Free Vineyard Prey by Philip R. Craig Page A

girlfriend!”
    â€œYou like men, but you don’t have a boyfriend. That’s hard to believe. Like Joe says, you’re a very attractive woman. I imagine you could have your pick of men.”
    Her eyes flicked to and from Joe, then came back to me. “You’d be wrong. Besides, I never told anyone at all that I was coming here!”
    â€œNo friend, no brother, no mother, no lover?”
    â€œNo!”
    â€œNo trusty ex-beau who loves you even though now you’re just friends?”
    â€œNo! Now get out of my private life!” Her voice was angry and her eyes were hot, but there was an odd excitement in her face.
    I looked at Begay. “How about you, Joe? You plan to deal with the Bunny right here on the island, so you must have told somebody where he could find you.”
    Joe’s eyes were hooded. “If I did, I didn’t mention Kate. My plans were made before I found her pointing that pistol at your head. Kate shouldn’t be here but she is and now she’s got somebody on her tail. It complicates things.”
    â€œSend her away,” I said. “Put her on a plane and fly her out of here. The Bunny won’t be able to follow her and be here with you at the same time.”
    â€œI’m not going anywhere!” said Kate.
    â€œWhere should I send her?” asked Joe. “Back to Bethesda and more poisoned pins? No, we’ve talked about it and she’s staying right here in this house with me. Uncle Bill says we can use the place as long as we need it.”
    â€œShe sounds like more trouble than she may be worth.”
    He shook his head. “You’re wrong. She’s a trained agent and we’ve worked well together in the past. She’s good at what she does, and she makes two of us against one Bunny.” He looked at her and so did I. Her expression suggested gratitude and pleasure. Then he looked back at me. “You’re the problem, J.W.,” he said. “I’ve gotten you involved in this business and I don’t know how to get you out.”

  9 
    â€œSo far I don’t think I’m in trouble,” I said. “All Green Coat knows about me is that I know Kate. If he checks up on me, that’s still all he’ll know. I’m just a local guy with a family. The more he checks, the less reason he’ll have to think I’m anything else.”
    â€œFine,” said Joe. “Then go back to your family and leave the Bunny to Kate and me. It’ll be over pretty quickly, I think. When it is, I’ll get a message to you on your cell phone and you can take your family home again.”
    â€œAnd later you’ll tell me the whole story.”
    He smiled. “Sure I will.”
    I smiled back. “Sure you will.” I looked at Kate. “Since I may not see you again, there’s one thing you can tell me: How’d you get your last name?”
    â€œWhy do you ask?”
    â€œYou don’t look like a Celt. Besides, I like to know a little something about people who try to kill me.”
    She shrugged. “My father is an engineer. A wandering Scot. He met my mother while he was building a railroad in Indochina. I’m the result. But I didn’t try to kill you. If I had, you’d be dead. I was deciding whether to do it when Joe, here, showed up.”
    â€œJoe makes a habit of saving my hide,” I said. I shook hands with him, nodded to her, and went out to my truck. As I drove down-island I checked my rearview mirrors. No one was following me.
    Maybe Green Coat didn’t need to follow me around anymore because he knew where I lived and figured he could wait for me there. Or maybe he’d managed to stick an electric tracking device on my car and could find me whenever he wanted.
    Or maybe he’d decided I wasn’t a danger to him and didn’t merit further attention.
    I wondered if he was the Easter Bunny.
    If not, who was he and why was he