Death behind every door, p.25
Death Behind Every Door, page 25
He laughed. “Guys?”
“Okay, sorry, I meant young people, both sexes!”
“I was thinking about cameras.”
“Sorry. Too kinky for me!”
“Me, too.” He managed to laugh. “But we have to be careful since there are probably cameras everywhere. Well, you know, careful, but we still really want a good performance, but not that good a performance. And once we think we’re on to something...”
“Oh! Yeah, of course!” Carly murmured. He was soooo right. They wouldn’t be together, not like this. Not for the next several nights. It would be too easy if everything just fell in place once they arrived—wherever it was exactly that they were going.
“So, tonight...”
“Yeah,” she murmured, lips against his.
There was something about a shower. Steaming water enhancing the slide of lips and fingers down flesh, the hot, damp heat of the human body...
Then, of course, there was laughter and urgency when the shower became too small to accommodate everything that was wanted.
Emerging, halfway drying, stumbling a wee bit, making it to the expansive comfort of the bed...
The night wore on. They slept, woke and slept again.
Morning’s light began to filter through the room. One last chance...
And they took it, and for just a few minutes, they held together in silence. Then...
“Okay,” Carly began.
“Nope, nope, I got it, know the drill!” Luke assured her. And, rising, grabbing his towel, he headed out of her room and to his own.
They met out in the kitchen but Carly didn’t bother to brew coffee; they knew they could get it downstairs.
“It makes sense that we stop by and see Duncan with the phones,” Carly said.
“And you and I can’t drive together,” he reminded her.
“I know that. But I’m also hopeful that he’ll have an idea about our phones. I mean, what if Homeboy demanded to see your burner and he saw my number on it?” Carly asked.
“Well, we both need to keep our regular phones handy somewhere that’s not obvious and somewhere that—”
“Can’t be found? That’s impossible. Have you ever noticed how many times crooks find things that are supposedly so hidden no one could find them?” she asked.
“Somewhere that would be difficult for a criminal to find, at least. Mine is going to need to be in the car,” he said thoughtfully. “The man isn’t stupid, obviously, and he’ll check everything.”
“It’s been a while since you’ve been frisked, huh?” Carly teased.
“Define frisked,” he said. “Frisky, frisked...”
She gave him a punch in the arm. “Let’s get to Duncan. And figure out my transportation.”
When they arrived, Duncan assured them he could fix the phones up with GPS tracking and brought them out to another technical employee who worked with cars. His name was Justin Ellery and he told them Luke needed to switch cars; he had the perfect little SUV for him, with a cell phone planted deep in the driver’s seat, one only accessible when a button in the back of the steering wheel was pushed. Also, the car was new in the line for law enforcement vehicles and not possibly known by any criminal element. But if needed, it could be found quickly since it was their vehicle and they would have all the GPS coordinates.
“Second problem,” Luke said. “Getting Carly to Stirling.”
“That’s easy.”
They were out in the motor pool, and Carly whirled around when she heard Liz speak.
“Easy?” Carly asked.
Liz grinned. “I’m driving you. I’m taking you to The Spotted Cow. I’ll have one drink with you and need to drive back. But then Luke can see you sitting at the bar by your own little self and he’ll be like, Hmm, maybe that’s an easy pickup, and you’ll be on your way to conversation and flirting when our suspect watches and measures up Luke, deciding if he’s right for a higher position in the H. H. Holmes Society.”
Carly looked at Luke.
“It’s a good plan,” he said.
She glanced at her watch and smiled. “Liz, you’re not supposed to be—”
“In danger. But I am supposed to be smart,” Liz said. “And I will be in and out of there before I appear on anyone’s radar. And we need to get started. Driving time is about an hour and a half and it’s after nine, so...”
“Let’s do it. We’ll go get Duncan—” Carly began.
“Right here!” Duncan called, coming out the door and over to the car Luke would now be taking. “Phones ready. Carly, you should get your bag. Lust at first sight isn’t going to play well if Luke already had your overnight bag.”
“How true!” Luke murmured, and they all grinned. “Okay, so, let’s do this... Oh, and my new passport identifies me as John Smith.”
“That’s pathetic,” Duncan told him.
Luke grinned. “Not if you’re after a guy whose passport lists him as Herman Mudgett.”
“He’s right,” Carly said. “This man we’re after might find it funny—and clever. John Smith has to be one of the most common names in the English-speaking world.
“Give Liz and me a head start, about ten minutes?” Carly suggested.
Luke nodded. “You two be careful.”
“I’m just going to teach my friend from America a lesson in good Scottish whiskey!” Liz said.
Carly nodded and grabbed her bag from Luke’s car, then waved and followed Liz to another little SUV. She started to slide into the car when Liz said, “Wrong side. I’m driving.”
“Sorry, I forget.”
“That’s right. You Americans drive on the wrong side of the road.”
Carly smiled as she got into the car. “Would you mind if I had a Guinness?” she asked.
“Ah, lass! That’s an Irish beer! You’ll be ordering an Innis and Gunn,” Liz informed her.
