SPY IN THE SADDLE (5 page)

Its sun-faded, chipped sign hung over a reinforced steel door, every inch scuffed, crying for a paint job. The parking lot was half-empty. Still, considering that it was before noon, that didn’t seem like bad business. But if the bar turned a profit, the owner sure didn’t invest in appearances.

When she stepped inside, the smell of beer and unwashed bodies hit her. At least a dozen people were drinking and talking at the tables. Could be they’d been out on the border, smuggling all night, then came here to grab a drink before they went home to sleep. Their gazes followed her as she cozied up to the bar.

The bartender towered more than a foot over her, drying glasses.
Definitely a bruiser.

“Howdy.” He glanced at the bandage on her arm, but said nothing about it. The bar wasn’t the kind of place where people would ask questions about something like that, apparently.

“Hey.” She sat by one of the columns that extended from bar to ceiling, holding a dozen ratty ads for local services and whatever. That way, at least one side of her was protected. She scanned the short hallway in the back, could see a turn at the end that probably led to the office, then the back exit.

The bartender looked her over. “What’s your pleasure, little lady?” He raised a bushy eyebrow. She didn’t belong here and they both knew it.

She thought about a beer before lunch, and her stomach revolted. “Wouldn’t mind starting with coffee.”

He pushed a bowl of peanuts a few inches closer to her and turned to the coffee corner. He was back with her cup in two minutes, powdered creamer and sugar on the side. “You new in town?”

“Traveling through.”

A waitress sailed by and winked at her. “Looking for your next heartache?”

Lilly gave a smile, hoping like anything that she hadn’t already found it. “No, definitely not.” Letting her teenage crush with Shep reemerge would be beyond stupid. “Nice town, though. Might stay awhile,” she added, suddenly inspired by the bottom ad on the post that caught her eye. The bar band was looking for a new singer.

“If I can find a gig.” She nodded toward the ad and tried not to think how many years it’d been since she’d been onstage. But hanging out at the bar wouldn’t give her half the chance to snoop around as working here a few hours a night would. It’d make her an insider.

“You sing?” the waitress asked as she waited for her orders to be filled. She was in her early forties, a bottle blonde, slim, wearing a white T-shirt with the bar’s logo on it and a short black skirt with an apron.

“Ain’t much else I can do. I got just the voice the good Lord gave me.” Lilly tried to sound country, as if she might just fit in.

The woman looked doubtful, but she said, “Come back tonight. Brian’s the boss. He’ll be holding tryouts.”

“Thanks—”

“Mazie. And this one here’s Shorty.” She snorted as she indicated the bartender with her head. He fairly towered over the both of them, busy with the beer tap.

“Lilly. I think I might just try for that gig.”

Even if Shep was totally going to kill her for it.

Chapter Three

Night had fallen by the time Shep and Keith made their way into town and pulled up in front of The Yellow Armadillo, after a long and dusty shift on border patrol that netted them nothing whatsoever. Normally, they would have taken a break before going into the office in the morning. But as close as they were to D-day, they’d decided to snoop around the bar a little first.

Lilly’s hotel was just up the road. Not that Shep planned on stopping by for a visit. He watched for an empty space in the parking lot. He had to drive around to find a spot.

“Looks like they do good business.” Keith scanned the cars, then turned to Shep. “So, did Lilly Tanner really burn down your house and steal your car and all that?”

“Don’t want to talk about it.”

But Keith kept waiting.

Fine. “It was an accident.”

“How does somebody steal a car by accident?”

“The fire was an accident. She needed the car and...” He shrugged. There was really no good way to explain. “She wanted to start over.” He’d never really held a grudge. “She was a messed-up kid and with reason. She had rough beginnings.”

“True that. Sold for drugs by her own parents. That’s harsh. Can you imagine?”

“Not really.” He’d grown up in a happy, loving family.

“That’s why you never reported the car stolen?”

He parked the car and shut off the engine. “She was just turning eighteen—she would have gone to jail. Being locked up would have broken her. She’d always been special, always stood out. I didn’t want to see her broken.”

He was glad she’d turned out okay. He would be even gladder when she left again. He stopped for a second and turned to Keith. “And now we’re done talking about her. She’s only here for a few days. It’s not important.”

Keith flashed one of his quick grins. “Whatever you say.”

The bar sat on a side street a little back from the main drag, among service-type businesses: dry cleaner’s, key copying and photocopying, a car mechanic a little farther down. The road back here was narrower and darker, the streetlights smaller and not as fancy as Main Street’s, no lone-star flags, no advertising posters on the poles.

Keith got out. “Hope Wagner is here.”

Shep followed. “Or the guy who was with him at the shooting. Look for anyone with a damaged wrist.”

They’d put out a call to the local hospitals, but none had a patient with a gunshot wound like that. He might have gone to one of the underground clinics that served illegal immigrants. If so, they’d have no way of finding him through the health-care system.

