“I’m certainly sorry to hear about Agent Pine,” said Callum. “But I don’t think we can do any deals, at least not right now.”

  “Why?”

  “Because the lady is represented by counsel now. He’ll have to come up to speed and then we’ll have to have the prosecutors meet with him. If we don’t go by the book, we can jeopardize our entire case.”

  “Who’s her lawyer? A local guy?”

  “Nope. Guy named Marbury, Stephen Marbury. He’s in from New York. You probably passed him in the hall. Older guy, gray hair, dressed in a suit that probably costs more than my truck.”

  Mercy said, “That’s the jerk we passed in the hall. He’s her lawyer?”

  “That’s right. Just flew into town, he said.”

  Blum thanked Callum for his help, told him not to mention them to the lawyer, and then she led Mercy outside.

  They climbed into the Porsche and eyed the black Escalade that was idling out in front of the detention center, with the driver on his phone.

  Mercy said, “Probably Marbury’s ride. He looked like a guy who gets driven around.”

  “So maybe we wait around and see where that ride takes him.”

  “Maybe to my sister?” said Mercy.

  “Maybe,” said Blum in a distracted tone.

  “What’s the matter?” asked Mercy, glancing at her.

  “Something Desiree said,” Blum suddenly exclaimed. “Stay here, I’ll be right back.”

  She hurried back into the facility. About two minutes later, she came out and got back into the Porsche.

  “So what’s going on?” asked Mercy.

  “I just talked to Callum. He said Desiree has made no phone calls since she’s been here. And you recall she told us she was going to get a lawyer?”

  Mercy nodded slowly, thinking this through. “So if she made no calls and said she was going to get a lawyer, she obviously had no idea this Marbury dude was even coming today.”

  “So if Desiree didn’t send for this high-powered lawyer from New York, who did?”

  Chapter 50

  PETER BUCKLEY LISTENED ON HIS PHONE for a few minutes. He liked to listen. That was the way one learned things. When you talked, you gave away things.

  He said, “Fine. But I want to meet face-to-face and you can give me a fuller briefing. I’ll text you the address. I’ve arranged a place for the very short-term.”

  He put his phone back in his pocket and returned to the room where Pine was seated in the chair. They had tied her to it this time, so if any more beatings happened, she wouldn’t fall off it. Britt Spector stood off to one side, watching, a nervous expression on her features.

  “Agent Pine,” said Buckley. “The woman you arrested is Dolores Venuti. She is accused, among other things, of kidnapping a child and holding her prisoner.”

  Pine said, “I know that.”

  “Why do I think Dolores Venuti and Desiree Atkins are one and the same?”

  “Think what you want,” replied Pine. “It’s a free country.”

  “You won’t confirm it?”

  “No.”

  “I’ve also heard that Dolores will try to make bail.”

  “That’ll never happen. She’s a flight risk.” Pine caught herself a beat too late.

  Buckley allowed himself a brief smile. “Right. She’s a flight risk because you told them about what happened in Georgia. Good, thank you for confirming my theory that Dolores and Desiree are one and the same. As for the bail, we will have to see. Court decisions are sometimes unpredictable.”

  “Not this time.”

  “But if she does make bail I will pay her to tell me what she knows.”

  “Desiree hasn’t seen the woman in nearly twenty years. What could she possibly tell you?”

  “One never knows until one asks.”

  “And if you talk to her, then you’ll just drop me back at the hotel all safe and sound?” said Pine in a blistering tone.

  Buckley eyed Spector before answering. “I will give you one more chance to tell me all you know about El Cain. Then, your death is not inevitable. You have my word.”

  “Your word? Don’t think so. I pass.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “What I’m sure of is that I was dead the moment I let your goons get the drop on me. But if you’re going to kill me anyway, you have no reason not to tell me why you want Cain so badly.”

  “I told you. She killed someone.”

  “But you didn’t tell me who.”

  “That is no concern of yours.”

  “Come on. I give you my word, I won’t tell anyone. Not that I’ll be able to.”

  Buckley hesitated, his mind working rapidly, perhaps too rapidly. “My brother.”

  Spector shot him a disapproving look, but said nothing.

  “And did he deserve it?”

  “Without a doubt he did.”

  “So what’s your beef with her, then?”

  “He was my family. That’s enough reason for me.”

  “I can see how you might think that. But thinking like that tends to get you killed.”

  “I like my odds better than yours right now.”

  “So when will you know if Desiree makes bail?” she said.

  “Soon.”

  “Well, I’ve got lots of time then.”

  Buckley eyed her closely. “You are brave. I like that in a person.”

  “Thanks, now go fuck yourself.”

  Spector smiled at this comment, but turned away so Buckley wouldn’t see.

  “Are you sure you don’t want to reconsider? It is possible that you know a lot more about the matter than Desiree does. I’m a man who prefers as much information as possible.”

  “Repeat in your head what I just said to you.”

  A visibly frustrated Buckley turned and left, beckoning Spector to join him. Spector eyed Pine for a long moment. Judging by her expression, a number of troubling thoughts were going through her mind. Then she turned and followed Buckley out.

