Brie leaned over to say something to the pianist, then began a little patter with her audience. She was good.
Brie began her second song, a Sinatra classic, “Luck Be a Lady Tonight.” It wasn’t a bad selection for an audience that had gathered for a Singles Weekend featuring a fantasy box. But it would have been an even better choice for that Las Vegas gig she’d missed out on.
It occurred to him that luck was just what he needed. And just what Brie needed, too.
She started the second chorus, and that was when it hit him. He knew exactly what had been nagging at him all day. Radtke and partner had needed more than luck if their accident plan on the hillside had any hope of succeeding. They would have needed some prior knowledge of the road that led from Belle Bay to Haworth House.
He’d been so sure that no one could have known that he would bring Brie to Haworth House. But obviously, he’d been wrong.
And they needed to be looking for that person as well as Radtke’s partner.
He moved toward Nate and told him what he was thinking.
He’d made his way to Mac to ask him to pass the information on to Avery and the colonel when Brie segued into a new song. This one told the story of lovers struggling to find a time and a place to be together.
The instant his gaze locked with hers, he couldn’t look away. She was singing to him, pouring all the haunting tragedy, all the longing in the music and the lyrics right into him. For a moment, he was completely seduced—right out of the moment. It was as if they were totally alone in the room.
“Somewhere.” As the word filled the air, she held him and the audience captive in the emotion.
He couldn’t look away. And if he hadn’t been looking at her, hadn’t been totally entranced, he would have missed seeing the figure materialize beside her on the piano. Hattie.
Then the lights went out.
“Get down!” He shouted the words, praying Brie already had as a gunshot shattered the mirror behind her.
10
ANOTHER SHOT RANG OUT.
Brie could feel the heat as it whipped past her.People screamed. More mirror shards rained down.
“Everybody get down!”
Brie already had. She’d flattened herself on the top of the piano and started wiggling her way across its surface the instant she’d felt that other presence beside her.
A third shot rang out. She heard a bullet thump into the Steinway just before she slithered off the piano and dropped to the floor of the stage. Her knees absorbed the brunt of the impact. Then strong hands grabbed her waist, and someone flattened her to the floor in the narrow space behind the stage.
Cody. Her body recognized his even before he breathed in her ear, “Are you all right? Did that shot get you?”
“No,” she whispered back. “I’m fine.”
The room had fallen into an eerie silence. She could hear Cody’s breath as she struggled to get her own back. At least no shots were being fired.
A loud grunt followed by a crash came from the back of the bar.
“We’ve got him,” a male voice said. Brie thought it was Mac’s.
There were gasps and questions from the spectators.
“What’s going on?”
“Were those gun shots?”
“Stay where you are. We’re getting the lights on.”
Brie recognized Avery’s voice. Then Cody whispered in her ear, “Stay here. I want them to believe they got you.”
“They? I thought they got—”
“There may be two.” Cody levered himself off of her, crouched for a second to peer over the top of the stage. Then he was gone.
Fear slammed into her, icing her veins. Someone was still out there with a gun. And Cody had gone after that person, too? She tried to count the passing seconds, but everything in her system had slowed—heart, brain, lungs.
When she finally drew in a breath, the pain in her chest told her just how much she’d needed the air. Suddenly, she had to know. Moving as quietly as she could, she got to her hands and knees and then peered over the top of the stage as Cody had done.
Avery was talking in a calm voice. “Just a few moments longer. We’re working on the lights.”
The room wasn’t as pitch black as it had seemed at first. The electricity was out, but the dim glow of candles on the tables offered some light.
Whoever had gotten off those shots would be able to tell that she wasn’t sitting on the piano anymore. Would they be fooled into thinking their mission was accomplished?
And where was Cody?
Brie saw a shadow separate itself from others at the bar and move in the direction of the lobby. Then there was a blur of movement as another figure flew at the first. They went down and rolled. The struggle was brief.
A flashlight snapped on, but it only illuminated a small area. Beyond the piano legs, Brie could just make out that Cody was straddling a still body. Nate stood nearby, his gun drawn.
