Someone To Watch Over Me Part 10

"I'm sure you must," he said with his ghost of a smile. "I've seen faces that looked worse than yours-but their owners weren't breathing."

Leigh figured he'd probably seen a lot of dead people, at least one of whom he'd killed himself, and she turned abruptly toward Logan's study. "I'm not certain what you're looking for, but-"

" Leigh!" Brenna burst out, running into the living room, while Hilda and Joe O'Hara both crowded into the kitchen doorway. "Detective Shrader is on the telephone! It's important."

Leigh grabbed for the closest telephone, one that was on an end table next to the living room sofa. "Detective Shrader?"

"Mrs. Manning, we're pretty sure we've found the spot where you went off the road. There are some boulders near the top of an embankment with fresh black paint on them, and there's a path of broken branches down the embankment.

There's a small clearing at the bottom and we've just determined there's water under the snow and ice there. We've also detected a large ma.s.s of metal in the water, and we've called for trucks with winches-"

"What about my husband!" Leigh burst out. "He has to be somewhere close to there!"

"We've got search teams on the way to the area; they'll start circling out over -"

"I'm coming out there. Where are you?"

"Look, why don't you just stay by the phone. It will take you several hours to -"

"I want to be there!"

Michael Valente touched her sleeve. "I have a helicopter-"

Leigh's momentary annoyance at his interruption gave way to dizzying grat.i.tude. "Detective Shrader," she said into the phone, "I have use of a helicopter. Tell me where you are-" As she spoke, Leigh looked wildly about for paper and a pen. Valente reached for the phone with one hand and into his jacket pocket for a pen with the other. "I'll get the directions," he told her. "Go and get ready to leave."

As Leigh rushed for the bedroom, she heard him say into the phone, "Exactly where are you, Detective?"

It took Leigh several painful minutes to pull on her boots, and when she emerged carrying her coat and gloves, Valente was already standing in the foyer with his coat on, flanked by Brenna and Hilda. He frowned as he watched her walking toward him; then he took her coat from her. "Stand still, and let me do the work," he instructed, and then he drew each sleeve over her arm, rather than merely holding the coat behind her.

The procedure took only moments, but to Leigh it seemed much longer. She was already out the door with him when she called over her shoulder to Brenna and Hilda, "I'll phone you as soon as I know anything."

"Don't forget," Brenna said.

In the elevator, Leigh felt Michael Valente's eyes on her, but she was so grateful to him that she was able to ignore his scrutiny and even managed to give him a wan smile as she said, "Thank you very much for what you're doing."

He dismissed that without reply. "A couple of reporters were hanging around the entrance to your building," he said instead. "I had your secretary phone my driver and tell him to bring my car around to the service entrance. Where is it?"

he asked as they stepped out of the elevator.

"Follow me." The elevators were blocked from the view of people on the street by a veritable forest of potted trees in the lobby, and Leigh carefully stayed behind them as she turned right, toward the rear of the building. They emerged into an alley blocked by two identical black Mercedes limousines with chauffeurs standing at attention beside each of the vehicles' open pa.s.senger doors.

Valente's car was in the rear. His chauffeur was a clean-cut man in his early thirties, who looked like a Secret Service agent who ought to be driving a dignitary's car. Joe O'Hara, with his bulky body and prizefighter's broken face, looked as if he should be driving a former convict's car. Valente started to steer Leigh toward his own car, but O'Hara stepped purposefully into his path. "I'm Mrs. Manning's driver," he informed Valente.

"I have my own car and driver," Valente said shortly, starting to step around him.

"Then you can take your car and lead the way, but Mrs. Manning rides with me."

At his confrontational tone and manner, Valente's chauffeur suddenly started forward. "Is there a problem here, Mr. Valente?"

"There is going to be," O'Hara warned with a surprisingly sharp edge to his voice.

"Get the h.e.l.l out of the way-" Valente said in a low, explosive voice.

"Please!" Leigh cried. "We're wasting time." She looked at Michael Valente, her eyes pleading. Her life had become a dark, dangerous, unknown sea that she had to navigate, and at the moment, O'Hara was the only slightly familiar person in it. She rather wanted him with her. "My husband told Mr. O'Hara to stay with me. I'd like to let him do that."

To her surprised relief, Valente capitulated immediately, but the look he gave O'Hara was distinctly unpleasant. "Get in and drive," he said shortly, holding the door himself for Leigh.

CHAPTER 14.

Seated next to Valente's pilot, wearing thick padded headphones to m.u.f.fle the roar of the rotors, Leigh anxiously scanned the scene below. The state police had blocked off the mountain road, men were swarming over the steep snow-covered incline, and trucks with winches were backed up on the shoulder. Police cars from the NYPD and the state police lined both sides of the road, and several police helicopters were flying slow circles over the hills nearby, undoubtedly searching for the cabin that Leigh believed was near the site of her accident.

Valente's voice came through her earphones, calm, matter-of-fact, and strangely rea.s.suring. "They've found something in the water down there, and they've already got the winches connected to it." To the pilot, he said, "Put us down on the road, behind the tow trucks."

