Stone Cold

by David Baldacci

  delivered. Bagger offered to pay his asking price and added a five grand bonus on top of it.

  “You must need it bad,” the colleague said.

  It was true, Bagger really did need the boom bad. Ironically, such devices almost always killed people, lots of people. Yet in this case, it might just let one person live.

  Me.

  “Okay,” Annabelle said to Alex and her father. “We need to get me to that van.”

  Paddy stood and shook his head. “Afraid not, Annie.”

  “What?” she said quickly with a sharp glance at Alex. He seemed as puzzled as she was.

  “You’re not going to be in that van. I am,” Paddy said.

  “That’s not part of the plan. Jerry wants me, not you.”

  “I’ll tell him you got the better of me. He’ll buy that. He damn well knows how smart you are.”

  “Paddy, I’m not letting Jerry near you.”

  “You’ve got your whole life ahead of you, Annie. If something goes wrong and I’m the one who buys it, so what?”

  “Why didn’t you tell me this part before?”

  “Because I knew you wouldn’t go along with it, that’s why. Now we’ve gone too far to turn back.”

  “Alex, talk to him.”

  “Well, what he’s saying makes sense, Annabelle.”

  “You’ll put me in the van,” Paddy continued. “I’ll buy some time with Jerry telling him how you outsmarted me, but I can still get to you if he lets me have another chance.”

  “Paddy, he’ll kill you as soon as he sees you.”

  “I’ve known Jerry a lot longer than you have. I know how to play the fella, you just have to trust me on that one.”

  “I’m not going to let you do—”

  “I have to do this. For a lot of reasons.”

  She looked from her father to Alex and back to Paddy. “What if something goes wrong?”

  “Then it goes wrong,” replied Paddy. “Now let’s get this show on the road. I’m not getting any younger.” He pointed a finger at Alex. “But one thing. No cavalry until the bastard admits to killing Tammy.”

  The call came at eleven o’clock with the address. At midnight Bagger’s men went into the parking garage and found the white van on the second level. In the back, neatly hidden in a roll of carpet, was a person.

  “Shit!” Mike Manson said as he shone his light on the person’s head. “It’s some geezer.”

  They unrolled the carpet and there was Paddy Conroy. He was apparently so weak from being bound up that they had to help him stand.

  Manson shoved a gun in his sweating face. “What the hell is going on? Who the hell are you?”

  “What’s going on is that my damn daughter screwed me.”

  A smile eased across Manson’s face. “You’re Paddy Conroy?”

  “No, I’m the king of Ireland, you dumb-shit.”

  Manson shoved him across the van and Paddy hit the sidewall and slumped down. Manson got on the phone and relayed the news to Bagger.

  The casino boss was delighted at getting ahold of his old nemesis, but he also didn’t like this abrupt change in the plan. No, he didn’t like it at all, because that meant Annabelle was out there somewhere.

  “Bring him,” he instructed Mike.

  Manson clicked off. “Now we go for a little ride. But first.”

  The two men expertly searched Paddy for any surveillance devices.

  A minute later the white van roared out of the garage, hit a hard left, sailed down an alleyway, turned right and slid to a stop behind three black SUVs parked there in a column.

  Paddy was hustled by Mike Manson into the middle one. All three trucks fired up and sped out of the alley. One turned left, one right and the third went straight.

  The vehicles reached main roads and Bagger’s plan quickly became evident. Everywhere there were motorcades of black SUVs carrying World Bank conference attendees to or from important events. Bagger’s three SUVs were readily absorbed into this crush of dignitaries and bureaucrats.

  At ten-thirty that evening Bagger left his hotel with his men. They drove to a disused warehouse that Bagger’s men had located in a run-down industrial area in Virginia. There they waited until the black SUV with Paddy Conroy and Mike Manson pulled into the warehouse.

  As soon as Bagger saw Paddy he walked over to him and belted him right in the mouth. Paddy fell back against the vehicle and then tried to get to Bagger, but Bagger’s men held him back.

  “That was for the ten grand you stole from me. Been waiting a long time to pay you back on that one.”

  Paddy spat blood out of his mouth. “Best ten grand I ever took.”

  “Yeah, we’ll see how you feel about that in a few minutes. You got no idea how good I feel. You see, no Annabelle means my agreement not to go after your ass is null and void, as the prick lawyers say.”

  He studied Paddy’s gray, gaunt features and his threadbare clothes.

  “Looks like life’s been treating you real well. You sick, poor or both?”

  “What’s it to you?”

  “I’m insulted. I mean even you at the top of your game might not be good enough. You think it was smart coming after me wearing rags and looking like you’re knocking on the grave?”

  Paddy looked around at the armed men surrounding him. “Right this minute, not particularly smart, no.”

  Bagger sat down on a packing crate, his gaze never leaving Paddy’s face. “So Annabelle outsmarted you? How’d she manage that, Paddy?”

