Дэвид Балдаччи - King and Maxwell

“I think I got everything you needed.”

“Did anyone see you?” Michelle asked.

“Don’t think so. Parked a block over and approached the house from the rear. Left the same way. I checked the front street for surveillance but didn’t see any.”

“Did you go back to the hospital?”

He shook his head. “I’m not family, not anymore. From what the surgeon said in the waiting room the next forty-eight hours will probably be critical.”

“Well, there’s nothing more you can do about that,” said Michelle briskly.

“I’ve certainly done enough with Dana, including almost killing her.”

That statement hung in the air like a ball of concrete until Michelle said, “Did you eat?”

“No, I’m not hungry.”

“Tyler made a great dinner. We have some leftovers.”

“I’m not hungry, Michelle,” he said firmly.

She sat and stared up at him while Tyler hovered nervously in the background.

“Okay. Tyler has heard nothing back from his email. So what now? Did you exercise your little brain cells while you were gone?”

“I did. But I’m afraid not much came out of them.” He glanced over at Tyler. “I’m really hoping that your dad gets back to us, Tyler. Without that we don’t have much to go on.”

“Anything on the three guys at the mall?” asked Michelle.

“I’m sure there’s a lot, we’re just not privy to any of it.”

“McKinney sure as hell won’t be keeping us in the loop,” said Michelle dryly.

“All he wants to do is arrest us.”

“Or shoot us,” added Michelle.

“I’ve got a few contacts at the local police,” said Sean. “They might know something about it.”

“Even a name would be helpful,” she said.

“More than we have to go on right now,” added Sean.

Tyler said, “But if my dad contacts me, we might have a lot more to work with.”

Sean exchanged a glance with Michelle.

Tyler saw this and said, “My dad didn’t do anything wrong. And he’s going to come back here and clear his name.”

“I’m sure he would want to do that,” said Michelle quietly.

Tyler scowled. “But you don’t think he’ll make it back. You think he’s dead, don’t you?”

Sean said, “The answer is we don’t know, Tyler. We hope he’s not dead.”

Tyler looked away.

“I did get one bit of information,” said Sean.

Michelle and Tyler perked up at this. “What?” they both said together.

“The name of someone at DTI who your dad worked with.”

“How did you score that?” asked Michelle.

“Yeah,” added Tyler. “He never talked about his work to me.”

“Friend of a friend.”

Michelle eyed Tyler and said, smiling, “Sean has lots of friends of a friend. He’s very popular at parties.”

Sean continued, “Your dad’s co-worker was a woman named Mary Hesse. You ever hear him mention her?”

Tyler shook his head. “Like I said, he didn’t really talk about work.”

Sean slowly nodded. “Right. Well, I’m going to see her tonight. She might be able to tell us something.”

“I can go too,” said Michelle.

“No, you have to stay here with Tyler.”

“Why don’t we all go?” suggested Tyler.

“No,” Sean said firmly. “I have no idea if Hesse will even give me five minutes. She sounded very reluctant over the phone. If we all show up, it might freak her out.”

Michelle said, “Okay, that makes sense. I’ll play bodyguard. You play detective.”

Tyler said nothing, but he didn’t look too happy.

A bit later Michelle walked Sean out to his car.

“I’m really sorry about Dana, Sean, but it wasn’t your fault.”

“Of course it was, but I don’t want to get into that again.” He fumbled with his keys. Michelle put a calming hand over his shaky one.

“You have to just let it go for now, Sean. If you keep up this way you’ll be no good to yourself or anyone else.”

“I know,” he said resignedly. “It’s just hard to shut it off.”

“Secret Service. Tunnel vision. Block everything else out. Like you said, these are dangerous waters. Bring your A-game all around. Right?”

He nodded curtly. “A-game, right. Thanks, Michelle, for a gentle kick in the pants.”

“Any time. I can also do the hard kick in the pants if necessary.”

“And don’t I know it.” He got into the car. “I’ll call you when I’m on my way back.”

“Okay.”

He gazed at his house. “A-game all around,” he said. “Including you. You’ve got the precious cargo.”

AFTER SEAN DROVE OFF MICHELLE did a perimeter patrol then walked back to the house. She locked all the doors and made sure her pistol had a round in the chamber. She looked down at the kitchen table where Tyler sat with his schoolbooks piled everywhere.

“Lots of homework?” she asked.

“Always lots of homework,” he said dully. However, he made no move to open a book or pick up a pencil.

“Shouldn’t you be getting to it?”

“I suppose.” He paused, gritting his teeth. “Where do you think my dad is right now?”

“Maybe on a plane back here from the Middle East.”

Tyler listlessly thumbed through some pages in his math textbook.

Michelle doubted he was focusing on the formulas she could see on the pages. She eyed him more closely. “Before your dad deployed the last time, did he talk to you about anything?”

He stared at her blankly. “Anything like what? We talked about lots of stuff.”

“Anything out of the ordinary? It could have been something seemingly innocuous.”

Tyler thought about this and then slowly shook his head. “He told me to work hard in school and swimming. To mind Jean. And to keep out of trouble. Stuff like that.”

Michelle nodded. “Well, keep mulling it over. Something else might strike you.”

Michelle heard the noise before Tyler did. She pushed him down under the table and with one long leap reached the wall light switch and plunged the room into darkness.

Her Sig was in her right hand. She blinked rapidly to adjust her eyes to the absence of light.

Tyler whispered, “Michelle, what is it?”

“Someone outside,” she whispered back. “You stay there. Get your phone out. Tap in nine-one-one. If I’m not back in five minutes call them.”

“But–”

“Just stay down and stay quiet, Tyler. It’ll be okay.”

Michelle crab-walked out of the room, her gaze swiveling and taking in as much as her lines of sight would allow. She did not like noises in the night that she knew represented stealthy footsteps. Sean had neighbors on both sides of him, but there were buffers of trees on both those sides, too. A nice little screen for felons to do their work.

Michelle’s immediate thought was that the three stiffs at the mall had friends who had returned to finish the job.

She took a quick peek out the front window.

A sedan was there that hadn’t been before. She couldn’t tell if anyone was inside or not. Her Land Cruiser was parked in the driveway but she couldn’t risk trying to reach it with Tyler in tow. She continued to watch out the window, all the while keeping her ears peeled for sounds of intrusion.

She stiffened when she saw the man come around the corner of the house.

“Shit!” she hissed.

She opened the front door and called out to him. “Is there something you wanted, Agent McKinney?”

He turned and saw her. Her manner had been jocular. When she saw his face, her jocularity vanished.

“What is it?” she asked.

He came toward her. “Can we talk?”

“What are you doing here? How did you even know to come here?”

“We’re DHS,” he growled. “We do have resources.”