“And you didn’t see this man?”
“Only his shoes,” Sophie said and told how she’d stretched out on the floor and looked under the door.
Reede kissed her neck. “Smart as well as beautiful. I’m going to take you to Sara’s house. Her husband, Mike, is a former detective and I want you to tell him everything you can remember. I’m going to go get Colin, the sheriff.”
“Do you think you’ll be able to find the bomb in time?”
“We’ll have a lot of people searching.”
The idea of people looking for a bomb scared her. “When it gets close to the time, the people have to get out. They have to! They’ll understand that, won’t they?”
“Yes,” he said, smiling at her. “We’ll make sure everyone is safe. It’s my guess that Mike will bring in some undercover people for tonight. As for you, I want you to stay home. You’re not to go to the party. I want you to—”
“I know his voice,” she said softly. “I didn’t see the man’s face, but I saw his shoes, and I heard his voice. I’m the only one who can identify him.”
“But—” Reede began. “You can’t—” He didn’t seem to know what else to say as he urged the horse forward. When they reached the road, they broke into a gallop, and they thundered across the asphalt, then turned into a lane and finally reached what looked to be a very old house. It had been renovated, but the air of age still clung to it.
Reede didn’t immediately get down, but held her for a moment, his front to her back. “You look good without the mask,” he said. “You’re even prettier without it—and I didn’t think that was possible.”
“What do you look like under the mask?”
“If I take it off my whole body splits in half. Sophie . . . ”
“Yes?”
“You did well tonight. I’ve never seen anyone more courageous than you were. Walking across that tight-rope of a beam, then leaping onto the ladder was wonderful. And I’m sorry I left you alone in that closet. I couldn’t figure out a way to get back to you that wouldn’t endanger you. I—”
“It’s all right,” she said, taking pity on him. “If I hadn’t been in there I wouldn’t have heard their plan.”
“That’s true,” he said. “On the other hand you wouldn’t now be facing a bunch of lunatics with guns. I wish I’d shown myself and scared them off.”
Turning, she put her hands on his shoulders and looked into his eyes. “You did what was right,” she said. “If you’d jumped out at those men, they would have shot you.”
“But then the whole town wouldn’t be in jeopardy.”
So this is how a true hero thinks, Sophie thought. He puts other people before himself.
They locked eyes for a moment and they would have kissed except that the door to the house opened and out stepped a man. He was slim but he had a way of moving that made a person notice him. “You two gonna stay out here all night?” the man asked in a raspy voice. Reede got off the horse and held up his arms to Sophie, and she easily slipped into them. “This is Mike. Sophie.” They nodded at each other. “Can I borrow your car? I need to go see Colin and arrange a search party.”
Immediately, Mike became alert. “Who’s missing?”
“No one, but a bomb has been placed. Sophie knows everything and she’ll tell you.”
As Mike opened the door wider to let her in, he tossed his car keys to Reede. Sophie started to go into the house, but Reede held her hand and pulled her back. “You’ll be careful tonight, won’t you?” he said.
“You saw that I’m a scaredy-cat.”
“I saw that someone only has to tell you that you can’t do something and you tighten up that pretty little mouth of yours and do it. Just don’t do that tonight, okay? Stay with me, and as soon as you identify this guy, you’re out of there. All right?”
“Yes,” she said softly, looking up at him. The rain had stopped but the sun wasn’t out. It was gray and hazy. Reede gave her cheek a quick kiss, held her hand for a moment, then he was gone.
Sophie was doing her best to pretend to be calm, but she wasn’t succeeding. Sara Newland was being very nice to her, as was everyone else she was introd
uced to, but she was still frightened. There seemed to be a dozen young women from Edilean, all of them about her age, going in and out of the room where Sara was adjusting Sophie’s costume. She couldn’t keep the names straight: Tess, Jocelyn, Gemma, Ariel. Faces and names seemed to run together.
It had been hours since Reede had left, and since then she’d told her story many times. A handsome FBI agent by the name of Jefferson Ames spent thirty minutes going over her story. “We think these guys pulled a bank job in Baltimore about three years ago. They’ve laid low since then, and not put any of the money in circulation. We figured the leader was hiding nearby, and Edilean is close,” Agent Ames said. “Tell me again what his shoes looked like.”
Sophie was so busy answering the same questions over and over that it was a while before she paid attention to the dress Sara had her put on. It was green silk, with a low, square-cut neckline. A narrow drape of a dark plum color went over her left shoulder. The dress was high waisted, with an ornate sash that tied under her breasts. Sophie quit answering questions when Sara clasped a necklace around her throat. It was heavy and big.