Fatal Tide - Iris Johansen [83]
Archer muttered a curse.
Melis stared at him in surprise. “What's wrong?”
“Nothing. Giles is giving us the all-clear,” Archer said. “Let's go, Melis.”
Melis tried not to show her relief. She had been tense from the moment Archer had dispatched his men to search the area. She shouldn't have worried. Kelby had said he and Nicholas would have no problem. But it didn't matter what she should or should not have felt. The fear was there, and she couldn't reason it away. “Let me go back to town. You can see I didn't set a trap for you.”
“Stop whining.” He took her elbow and nudged her up the trail. “It's very distasteful. You've been very good. I don't want to have to punish you.”
She drew a deep, shaky breath. “You won't hurt Susie? I've done everything you said.”
“You've made a good start.” Archer's eager gaze was on the trees, and his tone was absent. “Don't talk to me. You're not important right now. I'll deal with you later.”
They had rolled the rock away and Pennig was digging. Melis and Archer stood together a couple of yards away.
There wasn't much time now, Kelby knew.
One man at the road.
One man seven yards from the tree where Kelby was sitting.
One man about twenty yards on the other side of the glade. He was the difficult target. They'd have to take out the men on this side and then make their way to the other side. The cover was sparse and the man had an Uzi. Archer's men on this side of the glade were armed only with handguns.
Kelby drew a deep breath, cupped his hands over his mouth, and made the sound of an owl.
A beam from the flashlight of the man closest to him immediately circled the trees. It focused on the yellow eyes of the owl in the branches of the tree next to Kelby. At the sudden glare of light, the owl gave a cry of his own and flew from the branch.
The flashlight went out.
Kelby waited.
One minute.
Two minutes.
The soft hoot of the owl. Another hoot.
Nicholas had gotten the man at the road.
His turn.
He threw the rock in his hand at the shrubbery several yards left of where the man below him was standing.
The man whirled and moved toward the shrubbery.
Fast.
Silent.
Kelby was down the tree and a yard behind the guard before he knew he was there. The man started to turn and opened his lips to call out.
Too late. The garrote twisted about his neck, cutting through flesh so that only a gasp came from his lips. He was dead in seconds.
Kelby let the body fall and gave three soft hoots to signal Nicholas. He gave a glance at Melis and Archer. Pennig had already dug at least two feet into the ground.
Shit.
One more guard to take out across the glade before it was safe to go after Pennig and Archer.
He started moving, low, fast, around the glade toward the man with the Uzi.
“I thought you said it was only a couple of feet down,” Archer said. “We should be striking pay dirt.”
“Anytime.” Melis moistened her lips. There had been nothing but silence from the trees where Archer had stationed his men. It could mean nothing. Or it could mean failure. “I'm only telling you what Phil told me. Phil hated physical labor. He told me that it was stupid to dig deep when we had a rock to roll over it.”
“I don't love it myself,” Pennig said between his teeth as his shovel bit deep. “If I wanted to be a ditchdigger, I wouldn't have—” He stopped. “I think I've hit something.”
Archer moved closer. “Dig, dammit.”
“I'm doing it. I'm doing it.” He was shoveling faster.
And they were ignoring her.
Melis took a tiny step backward toward the two pines. Then another step.
They were pulling out the chest, breaking the lock.
She took two more steps back.
As soon as they opened the chest and started going through it, she'd bolt and run.
Silence from the trees around her.
Only Pennig's and Archer's hard breathing as they lifted the lid.
“What the hell?”
Empty. Even from here she could see the chest was empty.
Archer was cursing and turning toward her.
She ran, zigzagging toward the pines.