"It's going to be tight, Mr. Valente. There's a wider spot a half mile back where the trees aren't so close to the road."

"Mrs. Manning can't walk that far. Put us down behind the trucks," he ordered.

It occurred to Leigh that if the helicopter crashed because it got hung up in tree limbs, none of them were going to be able to walk anywhere for a very long time, but caution was not a priority of hers at that moment.

The helicopter rotors were still whipping snow into a white typhoon when Valente came around to her side and lifted her down. His eyes narrowed when she bent forward, clutching her midriff. "How bad are your ribs?"

"Not bad," Leigh lied, trying to catch her breath. "Small fractures." With O'Hara on her left and Valente on her right, Leigh looked around for the two New York City detectives. Detective Littleton was standing in the road, a phone pressed to one ear, her hand covering the other, her ponytail blowing in the wind. Shrader was on the shoulder of the road, opposite the tow trucks, talking to a New York City officer. He saw Leigh, ended his conversation, and started toward her. "Good morning, Mrs. Manning-" he said politely; then he recognized Valente, and Shrader's expression turned positively hostile.

"Have your helicopters found any sign of the cabin yet?" Leigh asked.

"No," Shrader said curtly, his gaze riveted on Michael Valente's face. When he finally s.h.i.+fted his attention to Leigh, he looked at her with such icy contempt that she felt as if she'd committed a crime merely by being in Valente's presence.

"Are you certain you've found my car?" she asked.

His gaze flicked to Valente. "At this moment," he informed her sarcastically, "I'm not certain of anything." Without another word, he turned on his heel and strode toward the tow trucks, but first he stopped to say something to the officer he'd been talking to earlier. The officer nodded and walked in the direction of Michael Valente's helicopter.

Put off by Shrader's att.i.tude, Leigh stayed where she was, partially s.h.i.+elded from the wind by Joe O'Hara and Valente, while the winches on both trucks revolved slowly, haltingly, grinding almost to a stop, then moving abruptly again as they slowly dragged the dead weight of an unseen object through the trees and up the incline. Leigh thought of walking over to the edge of the road to get an early glimpse of what she knew was going to be her car, but she stayed where she was, reluctant to go near Shrader in his current mood. She watched the helicopters searching the ridges to her right; then she glanced to the left and saw the police officer in an intense conversation with Valente's helicopter pilot. The pilot was retrieving books and doc.u.ments from inside the plane and showing them to him. "What is he doing?" she asked Valente, motioning to the officer.

Valente looked in the direction she indicated. "He's ha.s.sling my pilot," he replied flatly.

Based on his att.i.tude, Leigh a.s.sumed that being ha.s.sled by the police was probably a regular routine for him. "Oh," she said lamely.

"Mrs. Manning-" Shrader motioned for Leigh to join him. "Is that your vehicle?"

With inexplicable feelings of dread, Leigh walked slowly to the edge of the embankment and looked down at the tortured metal remains of what had once been her car. No longer oblong and s.h.i.+ny black, the Mercedes was burned to bare metal in places and mangled into a shape that vaguely resembled a squashed cube. "Yes," she said. "That's my car."

Valente came up behind her and looked over the embankment. "Jesus Christ!"

he said softly.

Tearing her gaze from the automobile that had nearly been her temporary casket, Leigh focused on the helicopters searching the distant skyline. "How long do you think it will be before they find the place I was supposed to meet my husband? "

"It's hard to say. Could be any minute, or it might take hours or even longer."

Before she could say anything, one of the officers shouted that Shrader had a radio call, and he turned his back on her and strode off. Praying that the call involved news of Logan, Leigh watched Shrader walk over to a patrol car, reach in through the open window, and take out the police radio. He listened for a moment; then he twisted around sharply and looked up at the horizon to the northeast. Leigh followed his gaze. One of the helicopters had narrowed its circle and was swooping lower and lower, flying in very tight circles. "They've found something!" she burst out, grabbing Valente's arm in her excitement.

"Look-over there, at the helicopter farthest away. He's flying low, and the other helicopters have started over there toward him. They've found Logan. I think they've found Logan!"

Shrader finished talking on the radio and tossed it onto the front seat of the car; then he trotted over to her. "One of our pilots thinks he's found the house.

Small stone cabin with a light gray slate roof. He thinks he can make out a stone well, too-like a little 'wis.h.i.+ng well' near the cabin. Did your husband mention anything about a wis.h.i.+ng well?"

"Yes!" Leigh exclaimed. "Yes, he did. I'd forgotten about that!"

"Okay, then," he said, turning to motion to Littleton. "Let's go!" he shouted.

He started toward their car, and Littleton trotted to it from the opposite direction, getting in on the driver's side.

Leigh tried to run after him and nearly pa.s.sed out on the third step from the streaks of pain in her ribs. "Wait," she called, grasping her midriff. "I want to go with you."

