Touching Evil (34 page)

Matthew Baldwin.

The man who Cam had risked his career to save.  The same one who might well be in Iowa to kill Cam for his part in crippling the Sinaloa Cartel.

She thought fast.  “My car is parked out front.  Why don’t we continue this…reunion out there?”

The man’s teeth flashed.  “You’re a cool one.”  One hand was in his jacket pocket.  A jacket, though it was still eighty degrees out.  Her gaze lingered on the bulge there.  “I happen to know there’s a very bored federal agent parked very close to your car.  So I’m going to take a pass on that.”

“What do you want?”

“I want a conversation with Cam.”  He propped a hand on the wall close to her face, leaning in like an old friend catching up.  People passed them without a glance.  “I figure in another few minutes he’ll come looking for you.  Until then, you’re not going to scream, you’re not going to make a scene or do any one of the things running through your head right now.  Or when he walks up to us I’ll put a bullet in his skull.  Got it?”

She moistened her lips.  “I understand.”  There wasn’t a doubt in her mind that he’d follow through on his threat.  And she was equally certain that she’d do everything she could to prevent it.  She gasped suddenly, then began wheezing, feigning an asthma attack.  “I…it’s my asthma.  Please.”  She fumbled with her purse.  The small can of pepper spray was still on her key ring, courtesy of Agent Micki Loring.  Sophia had her hand in the purse searching for it when it was snatched away from her.

“Looking for a nebulizer?  Or…this?”  He brought out her keys, the spray cupped in his palm and grinned at her.  Sophia’s balls curled into fists.  The next person that happened by, she’d shove the man, run to warn Cam.  He wouldn’t shoot her in view of a witness.  She was almost certain of it.

“Well.  Someone’s impatient.”  Following the direction of his gaze, Sophia’s heart plummeted.  Cam was approaching the back of the restaurant.  And she recognized the exact moment when he noticed them together.

His face went hard.  Expressionless.  And as he closed the distance between them Sophia seized on the fact that he too, was armed.  It didn’t diminish her concern.  But it helped even the odds.

“Old buddy.  How ’bout those Cubbies?”

Cam surveyed the man unflinchingly.  “Matt.  Came a long way to talk baseball.”

“Well, it’s my passion.”  He gave Cam a once over.  “Prison suits you.  But then again, you didn’t go to prison after that bust, did you?”

“Neither did you.”

The undercurrents to their words were rife with meaning.  Cam stared at him a minute longer than said, “We’ll discuss it one-on-one.  She doesn’t need to be here.”

Baldwin shook his head.  “Can’t take the chance that she’ll alert your federal friends out front.  She stays.  I’m not carrying.”  He took his hand out of his pocket and held both arms away from his body.  Cam did a brisk thorough frisk.  Nodded.  “Okay.  But we’re not going out the back.  Not that I don’t trust you, old
pal
, but I don’t want to run into any buddies you might have waiting in the alley.”

“Fair enough.”  The man turned around, spied an open booth, walked toward it.  Feeling a bit surreal, Sophia slid in next to Cam.  

“Moreno has Gabriela and Zoe.”  The man wasted no time.  “They’re staying at his estate.  He pretends it’s to provide care for Zoe after she was so sick a while ago, but they’re not free to leave.  Gabriela realizes that.  She’s scared for the baby.”  Matt swallowed hard.  “I’m scared for both of them.”

Cam was silent for a moment.  “Why didn’t you leave when you heard the bust was going down?  Moreno didn’t have them then.  You had the opportunity.”

“Think I didn’t know?”  The blonde man leaned forward.  “I was two blocks away from returning to the meeting when I saw the place swarming with federal agents.  I got in my car and headed home, fully intending on scooping up Gabby and the baby and heading to an airport.  Didn’t matter where we went, at least not at first.  I could worry about laying a false trail later.  Once they were safe.”  

He rapped the table lightly with his knuckles.  “But when I got home Gabriela was rushing Zoe to the hospital.  Her cold had turned to pneumonia.  She was there for eight days, four in critical care.”  His smile was terrible.  “Gave me a reason for missing the bust, so my little girl almost dying is the only reason Moreno let me live.”

The explanation was close enough to what Harlow had told him the other night to ring true.  Or Harlow could have been fed faulty information to make what Cam was hearing right now
sound
like the truth.  He rubbed his jaw.

“You understand the credibility issue here, right?”

“I do.”  The man gave a slow nod.  “Especially since I was given the task of finding you and killing you if you weren’t in prison.”

When Sophia gave a little gasp, Cam found her hand under the table.  Squeezed it reassuringly.

“But here’s the thing.”  Baldwin looked from one of them to the other.  “I’ll go right out that front door with you.  Turn myself over to the feds.  I wasn’t exactly promoted after the whole thing went down, but Moreno is having a hard time rebuilding with the pressure they’re still putting on his operation.  I know things.  His new routes.  The schedule of shipments.  I’ll give the feds everything I’ve got, but first they have to come up with a workable plan for getting my family away from Moreno.”  He sat back.  “I don’t care about prison.  All I want is safety for my family.”

Cam glanced at Sophia.  Saw the understanding on her face.  “We’re sort of in the middle of a case.  I’ve still got a killer to catch.”

Baldwin nodded.  “I have a little while.  But only a little.  When your case is over…I want your word that you’ll help me find a way through this.”

There was an easy decision to make here.  All Cam had to do was alert the agent in the car out front.  Let them haul Baldwin off and get the information he seemed so desperate to give.  

That would be the safe thing.  The smart thing.  There was no reason for Cam to be involved.  Unless he remembered the times he’d sat at Matt and Gabriela’s kitchen table, sharing a meal with them.  Recalled being asked to act as Zoe’s godfather at her baptism.

He could pretend the man sitting across from him was no different than the other drug runners who had been on Moreno’s payroll.

But that would be a lie.  

Feeling like he was stepping off the edge of a very steep precipice, Cam nodded.

“You have my word.”

Coming Soon

Look for Facing Evil, the exciting conclusion of the Circle of Evil Trilogy, coming in May 2014.