“Is Victoria,” Dean finished.
“How’d you know?”
“Sam said she looked familiar and he went through the photos I’d sent him related to the case.”
“Charlie told me but it slipped my mind, I’m sorry.”
“After being shot at?”
She rubbed the bridge of her nose with her knuckle. “Maybe I am too close to this.”
“We’ll find him, Sonia.” Dean’s voice was full of anger and confidence. “He’s not getting away this time.” Dean glanced at his phone again. “It’s headquarters.” He answered, listened, then hung up and said, “Sonia, they broke part of the code in Jones’s journal. They have a couple ideas where the women are being held. We have to get to FBI headquarters immediately.” He paused, glanced at his dirty clothes, and back at Sonia. “I think there’s time to change.”
Noel threw a glass against the wall.
“Does no one have pride in their work? A military sniper can’t take out one little woman? You couldn’t kill one fucking
He hated the pressure of not being able to come and go as he pleased. He hated thinking that people were watching him, waiting for him to fuck up.
He wasn’t going to. Noel had a backup plan, didn’t he?
They were in a house on the Indian reservation. The Indians owed them-hadn’t Noel made them rich? It had been Xavier’s idea, and it had been brilliant, but it was mostly Noel’s money. So he had no problem coming to collect.
Once the casino was built, they’d have far more freedom. He didn’t need Gleason after all, Ling had developed a rapport with the Rio Diablo tribe.
He threw another glass against the wall. It felt good to destroy something. He turned to Ling. “Call in every pilot, everyone you can trust. Have them on call to meet at the exchange site tonight.”
“Tonight?”
“We’re moving everything up twenty-four hours. If the buyers don’t agree to my terms, we’ll kill the women and get out. I’m not staying in this fucking country to see another sunrise.”
“And Sonia Knight?”
“She’ll be dead before we leave.” Noel rubbed his face. Damn, he wanted to kill her himself. He wanted to slit her throat and watch her die. He hated her, hated her with more passion than he’d felt for anything in a very long time. Some of his colleagues said they appreciated a worthy adversary. Not Noel. He preferred idiots he could fool, bribe, or kill.
“You put yourself at risk if you pursue her alone,” Ling warned.
“Ten thousand to whoever kills her,” Noel said reluctantly. “And I’ll double it if they bring her to me, alive, before sunrise. But after that, I’ll be on my way home. I’m never setting foot on American soil again.” He spat on the floor to show his disdain.
“I’ll make the arrangements.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Dean drove a circuitous route to his temporary apartment so he and Sonia could shower and change after the sniper incident and subsequent raid of Devereaux’s hotel suite. On Dean’s orders two agents followed to keep close watch on Sonia, though Dean wasn’t about to let her out of his sight.
While she showered, Dean called Sam Callahan to make sure he got the message about the task force meeting at headquarters. As far as Dean was concerned, they were on duty until Devereaux and the women were found.
“Callahan.”
“Did you get my message about the meeting?”
“Yes, but I’m still following Victoria Christopoulis. She just left Bank of America. She was inside for sixty-nine minutes. I stayed behind, while Trace followed her in my car. I talked to the manager, found out that she withdrew two hundred thousand in cash. Also learned that she had a safe-deposit box jointly with her son. He didn’t know what was in it, but she went in and cleaned it out-left the box on the table, open and empty.”
“Go on.”
“Trace called and said he thought she’s heading for the San Francisco Airport. He contacted the DOT at the airport and learned that she bought a ticket-from the time stamp, while she was still at home-to Vancouver, British Columbia, with a connection tomorrow morning to Montreal, and a connection from there to Greece.”
“She’s fleeing.”
“You bet. And getting out of the country as fast as possible. There’s a faster way going through New York City, but she’s headed across the border into Canada.”
“Who won’t extradite on a death penalty case.”
“I need an arrest warrant, before she gets on the plane. Definitely before it takes off.”
“I need a reason.”
“Suspicious behavior?”
“You’re funny.”
“Seriously, we show up and she clears out Omega’s business account, their joint safe-deposit box, and gets an international flight? She’s associating with known criminals? The photo?”
“How long has she been in America?”
“Ten days, but she comes often for both business and vacation. She’s in the country at least three months out of the year. We’ve been looking into Omega and no one has run before. There must be something more.”
“Maybe she thinks we’re closer.”
“Or she found out something we don’t know.”
“Detain her. Attempt to flee to avoid questioning in a capital offense. We’ll have her for seventy-two hours at least. I’ll call the U.S. attorney right now, give them a heads-up.”
“When Trace picks her up, where do you want him to take her? Immigration might have jurisdiction.”
“Bring her back to FBI headquarters. This is a joint task force, we’ll deal with jurisdictional issues later. Hell, maybe we’ll both take a stab at her. She sounds like a peach. But have him take backup.” He hung up and called the U.S. attorney he’d been working with.
The U.S. attorney wasn’t pleased, but understood that they couldn’t allow Christopoulis to get on the plane. If she left U.S. borders it would be far more costly to get her back. They’d likely have international diplomacy issues, but since ICE was involved, the Department of Homeland Security could take the heat.
Sonia came out of the bedroom, still flushed from her shower. She was putting her wet hair up. “Your turn.”
Dean said, “Victoria Christopoulis is fleeing.”
She paled. “Because I didn’t tell you about the photo fast enough?”
“No. Sam and Trace have been following her all afternoon. She withdrew over two hundred thousand U.S. dollars, plus whatever was in a safe-deposit box, and made flight arrangements to Canada. I told them to detain her and bring her in for questioning.”
“I want to be there for that one,” she said.
“I’ll be ten minutes, then we’ll go.”
Sonia called Simone Charles to find out if she’d learned anything from the three women who’d been killed and left in the warehouse.
“Actually, yes,” Simone said.
“And?”
“They were all pregnant.”
“Pregnant?”
“Anywhere from two to four weeks.”
