1st Case - James Patterson Page 0,63

and running out of words, which was unusual for anyone in my family.

“I love you, Mom,” I said. “Please tell Dad and the girls that I love them, too.”

There was no easy good-bye. No good way to finish that call. So I told her I was going to hang up, and then handed the phone to Keats to do it for me. I just couldn’t. Not with my own mother still crying on the other end.

Billy seemed to understand. “I’m sorry about that,” he said. “The work is goddamn heartless sometimes. But I promise you, this is for the best.”

“I know,” I said, and I did, but it was still overwhelming. I felt horrible for what I was putting my family through, on top of everything else.

Billy opened the van’s sliding door for me so I could get in the back. I assumed the woman in the driver’s seat was my assigned agent, Lisa Konrad Palumbo, but there were no introductions. I wasn’t even sure what to call her.

“I’ll check in with you tomorrow,” Billy said. “Try to get some sleep.”

My mind was flying. All I had was more questions. What about Justin Nicholson? Who was going to look in on him at the hospital? And George’s family—what about them? Would they be taken care of?

Most of all, though, I was thinking about Eve. What was the investigative plan there? How much in the loop would Billy be able to keep me? And what came next?

I couldn’t afford to ask any of it. The more I said, the more information I’d be passing to whoever might be listening through that Android in my pocket. Chances were I’d have to come clean, maybe sooner than later, since there was no real hiding from them anymore. But until I could think through this more clearly, my default remained the same: Keep Eve alive.

“I’ll talk to you soon,” Keats told me. When I didn’t answer, he gave me a tight smile. Then he slid the panel door closed and banged on it twice from the outside. Agent Konrad Palumbo hit the gas, the van lurched, and we took off into the night, heading for “somewhere safe.”

Whatever that meant anymore.

CHAPTER 69

WHEN I THINK safe house, I think about remote cabins in the woods and unassuming little places tucked deep in the suburbs. But that’s probably because I’ve seen too many movies and bad TV shows.

In fact, Agent Konrad Palumbo took me to the last place I expected.

As we pulled into the sally port behind the federal building where I worked, I thought maybe we were stopping to change vehicles.

But no.

“Here we are,” Konrad Palumbo told me.

“You’ve got to be kidding,” I said, even though she obviously wasn’t.

In fact, this was good news. I still hadn’t worked out what to do about the de facto tracking device in my pocket and whoever was now following my every move. But if there was one place they couldn’t physically get to me, it was going to be here.

Once the inner garage door had closed behind us, we got out of the van and onto a freight elevator. Konrad Palumbo took us up to the sixth floor, one story above my own office and the CART.

“So, Agent Konrad Palumbo,” I said on the way up. “Is there—”

“Call me Lisa,” she said with a reassuring smile. I didn’t think she knew about my specific circumstances, but I appreciated that she was trying to make this as easy for me as possible.

“Lisa,” I said. “Can you tell me anything about what’s about to happen here?”

“I’ll do better than that,” she said. “I’ll show you.”

The elevator doors had just slid open and she gestured for me to go ahead of her.

It was coming up on 2:00 a.m. by now, but the checkpoint just off the elevator was staffed with two uniformed guards. It was exactly like the station I passed going to work every day on the fifth floor, usually with a flash of my ID. This time, though, we had to empty our pockets, walk through the metal detector, and get a hand scan and a pat-down from one of the guards.

Immediately, my pulse ticked up. I knew I didn’t have a choice about the phone. I’d have to take it out of my pocket, but I also couldn’t afford to tip my hand here. Was this the end of the charade, before it had barely begun?

I waited for Agent Konrad Palumbo—Lisa—to go through first. When she wasn’t looking, I