“I’m afraid that’s not convenient.”
“Oh, but they’re already here. It won’t take much time,” she said, waving them in, closing the door behind them.
Ray and Charlie took seats in the guest chairs just vacated by her law clerks.
“Before we get down to business, I need to know—who’s this Mrs. Katz who called you from a blocked number?” Charlie said.
A blocked number. Thank God.
“It’s a private medical matter.”
“I’m not aware of any medical issues you have, Kathy.”
“You’re not. And I plan to keep it that way.”
“We wouldn’t be concerned,” Ray said in a conciliatory tone, “if not for the federal investigation. Be reasonable, honey. Give us some details to put our minds at rest.”
She crossed her arms and clenched her jaw.
“If you insist. Mrs. Katz is the receptionist in my gynecologist’s office. I’m having unusually heavy periods. It might be fibroids. It might be uterine cancer. It might just be menopause. They need to do an ultrasound. She was calling to schedule that. Satisfied?”
“Uterine cancer,” Ray said, looking genuinely upset. “You don’t think—”
“I don’t know.”
He put up his hands. “That’s good enough for me. You do what you need to do to take care of yourself.”
“I want to know why she called from a blocked number,” Charlie said.
“You’d have to ask her that.”
“Fine. Give me her digits.”
“You’re seriously asking for the phone number of my gynecologist’s office? Don’t you know already? You follow me everywhere.”
“C’mon, we’re family here, Charlie. The kid came clean with us about the feds. Stop busting her chops.”
“She came clean because I caught her in a lie, Ray.”
“So you asked about the call, and she gave a reasonable explanation having to do with—uh, lady’s business. I know Kathy. She wouldn’t make that up if it wasn’t true. Now, let’s move on to the matter at hand, okay? Douglas Kessler.”
“What about Doug?” Kathryn said.
“He’s a fucking snitch, that’s what,” Charlie said.
“You know that for a fact?”
“We think he’s working for them, but we need proof,” Ray said, “which is where you come in. Tomorrow night is the Pro Bono League reception. The likes of me don’t get invited to a thing like that. But you do. And so does Kessler. We want you to approach him there and set a trap.”
“How?”
“Get him alone in a corner and bring up Greco. Explain that Lee and Martin hauled you down to DC for an interview, you’re very worried, yada yada, does he know anything. In other words, smoke him out. Charlie’s got a guy inside the phone company who’ll be monitoring Kessler’s phone in real time. If we’re right, he’ll turn around and rat you out to Brooke Lee, and we’ll see it happen. Then we’ll know for sure what we’re dealing with.”
“Are you crazy? They’re already investigating me, and you want me to approach Doug, who you believe is cooperating with them, and act like a mobster threatening a witness? You’ll get me arrested.”
“No. See, Charlie’s guy can stop the call from going through. She’ll never hear from him, so she won’t find out what you said.”
“Okay, say Charlie’s guy does manage to stop the call. Wouldn’t Doug just call her later from another phone?”
Ray shrugged. Charlie raised an eyebrow. And she knew.
They were planning to kill him.
“Oh, no. No. I won’t be part of that.”
“It’s not a request,” Charlie said. “We need you to do this for us. You’re going to do it. And I’m going to make sure of that. We’ll get out of your hair now so you can do your work. But know this, Kathy. When you look over your shoulder in the dark tonight, I’ll be there, looking right back at you. Whether you see me or not.”
35
As Kathryn pulled out of the courthouse garage that night, she saw Charlie’s headlights in the rearview mirror. When she parked in the alley behind the town house, he took up position nearby. Inside, she went to the front window and peeked out from behind the drawn blinds. There was a red glow in the darkened window of a car parked across the street. Someone was in there, dragging on a cigarette. Charlie had her surrounded. He wasn’t hiding. He wanted her to know they were there, to scare her. It was working. There was no route out where they wouldn’t see her leave. As frantic as she was to get north to Sylvia and Grace, she’d be leading him right to them.
For a while now, she’d had in mind a Hail Mary pass, involving the intern, the plaid trench coat, and a decently convincing red wig that she’d acquired during a stop at a wig store in DC. Madison wasn’t here now. With exams coming up, she was probably on campus. When she returned to the town house, Kathryn could try to persuade her to switch clothing and drive off in the SUV to divert their attention. But the more she thought about it, the more she realized it wouldn’t work. Madison would never agree. And even if she did, they’d stop the car before it left the block and discover the hoax.
She drew a bath and cried in it, the hopelessness crushing so hard that she thought about opening a vein. But then Lucy came in and settled on the bathmat, licking her paws and staring with those green eyes that reminded her so much of Matthew’s. She owed it to him not to give up. Their child’s life depended on it. She texted Denise—Sylvia’s neighbor—that she couldn’t make it that night but would come by tomorrow night at the latest to collect Grace. How she would accomplish that, she had no idea. She’d think of something in the morning.
She woke up the next morning with the answer fully formed in her mind. They insisted she attend the Pro Bono League reception to do their dirty work? She’d go and turn the tables. Everything she needed to do could be accomplished at the event tonight. Warning Doug that they planned to whack him. Making contact with the feds to get resources for her new life. And slipping away into the night to hold her dying mother’s hand and reclaim her lost daughter. Charlie might have spies circulating, but he didn’t rate an invitation for himself. Few members of law enforcement were invited, certainly not one with his unsavory reputation. The crowd would be thick. She would invite the intern, use her to create a diversion, and disappear before they realized she was gone.
The scent of coffee told her that Madison was downstairs and would be leaving for campus soon. Kathryn threw back the covers and went to issue the invitation.
* * *
In white, she shone like a star. Standing beneath the towering glass tree, chatting and air-kissing, Kathryn didn’t know where the spies were, but she made sure they were watching her, not the intern.
Charlie texted, confirming her theory.
I hear you’re standing around holding court like the Queen of Sheba. Stop stalling. Go talk to Kessler.
You’re having me watched?
You know I am.
I’ll do it when the moment’s right. Too many eyes.
Do it now.
Fuck off or I won’t do it at all.
She’d make excuses, put him off until it was too late, and then disappear. Doug would get a warning, but a different one than Charlie expected, delivered by Madison, telling him to watch his back. Charlie would be left thinking that Kathryn failed to pass along the message. Hopefully they’d back off long enough for Doug to do what was necessary to protect himself.
From the corner of her eye, she saw Madison approach Doug. Laughing loudly, making a show of walking toward the bar, Kathryn drew the attention of the spies away from them. Everything was going according to plan. Then she turned her back. A few minutes later, drink in hand, she heard Doug’s voice raised in anger and cast a glance over her shoulder. He was red in the face, and people were gawking. The spies didn’t miss it. Her phone buzzed with a text.
What’s that intern doing with Kessler??? Charlie texted.
Who?