Jaguar Hunt

  He’d filled Martin in on the stuff that happened yesterday while they were waiting to board the plane in Belize City, at the same time Tammy had updated her boss. Martin was the kind of guy who listened carefully before he made any judgment or response. He’d really been silent while David had told him about being stuck in jaguar form, the police searching for them, and their missing bags. David also mentioned that Quinn and Joe had been at their bungalow after they purportedly flew into the States.

  “I have to admit, though we suspect Joe Storm is involved in all of this, I’m really surprised that Quinn would be. I presume he’s doing some off-the-books undercover work. I can speculate all day long on this. We’ll just have to bring him in for questioning.” Then his boss reiterated, “I’m going to have a little talk with Alex and Nate about stranding agents without their clothes so that they have no safe way to shift.”

  “I agree,” David said. “At least it all worked out. Truthfully, I think the boys had some misguided notion of protecting us from whoever ransacked our place. I can see where the kids will be an asset to the branch. They just need some guidance.” Much as he and his brother had at that age. “We just need to make sure they know they’re valued.”

  “I agree.”

  “You’ll have fun training them.” David was glad he didn’t have the job. He could just imagine the kids pulling pranks on their JAG instructors—all in good fun—just like he and Wade had done some years back. “We’re going to the circus tomorrow. Do you have any word about it?”

  “The owner, Cyrus Wilde, says that someone stole the jaguar from the circus last year.”

  Processing the information, David didn’t say anything for a moment. “The jaguar had been at the Oregon Zoo for a year.”

  “Yeah. So what if the owner is right? What if the jaguar was in the circus’s possession to begin with, and it was stolen and handed over to the zoo?” Martin said. “And all they did was take it back?”

  “Why would the circus have stolen it? Why not tell the zoo it was theirs and prove ownership? Also, if the jaguar had been the circus’s, the cat should be able to perform some acts. How long had they had her?” David asked.

  “A month, Cyrus said.”

  “Had the jaguar learned any tricks when they had it the first time?”

  “I didn’t ask.”

  “Okay, so the zoo cat, if it’s not really the circus’s cat, wouldn’t have had time to learn a lot of tricks during the short time the circus had her this time,” David said.

  “Right. That’s the only lead we’ve got. He reported the cat stolen a year ago, but no one took them seriously, Cyrus said. And you’re right about them stealing the cat. Unless they can prove she was theirs, which means they have official paperwork showing legitimate ownership, they’re not getting her back. He explained that a former manager had made a mess of their records, and he couldn’t find the paperwork to prove she was theirs on short notice.”

  David thought it all sounded fishy. “What if they falsify records to use for their cover story?”

  “We’ll check it out with the authorities and ensure it’s all authentic.”

  “Any word on whether any of the boys came home?” David finally found his car.

  “No. They seem to be lying low.”

  “What about the Enforcer agents, Quinn, or Joe Storm?”

  “Haven’t been able to contact or locate any of them,” Martin said. “Sylvan’s had no luck with his men, either. I do have some other news. Juan, the guide that hooked Tammy up to the cable at the zip-line adventure, went missing. He was bragging about some tourist paying him extra money on the side if he had the customers go in a certain order. Tammy was the only one who showed up from the group originally scheduled that included you, Alex, Nate, and Tammy. One of the boys, Alex or Nate, was supposed to go first. You after that. Tammy was scheduled for last. Instead, Tammy arrives with the family of four. Juan most likely figured since she was the only one named on the list, she would go first. This friend of Juan’s said Juan went to get paid afterward and hasn’t been heard from since. The other guide said that he was busy helping with the family, so he didn’t see the way Juan hooked her up to the cable.”

  David didn’t like where this was going.

  “Juan wasn’t paid just to have the four of you go in a certain order, we don’t believe. The pulley shouldn’t have come off the second cable when the first broke. It should have remained in place. We’ve viewed the teen’s video you sent us several times and sent a copy to investigators in Belize to help with their analysis. In reviewing the video, we could see that the guide hooked up the pulley to the top cable properly, but with the second one, he made the motions like he was connecting the carabiner to the lower cable, but he didn’t.

  “I checked for accidents that have occurred at other resorts to see if this could have happened accidentally. In two cases, similar incidents had been reported. One woman held on for dear life as the pulley was only partway hooked on and wasn’t seated on the cable. She was badly skinned up and bruised when she came in to the terminal platform. The other had to be rescued. So what I’m saying is that it happens sometimes. The guide is distracted and doesn’t hook up the zipper correctly.”

  “Was he distracted?” David asked, popping open his trunk.

  “From what we could tell from the video, Juan glanced nervously at the kid filming him as he hooked Tammy up. That could have been what distracted him.”

  “But?” David knew his boss had come to a different conclusion and had good reason.

  “His disappearance and his bragging about receiving money lead me to suspect he was paid to sabotage the excursion. We suspect the guide didn’t know that the other cable had been cut.”

  “Wait, you know for sure it was cut?” David set his bag inside the trunk and slammed it closed.

  “I had Tammy’s brothers go to Belize as soon as they finished their assignment in Costa Rica to speak with investigators checking into the zip-line cable breaking. It had been cut.”

