Текст книги "Lethal"

Автор книги: Sandra Brown

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Текущая страница: 16 (всего у книги 25 страниц)

“I let everyone hover around me and start taking over my decision-making.” She dug her index finger into her chest. “I’m making this decision. I’m staying on until I know what really happened to my husband.”

Tori placed her hand on Honor’s arm. Softly, she said, “That’s honorable and all, honey, but—”

“I’m not doing it just for me. He needs me.” She nodded toward Coburn even though they had maintained eye contact. “You do. You said so yourself.”

He muttered an expletive. “That’s what I said, but I was—”

“Manipulating me, I know. But you’ve convinced me that I’m indispensable. You can’t find what you’re looking for without my help. Not in time. You’re on a deadline. Without me, you won’t know where to search. You don’t even know your way around the area. You had to ask me for directions this morning, remember?”

He clamped his jaw shut.

Honor said, “You know I’m right.”

He stewed for a few moments, but Honor knew she’d won the argument even before he returned Tori’s phone to her and began reiterating his instructions.

When asked, she gave him the general location of her house on the lakeshore. “It’s about a two-hour drive, depending on freeway and bridge traffic. Shall I call you when we get there?”

“Is there a landline at the house?”

She recited the number, which Honor memorized, as she knew Coburn did. He said, “Let us call you. Don’t answer the phone unless it rings once, and then again two minutes later. And leave your cell phone off. No battery.”

Honor protested. “What if there’s an emergency at her fitness center? No one would know how to reach her.”

Tori waved off that concern. “It’s a building, you and Em are my family. Besides, it’s insured to the hilt.”

Finally, all the details that they could think of had been discussed, and it came time for Honor to part with Emily.

Struggling to keep her tears in check, Honor hugged her close, reminding herself that as heartwrenching as it was to let her go, it was the best thing she could do for her child. The risk of Emily’s becoming collateral damage if she stayed with her and Coburn was simply too great.

Honor was laying her own life on the line, but it was something she had to do for Eddie’s sake. And even more for her own.

Emily was too excited over the prospect of having time with her Aunt Tori to notice Honor’s emotion. “Are you and Coburn coming to the lake, too?”

“Maybe later. Right now, you’re going with Aunt Tori all by yourself. Just you! Like a big girl. Won’t that be fun?”

“Is this part of the ’venture?”

Honor tried to keep a brave face. “It’s the best part.”

“Sleeping on the boat was the best part,” Emily countered. “Can we sleep there again sometime? And maybe I could drive it.”

“We’ll see.”

“That’s what Coburn said, too, but I think he’ll let me.”

Leaning down to her, Honor said, “You need to be on your way. Give Mommy a kiss.”

Emily bussed Honor’s cheek enthusiastically, then held her arms up to Coburn. “Coburn. Kiss.”

He’d been acting as though on sentry, obviously ill at ease with being so exposed and impatient with the protracted farewell scene. Now his head snapped around and his gaze dropped to Emily.

“Kiss,” she repeated.

After a long, expectant moment, he bent down. Emily looped her arms around his neck and kissed his cheek. “Bye, Coburn.”

“Bye.” He stood up, pivoted quickly, and started walking quickly back toward the truck. “Hurry up,” he told Honor over his shoulder.

Emily scrambled into the backseat of the Mini Cooper. Honor wasn’t happy about her riding without her child seat, but Tori promised to drive with special care until she could stop and buy one.

When it came time for the two women to say goodbye, Tori eyed her warily. “You’re sure you’re doing the right thing?”

“I’m not at all sure. But I’ve got to do it anyway.”

Tori smiled ruefully. “You always were the Girl Scout.” She hugged Honor tightly. “I can’t even pretend to understand it all, but even I’m smart enough to realize that you’re trusting me with Emily’s life. I’d die before letting something bad happen to her.”

“I know you would. Thanks for this.”

“You don’t have to thank me.”

The two friends shared a long look of unspoken trust, then Tori got into the Mini. As Honor closed the car door for her, Tori said through the open window, “I don’t care who or what Coburn is, I just hope you’re finally getting laid.”

Chapter 30

Clint Hamilton had been on the telephone for ten minutes with Tom VanAllen, who was giving him a full account of the morning’s events. He sounded reluctant, hesitant, and apologetic, which didn’t surprise Hamilton, because the upshot of the report was that Coburn had outfoxed and eluded the authorities again.

