She seemed somehow sad standing at the banister for a silent five minutes as she stared out at the waves, sipping coffee like she was the only soul for miles. When the cook's cat leaped up onto the rail beside her she gasped, knocking her cup over the rail, where it landed soundlessly in the sand. She laughed, reached out tentatively, and touched the cat's head with her fingertips. The cat nuzzled against her and she rubbed it behind the ears. “Well, you like that? What's your name?” she asked the animal.
“Midnight,” Winter volunteered.
“Male or female?” She didn't turn her head a fraction of an inch toward Winter.
“I think Mrs. Washington called Midnight a him.”
“I didn't know her last name. She told me to call her Jet.” As she stroked the cat's head, it purred audibly and pressed against her hand. “You are a sweet boy, aren't you, Midnight?”
Winter scanned the beach in both directions.
“My mother thought dogs were unruly.” Sean Devlin spoke as if to herself. “She let me have a cat, thought they were less likely to be disruptive. I called her Punkin. She ran away and never came back. What do you suppose cats think about?”
Winter felt less like carrying on the cat conversation than having a tooth pulled. “Probably think about where to get nine more lives,” he replied.
She laughed. “You suppose?”
Eleanor had been allergic to cats. Winter saw them as sneaky and untrustworthy, letting you pet them, then suddenly turning their claws and teeth on you. With dogs you knew what was up most of the time.
Midnight promptly jumped down and trotted away. “You ever have a cat?”
“I don't recall any.”
She turned and leaned against the railing. “Do you have children, Deputy Massey?”
He twisted his wedding band and wished he had left it at home. She was staring at it. “One, a son.”
“How old is he?”
“Twelve on Sunday.”
“Being a deputy, doing this, I suppose you are away for long stretches.”
“Sometimes.”
“I guess you're a federal agent, not technically a policeman?”
“More cop than agent,” he replied.
“It must be hard on your wife.”
Winter didn't want the conversation to go any farther down the personal path. Maybe she was a nice enough woman, but being the wife of a criminal put her squarely on the other side of the wall. “I don't imagine anyone enjoys being separated from those they care for.”
Sean turned abruptly and started down the steps.
Winter stood. “Hey, where are you going?”
She bent down, held up the cup she had dropped and placed it on the floor beneath the railing. He relaxed, fractionally.
“I'd like a walk on the beach, get my feet wet in the surf. Is that possible?”
“If I accompany you.” He lifted the MP5 and slipped the strap over his shoulder.
The radio was a two-way, low-frequency system very much like the walkie-talkies that mothers bought to remain in contact with their children in a mall. It had been selected because the frequency was likely to be overlooked by any eavesdropper searching for professional bands. He pressed the microphone button. “S-one, W.M. and P-two proceeding south on the sand.”
“What's all that mean?” Sean asked.
“S-one is control in the security room, W.M. is me, Winter Massey, and you are P-two. Cross is out here, too, and now he knows to expect us.”
“Why P and not D for Devlin?”
“Package. That is anyone we are watching. It's-”
“SCJ?”
“Sorry?”
“Standard cop jargon?”
“Want company, W.M.?” Martinez called out over the radio.
“Negative that. Visibility's a solid ten. I'll stay in sight.”
Winter walked on the shore side of her, slightly higher up the slope. As they walked, his eyes darted constantly, scanning the ocean, the beach, the tops of the dunes.
Sean stopped, lifted each foot, removed her sandals, and held them by their back straps. “God, I hate the feeling of sand in my shoes,” she said.
He didn't respond.
“You ever been to South America?” she asked out of the blue.
“Fugitive recovery in Colombia and Costa Rica. Never been for pleasure. Don't speak Spanish very well.”
“I was just in Argentina looking at ranch land. I liked South America okay. Dylan loves the idea of living in Argentina, but I'm not so sure. Land is cheap, but it's so volatile economically and politically.”
Winter visualized the scenario. Devlin commits a few murders for money, gets caught, and turns on his employers. Then, after the trial is over and everybody is in prison, he and his princess relocate to Argentina. Historically speaking, Argentines didn't make moral judgments on things like multiple murder. “I'm sure you'll love living there.” Maybe Adolph Eichmann's house is vacant. Or you could try the old Mengele place in Paraguay, or was it Bolivia?
“Your son. What's his name?”
“Rush.”
“Winter and Rush are both unusual names.”
“I suppose.” Winter could have explained the origins of his and Rush's names, but he wasn't being paid to socialize. She said something else but Winter didn't hear it-something had caught his attention. The texture of the beach ahead had been physically altered, slightly churned.
Winter grabbed Sean's shoulder, planning to press her to the ground where she would be a slimmer target as he flipped off the H amp;K's safety and put his finger inside the guard. The second he gripped her shoulder, however, she shifted her weight, grabbed his hand off her shoulder, pivoted, and forced her narrow knee straight up into Winter's testicles with perfect accuracy and surprising force.
His vision filled with brilliant yellow light and fireworks; three distinct booming reports echoed inside his skull. The explosions were real enough. When her knee had struck home, his finger was on the trigger. The gun in his hand had fired a three-shot burst into the air. Without thinking, Winter used his body weight to pin her down. “Freeze!” he snarled as he aimed the barrel at the place where the tracks went up over the dune.
“Get off me!” Sean yelled.
“Shots fired!” Cross's voice called over the radio.
“What was that?” Martinez's voice crackled over the radio. “Winter!”
Winter keyed the microphone and managed to say, “We've got company.”
“You under fire, Win?” Greg's voice demanded.
“Negative, accidental discharge. But at least two sets of footprints coming in from the ocean. I'm a hundred yards north.”
Sean stopped trying to wriggle free. Winter growled, “Lie still!” He couldn't regulate his breathing, the pain between his legs was overwhelming. His stomach seemed intent on giving up Jet's gumbo.
Two figures bolted, sprinting over the dune away from Winter and his charge. He aimed at them, following their flight with the barrel. Both looked like divers in skintight wet suits, carrying bundles in their arms as they fled.
The security lights mounted in the trees sprang to life, making it high noon on the beach all the way from the house.
Sean Devlin froze under him like something dead.
Winter called for the pair to halt, but either they couldn't hear him or didn't plan to stop. He fired a warning burst wide of the running figures, spraying sand. They fell forward, into the shadow of the dunes.
Martinez was first out the door as three deputies rushed from the house. Cross fell in behind her; Beck bringing up the rear. In the headset Winter heard Greg shout orders for Forsythe and Dixon to stay with the package. As they closed, Winter kept the subjects covered while watching the dunes to his left for a possible third man.
“Cross, secure my left flank!” Winter shouted into his radio. In the excitement, the initialisms were forgotten.
Cross turned instantly and went up over the dunes with his M16 before him, his rifle's barrel leading the way. As Martinez approached, Winter signaled her to stop. She dropped to her knees beside him. “You all right?” Her eyes were wide with excitement.