  “Like I said before, I guess I taught her too good.”

  “You sure about that?”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Maybe father and daughter got together to screw me. How about that theory?”

  “My daughter hates my guts.”

  “So you say.”

  “So I know. But if you believed otherwise, why do the deal at all?”

  “You know why. But now here you are and no Annabelle. So where is she?”

  “No clue, Jerry.”

  Bagger stood slowly. “I think you can do better than that. So you and me are gonna have a little chat.”

  “I’m not in the chatting mood.”

  Bagger took a serrated knife out of his jacket pocket and slipped on a plastic glove. “Oh, I can be pretty damn persuasive.” He looked at his men and nodded. A minute later, Paddy’s pants and underwear were off and Bagger was sizing up the man’s privates for cutting.

  “I used this technique on a little asshole named Tony Wallace in Portugal after I chatted with the people he’d hired to run his mansion with my money. And let me tell you something, he talked and talked right before we beat his brains out. In fact, that was the way I was able to track down Annabelle. And now you’re gonna do the same thing for me, old man. You know where Annabelle is and now you’re gonna tell me. And when you do I kill you fast, no pain. If you don’t talk? Well, you just don’t wanta go there, trust me. ”

  Paddy struggled against his captors, but they were too strong. As the knife came closer and closer to a spot no man would want a sharp instrument to be, Paddy cried out, “For Chrissakes, don’t! Just put a bullet in my brain.”

  “Tell me where Annabelle is, and I promise I’ll kill you fast. That’s the only deal you’re getting now. And if you really hate your daughter, you should have no problem telling me where she is, right?”

  “If I did know do you think I’d be here, you idiot?”

  Bagger slapped him across the face. “You show some respect.”

  “Here’s my respect.” Paddy spat in his face. “That’s for Tammy.”

  “Right, your old lady you left behind for me.”

  “I was in jail on the night you murdered her, you bastard. Otherwise you’d have had to go through me to get to her. She was the only thing I ever loved in my whole life. And I swear to God above, before this was all over, I was planning on putting a bullet right into your brain just like you did her.”

  “Was that
before or after I killed your daughter?”

  “Any price I had to pay to get you, I was willing to do it,” Paddy screamed at him.

  “But Annabelle screwed that all up, didn’t she? Didn’t she, old man?”

  “Can’t blame her for turning the tables on me.”

  “Since you were planning to whack me for killing your wife, why don’t I fill you in on her last minutes of life? Would you like that?”

  “I’ll find some way to kill you, Jerry. I swear it.”

  “I’ll take that as a yes. We crashed her house, and she recognized me right away. And you know what she said? She said, ‘Why are you doing this, Jerry? Why are you going to kill me? I didn’t do nothing to you.’ And you know what I told her? I said, because your chickenshit husband ripped me off and left you holding the bag. That’s how much he loved you, you dumb broad. And then I pumped a round right into her brain. Now, anything else you want to know about it before I start carving you up?”

  “No, that’s about it,” a woman’s voice said.

  They all turned as Annabelle and Alex walked out from behind a stack of crates. Alex had his gun pointed right at Bagger, while eight guns held by Bagger’s men pointed back at him and Annabelle.

  Bagger said, “How the hell did you get here?”

  “I came with the FBI,” Annabelle said.

  “Nobody could’ve followed my boys.”

  “We didn’t tail them. We followed you. The place is surrounded, Jerry. You’ve got no way out.”

  “Yeah? Working for the FBI now? Look, baby, you con me once, shame on you, con me twice, shit on me.” The man’s voice was confident, but his look was something less than that.

  “She’s telling the truth, jerk-off,” Alex yelled. “So just lay your weapons down before you don’t have a choice in the matter.

  “Kill ’em,” Bagger said.

  A split second later doors on all sides of the warehouse burst open and two dozen men in body armor came barreling in, sub-machine guns in hand.

  “FBI, put down your weapons. Now!”

  Bagger dropped the knife and his men quickly put down their guns in the face of the overpowering show of federal force.

  Bagger’s gaze went from Annabelle to Paddy. “Two con artists working with the feds?”

  “You do what you got to do, Jerry,” Paddy said as he hastily pulled his clothes back on.

  Bagger looked at one of the FBI agents and immediately regained his swagger. “That bitch ripped me off for forty million. She bother mentioning that to you while she was playing snitch?”

  “That’s not my concern.”

  “Oh yeah, so what exactly am I being charged with?”

  “Aside from kidnapping and assault, you’re being charged with the murders of Tammy Conroy, three people in Portugal and Tony Wallace, who died yesterday.”

  Bagger snorted. “I got a dozen eyewitnesses who’ll testify I wasn’t around when any of those people got killed.”

  Annabelle held up a video recording device. “We’ve got your whole confession right here, Jerry. I have to hand it to you, you speak very clearly.” She gave the device to the lead agent.

  Bagger looked at the FBI men, Paddy, Alex, and then his gaze came to rest on Annabelle.