When VanAllen concluded, Hamilton thanked him absently, then remained silent for nearly a full minute while he absorbed and analyzed the new information. Finally he asked, “Any sign of a struggle aboard the boat?”

“I’m sending you some pictures by email. Our agent took interior and exterior shots. As you’ll see, it’s a shambles, but if you’re asking if they found fresh blood or anything like that, then no.”

“Coburn left the phone there, and it was on?”

“Deputy Crawford and I agree that he left it behind intentionally.”

“To draw everyone to the boat, while he was going the opposite direction.”

“Yes, sir.”

Hamilton had no doubt that had been Coburn’s intention. “The footprints. Did they indicate that Mrs. Gillette was being dragged from the boat? Heel skid marks, anything like that?”

“No, sir. In fact, Crawford has come right out and suggested that she’s not a hostage as originally believed.”

“I sense a furthermore.”

“Well, we’ve been given no indication that she’s attempted to escape from Coburn.”

“How could she without risking her child’s safety?”

“I understand, but, as Crawford pointed out, she obviously had access to her telephone, yet she didn’t use it to make any distress calls.”

Everything that Tom was saying lent even more credibility to what Hamilton had heard from the widow herself during their phone conversation yesterday. Forsaking law and order, trusted lifelong friends, and even her father-in-law, who by all accounts was her personal guard dog, Honor Gillette had allied herself with Lee Coburn.

“What about the tire tracks?”

“Their footprints led us right to them a couple hundred yards from the boat. The tread is clearly defined and has already been typed. The tires came as standard issue on several makes of Ford pickups, model years 2006 and 2007.”

“Jesus. That narrows it down to several thousand pickups in Louisiana alone.”

“It’s a daunting number of vehicles, yes, sir.”

“I’m sure the locals are running checks on stolen Ford pickups.”

“None reported so far.”

Not surprising. Coburn would have chosen his vehicle wisely.

“State agencies have ordered that every Ford truck of those model years be stopped and checked,” VanAllen was saying. “Meanwhile, Mr. Gillette is very concerned about his daughter-in-law and granddaughter. He came straight here from the shrimp boat and was—”

“Explain to me what he was doing there when the authorities arrived.”

VanAllen shared Deputy Crawford’s suspicion that Doral Hawkins and Stan Gillette had a direct pipeline into the Tambour P.D. “Crawford thinks they’ve got moles inside the sheriff’s office, too. Courthouse. Everywhere.”

“The good ol’ boy system,” Hamilton remarked.

“Yes, sir.” VanAllen continued by describing Stan Gillette’s state of mind. “He went ballistic over Crawford’s insinuation that his daughter-in-law was ‘in cahoots’—his words—with Coburn. He caused quite a scene in our lobby, insisted on seeing me personally, gave me an ass-chewing for not putting this ‘upstart deputy sheriff’ in his place. Said I was being derelict in my duties and that if his family wound up dead, their blood would be on my hands. Which,” he said around a sigh, “I know without his telling me.”

Hamilton considered his decision for several seconds, then said, “Tom, Mrs. Gillette and her little girl are in danger, but not from Coburn. He’s one of ours. He’s an agent.”

After a momentary pause, VanAllen said, “Crawford asked me point-blank if he was. I said no.”

“Where did he get the notion?”

“Rumor mill, he said.”

That was troubling. The rumor had to have originated in Tom VanAllen’s own office, based on the fishing Hamilton had done yesterday. Apparently his inquiries hadn’t been as subtle as he’d thought. Shelving that issue for the moment, he gave Tom background information on Coburn.

“I recruited him straight out of the Marines and trained him personally. He’s one of the best undercover agents in the bureau. He always worked deep, but never as deep as he did at Marset’s company.

“He took Mrs. Gillette and the little girl from their home for their own protection. I spoke with her on the phone yesterday. Neither she nor the child has suffered any harm from Coburn. Nor will they. On that score, you can ease your mind.” He paused, then said, “What you should be concerned about is the seepage of information out of your office.”

VanAllen didn’t say anything for the longest time, but Hamilton could feel the man’s slow burn coming through the phone. When he did speak, his voice vibrated with anger. “Why did you deliberately mislead me about Coburn?”

“Because his mission was sensitive. Before revealing who he was, I had to know how he was perceived.”

“You made a fool of me.”

“No, I—”

“What would you call such gross manipulation?”

“Tactics, Tom.” Hamilton raised his voice to match the angry level of VanAllen’s. “There’s some bad shit going on down there, and everyone is susceptible to corruption.”

