Last Chance to Die by Noah Boyd (large screen ebook reader .txt) 📗

a strong argument. “We’re going to push you—temporarily—to the bottom of our very short list. If we don’t come up with something better, we’ll be back,” Vail said.

“I don’t know what else I could do, but if I can help in any way, just call me,” Clark said.

As Vail started toward the door, Bursaw said, “I’ll be right there.”

Five minutes later Bursaw came out of the building and slid in behind the wheel. “What were you doing?” Vail asked. “I’m not going to see you driving a new Cadillac, am I?”

“Actually, I was deputizing my newest informant. We don’t really have anybody working stolen cars, so I thought someone with Alberto’s talent and range of friends was worth a ninety-day audition. I’m sure he knows other Colombians who still believe in the sanctity of their country’s leading export. We do have people working drugs.”

Bursaw’s cell rang. When he saw that it was Kalix, he handed it to Vail. “No one knows where Rellick is,” the deputy assistant director blurted out.

“What happened?” Vail asked.

“Apparently the CIA can be just as inept as the Bureau. One of their polygraphers. They wanted to make sure he’d be available to test Rellick this morning, so they scheduled him yesterday but didn’t say anything about this guy possibly being a double agent. Well, you know how examiners are. They have a whole checklist they give the subject the day before. No excessive drinking, no mood-altering drugs, make sure the wind is out of the southeast at no more than eight knots. The people here are theorizing that Rellick might have gotten spooked and took off.”

“Are they doing anything to find him?” Vail asked.

“They’ve called his home, and there’s no answer. They’re getting a search warrant for his house and bank records. They still don’t want us involved in it officially, so they’re moving at warp speed before the director and Langston come back.”

“Okay, I’m going to let Kate know.”

“I’ll stay with them until we get an answer one way or the other. Keep your fingers crossed.”

26

Bursaw parked the Bureau car in his sister’s guest parking space, and they went up to the apartment. Vail used a key to open the door and yelled inside, “Kate, it’s us!”

She came around the corner wearing an apron, a curious expression on her face. “I thought you’d be longer.” Then she read something positive in Vail’s expression. “You found Sundra?”

“No, not yet.” He told her about Rellick’s vanishing act. “When John called to tell me, he said the CIA was getting search warrants for his bank and house. There’s a good chance that he wouldn’t have confessed to the polygrapher, so this might turn out even better.”

“Except he had time to clear out anything incriminating.”

“You weren’t supposed to figure that out, at least not so quickly. Stay positive—this is moving in our favor.”

“You’re absolutely right,” she said. “Lunch is not going to be ready for a while. You guys want something to drink?” she asked with surprising nonchalance.

“No thanks,” Bursaw said.

“I’m all set,” Vail said. “You’re taking this well.”

In a faked whisper, she said, “Don’t tell anyone, but I’ve got a couple of really good guys looking out for me.”

Bursaw said, “You went and got somebody else?”

After lunch Vail picked up one of the Calculus folders and started rereading it. Ten minutes later he tossed it onto the table in front of him. “That’s it, I can’t read anymore. I’ve been over this stuff so much that I wouldn’t recognize the answer if it were highlighted.”

Bursaw’s phone rang; it was Kalix again. He put it on speaker. “I’m with the group going to Rellick’s house with a search warrant. They pinged his cell phone, and it shows he’s home. I’ll call you—we’re just about to make entry.”

Everyone tried to appear unexcited, as though too much optimism might jinx the outcome. Kate went back to the kitchen, and Bursaw turned on the news. For the next half hour, he listened to the local broadcast. Vail became lost in his thoughts, reexamining everything, looking for another way to prove Kate’s innocence in case Rellick proved to be uncooperative. When nothing came to him, he got up and went into the kitchen. He stepped up behind her and slowly pulled on one of the apron strings. “I think I know what we need.”

She let him get it completely untied before she turned around. Reaching behind her, she retied it. “Yes, Steve, that’s exactly what we don’t need right now.”

“I never even got a real New Year’s kiss.” He put an arm around her waist.

“I kissed you. Which, by the way, triggered my one New Year’s resolution—to only kiss men in tuxedos.”

“I’ve been thinking about canceling my diving trip and going to maître d’ school.”

“You greeting people for tips. That sounds like a shorter career than you had with the FBI.”

Bursaw’s phone rang again. He called in to Vail that it was Kalix. Vail put Kate at arm’s length—“It’s so easy to mock someone else’s dreams”—then walked into the living room and took the phone. “Yes, John.”

“Is everyone there?” Kalix asked.

Vail called Kate in from the kitchen and pushed the Speaker button. “We’re all here.”

“Rellick’s gone. He left his phone here and turned it on as a decoy. That’s the bad news. But up in his attic, there have to be fifty of those banker’s boxes—you know, for storing records. Not only his own, but all kinds of family stuff his parents must have accumulated for decades. Everything—his divorce records, stocks sold twenty years ago. So far they’ve found five or six of them with classified documents in them, all copies he evidently made. So now the CIA will be able to reconstruct exactly what information he turned over to the Russians. They’re most appreciative.”

“Will that be enough to clear Kate?”

“It will be with what they found in one of them. Remember on that thumb drive, the typed list of eight FBI-CIA joint investigations along with their named targets? The one that