Fools Rush In (25 page)

❧

"Now you tell your sister I'll be by tomorrow with the key to your cabin," Mr. Ledbetter called out as he put the car in gear and headed back down the road.

"I will. And thanks for the lift." Erin waved, and when the car disappeared around the curve she climbed the three steps to the porch. Unlike her family's cabin, this one sat just a few feet from the road. It was smaller and more rustic, made of logs, with a covered porch across the front.

Erin knocked on the door. "Elise! Elise, it's Erin." She waited, but there was no sound from inside. With an impatient sigh she looked at the tan Plymouth in the attached carport. Mr. Ledbetter had said it was Elise's; she had to be there. Erin knew she was there; she could feel her presence ... her fear.

From the corner of her eye Erin saw a shadowy movement at the window, and she knocked again, harder this time. "Elise, open up! I know you're in there."

Just as she started to knock again the door opened partway and a hand shot out, grabbed her wrist and jerked her inside. There was a slam behind her as Erin took two stumbling steps into the room; then a tug on her wrist whipped her around, and she was face-to-face with her sister.

Pressed back against the door, Elise stared at her. Her face was pale, and there were dark circles beneath her wide, terror-stricken eyes. Gazing at her, Erin felt a rush of pity and compassion so strong that she had to blink back tears.

"Erin, what are you doing here?" Elise demanded.

The sharp edge of hysteria in her voice wrung Erin's heart. Smiling tenderly, she held out her arms and said, "Now is that any way to greet your other half? Especially since I went to so much trouble to find you?"

Elise's face crumpled. With an anguished cry, she flew into Erin's outstretched arms. "Oh, God, Sis. I'm so frightened!" she choked, and then words became impossible as she dissolved into tears.

The pent-up cries tore from deep inside her, terrible racking sounds that reflected the days of terror and uncertainty she had endured alone.

"There, there, sweetheart. Cry it all out. You'll feel better." Battling her own tears, Erin held her twin close, crooning soft, soothing words, rubbing her heaving shoulders, her back, the silken curls so like her own. She rocked her gently, her heart aching with sympathy and love as she strained to absorb her sister's fear.

Gradually, Elise's sobs tapered off, and she quieted. "I... I'm sorry," she quavered as she pulled herself from Erin's embrace. "I know that doesn't help. It's just that these past few days have been so horrible." She sniffed and took a deep breath, scrubbing her wet cheeks with her fingertips and the heels of her hands. "I've been so scared they would find me that I haven't been able to eat or sleep. I didn't know what to do except run. And call David. But he isn't at home." Her eyes filled with fresh tears, and her chin began to wobble as she looked beseechingly at Erin. "Oh, God, Sis, what am I going to do?"

"There now, don't get yourself upset again." Erin framed her twin's face between her palms and stared into her eyes. "Everything is going to be all right, Elise. You'll see."

If she had hoped to still her sister's panic, she failed. Suddenly Elise's eyes widened with alarm. "Erin! How did you get here?"

"Mr. Ledbetter brought me."

"No, I mean how did you find me?"

"Well, it wasn't easy, I assure you," Erin said with an attempt at wry humor. "I never realized before what a clever, devious mind you have. I'm impressed, sister mine."

"But I obviously wasn't clever enough. You found me. And if you can, so can others."

"Darling, who are you talking about? What hap—"

Without warning, the door was kicked open. Elise let out a scream, and instinctively both women reached for each other as two men with guns stormed in. They were followed more slowly by a woman. She stopped a few feet inside the door and gave them a superior, malicious smile. "I believe your sister is referring to us, Ms. Blaine."

Erin was so shocked that she barely heard Elise's piteous moan. She stared at the woman, unable to believe her eyes. "Miss Crenshaw?"

"Surprised? I thought you would be." Cocking her gray head to one side, Wilma Crenshaw looked at Elise with something approaching respect. "I must say, my dear, you surprised me. You led Alan and Floyd a merry chase. And that business about going to Salt Lake City fooled them completely. We never would have found you if it hadn't been for your sister."

"You followed us to Vail?" Erin asked, feeling sick at heart.

"No. We followed your brother and Sam to Vail. Actually, that's not quite true. We hired a plane and got here before them. You see, I listened in when he phoned from Sam's office to check his answering machine. When Sam and your brother arrived, we simply waited for them to find you."

"You listened in on..." Erin stopped as understanding dawned. "Then Sam isn't involved in this at all, is he?"

"Straight-arrow Sam? You suspected him?"

