Secret Agent Seduction (A Completed Novella)

CHAPTER 3

Jude sat in his rental, parked across the street from the restaurant, watching the police crime scene unfold. The SUV had tinted windows. Between them, the night and where he'd parked, he'd be out of sight. The woman who'd been with Chad Nichols hadn't left yet. She also hadn't been arrested. From his vantage point in the restaurant, it had appeared the two were on a dinner date, and from the looks of the woman, it was a first date. And she hadn't been very impressed.

He resumed searching through Nichols's cell phone, so far finding nothing telling. There were some recently received calls but no one in his address book. He'd have Odie check them out.

Movement in front of the restaurant caught his attention. The woman emerged with an officer, nodding her head as he spoke. The officer handed her a card. She took it and he let her walk toward the parking area.

Jude watched the woman unlock a little blue Fiat and get in. Sporty and full of spunk. He bet her personality was like that. She'd walk out on a date if he wasn't interesting enough.

The man who'd almost been shot emerged next. He got into a BMW. Setting Nichols's phone aside, he picked up his own and dialed Odie, starting the SUV and driving out into the street after the Fiat. The hands-free device switched on and he put his phone down as he drove.

"I've got two plates for you to run."

"Okay." He listened to her get her computer ready and then gave her the man's plate first.

"First plate is registered to a Dallas Benson." She ran off some vitals. "CEO of Patriot Bank. Do you think Nichols knew him?"

Her sarcasm said she didn't think so. Financial executive. Extreme leftist group. Nichols and his friends with The Stand were up to something.

"I don't know what kind of statement he could hope to make like that," Odie said.

"What about the other plate?" Maybe the woman could tell him something.

"Checking." Jude heard her working on her computer, tapping away on her keyboard, the sound filling the SUV from the speakers.

"Evie Cabrera. Thirty-two." She tapped away on her keyboard some more. "Single. No kids. Currently a human resources director for High Plains Insurance Company, which is headquartered in Overland Park, Kansas." More typing. "She's been there three years. Was with a restaurant chain before that, her first job out of college it looks like." She paused. "Let's see." She typed and clicked, accessing her numerous resources. "Family in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Mother, father and older brother all live there. Brother has a wife and daughter. Brother is an attorney like his father. Checking another screen," she said in a singsong voice. "No police record. Credit score in the eight hundreds. Owns a home. Retirement looks fat and happy for a thirty-two-year-old. Parents must have taught her well. The brother, too. He's got more money than her at forty." Odie sighed. "She's perfect."

Jude grunted derisively. "Definitely not the type to date a domestic terrorist." He couldn't argue she was perfect, though. Perfect body.

"You said it was probably their first date."

"Which is why she couldn't have been involved."

"Agreed. Maybe he was using her for a prop."

"Yeah, probably took one look at her online profile and said, 'Hello, Little Red Riding Hood.'" Just like the song that had been going through his head while Odie recited her findings.

"You're so imaginative sometimes."

Odie always had a wisecrack ready to dole out.

"What now?"

"Well, Cullen's going to be pissed when he hears you killed our only lead."

"He was going to kill the CEO of Patriot Bank."

"You could have knee-capped him or something."

"Then I'd have risked him getting away."

"If he was knee-capped?"

Jude took a breath for patience. "And then I'd have had to explain to police why I was there." He couldn't take any chances exposing TES, or the mission.

"Oh. Silly me. You're right, of course." Odie followed his logic without him having to tell her. "We can't have you explaining you work for a secret organization that targets animals like Nichols. I think Cullen will support your decision, although you know he's—"

"Yeah, yeah. Concerned that I shoot first before asking questions. I'll let you know if I learn anything from Little Red Riding Hood."

"Be nice to her. She's an ordinary girl."

Odie could go all day with this banter. Time to cut her off. "I have Nichols's cell phone. Can you run some numbers for me?"

"Absolutely."

He read them off to her. "See? We still have a lead."

"You hope. These numbers may not mean anything."

"Good night, Odie."

She disconnected and the SUV speakers went silent. Jude had familiarized himself with the map of Overland Park. He saw Evie's taillights and kept two or three cars away from her. She followed the same road for a few minutes, then turned off onto a side street. Another turn later, she led him into a quiet neighborhood. Old midwest houses lined the street, Victorian in style. The architecture reminded him of the northeast coast. At a dark house—steel-blue trimmed with white—she pulled into the one-lane driveway and stopped before a detached garage that appeared to have an attic. The front lawn was a rectangular patch of grass with a single tree in front. White daisies bloomed in two flower beds on each side of a small covered porch.

He drove past, seeing her get out of her car without noticing him. A short distance away, he made a U-turn. He parked two houses down, made sure his gun was on safety and alighted from the rental.

She'd never answer the door after the night she'd had. He was a stranger. He'd shot a man in front of her. She'd probably call the cops, too. Sneaking in didn't seem any better. He'd have the upper hand, but she'd be scared.

Checking all the houses and the street, he waited for a car to drive by before he veered onto the grass and took cover in the deeper shadows of the tree in Evie's front yard. Not stopping there, he went between the houses and opened the gate to her backyard. A water fountain flowed on her stone patio. Other than grass and a wire fence that was a cut above the average chain-link, she had no other landscaping. There were no houses behind her. Only fields and a hill formed the horizon under a starlit sky. The lights next to the double French doors were on an automatic switch. Motion detection.

A woman who ran her home was one thing. A woman who did yard work and other physical chores dangled charms of temptation. He'd bet she was going to landscape the backyard as soon as she had time.

Leaning against the side of the house, he tripped the automatic lights and waited. A clematis vine concealed him, but he could see the doors through the thinner upper branches. It helped being tall. When she didn't come to the back door, he tripped the lights again. It took four times before she noticed and came to the back door and opened it.

She peered into the darkness. Jude stepped out from his hiding place. Seeing him, she gasped and started to close the door.

"Wait." He stuck his foot in the door frame, stopping the door from closing.