Chapter 21
Captain Lynch rang his rusty old doorbell and Dane couldn’t remember the last time he’d heard the bell—had forgotten it even existed.
Had forgotten people with manners had existed too.
He got to the door figuring Lynch had his hands full with food and he was right.
He took the MSG-and-duck-sauce-scented bags from Cap’s hands and brought them straight to the dining room table, whose scratched surface matched the floor.
He slid the computers and monitors down to one end and supplanted them with the brown bags of food stapled closed at the top with a bag of fortune cookies hanging like an ornament.
“Plates? Forks?” Shana asked with her hands on her hips.
“In the drawers.” He answered her challenge with an obvious scold and wondered if that was the way it would always be between them.
As if there’d be an always. He shuddered and hid the chilling reaction by ripping open the bag and busying himself with removing the food.
He wasn’t hungry, but they all needed to eat.
They’d gone all day without food, except maybe Lynch.
“We’ll call the governor after we have a couple of bites and put it to him.”
“Put what to him?” Lynch asked.
“Good job with the confrontation, by the way,” Shana smiled at him. Lynch nodded.
Dane caught him up on things. Lynch sat in front of the monitor and watched a replay of the scene.
“Since Tamara didn’t give us enough to pull a warrant on the house, and we don’t think Susan Whittier is at the house at this point anyway, since you already took an unofficial look, then we need a fail-safe strategy so Shana isn’t left hanging and vulnerable when Jean Luc pushes Ned.
Ned may get suspicious. Who knows how he’ll react?
They all see Shana as their prize at the end of the competition.
So we can’t let Shana stay until the end. I get her out. She can fake an injury.”
“I’m sitting right here. You could address me instead of talking around me like I’m invisible.”
“So sorry. How about if you fake an injury, Shana? Then I’ll come and take you away. Chauncey can run interference with Ned or Roger or whatever other goons he has in attendance.”
“I’ve seen at least three of them,” Chauncey said. “I might need help.”
“I’ll get you a couple more undercover guys in there,” Cap said.
“The thing is, we may have to pull the plug without winning the prize. We might not find Susan—”
“I’m damn well going to find her,” Shana said.
“No way I’m putting my butt on the line in that water—did I tell you the last time I was in a competition I cracked three ribs?
—and going through this whole operation without finding Susan Whittier.
And without nailing Ned’s balls to the wall.
” She sounded like the toughest guy in the room and he found his mouth tilted up in a smile without his permission.
“Of course. Then I’ll have a talk with Jean Luc tonight and make sure he’s putting on the pressure,” Dane said.
He turned from Shana and spoke to Cap and Chauncey.
“If Ned still doesn’t talk, I’ll find him and apply some of my own pressure.
Meantime, we need Shana to win and not get her prize money so we can bring them down for the fraudulent surfing operation.
That would keep them in town long enough—”
“That’s the least of their crimes,” Captain Lynch said.
“The only one we can actually pin on them in the end unless one of us can make Ned talk.”
“Jean Luc will do it,” Shana said.
They all stopped talking and stopped eating and Dane felt distinctly uncomfortable relying on the likes of Jean Luc to make their plan come together. But it wasn’t the first time he’d relied on turning a bad guy and it wouldn’t be his last.
Or maybe it would be his last. Not the time to contemplate his future.
Dane walked from the dining room to his front room, which in anyone else’s house would be the living room or parlor.
In his house, it was an empty room with a rudimentary desk and a couch he used as a file cabinet.
He lifted the telephone from the desk and brought it back out to the dining room, which had the best lighting.
“Secure line. I’m dialing up the governor. He’s going to expect more than we have. He’s not going to like hearing about an exit plan.”
“If you don’t want to give him the bad news, I’ll do the talking,” Shana said. She almost looked comical, like the forgotten kid sister piping up and trying to get noticed. He smiled again.
“I got it. But thanks.”
“Don’t patronize me.”
“Then don’t act like—Peter. Got a minute for a status?” Dane pressed the speaker button. “The gang’s all here and you’re on speaker.”
“Hello, Shana, Miller, Lynch.”
“Not much progress. We turned Jean Luc Ruse, but he doesn’t know where Susan is and has no eyeball confirmation that she’s alive or where Ned has her.
He’s going to try and get the information from Ned tonight and we’ll locate her tomorrow during the second day of the competition.
