Merit Badge Murder (19 page)

"You left," he said with a frown. "You took advantage of the fact that the officer out front had been called away, and you left."

"How did you know we were gone?" I asked.

"I had the officer check the house when he got back. You didn't answer," Rex replied.

"Sorry," I said, trying to blush. "We were hungry, and Lana just wanted to get out of here to get some air."

Lana nodded. "I felt uncomfortable here after what happened in my room." She was a good actress, better than I'd originally thought. I smiled at her, only to see her looking meaningfully at my T-shirt. My blood-splattered T-shirt. That I was still wearing. Oh damn.

Rex caught it right away, of course, because he's a brilliant detective. "You have something on your shirt."

I did the only thing I could think of. I pulled the shirt up over my head and took it off. That's right. I stood before Rex and Lana wearing nothing more than a bra (which sadly, was not lacy or even remotely interesting). Rex was so shocked he didn't say anything as I balled the shirt up and held it in my fist.

"Sorry. I had an accident with a Slurpee machine." I shrugged.

Rex regained his composure quickly. Too quickly, dammit. He stared at the fast food garbage and then at me. "They don't have Slurpees there." He pointed to the logo.

I nodded. "Lana wanted something cold to hold against her face. We stopped at the gas station first." I was a very good liar. "But after my cherry Slurpee exploded on me, she decided she was hungry, so we left."

Lana tore her eyes away from my bra and nodded at Rex. "The red dye freaked me out." She pouted adorably.

Rex looked from me to Lana. I tried to stand there as naturally as a lying, topless woman can in front of a police detective she finds attractive. I tried to look embarrassed and apologetic, and like fiancé material all at the same time. Not sure if I pulled it off.

"I'm just going to run to the bedroom and put on a clean shirt," I said as I made my way around the breakfast bar with the balled up blood shirt in my hand. Before he could object, I ran down the hallway, stuffed the shirt under the bed, and put another one on. I was going to have to get rid of that shirt as soon as Rex left.

"…I can't stress that enough," Rex was saying to a petulant Lana when I rejoined them.

"What's that?" I asked with a smile.

"I was just telling Ms. Babikova that we are using considerable resources to guarantee her safety. She needs to understand that we are doing this for her own protection." He turned to me. "That means you two need to stay here. At least for another day or two until we decide the threat is over."

The threat is over,
I thought.
Mostly.

"Where's your cousin? Riley?" Rex asked me. "I thought he'd be here with you tonight."

"He will," I said rather quickly. "He had to make some arrangements for work…because he's going to take some leave time. Then he'll be here."

Rex frowned. "But isn't that his car you drove up in?"

Dammit. He was smart. Normally, I'd rejoice in that fact—I mean, who wants a stupid boyfriend? But now, well, this was inconvenient to say the least.

I was at a loss. Normally lies trip off the tip of my tongue like a bi-polar psychopath at a schizophrenia convention.

"He loaned us his car," Lana spoke up. "Merry's car isn't running well since her accident. He said he was going to get a rental." She tossed in a one-hundred-kilowatt smile, just for good measure. Which, I should probably admit, made me a little jealous.

Rex looked thoughtful. I had no idea if he'd bought it, but he seemed to be willing to drop it for now.

"I'll check in on you in the morning then." He held up his cell. "Call me if you see anything out of the ordinary. I'm just across the street."

He got up and headed for the door. I followed him and gave him my best, apologetic smile. "Thank you for looking after us. I'm sorry we left. We won't do that again."

"Good-night, ladies," he said with a slight smile as he walked out the door.

I leaned against the door and let out a huge sigh. Lying to Rex was exhausting. But I had to do it one more time. I'd have to leave the house, probably in the next couple of hours, to rescue Riley.

"So what happens now?" Lana asked as I joined her in the kitchen.

"I guess we wait until Aleksei calls us." I chewed on my lip. "What else can we do?"

What else could we do? The only good thing about this mess was that Riley was most likely still alive and two of the three Russians were dead. In fact, it was better than that because it was on Aleksei to dispose of Vlad and Yevgeny. We didn't have to drive around with two corpses in the trunk, trying to find a good place to dump them. He'd do a good job, too. He wouldn't want them found any more than we did.

