Follow the Sun (12 page)

Jeopard never said a word. He simply looked up at the man until all the color drained from the face beneath the fine, flowing hair. The wolfhound bowed slightly and backed toward the door as if he were afraid to turn his back.

“Your work is excellent, Mr. Surprise,” he said in a small, strained voice. “And I’m glad we’ll have no more need of you.”

He slipped out the door and slammed it behind him. Jeopard didn’t move until he heard the last faint footfall as the man hurried away.

Then he slumped on the side of the bed and put his head in his hands.

I
T WAS JUST
as well that she’d loaned the Jaguar to Brandt for the week. Driving would have been dangerous in her current emotional state. Running wasn’t much safer.

Tess covered the three miles to her grandparents’ duplex in record time. When she fell against the low wall of their terrace, gasping desperately for breath, her heels were blistered and her insteps ached from running in ordinary tennis shoes without benefit of socks.

Her faded UCLA t-shirt was soaked with sweat, and her cut-off jeans bore bloodstains where she’d wiped her scraped palms after she tripped on a curb.

Before she could stagger up the tiled steps to the front door, her grandparents saw her from the living-room window. Their faces contorted with anxiety, Viktoria and Karl met Tess halfway up the steps and practically carried her inside.

She slumped on their couch and stared numbly at the floor while Viktoria hovered over her, dabbing her face with a cool washcloth. Karl sat down and took her hand.

“What is it,
raring?
” he implored.

“He stole the blue diamond,” she answered wretchedly. “Jeopard Surprise.”

Their audible gasps made her wince with humiliation and sorrow. Tess knew that her pain would worsen as soon as she fully comprehended the words she’d just spoken. Just then nothing seemed real.

“I showed it to him last night. He … he took it while I was asleep. His yacht was gone this morning”.

Tess looked from Karl to Viktoria, watching their faces as they absorbed her news. Their expressions seemed frantic. “I love … loved him,” she said in a choked voice. “And I thought he loved me.”

“But you knew him only days!” Viktoria exclaimed, wringing her hands.

“Yes.” Tess hung her head. She couldn’t explain why there’d seemed nothing foolish about loving a man she’d known for such a short time.

“We were having him checked out,” Karl muttered. “But now, it’s too late.”

Tess froze. “Checked out?”

“I have friends at the American embassy in Stockholm. I asked for their help. They know people who can find out anything about American citizens. We haven’t heard from them yet.”

Tess clenched her fists. “What’s going on? Why did you suspect Jeopard from the start?”

Viktoria sank into a chair and covered her face. “Oh, Karl, Karl. We are lost.”

Tess rubbed her forehead. Shards of pain shot through her scalp. Nothing made sense. She almost strangled on the next words. “I have to call the police.”

Viktoria burst into tears. “No. Oh, Karl. Tell her.”

Tess stared at her grandmother in confusion. “What?”

“You can’t go to the police,” Karl murmured wearily.

Tess straightened, her pulse roaring in her ears. “Why not?”

“The diamond is … not safe.”

Tess pinched the bridge of her nose and fought the urge to scream. “Why, Grandfather?” she asked patiently.

Viktoria and Karl traded a long, covert look. “Because we stole it from someone twenty years ago,” Karl said slowly, his eyes never leaving his wife’s. “And now perhaps that someone wants it back.”

J
EOPARD LAY ON
the hotel bed, his hands behind his head. Beyond the room’s picture window Los Angeles sweated under a smoggy sky. The late-afternoon sun sifted through the smog and made the room hot.

Jeopard hadn’t changed clothes, hadn’t unpacked, hadn’t even bothered to take off his sports coat. He was sweating, but not from the heat.

This time the Iceman had lost. He couldn’t just walk away; he could only admit defeat and surrender.

The following day he’d go back to Long Beach, tell Tess everything, beg, coax, and seduce her into telling him everything in return, then try his best to win her trust again. If she could accept his work he could accept her past.

And they’d both start new, together.

CHAPTER 7

“Y
O, TESS. WANT
a doughnut while you stare at the sunrise?”

Tess roused herself from the chair on the
Lady
’s aft deck. She hadn’t slept at all, her body felt caved in, and she was certain her shapeless T-shirt and wrinkled shorts qualified her for a slob award.

Brandt stood on the dock, grinning and holding up a box from one of the local doughnut franchises. “I brought the Jag back last night, but you weren’t around,” he called. “I’ve got something to show you. You’re gonna love it.”

Moving like an old woman, Tess met him on the dock. She gazed at Brandt distractedly. Her throat felt rusty, and she was glad he couldn’t see her eyes behind the dark sunglasses she wore.

The love of her life was a con artist, and her grandparents were jewel thieves. Sure, she felt like being entertained at that moment.

“Another electronic toy?” she croaked, glancing at
the device Brandt held in the hand not occupied by a doughnut box.

“Yeah. Just finished it this week. It’s bitchin’, Tess. Politicians in Third World countries use this kind of stuff to protect themselves from terrorists. Watch.”

He pointed toward the marina parking lot. Through a haze of disinterest Tess noted that he’d parked the Jaguar in a good spot next to the curb. Brandt was an ultraresponsible teenager, and she didn’t worry about loaning him her pride and joy.

Brandt held up his new plaything, which resembled a walkie-talkie. “Press a button, and … all right!”

The Jaguar’s engine purred to life, and the headlights flashed on. “Ignition by remote control!” he announced happily.

And then the Jaguar exploded.

