“Just keep him talking,” Alex whispered. “I’m getting close to finding his location.”
“What do you want with me?” Hawk asked the man.
“The same thing I wanted with your mother—I want you dead. You’re a difficult man to find, Mr. Hawk.”
“There are other ways to get my attention.”
“I’ve found it’s challenging to get people’s attention sometimes. But nothing seems to work like killing their mother.”
“You’re one sick bastard.”
Alex looked at Hawk and gestured with her hand for him keep talking.
“I’ve been called worse.”
“I thought Obsidian was better connected,” Hawk said. “Surely you could’ve found me another way.”
“Good luck finding me, Mr. Hawk. I’ll be waiting.”
The line went dead. Alex pounded her fist on the table.
“I’m assuming you didn’t get his location?” Hawk asked.
She shook her head. “I was so close. He obviously knew what he was doing and was just toying with us.
“Now what?” Hawk asked. “Can’t you glean anything from that?”
“I can run his voice through a database and see if I can find something, but it’s still not going to tell us where he is.”
“Maybe we can figure out where he is some other way. He wants me to find him.”
“Yeah,” Alex said, “but he doesn’t want to make it easy on you. Makes you wonder why Obsidian is so intent on distracting you.”
“Maybe he can tell us,” Hawk said.
“Or maybe it’ll be too late,” Black suggested.
“Too late for what?” Hawk asked.
“For whatever Obsidian is planning.”
CHAPTER 11
THE NEXT MORNING, Blunt called the team together to discuss their next steps. He didn’t doubt Alex’s skills at pinpointing Becker’s Obsidian contact, but he did wonder if a good night of sleep in their own beds might be just what they all needed to regain their edge.
Hawk and Alex filed into the room behind Black, who was drinking a cup of coffee. Blunt noted how they all still seemed exhausted.
“I hope everyone slept well last night,” Blunt said.
“My sleep has been pretty restless ever since those animals murdered my mother,” Hawk said. “That won’t change until we catch the man who did this.”
“We’ll find him,” Blunt said. “But we can’t lose sight of the bigger picture at this point. It’s apparent that Obsidian is preparing to make a big move and wants to eliminate any speed bumps along the way.”
“And Hawk is the speed bump?” Alex asked. “It’s like they don’t even know about Black here.”
“I’m sure they do,” Blunt said, “and they probably have a plan for him as well. They just haven’t tipped their hand yet.”
“Or maybe they’re hoping to get a two-for-one special,” Black said. “They think they can take out both of us at the same time.”
“They very well could,” Blunt said. “That’s why it’s imperative for us to be so vigilant right now. If we hear or see anything, we can’t ignore it. We must be ready for any scenario.”
Alex shook her head. “The scenario we’re all dealing with right now is that we have no credible leads. That number we called was rerouted so many times I lost count. I’m at a loss for any other ways to find his location.”
Blunt pulled out a cigar and snipped the end off before jamming it into his mouth. He chewed on the tobacco for a few seconds before responding. “Do you have a recording of that phone call you can play for us again?”
Alex nodded and opened her laptop.
“Can you play it over the speakers in the room?” he asked. “I thought I heard something while he was speaking, and it bugged me all last night.”
Alex pounded on her keyboard and after a few seconds looked up at Blunt.
“I’m ready whenever you are,” she said.
“Let’s have a listen.”
The original recording boomed over the sound system. Blunt glanced at Hawk, who winced again when the Obsidian agent bragged about killing Hawk’s mother. Hawk clenched his fists and shifted in his chair.
With eyes darting back and forth while looking upward, Blunt concentrated on the conversation. There was something he swore he’d heard in the background—then, he was confident he heard it again.
“Stop it right there,” Blunt said. “Can you back that up just a few seconds?”
Alex complied and replayed the conversation from that point.
“Okay. Pause it,” Blunt said before Alex tapped her computer and halted the clip. “Can you isolate the background noise?”
“You think you hear something distinct?” Black asked.
Blunt nodded. “It feels like a long shot, but I haven’t been able to get it out of my mind. I just need to know for sure before we move on.”
“Give me a second,” Alex said as her fingers went to work.
Blunt put on his reading glasses and studied some of his files on Obsidian while Alex fulfilled her boss’s request.
“Ready?” Alex asked as she leaned back in her chair.
Blunt removed his spectacles and nodded. She tapped a key and the recording resumed, this time with the exchange between Hawk and the agent barely audible. Alex had enhanced the ambient noise, much to Blunt’s delight.
“Good job,” he whispered as he listened.
Midway through the recording, Blunt heard what he was listening for, the smooth baritone voice of auctioneer Charlie Bell. Blunt clapped his hands and pointed at Alex.
“That’s it,” he said. “That’s exactly what I thought I heard.”
Alex stopped the playback. “What did you hear?”
“That voice belongs to one of the best auctioneers at the Fort Worth Stockyard,” Blunt said. “Once you see Charlie Bell in action and hear his voice, you’ll never forget it. He talks a hundred miles an hour while raising bids for a longhorn and then has you spellbound with his mesmerizing description of the next animal. It’s truly an art form.”
“And