Unfortunately, Aleksei was in charge of what happened next. Since he had Riley, he called the shots. He could call tonight or in three days. I could call Riley's cell, but I didn't want to make Aleksei jumpy. Jumpy spies tend to kill their hostages and run.

Once he did call, though, we'd need a plan and quickly. I was tired and out of ideas. The school shootout was good, but it left me pretty spent in the idea department. The Russian would decide the time and place. I'd have to adapt very quickly to that and very carefully to make sure Lana and Riley didn't get killed in the process.

That's right. I wasn't going to hand Lana over. I'd let the FSB
think
that. But it wasn't going to happen. And Riley would be pissed if I did that. He'd charged me with her safety and trusted me to do the right thing.

Riley had been a spy for a long time. He knew the risks. And he was probably thinking up a plan of his own right now. How had he let himself get taken? He was too good for that to happen.

Live to fight another day
was kind of our motto at the Agency. When things went south, you got out of there, found a safe house, and regrouped. Riley must have decided it would be better to leave with Aleksei than engage him. Or maybe he was doing it to protect us.

I turned that thought around in my head for a moment. It was possible that the Russian had a bead on either me or Lana back in the gym. Riley probably saw that and decided to go with Aleksei to spare us. Awww, that gave me more fuzzy feelings toward Riley. I remembered that he'd almost kissed me in the office. Was Riley protecting me? Did Riley have feelings for me?

I shook it off. No, I had to keep my focus on the task at hand. I was guessing too much. Making up stuff that I had no idea was true.
Stick to the facts, Wrath
. What did we know?

Number one—we knew that Riley was gone. Aleksei and the bodies were gone. The black Beetle they drove in was gone. Riley's SUV was still there. Either Riley was dead somewhere in the school, and we somehow missed him, or he went with the Russian.

My conclusion was that Riley was with Aleksei. Lana and I scoured that school. And if Riley was dead, and his two buddies were dead, Aleksei would've stayed until he'd finished the job. And, he needed Riley to help him carry off Vlad and Yevgeny. Otherwise, the time it would've taken him to drag two huge guys out to the car would've doubled. And if it was doubled, we would've caught him. So Riley must be alive.

Number two—Yevgeny and Vlad were dead. There was no doubt about this in my mind. When I'd left him, Vlad wasn't breathing and had no heartbeat. Unless an EMT with a defibrillator had accidentally happened by, Vlad was still dead. Yevgeny was very close to death when I'd left him. I'd shot him twice at close range in the stomach. He'd dropped me immediately, which meant he was too weak to hold onto me anymore. I knew this because I've shot guys before, and they still kept coming—mainly because I hadn't hit anything important.

I probably hit his spine, which would've permanently immobilized him. He dropped me and fell to the floor pretty quickly. And I'd tied him up without a fight. That was something, in spite of my knot disability, I knew I'd done well. (Hint—it's all in the wrist.) No…Yevgeny didn't leave that school alive. I was convinced of that.

Number three—Aleksei took Riley. He made Riley go with him, because he still wanted Lana. He didn't have to take the other bodies. He could've left them there and run off. But he didn't. That meant he wasn't giving up. I wondered how he got the drop on Riley. My former handler was a pro. It wouldn't have been easy. Oh well—I could figure that out later.

Number four—we had some time. Aleksei needed time to secure Riley and get rid of two bodies in a way that they'd never be found. He didn't seem all that bright, but he was probably the smartest of the three FSB agents since he'd made it out of there with two bodies and a hostage. On top of that, he'd need time to come up with a plan. There were two of us, Lana and myself, against him. And he had to know we'd be armed. If Riley had gone with him to spare us, the Russian would also know we weren't about to give Lana up without a fight.

I closed my eyes and rubbed my forehead. I was tired, but I needed to take advantage of this time to come up with something that would get Riley out alive, spare Lana, and make Aleksei dead.

I heard shouting outside and ran to the front door.

"Back off Kevin Dooley, or I'll tell your mom!" Kelly's voice came from the other side of the door. Kevin Dooley? Who was that? Rusty gears squeaked inside my head, and I remembered. Kevin Dooley was the geeky guy in high school who made fun of Kelly and me. What was he doing outside my door this late at night?

