The Final Kill Read online

  Sometimes it was an elderly lady, weighed down by too many packages, and sometimes it was a teenager with too many electronic gadgets, or a young mother carrying a baby—anyone, really, that she could attach herself to so that no one who might be watching for a woman alone would suspect her.

  This was the way she’d been traveling for years, at least on these missions, and so far there had always been someone needing help or simply a companion. People were so isolated from other people these days, and airports seemed to bring out instant connections between strangers—connections that were over the minute the plane hit the tarmac.

  “Tell you what,” she said. “Let’s see if we can get seats together, and I’ll help you with the kids. I know it’s only a forty-five-minute hop to San Francisco, but it’ll give you a little bit of a breather. You’ll feel so much better when you get there.”

  Jennifer gave her a shaky smile and said, “That is so good of you. I can’t thank you enough.”

  “Not at all,” Alicia said, taking Lizzy and Billy’s hands as all four of them walked to the gate. “It’ll be just like when my own kids were little. Believe it or not, you’ll be missing all this some day.”

  While they waited for the plane to take off, Alicia held Billy on her lap so he could watch the baggage handlers out the window. Lizzy was nearly asleep on her aunt’s lap. She held a little brown stuffed dog named Cody close to her cheek.

  “Do you travel a lot?” Jennifer asked Alicia.

  “Occasionally,” Alicia said. “Not as much as I used to.”

  “You know, I don’t think I even know your name,” the young woman said.

  “Oh, sorry! It’s Faith. Faith N. Moore, believe it or not.”

  Jennifer smiled. “It sounds like ‘faith in more.’ Is that what your parents had in mind when they named you?”

  “I’m not really sure. Come to think of it, I never asked.”

  “Oh. Sorry. They’re gone?”

  Alicia smiled but gave her a questioning look.

  “I just meant,” Jennifer explained, “that you said you never asked…as if maybe they had died.”

  “Oh! Where in the world is my mind these days?” Alicia said. “No, they’re alive. They travel a lot, so I don’t see them much, that’s all.” She smiled again. “Maybe I should get them to help me with a genealogy chart next time they’re home.”

  “My sister does that,” Jennifer said. “It’s really a great thing to do for a family. Are you all from around here?”

  “No,” Alicia said. “I grew up in Kansas.”

  “Kansas! Wow! How on earth did you ever end up out here?”

  Now that she’d had a moment to relax and settle in, Alicia realized that it might be best to turn the conversation around.

  “Believe me, it’s a very boring story,” she said. “Tell me about you. Do you live in Monterey County?”

  “Lord, no, but I sure wish I did. We’re from Fresno, and my husband and I brought my sister’s kids here to give her some time off. He’s at a medical convention at the Doubletree, and we thought we could roam around the marina, drive into Carmel and go to the beach…things like that.”

  She sighed. “I guess vacations aren’t in the cards this year. David had already committed himself to being a speaker, so he had to stay behind when I heard about my dad. And of course, I couldn’t leave the kids with him.”

  “That’s too bad,” Alicia said. The plane was revving for takeoff, and the flight attendant came by to tell them the children would have to take their seats. Alicia lifted Billy over the back of the seat in front of her and buckled him in.

  “Hey, Billy,” she groaned as her arms strained, “you’re a big boy!”

  Jennifer laughed and stepped out into the aisle to put Lizzy into the seat next to him. “He’s grown a full three inches this year, and I don’t know how many pounds!”

  The two women talked between themselves during the short flight, and when they were over San Francisco, Alicia nudged Billy from behind and said, “Look! That’s the city, the one where you’re going.”

  “It’s all foggy,” Billy complained.

  She laughed. “You’re right, it is. But, look there—see the Golden Gate Bridge? It’s just peeking up over the fog.”

  “Why do they call it golden when it’s orange?” he asked.

  Alicia looked across to Jennifer and rolled her eyes. “I’d like a dime for every time someone’s asked that question.” But to Billy, she said, “Maybe they thought people would think of it as the doorway to a golden life.”

  “Yeah, that’ll happen,” Jennifer said in a tired voice.

