Primary Valor by Jack Mars (booksvooks TXT) 📗

precinct, and he dummies up. Hewants to see his public defender. You bring him to a cabin near a swamp…”

“Understood,” Luke said.

“I want to be very clear with you.I want to bring this young lady home, if we can. But you men don’t have tocontinue on the case. You’ve done enough, and you’ve already faced somedisturbing—”

“You can call me off or someonecan kill me,” Ed said. “Otherwise I will be staying on the case. It has becomeimportant to me to solve this.”

“Good,” Don said. “I am very gladto hear that. Stone?”

“You know where I am on this, Don.”

“I want to hear you say it.”

“I’m in.”

How could he be anything but in? Thesepeople were sharks, and they were operating with something close to impunity. Foran instant, Luke remembered the moment he was falling asleep this morning. Hehad closed his eyes, and as he drifted off, he saw the body in the ice chest. Youdon’t just walk away from something like that.

 “Good,” Don said again. “Trudy,tell us about our new guardian angel from the Bureau, who will look after ourmen and keep them on the straight and narrow path.”

“At first glance, he looks okay,”Trudy said. “Henry Bowles. Thirty-five years old. Yale graduate, Army ROTC,with honors. Did his military obligation with 1st Special Forces, joined 1993. Fouryears, in and out, then went straight to Quantico. He’s been with the Bureaunine years. He’s had a handful of high-profile busts, a couple ofcommendations. He looks like a guy on the way up.”

“Then why is he babysitting us?”Ed said. “Seems like he’d have something better to do with his time.”

“Good question,” Trudy said. “You’llhave to ask him that yourself.”

“Where do we meet Henry?” Lukesaid. “Is he going to come here to the hotel?”

“No, you’re going to meet himtonight in Florida.”

“Florida?”

“A house in Fort Lauderdale is thelast known residence of Felix Cienfuegos. Real estate records suggest it’s an eighteen-hundred-square-footone-story bungalow. An old Florida house from the days before air conditioning.It’s owned by a company called Gold Coast Property Management, who rent about athousand homes on the east coast of Florida. Nothing much there. Cienfuegosprobably rents from them for the anonymity of it. Just another guy in a rentedhouse in Florida. Swann checked satellite imagery of the place. There’s recentactivity at the house. Swann?”

“Yeah,” Swann said. “Actually, Iborrowed a drone for a brief flyover earlier today. There were two cars parkedthere. It’s a place on a canal. Swimming pool in the backyard, fresh cleanwater in the pool. There’s also a boat tied up in the back. The boat is nothingspecial.”

“The place looks lived in is whatSwann’s trying to tell you,” Trudy said.

“Yes,” Swann said. “Someone ishome.”

“The two of you and your newfriend Special Agent Bowles,” Don said, “are going to stop by there for alittle chat.”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

12:45 p.m. Central Standard Time (1:45 p.m. EasternStandard Time)

La Sierra de San Simon (St. Simon’s Saw)

Near Honduras

The Caribbean Sea

 

 

“I’m afraid you’ve stepped in itthis time, Darwin.”

Darwin sighed. He was alreadyaggravated. It had taken the operator half an hour to connect, and reconnect,and then re-reconnect this call from the United States. While waiting, Darwinhad poured himself another vodka tonic.

The call itself, apparentlyconnected for good now, just made everything worse. The caller spoke with aquaint Southern accent that was supposed to remind the listener of genteelplantation times gone by. Just sitting on the porch, sipping mint juleps on ahot day, and watching the slaves pick cotton.

“Do tell,” Darwin said.

“Is this line secure?”

Darwin shook his head. “Who cares?”

“I do,” the voice said.

“In that case, it’s secure as canbe.”

It grew tiresome, dealing withthese people. Politicians, always conniving, maneuvering, self-dealing. Theythought they were smart, and they were, in a sense. They were about as smart aschimpanzees. Chimps were our close cousins, and they spent their timescreeching, fighting, and plotting against each other. Darwin King had studiedchimpanzee society. People would be surprised to learn how similar it was tohuman society. The United States Congress could easily take place in theforests of Africa.

“The girl. The newest one.”

Darwin shook his head. “I have noidea what you’re talking about.”

And this man, this Southern friedcracker, was prone to making phone calls like this. Bill Ryan, Minority Leaderof the House of Representatives. An ambitious man. A man with plans.

He was not Darwin King’s friend. Hewas no one’s friend, but especially not Darwin’s. He had never been a guest atone of Darwin’s homes. Unlike so many of his peers, he had never partaken ofDarwin’s… gifts. He scrupulously avoided entanglements like that.

But other sorts of entanglementswere not a problem for Bill Ryan. In other ways, the man was an entanglementfactory.

“You know exactly what I’m talkingabout, my friend. You steal young girls to feed your warped, perverse desires. You’rea sick man, Darwin.”

“Judge not,” Darwin said, “lest yebe judged.”

“I don’t judge you. Time and theLord will take care of that. As ye sow, so shall ye reap. In the meantime, Iwill use you as I see fit.”

Darwin felt the rage rise withinhim. No one talked to him in this way, no one on the entire Earth.

“How dare you?” he said. “You andyour Lord. Save your moral judgments. Do you know what I could do to you? Doyou know the things I know about you? Sir, I keep you in my back pocket, allyour little dirty deals, all the bad actors you’ve been to bed with. In theunlikely case I ever find myself in an awkward position, do you know how I’llget out of it? I’ll give them you.”

“Darwin, be careful what you sayto me. I may take you seriously.”

Darwin took a long, slow sip ofhis drink.

“Why are we talking right now,Bill?”

“You made a mistake,” Ryan said. “Youoverstepped.”

“I don’t overstep. It is notpossible for me to overstep.”

“All right,” Ryan said. “Butsomething happened, something that has your fingerprints all over it, and apowerful but desperate man asked me for a favor. Do you know who the man is?”

Darwin shook his head. Theguessing game. The question game. “Of course I know. He and I go all the wayback. But this wasn’t personal between us. It was just the repayment of