Lethal Affair (43 page)

“
Is that his name?” asked
Paul frantically. “He didn't tell us his name. He's one scary
dude.”

“
You already know how
dangerous he can be. Let's play this thing out, see how it
goes.”

“
No cops! He said if you
call anyone it won't end well.”

Rita was flustered. “Kylie, what do
you mean, you're bait?”

Kylie shoved her package into Rita's
hands and linked arms with Paul. “Mom, go home. We'll do lunch
another day. I'll explain everything then.”

Astonished, Rita opposed her. “Not on
your life! I'm coming with you.”

They were passing the undercover
couple and Kylie raised her voice for their benefit. “I'm going
with Paul Stokes now, Mom. Please make sure you get home safely!”
To compound her words, she looked hard into the eyes of the female
half of the couple and was rewarded with a quick wink. The couple
immediately surrounded Rita and herded her away through the crowd,
with Rita sputtering the whole way.

*

Kim Moon had a day off. Living all the
way out in rural Metchosin had its benefits; plenty of fresh air
and open spaces, just the way he and Carrie liked it.

That aside, he enjoyed the city too
with its civilized culture and thank God for that, because today
Carrie was going to set up her stall at the flea market in Bastion
Square and would hopefully sell the lion's share of her summer's
work. Between the twins and the newborn she'd been kept busy but
had still miraculously found time to weave gorgeous throw rugs made
from hand spun wool on her grandmother's loom. Labor intensive as
the work was, the rugs would supplement their income nicely with
just a few sales.

Thank God again for their ungrudging
neighbors Amy and Big Bart Mayer who had volunteered to take charge
of their munchkins for the day. Kim still thanked his spirit totem
that their son had suffered no ill effects from the helium gas
episode at their party earlier that summer.

The square was in full swing when they
got there. Setting up the stall while Carrie brought her rugs from
their car, Kim thought he glimpsed Kylie Lambert through the crowd,
but then lost sight of her.

The stall ready to go with Carrie's
work artfully displayed and already attracting attention, Kim
wandered off to get some cool drinks from one of the sidewalk
cafes.

There she was, he hadn't been
mistaken. Kylie Lambert was with her mother and some guy who looked
like a bundle of nerves. The trio seemed surreal, the air around
them charged with energy.

Knowing that Kylie was under police
observation, Kim watched as she suddenly jammed a package into her
mother's hands and then hooked arms with the mystery guy. They
headed straight at him.

Kylie's eyes met his and she gave him
a piercing, pleading look accompanied by a small negative shake of
her head, then swept past him. Kim caught the mystery guy's
expression. It was pure, bug-eyed panic.

Something was going down! She'd
pretended not to know him, yet given him some kind of signal with
her eyes. He sprang into action. Calling Carrie on his cell, he
decided to follow at a discreet distance.

*

“
Will?”

“
Yes?”

“
It's Carrie, Kim's wife.
I'm going to dispense with chit chat and get straight to the point.
I'm calling from Bastion Square. Kim and I came to sell at the flea
market today and when he went to get us drinks, he spotted Kylie
with some guy. Her mother was there too but Kylie just shoved her
away and took off with this guy. Will, Kim thinks she's in trouble.
She walked right by him and gave him a look of sheer desperation.
He says he's going to follow them. He wants you to call
Crane.”

Will's heart hammered. He sincerely
hoped Crane and his people were on this.

“
Thanks Carrie. I'll call
him now.”

He hung up and punched Crane's number
on speed dial. “Crane! It's Kylie. She's in Bastion Square
and...”

“
We know! We're tracking her
every move on foot and by GPS. The man with her is the jogger who
tripped her up at the park the other day. She gave one of our
operatives his name and we're converging on his home now. We're
staying on Kylie as well. I'll keep you in the loop as things
unfold.”

“
Is there something I can
do? Should I go there?”

“
They've already left that
location. I'll be in touch.”

Will stared at his phone with the dial
tone humming at Crane's abrupt sign off. His stomach was in knots
and a sour taste filled his mouth. The taste of fear was becoming a
regular part of his diet, he thought bitterly, then headed down to
the diner's kitchen to bring Jolene and Lyle up to
speed.

*

Paul Stokes dragged Kylie through the
Bay Center shopping complex just up from the square. Her ankle
pulsed with every step, sending shock waves up her leg to join the
nervous angst assaulting her.

There must be more than one cruise
ship in dock, she thought; it would explain why there were so many
people.

“
Slow down,” she complained.
“My ankle can't take this pace.”

Paul stopped in his tracks. He was in
a cold sweat, his face contorted with panic. “Sorry, sorry,” he
muttered.

Kylie looked him over. He was probably
close to her age, tall and lean from running no doubt, with fair
hair and intense blue eyes. Handsome in a jock sort of way, he
looked like the kind of guy you could count on to keep you
safe.

That's just what he was trying to do;
his wife and child were in jeopardy. Fervently she wanted to change
that. Following Drew's instructions might or might not save them,
but they had to believe that it would.

“
Lead on,” she said, sucking
up the pain as her ankle screamed.

Drew's intentions crystallized in her
mind. He must know that she had a tail and wanted them to lose it.
Paul led her through a maze of stores, round and round, in and out,
Drew's explicit instructions committed to Paul's memory. At several
points Kylie swore she glimpsed Kim's face in the
crowds.

Were Crane's people still with them?
Surely if Kim was, then they must be too. Crane had told her they
would be using GPS to monitor her movements. Was Drew aware of that
too? If anything, it was painfully obvious Drew was more unstable
than ever. This new stunt was completely over the top.