  Alicia touched her hand. “Just hang in. You never know what the future might bring.”

  10

  “It’s me,” Agent Kris Kelley said into her cell phone at the San Francisco airport. “She’s gone. It’s safe to come out now.”

  Arnie Pinnero, Ben’s partner before he’d become chief of police, came out of the airport men’s room and crossed over to them quickly. The short, skinny man was dressed in scruffy jeans, a leather jacket over a rumpled white T-shirt, and had an Oakland A’s baseball cap pulled down over his eyes. Kris remembered that he’d been called to come to the station immediately on his day off, and this was the way he’d shown up—as if he’d just crawled out of bed. She couldn’t possibly fault him for that, though. He, and Ben, too, had been an enormous help with this sting.

  “Daddy!” Billy cried, jumping into his father’s arms. Arnie hugged him and swooped up Lizzy at the same time.

  “Hey, you guys! How ’zit goin’? Were you good for Aunt Kris?” His tone became comically pleading. “Please tell me you were good.”

  Billy giggled. “We were. We had fun on the plane, too, and there was this lady that played with us, so Kris—”

  “Aunt Kris,” Arnie admonished. “Remember, you call grown-ups aunt and uncle, even when they’re not related. It’s more polite.”

  He exchanged glances with Kris.

  “They were great,” she said. “When did you get here from Carmel?”

  “Twenty minutes ago. I caught a break with the traffic.” He grinned. “Well, the flashing red lights on the roof may have helped a little. How did it go with the target?”

  “Pretty good. I’m sure she didn’t suspect me at all, not with your kids in tow. Best cover I’ve ever had.”

  “Great. You can babysit, you know—anytime. But back to Alicia. Did you get anything out of her on the plane?”

  “I think I picked up a thing or two of value, but I need to brief Agent Lessing on it first. Oh, and I did see which flight she got on from here.”

  “She didn’t see you watching her board? Even with Billy and Lizzy?”

  “Let me tell you something, Arnie. Your kids are the best little detectives I know. They spotted Alicia boarding that plane to Phoenix even before I did.”

  “Geez. It’s that Harry Potter kid, and those movies,” Arnie said, shaking his head. “Ever since their mom passed, they do that sort of thing.”

  “What sort of thing?” Kris asked.

  “Oh, you know…follow people around, sneak up on them, lie about who they are. Next thing I know they’ll be whipping up potions in the basement.”

  “Maybe they’re just trying to be more like their dad,” Kris suggested, smiling.

  “You think?”

  “That would be my guess.”

  “Hey, you’re not a shrink, are you?”

  “No, Arnie, I’m just CIA. It’s our job to figure out people.”

  They began walking down the concourse toward the parking garage, Kris with Billy firmly in hand and Arnie carrying Lizzy.

  “I know you told us that Gerard usually tries to blend in with a family, or some needy person,” Arnie said. “But what did she use for a driver’s license? She’d need that to get through the gate.”

  “She always carries fake ID, and some sort of disguise to match it. Lucky for me—and Agent McGuire, of course, who first spotted her
at the airport in Monteray—we’ve seen her in this particular disguise before.”

  They stepped into the elevator to the parking garage, and Kris said, “It’s funny, but in the last three months that I’ve been watching her, I never actually approached her the way I did today. I get the feeling she’s a nice person.”

  “With a father who blows up schoolkids?” Arnie scoffed. “She’d have to have grown up in a cabbage patch.”

  “All I know is, she had a thirty-minute wait for the plane to Phoenix, and she offered to walk me to my car to help with the kids.”

  “I didn’t need any help, though,” Billy said, puffing out his chest.

  “I’ll bet you didn’t, scout,” Arnie said, rubbing his son’s head. His expression changed to worry. “Were they really all right?”

  “Angels,” Kris said. “I’ve got a seven-year-old son at home here in San Francisco, so kids that age don’t scare me. Teenagers, now—” She laughed, but then sobered. “I sure do miss Danny, though. I haven’t seen him more than three times in the past month.”

