Justified Means (Book One) (The Agency Files) (34 page)

Despite her protesting bladder, Erika managed to remain perched up there much longer than she’d anticipated. Just as she stretched her leg to work the blood back through it before attempting a descent, she heard the faint whistling of “Dixie” coming from the opposite direction she’d expected.

Her eyes strained to see, but through the leaves, in the slight duskiness that approached, and with her body screaming for relief, she found it hard to focus. Seconds later, Keith passed right beneath her, still whistling, meandering across the field as if he hadn’t a care in the world. She didn’t know if Dixie was a popular song during the War Between the States, but she couldn’t resist whistling back a few bars of the Battle Hymn of the Republic.

She hadn’t known what to expect, but an answering bar of Dixie followed by uncontrollable laughter wasn’t it. “In a tree. I wondered, but I didn’t think you’d actually do it.”

“Well, I did,” she grunted, “and now I’m not sure I can get out, and once I do, I’ve gotta have some privacy, so just go away.”

“I wonder
ed if those water bottles would bite you in the backside—so to speak.”

“Oh, that was bad… really bad.”

Once she started after him, calling his name, Keith returned, meeting her halfway. “The truck is back there. I brought it around behind just in case.”

“So you do think it was suspicious?”

He shook his head. “Nah, those teenagers were racing and there just wasn’t room for three of us.”

“So why the whole clandestine thing?”

Keith pulled a granola bar from his pocket. “Because there were news copters and at least one news van. We could have been seen.”

“Argh! It’s like we never get a break.” Before she could continue her frustrated rant, Erika thought of something else. “Wait, where’d you get a truck?”

“I got the tow truck to drop me off at the office and slipped in. Man, I almost got caught several times—and I can’t guarantee that Mark didn’t just look away—stole the keys from the rack, and high-tailed it out of there.”

“Ok, you’ve got some big, fat, hai—”

“Don’t say it. Just don’t.”

“Well, it’s true.”

Keith gave an exaggerated sigh. “Well, true or not, some things are too revolting to mention.”

“You know, I could have way too much fun with those words, but I won’t—
probably
won’t, anyway.”

The truck wasn’t anything like Erika imagined or expected. Leftover from the mid-eighties, the Chevy S-10 pickup had seen much, much better days. She was certain that with a swift kick to the undercarriage, the whole thing would disintegrate into a pile of rust and crumbling vinyl.

“Well, you certainly didn’t choose luxury, did you?”

“I took what was cheap to drive and inconspicuous.”

“Where to?” Erika sighed in relief that the inside, while dilapidated, was at least clean.

“To get you some food. If it has a drive-thru, it’s all yours.”

“Gee, you’re such a generous date.”

“Did you see that?”

Mark nodded, giving Karen a look that clearly said, “It’s about time too.”

“Do you think we should check the news?” Karen’s hand reached for the remote.

“Good idea.”

It took several minutes for the story to update, but at last, they saw the familiar van, crumpled and on its side near the Brookside exit. Claire strolled back into the room, arms laden with coffee, and shrieked. “Is that
—!”

“Shh!” Karen grabbed the tray of paper cups before Claire decorated the carpet with them. “Do you want to freak out the natives?”

“This native is freaked! Is that or is that not my cousin?” As Keith turned to point across a field, his face showed plainly on the screen. Mark swore. “That just increased danger exponentially. If Helen is watching, she knows they were here.” Once more, a few expletives flew out of Mark’s mouth before he was conscious of them.

Claire winced, turning to Karen
, surprised. “I always thought Keith was way too uptight about people and ‘foul language,’” she exaggerated the words as she made air quotes, “but man, you do get used to not hearing it, don’t you?”

“Sorry.”

“No, it’s ok. I was just surprised. I’m not exactly a virgin mouth myself. I used to use the most vulgar words like people overuse the word ‘like.’”

“Well, Keith is right. There are usually better ways to express yourself, but I don’t have time to think about that. I need to find a way to trap Helen and fast.”

“He’ll check in, Mark. When he does, maybe I should tell him I’ll take Erika and we can see if Myra is ready for a stint. She could cut and dye her hair like Erika’s and we could bait Helen. Make sure he gets seen somewhere?”

“Too many variables.” Mark swallowed hard. It’d be a horrible thing to do, but it was the only thing that made sense. “I’m thinking you warn Keith however you can, and I report the truck stolen. Keith can try to run at first, and then when they’re arrested, we’re there to grab Helen when she tries to bail Erika and or Keith out.”

“What makes you think she’ll do it herself? Wouldn’t she just send someone else?”

Mark shook his head. “She’s not a professional, she’s arrogant, and let’s face it, Erika would go with someone that she knew and ‘trusted,’ right? As far as she knows, we don’t know she’s killed Jill and Anthony.” The man’s voice cracked and he gripped his desk as he tried to stuff down his emotions.

“Ok. I’ll tell him. Are you sure it’s safe enough for Erika?”

“Aside from getting out, jail is likely the safest place for her. Tell Keith to have her hit the officer. We don’t want them thinking she’s a victim.”

Claire listened to the plans around her, and sank into a chair. The idea that her cousin, her perfect law-abiding cousin, was deliberately going to get himself arrested seemed both incredible and astounding. She had questions, but couldn’t bring herself to interrupt the conversation. They hadn’t spoken this openly around her since she and Karen had left Keith.

