TWO DAYS LATER, Devon came to work and waved to Chad, who was already in his office. As usual, she’d spent the night with him, but she’d gone home to change. She would like to live with Chad. It felt safer there. The gates, towering walls and the high-tech security system made her feel secure. It was an illusion, of course. She knew that a determined hit team would have no problem killing her.
She kept her apartment because Warren couldn’t know about her relationship with Chad. If he did, Masterson would relocate her rather than chance Chad discovering her true identity.
At times guilt, like a vise cinching her chest, made her regret her relationship with Chad. What if he were killed because of her? With his background, he could defend himself better than most men. She kept telling him she had a premonition that Albert’s men were getting closer—just so he would keep up his guard.
But she couldn’t bring herself to break off the relationship. He’d come to mean the world to her. God willing, when this was over, she would return here, and they could have a future together.
“You’ll never, like, believe what happened,” Shelby said as Devon walked into the office, Zach at her heels.
“I give. What?”
“Saturday’s wedding is canceled. The groom has cold feet.” Shelby tsked. “As if! This has been planned for almost two years.”
Devon nodded. Everything was lined up for this event. With the wedding canceled, there wouldn’t be much to do day after tomorrow except cocktail cruises for conventioneers. She wasn’t involved in the sunset cruises; she worked strictly on weddings. Several were coming up and she had a lot of work to do on them. This would give her extra time.
“Shelby, call around and see if we can sell the flowers and food to other vendors. Cut the prices to the bone to unload as much as you can. I’d like to see the bride get back some of her money.”
“She’d ordered, like, tons of tulips. They symbolize love, you know.”
Devon hadn’t known, but she had realized how hideously expensive the flowers had been. Tulips weren’t grown here and had to be flown in, using special refrigerated containers.
The average wedding in America cost about thirty-five thousand dollars. This wedding was just over one hundred thousand dollars. At this point everything was paid for, and the bride would be lucky to recoup a quarter of what she’d spent.
The cell phone in Devon’s purse rang, and she went to her desk before pulling it out. She didn’t want Shelby to get a glimpse inside her purse and spot the second cell phone or the gun.
“Hello,” she answered.
“I need to see you,” Warren told her. “Are you free now to meet me?”
“I guess. Where?”
“Under the sperm whale at the Bishop Museum in, say, an hour.”
Devon clicked the off button. Eddie hadn’t come in yet. He was down at the docks helping overhaul one of his catamarans that had snapped its mast in a heavy wind. She wouldn’t be missed.
“Shelby, could you watch Zach for a couple of hours?”
“Sure. I guess Rory’s still in Kauai surfing.”
Devon nodded. “He’ll be back tonight. He’ll start taking Zach again tomorrow.”
IT TOOK HER LESS than an hour to drive to the Bishop Museum and park. At this time of day, it was crowded with tourists, which was the reason Warren had chosen to meet here. No one would pay attention to them. The whole way over Devon had speculated on why he wanted to see her. Usually she would be concerned about her sister, but now she was worried he’d found out about Chad.
Relocation.
She would have to give up Chad and leave Zach behind. She honestly wondered if she could do it. At moments like this she thought she would rather die. But then Rutherford and Ames would go free. She had to be strong, stay the course.
Stiffening her resolve, she entered the building. Suspended from the ceiling was a fifty-five-foot-long skeleton of a sperm whale. She gazed up at it, awed, the way she had been the first time she’d come here.
Take heart, she told herself. Don’t always expect the worst. Her life had new hope now. Maybe Warren had news about the trial. The minute it was scheduled, she planned to tell Chad the truth.
She wandered around the room with the milling tourists who had come to see the authentic Hawaiian artifacts from the islands pre-European days. Many people called the Bishop Museum “the Smithsonian of the Pacific.” Devon understood why, but she couldn’t concentrate on the interesting exhibits.
After what seemed hours, Warren walked in, dressed in Bermudas and a Hawaiian shirt only a tourist fresh off the plane would have bought. Obviously he’d dressed to blend in. He circled the room once before approaching her.
“Get aloada that whale,” he said to her. “Big enough for ya?”
Devon played along. “I’m glad he didn’t show up on Waikiki while I was in the water.”
Warren led her away from a tour whose guide was giving the group an in-depth explanation of how natives had built and waterproofed the thatched huts. “Something has come up.”
Fear ate through her like a corrosive acid. “What?”
Warren put his hand on her arm. “Your sister has been in an accident. Don’t worry, she’s okay, but you’re not going to be able to talk to her this week.”
She closed her eyes for a moment, her heart beating alarmingly fast. “What happened?”
Warren kept walking, moving away from anyone who might overhear even though their voices were barely above a whisper. “Hit and run as she came out of the mall. There was a witness, a young kid from Des Moines. He said it was an old man in a late-model Cadillac. Typical Florida accident. At a certain age licenses should be taken away.”
She remembered so well the carefree brightness of Tina’s smile. It was impossible to imagine her flat on her back and expressionless in a sterile hospital bed. The only time she’d seen Tina grim-faced had been when she was getting ready to have Ariel. Devon had held her hand, helped her breathe and count the way they’d learned in the Lamaze lessons. Tina’s husband, Steven, had been too squeamish to do it. “Are you sure she’s okay?”
“Positive. She sustained nothing more than a broken arm. That’s a miracle, considering.”
“Then why can’t I call her?”
“She’ll be in the hospital for at least two days for observation in case internal bleeding develops. That’s not uncommon when a pedestrian is hit by a car. We can’t plant an electronic sweeping device on a hospital phone on short notice. It takes a court order. By the time we get it, your sister will be home. As soon as she is, you may call her.”
