The Widow File (13 page)

“Shit.” Choo-Choo fell back against the wall beside Dani. “That’s half the people in D.C. He could be standing right next—”

“Hey,” Joey cut him off. “Who do you think you’re dealing with, Dani? Chimps? You asked for my help; I came to help. Just because I said I couldn’t describe him doesn’t mean I can’t help.” He pulled his phone from his pocket and flipped through the screen. “Will this do?”

There in the alley beside Big Wong’s Thai Delivery, Dani got her first look at a photo of the man who was trying to kill her.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Booker wiggled his toes against the flannel sheets. His gray slacks bunched up around his knees and the yellow duvet covered him almost to his chest. He ate carefully, not wanting to spill any food in Dani’s bed even though he could make out little splashes of soy sauce on the comforter. He smiled as he pulled out his phone. Dani ate right here, probably just like this.

He snuggled against the pillows while he waited for her to answer. She was a tiny thing, wasn’t she? He hated breaking her cozy little ring but he wanted to be comfortable when he talked with her again. He wanted to hear how her voice had changed from the panicked breathy hiss he’d heard coming from Rasmund. She’d sounded pissed then. He could only imagine how she sounded now. She picked up on the third ring.

“Hi Dani.”

“What do you want?”

Traffic sounds. She was outside, poor thing. “Don’t tell me you’re just running around the streets on a night like this? It’s supposed to get cold tonight.”

He heard a harsh puff of air, like a laugh but hard. “Thanks for your concern. I guess I know where there’s a nice big fire I could warm my hands by, although I guess by now the police have got that area pretty well roped off.”

“Yeah probably.” He took another bite of noodles. “What are we going to do here?”

“That sounds like it’s up to you. Maybe we could start by exchanging names.”

Booker wiped sauce from his chin. “I already know your name, Dani.”

“Well, what do I call you?”

“Hmm, how about Sir?” He waited, hearing the sounds of car doors slamming and people walking by.

“Sir? What’s the matter? ‘My Lord and Master’ is too formal?”

He laughed, relieved. There was still a chance, albeit a small one, that Dani had gone to the authorities. If so, the call would not only be monitored, it would probably be steered by a trained negotiator who would instruct Dani to engage him and please him, draw him into a lengthy conversation. He had been lulled almost to sleep by too many conversations like that in his career. No, that edge in her voice wasn’t coached. It sounded like a raspier version of the frightened voice he’d heard earlier in the day.

“Call me Tom. I like Tom. It’s a good name. Solid.”

“It’s fantastic. I can’t wait to shout it to the police.”

“I had a feeling you’d be funny, Dani.”

He heard her sigh and the sound made him frown. “I don’t feel funny, Tom. I’m scared and I’m tired and I don’t want to run from the police. I don’t know why you killed my friends. I don’t know what you want. Tell me what you want.”

He bit down on the plastic fork. He heard so much honesty in her voice, so much raw pain. She wasn’t playing him. She was alone and frightened and running for her life and she still wasn’t engaging in subterfuge. She wasn’t pretending to have an advantage. He liked that. Growing up, he’d known all too well what it was like to be the smallest person against impossible dangers. It took guts to be honest. “What I want really isn’t important right now, Dani. Unfortunately for both of us, what matters now is what the client wants, and the client wants you and any information you have under your control.”

“That sounds a lot more unfortunate for me than it does for you.”

“True,” he sighed. “But it doesn’t mean I like it.”

“Well then, Tom, what do you say you blow off work today? So to speak, of course.”

He laughed, swinging his feet out from under the covers and dropping them to the rug. “I wish I could. Believe me, I’m about ready to retire. As a matter of fact, I was—”

“Hey Tom?” Dani said. “Can I call you right back?”

Before he could answer the line went dead.

Dani shut her phone off. “You’re keeping time on these, right?”

“Yep,” Choo-Choo said, dropping Dani’s phone into her purse. “We keep each call under ninety seconds just to be safe. It’s almost impossible to trace cell phone calls, but that’s by people using legal means. Until we know who this guy is and who he’s working for, we keep the calls short.” He handed her a burner phone. “His number is programmed in each of these.”

“‘Killer’?” Dani read on the screen. “A little bit on-the-nose, don’t you think?”

“You want me to reprogram them to read ‘Tom’? Maybe load his picture?”

She shook her head and hit dial. The man picked up on the first ring. “Hello?”

“Hi, it’s me.” She hurried along beside Choo-Choo down the sidewalk. “Sorry, my phone was dying.”

“Lucky for you that you happened to have a spare.”

“Yeah, I’m lucky that way.”

“You’re afraid I’m tracing your location through your phone.”

“Wouldn’t you be?”

She heard him hum. “Probably. And I probably shouldn’t tell you this but I’m not tracing you. You were smart enough to turn off your GPS in your phone. I guess we could go through the trouble of accessing your account and reactivating it, unless of course you’ve already contacted your service provider and prevented that. Huh, did you Dani? You really are clever.”

