Sandra Brown - Smoke Screen

“What are you doing?”

“Looking for your car keys. I dropped them in here last night.”

“Your behavior is childish. And criminal.”

“Criminal? How’s that?” Metal clattered against metal as he continued to search amid the tools.

“Jay was silenced, wasn’t he? Just like you were silenced five years ago. Someone drugged me, like they did you, then killed Jay, like they did Suzi, and left a scapegoat that can’t remember. That’s your theory.”

“Right.”

“Then by keeping what you know or suspect to yourself, you’re impeding the investigation into Jay’s murder. That’s obstruction of justice.”

“Wrong. I’ve assisted the investigation. Why do you think I kidnapped you? I did it so you could use what I’ve told you to steer Detectives Clark and Javier toward the surviving heroes, George McGowan and Cobb Fordyce. One of them snuffed Jay.”

“George McGowan is a former cop and Fordyce is the attorney general of the state.”

“I didn’t say it would be easy.”

“Those detectives won’t listen to anything bad about Jay. He’s their idol. Without proof, they’ll never believe that Jay was involved in a conspiracy and cover-up, especially not with those other two men.”

“That’ll be a tough sell all right, but I’m betting you can convince them.”

“You could help me convince them.”

“I could.”

“But you won’t.”

“No. I won’t.” When he pulled his hand from the toolbox, her key ring was dangling from his index finger. He extended it to her; she snatched the ring. He said, “I’d like my shirt back.”

She hesitated, then dropped her handbag to the ground, rapidly undid the shirt buttons, and shrugged the garment off. He took it from her and tossed it through the open driver’s door into the cab, then reached for her windbreaker in the bed of the truck and passed it to her. “You probably should sterilize that before you wear it again. Delno’s hounds-”

She yanked it from him and threw it back where it had been. “Raley!” Her voice cracked with impatience. “Why didn’t you expose Jay and the others five years ago?”

“It took me months to figure out that I’d been duped. I think I began to see the light about the time he started fucking my fiancée. Then when I thought it all through, what could I prove? Not a goddamn thing, and moments ago you yourself cited what a commodity proof is when it comes to a criminal investigation.

“My reputation and credibility had been shot to hell. Who would believe that I’d been drugged to produce a total memory loss? All Fordyce-the legal eagle of the bunch-had to say was that he’d already heard that lame defense and dismissed it out of hand. I had nothing to work with, Britt. And besides…”

“Besides, what?”

He gnawed the inside of his cheek, then said, “I didn’t want to believe my friend would do that to me. I’m still reluctant to believe it. In my gut, I knew it, but my mind wouldn’t accept it. And every once in a while, I would almost convince myself that I was delusional. I would try and talk myself into believing that bitterness and professional jealousy had caused me to turn heroes into monsters. For five years I’ve been second-guessing myself.” His eyes refocused on her face. “Then, yesterday morning, I saw your press conference. I knew I’d been right all along.”

“Absolutely,” she said vehemently. “What happened to me is confirmation of what happened to you. The similarity of our stories can’t be denied or ignored. We’ll go to the police together.”

“Sorry. You’re on your own.” He dug into his shirt pocket, pulled out a folded piece of paper, and handed it to her.

“What’s this?”

“Directions home. It’s a little tricky driving these back roads after dark, but if you follow these directions you won’t get lost. Eventually you’ll get to Highway Seventeen. Hook a left. That’ll take you straight into Charleston. Drive carefully.” He turned away.

“You’re a coward.”

His right foot was already in the cab of the truck, but he turned his head and looked at her over his shoulder. She almost withered in the heat of his fierce expression, but held her ground. “With very little resistance from you, Jay stole your reputation, your career, and Hallie. Why didn’t you fight for her at least? Maybe that’s what she wanted you to do. For that matter, when you were being bashed in the media, why didn’t you come to me and insist on being given equal time?

“Instead you slunk away into the woods, grew a beard, and became a hermit whose only confederate is an old man with fleas and body odor. True, you had no solid proof of what these men had done to you. But I think that’s a flimsy rationalization. Shutting yourself off from the rest of the world is hardly an act of courage, Fireman Gannon. It’s giving up. It’s surrender.

“I don’t think you spend your time out there in that remote cabin plotting your revenge. Not at all. I think you spend your time licking your wounds and feeling sorry for yourself. You’ll never be vindicated because you haven’t got the nerve to try. It’s safer to stay in your lair than it is to come out and fight for the justice you deserve.”

By the time she finished, she was breathing hard with righteous indignation. Raley hadn’t moved a muscle during the diatribe. Now he withdrew his foot from the truck’s cab and slowly advanced toward her. “You think you know me?”

She set her chin defiantly. “I think I’ve got you pegged perfectly. You say you want revenge on everyone who brought about your undeserved downfall. Well, this is your chance to get it.”

He narrowed his eyes and studied her for a moment. “You know, you’re right.” Moving suddenly, he placed his hands on her shoulders, backed her into the side of the pickup, and moved in close. “Your clever mouth helped bring about my undeserved downfall.” He fixed his gaze on her lips, which had parted in surprise when he grabbed her. She closed them now. He smiled, revealing teeth, but it wasn’t a pleasant expression.

“Believe me, Britt Shelley, star of Channel Seven live-coverage news, in the past twenty-four hours, I’ve fantasized taking liberties with your mouth, the way it took liberties with my life five years ago. Revenge? Oh yeah. I’ve thought of a dozen ways to hush you up, and all of them were dirty.”

He leaned in, pressing her between him and the side of the truck, his mouth coming within a hairbreadth of hers. “But I wouldn’t touch you. Never. Not because I’m too much of a coward, and not because it wouldn’t give me pleasure, but because I don’t like you. Mainly though…” He paused, the green eyes shifting back up to hers. “Mainly because Jay had you first.”

RELEASING HER AS SUDDENLY AS HE’D GRABBED HER, HE turned abruptly and climbed into his truck. He cranked the engine and left it to Britt to leap out of the truck’s path as he wheeled it around and headed for the road. She choked on the dust cloud that rose behind him.

Tears of outrage made red blurs of his taillights. Once they had disappeared, she was left in total darkness. Quickly, she retrieved her handbag from the ground and got into her car. The driver’s seat had been moved back as far as it would go to accommodate Raley Gannon’s long legs, and all the mirrors had been adjusted. Having to reset everything made her even angrier than she already was, and she was bristling.

The condition of the road didn’t improve her state of mind. It allowed for only one speed-slow. She never caught sight of Raley’s taillights again, although she continued to eat his dust all the way to the main road. It was nothing to brag about, but at least at some point in time the road had been tarred. Maybe during the Truman administration.