Exit Strategy Part 26

As for staying put, though, that was another thing. Jack might not be accustomed to working with a partner, might not understand a partner's duties, but I did.

I crept forward, watching my step. The undergrowth was thick here, and I nearly stepped on a shallow puddle coated with ice.

Jack had stopped halfway to the parking lot, waiting in the bushes. A few minutes later, the thug returned, walking at a brisk clip back to the home. As he pa.s.sed, Jack swung out, silent as a wraith, came up behind him and barrel pointed at the base of the man's skull.

"Turn left and walk," Jack said.

The man gave a tight laugh. "Into the woods? So you won't have as far to drag my body? I ain't making it easier for you."

"I wanted you dead? Be there already. Got a message for Boris."

"And you want me to play delivery boy?"

"You don't want to? Fine. I'll use the next guy."

The thug let Jack steer him into the woods-on the opposite side of the trail. I crept as close as I dared, waited until they had their backs to me, then darted across the open path.

Jack stopped in a clearing. I found a spot ten feet away, with a good sight line. He made the thug kneel, hands on the back of his head, then trained his gun on the guy's skull base. I aimed mine at the thug's right shoulder-a disabling shot.

"You said you got a message for Boris," the guy said.

"Houston."

"Wha-?" The thug tried to look over his shoulder at Jack, but a gun poke stopped him.

"That's the message. Houston."

"What the h.e.l.l does that mean?"

"Boris knows. Tell him this is my business-"

"Who the h.e.l.l are you?"

"Houston. He'll know. And my business? No concern of his. His business? No concern of mine. Got it?"

"Got what? That's not a message. It's code or some-"

"Repeat what I said."

The thug sighed but, with prompts, repeated it.

"Good," Jack said. "Boris comes after me again? I'll know you f.u.c.ked up the message."

Jack let the thug go, then slipped into the woods to make sure he left.

The moment the guy's car pulled out, Jack looked directly at where I was hiding. I stepped out, expecting to be lambasted. But he only waved me toward the car.

"So is that the last we'll hear of Boris Nikolaev?" I asked as I climbed into the car.

"Better be," Jack muttered. "d.a.m.ned inconvenient."

I shook my head and reached for the radio dial.

"Won't change anything, Nadia."

I looked at him, fingers on the k.n.o.b.

"Find out now. Find out at Evelyn's. Won't change what happened." His gaze slanted my way. "You know know what happened." what happened."

I nodded and turned on the radio.

THIRTY-TWO.

As promised, the Helter Skelter killer had taken another victim at noon. As for whether he struck on the dot of noon, I'll leave it for the more dramatically inclined reporters to speculate. What I do know is that the victim was found less than ten minutes past noon, when her friends called into the kitchen to see why she was taking so long with the coffee. At the time of the murder, they'd been tuned to CNN waiting for news of what was unfolding a few steps away. The irony of that would be lost on no one. Of everyone waiting for news of the next victim, one person became became that news. that news.

The audacity of the killing was lost on no one, either. Not only had he struck in an occupied home, but one with a state-of-the-art security system, in one of the most supposedly secure gated communities. The message was clear-if I can get to her, I can get to anyone.

That promoted exactly the kind of paranoia that gated communities preyed on. I'd pulled a hit in a "high security" private club, in the middle of a golf tournament, and let me tell you, I've done harder-much harder.

But of course the media was already playing it up, making it sound like he was some kind of phantom who'd slipped past not only the armed guards at the gate, but a fully armed home security system.

Fully armed, my a.s.s. How many people rearm their system when they're indoors entertaining, with friends coming and going? My guess was that the homeowner had reactivated it when she'd learned of the murder. If the system had been off, the Feds would figure it out, but I doubted that that tidbit would make it to the six o'clock news. tidbit would make it to the six o'clock news.

Jack needed to call Quinn before we got back to Evelyn's, so he stopped at a Cracker Barrel near the state border. I went in to grab coffees to go, then got sidetracked by the display of old-fashioned candy. When I returned to the car and found Jack wasn't back, I put the coffees and candy inside and went to look for him.

Jack was twenty feet away from the phone booth, standing by the edge of the parking lot. When I walked up behind him, he looked back at me, his eyes unreadable behind his dark shades.

"What happened?"

He looked my way, but said nothing.

"Quinn told you something, and now you're trying to figure out whether-or how-you should tell me." My mind leapfrogged to the obvious. "Another killing. Already? He just finished-"

"Not yet."

I stopped. "Not yet what? The killing, you mean? He hasn't done it yet, but he's announced it already? Come on, Jack, don't make me drag it out of you two words at a time, or I swear-"

He motioned for me to sit with him on the edge of the restaurant porch, and started talking.

The FBI knew where the killer was going to strike next. While it would have been nice to claim that they'd deduced this through painstaking hours of statistical and behavioral a.n.a.lysis, the truth was far more disturbing. They knew because he'd told them.

