Read Online US Marshall 03 - The Rapids by Carla Neggers - Free Book Online

gave you a two-minute head start before I came after you.” He stood very close to her, not much charming about his manner right now. “The raw herring wasn’t that appealing.”
    She flexed her ankle, easing out any stiffness. “I should have remembered you track people for a living.”
    “Probably should have. Who was the old man?”
    “William the Conqueror.”
    He held his suit jacket over his shoulder with onefinger, his shirtsleeves rolled up. He hadn’t had a particularly good day, either. Maggie felt herself softening as he looked her up and down. “You hurt?” he asked.
    She shook her head, wondering if he might be exaggerating his accent just to throw her off balance. “How did you find me?”
    “You said you were off to pray. This is the biggest church in the whole damn country. I figured it was a good place to start.”
    “You shouldn’t swear in here.”
    “You’re right. We can go outside, and I’ll swear out there.” His eyes—they were a dark gray in the dim light of the cathedral—fixed on her. “And you can tell me about the old guy in the madras shirt.”
     
    They found a table in the shade at an uncrowded café near the market square. “Get two of whatever you’re ordering,” Maggie said. “I’m not picky. I don’t even know if I can eat.”
    Rob ordered two bowls of the soup of the day, which seemed to involve chicken, and coffee for himself, a Heineken for Maggie. He’d do the driving back to The Hague.
    Their waiter brought the drinks first. Maggie touched a finger to the foam of her beer. She’d had a miserable day, and she looked more shaken than she’d want to admit, worse now that she’d finished with the investigators and the questions—and nowthat whatever her mission at the cathedral had been was over.
    “The old guy looked like he planned to take you out with that walking stick,” Rob said.
    “For all I know, he thought it was tipped with ricin.”
    “Is that a joke?”
    She sighed. “An attempt at a joke.”
    Rob lifted his small coffee cup. “I’d say cheers, but it wouldn’t sound right today.”
    “I suppose not.” She picked up her beer, hesitating, as if pushing back an intrusive thought, before taking a sip. “It’s been a long week. Nothing about it’s been normal.”
    Including having him thrust upon her, Rob thought, drinking some of his coffee. It was very strong, but he figured a jolt of caffeine wouldn’t hurt. He was hot from chasing after Maggie, negotiating the narrow, unfamiliar city streets in the late August heat. “Your rendezvous with the old guy at St. John’s. That’s why we’re in Den Bosch today?”
    Maggie stared at the disappearing foam on her beer. “I shouldn’t drink—”
    “Go ahead. I’m sticking to coffee. I’ll drive.” He smiled, trying to take some of the edge off her mood and maybe his own. “It’s okay. I can handle a Mini.”
    She raised her eyes from her drink. “I know what it must have looked like back there. Just forget about it, okay?”
    “Not okay. The old guy’s an informant?”
    “A wanna-be, I think.”
    “Any relation to Kopac?”
    “I don’t know that much about him.”
    Rob sat back in his chair. “That’s an evasive answer.”
    “Maybe it’s a polite way to tell you—” She stopped herself. “Never mind. It’s been a lousy day for you, too.”
    But she obviously wanted to tell him what happened in St. John’s was none of his damned business. “Better to evade than to lie outright. Okay. I get that. You don’t know anything about me except that I’m a marshal, I was shot four months ago and my family knows the president.” He shrugged. “I wouldn’t trust me, either.”
    “It’s not a question of trust.”
    Then what else was it? But he didn’t ask. “This guy’s contacted you before?”
    “First time.”
    “What’d he do, call, e-mail, send a carrier pigeon? Come on. Throw me a bone. Let me think you’re starting to trust me a little.”
    She didn’t