Chapter 43
No-Neck bolted, shoving Joellen backward and knocking a Japanese family out of his way with a barked curse. Joellen hung half over the rail, dangerously close to falling to the rocks below.
“Get him!” Cutter said to Lola. “I’ve got her.”
He took Joellen by her shoulders and steadied her. “Are you okay?” He looked her up and down.
“You actually came …” she whispered, blinking in disbelief. “I didn’t think …”
Cutter took a white handkerchief from his back pocket and dabbed at her wounded lip. “Jo,” he said, more firmly now. “Are you okay?”
She nodded.
“Was this guy alone?”
“I … I didn’t see anyone else—”
“Stay here,” Cutter said. “I need to check on my partner.”
He turned to go but spun around again. “I mean what I say, Jo. Stay put here in the open. Just because you don’t see anyone doesn’t mean they’re not there.”
“Aye, aye, Marshal!” Joellen said, snapping a sloppy salute.
Cutter left her in the care of a couple of elderly women in red hats.
He ducked and dodged through the crowd, worry rising in his gut. It pissed her off, but he couldn’t help but think of Lola like a kid sister. She was plenty capable, but No-Neck looked like a guy who could hold his own in a fight.
The solid scrum of tourists crammed onto the boardwalk made anything more than a fast shuffle impossible. “US Marshals!” Cutter barked, shouldering his way through a stubborn knot of bodies clogging the narrow pathway over the falls.
An angry snarl blew his direction on the breeze. Lola. Her commands were terrifying when she was amped. The crowd thinned just enough for him to push through.
No-Neck hadn’t made it far.
Lola stood over his prone body. Sunlight glinted off the gossamer wires leading from the outlaw’s back and buttocks to the yellow Taser in her hand.
Lola glanced up, grinning at Cutter. “Can I borrow your cuffs?”
Cutter snatched the handcuffs from his belt. He scanned the area for other threats and then double-checked with Lola to make sure she was acting as cover while he stepped forward to make contact.
“Got him?”
She nodded. “Got him.”
“That bitch shot me,” No-Neck said as Cutter secured his wrists with two pairs of linked cuffs.
“I’m sure she had a reason.” Cutter rolled the man to a seated position. “Any weapons on you?”
“I just came off the cruise ship, genius,” the man said. “They search you coming and going.” He glared at Lola. “Hear that? You just shot an unarmed man.”
“Tasers are just the ticket for unarmed men,” she said. “If you’d had so much as a sharpened pencil, I would have shot you for reals.”
Cutter gave their arrestee a quick pat down, pulling the wallet out of his back pocket and passing it to Lola.
She read from the driver’s license. “Bartholomew Preston of Conroe, Texas.”
“I go by Bart,” the man said, hangdog now.
Cutter pushed himself to his feet and made a deliberate 360. He eyed the collapsing circle of tourists to make sure they weren’t aiming anything more dangerous than cell phones. “US Marshals!” he said. “Everyone stay back, please.”
Two Ketchikan PD officers approached from the road beyond the falls, making their way through the crowd. Cutter badged them, then stepped away to explain the situation out of Preston’s earshot.
The older of the two officers, a compactly built man with a crooked smile and a ruddy, James Caan look, gave a curt nod. “Be glad to transport for you.”
Preston’s shoulders slumped, looking like he might cry.
“That bitch attacked me out of the blue! I never did anything to her and—”
Lola hauled the outlaw to his feet. “Save your breath, Bartholomew,” she said. “We were there.”
“You got that foot pursuit you wanted,” Cutter said when they were away from all the cameras.
Lola scoffed. “You could hardly call it a pursuit. I reckon this guy couldn’t outrun a three-legged dog. I mean, look at him, Boss. Perfect example of what happens when you skimp cardio. Matter of fact, his legs owe the rest of his body an apology.”
Less than twenty yards up the hillside, Ricky Pink watched from the shadows of giant hemlocks and spruce on pathway that led from the Cape Fox Hotel down to Creek Street. Married Man’s Trail.
“I’m gonna break his neck,” Pink muttered.
“He won’t say anything,” Shayna said. “I guarantee that. I know where his bodies are buried.”
“I’m not talking about your idiot cousin,” Pink said. “I mean Cutter’s grandson.”
“That’s just crazy, hon,” Shayna said. “If you kill him now, we won’t ever find the diamonds.”
Pink wheeled in place. “Don’t ever call me crazy!”
“Sor-ry-ah,” drawing out the word so she sounded anything but. “He seems awfully chatty with that Hawaiian chick. Could be they’re more than partners. Maybe she knows something about the diamonds.”
Pink cracked his knuckles one by one. “When are you gonna get it through your head? I don’t give a shit about the diamonds.”
“You don’t mean that.” Shayna shifted nervously beside him.
She tugged at his arm starting him back up the mountain.
“Come on, honeybunch. Somebody’s gonna notice that badass stare of yours.
” She lifted her phone to her ear and pushed a lock of hair out of her eyes.
“I’m letting Leo know what just went down. He’ll take care of things.”
“Okay,” Pink said. The cruise ship was visible through the evergreen boughs. “I’ll wait to do Cutter. But we are gonna whack the wife.”
Shayna threw up her hands, hissing through her teeth. “You seriously don’t care about finding those diamonds, do you?”
“I care about making that son of a bitch bleed.” Pink glared down at her.