The questions came from the burly blond man. Erin glanced at him and nodded, realizing that this had to be Floyd Shulman, the man Max had told her about, the same one who had stared at her when she arrived at Global. God, had that been only five days ago? It seemed like a lifetime.

He threw his head back and laughed. "So that's why you came barreling out of that hotel like a bat out of hell. You nearly ran poor Alan right into the ground just trying to keep up with you." Shooting the other man a taunting look, he grinned slyly. "He's gone a bit soft after ten years of cushy police work."

"Damn you, Floyd—"

"Shut up, you two!" Wilma snapped. "I've had enough of your bickering!"

She turned back to Erin and gave a snort of derision. "Sam Lawford? Hardly. It takes someone daring and clever to handle an ingenious operation like ours. My brother Jerry set the whole thing up," she said with pride. "He sees to it that the diamonds are shipped from Israel, and I take care of things on this end."

"Diamonds?"

"They embed them in marked pieces of pottery," Elise said. Her voice was still shaky, but she had managed to pull herself together. Now she was glaring at Wilma with bitter, defiant anger. "That's how they get through customs undetected. They're hidden, and they don't show up on the X rays. When I went back to Global on Monday night to check the vault, I saw a light in the warehouse and heard voices. No one was supposed to be there, so I went inside to check. That's when I saw them smashing open a shipment."

"We thought it was drugs," Erin said in a dazed voice.

"Don't be absurd!" Wilma snapped. "Do you know what that foul stuff does to people? My brother wouldn't soil his hands with it."

Erin stared at her in amazement, realizing that the woman was offended by the idea. Considering their circumstances, it was almost comical.

"If you feel that way, then why have you been chasing my sister all over the country? Why are you here?" Erin knew it was probably futile to attempt to appeal to the woman's finer instincts, but she had to try.

"This is different," Wilma snapped sullenly. "I can't let you ruin everything Jerry has worked for. Anyway, if you hadn't been so nosy, none of this would have happened," she added with an accusing glare for Elise.

"But why harm us?" Erin persisted. "You can't possibly hope to get away with it. Or hope to continue your smuggling operation. Both Max and Sam know that something is going on, so there's sure to be an investigation."

"All we have to do is pull back and wait it out. Alan will see to it that the investigation goes nowhere, and when it's dropped we'll quietly resume shipments." She smiled at them coldly and folded her hands across her thick middle. "As for you two, you're simply going to have a tragic accident. In your rush to get back to Mr. Delany you're going to lose control of your car and crash down the mountainside."

"Max is here?" Elise asked, her eyes suddenly alight.

The reaction told Erin all she needed to know about her sister's feelings toward Max, and she felt a hollow ache in the region of her heart. She gave Elise's hand a squeeze. "Yes. He came with me to help look for you."

"Why don't we just kill them here and be done with it?" Floyd argued.

"Because, you idiot, it's got to look like an accident," Alan barked, glaring at him. "If the local police suspect murder, the investigation will drag on forever."

"But what if the crash doesn't kill them? What do we do then, smart guy?"

A bitter quarrel broke out between the two men. Wilma tried in vain to silence them, and soon all three were involved in a shouting match.

Watching them, Erin gauged the distance to the door. Their chances of getting away were slim, but she'd be damned if she was going to just let them push her off a mountain without a fight. Maybe if she kept them busy, Elise could get away. Would they shoot? she wondered. She wasn't sure about Alan, but Floyd would. She would have to do something about him.

Under cover of the shouts, Erin poked her sister in the side and muttered under her breath, "When I tell you to run, take off as fast as you can."

"But—"

"Don't argue. Just do it!" she hissed.

❧

David brought the car to a halt the instant they rounded the bend and the cabin came into view.

"Someone's there," he announced tersely, staring at the dark sedan parked behind the compact in the carport. He eased the door open and climbed out, and without a word the others did the same.

They studied the quiet cabin. There was no movement, no sound beyond the distant chirping of a bird, but something was wrong. Max could feel it. His gut was knotting like a twisted rope.

"Keep low and stay close to the trees," David commanded as he pulled out his gun and moved forward. Crouching, the three men raced along the edge of the road, keeping the parked sedan between them and the window at the front of the cabin. To Max, their labored breathing and the crunch of their shoes on the gravel seemed abnormally loud, and he expected at any second to hear a challenge from whoever was in the cabin.

When they reached the drive they stopped behind the car, waited a moment, then, one by one, moved into position, David and Sam flattened against the wall on either side of the door, Max by the window.

"See anything?" David whispered.

Max eased closer to the window, carefully tipping his head out just enough to get a look inside. What he saw almost made his heart stop.

That crazy little fool!