“That’s a chickenshit response.”

“Ours is a chickenshit business. In order to be good at it, you can’t trust anybody.”

“If you didn’t trust me, why did you appoint me to this job? Or is that why? Because you didn’t trust me.”

“I appointed you because you were, and are, the best man for that position.”

VanAllen gave a bitter laugh. “Well, in light of my position, can you tell me why Coburn was planted inside Sam Marset’s trucking company?”

“Is this line secure?”

“Is any?”

“Good point,” Hamilton said dryly.

“The building was swept for bugs this morning. We’re as safe as we ever can be. What was Coburn’s mission?”

Hamilton talked him through the nuts and bolts of Coburn’s secret op. “Essentially he went in to unmask all the players. Discovered more than he bargained for.”

“The Bookkeeper.”

“The Bookkeeper. Coburn says he was on the verge of making an ID.”

“So why haven’t you made arrangements for him to come in, share what he knows?”

“I tried,” Hamilton said. “He’s reluctant.”

“Why?”

“He wants to finish what he started.”

“How noble,” VanAllen said snidely. “The truth is, he doesn’t trust this office and his fellow FBI agents.”

Hamilton said nothing. Some statements didn’t need any elaboration.

“Where does Mrs. Gillette fit into this?” VanAllen asked.

“Not her per se. Possibly her late husband. Coburn thinks Gillette died with secrets to reveal about The Bookkeeper.”

“That explains why Stan Gillette was yelling about false accusations against his late son.”

“Chalk up another reason for him to hate Coburn. And then there’s Doral Hawkins, who’s out to avenge his brother. The target on Coburn’s back gets bigger every minute he’s out there.”

“Which makes his reluctance to come out of hiding understandable.”

“It’s a volatile situation, and the whole thing could blow up in our faces.” Having reached the heart of the matter, Hamilton waited several beats, then said, “That’s why I need you to be in top form, Tom.”

“You want me to bring them in.”

“I do. Bring them in along with any knowledge either has of The Bookkeeper. We need to finish this thing.”

“I understand, sir.”

“Understanding alone isn’t good enough, Tom. I need to know that I can count on you.”

Chapter 31

As soon as Coburn climbed back into the pickup truck, he placed his hands on the steering wheel and tried to ignore the damp spot on his cheek where Emily had planted a kiss.

He wanted to wipe it away, but doing so would be an acknowledgment that it was there and that he felt it. Better that he attach no significance to it whatsoever. But as he watched the Mini Cooper disappear around the bend on the other side of the bridge, he realized that he was going to miss the kid’s chatter.

When Honor joined him in the pickup, he gave her a dirty look for having lagged behind, but he didn’t say anything because she was trying unsuccessfully to hold back tears, and the last thing he needed was for her to have a crying jag.

He started the truck, glad to be leaving this so-called secret meeting place. As they crossed the groaning wooden bridge, Honor said, “You mentioned to Tori that the authorities would be on the lookout for this pickup by now. What makes you think so?”

He explained about the tire tracks they had left near the boat. “No way they could have missed them. If these tires were put on this truck at the factory, they’ll be on the lookout for this make and model.”

“Which means we risk being stopped.”

“Until we get another set of wheels.”

“You plan to steal another car?”

“I do.”

“From?”

“The same family that supplied the truck.”

They drove for almost twenty minutes along back roads on which even natives to the region could have become lost. But Coburn had a photographic memory of places he’d been and a flawless sense of direction, so he was able to relocate the house from which he’d taken the pickup.

The house was half a mile away from its nearest neighbor. It sat roughly seventy yards off the road, and was screened by a dense grove of pine trees. The mailbox at the turnoff was the only giveaway that there was a house at all. The box was still bulging with uncollected mail.

As he slowly guided the pickup up the private drive, he was relieved to note that nothing had changed since he’d been there eighteen hours earlier. The owners hadn’t returned.

“How did you get here yesterday?” Honor asked. “How’d you find it?”

“I was driving around looking for a car that would be easy to steal. Noticed the mailbox. I went past, ditched the other car about two miles from here, then doubled back on foot.” He pulled the truck to its original spot behind the house and cut the engine.

“Nice place,” she remarked.

He shrugged. “I guess. It serves my purpose.”

Honor, looking thoughtfully at the shuttered windows on the back of the house, said, “I was married to a police officer sworn to safeguarding people and property. Do you ever feel guilty about stealing cars or trespassing?”