Music filtered out to the street through the front door as they walked up, the smell of stale air and beer hitting them as they stepped inside.

Mostly men filled the bar, very few women. It seemed like the kind of place where farmhands would go to get sloppy drunk at the end of the day. A scrawny cowboy wailed on the stage, a sad song about losing his girl. The clientele paid little attention to him.

Shep and Keith bellied up to the bar and flagged down two beers. They were dressed as rodeo cowboys. With all the cowboy shirts, jeans and cowboy boots surrounding them, they fit right in.

He didn’t spot anyone suspicious at first glance, except a bookie in the far corner doing some business, probably taking bets on the rodeo that would start later in the week.

The bartender slid their beers in front of them. “In town to try your luck?”

“We’re in it to win it.” Keith gave an enthusiastic grin. “Hoping for a break in the weather. No fun trying to train in over hundred-degree heat.”

The bartender nodded with sympathy. “Where you boys from?”

“Pennsylvania.” Keith puffed his chest out a little.

The man gave a whoop of a laugh. “There ain’t no rodeo in Pennsylvania.” He shook his head as a pitying look came into his eyes.

“There sure is.” Keith grinned. “There are crazy bastards everywhere.” He managed to sound proud of it.

An older guy on Keith’s other side toasted them with his beer. “Amen to that.”

The bartender kept laughing as he walked away.

Shep didn’t mind some mocking. Being considered the village idiot was the perfect cover.

He pretended to watch the band and the out-of-tune singer onstage while he continued checking out the customers. He looked for specific faces, not just something suspicious in general. That helped. If Doug Wagner or his partner showed up tonight, they could grab him, take him in and ask him who’d paid them to shoot Jimmy.

None of his buddies had given up his location. And Shep’s team couldn’t find the Mustang, either.

The sad cowboy onstage finished his song and stood awkwardly for a lackluster applause before lumbering off the stage. The band stayed and another singer came on. This was one was a woman.

And then some.

Next to Shep, Keith gave a soft whistle.

She wore cherry-red cowboy boots, a denim skirt that was so short it was barely legal and a light green tank top that looked familiar.

He leaned forward to see better. Those curves... He didn’t want to be thinking what he was thinking. He had to be mistaken.

She stopped in front of the microphone with her hat pulled low over her eyes, her head bent. She hadn’t sung a word yet, but already she held the crowd’s attention, something the previous performer hadn’t managed. Chins were hitting the tables all over. The men ogled her as if they were ready to devour her.

Then she looked up and flashed a dazzling smile that lit up the room. She had a face to match the body, for sure. A couple of men growled with appreciation. Others let out more wolf whistles.

“Hot damn.” Even Keith couldn’t keep quiet, his voice laden with reverence.

Shep came halfway to his feet then caught himself and dropped back down just before he would have blown his cover. “What in blazing hell is Lilly doing up there?” He hissed the words between his teeth.

But Keith was too dazzled to listen.

* * *

S
HE
LOCKED
HER
KNEES
so they wouldn’t shake. It’d been a long time since she’d sung onstage. And she’d never been a country singer. Lilly flashed another smile before she nodded to the three-man band behind her and started into a country ballad, similar to the one the singer before her had chosen.

She was one minute into it when she realized it wasn’t going to work for her, not at a place like this. The sweet love song was something women would listen to in the car while driving to school to pick up their kids. The rough-and-tumble men who filled the bar weren’t looking for sentimental, no matter how good the chords were.

Brian had been clear that he wanted a performance that hit the ball out of the park. Revenue was weak on band nights now that their lead singer had quit. He wanted some serious dough coming in. He wanted something that would bring people in early and make them stay until the closing bell.

She tried her best, putting all the heart she had into the song. Unfortunately, nobody was listening. A lot of the men were looking at the stage, but they were staring at her legs.

Since the audition was to be decided by applause...If the men kept staring instead of clapping when she finished, she was sunk.

Brian had asked for one song from each singer. She glanced at him as he sat up front, paging through a ledger book. He’d paid very little attention to the auditions so far. He certainly didn’t look as if he was ready to offer her the job on the spot. She needed to get his attention and she needed to do it in a hurry. Her ballad was almost over.

Oh, what the hell, since when did she play things safe? As she sang the last note, she glanced back and winked at the band, then turned to the audience.

“I like country,” she said and flashed a smile when a couple of men hooted in agreement, “but I’m a versatile kind of gal, so how about I show you a little bit of something else?”

A drunk shouted a few suggestions of what he’d like her to show him. The rest of the men laughed.

She had the lights in her eyes, so she could only make out the first row, but she knew the bar was packed. Tryouts for a new lead singer brought in some extra people, Mazie had told her just before Lilly came onstage. People liked the idea of getting a vote. Liked to check out fresh meat, too, probably.

