The Color of Death (22 page)

Doug made a snarling sound. He could see where Sam was going. He really didn’t want to be taken there.

“I figure Purcell had had the stone for at least two months, maybe more,” Sam said. “You want to hear my reasoning?”

“Not yet.” The words came through Doug’s clenched teeth.

Sam chose his next words very carefully. He didn’t like where he was going any better than his SAC did.

“Purcell flashed the stone around some other gem shows before this one in Scottsdale,” Sam said. “No problems. He showed it here.
No problems. And then I caught a woman doing a stone swap and Colton shot off his big mouth about it at the strike force meeting in Sizemore’s suite. By the time I ran down the real identity of Cutter and the reason for the swap, Purcell was dead, and so was any chance of the FBI finding out how a bottom-feeder like Purcell got his hands on a really choice bit of goods.”

Doug began putting a curve in the straightened paper clip.

“Just to put the cherry on the cake of my investigation,” Sam said, “Purcell’s killer does the Colombian necktie dance, and suddenly Kennedy and Sizemore are seeing South Americans behind every door.”

“You don’t think it was the South Americans?”

“Purcell didn’t handle Colombian emeralds or drugs. Why would they whack him?”

“To shut him up.”

Sam made an impatient noise. “If the Mandel hit was South American, it was one of a kind. Trunk wasn’t forced. Courier vanishes instead of being left with a mouthful of his own genitals as a warning to others. Mandel’s car is turned in to the rental company—after a shampoo—late at the airport. You ever hear of South Americans returning a rental car for a dead man, much less washing it?”

Doug put a second curve in the mangled clip.

“Rumors of a blonde with big boobs begin circulating,” Sam continued relentlessly. “Mandel’s name is dragged through the mud. He’s pretty close to his family, but he never calls home, never gives a hint that he’s okay. He’s totally silent, yet all the cops seem to ‘know’ that Mandel is in Aruba or Rio, bouncing on the mysterious blonde. Have I mentioned his gay lover? He doesn’t hear from Mandel either.”

Silence.

The paper clip broke. Doug fired the pieces into a trash basket.

More silence.

“All right,” Doug said finally. “I’ll keep backing up your requests and ducking Kennedy. Did your CI save the answering machine message?”

“The one with the threat? Yes.”

“Send it to the lab.”

“I did.”

“Anything?”

“Not so far.”

Doug looked Sam straight in the eyes. “Get this son of a bitch. Get him fast.”

“Tired of the headlines?” Sam asked.

“Fuck the headlines. If the leak is in the Bureau, you’re a dead man walking.”

Sam had already figured that out. What he hadn’t figured out was how to keep Kate from getting killed along with him.

Scottsdale

Friday

7:15
P.M
.

It had been a long time
since Sizemore had retired from the FBI, but he hadn’t forgotten the moves. He never would. He still lived and breathed the Bureau.

“I’m doing a follow-up on an interview your manager had with FBI Special Agent Sam Groves,” Sizemore said at the lobby desk. “Is Madeline Dermott on duty?”

Forty seconds later Sizemore was being let in through a side door to the manager’s office. When the desk clerk introduced Sizemore as an FBI agent, he didn’t correct the clerk. Instead, he held out his hand to Madeline. A brisk shake, a professional smile on both sides, and they were down to business.

“How may I help you?” Madeline asked.

“Tuesday afternoon Special Agent Sam Groves interviewed you on the subject of this woman,” Sizemore said, producing the photo. “Her name is Natalie Harrison Cutter.”

“I remember. She wasn’t registered here at the hotel or for any of the conventions that are currently on our books.”

“Hate it when that happens,” Sizemore said, smiling easily.

Madeline smiled back and confessed, “In this case, I was relieved.
I didn’t want anyone who was suspected of something by the FBI to be registered at my hotel. And the other one is gone now too.”

“Other one?”

“The other one Mr. Groves wanted to talk to. His name was Gavin…Gavin…” Madeline turned to the computer. Her beautifully manicured nails flew over the keyboard. “Gavin Greenfield. Florida.”

“Greenfield. Of course.” Sizemore gave Madeline an appreciative look. “Is that the Greenfield who lives in Miami or was it…?”

Madeline glanced at the computer screen. “Coral Gables.”

“Odd. He hasn’t been answering his phone at that address. Could I check my number against the one he left with you?”

“Certainly.” Madeline turned the screen so that Sizemore could read it.

He memorized the number and then said, “Well, that explains it.”

“What?”

“Someone reversed the last two numbers when they gave it to me. Happens all the time. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. I’m always happy to cooperate with the FBI.”

Sizemore smiled again and let himself out of the office. He went to a quiet corner of the lobby, pulled out his cell phone, and keyed in the number he had memorized. It was answered on the third ring.

“If this is another damned telemarketer,” the man began.

