Final Target

Chapter Sixteen

"No use, Deschamps's gone," Galen told Travis outside the museum. "And we'd better get out of here too. Those sirens sound close. It's probably what scared the bastard off."

"Son of a bitch." Travis's hands closed into fists. "He knew this place like the back of his hand. He knew exactly where he was going when he jumped down from that catwalk. How did he get past those guards?"

"That's what I want to know" Galen said grimly. "I'll go find out while you check on Cassie and Jessica. Two minutes and we're out of here."

Travis ran back into the museum and skidded to a stop when he reached the artifacts room. "Oh, shit."

"She won't wake up." Melissa lifted her head, her mouth smeared with Jessica's blood." I can't make her breathe." She covered Jessica's mouth with hers again.

"Melissa." He knelt down and put his fingers on Jessica's throat. "It's no use. She's gone."

"Don't you say that." She frantically blew into Jessica's mouth. "I won't let her be dead."

He checked Cassie. No wounds. The child hadn't been hit. He hadn't been aware that either of them had been shot when he'd run after Deschamps. He'd glanced at Jessica, but she'd been sitting upright in the chair with the child in her arms.

The sirens were louder. "Melissa, we have to get out of here."

She ignored him.

"Out." Galen was beside them, swiftly picking up Cassie. He glanc ed at Jessica. "Dead?"

"Yes."

"No," Melissa said at the same time.

Galen nodded. "Dead. I've locked the doors and I'm taking Cassie out through the basement." He carried Cassie toward the steps. "If we don't get moving, we're all going to end up in jail. Both guards are dead, and so is Guilliame. My man Cardeau was killed too. I found him behind some boxes in the basement. You either get Melissa away from here or leave her."

"She'll come." Travis pulled Melissa away from her sister. "Let's go, Melissa. You can't help her."

"I can help her. I can stop this."

"Melissa, you're lying to yourself. Jessica's dead and you'll be dead too or in prison if you don't come with me. Then we'll never be able to punish the man who did this to her. Do you think it's right to let that happen?"

She stared blindly at him.

"Travis!" Galen called out.

"We're coming."

Melissa whispered, "Dead?"

Travis nodded. He pulled her to her feet. "Come on, Cassie will need you."

"She said 'Help Cassie.' "

"That's right." He pushed her toward the stairs. "But you can't do that unless we get out of here."

"Dead." She suddenly stopped and looked back at Jessica. "Oh, God, it's real." She shuddered. "I wanted it to be another dream." There was a world of pain in her voice.

"Come on, Melissa."

Her gaze slowly moved to the statue. "Bring him."

"What?"

"Bring him."

"No."

"I'm not going without him. Pick him up and bring him."

The sirens were coming from right outside. He knew there was not much time left. "You're not thinking straight. Just come with me, Melissa."

She shook him off and moved toward the Wind Dancer.

"Jesus." He ran across the room, snatched the statue, grabbed her arm, and pulled her after him.

"Hurry, dammit. They'll be knocking down the door any minute."

"Is she doing okay?" Galen glanced at Melissa's reflection in the rearview mirror as the car pulled onto A6. "She looks like a sleepwalker."

"She is a sleepwalker. With the amount of sedative Jessica fed her, she should be out like a light. She should never have been able to leave the apartment. I don't know what's keeping her going."

"Yes, you do."

"Maybe I do," he said wearily. He took his handkerchief and dabbed at the blood on Melissa's lips. "The body can be made to do amazing things when the will is strong enough."

"Why the hell did you take the Wind Dancer? Did you think we weren't in enough trouble?"

"She wouldn't leave without it." He shrugged. "And what's one more-"

"Straw on the camel's back?" Galen finished. "The French police are going to regard this theft as an insult to their pride. They promised Andreas absolute security for the statue. We could get them off our ass if we find a way of returning it."

"No," Melissa said.

Both men looked at her. It was the first word she'd uttered since they left the museum. "We have to keep it."

"We'll talk about it later," Travis said. "You may not be thinking clearly right now."

"We have to keep it."

"It's dangerous. You saw how the police swooped down on that museum. How did they know we were there? There must have been a leak."

"I called Andreas," Melissa said.

Galen began to swear. "I knew it. I knew she'd do it."

"Be quiet, Galen. It's just as well she did call him. Deschamps was positioned on that catwalk to take us all out. Those sirens scared him off."

"Not in time," Melissa whispered.

