Карин Слотер - Cleaning the Gold

Lukather paced behind her desk, her mouth set in an angry, straight line. “You want to tell me what the hell happened between you and Baldani?”

Will looked down at his hands. He wasn't trying to show contrition. He was trying to hide his shock. One punch had knocked Baldani out cold, but Will's knuckles looked pristine. There wasn't even a red mark. Did the guy have teeth?

“Soldier?”

Will forced himself to look up.

“You longing for some solitary company?”

Will took her words for a threat. Brig or stockade, his entire mission would be blown if he ended up behind bars. “I apologize for my actions, ma'am. It won't happen again.”

“You're damn straight it won't.” She undid the top button to her jacket. He could see a river of sweat rolling down her neck. “When I said you were trouble, I didn't mean this kind.”

She had more to say, a lot more, but Will tuned her out, thinking about the USB drive. Judging by the shape of the lump in the envelope, it was about the size of his thumb, which was probably why they called it a thumb drive. There were two USB slots on the back of Lukather's computer. Will assumed the system was locked with a password, so looking at the contents of the drive wasn't going to happen. Not that he'd given much weight to that possibility. The most unbelievable scene in any action movie was the part where Tom Cruise jammed the thumb drive into the slot and it slid in on the first try.

“Wolfe.” Lukather drummed her fingers on her desk, drawing back his attention. “Can you explain to me in simple English why you hit Baldani?”

Will stuck to the plan. “He's an asshole.”

“He was an asshole when you were in here the first time and you didn't pop him.” She leaned over her desk, clearly frustrated. “Dave said he was walking down the hall, minding his own business, and you came at him out of nowhere.”

Will recalled the last argument he'd had with his girlfriend. “I've heard it said that for a smart man, I can do some pretty stupid things.”

“For the love of—” She looked up at the ceiling as if the brown water stain could offer an explanation. Obviously, she didn't get an answer. Or at least not the answer she was looking for. “Stay here.”

Will heard the door slam behind him. Heavy footsteps in the hall. Another door was opened, then slammed. She was checking his story with Reacher, just as Reacher had predicted.

Was he right about the USB drive, too?

Will stood from the chair, then went onto the tips of his toes, using his head to pop up one of the panels in the drop ceiling. The flashlight on his phone showed rat droppings, the p-trap for the shower above, and some PEX supply lines that were leaking because some idiot had used push fittings to connect it to galvanized pipe.

That explained why the wood panels on the walls were buckling.

He tilted down his head and let the panel drop into place. He considered his other options. The filing cabinets were locked. There were no pictures on the walls. All he found behind the clock was clock innards. Lukather's desk was the only other place to search. He started with the drawers, where boxes of extra pens and staples were aligned with military precision. He opened each one but found only pens and staples. The ball of rubber bands was filled with rubber bands. The box of tampons was a box of tampons. The family-sized bag of Skittles was filled with Skittles.

He moved on to the piles of folders on her desk, carefully thumbing through the pages, trying to keep the edges squared up as he looked for the envelope with its tell-tale USB lump. He felt underneath the seat of her chair. Then he checked the two other chairs. He rifled the pen cup and paperclip box and found pens and paperclips.

Not even lint.

Will ate some Skittles as he listened at the door. Reacher was taking a hell of a lot longer than Will to relay his version of events. Or maybe Lukather was going back at Baldani. Or maybe she was waiting for the MPs to show up and drag Will to the stockade, because Reacher was a bad guy, but he was also a smart guy, and he had basically talked Will into punching a major in the United States Army.

Will returned to the desk. He tried to put himself in Lukather's shoes. When that didn't work, he opened the drawers again, but this time, he ran his hand along the bottoms.

Bingo.

Will's fingers caught on the edge of an envelope taped to the underside of the file drawer. He got on his knees. He used the flashlight on his phone to look under the drawer. The white envelope was held in place with duct tape. He could tell from the shape that he'd found the wrong one. Lukather had stashed the cash under her desk. At least ten grand, all crisp hundreds, not the crumpled tens and twenties of desperate people, which meant that the loansharking money had been cleaned.

Where was the thumb drive?

“—dropped me in a pile of shit.” Lukather was out in the hall. The doorknob turned, but the door did not open. “Does that seem like a me problem or a you problem, Corporal?”

There was a stuttered response before someone took off running down the hall.

Will was sitting down as she entered the room.

Lukather gave him the once-over, certain that something was amiss but unable to say what. Her head went back into the hall. “Reacher, in here.”

Reacher looked pained at the thought of entering the cramped room. He was forced to tuck his chin into his chest. He waited for Lukather to sit, then crammed his monstrous form into the plastic chair beside Will. He still had to hunker down under the low ceiling. Hand him a newspaper and he'd look like the Incredible Hulk taking a shit.

Lukather rocked back in her chair. She had unbuttoned her jacket the rest of the way and was full-on sweating now. “Dave, get your ass in here.”

The door was already open, but Baldani slammed it back against the wall. Will did a double-take. The guy looked like a cannibal had thrown up on his face.

Lukather said, “All right, boys. Time to make nice.”

Baldani balked. “What the fuck?”

“ I'm the fuck, Major.” Lukather told Will, “I'm not going to waste my breath telling you to apologize, but I expect you to keep your hands to yourself going forward. Understood?”

Will nodded, because he knew if he opened his mouth, he'd break out into a grin. Here was one of the many pitfalls of going undercover with the bad guys: Will was enjoying this too much. Lukather wasn't the only woman who was going to be jerking a knot in his ass if this went sideways. Will had a real boss back in Georgia who had stuck out her neck to get Jack Wolfe inside of Fort Knox.

He silently reprimanded himself: Stop the bullshit. Get the DNA sample. Match it to Reacher. Arrest the cop killer.

Will cleared his throat. “Understood.”

“Fuck you, Fobbit.” Baldani wasn't going to let this go. “Colonel, you know this ain't right.”

“I know that I must do what's right for the depository.” Lukather tried to make him see reason. “Dave, there's a chance we can finish tomorrow if we keep these boys moving. Without them, we'll be cleaning another two days, possibly more. I need this job wrapped up pronto. You and I have both got better things to do.”

“Shit.” Baldani's lip was so swollen that he had started to lisp. “Screw breaking the record. We've got another two weeks to finish up, and we don't need trouble right now. Especially not now.”

She shot him a look of warning. “Careful.”

“ Colonel .” Baldani's eyes ponged between Reacher and Will. He was doing a really bad job of not talking about what he shouldn't be talking about. “We don't need trouble . Are you sure about this ?”