Seeing Red(101)

“Me?”

He told her about discovering the transmitter on the undercarriage of her car. “Remember, I told you I wouldn’t put it past Glenn to try and keep tabs on me that way. I didn’t think he’d pull the same with you.”

“Did you leave it on the car?”

“No I dropped it in a Portacan on the hospital parking lot. I guess they can find us if they really want to, but I didn’t want to make it easy for them.”

“Another headache for Sheriff Addison,” she said. “He’s home now. Hank called me just before you came in. He’d tried to reach you. I told him I would pass along the update.”

“I hate to admit that Hank is right about anything. But it’s true that Glenn’s had a hard time of it since I hit town. The Major said that when Glenn called to confirm the interview, he was already griping about all the overtime he would have to pay.”

“He was still griping about it the afternoon I met him. He stopped by The Major’s house during our first pre-interview session. He made me feel that I should apologize for all the inconvenience I was causing him. He was a little more mellow about it when he came by my motel room.”

Trapper gave a start. “First I’ve heard of this.”

“It was on Friday evening.”

“Courtesy call?”

“In a manner of speaking. He was following up to see if his department was doing a good job of keeping autograph hounds at bay.” She smiled. “Actually I took advantage of his being there to run past him the list of questions I was preparing. The Major had insisted on seeing them in advance of the interview.

“I asked the sheriff’s opinion on whether I should omit any mention of you. He told me that would be his recommendation, that the interview would cause enough fireworks after I sprang my big surprise, that adding you to the mix would—”

Trapper sat bolt upright and held out his hand to stop her from saying anything more. “He mentioned the big surprise?”

“Honestly, I was miffed that you’d told him.”

“I didn’t.”

She sat up so she could see his face, which was taut with concentration.

“I warned Glenn of the interview, but I didn’t give away your secret.” For a time, he sat so still that he startled her when he abruptly threw off the covers and lurched off the bed.

He grabbed his jeans from where he’d slung them onto the floor, stepped into them, then shook a shirt from the Walmart sack, ripped off the tags, and pulled it on. Responding to his urgency, she came off the bed and began dressing as hurriedly as he.

“In the wee hours of Monday morning,” he said, “when you regained consciousness, Glenn and I were in your room.”

“Yes, yes.” She crammed her feet into her shoes. “I woke up to the two of you talking. He was describing the crime scene.”

“Right. He asked if I knew prior to the telecast who you were. I confessed I did. He acted pissed off that I hadn’t told him, acted like he’d learned it along with everybody else in the TV viewing audience. Yet you say he knew on Friday night.”

“The Major could have—”

“If The Major had told him, why not just say so? Why did he pretend to me that he didn’t know?”

She processed that, but couldn’t come up with a logical answer.

“Glenn knew before Sunday night, but he didn’t want me to know that he did.” Trapper checked the clip in his pistol, then replaced it in the holster and attached that to his waistband.

Kerra grabbed her handbag. “If neither you nor I told him, and if it wasn’t The Major, then who?”

Trapper pulled her coat off a hanger in the closet, tossed it to her, then picked up his own. “Good question.”





Chapter 29




Hank answered the mudroom door to Trapper’s knock.

Peering at them through the screened door, he said, “We aren’t exactly up to having company tonight.”

“We’re not company.” To include Kerra in that, Trapper placed his arm across her shoulders.

He hadn’t even considered leaving her behind. Not after discovering the tracking device on her car, and not after having Jenks show up coincidentally at The Major’s house, and not after learning that there was something hinky about the timing of when Glenn became aware of her connection to the Pegasus Hotel bombing.

He wanted Glenn’s explanation for all these peculiarities, and he didn’t care if he had been rushed to the ER today, he wanted to hear what the sheriff had to say now, even if he had to drag him from his bed.

Hank still didn’t invite them in. “How’s your cheek?”

“It’s not terminal.”

“You probably should have had it stitched.”

“Is Glenn still up?”

Hank sighed. “Trapper, the last thing Dad needs—”

“I need to talk to him.”

“What for?”

“That’s for him to know.”

“Can’t it wait till morning?”

“If it could wait till morning, I wouldn’t be here now.”

Hank looked from him to Kerra as though seeking her support, which she didn’t lend. Going back to Trapper, he said, “Don’t you have a filter, any sense of propriety?”