Carly sat back, grinning. “They don’t serve Irish beer in a Scottish pub?”
Liz gave her a stern look and Carly laughed, “I’ll be ordering an Innis and Gunn!”
They drove for a while, chatting casually. Carly noted that Liz was an attractive woman; she wondered if she’d really been teased at school.
“It’s hard to imagine that you were ever...”
“Mocked as a nerd?” Liz asked her.
“Um, yes.”
“Some. Because I was in love with computers from the time I could reach a keyboard. And, besides that... I have a husband and a child now and being a nerd kind of seems to have paid off...” She broke off and took a deep breath. “I wanted to matter. But I’m also your basic coward. And I have seen amazing inspectors and constables who were injured or killed. And I want to go home every night. I’m in the perfect place.” She glanced at Carly. “I don’t see how you do it.”
“I...don’t know. I knew I wanted to be in law enforcement. I was never bullied, but I saw bullies and I read enough and I like stopping the bad guys.”
“And Innis and Gunn will help!” Liz promised.
“Let’s hope. So, how old are the kids? What does your husband do?”
Her kids were little boys, five and seven. Her husband was a teacher. They talked and did a lot of laughing for the length of the drive.
They arrived in Stirling and the GPS sent them down the right streets to reach the pub.
“You’ve been here before?” Liz asked her.
“I’ve been all over Scotland,” Carly said. “My grandparents, my dad’s folks, were born here. They wanted me to see Stirling Bridge. They wanted me to see where a common man took a stand that changed the course of a history.”
“You do know he was hanged, drawn and quartered,” Liz said.
Carly nodded. “Of course. But that very face enraged the people and encouraged Robert the Bruce to pick up the battle. Also, Randall Wallace wrote a great screenplay and Mel Gibson was pretty darned cool in the movie.”
“Just remember, movies are fictionalized.”
“Sure. Some. It was still stirring—just as the man must have been in real life!”
“We can keep arguing movies,” Liz murmured, “because we are here.”
Carly nodded, and as they walked to wooden doors at the entry to the pub, Liz reminded her, “Okay, when it’s a movie about the American Revolution and it’s filmed in the colonies—”
“The colonies?” Carly asked as they entered the pub.
“Well, still the colonies to me!”
“Come on. That was over two hundred years ago. We’re the best of allies now,” Carly told her. “But, of course, we all know that history can be in the telling!”
As she spoke, she turned slightly. Stirling Castle sat high on a crag, with steep inclines on three sides. It was truly magnificent from where she stood.
“Not sure history needs to be enhanced,” she murmured.
“I’m pretty sure this building must be nearly as old as the castle!” Liz marveled, opening one of the massive wooden double doors to the establishment.
It was a charming place, paneled and warm. A massive hearth was toward one side of the establishment where there were numerous tables. The place had just opened; there were two patrons sitting at the bar and two groups of four had just claimed tables in the dining area.
They sat at the bar and a handsome, sandy-haired young man walked over to them. “Ladies! What may I get you this fine day?”
“Well, I shall have your best Scot’s whiskey, and my American friend here is an ale lass. She wanted a Guinness but I insisted she have an Innis and Gunn!”
He grinned. “Welcome to Scotland,” he told Carly. “A whiskey and an Innis and Gunn—though we do carry Guinness, if that’s what you’d really wish.”
“No, thank you. I’m going to humor my friend and try a new drink!” Carly said.
She had barely ordered before she saw that someone was sliding up beside her.
Luke.
“I think I just heard a fellow Yank was in the pub!” Luke said.
Carly smiled at him. “I am here to see Stirling, but my Scottish friend told me we should start with—What did you call it, Liz? A wee dram?”
“I don’t think that Innis and Gunn comes in a wee dram,” Luke said. “Would you mind if I joined you?” he asked.
“Not at all,” Liz said, looking around Carly.
They all heard Luke’s phone buzz.
“Excuse me, ladies,” he said, walking away toward the hearth.
As she stared after him, Carly saw there was a man in one of the groups of four who was also on his phone.
She didn’t recognize him as the man she had seen at Graystone Castle...
At first.
Now his hair was longer and blond. And he was clean-shaven.
But...
The bartender delivered their drinks.
Carly picked up her glass, and as she took a sip, she told Liz, “Drink up. In the words of one of the literary world’s greatest detectives, I believe that the game is afoot.”
Fifteen
Luke answered the phone without his name, just saying, “Stirling.”
A soft laugh was his reply. “Join me. I’m with a few friends. Turn to your left.”
Luke did so. He saw the man with the clean-shaven face and tousled blond hair, but it was the same man, the man in all the video images from around the internet café, the man Carly had seen at Graystone Castle.
“Only four chairs,” he said.
“I’ll draw one up,” the caller told him. He laughed softly again. “Though I did see you talking to that cute thing at the bar. Maybe you should chat her up for a minute or two.”
“Well, I wouldn’t mind doing that, except I did come to meet you.”
“You’re an American.”
“I am.”
“Find out if she is—and find out where she’s staying. And if her friend is hanging around, too. Then come and join me. As if we’re old friends. Call me Harry. I go by Harry Green. And I’ll call you?”