"Just get back into your car. I'm not a threat," Kelly growled.

Ah. He must be the cop out front. I opened the door and grinned. Kelly stood there with another casserole. She pushed past me and headed for the kitchen. I locked the door behind her and joined her and Lana.

"I came to check on the patient and bring you dinner," Kelly said.

"It's like eleven o'clock at night!" I protested. But only half-heartedly because it was a casserole, after all. Spies never, ever turn down free home cooking.

"I only saw you and Lana get out of the SUV. Riley wasn't with you." Kelly folded her arms over her chest. "Do you want to tell me what's going on?"

"How did you see us?" I asked. "You live a block away!"

Kelly rolled her eyes. "I was driving home from my shift."

Oh. Right. The hospital. "And how did you make a casserole in that amount of time?" I asked. Not that I was complaining. This one smelled like a Tater Tot casserole. Nope, not complaining at all.

She shrugged, "I had one in the freezer. I heated it up. It still needs about twenty minutes." Kelly marched toward the kitchen and popped it into the oven. We followed her.

The three of us set the breakfast bar, and I made some tea. I needed the caffeine because eating one-third of a Tater Tot casserole would most likely make me sleepy.

"All right," Kelly said minutes later as she spooned the casserole onto our plates. "Spill it."

"What do you mean?" I feinted before shoving a fork into my mouth to stall. Oh my God. This was so good. I tell you, if you want to know fifty different ways (and all delicious) to cook with Tater Tots, come to Iowa. It's a point of pride here.

Lana nodded, and I realized she hadn't said much since we got home. She was probably traumatized.

"Knock it off, Merry." Kelly narrowed her eyes. "Something's going on. And by the guilty looks on your faces, I can tell it's not good."

I sighed. "Fine." I was exhausted and sick of lying to everyone. I told her everything. About us going to the school, stuffing Lana in the ceiling of the principal's office, the shootout, and the surprise absence of Riley. I even told her about Rex waiting for us. When I finished, I went back to eating.

Kelly processed this for a moment. She did not look happy. "Did you try calling Riley's cell?"

I shook my head. "Not yet. I didn't want to force Aleksei's hand. Riley's still alive. I'm sure of it. The Russian will call when he's ready. Hopefully then we'll be ready too."

"For what? How?" Kelly threw her hands up in the air. "It'll all be on his terms. You have no idea how to prepare for that!"

"Um, excuse me!" I put my hands on my hips. "I
was
a spy. We're used to this kind of stuff! I'm better prepared than you would be!" I was deeply offended. I didn't go to the hospital and stand over Kelly and ask her what her plan was for a sucking chest wound. Okay, so maybe they do actually have a plan for that, but the point is, I don't tell her how to do her job. Of course now, I wondered what the plan was for a sucking chest wound. My mind wanders when I'm tired.

"This is all my fault!" Lana burst into tears. "They wanted me, not Riley. And now you two are fighting! I'm so sorry!"

Kelly immediately started consoling the blonde bombshell with intermittent glares at me that said,
This is all your fault, and what are you going to do about it?

"Look, Lana," I started, "it's not your fault. It's just part of the job."

"Do you think the KGB, or whatever you called them, killed Carlos, Ahmed, and Midori?" Kelly changed the subject to make Lana feel better.

I thought about this. "It kind of looks like it…"

Lana interrupted me. "Of course they did it! The FSB is behind it all!"

"I don't know," I said. And I didn't. With everything going on, I hadn't taken two minutes to examine this clearly. "I mean, on the surface, yeah, I'd say they did it. And I'd like to think that because once I kill Aleksei, it's all over."

"But?" Kelly searched my face. She knew I wasn't convinced.

I shrugged. "But what's the motive? If Lana was the endgame, why not just come and get her?"

Lana frowned. "They wanted to blame you, maybe? Because you are the one who recruited me to spy on them?"

I nodded slowly. "Yeah, I guess I could see that. But why
those
three terrorists? Why go to all that trouble of bringing them here alive? It's a LOT of work to go to. Why not just kill me too?"

"By framing you," Kelly said slowly, "they get the Yakuza, Colombian drug cartels, and al-Qaeda angry. Wouldn't it be worse to be hunted by three different terrorist groups?"