Hard Target (25 page)

"Someone who has access to your desk has tried to poison the ambassador. Whoever it is must surely know where you live. Neither your apartment nor the embassy are as safe for us to work as my hotel room."

"Your hotel, which has half a dozen keys to each room, is safer?"

His smile was brief. "It's not bugged, if that's what you're suggesting. I have a few contacts that may be able to help us locate this cousin, and we need to talk to them."

There was that word again. Contacts. Dawna blinked. The pieces of the puzzle were dropping into place, one piece at a time, but she still couldn't get a clear picture.

Tay taught security to those Military Police who would be posted to embassies. He would have contacts with major security agencies. And of course with the CIA. But that answer didn't feel right.

Her head pounded and she rubbed her temples. The city was below, in a smoggy bowl, and already it shimmered in the morning heat. Tay was right. They needed to make a few calls about Ramos' cousin. He was listed as next of kin and the most likely place to start. But, she wagered, Tay also needed to call someone to find out if Martin wasn't somehow involved in bombing her embassy. And if he could tell her, too, she added to herself.

"All right," she finally said, driving into the city, along an avenue in the wealthier side of town. Palms and glass skyscrapers lined up for inspection. Within a minute, they passed the city's soccer stadium. "Okay, I won't be long. Why don't you stay in the car while I grab a shower?"

"Just grab your stuff. You can shower there while I make the calls."

She stiffened. While he made the calls? If he didn't want her to overhear the conversation, he shouldn't ask her to come to his hotel room.

Her fingers hurt as she gripped the steering wheel. She had to be crazy to go along with him. "Okay, as long as one of your calls to your contacts can be to find out why a junior clerk like Martin has come here."

Tay shot her a sharp look. "How do you know he's a junior clerk?"

"Jeff called me back." She gave Tay a smug smile of her own, unable to stop the feeling. "He did some digging for me. Perhaps you've seen Martin during one of your meetings with the CIA?"

Tay's expression darkened, and he flushed slightly red and his soft, normally gentle eyes turned cool and hard. "I haven't been to Washington."

Dawna held her tongue. The tension in the car was thick enough without her adding to it. Was that a lie to keep her from asking too many questions? Or was it the truth? Was Tay even capable of telling her the full truth?

"What else did your friend,
Jeff
, say?"

Was there a slight emphasis on Jeff's name, or did she imagine it? Dawna cleared her throat. "Martin is a Co-Op student, smart academically, but with no common sense. He speaks Spanish and is interested in history."

"And has three earrings in one ear. I knew he spoke Spanish, because he let out a stream of obscenities at some driver who cut us off."

"Maybe one of your
contacts
can give us some clue to why he would try to kidnap you."

He lifted his eyebrows at her own slight emphasis. "Kidnap? That rookie wanted to kill me! And he's as wiry as a featherweight boxer. But as for why?" He shook his head, pressing his mouth into a hard line. "I don't know."

Soon after, Dawna reached her apartment. She backed the big car into the visitor's spot and shut off the engine. Then she turned to Tay. "Well, it's time to find out everything you can about Martin, because if you were on some case, you obviously have someone with a grudge against you." She stared hard at Tay. "Don't give me that innocent look, Tay. I'm not stupid. Even if the embassy has nothing to do with Martin, it's getting in the way of my investigation and that makes it my business. I want to find out who set that explosive and why. And I want to find out who poisoned the ambassador and why. You can help me if you like, but if Martin has nothing to do with this, get rid of him
before
you help me."

With both hands, she thrust the heavy door open and climbed out. "I'll be back in a few minutes."

Tay watched her disappear up the open stairwell, another curse lingering on his tongue. He should have realized that Dawna would guess about his involvement with the CIA. All the facts were pointing to it, and Dawna wasn't stupid.

She'd been top of her class three years ago, driven by a desire to be the best and get the best embassy posting. One slip, one evening, and it all dissolved away.

That slip had made him so furious at the system, he'd quit.

Like he'd always done, he'd grabbed the first chance to run.

Pain stabbed behind his eyes and braced himself for another onslaught of his mother's hard words.

This time, his mother was silent. His eyes shut, Tay drew in deep, even breaths. The headache eased.

Dawna returned a few minutes later. Watching her trot down the staircase, he knew she deserved the truth about his involvement with the CIA.

One man was dead here and another was in the hospital. The very security of the embassy was at risk, and Dawna was the one they'd hang if anything worse happened. She deserved to know.

Yes, he'd tell her, but not right now. He needed to sort out exactly what he could say. And there had to be total assurance that whatever Martin was into, had absolutely nothing to do with the embassy. He didn't have that assurance, not yet, anyway.