“You’re no slacker yourself, Tom. Taking over Rasmund like that.”

“It’s easier than you might imagine if you have the right intel. Hey, wait a minute.” He spoke in a singsong. “How do I know
you’re
not tracing this call?”

The sound of the smile in his voice made Dani grip the phone hard. She tried and failed to keep her voice low. “Because I’m standing in the middle
of a fucking sidewalk!” She wanted to continue to scream at him to get out of her apartment, to let her go home, but she knew that nugget of information was one of the few advantages she had at the moment. It didn’t keep a rough sob from escaping before she clamped her lips together. Beside her, Choo-Choo held her elbow, keeping her out of the flow of traffic on the sidewalk.

“Dani, please.” His voice was soft through the phone. “I know you’re upset. This has been hard for you, I know that. I wish it didn’t have to be this way.”

“Then make it stop. Make it go away.” The horrible tenderness in his voice unsettled her. “I don’t have anything you want.”

He cut her off. “Don’t say that. Don’t ever say that.” She could hear his voice get harder and louder. “You have to have something. Listen to me, if the client believes you don’t have anything, my only job is to kill you. If you have something, anything, then you can leverage yourself with that information. You can make a deal.”

Choo-Choo leaned away from where he’d been pressing in to listen. Dani knew she looked as confused as he did. “Are you… trying to help me?”

The sigh was loud enough to hear without putting the phone back to her ear. “This job, Dani… I don’t know. Hey, do you need to switch phones? What are you doing, like ninety-second, two-minute sprints?”

Choo-Choo’s eyes widened and he drew a circle around his left temple, mouthing the word “crazy” as he did it. Dani nodded. “No, I’m okay.” She waved off a panicked Choo-Choo and kept walking. “I trust you.” She could hear his happy sigh.

“I’m glad. If it makes you feel any better, those guys who went in shooting today? They’re all dead too.”

Dani closed her eyes and felt the world swirl around her. This man, this killer, was obviously insane, but she wasn’t lying when she answered him. “That does make me feel better.”

She heard him fumbling. “Hey Dani, can I call you back? I have to take this call. It’s the client. Maybe I can find out what they’re looking for exactly. Would that help?”

“Yeah, it would. Hey Tom, you wouldn’t lie to me, would you?”

“No, Dani. I wouldn’t.”

“If I can’t find this thing or they won’t make a deal, are you going to kill me?”

She heard him breathe a long sigh. “I’ve really got to take this call.”

“Okay. Thanks, Tom.”

She stared at the dark phone in her hand. The evening had grown cold enough that she couldn’t really feel her fingertips, although the shrinking part of her rational mind told her that might partly be from shock. Choo-Choo stood in front of her, his lips moving, but it took more than a few moments before she could make out his rant.

“… your mind? He wouldn’t
lie
to you? What do you think? You think this is some kind of blind date?” He grabbed her arms and bent down to stare into her eyes. “Dani, tell me you don’t really trust this guy.”

“I don’t.” She didn’t. But she did. “I do. I mean, I trust what he tells me. I can’t explain.”

“I can.” Choo-Choo released her arms and cradled both of her hands in his. “You’re afraid and you’ve been through a horrible trauma. You don’t want this to be happening and he knows that. He’s a professional killer, Dani. He knows how people think. He’s in your apartment right now—your apartment, where you should be eating Thai food, sitting in your pajamas watching crappy movies on your crappy couch with your crappy boyfriend, getting ready to have some crappy sex. But you’re not. You’re not because that man on the phone killed everyone we work with. He blew up our building and kidnapped our boss and now he’s in your apartment trying to figure out how to find you so he can kill you too. Do you hear what I’m saying, Dani? He is going to kill you.”

Choo-Choo was right. She knew he was, but something in her brain refused to catch on to the truth. As she had learned to do a long time ago, Dani let herself be of two minds. The sensation comforted her. It felt like her brain operated by committee and she only had to observe. She wrapped her arm in Choo-Choo’s and led him down the sidewalk. “We’re going to go to my apartment and wait,” she said. “We’re going to wait outside for him to leave and we’re going to follow him.”

“He knows what you look like.”

“He doesn’t know what you look like.” She could feel the wonderful reassurance of thoughts taking shape and lining up in orderly ranks. “He doesn’t know you’re alive. Nobody does. You can follow him and see where he goes, who this client is.”

“What makes you think he’s going to see the client?”

“He took the call. He’s not going to stay in my apartment forever. He’s got to go look for me. I bet he’s going to try to find out more information about me. Maybe he’s going to ask Mrs. O’Donnell. We’re going to wait out here with a cab and when he comes out, you follow him.”

“What are you going to do after we’re gone?”

“I’m going to go up to my apartment and get some things. Some clothes, some money. A warmer coat, since I’m freezing to death. You tell me if he’s headed back my way.”

“Maybe he won’t even come back here.”

She shook her head. “He will. I know it.”

“Dani,” Choo-Choo started to say more and then stopped. He gripped her arm more tightly and let her set the pace toward her apartment.