Karen flipped open her cheap phone and punched a short message into it and then snapped it shut again. Why they insisted on using those outdated and boring phones, she couldn’t understand. You didn’t have to activate all the apps for a newer more technologically advanced phone, but at least you had options! Claire dreaded the day she was assigned one.

“Wow,” Karen sounded genuinely surprised. “That was fast. He’s already responded.”

“Call.”

Karen put her phone on “speaker” and dialed the number. The phone rang twice before Keith picked up. “We’re having dinner, what do you want?”

“Mark is going to report the truck stolen. When the police find you, lead them on as much of a chase as you can, and make sure Erika resists arrest.”

Silence hung on the line before Keith said, “Helen will post bail, and you’ll be there to capture her.”

“That’s the plan.”

“Do I really have to resist arrest? How do I do that?” Erika’s stunned voice clearly indicated that she was not prepared to make that kind of sacrifice.

“Kick the officer, punch him, try to run. Just make sure they don’t think you were helpless to stop Keith.”

“I can’t have an arrest on my record, Karen. It’s hard enough to get a job in my field to begin with. A record means death.”

“Inside sixty days, that record won’t exist.”

Keith began to speak, but Erika interrupted him. “How can you be sure Helen will post bail?”

“We can’t, but if she’s in the area, she will.”

“And we’ll make it out of there alive?”

Mark and Keith, miles apart, grinned at the trademarked soothing smoothness of Karen’s voice. “Because if we couldn’t, we wouldn’t do this. You just have to trust that we’ve kept you alive this long because we know what we’re doing.”

“So, kick him, eh?”

“That was the general idea.”

A few muffled words, unintelligible over the phone, were then followed by Erika’s laughter. “Ok, I’ll do it, but you are my witnesses. Keith has promised me a real dinner with real food and real waiters and a menu that you don’t get a crick in your neck to read—preferably one without prices on it, but I won’t be that picky.”

“Oooh, a date!” Claire’s voice interrupted the conversation. “This is gonna be good.”

“This is payback for all the lousy food your cousin feeds me,” Erika countered.

“Look, get her fed and get on the loop. You’ve got an hour and then I’m calling it in. Just circle the loop until you see those lovely flashing lights. The local PD will handle the rest—almost.”

“I love that almost. See you soon—I hope.”

Erika’s voice was cut off mid-protest. Karen grinned at her boss and Keith’s cousin. “Oh, man. What I wouldn’t give to watch this. It’s gonna be priceless.”

“Here we go.” Keith punched the gas, sending the car from sixty to eighty in less time than it took him to glance her way and wink.

Erika grabbed the door handle, pretended to cross herself, and tried to ignore the weirdness that accompanied that wink. “So, how do you say the hail Mary thing anyway? I think I’m going to need it.”

“Dunno. I’m not Catholic.”

“So, only Catholics do the Mary thing?”

“Dunno.” He swerved, nearly sideswiping a florist’s van that tried to cross three lanes to pull over. Cars parted like the Red Sea to give them space, but a few were either two deaf from blasting music or too lazy to bother.

“Do you know anything?”

“Yeah,” he growled. “I’m going to have to keep this up, all along the loop, until we run out of gas, or I’m going to have to get off of here.”

“You can’t go into town. Someone could get hurt.”

“I was thinking the New Cheltenham exit. There’s such a long stretch of nothingness.”

“Maybe. How much gas do we have now?”

“Quarter of a tank.”

“And that translates into…” She knew she sounded peevish, but Erika didn’t care.

“I don’t know, maybe five gallons? It might be a twenty-gallon tank, but probably more like fifteen, so maybe four. Bet we aren’t getting more than twelve miles per gallon at this speed.”

Dismay flooded her voice. “But that’s probably fifty miles before we run out.”

Keith leaned forward and looked through the top of the windshield. “There’s a copter up there. Can you see if it’s news or police?”

“WRAN Channel 4. News.”

“Good.”

“I can’t believe I’m going to be on the news for criminal activity. Do you know how many people will see me kick a cop! I’m never going to live this down. Sure, my police record may not exist in sixty days, but that news footage will!”

“The memory will be sketchy and we’ll give a different name. We’ll take care of the footage too.”

“What, you’re going to send some agent into the WRAN building and steal it? You’re not CIA, but you can do that stuff and get away with it?”

“Yes.” His answer, while unsatisfactory and inadequate, came without hesitation.

“What does that even mean?”

“It means that we know how to take care of you today in a way that ensures you don’t have to live in a witness protection type lifestyle for the rest of your life.” To her amazement, his hand reached for hers and squeezed before he pulled it back to the steering wheel and swerved around thrown tread from a semi. “It’s going to be fine. You’ve trusted us this far. Just a bit more.”

“I’m trusting that you’re going to keep me safe when a woman who wants to kill me is going to get access to me. I don’t even know why she wants to kill me!”

“Well, let’s say that if anyone else figures out that you do know why, you’re dead, so let’s keep it at the fact that she’s not who you thought she was, shall we?”

“You’re annoying.”

Considering the grin he now sported, Erika got the impression that he didn’t really care what she thought of him. “Good. Keep being annoyed. You’re going to need that angst when we get pulled over.”

“I wish there was some way to dump the tank. This is torture.”

“Not to mention ridiculously dangerous,” he agreed.