The Face of Deception (12 page)

“And what do you expect me to see?”

“Just watch them.”

“It's crazy. Like some kind of—”

“What can it hurt?”

She was silent and then jerkily nodded her head. “Okay.” She headed for the door. “I'll watch them.”

As soon as she left, Logan crossed to the desk and dialed Gil at the carriage house. “She's finished. The skull is Chadbourne.”

Gil cursed softly. “I don't know why it comes as a shock. We knew it probably would be.”

“Hell, I watched her doing it and I felt the same way when I saw it.”

“How is she taking it?”

“Multiply your reaction by about a million and you'd come close. She's not sure she believes me. Can't blame her. I wouldn't after all the deceptions I've laid on her. At least she agreed to look at the tapes. After she finishes, I'll have another go at her.”

“Do we have time?”

“God knows. But the ID on the skull is just the first crack in the door. We still need her and we need her to believe he's Chadbourne. After that, everything will fall in line. Are you ready to go?”

“Yep.”

“Tell Mark and Margaret to pack up everything. Get them out of here as soon as possible.”

“Done.”

Logan replaced the receiver and moved to stand before Chadbourne's skull. Poor bastard. He didn't deserve this fate. Logan had never agreed with his politics, but he had liked the man. No one could help but like Ben Chadbourne. He had dreamed dreams and tried to turn them into reality. He lacked practicality and probably would have increased the national debt astronomically, but there weren't many men who dreamed at all these days.

And those who did usually ended like this man staring back at him with bright glass eyes.

ELEVEN

It couldn't be true.

Chadbourne . . .

Eve's gaze was fastened on the TV screen. The last tape was almost over. The face was the same, the mannerisms the same, even the voice and intonations seemed identical.

Lisa Chadbourne was present at almost every public function starting after November two years before, and Eve had begun to focus on her during the last tape.

Always charming, never losing her loving smile, her gaze always fastened on Chadbourne. Chadbourne glancing frequently at her with affection and respect even in the midst—

Eve suddenly sat upright in her chair.

She watched the tape for a few more minutes, jumped to her feet, and hurried across the room to rerun the tape from the beginning.

“She's signaling him,” Eve said flatly when she walked back into the lab ten minutes later. “A whole set of signals. When she smooths the front of her skirt, he cracks a joke. When she folds her hands on her lap, he gives a negative response. When she straightens the collar of her suit, it's a yes. I don't know what the rest means, but those are pretty obvious. Whenever he's uncertain, she gives him the answer.”

“Yes.”

“You knew it. Why didn't you tell me to watch out for it?”

“I hoped you'd find out for yourself.”

“She's controlling him like a puppet,” she said slowly.

Logan's gaze narrowed on her face. “And do you really believe the Ben Chadbourne who was elected to the presidency would let anyone else pull the strings?”

She was silent a moment. “No.”

“Then is it reasonable that man is not Ben Chadbourne?”

“It's not reasonable, it's crazy.” She paused. “But it could be the truth.”

“Thank God.” His sigh of relief came from deep in his chest. He moved toward the door. “Pack up the skull. There's a leather carrying case in the closet. We've got to get out of here.”

“Not until we talk. You haven't told me everything, have you?”

“No, we'll talk later. I don't know how much time we have right now. The only reason I risked staying this long is that I had to have your cooperation.”

“We do have time. For God's sake, do you expect someone to break through those electric gates?”

“Maybe.” His lips tightened grimly. “It could happen. Anything could happen. Think about the power of the presidency. There isn't much that couldn't be covered up if you have enough clout. As long as they think they have Chadbourne's skull, they'll go slowly, eliminate us one by one at their leisure. But as soon as they find out they have the wrong skull, they're going to assume we have the right one. The gloves will come off. And they'll do anything to get the skull back and erase every witness.”

A bolt of panic jolted through Eve. If she believed that skull on the pedestal was Ben Chadbourne, then she had to believe the threat was as deadly as Logan said.

After all the lies he had told her, there was no way she could trust him, but she had created Chadbourne's face with her own hands and mind. If she trusted her own skill and integrity, then she had to believe the skull was Ben Chadbourne.

She strode quickly across the room toward the pedestal. “Get moving. I'll pack up the skull.”

CHEVY CHASE

“Kenner and six of his men will be here in ten minutes in a chopper,” Timwick told Fiske as he strode out of the lab. “You're going to Barrett House.”

Fiske stiffened. “I won't knuckle under to that prick Kenner again.”

“You won't have to knuckle to anyone. It's your game now. Kenner's only instructions are to assist and clean up after you.”

It was about time. “Logan and Duncan?”