J
EOPARD CAUGHT THE
midmorning news update as he was dressing to leave the hotel. He halted in front of the TV and stared at the screen with cold horror. He saw the Sun Cove Marina sign in the background. In the foreground was a television reporter beside the burned, twisted ruins of a car.

“… again, Los Angeles city attorney Suzanne Burdett, vacationing in Long Beach, was slightly injured by flying metal when a car exploded in a parking lot where she was jogging early this morning.

“She was treated and released from a Long Beach hospital. Luckily the car’s owner, Tess Gallatin, wasn’t in the car at the time. She told me that she was testing a remote-control ignition device designed by a friend when the car exploded. Experts from the Long Beach Police bomb squad said evidence indicates that the bombing was the work of a professional.

“There are no leads in the case. More details at noon. For Eyewitness News, this is Rena Brown, Long Beach.”

Five seconds later Jeopard was on the phone, calling Tess’s number at her grandparents’ house. Her
dulcet voice came to him via the recording on her answering machine.

“This is Jeopard,” he said calmly. “Check in to a hotel under my name and lock yourself in a room. Don’t come out. I’m in L.A. It’s ten
A.M
. I’m leaving for Long Beach right now. I’ll find you.”

He prayed that she’d check the answering machine sometime soon. Next he called Kyle. In Florida it was 1:00
P.M
. Kyle was barely awake.

“What? Jep?”

“Olafs people may be trying to kill Tess Gallatin.”

That cleared Kyle’s fog. The mellow jokester snapped to alert. “You got a tip?”

“Somebody wired her car this morning.”

“Was she hurt?”

“No. God help Olaf if she were.”

Kyle’s stunned silence greeted that remark. Finally he asked, “Personal?”

“Yes.”

“She’s hiding something else,” Kyle said musingly. “They want her quiet.”

“Yeah. I know less about her past than I thought. Doesn’t matter. If they want her, they’ll have to kill me first.”

“What?”

“I love her. I’m going back to Long Beach and get her out of there.”

“
You love her?
”

“If anything happens to me, make certain she’s protected, Kyle.”

“You love—all right.”

“Call Drake. I’ll need him.”

Kyle whistled softly. “You
are
serious.”

Jeopard slammed the phone down, then grabbed his wallet, the keys to his rental car, and the loaded Magnum .44.

J
EOPARD WAS TRYING
to kill her.

Tess sat in her grandparents’ living room, hugging
herself. Karl paced. Viktoria sat by the telephone, staring at the answering machine as if Jeopard’s voice were the essence of evil.

“It’s a trick,” Karl said grimly. “The man must think we’re fools.”

Tess shuddered. She wanted to curl up and hibernate until the world made sense again. It might take years.

“He doesn’t know that we learned about his background,” she said wearily. They knew all about Jeopard Surprise now. Karl had gotten in touch with his sources and demanded whatever information they had.

A dull sense of horror was the only emotion that kept Tess from feeling empty. She’d fallen in love with a cold-blooded assassin.

Jeopard Surprise was a mercenary in the worst sense of the word. He’d made a career out of killing people for pay. His wholesome businessman’s image was a complete lie.

Someone wanted the blue diamond and then wanted her dead, and had sent an expert to take care of the job. An expert who knew how to capture her heart and soul to make his task easier. Now Tess realized that the coldness in his eyes had hidden indescribable cruelty.

“I don’t understand,” she said raggedly. “Why does he have to kill me? He’s got the diamond. What did I do?”

“No more time for talk,” Karl interjected. “We’ll get out of the country. Mama, go pack. We’ll go home. In Stockholm I’ll find help to fight this monster.”

“No! It’s all our fault,” Viktoria cried. “We’ll call the police and tell them everything. Then they can protect Tess.”

Tess rose proudly and looked at her grandparents. “No. You wanted to give me something no one else had—a queen’s diamond. I’ve been struggling to understand how grief over my mother’s death provoked
you to steal the diamond from the Queen of Kara. I’m trying to understand your need for revenge after Mother was killed on a poorly designed ski slope in Kara.”

Tess paused, thinking. “I was married to a retired jewel thief, and I loved him. I love you guys, too, and I won’t let you martyr yourselves. I guess it’s just my destiny to love people who steal diamonds.”

Oh, Jeopard
.

Tess took a deep breath. “I’m half Cherokee Indian. My father’s people are survivors. Warriors. I’m not leaving without my medallion and my amulet. I’ll go back to the boat and get them right now.”

“No!” Karl cried. Viktoria clasped her heart.

“I have time before Jeopard gets here. I’ll take your car—we know it’s safe. This is something I have to do for my great-great-grandmother. Katherine Gallatin wouldn’t be intimidated by
anything
, and neither will I.”

Karl and Viktoria looked absolutely stricken. Tess grabbed the keys to their station wagon and left before she could think too much about her fear.

I
F THE GUY
was a salesman, then Jeopard was Mr. Rogers.

As Jeopard got out of the rental car his attention remained riveted to the neatly dressed man who strolled along the marina’s dock carrying a thick satchel with
Ask Me About Happy Suds Cleaning Products!
stenciled on the side.

Jeopard’s nerves tingled. Moving gracefully, he walked down a flight of stairs that led from the parking lot to the dock.

The Happy Suds salesman paused by various boats, casually studied a note in his hand, and moved on. When a voluptuous woman wearing a T-shirt over a bikini waved at him, he waved back but kept walking.