  Chapter 51

  PINE LISTENED AS ADDITIONAL SETS of footsteps followed those of the two people who had already left. Then another one after that. The light was turned off, driving her even deeper into darkness. The door was closed and locked. And then a few seconds later all became quiet as the sound of the footfalls vanished.

  She waited a bit longer and then leaned so far forward in the chair that the back legs came off the floor. Her knees edged down to touch the concrete, so there was barely any noise. They had tied her ankles individually to the chair legs, but had not run the rope through the crossbeam. That was a big mistake. She slowly turned to the side and simply straightened her own legs to free them. Then she was able to stand with the chair still attached to her.

  The blindfold had slipped enough with her maneuvers that part of it was close to her mouth. She bit down on the fabric and jerked her head to the left and right. The cloth slipped enough to where she could see. She looked at the wall, turned, and backed toward it until the chair bumped into it.

  She bent forward so the lower half of the chair and the back legs were right against the wall. Then she slowly applied weight and thus pressure until she could feel the wood begin to give. She kept going, slowly. The last thing she needed was some explosion of sound to bring her captors running.

  The left leg separated first and then the right. Then the bottom half of the chair came apart from the top. The next minute the whole thing was splitting apart at various spots. She got her hands free of the restraints and quietly pulled the chair off her. She ripped away the blindfold and looked around at the darkened space. No windows. Solid walls. One door in and out. Slab floor. She slipped over to the door, and put her ear against it. She could hear nothing. If someone had been on the other side, they would have already come bursting in here. She tried the door, but it was locked. She had no phone, no lockpick kit, no guns.

  She was alone with no way to get help.

  Instead of feeling hopeless, she saw it as a challenge, an obstacle to be overcome. And it wasn’t like she had anything else to do while they were waiting to kill her.

  Pine looked around the space and saw some boxes stacked by the wall. In one was an emergency radio with a built-in light and other features. She popped the battery compartment and snagged the old batteries in there; some had their ends ruptured where the chemicals had seeped through. She laid out the batteries on their sides in front of the door, pocketed one of them, and then stood on the chair Buckley had used and unscrewed the light bulb. Then she climbed down and went to stand by the door.

  Pine stood there for more than an hour until she heard footsteps—fortunately, only one set.

  She moved back against the wall.

  The door was unlocked and then it opened. She saw in the darkness a hand move to the light switch as the person entered the room. No light came on, obviously. Then the feet reached the batteries underfoot, and the person fell heavily.

  That was the only opportunity Pine needed. She could see his outline on the floor from the scant illumination coming from the next room. She smashed her foot right into his diaphragm to keep him from crying out. Her next shot was an elbow strike to the head, which bounced his cranium off the concrete with the same level of whiplash a rear-end car accident might inflict. The impact knocked him cold.

  She searched him and pulled out his pistol. Fortunately, in his other pocket was her shield. She used the rope from the chair to secure his hands and feet, and then she slid him over to a corner of the room.

  Pine looked closely at his face. This was one of the men who had kidnapped her from the hotel. She doubted this was the guy who had been talking to her. That man was clearly the boss, and head honchos seldom did the dirty work. She clocked him one more time in the face just for the hell of it.

  She moved out into the next room after shutting the door behind her and locking it. Then she quietly made her way across the room and up the stairs, and reached the top landing. The door was partially open. She did a turkey peek that revealed nothing. She did a second look and saw a man sitting at a table looking at his phone with his earbuds in. He was the other guy who had snatched her. She stuck her head out and surveyed the rest of the room.

  Empty. But that was not good enough. There was no room for error here; she only had one shot to do this right.

  She took out the battery with her left hand and hurled it at the window behind the guy. As soon as it struck the glass, the man jumped up from the table, dropping his phone on the floor, and cried out, “What the hell!”

  Pine waited three seconds to see if the tossed battery drew anyone else out into the open. When it was clear the man was alone, she stepped through the doorway and pointed the gun at him.

  “On your knees, hands behind your head, then lie down face-first, legs spread. Do it now or I will shoot you.”

  The man saw the gun, fell to the floor, and put his hands behind his head.

  Pine quickly moved forward and used the butt of the gun to inflict two hard taps on his skull, knocking him out. He got the same trussed-up treatment as his partner downstairs, with a cord of thick twine she found in a cabinet.

  She snagged his phone and called 911, told the dispatcher who she was and what had happened, and asked her to notify Tate Callum of her circumstances.

  “Do you know where you are?” the dispatcher asked.

  “Give me a sec.”

  She ran outside and looked around at the thick woods surrounding the house in which she’d been held captive. “In the middle of nowhere. Seems to be a lot of that around here.”

  “Okay, we can trace you by your phone. Just leave it on.”

  She looked down at the phone. “The battery is really low. It might die on me, and I’m not hanging around here, because some other people might show up. I’m going to walk out to the main road. That might give me a better idea where I am. Hold on.”

  Pine ran down the long, twisty drive, finally reached the main street, and found a mailbox with a number address on it and then a street sign farther down. She gave this information to the dispatcher.

  The dispatcher said, “I’ll have officers there as fast as possible. Be careful, Agent Pine.”

