Mrs. John Doe

Chapter 45

The rain was growing in intensity, which was both good and bad-it helped to conceal them, but it impeded their progress with her husband. It was bearable here, under the thick leaves, but once over the wall they’d be out in the open. Jeff slipped on the wet grass, and Nora rushed to his left side, propping him up, just before he and Josef would have fallen. She clutched her husband’s arm with one hand and the pistol with the other, and the three of them continued through the trees.

The sounds of the approaching trucks grew louder behind them, and she and Josef managed to flatten themselves against a large trunk, Jeff held up between them. They waited there, the rain from the tree sluicing down on them, as the iron gates automatically swung open and the two trucks went through. The trucks turned left and disappeared down the main road as the gates closed after them.

Now, Nora realized, they definitely had to hurry. Any minute Bill and Craig would make their way upstairs to the bedroom and find that she was gone. When they arrived at the wall, Josef grasped the top and pulled himself up in one fluid move, landing astride it, his legs hanging down. He reached for Jeff’s arms and pulled him up. Nora helped with his legs until he was atop the wall, lying on his stomach. Josef jumped down on the road side. Nora clambered up onto the top beside her husband and helped him lower himself down the other side into Josef’s waiting arms. She jumped down to land beside them.

Nora looked up and down the road. No cars, no houses, no people anywhere. A flash of lightning was followed by a low boom of thunder. The rain was really falling now, and they were soaked.

“How did you get out here?” she asked the young man.

“Motor scooter,” he said, pointing off toward the forest on their right. “A Vespa. It’s in the woods over there. I borrowed it at the train station in King’s Lynn.”

“Well, that’s out,” Nora muttered. A scooter wasn’t going to get three people anywhere. She took charge of the situation. “Okay, the car we came in is this way. Let’s go.” She and Josef each held one of Jeff’s arms, and they moved toward the iron gates. When they arrived there, they stopped while Nora crept forward to peek around the brick column at the side of the entrance and up the drive toward the house.

Her escape had been discovered. The front door of the house burst open, and Craig and the man named Mustapha took off at a dead run toward the barn. Bill Howard came out onto the porch, squinting out through the downpour at the drive and the field, looking for any signs of activity. She ducked back behind the column as his gaze swept across the gates. The sky had darkened considerably with the rain, but she wasn’t taking any bets on Bill Howard’s eyesight, not now. If they tried to move now, he’d see them. She held up a hand to Jeff and Josef, telling them to wait, and peered around the column again.

The two men ran out of the barn toward the house, and Craig was shouting something. Bill threw up his hands and began yelling at them. Then he disappeared into the house, but only for a moment. He emerged immediately with a suitcase and headed for the Aston Martin, calling instructions to the others. Nora couldn’t hear his words through the rain and at this distance, but she got the gist of it: Bill was clearing out, Mustapha was to come with him, and Craig was to remain behind, searching for the Barons. Bill and Mustapha got into the car, and Craig headed back into the farmhouse.

“Now,” she said, and the three of them hurried across the open expanse of the iron gates to the opposite wall. With Jeff between them, she and Josef moved as swiftly as they could, but it wasn’t easy. They were all crouching down as they ran, and the weight of the big man was constantly throwing one or the other of them off balance, threatening to send all three of them down into the mud at the side of the road.

They staggered the length of the red brick wall toward the far end, listening as the roar of the sports car grew in volume behind them. Any minute now, the car would reach the end of the drive and turn into the main road, and they would be in plain sight. She and Josef ran faster, dragging Jeff along. When they got to the end of the wall, they turned and plunged into the trees, dropping to the soggy ground. They lay there, a tangle of wet arms and legs, waiting.

Moments later, the gold Aston Martin sped by, following the route the two trucks had taken a few minutes ago. Josef craned his head out from their hiding place to study the retreating car, then turned back to Nora.

“That leaves only Elder at the farm,” he said. “The guard in the stable was the only other regular here, as far as I could see earlier, when I looked around. I saw Elder carry you out of the woods to the back of the farmhouse-he was making sure the men outside didn’t see you. I told Mr. Baron you were here when I found him, and I was planning on coming to find you in the house as soon as the trucks were gone, but you made that unnecessary. Good show!”

Nora smiled, pleased by the remark. This Israeli agent didn’t seem to be the type to dispense compliments lightly, so it clearly meant something. He also didn’t seem to mind letting her lead this operation, civilian that she was, and that was an even bigger compliment. But there was no time to bask in her glory, not now. She rose and helped Josef to get Jeff on his feet. “There’s a dirt road over that way, through the trees. The car is there, an old Ford Focus. Can you hot-wire an engine?”

She was speaking to Josef, but it was Jeff who answered her. “We both can, Pal. Just get us to it, and we’ll start it.” She noticed the pride in his voice and the gleam in his eye, despite his injuries and what must be a raging fever, judging from the heat of his skin. She thought, This hero is my husband.

They moved through the forest, brushing away the rain that dripped down from the dense carpet of leaves above them. The lightning and thunder continued, and the sky she could see through the branches was nearly black. It’s just going on two in the afternoon, she thought, but it might as well be twilight. Jeff stumbled once, but her hand was there to steady him and guide him along. The dirt road appeared before them, a sudden clear space among the trunks and tangled undergrowth. They hurried down the road, skidding in the mud with every step, deeper into the woods and around a bend. And there was the Focus parked at the side, exactly as she’d last seen it.

Nora was about to rush toward the car when Josef’s hand on her arm stopped her.

“Wait,” he said. He took his pistol from her hand, indicating that she should replace him on Jeff’s right side. As Nora grasped her husband’s right arm, the young man moved slowly forward, closing the twenty feet between them and the car, scanning the trees at both sides of the road for any signs of movement. Nora squinted through the downpour, watching as he cautiously approached the vehicle.

Josef shifted the pistol to his left hand and bent down to pick up a big rock from the side of the road near the rear right tire. He straightened up and raised the rock, preparing to smash the driver’s side window. As Nora and her husband watched, the rock suddenly fell from his hand, and he was flying forward to collide with the side of the car. He bounced off the door and toppled over backward, landing flat on his back in the muddy tract. The pistol had fallen from his other hand. His head fell to the side, facing them, and Nora saw that his dark eyes were wide open, watching her. As she stared, he slowly, deliberately winked at her. Then he shut his eyes and lay still.

She hadn’t heard a sound through the falling rain, but she immediately knew what had happened. Josef had been shot with a round from a silenced weapon. She couldn’t see him very well, so she didn’t know the nature of his injury, but he was alive and alert. The shock of seeing the young man fall down was momentary; when she saw him wink, something else took over inside her. Without even thinking, she reached over and removed the snub-nosed revolver from Jeff’s hand. She continued to grasp his arm with her left hand, but she turned toward him and raised her right hand across her stomach, concealing the gun between their bodies.

“What are you doing?” Jeff whispered.

“My job,” she murmured. “Trust me.” She didn’t look at him; her face was turned toward the car, her gaze riveted to the edge of the forest directly behind where Josef had fallen. After a moment, Craig Elder stepped out from the trees. He kicked Josef’s pistol away to the side of the road, then he walked slowly toward them. In his right hand he held Jacques Lanier’s silver SIG Sauer, the weapon she had given him, and it was aimed directly at her husband.

“Hello again, Nora,” Craig said, and he grinned.