“No.”

She turned her head and looked at him with a combination of dismay and disappointment.

Both of which vexed him. “If you’re nursing qualms about trespassing and stealing cars, you should have gone with your friend. But, for Eddie’s sake, you wanted to see this through. If you want to see it through and stay alive, you’d better start thinking mean.”

“Like you.”

“Me? No. Mean like the bad guys who transport young girls from city to city to be sex slaves to degenerates. That’s mean. And your darling Eddie might have been part of it.”

He opened the door to the pickup and got out. He didn’t look back to see if Honor would follow. He knew she would. That had been a cheap shot, but it was calculated to snap her out of her conscientious slump.

Besides, he’d had it up to here with Saint Eddie. And who knew? Maybe Eddie had specialized in trafficking girls.

The garage was about twenty yards from the house. Stairs attached to the exterior wall led to quarters above it, but Coburn was interested only in the car he’d seen inside the garage yesterday when he peered through a window in the door. There was an old-fashioned hasp and padlock securing it, but he used a crowbar from the toolbox in the pickup, and within seconds was raising the garage door.

The sedan was at least a decade old, but, despite a layer of dust, the body was in good shape, and none of the tires was flat. The keys were dangling from the ignition. He climbed in, pumped the gas pedal a couple of times, cranked the key, and held his breath. It took a couple of tries and some sweet talk, but it started. The gauge indicated more than half a tank of gas. He drove the car out of the narrow garage far enough to clear the door, then put it in park and got out.

He pulled down the garage door and fixed the broken padlock to make it appear, from a distance anyway, to still be intact. Then he looked at Honor, who was silently fuming, and hitched his chin toward the passenger-side door. “Get in.”

“Has he got an alarm system?”

“Yes.”

“Do you know the code?”

“Yes.”

“Is the backyard fenced?”

“Yes.”

“Can we get in without being seen?”

“Possibly. At the back corner of the house, there’s an exterior door going into the garage. It has a keypad, but I know the code. There’s access to the kitchen through the garage.”

They’d already driven past Stan Gillette’s house twice, but Coburn wanted to be damn certain that he wasn’t walking into a carefully laid ambush. He had no choice except to take the risk. He had to get into that house.

Befitting Gillette’s character, his was the neatest house on the street. Basic Acadian in style, its white paint was so fresh it hurt the eyes. Nary a blade of grass defied the perfect edging along the curb and front walkway. Old Glory hung from one of four square columns on the front porch, which provided support for the overhang of the red tin roof. It was so perfect, it could have been ordered already assembled from a catalog.

Coburn drove past it and circled the block again.

“He’s not there,” Honor said, emphasizing it now, since she’d already told him that several times.

“How do you know for sure?”

“Because he doesn’t put his car in the garage except at night. If he were in the house, his car would be in the front driveway.”

“Maybe this is a special occasion.”

Two blocks away from Gillette’s street was a green belt with a small playground. Two cars were parked in the lot. One must’ve belonged to the young mother shooting video of her daughter who was hanging upside down from a bar on the jungle gym, the other to the teenage boy who was hitting tennis balls against a backboard.

No one gave them a look as Coburn pulled the car into the lot. As long as the rural family stayed away from home, he considered the sedan a relatively safe mode of transportation. No one would be looking for it. All the same, it was less conspicuous here than parked on a neighborhood street where it could arouse curiosity.

He looked across at Honor, who he could tell was still pissed at him for the crack he’d made about her late husband. “Ready?”

Her expression said no, but she nodded yes and got out of the car. “We’re in no particular hurry,” he said. “Just a couple out for a leisurely stroll. Okay? Wouldn’t hurt for you to smile.”

“This coming from the man who doesn’t own one.”

They fell into step and walked along the perimeter of the green, unnoticed by those on the playground. The mom was laughing and shouting directions to her daughter, who was still hanging upside down and making funny faces at the camera. The tennis player had iPod earphones in, so he was completely oblivious to his surroundings.

Nudging Honor along with him, Coburn skirted the green belt, then walked into a yard that backed up to it. Honor looked around nervously. “What if a homeowner comes out and asks what we’re doing?”

“Our dog ran off before we could get his leash on. Something like that. But no one will ask.”

“Why not?”

“Because if they see us, they will in all likelihood recognize us and immediately notify the police. I’m armed and dangerous, remember?”

“Okay, so what happens if we hear sirens coming this way?”

“I run like hell.”

“What do I do?”

