and decided it wouldn’t be too visible from the outside on a low setting. He chanced it, barely turning it up. The dimmer buzzed slightly as the lamp suffused the room in a faint, yellowish gleam.
The room was impeccably arranged and ordered. A sleek, glass-and-chrome desk faced a wall on the opposite side of the room, away from the window. Matt angled across to it. It was covered with neat piles of newspapers, books, magazines, printouts, and unopened mail. The clutter of a busy professional with an inquisitive mind. Matt spotted a small box of Bellinger’s business cards, picked one up, and pocketed it. He could see that something was prominently missing from the man’s desk. A computer. A large flat screen was still there, as was an orphaned docking station for a laptop, and a wireless mouse. The laptop itself was, it seemed, gone.
Had they been here already?
Matt tensed up and gave the room another scan, his ears now listening intently for the slightest disturbance. They wouldn’t have had any trouble getting in. They had Bellinger, which meant they had his keys. He thought about it for a beat. If they had been here, they were probably already long gone. It had been maybe three hours since he and their van had parted company.
Still, he had to be sure.
With an even lighter step, he crept across the hallway and checked the rooms at the back of the apartment. He found two bedrooms, one a large master suite overlooking the side street and the back, the other smaller and sparsely furnished, both empty. He checked the bathrooms, also clear. He relaxed a touch and made his way back to the living room, where a blinking light on a coffee table caught his eye. It came from the base unit of a cordless phone that had waiting messages—just one of them, according to its LED display.
He clicked the playback button. An androgynous, digital voice informed Matt that the message came in at 12:47 a.m., which piqued Matt’s interest. People didn’t normally get calls at that hour.
“Dude, where the hell did you disappear to?” a hyper voice on the machine quizzed. “What’s going on? You’re not home, you’re not picking up your cell. Come on, pick up the damn phone, will ya? This thing’s gathering some serious mass. The blogs are going loco over it, you gotta see this. Anyway, call me back. I’m staying locked on the news in case it decides to make another appearance. Call me, or . . . whatever. I’ll see you at the ranch tomorrow.” He sounded deflated before he hung up.
Matt grabbed a pen, picked up the handset, and hit star-69. Another digital voice recited the caller’s number to him. It was local. As he wrote it down on the back of Bellinger’s business card, a faint noise intruded at the edge of his hearing, a car pulling up outside the building, shortly followed by the dull thuds of car doors closing.
He crossed to the window, but the crackle of brief radio transmissions told him what it was before he peered out and saw the two men walking away from an unmarked sedan and disappearing into the building.
Coming to check out Bellinger’s place.
Which meant one of two things.
Either they were more goons, on the same payroll as the guys who’d stuffed him into their van, or they were plainclothes cops and Bellinger’s body had already turned up.
Matt could just imagine how that one would play out.
He flinched as the entry phone in Bellinger’s apartment buzzed, then sprinted to the front door and cracked it open. He waited, listening intently, his heartbeat thudding in his ears, then it buzzed again, this one longer, more impatient.
The buzzing seemed to confirm the latter scenario. The hit team had Bellinger, meaning they had Bellinger’s keys. They wouldn’t need to ring up. Matt felt the blood seep from his face, and a crippling sense of further unreality swept through him as he pictured what might have happened to Bellinger. He waited by the door, his mind racing through possible outcomes, none of which seemed promising.
The entry phone stayed ominously silent.
He decided to take another look, and leaving the door slightly ajar, he scuttled back to the bay window and peeked out.
He could see the two men standing by their car, which he could now tell was a standard issue Crown Vic. One of them was on his cell phone, but Matt couldn’t hear what he was saying. Matt relaxed somewhat. They came, they buzzed, no answer, they’d leave. Or so he hoped. Then he saw the other man cock his head toward the entrance, as if reacting to something, before disappearing under the porch again.
Matt’s instincts sharpened. He slipped back to the door and, very quietly, picked up the entry phone’s handset. He came in mid-conversation.
“—on the second floor,” a woman’s voice was explaining. “Bellinger’s got the penthouse directly over me.” She hesitated, then asked, “Is everything okay?”
The man ignored her question and asked her, “Does Mr. Bellinger live alone, ma’am?”
The cheery thought was quickly overruled. The guys in the van hadn’t looked like they were kidding. Bellinger was dead, he knew it. Why else would these guys be here? Why would they be asking if he lived alone?
The woman’s voice had a nervous quaver to it. “Yes, I think so. I mean, he’s single. I don’t think he lives with anyone. But I’m surprised he’s not picking up. I’m pretty sure he’s home.”
Her comment struck Matt like a bucket of ice water.
“What makes you say that?” the man asked, his voice snapping to attention.
“Well, I heard him come back. These are old houses, and even with the refurb, the floorboards have this creak in them that’s always there, and I can hear him coming in and out, especially when it’s late and it’s quiet outside—”
“Ma’am,” the man interrupted abruptly, clearly impatient.
“I think he came in earlier,” she said with more urgency, “and then he went out again. But then he came back.”
“When did you hear him come in?”
“Not long ago. Ten minutes, maybe? He should be upstairs.”
Matt’s nerves went haywire.
He heard the man’s tone take on a much harder edge as he ordered the woman, “I need you to let us in, ma’am, right now,” followed by a shout to his partner and the distinct sound of the entrance door snapping open.
Seconds later, heavy footfalls were charging up the stairs.
Chapter 21
Amundsen Sea, Antarctica
Gracie’s stomach fluttered as she watched Dalton rise off the deck of the royal research ship. Unlike the
It was now six hours since the sign had first appeared. After their extended, high-definition clip was broadcast and carried by the other channels, the news had simply exploded. It was all over the news updates, splashed across the world’s TV screens, and on every Internet news site. Armies of reporters and pundits were talking about it, wondering about it, offering wild theories. People across America and in the rest of the world were being interviewed and asked what they thought the sightings meant. As expected, some of the responses were glib and dismissive, but most people were seriously intrigued. And it was still the middle of the night across North America. Most people there were asleep. The next day, Gracie knew, was when the real frenzy would begin. Her satphone hadn’t stopped ringing with requests for interviews and comments, and her inbox was also flooded.
Across every channel, every news network, one expert after another was being wheeled in to try and explain
