Chapter Fourteen
Cat saw Dylan’s flushed face as he shot to his feet.
“You can’t believe I gave her any such list.”
Jason brandished his weapon again but Fuller waved him back.
“Calm down, Mr.
Walker.
We believe your wife got her hands on the list for her native-born country from someone close to you,” he said.
For a moment he looked confused, then he swore.
“My brother, Beau,”
Dylan said, his voice rough with anger.
“We don’t know that for a fact, Mr. Walker.”
“Then what do you know?”
Dylan demanded angrily.
“Was it my brother?”
Fuller turned to Cat.
“Have you ever heard of the Moscow Rules of spying, Sheriff Jameson? Assume nothing.
Never go against your gut.
Everyone is potentially under opposition control.
Do not look back: you are never completely alone.
Go with the flow, blend in. Vary your pattern and stay within your cover. Those rules are posted in the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC.”
“I don’t understand,”
she said, more than a little confused.
“We are dealing with a different breed of Russian spies.
Spies usually have contact with no one else, never learning the names of any other spies or officials.
But these Russian-born females adopted by American families either found each other—or their controller found them and activated them.
“Originally, we believe that Mr.
Walker here was the mark,”
Fuller continued.
“But your wife must have realized that you would never give up your associates.
So, she found someone who would.”
“How was it possible that my brother had such a list?”
Dylan demanded.
“We aren’t sure that he did have it, but he was apparently involved somehow because he became a target.”
Dylan shook his head.
“If true and the list is out there, then why hasn’t the Soviet Union acted on it? Or have they?”
Fuller shook his head.
“We don’t believe Ginny Cooper Walker ever delivered the document to the Soviets or anyone else.”
“Wasn’t it possible she had it with her, and it was destroyed in the bombing?”
Dylan asked.
The director shook his head.
“It appears to be missing.”
He looked directly at Cat.
“That is why people are dying.
There seems to be two factions involved, one trying to get the document, the other killing people to either stop it from falling into the wrong hands or fighting for it because they’ve already made a deal with another country that wants it.”
“And you don’t know who is who,”
Cat finished for him.
Fuller shifted in the chair.
“I understand this is your first position in law enforcement.
I hope it’s not your last.”
“Is that a threat?”
Dylan demanded.
“Not at all.
I admire Sheriff Jameson.
I already knew your abilities, Mr.
Walker.
I find the two of you an interesting but very capable team.”
“Then what is it you want?”
he demanded.
“I don’t want that document to fall into the wrong hands, and I suspect you don’t either since your name will be on that list,”
Fuller said.
“I also don’t want the two of you to get killed since right now you are both deep in the middle of this.”
“But there is something else you want,” Cat said.
The director nodded and turned to Dylan.
“Your wife had that document.
That means it must still be in your possession, whether you’re aware of it or not. Find it.”
“If I do, I’ll destroy it,”
Dylan said.
“That would be a mistake.
The only way this is going to stop is if both sides know it’s destroyed.”
“I’ll make sure they do,”
he promised.
Fuller sighed and got to his feet.
“I would prefer that when you find it, you turn it over to me.
But I understand your lack of trust in anyone other than…”
His gaze swung to Cat for a moment, then back to Dylan.
“I wanted to alert you both to what a dangerous position you’re in.”
“Which one of the women is working for you?”
Cat asked. “Rowena?”
Clearly ignoring the question, the man said, “There is no shame in walking completely away from this, Sheriff Jameson, especially given your condition.
I highly recommend it.”
With that he pulled out two business cards, handed one to Cat and another to Dylan.
“You find the document, you call.”
He motioned to his companion and the two walked out, leaving Cat and Dylan alone.
For a moment, neither spoke.
The house grew uncomfortably quiet, making Cat aware of the growing darkness outside.
The sun had long ago dropped behind the mountains, leaving the lake plated in silver light.
The mountains beyond the water were etched black against the pale sky.
The quiet was deafening.
“You were right, Cat,”
Dylan said after a moment.
“Rowena was looking for the document.”
“But is she still looking or is she waiting for us to find it? And if so, who is she working for?”
He shook his head.
“Mind if we swing by my ranch on the way home? After our run-in with Rowena, I want to see if she came back to the house.”
“She has the code to get back in?”
“I haven’t changed it yet.
That could have been a mistake.”
“You really think she went back to the ranch after we confronted her?”
Cat asked.
“Yes.
Unless she took all her belongings with her when she left the ranch, she has to come back for them.
I don’t think she’d finished.
Not yet.
Unless she found the document.
It sure didn’t sound that way with whomever she was talking to on the phone when we approached her.”
After locking up the lake house, Dylan drove them to the ranch.
They didn’t speak on the drive.
Cat assumed that like her, Dylan was going over everything they’d learned.
As they pulled in through the gate and drove up the road, she spotted Rowena’s SUV parked in front of the cottage.
“Looks like she’s changed residences.”
Dylan swore and sped up.
“Like hell.”
As he swung into a spot next to the woman’s SUV, Rowena came out of his cottage.
“You really should lock your doors,”
she said, standing her ground as the two of them exited his pickup.
“What were you doing in there?”
he demanded.
“Just left you a note,”
she said.
“I’m leaving in the morning.”
Her gaze swung to Cat.
“Unless you’re going to arrest me.
But I didn’t think so.”
“Get that package mailed off to your niece?” Cat said.
“As a matter of fact, I did.”
She eyed Cat.
“They say pregnancy makes a woman glow, but I don’t think that’s what put that color in your cheeks, Sheriff.”
A big grin spread across her face before she laughed and turned to Dylan.
“I saw the way you looked at her.
But I have to hand it to you.
Didn’t take you any time at all to seduce her.”
“Rowena—”
“Don’t even bother, Dylan.”
Her gaze whipped back to Cat.
“Be careful.
My best friend was married to him.
He is a man of many secrets.
You have no idea what he’s capable of.
Ginny didn’t either. I kept telling her to get out while she could. Too bad she didn’t listen. Now she’s dead.”
Rowena lifted a brow.
“Think about that, Acting Sheriff.”
“That’s enough, Rowena,”
Dylan snapped.
“Why wait until morning? Why don’t you leave now?”
She smiled at him.
“You’re right.
Why not say goodbye now.”
She turned to Cat.
“Good luck.
Too bad about your husband, Taylor Jameson, right? What a terrible accident.”
Cat saw something unsettling in the woman’s expression.
“Turns out you aren’t as smart as you think you are.”
She turned to glare at Dylan before walking away.
“Enjoy your evening.
Too bad it will be your last.”
“What was that about?”
Cat asked, shaken by her mentioning Taylor and the wreck that killed him as she watched Rowena walk away.
“I have no idea,”
Dylan said.
“But I’m worried that she wasn’t in the cottage just to leave me a note.”
He headed for the door.
“You might want to wait here.”
What had the woman left? The baby? That thought propelled her toward the cottage door until she realized she hadn’t heard a sound from inside. What if—
“Wait here,”
Dylan said as if thinking the same thing.
Cat couldn’t bear to wait.
She rushed in behind him.
They didn’t find the baby, alive or dead, but Rowena had left a note on his kitchen table.
Dylan didn’t touch it.
Instead, he left to search the rest of the cottage, coming back to say he hadn’t found anything out of place that he could tell.
They both looked down at the note lying on the table.
Sorry things didn’t work out.