Spector said, “That would make sense, Peter, since they have no idea that you’re involved in this. They can’t possibly know that it’s someone with a beef against El Cain that’s behind this and not someone connected to Atkins and this local drug ring.”
This should have been good news to Buckley, but it wasn’t. He had let slip to Pine that his motivation in going after Cain was the fact that she had killed his brother. Unless Cain had killed lots of people’s brothers, that would narrow things down considerably. He had been an utter fool to have disclosed that, but he had never envisioned Pine’s escaping. Which was a lesson to never assume anything. The only saving grace for him, perhaps, was that Cain might not know that his brother had actually died.
He looked up and caught Spector eyeing him. She was a smart, clever woman, he knew. And her look was clear; she was now thinking the same thing he was. He had screwed up. But he also knew she had said what she just had in front of Marbury to cover up this angle. The lawyer had no need to know. And that was yet another reason why he liked working with Britt Spector. She got it, when most others didn’t.
Buckley let his thoughts wander down this road a bit. But if Cain and Pine and Blum joined forces, and Cain was able to connect Ken as my brother and learned that he had died? That would lead right to me.
“What else, Stephen?” Spector said to Marbury while keeping her gaze on Buckley.
“Well, Cain is very tall, very tough looking, and her hair is nearly shaved, like a buzz cut.”
Buckley came out of his musings and snapped, “Atkins told you this? About the shaved hair? The only picture we had of her was with long hair. That was one reason my men made the mistake at the hotel in picking up Pine instead of Cain. They mistook her for Cain because they looked so much alike.”
This comment had an extraordinary effect on Spector. She backed away, pulled out her phone, and did a series of searches while Buckley and Marbury continued their conversation.
She read through screen after screen until she got to one that left her slack-jawed.
“Peter?” She gestured for him to join her in a far corner of the room.
“What?” he asked impatiently.
“What you said about your guys mistaking Pine for Cain?”
“Yes?”
She held up her phone. “You need to see this. Now.”
CHAPTER
54
BUCKLEY JOINED SPECTOR in the corner of the room.
“What is so important?” he demanded. “What do I have to see?”
She said, “Pine has a Wikipedia page. Not of her own making. It was apparently a fan thing. When she was in college she tried out for the Olympics in powerlifting and barely missed making the team. I had looked at it before but I didn’t read the whole thing. I thought it was just fluff. That was my mistake.”
“And how the hell does that help us?” snapped Buckley.
She handed him the phone. “Read the last paragraph of the very last page. It’s a bit of her personal bio from a long time ago. Shit, I should have found this out before, but none of my contacts at the Bureau mentioned it.”
Buckley read the last paragraph and then glanced sharply at her. “Mercy Pine. Kidnapped from Andersonville, Georgia, and never seen again. Mercy Pine! They’re sisters?”
“More than that. They’re identical twins. So your men could be forgiven in confusing the two. And that would explain why she’s working this case. And that also explains my Bureau contacts’ not wanting to answer that question. It was probably only a need-to-know about what she was doing.”
This explained a lot, thought Buckley. And it also started a kernel of an idea in his mind that was rapidly formulating into a strategy that would coincide nicely with what he had decided this whole thing really meant to him. But with Pine’s having escaped it complicated things. Still, there was always a solution to every problem.
While he was thinking about this, Spector left her phone with Buckley and rejoined Marbury, who was still staring curiously at his employer.
Spector said, “You were talking about Cain’s shaved head?”
Marbury finally drew his gaze from Buckley. “Yes, Atkins told me about that, but as it turned out, I saw it for myself. I didn’t know it at the time, of course, because I hadn’t yet met with Atkins. But I passed Blum and Cain in the hall on my way to see Atkins. They had apparently just finished speaking with her before I got there.”
Buckley heard this and looked up from the phone, leaving thoughts of his developing strategy behind for now. His gaze shifted first to Spector and then to Marbury. He said to the attorney, “Do you mean they left the building before you did?”
“I suppose so, yes.”
“Where were your car and driver parked?”
“Right in front,” replied Marbury. “It was the most convenient spot for me. Very close to the front door. I have a gimpy knee.”
Spector said to Buckley, “To do any deal they would have to get a sign-off from the local police. Blum and Cain could have gone to speak with them after they left Atkins.”
“At which time the local police would tell them that they could do nothing about any such deal at the moment because . . . ” He looked at Marbury.
Marbury got the point like a knife between his ribs. “Because she was now, apparently, represented by counsel. By me.”
Spector flitted to the window, but kept out of sight.
Buckley didn’t even look at her because he knew exactly what she was thinking. He said sharply, “Marbury, would you even know if you had been followed here?”
The lawyer looked astonished. “Followed? I . . . I . . . that didn’t occur to me.”
“Of course it didn’t,” Spector interjected derisively. She took out a small but powerful optical device from her jacket pocket and surveyed both the street and the area beyond on the other side street. She saw nothing until she reached the church. There were a number of cars there. She was about to look along the street the other way when she adjusted the device and was able to make out something interesting. “There’s a red Porsche SUV parked in the church lot down the street. It has Georgia plates.” She adjusted the lens again, increasing the clarity. “And that might very well be our Ms. Blum at the wheel.”
Buckley joined her at the window. “Any sign of Cain?”
“No, but she might have left Blum to do some closer surveillance.” She looked across the room. “In fact, she might already be in this house.”
Marbury looked at them with a stricken expression. “Are we in danger or what?”
Spector drew a gun from her shoulder holster. “Peter, I can check the house. If she is in here, our task just got a lot easier.”
Marbury looked alarmed by this comment, but was smart enough to remain silent.
Buckley took the optical device and Spector told him where to aim it. He looked through the lens at the Porsche. In spite of it all, he smiled. His adrenaline had spiked, and with the blood rush came the thrill he’d been missing for too many years now, after having felt it every day of his life for a very long time. And best of all, the possible strategy, in the flash of creative brilliance, had turned into a definite resolution. The only one that mattered now.