It hadn’t worked. “And what if you don’t do it in time? You can’t risk it. I’ve been thinking all night, trying to put together some clue that would help you find that password.” She shook her head. “But bad things were going on all around me and I didn’t pay attention to anything but how to keep it from getting worse.” She paused. “But I’m not stupid. If I concentrate, I should be able to notice something, find something that would give you what you need.”
He stiffened. “What the hell are you saying?”
“I’m saying I’m not going to go away and let you frantically keep searching for that password if I can find a way to make it easier. Stand aside and let me come in. I need to sit down. It’s been another long night.”
He didn’t move. “Margaret, I promised you that—”
“I know.” She pushed him aside. “And I’m certain you promised yourself that you wouldn’t let your friend Patrick be butchered and killed. Which promise is the most important for you to honor?” She sat down on his chair in front of the computer. The entire area was strewn with papers scrawled with notes, and the computer screen had multiple lists of numbers and words. A testament to Lassiter’s driving, relentless search. “He’s hurt and helpless. I’m not helpless, Lassiter. I’m scared, but I can get over it. I just have to remember that things aren’t the same as they were the last time.” She gestured toward the bed. “Now sit down and let’s talk and decide what’s the best way to do this.”
“You’re talking about going to Nicos.”
“It’s the only thing to do now,” she said simply. “We both know it. You just won’t admit it.”
“You’re damn right I won’t. I could see what he was doing to you last night. You were white as a sheet and you could barely talk.”
“But I did talk to him and it got better once I got over the first shock.” She met his eyes. “You’re feeling guilty and you don’t want me to have to face Nicos. I don’t want that, either. But I can’t stand the thought of a man dying because I was too afraid to fight a monster like Nicos. He’s haunted me for years and I can’t let him kill someone else because I didn’t find a way to stop it.”
“‘Someone else’?” Lassiter’s eyes were narrowed on her face. “What are you talking about?”
She held up her hand. “I can’t deal with that right now. I only wanted you to know that it’s not only for Patrick that I have to do this.”
“I can’t let you go. He’ll rape you, probably torture you, and possibly kill you. I couldn’t live with any of that.”
“Yes, you could. To save a life.” Her lips curved in a mirthless smile. “But none of that happened before, so it may not happen this time. If we’re smart, if we plan it right. I didn’t have anyone to help me three years ago. We have a chance now.” She leaned forward. “Listen, you need to buy time to work on that password. I can give it to you. And I know Nicos’s house; I might be able to find something in his office that will help.”
“And get caught and maybe get your throat cut.”
“I repeat, I’m not stupid,” she said. “I know the island well enough to have escaped from it before. It’s well guarded, but I might be able to get a message to you. I’ll have to think about it. But Nicos will be watching me, so you won’t be able to get me off the island once I’m there.”
“So I’m just supposed to leave you there?”
“No, there may be another way,” she said. “Let Nicos take me off the island.”
“What?”
“Montego Bay. July twenty-third.”
“That’s supposed to mean something? The twenty-third is the day Nicos is demanding you show up at the island.”
“No, he wants me there two days before. Because he has something planned on July twenty-third for me.” She shook her head. “And that’s the reason he won’t negotiate with you.”
“And what does he have planned?”
“It has to be a shipment. Either explosives or drugs that are being delivered to Montego Bay Airport on the twenty-third.”
“And he needs you there for that?”
“Oh, yes,” she said bitterly. “He always likes an insurance policy. Why do you think that he’s been searching for me for the last three years? He must have been overjoyed when he found out from Salva that he would have me on hand just in time for the Montego Bay shipment.”
“‘Insurance policy’? What kind of insurance policy?”
“The dogs. Couldn’t you guess? The drugs or explosives are always very carefully hidden in freight or luggage, but the illicit-substance dogs they have trained these days are supersharp and can zero in on almost any hidden contraband.” She added sarcastically, “It makes it very difficult for poor Nicos. That’s why he values me so highly.”
“I believed it might be for another reason. And what did you do for ‘poor’ Nicos?”
“He’d find a reason and a way to get me to customs when the shipment was unloaded. Usually, I’d have to be there fifteen or twenty minutes before the shipment showed up to be able to meld with the dogs. It’s not easy to convince an animal as highly trained and experienced as those airport dogs that what they’re smelling isn’t what they’re smelling. Sometimes all I could do was make them confused. Which also usually worked.”
He was silent. “And how did he know that you’d be able to do that? I’m certain you didn’t tell him.”
“Are you?”
“Yes, I’m gradually learning about you, Margaret. Though you’ve not been helping me. How did he know?”
“Someone … close to me told him. Then he made me show him.”
“And then he forced you to go with him to the airports and give him his ‘insurance.’”
“Oh, yes, he was very pleased with me. He said I had the true magic and was obviously meant to serve him. I think he might have even believed it.” She shrugged. “He grew up in Jamaica with Azara Lua, a mother who took him to voodoo rituals from the time he was a toddler. She was a prostitute and I think she might have brainwashed him to keep her hold on his father. He told me once she was a priestess but had no really strong magic. Not like I did. I didn’t care if he thought I was some kind of mystical priestess, voodoo or otherwise. I played on it to survive and keep him away from me.”
“And it worked?”
“I’m here, aren’t I?”
“Yes, you are. But that doesn’t mean you can survive him if you go back.”
“I’ll survive him.” She drew a deep breath. “And I’ll give you the time you need to work on the password. Two days until you have to deliver me. At least two more days after that before I have to go to Montego Bay. But if you can’t get me away from him by then, I don’t know how long it will be before I’ll get another chance.”
“I’d get you away if I had to blow up the damn airport,” he said roughly. “But I won’t let you go back there when I know how he’ll be treating you.”