“John Smith.”
“Seriously?” There was soft laughter at the other end.
“Won’t your friends know we’re not old friends?” Luke asked.
“Ah, you see, we’re new friends, too. These people are visitors to Stirling. Go have a chat with your girl at the bar, see what you can see. I mean, you look like you can manage yourself well enough these days.”
“Oh, yeah. I learned a lot along the way. Doesn’t mean...”
“That you don’t still wish you could put an ice pick through your old man’s eye?”
“Oh, you bet,” Luke said. “And...my first assignment seems to be an easy one!”
The call ended. Luke grinned and walked up to the bar, glad it was still early and the seat next to Carly remained vacant.
He tapped her on the shoulder and gave her a smile. He kept his voice low but just in case asked softly, “This seat still vacant? I may still join you.”
Carly returned the smile and made a sweep with her hands to invite him to take the chair.
Liz, at her side, leaned in. “We know that’s him!” she whispered. “Can’t we just—”
“Liz, we have nothing on the man other than the fact he was in a café, accessed a website and was in Graystone Castle. Liz, you know the law.”
“Well,” Liz said, “you don’t think you can get him to draw a gun on you so that you can shoot him?”
Luke gazed at her, grinning. He didn’t know if it was intentional or not, but Liz was playing a part well—the part of a second girl ready to get into the flirting game.
“Lizzie, not sure how to do that,” he told her. “And if he has people near here...”
“I know, I know,” Liz murmured. “We have to find out where he’s holding, torturing and killing innocents in this area.”
“And take him down for good,” Carly said, sipping her drink.
“I’m supposed to find out where you’re staying,” Luke said.
“Either Vicky Inn or the Glen Hotel,” Liz said. “That’s the best we’ve come up with in our research. Those...they’re old places that have been renovated in the last year. And they were on travel itineraries by some of those who haven’t been heard from since they headed to this area.”
“We can say that I’m trying to figure out where Liz should drop me before she leaves.”
“Perfect,” Luke said, laughing as if they joked about something sweetly amusing. “I can ask my new friend—Harry Green here, by the way—which place I suggest for you to stay. If you are staying in this area. Oh, and remember, I am now John Smith.”
He left his bar stool and stood again, setting a hand on Carly’s back. “You will have lunch with me, then, eh?” he asked her, letting his voice carry.
“As long as I can have another of these!” Carly said, letting her voice carry and lifting her Innis and Gunn.
Luke grinned and headed over to the table where the man who was calling himself Herman Mudgett on his passport—and Homeboy on the website—was sitting.
And, of course, here he was Harry Green.
There was an older woman, perhaps seventy or so, sitting at the table along with him, an attractive woman of about forty and a man who might have been her husband or partner, older than her by a decade or so.
“My friend!” The man calling himself Harry Green stood and welcomed him. “My friends, this is John Smith.”
The older woman arched an amused brow.
“Yeah, I know!” Luke said. “With a surname like Smith, my folks might have given me a more unusual first name, but my dad was John, his dad was John...” He let off with a grimace. “And you all are?”
“Kaye Bolden,” the old woman told him, offering a hand.
“And this lovely couple here are Terry and Jim Allen. We’ve been remarking on your friends at the bar. Old friends, new friends?”
“New friends. Carly and Liz. They’re up from Edinburgh, Liz hosting an American friend and just dropping Carly up here so she can see Stirling, but apparently she still hasn’t decided where she wants to stay.”
“Oh!” Harry Green said, gazing across the table at the couple. “I think we can help there.”
“We own Vicky Inn,” Jim Allen said. “It’s a bit out of the city proper, but still close enough that she can easily see the castle, Stirling Bridge, the kirks...and, of course, if I do say so myself, we’re a perfect place for a foreigner who truly wants the local feel!”
The local feel, yeah!
“I need a place to stay myself,” Luke said.
“I have already made a reservation for you,” Harry Green told him. “Why don’t you bring the young ladies over?”
“I will certainly give it my best shot!” Luke said.
He thought Green moved his head in to speak softly to the couple, who seemed to be concerned.
He couldn’t hear the words, and he wondered what he dared say with the older woman at the table—could she be in on it, or was she an intended victim, someone rich, alone, and ready to hand over her assets to those giving her a comfortable home and a decent life for her later years?
“Vicky Inn! Let me go make the suggestion,” Luke said.
He walked back over to the bar, touching Carly on the back again and smiling as he leaned against the bar.
“Vicky Inn! The lovely couple over there own the place and it sounds great!”
“Great. I’ll go on and head home—” Liz began.
“Don’t you want to have a bite of lunch with us first?” Luke asked her.
“No, I’m afraid I should get back to work,” Liz said. “But, Carly, enjoy! Stirling is wonderful, so much history, you’re going to love it!”
The women stood and Liz hugged Carly as if she was a great friend from across the pond.
“Let me walk you to your car,” Luke said. “And I’ll be right back!” he told Carly. “I can drive you since I’ve decided to stay there myself.”