“And everyone else in the place. Margaret Wilson and the electronics man went to the airport earlier today. We'll have to track them down later. They're relatively unimportant, or Logan wouldn't have permitted them to leave. But Price, Duncan, and Logan are still at Barrett House. They're your targets. Handle it any way you have to. We can't have anyone left alive who knows what they were doing there.”

This was more like it. Clean and neat. Whoever Timwick had phoned clearly had more intelligence than he did. “No witnesses?”

“No witnesses.”

“What the hell are you doing?” Logan asked as he strode back into the lab carrying a duffel bag. “That skull was supposed to be packed.”

Eve repositioned the cameras. “Taking some more shots of the head. I may need them.”

“Get them later.”

“Are you going to guarantee we'll be somewhere with technical equipment?”

He hesitated. “No.”

“Then, shut up.” She took two more shots. “I'm hurrying as fast as I can.”

“We have to get out of here, Eve.”

She took three shots of the left profile. “That should be enough. Where are those photographs you said you had of Ben Chadbourne?”

He reached into his duffel and brought out a brown envelope.

“Are they current?”

“None taken more than four years ago. May we go now?”

She stuffed the envelope in her purse, placed the skull in the leather box beside the pedestal, and fastened the latches. She pointed to the small metal box beside the cameras. “Stuff that in your duffel. I may need it.”

“What is it?”

“It's the mixer. I can probably jerry-rig cameras, VCRs, and monitors, but a mixer is sometimes specialized and more difficult. I may not—”

“Never mind. Forget I asked.” He picked up the mixer and put it in his duffel. “Anything else?”

She shook her head. “Just grab Ben's case. I'll get Mandy.”

“Mandy?”

“You have your priorities. I have mine. Mandy's just as important to me as Ben Chadbourne.”

“Take whatever you like. Just get out of here.”

Gil met them at the front entrance. “Sorry, I've got only one bag for you, Eve. With this shoulder, I can't manage anything else.”

“It doesn't matter.” She started for the front door. “Let's go.”

“Wait. There's another— Shit.”

She heard it too. A low throbbing, becoming louder by the second. Helicopter rotors.

Logan went to the window. “They'll be landing in a few minutes.” He ran toward the kitchen.

Eve followed him. “Where's Margaret? We've got to—”

“She and Mark left over an hour ago,” Gil said. “They should be at the airport by now. In three hours they'll be at a safe house in Sanibel, Florida.”

“Where are we going? Shouldn't we try to get to the limo?”

“No time. And there's bound to be someone watching outside the gate.” Logan was opening the door of the walk-in pantry. “Come on.” He reached under one of the bottom shelves, lifted up a trapdoor, and tossed his duffel bag into the darkness. “Don't ask questions. Just climb down the ladder.”

She scrambled down the ladder and found herself in some kind of cellar with an earthen floor. Logan followed. “Close the pantry door, Gil.”

“Done. They're in the house, John. I heard them at the front door.”

“Then get the hell down here and close the trapdoor,” John ordered.

“Stand aside. I'm tossing down the suitcase.” A moment later the light was blocked as Gil closed the trapdoor and bolted it.

Running footsteps on the wood floor above them.

Shouts.

“Where are we?” she whispered. “A cellar?”

“Yes, with a tunnel.” Logan's voice was almost inaudible as he set off down the passageway. “You asked why I bought this particular house. It was used by the Underground Railroad to smuggle slaves out of the South before the Civil War. I had the beams reinforced. The tunnel leads a half mile north and underneath the fence to the woods. Stay close. I can't risk a flashlight until we get around the next curve.”

He was walking so rapidly, she and Gil were almost running to keep up with him.

They must be away from the house. She could no longer hear steps above them, she realized with relief.

Logan's penlight suddenly illuminated the darkness in front of them. “Run. They'll be searching the house, and it won't be long before they find the trapdoor.”

She
was
running, dammit.

Her breath was coming in labored pants.

She heard Gil cursing softly behind her.

He was wounded. How much longer could he keep up this pace?

Up ahead Logan was opening a door. Thank God.

Up the ladder.

Daylight.

A thick screen of shrubs hid the door, but light filtered through them.

Fresh air.

Outside.

“Quick,” Logan said. “Just a little farther . . .”

They followed Logan around the shrubs and deeper into the woods. Behind another screen of bushes, a car, an older model Ford with the blue paint beginning to chip.

“Get in back.” Logan placed Chadbourne's case on the floor of the passenger seat and climbed in the driver's seat.

Eve sank into the backseat beside Gil and set Mandy's case on the floor at her feet. She barely had the door shut, when Logan started the car and it began moving over the bumpy terrain. Jesus, what if they got a flat tire? “Where are we going?”