According to Quinn, the FBI agent leading the investigation, Martin Dubois, had received his own letter from the killer. In it, the killer had promised to take a victim tonight, at a recently reopened historic opera house in Chicago. He didn't dare them to stop him, but the challenge was obvious.

"So what you were debating was whether to tell me in advance or not, wasn't it? Quite possibly our best chance to catch this guy, and you don't think we should bother showing up."

A kernel of rage rolled around my gut. I could feel Jack's gaze on me, studying me, appraising my reaction. I closed my eyes to slits, then took a deep breath. Took another. Opened my eyes and looked at him.

"Could be a setup," he said, words coming slow, deliberate, almost as if guiding me back on track.

I considered that. Saw the truth in his words. "Playing with the Feds. Leading them on a goose chase."

"Playing, yeah. Goose chase...?" He pulled off his sungla.s.ses. "h.e.l.luva challenge."

"Killing someone in a busy public place-after you've given the FBI a heads-up? That's not just a challenge. What better way to prove that no one is safe than to tell the Feds where you'll strike next, and still pull it off."

"Yeah."

"So you think he's really going to do it?"

A long pause now, really thinking it through. Then a nod. "Yeah. Think he's gonna try."

My nails dug into my palms as I kept my voice steady, dispa.s.sionate. "Are we going to be there to stop him?"

"Gonna try."

Jack called Quinn back. Quinn and Felix had already planned to be there-not that Jack had been about to tell me that before we made up our own minds. As he slid into the car, I stared out the window. After a few minutes of his driving and my window gazing, he said, "You okay?"

"Just thinking of something and feeling stupid."

"'Bout what?"

"Quinn." When he didn't answer, I glanced his way. "When you told me he was a cop, I figured you meant 'cop,' like me-like I was. Street cop. Maybe detective, but definitely local or state. But now he tells us about this tip-off. A beat cop gets the drop on an unpublicized tip-off to the FBI? Right." I shook my head. "Quinn's a Fed, isn't he?"

"FBI?" He shrugged and started to say something that I knew from his expression would be, if not a complete disavowal, at least suitably neutral.

"FBI, CIA, DEA, NSA, or whatever other acronyms they have. You know what I mean. Federal level."

"That's a problem?"

I twisted in my seat. "Yes, it's a problem. You tell me he's a cop, and I figure he's from some little force in Podunk, Maine. That That I'm comfortable with. But a federal agent?" I shook my head. "Yes, I know, federal, state, local, he's still a cop, so you didn't lie, but you knew what conclusion I'd draw, and you let me draw it." I'm comfortable with. But a federal agent?" I shook my head. "Yes, I know, federal, state, local, he's still a cop, so you didn't lie, but you knew what conclusion I'd draw, and you let me draw it."

"He's clean."

"Says who? Says you? A federal agent has federal jurisdiction. Federal contacts. Access to federal databases. I'm not comfortable-"

"Nadia? His story's solid. He's not a plant. Not a threat, either. He flips? I flip harder."

I remembered what Quinn had said earlier, that Jack had more on him than vice versa.

"Not a threat," Jack repeated. "He was? Wouldn't have let you meet him."

I leaned back in my seat. "I know. It's just...federal makes me nervous. It's a cop thing. On the streets, you don't deal with them that much. Every now and then, we'd have the hors.e.m.e.n ride in, scoop up a case-"

"Hors.e.m.e.n?"

"RCMP." When his look didn't change, I said, "Mounties. Mounted police."

"They still ride horses?"

"Only in parades...and tourist photo ops."

"The red uniforms?"

"It's suits these days. Disney owns the uniform copyright anyway. I once asked a Mountie whether his dress uniform tag said 'Property of Walt Disney.' He wouldn't tell me, but he did offer to let me take his off and check for myself."

Jack shook his head. He pulled into the slow lane, and set his cruise control two miles over the speed limit. Then he looked at me. "About Quinn. Makes you nervous? Best thing you can do? Keep your distance."

"You mean stick to business. No socializing, no chatting, no jogging together..."

"Right."

I shook my head. "You said he was clean, and I trust you." I glanced at him. "You did say that, didn't you?"

A hesitation, then a soft exhale. "Yeah."

We'd agreed to meet Felix and Quinn at a baseball diamond in Chicago. When we arrived, Quinn and Felix were right inside the gates. I saw Quinn first, a tray of hot dogs and sodas in his hands, wearing worn jeans and a T-shirt that pulled tight over his broad shoulders. His gaze lighted on me, and he grinned. My stomach did a little flip. I blamed it on the smell of the food.

"Got you a hot dog," Quinn said, thrusting it out like a bouquet of roses.

Beside me, Jack made a noise, half grunt, half sigh.

"Don't glower, Jack," Quinn said. "Got you one, too."

I took mine with thanks. Jack just looked at the tray.