Shrader turned, frowning at the delay, as if he'd forgotten she had an intense personal interest in the search. "It would be better if you wait here."

"I want to go with you," Leigh repeated angrily.

He glanced around, saw the police officer who'd been "ha.s.sling" Valente's pilot earlier, and motioned him over. After a brief conversation, Shrader continued toward his own car, and the police officer walked over to Leigh. The name tag on his jacket said he was "Officer Damon Harwell."

"Detective Shrader said you can ride with me," Harwell told her; then he turned a scathing look on Valente. "You're finished here, Valente. Get that bird off the road before I impound it."

Leigh was dimly embarra.s.sed by Harwell's treatment of the man who had kindly flown her to the site, but all of her concentration was centered on Logan.

Logan was close. He was near.

O'Hara's interest was Leigh. "I'm going with Mrs. Manning," he warned the officer. "I'm her bodyguard."

"Fine," Harwell said with a shrug, and turned away.

Leigh was in a desperate hurry to leave, but when she turned to thank Valente and tell him good-bye, she realized he was unmoved by Harwell's threats. His next words confirmed that. "Would you like me to go with you?" he asked calmly.

The last thing Leigh wanted to do was to subject him to any more humiliation or cause him any trouble with the police. "I'll be all right," she said. "Thank you so much for everything."

Ignoring both her grat.i.tude and her statement that she'd be all right, he looked at her intently and repeated his question. "Would you like me to go with you?"

The truth was that Leigh would have liked to take an army with her; the more able men to find Logan and get him out of there, the better. She cast an uneasy glance at Harwell, who'd gotten into his squad car and started the engine. "I don't think that would be a very good idea."

"I think it would be," he said, guessing at the reason for her reluctance and overriding it.

Leigh decided he was right, and as she slid into the backseat of Officer Harwell's car, she said as courteously as she could, "Officer Harwell, Commissioner Trumanti a.s.sured me I would have the full cooperation of everyone in the NYPD. And Mr. Valente is with me."

Harwell said nothing until they were under way; then he flipped on the siren and glanced at Valente in the rearview mirror. "You must feel right at home back there, Valente," he said with a malicious smile. "You're usually in handcuffs, though, aren't you?"

Too horrified to hide her reaction, Leigh glanced sharply at Valente. He was calmly phoning his pilot and giving him instructions, but his eyes were riveted on the back of Harwell's head, and the expression on his face was lethal.

CHAPTER 15.

One after another, police vehicles from the site of Leigh's accident flew past them, light bars flas.h.i.+ng and sirens blaring, en route to the cabin. Leigh leaned forward and angrily asked Harwell, "Did Detective Shrader tell you to go this slow, or are you doing it just to be unpleasant?"

"Detective Shrader's orders, ma'am," Harwell replied, but Leigh could see his smirking face in the rearview mirror, and she knew he was enjoying her frustration-probably because she'd forced him to take Michael Valente along.

"Why would he give you an order like that?"

"I really couldn't say."

"Take a guess!" O'Hara snapped.

"Okay. My guess is that Detective Shrader doesn't know what he's going to find, or if he's going to find anything, and he wants a little extra time to look around and a.s.sess the scene. Family members and civilians get in the way." As he spoke, he flipped on his turn indicators. "This is it."

A mile after the turnoff, he pulled to a stop in the middle of a narrow mountain road crowded with police cars, including some from surrounding communities. The cabin was nowhere in sight, but a steep, narrow lane led from the road, down through the trees, and then disappeared around a bend.

Harwell got out of the car. "You stay here!" he ordered her, shouting to be heard above the roar of a hovering helicopter and the wailing siren of an approaching ambulance. "I'll let you know what they've found."

Police officers wading through the chest-high snow had created a pa.s.sage of sorts with their bodies, and Leigh stood between O'Hara and Valente, watching Harwell make his way down the deep, slippery channel. More police officers arrived and trooped through the snow, but no one reappeared from around the bend below.

Leigh counted each second, waiting for someone to come up and tell her something, and when no one did, she began to feel as if she were going to explode into a million pieces.

Beside her, Valente was scowling down the lane; then he swore under his breath and looked at her. "How badly are you hurt?"

"What?"

"Your ribs?" he clarified. "Can you handle the pain if I lift you up and carry you down there?"

"Yes!" Leigh said. "But I don't think you-"

Before she could finish, Valente put one arm beneath her knees, curved his other arm around her shoulders, and lifted her into his arms. He looked at O'Hara and nodded toward the steep path. "You go first, and I'll walk in your footsteps. If I start to slip, try to brace me."

The plan worked, and a few minutes later, Leigh finally had an un.o.bstructed view of the entire scene. The picturesque stone cabin stood in a clearing at the end of the driveway, just as Logan had described it to Leigh. Fifty yards from the cabin, the land dropped off sharply, and a horde of policemen were working their way slowly downward through the trees.

Another officer was stationed on the cabin's porch, peering inside through the open doorway. He turned in surprise as Valente put Leigh down behind him.