The Cornwalls Are Gone (Amy Cornwall #1) - James Patterson Page 0,82

to look down, seeing my flabby and pale white tummy overhanging the tiny triangle of cloth that is rubbing and tearing at me something fierce.

My watch says I have fifteen minutes before the exchange, and I know why my nameless tormentor has ordered to me to dress this way: he wants to make sure I’m not concealing a weapon, and by God, this jet-black suit is so skimpy I don’t think I could hide a nail file.

Archie is right next to me, the placid yet mournful look still on his face. The dressing rooms back there had doors of wooden slats so I could keep watch on him while I changed, but he’s been a very good victim.

I only wish I could be a better person.

We walk along the side of the wide parking lot, heading to the place where the concrete benches are placed, and I slip my arm into his for a few feet. I stare ahead and say, “I’m…I’m sorry for what’s going to happen. But I have to do this to save my family. I hope you can forgive me.”

Then a man’s voice quietly says, “You should not trust that man, not at all.”

And I come to a halt.

The voice is from Archie.

CHAPTER 81

IN THE basement garage of his new hotel, Pelayo Abboud approaches the black GMC Yukon with his associate Casper keeping pace with him. Tom Cornwall is being helped into the rear of the Yukon, sitting next to the young girl who is on the far side, wearing black tights and an oversized Epcot sweatshirt, Tigger doll in her lap.

Casper says, “The old man and the Army captain, they have left the Yucatan.”

“Good,” Pelayo says. “Then it will be finished in just a few more minutes.”

Casper holds the rear door open, and as another vehicle starts up in the distance, Pelayo cheerfully climbs in and sits next to Tom.

I grab the old man’s wrist and pull him closer to a little island of grass and low brush, drag him in for cover, and I say, “You tell me what you know. Now.”

Archie sighs. “His name is Pelayo Abboud. He is a killer, a criminal, a very, very bad man who will one day burn in eternity for his sins.”

My hand is still on Archie’s wrist. “Go on. That’s not really a news flash.”

He looks out at the warm and wide waters of the Gulf of Mexico, acting almost like a child seeing the ocean for the very first time. “Pelayo is the head of a Mexican cartel, the Veracruz.”

“Never heard of it.”

“No matter,” Archie says. “Like many other cartels, his has a bank under his control. One for which I worked.”

“First Republic Global Bank, NA, based in Guadalajara.”

“Ah, exactly. You are a very smart woman.”

“Not smart enough,” I say. “Tom Cornwall…my husband. He’s a journalist. He found out about Pelayo and the bank, and made arrangements to interview you.”

“True,” Archie says, shaking his head. “I was kidnapped by the El Baja cartel, to be turned over to this Tom, so he would write a book about their rivals, the Veracruz cartel. I was to be El Baja’s weapon to publicize the Veracruz’s activities, to cripple them. But now Pelayo has used you to bring me to him, to disarm his enemies.”

I’m running out of time, and sensing that, Archie adds, “One last warning. Do not trust any promises Pelayo has made. They are all false. There will be no exchange, there will be no safety for you or your family. At the right moment for Pelayo, he will kill you all, even your little girl.”

That had been my thought right from the start when I had picked up that sheet of paper back home in Virginia, but to have it confirmed by this mild-mannered and elder banker before me chills me so hard and fast in this tropic sunshine that I shiver.

“Why did you keep your mouth shut all this time?”

“What could I say?” he says. “I could have begged to have been released, but that never would have happened, would it? You had a mission, to save your family, and they can only be saved by my presence. Like any good banker, I knew that someday there would be a final accounting for my sins.”

I pause for the briefest of moments. “How do you know this?”

A mournful shrug. “Pelayo is my son.”

CHAPTER 82

SITTING IN the rear of the Yukon with Tom Cornwall and the little girl, Pelayo Abboud allows himself a smile of