“You collapse to the ground, and cry, and thank them for saving you from me.”

But the point was moot because no one accosted them, and they reached the back corner of Stan’s house without mishap. Honor raised the cover on the keypad and pecked in the code. Coburn waited to hear the metallic nick, then turned the knob and pushed open the door.

They slipped into the garage, and he pulled the door shut behind them. Daylight coming through three high windows enabled them to see their way to the kitchen door. Honor stepped inside and disarmed the alarm system. Its warning chirp fell silent.

But when she would have moved farther into the kitchen, he placed his hand on her shoulder and shook his head. He mistrusted the ease with which they’d breached the house. So he remained on the threshold, muscles tensed, ready to bolt.

Silences weren’t all the same. They had qualities that he’d been trained to distinguish. For sixty long seconds he listened, until, finally, he determined that the house was truly empty. Then he removed his hand from Honor’s shoulder. “I think we’re okay.”

Most operating rooms weren’t as sterile as Stan Gillette’s kitchen. Coburn figured the sterility was a reflection of the man himself. Cold, impersonal, unyielding, no areas that could become cluttered with emotional junk.

Which, he realized, was also an accurate description of himself.

Shoving that thought aside, he asked Honor where Eddie’s stuff was.

“All over the house, really. Where do you want to start?”

She led him into what had been Eddie’s bedroom when he was growing up. “It hasn’t changed much since the first time I came here. Eddie brought me to meet Stan. I was so nervous.”

Coburn didn’t give a shit, and his indifference must have been apparent because she ended the stroll down memory lane and stood in the center of the room, her hands awkwardly clasped in front of her.

“What?” he asked.

“It’s strange being in this house, in this room with…”

“Without Eddie?”

“I was going to say with you.”

Several responses sprang to mind, but all of them were either vulgar or otherwise inappropriate, and he didn’t have time to deal with the bickering that a lewd comment would inevitably spark. Keeping the comebacks to himself, he pointed her toward a bureau. “Empty the drawers. I’ll start on the closet.”

He gave it the same thorough treatment that he had the closets in Honor’s house. It seemed that Gillette hadn’t disposed of anything belonging to his son. Resisting the temptation to rush, Coburn tried not to overlook anything or to dismiss an item until he’d searched it.

Thinking that Eddie’s police uniforms would be a logical hiding place, Coburn examined each seam, lining, and pocket of every garment, looking for something sewn inside. He didn’t find anything except lint.

When an hour had passed and he had nothing to show for it, he began to feel the pressure of time. “Is Gillette usually away from the house during the day?” he asked Honor.

“He has his various activities, but I don’t keep close tabs on his schedule.”

“Do you think he’s out doing one of his various activities?”

“No. I think he’s out looking for Emily and me.”

“So do I.”

Another hour went by, increasing his frustration. He was on borrowed time and it was getting away from him. He glanced over at Honor to ask her another question about her father-in-law’s daily routine, but the question died before he asked it.

She was sitting on the double bed, going through a box of keepsakes, most of which were medals and ribbons Eddie had won for sporting contests throughout his schooling. She was crying silently.

“What’s the matter?”

Her head came up. Tears spilled from her eyes. “What’s the matter? What’s the matter? This is the matter, Coburn. This!” She dropped the medal that she’d been rubbing between her fingers and shoved the box away from her with such force that it slid off the edge of the bed and landed bottom side up on the floor. “I feel like a grave robber.”

What did she want him to say? I’m sorry, you’re right, let’s leave. Well, he wasn’t going to say that, was he? So he didn’t say anything. A moment passed while they just looked at one another.

Eventually she made a resigned sound and wiped the tears off her cheeks. “Never mind. I don’t expect you to understand.”

She was right. He didn’t understand why this was so upsetting to her. Because he had robbed a grave once. After thoroughly searching for survivors in the decimated village, where even the pathetic livestock hadn’t been spared, he’d plunged down into a pit where body was heaped upon body.

He’d plowed through the rotting corpses of dead babies and naked old ladies, strong men and pregnant women, looking for clues as to which of the warring tribes was responsible for this particular massacre. He’d been under orders to find out. Not that the answer mattered all that much, because the guilty faction soon would be subjected to retaliation that was just as horrific.

He’d failed to gather any intel. All his search had produced was a canteen of water that miraculously had escaped the hail of bullets fired into the pit from automatic weapons. His own canteen had been running low, so he’d slid the strap of the canteen off the shoulder of a dead man, a boy really, no more than twelve or thirteen by the looks of him, and had slipped the strap onto his own shoulder as he climbed out of the mass grave.

