Daylight (Part 2/2) David Baldacci (Audiobook)

thing i got with that one he looked her over it seems to have made you stronger and if you're as young as i think you are then an overachiever as well right on both accounts i made 06 three years early but it felt six years longer than that i could see that how was your father no longer with us how was your father to that question polar almost always answered hanging in there but there was something about miles that made him say he's seen better days unfortunately it's hard to see your father grow old said miles it's harder still when your father was a soldier a leader tough as nails you expect him to live forever where are you deployed now asked puller for now i'm working out of the norfolk naval station so i can oversee my baby being born puller looked confused for a moment and glanced at her unadorned ring finger she noted this and laughed wistfully i'm waiting to take command of a freedom class lcs they're just about to launch the uss seattle said miles referencing the acronym for a literal combat ship that's my baby yes ma'am that must be quite a thrill she glanced over his shoulder why don't we find a private place to talk puller turned to see a group of suits and uniforms come into the library and take up seats they found an empty room at the end of the hall on the third floor puller closed the door behind them and they sat across from each other in fold up chairs miles placed her cap on her lap puller did likewise with his she ran her gaze over his rows of ribbons and her eyebrows hiked this was the military's equivalent of bragging rights guts and glory on full uniform display on one's chest the earning of them had been anything but uniform puller had endured violent intrusions of metal into his body and been thrown into hellish situations that no human being should have to endure in other words just a day's work for a soldier the dsc purples bronze twin silvers along with everything else very impressive john you've served your country faithfully and well i do my duty like everybody else there's nothing wrong with acknowledging exceptionalism why would my brother contact you i think he contacted a number of people who he thought might be helpful to you but you're the only one he asked me to meet with she nodded i think my relevance to your investigation has nothing to do with my being in uniform okay it has a lot to do with someone i know quite well okay as i alluded to i have no children but i am a godmother to someone who is that jeff sands i don't know who that is he's the grandson of peter driscoll peter driscoll the senate majority leader why would that knowledge be of use to me jeff just turned 21 years old because of his grandfather's connections he got into georgetown where he's a junior he could not have gotten in on his own merit okay still not getting what this has to do with my case jeff is a drug user he is also probably a drug dealer i don't know that for sure but that is my best guess so a drug dealer maybe why haven't i heard anything about that why would you so grandpa has kept it out of the courts in the news like i said i don't know about the drug dealing part but jeff has a lot of wealthy and well-connected friends at ivy league colleges who could be customers of his so a network of elite drug users and what have you done about it i'm his godmother which is usually an honorary rank i knew his mother jennifer she died when jeff was eight it was a big blow to him his father is a hedge fund guy he works and lives in new york after jennifer died he married a much younger woman they have two little kids he's written jeff off i tried to step into the breach so i've spent a lot of time with jeff over the years not as a second mom or anything but just as a friend someone to talk to jeff have any other siblings no and what does he tell you when you two talk about his issues i've confronted him a number of times he tells me that things are fine he had a problem but has it no longer and that anything else i've heard about him is just wrong did he look like he was using not when he was with me and did you tell my brother this yes how did he even come to contact you were you friends you didn't say no i knew of him but he told me he had never heard of me he said it had to do with the results of an algorithm he had come up with for the purposes of your investigation polar cracked a smile an algorithm now that sounds like bobby all right are you sure driscoll knows about his grandson's wayward ways i know he does i told him numerous times and what did he do he said he would handle it and did he i doubt i would be here talking to you if he had when was the last time you spoke with jeff about two weeks ago did he ever mention a man named tony vincenzo no not to me i would remember that how about a pet house on billionaires row in manhattan puller gave her the street address miles looked puzzled you know i think i dropped him off there once when we were in new york together this was about a month ago he said there was going to be a party i remember telling him that he needed to be careful and i also remarked that he must have some really really rich friends do you know who owns the place we tried to track it and failed which means it might be a global criminal enterprise with mega deep pockets oh my god who the hell is he mixed up with i intend to find out but i need to talk to your godson asap do you want me to reach out to him and arrange something no that won't work why because he'll either disappear or someone will be sent to kill me and since that's already happened once very recently i'd like to avoid it again if possible miles had turned pale as he was speaking then what do you want me to do she said in barely above a whisper send me his contact info at a picture i'll take it from there and what should i do in the meantime do not contact him go back to norfolk keep your head down and when your ship is commissioned get on it and don't look back you're really scaring me john then my mission is accomplished are you working this case all alone puller took out his phone no i've got a partner who i'm just about to call i hope this person is good she's far better than good chapter 41 the next evening pine met puller outside the eighth avenue exit from penn station in new york city he had ridden an amtrak regional train up from dc arriving in about three hours the weather was overcast and chilly as they walked along the street puller's small duffle slung over his shoulder his dress blues had been exchanged for jeans a sweater and a dark blue blazer as they walked they filled each other in on their respective developments including robert puller's algorithm netting them gloria miles and through her jeff sands so have you told lionberry that linda holden bryant was his mole all those years ago asked puller i should but i haven't i'm not exactly sure how to go about it plus he's still recovering from being shot they grabbed a cab that took them up the west side to a condo building in the 80s near riverside drive as they passed the top padded and uniformed doorman and walked into the soaring marble and chrome lobby puller asked what are we doing here this is where we're staying carol is in the condo now making dinner whose condo is it i usually crash on a friend's couch when i'm in new york the cid's per diem for lodging doesn't cover anything in the city lodging arena and that includes sleeping in your car in a parking garage polar eyed the smiling concierge seated behind a desk that would not have looked out of place at versailles and added and i don't have to be the world's greatest detective to deduce that this is also out of the bureau's lodging per diem pine looked uncomfortable this this is jack lineberry's pieritare he generously allowed us to stay here weren't you staying at a hotel in trenton pine thumbed the button for the elevator and said he called yesterday i told him i was in new york and he insisted that we stay here was this before or after you spoke with his old flame after but i didn't tell him that he was just being kind they rode the car up to the tenth floor and she let him down a wide luxuriously carpeted hallway lined with stout wooden doors and paintings that looked original she used her pass key to enter the apartment puller followed set down his duffel and looked around wow lionberry is really loaded yes he has his own jet a mansion in rural georgia a penthouse in atlanta and this place added puller and he's your father he's my biological father but tim pine raised me she retorted as far as i'm concerned he's my father i get that but does lionberry have any other kids no he never married he had me and mercy well don't be surprised if he leaves all of this to you pine looked surprised i never even thought about that and i don't want it but he can still leave it to you and you can do with it what you want i'll worry about that if and when it turns out i have to a moment later blum walked into the room wearing an apron and a smudge of flour on her cheek she was rubbing her hands on a cloth i thought i heard you come in this place is deceptively large and very quiet i hope you're hungry dinner will be ready in about 10 minutes i am said puller it was slim pickings on the train let me show you to your room said pine she let him down a hall to the last door and opened it she stepped in and looked around at what was clearly a high dollar professionally decorated space just like the rest of the apartment lionberry has good taste or hired someone who has good taste remarked puller as he set his duffel on the four poster bed pine sat in a chair in front of a reproduction desk all primed with stationary and pen and a large leather-handled magnifying glass so jeff sands puller nodded and sat on the bed his grandfather is one of the most powerful men in the country but his son-in-law has apparently written jeff off and has a new family to focus on so he might be a drug dealer in addition to being a user how has that not hit the news i did some research on it sans is one of 16 grandchildren and he has a different last name and from what i could gather not many people are in the loop on this and maybe folks don't consider it newsworthy i mean sansa's dad was the absent parent i can't believe many people will ding peter driscoll because one of his many grandchildren turned out bad he raised his own kids and they all seem to have turned out okay it's not exactly his responsibility to look after another generation okay that certainly makes sense so what do we do i've got sansa's address we set up surveillance and see what we see and why not go directly to question him no i want to recon order this sucker a little bit first the federal government and the trenton police have come down on us like a ton of bricks i can't see how jeff sands could have made that happen but i can see someone like peter driscoll having a hand in that i can't answer that one way or another i hope to be able to shortly but people have been killed sheila weathers and jerome blake and ed mcelroy me hopelessly naive but i also can't believe that a u.s senator would be involved in that when he didn't answer she said pull her i'm trying to decide if you're hopelessly naive or i'm a confirmed cynic but you think it's possible he's involved somehow i think there's so much money in politics today that anything is possible guys like driscoll are a hot commodity addly they can be worth billions or even trillions of dollars to certain folks he paused what do you think someone would do for a trillion bucks anything she said and looking at it that way i guess we're fortunate that only three people are dead but i think that number is going to go up including you and me it's already been a close call for us both you especially from the minute we put on the shield we accepted that possibility pine finished for him but again this is not your case hadley you really should just focus on finding your sister very chivalrous of you to give me such an easy out which you're not going to take my answer is the same as the last time you asked let's go eat you're not the only one who's hungry chapter 42 it was the hour of night when most people were already in bed a marine fog had rolled in off the hudson and been met by a twin mist burning off the east river they met in the middle of manhattan like secret lovers on a nighttime tryst pine was fully dressed as she gazed out the bedroom window and saw nothing any activity going on at street level 10 floors below was currently invisible to her she checked her main weapon and her beretta for the fourth and final time she moved down to blum's bedroom door and listened for a few moments until she heard the woman's gentle snores puller was waiting for her in the front room he was dressed all in black and she noted the bulges along his waistline where his twin emma evans sat puller took out his phone and scrolled through some screens i've had a team of cid agents up here tracking sands all day and night what has he been doing apparently the twin workloads of being a student at georgetown and operating a drug ring got to be too much for him he's taking some time off from academia to fatten his wallet and expand his market share so it's confirmed that he's dealing pretty much yeah have we ruled out his father being a partner in all this she asked as they stepped into the elevator car and headed down not definitively but from all we could ascertain the guy is legit rich and he's a prick for a father at least a sans so i doubt father and son are in this together a taxi dropped them three blocks from their destination in brooklyn it's a club where sans hangs out explained puller what kind of club an expensive one you want front or back she asked up to you pine headed to the back she settled in behind a line of dumpsters about 20 yards from the rear exit of the place that was called simply the club now that's either really lazy or really ingenious thought pine puller had emailed her a picture of sans he was handsome with an arrogant glaze to his features he looked like a child of privilege to pine but then again his mother had died while he was a child and his father had abandoned him pine could relate to that but it didn't absolve the man from the consequences of being a drug dealer a light rain began to fall and pine moved back so that she was under the cover of an overhang she pulled up the collar on her jacket and kept her gaze on the back door of the club she stiffened at one am when the door opened and two men stumbled out but neither one was sans they quickly moved off picking up their pace as the rain came down harder 20 minutes more passed and pine was wondering whether this stakeout would turn out to be a bust when the door opened once more she stiffened and then relaxed as the woman appeared she looked to be in her twenties short voluptuous and wearing barely anything at all a moment later pine came to rigid attention as the man appeared in the doorway and looked around jeff sands then stepped out smiled and coiled his hands around the woman his hands dipped to her buttocks and took up purchase there they kissed and he maneuvered her back against the wall pine wasn't sure she wanted to see what was coming next until the two men appeared from a darkened corner of the rear of the building the woman darted away and it was just sands and the two gents with pistols pointed at his handsome and now terrified face he put his hands up and backed away she could see him pleading with the gunman even as she knew these pleas would not cut it she had already texted a one-word alert to pull her she slipped out both pistols and moved forward her glock was aimed at one assailant her beretta at the other they had backed sans up to the same wall as he had the woman she would normally call out her presence and fbi authority but this situation did not ideally allow for it rushing silently forward she clubbed the first man on the back of the head with the butt of her pistol he dropped to the ground with a yell the other man whipped around his gun leveled at her chest the next moment he was on the ground after being slammed there by puller who had rounded the corner and hit the fellow with a full head of steam they quickly disarmed the men and then ordered them to get up the man pine had clubbed had blood streaming down his face i need a doctor he screamed what you need said puller holding out his shield is to start answering questions beginning with why you were just about to kill this man sans had collapsed against the wall and was panting with tears in his eyes we weren't going to kill him said the other man rubbing a bruise on his cheek where it had slammed into the pavement we were going to talk to him about some delinquent bills and you do that with guns said pine mr sands usually needs some persuading puller took out his phone and punched in a number well you can explain your technique to nypd how about that you don't really want to do that they turned because this came from sans who had regained his composure and was looking at them imploringly these are business associates of mine they really weren't going to hurt me which i can't say for you two the same man said rubbing his cheek again pine said either one of you know tony vincenzo the men glanced at each other until the bleeder said who puller put his phone away and looked at sans who said this has nothing to do with tony they don't know him pine turned her attention to him but you do i know him yeah he said grudgingly puller glanced at the two men beat it the men looked in surprise at each other and then hurried off disappearing into the mist as quietly as they had emerged from it sans pushed off the wall and straightened out his clothes thanks for the help i'd buy you a drink but i have some place i have to be puller hooked him by the arm you do have a place to be speaking with us let's go sans strained against him this is a free country and i've done nothing wrong so get your damn hands off me pine stepped forward or we can call up your grandfather and let him know what our investigation has uncovered about you you think he'd care sneer to sans why don't you call the who happens to be my father and see what you get there maybe they won't be interested but the police probably will those guys weren't collecting for a charity how much do you owe them why are you guys giving me such a hard time puller remarked we know what you're involved in jeff and people have died what makes you think you're special who's died tony vincenzo's father and a woman named sheila weathers sans looked panicked sheila you're lying she was just just what just at that penthouse the other night so was i she's dead i saw her body you're lying we can take you right now to the morgue to see your corpse it won't be pretty because they've already autopsied her i have the report on my phone you want to see the pictures sans shook his head and put a shaky hand to his face no i let's go get a cup of coffee there's an all-night place right around the corner said puller they walked off into the darkness chapter 43 it took one full cup of coffee before sands would even look up at them the place was a dive but pleasant enough and not too crowded at this hour both pine and puller had kept an eye out for the two men who had gone after sands if they were out there and they probably were they were good at staying invisible you want something to eat asked pine who cradled her coffee and let the steam rise to her face helping to cut against the rawness outside sands shook his head dumped some sugar into the cup the waitress had just refilled and said sheila was nice she told me she was sort of dating tony sands pushed a hand through his thick tousled hair he looked like a kennedy thought pine handsome charming connected and sometimes getting into serious trouble i guess she was but we all hung out she worked at fort dix in the commissary said pine at least that's what i was told yeah something like that so why did a girl like that warrant a pass to billionaires row i said she could same as tony same as lindsay axelrod lindsay why are you mentioning her because she was the one who set me and sheila up she helped whoever killed sheila no way i don't believe that he said heatedly lindsay's cool she wouldn't do something like that and how do you know lindsay asked pine we we just met the way people do why do i think she sought you out said pine why would she do that she's just an i.t worker at fort dix i went to the penthouse with lindsay she got in because of her connection to tony or at least i thought that then she pointed out sheila to me there we arranged to meet with her later lindsay and i were getting into what i thought was an uber that lindsay ordered the next thing i remember i was waking up next to a dead sheila and lindsay was nowhere to be seen maybe they got her too no i later went to her house no one answered my knocks so i called the cops to do a welfare check when they got there she spoke to them through a doorbell camera setup and told a story about her mother being ill and her having to go out of town she never mentioned what happened that night she's in this up to her eyeballs and she's not just an i.t person she fooled me and she apparently fooled you puller put his coffee down and leaned forward so what exactly is going on jeff sands looked nervously at him look i don't know what you want me to say the truth would be really good how'd you even find out about me puller said i had a talk with your godmother she was very worried about you she asked me to check on you so here i am checking on you he paused she really does care for you jeff yeah i know aunt gloria does she's really the only one after my mom died he added miserably lots of people have shitty lives jeff said pine but you're young you've got money unless those clothes you're wearing are knock-offs you're attending one of the best colleges in america i got in because of who my grandfather is that's the only reason i didn't even want to go but he insisted he said i had to make something of myself maybe he genuinely means it sans chuckled what's the joke asked pine the only thing he's genuinely concerned about is that i might do something to mess up his good name i heard that he plans to retire after his term is up pointed out puller he's also planning to join this big ass lobbying firm to fund his golden years anything messes that up he's sol i thought members of congress had to wait before they could lobby the government said pine the way it was explained to me he won't be directly lobbying anyone but a wink a nod a phone call a whispered word that shit's easy to get around it's why they wrote the law that way to make it look like they were doing something positive only there are holes in it big enough to drive a semi through you seem to have checked that out pretty thoroughly noted puller i like to know what i'm dealing with said sans meaning what exactly meaning exactly what i just said so would drug dealing qualify as besmirching the family's reputation asked pine who says i'm dealing drugs you say you're not no i'll just sit here and confess to two feds you want it in writing or is verbal okay puller leaned in even further i'm going to tell you something and i want your opinion all right sans looked surprised by this but nodded okay tony vincenzo is a pill maker that's beyond doubt i've got two of his stooges cooling their heels in the stockade at four dicks plus we found a ton of evidence at his dad's old home that's the first point the second point is we have encountered extraordinary opposition from both state and federal platforms to our investigation my question to you why would a run-of-the-mill drug op trigger so many players on the other side with the intent of burying the truth sans took a sip of coffee before answering i don't know maybe it's not a run-of-the-mill drug operation so is that penthouse on billionaires row a heroin silo or what now it's just a playpen a perk for the faithful pine noted that sans his despair had faded and his confidence bolstered as the conversation had veered to this topic but his features betrayed that maybe he had said too much then you must be one of the faithful so tell us where do you direct that faith ask pine sands leaned forward i don't want any part of this okay do you want part of prison said polar you have no proof of anything i've got witnesses ready to rat your ass out sans two you really think i'm gonna tell you that you're bluffing you've got nothing then walk out of here right now said pine there's the door keep in mind they got to a guy in a federal prison keep in mind they got to your friend sheila keep in mind that lindsay is in on it and she strikes me as a survive at all costs kind of gal so now that you've been seen with us how long do you think you have you're trying to scare me i'm giving you the facts if the facts scare you so be it sans glanced at the door you'd really just let me walk out of here sure said puller but before you go you have any idea where tony vincenzo is no i haven't seen him in about a week and how do you know him you didn't say we met a while back hung out he's cool and why do you have access to the penthouse if you're not contributing to the cause said pine it didn't strike me as a freebie sort of place what's the price of admission sans shrugged and stared down at his coffee you can understand our skepticism that you're clean jeff right said puller do you know who owns that penthouse no who told you about it who said you could go there some guys i forget their names i doubt they'll forget yours well i think we're done here jeff have a nice life however short it might be polar rose and pine did likewise sands looked up at them you just gonna leave me here by myself polar looked at pine and then said you said you're clean we have no grounds to hold you what do you expect us to do you said before you had some place to go so they moved toward the door look hey guys they turned back a pale sands the jauntiness struck clean from him rose and joined them i don't want to die okay so what do you do about it said pine because the only way we can help you is if you help us you're a college boy you're smart enough to grasp that concept sans glanced nervously around a few of the customers were staring at him can we go somewhere and talk about this maybe we could figure something out sure said puller as he laid some cash down for their coffees he gripped sands by the arm and nodded at pine check the back we can't take any chances with him pine cautiously exited out the back door and did a recon of the area behind the restaurant her gaze took in all sectors sight lines and hiding places satisfied she crept back to the door and called out clear puller came out with sands we can go back to my place said pine sands said where's that he didn't finish due to the rifle round slamming into his head it passed through the back of his skull and plunged right into puller both men dropped to the ground john cried out pine sans was clearly dead and it looked like john puller might be too chapter 44 pine had never liked hospitals ever since she nearly died in one as a child back in georgia she had been in and out of consciousness in the ambulance that had taken her there bright lights masked people tubes and lines being inserted in her her anguished and sobbing mother the race down the hallway on the gurney the white antiseptic room strangers hurtling around her machines beeping overhead lights like a cluster of suns so intense they hurt so she closed her eyes and then there was a prick of something another something covered her mouth dark then she rose again like jesus or at least her tired mind had remembered this little tidbit from vacation bible school her mother had been there her father others a man with a white coat a smiling nurse she would live it seemed now she sat in the visitors room at the hospital where the ambulance had taken puller she had ridden over with him every memory of her own frantic ambulance ride coming back to her in waves conjured from 30 years ago she held his hand whispered encouragement into his ear unsure if he could hear her whether he was actually conscious but she had felt him squeeze back however weakly and then he was whisked off for emergency surgery when mercy had vanished six-year-old pine had prayed every night for her sister's safe return she had prayed all the way until the eighth grade and after that she had prayed no more until now she got down on her knees and pressed the palms of her hands together god this is a good man a just man please don't let him die please we need him i need him please save him she quickly rose when blum bustled in how is he still in surgery they said they'd come in when they were done and let me know how it went have you reached his family his father has dementia i left word for his brother at a number i scrounged up i don't know if it's good do you know his father and brother his father is an army legend and john's namesake his brother robert is a lieutenant colonel in the air force a once-in-a-generation talent with computers according to puller i've never met either of them it must have been awful last night it was pretty awful yes did you see the shooter no i covered puller with my body when he went down i knew sans was dead half his brain ended up on puller's clothes i fired in the direction of the shot but they didn't return fire by the time the police got there it was way too late the shooter was gone and did sans tell you anything helpful before he was killed he was going to i think so you were being followed last night yes we ran into two thugs earlier who were going to come down heavy on sands probably over we chased them off i don't think it was them so maybe whoever sans was going to finger i guess we'll never know for sure the door opened and they both turned to see who it was pine was expecting the surgeon and praying it would be good news but the tall man in his late 30s was wearing air force abuse that's service branch's camouflage version are you atlee pine he asked pine rose and looked at the man he was an inch shorter than puller and not as muscular but the face and the eyes didn't lie you're robert puller she said shaking his hand i came as soon as i got your message he glanced at plum who nodded at him a sympathetic expression on her features this is my assistant carol blum what's his condition asked puller he's still in surgery they promised to come in here after it was over you said you were there how bad is it had to have been a rifle round went through jeff sands skull before it hit your brother so that was good a lot less kinetic energy where did the round hit him pine touched her upper torso on the left side here in and out which i hope was good but he bled a lot i stopped it as best i could then the paramedics arrived and took over he was in and out of consciousness then they put him on a drip and he went under his vitals on the ride were critical but stable pine had to sit down because recounting all of this so clinically and impersonally had suddenly run up against the fact that the person she was discussing was a friend and that he might still die puller sat down next to her and gripped her shoulder he's the toughest man i know agent pine if anyone can pull through he will pine leveled a far calmer gaze on him please make it atlee she paused desperately wanting to change the subject john mentioned you used an algorithm to turn up gloria miles which led us to jeff sands how did you do that colonel puller i go by robert puller sat back and brushed at his regulation short hair from what john explained to me i concluded that we were operating in exalted circles no run-of-the-mill drug dealer can get a vice chair removed from his assignment at the pentagon on a day's notice because the man was making inquiries that narrowed things down quite a bit i ran a script on possible connections between highly ranked politicos and any connection at all to criminal activity including drug dealing because it seemed to have a nexus to what you were looking into i ran a series of calculations and the one name they kept popping out was jeff sands and his grandfather peter driscoll next i looked for any connection to them that john could use as an investigative point of contact that's how i got to the godmother gloria miles how long did all of this take you asked a wide eye pine i did it over lunch i'm not that fast but the computers i use are and the databases they have access to are truly immense can the fbi borrow you for like the rest of your life interjected blum puller added but now sans is dead so that lead is dead too at least we know more now than we did said pine but all i want right now is to hear that jon is going to be fine at that moment the door to the visitor's room opened once more the woman was in her 50s and she wore blue scrubs and spectacles her hair was salt and pepper and her expression was one it seemed a pine of relief agent pine yes she said jumping up robert puller did likewise he's out of surgery and stable he's going to make it he's quite a strong young man yes he is this is his brother robert puller puller shook hands with the surgeon thank you doctor i noticed that he had several previous wounds that had healed his army middle east the doctor nodded that explains it well he just added another one to the collection when can we see him he's in recovery and needs to rest i would say later today or tomorrow even he's strong but he's been through a lot pine said will will he make a full recovery i think he'll be fine i mean physically and all like he was before he's a cid agent in the army oh i see she looked from pine to polar well i can't make any guarantees but i hope that he will i can't say 100 there was some internal damage but from the looks of him and from what you just told me i wouldn't bet against him either she left and closed the door pine and puller collapsed into their chairs pine put a supportive arm on puller's shoulder he's going to make it robert that's what's most important thank god puller said quietly to herself pine added yes thank you god thank you chapter 45 a few hours later pine and blum left the hospital and returned to lineberry's condo robert puller had opted to stay at the hospital pine texted him her address she planned to be back at the hospital later that day hopefully they could see john puller then an exhausted pine slept until two in the afternoon then sat in her bedroom and looked out the window the day looked like it would be warmer than the previous ones had been and free of rain her belly was empty and she had a hunger headache but she didn't want to waste time eating right now she felt terrible guilt for what had happened to pull her she knew all about the company line that it came with the territory but still she felt immense responsibility for the man's nearly dying and with sans dead they really had no leads to pursue she phoned robert puller he told her that his brother seemed to be doing as well as possible she thanked him for the info and said she would come to the hospital later she showered and changed into fresh clothes when she came out plum had a meal on the table carol thank you but you don't have to do this i'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself it gives me something to do agent pine i don't like feeling idle and useless pine's phone buzzed she didn't recognize the number but it was a new jersey area code she answered it the voice said agent pine this is norma bailey i'm the principal at jerome blake school yes mrs bailey i wanted to let you know that i have the photos of the school employees ready for your review can you email them to me yes i can do that right now have you made any progress on what happened to jerome a little but things are getting very complicated very fast i hope you find the truth jerome deserves that i'll do my best pine gave her the email address a minute later the photos were deposited in her inbox she looked at plum i just got the photos of the school personnel from norma bailey at jerome school terrific now we just have to find that young man what was