Pepacita needed help in the garden; Nate needed help with his homework. Since Dan's finances and Maria's business finances were going to overlap to some extent, she was the logical choice to take over the bookkeeping. Dan had no aptitude.
For some reason a cell phone wouldn't do. It had to be Dan's phone (now hers) in Dan's house (soon to be officially shared by her).
Being in love helped. There were worse prisons, she decided. And it did seem she could work many hours each day, planning her campaign to save the Highlands. So she gave in to the conspiracy and for the most part resolved to stay home.
On her fifth night at Dan's, she tried to imagine what marriage might be like. As nearly as she could recall, she was sitting with the shades open, taking in the last of the evening light. She had just finished running her fingers across a newly developed picture of Dan standing by her father, and was turning her attention to attacking a timber harvest plan when she was profoundly startled. A man's shadow fell across the desk. She stifled a scream. He had appeared literally out of nowhere, standing beside her, wearing a hat and sunglasses.
"Don't be afraid," he said.
''Well, I am," she said, aware now of her heart pounding.
His face was definitely Asian. He looked strong and had a flat, narrow waist under broad shoulders.
"We want to clear up all the mysteries. We have proof of what happened to you and what is happening in Amada's forest. Everything."
"Who sent you?" She tried to discern his features, but he seemed to gather the room's shadow around him like a cloak.
"My principal will make himself known to you in forty-eight hours."
"What about the police?"
"We will talk first."
"Why are you telling us?"
"One of your sacred ones once said: 'Seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you.' "
"What's that mean?"
"It means you will be rewarded for your diligent efforts. But there is a condition."
"What is that?"
"You must come alone without your police. There will be no meeting if you bring them-you will not get your answers. There will be time enough for the police." Then the man bowed. "If you will excuse me."
She noticed that the door onto the patio was slightly ajar. How had he done that? Quickly he stepped out into the night and was gone. He could have killed her easily.
She looked at her watch. It was 9:20 p.m., and Dan was attending an office function with out-of-town clients. He had promised to leave early, and she expected him at any time. At 9:33 she heard the family-room door open. Forcing herself to wait, she counted to ten to ensure that Nate could get there first. Nervous with anticipation, she wondered how long these newlywed-type feelings would last. Then she walked faster than she intended into the family room to find him hugging Nate. Instantly Dan's eyes went to hers.
"Hey, Dad, we caught five fish this morning," Nate said.
"That's great," Dan said.
She put her hand on Nate's back and the other behind Dan's neck, kissing him firmly on the lips.
"Did you catch them in the same place?"
"Yeah. By the water tower. Hey, can I go over to Tim's and spend the night tomorrow?"
Dan tilted his head at Maria. She appreciated the consultation and nodded.
"Well, Maria and I are going to discuss it a little later, but I think it's gonna be fine."
"What's to discuss?"
"It's the principle of the thing, son. You know what that is?"
Nate smiled up at Maria. "She'd never say no if you said yes."
"I won't always be a pushover, buddy boy," she said, running her fingers through Nate's hair.
"I'm gonna go watch The Simpsons on video," Nate said.
"I had a really unusual visitor," Maria said when Nate had disappeared.
"What do you mean?"
She told him the story.
"Those cops outside are incompetent," he said. "I'm gonna go give them a ration-''
"No," she said, hugging him around the waist. "I think there's another set of players here and they mean us no harm. In fact, I think one of them stopped the shooter from killing you and me both. Maybe even this guy."
"We'll see. The police think the head of security over at Amada is implicated in all this. They have physical evidence at the barn that he was present. Amada's masters are Japanese. Nobody knows much about Kenji Yamada. And now you're telling me some Asian guy breaks into our house."
"There wasn't much breaking. He means us no harm. Trust me."
Corey's scheme worried her only because it was so ambitious and elaborate. It was all but impossible, which is what made it so delicious. She would show them all, especially the little Japanese bastard. Carefully she had studied the Hutchin Office Building, found old plans in the public library from the days when it was Mr. Carson's bank, and even crawled underneath it.
She had four bombs that she intended to plant in the crawl space directly under Dan Young's chair. Dialing a cell phone and then punching in a code that would normally activate a voice-mail playback system would leave a lethal message. She had stolen the technology from an engineering contractor who blasted roads through mountain rock. The rest she had adapted from an electronically minded prankster.
Activation could occur from anyplace there was a digital-cell-phone signal by simply dialing the detonator and punching in a code. Specifically, it would work from the little knoll where she intended to terminate Maria Fischer by firing a single shot through a window. Convinced that the bombing and shooting could be combined, she intended to send them on their way together. Dan Young's house had constant police surveillance, but they didn't check beyond a hundred yards. Her shooting spot was 150 yards distant.
Tonight she would take care of Groiter and Kenji. A few minutes earlier, she and Janet had deposited them both chained in the bilge of a small fishing trawler. She didn't kill them first because she needed them to walk under the cloak of darkness. Once on the boat she hadn't killed them because she wanted to watch them contemplate their own deaths. For the time being, she had sedated them beyond such contemplation, worried that chains and gags might not be good enough. Last she had seen, they looked nearly dead.
Now parked in the van with yet another set of stolen plates, she waited for 11:00 p.m. before she and Janet began hauling the bombs and placing them under the building. All in all, including the setup of the detonator, she expected to spend about one hour at this location. She didn't want to stay much after midnight because the janitorial service arrived around 1:00 a.m. Working earlier increased the risk that some night-owl attorney might stop by the office.
After the bombs were set, she would go to the boat and Janet would take the Chevy home. Deathly seasick on anything but a lake, Janet wasn't into watching Groiter and Yamada slide screaming into the sea.
The street was quiet, streetlights glowed in the night fog, and she hadn't seen a car for minutes. A stone's throw from the waterfront, she could hear the quiet chug of a diesel-some bone-weary captain and his even more exhausted crew were docking the boat. In the distance the whistler buoy and the gong buoys made a ghost party in the mist. Much louder, the foghorn bellowed its melancholy at the jetties.
Wearing all-black clothing, she slipped from the van with a nervous shiver and nodded at Janet, who was parked in the Chevrolet behind her. Quickly Corey opened the van's rear door.