Into the ether.
VAIL STOOD UP and watched the LeSabre disappear down the road. She had forgotten that older cars did not have ignition locks that prevented the removal of the keys unless the engine was off—both an anti-theft and safety measure enacted by the federal government.
Sonofabitch. He knew what he was doing. She kicked at a rock in the road and sent it skipping down the pavement. How could I miss that? Because I’ve taken three blows to the head. Probably have a concussion.
Vail slipped the tanto into its sheath, realizing that Tzedek had once again saved her life. She had to remember to thank Uzi—the knife was turning out to be one of the best gifts anyone had ever given her.
She turned and looked in both directions but saw no one, no houses, no cars. And she had no phone … she could not even look on a map to see where she was.
Vail turned and started back from where she came, reasoning that she knew approximately how far it was to get back to the main road. There would be people and cars there—and a way to reach someone on the task force.
She holstered her Glock and palpated her swollen face, opened and closed her sore jaw, and felt lucky to be alive. She took a deep breath as she trudged forward, tried to ease her stress, to decompress after all that had occurred in the past hour or so.
And then she realized that she still had not heard from Jasmine.
42
All right, what’ve we got?” Hurdle was pacing near the spot where Vail’s phone was found, vapor puffing from his mouth like steam from a locomotive. The other task force members stood in a circle nearby, while crime scene technicians processed the area behind them. More snow was expected, so they erected a temporary tent.
“BOLO’s out,” Walters said.
“The license plate came back to a used car lot in Fairfax,” Curtis said. “I’ve got a uniform on his way there to talk with someone, see if the Buick was stolen or purchased and if so, by whom.”
Ramos held up his phone. “We just got an image of the perp. A frame capture.” He played with the screen and threw his head back. “Looks like Marcks. Sonofabitch.”
Hurdle clenched his right fist. “I’m really beginning to hate this guy.”
“He kidnapped one of our own,” Morrison said. “From a goddamn police department—fifty yards from where we were all sitting.”
“He’s got a big set of balls, I’ll give him that,” Tarkoff said. “Or a death wish.”
“Let’s look at this a minute,” Curtis said, holding up his hands. “Remove the emotion. It’s not easy, believe me, I get that. Seeing him take Karen on the surveillance video—” His voice caught. “That was tough to watch. But we gotta push that out of our minds. We’ve gotta think clearly.” He said it as if he were trying to convince himself.
His eyes settled on the photo of Marcks on Ramos’s phone. “He found out about our task force. He knew about Vail’s involvement in the case and somehow figured out where to find her. Assuming that was the Buick Karen saw when we left the BAU, he went to a goddamn FBI office—a ten most wanted fugitive—and hung out in the profiling unit’s parking lot until she left and then followed us here. Drove into the police department, parked his car half a football field away from the hounds trying to track him down, and grabbed one of us up.”
“If I didn’t want to put a bullet between his eyes,” Ramos said, “I’d have to call it impressive.”
“Just making us earn our paychecks,” Hurdle said. He stopped pacing and turned to face them. “We can’t let this go unanswered. What have we missed?”
“Nothing,” Tarkoff said. “Marcks is smart. He knows what he’s doing. We feed off the dumb ones, catch them doing shit they need to do to stay alive. But Marcks, he knows our playbook, how we track fugitives. And he avoids doing that stuff. Makes our jobs that much more difficult.”
“Yeah, well right now, one of our own is depending on us to work smarter. Work harder. Because if we don’t—”
Curtis’s phone rang. He glanced at the caller ID, did not recognize the number, and was about to ignore it when something told him to answer. “Curtis.”
“Hey, it’s me.”
“Karen? Where are you? You okay?”
“Marcks grabbed me from the parking lot and—”
“That much we figured out. How’d you get away?”
“I’ll tell you when I see you. Right now, all you gotta know is that Marcks left me about twenty minutes ago still driving the tan ’64 Buick LeSabre.” She gave him the location and requested that someone pick her up.
“On my way. And hey—really glad to hear your voice.”
Vail laughed. “I could say the same thing.”
43
What are you doing here?” Hurdle asked as Vail and Curtis walked through the command post door.
“I work here,” Vail said. “Unless you guys voted me off the task force while I was away on vacation.”