That had been a lot worse than this. But Honor didn’t need to know about it.

“Where’s Stan’s room?”

Two hours later, Stan Gillette’s house was in a state similar to Honor’s when Coburn had finished with it. The yield was also the same. Nothing.

He’d thought perhaps Stan’s computer would contain incriminating information, but getting into it didn’t even require a password. Coburn had searched through his documents file and found little beyond letters to the editor, which Stan had composed either in support of or opposition to political editorials.

His emails were mostly exchanges with former Marines, relating to upcoming or past reunions. There was a progress report on one former comrade’s prostate cancer, the death notice of another.

Likewise the websites Gillette routinely visited were devoted to the Corps, veterans’ organizations, and world news, certainly nothing pornographic or relating to the trafficking of illegal substances.

The hoped-for treasure trove turned out to be a big fat bust.

Finally, the only place that hadn’t been searched was the garage. Coburn had never lived in a place with a garage, but he knew what they were supposed to look like, and this one was fairly typical, except for one major difference: its extraordinary organization.

In the extra bay, a spick-and-span bass fishing boat sat on its trailer. Hunting and fishing gear was so nicely arranged it looked like a store display. Along the back of a work table, carefully labeled paint cans had been perfectly lined up. Hand tools were neatly arrayed on a pegboard wall. A power lawnmower and edger, along with a red gas can, were sitting on a pallet of bricks.

“Shit,” Coburn said under his breath.

“What?”

“It would take days to go through all this.” He nodded toward the small loft that was mounted just under the ceiling in one corner. “What’s up there?”

“Mostly Eddie’s sporting gear.”

A ladder constructed of two-by-fours had been built into the wall. Coburn climbed it and stepped onto the loft. “Hand me a knife.” Honor got one from the work table and passed it up to him. He used it to slice through the packing tape on a large box. Inside, he found an archery target, baseball, basketball, soccer ball, and football.

“Watch out.”

One by one, he tossed them down. A bowling ball was in the bottom of the box. The finger holes were empty. Coburn opened a second box to find uniforms for each of the sports, a baseball glove, a football helmet, shoulder pads. He searched them all. Found nothing.

When he came down, Honor was holding the football, turning it over in her hands. She ran her finger along the leather lacing. Smiling, she said, “Eddie was quarterback of the high school team. His senior year, they went to district. That’s when we started dating. That season. He was too small to play college ball, but he still loved the game and would go out and throw passes whenever he could get somebody to catch them.”

Coburn held out his hand. Honor gave him the football. He plunged the blade of the knife into it.

She cried out and reflexively reached out to take the football back, but he worked the knife to increase the size of the hole, then shook it so that anything inside it would fall out. Nothing did. He tossed the deflated ball onto the work table.

When he came back around, she slapped him. Hard.

“You’re a horrible person,” she said. “The coldest, most heartless, cruelest creature I can imagine.” She stopped on a sob. “I hate you. I really do.”

At that moment, he pretty much hated himself. He was angry and didn’t know why. He was acting like a complete jerk and didn’t know why. He didn’t understand his compulsion to want to hurt and rile her, but he seemed incapable of stopping himself.

He took a step toward her and made it intentionally intimidating. “You don’t like me?”

“I despise you.”

“You do?”

“Yes!”

“Is that why you sucked my tongue down your throat last night?”

She seethed for a count of five, then spun away from him, but before she’d taken a single step he reached out and brought her back around. “That’s what you’re really pissed about, isn’t it? Because we kissed.” Lowering his face closer to hers, he whispered, “And you liked it.”

“I hated it.”

He didn’t believe that. He didn’t want to believe it. But he forced himself to appear indifferent to whether she had liked it or not. He released her arm and stepped away from her. “Don’t beat yourself up over it. Humans are animals, and animals mate. They also sneeze and cough and fart. And that’s about as much as that kiss meant. So relax. You didn’t cheat on your dead husband.”

She hiccupped a sound of affront, but before she could articulate a response, he took out his cell phone and turned it on. By now Hamilton would know about this morning’s close call on the shrimp boat. Coburn wanted to know what the fallout of that had been.

He placed the call. Hamilton answered immediately. “Coburn?”

“Good guess.”

“You pulled a fast one this morning.”

“By the skin of my teeth.”

“Which was enough. Where are you?”