Seeing Red

“Jenks?” she repeated when he told her his name.

“Met him?”

“I don’t think so. I’m not matching a face to that name.”

“He was guarding your hospital room the night I brought you the flowers. Today he pops up at The Major’s house, while I just happen to be there, except I don’t think it was happenstance at all. I’m almost positive he’s been tracking you.”

“Me?”

He told her about discovering the transmitter on the undercarriage of her car. “Remember, I told you I wouldn’t put it past Glenn to try and keep tabs on me that way. I didn’t think he’d pull the same with you.”

“Did you leave it on the car?”

“No I dropped it in a Portacan on the hospital parking lot. I guess they can find us if they really want to, but I didn’t want to make it easy for them.”

“Another headache for Sheriff Addison,” she said. “He’s home now. Hank called me just before you came in. He’d tried to reach you. I told him I would pass along the update.”

“I hate to admit that Hank is right about anything. But it’s true that Glenn’s had a hard time of it since I hit town. The Major said that when Glenn called to confirm the interview, he was already griping about all the overtime he would have to pay.”

“He was still griping about it the afternoon I met him. He stopped by The Major’s house during our first pre-interview session. He made me feel that I should apologize for all the inconvenience I was causing him. He was a little more mellow about it when he came by my motel room.”

Trapper gave a start. “First I’ve heard of this.”

“It was on Friday evening.”

“Courtesy call?”

“In a manner of speaking. He was following up to see if his department was doing a good job of keeping autograph hounds at bay.” She smiled. “Actually I took advantage of his being there to run past him the list of questions I was preparing. The Major had insisted on seeing them in advance of the interview.

“I asked the sheriff’s opinion on whether I should omit any mention of you. He told me that would be his recommendation, that the interview would cause enough fireworks after I sprang my big surprise, that adding you to the mix would—”

Trapper sat bolt upright and held out his hand to stop her from saying anything more. “He mentioned the big surprise?”

“Honestly, I was miffed that you’d told him.”

“I didn’t.”

She sat up so she could see his face, which was taut with concentration.

“I warned Glenn of the interview, but I didn’t give away your secret.” For a time, he sat so still that he startled her when he abruptly threw off the covers and lurched off the bed.

He grabbed his jeans from where he’d slung them onto the floor, stepped into them, then shook a shirt from the Walmart sack, ripped off the tags, and pulled it on. Responding to his urgency, she came off the bed and began dressing as hurriedly as he.

“In the wee hours of Monday morning,” he said, “when you regained consciousness, Glenn and I were in your room.”

“Yes, yes.” She crammed her feet into her shoes. “I woke up to the two of you talking. He was describing the crime scene.”

“Right. He asked if I knew prior to the telecast who you were. I confessed I did. He acted pissed off that I hadn’t told him, acted like he’d learned it along with everybody else in the TV viewing audience. Yet you say he knew on Friday night.”

“The Major could have—”

“If The Major had told him, why not just say so? Why did he pretend to me that he didn’t know?”

She processed that, but couldn’t come up with a logical answer.

“Glenn knew before Sunday night, but he didn’t want me to know that he did.” Trapper checked the clip in his pistol, then replaced it in the holster and attached that to his waistband.

Kerra grabbed her handbag. “If neither you nor I told him, and if it wasn’t The Major, then who?”