Iris Johansen - Eight Days To Live

“She told Millet that she’d placed the tablet with a friend who would send it to the police if Adah didn’t check in with her regularly.”

Jock shook his head. “Big risk.”

“And why would this tablet be important anyway?” Jane asked. “No hint?”

“I should know by the end of the ledger,” Lina said. “I scanned it and saw several references to Hadar and a tablet.”

“But if this tablet was her cash cow, why would she leave the information about the safety-deposit box lying around in the office, where anyone could find it?” Jane shook her head. “If Weismann and Adah were intimate, then she must have known that he’d have access to it. That gold key is very showy, and she left the information in the study where it would be seen. She was either careless or wanted someone to know about that Swiss account. She doesn’t appear to have been careless.”

“A puzzle,” Caleb smiled at Lina. “So will you finish up this translation and let us get out of your hair?”

“Gladly,” she said emphatically.

“Good.” He moved toward the door. “I believe I’ll wait outside. It’s so beautiful looking down at your valley. Call me when you’re ready.”

Jane watched the door shut behind him and turned to Lina. “How can I help?”

“Be quiet and stay out of my way.” Lina had picked up the ledger again. “Sit down over there, and I’ll tell you when I’m finished.”

“Another cup of tea?” Jock asked Lina. “I’ll even make a fresh pot so that you can enjoy having me wait on you.”

Lina didn’t answer. She was already deep in her work.

Jock looked at Jane inquiringly.

She shook her head. She was still thinking about Adah Ziller and trying to put it together. “Weismann. We have to assume Millet sent him to Adah to get the tablet or find out where it was. But if she was as cynical as Lina says, I can’t believe he fooled her for long. She was very sharp, and I can see her having a sexual fling, but she would have gotten around to checking him out. She had to be playing him along, and leaving that gold key and bank info was just too obvious.”

“Makes sense,” Jock said. “But the key was genuine and the tablet was in the bank. Why run a risk like that? Weismann was-”

“Get out,” Lina said. “If you can’t be still, go for a walk.”

“Sorry.” Jane headed for the door. “You’re right.”

Jock was at the door and opening it for her. “If you need anything just-”

“I need you out of here,” Lina said flatly.

Jock chuckled as the door shut behind them. “She definitely makes her desires known. Interesting woman.”

“Yes.” Jane took a deep breath of the cool night air to clear her head. Her mind was full of deceptions and tablets and the twisted desires of Adah Ziller. She had been thinking of her as a victim, but that was far from the truth. She had been balancing Millet, Roland, and Weismann and trying to cheat all three men. But her clever machinations had been useless in the end. She had been caught off guard for one moment, and that had been enough to kill her. “Weismann bothers me. I can’t see how he figured in-”

“Where’s Caleb?” Jock interrupted. His gaze was darting over the garden and down the road. “Oh, shit .”

“WHERE THE HELL IS HE?” Jane asked. “What’s wrong?”

“What’s wrong is that I don’t think Caleb just went for a stroll,” Jock said. “I should have known I couldn’t trust him.” He went to the edge of the road and looked out at the foothills. “He must have noticed someone following us.”

Jane remembered that instant when they’d gotten out of the car and Caleb’s gaze had wandered casually back toward the curve of the road and commented on the light on the mountains. “And didn’t tell us?”

“He’s not into sharing. He left us on that damn doorstep at Adah Ziller’s.” His lips thinned. “I may break his neck.”

Jane felt the same way. “Dammit, if we’d known we were being followed, we could have lost him.”

“Yes.”

She caught an undertone in his voice that caused her gaze to fly to his face. “You wouldn’t have tried to lose him either.”

“I don’t know if I’d have led him here, but I would have tried to trap the bastard.”

“Who is it? You said we weren’t followed from Paris.”

He nodded. “And because we weren’t followed, that meant someone was at the bank waiting for us.”

“Weismann.”

“He didn’t have time to go to the study and get the key after he killed Adah Ziller. He probably decided to camp out at the bank and see if we managed to get whatever was in that deposit box. He must have been parked around the corner and was in one of the buildings watching until we came out of the bank.”

“And Caleb also figured it was Weismann when he saw we were being followed.” Her hands clenched at her sides. “Damn him.”

“Go inside.” He started down the road. “I’m going after him.”

“No! Do you think I don’t want to do that, too?” she asked fiercely. “We can’t leave here. We brought this on Lina. We have to make sure nothing happens to her.”

He stopped and turned back. “And what happens to Seth Caleb? We don’t know if Weismann picked up some help.”

She had been thinking the same thing. Anger and frustration and a deep underlying fear had been struggling within her. “It was Caleb’s choice. He closed us out. He clearly thinks he doesn’t need us.”

He studied her expression. “You’re sure?”

She nodded jerkily. “He made the choice. Lina is innocent. No one could ever call Caleb innocent. He’ll have to fend for himself.” She turned back toward the cottage. “We’ll just have to wait until he comes back.”

“He didn’t take the car.”

“We would have heard him leave. That’s not what he wanted. I imagine he functions very well on foot.” She could visualize him running over those hills, his dark eyes narrowed, his expression intent.

Darkness.

Power.

Blood.

She took a deep breath and reached for the doorknob. “He’ll be fine. After all, he’s a hunter.”

JUST AHEAD.

In the trees on the hill overlooking the cottage.

Caleb’s pace lengthened, his gaze on the trees. Weismann had left the car he had parked a few hundred yards away and was moving up the hill. He was carrying an M-25. Otherwise known as a light sniper.

A sharpshooter weapon.

He was planning on picking them off as they left the cottage.

Caleb could feel the blood coursing through his veins as he began to run.

Exhilaration.

Heady joy.

Silence.

Wind.

The earth moving, giving, beneath his pounding feet.

His heart beating, beating, beating.

This was the way a hunt was meant to be. Not on city streets or a rolling sea. A hunt could take place anywhere, but this was the best, this was how it had been at the dawn of man.

Weismann had stopped and was lying down, positioning himself on a hillock.

Come in from behind?

No cover.

The trees. There was a huge oak tree near the spot where Weismann lay.

Four strides, and he was next to it. He shinnied up the oak tree and crawled out onto the branch.

Don’t rustle a leaf.

Slide smoothly, like a python, without a sound.

He was directly over Weismann.

And Weismann knew he wasn’t alone. Caleb could see it in the slight stiffening of his body. He knew he’d not made a mistake but there was no way to fight primitive instinct.

Then strike fast before instinct became thought.

He dove from the tree.

Weismann rolled away at the last moment and Caleb landed on his hands and knees beside him.