Loe raamatut: «Navy Seal Cop»

Chapter 1

Deserted alley in the middle of the night when all sensible people were in bed? Check.

Famously haunted and badly lit location? Check.

Ground fog swirling thickly enough to create a spooky-as-heck mood and obscure everything? Check.

Either she was ready to start shooting the next episode of the popular television show America’s Ghosts, or she was about to commit a homicide.

Of course, if the show’s host didn’t quit trying to tell her how to do her job filming him, there might just be a murder out here tonight.

Carrie Price stared through the viewfinder of her digital movie camera at her boss and renowned ghost hunter, Gary Hubbard. For tonight’s episode he’d picked Pirate’s Alley in New Orleans. The tourists and foot traffic were long gone, leaving just their footsteps to echo weirdly off the brick walls and their grotesquely elongated shadows to freak her out a little bit.

Bounded on one side by St. Anthony’s Garden behind a tall, wrought-iron fence and on the other side by darkened shops with tightly closed wooden doors, the narrow alley was only lit by widely spaced cast-iron streetlamps, forming blue haloes of light in drifts of ground fog. The old bricks glistened with moisture and a damp chill hung in the air. She wouldn’t have to apply any filters at all in post-production to achieve the show’s signature gothic vibe.

Gary walked backward down the alley, narrating a story about the possibly haunted buildings now standing on the site of the Calabozo, a prison that once housed pirate Jean Lafitte and much of his crew. Then Gary spun a tale of a lost pirate treasure rumored to be hidden somewhere in New Orleans, known only to the city’s ghosts. This season he’d branched out from strictly ghost hunting to include a treasure hunt in the show, a blatant publicity stunt to get America’s Ghosts renewed for another season. It had been a good move. His ratings had gone through the roof as he churned out a plot line of convincing ghosts to lead him to a mythical treasure hoard.

She let Gary back away from her far enough that he became little more than a silhouette within the mysterious fog, his melodic baritone voice a disembodied entity floating out of the mists of time. She should get a freaking Emmy for this camera work!

Just starting to move forward and rejoin Gary for some close-ups of him looking tense and then excited as tonight’s ghost “appeared” to him, she spied something dark moving out of the shadows behind Gary. Two dark somethings, in fact.

She jolted but kept the camera rolling. Gary hadn’t told her he’d hired anyone to stage an apparition appearance. But these actors looked terrific. Clothed in black from head to foot, they’d even covered their faces with some kind of black cloth, which gave them an otherworldly eeriness as they crept up behind Gary.

He turned just as the pair of “ghosts” reached him. Uncharacteristically, Gary threw up his hands and stumbled as if he was frightened of these apparitions. Oh, God. This was going to make for a great episode. She would cut to commercial just after he threw his hands up and cried out in surprise. All of America would be on the edge of its La-Z-Boys waiting to see what happened after three minutes of sponsored ads.

The ghosts grabbed Gary and commenced dragging him down the alley away from her. He struggled, but the apparitions easily overpowered him. What was he doing? He never interacted physically with ghosts. Sure, he’d been going for over-the-top supernatural elements this season, but was he seriously staging a ghost abduction? Why hadn’t he said something?

Whatever. It was his show. She was just the camerawoman.

Dammit, they were moving away from her too fast! Gary’s silver hair was part of the white fog now. She was live recording audio, or else she would have shouted at them to slow down or maybe even to reset and redo the take. She would keep the footage of that first jolt of surprise from Gary, though. It had looked totally authentic even though he wasn’t the world’s greatest actor. She often had to coach him through multiple takes to get a decent look of surprise out of him.

She moved forward more quickly, hurrying between the soaring walls of St. Louis Cathedral on her left, and on her right, the Cabildo, once the seat of government in Louisiana and now a museum. Gary and the two ghosts were only vague shapes in the fog ahead of her. She was losing them!

They disappeared from sight entirely. An eerie cry drifted back to her, echoing off the walls and seeming to come from all around her. Pure audio gold.

She rushed forward and stopped abruptly as she popped out of the alley. Jackson Square stretched away across the street from her, obscured by the fog. She panned her camera left and right down Chartres Street. Where did they go?

“Gary!” she called out.

Nothing.

“Gary!” she shouted. “Where are you?”

Still nothing.

“This isn’t funny. I need to reshoot your retreat into the fog. You guys moved too fast for me!”

