Eric Lustbader - Blood Trust

“Take him, then.” The president began to talk about the details. “This crime spree is spreading like a virus. You pull the plug and America’s image starts to shine again. As of this moment, you have Alpha Authorization to procure anything you require for this mission. I want you to bring me Arian Xhafa’s head.”

Paull was leafing through the file. “I’ll need a better photo of Xhafa.”

The president looked pained again. He produced three more photos, placing them side by side with the first one—grainy, slightly blurred surveillance photos obviously taken with a long lens. He pointed to each one, in turn.

“Xhafa could be this man, or this one, or this one. More likely he’s none of these three. We just don’t know.”

“A bio?”

“Ditto. We don’t know his parentage or where he came from.”

“You’re kidding, right?”

“This is a very special person we’re talking about, Denny. A dark prodigy, a creature of pure evil.”

“Like Kurtz in his jungle temple.”

“No, Denny. Kurtz came from civilization. Xhafa was born in a dark place and there he resides, with the power of a mythical monster.”

Paull scraped a hand across his chin. “How could he have amassed so much power and influence?”

“McClure likes solving real-life puzzles, doesn’t he?”

Paull rose. As he reached the door, the president’s voice caused him to turn back.

“There’s something else that isn’t in the dossier. Arian Xhafa has more money than an Albanian crime lord ought to have.”

“The sophisticated weaponry,” Paull said.

The president nodded again. “What’s the source of his capital, and, just as troubling, how was he able to obtain the weaponry? You need the highest-level contacts for that. Two more mysteries you’re tasked with solving.”

“You’re not asking for much, are you, sir?”

The president produced a thin smile. “Has to be done, Denny, and now. Along with the sudden influx of capital came the ambition to expand his organization outside the borders of Macedonia and Albania—starting with Italy because it’s so close, just across the Adriatic, as well as Spain, France, and Germany.

“The Albanians moved in on the Italian Mafia’s territory when the Italian police successfully splintered the mob. Power abhors a vacuum. Xhafa saw his opportunity and jumped in with both feet. Now he has to be stopped before he turns his people into a full-fledged international criminal operation.”

“So this isn’t a strictly humanitarian mission.”

President Crawford smiled an ironic smile. “Jesus, Denny, when is it ever?”

FOUR

THE MOMENT the shrink left, Alli broke down and cried. She wept as she hadn’t wept in nearly a year. Her sobs were deep and heartfelt, all the more so because she had forced herself to keep them in abeyance for the hundred minutes or so that the shrink was questioning her. He was a small, dark man with a scraggly beard and a sharp nose. He smelled faintly of tobacco and loss.

Now that she was alone, she desperately wanted to hear Jack’s reassuring voice. But the lawyer had taken away her cell as evidence and there was no phone in her uncle’s study where she sat on a voluminous, high-backed chair, so familiar to her from the days when her father took her here and she hung out while he and Uncle Hank went downstairs into the cellar to talk. As a young girl, it had never occurred to her to question why they chose the cellar. Later, however, it became clear that they had ensured that the cellar was the most secure place in the house. Security was the last thing on her mind as she thought about the current nightmare in which she was enmeshed.

The study was exactly as she remembered it, filled with Old World–carved, hand-turned wood, a coffered ceiling, bookcases from floor to ceiling, and an immense stone fireplace over which a stuffed buck’s head with impressive antlers gazed down on her with, she was sure, steady compassion.

Forty-five or so minutes later, her uncle and his lawyer appeared.

Alli was struggling to blot out the sight of Billy Warren, drained of blood, cut all over, his carotid breached as if by a vampire’s fang, but the image refused to be banished. It hung in her mind like a guest who, overstaying his welcome, now threatens to take over your home.

“Alli,” Henry Holt Carson said, as he sat down on the sofa facing her. “How are you feeling?” Behind him stood Harrison Jenkins, as immobile as a cigar store Indian.

“How d’you think I’m feeling,” she said dully.

“I’m afraid I have no idea.”

“That’s just the problem!” She honed the accusatory note to a fine point. “Why are you keeping me here? Why can’t I even call Jack?”

“McClure is busy, trying to clear your name, one hopes,” Carson said. “Besides, by court order you cannot leave here.”

“Then I want to speak with him.”

“In time, perhaps.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

“Alli, I wish you’d learn to curb your tongue.” He shifted, obviously uncomfortable. Then he set two prescription vials onto the low table between them. “The psychopharmacologist who interviewed you…”

At the word she stared at the vials. “You want to give me drugs?” She leapt up and, with a backhand swipe, sent the vials flying across the room. “I’m not taking any fucking drugs!” She was white and trembling.

“Alli, I don’t think you understand the true nature of your situation.”

“Henry, allow me.” Jenkins came around and gestured for Alli to sit back down. When she did, he sat on a chair next to her. “The detectives were anxious to take you into custody. I used a technicality to forestall them. Nevertheless, I had to go before a federal judge this morning and defend you with the district attorney breathing down my neck. This much you know. A horrific crime has been committed and there is a tremendous amount of pressure from all sides to find the murderer and bring him or her to justice.”

“I didn’t kill Billy!” Alli cried. “Why won’t anyone listen?”

“I didn’t say you killed him. Frankly, I believe you’re innocent, but there are two pieces of incriminating evidence that say otherwise”—he held up a hand to stop her protest—“or lead to the conclusion that someone very clever has, for whatever reason, set you up.” He took a breath. “Can you think of anyone who would have cause to implicate you in a capital crime?”

She glanced at her uncle before shaking her head. Her eyes drifted away. “No.”

Jenkins studied Alli for a moment, then turned to Carson. “Henry, please give me a few moments.”

Carson frowned. “Are you sure?”

“Henry, I imagine there is a backlog of calls impatiently awaiting your attention.”

Carson grunted, rose, and, crossing the carpet, went out the door, closing it softly behind him.

Jenkins took a deep breath, then turned to Alli. “Now, my dear, what is it you wish to say?” Seeing her quick glance at the closed door, he added, “Anything you tell me is privileged information … even from your uncle.”

Alli worried her lower lip before she put her elbows on her knees. “Someone is framing me. I mean there’s no way I dosed my roommate or killed Billy. God!”

He nodded sagely.

“You don’t believe me.”

“What makes you say that?”

Alli ran a hand through her hair. “This is a nightmare.” She cleared her throat. “Everyone thinks I’m suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome.”

Jenkins waited a moment. “That’s it?”

“Yes.”

“So it’s your contention that you’re fine.”

“I didn’t poison anyone, I didn’t kill anyone.”

He slid back in his chair and pursed his lips. “I’ll take that into consideration.”