Dead Even - Mariah Stewart [113]
“Get rid of her, yeah.” Burt slumped back against the garage.
“Well, that would certainly create a lively diversion, wouldn’t it?” Jules said thoughtfully.
“What?”
“Maybe we could help each other.” Jules lowered the gun, but only slightly.
“Maybe. What is it you want?”
“I want my daughter. And my wife. They’re in that house.” He nodded in the direction of the house across the drive. “But you’re telling me there are two FBI agents in there. One is the woman you’re after. . . .” Jules scratched his head and continued to think through the situation.
“You know, maybe we can help each other.” The other man nodded. “I want the woman to come out; you want to get in.”
“We need to draw both agents outside,” Jules observed.
“Then you can slip inside, do whatever it is you came to do, and we both go on about our business.”
“There are two agents outside,” Jules told him. “We need to get rid of both of them. How are you with a knife?”
Burt shook his head. “Never used one. Gun is my weapon of choice, and right now, you’re holding mine.”
“So I am.” Jules pondered the situation, trying to figure out how best to utilize this strange turn of events.
When it came to him, he thought himself quite brilliant.
“I have an idea,” he whispered.
“Great.”
“We’re going to have to work together on this.”
“Whatever.” Burt’s eyes were still on the stranger’s gun.
“This is how I see it.” Jules leaned closer, and laid out his plan.
“Hey, that could work.” Burt nodded with a little more enthusiasm, now that he hadn’t been shot in the back. “I can see that working.”
“You get what you want; I get what I want. Then we both go on our way.”
“Sounds good to me.”
“The timing is important, though. We have to wait until the guy there by the end of the garage makes his move toward the front of the house. Should be in about another—” Jules looked at his watch and pushed in the pin on the side that illuminated the face. “—four minutes or so. He’ll start over to the house, keep to the shadows, walk all the way around to the front. I’m thinking he might go around to the other side before he starts back.”
“He does.” Burt nodded. “At least, he did last night. There’s that hedge over there, he walks along it as far as the back fence, then he comes back around again. Sometimes he stands in the doorway and just watches the street. There’s a small porch out there, and it’s dark without the lights on. He sometimes hangs out there a little. I was behind the hedge last night and watched him.”
“Good, good to know.” Jules smiled. “Now, all we need is for the agent in this house to come out. I don’t know what’s taking him so long. . . .”
“Oh, him? Last night he was mostly out by the front. There are some shrubs around the front steps.”
“Yes, yes, I know them.”
“Well, he stays mostly around the shrubs. Sits on the step, sometimes smokes a cigarette.”
“Great. I’ve got that covered. Give me five minutes.” Jules slipped out through the vines. “Then watch for me to come back around the corner of the house. We’ll give the guy there by the garage about three minutes, then you’ll make your move.”
“And you’ll take care of him?”
“I’ll take care of everything.”
“Great. Great.” Burt nodded. “It could work. It could be dicey, there’s some room for error, but not bad for impromptu.”
“Thanks.” Jules patted Burt on the back and started out of the shelter. “Good luck.”
Burt grabbed him by the back of the shirt and held him motionless.
“My gun,” Burt reminded him. “You’ve still got my gun.”
Jules pulled it from inside his belt and handed it over.
“Sorry.”
“No harm, no foul,” Burt assured him.
What a rube. Jules shook his head as he slipped through the shadows toward the back of Mrs. West’s house and around the far side. But that rube is the best shot I have to make this work. . . .
Jules stood in the midst of the shrubs that Helene West had long ago planted along the front of her house. There was just enough cover for him to blend in long enough for him to get his bearings and to plan his course. The agent he stalked was leaning on the opposite corner