CHAPTER 71
Amsterdam Avenue, New York City, May 27, 8:03 p.m.
As Skylar’s cab pulled to the curb, she asked the driver to wait for her. She said she’d only be a minute. Before the driver could protest, she was already rushing inside Beautiful Birds. Skylar entered the store and quickly moved through the overcrowded rooms. There were cages of every conceivable size stacked on top of one another. Big ones. Small ones. Wood ones. Hanging ones. And ones that looked like modern art. Prices ranged from forty-seven dollars to several thousand dollars. There weren’t many birds, though. As far as Skylar could tell, there were three cages of canaries, two parrot cages, and several containing birds she didn’t recognize. Not finding Eddie, she quickly bypassed a line of customers waiting for the proprietor, and asked if he’d seen anyone matching Eddie’s description. The shop owner said he had not. When she asked if he was sure, he said yes, he goddamn was. And if she didn’t mind, he had paying customers to attend to.
Skylar headed back out the door. One bird shop down, two to go. She stopped suddenly on the sidewalk. On any other day, she wouldn’t have noticed them, but the black Suburbans arriving at either end of the block caught her eye. The vehicles were identical. It could be no coincidence.
She turned around and raced back inside the store. She went to the rear of the shop, passing floor-to-ceiling stacks of bird food, which looked like they were going to fall at any minute. She approached a door marked “Employees Only.” It was locked. Skylar knocked urgently, but no one answered. She was cursing to herself, when the door cracked open.
An overweight teenage boy, whom Skylar took to be the son of the owner, poked his head out of the door. “Can I help you?”
“Does this place have a rear exit?” she asked urgently.
“No.” He tried to close the door and return to playing Ultra Street Fighter II on his Nintendo Switch, but Skylar blocked the door with her foot.
“How about a bathroom? Is there one back here? I really have to go.”
“I guess.” He reluctantly opened the door and pointed inside to a bathroom. Skylar raced inside it, locked the door, and turned on the faucet full blast.
CHAPTER 72
Beautiful Birds, New York City, May 27, 8:07 p.m.
Agent Raines rushed inside the bird shop moments later. There was no sign of Skylar, so he quickly made his way toward the back and the “Employees Only” door. He banged on it loudly. After a moment, the teenage boy opened the door, clearly annoyed. “What?”
Raines flashed his badge and spoke urgently. “Homeland Security. I’m looking for a woman in her late twenties.”
Before the agent could provide any further description, the boy’s eyes went wide. He dropped his game controller and pointed toward the bathroom, where the faucet could still be heard running. He was barely able to speak. “She’s in there.”
Raines immediately drew his weapon and advanced swiftly toward the bathroom door. “Skylar Drummond, this is Homeland Security. Come out now.” There was no response. The agent checked the door handle and confirmed it was locked. “Open the door. I won’t ask again.” Getting no reply, he kicked in the door. Wham! The door splintered readily.
He rushed inside the small bathroom; a window above the toilet was open. Peering out, he saw that one of the exterior metal security bars had completely rusted, allowing Skylar to bend it just enough to squeeze by. There was, however, no way in hell his 6’3”, 220-pound frame was ever going to make it through, no matter what kind of shape he was in. He caught sight of Skylar as she ran out of the alley. “Son of a bitch!” Raines raced back into the store.
Skylar barreled out of the alley onto Sixty-Eighth Street, where she carefully peered around a wall of plywood surrounding a construction site plastered with posters for upcoming movies she would never see based on graphic novels she had never heard of. She didn’t know how Homeland had found her, but realized they probably had dozens of agents out there looking for her. Skylar was also vaguely aware of the vast number of security cameras around the city. She knew she had to be more careful. But when opportunity presented itself, she wasn’t about to hesitate.
A cab pulled over halfway down the block next to a petite woman attempting to carry shopping bags from various retailers. Fortunately for Skylar, the load was too much for the shopper. By the time the woman had given up trying to carry her haul all at once, intending to place her bounty into the cab several bags at a time, Skylar had already slipped into the cab, shut the door, and instructed the driver to hit the gas. As the cab sped away, the shopper raised the middle finger of her right hand and yelled at the top of her ample lungs, “Selfish bitch!”
CHAPTER 73
Harmony House, Woodbury, New Jersey, May 27, 8:09 p.m.
The Department of Homeland Security was back to square one, which meant Michael Barnes was, too. But he was calm by comparison. In fact, as the Harmony House security director received updates from his two men in the vicinity, Barnes enjoyed learning of Raines’s outbursts. It meant he was an amateur. Had he even half the patience or experience Michael Barnes did, Agent Raines would have asked one simple question: Why had the doctor gone to a bird shop, of all places? Why not a hair salon or a bank branch or a fast-food restaurant? The answer was simple: Edward Parks had a thing for birds.
Michael Barnes was now sure of one thing: Skylar Drummond didn’t know where Eddie Parks was. She had made an educated guess, and a good one at that. Because New York City had only three listings for bird shops. With only two left, Barnes had a fifty-fifty shot of guessing which one Skylar Drummond was going to next. He liked his odds, and placed his bet.
CHAPTER 74
Upper East Side, New York City, May 27, 8:16 p.m.
Lutz drove with reckless abandon. Hirsch navigated for him. By sheer luck, they made every traffic light en route to East Eighty-Seventh Street. Good fortune, it seemed, was on their side.
They arrived outside Flight in just under seven minutes, less than half the time it should have taken. The two security specialists bolted from their double-parked car and raced to the bird store’s entrance.
To find the doors locked. The lights were off. According to the sign listing the store’s hours, they had closed at eight o’clock. Hirsch peered in the storefront window as Lutz banged on the door loudly. The birds inside shrieked, but nothing else moved. There was no one there.
They quickly doubled back to their vehicle, hoping for similar luck with the traffic lights as they raced to the last bird shop on their list.
CHAPTER 75
Give ’Em the Bird, New York City, May 27, 8:33 p.m.
Skylar arrived first. She banged on the windows of Give ’Em the Bird, whose door was also locked. It, too, had closed at eight. “Is anybody in there?” She banged some more, but still there was no answer. Skylar was losing faith. She was on a wild-goose chase and knew it. The longer she delayed turning herself in, the longer it would take to find Eddie. Who was she kidding?
“There is nobody in there, but there is somebody in here.” Skylar spun around to see Eddie looking at her through the open passenger’s-side window of a late-model Volkswagen Jetta.
“Eddie!” Her joy was pure and unbridled. Skylar rushed to him, kneeling beside the car’s open window. She instinctively reached out to touch his arm, which made Eddie flinch. Skylar quickly withdrew her hand as if to apologize for encroaching on his physical space. She knew better than to attempt physical contact, but just couldn’t stop herself.