his name again peanut but i have a shortcut that i hope will save us some time they left new york and drove back to trenton arriving at jerome blake's home about 90 minutes later his mother answered their knocks have you found out who killed my boy she said not yet but we're still working on it replied pine we met a friend of jerome's he said his name was peanut blake nodded looking thoughtful jerome and peanut were real tight when they were younger then they went their separate ways do you know where we might find peanut and what's his real name donald washington his grandma lives on the next block over what does he have to do with what happened to jerome he told us he saw a man speaking to jerome the day of the shooting at school he said jerome looked really weird afterward i've got some pictures of employees at the school to show him to see if he recognizes the man can you give us peanuts address so i can do that peanut don't live at home anymore just his grandma there now and she's doing poorly so where might we find him ask pine he hangs out over at a gym on broad street calhouns why a gym does he like to work out a few guys box there but i don't think most folks who go there care nothing about working out it's just a safe place to go and hang out you find the guy who owns it his name's gerald he's a good man but other business happens there said pine blake held up her hands not in the gym no gerald don't allow for that but outside i ain't getting in the middle of that i got my jewel to raise she needs her mama how's she doing not good still crying her eyes out this must be so traumatizing for her i i know what it's like to lose a sibling if we can do anything please let us know they drove off and quickly found calhouns it was an old dilapidated building with ancient boxing posters plastered across its front many of them ripped or faded by the sun some young men were hanging around outside the area was run down with boarded up storefronts and a general air of decay she parked at the curb about a block down and told blum to wait in the car and to get in the driver's seat which she did are you sure you don't want me to go with you very sure carol and keep the doors locked and the engine running anything starts looking hinky just leave if you're not out in 20 minutes should i call the police i'll be okay pine walked past the groups of young men who gave her long stares and some catcalls but they otherwise ignored her she went into calhoun's which turned out to be built out like a warehouse there were high angled ceilings industrial support columns three boxing rings and thousands of square feet of workout equipment that looked old and shabby there were a few guys hoisting iron and others expertly skipping rope and still others going after speed and heavy bags but most were congregated around one of the boxing rings pine walked over there and joined the crowd several young men tried to bar her way but a broad-shouldered man with curly gray hair and wearing an old-fashioned three-piece suit and a brilliant red tie said i show some respect let the lady through the men obeyed and pine came to stand next to him thanks mr just call me gerald and you are at le pine had an aunt down in alabama named atlee god rest the soul quite the gem really forgive me but i thought you'd be one of them folks who like the juice bar and the peloton and that yoga stuff then he ran his eye over her not in a sexual way but in a way of a person experienced at gauging fitness but then again looking at your shoulders thighs and core i would be wrong about that wouldn't i i'm a power lifter the gym where i work out in arizona has no ac just a lot of iron and a lot of sweat and no juice bar need apply she looked around and from what i can see of this place i think i'd fit right in well come back any time to work up a sweat now what can we do for you i'm looking for a young man named peanut and why would you be doing that gerald's tone was still very polite but his smile and gaze had hardened just a bit he told me he could help me on a case i wanted him to look at some photos i just got a case she showed him her fbi badge jerome blake's death did you know him gerald took a moment to look at the throng of young men around them and said hey fellas give us space so me and this lady can have a private talk okay the group fussed a bit over this directive but they all moved away gerald looked back at pine i knew his brother willie would have made a fine light heavyweight his mother said she got him to move so she did and cece made the right call he was heading down the wrong path cece told me to look you up here that you were a good man she's a nice lady had a hard time like a lot of folks around here he looked at the two men in the ring both in their twenties muscled wearing head protection gear and bobbing and weaving as they danced around the ring like those two right there maybe their mamas should get them out of here too so what keeps them here you he put his hand on one of the ropes lived here my whole life fought in the ring a lot my day was pretty good marine corps champion for my weight class served my time in nam got a lung lungful of agent orange which derailed any athletic career i might have been contemplating i'm 71 years old and feel like i'm a hundred you have days like that i think we all do even without breathing in agent orange anyway i started this gym in 1977 been running it ever since trying to teach the young folks around here the art of pugilism but really i'm just trying to give them a safe place to go to learn some discipline learn about working hard setting goals getting together in groups without pursuing any illegal activity if you get my point all good things so peanut he's usually around here this time of day let me go check gerald walked off and the situation changed immediately she could sense the heightened tension the more focused gazes of the men who had once more clustered around her the men in the ring stopped what they were doing and leaned over the ropes one took out his mouthpiece and snarled what you doing here just asking about someone you ain't got the right to ask about nobody barked the other man spitting out his mouth guard you can't come in here and ask nothing and why is that she's a cop said one of the men in the crowd saw a flash of badge the first fighter said then you ain't welcome here you just good for shooting us in the back pine sized him up i'll make a deal with you if you can kick my ass i'll leave if i kick your ass i stay and get my questions answered deal the two fighters looked at each other and belly laughed the crowd of men behind her closed ranks and did likewise you going to get in this ring with me he said with an incredulous look that eased to a grin unless you want to come out here no step right up which teeth you want to lose and which ones you want to keep i'll try to be accommodating the other man split the ring ropes so pine could duck under she stood to her full height and drew closer to the man she was about to combat he looked a little surprised that she was taller than he was pine took off her jacket revealing the glock in her belt holster you want me to hold your piece for you lady said one man in the crowd that would be a no she looked at the man in the ring how much do you weigh 160. wow almost as much as me i'm five pounds heavier for the record pine had on a short-sleeved shirt underneath and her ropey corded muscles were clearly visible the man glanced over at his friend who shrugged and looked a little nervous as he stepped out of the ring okay what are the rules asked pine ain't no rules in here the man laughed great in a blinding move pine slammed a foot into his gut and when he doubled over she laid her right leg against the side of his head with such stunning force that it knocked him right through the ropes where he was caught by several of the onlookers below she walked over and looked down at him okay warm-up's over you want to start now or just answer my questions your call they heard someone clapping and all turned to see gerald walking back to the ring alone gerald stopped next to the boxer pine had laid out and knelt down okay ty remember what i keep telling you about disrespecting the women ty nodded dumbly gerald helped him to his feet and looked up at pine peanut ain't here he turned to the others anybody here know where peanut is pine looked over the crowd one by one until a young man around 18 stepped forward seen him over at dukes said the man before i come here pine glanced at gerald dukes when you leave here go right three blocks then go left it's a store what did they sell she asked it depends is that gerald it just depends on what you want but if i were you i wouldn't be buying chapter 46 dukes was a storefront that looked abandoned just like every other storefront around here pine peered through the glass doors but it was too dark inside to make out anything she wrapped on the glass then she wrapped again what do you want she looked up to see a man staring down at her from the second floor window i'd like to talk to peanut i heard he was here who'd you hear that from a guy over at calhoun's and you are the man was in his 40s with wiry dark hair and a stern suspicious countenance as he leaned out she could see he was wearing a compression-fit sleeveless athletic shirt showing arms and shoulders that were both heavily muscled and tatted just a friend i met him over at the school peanut don't go to school but his friend jerome did i'm trying to find out what happened to him then you a cop i have some pictures to show peanut he agreed to look at them the man disappeared from the window a minute later the shop door opened and there stood peanut you got them pitches he said yeah she looked over his shoulder to see the man standing about 10 feet farther back in the room pine said quietly so what sort of business goes on here this and that right is that guy in there duke maybe you don't know i don't know much works fine for me they got into the car and peanut was shown all the photos one by one at the end he said he ain't in there you're sure real sure ain't nobody in there look like he did pine sat back enormously frustrated she looked at blum we keep running into dead ends and i'm really getting sick of it peanut said see what i can't figure is why jerome do it at all i mean why he let a man do that to him give him a gun and set him up cause that had to be what went down and then he gets shot on top of it why do when you know you're gonna die why not say no and take your chances maybe jerome didn't know he was going to die replied blum pine glanced at peanut you said you haven't been friends with jerome for a long time yeah so would you know about any close friends he might have not really maybe somebody at school why because in the alley that night he told me we're in deep i'm just trying to think of someone they could have threatened to get jerome to do what he did lady only one she might do that for is his family nobody closer than that to him they all real tight you know i think you might be right about that thanks peanut he opened the door and yeah that's duke in there this and that said pine peanut smiled little this and a little of that give me your cell phone number in case i can get some more pictures to show you i won't have to look you up in person he did so and then climbed out of the car after he went back into the shop blum said where are we going now back to blake's house i've got a hunch and i'm praying that it pays off because if it doesn't we have less than zero right now chapter 47 did you find peanut asked cece blake when she answered their knock we did turns out he really couldn't help us but i was wondering if we could speak to your daughter blake looked confused to jul why we wanted to ask her a few questions about her brother blake shook her head she's really upset can barely get her to eat anything and she won't come out of a room we will be very gentle cece we have experience speaking with young people and i really think it might help with finding out what happened to your son well okay i guess you can try you want me to go with you just to introduce us then we'd like to speak with her alone no guarantee she'll see you though and i ain't gonna make her they followed blake up the stairs and down the short hall to a bedroom door she knocked honey it's them two ladies from the fbi again they want to ask you some questions about your brother no a voice screamed out tell him to go away before blake could answer pine stepped forward and said jewel it's really important i said no i'd like to know why your brother did what he did go away because i think he did it to protect you silence blake looked astonished what the hell do you mean by that protecting jewel from what they turned when they heard the door start to open and then there was jewel tall and beautiful and well-developed for her age with long dark hair swirling around her shoulders she had on pajamas with characters from mulan on them her eyes were reddened and swollen it's okay mama i'll talk to the lady you sure baby jewel nodded yeah i'm good blake gave pine a disapproving look well okay but don't take too long honey you need to rest she slowly walked back down the stairs can we come in ask pine jules stepped back and let them pass through the bedroom was cluttered with clothes on the floor books lying around an ipad on the unmade bed and a smartphone on the nightstand and used tissues littered over seemingly every available square inch the walls were painted with a mural of what looked to be female superheroes who did that asked blum motioning to the wall jewel rubbed her nose me in jerome it's really excellent you're both wonderful artists dro mean anything anymore except dead pine leaned back against another wall and folded her arms over her chest that's what we want to talk to you about jules slumped on her bed and looked down at her bare feet pine began a man met with jerome at his school after that meeting jerome was totally changed then that same night he ends up in an alley holding a gun and then he shot by a cop who might not be a cop she paused and glanced at plum who was standing rigidly by the mural wall jerome said something to me right before he died jewel do you want to know what he said jewel didn't look up but she nodded what'd he say he said that no one would believe him when i asked what he was doing there then he said something else and that's why we're here to see you jewel looked up now what did jerome say he said we're in deep why would this man be able to make him do something that would end up getting him killed she stopped and looked at jewel who seemed to be withering to nothing under the gaze it must have been someone very important to him like maybe you jewel tears spilled down the girl's cheeks plum sat down next to her and took her hand i know this is so hard jewel so very hard but we're trying to find out who took your brother's life and any help you can give us would be very appreciated jewel wiped her eyes and stared up at pine with a composed expression jerome knew knew about what the man who came to get me what man just a man he would come at night my mom was at work where does her mother work she cleans buildings at night then she comes home in the morning and goes to sleep for a few hours and then she has another job at subway for the lunch crowd okay maybe you should start from the beginning suggested pine jewel collected herself it started one night i went somewhere i wasn't supposed to mama had to go see willie my other brother in delaware because he was sick jerome was supposed to be home but he got called to do this thing with the robots i told him i'd stay in but i didn't where did you go a party in newark i look a lot older than i am i had a fake id show when i was 21. i went with a couple of friends from school we got a ride with another friend where was the party at some guy's parents house i was there for a while had a couple of drinks and then someone said there was a van taking people to a place in new york a guy came over and said i'd been picked to go how what guy i don't know he was older than me early twenties tall good looking said he was in college white or black oh he was a white dude color of his hair asked pine brown sort of wavy i mean he was real handsome pine pulled out her phone and brought up the picture of jeff sands that she had gotten from puller was this the guy jewel looked at the screen yeah that was him how'd you know that i didn't until just now do you know his name i do did he give you one just said it was charlie or something like that did he tell you why you were picked no and you just went well it was a bunch of us so i felt safe and and it sounded exciting charlie even said there would be some real celebrities there i mean some a-listers not like old dudes and i could meet them and then he said i'd be given a ride back to my house what happened after that we drove to this building in new york do you know where i don't know new york i'd only been to the city one time when i was a kid but the building they took me to that night at a doorman and a private elevator and stuff like that so you went up there with all the others jewel shook her head see the thing was everybody got sort of separated i ended up by myself heading up in the elevator i was scared but what could i do i mean i was already there what about charlie he sort of disappeared i didn't see him in the van everything happened so fast then what the elevator open right into someone's apartment i never seen a place like that for real i mean it was like being in a movie i mean jesus i didn't know nobody lived like that not really and then what happened a woman came out to greet me describe her said pine she was maybe 35 sandy hair shorter than me i she just looked normal lean and fit with freckles yeah that sounds like her and she did have freckles on her face pine looked at blum who said probably lindsey axelrod okay what happened next pine asked jewel she said that i was to make myself comfortable and someone would be out shortly she asked me if i wanted a drink jewel stopped for a moment i i didn't know what to do i mean i'm only 14. so i told her just to coke she came back with it and i sat down and drank it and then what happened did someone else come out to see you joel shook her head her eyes filling with tears the the next thing i know i woke up in bed i was naked and she bent over and sobbed plum put her arm around the girl's shoulders i know this is so terribly hard so painful for you just take your time jewel take all the time you need a minute later jule composed herself wiped her eyes blew into the tissue plum blum-handed her and continued there was a man lying next to me in the bed he was naked too do you remember what he looked like she nodded older white guy maybe 60 with gray hair he was snoring really loud jewel wiped at her eyes i was totally freaked out i didn't know what the hell had happened i mean i was drinking a coke and then this but then when i sort of looked around in the sheets i i knew that she seemed unable to say it that he'd had sex with you while you were unconscious she nodded her eyes filling with tears i got out of bed really quiet i didn't want to wake him i ran to the door and opened it and was someone there jewel nodded the same woman she had my clothes all ironed and on hangers she helped me get dressed she calmed me down she got me a ride home so they drugged your coke and the man had sex with you i was so scared and when you got home did you report this to the police i was going to but but what said pine i got a call on my phone i don't even know how they got the number it was a man and what did he say that if i told anyone i'd get in big trouble jewel you were raped you were drugged and then raped i know but but what looking even more miserable jewel stuck her hand under her bed and pulled out a pillowcase she held it up and dumped the contents on the bed it was cash a lot of it where did you get all that ask plum that's the part i didn't tell you the lady who helped me she gave me two thousand dollars that night said it was to help me get over it pine looked at the money jewel that looks like a lot more than two grand it is because because you went back joel started talking fast they told me they'd pay me every time pick me up and take me back i'd be home before mama would get off work one time they even flew me on a helicopter to new york and we landed on top of the building it was like unbelievable and jerome he didn't know at first but then he caught me coming back in one night i tried to blow it off but then he'd been asking around he knew i suddenly had money i bought some stuff a ring and some earrings and a real prada bag and a new iphone and some cool clothes i never let my mom see them she would have been all over me but jerome found out he got on my case about it big time and did you tell him the truth some of it he was real upset told me to stop going and i did i really did but after the first time they didn't still drug you did they no was it the same man each time no it was always different guys but they all look the same to me old white guys but and what but once i did it with a woman she was old too maybe forty pine said did you recognize her or the men no did they talk to you ask blum mention a name anything about themselves jewel looked down and shook her head i wasn't there for them to talk to they just wanted me for one reason you're underage that's statutory rape said pine they might not have known look at me you think i'm 14 doesn't matter that's why they call it statutory you really think they got jerome to do what he did because of me i think it's a safe bet yeah said pine and i'm the reason he's dead no you're not but you can help us find out who did it i've told you all i know no you haven't when did you stop going to that place they called the day before jerome got killed can i see your phone why i want to run the number they called from i already checked it's blocked no number comes up when they called what did they say that they weren't going to bring me anymore did they say why no can you tell us the address of the place in new york i don't remember pine's that forward how many times did you go there joel shrugged maybe a dozen maybe more and you don't remember the address i never paid attention i was usually sleeping in the car can you describe the area of town what the building looked like the street it was on like i said it was real what you call high dollar i mean everything about that area was dope jewel thought for a few moments but it was a number street like 7th avenue no higher than that 57th street yeah that's it was it near central park yeah that's right i saw it one time when they were driving me back to trenton pine glanced at plum and then pulled out her phone again would this be the building jewel looked at the screen yeah that's it that's the one pine looked at plum again well they don't just use that place for parties then text came over her phone and she said we have to go but thank you for being so honest with us jewel i know it wasn't easy for you but what you told us will help us catch whoever killed your brother she gave jewel a card call me if you think of anything else as they were leaving cece blake tried to ask them what was going on pine said simply keep an eye on your daughter and have someone come over here to stay with her when you go to work at night she jogged out to the car and blum followed as fast as she was able what's up asked plum as pine started the car and drove off fast pullers fully conscious and is out of post-op and they're getting him a room by the time we get back there the attending physician will be able to brief us on his status chapter 48 it was lucky that he's young and in tip-top condition said the doctor a white-haired man with the calm manner of an airline pilot they were in the visitor's room at the hospital robert puller had been the one to alert pine about his brother so you said he's fully awake said robert anxiously and doing well he's on a lot of pain meds so he's in and out that bullet went clean through but it hit some things along the way the surgeon mentioned that will he suffer any permanent damage asked pine just as anxiously well it's too early to tell that yet we'll need to do follow-up with tests x-rays and other imaging but i can tell you that right now he's resting comfortably and his condition is stable when can we see him asked robert the doctor studied him your family correct his brother the doctor looked at pine and you're his sister said robert quickly he turned to blum and this is his aunt carol the doctor didn't appear to believe this but gave a weak smile and said okay he looked at his phone they just found him a room i'll walk you down but only for a few minutes when they got to the room john puller was lying on a bed with tubes and lines covering him his eyes were open and he looked over at them and waved with his good hand pines gaze went directly to the monitor recording his vitals they all looked reasonably okay particularly for someone who had endured what puller had you said the bullet had hit some things said robert and a low voice to the doctor well there's a lot around that region bone blood vessels ligaments it could have been far worse if the bullet had pinged around in there but the surgeon fixed it catherine is an excellent surgeon and she did the best she could but understand that this may not be the last surgery he has though and his rehab will be intense i see said robert glancing nervously at pine pine said well he's going to come out the other end just fine probably better than he is now hey i can almost hear you said john puller weekly so stop talking behind my back they drew closer and the doctor said how are you feeling how's the pain level when can i get out of here puller said firmly well that won't be for a while said the doctor eyeing pine with widened eyes i'm feeling okay said puller i should be able to leave i have work to do robert said john you just underwent major surgery you need to give yourself time i don't have a lot of time to waste bobby pine touched his uninjured shoulder john we'll carry the ball while you're laid up here all you need to focus on is getting better even superman took days off while pine was speaking the doctor had manipulated the flow of meds going into a system by punching in a new dosage on the controller next to the iv stand the doctor then glanced at puller whose eyes fluttered and then closed i upped his pain meds to get him back to sleep the last thing we need is for him to get agitated and pull at his lines or reopen the sutures i think it's best we leave him to rest you will be updated on his condition and feel free to call in to the nurses station during the interim he gripped robert's arm don't worry he's in good hands yes i know thanks for everything as they were leaving the hospital pine said his vitals were good and the fact that he wants to get back to work is an excellent sign robert nodded yeah he's gonna make it the only question is in what condition you mean as a cid agent i mean as a member of the united states army it's his whole life if he can't cut it physically anymore let's not get ahead of ourselves said pine i saw your look back there you were thinking the very same thing pine changed the subject because he was exactly right where are you staying near the hospital how long are you going to be in new york as long as it takes later pine and blum drove back to the condo had a very late dinner and went to their beds exhausted after breakfast the following morning pine went back down to the street level and started to walk her hands shoved deeply in her pockets and her heels striking the pavement with force she knew that puller had signed on for the risk when he joined cid she knew that she had done that when she suited up for the fbi but still she felt deep guilt for what had happened could she have eyeballed that alley more intently if she had focused more could she have seen the shooter or maybe sensed his presence puller had relied on her to clear the alley and she had failed him i failed john puller and now maybe he won't be the same john puller utterly demoralized she stopped and slumped down on a bench slapping her thigh she sat up straighter rubbed her face and thought okay this sorry for me is not going to cut it start dissecting this case what are the holes and how do you plug them well the holes were many she was no closer to finding tony vencenzo and thus just as far away from any information about his grandfather edo teddy was dead evie could be of no help she had no leads on finding the man who had murdered jerome although now she did know about jules involvement and the uses to which that luxury apartment was being put only she didn't yet understand the motives behind it and she doubted that jewel was the only underage girl who had been recruited for whatever was going on there and last but not least the vile lindsay axelrod was out there somewhere she was up to her slender neck in this including the murder of sheila weathers but what was the connection to fort dix tony vincenzo and axelrod both worked there as did weathers if weathers was involved only because vincenzo had invited her to the penthouse then that left vincenzo an axelrod but what was so special about fort dix the penthouse on 57th street was definitely a clue but she just wasn't sure how she could follow it up she didn't have enough for a search warrant but what about jeff sands she pulled out her phone and scanned the news sites there was nothing the grandson of the senate majority leader was violently gunned down in new york city more than a day before and not one news outlet had reported it how could that possibly be unless the nypd was sitting on his id for some reason she figured if the trenton cops could be co-opted why not new york's finest or at least some of them she punched in a number and a few seconds later was transferred to the person she wanted at the bureau sandy it's at lee pine i know it's been a long time right look could you do me a favor there was a shooting victim the other night outside a diner in brooklyn the vic's name was jeff sands he's the grandson of peter driscoll right that peter driscoll i haven't heard a thing about it in the press and i was just wondering what the hell was going on okay yeah whatever you can find out thanks she clicked off sandy wyatt was an agent in the new york field office she and pine had gone to quantico together they had been close and had kept in touch over the years even though pine had headed west while wyatt had stayed on the east coast they were both members of whipple which was an acronym for women in federal law enforcement to her credit wyatt had not asked about pine's interest in the case she would have afforded wyatt the same courtesy if their positions had been reversed pine got up and started walking again her path carried her to the building on 57th street billionaires row billionaires heavenly perch more like it they lived far above the rest of us thoughtpine behind doormen and concierges and trust funds and shell companies and the rules they created that gave them every possible advantage over everyone else getting on your soapbox is not going to help atlee she stood across the street from the building when her attention was suddenly riveted she quickly moved behind a parked truck and then peered around it to keep watching the man who had shot jerome blake was coming out of the building he was wearing a suit and tie and no cops hat but it was definitely him he looked right and left then headed down the street pine followed chapter 49 cheer up i'm not dead yet bobby robert puller sat bolt upright in his chair where he'd been dozing his brother was now staring at him from under the layer of tubes and lines you're supposed to be heavily sedated said robert drawing his chair nearer the bed yesterday the dr city upped your meds i have a higher tolerance than most are you in pain again higher tolerance do you know what happened to you just a guess but i think i got shot robert smiled okay jokes are good that means you're functioning at a high level and jeff sands he didn't make it a shot that hit you killed him robert leaned forward it was close john another inch here or there don't you have an important job to do really far away from here or is that just a rumor excuse me for caring puller shifted a little bit in his bed he stared at all the tubes and lines holding him down why do i feel like gulliver after he got jumped by the lilliputians do you remember anything about what happened we stepped out into the rear of the diner pine was in the lead i had hold of sands i think i heard a pop and that's pretty much it they were obviously targeting him they must have followed us from the nightclub where we picked sands up puller looked confused for a moment but the guys outside the club were a couple of thugs i don't think they're involved in what happened to sans and who exactly do you think is involved polar looked at his brother well since it looks like i'm going to be laid up here for a bit you want to pitch in pitch in as you said i do have another job well so long as you're here to hold my hand it might take your mind off other things i'm listening you got me to gloria miles and she led us to jeff sands pretty fast miles mentioned you found her through an algorithm robert went over the algorithm he'd used as he had already explained to pine puller nodded thoughtfully i'll have to keep you in mind in future investigations i have access to technology databases and computer networks that the average person doesn't but i can't do that all the time not even for you junior but you had to feed the algorithm to get anywhere i just explained to you the factors i loaded in i pinpointed certain political leadership and then degrees of separation vis-a-vis family members to see what would pop jeff sands came up and then it was pretty easy to trace the connection to driscoll sands popped up because of his criminal background as i'm sure you know he's never been convicted but he has been brought in and questioned a number of times and he has certain business associates who do have criminal records or at least questionable pasts my data load factors covered those possibilities but then his grandfather got the best lawyers involved and nothing came of it apparently so he told us he didn't know tony vincenzo did that name ever pop up in your digging no but i stopped pretty much after i got to peter driscoll then i looked for a connection to the military and that's how i got to gloria miles do you think driscoll knows his grandson is dead asked polar the senate majority leader is not without his resources and at the very least efforts would have been made by nypd to notify the next of kin it would take them all of 10 seconds hell his father lives right here in new york financial guy with lots of bucks and a new wife and a brand new family not sure how much he'll mourn his eldest child the brothers gazed at each other silently communicating something important to both puller said yeah if i had died dad wouldn't have even been able to process it he doesn't know he has two sons that's okay junior we do how soon can i get out of here the doc didn't really answer me when i asked last time robert didn't look surprised but he said not anytime soon you are out of the game john pine is carrying the torch now just like she told you earlier she can't do this by herself and this wasn't even her case she's working on something personal she's only involved because she offered and i accept it don't know what to tell you from what i could see the lady is firmly committed to this and also from what i've seen about the lady i would not try to stop her she's going to keep working this thing with no backup at all that is not good bobby john i can hang around for a little bit but i'm in uniform i don't get to call my own shots i thought computer geeks could work remotely this computer geek needs a super secret scif to do his nerding replied