What the heck? He still wasn’t answering her. She retraced her steps into the alley. Had he and the ghosts turned down Cabildo Alley? She reached the narrow side street and peered down it. Only wisps of fog moved in a slow-motion ballet, pirouetting up into the night. But there was no sign of three men pulling a sophomoric prank on her.

Had she moved past them inadvertently? She strode all the way back to the north end of the six-hundred-foot-long alley and the van she worked out of. No sign of Gary and his hilarious buddies.

Enough of this. She pulled out her cell phone and angrily hit the speed dial button for Gary. She tapped an irritated foot as she waited for him to pick up. The phone rang. And rang again. And kept on ringing until it kicked over to voice mail.

Huh. If his phone was working, why hadn’t he picked up? She walked from the show’s van all the way to the far end of the alley and back, looking for anywhere the three men might have disappeared to. Knowing Gary, he’d ducked into some bar and was hoisting a few cold ones with his actor pals, laughing his ass off at the great joke they’d played on her. Jerk.

If that was how he wanted to play this game, then he could find his own damned way back to the lodgings the show had rented for their month of shooting in New Orleans. They were scheduled to film eight episodes here, and tonight was number three. Normally, Gary reserved his more juvenile pranks for the last shooting day in any location. He knew his stupid stunts annoyed the heck out of her and she usually needed a week or two to cool down before they worked together again.

He was old enough to be her father, for crying out loud. It was horrendously unprofessional to pull crap like this on set. She called him every name she knew as she drove the van back to their rented house, a narrow, shabby affair with a one-car garage downstairs and two apartments upstairs.

She took satisfaction in stomping all the way to her third-floor apartment. Still mad, she downloaded tonight’s raw footage from her camera and played it back on the monitor of her computer.

On the larger screen, the alley looked even spookier than it had through her camera lens. Arms crossed in disgust, she watched the ghosts approach Gary, his turn, the look of surprise, and the brief struggle to follow. Hmm. Gary actually looked pretty darned convincing.

She backed up the tape and watched it again. Gary looked like he was genuinely trying to resist those guys.

A hum of alarm rumbled low in her gut. What if—

She played the tape a third time, and this time doubt poked her in the ribs. What if that was real? Not the ghosts, of course. In all the episodes of America’s Ghosts she’d filmed, she’d never seen an actual ghost. Modern special effects were a marvelous thing.

But what if the abduction had been real?

She watched the tape several more times, torn by indecision. It was entirely possible that Gary had staged it, either because he thought it would make for good television or simply because he got a huge kick out of scaring the hell out of her. He knew she didn’t believe in ghosts, and he was forever and always trying to convince her they were real by messing with her head.

If he really had been kidnapped, she needed to call the police right away. But if this was a joke and she called the cops, she would be embarrassed at best and charged with some crime at worst. And it wasn’t like she had any reason to trust police after her past.

She tried calling Gary several more times on his cell phone, but she was sent to voice mail every time. A glance at the clock told her it was after 2:00 a.m., the traditional time for most bars to close down for the night. That was finally what decided it for her. Something was wrong if he wasn’t answering her calls now.

Reluctantly, she Googled the phone number for the New Orleans Police Department. She hesitated, torn. If there was one thing in the world she hated worse than being jerked around by Gary, it was dealing with the police.

If only she had a friend on the show or knew someone who knew Gary. She could ask them to call the police and deal with all the questions and suspicion and recriminations. But no. She was even more antisocial than the ghosts Gary spent his life trying to capture.

Swearing under her breath, she punched in the stupid phone number.

“N’awlins Poh-lice. How may I help y’all?” a female voice drawled.

“I’d like to report a possible kidnapping.” She winced as soon as she heard the words spoken aloud. She’d lost her mind. There had been no kidnapping.

“I’ll connect y’all to the Missing Puh-sons Unit. One moment.”

A male voice came on the line. “Detective LeBlanc.” His voice, too, held a Southern drawl, but nothing like the previous cop’s.

“Uhh, hi. My name’s Carrie Price, and I think my boss may have been kidnapped.”

“Why’s that?”

“Umm, I filmed it.”

“When did this happen?” The detective’s voice was suddenly alert and interested.

“About two hours ago.”

“And you’re just now calling it in?”

Crapcrapcrapcrapcrap. She was in trouble for not calling sooner. “I thought it was a joke.” She added in a rush, “And honestly, it may still turn out to be a joke. But he’s not answering his phone, and the bars are shut down by now, aren’t they?”

“Most of them, yes.”

