before you walk away, I need you to make this phone call.’ Evan put his hand on his father’s arm. ‘Call. Find out if Carrie’s all right. You haven’t seen me. I got away.’
Mitchell clicked, rang. ‘Steve.’ A pause. ‘Yes.’ Another pause. ‘No. No, he got away from me. He has a friend or two in Miami. I might try them.’ A pause. ‘Don’t kill her. She might know where Evan would go. Or if I find him, she could be useful in bringing him in. We still need to know how large Bricklayer’s group is.’ Mitchell spoke with a soldier’s brisk tone. Weighing options, offering countermoves, speaking like a man comfortable in shadows. ‘All right.’ He clicked off. ‘They’re at the safe house. Our final stop on our escape route. She’s still alive. He’s… questioning her. He wants the password to the laptop.’
What had she said in the car? He’ll give me to Dezz. I’d rather be dead.
‘She doesn’t know the password. That computer’s empty, anyway.’ Except for my fallback, my poker bluff for Jargo, if he ever cracks it.
‘I bought her time,’ Mitchell said. ‘But it won’t be pleasant for her.’
‘Where is she?’
Mitchell shook his head. ‘You can’t save her.’
‘I can. If you help me. Just tell me where Jargo has her.’
‘No. We’re running. Just you and me. Never mind Carrie. You and me.’
Evan took the Beretta from his coat pocket. He didn’t raise it. ‘I’m sorry.’
‘Evan, for God’s sake, put that away.’
‘You made the tough choices, Dad, for me. Because you loved me. But I’m not leaving Carrie. Tell me where she is. If you don’t want to go, it’s your choice.’
His father shook his head. ‘You don’t know what you’re doing.’
‘I absolutely do. Your choice.’
Mitchell closed his eyes.
44
I t will end tonight, Evan thought. One way or another, all the years of lies and deceit end. Either for my family or for Jargo.
Mitchell drove north to 75 West – nicknamed Alligator Alley. As they headed west, the night cleared and the adrenaline settled into Evan’s flesh and bones like a permanent high. They listened to a news station out of Miami; McNee was dead, shot by a police officer as she tried to flee the scene in Miami Beach.
‘Jargo won’t kill Carrie right away. They’ll want to know everything that the CIA knows – they’ll take their time. Jargo can’t afford to let the CIA work another mole into the network.’
‘Will Jargo torture her?’ Torture. It wasn’t a verb you wanted within a mile of the woman that you loved.
‘Yes.’ The answer sounded flat in the dark space between them. ‘You cannot dwell on Carrie, Evan. If you go in thinking about Carrie
… or your mother, you’ll die. You must focus on the moment at hand. Nothing more.’
‘We need a plan.’
‘This isn’t my forte, Evan. Rescue operations. We’re not a SWAT team.’
‘You kill people, right? Consider it a hit. On Dezz and Jargo.’
‘I don’t usually have an untrained person to protect, either.’
‘This is my fight as much as yours.’
Mitchell cleared his throat. ‘I go in alone. You’ll stay hidden outside. They’ll expect me to return here, if I can’t find you. I’ll say you’re still missing, no report that the police have found you. I’ll tell them that I’ve heard the news report that McNee is dead, but that I heard on the Miami police band that she’s alive but captured. Since Jargo stole a civilian car, he won’t have heard any police-band reports.’
‘We hope.’
‘We hope. They’ll know if McNee is alive, the FBI and CIA will bring extraordinary pressure to bear on her. We need to run.’ Mitchell glanced at his son. ‘That movement creates an opportunity of weakness. They will want to shut down everything in the house before they go.’
‘The decoy laptop. They’ll take that with them?’
‘Yes, unless they’ve already broken it with an unlock program.’
‘They won’t have,’ Evan said. ‘What did you put on the decoy?’
‘Let’s just say I learned a few tricks from the poker champs when I filmed Bluff. The importance of mental warfare.’
‘When they come out of the lodge, Jargo will be walking alone, Dezz probably will have Carrie in cuffs. Both will be armed and ready. I’ll drop back and get them both in my kill zone. I will shoot Dezz first, because he will have the gun on Carrie. Then Steve.’ His voice wavered.
‘Don’t hesitate, Dad. He killed Mom. I promise you it’s true.’
‘Yes. I know he did. I know. Do you think knowing makes it any easier? He’s still my brother.’
Silence hung between them for a long moment before Evan spoke. ‘What if they want to kill Carrie before leaving? The Everglades – you could make a body vanish forever.’
‘Then,’ Mitchell said, ‘I’ll lie and say I want to kill Carrie myself. But slow. For turning you against me.’
The cool calculation of his father’s voice made Evan shudder. ‘I don’t think it’s right you go in alone. You don’t have to fight my fight.’
‘The only way this will work is if they believe you and I are not together and have not been together.’
‘All right, Dad. Can I ask you a question?’
‘Yes.’
‘Did you love Mom?’
‘Evan. My God. Yes, with all my heart.’
‘I wondered if maybe the marriage was arranged, to give you cover.’
‘No, no, son. I loved her like crazy. My brother, he was in love with her, too. It was the only time I beat him in anything. When Donna chose me.’
The night was dark and vast. Evan had never seen the Everglades before and it was both empty and full, all at once. Empty of the human touch other than the highway, filled by a plain of dirt, water, and grass that throbbed with life. Mitchell headed south onto Highway 29, on the edge of the Big Cypress National Preserve. No lights of a town or business, just the curve of the road heading into black.
In the darkness by the side of the road, his father stopped the car.
‘Hide in the trunk. Break the trunk light so it won’t shine.’
A jolt of panic hit his chest. So much unplanned. So much to do to try to prepare, but no time.
‘The driveway goes around to the back of the lodge, where there’s a large porch. I’ll park with the trunk aimed away from the lodge. You’ll see a gray brick building toward the back of the property. It’s a garage and houses the generator. Run as fast as you can for it. Stay behind it until I come for you. If we come out and I miss a shot, you should have a clear line at Dezz or my brother.’
‘Dad. I love you.’ Evan took his father’s hand in the darkness.
‘I know. I love you, too. Go get in the trunk.’
45
I nside the trunk – for the second time in a night, and he hoped for the last in his life – Evan felt the BMW come to a stop. He heard his father get out of the car. No call of greeting broke the still quiet, and he heard his father go up stairs onto a porch, a door open. Then he heard a murmur of cautious hellos, his dad’s voice sounding actor-pitch perfect in its weariness and fear, and then the door shut.
He eased the trunk open, rolled out the back. The night air was cool and moist, but his palms were