robert referring to a sensitive compartmented information facility so i can't just hop on my mac and get to it am i really stuck in this bed they had me patched up and back in the fight in afghanistan in no time and those wounds were worse in case you weren't aware you actually have blood in those veins and you lost a lot of it plus the surgeon and the doctor said the round did some internal damage they've got you so patched up you can't even move your left arm you're immobile and for a good reason you're looking at a long rehab to get fully back you mean robert dropped his gaze to just get better john when he looked up his brother was staring dead at him what are you not telling me said puller i've told you everything i know you may make a full and complete recovery but i may not can you predict the future because that gift somehow missed me good thing i shoot right handed then you're not going to be shooting anything for the foreseeable future seriously little brother if you want a decent chance at getting all the way back you have to follow doctor's orders polar looked away you said you stopped at driscoll what polar glanced at his brother driscoll was low-hanging fruit i just wanted to find a contact to help you with the investigation can you do another search same sort of parameters and see what else you get i'm not sure i understand if driscoll is involved in this in some way what if he's just the tip of the iceberg chapter 50. pine shadowed the man and took his photo when he turned around to cross an intersection then he walked into an office building a government building a federal government building pine waited a few seconds and then stepped up to the door peered through the glass and then opened it at the security checkpoint she flashed her badge and creds to the officer there she watched as the man got on the elevator and the doors closed excuse me but the guy who just came through here and got on that elevator yes what about him asked the officer a woman in her 40s with short brown hair and a friendly expression i could have sworn he was an old friend of mine special agent simon king used to operate out of newark no that's adam gorman is he fbi no no he's head of security for congresswoman nora franklin she's from an upstate district but she has an office suite here she shares with some other politicos franklin i know that name she's a pretty big deal right said pine the woman smiled she's the ranking member on the house ways and means committee they write the checks so yeah a pretty big deal all right is she in her office today yes she came in about 20 minutes ago well gorman is a twin for my buddy king sorry to trouble you no problem you have a good day pine turned and left she walked halfway down the block and googled gorman she found out he was born in austria and had been a police officer and then a member of military intelligence there he had immigrated to the united states when he was 29. he was now 48 and had earned a master's degree in political science from nyu he had worked on political campaigns and briefly at a k street lobbying operation in dc so a big deal congresswoman had a former austrian intelligence officer turned security chief who one night had masqueraded as a trenton cop and murdered jerome blake and what do i do about that it's really my word against his john didn't get that good look at him and is in a hospital bed jerome is dead and can't say but i'm betting adam gorman was the guy who met with jerome at school that day and that means he knew all about jewel and the encounters in the penthouse a fact reinforced by the mans having just come out of the place she looked at her phone she had gorman's photo and his image from her google search and the last time they had met peanut had given her his phone number she texted him the article on gorman along with the photo and an accompanying message then she walked up and down the street waiting for his reply fifteen minutes later it popped up on her screen yeah that's the dude okay at least it was confirmed in her mind but it was still not enough peanut would not carry any weight with a prosecutor against a respected man like gorman and pine really had no hard proof that he was the man who had shot jerome just a brief meeting in a dark alley under incredibly stressful conditions or so would say the defense attorney she next googled nora franklin the face that popped up on the wikipedia page was an attractive blonde woman in her mid-40s she had an impressive resume born and raised in colorado she went to uva undergrad and law school at duke her father at 73 was a long-serving and respected judge on the 4th circuit court of appeals after law school she had moved to new york city and worked for a small law firm specializing in employment law and representing mostly workers then she moved to upstate new york and then ran for city council after that she had run a congressional campaign and won on her first try since then she had won five more terms in congress and made a swift run up the ladder her being the ranking member on ways and means at a relatively young age had surprised some the article said but she had been a loyal foot soldier and impressed leadership with her skills and knowledge if the house flipped in the next election she was expected to become one of the youngest chairpersons of arguably the most powerful committee in congress she had traveled widely the article said she had married young but it had ended in divorce according to her official bio she had practiced law only a few years pine checked an online database that listed the net worths of members of congress she was surprised that franklin was listed as having a net worth of over 20 million dollars after practicing law for a short period and in a field that was not known for huge payoffs for attorneys so where the hell had that kind of money come from her phone buzzed it was sandy wyatt from the bureau hey atlee i made some calls and checked some sources as far as i can tell nypd has put a lid on this thing i know they don't release vick's names until the next of kin are notified but they've surely had time to do that by now only thing i can figure is maybe driscoll asked them to hold it for some reason and for him they probably would okay thanks i owe you pine put her phone away and pondered what to do next she could stake out the building and follow gorman to wherever he went next but she had no idea how long it would be before the man came out of the building and she couldn't call in another fbi agent because she wasn't technically working this case and other agents had their own matters to pursue but she had one asset to deploy she pulled out her phone again carol i need you within 30 minutes blum stepped out of a cab and walked over to her boss pine told her what she wanted her to do and showed her pictures of both gorman and franklin blum eyed the cafe behind them with a picture window and an unobstructed view of the building across the street then i'll just take up my position here where will you be fort dix as pine climbed into a cab she thought what do i have to lose when she got to fort dix she would find out chapter 51 i don't understand said pine how could that be possible she was standing in front of tom whitaker a jag lawyer at fort dix he was a short man in his 50s with rounded shoulders and a dour expression he said in a pedantic tone it's like i just said bill danforth and phil cassidy each took article 15s it's akin to a plea bargain in a civilian court danforth and cassidy were the two soldiers whom tony vincenzo had been working with on the drug distribution puller had arrested them both and had them confined in the stockade under guard of army mps pine thought they would still be there but they weren't i know what an article 15 is i want to know how it happened the concept is pretty straightforward agent pine whitaker said in a bored tone it was offered and they took it most court martial trials end up in conviction they knew that then the penalties are a lot worse and they have a criminal record with article 15 that doesn't happen no criminal record just like civilian courts most cases in the military system don't actually go to trial if every one of them did we'd be clogged up for years pine said impatiently i know that too i meant why would they be offered a plea deal in the first place my understanding was they were caught dead to rights by the cid they were involved in drug dealing how does that get them a slap on the wrist these guys should have been tried convicted and sent to leavenworth the man shrugged that wasn't my call the co referred the charge meaning it was going to trial and i agree with you the evidence was very strong had they gone to trial they would have almost certainly been convicted but then the article 15 popped up and everything got thrown off the rails the article 15 offer had to pop from somewhere right right so where did it pop from said pine trying to keep her voice calm although she actually wanted to start yelling at the man from their co that's the only place it could have come from he referred the charges but then he offered the article 15. why would he do that i don't know and i had no reason to ask i wear a uniform i do what i'm told when the ceo talks we listen pretty simple when did all this happen late yesterday and who was the co on this whitaker shuffled some papers on his desk and then looked at her curiously what exactly is your connection to this case again i was working it with cwo john puller yeah you told me that he was the one who collected the evidence for an overwhelming case that just got dropped retorted pine i heard he got shot in new york you heard right probably by the same gang that danforth and cassidy work for i wouldn't know anything about that is puller going to be okay all reports on him are that he's a first-rate soldier and investigator right on both counts and yeah he's going to be fine so the name of the ceo she took out her notebook and pen whitaker deliberately glanced at both and said i'm really not at liberty to tell you that pine put her pad and pen away okay what punishment did cassidy and danforth receive whitaker glanced at the paper in front of him reduction in rank lost some pay and got eight days confinement but the co suspended that for a year they were in the stockade for a lot longer than that after they were arrested he'll probably just let that ride so they just walk away with fewer dollars and the loss of a stripe for being part of a major drug ring inside this facility i admit it's unusual you think where are danforth and cassidy now back at the motor pool as far as i know i did hear some scuttle butt that they've put in their discharge papers good riddance in my book this is a you know that right whitaker looked at her wearily ma'am i've been doing this job for 20 years nothing surprises me anymore might be time for a new job what my wife keeps telling me if i were you i'd listen to your wife do you at least have pictures of danforth and cassidy yes but why do you ask i'd like to see them again why the case is over not for me it's not their photos please it's really important you really think puller getting shot was tied to these guys i think the connection is obvious the man opened his desk drawer pulled out a bulky case file and spun it around the mug shots of danforth and cassidy stared up at her feel free to take their pictures pine did so with her iphone surprised you'd let me do that ma'am this is a and in an ideal world these two pricks should be doing hard time courtesy of the united states army so if you can nail their sorry asses to the wall it's fine by me thanks said pine as she walked out chapter 52 danforth and cassidy were indeed in the motor pool although as pine observed from a distance they didn't appear to be getting much work done both were on their phones texting she didn't confront them there she simply followed them when they left the base after their shift was over they drove together to a military dive bar about two miles from fort dix they went in and she followed the pair had found a table in the fairly crowded place the bar was called the bunker unlike its name the bunker was large open and airy flags from all service branches hung over the walls helmets were mounted like trophy animals along with ceremonial sabers bayonets and weaponry of all makes and sizes some couples in uniform were slow dancing in the middle of the room to jukebox music all bar seats were occupied with most of the patrons draped in army green pine was one of the few not in uniform she eyed the pair and headed for their table after a waitress brought their longneck beers she sat down next to danforth glanced at him and then eyed cassidy danforth was big and beefy and his expression was to pine brainless cassidy was small and cagey looking and he shot suspicious looks at her uh don't remember inviting you to our private party sweet cheeks said cassidy danforth let out an inane belly laugh pine shot him a look you really thought that was funny danforth clamped his mouth shut and scowled at her so article 15 huh she said who the hell are you lady snapped cassidy while danforth took a swig of his bud an interested party did you know your buddy jeff sands got his head blown off in new york the other night both men gave a visceral reaction to this cassidy composed himself and said don't know who that is yeah right like you don't know who tony vincenzo is or lindsey axelrod did you wonder why sheila weathers didn't come back to work she's dead too also in new york danforth shot cassidy a worried glance but the latter shook his head we don't know what or who you're talking about sure you do phil and so does your buddy here because he looks like he's about to crap his pants danforth grabbed pine by the shoulder look you just need to shut up it he stopped and looked at the badge she had just flashed him danforth slowly released his grip cassidy said you're fbi you got no jurisdiction over us we're soldiers i'll say this one time dumbass so long as you're in this country i have every jurisdiction over you but we got the deal from the army you can't touch us now it's that double jeopardy thing he looked triumphantly at her double jeopardy doesn't apply between military and civilian prosecutions the army cutting a deal with you has no impact on the fbi going after you the only difference is you'll be spending your time at a max prison nowhere near here are you serious google it if that'll make you feel better well son of a that sucks added danforth pounding the table with his huge fist she looked at their beers if i were you i'd drink up what i'm about to tell you will go down better with a little buzz you're making no damn sense lady said cassidy but he downed his beer as did danforth who wiped his face with a meaty palm when the empty bottle smacked the table pine leaned in and started speaking earnestly the cid agent who nailed you polar yeah he also was shot up in new york when sans bought it he just got out of surgery so why should we care said cassidy but he didn't look as confident as his words sounded do you know what puller told me a few minutes before he got shot what this came from danforth who looked like he could use another beer he said that he had to make sure you two were kept locked up and away from everybody why is that asked danforth sweat beads suddenly lining his wide forehead pine looked shrewdly at cassidy you want to answer your buddy because i think you know what i'm going to say you're saying he wanted us in the stockade for our protection said cassidy she nodded that's barked cassidy really let me ask you something you two are caught dead to rights on drug dealing i talked to the jag iron clad case no brainer slam dunk cos on your ass you're both being court-martialed and sent to leavenworth then out of nowhere you get an article 15. the jag said he'd never heard of such a thing what do you think about that danforth eyed cassidy phil you said it was because we got friends in high places shut the hell up billy barked cassidy he looked at pine who said or maybe you got the get out of jail free card because you have enemies in high places are jeff and sheila really dead then you do know them i asked you a question pine took out her phone and scrolled through it here's an email i got from nypd on jeff sands she showed it to him and here's another on sheila they're both dead i saw their bodies cassidy read the emails and sat back looking worried danforth said what's this all about phil what's she trying to say with all this crap pine turned to him what i'm trying to say is someone is cleaning house and you two are on the to-do list that's the only reason you got the article 15 and a suspended sentence on your detention so instead of being in the stockade surrounded by john puller's hand-picked guards you're out here as sitting ducks you're saying we got sprung so they could pop us this came from cassidy who had four head sweat bubbles of his own now you know vincenzo's old man teddy no but tony told us about him he squirreled away at fort dix pen on a long ride he was puller and i went to talk to him all official and everything just as he was about to tell us something they came and got him no explanation no nothing then before we knew it he ended up dead in his cell they say it was an overdose though the guy wasn't a user i'm thinking that they decided three prisoner deaths at the fort dix facility might arouse suspicion so you two got set free and you'll come to the end of your lives on the other side of the bars you see it any other way cassidy hunched forward and spoke in a low voice let's assume all you say is true what can you do about it i'm fbi i can protect you but this is a quid pro quo situation i need something in return otherwise you're on your own muttered cassidy as he looked around the place let's take this outside pine rose after you chapter 53 they ended up sitting in pine's car she said first things first where's tony vincenzo cassidy who was sitting in the passenger seat spread his hands he's seen him since we got arrested figured the locals would grab him when the cid arrested us but that didn't happen least that i heard he was at his dad's house when i saw him last where he had the pill operation right cassidy shrugged if you say so the place used to be owned by ido vincenzo tony's grandfather he ever mention him once when we were over there and i was looking at some of the old photos in the basement when i asked him tony said the guy just disappeared one day when he was just a kid said he didn't really remember him tony said his old man told him ito was running from something why would he say that i don't know i didn't ask i didn't care but that's just what he said if tony isn't at his old man's house where else would he be cassidy and danforth looked at each other you guys know about the penthouse in new york she didn't expect them to answer pine just wanted to see their expressions danforth grinned stupidly and said awesome place shut up billy snapped his buddy you're gonna get us killed for sure then you have been there what's the deal axelrod said it was a perk at least that's what tony told her although i don't believe anything she says maybe your answers are not adding up to a quid pro quo gents maybe i should end this now and let you get killed before the sun sets i don't like my time wasted with so you can get out of my car but run fast because they'll be coming for you wait a minute exclaimed cassidy just hold on i'm trying to process all this and it ain't easy just just let me breathe will ya i mean jesus okay take all the time you need keeping in mind that patience is not my virtue cassidy chewed on a nail while danforth slumped in the rear seat looking like he might start crying okay look we were working some drug deals but no drugs can get into fort dix lindsey axelrod told me that she probably regrets it now because it was probably the only true thing she ever told me they have drug stimping dogs at all entrances cassidy grinned yeah but who said we were selling the drugs at four dicks he glanced at danforth right we were at four dicks but not the drugs or the customers where were the customers then all around how did you get involved through tony he needed some guys and he knew we were handy and didn't mind breaking the law cassidy shrugged but smiled but again why fort dix tony worked there so there was that who got him involved he told me once his old man had a friend on the outside this old friend have a name ricky or johnny or something like that anyway teddy was in the can he couldn't do nothing but he got ricky or johnny to ring up tony nice of dad to do that so the fort dix connection is just because of tony i guess so no i'm not buying that because you're leaving out lindsey axelrod she's been at fort dix longer than tony i checked so why do i think tony was feeding you a bunch of about his old man's friend ricky johnny and it was axelrod who pulled him in and then he needed a couple of guys and pulled you two in i guess it could have gone down that way what were your jobs with the drug ring how did you two add value cassidy grind suddenly animated we drive army vehicles from here to there everywhere guess what happens when you drive army rides the cops don't stop and search your vehicles for drugs said pine bingo we drive out of fort dix take a slight detour and the vehicle gets filled up with the stuff they were pros took maybe 10 minutes at best then we continue on our way right before we get to where we're going we're met by another team and get unloaded then we head on simple right so you two never dealt with any customers no tony did the pills but axelrod was calling the shots she's a computer girl can do anything with that which also means she can move money digitally all over the world and leave no trail i seen her working one time this was at her place her fingers flying over the damn keyboard after she was done she turns to me and says you know what you just saw and i said no what she said you just saw a billion bucks go down a rabbit hole were axelrod and tony a thing they might have hooked up now and then tony is slick he knows how to talk to the ladies lindsay liked him she got him to perk at the penthouse that's how we got to go so tony is below her in the food chain and who is axelrod working for we never knew any of that come on cassidy your deal is starting to fade to nothing swear to god swear on my old granny's grave pine-eyed danforth who was looking at her and nodding okay i guess i believe that i mean why would they let you two knuckleheads have that kind of leverage leverage said cassidy what does that mean it means it proves my point okay i really need to find tony any thoughts on that cassidy shook his head but pine was watching danforth in the rearview mirror his expression was such that an idea might actually be forming in his very small brain yeah said pine expectantly tony and me were drinking one night and he mentioned a place what place his granddad's old place was on the jersey shore his grandad you mean ido i guess so tony said the dude made money selling ice cream that's the guy keep talking anyway tony would go there sometimes you ever go with him once was a nice little house on the beach really old no ac and they had space heaters but then tony had added one of them pellet stoves hell they needed that in the winter because you could see outside through cracks in the wall we sat on the sand and had beer and buckets of wings it was sweet what was the name of the town i got it in my phone i used my gps to get there she had him text the address to her phone well jack nicholson is from there said pine reading a bit about mana squad new jersey which was located on the atlantic ocean went to high school there cool said cassidy he was the joker in that old batman movie right okay i'm going to make a call and you two are going into protective custody you got that hey i just want to stay breathing said cassidy don't we all replied pine chapter 54 it was a little less than an hour's drive from trenton to the borough of manisquan and it was dusk by the time pine got there along the way she had called blum and told her what she'd found out and also where she was headed neither gorman nor franklin have left the building reported plum i've had far too much tea and coffee but every time i went to the bathroom i left my phone camera on video so i could see if either of them left it was the best i could do that was quick thinking carol i think the folks who work at the cafe are either wondering if i'm suffering from dementia and don't know how to get home or thinking i'm interviewing for a job either way just stay right where you are and call me if anything develops and you be careful agent pine driving through the quaint downtown pine saw it was full of small shops and restaurants however at this time of year it was pretty well deserted with many bars and restaurants closed for the season but there were a few places open and people were walking up and down the sidewalks while cars drifted past some parked and people got out of them and went into several of the shops it looked like any other sleepy beach town in the off season the smell of salt air lay thick over everything like a compression shirt she breathed it in and felt comforted somehow she didn't get those smells in arizona pine also spotted many large and elaborately constructed single-family homes on the beachfront they looked fairly new and were undoubtedly expensive to build but then again it was ocean front property and they weren't making any more of that she had loaded into her gps the address danforth had provided she had taken both men to the ra in trenton and explained what she wanted done neither of the agents on duty seemed inclined to take on this responsibility until pine mentioned that they should call clint dobbs head of the phoenix field office if they had doubts about helping they told pine that wouldn't be necessary and that they would see to the safety of the two soldiers including contacting fort dix to let them know the men would not be back on base for the foreseeable future as she neared her destination pine slowed her car and looked for a place to park she found an empty lot that had beach access and pulled in there the atlantic spread out gray and foamy in front of her the wind was chilly the skies as pewter in color as the frothy ocean which was broken only by the slash of white caps and the folding of breakers she zipped her jacket up looked around and gained the lay of the land vincenzo's place was about a hundred yards down the street a small beach bungalow that looked nearly identical to the neighboring homes she walked on and gained a sight line on the place from across the street she drew a pair of small optics from her pocket glanced around to see if anyone was observing her and then took a good look at the bungalow it was one and a half stories with dormer windows saggy green shutters a tan exterior and no garage rotted and empty flower boxes clung to the underneath edge of the two windows bracketing the front door which was painted black and badly weathered a dark blue rolling rubber trash can was outside by the front stoop an empty six-pack of beer bottles sat next to it a black exhaust pipe piercing the roof was a definite add-on she figured because it looked relatively new danforth had mentioned a pellet stove and the pipe must be its exhaust source she thought there was a car in the concrete driveway that was spiderweb cracked in at least five places the car was a ford focus with jersey plates as she kept looking it over she spotted a fort dix parking sticker on the rear bumper the yard in front was more sand than grass she could have easily thrown a football from the backyard and hit the ocean at high tide she recalled that there had been no car in vincenzo's driveway back in trenton but the man had been there either this was his car or he had gotten a ride with someone or a person was visiting him or he wasn't here but whoever had driven this car here was she found a cafe open across the street with a good sight line of her target she ordered a coffee and a toasted bagel and watched the darkness thicken no one came out of the house and the car remained right where it was she could hear the waves crashing on the beach as the tide rolled in normally a calming effect on people it just made pine more tense two cups of coffee a second bagel and another hour of observation later pine took a moment to check her emails nothing from robert puller and nothing from blum she expected puller to stay until his brother was clearly out of danger no word from him was good at least from pine's perspective and gorman and franklin must still be in the building as a fog rolled in off the ocean pine's patience ran out she left the shop crossed the street hit the beach headed west and came up on the sand side of the vincenzo bungalow there were no lights on in the house or in the residences on either side there was a small paved fenced-in patio on which sat a set of rusty outdoor furniture and a tattered umbrella that was listing to one side an empty beer can sat on top of one of the fence posts pine cleared this area and snuck up to the back of the house she peered in a window and found herself staring at what looked to be the kitchen she tried the back door surprisingly it was not locked she pulled it open slowly prepared to face loud squeaks from a seldom used door but it opened silently she stole inside and took out her tack light and the thin beam cut through the still darkness she left the kitchen after seeing that there were stacks of dirty dishes and glasses in the sink apparently someone hopefully vincenzo had been here for a while the air didn't feel musty either which was another sign this place was being occupied even if the car wasn't parked out in the driveway after searching the house she planned to check the car next when it was even darker it was on the street side which made it more perilous for her to search when people might still be walking down the street hopefully it would be unlocked too the registration would tell her who owned the car and there might be some other things of interest inside there was a small front room with decades old furniture a frayed carpet that looked ground down by sandy feet and a small bookcase full of old paperbacks the pellet stove danforth had mentioned had been inserted inside the original fireplace the black pipe went up into the ceiling and through the roof as pine had seen before and as danforth had said she could see tiny cracks in the old walls where she could feel damp air coming in this place must be hell in the winter she thought a small 5000 btu ac unit was perched in one window a fairly new looking samsung widescreen tv hung on one wall and there was an xbox controller perched on the coffee table next to that was a virtual reality headset that was a good sign that vincenzo was in the neighborhood and next to the vr headset she struck gold it was a photo id card for anthony vincenzo allowing him access to fort dix there was one bedroom on this level when she opened the door it was like she had stepped back 40 years the bed was made with a crocheted afghan on top done in what could only be described as psychedelic colors the bed and nightstands and bureau were all matching wood in a style from at least as far back as the 1970s a tattered copy of jacqueline suzanne's valley of the dolls was on one nightstand along with an old-fashioned wind-up alarm clock the bathroom attached to it matched the age of the bedroom the small closet was empty she left the bedroom and approached the narrow staircase to the left of the front door she ducked down as a car passed by outside she cut off her light stole to the window and peered out the car was already gone the fog was thicker and she could see no one passing by on foot she clicked her light back on and took the stairs up the half story must have been put on later concluded pine because it was drywall instead of plaster and the finishes looked more modern there were two small bedrooms and a full bath up here the ladder with a one-piece fiberglass shower and double sinks in one of the bedrooms pine found where vincenzo was staying a large duffel was on the floor and clothes and remnants of fast food meals were strewn all over the stink of stale french fries assailed her nostrils she searched through the duffel and found a nine millimeter sig she popped the magazine took out all the bullets and cleared the breech before putting it back if things went sideways later old tony would be reaching for a useless weapon there was a smaller pink roller suitcase she nudged it open inside were women's clothes a box of tampons and a fingernail file set in a small leather case inside the closet were about a half dozen women's outfits on hangers on the floor were three pairs of women's shoes from heels to flats okay he was shacking up with a girl pine wondered who that might be on the nightstand was a bottle of oxycontin that despite the label didn't look to be prescription probably street made with other in it like fentanyl that could send you to the hereafter faster than any other synthetic drug known there was also a wad of cash bigger than her fist and two burner phones and a bong with a full baggie of weed sat next to the phones pine looked up and saw the dangling rope she pulled on it and a set of folding wooden stairs came down revealing the attic access she didn't expect vincenzo to be hiding up there but she wouldn't know until she checked still she doubted he would have left his gun down here if he was up there she mounted the steps and shown her light around there was no floor only ceiling joists with pink insulation in between but as she kept shining her light around she saw that some large pieces of plywood had been laid over some of the joists and there were some cardboard boxes stacked there the place smelled starkly of age mold and mildew and pine covered her mouth as she tread carefully over the joists to the boxes sitting on her haunches she eyed the four boxes she opened the first one and saw that it contained nothing but old mildewed clothes the next box was full of old photo albums she quickly looked through them and saw a history of the vincenzo family from the generation preceding ido and his brother bruno all the way to teddy's time evie had been pretty and vivacious ito looked reserved and disengaged bruno decked out in a three-piece suit with a yellow pocket square in one photo looked larger than life his smile huge his eyes bulging with delight his burly arm around his brother who looked like he would rather be hugged by a python the next box contained business papers and copies of old tax returns from the ice creamery business the contents of the last box stopped pine dead in her tracks chapter 55 robert puller sat in the office behind a large desk with a computer screen that seemed even bigger the building was a secure one the room was windowless the insides of the walls were coated with a material that would block exterior electronic surveillance so it qualified as a skiff access to the place was restricted by rf badges with certain rooms including this one requiring retinal portals not many people could get into this building and even fewer into this room robert puller was obviously one of them he had created algorithms five of them in fact and unleashed them on all the databases at his disposal which were some of the most exclusive ones in the world he had also sent his search formulas like charging armies into every other database he could think of he sipped on a coke and let both the carbonation and the sugar wash over him he had been at this for a while now it was something he was used to doing but not for the purposes for which he was now doing it he stretched stood and did some light calisthenics though not yet 40 sometimes he felt twice that age the pressure of his job plus the countless hours bent over a computer did not equate to a healthy posture his phone buzzed and he frowned it was his brother he said what the hell are