Authors: Patti Berg
“I
don’t want someone else to break in,” Jon said, laughing softly. “We need someone to get him out.”
“I could have done that hours ago if I’d wanted to put my body on the line. All it would have taken is a phone call, a dinner invitation, and a seductive dress.”
“You’re never going near him again,” Jon said, turning her in his arms and holding her tight so they could watch Matt’s house together. “I don’t even like the idea of you going into that house with me.
He rested his chin
on top her head, and he felt so right, so good. She’d never liked being on the receiving end of orders, but she didn’t seem to mind when they came from Jon. After all, he wanted to protect her. And Lord, it felt nice to be protected.
Right now, though, she wanted this whole thing to end so she could go on with her life, so Alexander could go on to another stage of his. She didn’t want protection to be necessary any longer.
“I do know someone who wouldn’t mind spending time with Matt,” Jon said.
Surprised at his words, Elizabeth tilted her head to look into his eyes. “Who’d be crazy enough to want that?”
“Francesca.”
“
Francesca?
Your friend with boyfriend problems?
The one who’s been seeing Matt?”
Jon laughed. “I get the sense you don’t like her?”
“Why shouldn’t I like her? I don’t know a thing about her.”
“You’re jealous.”
“That’s impossible. You said she’s just a friend, and I believe you. Of course, what kind of friend would want to help us break into someone’s house?”
“An undercover agent for Fish and W
ildlife.”
Elizabeth twisted around to see the laughter in Jon’s eyes. Undercover agent? Francesca? That flame-haired beauty? The woman Elizabeth had despised the moment they met?
“Speaking of Francesca, it looks like help’s just arrived,” Jon said, and Elizabeth turned back to the window.
She saw the same olive-drab truck she’d seen parked in front of the cafe last night. She saw her brother climb out in army fatigues, and petite, pretty Francesca climbed out right behind, dressed in the same type of camouflage attire.
Tears welled in the corners of Elizabeth’s eyes. “He’s going to get arrested tonight, isn’t he?” she asked. She didn’t mention her brother’s name; she knew Jon understood.
“More than likely.
” Jon pulled her more tightly into his arms. “There’s nothing we can do about it now, though.”
Matt came out of the house
with a rifle tucked under his arm. He shook hands with Francesca and Eric; they talked for several minutes, then climbed into the truck and drove out of town.
She should have been happy Matt had gone.
They could go to Winchester Place, hopefully find the missing deeds, and perhaps solve all of Alexander’s problems. But she wasn’t happy, not when her brother was up to no good, and he was on the verge of being caught.
Unfortunately, she didn’t have time to weep.
The dark of night and the lightly falling snow gave Jon and Elizabeth the cover they needed as they headed down the street to Winchester Place.
“That’s the butler’s room,”
Jon said, pointing to a lighted window on the second floor. They stood still for a moment at the edge of Matt’s property and watched a darkened silhouette moving about in the room, finally shutting off the light.
Elizabeth sighed with relief and Jon clutched her hand as they soundlessly made their way to the back of the house.
Jon had once told Elizabeth there was no need to lock doors when you lived in Sapphire because the crime rate was pretty close to zero. She’d laughed at the notion of leaving a door unlocked anywhere, but tonight she rather liked the idea as Jon turned a knob at the rear of the mansion, and they easily walked inside.
“Where should we begin?” Elizabeth whispered.
‘It’s a big place, but I keep thinking about those trophies you mentioned. My guess is we start in the drawing room.”
Jon held a flashlight out and shined the thin beam down at the floor. He reached behind him and captured Elizabeth’s hand. “Don’t go anywhere without me.”
She squeezed his fingers in answer, trying to make as little noise as possible.
When they reached the drawing room, her stomach cramped, partly in fear, partly in remembrance of the
vile way Matt had touched her and the way she’d broken a glass and held it to his neck. She loathed the man. With any luck, they’d bring his little game to an end tonight.