  “Yeah, Ben told me something about that. It must be hard.”

  She nodded. “You’re lucky to have a job that doesn’t take you traveling all over.”

  “Don’t think I don’t know it,” Arnie said. “But, these two rug rats? I wasn’t too sure about lending them out when Ben suggested it, but I’ve got to admit I’m impressed. Don’t know if I’d want them to do this all the time, though. They might end up being James and Janey Bond.”

  “Actually, I kind of see Billy as a plumber,” Kris said.

  “Yeah?”

  She didn’t elaborate. They walked through the mechanical doors to the outside, and Ben was standing there at the curb by a black limousine.

  Kris walked over to it and said, “Something I don’t know? You were elected mayor of San Francisco in the past few hours?”

  He laughed. “Not mayor, but yes, there is something you don’t know.”

  He opened the door and waved her into the back seat. She paused, looking back at Arnie and the kids.

  “Go ahead,” Arnie said. “We’ll be right behind you.”

  “Bye, Auntie Kris,” Billy said, waving.

  “Bye, I guess…” Kris said hesitantly. She stepped into the limo.

  “Mommy!” A jumble of arms, legs and kisses smothered her in the seat.

  “Danny! How on earth?” She hugged her son till he yelped and said, “Too hard!” Holding him back a few inches, she looked into his eyes. They were bright blue and dancing, the way his eyes always did. She’d almost never seen her son without a smile. And the day he was born, she had vowed that she never would.

  “I can’t believe you’re here! Ben?”

  He was still standing at the open door. “We all thought you guys needed a little reunion,” he said.

  “All?”

  “Lessing, some of the other agents, me, Arnie…you’ve been on this case a long time.”

  Tears filled her eyes as she held Danny close to her. Then worry settled in. “How did you get him to come with you? I’ve left strict orders with the nanny—”

  “Let’s just say Lessing worked it out,” Ben said. “And his nanny’s right here.” He pointed to the front passenger’s seat. “Sara, right?”

  The young woman turned her head and smiled nervously. “I hope it’s all right, Ms. Kelley. I mean, they really were the FBI, I checked every single one of their IDs with the San Francisco office, and they said I could come along—”

  Kris still wasn’t sure. Danny’s safety was one thing she’d always had to worry about. Finally she said, “It’s okay, I guess. This time. But, Sara—”

  “Mommy, aren’t you glad to see me?” Danny piped up.

  Kris broke off and hugged her son again, instead of threatening Sara with boiling oil. The nanny had never let her down yet, and Kris saw no reason to question Sara’s decision this time.

  “You bet I’m glad, little bug.” She looked at Ben. “Now what?”

  “I have to drive the limo back to my friend in Monterey,” Ben said. “You and Danny can have a couple hours to visit, and Sara will be right up front here with me. When we get to Monterey, she and Danny will take a plane back here to San Francisco. Okay?”

  “More than okay,” Kris said, sighing and relaxing at last.

  The next two hours were the best she’d had in months. Kris wondered if she should ask for a transfer to the San Francisco office when all this was over. Some sort of desk job, maybe, nine to five. That way she could be with Danny every night and on weekends, too. The years were slipping by too quickly, and she didn’t even know how or when he’d gotten to be seven. It seemed as if it were just yesterday when she’d held him in her arms, a newborn, and thought how much his father was missing. Not that he could ever—

  “Mommy, are you listening? I drew this picture for you. See, it’s you up in an airplane, and I’m standing down here waving at you!”

  It was all Kris could do to keep from crying. “It’s a beautiful picture,” she said. “Maybe you’ll be an artist when you grow up.”

  Please, God, let him grow up. Let him grow up happy and strong…with me.

  “Hey,” she said, “do you remember that game we used to play with our fingers?”

  They were in Monterey all too soon, and she found herself waving goodbye to Sara and Danny at the airport. An hour later she was back in the Carmel police station at the conference table, surrounded by the other agents, Lessing and Ben. There was some good-natured teasing about her “little vacation,” not to mention the limo, which she took in stride before giving her report about the meeting with Alicia Gerard at the airport and on the plane.

