Guarding the Witness. Margaret Daley

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СКАЧАТЬ kinda hard playing Scrabble with yourself. No challenge really.”

      “You’re on. Where’s the game?”

      Arianna gestured toward the bookcase behind him. “I think I’ll leave the ranger who lives here a thank-you note. I don’t know what I would have done without some of his games. I brought a deck of cards and some books, but I went through the books in the first four days and I’m sick of playing solitaire. Do you have any idea when I’ll get to testify and can move back to civilization?”

      “No. Rainwater’s attorney gets big bucks to delay the trial as long as he can.”

      “Because he’s got people out there looking for me.”

      “Yes, you know the score. If you testify, he’ll most likely go down for murder. Without finding the ledger Rainwater killed Perkins over, you’re the main witness in his trial. Without you, he’d probably get acquitted, if they even went ahead with the trial.”

      “Something very incriminating must be in the ledger Rainwater was looking for.”

      “Perkins kept the books for Rainwater. The public set has been sanitized not to include anything incriminating. We think Perkins kept a second ledger with all the dirt on the man. As you know, risky for Perkins to do, but it could be invaluable to us. Rainwater has gone to great lengths to find it.”

      “We can’t afford for people like him to win. I’m even more determined to testify.”

      “And he’s as determined to stop you.” Brody rose and retrieved the box with the Scrabble game in it, then laid the board and tiles out on the coffee table. When he sat again, he pulled his chair closer. “Ready to get trounced?”

      “Is that any way to speak to a poor defenseless witness?” Arianna said as she laid down seven tiles for a score of seventy-six points.

      He looked down at his letters and could only come up with a twelve-point word. Now he was beginning to understand what Ted meant. Forty minutes later it was confirmed. She was very good at Scrabble.

      “What do you do? Study the dictionary like Ted threatened?”

      “No. Don’t have to. I have a photographic memory, and I enjoy reading a lot. Once I see something, I remember it.”

      “So that’s how you could give such a detailed description of what went down the day Thomas Perkins was murdered.”

      “The gift has helped me in my job. When I go on a new assignment, I case the house or wherever I’m staying with the client so I can pull up the layout in a hurry in my mind. It has helped me on more than one occasion, especially in the dark.” She gathered up the tiles and began putting them into the box.

      “I do something similar although I don’t have a photographic memory.”

      One corner of her mouth lifted. “I consider it one of the weapons in my arsenal.”

      He laughed, folding the game board and laying it on top of the tiles. “That’s an interesting way to put it.”

      Arianna yawned. “I’d better call it a night and try to sleep.”

      “Are you having problems sleeping?”

      “Yes. Wouldn’t you if you were in my position, with all that’s been going on?”

      “We’re guarding you. You don’t have to be alert and on the job.”

      “Actually the quiet is too quiet. I’m glad to hear an occasional animal call in the night.”

      “I grew up in New York City. The first few years after I left I had the hardest time with the silence at nighttime. Until I was assigned to L.A., I was located in smaller cities. Now when I get it, I love it. My house is outside Anchorage where it’s—”

      A blast from a shotgun exploded in the air.

      As Arianna dove over the back of the sofa with a wall of the cabin behind her, Brody moved toward the door. Another gunshot sound reverberated through the quiet.

      Mark rushed down the hallway, weapon drawn. “What’s going on?”

      “Stay with Ms. Jackson. I’ll go check.”

      Suddenly there was a rattling on the window on the left side of the room as if someone or something was tearing at the screen. Brody moved toward it. A roar split the air as he opened the blinds to find a grizzly bear attacking the window. The screen hung in metal shreds from its frame. The huge animal batted it away, only a pane of glass now between him and the bear.

      “Stay put, Arianna.” Brody signaled for Mark to keep an eye on the window where the bear was.

      Where is Kevin? His heart pounding, Brody charged toward the exit, knowing his Glock might not be enough to stop a bear coming at him or Kevin. In the gray light of an Alaskan night this far north, he saw his partner backing around the corner of the cabin while squeezing off another shot into the air.

      “I’m behind you, Kevin,” Brody said as he approached him.

      The tense set to his partner’s body relaxed. “She’s leaving. Finally. When I was making my rounds, two cubs came out of the woods close to where I was. Mama bear followed not five seconds later. I tried not to show any fear and backed away. She came toward me—not charging, but making sure she was between her cubs and me. When I fired my first warning shot in the air, both of the cubs ran into the woods. She didn’t.”

      Kevin kept his gaze fixed on the departing bear while Brody watched the front of the cabin. When the threat disappeared into the woods, they both headed for the porch.

      “Good thing she doesn’t know how to open doors or windows. It took three shots to scare her off,” Kevin said, then positioned himself by the steps.

      “She’s establishing her territory. Next time stay closer to the cabin and don’t play around with a grizzly sow and her cubs. They are very protective of their babies.”

      “Believe me I’ll stay glued to this place. I don’t want to tangle with one of them.”

      “I’ll be turning in soon. Mark will be on duty in the cabin. I’ll relieve you in five hours.” When Brody reentered the cabin, Arianna stood behind the couch. “What part of get down do you not understand?”

      “The last order you gave me was stay put.” She pointed to the floor. “I stayed put. Besides, Mark was here.”

      Brody shook his head. “I guess I’ll have to spell it out for you next time.”

      “There’s gonna be a next time with that bear?”

      “If she’s hungry enough or we threaten her cubs. Obviously she didn’t like Kevin near her cubs or shooting his gun—even in the air.”

      “Oh, good. If she comes back to us, I’ll get to take a photo.”

      “Photo? Of a bear charging you?”

      “No. Don’t you remember you’ve ordered me to stay in the cabin? I’ll be СКАЧАТЬ