  “And?” David asked.

  “Quinn’s scent was on the cable.”

  David swore under his breath.

  “He might not have had anything to do with the cutting of the cable. He could have just been there ahead of us, checking into it.”

  “And incriminated himself intentionally?” David asked, not sure why his boss would still be defending Quinn.

  “Possibly. This other business of him sending someone in his place on the plane trip home… He did do that once during an investigation to throw a perp off. The perp got careless, believing Quinn had left the area. Quinn nabbed him then. I haven’t been able to get hold of him, but he’s always ignored calls from the branch when he’s on vacation. If he’s doing some undercover work on the side, that’s not so unusual, either. He’s done it before. So no red flag there.”

  “So you believe he might have been in Belize, trying to get Joe to give up names of those who are dirty in the organization?”

  “Maybe.”

  “Okay, so what else about this Juan, the guide?” David opened his car door, got in, started the car, and rolled down the windows. He turned on the air to cool the vehicle before he left the parking tower.

  “We figured Juan would have thought nothing would happen to the rider because the top cable would have allowed her to continue on her way unharmed. At least that’s what we suspect. Everyone said Juan would be willing to earn some extra money on the side, but he wouldn’t have done so if it meant someone would die. At least that’s what his friends and relatives said. Investigators learned that he hadn’t ever been convicted of any major crimes. Petty stuff—traffic violations, stole a watch once, nothing that would endanger someone’s life,” Martin said.

  “And we have no way of knowing who was paying him.”

  “That was the interesting part.” Martin gave a dramatic pau
se.

  David knew it couldn’t be good.

  “The guy told one of the other guides that the man who was paying him said if any of them wanted to earn extra cash, just to get in touch with him.”

  “You’re kidding. So who the hell did he say he was?”

  “He said the man’s name was David Patterson.”

  David swore under his breath. Who the hell was trying to set him up?

  “David, I want you to stick close to Tammy at all times. Even if whoever tampered with the cable hadn’t meant for her to be injured, after learning Joe fired the weapon at her, discovering she’d dated him and thrown him over, and with the possibility he’s involved in the missing jaguar case, I want you to stay with her always. Both of you, watch your backs.”

  David was damn glad that Tammy hadn’t been targeted for the zip-line accident, but he wasn’t happy the line had been sabotaged. “Gotcha. I’ll let you know when I have anything new.”

  They ended the conversation. He’d make a couple more calls to update his brother on what was going on and call his dad to let him know he was safely home. David knew his father worried about them ever since he and Wade had joined the Service.

  “Wade says you’re working with a woman this time,” David’s dad said when he called.

  “Yeah, Dad.”

  David knew where this conversation was going. Every time he worked with a woman on assignment, his dad would ask if she was single and the one. His dad had been certain they had been every time. David hadn’t. Not those times. This time, he wasn’t about to speculate. Well, maybe a little. He could see settling down with Tammy. She was fun, sexy, impulsive, and he loved that she was able to handle his sense of humor. Not everyone could. And he loved working with her. Between coming up with ideas for solving the case and doing a helluva job going after the facts, she couldn’t be a better teammate. He didn’t know what the other agents’ problem had been. They were idiots.

  “Wade says you’re getting along well with her.”

  “Yeah, Dad.” Really well.

  His dad was a romantic. He had loved their mom and had never remarried after her death. He felt both Wade and David would be happiest if they had a she-cat to love.

  His dad had been thrilled when Wade married Maya. He had welcomed her into the family as if she were his own daughter. He was all set to be a grandfather. He had already bought a playpen and crib, and childproofed his home as much as possible. He would make a great granddad—when Maya became pregnant.

  His dad cleared his throat. “When do I get to meet her?”

  David chuckled. “We’re just…dating.”

  “Hot damn, you’re dating already? You’ll be married to her before you know it.”

  “How do you come to that conclusion? Quinn’s sister dumped me for that Joe Storm. Hillary didn’t like my work life.”

  “Olivia was nuts. You said yourself you weren’t sure about her because she was so guarded about what she was doing. Olivia was cheating on you, and Hillary didn’t like that you were secretive about your work. This is different. Tammy does the same kind of work you do; you get along with her brothers; you like her cousins; and you asked for this assignment with her. Your brother is married to her cousin. It’s like one big, happy family. You’re a shoo-in. Do you want me to talk to her?”

  “No.”

  His father laughed. “Well, if you do, I’ll put in a good word for you.”

  “Thanks, but I don’t think that would help.”

  “You know your mom did the same thing to me,” his dad said.

  David had never heard this story. “No,” he said, elongating the word. He thought it was love at first sight, and within three months, they were married.

  “We’d been going out every night, playing card games with friends, movies, dinners out, and she finally said she needed a break. Wanted to wash her hair, paint her toenails…”

  David was reminded of Tammy’s comment. He didn’t know his mother ever painted her toenails.

  “Well, she just said she had to take a break.”

  “And you let her. Right, Dad?”

  “Hell, no.”

  David grinned.