  “I’m sure she didn’t know who I was, but even so, she wasn’t very forthcoming. I’m assuming she’s had to play her cards close to the vest all her life, and she either can’t break the habit or doesn’t dare, even now. I did figure out a few things from talking with her, though.”

  Kris went on to detail them. “For one thing, she genuinely likes kids. I think she would do anything she had to to protect her daughter. Which makes it all the more meaningful that she’s taken off without Jancy and left her at the Prayer House—if, in fact, that’s where she is. I don’t think Alicia Gerard would do that just to run from a murder rap. Also, the woman has guts and smarts to go through with such an elaborate disguise and act, just to get out of town. We know she’s done it many times over. As for her visit to Carmel, I suspect she was spending a few much-needed days with Jancy, and was taken by surprise by the murder of the reporter at the Highlands Inn. I’d say she didn’t kill him, but she does have information that she has to get to someone, and quickly. I’m betting that someone is her father, Pat Devlin.”

  “Which at least confirms that we’re on the right track,” Lessing said.

  “Right. And the most important thing is that we know now where Alicia’s going—Phoenix, Arizona. Our agent down there will pick up Alicia’s trail from the airport when she deplanes, and we’ll probably find that she’s meeting Pat and Bridget Devlin there.”

  Kris looked around the table, and then at Lessing. “So…if we’re all in agreement on this, I’ll just have to get myself a little ticket to Arizona. It’s time we turned up the heat.”

  Alicia Gerard left the plane in Phoenix at three that afternoon. By three-fifteen, she had boarded a privately owned Piper Cherokee. Within minutes the small plane took off, flying north to Las Vegas. At the airport there, an exhausted Alicia Gerard met with a woman and borrowed a car to drive to Utah. In Utah, she boarded another private plane for Houston, Texas. By midnight she was in her parents’ home in Galveston, as certain as she could be that no one had followed her.

  It was the way she’d been taught, growing up. She never knew why, back then, just that someone was after them. She was told that she would always have to be both fast and wise.

  It was wise, she thought, to have realized that the woman on the plane with her fake kids was the one
who’d been following her the past few months. She didn’t know how she knew, but somehow she was sure of it.

  “I’m here, Daddy,” she said as she sat with her father and mother at the Devlin house in Galveston. “Tell me what you need me to do.”

  11

  Abby spent that morning on the phone calling mutual friends of hers and Alicia’s, asking as casually as possible if anyone knew where she could reach Alicia. Some were immediately concerned, as if they knew something Abby didn’t know. One, Polly Greenway, asked if she’d disappeared off the face of the earth.

  “No, I just need to reach her,” Abby said. “Why do you ask?”

  “No real reason,” Polly said. “It’s just that she hasn’t returned my calls in the past few weeks. That was my feeble attempt at being funny.”

  “Well, I hear she’s been traveling a lot. I thought you might know if she’s giving a speech somewhere.”

  “No, sorry. If I hear from her, I’ll ask her to call you,” Polly said.

  Abby set the phone down, hot and discouraged. When the doorbell rang she ignored it, thinking Helen would get it. The ring became insistent, though. Irritated, she went to the door herself.

  “Okay if we come in?” Ben asked.

  Next to him stood the FBI woman—Grace? Abby couldn’t remember. She stepped aside, though not happily. “Sure.”

  In the reception room, Ben sat on the sofa’s edge, looking awkward and embarrassed, while the FBI agent continued to stand, declining a seat in the large armchair. Her arms were crossed in an aggressive posture.

  Ben, wishing he hadn’t had to bring Kris Kelley along, said, “We need to talk to you about Alicia Gerard.”

  “Alicia?” Abby said carefully. Allie’s name was never mentioned the night before. Was she supposed to admit, now, that Alicia and Jancy had been here?

  Come to think of it, where was Jancy? She’d been helping Sister Benicia make pies. Don’t let her come in here, please.

  “We know she’s here, Abby,” Ben said. “Look, I’m sorry, but Alicia Gerard is wanted for murder. You’ve got to turn her in.”