“It isn’t,” Sizemore interrupted. “I’m following up on the interview you had with FBI Special Agent Sam Groves.”

Silence, followed by, “Who are you?”

“More to the point, who is Natalie Cutter to you?”

“Special Agent Groves told me if anyone wants to ask questions about her, they should call him. Since you’re in the FBI, I’m sure you have his number. Good-bye.”

Gavin Greenfield hung up with emphasis.

Sizemore sat for a few minutes, thinking about various ploys he could try on the uncooperative Mr. Greenfield. Lacking a badge, he really didn’t have any leverage. All he knew for sure was that Greenfield had heard the name Natalie Cutter before.

That, and the fact that Sam Groves didn’t want Greenfield to talk about her.

Sizemore went back to the lobby desk. Once more, the clerk took him to Madeline’s office.

“Sorry to bother you again,” Sizemore said, “but there’s a problem. Not with your records, but with ours. I’m assuming you keep a list of calls each guest makes?”

“Of course. Phone calls used to be one of our big profit centers. Not so much now since so many people use mobiles.”

Sizemore hoped that Greenfield didn’t have a mobile phone. Sizemore himself hated the things. He only put up with them because they were useful.

“Did Mr. Greenfield make any calls?” Sizemore asked.

The manager’s fingers raced over the computer keyboard. “Oh, yes. Quite a few. Here, I’ll print it out.”

“Thanks. That would be a big help.”

List in hand, Sizemore went up to his suite and started up the computer he rarely used, because he had the same love-hate relationship with the machine that he had with cell phones. He plugged into the Internet and went to a site that listed the addresses of all telephone numbers. Sites like this were one of the reasons he’d learned to use computers. Saved an investigator all kinds of time.

Most of Greenfield’s calls had been to his home in Coral Gables. Several others were to furniture outlets. Two were to a residence in Glendale, Arizona. That number was listed to K. J. Chandler.

Sizemore wrote down the name and address, switched over to a map site, and entered the Chandler address as a destination and that of the hotel as a starting point. Very quickly a map appeared on the screen. After a few fumbles he managed to attach a portable printer to the computer. He printed out the map, studied it, and checked his watch. Assuming anyone was home, he’d have to allow at least an hour for the round trip and interview.

He’d be late for dinner with Kennedy.

Sizemore left a message for Kennedy at the desk and headed out.
He only got lost twice on the way to K. J. Chandler’s house. Phoenix was growing so fast that maps were out-of-date before they were even printed. L.A. had been like that once, but no more. The state taxed everything that moved, and if it didn’t move the state taxed it twice as much.

The more Sizemore saw of Phoenix the more he liked it.

By seven o’clock he was driving down a suburban street lined on both sides by that rarity in Phoenix—thirty-year-old houses. Unlike older homes in L.A., the landscaping on these hadn’t overwhelmed the yards. One hundred and sixteen degrees in the summer was a real effective way to shut down plant growth.

Reverting to old training, Sizemore didn’t stop at the address. He simply drove by it, looking at other house numbers as though he hadn’t yet found his destination.

Without seeming to, he got a good look at the Chandler house. The first thing he noticed was a sign right in the front yard telling the world that this place was protected. At least he didn’t have to get out and examine the doors and windows to be certain that they were wired to an alarm system. Not that it really mattered. Nothing kept out real pros. The best you could do was slow them down.

None of the other houses he’d passed had anything more than faded
NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH
signs on every block.

“Interesting,” Sizemore said to himself. “Wonder what she’s hiding? Or maybe Chandler is the kind of female who hears about a rapist on the evening news and is sure he’s coming to her window next even though the rapist is working a county fifty miles away.” He shook his head. “Women. I’ll never understand them.”

Sizemore turned right, went over a few blocks, and came back at the address from a different direction. The exterior of the house had told him that Ms. Chandler wasn’t going to be as quick to cooperate as the hotel manager. He wouldn’t try knocking on the door except as the last resort before a black-bag job.

Halfway up the block from the house, with the residence behind him, he parked and watched the house in the rearview mirror. He
debated the risks of using the ceremonial badge he’d been presented with at his retirement. Representing himself as an FBI agent could get him in a world of hurt—but only if he was caught.

Another car turned onto the street. American make. A few years old. Basic model.

It fairly screamed government issue.

The car stopped in front of the Chandler place. Sizemore watched Sam Groves get out and go to the door. No doubt about the identity, even in failing light. Groves had a my-balls-clang way of moving that irritated the hell out of Sizemore.

Two seconds later Sam was inside the house.

Bingo.

Sizemore drove off, planning the ways he would search various official and unofficial records for K. J. Chandler.

But first he’d take the time to rub his smart-ass daughter’s nose in the fact that he’d found out about the CI while she was putting on makeup to go out with that shitheel Peyton.

