by Dirk Patton
Katarina watched him closely for several long moments as she absorbed what he’d just told her.
“Okay,” she finally said.
“Okay?” Liam asked in surprise. “No recriminations?”
“I’m many things, but a hypocrite isn’t one of them. I was a married woman when I came to your house and screwed your brains out, even if I was planning to get a divorce. So, no. No crap from me. As long as it doesn’t happen again.”
Liam watched her for a beat then nodded his understanding and appreciation.
“What happened to the other woman after you got divorced? If you liked her so much... well...”
“She was killed,” Liam said softly.
They both jumped when the disposable phone shrilled loudly. Liam looked at it as if it were a venomous snake, then slowly picked it up and checked the caller ID. Glancing at Katarina, he shrugged and flipped it open.
“Yeah?” he growled
“Hello, Liam. It’s been a long time.”
Katarina saw his eyes go wide and slapped his arm as she gestured for him to activate the speakerphone. Pressing the button, he placed the phone on the seat between them.
“Angela,” he said. “Getting sloppy? Ten years ago, I’d never have spotted you.”
“You didn’t. She did,” she said with a throaty laugh. “But nice move, calling the local cops. Couple of times there I thought they might actually catch me.”
“What are you doing here, Angela? Why were you following us?”
“I’m here for that pretty little copper-haired girl. By the way, she looks much better as a blonde. I almost didn’t recognize her at the hotel, but I’ve done my homework. You can change the hair, makeup and clothes, but you can’t change how a woman walks.”
“You a spook now, Angela?”
She laughed bitterly before answering.
“I almost was, but the CIA found something from my time in the sandbox and decided to take a pass on hiring me. So, I went to work for myself, fulfilling contracts and collecting bounties. You can imagine my excitement when I got a look at the FBI report of your lover’s husband’s murder and realized you were her alibi. Her all night alibi. Tell me. Is she as good as I was? Does she do the things for you that I did?”
“You’re making a mistake, Angela,” Liam said, ignoring the taunt. “You do not want to be coming after her.”
“Oh, my dear, sweet Liam. It was the first contractor they sent that made the mistake. Was that you that killed him?”
“Angela, I don’t want to hurt you. Walk away from this before that happens.”
She laughed long and loud as if he’d just said the funniest thing in the world.
“Oh, baby. You could never hurt me. You know that. So, why don’t you just turn her over and let me get on with the business at hand. In fact, if she cooperates and returns what isn’t hers, I might even let her live. But if I have to track her down and do this the hard way, I’m going to make it hurt. And you do not want to get in my way.”
Liam took a series of deep breaths, knowing he wasn’t going to be able to talk Angela down. That was one thing being married to her had taught him. Once she decided she was going to do something, there was no stopping her.
“Angela,” Liam said much more patiently than he felt. “I’m begging you. Please drop this job. It’s not worth it. There’s much more here than meets the eye.”
“Really? There’s more than a quarter-million-dollar payday? See, Liam, that’s all I’m here for. I don’t care about you or her or anything else. I just want the bounty.”
Liam leaned his head back for a beat, staring at the roof of the truck. Looking at Katarina, he shook his head sadly.
“Angela, I sincerely hope you don’t find us again. The next time I see you, I’m going to start shooting and not stop until you’re dead. I won’t like it, but I’ll do it. You know me. You know what I can do. Do you really think you stand a chance?”
There was a long silence and Liam was tempted to ask if she was still on the line.
“Goodbye, Liam.”
There was a series of clicks as the call dropped. Liam quickly removed the SIM card from the phone, snapped it into several pieces and dropped it out of the window. He broke the phone apart, as he’d done with one earlier at the hotel, and threw the debris onto the floor of the truck.
“Are you kidding me? Your goddamn ex-wife is working for the cartel that wants to kill me?” Katarina asked, then barked a sarcastic laugh. “Could this whole thing be any more fucked up? Seriously!”
She leaned her head back and closed her eyes, mumbling something under her breath. Liam watched her for a few seconds, then pulled out onto the road and gently accelerated.
“Well?” she asked after several miles had passed. “She’s your ex-wife. Got any insight on how to get her to back off?”
“I still can’t believe she’s really doing this.”
“Guess you’re not a very good judge of women,” Katarina snapped.
Her eyes were still closed and she didn’t see the pained expression that passed across his face.
“Guess not,” he mumbled.
He hadn’t intended to say it loud enough for her to hear, but she did. Raising her head, she looked at him and reached across the cab for his hand. He allowed her to take it, but she could tell he wasn’t in the mood for physical contact.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “That was uncalled for and you didn’t deserve it.”
She felt some of the tension drain out of his fingers. He glanced at her and snorted a sardonic laugh.
“Doesn’t matter. I know you were just venting.”
“That still doesn’t make it okay. How about if I let you win at strip poker?”
Liam smiled and shook his head. Raising her hand, he intertwined his fingers with hers and held tightly.
“We may have a bigger problem than Angela,” he said, earning a puzzled look.
“What do you mean?”