“Patience.” She turned and started uphill as if everything was settled.
“You’re right about that Hawaiian bird,” Pink said, watching the way Cutter looked at the Polynesian woman. “They got something going. We’ll start with her. Get her alone, and cut her some—”
“What the hell, Ricky?” Shayna gasped. “You’ll blow this whole thing up in our faces.”
“We still have the wife,” Pink said. “Either the Hawaiian bird knows something or she doesn’t. Tell Leo to stay on her.”
Shayna gave a vehement shake of her head. “I do not think—”
“That’s your problem,” Ricky said. “You think too much. Sometimes, you just gotta do. Tell Leo to stay on the Hawaiian girl. Get her alone as soon as he can. Cutter finds her body, he’ll get the message clear enough.”
Cutter and Teariki turned over custody of No-Neck Preston to the KPD officers, then made their way through the crowds along Creek Street.
They found Joellen exactly where they’d left her, overlooking the tidal basin.
She thanked the Red Hat Ladies profusely for sitting with her and then sent them on their way.
“Hey there,” she said, beaming at Cutter. “Here I am thinking I know you pretty damn well, but you still manage to surprise me.”
Joellen moved closer, like she was about to give him a hug. Lola stepped in, hipshot, to block her.
“Lola Teariki,” she said, all business. “I’m his partner on the Marshals task force.” Cutter didn’t know if it was instinctive or on purpose, but Teariki’s lips pulled back in a half snarl, like she might break into a terrifying Māori Haka at any moment.
Joellen shook the offered hand, wincing. Lola had a grip that could pop the cap off a beer bottle.
“I’m Arliss’s ex-wife.”
“Yep,” Lola said, popping the P. “I reckon I should tell you up front, I’m on Team Mim.”
“Good to hear.” Joellen gave a tight chuckle. “I am also on Team Mim. Don’t know if this guy told you, but I’m the one who wanted the divorce.”
Lola’s gaze stayed locked on Joellen’s face. “And yet you called him at the first sign of trouble.”
“Oh darlin,” Joellen said. “This is hardly the first sign of trouble in my life. I love your accent, by the way.” She touched Lola’s arm before turning to Cutter. “It was stupid to call you, but for some reason I just thought, hey, Arliss is in Alaska, I should let him know someone’s following me.”
“Looks like you were right to do it,” Cutter said. “Does the name Bart Preston mean anything to you?”
“Not at all,” Joellen said. “Is that his name?”
Cutter nodded. “Have you ever seen him before today?”
“Last night on the top deck,” she said. “He was hanging around while my date and I walked around the track after dinner.”
Lola’s scowl burned on unabated. “Tell us about this date.”
Joellen’s face flushed, like she’d done something embarrassing.
“Steve Cruz?” she said. “Not much to tell. I met him when we were boarding the ship. He’s a nice guy.
A cop from Minnesota. We hit it off pretty well.
At least I thought we did. We went for a walk after a nice dinner.
I drank a fair amount of wine, so it wasn’t long before I had to pee.
When I came out of the ladies’ room, he’d vanished.
I haven’t seen him since.” She heaved a heavy sigh, tears welling.
“Guess I’m so coyote ugly, he was willing to abandon the five-thousand-dollar Tom Ford jacket he loaned me when I got cold. ”
Lola’s eyes opened wider. “What?”
“You know, coyote ugly. It’s when a guy wakes up next to you and gnaws off his own arm instead of—”
Lola’s frown came back with a vengeance. “I know what coyote ugly means,” she said. “What’s this about a five-thousand-dollar coat?”
“Yeah, that was weird,” Joellen said. “I asked Guest Services for his cabin number last night so I could return it, but they were no help at all. Guess they thought I was a stalker or something.”
“Imagine that,” Lola said.
“Lola,” Cutter chided.
“Anyway,” Joellen said. “I never did locate him. To be honest, I’m really worried something might have happened. That Bart guy had to have seen something, but he freaked out when I asked him about it.”
Cutter shot a glance at Lola. Then, to Joellen, “Alaska Air has a handful of flights south out of Ketchikan every day. We’ll help you get a flight home from here.”
“What?” Joellen scoffed. “No way. I mean, you have the guy in custody. I paid for this cruise, Arliss. I plan to stay on it to the end.”
Cutter frowned. “Look, Jo, the person we arrested could be working with someone else.”
“Well, that’s a pleasant notion,” she said. “I thought I was the one being paranoid.”
“What time does your ship leave?” Cutter asked.
Joellen glanced at her watch, the Cartier he’d given her all those years ago. She saw that he noticed. “Don’t read anything into this, hon. It tells the time. There is absolutely no sentiment attached. Anyway, the ship doesn’t depart for another six hours.”
“Good to hear,” Cutter said. “Go back and stay in your cabin until we come get you.”
“Where are you going?”
“Ketchikan PD,” Cutter said. “See what we can find out from Bart Preston.”
“I can’t understand why he’d want to follow me,” Joellen said, half to herself.
“That’s what we’re going to find out,” Lola said.
“You really think he might not be the only one?”
“That’s a possibility,” Cutter said.
“Then you’re stuck with me for a bit,” Joellen said. “I should probably go give a statement to Ketchikan PD anyway. Right?”
“True enough.” Cutter groaned. “You take care of that while Lola and I have a chat with Bartholomew Preston.”