"Hmm. He seems to have taken a real shine to your baby."
He nodded down at Kevin. "I never thought I'd see John so comfortable around a kid."
"Why?"
He told her what had happened in New Mexico. "He still blames himself."
"Yes. He would," she said, nodding wistfully. "He takes his responsibilities seriously."
"He loves responsibility. When he's had time to think about it, I'm sure he'll bear the guilt of Ruthie Fordham's death, too."
"I hope not. That would be awful for him."
Pepperdyne said nothing, although he was looking at her curiously. "I'm afraid it's my duty to remind you that you're still a material witness in the custody of the Department of Justice."
"I'll testify to what I saw that night in the woods outside Prosper, Mr. Pepperdyne."
"Those files you had in your place in Denver have already proved invaluable to us in preparing our cases."
"I'm glad. The Brotherhood must be exterminated with no more mercy than they showed their victims. I'll help in anyway I can to see that all the members are brought to justice. No matter what it costs me personally."
He nodded, and gazed out the window for a moment. "Then there's this other matter of abducting a federal officer."
"That's right. I did."
"Hmm. Well, the government takes a dim view of that."
Looking him straight in the eye, she said, "I was desperately afraid of my ax-husband and father-in-law, and as we now know, my fear was justified.
"I thought the only way I could protect myself and Kevin was to disappear and remain hidden for the rest of our lives.
I don't regret doing what I did. If necessary, I would do it again, except that I wouldn't involve John. I endangered his life, and I'll never forgive myself for that."
"He was performing his duty."
"Yes. His duty."
"Mrs. Burnwood, at what point did he recover his memory?"
"I wish I knew that myself, but I don't," she replied honestly.
"Mrs. Burnwood"
"I hate that name. Please don't call me Mrs. Burnwood anymore."
Pepperdyne gave her a stern look. "Then what should I call - .. you
"They're the Crooks."
"I'll say," Ricki Sue said. She was holding Kevin on her lap, letting him gnaw on her strand of purple beads. "Those bastards tried to kill me. Calling them crooks is putting it mildly."
"No, that's their name," Kendall explained.
She looked from the mug shots to Pepperdyne, who had asked her if she could identify the two men now residing in the Sheridan jail. They had been found where Ricki Sue had directed officers to look, bound to trees, naked, and lumpy with mosquito bites.
"Henry and Luther." She told them about the Billy Joe Crook fiasco. "His family held a grudge against me, so I guess they thought they would get in on the chase and try to find me before Matt and Gibb did."
"Thanks to me, they almost succeeded." Ricki Sue's eyes filled with tears. "Every time I think of what could have happened, all because I got drunk and blabbed my big mouth."
Kendall reached across Pepperdyne's littered desk and gave Ricki Sue's arm an affectionate squeeze.
"On the contrary. If it weren't for you, Agent Pepperdyne and his men wouldn't have arrived in time. Until they got there, John . . . Dr. McGrath played them perfectly," she finished huskily.
John, who had refused to stay longer than one night in the hospital, was standing propped on his crutch, ghostly pale, with the fresh scar on his temple, his broken right leg still in a cast, and his left arm in a sling. The bullet from Gibb's rifle had entered his shoulder and exited his back. It had missed a major artery by only a hair. Every time Kendall thought of how close he had come to dying, her throat constricted.
Pepperdyne cleared his throat noisily to break an emotionally wrought silence. "The government is willing to offer you immunity from any charges, in exchange for your testimony against the members of the Brotherhood."
"That's awfully generous," she remarked.
"Well, kidnapping would be a difficult charge to prove when the kidnap victim refuses to say at exactly what point he became a willing participant." Pepperdyne shot John a retiring glance.
"I don't remember," he said blandly.
"Very funny." Pepperdyne closed the folder and stood to conclude the meeting. "Thank you, Miss Robb, for your assistance.
"Don't think you can kiss me off so easily, Pepperdyne," Ricki Sue said. "You'll be in South Carolina for the trials, won't you?"
"In and out."
"I'll be around, too." She flashed him a grin. "I've been invited to go along and help take care of Kevin while Kendall's in court."
"I see."
"Well, you don't have to look so glum about it. And any way, don't forget you owe me a night out."
"How could I possibly forget when you remind me of it every fifteen minutes?"
Suddenly the office door was flung open and a young man barged in.
Kendall blanched.
Ricki Sue groaned. "Oh, no. Now the shit's really gonna hit the fan."
The young man looked from one of the women to the other.
"Hey, y'all."
"Hi."
"Hi."
"How're y'all?"
"Fine."
"Who's this guy?" John asked.
"Who's in charge?" the newcomer asked.
Pepperdyne stepped forward. "I am."
"What the hell is going on? I don't get it. Why am I here?
I thought I was off the hook."
"Calm down," Pepperdyne said to him.
"Calm down, my ass! There I am minding my own business, having a plate of pasta in my apartment in sunny Roma, and these two goons show up and identify themselves as U.S. marshals. Next thing I know, I'm on an airplane, bound for the States, compliments of Uncle Sam."