Glendale

Friday

8:00
P.M
.

As soon as Kate shut the door
behind Sam, she automatically began locking up. He watched her with brooding eyes and an intensity that would have made her nervous if she’d been looking at him.

He was sure looking at her. He noticed everything about her. She was wearing an emerald-green bathrobe. Her feet were bare, her hair loose. She smelled of something that was almost lemon, almost spice. He saw every nick and scrape on her hands from the parking lot, saw the faint bruise along her cheekbone, and the scratch along the vulnerable line of her neck. In the space of a breath he felt again the rage that had shaken him when he realized she was seconds away from being killed.

“You sure you’re okay?” he asked. “Maybe you should see a doctor.”

She turned and leaned against the door, wishing she’d worn heavy sweats instead of the slippery robe that revealed too much skin. But she was damned if she would pull the neckline higher and the hemline lower, fidgeting over her clothes like a girl on her first date.

Besides, Sam looked tired, shuttered, anything but a man watching a woman he wanted.

No news there. The cop is in control. Over and out.

“Like I told you every few seconds while you drove me home,” she said, “I’m fine.”

“You were shaking.” He’d been shaking too, but that wasn’t something he wanted to talk about.

“Ya think?” she said, widening her eyes. “The next time someone tries to kill me, I’ll be sure to keep a stiff upper lip. Lower one too.”

Sam groaned and did what he’d needed to do earlier and hadn’t dared because he knew what would happen; he reached for her. Earlier he’d wanted to be able to tell the truth when Doug asked the question about sex and Kate. If Sam had touched her earlier, he knew he wouldn’t have let go. Then he would have had to lie to Doug in order to stay close enough to Kate to keep her alive.

But now wasn’t then. Sam ran a fingertip over her lips, brushed it gently against her bruised cheek.

“Damn, Kate, you scared me to death.”

Her breath stopped at the turmoil revealed in his eyes, in the fine trembling of his finger. The cop wasn’t in control right now. Maybe in the next second, but not
now
. She wanted to lean into him, to hold him, to keep on holding him until there was nothing left in her mind but the taste and scent and feel of him.

She didn’t move.

She didn’t know what she would do if she reached out only to have him turn away from her again.

“You’ve got me confused with the guy trying to run us down,” she said huskily. “And shoot us. I keep forgetting that part.”

“Kate,” Sam whispered.

“What?”

“Nothing.” He leaned closer. “Just Kate.”

She shivered when he whispered the last words over her lips, which were trembling again. Not with fear, but with the need he aroused in her just by being alive, by being Sam.

Close enough to taste.

His lips brushed over hers, brushed again. The tip of his tongue traced her mouth.

Hands clenched at her sides, she didn’t move.

“Kate?” He lifted his head. “I thought you wanted me.”

Her eyes opened almost black with emotion. “And I thought you didn’t want me.”

“You thought wrong. I want you so much it scares me.”

“Same here. But you keep backing away.”

His hands slid into the thick black hair that had fascinated him from the first time he’d seen it settle sleek and heavy and faintly wavy on her shoulders. Tonight it was warm and damp from the shower. He leaned in until his lips were almost touching hers.

“If I back away far enough,” he asked, “will I reach the bed?”

She almost smiled, almost laughed, and completely gave up trying to keep her distance from him.

“Sam,” she said.

“What?”

“Just,” she kissed the corner of his mouth, “Sam.”

One of his hands slid from her hair. His arm went around her hips, recklessly pulling her close for the kind of knees-to-forehead embrace that told her he’d given up trying to hold her at arm’s length.

“You sure you want this?” he asked.

She bit his lower lip. “Are you?”

“What does it feel like?”

She smiled. “It feels like you’re wearing your holster a little low.”

He gave a crack of laughter and held her hips even closer, tilting her into his erection. “You sure?”

“Let me check.”

He caught her hand and looked at her. “Last chance.”

“For you or for me?”

“You. I was lost right after I met you.”

She blinked. “You sure hid it well.”

“Self-preservation.” Slowly, caressingly, he let go of her hand. “How about you?”

Her hand drifted lower, settled, shaped, measured. She let out a long breath she hadn’t been aware of holding. “Sam, I don’t know if I’m checked out for this caliber. I’m used to, uh, twenty-twos.”

“I’ll show you all the fine points of handling and safety.”

She gave a shaky laugh. “You sure?”

“I’ve never been more certain of anything. It will be good, Kate. For both of us.”

She took a deep breath. “Okay.”

He looked at her, saw she meant it, and felt a combination of tenderness and lust that nearly brought him to his knees.

“Bedroom, couch, or floor?” he asked.

“Okay,” she said again.

He bent and joined their mouths in a deep, mutual exploration that left both of them breathing hard.

“Bedroom,” he said finally. “I don’t want you bruised anymore.”

“Only if you start stripping on the way there.”

