Burgamy stopped her. “Juliet, you worked with Evan as this persona before. Do you know of any places he might have suggested to Cady? Neutral places that would make the guy more comfortable? Obviously, the meeting wasn’t going as well as Evan hoped if they aren’t at the location they agreed to, and his phone is completely offline.”
This probably wouldn’t have happened if you’d gone undercover with him.
Burgamy didn’t say the words out loud, and may not have even been thinking them. But Juliet could feel them floating in the air. Maybe it was just her own guilt talking.
“I don’t know. Yeah. Maybe a couple of places.” Juliet could picture a few.
“I don’t have any agents to send out. Everybody has gone into DC to help with this bomb issue. Until we know for sure Evan is in trouble, the bomb has to be my priority.”
Juliet nodded. Burgamy was right; he couldn’t pull men off a known crisis for something that was only a possible one. “Okay, I’ll work with Baltimore PD. Hopefully this is just some sort of fluke thing and Evan will be in touch soon.”
But her gut told her the opposite.
CHAPTER SIX
From the very beginning this meeting with Vince Cady hadn’t gone the way Evan had hoped. It had started okay, a call with an agreed meeting time and place at an empty office building near the Baltimore Pier. The location allowed for privacy, but also a measure of safety for Cady. It would be easy to disappear into the nearby crowds if a quick getaway was needed.
Evan had reported the meeting location to Omega, then had shown up, ready for Bob Sinclair to be anything and everything the drug lord needed him to be. But Cady wasn’t there. Evan had waited fifteen minutes, wondering with each minute that passed if the entire operation was a failure before it even began, before two thugs had shown up.
“Where’s Cady?” he had asked.
Neither had answered, just walked up to him and began frisking him. Thank God he wasn’t wearing a wire.
“I don’t have a weapon,” Evan had told them during the pat-down. That had been a conscious decision. In some undercover ops he did carry a weapon, because that’s what the persona would do. But Bob Sinclair was a buyer and seller, not muscle for hire. In most situations, he wouldn’t have a weapon.
Although Evan sort of wished Bob had one now.
The thugs took his cell phone from his pocket and one walked outside with it. Then the other guy, still not saying a word, pulled out his own phone and dialed a number.
He handed the device to Evan.
“Um, hello?”
“Mr. Sinclair, this is Vince Cady.”
“I thought we were meeting here at the pier, Mr. Cady.” Evan tried to put just the right amount of annoyance into his tone. Bob Sinclair would want Vince Cady’s business, but would not be desperate for it.
“Yes, well, we’ve had a slight change in plans for security purposes. I felt this was necessary, since we have never actually met.”
“Okay, so what’s the new plan?”
“Now that I know we are talking on a secure line and that no one else can hear us, I was hoping we could come up with a new meeting location.”
This wasn’t totally unreasonable. It seemed as if Cady was a suspicious bastard, but that was probably why he was still in business.
Evan thought fast. Juliet could still use his phone to track him, but if he could suggest somewhere he was familiar with, that would at least give Evan a slight advantage. Being outnumbered and unarmed was disadvantage enough.
“Fine. There’s a group of warehouses near the Francis Scott Key Bridge.” Evan gave Cady the address. “It’s neutral and private. Let’s meet there.”
“Sounds fine, Mr. Sinclair. My associates will escort you. And I will gladly replace your phone. Sorry for the inconvenience.”
Evan was about to ask what he meant, but Cady had already disconnected.
“I guess we’re going to the Francis Scott Key Bridge,” Evan told the man putting the phone away.
“Mr. Cady said there would be two of you.”
Evan didn’t blink an eye. “Not today. The wife couldn’t make it.”
The other thug walked in from outside. “Okay, it’s done. Are we ready?”
“Can I get my phone back now?” Evan asked him.
“No. It’s on its way to the bottom of the harbor. Sorry.” The man didn’t look a bit sorry.
Damn. This meant Evan was totally on his own. Unless Omega had developed some super tracking software in the past six hours, his only contact with them was now a plaything for fishes.
The ride to the warehouse near the Francis Scott Key Bridge was uneventful. Less than uneventful, almost completely silent.
“I left my Jeep in hourly parking. Between my cell phone in the harbor and our little field trip, this is turning into an expensive day.”
Nothing. Evan gave up on trying to engage them.
The warehouses were what Evan remembered. A large area of identical buildings, almost all empty, surrounded by industrial structures. It would be easy to get lost, or end up in the wrong warehouse if you didn’t know exactly where you were going. Multiple ways leading in and out. Helpful for people who didn’t like being hemmed in. He and Juliet had done business at this very location as Bob and Lisa Sinclair.
A door to one of the empty warehouses stood open and they drove straight in. There stood Vince Cady, leaning casually against his SUV, surrounded by four of his closest buddies. Evan got out of the car as it stopped.
“Mr. Sinclair.” Cady walked toward him and shook his hand. The man was in his midfifties, with salt-and-pepper hair, short and trim. “It is good to finally meet you. I am sorry for all the subterfuge and drama of switching locations.”
“You’ve got to have security measures. I understand.”
“And where is the lovely Mrs. Sinclair I’ve heard so much about?”
Evan hadn’t expected Cady to start asking about Juliet this early. “She’s not here.”
“I can see that.