you doing using your phone i promised the nurse to be off in under a minute and she told me in no uncertain terms that she was coming to check so talk fast anything yet if i had i would have contacted you now turn the phone off and go to sleep i got a text from carol blum a little while ago she's watching a building right now why would she text you she said she wanted to keep me in the loop why is she watching the building because our shooter is in there shooter the guy impersonating a cop who killed jerome blake his real name is adam gorman he's head of security for a congresswoman named nora franklin nora you know her just in her official capacity she's the ranking member on ways and means i've testified before that committee what's your call on her smart dedicated committed patriotic which begs the question of why she's got a murderer as head of security can you dig up what you can on gorman pine apparently did a fast and dirty but we need more okay and where is pine in her text carol said pine's in mana squad new jersey she got a line on tony vincenzo and is running it down okay i'll see what i can find while i'm waiting for my algorithms to do their thing now your 60 seconds are up i know nurse ratchet just stormed into my room with duct tape the line went dead robert puller turned back to his computer screen and typed in a search on adam gorman he didn't expect to find much the man would have been thoroughly vetted before landing a position with a congressperson but background checks had been known to miss things and the government had grown lacks with doing them and allowed a backlog to accumulate so maybe there was something useful that it slipped through his first search brought up the basics name rank and serial number puller did think it odd that the man had been a member of the intelligence services for another country before coming here it was true that austria wasn't exactly russia china or iran it was a member of both the un and the eu a federal republic with a parliamentary style government austria had proclaimed itself politically permanently neutral back in 1955. they obviously did not want a repeat of the third reich however a country wasn't a person and who knew where gorman's true allegiances lay he did another search read over the results and then noticed something curious buried in the timeline background info on gorman he made a phone call to someone he knew in the state department hey don it's robert puller yeah it's been a while look i've been doing some digging on something and an issue popped up that i think you might be able to help me with puller proceeded to tell him about gorman and the possible issue he had found his friend told puller he would look into it and get back to him then puller turned his attention to the other person nora franklin accessing both databases available to the public and those available only to a handful of people like him puller quickly accumulated what looked to be significant material taken alone none of it added up too much but when it was all put together puller sent something that was important he sensed a pattern later his phone buzzed it was his friend dawn got what you wanted it was a six month period best as i can tell gorman went back to austria for a sabbatical yeah that's what i thought but passport control records don't indicate that yeah i know said don that puzzled me too and the airline he flew on after he got overseas was curious as well right it's a sub of aeroflot is this something we should focus on puller said i'll let you know the answer to that as soon as i can he clicked off and went back to the search on franklin he was looking at two things financial disclosures and travel going back 15 years the financial disclosure forms required by the government were to his mind a joke everything could be placed into ranges 1 million to 50 million assets could be hidden behind shell companies or in relatives names to avoid having to disclose there were a million different dodges and puller had found that the politicians with the most money and assets worked very hard to hide their wealth for electability reasons they would much prefer to have the image of just being ordinary folks working for a living what he found with franklin was a mountain of diversions and inconsistencies he marveled at the fact that no one had called out the woman on this before then the truth struck him why would her colleagues call her out when many of them were probably doing the very same thing when he looked at the timeline of her history and travel something seemed to click in the back of his mind that's when he digitally laid gorman's timeline over franklin's there was only one time period that matched a six-month sabbatical that both had taken at the same time only franklin had not flown on a sub of aeroflot but she had ended up in austria and from there she could have gone anywhere by car or train or private jet and puller would have no accurate way to track that the other thing that stuck out for him was the fact that shortly after franklin returned to the states she started her first bid for elected office she had now won re-election multiple times and had a lofty perch on ways and means and other committees including tellingly for puller the house permanent select committee on intelligence meaning she was privy to most of the important intel secrets of this country a feeling of dread rising up in him he placed all this in a file and emailed it to pine then he sat back in his chair and wondered what else he could do to help a phone call he got a few minutes later answered that question for him chapter 56 pine held up the pair of pajamas as a whirlwind of memories engulfed her they were small the size for a tall six-year-old as mercy had been they had pink ponies on them they were the pjs that mercy had worn the night she vanished pine had a matching pair that their mother had bought them although pines were not pink but blue she held the cloth up to her nose hoping that it retained her sister's scent after all these years there was none it was just mildewed and smelled fowl she picked up the packet of letters that had been underneath the pajamas by her quick count there were more than a dozen of them faded and yellowed they were all addressed to ido vincenzo and had been sent from leonard and wanda atkins in tolliver county georgia she opened the first one it was dated three months after mercy had been abducted she looked down at the signature at the end of the letter lynn atkins as she read the letter her mouth kept dropping and her eyes grew teary so happy we could give the girl a home they named her rebecca the money you sent was a godsend and you more than paid me back for saving your butt and numb take care we'll send pictures when we can pine thought rebecca pictures nom she tore through the other letters most of which had a similar theme they were all dated a year apart but there were no pictures in any of them ito vincenzo had apparently given mercy to another family the atkinses of toliver county georgia pine did a quick google search and learned that in 1990 toliver only had 1900 people spread over nearly 200 heavily wooded square miles she learned there were even fewer people living there now making it the least populated county in georgia and the second least populous county east of the mississippi she did another search and found that toliver was a three-hour drive from her old home in sumter county pine inwardly groaned you idiot she had learned on her trip back to her old homestead that a man she now knew to be ido vincenzo had gotten into a fight with her father the very next day after mercy had been taken once pine had also learned that he had been the abductor it should have been clear that edo had taken mercy someplace relatively close by otherwise he could not have been back the next day to have the altercation with her father she tore through the rest of the box at the very bottom under a layer of old clothes was a metal box inside were two things old check registers and a single photo an old polaroid pine gripped the photo but didn't look at it not just yet it could be one of edo and his family but there had been all those photo albums for that why put one in here she set it down and picked up a check register the entries were neat and detailed ito had been a very organized man apparently she scanned down the date column until she came to the relevant time period there it was a check for 500 made out to leonard atkins she quickly searched the other registers she found a dozen more entries for five hundred dollars paid out to atkins 500 bucks a year for a little girl's expenses it didn't seem nearly enough not even in toliver county georgia she glanced at the last check entry for the last register in the box june 13 2002 and why had the money been paid at all if edo had gotten a little girl for the atkins why hadn't they paid him not the other way around and how did he even know the atkins they presumably were from rural georgia and edo had spent his whole life in new jersey vietnam pine slowly put down the check register and stared at the face down photo the moment of truth had arrived she felt her adrenaline spike and a wave of anxiety sweep over her with such force that she thought she might be having a panic attack if this is a picture of mercy what would she look like will we still be identical pine had lifted the photo off the plywood floor when she heard a noise outside she thrust the photo and some of the letters into her pocket hastily put the things back in the box clambered down the attic stairs and lifted them and the ceiling door back into place she hustled to the window a car's headlights were pointed straight at the house as a subaru outlander pulled into the driveway then the driver killed the lights and stepped out the passenger in the front seat did the same they were dressed in jeans and ski jackets against the foggy chill they both went around to the rear of the outlander and the liftgate rose they pulled out some bags of groceries the gate light illuminated both their faces the passenger was tony vincenzo the driver was a woman and pine quickly recognized her well well lindsay axelrod had finally turned up chapter 57 vincenzo and axelrod came in the front door and went straight into the kitchen with the grocery bags this gave pine the chance to move to the top of the stairs and listen the house was so small their conversation easily carried to her i think this is enough food for now said vincenzo how long do you plan to be here asked axelrod long as it takes babe aren't you afraid someone will find out about this place only the family knows about it hell tony they can check the real estate records is it in your dad's name i don't know but he's dead now so i guess it comes to me you have two houses now what a big deal you are she said in a joking tone he laughed come over here and i'll show you what a big deal i am pine heard axelrod chortle time enough for that lover boy it was cool you came to stay with me said vincenzo someone has to watch over you i could take care of myself okay his tone was not joking now those two cops were talking to your father in prison maybe he told them something he had nothing to tell replied vincenzo come on tony you told me you went to visit your old man what did you tell him pine edged forward a bit she didn't like how this conversation was going axelrod was digging for invo and vincenzo sounded like he was totally missing what the woman was doing i don't know just stuff stop with the third degree okay she snapped my ass is on the line here too i need to know what's going on i'm the one that got chased by this fbi chick right atlee pine she's definitely trouble but you took care of that you said she killed sheila tony i told you that cops can't go around killing people and get away with it it's the system tony they cover for each other cops can kill people and there's no blowback for them blow back where'd you hear that word lindsay you sound like a spy the point is tony things are getting tight here you should let me get to know the people you're working with why would i do that i can help them lindsay and i want to move up in the chain okay i don't always want to be the low man on the totem pole why so ambitious look at my old man he spent his life in the trenches doing his own carrying his own water so when things went sideways there he was the cops grabbed him no problem i'm thinking that a few layers between me and them is a good thing okay maybe you're right about that conceited axelrod let me think on it on the stairs pine's hand slipped to her pistol vincenzo said hell maybe i can buy one of those penthouses one day the penthouse is off limits until further notice she said sharply why i like that place and the cops don't go there pine did she went in undercover and almost wrecked the place i had to think fast to get around that so it's a no-go so is it really just a park the penthouse i mean i'm not following vincenzo said i mean it's a pretty expensive benefit if it is just that i know the pill business is good and all but you gotta push a shitload of it just to pay the monthly fees on that place that's not your problem to worry about and you're not the only pipeline out there that's what i figured those guys probably have crews operating all around the new york and new jersey metro areas probably coming up from mexico and stuff right something like that so maybe you can introduce me sounds good now why don't you go shower and i'll get to work on dinner sounds good babe and then after dinner sure tony sure whatever my man wants he slapped her playfully on the butt and then went upstairs axelrod waited for the shower to start then she made a phone call you were right he's getting to be a problem she said axelrod listened for a few moments yeah i understand after it's over you know what to do she put the phone away and slipped a syringe from her purse she reached the bathroom and slowly opened the door steam had filled the room she readied the needle holding it in front of her like a knife she reached the shower curtain steeled herself threw aside the curtain and raised the needle high to strike only there was no one there the shower was empty the water is simply running she whirled around to see a bare-chested tony standing there and behind him and holding her gun to his head was pine hey lindsay i was really hoping we'd run into each other again now put down the syringe you were going to use to kill tony and let's have a chat babe chapter 58 finally plum stirred as both adam gorman and norah franklin came out of the building together plum hailed a cab right as a sleek black mercedes maybach slid up to the pair and gorman held the door for franklin he climbed in after her the cabbie who was in his 50s and wearing a white turban and a maroon bindi on his forehead turned to blum and said where do you want to go ma'am i want to go wherever that mercedes up there goes she said pointing to the vehicle as it pulled away from the curb what is it that you mean by that said the man in a thick accent which forced blum to listen closely i just mean to follow that car said plum he turned back around whipped out into traffic and settled in two cars behind the maybach why do you follow them the cabbie asked it's my job are you police i'm with the fbi you are too old he said dismissively you are older than me blum took out her fbi id card and held it up the f b and i were quite prominent is this sufficient she asked him he turned to look at her again do you have a gun do you want to find out he pivoted back around and made a left to follow the maybach are those criminals up there they could very well be that's what i'm trying to find out do you know the city well i don't want to lose them i have been in this country for 10 years i have driven cab for nine years all over the city is that when you came to this country ten years ago yes but in pakistan i was a doctor not a taxi driver he turned the cab right as they followed the maybach what will you do when they arrive at their destination i'll continue to watch them should you call the police no it's not time for that not yet you must find this work exciting sometimes it's too exciting sometimes it's incredibly boring i've spent the last several hours drinking so much coffee i never want to touch it again yes i can see how that might be he pulled up behind the car don't get too close blum warned every yellow taxi looks like every other yellow taxi but they might see you we all wear the turban we all have the bindi we are all either doctors or engineers who drive taxis he glanced back at her are those people dangerous he asked one of them has shown himself to be very dangerous replied plum keeping her gaze on the maybach that is not good people like that are not good i agree i do not like it that you are following such people you are a nice lady and they are dangerous people don't worry i have other people supporting me who are not afraid of people like that it is nice to have such people i've always thought so 30 city blocks later the maybach stopped in front of a hotel in a very upscale section of manhattan it wasn't billionaires row but it was close as blum paid her fair the cabbie told her you must be very careful now i will no longer be with you i will be very careful luckily neither of them has ever met me i wish you good fortune thank you as he drove away blum steeled herself turned and walked into the hotel a bellman tipped his cap to her as she went in plum bypassed the check-in counter when she saw gorman and franklin enter the bar lounge set off to one side of the lobby they were led to their seats by a young woman when blum stepped up to the small host to stand at the entrance to the lounge another young woman dressed all in black with a name tag that read juliet approached and asked her if she needed any help blum told her that she was meeting someone here but was early and just wanted to get a seat the young woman led her into the substantial art deco decorated lounge and deposited her at a table with two chairs luckily it had a direct sight line to franklin and gorman who would settle down at a table with high-backed upholstered chairs near the fireplace the table had a reserved sign on it the hostess helping them picked up the sign and departed as blum pretended to consult her phone she kept an eye on the pair gorman was leading the conversation and speaking energetically but she could tell his voice was barely above a whisper because franklin had to lean in to listen by her expression she wasn't pleased with what she was hearing franklin glanced down at the drinks menu on the table and motioned a waitress over she ordered something but when the waitress turned to gorman he waved her off and resumed speaking after the young woman walked away blum positioned her iphone so it looked as though she was scrolling through screens but she had actually engaged the video feature and was recording the pair as they continued to talk ma'am what are you doing plum turned and looked at the beefy man with squinty eyes dressed in a suit with a wired comb piece in his ear excuse me said blum you can't film guests without their permission thinking quickly blum said i'm not i'm filming that fireplace i want to get one like it from my home i don't think so i've been watching you since you came in here you've had your eyes on that couple the whole time he gripped her by the arm you'll have to come with me i'm not going anywhere with you i don't even know who you are the man lifted one of his lapels and showed the badge underneath hotel security and i'm also nypd off duty so you're coming with me general they both turned as robert puller in his full dress uniform strode up to them general blum yes colonel said blum instantly general said the bewildered security man two-star air force said blum standing up and glowering at the man colonel this young man seems to think that i was spying on those people over there with my phone instead of taking footage of that beautiful fireplace i think it will look great with the renovation i'm doing puller immediately got this absolutely it will it fits right in with the design theme he looked at the man we have a flight to catch to dc general blum is briefing the joint chiefs at the pentagon late tonight jesus said the man with an embarrassed look at plum he said contritely i'm really sorry general no need to apologize blum said kindly you were just doing your job now if you'll excuse us oh yes absolutely the man almost bowed as they walked out of the hotel blum said thanks for the assist but how did you know where i was so long as you have a smartphone you have no privacy right but why were you looking for me my brother called and told me you were watching gorman and franklin for radley then he contacted me again he was worried about you tailing a killer by yourself and asked if i could check on you i'm glad he did actually because i found out some troubling things about gorman and franklin i went to the building where you were supposed to be but you weren't there that's when i traced you by your phone signal you could have called you were on surveillance i didn't want to call it an inopportune time for you they turned down a side street and reached a spot where they could speak freely puller said so what have you learned agent pine saw gorman come out of the building where she had gone that night with lindsay axelrod that told her he was in on whatever is happening there then he went to franklin's congressional office they were there for hours he's head of her security team agent pine found out she asked me to pick up the surveillance which i did they left her office and came to this hotel and were having a very intense conversation in the lounge he was talking and she was listening and neither of them seemed happy i think something big is going down she took out her phone and showed him the video wish i could read lips said puller me too there's no need for that i could fill you in they turned to see gorman standing there as a black town car slid up to the curb there were two large and tough-looking men in the front seat one got out and opened the rear door get in said gorman who was now pointing a square muzzled 45 automatic at them or i'll shoot you both in the head right here chapter 59 tony vincenzo blubbered you were gonna stick me with that i thought you loved me i thought we were a team shut up tony axelrod lowered the syringe and stared at pine said haven't seen you since you killed sheila weathers and left me to take the fall for it i didn't kill sheila if you didn't kill her you know who did and probably ordered it and then you sent some to kill me only it didn't work out that way she told me before that you killed sheila blurted out vincenzo she says lots of things tony but when she opens her mouth only lies come out she glanced at the syringe what's in it morphine just a little shot of vitamin c axelrod looked at vincenzo you would have felt so good tony put the syringe down lindsay instead she held up the syringe like a knife make me you she lunged at them pine calmly altered her aim and shot axelrod in the hand the bullet passed through skin and bone before becoming lodged in the wall axelrod dropped the syringe and doubled over screaming in pain vincenzo tried to jerk free but pine's iron grip kept him from going anywhere you shot me screamed axelrod you seem to be the only one surprised by that and trust me it was all i could do not to aim at your head pine gave vincenzo a hard shove sending him sprawling face first to the floor stay there she barked she pushed axelrod out of the way gingerly picked up the syringe carefully wrapped it in toilet paper and stuck it in the cabinet under the sink whatever is in there i'll leave to a biohazard disposal squad to deal with she glanced at axelrod who was squatting next to the shower holding her bleeding hand and quietly sobbing axelrod looked up at pine through tear-stained eyes you have no idea who you're with pine tossed her a towel to wrap around the wound and leaned against the sink so enlighten me you wish said axelrod as she tied the towel around her hand how'd it feel feeding 14 year old girls like jewel blake to horny old men lindsay you got a kick out of that what said vincenzo staring at axelrod yeah your girlfriend plays pimp too as another sideline she looked at the woman girls who thought you were going to protect them and you fed them to the wolves i have no idea what you're talking about and you have no cause to hold me i'm out of here you move to the door the next thing i shoot will not be your hand but if you talk maybe we can work a deal you will learn from me okay is this where you say you want a lawyer go to hell pine glanced at vincenzo hey tony you want a great deal all you have to do is rat this piece of out you do that tony and you are dead snapped axelrod she was going to kill you anyway so what's the difference noted pine vincenzo turned and looked up at pine what do you want to know tony screamed axelrod pine pulled out a pair of zip cuffs and handed them to vincenzo put these on her hands and ankles but now vincenzo pushed a struggling axle rod down flipped her over put a knee on her lower back and managed with difficulty to bind her hands and ankles good boy tony said pine when axelrod started screaming a string of obscenities pine grabbed the scruff of the woman's jacket slid her into the bedroom closet and shut the door she returned to the bathroom and looked at vincenzo okay sit on the toilet we're going to have a chat pine took out her phone and turned on the video with the lens pointed right at him vincenzo sat down and rubbed the back of his head i can't believe she was gonna kill me i thought she'd loved me yeah tony you need to get over that she was using you just like she used everybody else now i need you to talk he looked at her wearily maybe i need to speak to a lawyer well i haven't arrested you which is why i haven't read you your miranda rights so technically you're not entitled to a lawyer but what the hell you want a lawyer okay i'll cut axelrod loose and leave you guys to it she probably has a second syringe in her purse i'll go get her now and you two can work out your differences i'm sure the murdering would be willing pine pocketed her phone and moved to leave the room wait wait cried out vincenzo fine turned to look at him well what do you want to know she settled back against the sink took out her phone and turned on the video function she recited the date time her and vincenzo's names and where they were located not exactly by the book but the best she could do under the circumstances pine said do you want a lawyer no i don't want a lawyer are you speaking to me of your own free will yes okay tell me everything starting with how you and axelrod hooked up she came up to me at a bar one night she seemed to know all about me where i worked the petty crap i'd done meaning dealing drugs i don't deal well not technically i just make this stuff okay go on she told me she worked at fort dix too in the i.t department then says we can go big time she has it all planned out she had a contact who could move a lot of product jeff sands yeah i met with him quite a few times while we were putting this together he's dead by the way they blew his head off where did you get your ingredients for the pill making lindsay arranged that then the boxes would come to my house always late at night so no one would see anything any idea where the boxes were shipped in from not really i did notice that some of the boxes had weird symbols on them what like another language yeah but not one i recognized i mean it wasn't spanish or anything i just figured that they came from some place overseas hell just like everything else in this country okay when you made the pills danforth and cassidy would come into play right yeah they would leave fort dix in military vehicles stop at a designated place pick up the pills i'd made drive them to another location and leave them there then they'd go on with their trip drop the vehicles where they were supposed to and come back to dicks in another ride do you know who jeff sands is related to he shook his head peter driscoll vincenzo showed no signs of knowing who that was pine side you really need to get off your game boy tony driscoll is the senate majority leader what you mean like in the government yeah i mean like in the government a very powerful guy damn and jeff was related his grandson wait a minute you don't think this driscoll dude is involved with this do you i don't know tell me about the apartment on 57th lindsay took me there said it was a benny you know a thank you for a job well done and you never questioned how she would have access to a place that's reserved strictly for billionaires you want to know the truth i thought maybe it was like one of those mexican cartel guys pablo what's his name of that chapo dude pablo escobar yeah he was killed about 25 years ago and el chapo's in prison but i get your drift it was funny though what was i was at the apartment one time late at night not for one of the parties but there was a snafu with a drug shipment and i needed to meet with someone they told me to meet them there while i was waiting i had to use the can really bad and went looking for a bathroom but they were all taken probably people doing coke and i looked around trying to find some place and then i saw this door down a hall out of the way pine tensed a bit and and it was locked but i was desperate and i had my knife and i jimmied it well it was no bathroom it was filled with computer screens and other equipment did you see what was on the screens yeah there were camera feeds from the apartment i mean like every room i saw people screwing in their bedrooms and snorting coke and doing other that i didn't want to see he paused there were men on men women on women and men with girls who looked way too young to be doing what they were doing like you mentioned to lindsay just now so the whole place was wired for surveillance yeah so what did you do after you saw what was in that room i shut and locked that door and just prayed no one saw me i had my meeting and then ran down to the street to a restroom at a starbucks did you ever tell anyone you saw that room like axelrod look i'm not stupid okay i mean i didn't think the was gonna stick me with a needle but it's not like i trusted her all the way either he paused and there's one more thing what i was in new york one night taking care of some business i was near the building so i decided to walk past it was late around 11. did you go in no the parties and stuff they throw up there are pretty infrequent they send out a notice when they're on so what did you do i watched the limo coming and going fancy looking people getting out and going into that building they could have been going to other apartments nope why not because i know the limo driver see it was the same driver in limo he was just varying folks because no one came at the same time he sometimes comes up to the parties i've talked to him no they were going to that apartment for sure pine thought about all this for a few moments okay let's move on what about sheila weathers she was just a chick at the fort she worked in the cafeteria she was nice she really knew nothing about the drugs why would they kill her because they wanted to frame me for it and make sure i wasn't around to defend myself that's why that's really shitty they killed your old man you know because we talked with him he knew something was going on with you he said you were in over your head vincenzo's head drooped yeah i figured out that he was right a few minutes ago why did he say you were in over your head i went to visit him i was getting freaked out i mean the strange writing on the boxes this fancy apartment with all the cameras lindsay popping up at the bar like she did and coming on to a guy like me and what did your father tell you he told me to get out while i still could only i couldn't figure a way to do it he looked up at her so what the hell is going on here it's not just about drugs is it no it's a lot more than that but let me ask you something else totally off topic what he said curiously your grandfather ido vincenzo looked surprised my grandfather what about him did you ever meet him vincenzo's eyes narrowed if i did i don't really remember he he just disappeared one day or so my dad told me any idea what happened to him no my dad said he just up and vanished not a word to him or my grandma they were pissed why are you interested in him just in connection with something else what else did your dad tell you about him i know about the ice creamery what else do you know about his past did he serve in vietnam yeah in the army my dad told me ito had a low lottery number and got drafted did his training at fort benning you know that place oh yeah i know it you ever go up in the attic here and look through the boxes old photo albums i only come here to drink beer and sit on the beach you ever heard of a man named leonard atkins who might have saved your grandfather's life over there no pine was about to ask another question when she heard a noise outside she hurried to the window overlooking the front of the house and saw a black suv pull in she ran back into the bathroom and grabbed vincenzo i hope you can run as fast as you did when i was chasing you what why because your girlfriend's cleanup team is here move axelrod must have heard the sounds of the car too because she started to kick the wall of the closet and scream pine jerked the door open leaned down and clocked her in the face with her fist axelrod slumped unconscious pine looked up at vincenzo damn that felt good she and vincenzo flew down the steps and then out the back door they ran flat out toward the beach and turned right when they hit the sand this direction pine knew would carry them toward the police station she had passed on the way in as she sprinted along pine pulled out her phone punched in 9-1-1 identified herself gave the address of the beach house and what had happened there and their approximate current location then she put the phone back in her pocket turned and saw light skipping over the sand and coming toward them a second later bullets sailed past her go tony go she screamed at him and he picked up his pace even more as pine slowed just a bit she was going to keep herself between vincenzo and the people after them to get to him they'd have to kill her and right now pine wouldn't have been on herself surviving the night chapter 60 i am not going to die on a beach in freaking new jersey pine was running as fast as she could in the tightly packed wet sand as the breakers pounded to the left of her and the tide was heading out and if that wasn't enough a storm was starting to rage off the coast sweat was running down her face though it was chilly out over the water a spear of lightning punched out of the dark clouds and headed directly to the atlantic then followed an unholy crack of thunder that seemed to shake her right to her soul she could see vincenzo about 50 feet in front of her and running flat out keep going she urged as fast as you can as more shots were fired at them she decided to do something she stopped pivoted pulled her glock and her beretta and opened fire even as more bullets sailed over her she was aiming at the dots of light coming her way they stopped shooting and fell to the sand for cover she turned and ran where the hell is tony he was no longer in front of her she looked to the ocean and beach side and saw nothing she sprinted full out and fell flat onto the beach because she had tripped over something lying on the sand pine felt wetness on her face and it wasn't rain or ocean spray she rided herself and flinched when she saw that what she had tripped over was vincenzo he was gasping for breath and in the spike of another lightning bolt she saw both his contorted features and the bloody wound in his chest she quickly felt under him and her hand came away all bloodied he had apparently been shot in the back while running and the