“There's a back road three miles away. Once we reach it, we'll circle the woods and head for the freeway.” The car hit another bump. “That should buy us a little time. They'll probably use the helicopter to try to spot us, but even if they do, the license plates on this car couldn't be traced to me.”

If they even reached the road, Eve thought as they plowed over one more shrub.

“It's okay.” Gil's gaze was fixed on her face. “I had heavy-duty tires and a new engine put on this baby. It's not as decrepit as it looks.”

“How's your shoulder?” she asked.

“Okay.” He smiled slyly. “But my spirits would be a hell of a lot better if it wasn't John doing the driving again.”

“No one in the tunnel.” Kenner was climbing back up the ladder into the pantry. “It leads to the woods. I've sent two men to reconnoiter.”

“If Logan arranged a bolt hole, he would have arranged transport.” Fiske moved out of the pantry. “I'll scout the area from above in the helicopter. Stay here and burn the place to the ground. Nothing's cleaner than fire.”

Kenner shrugged. “Okay. Then I'll set an explosion.”

Idiot. It was a good thing Fiske was in charge now. “No explosion. That's not clean. Set a fire. No gasoline. Make it look like bad wiring.”

“That will take time.”

“Taking time is worth it to keep a job clean.” He headed toward the helicopter. “See to it.”

He had been in the air ten minutes when he flipped open his cell phone and dialed Timwick. “No one was at the house. We're scouting the area, but no progress so far.”

“Son of a bitch.”

“We may still find him. If we don't, I'm going to need a list of locations Logan might go to.”

“You'll get them.”

“And I've ordered the place burned to the ground to destroy any evidence.”

“Good. Actually, I was going to tell you to do that anyway. It was part of the contingency plan I was given.” Timwick paused. “One more thing. I need a body in those ruins.”

“What?”

“A man's body burned beyond recognition.”

“Who?”

“Anyone. As long as the height is close to Logan's. Get back to me when it's done.”

Fiske pressed the end button and put his cellular away. It was the first time Timwick had indicated he was actually taking orders and not just consulting with his cohorts. Interesting that they wanted Logan to appear dead. He wondered just what—

He suddenly grinned, then turned to the pilot. “Get back to the house right away.”

The adrenaline and pleasure were pumping through him as he thought of Timwick's words.

Anyone. As long as the height is close to Logan's
.

Kenner.

“We're going south,” Eve said. “Is it too much to hope you're taking me home to Atlanta?”

“Yes. We're going to North Carolina, to a house on the shore there.” Logan glanced over his shoulder from the driver's seat. “If you think this through, you'll realize you don't want to bring trouble down on your mother by going home.”

No, she didn't want to do that, she thought wearily. She was caught in a whirlpool of deceit and death and Mom had to be kept clear. “And just what are we going to do in North Carolina?”

“We have to have a base,” Gil said. “The house in North Carolina is right by the beach, in a prime tourist area. Our neighbors will be people on vacation, and they won't care about newcomers.”

“You have it all planned out.” Eve smiled crookedly. “You were that sure it was Chadbourne?”

“Pretty sure. You can see I had to make plans based on the assumption.”

“I can't see much of anything right now except that you've used me without a scrap of conscience. You deliberately caught me in a trap so that I would have no choice but to try to expose Chadbourne's death.”

“Yes.” Logan met her gaze in the rearview mirror. “Deliberately.”

She looked out the window at the flowing traffic. “Bastard.”

“Right.”

“Could you dial one of my country stations on the radio, John?” Gil asked plaintively. “I need soothing. I'm a sick man and all this tension isn't good for me.”

“In your dreams,” Logan said.

Eve turned to Gil. “And you're not a good ol' country boy turned chauffeur, are you?”

“Sure I am.” He shrugged. “But I also did a stint with the Secret Service under the last administration and another six months with the Chadbourne administration. I was pretty sick of dealing with Timwick's little regime and wanted to get as far away as I could from Washington. I thought a nice, peaceful job on the Seventeen Mile Drive was just the ticket.” He grimaced. “It didn't work out as I'd planned, but you might say that my few contacts in convenient places have increased my value to John.”

“And Margaret?”

Gil made a face. “She's just what she appears to be. A top sergeant of the business world.”

“She doesn't know about Chadbourne?”

Logan shook his head. “I tried to keep her as clear as I could. She doesn't even know about the beach house. I made the arrangements myself.”

“How kind.”

“I'm not a complete son of a bitch,” he said roughly. “I don't want anyone risked unnecessarily.”