A Minute to Midnight

by David Baldacci

  Pine sat back and thought about this. “Cold War was starting to wind down by then. And counterintelligence ops were more likely to take place overseas or in DC.” She looked intently at him. “Can only be one answer. The eighties? The Big Apple? Organized crime.”

  “In 1985 the leaders of all five Mafia families operating in New York were convicted under the RICO statute and sentenced to over a century each in prison. It broke them down almost entirely. Later prosecutions and the testimony of Sammy ‘the Bull’ Gravano, who became the first foot soldier to turn rat, helped bring down John Gotti in 1992. But what got the ball really rolling was 1985 and what happened before then.”

  “And why do you know about all this?” she asked.

  “I read. I’m a student of history.”

  She looked at him skeptically. “Right. And my father helped with that somehow? I was told he was trying to break into acting. How did he end up at the Cloak and Dagger?”

  “Who said this had anything to do with Tim?”

  Pine looked stunned. “What are you trying to tell me?”

  He rose and walked over to the terrace’s glass wall, carrying his wine.

  She quickly followed. “Jack?” she said expectantly.

  He wouldn’t look at her. He set his glass on top of the wall and rested his elbows there.

  She gripped his arm and turned him toward her.

  “What are you saying?”

  He looked at her for an uncomfortably long moment. In his gaze was a fleet of emotions, but the one that finally caught and held was tenderness, imbued with what seemed a sense of relief or resignation; Pine wasn’t exactly sure which, perhaps a mixture of both.

  “Your mother was a model who traveled the globe as a young woman. During that time, she met some interesting people. People who took a liking to her. People who wanted to be around her.”

  “What sort of people are we talking about?” said Pine slowly, though she feared she knew the answer already.

  “People who had a lot of money and also dubious backgrounds. But she eventually did the right thing, Lee, at great personal risk to herself.”

  “Are you saying she was a girlfriend to mobsters? Is that what you’re telling me?”

  “She wasn’t even old enough to vote yet. How all-knowing were you at that age?”

  “I would know enough not to get caught up with mobsters.”

  “Well, you can’t know that for certain. What they had could be intoxicating. And it’s not like any of them personally murdered anyone. They had foot soldiers for that. She never saw that side. In fact, she didn’t know they were criminals at first. It’s not like they hold out a sign that says, ‘Mobsters.’”

  “So why did she ‘do the right thing’ as you just said?”

  “There came a time when she was made to see their dark side. And when she did, she was repulsed.”

  “And who made her see the light? You? Why? How? What was your involvement? And don’t lie and say you read about it in a book as a ‘student of history.’”

  “I didn’t always work at a bauxite mine. Or manage other people’s money.”

  “Were you a cop? Were you a spy for our side?”

  “I was an…asset. I’ll leave it at that.”

  “And you recruited my mother to do what?”

  “She never testified, if that’s what you wanted to know. But she was our mole. She wore wires. She told us things that she had heard or seen. Things that helped us prevent many deaths and stop a lot of other bad things from happening in many different places.”

  “But the bad guys found out? And she had to disappear?”

  “You see, while the major trials started in 1985, the case was years in the making, before you and your sister were even born. The Cloak and Dagger subterfuge was a great way to get what we needed on top of the other lines of investigation going on. And your mother exploited that venue to the fullest. She’d already gained the trust of some high-up people in several of the families.”

  “And my father?”

  “She met Tim at the Cloak and Dagger. That was near the end of the sting operation. The trials would be starting soon. He wasn’t part of any of this. He was just a busboy in between acting auditions. They…they fell in love.”

  “And then what?”

  “Your mother confided to him what was going on. What she had to do. She only told me she had done so later because I would have objected. He was supportive. He married her. I’ll give him the credit for that. And then they ‘vanished.’”

  “But you knew where they were. You came here to watch over them.”

  “Yes, we helped them ‘vanish.’ Again, it was my job.”

  “And was it also because you still loved my mother?”

  He looked out over the cityscape. “Something like that,” he said. “But I did my best to protect them. After a few years passed, it seemed they were in the clear. The Mafia was significantly weakened. The bosses were in prison. The new bosses were not dwelling on the past, they were trying to secure their own futures.”

  “And then?”

  “And then your sister disappeared and you were nearly killed.”

  “Do you know who did it?”

  “No.”

  “If you’re lying to me—”

  “I’m telling you the truth, Lee. I don’t know,” he added sharply.

  “But you suspected it had something to do with my mother’s past.”

  “Of course I did. And I communicated that conclusion up the line. Efforts were put in place to figure out what had happened. To try to find your sister.”

  “But you never told the police? You never told the FBI? That would have opened up lines of investigation. The odds of getting Mercy back would have been a lot better.” Pine’s face was flushed, and her adrenaline had spiked. “You withheld vital information that might have cost my sister her life.”

  “It was not my call.”

  “And my parents said nothing, either? This is bullshit!”

  “It could have put all of you in danger.”

  “We were already in danger,” she retorted. “I nearly died.”

  “I know,” he said somberly. “I know, Lee.”

