“He’d kill who he can, then send me a vid of it,” Roarke finished. “He may not have gotten me, but he’ll have made me pay.”
“That’s Cobbe all over,” Brian agreed.
“I have no argument with that. I agree with all that. I don’t like being shuffled off to a bloody barn.”
“We get him, he’s all yours.”
“Understood. Apologies. It’s—”
“I’d feel exactly the same in your place,” Eve told him.
“I’ll take lookout in the barn with the commander.” But his shoulders straightened. “And I can handle myself.”
“Good to know. We have e-men at the three locations. Constant communication. They have scanners set up, looking for movement, but … people around here take walks.”
“It’s still raining.” Jenkinson tugged on a pair of black boots.
“Sure we don’t melt in a bit of soft weather,” Mary Kate pointed out as she offered him a cap.
“There are a lot of places for him to run if we try to take him outside and he slips away. And there are other homes within running distance. I’m not risking him killing anyone else, so we take him inside—that’s optimum. Should he approach anyone outside, stun his ass. Don’t let him get close enough to use a sticker, and remember he’s fast. Everybody goes home tonight, except Cobbe.
“How much time have we got?” she asked Roarke.
“We should move.”
“Then let’s move. Sinead, I need you and Mary Kate upstairs. You lock the door, and you stay inside.”
“You don’t look like me, or Mary Kate,” Sinead pointed out. “If, as you said, he has field glasses, looks through the window, he’d know you’re not either of us.”
“I’m going to wear one of those things.” Eve pointed at the aprons on pegs. “And a hat, and I’ll keep my back to the windows.”
“You won’t look natural in a kitchen, as I’ve seen you in this one.” Sinead smiled at her. “It’s important you lure him in, and stop him. If you were in the mudroom there, there’s no window, and I could do what I do here. You’d know, as you’ve people everywhere, if he’s coming. He’ll have to come in the front, won’t he, or run into the men working outside. He comes in, I’ll go up the back steps straightaway, and lock myself in as you ask.”
“Damn it.”
“If he tries to get in through the root cellar, it’s the same thing. He’d be seen, and would know he’d be seen. He has to come in the front door. He may even knock and expect me to answer so he can kill me. But it’ll be you who answers, and so he’ll be done. If you don’t bait the hook, you don’t catch the fish.”
“You’re not to be bait,” Roarke objected.
“If he gets away, somehow, he’ll come back, won’t he? When will we be safe?”
“She’s right. I’m sorry.”
Roarke looked at Eve. “I can know it and not like it.”
“We might put the music on,” Sinead added. “I often do when I’m working in the kitchen.”
“It’ll cover any noise, too. Do that.”
“I know my way around a kitchen,” Peabody began.
“He’ll know your face, too. He knows your face by now.” Eve paced as music began to play. “Put on an apron, keep away from the windows. Stick close to Sinead without being obvious about it. Make sure your weapon and harness are hidden. Take positions.”
She drew Roarke toward the mudroom. “I won’t let him touch her. I swear to God.”
“We won’t.” He had his hair bundled under a cap and put on his borrowed work jacket. “Do I look like a farmer?”
“No, you just don’t.”
“Well, it’ll have to do.”
“We’ve got movement,” Feeney announced. “Coming in from the southwest. Slow. Too big to be a dog or livestock.”
“Positions, now. Commander?” She eased into the mudroom. “Do you see him?”
“Not yet.”
“Movement stopped.” He read off the coordinates for the rest of the e-team. “He’s about a quarter mile from here, moving again.”
“Got him, Cap,” Callendar said.
“Same here. Definitely on foot.”
“Getting his bearings,” Eve said. “He doesn’t know the area, wants to see the best ways in and out. Just a guy taking a walk in the rain.”
“He’s passed the point it makes sense for him to veer off to this location,” Santiago said. “We can start moving to the next house.”
“Not yet. Wait it out.”
“We see him. Black shirt, pants, boots. No jacket. He’s getting pretty wet.” Eve heard the quiet satisfaction in Whitney’s voice. “Field glasses coming out. From his angle he should be able to see the east side of the main house, any activity outside in that area.”
“Stay frosty. Roarke, don’t let him see your face.”
“He won’t.”
“Peabody, go out the front door, just a couple steps—for what, for what?”
“Shake the rug,” Sinead suggested. “Go out and shake the rug.”
“Yeah, fine, good. Just step out, back to the east, shake the rug, come back. He sees you, he sees the door’s not locked. He’s going to go for the front.”
“Moving to the front.” Peabody took the little kitchen rug from the back door, walked through the house, out, letting the door shut behind her.
She shook out the dirt, stepped back in.
“Moving faster now, but still at a walk.”
“She got his attention. Easy prey. Unarmed woman, doing housework.”
“Stopped.”
“Scanning again,” Whitney announced after Feeney. “He’s taking a good look at the men out in the near field, the one crossing in front of the chicken coop.”
He has to buy it, Eve thought. Too far away yet to pursue with a hundred percent chance of taking him down, even with stunners. He had to buy it, keep coming.
“Moving again.”
“He likes what he sees,” Whitney added. “Pocketing the field glasses, picking up his pace. Rounding the curve of the road. We’re coming down.”
“Don’t come out yet. Sir, do not exit the barn at this time. We need him inside.”
“Coming down, but remaining inside. Not my first day on the job, Lieutenant.”
“I can see him from here.” Jenkinson tried to look like a man at home in a cow pasture. “He’s got a good visual on the house from his position. Just a guy stopping to admire the flowers out front. He should be able to see in the east-facing kitchen windows if he’s angled right.”
“Sinead, look busy. Relaxed, but busy. When he makes the front door, upstairs. Quiet.”
“Moving fast now, yeah, he’s at the front gate.”
“Go now, Sinead. Now.”
“He’s not at the door yet.”
“Close enough. Peabody, stay in view of the windows, in case.”
Eve crab-walked out of the mudroom, kept going until she got to the hall. Out of sight of the windows, she straightened, dashed, then got back into a crouch.