bullet had come out the front he suddenly focused on her and grabbed pine's arm he gasped don't let me die please tears streamed down his face and mixed with the raindrops that were starting to fall okay tony just stay calm stay calm she knew this was pretty much impossible under the circumstances pine felt the pulse at his neck and looked down at the ugly bleeding wound in his torso she put her hand over the wound to stop the flow of blood but that wasn't going to work since he had holes in front and back and he was no doubt hemorrhaging internally she eyed the pursuers behind her they were still hunkered down apparently she fired four more shots in their direction to keep them there she called 9-1-1 again explained the situation and put her phone away as she looked down at vincenzo she knew they were never going to make it in time he seemed to understand this because he gripped her arm even more tightly and his eyes became even more panicked i'm here tony help is on the way he shuddered and then shook his head stubbornly now clearly aware that his death was near he motioned for her to bend closer she did so tell my mom that i i love her just hang in there okay she didn't want to give him false hope but she didn't know what else to say and what did any words really matter at this point the next sounds pine heard were sirens cutting through the dark she looked back and saw the light dots swiftly moving to the street they had evidently heard the sounds too and were beating a hasty retreat when she looked back down at vincenzo another lightning burst revealed his face clearly he was dead she closed his eyes rose and sprinted toward the street pine arrived there in time to see the men climb into the black suv farther down the road and speed off in her direction she ducked down behind a garbage can before it got close as the vehicle raced past her she saw the person in the back seat lindsay axelrod was in there her face heavily bruised where pine had walloped her and she was holding up her bloody hand they had found and rescued her the suv turned off and was gone 30 seconds later she ducked behind the garbage can once more as police cars shot past her and pulled in down the street at vincenzo's beach house pine jogged in that direction but then broke off and went to the parking lot next to the beach climbed into her car and pulled out she kept her headlights off and didn't gun the engine until she was two streets away she looked down and saw vincenzo's blood on her everything had happened so fast she had gone from searching the boxes in the attic to she pulled into a convenience store slid into a parking space and put the car in park she put her hand in her pocket and took out the photo her hand was trembling she clicked on the dome light and slowly turned the polaroid over she first cast her eyes at the bottom where in the white perimeter of the photo was written len wanda and becky july 1999 slowly a millimeter at a time pine lifted her gaze her body was trembling like she was in the throes of a terrible chill her breaths were painful she felt sick then she stopped there were three people lined up in front of what looked like a mobile trailer set up on cinderblocks the man was of medium height greedy and bald he was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt and held a cigarette he was smiling at the camera the older woman was rotund and short wearing cut off jean shorts and a sleeveless blouse she was not smiling she didn't look like someone who had ever smiled and next to her and towering over both of them at what pine calculated was nearly six feet was a young woman she wore an old-fashioned gingham dress that looked to be handmade and that hung limpy down past her knees she was barefoot and her hair was a mess of tangles and cowlicks her exposed skin was dirty and full of scabs she was not looking at the camera she was staring straight down at the ground her shoulders hunched her entire body looking uncomfortable contorted perhaps seized in pain pine didn't know and even though pine could not glimpse her face she knew without a doubt that she was looking at her sister it was mostly the height and the hair the once beautiful hair that her mother had religiously brushed and endlessly braided into shapes and configurations that had made the tomboy atlee giggle but mercy had loved it and now this pine started to quietly weep she rested her forehead against the steering wheel as her body started to shudder and the sobs made her breathless the knocking on her window made her sit up and wipe at her eyes her hand going to her holstered glock an old man in a baseball cap was peering in at her he held a plastic bag full of things he'd presumably bought in the store she hit the button and her window came down you okay ma'am he asked in a worried voice she nodded cleared her throat and brushed more tears away yes just some bad news well i'm real sorry about that is there anyone you can call to come be with you or is there anything i can do no i'll be fine thank you for your concern he touched her hand with his life can throw us some curveballs can't it i lost my missus six months ago always thought i'd be the first to go i'm sorry for your loss well i'm real sorry for what you're going through but if it makes you feel any better time does help and you figure out you got other people who care about you he held up the bag my son and my grandson are visiting i told them this place here has the best dern grilled hot dogs in the whole state of new jersey they're excited to try them i'm just happy i'm not alone tonight thank you i hope they enjoy the hot dogs he gave her an encouraging smile walked off climbed into an old pickup truck and slowly drove away right when pine had thought maybe there was nothing left that was good in the world that old man had restored a little bit of hope to her she wiped her eyes again and put the car in gear i guess it really is all about timing she glanced down at the photo at her beloved twin staring at the dirt trapped in a life that was not hers i'm going to find you mercy your little sister is coming for you i promise chapter 61 no answer as she sped north pine had called blum four times and got no answer it had gone straight to voicemail as though the phone was turned off she then tried calling robert puller and got the exact same result panicking she called john puller she gasped in gratitude as he picked up atlee i'm so sorry to bother you but i can't reach either carol or your brother they both go straight to voicemail carol texted me said she was doing surveillance work on gorman and franklin that's right said pine i told bobby about that he was going to dig some stuff up on them you think he and carol might be together somehow they should be i contacted bobby and asked him to check on carol i didn't like it that she was tailing a guy like gorman and i really don't like it that neither one of them are answering their phones i didn't like using carol for that either and maybe i shouldn't have but she doesn't take unnecessary risks sometimes i forget she's not a trained agent but something might have happened i'm going to have an apb put out on them both and have some agents go to the spot where carol was doing her surveillance i think that's a smart move adley and i have a lot to fill you in on pine proceeded to do that she was only 20 minutes outside of the city when she had finished she could hear puller breathing heavily it reminded her of jack lineberry and for good reason both men had been shot puller look you just need to rest okay i can handle this i shouldn't have called you she could hear him breathing fast for a few seconds and then came what sounded like him trying to sit up in bed pull her please just lie still i'm fine i don't know why i'm still in the hospital you got shot in case you forgot puller said okay okay so based on what you found out what do you think is going on let's start with the drugs tony and his two cohorts cassidy and danforth were making the drugs and getting them distributed jeff sands was lining up buyers and then there's the penthouse said puller sands was also involved in that as was axelrod from what tony told me that place could very well be a den of blackmail he called them fancy people but they may be powerful people and they could be buying drugs from them then they're whisked to this place for underage sex and more drugs and god knows what and it's all captured on film puller said with the underage sex like what happened with jewel blake that would not only kill someone's reputation it's also a felony i just want to know how norah franklin fits into this and adam gorman i spoke briefly with bobby about gorman he mentioned something in his background and set off warning bells he just didn't tell me what look are you sure you're feeling well enough to deal with this i'll be thinking about it whether i'm doing it with you or not then i'll be at the hospital in about 20 minutes well i'm not going anywhere replied puller when pine hurried into polar's hospital room he was sitting up in bed and looking at his phone first how are you feeling really and don't me added pine as she sat down next to the bed i can't jump tall buildings in a single bound right now but i don't have to he held up his phone interesting what read it pine read down the screens for about a minute and then looked up nora franklin's opponent in her last election dropped out at the last minute even though he was ahead in the polls she ran unopposed and won re-election there was no explanation given by her opponent except to say it was a personal decision puller nodded i think we might have drilled down to what that personal decision might have been you think he was a visitor to the penthouse i wouldn't bet against it and i'm wondering what she's done to repay them for winning the election for her and how many other nora franklins are out there puller said and i doubt it's just politicians you can have judges bureaucrats cops military ceos folks in the media and a slew of other targets and maybe that explains why a four star got reassigned and you got shoved off the case and the local police cut us off and every other infuriating thing that's happened it would explain a lot agreed pull her axelrod said something to tony that made me pause she used the term blowback he called her out on that in a joking way saying she sounded like a spy spies huh any word on your apb asked puller anxiously no then i might have to call in some reinforcements from where you can leave that to me no i want to be part of the hunt at the very least i want to get to lindsay axelrod okay but i need to make some calls while you do that i need to make a call too who too to a man who said if i needed a favor to give him a ring well i think it's time i called in that favor chapter 62 there were exhalations of breath mingled with the dripping of water coming from somewhere there was consistency in the sounds but no comfort robert puller looked down at his feet and winced a bit as the movement made the injuries in his shoulder and arm throb even more they had interrogated him efficiently if not effectively he was sure they would try again with even harsher techniques he was not looking forward to that the car had driven them to a van in an underground garage somewhere on the outskirts of the city the van had tinted windows they had been restrained and bags had been placed over their heads they had driven around for about an hour then they had been taken from the van and hustled into somewhere he didn't know where the bags had not been taken off until they were inside plum had been taken somewhere else a classic divide and crushed the confidence technique punching him in the face cranking his arm behind his shoulder until nearly the breaking point and breaking two of his fingers they had questioned him for about an hour he had no idea who the questioners were gorman was not among them he had thrown up during the course of the interrogation and had noted with some amount of satisfaction that he had sent his inquisitors jumping and diving out of the way from his projectile vomiting that had been worth the two punches in the face he had gotten as punishment he had been called every filthy name in the book and had been threatened in every way imaginable that had been simple to endure he merely did math calculations in his head while they were verbally pummeling him that had been harder to do when the punches started flying but he had done the best he could puller had received seer training during his time in uniform that stood for survival evasion resistance and escape well he had failed miserably in evading resistance had gotten the crap kicked out of him and he saw no way of escape so focus on survival now he sat staring at a grimy floor and hoping that someone would come to help him he had endured years in prison for a crime of which he was innocent but this was different those guarding him then were never going to kill him these men clearly were he had mentioned nora franklin's name once after a question about what he was doing at the hotel with blum i hope nora was worth what's going to happen to you he had said this had gotten him a smack in the jaw by a man about the size of a small car that had knocked him out of his chair now he sat slumped over waiting for them to come back do you want to die because we will kill you the man towered over carol blum who sat at a small table her shoes and jacket had been taken from her and she was shivering because the room was icy cold the three men in here were all wearing overcoats plum was scared more scared than she'd ever been she had the unshakable feeling that her life was about to end plum looked up at him and said quietly her voice trembling you're going to kill me anyway so what does it matter the man held up her fbi credentials you are an admin a secretary he added derisably i prefer the term support personnel that earned her a backhanded slap across the face that would have knocked her out of her chair if a second man had not held her in place she choked back blood and tears she was shaking uncontrollably and moaning in pain okay have it your way support personnel said the man how did you learn about ms franklin and mr gorman through the one eye she could see out of blum stared at him and then anger swelled up inside her if she was going to die she was not going out meekly she felt her spine stiffen and her composure return the bureau knows everything all of you are in imminent danger of arrest you are lying he raised his hand to strike her again hitting a woman nearly twice your age won't take away the truth of what i just said and if a lowly support personnel knows as much as i do what do you think the actual agents know one man said agents how about one agent atlee pine blum was ready for that one and army cid john puller is no longer on the case do you really think he's the only agent cid has that has been taken care of and if the bureau was all over it why have a secretary conducting surveillance absolutely right if i'm just a secretary you are too old to be anything else absolutely right again i'm just a secretary nothing more and i am with the fbi no one else the man started to say something and then he stopped and stared warily at her what does that mean no one else now blum allowed herself to look confused and uncertain nothing i i just meant what i said the man looked at his colleagues and started to speak in a language blum didn't understand but what she could see were their clear expressions of concern one of the men nodded and looked at plum who do you work for i told you the fbi i don't believe you i work for no other agency plum feigned alarm when she said the last word the man looked at her triumphantly no other agency he leaned down so they were eye to eye tell me who you're really working for don't lie to me blum looked back at him stubbornly but said nothing else all right we will be back to talk to you and then you will provide the answers we require about you and the man in uniform or you will die do you understand blum pursed her lips and looked down the men filed out and locked the door behind them it was only then that blum looked up her subterfuge had bought them a little time but that was all she felt her spine grow soft once more as nearly all hope bled out of her please agent pine please find us before it's too late chapter 63 pine was sitting in her rental car she had been speaking into the phone uninterrupted for nearly 20 minutes now she let out a long breath and waited and waited finally clint dobbs the head of the fbi branch in arizona said holy pine you sure don't do anything by half measures no sir just doesn't seem to be my fate in life just so i get this straight you're saying there is a black male operation that may reach into the highest levels of this government and then spreads out like a spider's web to god knows where and the people being blackmailed are presumably doing things to help the blackmailers using their positions of authority i don't think the facts can be explained any other way and now carol is missing along with john puller's brother i don't like the sound of that at all neither do i you said you witnessed gorman as the shooter yes well i'll need an affidavit to that effect that'll help me get the ball rolling i'll get it to you asap norah franklin i've testified before committees she's on i've socialized with her but i can't believe she would be involved in something like this i'm sure sir but the fact is she's up to her eyeballs in this but you have no proof of that they got a four-star general yanked off this assignment at the pentagon puller was stonewalled at every turn on a murder investigation involving a federal agent he was nearly killed and the grandson of peter driscoll was killed and i've heard nothing in the news about it and an agent friend of mine thinks nypd is sitting on releasing jeff sands id as a favor to driscoll are you suggesting that senator driscoll is involved in this too pine said i don't know i have no proof that he is but if not it's a big coincidence his grandson is involved and this fancy apartment in new york sir i can think of no other reason to have camera equipment in bedrooms where sexual activity of a possibly criminal or professionally embarrassing nature is taking place and franklin's last political opponent quit the race weeks before the election for unspecified personal reasons even though he was leading in the polls who does that sir so you think he was blackmailed into getting out said dobbs i can't think of any other reason he would quit the race like that just citing personal reasons but you'd think the guy would have fought back if they tried to expose him and what if they threatened his family so now we're getting into old mob techniques those techniques never go away because unfortunately they still work dobbs said how many leaders do you think they've compromised i'm not sure vincenzo said one night he saw people being taken into and out of the place for hours he knew they were visiting that apartment because he knew the limo driver preying on the weaknesses of people said dobbs in a disgusted tone i have no sympathy for people having sex with underage children said pine thinking of jewel blake they deserve to have the book thrown at them but for the others affairs drug use all used for blackmail that's different that's screwing with people destroying their lives if they are using their influence to help it's under duress i think that must be quite a guilty burden to bear knowing that you're selling out your own country to save yourself i know we need to do something asap pine but i also have to think about this find a strategy moving forward we have to trade cautiously i would be careful who you communicate with sir otherwise you might find yourself transferred to head up in r.a so far in the wilderness they use tin cans strung with wire to talk that thought had occurred to me so no leads on carol not yet but someone is working on it and i will move heaven and earth to get her back safe and sound i know you will hang in there pine i'll get back to you he clicked off and for some reason pine's hopes immediately plummeted i really can't count on anybody to help me because who the hell knows how far this goes she looked out the window at the darkened street and her imagination raced to all sorts of terrible fates for carol blum and robert puller she never should have brought plum with her and if i hadn't screwed up puller's arrest of tony vincenzo robert puller wouldn't be involved in this either she was convinced that wherever blum was so was robert puller pine drove directly to the fbi new york field office filled out an affidavit had it notarized then scanned it to dobbs in arizona she noticed that several agents passed by and looked at her intently is something going on here i'm not aware of for a panicked second she had the most horrible thought imaginable the bureau had also been compromised and she had been sent here by a devious dobbs just so she could be arrested on some trumped-up charge as she was pondering whether to make a run for it a man in his fifties tall and imposing and dressed in a dark suit with a blue tie over a stiff white shirt came up to her agent pine yes something about the man seemed familiar she tensed i'm warring graham i'm the sac here that's why pine thought she knew the man graham was the special agent in charge of the bureau's new york field office it and the field office in dc were the top two outposts in the bureau's universe he was higher in the pecking order than clint dobbs by a lot i'd like to talk to you in private pine was led to a small conference room and graham shut the door pine's heart was banging so hard she thought she saw her shirt move graham perched on the edge of the table and said clint dobbs and i were bunkmates at quantico we've remained close friends over the years he phoned me after you talked to him pine put a hand against the wall to steady herself because she had no idea what was coming we've been looking at some of the same things you have pine in fact i'll let you in on something there are three other luxury apartments operating in the same manner in addition to the one that you learned of and informed clint about so you know what they're doing we believe so yes the russians call it kompromat the saudis have another term for it as do the chinese are they all involved in this sir actually we don't think it's foreign states behind this pine we think it's a private group that is doing this for the oldest reason in the book money did you know about gorman and franklin no our attention had not turned to them as yet we're getting search warrants and surveillance authorizations as we speak he paused and looked chagrined i know nora i uh i have to say i'm surprised i never would have suspected i guess that's sort of the point sir you are exactly right about that pine and it's another example of how in this game you are never too old to learn something new his brow creased i understand that there are two possible hostages my assistant carol blum and lieutenant colonel robert puller with the air force gorman has them that's what we believe we've done a quick and dirty on gorman since he's head of nora's security detail he doesn't have the level of disclosures and vetting that ordinarily takes place for staffers which is why they set it up that way i'm sure precisely am i to understand that the military is also on top of the search for colonel puller yes i believe they are at least they're working on it she prayed that puller had made progress on that from his hospital bed good well pine you've done enough for now you look dead on your feet go get some rest you'll be no good to us if you're exhausted it's going to be a very busy next few days he paused and god help us if this thing turns out to be as deep as i think it is he took out his business card and handed it to her my personal cell is on there pine left and went back to her car she wanted to do something anything but there was nothing else to do right now she drove back to lineberry's condo and dropped into bed fully clothed she pulled out the photo of her sister and stared at it for the longest time before she fell into a tortured sleep chapter 64. puller leaned back against his hospital pillow and stared at his phone he had had to start hiding it from the nurses who all wanted him to rest and sleep and not do my damn job he had slept badly despite the meds and had been lying there for an hour desperately trying to come up with some way to turn the tables on this thing he had made three calls not a single person had called him back which was frustrating but more worrying than frustrating his mind raced as he thought about who else might be out there who could help on this if he could only find a person who had been affected by this then he might idiot he pecked in the number on his phone it went to voicemail he sighed not again he left a detailed message and then let the phone drop next to him he eyed his vitals monitor they all looked good he remembered once back in afghanistan opening his eyes and realizing he was in a field hospital after being wounded the vitals monitor then had not looked nearly as encouraging he hadn't known that one's blood pressure could go that low and the person still be alive he tried to move his injured shoulder just a bit and gritted his teeth even with the pain meds that was not a smart thing to do he realized and so he stopped and let his body relax but when he looked at the phone he tensed once more come on come on ring five minutes went by then ten ten became twenty he was starting to give up hope then it buzzed he grabbed it so fast with the hand on his good side that his injured side screamed in protest hello he said polar it's tom pitts thank you for calling me back sir and i want to say how sorry i am for what happened to you i was the one who called you in on this i never imagined it would cost you your assignment at the pentagon no polar i'm the one who needs to apologize after we met at my office i made some calls and follow-up inquiries i thought i was actually making some progress and then the next thing i knew i got rolled over by an abrams tank the army is a funny mistress puller and when you overlay the politics on top of it and i'm not just talking about military politics but on the suit and thai side across the potomac it gets complicated real fast now i've gotten pretty adroit at reading those tea leaves and can usually see trouble coming from miles away but not on this one 7 am i was having my first cup of coffee 8 15 i was ordered to pack my bags and head out to an assignment overseas in the netherlands of all places is that where you are now i fly out the day after tomorrow well again i'm sorry i got you involved in this sir i'm not it stinks to high heaven and i don't intend to take this lying down puller and while i know whoever did this has some major pull i'm not without firepower when it comes to that that's why i was calling actually i wanted to fill you in on developments where are you calling from puller hesitated but then decided to just say it a hospital bed what puller told him about the shooting and you think it's connected i know it is sir tell me what you know in brief organized sentences puller told pitts about nora franklin and adam gorman and peter driscoll's grandson jeff sands having been killed by the same bullet that had wounded puller he also filled in the general on the possible blackmail chamber operating in new york city and he finished with his brother and an fbi employee gone missing you think they've been captured by these people i can't think of another reason why they haven't answered their phones or called us back i've called other people to help me out but no one came back to me except you they're circling the wagons then said pitts i know many folks in the military who have confronted many an enemy on the battlefield and fought him tooth and nail sustaining injuries and defeat but fighting on until victory and i've seen these very same people turn into cowards and run and hide at the first hand of a subpoena or a demotion or a call from a suit who doesn't deserve one ounce of respect but perhaps unlike the others you called who never called back i've got a dog in this hunt i earned my four stars and i earned my position at the pentagon and i don't take kindly to people screwing with me if they think i'm going to take this lying down they don't know about me even if you hadn't called i was going public with this thing before i left the country when someone hits me i damn well hit back just harder you sound just like my father i'll take that as the highest compliment you could give me then pitt's tone changed it became more thoughtful robert puller a a lieutenant colonel in the air force with the highest security clearances and a wealth of knowledge about our most precious military secrets yes sir we need to get him back any idea where they might be located we're working on it sir i promise give me two hours puller i still have some chits to call in i think i can get it done after that i just need a target i was hoping you would say that and can i ask a favor yes anything i know a certain fbi agent named atlee pine who would like to be involved can she carry her weight there will be no problem there general as soon as he finished with pits he called pine and filled her in on the particulars of what he was planning with general pitts thanks for putting in a plug for me to be part of it she said sleepily you do the same for me she in turn filled him in on her conversation with warren graham so we have the bureau and hopefully the military coming at them from different flanks said puller i think it's going to take all the fire power we can muster said pine hey don't military personnel carry rfid microchips in them particularly an asset like your brother so they can be tracked down easily they once thought about doing that but it was too invasive and more importantly for the military too expensive and there were the privacy concerns and what do you do when they leave the military take it out so instead the military issues gps trackers that personnel turn in when they muster out okay makes sense pine tried and failed to stifle eon and i'm sorry for calling so late i know i woke you you're shaming me puller you're in a hospital bed with a gunshot wound and you're still working while my lazy butt is sleeping call me anytime you want laid his phone aside and stared at the ceiling he looked down at the lines covering him inside feeling helpless for the second time in his life the first time had been the situation with his father's dementia he couldn't beat that on a battlefield and now here he was helpless again chapter 65 pine awoke with a jolt late the following morning and jumped out of bed ready to hit the ground running her heart racing and her nerves at their highest level she tottered there for an instant before thinking what the hell are you doing calm down she made some coffee and thought about the call from puller the night before it sounded like he had the assets to get this done and now they just needed a location to strike she checked her phone to see if by any miracle either blum or robert puller had phoned or texted her while she had been asleep they hadn't there was a text from clint dobbs acknowledging receipt of her scanned affidavit he also added that the ball was rolling that he had a strategy and that the bureau was fully mobilized on this she was to follow up on any lead she had and relay any progress to both him and graham she let out alongside she had never liked clint dobbs all that much but she did trust the man he could not be bought not by anyone she spooned some yogurt into her mouth and chomped down on a piece of toast then she showered got dressed and gummed up she raced down to the garage got into her car and drove off pine was sick of reacting to other people's moves it was time to take the fight to them she drove straight to nora franklin's office building and found a parking spot on the street she knew she would need luck to help her at this juncture if the woman had gone back to dc or to her office in upstate new york pine was screwed a half hour later the law enforcement gods answered the call a cab pulled up in front of the federal building and nora franklin got out and walked inside pine immediately went to the same cafe where blum had set up her surveillance a light rain had started to fall and the sky was darkening quickly she got a seat by the window and stayed there sipping on a coffee and nibbling on a tuna sandwich after three hours one of the employees asked if she needed anything else the clear implication was for her to leave though the place was by no means full pine ordered another coffee and a bag of chips as pine sat there she suddenly thought of something maybe a way to get where they needed to go she pulled out warren graham's card and called his cell he answered on the second ring she told him where she was and what her plan was that's risky pine very risky it could turn out disastrous as disastrous as losing two of our finest sir he didn't answer for a long moment while pine held her breath do it pine and don't screw it up he gave her a phone number to call when she accomplished her mission then he clicked off pine could feel the tension in the ether if they blew this she graham and everyone associated with this investigation were history the bad guys would win and america would be done at seven o'clock with the rain ever increasing and the gloom of night falling nora franklin finally came out of the building a slim leather briefcase tapping against her leg she must have called an uber because a prius pulled up in front of the building right as she came out she got in and the prius drove off pine had already gone to her car and now followed her the prius drove to a restaurant in midtown manhattan and franklin exited the car and walked into the place pine made the driver of a town car move out of his parking spot by flashing her fbi badge she pulled into the spot and waited dobbs texted her 20 minutes later to tell her of the latest steps the bureau had taken she texted him back and told him what she was doing his next text was enlightening dozens of search warrants about to be executed wiretaps already in place for franklin at al this thing is about to explode she texted back first time i've smiled in a long time sir pine put her phone away got out and walked past the plate glass window of the restaurant she couldn't see franklin she chanced walking in and looking around there she was in the back talking to a man pine didn't recognize too bad if it had been gorman pine would have arrested him on the spot she went back out and got into her car at a little after nine franklin came back out and hailed a cab pine followed they made their way south down the west side highway until the car turned left and navigated toward greenwich village with its historic high dollar houses oddly angled streets and reputation as one of the most expensive zip codes in the area old prestigious and isolated well as much as it could be in new york city small town feel locally owned restaurants with 50 entrees and 20 cocktails the cab stopped in front of a four-story stone beauty with twin flickering gas lanterns bordering the blue painted front door with a brass knocker it was attached to another stately home though that house seemed to be vacant and undergoing renovation spend a fortune to buy an old house here and spend a second fortune making it livable thoughtpine must be nice the old brick steps leading up to franklin's house were bracketed by ornate wrought iron railings the place looked old but had obviously been meticulously restored pine wedged into a parking spot as the door on the cab opened and franklin got out the cab pulled away and franklin headed up the steps she never heard pine until she was right behind her security team have the night off pine said franklin whirled around pine could see a small canister held in her hand pepper spray said pine it's legal here so