Once it’s over we’ll arrest all parties for kidnapping and fraud. ”
“Shana will win? She’ll demand her prize money and when they refuse her you cuff them?”
“Afraid we can’t let it go that far. Ned and the Brazilians are thinking of Shana as the prize and we can’t afford to let it play out.”
Shana said, “We have the surveillance camera in their office. We could have backup right outside the door—”
“No. Too dangerous.” Dane shut her down with a stare and his fist clenched on the table.
“We have him on fixing the contest since he’s already bribed me and made me head judge and told me what to do.
That should be plenty to convict him. We’re working on getting a warrant for their financials.
They refused to hand them over voluntarily. ”
“Not surprising. But encouraging—except now they’re going to hide everything.”
“That’s the beauty of the surveillance camera. We have them on camera getting rid of their files.” Dane smiled.
“But the real crime is the kidnapping,” Peter said. “We need to get Susan—you’re sure she’s still alive?”
“Fairly certain. According to Jean Luc.”
“Okay. We’ll do it your way, Dane. Cut it short. Get Shana out before the end and shut it down before they can touch her and most of all—make sure you find out where the hell they have Susan Whittier. Do you understand?”
“Yes, sir.”
“I’ve been watching coverage of the event. Very interesting so far. Watch yourself, Shana. And everyone else take care too. Out.” The line went dead. Dane shook his head. Peter loved playing general.
“I’m calling Jean Luc now,” Shana announced.
Dane nodded. “Why not? He likes you. Maybe you have sway.”
“I don’t think it’s a matter of sway. I think he’s afraid of Ned.”
“Who isn’t?”
She gave him an arched brow. “You?”
“Me too, “Chauncey said. “Any bloke in their right mind ought to be—the man’s bonkers.”
“I only met him briefly tonight, but I have to agree,” Cap said. “He seems like he’s the kind of guy who’s always looking for a reason to mess someone up.”
Dane rubbed his jaw. “He messed me up. Only once.”
“Now he’s afraid of you,” Shana said.
“That’s Ned’s language. Fear. Jean Luc is another matter. Maybe your language will work better with him.”
“Not sure I’m flattered, but I’ll take it.” Shana slipped her smart phone from her pocket and tapped in a number.
She held the phone to her ear for several tense seconds, then tossed it down, not bothering to leave a message. “He’ll call me back when he has a chance.”
“If he has a chance,” Captain Lynch said.
“One thing you couldn’t see on the video was the tension in the air between him and Ned.
He was more afraid of Ned than he was of the Brazilians.
I could feel it. The Brazilian brothers were watching it and only mildly concerned about my presence.
Probably confident that they could disappear as quickly as they appeared in their brand new state-of-the-art yacht moored in the harbor at Vineyard Haven.
The thing can move like a speedboat in the open water. ”
Dane nodded. “Jean Luc’ll be okay. But maybe someone ought to check up on him. You have someone follow them?”
Cap nodded.
“Find out where they are. I’ll show up. The rest of you can turn in—especially you.” He nodded at Shana.
“Why don’t I come with you?” she asked. She had to already know the answer.
Chauncey said, “Don’t you think that would be like a taunt for Ned if you showed up with Dane?”
“She’s not serious. Although she does enjoy taunting,” Dane said. He moved to the door but didn’t miss Chauncey’s frown and Cap’s folded arms.
“I’ll back you up,” Cap said.
“You got men on the job to back me up. Have them confirm the location, but I think I know where they went.”
Cap nodded, but he looked strained, like the Chinese food didn’t sit well. Dane knew it wasn’t the food. Before the door closed behind him he heard Shana say, “I’m going back to my house for the night.”
He hoped to God that Chauncey and Cap had enough sense to go with her, but he’d be talking to Cap in a few minutes and he’d make sure.
It was better this way, really. He didn’t need to think any further to know he and Shana had no future as lovers.
Too much trouble. Too much friction between them.
His stomach churned and ended with a knot in his gut and a feeling as if he were being gnawed from the inside.
If he were honest, he’d admit that he was no good for her—or any woman these days.
The Elena Effect. She’d left a brand like a deforming scar across his heart.
He hadn’t gotten too far in his Jeep when his cell phone buzzed and he picked it up.
“They’re at some hole-in-the-wall dive called The Lucky Parrot. You know it? I’m kind of surprised they didn’t take the Brazilians someplace nice for a night on the town.”