Showing his indignation, he planted his hands on his hips and demanded of the group at large, "What gives?"
"I believe everyone here knows everyone else, except for John." Turning toward his friend, Pepperdyne said, "Dr. John McGrath, meet Kendall Deaton."
Chapter 41
"It's rather difficult to explain.
"Try."
She and John were alone in the office. Ricki Sue had taken | the real Kendall Deaton by the hand and dragged him from | the office. He was still sputtering demands for a full explanation, which she promised to give him if only he'd shut his| trap and let her get a word in edgewise. Pepperdyne and the| two marshals had followed them out.
"Kendall was a lawyer at Bristol and Mathers," she began. "He got into trouble with the partners when the D.A."s office| accused him of tampering with evidence. The allegation was| never substantiated, although it was generally believed that| he was probably guilty of some malfeasance. No charges were filed, but he was dismissed from the firm.
|
"For months afterward, he sent out resumes, but no other| firm was interested in hiring someone with a tainted record.|
Kendall Came discouraged and decided to go to ..v Carl il At'
a while. He asked me to forward his mail.
"A few months after his departure, he received a letter Prosper County, South Carolina. Because it looked like a response to his resume, I forwarded the letter to him immediately.
He called to thank me, said it was indeed a job offer, but that he wasn't interested in pursuing it. He was living a swinging bachelor's life in Rome, working as a consultant to a marketing firm, and loving it. That's when I decided to go for it."
She looked at him, hoping to see un derstanding in his expression, but he remained impassive. "I had graduated third in my class from law school, John. I was the most promising new lawyer at Bristol and Mathers, but I was given grunt work. I didn't feel a spark of interest, or challenged in any way, until the case I told you about, the woman with AIDS who was desperate for my help.
"That's when I knew that I didn't belong in a large, revenue oriented firm. I wanted to help people. I wanted justice for the down-and-outers. So I began sending out queries to states that use the public defender system, but received no encouraging replies. When Kendall declined the opportunity in Pros perit seemed like a . ... sign.
"Grandmother and Ricki Sue thought I was crazy, of course, but I wrote back passing myself off as Kendall. It's incredibly easy to assume another name, although I now know why Pros per County hired Kendall Deaton without conducting a more thorough personnel check," she added wryly.
"They wanted a corruptible public defender," John said.
"Exactly. The blot on his record appealed to them. He was just what they were looking for. Their initial reaction to me as a woman was negative. But I suppose that after further consideration, they decided a female would be even more malleable. Or maybe more vulnerable."
After a reflective moment, she continued. "Maybe my motives for becoming a P.D. weren't as altruistic as I would like everyone to believe. As I would like to believe. Maybe my goody-two-shoes ambition was based on pride. I wanted to show off, show everybody how smart I was. I wanted to please my parents, which your insightful comments helped me to see is impossible.
"Anyway, maybe the opportunity was taken away from me because my motives weren't as selfless as I claimed. Grand mother warned me that nothing good could come from a lie, and she was right."
She sat down on the corner of Pepperdyne's desk. Kevin was sleeping in his infant carrier. She heard John approaching her in what was now a familiar tread, with the bump of the 4. rubber stopper of his crutch preceding each footstep. :
He moved up behind her, reached around, and gave the ; infant carrier a push so it would rock gently. He stroked Kevin's cheek. Her heart melted at the sight of his tan, masculine finger against the smoothness of the baby's skin, not only because it demonstrated his affection for Kevin, but because it meant that he had slain his own dragon.
He said, "You knew that when the authorities discovered your false identity, you wouldn't have any credibility with either them or a jury."
"Who would believe such a tall tale coming from someone who's life was a fabrication? I had no choice except to run an. find a hiding place. First in Denver, then . . ." Glancing over her shoulder at him, she whispered, "With you."
He drew her up to stand facing him. He ran his finger through her short, cropped hair. His eyes roved over her face Then, with an almost violent motion, he pulled her against him and held her tightly.
"They could have killed you, he said fiercely. "I thought I was going to watch you die."
Wrapping her arms around him, she buried her face in his neck. ""What if you had died because of me, John? What if you had died?"
For a long moment they clung to each other. Finally he set her away. "Don't blame yourself for what happened to me.
"If you won't blame yourself for Marshal Fordham's death he frowned. "That's tough We'll work on it together.
"Together?"
"I think the three of us might have a shot at making this family thing work What do you think?
"I think Kevin and I need you. And you need us." She stroked his face, lightly touched the scar from which she had removed the stitches. "I have absolutely nothing to gain by lying, so you know this is the truth. I love you, John."
"I love you, too." Clearing his throat of unprecedented emotion, he said, "It would be nice to know your name."
"I'll tell you my name if you'll tell me at what point your memory came back."
Slowly, a smile stretched across his face. He lowered his mouth to hers for a deep, sexy kiss. She could easily have become lost in it, but she angled her head back and looked up at him.
"Well, John?"
Still smiling, he kissed her again.