“I didn’t want to bother you, but I keep watching the video, and he seems genuinely surprised and I think he’s struggling for real against the ghosts.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“Not actual ghosts, of course. Guys dressed up to look like ghosts.”

“Riigghht. Where did this possible kidnapping happen?”

“Pirate’s Alley.”

“Of course.” The detective’s voice was dry now. Skeptical.

“Look. Can you just watch the video I filmed and tell me what you think of it?”

A sigh. “Sure. Do you want to come into the station?”

“It might be better if you came to my place. I have a high-resolution computer monitor and editing software that can enhance images, play video in slow motion, and do stop-action views.”

“What’s the address?”

She rattled it off and he responded, “I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”

It turned out to be more like ten, and she worried the whole time that she was just playing into Gary’s hands by calling the police. He was going to stumble in tomorrow morning, hung over as heck, and laugh his head off at her for panicking. And then she would have some tall explaining to do to the stern-sounding police officer.

When the door buzzer sounded, Carrie jogged downstairs to let in the cop...and stopped cold at the sight of the detective standing there. He was tall and would be good-looking with those lean cheeks and chiseled jaw if he wasn’t also so dad-blamed scary looking. That stern frown of his made her want to confess to every petty wrong she’d ever committed. He wore civilian clothes, which surprised her, but he flashed his badge as she peered out the peephole.

She threw open the door and registered that he was close to a foot taller than her. She was only five foot three, so he wasn’t a giant, but still. His waist was lean and his shoulders well-defined. Perhaps what struck her the most, though, were his piercing blue eyes. They were hard, exuding no-nonsense focus. Oh, God. He was everything she feared and loathed about police, and men in general.

“I’m Carrie Price. Thanks for coming.” She held out her hand, unsure of how to act around a police officer who wasn’t eyeing her with suspicion and wishing she wasn’t making accusations of the most powerful man in town.

This cop briefly looked surprised, but then took her hand in his. It was warm. Firm. A thick callus at the base of his thumb abraded her skin. His fingers swallowed hers up, intimidating as heck. Sometimes she really hated being as tiny as she was.

“Bastien LeBlanc.” In person, his Acadian drawl was more pronounced than over the phone.

She nodded, tongue-tied, and settled for turning and heading upstairs. She was vividly aware of him behind her, with a critical view of her rear end. Not that her behind was anything to write home about. She enjoyed running and tried to keep reasonably toned, but everything about her was small in scale. She could never compete with tall, voluptuous women with miles of curves.

Thankfully, she reached the third floor without falling on her face or otherwise humiliating herself. “Computer’s over here.” She headed for the kitchen table, which she had converted to a workspace. “Watch out for the power cords,” she murmured, stepping over an orange extension cord.

“Roger,” the scary detective replied.

That sounded more military than law enforcement. But then, he took the chair she indicated, and she reached over his shoulder to cue up the tape—and the scent of him knocked all rational thought right out of her head. He smelled like...warmth. His cologne was subtle and spicy and entirely edible. It totally didn’t mesh in her mind with the frowning, badass cop.

“I’m the camera operator for a TV show called America’s Ghosts, hosted by Gary Hubbard. I shot this footage of him earlier tonight.”

Gary’s deep voice filled the awkward silence and his image walked backward down the alley onscreen. She watched Detective LeBlanc from behind without comment, letting him form his own first impression.

The two men in black appeared, Gary turned around, and the men dragged him away. The whole incident took less than thirty seconds to play.

“Again,” the detective ordered, his eyes never leaving the screen.

She leaned forward to restart the footage, and her arm brushed against his, her face coming dangerously close to his ear. She jumped, as alarmed as if she’d poked a bear. She might not take crap from Gary, but cops turned her into a terrified teen all over again.

While the detective watched the video, she furtively watched him, noting the tiny frown of concentration, and the way muscles in his jaw rippled as his face tensed. He must be watching the abduction bit now.

He glanced up and caught her blatantly scoping him out. She looked away hastily, her heart racing as if she’d just sprinted a mile. She felt her cheeks heating up. Sheesh, this man made her uncomfortable.

“You said you can do stop-action on this machine?”

“Yes.”

“I need you to run the last part of the video, where the assailants grab Mr. Hubbard, frame by frame.”

She almost said, “Yes, sir,” but managed to mumble, “Coming up,” instead. She had to reach past him again to operate her mouse, and her left breast brushed his right arm by accident. She sucked in a sharp breath and kept her horrified gaze locked on the computer screen. Thankfully, he just leaned forward to study the screen closely as she advanced the video one frame at a time, each frame progressing by one forty-eighth of a second.