Dawna pulled open the driver door and climbed in, chucking a small bag into the back seat as she moved.

"Let's drop this monster off at the embassy, first. Then we'll grab a taxi to your hotel. I'd rather leave my car at the embassy."

Tay nodded, wishing briefly that no one at the embassy knew where they were going. But he crushed that selfish desire immediately.

Forty-five minutes later, Tay unlocked the door to his hotel suite. Dawna walked in first, glancing around with one eyebrow lifted. "Nice, but I don't remember reserving a suite for you."

"They upgraded it when I checked in. Some of the rooms are being renovated."

Dawna nodded. "This hotel saw its share of violence over the years." She nodded to several small patches on the wall opposite the window. "Bullet holes?"

He looked at the wall. "I noticed them. I keep the drapes closed."

She lingered by the entrance to the bedroom. "I'm going to hit the shower." She started to head inside. "I suggest you can make your clandestine phone calls now."

"Dawna?"

She turned, her hands clutching the small bag in front of her. He swallowed, wondering if she had the same feeling that headed into an all-nighter. Even the word created images he didn't need to envision right now. "I want to tell you about my involvement with the CIA, but I can't. Not yet, at least. You're a cop, you understand. You're not even supposed to know this much."

He held his breath, waiting for her to say something, do something, even offer him that same betrayed look she'd thrown at him that day in the interrogation room, through the two-way mirror.

Nothing happened. She blinked once. "You better be one hundred percent sure that your involvement with the CIA and Martin doesn't have anything to do with my embassy, Tay because it's too important to have even the tiniest bit of doubt."

She walked into the bedroom and shut the door.

Tay didn't have that assurance. At least not yet.

Chapter Fifteen

When Dawna returned to the small sitting room, she found Tay typing fast and furiously on his laptop. Wordlessly, she opened hers and set it opposite Tay's. He barely glanced at her, his attention so riveted on his task.

A few minutes later, a quiet knock pulled them both from their tasks.

Tay glanced over his shoulder at the door, before standing. He let in a waiter, tipped him and stood staring at the trolley, as if he'd forgotten about it. "I took the liberty of ordering. One can't work on an empty stomach. All that old man up in that village had to drink was the weirdest coffee in the world. Sweet and milky." He pulled a face.

"
Dulce de leche
. It's not coffee at all, unless you add some and it's usually a dessert sauce." The scent of fresh coffee and sweet, smoky meats lured her closer and she peeked under some of the silver plate covers. Eggs, scrambled with
queso
and
jambon
.

Wow. The rare times she ate breakfast, it was usually a boiled egg and some rye bread with Cheez Whiz. And never this late in the morning.

Tay had ordered bread, too, and some rich, buttery layered pastries she'd learned were called
alfajores
. And a pair of
salteñas
, too, their golden brown crusts glistening. Her mouth watered. It had been a long time since she had such a decadent brunch. "Wow. You really went all out. You must be really hungry."

"I figured you would be. As long as there's some basic coffee, I don't care."

She ripped off a piece of the pastry to test it. "Didn't that old guy offer you any coca tea?"

"He offered the leaves for me to chew, but under the circumstances, I declined them." Tay met her gaze, a moment before letting his own drop to her outfit.

She should have taken more time picking her clothes. Instead, she'd grabbed the first clean thing she'd found in her closet, another plain pantsuit in a dark ivory color. Its V neck dipped a bit low for her liking, and she now wished for a pin to keep it from slipping open.

Self-conscious suddenly, she threw back her damp hair. The hair dryer attached to the wall beside the vanity didn't blow much hot air. She should have brought a scrunchie or something, but again, she'd forgotten.

Good grief, she was never this disorganized.

"Help yourself to food," Tay said, rising. "I'm going to grab a quick shower first." He stopped at the bedroom door. "I called Mr. Taylor and he's sent me Ramos' full file, all scanned. We need the cousin's name and any info on him. Oh, and I called the hospital. The ambassador's doing much better. They expect to release him tomorrow."

She gave him a small nod, then a frown. "So you haven't called your contact yet?"

"I couldn't get through. I'll try later." He called out as he disappeared into the bedroom. "I also left a message with a guy I know in Ottawa."

Dawna helped herself to coffee, eggs and bread, with only a small portion of the meat. She was never sure what kind of animal it came from. Halfway through eating, she peered at Tay's laptop screen. Internet connections were slow and erratic here in a city where many people just strung their own telephone lines, tapping into other's services and generally creating a confusing web not only above the street but within the system, too.

When she was done eating, she scrawled out the cousin's name. Manuel Chayo. Absently, she shook her head. It didn't ring a bell.