  “I tried. I went out with a friend of mine who said he knew a woman who needed a date that night. He was seeing another woman at the time. I wasn’t interested in getting to know any other woman. I just wanted to go out. I was living in a small apartment, young, single, itching to have fun.”

  “You went out with another woman while you were dating Mom?”

  “We weren’t married. And I wasn’t seeing anyone else. Anyway, what happened was, the ‘blind date’ was about eight-months pregnant.”

  David laughed.

  “I could have killed my friend. I walked out and went to see your mom. She had her hair up in curlers, bright red toenails, and wouldn’t let me in her apartment. Not until I told her what her not going out with me meant. She laughed so hard when I told her about the blind date that she let me in. Told me it served me right for going out without her. ’Course I asked her: What was I supposed to do? I didn’t need to doozy up my hair and paint my nails.”

  “Dad.”

  He chuckled. “Loved your mom. I chased her around the dining table a few times before she finally let me catch her, and we watched a movie. Tammy Anderson might say she needs a break, but when you show up, it’ll be a whole other story.”

  David laughed, shaking his head. “If you say so. Love you, Dad. Got to run.”

  “Okay, Son. Thanks for letting me know you’re home safe and sound.”

  Hoping his dad wouldn’t get Tammy’s phone number and call her with good intentions anyway, David headed home. He would wait for Tammy to get settled at her place. After that, he’d let her know the good news. The boss had ordered him to stick to her like honey on white bread.

  But first he had to stop at his place, wash up, and be perfectly presentable—like he was on a date—not just an agent on assignment.

  ***

  The hair on the nape of Tammy’s neck rose as she smelled Quinn’s scent in the airport parking-tower elevator. Fairly recent. He had to have come home on a different flight before theirs. The kids must have returned home. So Quinn had? Which meant he was after them? Why else would he have been in the jungle and returned when they left? What about Joe? Had he truly returned also? And Weaver and Krustan?

  Okay, Quinn had undoubtedly left the parking area by now. A long time ago. He wouldn’t be lurking here, waiting to pounce on her.

  He wouldn’t know when she was returning home. And he had to be a good guy if he’d saved her from Joe shooting at her. Right?

  Since she had been in such a rush to catch the flight to Belize without running into David, she hadn’t paid as much attention to where she’d parked as she normally would.

  Every sound of tires rolling, of brakes being applied, of cars honking as people made sure they’d locked them, of footfalls off in the distance, even her own bag’s wheels rolling on the floor caught her attention. Unfortunately, she didn’t have a fancy key fob for her older model Jaguar, so she had no way of pushing a button and making her car honk for her.

  She had to rely on her sense of smell. Forget her faulty memory.

  Rubber tires, men’s aftershaves and women’s perfumes, oil, old chewed-to-death and run-over globs of bubble gum, concrete, and gas fumes all assaulted her, but she was too far from her car because she couldn’t smell it. Not its new paint job or new canvas car top. Quinn had disappeared in a different direction than she was going now, which gave her some consolation. Unless her car was parked in the direction he had gone. The parking tower was breezeless, shaded from the hot sun but still warm. A fine sweat broke out all over her skin.

  Then she smelled jaguars, males, two, neither of whom she recognized. She followed their scent, not being very unobtrusive as her san
dals clicked on the concrete and the wheels of her bag rolled along.

  She heard a trunk lid pop open and hurried toward the sound. Two boys—about the age of the Taylor twins, one a redhead and freckled, green-eyed, the other more blond, his eyes just as green—glanced in her direction. They both stared at her for a minute, resting their luggage in the trunk, mouths agape, eyes wide.

  “You’re her,” the redhead said. “Aren’t you?”

  “If you mean Tammy Anderson, yeah.”

  They both looked around the lot as if they were expecting David to be with her.

  “Are you Peter and Hans Fenton?”

  They looked at each other as if they weren’t sure if they should say.

  She smiled. “It’s okay. I guess everyone’s come home. Um, you wouldn’t mind telling me where the cat is, would you?”

  The boys finished loading their bags, and then the redhead shut the lid. “Where’s your partner?”

  “Are you Peter or Hans?”

  “Peter.”

  “He’s getting his car on the first floor. We’re headed home.” She didn’t ask where the boys were going, figuring they wouldn’t want to tell her, and it was probably safer that way. “Did your friends get back all right?”

  Hans smiled. “Yeah.”

  What did that mean?

  “You know Martin Sullivan also wants to work with both of you, right?” Tammy asked.

  “Yeah, and it might not be too bad a deal if we get agents assigned to us who look like you do,” Peter said.

  She smiled. She wondered if Alex and Nate had told these boys about her sunning on the chaise lounge.

  “Did you need something?” Peter asked.

  The cat. But they weren’t sharing. As much as she hated mentioning it, she thought the boys would see her as being totally fallible if she did. “Um, yeah, my car.”

  Both boys smiled.

  They looked like they thought she lost her car all the time. “We were in a rush to make our flight. I normally always know where my car is.”

  They both grinned like “Yeah, right.” They glanced at the keys in her hand. Looking to verify why she hadn’t used them to find her car? Wondering if she was telling the truth? The kids were as clever as the other two.