“Take it easy. We’ll get you out of here.”
“Of course you will,” Fish rasped. “Such a good lawyer I’ve got.”
Blues felt his way along the wall until he came to the door, feeling the lock in the dark. “Damn,” he said. “Can’t pick the lock from this side even if I could see what I was doing. We’re stuck here until they come and get us.”
The sliding door overhead opened and two people walked across the deck and down the stairs.
“Won’t be long,” Mason said as he and Blues backed themselves against the wall opposite the door.
SEVENTY-SEVEN
Brewer and Kelly opened the door to the storage room, shining powerful flashlights in their eyes. Hands behind their backs, Mason and Blues ducked their heads, unable to avoid the blinding glare. Though only a few feet away, they couldn’t see Brewer and Kelly well enough to attack them even if they were foolish enough to try.
“Time to go for a ride,” Brewer said.
“Lila is still out and Fish needs help getting up,” Mason said. “Take off our cuffs and we’ll move them.”
Brewer shined the light on Fish. His chin lay on his still chest and his open eyes didn’t blink at the bright light.
“This one doesn’t need any help,” Brewer said. He poked Fish with the toe of his shoe then pressed the flashlight against Fish’s cheek, the temperature hot enough to sear his flesh. Fish didn’t flinch.
Kelly set her flashlight down, pushing Brewer’s away, and knelt at Fish’s side, feeling for a pulse. “He must have had a heart attack. He’s dead.”
“Natural causes. We caught a break,” Brewer said.
Mason closed his eyes, seeing Fish in his living room, his grandchildren tugging at his ankles, his bitter daughters pulling them away from him. He heard Fish telling him that all he wanted was another chance with his family. It was enough to make Mason forget the odds. He opened his eyes, lowered his shoulders, and launched himself at Brewer with a piercing, guttural yell.
Leaping over Fish’s body, he caught Brewer in the belly, the two of them tumbling through the doorway and onto the frozen ground. Mason landed on his back like an overturned turtle, cuffed hands beneath him. Brewer was quick to his feet but was knocked flat an instant later when Blues flew into him like a linebacker blindsiding a quarterback.
Brewer made it up on all fours, shaking the cobwebs from his head. Blues was about to kick him in the ribs when Kelly fired a shot at his feet. Blues whirled around toward Kelly, measuring his chances.
“The next one goes in your knee, Bluestone,” she said.
Brewer staggered to his feet, gathered himself, and walked up to Blues. Without a word, he slammed his fist into Blues’s solar plexus. When Blues folded up, he hit him hard in the back of the neck with a two-handed blow, dropping him in the grass. He took a step toward Mason, drawing his gun.
“Not yet,” Kelly said. “Get Webb and his wife out of here and don’t forget the money. Somebody may have heard that shot and called the police.”
“What about them?” Brewer asked.
“Leave that to me, darling,” Kelly said.
Brewer kissed her hard on the mouth. “You are something else, Agent Holt.”
Mason and Blues managed to sit up as Brewer went back in the house.
“Stay where you are,” Kelly said, pointing her gun at them when they started to stand.
“Is this what you meant when you told me things weren’t what they looked like between you and Brewer?” Mason asked.
“Keep your voice down,” Kelly said, glancing over her shoulder at the house.
“Afraid the neighbors will hear?” Mason asked.
“For once in your life, just shut up, Lou!”
One by one, the lights in the house went out. A moment later, Brewer, Webb, and Sylvia climbed into the car parked in the carport. Brewer gave Kelly a final wave before they drove away.
When their taillights disappeared, Kelly walked over to Mason. “On your belly.”
“No thanks. You’re going to have to look me in the eye.”
“That’s the way you want it?”
“That’s the way I want it.”
“Fine by me, but it’s harder that way.” She stuck her gun in her waistband, took the handcuff key from her pocket, and wrapped her arms around Mason. “Been a while since we’ve been this close, Counselor,” she said as she unlocked his cuffs and handed him the key. “You take care of Blues and I’ll check on Lila.”
Mason looked at her, not trusting her or his eyes. She patted him on the cheek and he grabbed her wrist.
“Whose side are you on?” he asked her.
“Mine.”
SEVENTY-EIGHT
Blues prowled through the house to make certain no one had stayed behind. He and Mason carried Lila and Fish inside and laid them down in separate bedrooms.
Back in the den, Mason and Kelly stood facing one another. Mason saw a woman he once thought he’d loved, a woman whose life he’d saved and who had saved his life. Still, he didn’t know her and wasn’t certain whether he even recognized her.
“Let’s have it,” Mason said.
Kelly ran her hands through her hair like she was trying to pull off a mask. Nothing changed except her features softened with weariness and relief.
“The FBI asked me to come back a few years ago. They’d been burnt by too many agents who had been bought by drug dealers or foreign governments. They told me my background would give them an edge.”
“Because you had had a partner who was dirty and that made you suspect as well?”
“The higher-ups wanted someone they could send in to work with agents who were under the microscope. Even though I was cleared, they made sure I still had a bad reputation when I came back. I played on that by looking the other way, dropping a hint that I was open to something extra. If the agent reported me, we backed off. If the agent invited me to the party, we ran out the string.”
“Why go back? Why put yourself through that?”
“When my partner went down, he took part of me with him. I wanted that back.”
“Was Brewer one of the bad boys?”
“Very bad. We tried to nail him a few years ago, but we couldn’t get anything solid.”
“Was that when the two of you raided Ed Fiori’s office right after he was killed?”
Kelly nodded. “Brewer claimed he was working a confidential source inside Fiori’s organization, but we suspected he was on Fiori’s payroll. We had heard a rumor about Fiori’s taping system and, when Fiori was killed, Brewer said he wanted to check out whether his source was incriminated on the tapes.”
“And you wanted to know if Brewer was on the tapes,” Mason said.
“There was no informant. Brewer was after the same thing. There were only a handful of tapes left when we got there and Brewer wasn’t on them. Fiori’s nephew, Vince Bongiovanni, had gotten there ahead of us and taken most of the tapes. When we asked him for the tapes, he said he had destroyed them out of respect for his uncle’s memory.”
Mason almost asked her if she had found the tape of his meeting with Ed Fiori, but let it go. It didn’t matter anymore since his confessionals with Detective Griswold and Rachel Firestone.
“Bongiovanni told me he kept the tapes. I have a feeling he may have used some of them to settle a few of
