“We work for The Phoenix Foundation now, which is how I gained access to this wonderful facility here.”
Mallory rolled her eyes. “Work here for a while and you’ll see that appearances can be deceiving.”
“Well, anyway, I was hoping you might be able to help us.”
Mallory took another sip of her coffee. “What do you need help with?”
“A number and phone records. A Russian assassin reported that he gets a call every Monday at a certain payphone and that lets him know whether he’s to visit a drop site or not.”
“And what do you need me for?”
“I need the number of that phone as well as proof that it was called on the day and time that the Russian claimed.”
“You got an address?” Mallory asked.
Alex told Mallory the cross streets and watched as her fingers flew across the keyboard.
“Okay,” Mallory said as she pointed at the screen, “here’s the number. Now what?”
“Look at all the recent Mondays that someone has called the phone.”
Mallory pounded out a few commands on her keyboard. The screen blinked as the unit retrieved the answer.
“It doesn’t get called very often,” Mallory said. “But it doesn’t look like anyone has called for the past three months.”
“What about before that?”
Mallory scrolled down the page and then shook her head. “Nope. Nothing. No one is calling during that time according to these records.”
“Hold on a minute,” Alex said, digging her phone out of her purse.
She dialed Hawk’s number and waited while it rang.
* * *
HAWK GLANCED at his cell as it buzzed.
“Did you get something?” Hawk asked as he answered the phone.
“Not exactly,” Alex said.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that no one has been calling that number for at least the past three months. So, the only conclusion I can draw is that our Russian friend has been lying to us.”
“Are you sure?” Hawk asked.
“Wake him up,” Alex said.
Hawk unlocked the door to Minsky’s room.
“Rise and shine, comrade,” Hawk said as he entered.
Minsky groaned and rolled over. “What time is it?”
“Time for you to get up and start answering some more questions.”
“What do you mean? I thought you got what you wanted.”
“Apparently, that’s not the case. Seems like you were feeding us a few lies last night.”
Minsky sat straight up in bed and jerked on the bindings. He glared at Hawk. “I told you that I was telling the truth.”
“That’s what you said. But Alex is sitting with someone in intelligence who has access to every phone record made in the U.S. in the past fifty years—and no one has called the number on a Monday at 5:00 a.m. for at least the past three months. Now, if you want me to help you out, you have to help me out.”
“I swear to you,” Minsky said, eyes wide and wild, “I got a call on that Monday—and every one since. I’m not making this up.”
Hawk sighed. “Well, Minsky swears that he’s telling us the truth. Can you ask Mallory to take another look?”
“Sure,” Alex said. “I’ll call you back and let you know what I find.”
“Perfect.”
* * *
ALEX HUNG UP and glanced at Mallory.
“Are you finding anything?”
“Maybe,” Mallory said. “In fact, I think I’ve found something here.”
“What is it?”
“There were some entries made to this phone, but they’ve been deleted.”
“Deleted?” Alex asked, her jaw dropping toward the floor.
“That’s right. Deleted,” Mallory repeated. “Someone is deleting them.”
“Are you sure?” Alex asked.
“I can’t be positive those happened around the time of the alleged phone calls—at least, I can’t be positive yet. But I’ll do my best to extract that information. It’s just going to take some time.”
“I would say take all the time you need, but I know you. You’ll take your sweet time for sure. And sadly, this can’t wait.”
“I know,” Mallory said. “I’m going to work hard to get this to you as soon as possible.”
“Good,” Alex said. “This is kind of important.”
“The fate of the world hanging in the balance, no less, right?” Mallory said with a cheeky grin on her face.
“We’re not quite there yet, but we might not be that far off. So, don’t take this so lightly.”
Mallory made a mocking salute. “Aye, aye, Cap’n.”
“This is serious, Mallory. Very serious.”
Mallory nodded and put her head down before pounding away on her keyboard.
CHAPTER 13
HAWK TEXTED ALEX and let her know that he needed to pay a visit to Senator Thurman. With local law enforcement plodding along with an investigation into Thaxton Thurman’s murder, Hawk realized that he needed to be just as thorough about interviewing all the potential players. And there was something that didn’t sit right with him regarding Senator Thurman.
The Florida senator seemed all too anxious to have Hawk put a bullet in the killer’s head and bury his body in the woods. In Hawk’s experience, most people dealing with grief want to do what they can to move on with their lives. But Thurman wanted to operate at a supersonic speed.
Alex responded to Hawk’s text by warning him to be careful. It was trite yet he took the message more to heart now. As much as he hated to admit it, Hawk knew marriage already made him think twice about his approach to certain situations. But it hadn’t changed anything. He just considered his actions with an extra measure of caution. Deep down, he knew his days of playing cowboy needed to be put out to pasture, though he wasn’t sure if he could follow through—even for Alex. For better or worse, Hawk was a clandestine operative, and nothing was going to change that.
Questioning Senator Thurman was risky from the standpoint that he was already exerting undue pressure on Fortner. Thurman was on the senate’s intelligence committee and very much aware of The Phoenix Foundation’s existence. He also had the power to shutter the covert black ops group by pulling funding. How Hawk navigated the interview was important—and tact wasn’t exactly one of his better assets.
Hawk arrived downtown and parked in