long as you buy it from an authorized source and fill out the necessary paperwork which being such a vip i'm sure you had a flunky do for you who the hell are you snapped franklin looking around as though hoping to see a passing police car pine held out her badge and creds fbi special agent atlee pine i need to speak with you franklin's eyes had widened when she heard the name right said pine i was pretty sure you'd been kept in the loop on me i suppose gorman did the honors if you want to meet with me call my office and make an appointment but i have to tell you it won't be happening anytime soon i'm a very busy woman agent pine oh i know you are serving two or more masters instead of only one must really eat into your free time franklin smiled politely i have no idea what that remark means but it sounds like it's dangerously close to a slander action now if you'll excuse me instead pine drew closer the problem for you is gorman screwed up he kidnapped people one of whom works for the fbi i know you have pull but i doubt it's enough to overcome that one i really have no idea what you're talking about you won't deny that gorman works for you of course not adam has been with me a long time he's the best in the business yes but the business season is illegal blackmailing people in positions of power murder kidnapping that'll get you a long time in prison far longer than the time you've served in congress for the first time pine could see just the glimmer of panic in the woman's green eyes a group of young people with nyu sweatshirts trooped around the corner they had obviously been drinking and they hooted and waved stupidly at the pair pine glanced at the front door and said maybe this would be better conducted inside franklin glanced at the students she said nothing but pulled out her key and unlocked the door beckoning pine to follow her in chapter 66 what a lovely house said pine sarcastically as they entered the front room the floors were marble the walls upholstered in what looked to be silk and with the very finest wood trimmings done by an expert hand on the miter saw the furnishings clearly coincided with the price tag of the real estate and the paintings on the walls would not have seemed out of place in any of the myriad museums housed throughout the city thank you said franklin just as sarcastically a young woman dressed in a domestics uniform entered the room and greeted the congresswoman miss franklin do you need anything no lily you can go up to your room i won't require anything else tonight lily glanced at pine would your friend like some refreshment carl is still in the kitchen no you can tell carl that he can turn in for the night as well i will let my friend out later yes ma'am lily turned and hurried out closing the door behind her let's go to my study said franklin curtly she led pine down a long haul that instead of marble was floored in random with walnut planks she opened one of a set of double doors and motioned pine inside she closed the door behind them and pine-eyed the book-lined room the fire crackling and popping away in the hearth there was a lovely wooden desk with leather trimmings and a set of antique riding instruments displayed on the surface that looked like they caused a mint the carpet underneath pine's feet was thick and forgiving the whole atmosphere was of a great english country house dropped smack into lower manhattan there was a bar set up against one wall would you like a drink franklin said no but help yourself you may need one franklin flinched for a moment but then poured out a snifter of brandy and swirled the liquid around in the glass she was dressed conservatively in a tailored dark blue dress suit franklin undid the bun in her hair and let the blonde tresses flutter down to her shoulders she sat in a high back chair and pine sat across from her on a small settee franklin took off her heels and rubbed her feet you'd think by now women wouldn't have to wear these damn things i think you're a woman in a position to wear what you want unlike a lot of other women but that's not what i came here to talk about okay what did you come here to talk about other than to make wild unsubstantiated allegations your net worth is really impressive this house alone is worth what 5 10 mil easy and you have another place in upstate new york right and i have another place in the south of france a charming villa franklin took a sip of the brandy and let it slide down her throat the look she gave pine was one of amusement which pine decided not to let go for a woman who's been in congress for the last dozen or so years at a fixed salary of a hundred seventy-five thousand and change that's really quite an achievement i was a lawyer before that right but only for a few years and not in any practice field that pays big bucks i invested well and your position in congress allows you to write laws that concern companies that you're invested in i know that would be a conflict of interest of course it is but it still happens because people in congress write the laws in a way that allows them loopholes the size of the grand canyon and the burden of proof on public corruption is so high that it's almost impossible to get a conviction so prosecutors have just stopped trying thank you to the united states supreme court for that but if you have a complaint you can speak to my assistants i think you probably have done the conflict of interest thing but i doubt that's where the bulk of your fortune came from your official financial disclosures only have to give broad ranges you don't have to disclose the value of your principal residence and assets in certain trusts don't have to be valued and disclosed at all i would assume that you take advantage of all of those loopholes on the contrary i take no steps to hide my wealth you knew where i lived or else you followed me here i've had parties and fundraisers here and at my other residences my personal financial history is transparent not even close and members of congress don't have to undergo security background checks so there could be a lot in your background that we don't know the media would have fared it out any issues and if you're questioning my patriotism we take an oath of secrecy and as a member of the intel committee i took a separate oath just words nothing more i'm an elected official the voters have vouched for my integrity by casting their ballot for me so that case is closed pine shook her head that hardly does it in my book look it's been a long day and i need to get to bed trust me your days are going to get longer franklin sat forward and snarled i'm getting tired of this back and forth and just so you know vague threats do not move me try it again and you'll be looking at a lawsuit for slander and a congressional investigation into how the fbi vets its agents i doubt the fbi director likes his agents going rogue pines sat forward too then let me make it a little less vague all the penthouses are under surveillance any time now you're going to get served with search warrants along with god knows how many other high-ranking officials and ceos and judges and cops and other traders do you think i've been blackmailed agent pine i don't recall mentioning anything about blackmail i wonder why you would franklin tensed but then relaxed and sipped her brandy i made an assumption based on what you just told me i'm allowed that right people in high places traders do you really want to know why i'm here certainly then maybe we can draw this meeting to a close i can cut you a deal franklin almost spilled her drink a deal i'm a lawyer pine i'm assuming you're not so don't try to intimidate me i eat people like you for lunch you weren't a criminal lawyer but i'll give you the benefit of the doubt they killed jeff sands they gunned down tony vincenzo on a beach in new jersey lindsay axelrod or whatever her real name is was going to stick him with some in a syringe before i temporarily rescued him i know none of those people and you have no proof that i do by tomorrow the proof will be there do you want to be ahead of the curve or behind it in a jail cell the fbi really needs to start hiring higher caliber personnel i will be delighted to subpoena you to appear before one of my committees i will tear you to shreds you'll lose your badge and what little dignity you might have left you can spend the next 50 years in regret do i take that as a no this meeting is over snapped franklin please leave now or i'll call the police fine rose okay then i'll give gorman the deal instead he'll probably claim you ordered the killings and the kidnapping of an fbi employee and an air force lieutenant colonel sac graham doesn't care where the inside help comes from he told me it's full throttle all the way franklin paled just a bit and her voice changed graham you spoke to warren graham he is head of the new york field office who else would be heading up an operation the size and complexity of this one operation yes its official title is operation stars and stripes she looked down at the woman in all her smugness but it has an unofficial name just for the amusement of us fbi types and what pray tell is that asked franklin giving pine a cocksure smile operation kiss your ass goodbye pine let herself out of the mansion chapter 67 pine climbed into her car and sped off but she merely drove around the corner and parked she called the number she had been given by warren graham a woman's voice immediately answered okay agent pine we have the wiretaps on her phones hardline cell and a second cell and all her email accounts i put the fear of god in her she should be calling out to gorman now then we can trace the call roger that i'll let you know as soon as she initiates contact there are other people in that house a maid and a cook what if she uses their phones or email accounts we have a digital blanket wrap on that house agent pine anything coming from there we can sweep up the warrant was broad enough to cover that pine clicked off and then called puller she told him what she had done as soon as she makes the call email or text we can trace it these days they don't have to be on the phone for half an hour the bureau can make the connection really fast where are you now outside of franklin's place in greenwich village give me the exact address so i can relay it to general pitts she did so and added but the fbi will be keeping a short leash on her she's not going anywhere building suspenders atlee he clicked off and pine waited and waited 40 minutes went by then an hour she called the number again the woman said nothing agent pine she's made no call or email or text we got one text coming out of there about 20 minutes ago a lily walker it apparently was sent to her boyfriend because it had some well it would be reasonable to call it sexting pine spirits plummeted how could that be after their meeting pine was sure franklin would try to contact gorman to warn him she might try to go see him too but that would be far riskier she would know she would be followed had she figured out that her phones had been tapped did she have another email account or a burner phone they weren't aware of if so her plan was not going to work she noticed movement on the street and tensed someone had turned the corner from franklin's residence and was walking toward her when the person passed under the street lamp pine saw that it was lily franklin's maid was franklin using her as a messenger somehow going with her gut pine got out and quickly crossed the street the rain had stopped but the air was chilly and the pavement and streets slick hey lily pulled up looking fearful at first and then recognizing pine she relaxed sorry didn't mean to scare you oh that's okay what are you still doing around here i had some other business in the area i thought you were hitting the sack lily smiled i took a cat nap but i'm heading to meet my boyfriend there's a club in soho we want to try pine looked at her watch it's after midnight lily smiled that's when things start really going ah to be young again and my room is pretty small and there's not much to do but when ms franklin finishes renovating the other house she said i'll have my own sitting room and access to an indoor pool and a home theater that will be so cool other house said pine yeah the one next to hers she bought that last year she plans to combine it with the existing residents i don't know why they haven't started construction yet i thought it would have started a while ago i'm kind of bummed lily is there any connection between the two buildings now what oh yeah that was the cool thing ms franklin told me see those two homes used to be owned by the same person like nearly 150 years ago then at some point they were separated and sold as two houses talk about minting money but there's an old passageway between the two it goes under both houses seller to seller it's sported up now of course but i've seen the door to it ms franklin showed me a while back every muscle in pine's body tensed she pulled out her badge and creds i'm an fbi agent and i need to get inside that house now what lily took an anxious step back when was the last time you saw adam gorman mr gorman she looked confused for a moment he he came by last night do you know why no how long did he stay i think about an hour how did he come my car did he walk lily didn't answer right away she stood there looking pensive that was the funny thing what i never heard a car pull up i was actually looking out the front window then when i turned and walked back down the hall there he was with miss franklin going into the library could he have come in the back door no they're all on a chime i would have heard it pine was barely listening you said there's a connecting passageway between the two houses yes there is what is going on i don't have time to explain let's go as they rushed back down the street pine called the woman at the fbi surveillance center and told her what she had just found out we'll get a team there as fast as we can but if it's listed as a separate residence we don't have a search warrant for that house agent pine screw the search warrant i'm going in she texted puller and relayed the new information then they reached franklin's house where is franklin asked pine i thought she went to her room i don't think so take me in the back way pine pulled her gun you're scaring me wailed lily as she glanced at the weapon after we get in there i need you to take me to the passageway connecting the two houses and then what and then i want you to get out of the house and go see your boyfriend and don't come back here lily led her into the back garden and down a set of steps she unlocked the door and they went inside pine made lily stop and she listened intently then she nodded lily led her down a set of steep stairs that ended in a stone passage that smelled of mold and age at the end of the passage was a door it's open said lily looking alarmed saves me the trouble replied pine now go lily flew up the steps and out of sight pine pulled out her beretta back up and started down the hall chapter 68 the musty foggy odors increased as she moved down the passage pine glanced at the walls they were a mixture of old stones and aged brick the floor was stone as well and the temperature had dropped about 15 degrees the illumination was a series of single light bulbs with a power line snaking between them she rounded a corner and found a partially open door facing her she eased up to it trying to move as silently as possible so much for military quick strike teams and an overpowering force from the fbi it's just me and my two guns until the cavalry gets here if it ever does she slowly peered around the door and two things caught her eye a pair of women's shoes that she recognized as belonging to blum and a military dress jacket with its myriad ribbons no doubt belonging to robert puller was draped over the arm of a wooden-backed spindle chair pine had a sense of inward relief if their things were here it was a safe bet that they were too she didn't want to open the door farther afraid that it might make undue noise instead she squeezed her body past it and entered the small room there was a hallway running off to a right where the passage no doubt continued on a fold-up table next to the chair were two empty pizza boxes and three open beers pine hoped whoever she was about to confront had been drinking it might slow their senses long enough to let her prevail against what would undoubtedly be superior numbers she stopped to text her location and how she had gotten into the house to the fbi team and puller thankfully the text went through even this far down and with some stone walls and ceilings she continued on down the passage listening intently for any sound that might give her some intel on who was down here and where they were ten more seconds passed and she heard something that made her freeze the raised voice said so how the hell do we get out of this it was franklin's voice it was tense angry and blunt the next voice was gorman's pine recognized it from when gorman was playing the role of police officer after gunning down jerome blake calm down nora i have this covered i told you that you never should have taken them and what exactly did you want me to do she was filming us in the hotel she met with robert puller in an alley and they were discussing us did you want me to just let them walk away i am telling you that the fbi is about to come down on us like a ton of bricks one agent this atlee pine put that notion into your head i have feelers out everywhere and i've heard nothing of the kind she's a good liar that atlee pine said a new voice pine's fingers tightened around both guns it was lindsey axelrod axelrod continued she knows a lot too much but she doesn't know about either of you she just thinks this is about drugs now you're the one lying snapped franklin she told me about the penthouse she's figured out its true purpose how the hell did they find out about that axelrod groaned tony he must have found out and she mentioned warren graham gorman snapped she's full of crap if graham were on to us i would know trust me well we have to get rid of puller and the woman said axelrod and we have to do it now and then i'm going to find pine and slit her throat the next moment pine kicked the door open one pistol was pointed at gorman the other at axelrod well here's your chance said pine they all three turned to the doorway franklin screamed as gorman grabbed her and put her between himself and pine he held a knife blade against the woman's neck put down the gun or she's dead that won't be happening replied pine so slid away axelrod heaved a chair at pine and she had to duck a second later the trio fled out of sight and continued down the passage two shots fired at her kept pine from charging headlong after them she waited a few moments and then peered around the corner she jumped back as another shot tore a chunk of the wall off some of the shrapnel cut her cheek she peered back around the corner saw the hall was clear and hustled down it she launched sideways rolled and came up firing as another man large and beefy charged at her from another doorway three rounds from her glock hit him in the chest and he slumped against the wall and slowly slid down it dead she kept going and started to sprint as she saw a doorway farther down the hall start to open she left the floor leaping forward then landed a devastating kick against the door slamming it backward and catching the man behind it flush in the face he screamed in pain and tried to lift his pistol he never got the chance because pine crushed his hand between the door and door jamb he dropped the gun fell to his knees and caught a kick right under his chin lifting him backward the back of his head banged into the wall and he slipped into unconsciousness pine heard someone scream it was blum pine rushed into the room and around a corner and stopped dead her chest heaving and both pistols held out in front of her she had a myriad of targets and two hostages three if she counted franklin from above them they heard the cacophonies of sirens as she faced off with gorman and axelrod she also was looking at robert puller and carol blum they were both bound and gagged and gorman was pointing one gun at blum's head and one at pine while axelrod had her weapon pointed at puller franklin was cowering on the floor in the corner we seem to be at a standoff agent pine said gorman calmly i don't see a way out for you said pine lifting her gaze to the ceiling for a moment the cavalry is almost here doesn't matter i'm not sure what you expect to get out of this said pine we have hostages that gives us leverage you want these people alive there is a price to be paid i would imagine that you know the fbi does not allow kidnappers to walk out with hostages then they're dead are you prepared for that pine forced herself not to look at either blum or puller i won't be the one pulling the trigger on them but if you do i will pull the trigger on you gorman shook his head and smiled goes with the territory pine said to axelrod that go for you too lindsay are you sure you can pull the trigger with that bum hand the woman just stared back venomously at pine and said nothing you need to become more nuanced lindsay your poker face sucks you're not walking out of here alive pine snapped axelrod if i had a dollar for every time i've heard that she glanced at franklin well congresswoman where do you stand on all this you ready to go down with the ship franklin fought back tears and whimpered i i don't know what to do well thanks for the help said pine derisably the sirens had stopped but now they heard feet thundering above them pines lit her fingers right up to the triggers on both her guns you're out of time gorman she said goodbye pine said gorman you fought the good fight and see what it got you the shot hit him right in the middle of the forehead and blood geysered into the air from the entry spot he slumped to the floor dead pine jumped to the left wondering where the hell the bullet that had just killed adam gorman had come from axelrod had ducked down out of the way now she screamed and started to raise her gun to shoot blum but pine hit her with a ferocious kick that leveled the woman and sent her guns spinning out of her hand when axelrod tried to struggle to her feet pine laid her out with a crushing blow to the jaw that put the woman down for good pine whirled around at the doorway where the kill shot on gorman had come from the door swung slowly open and there stood a heavily bandaged and pale john puller his m11 dangling down next to his right side in a flash pine realized that puller had fired through the gap between the back edge of the door and the door jamb john said a bewildered pine what in the hell army strong adley he said quietly before collapsing to the floor chapter 69 there will be very limited public disclosure of this said warren graham he was sitting in a conference room at the new york field office a raid around him were pine the two pullers and carol blum why said pine sharply graham placed his hands palms down on the table as though he needed additional support for what he was about to say it's complicated and multi-layered but i'll give you the cliffs notes version he paused seemingly to marshal his thoughts we have dozens and dozens of open indictments they range from politicians at the federal and state levels to wall street money types to ceos to judges to bureaucrats to cops to intel agents and even to some people who used to work for the bureau there will be more indictments as this unfolds we have also arrested 20 foreign suspects so were other countries behind this asked robert puller doubtful our counterparts in other countries are now investigating similar operations going on there apparently blackmail and pay to playops do not stop at one country's borders when pines started to say something graham lifted his hand let me finish agent pine i will not downplay the seriousness of all of this we all paid the price for their dereliction of duty now some of them were innocent dupes caught up in something that they never imagined would happen to them pine could contain herself no longer but they had choices sir they could have gone to the police they could have come to us they could have gone public robert puller added or they could have resigned their positions and thus taken away the possibility that they could use their positions to hurt this country they could have done all those things agreed graham but none of them not a one that we know of at least chose to do so john puller said but after having been blackmailed why wouldn't they warn others about this scheme i mean if they knew colleagues were going to these places and would be filmed and then blackmailed i have personally questioned seven of them on that very point their answers were remarkably the same they were ashamed and they couldn't bring themselves to tell anyone else their secret and after they used their official positions to further their blackmailers biddings well it became legally impossible for them to admit to anything without suffering the consequences that is a blackmailer's stock and trade robert puller said so how bad was the damage very bad said graham grimly it will take us years to unravel it all but it does explain many decisions in acts by public officials and companies and other interests across a broad spectrum they were serving another master not the people of this country the public servants violated their oath of office the others committed serious felonies this thing has apparently been going on for quite some time robert puller said but gorman and the like were being paid by others to blackmail these people to take the action they did what about those folks they are definitely enemies of this country there needs to be consequences we're interviewing people and compiling those lists more indictments will come as i said i can tell you preliminarily that other nation states foreign and domestic companies and other money interests are on those lists if they couldn't win by healthy competition they apparently resorted to cheating by having folks in positions of power side with them for fear of their own sordid secrets coming out blackmailers usually just want money gorman and the others were playing a more sophisticated game a court decision here a law passed there a merger okayed or not a criminal prosecution dropped a company making a decision to leave a market the possibilities were endless why did they have the parties up there for tony vincenzo and the others asked plum graham said they were filming them too and many of them were doing drugs and other illegal activities and engaging in things that might be embarrassing if they were ever made public they figured it was a way to keep them in line down the road stay the course or the film ends up with the cops what about peter driscoll said pine ironically we could find no evidence that driscoll was involved in this but he's not entirely blame free either turns out his grandson jeff sands tried repeatedly to meet with him to seek help for his drug addiction driscoll never did so apparently afraid that conceding that he had a drug dealing relative even one who was trying to beat his addiction would tarnish his own reputation and nora franklin said pine one of the first recruits to the scheme we've thoroughly interviewed her that tripsy and gorman took overseas it was to get her into the fold she came back and immediately sought political office backed by gorman and his associates and she won and kept winning gaining seats on powerful committees and relaying top secret information to gorman who in turn sold it to our enemies for top dollar and she gained a fortune in the bargain in the opponent in her last election said john puller became a significant threat franklin had begun to ignore her constituents a local and charismatic businessman who was running on a campaign of reform came out of nowhere and was leading her by double digits how did they blackmail him asked puller they couldn't find a way to do that so they took a different angle he grew seriously ill and had to drop out of the race the doctors couldn't identify what was wrong and he was still suffering but knowing what we did we had him tested for a variety of poisons it was an industrial chemical that he was somehow exposed to now that they know he can be treated he'll never be cured unfortunately but it can be managed well he's luckier than jerome blake or agent mcelroy said pine jerome died because he knew about jules having sex at that penthouse they were afraid of who he might talk to and while mcelroy was the one to die i think they were aiming at john and me but regardless they were always going to pin it on jerome to get him out of the way and scare jewel into never talking i think you're right about that said graham what about lindsay axelrod asked pine her real name is svetlana samanov she was an agent with the fss which is the successor to the kgb she's been in this country for years after having her real identity thoroughly laundered through three different countries she is a real i.t expert and that landed her the job at fort dix but i thought you said foreign states were not involved in this said robert puller seminov wasn't working for the fss at least not for the last 10 years we've had discussions with our counterparts over there she went awol around that time i think she eventually hooked up with gorman and they decided to go the private route with money as the objective and what will happen to her asked pine that will largely be up to doj in the state department she could be a powerful chet you are not thinking about a prisoner exchange or anything like that said pine sharply if it were up to me the woman would never see the light of day but it's not up to me retorted graham then again sending her back to the russians after she screwed them over he smiled that might be the best thing we could do to punish her and what will happen to franklin ask pine oh she's going to prison we're going to do a deal with her to avoid the need for a trial the charges will remain sealed she will never speak of it publicly the basic rationale will be put down to financial misdeeds so it will all be buried said pine i just don't get that sir i never said i was in agreement with it pine and that decision came from several levels above me the down and dirty explanation i was given was that if the public found out they could never trust their leaders again well they apparently can't trust their leaders so isn't that the point interjected robert puller well even with the breadth of this scheme these folks only represent a small fraction of people in positions of power and influence pine said you know some journalists are going to start digging into this and they're going to uncover the truth and people are going to win slews of pulitzer's office and part of me hopes that they do replied graham freedom of the press is in the very first amendment after all he paused again and surveyed them but with that said you will have to hold this in the strictest confidence all the way to the grave i'm certain i can count on you for that it wasn't spoken as a question then graham said i was told to make that statement to you and i did what i wasn't told to say is what i'm going to say now each of you put your lives on the line for your country if it were up to me the public would know all about it and would be singing your praises and you would be given all the awards and recognition that you undoubtedly deserve that would be in an ideal world we unfortunately do not live in that kind of a world but i want you to know that certain people do know of your sacrifice and loyalty to this country and they wanted me to extend their thanks and through them the heartfelt gratitude of a nation and now i will stop making speeches and all of you can go on with your lives however if there is anything that you need all you have to do is call me he glanced at pine and my old friend clint dobbs is lucky to have you out there in arizona tell him to be careful other field offices might want to snatch you up starting with this one i'll be sure to tell them that sir said pine everyone needs a bargaining chip now and then they all filed out the polar brothers walked ahead of them and were in conversation pine said deblum i'm so sorry for all this carol i know i keep apologizing but i feel awful please don't agent pine aside from being beaten and almost killed it was very exciting put a spring in my step you really are a national treasure carol blum remember to put in a good word for me when it's time for salary review oh i see quite a nice bump in your pay after this and dobbs may finally approve a new suv for me the one i drive now has 250 000 miles on it would you ever actually think of going to another field office no but if i ever do i'll check with you first well i would hope you would give me a heads up if you were leaving pine gripped her by the shoulder you're missing my point we're a package deal if i go you go too and if you won't go i won't either now i need to talk to the pullers they caught up with the brothers how are you feeling john she asked puller was still bandaged up but looking far healthier and stronger almost back to normal i'll still need more rehab although i am persona non grata at a certain new york city hospital ever since i escaped that night and boy am i glad you did said his brother your timing was spot on as usual the pullers looked at pines grim features and their joking manner quickly dissipated what is it hadley said john puller i need some information on two vietnam era soldiers you know their names one you already know ido vincenzo the other is a leonard atkins he lives or he lived in tolliver county georgia he apparently served with ido vincenzo and atkins apparently saved his life over there and why is atkins important asked puller pine held up the photo of mercy because that's who edo gave my sister to chapter 70 the flight to atlanta from new york was not even three hours yet to pine it felt like three years she sat next to blum alternating between staring out the window and looking at the old polaroid she had scrutinized it so many times it surprised her when she saw a detail she hadn't observed before the long hairs on mercy's exposed legs the tear in the shoulder of her dress how her little finger was bent in at an awkward angle what looked like a severe burn on her ankle and behind the three people and next to the mobile trailer the snout and curved ears of a large hog and behind that ominously a steel peg in the ground with a chain attached surely for a dog thought pine surely blum turned and saw what pine was doing she reached over and gripped her hand surprising her boss for an instant before pine smiled embarrassedly guess it's sort of crazy to keep looking at this picture it's not crazy it's perfectly natural i can't imagine what you must be feeling right now but what you should keep in mind is how much progress you've made agent pine look at where we're headed right now a short time ago did you ever think this would be possible pine squeezed her hand you're right carol and thanks for helping me keep this in perspective they landed and drove in a rental car straight to jack lineberry's house about an hour south of atlanta he was sitting up in a chair in his bedroom at the palacial estate looking out a window to the rear grounds pine saw where the cottage had been the cottage that had been bombed while she had been inside it it had been demolished and a crew was now rebuilding it they were finishing up pouring a new foundation she saw stacks of boards lying nearby she assumed those would be used to frame the house next she glanced at lineberry a tall handsome man in his 60s as he sat in a chair he looked pale and still weak but there was strength in the hug he had given her and his eyes were clear and focused when pine showed him the photo he at first shook his head and then his chin dropped and the man began to weep this was so unexpected that pine didn't know what