[Quinn 04] - The Silenced

“Unless something else comes up.”

She nodded without feeling, but said nothing more.

“School,” Quinn said. “How’s it going?”

“Fine.”

“How much longer until you graduate?”

“Two more years.”

“Have you been able to—”

His cell phone buzzed in his pocket.

“I’m sorry,” he said as he pulled it out.

WILLS

“Everything all right?” Nate asked. His tone was light.

“Yes. Sorry,” Quinn said. He accessed the log on his phone. “Just a second.”

He could hear Liz let out a faint sigh, and imagined her rolling her eyes as he scrolled through his recent calls list.

There had been three additional calls to the one he’d just received. All had come from Wills. Checking the times, he was able to figure out the first had come during the initial encounter with Julien, while the other two sometime between then and when he’d returned to Liz’s apartment. Missing one, okay. But more than that?

He knew the reason, of course. He’d been so focused on seeing his sister everything else had become background noise. I’m losing focus. Not good. Not good at all.

Just as he was about to slip the phone back into his pocket, it began to vibrate again, the same name on the display as before.

“I need to take this.”

“Sure,” Liz said, as if she’d expected as much.

He flipped the phone open, and said to Wills, “Hold on.” He looked at his sister. “Is there someplace private? It’s a business call.”

“There’s a bathroom at the end of the hall,” she said.

There’s a bedroom down there, too, he thought. But she hadn’t offered that up. It would have been too personal.

“Thanks,” he said, standing. “I’ll just be a few minutes.”

“You were supposed to be here this morning. Where the hell are you?” Wills asked.

“I had a personal matter to take care of,” Quinn said.

“You’ve already used up your personal matter allocation. I’m paying you to be here. Have you even left the States yet?”

“David, I know this is important. And I know you want it done right away. But this couldn’t be helped. The body isn’t going anywhere. A day or two delay shouldn’t matter.”

“What are you talking about, delay? My client wants this done immediately. He’s expecting me to tell him the removal is already in process.”

“Then tell him that. I’d need at least a day to scout the location before I could do the removal anyway,” Quinn said. “One of my team members will be there by tomorrow morning to start the process. Okay?”

Whom that would be Quinn had no idea. Maybe he could get Orlando to reroute to London instead of coming to Paris. Or maybe he could hire someone local he’d worked with before. Whatever the case, he knew he could make it happen.

Wills was silent for a moment. Quinn could almost feel his client’s anger emanating through the phone.

“This is not what I expected out of you,” Wills said. “I’m paying you a lot of money, and right now you’re making me think I made a mistake.”

“You want your money back? Fine. I’ll transfer a third back and we’ll call it even. You can hire someone else.”

“A refund? I don’t want a refund. I want you to get my goddamn job done!”

Quinn said nothing for a moment. “I always get the job done. Always.”

“I need your assurance you will take care of this,” Wills said, his voice calmer.

“Isn’t that what I just said?”

Wills remained silent.

“Okay, David. I assure you that this will be taken care of as quickly as possible. Tell your client your team is on it.”

“All right,” Wills said. “But you had better not let me down.”

“I won’t.”

For a second, Quinn thought Wills had hung up. Then the Englishman said, “Sorry. I know you won’t.” He paused. “There’s one bit of good news. Moody’s body was found. Looks like he was killed when they were trying to drive away from the house.”