Dead Aim by Iris Johansen Page A

environment?" Anger was quickly replacing the shock. "My God, are you with the police or FBI? I told them I wouldn't go along with--" He was shaking his head. "Then why the devil would you do something like this?"
    "John Logan made me an offer I couldn't refuse."
    She looked at him incredulously. "He paid you to do this?"
    "Well, he didn't tell me to snatch you. Only to make sure you were safe and his wife would know that." He smiled. "Unfortunately, I couldn't do one without the other."
    "You bastard. Kidnapping is a federal offense."
    He nodded. "So I've heard." He moved across the room toward the kitchenette. "I've got a stew on the stove. It should be ready in fifteen minutes if you want to wash up."
    "I don't want to wash up. I'm getting out of here."
    He shook his head. "Sorry, not possible. You don't know where you are, and I have the keys to the Land Rover outside. You could try to walk, but it's started to snow and you'd probably not make it to anywhere near civilization before you got hypothermia." He glanced at her handbag lying on the coffee table. "Oh, and I took the gun and telephone out of your bag. I didn't think photographers carried deadly weapons as a rule, but I guess your work has taken you into some hot spots." He moved over to the stove. "Fifteen minutes."
    She stared at Morgan in rage and frustration. She wanted to murder him. "They'll be looking for you. Leopold was sending an officer to meet me in the lobby."
    He nodded.
    "I'm not going to put up with this. I won't be kept a prisoner so some son of a bitch like you can earn a few bucks."
    He didn't answer.
    She had another thought. "Jesus, you set that hotel on fire, didn't you?"
    "Just your rental car in the parking garage. I parked it far enough away from the other cars so that it wouldn't cause more than a minor problem."
    "Just? Minor problem?" She was working her way through the scenario. "You had it all planned. You were probably the one who called the fire department. You even had a fireman's uniform ready. Why?"
    He didn't look up from the stew he was stirring. "I always believe in being prepared. Your father was a fireman. I knew you'd be suspicious of anyone else, but you'd instinctively trust anyone who wore the uniform."
    She felt a chill go through her as she remembered how safe she'd felt when he touched her wrist in that stairwell. He had thought it all out and come up with a plan that had caught her at her most vulnerable.
    She shook her head. "I still can't believe Logan would authorize a kidnapping."
    "I told you, he didn't exactly authorize it. I just made it part of the deal that he'd cover any action I thought necessary to protect you." He shrugged. "There was an outside chance that you might not even have had to know I was around. But when I saw the way the situation was shaping up, I knew I had to get you away."
    "I don't need you. I'm being protected by the police."
    He shook his head.
    "Call Detective Leopold. He'll tell you. Hell, they've been following me for two days."
    "I know. Blue Toyota. Two officers."
    She nodded. "One even followed me back to the hotel tonight."
    He shook his head. "They were taken out in the parking lot across from the precinct while you were inside this afternoon. The Toyota was driven out of the parking lot fifteen minutes after you went into the precinct, but not by the same men who drove it in. They went to the hotel and the driver left his partner there to do some fine-tuning to the elevator, then went back to the parking lot and waited for you to come out."
    "What?"
    "They were both very good, very professional. I was impressed."
    She stared at him in disbelief. "You're saying that they killed the officers who were following me and took their place?"
    He nodded. "There wasn't time or opportunity to get rid of the bodies, so I imagine they're in the trunk of the Toyota."
    She shook her head. "I don't believe you."
    "You will. It will just take a little while. Why should I lie?"
    "I don't know.