“What have we here?” Nate asked.
Cody reached down and pulled a wig off the body beneath his. “Meet Federal Marshal Maxine Norville.”
THREE HOURS LATER CODY leaned against the bar, listening to a progress report from Nate on his cell phone. Avery and Mac were seated next to him on stools. But he had a better view of Brie if he stood. And he wasn’t ready to let her out of his sight yet.
She’d come through the evening with nothing more than a scraped knee. It could have been worse.Shifting his glance only slightly to the right, he could see the bullet that had entered the Steinway. But it was the first shot, the one that had shattered the mirror that would have gotten her if he hadn’t seen Hattie materialize.
If he hadn’t been looking at Brie, hadn’t been so entranced by her and the song, he might have missed Hattie, and he wouldn’t have shouted out the warning in time.
He hadn’t a doubt in the world that Hattie had been watching out for Brie, that she’d appeared on that piano to send him a signal.
“You still there?” Nate said into his ear.
“Yeah.” He was here and so was Brie. That was what he had to focus on.
She and Reese were enjoying a well-deserved brandy in a nearby booth. Colonel Jenkins and Miss Emmy Lou Pritchard had drifted off to a separate table at the back of the bar very close to where the colonel and Mac had brought down the man they believed worked with Radtke. The earlier crowd had thinned, but the extra excitement the evening had provided hadn’t scared all of them off.
Molly had followed Nate earlier when he and his deputy escorted his two prisoners down to Belle Bay’s jail.
“Radtke’s partner is cooperating,” Nate said.
“So soon?”
“Well, I pointed out to him that he was caught with night vision goggles and a recently fired gun. And since he hadn’t killed anyone, I hinted that his cooperation might get him a deal. He admitted to installing an electronic device that allowed him to turn off the power in the hotel by remote control. That’s all I got out of him before the Feds and the U.S. Marshals invaded my office. Molly, Tim and I are confined to the space immediately surrounding my desk.”
“That bad, huh?”
“Luckily, they’re all on their cell phones. That’s how I can keep track of the progress they’re making. They don’t have much use for us locals.”
“Their mistake,” Cody said.
“The good news is that Maxine Norville wants a deal. If they give her one and put her in witness protection, she’ll tell all. Seems she’s been working for the Ferrante family for some time, and they turned on the pressure when the first hit on Brie failed. Maxine claims that it was fear for her life that forced her to become more actively involved.”
“And since she didn’t want anyone looking at her as the source of the leak in the marshal’s office, she handed Brie over to me,” Cody murmured, “and then called some pros in to get rid of both of us in one fell swoop.”
“You must have read her mind,” Nate commented. After a slight pause, he continued, “You know, we might have had a much different ending here if you hadn’t figured out Maxine Norville was in on the hit.”
“Yeah.” Cody didn’t like dwelling on that. “We can thank Brie for that. If she hadn’t sung that song, I might never have figured out that Radtke and her buddy had needed more than luck to set up the ‘accident.’ I should have put it together earlier. I just couldn’t figure out how anyone could have known I’d bring Brie to Haworth House. Once I accepted that Radtke or her partner had to have had some previous knowledge of that hill, then I knew Maxine was in on it. I’m betting she bugged my apartment before she called me in on the case. It was only a matter of minutes after I talked to her that I called Avery to make the reservation. After she learned that, all she had to do was pass the information on to Radtke and pal.”
Cody heard a voice in the background.
“I’ve got to go,” Nate said. “Pass on the news to the others. Molly and I’ll probably be here all night. I’ll keep you updated.”
As soon as he pocketed his cell, Cody filled Mac and Avery in.
Avery raised his beer. “All’s well that ends well.”
Cody switched his gaze back to Reese and Brie. The problem was that he didn’t want what he was discovering with Brie to end.
When Avery hurried over to pass the news on to the two women, Mac turned to Cody. “It’s not the end yet for Brie, is it? She’ll still have to testify against Ferrante on Monday?”