Lilly took the ribbing in stride and tossed her cowboy hat into the audience, whipped her long hair and belted out the first line of the chorus to “I Love Rock ’n’ Roll” at the top of her lungs.

There was a second of pause. This was the moment where she might get thrown off the stage. But nobody booed and the manager simply watched her.

Then the band picked up the song.

Relief flooded her as she went on singing, excitement filling her little by little, and she danced across the stage as she sang, suddenly feeling like a kid again, without any worldly possessions, just the road and her guitar. She sang her heart out like she used to, the old moves coming right back as she rocked the hell out of the place.

She’d already been thrown back to the past by seeing Shep, and now this finished the job. She felt a decade younger and couldn’t say she didn’t like it.

“Yee-ha!” someone shouted.

Boots slapped against the wood floor, the applause deafening when she finished, with a few marriage proposals thrown in, and the men demanding more.

She felt a surge of satisfaction and just plain pleasure. She’d worked so hard to make herself into something more, something serious, that she’d forgotten how good this had felt.

“You have a fun night, now!” she called out to acknowledge the support.

The manager was grinning at her, looking pleased as peaches.

She grinned back then ran backstage, passing the next act going up, another lanky cowboy who stared at her with a troubled look on his face. She set aside the buzz of adrenaline and turned her attention to her true purpose for being here: covert surveillance. She turned off the rock chick and turned on the FBI agent.

For the moment, she was alone backstage. The narrow hallway connected the main bar with the office and the kitchen that prepared a dozen food items—all well salted to keep the drinking at an optimum. Her attention settled on a closed door at the end on her other side. She’d seen that earlier, had wondered where it led. This could be her chance to investigate.

The next contestant started into a song on the stage, sounding unsure. He had a good voice, but it seemed that her performance had thrown him. He didn’t seem to be able to find his footing.

Lilly tuned him out as she hurried over to the mystery door and tried the knob. Locked. Since she was pretty sure they were close to the outside wall and there was no upstairs above the bar, if the door hid stairs, they’d be going to a basement.

She had lock picks in her pocket. She reached for them, but footsteps behind her made her spin around. The music was so loud, she hadn’t heard him in time, not until the man was right behind her.

Brian’s face was expressionless as he watched her. He said nothing, waiting for her to speak first.

She flashed him her best smile. “Is this the staff bathroom? I think somebody’s in there.”

“No staff bathroom. We all use the one by the jukebox.” He didn’t volunteer any information on where this door led.

She could have asked, but didn’t want to sound as if she was snooping. “So how did I look on your stage?” she asked instead. “Felt right—” she grinned “—I tell you that. Nice crowd, too. I sure could get used to it.”

He measured her up. “We’ve never done anything but country.” He paused. “You know, from anybody else, this might not have gone down as well. But you...” His gaze stalled on her breasts for a second. Then slid to her injury. “What happened to your arm?”

She shrugged. “An argument with my last drummer.”

“You fit the harder music, I guess. Maybe it’s time for a change here. Let’s try it for a few weeks. When can you start?”

“As soon as possible.” They needed to find Wagner, and so far the bar was their only lead. “When could I get back on that stage, do you think?”

“We do live music Fridays and Saturdays. So how about tomorrow?” He named a dollar amount per night.

She didn’t argue with him. She couldn’t risk him changing his mind. It was Thursday. Tomorrow and the day after would give her two full nights to snoop around here.

“I’m in. Thanks. I’ll be here tomorrow.” She moved to pass by him, but just as she did, she felt his hand patting her bottom.

Really?

Oh, man.

She could have put him on his back with a single move. But right now, going undercover at the Armadillo was more important. So she smiled as she turned and said, “Hey! There’ll be none of that.”

Brian raised his eyebrows, then shrugged after a second. “As long as you bring in money, it’s all good,” he said and simply watched as she walked away from him.

Would have been nice if that was the last word on the subject, but she didn’t think it would go as easy as that. Still, she’d cross that bridge when she got to it. She was in, and for now that was all that counted.

She grabbed her bag from behind the bar, then headed for the back door. She wanted to get a good feel for the place inside and out. Supposedly it was a known smuggler hangout. Did Brian know? Was Wagner involved? Did anyone smuggle any contraband straight through here? Did anyone here know anything about the terrorists coming through? She had two days to find out.

She pushed the metal door open. Grabbing some fresh air after her performance shouldn’t raise any suspicions.

She’d driven around the block before she’d shown up tonight to sing, so she knew the bar backed onto a narrow alley. She expected that she might run into a couple of smokers out there. But she didn’t expect to run into Shep.

He was about to come in as she stepped out. He looked pretty steamed about something.

She pulled up short to keep from running into him. “What are you doing here?”

His eyes glinted with fury as he grabbed her by the arm and pulled her aside. The door clicked closed behind her. They were alone in the alley that led to a side street on their left and ended at a brick wall two stores down on their right.