  “Well, I guess this is it, then,” he said. His hand slipped to his pocket.

  “Hold it,” an FBI agent said. “Take that hand out very slowly.”

  Bagger did so. His hand was cupped around something. He said, “This is a detonator, folks. My thumb comes off this thing, I got a chunk of C4 in the SUV right behind me that’ll blow everything and everyone within a hundred yards sky-high.” He nodded at the lead agent. “See for yourself if you don’t believe me.”

  The lead agent nodded to one of his men. The man looked in the back of the vehicle. His glance back at his commander said it all.

  Bagger said, “Now here’s what we’re going to do.” With his free hand he pointed at Paddy and Annabelle. “They’re coming with me.”

  “We’re not letting you leave this building,” the commander said.

  “Then I’m going to blow us all to kingdom come.”

  “I don’t believe that,” the FBI agent said.

  “Best I can hope for is lethal injection, right? Well, I ain’t going alone. So if you don’t think I’ll do it, you don’t know Jerry Bagger.” He glanced at twin snipers who had placed red dots on his forehead. “And your boys shoot me, hot-shit FBI man, this thumb is coming off whether you like it or not.”

  The commander gazed uneasily at Alex and then Annabelle.

  She stepped forward. “Okay, Jerry, you win. Let’s go.”

  Alex stepped forward too. “I’m going too.”

  “No you’re not, Alex,” she snapped.

  Bagger smiled maliciously. “Alex? Alex, is it? You sound like you finally found a friend, Annabelle. And I don’t want to take your friends from you.” He looked at Alex. “Congratulations, jerk-off, you get to go too.”

  Bagger eyed the commander. “Just so you know, I’m a fair guy, so you can keep a few of my boys to make you look good.” He pointed to Mike. “Including Mike there.”

  “Mr. Bagger!” Mike started to protest.

  “Shut up,” Bagger snapped before turning to Annabelle and the others. “Get in the SUV.” Several of his men retrieved their weapons and everyone climbed in.

  Alex, Annabelle and Paddy slid into the middle seat. Bagger and one of his men got in the front seat, three others in the rear.

  Bagger rolled down the window. “I see one car or hear one chopper following us, I start popping people, understand?” He waved to the FBI agents as the vehicle sailed out of the warehouse.

  “Where to, Mr. Bagger?” the driver asked.

  “Private airport in western Maryland where I had them park the jet. I thought I might need to get away on short notice. I’m calling ahead right now to tell them to warm it up.” He glanced at Annabelle. “I’m sorry to say you three won’t be joining us.”

  CHAPTER 77

  CARTER GRAY WAS a remarkable fisherman. Only he had not caught the fish he most prized, and that was because he could not find the right bait. He had burned thousands of man-hours and looked at a mountain of digital files until his eyeballs were ready to fall out. And yet for all that trouble he only had one name to show for it: Harry Jedidiah, son of Lesya and Rayfield Solomon, a.k.a. David P. Jedidiah the second.

  He had tried to find Oliver Stone’s ragtag band of freaks: the big man and ex-military Reuben Rhodes that Gray remembered from Murder Mountain; the mousy librarian Caleb Shaw who had not been to his home or job at the Library of Congress in recent days; and Milton Farb, the cherubic genius with OCD. Gray had a dossier on each man, and yet they had simply vanished. Farb and Shaw hadn’t used their cell phones and Rhodes didn’t have one registered in his name. And Rhodes had recently moved and left no forwarding address. Nor was wherever he was living listed on any real estate records, because Gray’s men had checked. Still, with Carter Gray’s resources no one should be able to simply vanish. No wonder these terrorist sleeper cells were proving nearly impossible to uncover. America was too damn big and too damn free. In some ways the Soviets had had it right: Spy on everybody because you never know when a friend might turn into an enemy.

  He now turned his attention to locating Lesya’s son. And he had focused on one aspect in particular as the point of least resistance. He rose from his chair in his bunker and flipped on the TV. Then the intelligence chief hit a button on the remote he was holding.

  The scene he was looking at was from the Hart Senate Office Building. Roger Simpson clearly would be a target of Lesya’s son. If so he could either hit the senator at his home or office. Gray had already checked the surveillance cameras at Simpson’s condo building and found nothing helpful. Now he had turned to the office.

  He watched hour after hour of people coming and going into the building. There were many and their numbers tended to dilute everyone down to useless silhou
ettes. Then Gray thought of a second angle. He put in another DVD, sat back and started watching the hallway outside Simpson’s office. He spent three hours doing this, methodically checking out each person coming into frame.

  Finally. He sat up and viewed it again. The man working on the door to Simpson’s office. He zoomed in on the man’s face. Penetrating disguises was something Gray had been long trained in. In the cheekbone was that a touch of Solomon? The chin, the eyes, that of Lesya? Contrary to what he’d told the president, he knew the woman well.