Dezz shrugged. ‘Fine. Next step?’
‘Consider who Donna might ask for help. That’s the kidnapper. Find him, we find Evan, tell him we can take him straight to his father. That’s the shortest distance between two points.’
A knock on the door. Three fast raps, then two slow. Dezz went to the door, his gun at the ready.
The pattern repeated itself, then a voice said, ‘Girl Scout cookies.’
Dezz opened the door. Broke into a smile. ‘Hey, Girl Scout.’
Carrie Lindstrom walked in, her face tired, her dark hair gathered into a ponytail, wearing jeans and an untucked T-shirt. She looked around the room. ‘Where’s Evan?’
Jargo sat her down, told her what had happened, described Bald based on the news report and Dezz’s fleeting glance. ‘You recognize the rescuer?’
‘No. Evan doesn’t know anyone who fits that description, at least in Houston.’
Jargo gave her a hard stare. ‘Carrie. You were supposed to find those files if Evan had them. They were on his computer. I saw them myself. You didn’t do your job.’
‘I swear… they weren’t there.’
He liked the shock and fear in her eyes. ‘When did you last look for them?’
‘Last night. I went to his place, we watched a movie, drank wine. I asked him if I could check my e-mail. He said yes. I looked, there were no new files on his system. I swear.’
‘You spent the night with him?’
‘Yes.’
‘Did you fuck him good?’ Dezz asked. Amusement in his voice.
‘Shut up, Dezz,’ she said.
Jargo said, ‘So how did he get away from you in Houston?’
‘I went to go get us breakfast. I stopped by my place and I got caught in bad traffic coming back. When I got back to his house, he was gone. He left a message with my voice mail that he’d had an emergency, he’d gone home.’
‘I accessed your voice mail this morning. Heard his message to you.’
Carrie’s jaw trembled. ‘You accessed my messages. You don’t trust me to report to you.’
‘Carrie. I heard nothing from you this morning. For almost two hours. If I hadn’t tapped your voice mail, I wouldn’t have known Evan was heading to Austin and Donna might be running. Thank God I did, because otherwise we wouldn’t have known. Her street’s hard for surveillance and she apparently hired muscle to help her run. You cost me an hour of time today that I needed by not reporting his movements to me.’
‘I didn’t check my messages. I’m sorry. I-’
‘The files I found were placed on Evan’s system this morning,’ Jargo said. ‘So I believe you. Lucky for you.’
‘You said you would get Evan and his mom to safety,’ Carrie said.
‘You’re losing your perspective,’ Dezz said. ‘Sleeping with him wasn’t a good idea.’
‘Don’t be a dick.’ She turned to Jargo. ‘Where is he?’
‘Kidnapped.’
‘Did you kill his mother?’ Her voice was thin.
‘No. She was dead when we arrived. Evan came in and we subdued him and searched his laptop. Found the files and erased them. But then we were attacked, and I assume it was Donna’s killer, returning to the scene for some reason.’ Jargo watched her face, seeing if she bought the lie.
She crossed her arms. ‘Who would have taken him?’
‘Anyone who knew his mother had the files. She must have tried to cut a deal for them with the wrong people.’
‘Evan doesn’t know anything,’ she said.
‘I think he fooled you. His mother sent him those files this morning, he saw them, he knows you’re not really his sweet lover girl.’ Jargo fought down the urge to hit her, to ruin that porcelain-perfect face, to shove her right through that glass window. ‘He ditched you and ran, and you let him, because you’re dumb as shit, Carrie.’
She opened her mouth, as if to speak, then closed it.
‘Carrie. One chance. Are you telling me everything you know?’ Jargo asked.
‘Yes.’
‘Did you call him this morning?’ Asking as if he already knew.
‘No,’ she said. ‘Do we go hunting for him or not?’
Jargo watched her. Decided what to say. ‘Yes. Because the other possibility is that it’s the CIA who grabbed Evan. They have the most to lose. They had every reason to kill his mom.’ He let the words sink in. ‘Just like they killed your parents, Carrie.’
Carrie’s poker face didn’t change. ‘We have to get Evan back.’
‘Tall order,’ Dezz said. ‘If the CIA has him, we’ll never find him.’
‘The more worrisome angle is the Agency killed Donna,’ Jargo said. ‘And then the gentleman who grabbed Evan had another agenda entirely. Then we’re fighting on two fronts.’
Carrie opened her mouth, then shut it.
‘You’re worried about him,’ Dezz said.
‘In the way you worry about a dog that’s gotten lost,’ Carrie said. ‘A neighbor’s dog, not yours.’
‘We’ll see if Galadriel can get a trace on the bald man or Evan. See if they surface anywhere.’
‘If the CIA has the files, then we need to run,’ she said.
Dezz grabbed her by the throat, gave a cruel squeeze with his fingers that worked the flesh around the carotid and the jugular like dough. ‘If you’d done your job and kept him in Houston, this wouldn’t have happened.’
‘Let her go, Dezz,’ Jargo said.
Dezz released her and licked his lips. ‘Don’t worry, Carrie. All is forgiven.’
Jargo’s cell phone rang. He went into the other room to answer it, shut the door behind him.
Carrie sat huddled on the couch.
Dezz leaned down and massaged the feeling back into Carrie’s neck. ‘I’m watching you, sunshine. You messed up.’
She slapped his hand away. ‘That’s not necessary.’
‘He got under your skin, didn’t he?’ Dezz said. ‘I don’t get it. He’s not better-looking than I am. I’m gainfully employed. I share my candy. Granted, I was never an Oscar nominee, but, fuck, that’s just a piece of paper.’
‘He was an assignment.’ Carrie stood and walked to the kitchen bar and poured herself a glass of water.
‘You enjoyed playing house,’ Dezz said. ‘But playtime’s over. If he’s seen those files, then he’s a dead man, and you and I both know it.’
‘Not if he’s made to understand. If I can talk to him.’
‘Make him into you,’ Dezz said. ‘The amazing avengers of murdered parents. It could be a comic book.’
‘I can turn him to help us. I can.’
‘I hope so,’ Dezz said. ‘Because if you don’t, I’ll kill him.’
7
C arrie thought, My short, sweet life is over.
She left Dezz playing his Game Boy and went into Jargo’s bedroom. He was on the phone, talking to his elves, the technical experts who worked for him. They were masters at locating information, rooting into private databases, uncovering crucial nuggets to help Jargo find what he wanted. The Ford’s plates were a dead end, stolen from a car in Dallas between midnight and 6:00 A.M. this morning. But the elves now tiptoed into the Casher phone records, credit card accounts, and more, searching for a pointer to Evan Casher’s savior.
Behind a closed door in the bathroom, Carrie washed and then studied her dripping face in the mirror. No pictures of her as Carrie Lindstrom existed, except for her forged passport and driver’s license, and a photo that
