“And?”
“And the Bureau turned me down. They said I was too valuable in the field. Too experienced. They did have the courtesy to set me up in another town, in another gig. A desk job for a while.”
“So there was no wife. That was all made up.”
Riggs rubbed his injured arm again. “No, I was married. After I relocated. Her name was Julie.”
LuAnn said very quietly, “Was?”
Riggs shook his head slowly and took a weary sip on his coffee. The steam from the liquid fogged the window and he traced his real initials in it, forming the D and the B for Dan Buckman with great care as though doing it for the very first time. “Ambush on the Pacific Coast Highway. Car went over the cliff with about a hundred bullet holes in it. Julie was killed by the gunfire. I took two slugs; somehow neither of them hit any vitals. I was thrown clear of the car, landed on a ledge. Those were the scars you saw.”
“Oh, God. I’m so sorry, Matthew.”
“Guys like me, we probably shouldn’t get married. It wasn’t something I was looking for. It just happened. You know, you meet, you fall in love, you want to get married. You expect everything to sort of click after that. Things that you know might come up to ruin it, you sort of will them away. If I had resisted that impulse, Julie would still be alive and teaching first grade.” He looked down at his hands as he spoke. “Anyway, that was when the brilliant higher-ups at the Bureau decided I just might want to retire and change my identity. Officially, I died in the ambush. Julie’s six feet under in Pasadena and I’m a general contractor in safe, pastoral Charlottesville.” He finished his coffee. “Or at least it used to be safe.”
LuAnn slid her hand across the front seat and took his in a firm grip.
He squeezed back and said, “It’s tough wiping out so many years of your life. Trying not to think about it, forgetting people and places, things that were so important to you for so long. Always afraid you’re going to slip up.” He stared at her. “It’s damn tough,” he said wearily.
She raised her hand up and stroked his face. “I never realized how much we had in common,” she said.
“Well, here’s another one.” He paused for a second as their eyes locked. “I hadn’t been with a woman since Julie.”
They kissed tenderly and slowly.
“I want you to know,” Riggs said, “that that wasn’t the reason this morning happened. I’ve had other opportunities over the years. I just never felt like doing anything about them.” He added quietly, “Until you.”
She traced his jaw line with her index finger and then her finger curled up to his lips. “I’ve had other chances too,” she said. They kissed again and then their bodies instinctively embraced and held tightly like two pieces from a mold, joined at last. They sat and rocked together for several minutes.
When they finally pulled away, Riggs checked the parking lot, refocusing on the present situation.
“Let’s get to your house, pack some clothes, and whatever else you need. Then we’ll go to my house and I’ll do the same. I left the notes I made from my phone calls about you on my desk. I don’t want to leave a trail for anyone.”
“There’s a motel off twenty-nine about four miles north of here.”
“That’s a start.”
“So, what do you think Jackson’s going to do now?”
“He knows I lied about you. He has to assume I lied about Donovan. Since I have every reason not to reveal the truth and Donovan is trying his best to do that, Jackson will go after him first and me second. I called Donovan and left a message warning him.”
“Boy, that’s real encouraging, being number two on Master Psycho’s hit list,” Riggs said, tapping his hand against the gun in his pocket.
A few minutes later they pulled up the private drive to Wicken’s Hunt. The house was dark. LuAnn parked in front and she and Riggs got out. LuAnn punched in the home’s security code and they went inside.
Riggs sat alertly on the bed while LuAnn stuffed some things in a small travel bag.
“You’re sure Lisa and Charlie are okay?”
“As sure as I can be. They’re far away from here. And him. That can only be a good thing.”
Riggs went over to the window that overlooked the front drive. What he saw coming up the driveway made his knees buckle for an instant. Then he snatched LuAnn by the hand and they were racing down the stairs and out the rear entrance.
The black sedans stopped in front of the house and the men quickly scrambled out. George Masters laid a hand on the BMW’s hood and immediately scanned the area. “It’s warm. She’s here somewhere. Find her.” The men fanned out and surrounded the house.
LuAnn and Riggs were racing past the horse barn and were headed into the deep woods when LuAnn pulled up.
Riggs stopped too, clutching at his arm, sucking in air. They were both trembling.
“What are you doing?” he gasped.
She motioned toward the horse barn. “You can’t run with that arm. And we can’t just go floundering around in the woods.”
They entered the horse barn. Joy immediately started to make some noise and LuAnn quickly darted over and soothed the animal. While LuAnn readied their mount, Riggs pulled a pair of binoculars off the wall and went outside. Setting up in some thick bushes that hid the horse barn from the house, Riggs focused the binoculars. He automatically jerked back as he saw, under the floodlights that fully illuminated the entire rear lawn, the man moving across the back of the house, rifle in hand and the letters “FBI” emblazoned across his jacket. The next sight made Riggs mutter under his breath. It was five years since he had seen the man. George Masters hadn’t changed much. The next instant the men disappeared from view as they entered the house.
Riggs hustled back to the horse barn where LuAnn was checking the cinches on the saddle. She patted Joy’s neck, whispering calming words to the horse as she slid on the bridle.
“You ready?” she asked Riggs.
“Better be. As soon as they find the house empty, they’re going to check the grounds. They know we’re around somewhere — the car’s engine would’ve still been warm.”
LuAnn planted a wooden crate next to Joy, swung up, and reached out a hand for Riggs. “Step on the crate and hold on tight to me.”
Riggs managed to struggle up in this fashion, clutching his arm as he did so. He planted his good arm around LuAnn’s waist.
“I’ll go as slow as I can, but it’s going to jostle you a lot regardless. Horseback riding does that.”
“Don’t worry about me. I’ll take a little pain to having to try and explain everything to the FBI.”
As they started off on the trail LuAnn said, “So that’s who it was? Your old friends?” Riggs nodded.
“At least one old friend in fact. Used to be a friend anyway. George Masters. He’s the one at the Bureau who said I was too valuable in the field, who wouldn’t let me enter Witness Protection until my wife was dead.”
“Matthew, it’s not worth it. There’s no reason you should be running from them, you haven’t done anything wrong.”