“I figured it out, you know. The money thing. The piggyback ride. Dialing for terrorists? Is that what you are? You don’t look Middle Eastern but are you one of bin Laden’s babes?”
“I am not anyone’s babe,” she said, her voice rising slightly.
“Okay, but maybe you should consider this. Mace doesn’t know any of what I found out. And neither does anyone else. I never had a chance to tell anybody.”
“Your point?”
“You don’t need Mace. You’ve got me. You kill me, it’s over.”
“I doubt it would be over.”
“What do you mean?”
“My briefing on Mace Perry leads me to conclude that if you are in danger she will stop at nothing to try and help you.”
“Your briefing? Okay, what government do you work for?”
For the first time Mary Bard exhibited a touch of chagrin. Her lips compressed slightly and there was a certain irritated look to her eyes.
When she didn’t answer him, he said, “I’d say the impossible just got wildly impossible. I’m never walking out of here, so what incentive do I have to help you?”
There was a buzzing sound. Roy looked around for a moment until he realized it was the woman’s phone vibrating. She rose, went to a far corner, and answered. She barely spoke, mostly listened. It dawned on Roy that the room was probably wired for both sound and video. Who was out there?
Bard put the phone back in her pocket and retook her seat. “No incentive at all. But the fact is she will come to try and save you once we tell her we have you. You see, you’re the bait.”
“Her sister is the D.C. police chief. If she comes it will be with an army.”
“No she won’t. Because we will tell her that will ensure your death.”
“But her coming alone she knows will ensure both our deaths.”
“And yet she will do so.”
“How the hell are you so sure?”
“Because if it were me, I would do the same thing.”
CHAPTER 108
MACE WAS SITTING in the living room of the guesthouse with a bag of ice on her swollen cheek. She’d tried to call Roy numerous times and hadn’t received an answer. The phone call she’d just gotten, however, had stripped the mystery out of this. They had Roy. They wanted her too. If she didn’t come, he was dead. The deadline was twenty-four hours from now.
She just sat there, icy water dripping down her face. For one of the few times in her life she didn’t know what to do. Then, as if her hand were being guided by some invisible force, she picked up the phone and made the call. Beth arrived in twenty-seven minutes, the roof lights of Cruiser One still whirling as she leapt from the ride and sprinted to the guesthouse. A quick discussion with Mace filled her in.
“Where do they want you to meet them?” Beth asked.
“They will kill him if I don’t go alone.”
“And if you do they’ll kill both of you. Kingman may already be dead, Mace.”
“No, he’s not dead.”
“How do you know?”
“I just know, okay?”
The two stared at each other. Finally, Beth said, “You know, Kingman made some sense when he said you and I should be working together instead of against each other.”
“We used to make a pretty good team.”
“We’ve been reactive this whole time. Chasing phantoms down alleys.”
“Or getting shot at by them.”
“What do we know? I mean, what do we really know about all this?”
“Beth, we don’t have time to sit and noodle this.”
“If we don’t sit and figure this out, Kingman will be dead. We’ve got nearly twenty-three hours. If we use it properly that’s a lifetime.”
Mace drew a deep breath and calmed. “Okay, I’ll start. Diane Tolliver had dinner with Jamie Meldon and then was murdered. Soon thereafter Meldon was killed too.”
Beth said, “Meldon’s investigation was taken over by people I don’t know, and even the FBI was called off the case. I’ve made inquiries and it seems Meldon might have been the target of a group of domestic terrorists.”
“But that would mean that Tolliver was killed because of her connection to Meldon and not the other way around.”
Beth looked puzzled. “But according to what we’ve found out about the two refrigerators, Tolliver was killed on Friday night, before Meldon, and Dockery was supposed to take the fall.”
Mace picked it up. “I found out in Newark that Meldon and Tolliver had an affair years ago. If Tolliver had found out something and needed help, she might’ve gone