Sadly, her brother was going to be caught in the trap, too.
They went from table to desk, carefully sifting through drawers so nothing would look out of place. They lifted carpets and bearskin rugs and checked for hidden doorways leading to a basement, but they found nothing.
“Let’s try another room,” Jon said, pulling Elizabeth after him.
“Wait.” Elizabeth tugged on his hand to make him stop.
“Why? We’ve looked at everything.”
“We must have knocked into that moose head. It’s crooked. Just give me a second to straighten it.” Elizabeth twisted the oak mounting and heard a groan. She swallowed hard and looked at the animal whose glass eyes stared aimlessly across the room. She twisted the mounting a little more to the left and heard the same groan. She watched the gun cabinet slide along the wall.
“I can’t believe
Matt’s stupid enough to put the control behind a moose head,” she said. “It’s so obvious, that’s the first place anyone would look.”
“We almost overlooked it,” Jon whispered, then held a finger to his lips to silence anything else she might say.
Smiling with some degree of victory, he took her fingers and led her through the passage.
They descended a narrow staircase, the beam from the flashlight the only thing keeping them from walking in total darkness. They reached the floor and Jon shone the light across the walls.
Hundreds of eyes stared back at them. Bald eagles sat with talons wrapped tightly around fake tree branches that protruded from the plaster. A bobcat poised on the edge of a boulder, and a California condor perched on a tree branch above it. “He’s made this place into a gallery,” Jon stated.
“More l
ike a mausoleum, if you ask me.” Elizabeth stepped away from the displays, and tripped. She fell to the floor, feeling fur beneath her.
“Are you okay?” Jon asked, giving her a hand and pulling her up.
“I think so.” She looked sadly at the head of a grizzly she’d tripped over, its fur flat against the floor, its legs and paws spread out with the claws extended. What other horrors would she find, she wondered, if all the lights were on?
Jon pulled her away from the bearskin. “Let’s see if we can find what we came for and get out of here.”
He managed to locate a desk and pulled on the drawer. “It’s locked.” He tugged harder. “Maybe this is where Matt’s records are hidden. Nothing else is locked around here.” He pulled out his jack-knife and wedged it against the catch, jimmying it around until he heard a click. Slowly he pulled and the drawer slid open.
He rummaged around inside, careful not to displace
the contents, and took out a ledger. Opening the book on top of the desk, Jon shone the flashlight onto the paper. “Look at this, Ellie. Dates, names of hunters, amounts paid, and what animals they wanted to kill. Not one legal hunt listed here, and a lot of protected species. There’s enough here to hang him.”
“What about my brother?” she asked, quickly scanning the list of names.
“I don’t see it. But that doesn’t mean his name’s not listed. We can deal with that later, though. Maybe I can work something out with Francesca.”
She had to let it go at t
hat. They were in another man’s home illegally. They had broken into a drawer and were stealing someone else’s possessions. They didn’t have time to deal with her fears.
“What about the deeds?” Elizabeth asked, hoping that would be the evidence they needed to unravel all the loose edges of
a hundred-year-old crime.
Jon rummaged through the rest of the drawers. “I think this is all we’re going to find.”
Somehow Elizabeth managed to smile, although her heart wasn’t in it, and she followed Jon up the stairs and back into the drawing room. They went to the moose head and Jon twisted it, just as Elizabeth had. Slowly the gun cabinet slid back into place.
Jon kissed her nose and gripped her fingers. “Come on, Ellie. Let’s get out of here.”
They took the same path out of the house that they’d taken coming in, quietly opened and closed the back door, and headed outside. The snow was falling harder now, covering up all traces of their
tracks. With the ledger safely tucked under Jon’s jacket, they walked quickly up the street, trying not to draw any attention.
Elizabeth was closing the hotel door behind them when she saw the lights of the olive-drab truck heading toward Winchester Place.
