Cold Silence (A High Stakes Thriller) (35 page)

Travis rubbed his face. "Jesus Christ, I have no idea what they're doing there."

The colonel grabbed his shirtsleeve. "What the hell's going on here?"

Travis approached Cody. "I don't know. I just recognized the fireplace myself."

She gave him a glare. "You self-serving bastard."

He shook his head. It didn't make any sense. How the hell had this happened? And how could she blame him? His child had almost been kidnapped, too.

"You had something to do with this; I know you did."

"That's crazy. Why would I kidnap a child? It's horrible, and what would it gain?"

"I don't know, Landon. But you'd better not be involved in this. And if he's missing a single hair on his head—" She halted. "We need to get to him. We have to reach him before Kirov does."

"Let's go, then," the colonel said.

"Get in the back," Cody said to Landon.

He nodded, his mind still spinning at the possibilities. "Let me just move the Porsche."

"Get in the damn car, boy," the colonel yelled.

Landon looked at his car parked at the pump. "Fine." He patted his pocket to be sure he had his cell phone and wallet. Turning his back on the car, he climbed into the Jeep beside the colonel's wife, who was still asleep.

Cody was behind the wheel again and the car was moving almost before Travis could shut the door. "What's the fastest way?" she said.

His heart was pounding in his temples. "Continue on Fifty. We're about ten or fifteen minutes." His voice was breathy as he searched for something to tell her.

She pulled out onto the two-lane freeway and swerved as she straightened the wheel. Travis grabbed hold of the back of his seat but stayed silent.

The colonel picked up Cody's cell phone. "I'm going to call my contact up here. What's the name of this place?"

Travis licked his lips. "The cabin is at Fallen Leaf Lake. It's 118 Fallen Oak Road." But he knew the police up here were rangers and it would take them time to get there, especially since they didn't plow the roads in the winter. Most likely they'd arrive before the police did. He didn't say that out loud.

When the colonel began to dial, Landon lifted his own cell phone and dialed McCue. Cody glared at him in the rearview mirror, and he did his best to deflect the guilt he felt. He hadn't done anything wrong.

He explained the situation to McCue and asked him to call the FBI and get someone to his address. Then he gave directions on Cody's cell phone to the police. He wanted to call his lawyer too, but he didn't dare. Instead he leaned forward between the seats after the calls were made. "I know you don't believe this, but I have no idea how this happened."

Cody didn't take her gaze off the road.

"What about that damn table?" the colonel said after a few minutes of silence.

"What table?" Travis asked.

Cody nodded. "That corner was distinctive. I'd have known it in my house."

He felt the guilt rise in his throat. He'd known something was wrong about that picture. But he hadn't realized it was his own cabin. He swallowed hard. Had he?

He shook his head. "I didn't know. I never imagined it could be mine. I swear it. I had nothing to do with this."

Cody didn't answer.

The colonel turned back and looked at him with little more than a grunt.

He leaned back and watched out the window as they got closer. "Turn right here," he directed when they reached the turnoff.

Cody turned and immediately he saw the fresh tracks. Someone had been there before them. His chest was tight and he thought about the corner of that table. Had he recognized it? Had he somehow subconsciously shut out the possibility that the kidnapper had gone to his own cabin?

And what if Kirov reached R.J. before them because of his oversight? Suddenly he felt a wave of terrible carsickness.

Chapter 34

Mei rested her head on the window and tried to sleep. It was six-thirty in the morning, Chicago time, and she had yet to doze at all. They had gone straight from the office to the airport. The engine purred beneath her and below, through the thick white clouds and orange light of dawn, was Nevada.

They were expected to arrive at the Lake Tahoe airport at five California time, so in roughly a half hour. After that, she knew she wouldn't be able to sleep. But she wasn't having much success now either.

Each time she drifted to the edge of consciousness, she heard Jennifer's last words, her final apology, and she was jolted awake. An image of Jennifer, stumbling across their office, played through her mind like the disjointed memories of movies she'd seen as a kid.

The hospital was reporting Jennifer critical, and everyone said it didn't look good. She had taken two dozen Percocet, and the doctors said the damage would be permanent, if she even survived. Mei had been the last person to speak to her. That thought kept driving through her brain. She could have done something to stop it. There had to have been something she could have done.

Mei shuddered and she felt Andy turn and tuck the small red blanket back over her shoulders. She didn't want him to know she was awake. She didn't want to talk. She wished she were at home, at her mother's home, even. The red egg and ginger party was today, and she was going to miss it. Her mother would never understand. She'd probably already left a half dozen messages at her house, asking her to come over early to help.

Mei should have been there. She wasn't supposed to be involved in this. The Russian mob, a witness from the Federal Witness Protection Program. She wasn't a field agent. She was barely an agent. She was a computer analyst.

This job was something for the Office of Professional Responsibility and field agents, people trained to fight. But they wanted her there because she was the only one in the group who knew Megan Riggs from her time at the Bureau.