He smiled down at her. “Stripping, huh?”

“As in peeling off layers of clothes until we’re even.”

“Even?”

“All I’m wearing is this robe.”

His eyelids half lowered. His breath hesitated as he looked at her from pink toenails to sleek calves, inward curving waist, and the shadow between her breasts that had been making him want to howl. And as he looked, he shrugged out of his suit coat and kicked it aside. Her hands were already on his weapon harness, tugging at it as much in frustration as in any real attempt to unfasten it.

“Here,” he said, guiding her fingers. “And here.”

Her hands went lower. “What about here?”

A shudder went through him like lightning. “Wrong gun,” he said thickly.

“You sure?”

“Only if you want to get as far as the bed.”

“If it’s the floor, you’re on the bottom.”

“Deal.”

He kicked aside the last of his clothing and reached for her robe. The look on her face stopped him.

“Something wrong?” he asked.

“Just enjoying the, um, manscape.”

“The what?”

She licked her lips. “Male landscape.”

Her robe came off with a swift motion of his hand.

“Female scenery is outstanding,” he said, following his glance with his hands, his mouth, until he was on his knees in front of her. He ran the back of his hands inside her legs from her ankles to her thighs, gently prying them apart. His thumbs caressed the black cloud of female hair, parting it. “If I’m going too fast for you, let me know.”

She started to ask what he meant, then felt the slick, searching caress of his tongue. She made a sound that could have been a throaty cry of surprise or pleasure or both tangled into one. A few moments later her knees loosened, then buckled as waves of heat slammed through her, shaking her, tormenting her with what was just beyond her reach.

“Sam, I can’t—stand—anymore.”

“Come down here and tell me that.”

She felt his hands on her hips, urging her down. She went eagerly, desperate for more of what he’d given her. When he reached for the slacks he’d thrown aside, she dragged them closer for him.

“Want to play dress-up?” he asked, pulling a condom out of his pocket. “Or you want me to do it?”

She reached for the packet, saw her hands were shaking, and laughed. “You better do it.”

“What if mine are shaking too?”

“Impossible.”

“They were earlier.”

“When?” she scoffed.

“In the parking lot. I thought I’d lost you.” He opened the package and sheathed himself quickly. Then he caressed her slowly and deeply, teasing her and at the same time testing her readiness to accept him. His thumb circled the sleek knot of flesh that silently begged to be touched. “But I didn’t lose you, did I?”

She couldn’t answer. Heat was spilling through her in quicksilver pulses that unraveled her breath and her body.

Smiling rather fiercely, he pulled her down over him and pushed into her, eased by the liquid pulses of her release. The fit was tight, slick, perfect, everything he’d dreamed of when he first thought of opening her legs and pushing in deep. He clenched his teeth against the demanding, overwhelming lure of his own need. He wanted to savor every bit of her, wring the last drop of her ecstasy, feel—

But it was too late. He couldn’t stop the heat exploding up from the base of his spine, demanding that he drive into her again and again while the world went red and black and wild around him.

With a final shivering, clenching sigh, Kate slumped over Sam’s chest and lay there trying to breathe around the sweet pressure of him filling her. Aftershocks of completion kept rippling through her, surprising her, breaking her breath into pieces.

“Sorry I was so quick,” Sam said, running his fingertips down her spine. “I’ve been dating myself too long. I’ll do better next time.”

“Quick. Jesus. You destroyed me.” She let out another breaking breath and kissed his neck, licked it, liked the taste, licked it again. “I’ve been dating myself too. You feel good inside me, Sam. So damn good. Perfect.”

“Not the wrong caliber after all, huh?”

“Are you laughing at me?” she asked lazily.

“Would I do that?”

“Yeah.” She bit him. “But I forgive you.”

“Does that mean you’ll let me do it again?”

“Laugh at me?”

“Eventually.”

She felt him moving slightly beneath her, opened her eyes, and saw his hand patting around, trying to find his slacks without disturbing her. She leaned to the side to help him get closer to the slacks, liked the way it felt at that angle, and wiggled a little.

His breathing changed. “Um, darling?”

“What?”

“Condoms are only good for one round, remember?”

“The problem has never come up before.”

“Well, it’s come up now, but good.”

She smiled. “I noticed.”

With a slow reluctance that almost ruined Sam’s good intentions, Kate lifted herself off him. “Okay.”

“The last time you agreed with me, we ended up on the floor.”

“With you on the bottom.”

Sam got to his feet, winced, and said hopefully, “Bed?”

“With you on the bottom?”

“Any way you want me.” He grabbed a fistful of condoms from his slacks.

“Mmm,” she said, opening his hand and stirring the small packages. “Let me count the ways. One, two, three, four…”

“I offer rain checks.”

“So do I.”

He pulled her close, kissed her even closer. “It’s a deal.”