Separating from the crowds, Paul took
her into a long service alley that ran parallel to the waterfront
with red bricked vintage buildings on either side. Ducking into an
alcove, two sets of navy blue coveralls awaited them. Kylie zipped
hers over her clothes while Paul did the same with another, adding
caps embossed with a local cablevision logo.

Paul's cell rang. The caller I.D.
said, D.H. Paul listened to his next set of
instructions.

“
Let me speak to him,” Kylie
demanded.

“
He wants you to ditch your
purse and the cane,” he told her.

“
What? Why?”

“
How do I know? He just said
to get rid of them.”

Was he somewhere nearby? How else
would he know about the cane? She grabbed the phone from him.
“Listen Drew, enough of this merry chase. Where are you? Leave
these poor people alone. Your fight is with me. I'll come to you
wherever you are.”

Silence. Then, “Seriously? You think
Crane can outsmart me? Our new friend Paul here has a big stake in
how well you follow my instructions. Things will stay the way they
are and you'd better hurry. Paul has great taste in women. Sela's
tempting me with her big brown eyes as we speak. Should I take a
sample of her, Kylie? Maybe just a little bite...”

There was an ear curdling scream in
the background, followed by weeping, shocking Kylie.

“
She tastes pretty sweet.
How about little Ruby here, does she taste just as
good?”

“
No! Please. Leave her
alone!”

“
Ah. Now Kylie, I suggest
you remember who's calling the shots here, alright? Let me hear you
say it.”

“
Yes, alright. Whatever you
say.”

He clicked off.

*

Kim was out of breath. He'd lost them
in the Bay Center but found them again when they'd come out and
gone into the big tea and coffee merchant on Government street. Her
companion was leading them on a wild goose chase that looped around
and around in a dizzying circle.

He stayed glued, and when they ducked
into the alley that led to Market Square, he was just close enough
to see them dive into an alcove that closed them off from
view.

Staying at the end of the alley, he
took a call from Will.

“
Kim! What's happening?
Carrie said you're following them.”

“
So far they've traipsed all
over like a pretzel. Now they're in the alley to Market Square in
some kind of niche. Maybe it's a door and they went in, but I can't
tell without giving away my position.”

“
Has she still got the
cane?”

“
She did a minute ago. Okay,
I see some movement. I'll call you back.”

He disconnected and peered around the
side of a dumpster as two figures decked out in blue coveralls
emerged from the niche. They went out to the roadway and got into a
dark blue van marked with a cablevision company logo.

To anyone watching they would have
looked like ordinary cablevision workers, but to Kim there was no
doubt it was Kylie and the mystery man. She'd limped all the way to
the van, and she definitely did not have the cane.

*

“
What is that thing?” Paul
asked her.

“
A tracking device. The cops
had it specially made.”

Driving now, Paul glanced down at the
small device in her hand. She'd ditched the cane alright, but not
before prying the device off the handle first. Putting it in her
pocket, she asked, “Where to now?”

“
You have to get rid of it.
He said no cops. He said he'd know, and he'd... he'd... do what he
had to do. What is it with this guy? Why does he want you so badly?
Why doesn't he just grab you? Why did he have to involve my
family?”

She thought about it for a few seconds
and realized she owed him an explanation. Hell, she owed him the
truth.

“
I could go with the long
version or simply say, he's mentally ill.”

“
No shit!”

“
He had me once in a
secluded place. I got rescued and now he's trying to isolate me
again. He thinks I'm pregnant with his child but I don't think
that's why he wants me. I think for him it's a challenge now, to
outwit the police, to show the world he can't be beaten. I'm not
going to dip this in honey for you, Paul. You're right to be
afraid. Because he's already killed several people and it doesn't
look like he's going to stop.”

Paul's face crumbled and his skin
flushed red. He almost crashed into the car ahead of him but braked
just in time. Saying nothing, she watched as renewed resolve filled
him. Hitting the horn, he urged the sluggish driver ahead to get
moving.

*

Kim watched the cable van take off and
gritted his teeth in frustration. What the hell was he going to do
now?

He looked up and down the block, not
sure what he was looking for. Rubbing the totem he kept in his
pocket, he sent a plea out to the Great Spirit.

Who answered! A delivery guy was
unloading a large steaming stack of pizzas, his moped idling at the
curb. His mistake. Kim leaped on and took off without looking back.
Colorful protests peppered the air behind him.

He caught up with the cable van and
stayed a few car lengths behind. He'd probably get charged with
grand theft auto, or moped, but right now it didn't matter one bit.
He'd go to jail or pay a fine or whatever it took if it meant
saving this situation, whatever it was.

The van did not meander like the
walking portion of this little fiasco. It headed over the Johnson
street bridge and into Esquimalt, passing the Songhee Trail where
Drew Hammond's abandoned apartment was located. Further into the
community the roadway took them past the Sporting Arena after which
they turned left toward the waterfront into a small park called
Saxe Point.

Kim pulled off the road before
reaching the parking lot, ditched the moped in some bushes and
walked the rest of the way, taking care to look like a guy out for
an afternoon stroll.

His cell went off. “Will, we're at
Saxe Point. Yeah, that little park in Esquimalt. There's not much
here so they can't go far. I'll call you back.”

“
Wait! Crane just called to
say he's lost her position. I'm calling him and telling him to send
in the troops now.”

“
Got it. I'll hang back
then, stay out of their sight.”

“
Okay, but keep them
in
your
sight,
okay?”