  She drew a calming breath and said, “And when you sent it up the line, was anything found out about my sister?”

  “It was a black hole. No one could figure it out.”

  “Well, it seems pretty obvious to me. Did you bother looking at the damn Mafia?”

  “They were all in prison. At least the ones involved with the Cloak and Dagger. There had been no activity at all for several years regarding your parents. I don’t think it came from there.”

  “Then who?” snapped Pine. She grabbed Lineberry’s arm. “Who?”

  Lineberry’s eyes glittered with tears. “I’m sorry. I wish I had an answer for you. But I don’t.”

  He looked at her sympathetically, which angered her. “I know this must be very difficult for you.”

  “You don’t know shit,” snapped Pine.

  He swallowed the rest of his wine. “Perhaps I don’t.”

  “What was my mother’s real name?”

  “Why?”

  “Why? Because I’m her daughter and I have the right to know.”

  “No, you don’t. You may think you have the right, but you don’t.”

  Pine looked like she might slug him.

  “I’m not saying that in anger, Lee.”

  “My name is Atlee,” she snapped.

  “Okay, Atlee. I’m saying it because it was your mother who risked everything she had—including her life—to do the right thing, at an age when most people can’t even get out of bed on time. I told her I would take her secret to the grave. I already broke that promise by telling you what I have. I will go no further.”

  This was all said with such a level of sincerity and loyalty that gave Pine, furious as she was, pause. She stepped back and looked out over Atlanta.

  “I can see how all this would have been d
ifficult for you,” she said more calmly.

  “I appreciate that sentiment, but my difficulty is nothing as compared to what you and your mother have had to endure.” He looked down at his empty glass. “So you really have no idea where she is?”

  “No. And even with my skills and resources as an FBI agent, I haven’t been able to find her.”

  “I take blame for that.”

  “Why?”

  “I taught her how to fool people, how to hide. I did it to keep her safe because the forces coming after her would be as clever as they would be ruthless. But she became paranoid about it, especially with her two daughters.”

  “Why not just put her in Witness Protection?” said Pine. “Those guys are good.”

  “What makes you think we didn’t try that?” was his surprising reply.

  “What…what happened?”

  “You and your family were almost killed. Twice. I think you girls were maybe a year old.”

  “What?” said Pine, stunned. “It’s…it’s like you’re talking about somebody else’s life. Not mine.”

  “I can certainly understand your absolute astonishment. So, that’s when others, when the ‘element’ I was aligned with, stepped in and made a plan.”

  “And my parents ended up coming to Andersonville with Mercy and me?”

  “Yes. It seemed to be far enough away and not a place that anyone would think a former globe-trotting model would escape to. The other good thing was it would be easy to spot any strangers in town.”

  He went back over and sat down. Pine joined him.

  He looked across the table at her. “I’m sorry for all this.”

  “I guess you had to do what you had to do. Just like my mother.”

  “And now what will you do?”

  “I will do what I have to do,” said Pine firmly. “Will you take me back now? I’ve got a lot to think about and I can’t do it here.”

  When they went back down to the garage, Pine said, “You mind if I drive?”

  “No, but why?”

  “I feel like I need to be in control of something right now. Otherwise…”

  He passed her the keys. “I understand.”

  On the drive back to Andersonville, the two didn’t say a word.

  Until the shots rang out.

  Chapter 62

  PINE’S FIRST INSTINCT was to pull her Beretta Nano from her clutch purse. Her second instinct was to keep hold of the steering wheel and start taking evasive maneuvers.

  “Jack, are you okay? Jack!”

  She turned to see him slumped back against his seat, his face ashen. He turned to the side and vomited, his breathing accelerating. She saw the spread of red across his shirt.

  Shit.

  She steered the Aston Martin well off the road, opened his shirt, and used her wrap to stanch the blood from the gunshot wound. It was in his upper torso on the right side. Lot of stuff to mess up in there, she knew, but at least the shot hadn’t hit him directly in the heart or the head.

  She leaned him a bit forward and felt along his back. There was no exit wound.

  Surveying the area for where the shots had come from, she got on the phone and called Laredo. He answered on the second ring and she told him everything he needed to know.

  His only response was, “On it.”

  They weren’t that far outside of Andersonville. She hoped it was close enough.

  She looked over at Lineberry, who had grown still. “Jack! Come on, Jack, hang in there.” She felt for his pulse. It was weak but still there.

  “Jack, hang with me. Help’s on the way. Just hang—”

  The shots sailed no more than an inch above her head. She ducked down and pulled Lineberry with her.

  Pine was about to pull her gun and fire back, but then she decided not to.

  She heard a car engine start up.

  Okay, that was interesting and told her a lot.

  She could smell Lineberry’s vomit commingled with the sweet humid Georgia air and her own adrenaline-fueled sweat.

  She opened the driver’s-side door, slipped off her heels, and dropped to her knees, using the car as a shield.

  The headlights appeared about a hundred yards from her position. She couldn’t tell what type of car it was. And she couldn’t see the driver.

  She slipped the Nano from her purse. She had eight shots; she hoped they were enough.