"No, not in time for Jessica" Travis said gently. "But it may have saved the rest of us."

"I don't care about the rest of you."

"Not even Cassie?"

She closed her eyes. "Help…Cassie."

"She's okay. No different than she was before."

"Help…Cassie."

"We'll help her, Melissa." Travis pulled her head onto his shoulder. "Now try to rest. I'll wake you when we get to the cottage."

"Help Cas…"

She was asleep.

The shuttered window framed a lavender and scarlet sunset sky.

Beautiful…

"Take some water." Travis held a glass to Melissa's lips. "You've been out for a long time. You must be thirsty."

She was thirsty. Her mouth felt as dry as cotton. She drank half the glass. "Out? What do you-"

Jessica.

Pain stabbed through her. White hot. "Dear God."

He caught the glass as it fell from her hand, and drew her into his arms. "I know. I know. I'm sorry, Melissa." His voice was muffled as he rocked her back and forth. "Christ, I'm so sorry."

"Being sorry doesn't do any good. She's dead." She buried her face in his shoulder." I couldn't help her. I couldn't stop it."

"No one could help her. Even if we'd gotten her to the emergency room within minutes, the wound would still have been fatal."

"I couldn't stop it. I should have been smarter. I should have realized she'd try to stop me from going along."

"She surprised me too. And if you'd come along, you might have been shot as well."

"No, I'd have found a way to protect her. I knew it was coming. I'd have stopped it."

She felt him stiffen against her. "What?"

"Let me go." She pushed him away and swung her feet to the floor. "I have to get out of here."

"Sure, it will be good for you to be alone." He helped her to her feet. "And this mile or two of beach is deserted. Just don't go far. Okay?"

She didn't answer.

She was running from the bedroom, out of the cottage, her feet sinking into the soft sand. Her shadow cast a spidery imprint on the beach in front of her as she ran toward the far dunes.

Jessica.

She slid down the opposite side of a dune and lay huddled at the bottom.

Jessica.

Sister, mother, friend, savior. Sweet Jesus, why Jessica?

She rocked back and forth as agony tore through her. And, at last, the tears came. Painful sobs racked her body.

Jessica…

"Tough." Galen's gaze followed Travis's to where Melissa was sitting on the beach, staring out at the sea. "They were close?"

"You saw them together. What do you think?"

"I think life sucks sometimes."

"Like right now. Everything's going to hell and it's going to get worse." He paused. "You could bail out. I wouldn't blame you. You've done more than I've asked of you."

"So I'm an overachiever. I'll stick around."

"I don't need-"

"Shut up, Travis. This isn't only about you. That son of a bitch killed one of my men last night. Do you think I'm going to bow out before I take him down?"

"He's mine, Galen."

"We'll argue about that when we catch up with him." He looked back at Melissa. "But she's the one we'd better watch. Once she's over the first shock, she's going to harden into pure steel."

Staring at that fragile, lonely figure silhouetted against the sky, it was difficult for Travis to believe. "You could be wrong."

He shook his head. "She told me once that we were a lot alike. Brother and sister. I think she's right." He turned to go back inside the house. "Since you're keeping an eye on Melissa, I'll go check on Cassie. I'm very good at baby-sitting. Did I ever tell you I once baby-sat a wolf?"

"No, but it wouldn't surprise me." Travis's voice was abstracted as he watched Melissa. So much pain and sorrow. So much loneliness. He wanted to go to her and hold her and try to ease-

Not yet.

You had to face the first grief alone before you could accept comfort. Hell, maybe she wouldn't be able to accept comfort from him no matter how long he waited. After all, he'd been a primary part of that horror at the museum.

Why did he even want to help her? His modus operandi was to be emotionally detached. Yet from the first moment she had shown up on his doorstep, Melissa had managed to…involve him. She had aroused interest, anger, desire, amusement, and admiration, and now she was touching something deeper.

Pity?

What difference did it make? Self-examination was bull. He dropped down on the doorstep. So don't think. Just watch and wait and maybe do a little grieving of your own.

"You've been out here a long time" Travis said behind her. "Don't you think you'd better come in? It's almost three in the morning and the wind's coming up, Melissa."

" I don't want to go in. I'm not chilly." It was a lie. She felt ice cold, but it wasn't from the wind. "I have to think about a few things."

"Jessica."

"No, I've thought all I can about Jessica right now. It hurts…too much. I loved her…"

"I know."