  Next, Pine was about to call Blum when—

  “Shit.” She looked down at the screen as the iPhone’s juice ran out and it went dark.

  The last thing she wanted to do was go back to the house and search for a phone charger. A moment later, an ancient, rattling Ford pickup truck with a license plate designating it as an antique appeared around a curve and headed her way. Pine stood in the middle of the street with her shield held up high. When the driver slowed and stopped, Pine rushed forward. Behind the wheel was a white-haired woman in her eighties, wearing faded bib overalls, a straw hat, and a wry smile.

  “I’m an FBI agent,” Pine said, showing her the shield. The woman squinted at it and then pulled up her glasses, which dangled on a chain, to see it better.

  “My, my, that’s very impressive, young lady.”

  “I need you to drive me to a hotel in downtown Asheville.” She told the woman the address, then added, “It’s an emergency.”

  “Sure, honey. I know where that is. Get in.”

  Pine jumped into the passenger seat and the woman said, “Do I get to break the speed limit since it’s an emergency?”

  Pine said, “Do whatever you need to do to get me there as fast as possible. Any cops stop us, I’ll deal with it. Do you have a cell phone I can use?”

  The woman shook her head. “Had one of them flip phones once, but I never got the hang of it. Every time that thing rang in my pocket, nearly scared me to death.”

  “Great,” said Pine under her breath.

  “Now, let’s get going,” the old woman said as she sat up straighter, took off her glasses, and rammed down the gas pedal.

  The truck leapt forward but then settled into a sedate forty miles per hour pace.

  The woman looked over at her and smiled. “This truck belonged to my father. Got it wound all the way up, missy. All hundred and forty horsepower. Can you feel it? We’ll be there lickety-split. This is so exciting.”

  “Yes, ma’am” was all Pine could manage.

  Chapter 52

  THERE HE IS,” SAID BLUM.

  Stephen Marbury had just walked out of the detention facility. He had a pleased expression on his face as he climbed into the back of the Escalade. As soon as the door closed, the vehicle drove off.

  Blum put the Porsche in gear and followed at a discreet distance.

  Mercy said, “You really think this is connected to Lee’s disappearance?”

  “I would be shocked if it weren’t. But I’ve been to Desiree’s house. If she was working with a drug ring that has this kind of legal muscle, I would have thought she’d be more affluent.”

  “She might be socking it away and living light to avoid suspicion,” opined Mercy.

  Blum glanced at her. “You’d make a good detective.”

  “I’ve lived life and learned my lessons,” replied Mercy tersely.

  The Escalade turned onto the main road and sped up. Both vehicles traveled several blocks in moderate traffic before stopping at a red light.

  “Do you remember anything of your life before you went to the Atkinses?” asked Blum. “Except what you’ve already told me?”

  “I sort of remember my mother. She was tall, too. I remember Lee being up in a tree. And I went back to the Atkinses’ place in Crawfordville, to my little prison. Found my doll, Sally, and took it. She’s in my duffel.”

  “It must have been painful reliving all that.”

  “It was, at first. And then I remembered that I survived all that.”

  The light changed and they started up again.

  “I wonder where he’s going,” said Mercy.

  “Hopefully to a place that will lead us to Agent Pine.”

  “Do you like working with her?”

  “It’s the best job I’ve ever had.”

  “Lee sounds perfect,” Mercy said with a bit of snark.

  Blum glanced at Mercy. “If that was your impression from what I said, then I said it wrong. She grew up largely alone. Even when her mother was there, she told me that she really wasn’t. After what happened, it was like your mother both smothered your sister as far as never letting her out of sight, but then cut her off emotionally.”

  Mercy looked over at Blum, her expression now more nuanced. “That must’ve been tough. A double whammy, ’cause I kind of remember Lee liked to do stuff Mom didn’t want her to do, but then Mom was really proud of her for doing it. That seemed to mean a lot to Lee, like they were real tight.”

  “I’m a mother. I know how important maternal nurturing is. Nothing comes close to what you endured, but Agent Pine has suffered the effects of that motherly absence, too.”

  Mercy nodded and looked thoughtfully out the window. “And my dad is this Jack Lineberry character? How exactly did that shake out?”

  “He worked at a government agency. I’m not sure which one. As I said, he was your mother’s handler. They developed feelings for each other and acted on those feelings. I’m sure it was a very difficult time for both of them. Jack was actually engaged to someone else, but then he fell in love with your mother. And…and then they…got together and your mother became pregnant with you and your sister.”

  Mercy smiled. “You have a nice, polite way with words, Carol. You mean they had sex and out popped twins.”

  “That’s one way to describe it,” said Blum primly.

  She turned left to follow the Escalade.

  “And where is this Lineberry guy now?”

  “He’s at his estate in Georgia.”

  “Estate, huh? Must be nice.”

  “He’s leaving everything to you and Agent Pine, by the way. All his wealth. You will be a very rich woman when the time comes.”

  Blum glanced at Mercy to see her reaction to this. It wasn’t what she expected. Or maybe it was.

  Mercy was frowning. “I get by just fine. I don’t need big bucks from a guy who screwed my mom.”