have discouraged him from using these grounds for his purpose. Those three deaths alone must have drawn attention. And Laurent said one of his agents saw Dietrich across the border near a private airport at Juarez last night.” His lips twisted. “That’s probably why Delgado is willing to pay Dietrich so much for his extraction. Unpredictability can be expensive.”
Kendra went to the window and gazed up at the cliff path. “He was trying to fool me?”
“What do you think?”
“I think he wanted to kill me,” she said. “And I don’t think that he’s going to go to Juarez. He may be unpredictable but I’m beginning to know him.”
“Then we’ll have to keep an eye out for the bastard, won’t we?” He grinned. “I made Laurent promise to call me if and when he gets definite word of what Dietrich is up to. Not that he’ll let me know much ahead of time. He wants Delgado in his sights before he gives me Dietrich. So can I talk you into going home?”
She shook her head. “No way. I’m going to go back to the library and thumb through those damn books again and try to figure out what Dietrich is going to do next.” She added ruefully, “If I can get Harley to leave me alone. He doesn’t obey me nearly as well as he does Olivia.”
“Olivia isn’t here?”
She shook her head. “I made her go home. Though it was a tough fight and she even took some of the books back to her condo to keep working. But she insisted on leaving Harley here to protect me.”
“Who else is here to protect you? Metcalf?”
“No, when the last students left the school, they closed down the crime scene and left a skeleton crew. Metcalf said Griffin was nagging him to go back to the office and fill out reports anyway. There are a couple agents at all the entrances, and Metcalf insisted on leaving Special Agent Roberts out front.”
“Kind of him.”
She smiled slightly. “He was afraid you were being irresponsible and leaving me here alone. He told me to call him if you didn’t show.”
“You told him how worried you were about that?”
“I just sighed and looked fragile.”
“You don’t do that very well.” But he was frowning. “I think I’ll go check the guards at the entrances and make sure they’re set up and on the alert. They might think because the rest of the crew pulled out that they can let down their guard. Call me if you need me.”
“Don’t worry. Agent Roberts took very good care of us while you were gone.” She headed for the library and closed the door behind her. She looked down at Harley, who had his head on his paws and was staring up at her inquiringly. “Please be good,” she murmured. “Everything is going crazy and I have to figure out how to stop it.”
* * *
Harley was amazingly good for the next few hours, but it didn’t help Kendra come up with anything fresh or new in that pile of books. She was beginning to believe that Lynch could be right to think Dietrich might have become discouraged about using this place to launch Delgado into his new existence. It was certainly practical that he would—
Her phone rang. Lynch.
She picked up. “I haven’t found anything yet that—”
“I just got a call from Laurent. His agent at Juarez thinks that Delgado is in a hangar at the south end of the airport where a Gulfstream was taxied earlier today. There’s all kind of muscle surrounding the place and Rico Lopez, who’s Delgado’s number one, was spotted going into the hangar with a briefcase an hour ago.”
Yes!
Her hand tightened on the phone. “What about Dietrich?”
“Not there now. But that same agent caught a glimpse of him a few hours ago.”
“Then he’s probably not far away from Delgado. We should get on the road right away.”
“Good thought. Forget it. We can’t go near that hangar. As soon as Laurent verifies that Delgado is there, a combined task force of the CIA and the Mexican government is going to launch an attack and take him down. Laurent won’t let us near there until Delgado is in custody. He promised he’d let me know the minute that happens.”
“I don’t want to wait. What if Dietrich gets away?”
“Then I’ll inflict great bodily harm on Laurent. At any rate, if we cause a fuss at that hangar, Dietrich will know and slip away. We don’t want that to happen.”