"You couldn't know. She was everything to me. She brought me out of the dark and taught me how to live again." She rubbed her temple. "She always laughed when I called her Saint Jessica, but there was truth to it. She was so goddamn…good." The tears were starting again, and she brushed them aside. "See, I can't think of her without blubbering. I have to stop it so I can think clearly."

" I feel a little like blubbering myself," Travis said. "I didn't know her long, but it was enough to see what a fine person she was."

"You're being kind to me." She didn't look at him. "I wasn't kind to you when your friend was killed. I couldn't let myself soften toward you. You were the one leading Jessica toward the Wind Dancer."

"And I led her right into a trap. I suppose you blame me for her death?"

She shook her head. "No more than I do myself. She was the one who made you promise to bring the statue and Cassie together. It was like being on a runaway train. I knew what was coming, but there wasn't anything I could do about it."

He glanced away from her. "You…knew what was coming?"

"I've been dreaming about it for weeks. That was why I came home to Juniper. It was always the same. The Wind Dancer staring down at a pool of blood and Jessica lying dead on the floor."

"You didn't tell her?"

"Jessica never really believed in anything she couldn't see and touch. She wouldn't have paid any attention to me. But she had to pay attention when I joined with Cassie. I thought if I made the Wind Dancer a threat to Cassie, Jessica might keep away from it." Her lips twisted. "And then you offered the statue to her on a silver platter. I wanted to kill you."

"Then you do blame me."

She wearily shook her head. "I guess I never really believed you could stop the train from moving toward its destination, but I had to try. I only hoped I could prevent the wreck at the last minute." Her hands clenched into fists. "If there's a God, it wouldn't make any sense for Him to give me the dreams and take away the power to stop them from happening, would it?"

"Have you had these dreams before? Not about Jessica but about other people?"

"Twice before. The first was right after I started college. A little boy who lived next door to our apartment in Cambridge. Jimmy Watson. Brown hair, a sweet smile…I kept dreaming of him crossing the street and being hit by a van. I'd wake up crying. I thought I was going crazy." She paused. "It happened. He jumped out into traffic to get a toy and was run over."

"Killed?"

"No, but he had internal injuries. He was in the hospital for weeks. I went to see his mother and she must have thought I was nuts. She was very soothing and assured me that I had nothing to do with Jimmy's accident."

"You didn't believe her?"

"In my dream it was always a yellow and black florist van. He was run over by a van from Bendix Florist. What are the odds?"

"And the second case?"

"An old man who worked at the college as a janitor. I had a recurring dream that he slipped on the side of the lap pool and hit his head. I could see the blood in the water."

"And what did you do?"

"I went to him and told him about it. He was a nice man, but he didn't believe me. He patted me on the shoulder and told me young people watched too much TV these days. I asked him to at least please take someone with him when he cleaned the locker rooms and the pool area. He said he would."

"But he didn't do it."

She gave a sigh of anguish. "How did you guess?"

"Human nature. If he didn't believe you, he'd go his own way. It happened as you dreamed it would?"

"He drowned. It didn't have to happen. Maybe if I'd kept after him…" She shook her head. "Or maybe not. Maybe this is some big cosmic joke. Show me the future and then not let me change it." She turned to Travis and asked unevenly, "Now, wouldn't that be funny?"

"No, and I don't think you've given it a fair shot. The first time you didn't believe in it yourself. The second time it wasn't your fault the old man was too set in his ways to take care of himself."

"And Jessica?"

"She slipped you a mickey. You might have been able to prevent what happened if you'd been yourself." He turned to look at her. "Of course, if you want to think that this is all fate and can't be changed, go for it. It's much simpler. Just turn your back and walk away."

"Simple? You don't know what you're talking about. There's nothing simple about-" Her gaze narrowed on his face. "You're accepting all this much too easily."

"I told you once that I had no problem with talents a little outside the norm."

"Joining with Cassie is a little outside the norm. Dreams of future events are way off the scale."

"I wasn't exactly unprepared for it. It's not totally unheard of in cases involving recovered trauma victims. Dedrick mentioned two cases where authentic foresight was documented. Once in a Greek boy from Athens and once in China. It seems when the barriers are down, anything is possible."

"Dedrick again. I wish I'd gotten my hands on that book when I was going through hell with Jimmy."

"I wish you had too. It might have helped you."

She was silent a moment. "You're trying to help me now. Why? We haven't been the best of buddies."

