the contents of his notebook computer bag, all the while watching the woman doing small stretches out front. She finally glanced at the bank entrance, giving Nick a facial view. Nick took his partially filled in form out and walked to the forms desk once more.
“I know her. She’s not Tanus or Fletcher. Rachel, I want you to go get the security guard at the front to walk you out to where Gus is going to be. Don’t engage the woman at all. Don’t look at her. Don’t pause. Have your stun gun ready even with the security guard next to you. If she so much as asks for the time, zap her. We have to flush her partner out. Gus, is that warehouse place we used a couple years ago on the dock between here and St. Pete still abandoned?”
“Yeah, the rebuilding money fell through during the mortgage dump.”
“Take a drive around Sarasota for the next thirty minutes, and then take them there. You know the drill. Don’t drive anywhere you’re not in the middle of traffic. Use the approach near the water, where the buildings are on your left. Stop fifty yards from where the access winds around to the left.”
“Got it.”
“Leave now, Rach.”
“What if the security guard won’t walk me?”
“Make a fuss if he bulks, but don’t go out to Gus without him.”
Rachel stood up with bag in hand. She walked quickly to the security guard, engaging him in conversation for a moment. The man nodded agreeably, and held the door open for Rachel.
“She’s on her way, Gus.”
Nick went to the front entrance and watched her progress. When the woman saw the security guard, she took out her cell-phone and made a call. She did not approach Rachel. The Lincoln was waiting when Rachel reached the street. She thanked the security guard and slipped into the passenger seat next to Gus. A white Lexus drove by in front next, stopping long enough for the apparent jogger to jump in before it followed the Lincoln. Nick left the bank and jogged toward the Cadillac. He opened up the cargo area and stripped off his coat and shirt, throwing them in the back. Deke sat up on the passenger side front seat when Nick opened the driver’s door.
“You’re going on a field trip with me, Deke,” he told the dog, slamming his door and gesturing Deke into the back seat.
“I hope you ladies enjoyed our scenic tour of Sarasota,” Gus spoke up, as he drove toward St. Petersburg.
“What are we doing, Gus? Is the woman from the bank still following us?”
“She’s back there. Every once in a while I catch a glimpse of her white Lexus.”
“Where’re we headed now?” Jean asked.
“A warehouse spot near the ocean almost to my house,” Gus answered. “We’ll only be stopping there for a moment before we go back to the condo.”
Because the traffic thinned out considerably, both Rachel and Jean saw more of the Lexus as they traveled. When Gus turned into a dock area, lined with graffiti covered warehouse buildings, Rachel looked around worriedly. Gus slowed to a crawl as they drove along the litter filled access road. The Lexus had plainly followed them.
“What the hell are you doing, Gus?”
“Calm down, Rachel,” Gus urged as he approached a winding curve.
Gus stopped the Town Car. Rachel and Jean watched the Lexus get larger in the tinted rear window. It stopped only twenty yards behind the Lincoln. A few seconds after the Lexus halted, its windshield shattered. Rachel and Jean both jumped. The passenger side door of the Lexus started to open; but the woman they could see plainly through the now open windshield area suddenly pitched backward, her left shoulder a bloody pulp. Gus turned the Lincoln around.
“Close your eyes ladies,” Gus advised.
He drove by the idling Lexus. Neither Rachel nor Jean looked away. The Lexus driver no longer had a head. His woman companion moved only slightly. As the Lincoln accelerated, Rachel saw Nick’s Escalade round the curve and stop next to the Lexus. Rachel turned toward the front. She knew the end of this particular story.
“That’s the Terminator,” Jean said quietly, still watching out the back window.
“Yes it is, honey,” Gus agreed.
“Hello, Kate.” Nick peered into the Lexus, his H &K at the ready. “Does Frank have anyone else down here right now?”
“An…an army,” the woman moaned, clutching her wound where the.50 caliber slug had ripped the top of her left shoulder off. “Christ…Nick…you did this on purpose.”
“You know me and loose ends, Kate. This is going to hurt a little.”
Kate’s high pitched scream dropped into an agonized wail as Nick backed off from prodding her wounded shoulder. Nick had revived the woman twice in the last forty-five minutes, noting that blood loss would quite shortly put an end to the interrogation. Kate’s story had not changed in any significant detail as Nick had taken her through it three times.
“Now, Kate,” Nick urged. “Is -”
“Pleaaaaaasssssseee…Nick,” Kate sobbed grotesquely, head writhing from side to side, her blue and green top soaked in blood. “No…no more -”
“Just a little more, baby,” Nick implored in a soft but urgent voice. He added a new question. “Where were you to take the flash drives?”
Kate hesitated. In doing so, she knew instinctively it would mean more pain. She began crying piteously. “You…you cared for me once.”
“About as much as you cared for me, Kate. You knew who Frank sent you down here against.”
“I never thought…you’d protect the Hunter woman. I told Frank I thought you’d send her down here to get the drives…and…and if she didn’t get them you’d -”
“Write her off?”
Kate’s mouth moved for a moment, but no words issued forth. She looked away from Nick, life and pain fading from her anguished features. “Jason…Bidwell…”
Nick heard the rattling exhale of life, as the final loss of all worries in this world erased the lines from the woman’s face. It took nearly thirty minutes for him to position the Lexus. Five minutes later, he watched the vehicle sink beneath the ocean’s surface.
Deke ran into the condo, charging across the room to Jean, his whole body wagging. Jean immediately began wrestling with him on the floor near the dining room table where Gus and Rachel sat drinking coffee. Nick, carrying the clothes he had discarded before setting up his trap, walked in only seconds after Deke and closed the door. Jean gave him a hesitant wave from where the dog had her pinned on the carpet. Nick waved back and threw the clothing over a chair back before sitting down.
“How we doing, partner?” Gus asked.
“Pretty fair,” Nick answered as Rachel reached over to cover his hand with hers. “It seems my little feint toward Washington didn’t draw everyone away from the area. The good news is those two in the Lexus were the only ones. Frank had his own insider at the bank; but it’s no one we have to worry about, because Rachel won’t be going in there again. I made the call to the cops about Santora. They won’t be finding the Lexus and its occupants anytime soon.”
“Did you know the woman outside the bank personally, Nick?” Rachel asked.
“I knew both of them,” he answered without any change of expression. “The woman gave me a name: Jason