“Hear what she said? She saw my name on an FBI report as your alibi.”
“Didn’t register with me at the time.”
“I didn’t think anything about it either, but just how in the hell did she get a look at an internal FBI document?”
“Pettigrew,” Katarina said as if he should already know. “We know he’s dirty and was working with the Retriever. How else would he have gotten my gun?”
“I don’t know,” Liam said with a shrug. “But, demon or no demon, it’s bothering me that everything’s pointing to Pettigrew. Maybe it’s because I don’t like easy answers, but it feels like there’s more people at work here than just him.”
“Who else could it be?” Katarina asked.
“I don’t know your office. That’s something you could answer better than me.”
Fifty-One
They stopped at a filling station in Index and topped off several five-gallon jugs Liam had purchased to fuel the generator. The mist was thicker at the higher altitude and low clouds blanketed all of the mountains. It was also ten degrees cooler and Katarina shivered as she helped with the gas cans.
Leaving town, they found the road to Zophiel’s house and bounced through a series of mud puddles. Liam turned the truck and backed as close to the front as he could to make it easier to unload. Before beginning, they stepped out and let themselves in through the unlocked door.
“Not the mountain getaway I was picturing,” Katarina said, looking around with her hands on her hips.
The info from Baldwin’s Marines had been accurate. The house looked and felt long abandoned. Wallpaper that would have been in style in the seventies hung in long, peeling sheets. The floor was sawn oak that might have been stunning at one point in its life but was now dark with ground in mud. Walking into the kitchen, Katarina let out a very feminine squeal that brought Liam running.
“What the hell is that?” she shouted.
A large opossum stared back at them, five much smaller versions clinging tightly to its back. It opened
its mouth and emitted a hiss but otherwise didn’t seem aggressive.
“Opossum,” Liam said. “Mama, looks like.”
“I don’t care if it’s Mother Theresa, get rid of it or we’re going somewhere else!”
Liam found a broom with a broken handle in a hallway closet and gently shooed the creature out the back door. There was an empty hole for a doggie door in the bottom panel and he quickly figured out a way to block it up so the opossum couldn’t come back inside.
“My hero,” Katarina said once the wildlife had been removed.
Liam shook his head, mumbling under his breath about a demon killer being afraid of a cute little opossum as he led the way to the truck. Katarina didn’t say anything but punched his arm hard enough to make him flinch and flash her a sarcastic grin.
Half an hour later they had carried everything inside except the generator. It was on the back porch, purring away, powering several lights and a small space heater. Unfolding a camp chair, he sat down and watched while Katarina unpacked their purchases.
“Odd.”
She’d been looking around as she worked and had just walked over to an ancient wall mounted phone and checked it for a dial tone.
“What is?”
“When we first came out for the crashed plane, Brody needed to call it in, but there’s no cell signal out here. Zophiel brought Brody back here to use his phone. Which is dead. And Brody didn’t say anything about the house being so rundown.”
Liam watched her jiggle the phone’s hook a few times before putting the handset back in place. She paused in thought, then opened the back door and looked out at the broad pasture that led to the ravine with the crashed plane.
“A few days ago, that pasture was... neat. Well maintained. And there was a large flock of sheep.”
Liam came to stand beside her and frowned when he saw chest deep grass that hadn’t seen a mower or grazing sheep in a very long time.
“You sure?”
“Yeah. I’m sure,” she said in a far-off voice.
Shrugging and turning away, he opened their last disposable phone and inserted the battery. When it powered up, he kept his eye on the screen for nearly a minute before sighing in frustration.
“No signal,” he said. “We’ll have to go into town to check in with Baldwin, which isn’t a big deal. But I don’t like him not being able to reach us.”
“Nothing we can do about it, is there?” she asked, closing the door.
“Not that I know of. But look at the bright side. Angela can’t track the phone.”
“That’s been bugging me,” Katarina said. “How the hell did she get the number to call you? That was a new phone, wasn’t it?”
“If she followed us all the way from the hotel, there’s gear that can do that without us knowing. Jimmy could probably explain how it works.”
“I’m not that curious,” Katarina said, adding the last empty box to a tall pile. “So, what do we do now? Sit around and wait?”
“We need to get ready for Pettigrew.”
“I know there’s a demon inside him, but I don’t like this,” she said. “It feels like we’re torturing him.”
“If you had one of those things inside you, wouldn’t you want someone to get it out? I sure as hell would!”
“Yes. Of course. And I’m not getting cold feet. It’s just that after the Retriever...”
Liam nodded in understanding, then carried a sturdy, steel-framed chair into one of the bedrooms. Katarina followed with some tools and he secured it to the floor with several large screws. Taking a seat, he grasped the edges and rocked back and forth, tentatively at first then with more effort when it didn’t budge.
“I think that’s good,” he said.
Katarina had set up a folding table and chair on the other side of the room and they took a look around.
“Does Saul want anything else?”
“This is all he said. But what about that window?”
Liam looked where she was pointing. Grunting in agreement, he removed a heavy wooden door from the closet and placed it over the opening. A dozen screws around the perimeter fastened it tightly in place.
