen’s hand. Nearby was a pool of blood.

  Jesse slammed his fist down on the man’s wrist, and Thiessen released the gun. Jack Pine stepped forward, kicking it far from the man’s grasp.

  “Lorena!” Jesse cried, and leapt to his feet. She was standing. Unhurt.

  Unbloodied.

  She rushed into his arms.

  He held her, shaking, feeling as if the world itself had begun to spin madly.

  “Get up,” Jack Pine was saying harshly to someone.

  Jesse pulled away from Lorena long enough to turn and look.

  Thiessen was getting up.

  Sally lay on the ground, her eyes open but sightless.

  A hole in her chest was surrounded by crimson.

  “Is it over yet, Jesse?” Jack asked.

  Jesse let out a sigh. “Not exactly. I imagine that, in a few minutes, John Smith will be arriving. He’ll have been alerted by now to the fact that we’re out here. If he does show, he’ll be picked up. And I would also say that within minutes half the Micco
sukee force will be out here. They’ll be followed by the Metro-Dade cops. I can hear the airboats now.”

  Lorena looked up at him, then down at Sally. She shuddered, but only for a minute. Then she spun on Thiessen.

  “Who killed my father?” she demanded.

  “Ah, that,” Thiessen murmured.

  “Who actually killed my father!” Lorena repeated.

  “Not me. I didn’t kill anyone.” He paused, and Jesse could see his mind working, trying to find a way out, to make himself look less guilty. “Sally...the whole thing was her idea. That woman was bloodthirsty. I was beside myself when I learned about the death of your poor father. And Hector and Maria. If she hadn’t killed them... But she was certain they knew something and would get Fish and Wildlife in.”

  “Rather than Metro-Dade Homicide?” Jesse asked dryly.

  “She was the one who forced me into everything,” Thiessen said.

  “Tell it to a jury,” Jesse said.

  “I intend to.”

  They heard the whir of an airboat motor coming closer. Jesse spun quickly, ready to dive for the gun if another of Thiessen’s accomplices was arriving.

  But it was George Osceola at the helm, and a number of tribal officers were with him. In seconds, they were rushing forward, shouting, going for Thiessen.

  Seeing that the matter was in hand, George walked over to Jesse. “Everyone all right?”

  “Except for Sally. She’s dead,” Jesse said.

  “Sally!”

  “Sally killed Hector and Maria,” Jesse explained. “Were you able to pick up John Smith?”

  “They’re still looking for him. But, Jesse, you were right. Lars put out the APB, and Smith was spotted upstate. I’d bet money he abducted the van driver. We’ll know more as soon as we get hold of him.” George studied Jesse, then went silent. “Meanwhile, we need to get you all out of here.”

  “Hey!” Lorena cried suddenly. “Stop him! Doc’s heading for the water!”

  George Osceola swore; so did Jesse. They should have cuffed the man immediately.

  Doc Thiessen was fast, and he knew the Everglades. He was tearing across the hummuck, heading for the water.

  “Stop or I’ll shoot!” George shouted.