“Is there any chance Rutherford and Ames caused the accident?”
“No. The witness gave a good description of the old man and the car. The police may have found him by now.”
Danger loomed on the horizon like a powerful hurricane. Her life was veering to the dark side again. Usually Warren was as sympathetic as an Auschwitz guard, but now he seemed compassionate. Devon suspected something was terribly wrong.
Warren led her to the entrance. “There is some good news. It looks as if the trial will be scheduled within the month.”
“Cripes! I’ve been hearing the trial was going to be scheduled for almost two years.”
“Now they’re trying to juggle some dates. The attorney defending those two is some high profile guy from L.A. When they pin Mark Greagos down, we’ll have a date.”
Devon should have been relieved, but she wasn’t. Her sister was in the hospital, and she was trapped here. What if Warren was wrong and internal bleeding caused her to die without Devon seeing her for the last time?
Without saying goodbye?
Without saying, “I love you, Tina. I’ll never forget all the happy times we shared”?
“Do something fun this weekend. Go somewhere with Langston. Get your mind off this.”
A wild flash of shock ripped through her. “You know about our relationship?”
Warren held the door, and they walked out of the museum into the bright sunlight. “Yes. I discussed it with Masterson. Chad Langston was an outstanding Special Ops guy. Master-son thinks it’s added security.”
“He’s going to the Big Kahuna Surfing Competition in Kauai,” she replied, making this up as she went. “Rory, the boy who’s living with him, is competing. I could go with him.”
“Do it. Just be sure to take your cell phone so I can keep in touch.”
“Promise to call me with an update on my sister.”
DEVON DROVE to a minimart off Alakea Street near the district court building. She could use a public telephone to call her brother-in-law to verify Tina’s condition. The records would be erased in the next two days, but caller ID would show the area code, and Steve would know where she was. Instead she bought a universal prepaid phone card. Designed for visitors from foreign countries—mostly Japanese tourists bought them in Hawaii—the cards had no caller ID and couldn’t be traced.
She purchased one good for an hour and went to a pay phone. She tried Tina’s home telephone, but the answering machine picked up. Becoming a little frantic, she punched in the cell phone number Steve had when she’d been in Houston. Hopefully he still had the same number.
On the fourth ring, he answered, “Hello?”
His tone was hollow and anguished like a voice in a crypt. For a gut-cramping second the world froze, and she couldn’t speak.
“Hello?” he repeated, irritated now.
“Steve, it’s Devon. I heard about Tina. Is she all right?”
“Devon.” He made it sound like a four-letter word.
They’d never really gotten along. Devon had always suspected he resented her early success. It had been a while before his career had taken off. Another reason Steven was cool to Devon was her close relationship with her sister. Steve liked to be the center of attention. He loved to recount his exploits on the football field at Florida State. Tina found this charming, but Devon thought it was immature.
“How is she?”
“Hanging on.”
“What do you mean? I thought she just had a broken arm.”
“For starters,” he said, his voice as sharp as a new razor. “A broken pelvis and a ruptured spleen.”
Warren had deliberately lied to her. She slumped against the wall of the phone booth. “Oh, my God.”
“Ariel could be without a mother.”
“What hospital is she in?” she asked, wondering how her niece was taking this.
She asked, “How is Ariel doing?”
“She’s at a friend’s home. I’m not at the hospital. I’m next door getting coffee so I can stay awake through the night in case Tina wakes up.”
The vehemence in his voice astonished Devon. He was angry and frightened, she decided. He was venting his emotions on her. Usually Steve was as sentimental as Attila the Hun. Until this moment, she had never realized how much he truly loved her sister. He was terrified Tina would die.
“Don’t be angry with me,” she said gently. “I’m as upset as you are.”
“You caused this,” he shot back. “Tina goes around all the time preoccupied because she’s worried about you. She stepped off the curb without looking.”
There wasn’t any point arguing with him. “Please tell her to hang in there. I’m coming. And tell her I love her.”
She hung up the telephone without waiting for a response. No doubt, Steve would have told her to butt out. They didn’t need her.
CHAD STOOD at the Ala Wai Marina’s pay phone and waited for Danson’s call. Depending on what the informant had learned, Chad would have to make a decision. Or he could wait three years until Albert was paroled and decide then. Three years was a long time. The wise guy could get killed in prison, contract a fatal disease, or change his mind about Devon.
While he waited, Chad trained the DARPA gadget on a boat leaving the pleasure craft harbor. It still didn’t register any humans on the vessel even though Chad could clearly see people.
The phone rang and he picked it up. “Hello.”
“You owe me,” Danson said. “I sent one of the federal prosecutors to talk to Nathan Albert. Prisoners are always looking for ways to knock time off their sentences. I thought Albert would be more likely to talk to him than some lowlife con he considered beneath him.”
“How well have you checked up on Devon Summers?”
The fine hairs across the back of his neck stood at attention. “The facts I checked were verified. Why?”
“Albert claims he doesn’t know her. Said he had a long-time girlfriend in Chicago who came to see him every week. The visitor’s log confirmed this. I checked with the attorney who prosecuted the case, and he said she was in court every day. She lived with Albert in a penthouse on Lakeshore Drive. She’s staying there now.”
The truth hit him like a knockout punch. Devon had lied. She’d thrown enough bullshit at him to bury the island. And he’d fallen for it.
Anger slithering through his veins like venom, he asked, “Any clue who she is? What she’s up to?”
“Good question. She does have a work history in Chicago. She paid into Social Security until last year, which shows no payments.”
“That’s when she claimed to have been working in Portland under another name.”
“I’d be very careful. My guess is Devon Summers is there to kill you and get the device you’re testing.”