David Baldacci - Daylight

Pine’s spirits plummeted. How could that be? After their meeting Pine was sure Franklin would try to contact Gorman to warn him. She might try to go see him, too, but that would be far riskier. She would know she would be followed. Had she figured out that her phones had been tapped? Did she have another email account or a burner phone they weren’t aware of? If so, her plan was not going to work.

She noticed movement on the street and tensed. Someone had turned the corner from Franklin’s residence and was walking toward her. When the person passed under the streetlamp, Pine saw that it was Lily, Franklin’s maid. Was Franklin using her as a messenger somehow?

Going with her gut, Pine got out and quickly crossed the street. The rain had stopped but the air was chilly and the pavement and streets slick.

“Hey.”

Lily pulled up, looking fearful at first, and then, recognizing Pine, she relaxed.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.”

“Oh, that’s okay. What are you still doing around here?”

“I had some other business in the area. I thought you were hitting the sack.”

Lily smiled. “I took a catnap. But I’m heading to meet my boyfriend. There’s a club in SoHo we want to try.”

Pine looked at her watch. “It’s after midnight.”

Lily smiled. “That’s when things start really going.”

“Ah, to be young again.”

“And my room is pretty small and there’s not much to do. But when Ms. Franklin finishes renovating the other house, she said I’ll have my own sitting room and access to an indoor pool and a home theater. That will be so cool.”

“Other house?” said Pine.

“Yeah, the one next to hers. She bought that last year. She plans to combine it with the existing residence. I don’t know why they haven’t started construction yet. I thought it would have started a while ago. I’m kind of bummed.”

“Lily, is there any connection between the two buildings now?”

“What? Oh yeah, that was the cool thing. Ms. Franklin told me. See, those two homes used to be owned by the same person, like nearly a hundred and fifty years ago. Then, at some point, they were separated and sold as two houses. Talk about minting money. But there’s an old passageway between the two. It goes under both houses. Cellar to cellar. It’s boarded up now, of course. But I’ve seen the door to it. Ms. Franklin showed me a while back.”

Every muscle in Pine’s body tensed. She pulled out her badge and creds. “I’m an FBI agent. And I need to get inside that house now.”

“What?” Lily took an anxious step back.

“When was the last time you saw Adam Gorman?”

“Mr. Gorman?” She looked confused for a moment. “He . . . he came by last night.”

“Do you know why?”

“No.”

“How long did he stay?”

“I think about an hour.”

“How did he come? By car? Did he walk?”

Lily didn’t answer right away. She stood there looking pensive. “That was the funny thing.”

“What?”

“I never heard a car pull up. I was actually looking out the front window. Then, when I turned and walked back down the hall, there he was with Ms. Franklin, going into the library.”

“Could he have come in the back door?”

“No, they’re all on a chime. I would have heard it.”

Pine was barely listening. “You said there’s a connecting passageway between the two houses?”

“Yes, there is. What is going on?”

“I don’t have time to explain. Let’s go.”

As they rushed back down the street, Pine called the woman at the FBI surveillance center and told her what she had just found out.

“We’ll get a team there as fast as we can, but if it’s listed as a separate residence, we don’t have a search warrant for that house, Agent Pine.”

“Screw the search warrant. I’m going in.”

She texted Puller and relayed the new information. Then they reached Franklin’s house.

“Where is Franklin?” asked Pine.

“I thought she went to her room.”

“I don’t think so. Take me in the back way.” Pine pulled her gun.

“You’re scaring me,” wailed Lily as she glanced at the weapon.

“After we get in there, I need you to take me to the passageway connecting the two houses.”

“And then what?”

“And then I want you to get out of the house and go see your boyfriend. And don’t come back here.”

Lily led her into the back garden and down a set of steps. She unlocked the door and they went inside. Pine made Lily stop and she listened intently. Then she nodded.

Lily led her down a set of steep stairs that ended in a stone passage that smelled of mold and age. At the end of the passage was a door.

“It’s open,” said Lily, looking alarmed.

“Saves me the trouble,” replied Pine. “Now go!”

Lily flew up the steps and out of sight. Pine pulled out her Beretta backup and started down the hall.

CHAPTER

68

THE MUSTY, FUGGY ODORS INCREASED as she moved down the passage. Pine glanced at the walls. They were a mixture of old stones and aged brick. The floor was stone as well. And the temperature had dropped about fifteen degrees. The illumination was a series of single light bulbs with a power line snaking between them.

She rounded a corner and found a partially open door facing her. She eased up to it, trying to move as silently as possible. So much for military quick-strike teams and an overpowering force from the FBI.

It’s just me and my two guns until the cavalry gets here, if it ever does.

She slowly peered around the door and two things caught her eye.

A pair of women’s shoes that she recognized as belonging to Blum.

And a military dress jacket with its myriad ribbons, no doubt belonging to Robert Puller, was draped over the arm of a wooden-backed spindle chair.

Pine had a sense of inward relief. If their things were here, it was a safe bet that they were, too.

She didn’t want to open the door farther, afraid that it might make undue noise. Instead, she squeezed her body past it and entered the small room. There was a hallway running off to her right where the passage no doubt continued.

On a foldup table next to the chair were two empty pizza boxes and three open beers. Pine hoped whoever she was about to confront had been drinking. It might slow their senses long enough to let her prevail against what would undoubtedly be superior numbers.

She stopped to text her location and how she had gotten into the house to the FBI team and Puller. Thankfully, the text went through, even this far down and with stone walls and ceilings.

She continued on down the passage, listening intently for any sound that might give her some intel on who was down here and where they were. Ten more seconds passed, and she heard something that made her freeze.

The raised voice said, “So how the hell do we get out of this?”

It was Franklin’s voice. It was tense, angry, and blunt.

The next voice was Gorman’s. Pine recognized it from when Gorman was playing the role of police officer after gunning down Jerome Blake.

“Calm down, Nora, I have this covered.”

“Bullshit. I told you that you never should have taken them.”

“And what exactly did you want me to do? She was filming us in the hotel. She met with Robert Puller in an alley and they were discussing us. Did you want me to just let them walk away?”

“I am telling you that the FBI is about to come down on us like a ton of bricks.”

“One agent, this Atlee Pine, put that notion into your head. I have feelers out everywhere and I’ve heard nothing of the kind.”

“She’s a good liar, that Atlee Pine,” said a new voice.

Pine’s fingers tightened around both guns.