“There. Stop,” LeBlanc bit out, startling her. She stopped the video and stared at the image. The two black figures had a hold of Gary and appeared to be goose-stepping him away from her. She’d already seen it a dozen times.

LeBlanc poked at the screen. “Look at how this one is holding Mr. Hubbard’s hand. He’s twisting your boss’s hand behind his back and forcing his forearm upward with the hold.”

“And that’s significant why?” she asked.

“It’s a technique military members are taught for subduing prisoners.”

She frowned. “Would police use the same grip?”

He grinned up at her briefly, and she gasped inwardly as his smile lit up the dingy apartment. “Naw. Cops use handcuffs.”

“I’ll bet that’s what you say to all the girls,” she shot back. The smart remark was out of her mouth before she could stop it. “Oh, crap. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that—”

“No worries. And no, that’s not in my usual repertoire of pickup lines.”

“You have a repertoire?” Darn it, she’d done it again! This guy was a cop, for crying out loud. Lord, he threw her off balance.

His mouth twitched, hopefully with humor. Great. At best, he thought she was ridiculous. At worst, he thought she was an annoying twit. Not that she could blame him. She was a hot mess tonight.

Frantic to distract him, she mumbled, “What does it mean that one of his captors used some special grip on him?”

The detective’s muscular shoulder lifted in a shrug. “It’s a detail we can use to help identify the assailants.”

“You think that was a real abduction then?” she blurted.

“I do.”

Panic erupted in her belly and promptly tried to claw its way out of her throat. Suddenly she felt light-headed and faintly nauseated. “But who...?” she gasped. “Why?”

The detective surged to his feet, looming over her. He grasped her upper arms in his powerful hands and guided her over to the sofa, where he sat her down. Which was probably wise. The room spun around her and lights danced before her eyes.

“Take a deep breath, Miss Price. Hold it for one, two, three. Now exhale slowly. Three. Two. One.”

He talked her through several more breaths, and they helped her brain engage again. Still. She couldn’t seem to keep her hands from fidgeting uncontrollably. She plucked at the seam in her jeans and then wrung her hands and tugged at her T-shirt. He sat down beside her and his hands closed over hers as she stared at him in anguish.

His gaze wasn’t the least bit gentle. Thank God. She would’ve burst into tears then and there. But maybe that was a hint of sympathy lurking at the back of his deep blue eyes. Huh. The tough guy might just be human beneath that hard façade.

She wanted to crawl into bed, pull the covers up over her head, and curl up in a little ball with Mr. Paddles, her stuffed turtle. Which was weird if she stopped to think about it. She didn’t revert to little girl behaviors, well, pretty much ever. Not since she’d run away from home all those years ago. She’d been barely more than a child then.

The detective spoke not exactly gently, but less harshly than before. “The New Orleans Police will do everything we can to find Mr. Hubbard as quickly as possible.”

“You’re sure it’s not a prank?” she asked in a small voice.

“I don’t think it is. Mr. Hubbard’s body language in the video is consistent with genuine surprise and fear as he’s being dragged away.”

“I followed them down the alley. I couldn’t run because the camera would jostle too much, but I walked at a good clip. It was under a minute until I reached the end of the alley. Where could they have gone in so little time? God, I’m such an idiot—” She broke off as it dawned on her she was babbling.

The detective snorted. “With a minute’s head start, they could have thrown your boss into a vehicle and driven away without you ever seeing their taillights.”

Her breathing started to speed up again, and the detective looked her in the eye, took a deep breath, held it, and then released it slowly. Staring at him, she followed along, matching her breaths to his. It was an intimate thing, breathing in concert with him. Their gazes locked—his focused and calm, and hers probably completely freaked out.

In any other circumstances, she would be wildly attracted to a man who looked like him. But as it was, she could hardly keep the panic at bay. And it wasn’t just panic over Gary. Merely being in the presence of this man scared the heck out of her. And not only because he was a cop.

“Why Gary?”

“I don’t know why Mr. Hubbard was a target,” he said reasonably. “You tell me. Was he in any trouble? Did he have any enemies?”

She stared up at him in dismay. They were really going to do this? He was going to question her for real? Lord, she hated questions from police.

Her panic galloped away from her then, and her entire body shook with it. She’d been questioned like this once before, and look how that had turned out. Her best friend had died. Because of her. Because she’d gone to the police. Had she done it again? Had she just gotten Gary killed, too?