Devlin handed Crane’s pistol to a tactical officer. “And you think that’s going to save you from prison?”
Crane offered another feeble shrug. “One never knows what strange turn of events lies around the next bend, Jessica. You’d be wise to remember that.”
Devlin gripped his jacket’s lapels and shoved him toward the officer. “He’s all yours.”
The agent took Crane into custody and ushered him away from the scene.
The deputy director cranked his head toward Devlin. “I have many, many connections. I’m confident we’ll see each other again.”
“All right.” One hand on a hip, Randall rubbed the back of his neck. “Assuming he did kidnap your sister, why would he do that? What was his end game?”
“My best guess...leverage. Use Faith to get to me.” Devlin whipped out her phone. “Then—”
“Use you to somehow get him his freedom.”
“That’s my theory. I have to contact Thorn. If this is true, then we’ve been looking in the wrong place for our man in black. Instead of criminal databases,” she put her mobile to her ear, “we should be scouring our own agency database for possible matches.”
*******
Following a short conversation with Thorn, Devlin ended the call. Her phone in hand, her concentration centered on the device, “There—” she faltered as a tingling mass filled her stomach and inched northward. “There are...No Good Options here, Noah.”
“What do you mean?”
“If Crane has kidnapped Faith, and we continue searching for her, we risk letting him get away. Then, when he feels he’s safe, he could just order her to be killed, anyway.” Devlin spied Randall. “And, if we go after Crane, we’re further away from locating those who have my sister. We can’t be in two places at once.”
He half shut an eye at her. “Or can we?”
She frowned. “What are you talk—” she looked away then came back to him in the next instant. “We split up.”
He nodded. “You stay here, and I’ll head back to Virginia and pick up Crane’s trail.”
“We work this from both ends.”
“And meet in the middle.”
“I like it, but,” Devlin chewed her lower lip while pondering for a moment, “as much as I want to be here...closer to Faith, I have more contacts in Virginia than you do. It makes more sense for me to fly back.”
“It’s your call. I can continue,” he threw a finger around while observing apartment doors, “talking to people here. And if we get a hit on the man in black, through facial recognition, I can then pursue that lead.”
“Crane is toxic right now. He’ll be looking to get out of the country. He may have connections, but many of them won’t be willing to stick out their necks for him at this point.”
“That’ll narrow the search a bit.”
“That’s what I’m thinking.” She jammed her cell into a pocket. “I’m going to go grab my stuff and get to the airport.” She cranked her head around to stare at Faith’s apartment door. Her mind showed her the mess inside while adding disturbing images of her sister’s current situation. “Hey Noah.” She turned toward him. “Please...”
Noticing the pained expression on her face, he took her by the upper arms. “I’ll find her, Jessica. Believe me. You’ve only seen a hint of what I’m capable of. I’m not afraid to crack skulls to get what I want. And right now, I want what you want...to find your sister.”
“I know. I know. Thank you. It just feels like I’m,” Devlin wavered, “like I’m abandoning her, you know?”
“You’re not. You’re leaving her with me. And I hope by now you know...you can trust me.”
“I do.” She nodded. “I do trust you, Noah.”
He gave her a reassuring smile. “Good. Call me when you know something, and I’ll do the same from here.”
“I will.” She trotted toward the elevator before doing a one-eighty and walking backwards. “Can you get me a ride to the airport?”
Randall took out his cell phone. “On it.”
“I need to contact Thorn and,” she banged the ‘down’ arrow next to the steel doors, “have her find me a jet that’s heading to Virginia.”
∞=∞=∞=∞=∞=∞=∞
.
Chapter 11
That’s What I’ve Heard
1:41 P.M. (LOCAL TIME)
RICHMOND, VIRGINIA
Standing at the back door of a dilapidated building in a run-down section of Richmond, Devlin pressed a button, looked up and to her right, and zeroed in on a dime-sized hole, a hole that she knew acted as a window for a small camera.
Fifteen seconds later, a voice from a hidden speaker: “It seems I’m quite popular today.”
A buzzer sounded, and a latch released.
“You know the way.”
Having been here before, Devlin entered the structure and took a set of stairs to the basement.
Back in Seattle, with no government planes available, Deputy Director Thorn had worked her contacts and gotten her agent on a private jet, a Cessna Citation X+.
Its twin Rolls Royce AE3007 C1 turbofan engines providing 6764 pounds of thrust each, the Cessna had zipped across the country at 700 miles per hour, shaving an hour off her return trip to Virginia.
During the flight, Devlin had placed a half a dozen calls to former contacts, but none had produced credible results on where Crane might seek help. Thirty minutes out from the airport, she had been informed that a Toyota had been stolen near where the SUV with the dead deputy marshals had been abandoned. That Toyota had then been spotted at a gas station in Ashland, Virginia a short time later.
Following her target’s path from Alexandria to Fredericksburg to Ashland, Devlin had studied a map of the state on her phone. Knowing Crane would be looking to get out of the country, she had examined cities further south before she had wagged her finger at Richmond.
Landing at Richmond International Airport, the marshal had hopped into a Chevy Tahoe, that her boss had waiting
