phone into a pocket of her jeans and the pistol into an ankle holster. Then she closed the trunk, walked back to the house, and started up the stairs.
“Just a minute,” a male voice said. She turned to find one of her companions, whose name was Earl, standing there. “Colonel’s orders: I’m to have a look in your suitcase.”
She handed the case over the rail and stood on the stairs while he placed it on a table, opened it, and searched it thoroughly. He closed it and returned it to her. “Thanks.”
“Anytime,” she said, and continued to her room. Once inside, she duct-taped the pistol to the bottom of a desk drawer and retrieved her burner phone, sat down on the bed, and turned it on. It took a moment to boot up.
“Shit!” she said aloud. “No bars.” There was no cell service in this room; she’d have to try others. She tucked the instrument into her pocket, put away her clothes, then walked downstairs. The house was empty except for Elroy, who was working in the kitchen. She got a look at the phone in each room, and there were no bars showing in any of them.
She went back to the kitchen. “Where is everybody, Elroy?” she asked.
“They left with the colonel,” Elroy said. “Maybe gone to D.C.”
“All of them?”
“All the ones here at breakfast. I don’t know who’s in the bunkhouse.”
She left the house through the kitchen door and walked through the breezeway to the bunkhouse, which was empty, then she went back to the kitchen. “Elroy,” she said, “I’m going to take a little hike up the hill over there.” She jerked a thumb toward the hill where Eugene had been practicing his marksmanship. “Anybody asks, that’s where I can be found.”
“Okay,” Elroy said.
“Can you make me a sandwich, please?”
“Sure,” Elroy said, and began busying himself making and toasting the sandwich.
Bess pulled up a chair to the kitchen table. “I hear you’re an ex-Navy man,” she said.
“That’s right,” he replied.
“Is that where you learned to cook?”
“Nope. I learned to cook at my mama’s knee. I only cook Southern. That was all she taught me, but I don’t seem to get any complaints.”
“Certainly not from me,” Bess said. She accepted the sandwich in a brown paper bag, and Elroy opened the refrigerator door to display beer and soft drinks. She selected a diet soda and dropped it into the bag. “Thanks, Elroy, I owe you one,” she said.
“Think nothing of it,” he said, then went back to rolling biscuits.
Bess left by the back door and set a good pace for herself, following a well-worn footpath.
31
The path was steep, and Bess judged the top of the hill to be somewhere between 100 and 150 feet above the level where the compound was located.
At the top, she sat on a boulder and panted until her breathing returned to normal, then, with trepidation, she got out the cell phone. What if there was no reception up here? She turned it on and got two bars, sometimes one, sometimes none. Dicey.
She direct-dialed Tom Blake’s cell phone.
“Blake.”
“It’s me. Can you record this? It’s important.”
“Just a minute.” There were sounds of fumbling, then the line went dead.
She redialed.
“Blake.”
“I’ve got a weak signal here, so I may have to repeat myself to get it all recorded.”
“It’s recording now.”
“The man in charge has rented an apartment on the same side of the big house. The shooter will establish a firing position on the roof of that building. They’re planning the shoot for tomorrow morning when the subject often works at a desk. Got that?”
“Repeat it, just in case.”
She did so. “To continue, the weapon fires two rounds with each pull of the trigger. He will wait until the subject settles at the desk, then fire once to break or weaken the window, then once more.
“The shooter will drop his case off the back of the building, into a garden, where it will be immediately recovered and removed. He will go back to his apartment, dress in pajamas and a robe, where he will be found by searchers, reading the morning papers. He will not leave the building for a couple of days, then he’ll walk away with only a briefcase and not return. Rent is paid for two months. Got all that?”
“Hang on while I replay.” The line went dead again, and when she redialed, the signal was weaker, and the call didn’t go through. She continued to try for a couple of minutes, then stopped,