“I wonder why they’re back so soon?” Elizabeth said, leaning heavily against the door. She took several slow, easy breaths of relief while Jon looked through the window.
“It’s only Matt. Doesn’t make sense that he’d come back alone.”
Elizabeth began to worry, but Jon stilled her fears with a kiss. “Everything’s going to be all right,” he said, cupping her face in his hands. “Francesca knows what she’s doing.”
Jon slid his fingers behind her head and wove them through her hair. “Do you like the life of an undercover operative?”
She caressed his cheek and put one hand over his heart. Even through the lamb’s wool coat and the journal still tucked underneath, she could feel the heavy rise and fall of his chest and knew, deep inside, he didn’t like that life any more than she did. “I’ll leave the intrigue to the Francescas of the world. I’d prefer operating an inn, cooking elegant meals, and having you pay me nightly visits.”
Jon’s smile disappeared, replaced by a mixture of relief, fear, and lust. He leaned down and kissed her long and hard, his fingers tightening in her hair.
“We’re not doing anything stupid like that again, Ellie,” he stated, whispering the words in her ear.
“If something had happened to you—”
“No
thing’s going to happen to me,” she interrupted. “I’ve already had my brush with death.”
“Is that a promise?” Jon asked.
“It’s a promise.”
Alex cleared his throat. “Excuse me. I’ve been worried, too. Does that matter to either of you?”
“Don’t worry, Alex,” Jon said. “We found something to help you get your revenge.”
Alex looked annoyed. “I wasn’t worried about that. Thunder and tarnation! I was worried about the two of you tangling with that lily-livered buzzard.”
Elizabeth leaned into Jon’s chest and laughed.
“What we found is going to put that lily-livered buzzard behind bars, but it’s not th
e information we wanted to find.” Jon shrugged out of his coat. He carried the ledger to the chesterfield and sat down to inspect the records. Alex did the same.
Close together like that, Elizabeth could see the resemblance
between Jon and Alex. Although more than half a foot and probably a hundred pounds separated them in size, it was easy to see the family traits: the blond hair, the strong jaw and cleft chin, and the thumbs that twiddled when they were deep in thought.
She hung up her coat and joined them, sitting on the floor at Jon’s side.
“Did you find Eric’s name in the ledger?”
Jon nodded, and she swallowed hard, wishing the truth didn’t hurt so much. “Anyone else?” she asked, biting back her tears.
“No locals. A state senator from somewhere back East who I’ve seen mentioned in the papers a time
or two. He’s paid big money to get what he wanted—out of season—and he’ll probably pay big money to make his bail and pay the fines once he’s been tried. Looks like he was with Matt on his last trip to Florida, too. Hunting alligator isn’t illegal anymore, but I don’t know the limit or season, and it shows here that they made a haul.”
“How does this help me?” Alex asked.
“It puts Matt in prison for a while,” Jon told him, as he flipped through more pages.
“But what about the deed?
” Alex asked. “Everything—almost all of Sapphire—rightly belongs to you.”
“We couldn’t find
those records,” Elizabeth said. “Just the outfitting ledger.”
“
Owning nearly all of Sapphire doesn’t mean anything to me,” Jon said. Besides, I’ve already got more than I need. Thomas took care of that, so the deeds don’t matter.”
“It’s not right
,” Alex said. “I don’t want Matt Winchester, or any other Winchester, to have what rightly belongs to you.”
Alex sighed deeply
. He floated up from the sofa, sailed across the room, and stood at the window, where he parted the curtains and looked up the road to Dalton House. “Do you think there might be enough evidence in those ledgers?” he whispered. “I’m getting awfully tired of this existence.”
“I think you’re the only one who can decide if it’s enough,” Elizabeth said. “You wanted revenge. You swore you wouldn’t rest until all the Winchesters were out of town. With the information we have, we can get rid of Matt. We can smear his name and make it so he won’t come back to Sapphire once he gets out of jail, and we can set the
record straight about what happened a hundred years ago.”