"Maybe I blame myself even if you don't. I was caught off guard by Deschamps. After the theft and Jan's death, I didn't expect this to happen. I didn't make the connection. Except for my head on a platter, I thought he had what he wanted."

"And he wanted the Wind Dancer?"

"He was up on the catwalk, so he had to know the layout of the museum. Maybe he was planning on stealing the statue himself. He had to have done some pretty thorough advance work."

"Did he follow us from Amsterdam?"

" I believe he knew ahead of time that we might be going after the Wind Dancer. He was waiting for us to set it up for him."

"And how would he know that?"

"Jan's phone was bugged for a time. It had to be Deschamps."

"And he wanted the Wind Dancer enough to run the risk. Why?"

"There could be many reasons. He's a mercenary. His entire career has been spent in pursuit of money."

"You said he took millions from you already."

"Millions aren't that important anymore. You can make that on one drug deal. Your next-door neighbor can make it e-trading. But the Wind Dancer is priceless. For a man like Deschamps, it could be the ultimate score." He shrugged. "Or it could be something else entirely. Who knows what's important to him?"

"The Wind Dancer is important to him or he wouldn't have been at the museum. But he's not going to get it. Where is it? Where did you put it?"

"In the closet in an old box we found in the shed. It's just going to be an albatross around our necks. We need to return it, Melissa."

"No." She stood up. "Why should we do that? As long as Deschamps wants it, we have the bait to trap him. I won't give it up." She looked him in the eye. "You should want Deschamps as much as I do. You told me you were going after him right after you kept your promise to Jessica."

"I intend to do that. The situation has changed, but as soon as I make sure this place is safe for you and Cassie to-"

"Bullshit. I'm not hiding from the bastard who killed Jessica."

" I guarantee I'll see that he's punished."

"No, I'll see that he's punished." Her lips thinned. "And no one is going to stand in my way, Travis. Now leave. I want to be alone for a little longer."

She's going to harden into pure steel.

Galen was right. She was changing, toughening. Not that she hadn't always been strong, but now you could almost see the steel.

"Go on." She turned to look at him. "Don't worry. I'm not going to walk into the sea and drown or anything. I just have to work my way through this so I can think."

"Come when you're ready and we'll talk." He turned and walked back toward the cottage. Not that talking would do any good.

"You shouldn't be here, sir." Danley opened the limousine door as it pulled up in front of the hangar. " I was going to come and report to you as soon as we got the casket onto the plane."

"You told me you'd kept the removal of her body from the media," Andreas said. " It better be true. Where are you taking it?"

"Arlington." He hesitated. "I wonder if you wouldn't reconsider? We've reports the sister was very close to the deceased. She might decide to say a last good-bye."

"The more evidence of what happened at the museum, the more likely the media will find out about the theft of the Wind Dancer. There may be a chance Travis wants to negotiate for the statue. Have you got the in-depth report on the sister yet?"

"Not yet, sir. Of course, we did preliminary work after they took Cassie, but she was considered of secondary importance."

"Well, now she's of primary importance."

"We've located the van they rented in Antwerp. It was abandoned forty miles outside of Paris. That means they've changed to another vehicle. We're checking all rental car agencies in the area. Though with Travis's contacts, he could have obtained a car from other sources."

" Let's hope you have better luck than you've had to date." He walked over to the casket. "Open it."

"Sir?"

"Open it. I want to see her."

Danley motioned to the man guarding the coffin, and the lid was lifted.

Danley probably thought he was some kind of ghoul, Andreas thought. He didn't know why he wanted a last look at Jessica Riley's face. Maybe just to assure himself that it was really her. The theft of the Wind Dancer was completely bewildering, and he couldn't put the pieces together with Cassie's kidnapping. And why would Jessica's sister call and tip them off? Some of the fingerprints at the museum had been Melissa's; she had risked being caught in the same trap as Travis and her sister.

There was no doubt this woman was Jessica. In death her face looked as soft and gentle as in life. That gentleness had always been his impression of Cassie's doctor. He had never been sure that her methods were right, but he'd never doubted the fact that she cared about his daughter.

Until she'd taken his daughter away.

Now he had to deal with a wild card. How did he know what kind of psycho Melissa Riley had turned out to be after those years in withdrawal? He'd felt some comfort when Jessica had called and told him Cassie was safe. There was no comfort at all now.

He turned away from the coffin. "Shut it up."