Andy shifted beside her, punched another number into her cell phone, and started to talk again. They'd left the office so quickly, he'd forgotten his own phone, so she'd given him hers. Unlike commercial flights, the Bureau plane had no rules against the use of cellular phones except on takeoff and landing. So Andy was making arrangements for someone to pick them up.

They hadn't heard from Megan again. Mei hoped she was okay. The Bureau had finally found Kirov's flight records, and the last report had confirmed that Kirov and three of his men were headed for California. They'd caught a commercial flight on Delta from Cincinnati, Ohio, to Sacramento via Salt Lake City. And their flight was due to arrive at eleven the night before. A whole six hours before the FBI. That was the worst news of all. Mei didn't even want to imagine what damage the mob could do in six hours.

A phone rang and she tried once again to shut out all the brutal images. She remembered the games she used to play as a child when she was trying to fall asleep over the sounds of her sisters snoring in the cramped room they shared. She pictured the noise as a running stream and then the wind billowing through a tree. A bird made the chirping sound of her phone, and she was picturing a vast green field with a tree in its center when Andy began to speak in Cantonese.

"Yes. My name is Andy Chang," he said.

Mei started to sit up, but the next words halted her.

"Hello, Ling Tai Tai." Andy addressed her mother with the proper formality.

Mei considered what she would say to her mother. Oh, God. Was it worse to try to talk to her now in front of Andy? Or to let him explain what was going on? She paused, torn.

Andy laughed at something her mother said. She was being her most charming, Mei was sure. "Yes, I work for the FBI as well."

There was a pause, and Mei wished she'd taken the call when it first came through. What was she telling him?

"No, I'm not her boss. I work in a different department."

Another pause. Mei wished Andy would do more of the talking. She was sure her mother was running off at the mouth. She felt the red rush to her cheeks and she held herself still. Pretend to be asleep. That was the best she could do now.

"No, I'm not married."

Oh, this was too much. She had to rescue him. She shifted and pretended to start to wake up.

"Yes, I do think she's very nice."

She halted. He thought she was nice. What did that mean? Now that her mother was drilling him, she hoped she asked him something better than that.

"She doesn't have a boyfriend? You're sure?"

Mei wanted to crawl under her seat. This was torture. She rubbed her face and sat up, blinking as though she might have been asleep for the past few minutes. She didn't want him to think she was eavesdropping, even if it was her own mother on the phone.

Andy met her gaze and smiled. "Well, I'm glad to hear that," he told her mother.

Mei frowned. She wondered what he was glad to hear. She prayed her mother wasn't telling him about all the children her sisters had and how fertile they were. It would be just like her mother to try to sell Mei off for her fertility.

"Yes, I do." He smiled and added, "I think she's very beautiful."
Keuih hou leng,
he'd said. He thought she was beautiful?

Mei felt her face flush and looked away, but Andy tapped her shoulder and pointed to the phone, mouthing,
Your mother.

She widened her eyes as though she were surprised and then shook her head to indicate she didn't want to talk.

He gave her a wink. "No, Ling Tai Tai, this is just a business trip. We'll be back tomorrow or the next day. Good luck with the party. I know Mei will be sorry to miss it."

He paused again.

"No, she said so on the way to the airport." He winked at her again and Mei rolled her eyes at her mother. "Yes, she was very upset not to be there. She knew how important it was to you and Lai Ching."

Mei wished she could grab the phone and hang up on her mother. Stop babbling, she wanted to scream.

"I love salted fish with minced pork." He nodded. "Yeah." Nod. "It's her favorite, too?"

Mei shook her head, wishing her mother would shut up.

Andy just grinned at her as though this conversation would cost her something later.

She blushed again, thinking what it might be. Had he really called her beautiful? Maybe they were talking about someone else.

"I will look forward to it. I'm sure you're a wonderful cook."

The ultimate praise. Mei watched Andy, wondering if he had any idea what he'd just committed himself to. If he wasn't interested in her, she was going to have to kill him, because her mother would never get over him.

"I'll have her call you as soon as she wakes up." With that Andy Chang hung up the phone and smiled at her. "Your mother is very nice," he said to her in English.

"Do you have any idea what trouble you've caused?" she answered in Cantonese to exclude the three other agents on board from understanding her.

Andy looked hurt. "What do you mean?"

His pathetic expression made her smile. "I mean, you know she's going to expect you to be at dinner now."

His face relaxed. "I'd love to have dinner at your mother's."

"But she thinks we'll be together."

"Well, I'm not going to your mother's house without you," he said in English.

"I mean, she thinks we'll be a couple," she said in Cantonese.

That made him laugh.

"I'm serious. She will. You don't know my mother."

"I'm not laughing at your mother. I'm laughing at you," he answered in Cantonese.

She switched to English. "Why?"

"Because I know you heard the whole conversation."

Her cheeks burst into little heat pockets. "So?" That was the best she could come up with.

He shrugged. "So, I meant what I said."

"About going to dinner?"

"Everything."

"Everything?" She felt like a schoolgirl, but she didn't care. She wanted to hear him say it, to hear confirmation from him.

"Yes."

She watched him and then looked away.