  She used the side of the Aston Martin as a fulcrum point and aimed her gun at the oncoming vehicle. They didn’t know she had a weapon. For all they knew, both she and Lineberry were incapacitated. The shots fired her way might have been a way of trying to ferret that out.

  That was why she hadn’t fired back earlier. She would have had nothing to aim at. Now she did.

  The vehicle was gathering speed.

  Hold your fire, Pine. Hold it…She moved a strand of hair away from her right eye. She exhaled a breath, grew still, physiologically perfect to hit what she was aiming at, just as she had been taught.

  The driver apparently decided to just go for it, because he accelerated and what she could now see was a large SUV barreling down on them, ready to finish the job, apparently.

  Pine waited until the truck was less than twenty yards away.

  Her first shot hit the windshield right in front of the driver. The second shot blew an even bigger hole in the windshield at the same spot. She moved the barrel of her Nano just a bit and fired twice into the passenger side. Then she shot a hole through the front grille and then took out the right front tire. She had two shots left and she aimed to keep them in reserve.

  With the first shots, the SUV had swerved to the right and then the left before stopping dead about ten yards from her.

  She waited. They apparently waited.

  Her Nano was aimed right at the truck. Anyone stepping from it, she would shoot down.

  Minutes ticked by.

  When she heard the sirens Pine almost screamed in relief.

  The people in the SUV must’ve heard them, too. The truck backed up, its rear wheels spinning to gain traction and then it reached the asphalt and barreled off down the road, heading back the way Pine and Lineberry had come.

  She ran out into the road, leveled her pistol, and fired her last two rounds at the wobbly truck, the steam coming out of the engine compartment because of the shot-through radiator.

  There was no way that truck could keep going long.

  She ran back to the car and checked on Lineberry. He was still breathing, and his eyes even fluttered open.

  “Help’s almost here, Jack. Hang on.”

  “L-Lee.”

  “I’m right here.”

  His eyes remained open and fixed on her. He put a hand out and gently touched Pine’s face. “A-Aman-da.”

  Amanda?

  His eyes closed as she looked up to see a cop cruiser followed by an ambulance flying toward them.

  Pine ran toward them, flagging them down.

  The cop car swerved toward her and stopped. She didn’t even wait for them to get out. She ran to them, flashing her badge, and leaned in the open window to face the two startled deputies sitting inside.

  “Shooter’s in an SUV and headed that way. I shot out the windshield and a tire and the radiator. He’s armed. Go get ’em and call in reinforcements to block their exit. I’ll deal with the EMTs.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  The squad car peeled away, and Pine pointed the ambulance toward the Aston Martin as she sprinted that way.

  They got there at the same moment.

  “GSW,” she cried out to the EMTs as they jumped from the truck. “Upper right torso. He’s bled out a lot. He’s unconscious. Hurry.”

  They grabbed their gear from the truck and raced to the car.

  They started working on him right there in the seat. Pine marveled at how the EMTs, both young and female, performed their tasks quickly and efficiently. They checked his vitals and then started fluids and plasma while also working away at the wound
and subduing the exterior bleeding.

  Pine looked up as Laredo pulled up in his rental, along with Blum.

  They ran over and joined her next to the Aston Martin.

  “Is he…?” began Blum.

  One of the EMTs looked up. “He’s stable, critical but stable. We got the bleeding stopped and his vitals have leveled out. We need to get him to Americus, stat.”

  One of them slid a gurney from the back of the ambulance and all of them helped lift Lineberry onto it. As they were about to close the rear doors, Pine said, “I’ll ride with him.”

  As she climbed into the back Laredo said, “The shooter?”

  “The cops are after them. I might have hit the driver, and I messed up the truck.”

  “I’ll find out what I can,” promised Laredo. “We can follow you to the hospital.” He glanced at her arm. “Shit, Pine, you’ve been hit too.”

  Pine glanced down at her bloodied and blackened bare arm.

  “Bullet didn’t really hit me, just grazed. I’ll get a Band-Aid.”

  “You’ll get more than a Band-Aid,” said Blum firmly. She looked at the EMT in the rear, who had overheard all this. She nodded at Blum. “Done, ma’am.”

  The doors closed, and shortly they were moving with the siren blaring.

  Pine sat next to Lineberry while the EMT monitored his vitals and kept a watchful eye on her patient. Then she cleaned and gauzed Pine’s wound.

  “Do you think he’s going to make it?” asked Pine quietly.

  “He’s got a decent chance. They’ll know more when they x-ray him. I’ve emailed what we know about his condition to the hospital in Americus so they’ll be prepared when we get there. They’ll have to operate right away. Depends on whether the bullet did any really bad internal damage and if he’s got a bleeder going on inside. But for now his BP is steady. That’s a good sign.”

  Pine gripped Lineberry’s hand. “I need you to make it, Jack, for a lot of reasons.”

  She pushed her hair out of her face, leaned down farther, and gave him a kiss on the forehead. As she rose back up, it surprised her. A tear was rolling down her cheek. She couldn’t remember the last time that had happened. She hadn’t had a real, certifiable cry since losing her sister. Back then she had wept for what seemed like months.