'So,' she said, 'you don't want me going back. And you also want my help bringing Dominique to justice.' Holding her hand, looking into her eyes, he said quietly, 'I do.' The wistful, tender way he'd spoken hit her almost as hard as the words he'd selected. She squeezed his hand. He squeezed back.
'Even if you get him, Dominique will get rich man's justice,' Nancy said. 'The kind the French government loves to dispense because it buys summer homes for officials.' 'Dominique won't be able to buy his way out of everything he's done,' Hood promised.
'And what about me?' she asked. 'Where does a whistle-blower go?' 'I'll help you when this is all over,' Hood said. 'I'll see to it that you have work.' 'Well, golly gee and thanks,' Nancy said. 'Haven't you figured out yet that that's not what I need from you, Paul?' She half-turned, looked down, and ran her tongue across her upper lip. Hood continued to hold her hand. There was nothing he could say, nothing which wouldn't give her false hope.
After a moment, she faced him again. 'Of course I'll help,' she said. 'Whatever you need I'll do.' 'Thanks,' Hood said.
'Don't mention it. What are ex-fianc‚es for?' Hood touched her cheek, then turned to the pad on which he'd written Ballon's number. He didn't look back at Nancy as he placed the call. The yearning in his eyes would have given her the answer, and it wasn't an answer that would do either of them any good.
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
The crack Bob Herbert heard was not the report of the gun. He knew that because the bullet would have struck his brain and shut it down before the sound of the gunshot reached him.
Also, he realized that the sound had come from above.
The branch fell heavily through the trees. Though the police officer hopped aside, out of the way, he couldn't avoid the young woman who dropped from the tree a moment later. She crashed down on him, spilling them both to the ground. But she had landed on top and got off first. Because he had managed to hold onto the gun, she rose, stepped on his wrist, and wrested it away.
'Here!' she said, pushing the weapon into Herbert's hands.
He aimed it at the police officer's head. When the man didn't stir, Herbert looked at the young woman. She was standing unsteadily to Herbert's left, obviously shaken by her plunge.
'Jody Thompson?' Herbert asked.
She nodded twice. She was nearly gasping. Her heart was probably racing from fear, poor thing.
'My name's Herbert. Bob Herbert. I work for the U.S.
government. I want to thank you for what you did.' She said in breathless chunks, 'It's not… the first time.
.. I've fallen for a guy.' He smiled. She was pumped up by fear and maybe a little excitement. 'I assume you didn't just fall from the tree—' 'No,' she said. 'I'd been walking and got lost. I fell asleep up there. I woke when I heard you and saw what he was going to do.' 'I'm glad you're a light sleeper,' Herbert said. 'Now I think we'd better make sure our playmate is—' Jody screamed, 'Look out!' Herbert hadn't turned his back on the police officer, but he'd made the mistake of looking at the girl. The German had pushed off from the ground before the American could fire. He dove for the gun. The wheelchair spilled over backward with the two men on it and four hands scrapped for the weapon.
Herbert lost the gun in the struggle, and decided not to try and find it. Lying on his back with the police officer on top of him, he reached under the right armrest and slipped the Urban Skinner from its sheath. Jody jumped toward the police officer, pulling at his coat. As she did, Herbert closed his fingers around the knife's palm-fitted hilt. The two-inch blade was sticking up from his right-hand fist, between his second and third fingers.
The police officer was fumbling around the wheelchair, around Herbert, his fingers digging and probing. As Jody screamed and tore at the German, Herbert's left hand shot up. He grabbed a handful of black hair to hold the German's head in place. Then he drove the knife up hard, into the soft flesh under his chin. He cut to the heart side, slicing both the internal and external jugular veins. The trapezius muscle, on the outside of the neck, stopped the knife from exiting.
The German stopped looking for the gun though he didn't stop moving. He tried to push the knife from his throat, but the combination of Herbert pulling down on his head and pressing up with the blade made that impossible.
Herbert didn't want him to open his mouth, to scream. He also didn't want Jody, who was still on top of him, to see his face or the wound.
Within a few seconds the police officer was finding it difficult to breathe. He tried to roll off Herbert as blood filled his mouth and dribbled from between his lips. But Herbert held him in the deathlock.
The German glared down with pain and shock as the soil beneath them turned muddy with blood. He made weak, babylike attempts to beat at Herbert, then spat blood and dropped limp on Herbert's chest.
This time, Herbert knew, he wouldn't be getting up.
When the German finally fell still, Herbert told Jody to back off and turn around.
'Are you sure?' she asked.
'I'm sure,' he replied.
She rose weakly, and as soon as she'd walked off several yards Herbert pushed the German off. The intelligence chief wriggled to the side, out of his chair and away from the body. Then he cleaned his knife on the police officer's coat and slipped it back in its sheath.
'Are you all right, Jody?' She nodded. 'Is he dead?' 'Yes,' Herbert said. 'I'm sorry.' She nodded again briskly.
He waited a moment, then said, 'If you help me back into my chair, we can get out of here.' Judy did. As she struggled to help. him up, she said, 'Mr. Herbert—' 'Bob,' he said.
'Bob,' Jody said, 'what do you know about the people who tried to kill me?' Herbert thought back to the satellite view of the area.
'I believe they're at a lake north of here.' 'How far north?' 'A few miles,' Herbert said. He picked up his phone.
'I'm going to let my superiors know I've found you, get you to Hamburg, and fly you home from there.' 'I don't want to go yet,' she said.
'Why?' he asked. 'Are you tired— hurt? Hungry? I don't have any food—' 'No, none of that,' Jody said. 'While I was up in the tree, I was thinking how much I hate them.' 'Me too,' Herbert said. 'People like them took away my legs and my wife for reasons that don't even matter any more.' 'And I was thinking,' Jody went on, 'that maybe I survived for a reason.' 'You did,' Herbert said. 'To go home to your folks.' 'If that's true,' she said, 'then I'll get home to them.
Only a little later. I want to do something about what's going on here.' 'Good,' Herbert said. 'When you get back to the States, sell the movie rights to your story. I'm serious. Let people know what's happening in the real world. Just make sure Tom Selleck plays me, okay? And that you hold on to creative control. Otherwise, it'll get all crapped up.' 'I studied film,' Jody said, 'and right now we haven't got a climax.' Herbert made a face. 'Bull,' he said, and spread his fingers headline-size. He swept them to the side. 'Long Island girl helps government agent kill German neo-Nazi police officer,' he said. 'Seems like a helluva climax to me.' 'It isn't,' she replied. 'A better one would be: American girl makes grandfather proud by fighting his old enemies.
More substance, less sensation.' 'You're loco,' Herbert said as he began punching in a number. 'As we used to say in Beirut, 'Gutsy but nutsy.' ' 'Sometimes you just have to do what you have to do.' Jody walked over to the police officer. She picked up his gun and brushed off the dirt by wiping it on her jeans.
'Put that down,' Herbert said. 'We don't need it going off by accident and bringing reinforcements.' Jody examined the weapon. 'We were using a P38 like this in the movie,' she said. 'The prop man showed me how to work it.' 'Hooray for him. Did you fire it?' She nodded. 'I hit a log from about ten yards away.' 'Nice,' Herbert said. 'But there are two things you need to know. First, that's a P5, not a P1— which is the official name of the Walther P38 you used. They're both 9-X- 19mm, and you'll find them remarkably similar. As for the second thing, logs don't shoot real well. People do a lot better.' Herbert finished inputting the telephone number and waited. Jody pressed