“Okay,” he said, packing the tools away. “Let’s go to town and call Baldwin.”
“It’s kind of early, isn’t it?”
Liam shrugged and led the way outside. He shut the generator down to save fuel and they got in the truck. The phone was held up in his hand as he drove so he could see the moment they had signal. Index was a small place and the more times they were seen, the more likely someone would start wondering who they were and what they were doing. He was hoping they wouldn’t have to go all the way into town.
“Got coverage,” he said after a mile of slow driving.
Stopping, he punched in a number. After two rings, Baldwin picked up, speaking in guarded tones because he didn’t recognize the caller.
“Just checking in,” Liam said.
“We’re on our way with Pettigrew.”
“You’re what? What the hell are you doing?”
“He was leaving town. We took him in the parking garage at the airport. Couldn’t reach you and we damn near missed him as it was.”
Liam’s heart was racing as he relayed the news to Katarina. Shocked, she stared numbly as he activated the speaker so she could hear.
“You get away clean?” he asked.
“Far as I can tell,” Baldwin said. “Wasn’t anyone else around and we got him without too much of a struggle.”
“Okay,” Liam said, trading a look with Katarina. “You had to do what you had to do. How far out are you?”
“Maybe forty-five minutes. Got everything ready?”
“All but the Rabbi. Can you spare someone to go pick him up?”
“Got it covered. Text me the address.”
Fifty-Two
Liam and Katarina stood in the mist, waiting for Baldwin and his team to arrive. They didn’t speak, each lost in their own private thoughts. He could tell she was having a hard time dealing with the whole thing, but also knew she understood there wasn’t another path forward. Not if she wanted to clear her name.
“Here they come,” Katarina mumbled when she heard the sound of their engines.
A pair of SUVs pulled to a stop next to Liam’s truck. Baldwin was the first man out and Liam stepped forward and shook his hand.
“Any problems?”
“No. She okay?”
Liam turned to look at Katarina, who was watching them with a worried expression on her face.
“She’s good. Just freaking a little over the whole thing.”
Baldwin nodded and made a gesture to his men. Doors popped open and three of them got out and gathered at the rear of the lead vehicle. Raising the hatch, they pulled a tall man wearing a business suit out onto his feet.
He was bound at the ankles and wrists with a heavy black hood over his head. Opening a knife, one of the Marines cut the ties around his legs. With a strong hand gripping each upper arm, he was marched forward and into the house. Katarina’s eyes followed every step.
“How you wanna do this?” Baldwin asked.
“You and me inside. We’ll take shifts if necessary. Your guys maintain a perimeter.”
Baldwin didn’t comment as he moved to the rear SUV and opened the back. He produced two short barreled rifles. Hooking a couple of bandoliers of spare magazines with his fingers, he came back and passed over one of the weapons. He watched with a critical eye as Liam checked it over with obviously practiced hands.
“Look like you’ve done that a time or two,” Baldwin said.
“Once or twice,” Liam said. “And we’ve got another problem.”
Baldwin raised his brow questioningly and Liam told him about Angela.
“Your fuckin’ ex, dude? Seriously?”
“Seems she got excited to take the job when she learned I was Katarina’s alibi.”
“How big of a problem could she be?”
“She ran an Army intel sq
uad in Iraq. The kind that operates in the field with special forces units. She’s hell on wheels. Only woman to ever have the job.”
“That where you met her?”
Liam nodded.
“So, you were...”
“The leader of the A team she was assigned to. Now, enough resume bullshit. Let’s get in there so the guys can go establish a perimeter.”
“No way she can find us, is there?” Baldwin asked as they headed for the house.
“With Angela, there’s always a way. That’s what made her so good at her job. But I don’t know how she could have tracked us.”
Baldwin nodded in understanding.
“Still gonna tell the guys we’re in hostile territory. Don’t need ‘em relaxing, thinking all they gotta worry about are civilians wandering by.”
“Probably best,” Liam said, stopping next to Katarina as Baldwin continued inside.
“You alright?” he asked.
“I’m fine.”
Taking her hand, he led her inside the house. Baldwin was speaking softly with his men. Through the open bedroom door, they could see Pettigrew secured to the metal chair Liam had anchored to the floor. The three Marines filed out a moment later and Baldwin came to stand next to Katarina.
“Just to be clear,” he said in a quiet voice that didn’t carry, “he is not leaving this house alive. I’m not going away for kidnapping and assault on a federal agent.”
“Let’s see what happens,” Katarina said gently. “Then we’ll make our decision.”
She held Baldwin’s eyes until he looked away.
“One more thing,” she said, making sure both men were paying attention before continuing. “If you have to kill him, the fatal shot must be a head shot. Otherwise, the demon doesn’t die.”
She carefully looked into each man’s eyes before facing Baldwin directly.
“I know you don’t believe me, Baldy, but you need to trust me. If this man dies any way other than by having his brain destroyed, the demon will be released to possess another.”
“I got no problem with head shots,” Baldwin said with a shrug.