to do plum put a comforting arm around his quaking shoulders then it struck pine you idiot that's his daughter that truth had come so recently to pine that it hadn't even occurred to her when she handed him the photo i'm sorry jack she said kneeling down on the other side of him i just wasn't thinking clearly he waved her apology away and composed himself he handed her back the photo do you know where that was taken tolliver county north and east of here ito vincenzo could have made it there and back in one day which she did and you're sure this is mercy i have other evidence which supports that conclusion the atkins's len wanda and becky ito served in the army with leonard atkins i found out atkins was severely wounded he came back to the states was discharged and moved back to georgia lineberry looked puzzled but if he was a veto's generation he would be far older than would be typical for someone wanting a child mercy's age i am presuming that ito brought mercy to them as i don't want to say a gift but you know what i mean you're right but during a battle with the north vietnamese atkins saved vincenzo's life that's how he was wounded the wound was in an area that made him it caused atkins to be unable to father children lionberry's eyes narrowed okay i hope i'm wrong but i see where this might be going i believe edo kidnapped mercy and took her to the atkins to repay leonard atkins there was a letter from atkins to ido that basically said that stealing a child to repay a debt that is sick said lionberry but it may also be the truth blum said but why did he try to kill you why not just either take you both or do something less than attempted murder pine looked at the photo i've been giving that a lot of thought from everything we've been able to learn about ido he was not a violent mobster type like his brother but he was angry when he learned that bruno thought he'd gotten screwed on a prison deal and he blamed my mother but i don't think he was some monster i think he was caught between a rock and a hard place and when it came to it i think he just wanted to take one of us that's why he did the nursery rhyme then he tried to knock me out so i couldn't raise the alarm but he hit me way too hard and i nearly died but how could he have found your family in the first place barked an agitated lineberry pine leaned away from him we met up with your ex-fiance you talked to linda you didn't tell me that i'm telling you now what did she say what i thought she would he shook his head no there is no way i can't believe it she was the leak she admitted it she had you followed she searched your briefcase she overheard conversations she met with bruno she found out about him through a mob buddy of his she was even going to rep him but another attorney took over for some reason she steamed open a letter of yours that laid out my parents new identities and where they were going to live in andersonville and she made sure that bruno got it and he told his brother a sob story and guilted an otherwise law-abiding man into coming down to georgia and turning into the devil for a moment pine thought lineberry might faint or have a heart attack or lash out at her there were so many emotions sweeping over his features and his body tensed and untensed to such a degree that she grabbed his arm to make sure he didn't slide out of the chair he finally put a hand to his face and quietly started to weep again pine looked at plum who shook her head and put a hand to her lips signaling pine just to remain quiet a long minute passed before lineberry finally straightened and wiped at his eyes plum gave him a hand towel from a table next to the chair while pine poured him out a glass of water from a pitcher on the table he wiped his face drank the water and sat back in the chair looking about a decade older than he had two minutes before he gripped pine's hand i am so sorry adley so sorry this is all my fault no it's not jack you trusted someone who abused that trust but to be fair i can understand her anger you did leave her for my mother you had two daughters with my mother lionberry passed a hand over his forehead i loved linda with all my heart right up until the moment i met your mother then for me there was no one else i'm not proud of what i did but i'm just telling you the truth if i had controlled my feelings better my mother was obviously attracted to you lionberry shook his head i was quite a bit older i was in a position of influence over her i was a professional who did something stunningly unprofessional i never thought our relationship would result in pregnancy i hated myself for having put her in that situation did tim know asked pine please call him your father he was more of one to you than i ever was okay we sort of skirted around this issue before but did my dad know that you were the father i never told him and the timing of when he and your mother met was close enough that he had every reason to believe that he was the father i don't believe your mother ever told him differently but she loved him lionberry nodded she told me one night he was her age he was handsome and funny and just a good person i could see why she loved him at least now i can but i was hurt devastated really if that was the case why did you break things off with linda why did you go to andersonville because it was your job no because you were my flesh and blood he finished his water and slowly put the glass down and despite what i told you earlier and how i reacted when you just now told me about linda i had suspected that the leak might well be coming from her i knew she was smart and resourceful i knew she might have found out about amanda it made me angry and my suspicions caused me to care even less for her and i needed to get away from her and take amanda and her family with me so i could watch over them but i swear to you that i never knew linda had found out about andersonville pine rose and looked down at him i believe you jack are you going to see the atkinses we are i have no idea if they're still there or not it's been over two decades since that picture was taken i called the police and oliver but i've heard nothing back do you have the address asked lionberry i have the letters that atkins sent edo the envelopes had a return address on them i did a google map search it's remote what will you do if they are still there and mercy is with them i'll cross that bridge when i come to it but if mercy is there and depending on what condition she's in i will find a way to tell her the truth and i will bring her home will you let me know what you find of course i will i hope that that she's alive and well from your lips to god's ears jack said pine before walking out chapter 71 they pulled onto a gravel road and continued down it until the gravel disappeared and the road turned to dirt and then the dirt turned to wild grass and weeds and then some young trees blocked their way this doesn't seem promising said plum pine added looks like the forest is reclaiming its land they got out of the car and threaded their way through this maze finally emerging into an open area next they came upon a rusted mailbox perched on a rotted leaning post pine looked inside but it was empty she examined the faded metal numbers someone had hammered onto the post matches the number address on the letters the atkins sent said pine they cleared a small bend in the path and in front of them was the mobile home trailer that they had seen in the photo it had not aged well one part of the front wall had fallen off exposing ratty filthy insulation the door was off its hinges and a section of the roof had collapsed a large cinder block provided the steps up to the door clearly no one has lived here in a while noted pine she stepped up to the door and looked through the opening she jumped back and her feet hit dirt she pulled her weapon but didn't fire what is it asked an alarmed blum snakes said pine as she slowly backed away copperheads a whole nest of them in there all over the place she holstered her gun well we're not going to search in there not that we'd be able to find much what did atkins do after he came back from the war asked plum as they walked back to the car i couldn't find out much about him or his family we need to check in with the local cops they never did get back to me i wonder why said blum let's go ask them they drove to the county seat in crawfordville and entered the sheriff's office located there they told the woman at the front desk who they were and what they wanted she directed them to an office down the hall where a uniformed man in his thirties sat behind a desk he was short and wide his hair was neatly parted on the side and he was freshly shaved pine again explained who they were and why they were there go ahead and grab a c said the man i'm deputy sheriff tyler wilcox by the way you say you contacted us i left a voicemail and sent an email huh never heard or saw the email but we got some glitches in our system i hear you all are the biggest employer in the county said pine wilcox chuckled we're one of the only employers in the county i'm bored and bred here i love the place but it's not for everybody probably why our population keeps going down he shuffled some papers on his desk and then leaned back in his chair so you want to find this fella leonard atkins yes we went by his last known address but it's obviously been abandoned for a very long time full of snakes now in fact a lot of places like that around here noted wilcox i don't know the name agent pine but i've only been with the sheriff's office for 10 years from what you're saying this goes back a lot further than that yes it does the photo i have is from 1999. she took it from her pocket and passed it over to him he looked it over before passing it back don't recognize them so the husband and his wife and what their daughter becky we think so yes wilcox adopted a cautious look can i ask why the fbi is interested in them i mean is there anything i need to know from a local cops perspective the fbi isn't interested in them i am she added it's a personal matter wilcox glanced at blum and then directed his gaze back at pine well okay look the man you might want to talk to is dick roberts he was the sheriff way back retired now but dick knew pretty much everybody back then is he still around here oh yeah i'll give you his address and then phone him to make sure he's okay with talking to you can you do that now i can see this personal matter is important to you it is very important he wrote an address on a piece of paper slid it across to her and then picked up the phone it rang twice and then wilcox said hey dick it's tyler wilcox how you doing right good good well i ain't had a chance to do much fishing and last time i went only thing i caught was the flu wilcox chuckled at his joke as pine watched him impatiently look i got an agent from the fbi here an athlete pine and her associate they want to talk to you about a family that used to live around here a long time ago yeah leonard atkins and his wife and his daughter right okay that sounds good thanks dick wilcox hung up and looked at pine he'd be glad to see you this is about 10 miles from here put that address in your gps and you'll get there did he say anything else asked pine he said he knew atkins and he'll be glad to talk to you about it well thank you very much for your help always glad to help fellow law enforcement they walked out and blum said what do you think roberts can tell us hopefully everything chapter 72 there could not have been a greater contrast between the atkins's old homestead and dick roberts's place it was a neatly constructed log cabin with window boxes where fall flowers popped out in burgundy and gold the grass was healthy and trimmed and the flower beds were well laid out and meticulously weeded and pine mulched a metal carport next to the cabin housed a new looking cobalt blue ford f-150 pickup truck smoke was coming out of the stone chimney on this chilly day as they pulled up and got out they could hear a dog baying when they walked up the pea gravel drive to the house the front door opened and a large white and tan basset hound found it out continuing its paying a man appeared in the doorway that's rosie he said she sounds all ferocious but give her a second she'll roll over to get her belly rubbed a moment later rosie did just that pine knelt down and performed the rub while rosie wagged her tail and smiled up at her you folks come on in said the man you're dick roberts pine rose and walked toward him as blom and rosie followed in the flesh roberts was in his early 70s around pine's height lean and wiry with silver hair and a mustache of the same color that drooped around the edges of his mouth he had on faded denim jeans old leather boots and a red flannel shirt with the sleeves rolled up to the elbows showing muscled forearms he had the eyes of a cop thought pine observant suspicious expectant they followed him into the house the front room held a fireplace which was glowing warmly and invitingly on the wooden mantle were pictures of people probably family and friends pine surmised the furnishings were old but they were well built and looked comfortable a colorful rug covered part of the plank floor a gun rack with an over under shotgun and a deer rifle hung on one wall there were some pictures and framed photos on the log walls everything appeared neat and clean and well organized to pine's eye she hoped his memory was just as clear you folks want some java just made a fresh pot yes please said plum and pine nodded he got their drinks and they settled into chairs around the fire while rosie plopped down next to robert's feet and promptly fell asleep he gently stroked her head and said you can't train a basset hound no better scent dog in the world in my opinion but that's why you can't train them no matter of obedience lessons can stand against their natural scent instincts well she's very cute said blum we keep each other company said roberts settling back with his coffee is it just you and rosie here then asked blum he nodded his eyes crinkling a bit in sadness my missus died two years ago out of the blue alive one night and dead in the morning i'm very sorry said blum sudden loss like that is impossible to make sense of but you got to go on living said roberts and we had a lot of good years together just not as many as we thought we'd have we raised us a pastel of kids and they're all doing good and they don't live that far away three in atlanta one in macon one over in tennessee i'm sure having them close by is very comforting said blum he nodded and then looked at pine lynn atkins i understand that you know him that's right is he still alive that i don't know he's long since moved from here pine spirits plummeted we went out to where he last lived the trailer now it's just full of snakes didn't know that but i haven't been over there in a long time she showed him the photo he looked it over carefully and nodded yeah that's lennon wanda for sure and the girl don't know her at least i don't think i do you can't see her face in the photo but she's a big girl the name says becky the picture is dated july 1999. you ever hear of a becky he shook his head looking uncertain i'd have to think about that when did the atkins move from here shortly after their son died pine and blum exchanged a stunned look pine said but i understood that atkins couldn't have children because of an injury he sustained in the vietnam war well that's right he did get shot up over there from what i remember i lucked out my lottery number was really high but not old then he had to go over to those damn jungles and fight for who knows what so his son prompted pine lynn and wanda had joe before lynn went to vietnam hell if i remember correctly lynn was only 20 or so i guess he couldn't have any more kids after his injury so when you went to visit lenin wanda was there anyone else living with them not that i ever saw i mean the trailer was real small i'm sure you saw that for yourselves barely room for them and joey when he lived with them did they ever come into town or anything were they ever seen with someone who looks like the girl in the photo asked plum lyndon really come into town he was a rural postal carrier wanda did some sewing and cleaning for ladies and businesses here and there but they kept to themselves i knew lynn but i can't say i really knew him if you understand me i don't think anybody did the war i think messed with him like it did a lot of men and his son joe he lived with him till he got married and joe was young maybe 19. oh that was back in the 80s i guess then he had his own little place not too far from them he worked as a security guard at one of the big manufacturing plants we used to have near here when they actually made stuff in america then after that closed he started selling security systems and gadgets like that for companies and such made a pretty good living from what i understand his brow furrowed his wife was a strange one can't remember her name off the top of my head she was into all sorts of crap voodoo and i guess what you'd call holistic stuff but she had a mean streak how do you mean got called out to the place one time oh this was over 20 years ago if it was a day somebody had reported screams and such well that sick woman had tied down a damn dog and was branding the thing all over poor cuss i cut it loose and it went tearing away barking its head off wrote her up for animal cruelty but that was about all i could do he snapped his fingers desiree that was her name all right desiree atkins anyway i remember her looking at me with these eyes dead eyes i call them nothing behind him chilled me to the bone and i'm no scaredy cat i can tell you that i figured it was because of her condition her condition said pine realization spread over robert's lean features hey maybe that's how you got mixed up mixed up see it was desiree that could never have kids something to do with a woman's issue i know old land and wanda wanted themselves some grand babies but it wasn't to be pine glanced at blum again it seemed both women were jumping ahead to an awful conclusion pine said mr roberts could the girl in the photo becky could she have been maybe adopted by joe and desiree i mean at first i thought she might have been len and wanda's daughter but their ages would have been off to have a daughter that young but joe and desiree would have been the right age i'm thinking if they were married in the 80s well it could be i mean i never heard of them having no kid but they didn't come into town just like lennon wanda didn't but if they had a child surely she would have gone to school said blum roberts shook his head lots of folks homeschool their kids they did back then and they still do today so you're saying if becky did live with them that maybe no one else would know it's certainly possible this is a big county land-wise and there ain't that many people that live in it you could go for miles without seeing another house and with all the forests and such around here the homes are tucked away not easy to get to and not easy to see from any road he eyed pine with interest so where are you going with all this apparently in an unexpected direction you mentioned that joe died that's right how well he was murdered what exclaimed pine if memory serves me correctly this was sometime in the late spring of 2002 fortunately we don't have too many murders around here and the ones we do have tend to stick with you were you the one to investigate it she asked i did me and my senior deputy at the time can you share any details i do my best and what i can't tell you they'll have files of at the sheriff's office he finished his coffee and settled back we got the call in the morning man's body was found near a road by a guy out walking his dogs head bashed in and a knife sticking out of his back it was joe and it was obviously a murder all right and where was desiree damn good question she vanished never did find her now we couldn't prove she did it but i'm assured that as i am of anything why else would she have disappeared like that did you find any evidence prince on the knife signs of a struggle anything back at their house anything to show how he got to where he died no prince on the knife no time marks to show a vehicle hadn't been there he bled out where it was found ground was on hard back then you know how good old georgia clay like concrete we went to the house couldn't find desiree no signs of forced entry no signs of a struggle we checked the closet and while there were some women's clothes in there she might have taken some and we would never know it any vehicles missing asked pine joe's pickup truck it was found abandoned about 10 miles from here we checked it for prints there were two sets in there joe's and desiree's which was to be expected nobody else's were there any signs of a third person living with them so you're really thinking this becky person might have been living with joe and desiree i think it's possible she was in that photo with the atkins a few years before joe died so you think they had what adopted her or something it could be but there'd be paperwork on that i mean there's a legal process to go through point it out roberts not if you do it illegally countered pine roberts stiffened what are we talking about here that they were just dodging the law some or are you saying that this girl was maybe what held against a will i'll be candid with you mr roberts because you've told us a lot we didn't know she proceeded to tell him about ido vincenzo and len atkins being soldiers together the checks that she had seen payable to the atkins and the correspondents and about a girl being abducted by ito and possibly taken to the atkins she didn't tell him that the girl was her twin sister he said slowly so let me just get this all straight you thought this ito character kidnapped this girl to give her to atkins because atkins saved his life in nam only the child didn't end up going to len but to his son in desiree that's right vincenzo might not have known that all the info i found had the checks being made out to len atkins now he might have given the money to a son if joe actually had the girl and was caring for her and the fbi is involved because kidnapping is a federal crime right said pine with a quick glance at blum but this case is really old pointed out roberts i'm working it as a cold case the bureau does that from time to time well i wish i could be of more help no you've been a big help well one more question can i see where joe and desiree lived i suppose so there's a family living there now but i know them i can go over there with you if you want that would be great if it's not too much trouble i don't have anything else to do retirement sounds great till you realize there's not enough stuff to fill up your days and it ranked me not to be able to solve joe's murder it cut his parents up hard right and they left town but you don't know where they moved to no we lost touch over the years well if we need to we should be able to track them down shall we go roberts swiped an atlanta falcons ball cap off the side table and stood peering down at rosie he said okay girl no belly rubs from strangers and hold the fort down chapter 73 on the drive over in pines rental roberts had phoned the couple who now lived in the house and explained what he wanted they had readily agreed to the visit they are pat and hazel simmons he explained they bought the place out of foreclosure got it for a song i heard this was obviously after joe adkins died and desiree disappeared that's a long-haul trucker they've got two kids both in high school so you're friends with them asked blum he nodded we go to the same gun range in church and we both like to hunt and fish and there just ain't that many people who live here so most folks know each other he's a good guy later they pulled up in front of a small house in the woods parked next to it was an enormous kenworth sleeper cab tractor painted bright blue next to the truck was a small red kia crossover and next to that a dodge pickup with a dented front fender the big one's pat's ride nice like a little apartment inside he's on the road a lot but he's obviously home now must be pretty hard for his wife with two teens noted blum oh hazel keeps them in line but they're both boys so you're right she has her hands full pat simmons answered the door and had them come into the small living room it was neat and sparsely furnished a 70-inch sony tv hung on the wall and pine saw a glass-fronted gun cabinet with different models of rifles and shotguns and two handguns inside pat was short and chubby with longish brown hair and he wore a kenworth ball cap his beard was scruffy and his eyes were a dull brown hazel simmons came into the room wiping her hands on a towel she had on black leggings with a long white t-shirt she wore no shoes she asked them if they wanted something to drink but they all declined roberts introduced pine and blum and they sat down so you're interested in the folks that used to live here said pat pine nodded joe and desiree atkins pat looked at roberts yeah i remember that guy got murdered not in the house but out in the woods probably why we got the house so cheap added hazel and it's really not close to anything grocery stores or hospitals both our boys were born in the bedroom they came too quick to get to the hospital that must have been tough said blum i did it twice never do it again said hazel laughing pine said after you moved in did you find anything the atkins might have left behind pat shook his head place was pretty well cleared out bank took the furniture and sold it i guess along with the personal effects there were some parts and pans in the kitchen some old clothes that they probably overlooked do you still have the clothes no they long since got donated or thrown in the trash did you ever see anything to indicate that three people might have lived here including a child the couple looked at each other pat shook his head i didn't but i wasn't around much after we moved in as you can tell from that big ass truck outside i drive for a living pine looked at hazel how about you hazel pursed her lips and rubbed her fingers together i can't think of anything that stuck out and it was a long time ago the place needed a lot of tlc it's only got two bedrooms so the boys have to double up but the previous owners didn't do a lot to keep the place up i can tell you that she suddenly looked up at pine you know i do remember something when we first moved in there were these drawings on a wall in what's now the boy's bedroom pine tensed what sort of drawings they were like you would see a kid do you know stick figures i had forgotten all about them i painted over them do you remember anything else about them hazel mulled over this well i do remember there were different scenes i guess you'd call them you know the stick figures playing or sitting at a table she smiled in one drawing they looked like they were drinking out of cups and there were always two of them stick figures i mean and they had well they had long hair so i guess they were girls i remember that because back then we didn't have kids and i always wanted a girl didn't turn out that way maybe they were having a tea party said pine quietly hazel smiled again that could be sure i used to have tea parties with my sisters and friends when i was little so maybe the little girl stayed in that bedroom it could be by the time we got here like pat said the furniture was gone i guess you could check with the bank but i suppose most of those folks are probably no longer there pine looked out the window are there any other buildings on the grounds other buildings said pat no just the house we don't even have a garage i'm gonna put in a carport but haven't gotten around to it this place wasn't a farm or anything so there's no barn there's the cave said a voice they all looked up to see a tall skinny teenage boy standing in the doorway he had on baggy jeans a nike sweatshirt and an auburn ball cap his long hair hung out from under it hazel said this is our youngest son kyle what cave are you talking about son it's about a half mile from here in the woods it's cut into a little knoll he eyed pine trey that's my brother and me found it when we were little we used to play ford and keep some of our stuff there you know like a hideout we would even sneak out and sleep in there hazel said in a scolding tone kyle james simmons sleeping in a cave that's not safe it could have fallen in on you and your brother or a bear could have been in there no bear could have gotten in there why because it had a really thick door with a lock on it me and trey thought maybe it was an old mine or something i mean there was stuff in there pine said quickly if it had a lock how did you get in the padlock was on the ground it was all busted and rusted but the door was shut when we opened it it smelled all musty and stuff and you said there were things in it oh yeah can you take us there kyle looked at his mom who nodded and said just be careful i got a couple flashlights said pat can i come along too pine was already out of the room and didn't answer blum looked at him absolutely chapter 74 kyle led the way to the cave it seemed to pine like 10 miles instead of a fraction of that she could feel her heart racing and she felt lightheaded calm the hell down atlee it won't help mercy if you drop dead from a stroke right now they had to pull at some vines and pushed through some bushes that had grown up on the path they were heading along kyle explained we haven't come back in a long time guess it kind of grew over forcing their way through some more underbrush they finally reached an old wooden door set into a small hill with ivy growing up all around it there was an open and rusted padlock hanging from the clasp kyle said when we found this place the door was busted open we fixed it up got a new padlock pat simmons looked it over i can't believe this all the time we've been here and we never knew about this he eyed his son why didn't you tell us he shrugged it was me and trey's special place pops then when we stopped using it we just sort of forgot about it i guess pine impatiently pushed past them and thrust the door open she turned on her light and entered the others followed as pat simmons used one of his flashlights to help illuminate the way and handed one to roberts who did the same the space was small maybe ten by ten as pine ran her light over the room she saw many things an old table some rickety chairs boards on cement blocks for shelves some empty glass jars a cracked baseball bat a routed sweatshirt and some old tennis shoes the floor was made up of sections of plywood that must have been laid right on the dirt because they were dark with rot there was the sickly sweet smell of old vegetation and exposed red clay the walls were the rock and dirt of the hill pine's light hit near the back of the room and she froze it was a small cot though there were no covers on it and the exposed mattress was old and rotted she turned to kyle did you and your brother bring the furniture out here and the bed nope that was already here and those makeshift shelves we found old cans of food and some water bottles we use them for target practice with our 22s pine moved around the space examining every inch she stopped and bent down near the bed her light hit on a chain that was coiled up under the bed one end had an open clasp that could be locked with a key the other end of the chain had been sunk so deeply into the rock wall that pine could not pull it free plum came to stand next to her and eyed at the chain my god she said quietly kyle joined them yeah that was here too we thought maybe they kept a dog or some other animal in here roberts came to stand on the other side of pine and said quietly or maybe the girl becky pine didn't answer because her light had fallen on something else it was hanging from a nail driven into the rock she walked haltingly over to it sally it's been over 30 years since i've seen you pine picked the doll up and gazed down at it this was mercy's doll it was a twin of the one pine had owned as a child her mother had been looking for it after mercy had disappeared at least someone who had known her parents in andersonville georgia had told her that her mother had never mentioned it pine looked down at the large soft eyes of the doll whose name was sally pine had named her doll skeeter after the character in the muppet babies tv series she had tried to get mercy to name her scooter because that had been the twin on the tv show but mercy wouldn't hear of it because scooter was a boy pine's features crinkled at the memory but then she felt like sobbing kyle said yeah that was kind of creepy we thought about getting rid of it but neither one of us wanted to touch it it was pretty old and ratty robert said you think that belonged to the girl pine nodded but said nothing pat simmons who had overheard this exclaimed wait a minute are you saying those people kept a little girl out here what like chained up and that's exactly what we think happened here said blum watching pine closely pine turned and looked at roberts i'll take you up on the offer to get the file on joe atkins's murder and anything you have on desiree atkins okay it won't be much i'm afraid it will be more than i have now how big were joe and desiree not big joe was about five seven 150 pounds wet desiree was a petite thing five feet ninety pounds maybe pine nodded okay does the sheriff's office have a forensics tech oh yeah i'd like prince and dna samples taken from here we can take samples from kyle and his brother for elimination purposes do you have samples of the girl's dna said roberts pine thought yes i do because it's the same as mine she nodded and any prince found here i'd like to match against joe and desiree if you have those on file we have joe's for sure i don't know about desiree's okay they left the cave with pine reluctantly leaving mercy's doll behind because this was a crime scene now but then she stopped and turned back to the door you said joe atkins was in the security business roberts nodded yeah he'd put together alarm packages whatever you needed most folks around here don't even lock the doors but most of his clients were businesses so he'd put in surveillance cameras and he broke off when pine rushed back to the door and started ripping at the iv that had grown up on the rock wall and around the door agent pine said blum pine said help me pull down this ivy they all joined her and in short order had ripped enough of it away to reveal a small decrepit surveillance camera mounted onto the rock wall and pointed at the door with a cable snaking down the face of the wall and into the ground damn said roberts he had this place under surveillance pine eyed the cable and this was before everything went wireless i think that cable may run all the way to the house well let's find out said pat pines sprinted back to the house and the others followed chapter 75 they reached the house and searched the exterior all over for the other end of the cable kyle spotted it behind an overgrown bush the others quickly joined him pine looked at the spot where the cable entered the house what room is that kyle said that's me and trey's bedroom i wonder if atkins used that as a home office when he was here said blum she added in a disgusted tone since they only needed the one bedroom apparently once the girl got too big to keep in that room they rushed inside and kyle led the way to the bedroom it looked like the bedroom of a typical teenager meaning there was junk piled everywhere and there was a giant flat screen tv set on a table with xbox controllers set in front of it where is your brother asked pine he works at a 7-eleven she surveyed the room eyeing the beds on either side there were two windows in the room and one faced the rear yard if i'm atkins i think i'd want to be constantly looking in the direction of that jail cell because let's just call it what it is robert stepped forward okay desk about here he said and if he was using cable back then i bet he was also using a vcr with a video tape blum said you would think that if whoever the bank used to clean out the house had found a tape they would have looked at it or turned it in maybe it was in a place they couldn't see said pine staring at the floor that carpet was it here when you bought the house hazel simmons had joined them and answered no it was hardwood floors made the room too cold pat added there's no concrete slab under the house it's on raised footers with a crawl space under it okay if the desk was there then we have two options she glanced at the simmonses can we take the carpet up and look under it pat said hell yes i'll help you they worked on both corners simultaneously pat got his section up first and was examining the flooring kyle reached down and started feeling around each of the boards hey one's loose here they rushed over and with everyone helping they soon worked for a section of the hardwood flooring what was revealed set inside a wooden cubby was a sony vcr kyle reached down and pulled it out wow never actually held one of these before blum said look the cable is still attached pat pulled the cable free and said we can hook this up to the boys tv over there it has the connections in the back i'll do it offered kyle he carried the vcr over to the table the tv was on and started working away within a minute he had it all connected he turned the power on and hit the eject button oh my god said blum a tape is still in there it has to be the last one that he put in there before he was killed let's hope it's still good said pine that cubby it was in looks well insulated said pat we don't have the remote said kyle but looks like i can work it from the vcr he turned the tv on rewound the tape to the beginning and hit the play button they all stood there and watched pine felt herself getting light-headed and realized it was because she was holding her breath and then there was the door to the cave minutes went by and nothing happened then that's joe adkins said roberts joe atkins wearing jeans and a flannel shirt with a baseball cap on his head appeared he held a shotgun then next to him appeared a small woman with long dark hair and a brooding expression she was carrying a tray of what looked to be food and that's desiree said roberts plum noted the date and time stamp that appeared at the bottom of the frame may 31st 2002 she read robert said that's right joe's body was found the very next day joe pounded on the door and called out get away from the door becky food's here joe waited and then unlocked the door he stepped back readied the gun and nodded at his wife she cautiously opened the door and placed the tray on the floor and used her foot to slide it in then she slammed the door shut joe got the padlock back on just before something hit the door with a tremendous blow it made joe and desiree jump back joe fell on his ass and dropped the gun from inside the cave they could hear peels of laughter joe scrambled it to his feet and picked up his shotgun you cut that out becky you do that next time desiree gonna add another mark to your hide you got that the laughter died away that's right rebecca said desiree in a subdued tone as though she were on some sedative we don't want that do we mark's on your head there was no response from behind the door pine thought she might be sick plum put an arm around her shoulders and whispered agent pine i am so sorry roberts looked at the pair curiously hey said kyle whose gaze was still riveted on the tv screen dude forgot to close the padlock pine said you're right can you fast forward this yeah he hit a button and the video leapt forward pine watched the frames like she had never watched anything else before stop she said kyle immediately hit the play button and the frame speed returned to normal the door had just been hit by another blow and then another even more powerful one why is she doing that asked pat she must know the padlocks on there pine said stop the tape for a sec kyle did so and pine looked at pat simmons she knows he didn't close the padlock but how said pat because she'd been in that hell hole for years and she knew every sound and she didn't hear that sound that night blum said do you think that's why she didn't jump out at them when the door opened she waited until he was putting the lock back on but before he actually locked it she hit the door to distract him i think that's exactly what she did said pine and with that statement she felt an immense sense of pride in both her sister's patience and her cunning all those years a prisoner and she had remained vigilant just waiting for an opportunity turn it back on kyle kyle did so and they watched as three more blows hit the door then the fourth one was the charm the open padlock flew free of the clasp and the doors swung open and there there just like that was mercy pine tall lean strong filthy dressed in rags and looking quite pine had to admit it to herself she looks not in her right mind and who the hell could blame her pine's hand shot out and hit the pause button freezing mercy's image she was staring right at the camera pine thought she must have known where it was located she took in every atom of her twin's appearance trying to wind it all back to when they were six and then carrying it forward once more to this person robert said is that the person you're looking for agent pine pine didn't answer him right away her gaze kept searching the eyes the nose the forehead the body was of no help it had changed too much but then she leaned forward and gazed closely at something it was the freckle on the nose as a child mercy had told her twin that god had done that because she had come out first and their mother needed a way to tell them apart fine straightened and nodded yes it's her i never thought i would be able to say those words ever again her head was filled with so many thoughts some happy some insanely sad some that were threatening to tear her apart in desperation she hit the play button mercy came to life looked around and then dashed off to the right heading toward the house and out of the camera's view the tape kept running and they all jumped when they heard the shot then screams then another gunshot then more screams they couldn't make out who was screaming and they had no way to know who was shooting although pine assumed it might be joe atkins then things grew silent and the tape continued to run but the only image on it was the busted door pine finally reached over turned off the vcr ejected the tape and picked it up blum looked at her lips trembling at least at least she escaped pine wouldn't look at any of them she said yeah and then walked out as she headed back to their car pine slowed so blum could catch up to her roberts was on the front stoop thanking the simonses for all their help that must have been terrible for you to see agent pine i've been waiting almost my whole life to see mercy and she's alive at least she was in 2002. yes absolutely that is a huge positive pine stopped walking robert said that people reported hearing screams and he found desiree branding a dog right said blum but dogs don't scream carol you you mean that's what joe meant when he threatened mercy desiree would make marks on her hide again they used the dog to cover that up when roberts got there those evil evil people and joe atkins was murdered and desiree atkins vanished blum stopped walking wait a minute what are you saying seeing her in the photo and now in the video mercy is taller than me and weighed maybe 160 pounds and none of it was fat she looked lean and rock hard the atkins were small she was bigger than both of them agent pine you can't mean i mean carol that it's possible that my sister escaped they tried to stop her we all heard the screams and gunshots and she killed them but where is desiree's body if she was killed who knows if she buried her it could be anywhere after all these years there wouldn't be much left but why bury desiree and not joe she might not have had the opportunity that is all speculation i agree but if it's not that then it's something equally improbable they started walking again blum said well if she did kill them she had every right i mean that was her home a cave for all those years the abuse the horror i can't even imagine i can't even contemplate ariel castro in cleveland jc duggard elizabeth smart out in utah there have been lots of others i just never thought my sister would be one of them but why would they do that they were given a child because they couldn't have one of their own why turn her into into a prisoner mercy was old enough to know who she was and where she belonged she might have resisted tried to run away they got scared that if she told the cops they could get in trouble and desiree voodoo atkins who brands helpless dogs doesn't sound like your normal nurturing type as the years went by and mercy became an adult they had to take more drastic measures like that jail cell back there and they knew if she ever got away they were going to prison for a very long time do you think leonard atkins knew they were in a photo with her they could see how she looked the wounds on her the fact that she wouldn't even look at the camera yeah they knew and they didn't do a damn thing about it and when their son was killed and desiree went missing they probably thought desiree killed joe and vanished with mercy or else mercy had killed them both and made a run for it either way they wanted nothing to do with that they ran away instead disgusting said blum just disgusting after what they did they don't deserve to be called human beings they drove roberts back to his house i'll call the sheriff and tell him said roberts and i'll let him know you'll be by for the file thanks mr roberts agent pine yes this isn't just a cold case for you is it why do you say that i was a cop a long time still got the nose for it i saw how you were looking at that doll for one thing like you'd seen it before and then with the video well it just seemed personal to you pine side she's my sister mr roberts she was kidnapped from her bed when we were little and she's been missing for over 30 years now he nodded his expression one of sorrow i thought i recognized your name i remember the case because we got a bolo on her mercy pine right yes i'm sorry thank you but it seems like you've learned a lot here i have now i just have to find her you know she might be i do mr roberts maybe better than anyone but i can't let it go i have to know either way i wish you luck then i really do nobody deserves what we just saw especially not a little girl no said pine they don't chapter 76 the coldest of cases pine had the file on joe atkins's murder and the disappearance of his wife spread out on the bed in her motel room the unofficial conclusion by the local cops was that desiree had killed her husband and fled they had no idea that another person was living with them so that person was never a suspect not just a suspect my sister she had seen mercy on the video she was sure of that but she now had another piece of evidence leaving no doubt dna could live a long time on certain surfaces and there were many things in that cave that pine had never touched that had come back as confirmed to be consistent with her dna not mine of course but mercy's the file did not have much in it the autopsy on atkins showed that he had died from a knife wound that had severed his aorta he had bled out but he also had severe blunt force trauma to his head the trauma had clearly been done before he died beaten and then stabbed the chain in the cave broken the door busted mercy escaped captured on that video for all time and maybe during that escape she had exacted her revenge on her captors she knew where joe atkins was six feet under but where was desiree where had leonard and wanda atkins gone were they still alive should she try to find them deputy sheriff wilcox had listened patiently to pine speculation and information he had provided her copies of the case file he had looked at the video he had even gone out to the cave to see it for himself he had been intrigued by the possibility of another person present at the scene he had been surprised that that person was pine's twin but he seemed to have no desire to pursue an investigation into the matter and neither he told pine did his boss the sheriff wilcox had said we're really not equipped to handle cold cases and from what she said seems to me that this joe atkins fella got what was coming to him now she went outside where it was starting to rain she drove to the one restaurant in the area one inside and ordered a coffee the rain picked up and she gazed out the window as it poured down she sipped her drink and saw in the rain nothing positive not one damn thing on the one hand she had made tremendous strides in tracking down what had happened to her sister mercy had been abducted by ido vincenzo and given to the atkins's and then len atkins had passed her off to joe and desiree atkins at some point pine didn't know exactly when mercy had gone from the room in the house to a locked cave as pine sat there her mind wandered deeper and deeper into terrifying thoughts instead of finding her sister alive and well or at least being able to locate and identify her remains she now had to contemplate the possibility that her sister had killed one and maybe two people and was out there somewhere doing god knew what pine knew that after her years of brutalization at the hands of the atkinses there was little possibility that she would even be able to recognize her sister either physically or emotionally she closed her eyes and the image of her sister in that video returned to haunt her pinette had her sister with her every day of her life for six plus years and then for thirty years nothing until now and she could not reconcile the woman on that video with the little girly girl who loved her tea parties and stood up for her little sister whenever pine had gotten in trouble i just want to find her i want to help her i want her to have the life she should have had her ringing phone was a grateful distraction she didn't recognize the number but she answered it anyway hello hey agent pine this is darren castor from trenton you talked to me about when i worked for ido vincenzo yes mr castor what can i do for you well you said to call your back if i remembered anything and i do see i got my dates wrong pine stiffened excuse me the date's wrong i told you that i started working for the auto body place in 2001. yes well i was wrong i started working there in 2002 not 2001. it was during the first week of june should have known it wasn't 2001. i mean three months later 911 happened you're sure yep i checked my pay stubs and some other records i'd kept around you said the summer do you have a specific date that would be really helpful i do as a matter of fact the day he didn't show up was june 1st i remember that because my wife's birthday is the 2nd of june birthday well hope that helps said caster what oh yes thank you very much mr castor it was a big help she clicked off and stared down at the phone a terrible thought a truly bizarre piece of speculation was making the rounds in her head like a bullet carrying around she called blum we need to go see jack lineberry right now chapter 77 pine drove fast and mostly in silence she had not explained to blum why they needed to see lionberry she could not bring herself to even say out loud what she was thinking if it turned out to be true it would be horrendous yet nothing will surprise me anymore she had called ahead and they were let in at the gate after identifying themselves they drove up to the house and were surprised to be met by lineberry at the front door he was using a walker but ambling around pretty well you've made progress said blum i feel much better said lionberry i was just about to have some lunch if you'd like to join me before pine could say anything blum said well i'm hungry they went to a glass enclosed conservatory with views of the rear grounds where the construction crew was now framing the cottage they were finishing the fourth wall and would probably start putting up the roof joists after that i hope to never have another explosion at my house said lionberry as he also looked out at the crew working away lunch was served by a maid in uniform and was delicious though pine hardly touched hers something noted by both blum and lineberry when lionberry gave blum a questioning glance she shrugged they finished their lunch and made their way to the library where they had coffee in front of a crackling fire a light rain had started to fall and it was chilly outside the warmth from the flames felt good have you found out any more information said lionberry you were going to toler pine said we found out a lot and none of it is good or pleasant to hear lionberry looked stricken at her blunt words blum glanced at pine in surprise my god mercy she's not no she's not dead at least that we know what then she was held prisoner by a family in toliver not the atkinses i mentioned to you but his son and daughter-in-law lionberry leaned forward and put down his cup of coffee he looked pale and distraught did you say held prisoner yes in a locked cave that i wouldn't let a dog live in it was filthy terrible appalling agent pine said blum in a remonstrative tone jack is still not well didn't appear to hear her she was living like an animal jack no one to help her no one to save her so she ended up saving herself how how do you mean i mean she broke out of her chains busted down the door of her prison and tried to flee tried to flee this is obviously speculation on my part but i think that as she was escaping joe atkins caught up with her maybe he was going to try to bring her back maybe he was going to kill her pine was squeezing the wooden arm of her chair so tightly that her knuckles were red and her limbs were shaking blum observed this and said agent pine are you all right again pine did not seem to hear her she kept her gaze on lineberry but mercy turned the tables she went after him i can only imagine all the years of pent-up hatred she rightly had for him and what that couple had done to her she beat him up struck him so hard he had blunt force trauma to his head she was big taller than me and she was strong she would be a force to be reckoned with even if her strength hadn't been turbocharged by her emotions joe atkins was a small man she quickly overpowered him took his knife and lionberry was leaning so far out of his chair that he was in danger of toppling out of it and what he said in a hushed voice suffused with an underlying terror i think she stabbed him in the back severed his aorta and killed him finished pine lineberry fell back in his chair and started breathing heavily plum grabbed a glass off the sideboard poured out water from a pitcher and hurriedly carried it over to lineberry he drank half of it down and handed it back to her thanking her with a look though his features were still full of horror blum gave pine an annoyed glance and sat back down pine continued i have no idea what happened to the wife desiree she has been described to us as weird and she has been observed to be violent toward animals i have no doubt she was cruel to a staggering degree with mercy she branded her jack like she was an animal oh my god bellowed lineberry agent pine exclaimed blum she might have killed desiree too or the saw the predicament she was in and just fled on her own she would have gone to prison for her crimes against mercy lionberry covered his face with his hands and muttered my god my god yes my god parroted pine in a fierce voice lionberry uncovered his face and stared at her realization spreading across his features is there something else something you haven't told me yes jack there is a definite something there was a bite to the woman's words that made blum glance sharply at her pines said i got a call from a man who used to work for ido vincenzo he had given me dates for when vincenzo had gone missing he went back and looked at some old pay stubs he'd kept and gave it some more thought and it turns out he was off by about a year ito didn't disappear in 2001 he vanished in 2002 and caster was able to give me the exact day that edo didn't show up for work she paused here and studied lineberry who stared dully back at her but there was something in the eyes that heralded the man had a premonition about where this might be going turns out continued pine that castor remembered because his wife's birthday is the day after ito didn't show up at the store she paused again june 2nd blum exclaimed but that's your birthday too pine kept her gaze on lineberry that's right and on june 2nd 2002 on my birthday my father took his own life at his apartment in virginia not in louisiana like my mother told me and you were there conveniently and you identified the body for the police lineberry started to gum his lips like an elderly gent with no teeth might do pine leaned forward in her chair so that her face was maybe a foot from his i want the truth jack and i want it now she barked as though he were a snowman melting under a scorching sun lineberry collapsed against the upholster chair and slumped down he covered his face with his hands once more but pine pulled them away now jack lineberry sat up straighter glanced at blum and then stared directly at pine i didn't know the man who tried to kill your father that day was ido vincenzo that i swear and i still have no proof it was wait a minute said blum sharply what man who tried to kill him i thought tim pine killed himself pine said that's what i was always told by my mother and by you jack and you lied to me just like she did what are you saying agent pine said blum you can't mean i mean that ido came to kill my father and probably my mother not knowing that they were separated but my dad killed edo instead and jack was there not by coincidence but by plan and he identified my father as the dead man and with a probable suicide and a positive id by a close friend and later the man's ex-wife there would be a limited investigation pine stopped speaking and seemed to marshal herself so now i know what happened to edo now i want to know where my father is is he with my mother she abandoned me while i was in college to go to him right he supposedly died on june 2nd i went back to college in july of that same year because i was competing in weightlifting when i got back in august my mother was gone and all she left was a note saying basically nothing she paused struggling mightily to retain her composure their divorce was a sham wasn't it they always planned on ending up together and leaving me pine had slowly stood and her voice had risen along with her isn't that the truth jack lionberry looked up at her with a helpless expression he said the divorce was a sham but they separated to keep you safe it's not atlee it's the truth how would you know anything about the truth i will tell you what you want to know if you will just listen to me please agent pine it's for the best you need information added blum pine slowly resumed her seat and waited expectantly but every one of her limbs was still quivering with anger i didn't know where you and your family had gone when you all left andersonville we were frantic we looked but it was like you all had disappeared into a dark hole and back then there wasn't the internet or smartphones where everybody was taking photos and video of everyone else people really could vanish and then said pine and then many years later i got a frantic call out of the blue from your father how could he reach you i had given your parents a special number it was one that i maintained all those years just in the hopes that anyway he told me he was in virginia and that a man had tried to kill him only he had killed the man instead a shotgun blast to the head if he was living in an apartment building how come no one there heard it said pine because he wasn't living in an apartment building so that was another time you lied to me lionberry hurried on i flew there right away the man's face was missing i didn't know who it was and tim said he didn't either how could he not recognize ido vincenzo interjected pine he had fought the guy in andersonville over a decade before hadley and people do change anyway tim told me he didn't recognize him and i certainly couldn't have with the damage to his face we hatched a plan that would substitute tim for ito if it really was him that way the world would think tim was dead so ido vincenzo is buried in my father's grave and my mother pine added in a trembling voice lineberry broke off eye contact she understood what was at stake she played along that allowed your father and her to safely disappear and then she joined him a couple months later said pine bitterly and left me by myself they thought it best they thought you would be better off i swear she left you money to finish college and pine barked where are they now i don't know jack i don't know he said sharply that was by design people kept tracking them down there had to be a leak at that point no one was above suspicion not even me it was thought best that no one knew where they were going i haven't seen them since then no contact at all none and i'm supposed to believe that considering how often you lied to me i can't make you trust me atlee and i haven't earned that trust anyway but i also didn't have to tell you what i just did so why did you because you deserved it you've earned it and i'm tired of not telling you what you need to know his words didn't mollify her but she sat back and tapped her fingers on the wood of the chair she stared off for so long that she had almost forgotten that bloom and lineberry were still in the room why did they need to keep running and hiding asked plum it's been what 30 years now is there anyone around who would still be after them or even care lineberry shook his head i don't know carol the mafia has a long memory but they've been on the run and off the grid for so long now it's probably all they know anymore but they left me as a sitting duck pointed out pine ido took my sister and nearly killed me so my parents run off and leave me to face the people coming after them i think they believed you were effectively off the radar by the time you were an adult said lionberry ito found us who's to say someone else couldn't she countered it wasn't like they had changed my name i was still at lee pine how many of those are there i don't have a good answer for that i really don't and you could have found me if you had really wanted to i have my own wikipedia page someone set up when i was competing for the olympics i became an fbi agent my name appeared in the news from time to time lionberry wouldn't meet her eye aye i guess by then i had just stopped looking and your father didn't tell me where you and your mother were when i went to help him sure he didn't ignorance is bliss right dad what what will you do now asked lineberry who was looking paler by the minute before answering pines stood she looked down at the fragile lineberry i came here to find my sister i'm a lot closer than i was and now i'm going to do all i can to bring her home even if you won't what are you saying i want that too she's your sister but she's also my daughter said lionberry oh really she snarled her face contorted infury you don't give a about either one of us badly of course i do he said stunned by her reaction how could you say that pine closed her eyes and when she reopened them she stared out the window at the cottage something seemed to occur to her and she turned and stormed out where is she going said lionberry blum said nothing a minute later they both saw pine on the rear grounds marching resolutely toward the cottage chapter 78 the rain was starting to fall more heavily as pine near the cottage construction site there were five men framing away two on ladders and three on the ground she stopped in front of the cottage and called out all of you leave now the men glanced curiously at her but continued to work pine pulled out her gun and her fbi shield and called out fbi everybody leave now now the men all stopped what they were doing and looked at her and then glanced at each other nervously pine knew they probably thought she was unhinged and maybe i am a large man in a construction hat gingerly headed over to pine ma'am we got a job pine pointed her gun at the sky and fired two shots now she screamed some men scrambled down ladders others on the ground grabbed lunch coolers and coats and they all hustled from the area looking back at her with panicked gazes pine watched as they exited the rear gate jumped into their trucks and cars and sped off pine lifted her pants leg and took out her beretta backup gun she laid both guns on a wooden table slipped off her jacket placed it on the table and placed a waterproof tarp over them as the rain started to pick up even more she stepped inside the shell of the cottage and looked at the wooden framing she knew exactly why she was here he took something from me the truth my truth and now i'm going to take something from him she spied a sledgehammer picked it up studied the configuration of the framing and then lashed out and hit a king stud near the front doorway the wood splintered she hit it again and the double boards broke free she next took out the crippled studs underneath the window adjacent to the doorway and smashed out the sill plate when she broke out a stud next to that a portion of the framed panel gave way pine next took out a whole row of studs she kept striking away at the wood until the entire wall broke loose and fell outward landing in the grass pine wielded the hammer like a baseball bat as she attacked another section where the walls intersected she swung away and splintered wood and ripped out nails that flew everywhere the entire panel finally came crashing down but with her last swing the hammers wouldn't handle splintered and then broke in half the rain was pouring down now as the heavens completely opened up flipping her hair out of her eyes pine her chest heaving with her exertions approached the third section of wall sized it up and used a whip kick to crack a board on the lower section then she aimed higher and kicked one short board clear from the framing nails used to hold it in place the metal of the nails looked like dead gray worms stuck in the wood that remained she kicked at another board and then used an elbow strike on a sill plate to break it in half a chop on another board took out a section of wall along with the window frame that it held she tore out other parts of the framing using a series of kicks and hand and elbow strikes the wall panel uncoupled from the one next to it was swaying now and pine repeatedly kicked at it as the rain streamed down and the wind held her breaths were coming in gasps now she then pushed and pushed and tugged and kicked and with a scream of intensity she finally managed to topple the wall she turned to the last section standing and faced it like it was every nightmare she had ever endured and she had more than most before she attacked it pine turned around and stared up at the house where lionberry and blum were watching her inside the room lionberry moaned i have to stop her she'll hurt herself blum firmly clenched his arm you will not stop her she said sternly she's your daughter jack lineberry and she needs to do this and you are going to stand here and watch while she does every muscle pine had was twitching uncontrollably like she was an addict going through withdrawal she could barely see for the rain and she had to keep pushing her hair out of her face in exasperation she looked around and spied a soaked cloth on the floor and used that to tie her hair back she charged the last wall and slammed her shoulder into it as the only wall remaining it didn't have the support and thus the strength of the other three walls but it also was not going down that easily for the next full minute pine kicked and punched and pulled and tugged but she was far weaker now so exhausted that her strikes were feeble you are not going to beat me she sat on her haunches eyeing the wall like it had been the cause of every tragedy in her entire life pine couldn't even catch her breath anymore and her limbs were shaking so badly she couldn't kick or punch if she wanted to in desperation she looked around and her gaze finally alighted on what she needed she staggered over and gripped the handles of the portable cement mixer it was heavy duty and set on a pair of rubber wheels she hoisted it by the handles pointed it directly at the wall and pushed off slipping and sliding on the slicken floor but gaining traction and speed as she went the cement mixer hit the middle of the wall and drove right through it taking pine with it they both sprawled outside pineland face first on the ground and turned over in time to see the wall implode and tumble down her mission complete she rose up on all fours and vomited then she collapsed to the wet grass and lay there for a few moments she rolled over stared up at the dark sky and let the rain cover her like dirt in a grave she slowly rose sucking in deep breath after deep breath she picked up her guns and put them back in their holsters she put her jacket back on over her soaked clothes she walked away without once looking back at the main house she staggered out the rear gate and headed to the front she spat out bits of vomit and rain water as she walked she pulled off the cloth tie around her hair and it fell once more in her face she knew she looked like a deranged walking nightmare and she didn't give a crap when she approached her rental car she stopped and stared plum was in the driver's seat with the engine running and watching her expectantly pine started walking again and opened the passenger door she gripped the top of the car roof and leaned forward into the opening the crown of her head pointed at plum who just sat there and said nothing her belly heaving her lungs gasping pine held onto the car's metal roof like it was her last tether to earth she took one last deep shuddering breath and her tensed body relaxed she lifted her head and looked at plum are you ready to go agent pine pine stripped off her soaked jacket and hurled it into the back seat without a word she climbed in shut the door and clicked her harness into place blum put the car in gear and they left that place behind and moved onward which was the only place left for them to go this has been a audio production of daylight written by david baldacci read by brittany presley and keith brewer produced by lisa khan recorded by jen patton post production by john calucci daylight is also available in print and digital formats from grand central publishing a division of hachette book group for more hachette audio productions visit us at hachetteaudio.com thank you for listening text copyright 2020 by columbus rose limited audio production copyright 2020 hachette audio all rights reserved hachette book group supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright the purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture the duplicating uploading and distribution of this audiobook without permission is a theft of the author's intellectual property if you would like permission to use material from the audiobook other than for review purposes please contact permissions at hbgusa.com thank you for your support of the author's rights this audiobook is a work of fiction names characters places and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead events or locales is entirely coincidental [Music] audible hopes you have enjoyed this program program program program program program program program program program program program program program program program program program program program program program program program program program program program program program 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Length: 356min 53sec (21413 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 25 2021