Stone Cold (Camel Club 3)

“But you said you could trust him.”

“I do trust him.”

Paddy looked hopeful. “Secret Service, that’s good stuff. Maybe they can pull in the FBI.”

She slipped off her sandals and sat down in a chair across from him. “I never thought I’d hear you sound so enthusiastic about having feds around.”

“Circumstances change. Right now, I’d take every bloody cop in the country marching in lockstep with us.”

“With Bagger, it might take that. So if I can get the cavalry how do we do it? I need details now, not generalities. How do we get him to confess?”

“You ran a long con on Jerry.”

“Right, so?”

“So you must have his telephone number.”

“I do. And again, so?”

“I’m going to call him and make him a deal he can’t refuse. I’m going to sell you down the river, Annabelle. He’ll offer cash, a ton of it. But I’ll tell him that’s not what I want.”

“So what is your mot

ivation?”

“You bad-mouthed me to the con world after your mum died. Haven’t had a decent gig in years.”

“You’d have to sell that line one hundred percent.”

He stared across at her. “Not a problem, since it happens to be the truth.”

“So you ship me down the river, then what?”

“That’s where the cavalry comes in.” He added, “Obviously that’s a critical part of the plan.”

She stared at him suspiciously. “Obviously.”

“I’ve got the delivery all worked out.”

Annabelle hunched forward. “Tell me every detail of it so I can tell you it’ll never work.”

“Don’t forget, I’ve run a con or two in my day.”

When he’d finished, she sat back, impressed. It had holes, like all initial plans did, but nothing that couldn’t be sufficiently tweaked. It was actually pretty good.

“I’ve got some ideas we can add to it,” she said. “But the underlying concept is sound.”

“I’m flattered.”

“Jerry will do everything in his power to make sure once they leave the pickup spot they won’t be followed.”

“I realize that.”

“Well, since I’m the bait I have a heightened reason for making sure that we will be able to follow him.”

“He’ll send his boys to do the pickup. He won’t be there, just in case it’s a setup,” Paddy pointed out.

“I know that. And that’s our way in, actually.”

“How do you figure?”

The answer that had shot into Annabelle’s head made her smile. “We get to Jerry first.”

“How are we supposed to do that?”

“You’re going to do it.”

“I am?” Paddy snapped his fingers. “On the phone call?”

“On the phone call.”

“But we still need the cavalry or none of it does us a damn bit of good,” he added.

She put her sandals back on and grabbed her car keys. “Then I’ll go get it.”

CHAPTER 61

THEY SAT AT A TABLE in a coffee shop near M Street and Wisconsin Avenue, barely a mile from Stone’s empty cottage. Annabelle gazed out the window while Alex kept his eyes on her. He was trained to read people’s expressions and body cues. This lady was tough to decipher, but it was clear she was under considerable stress.

“So why the sudden call?” he asked. “I didn’t figure I’d be seeing you again.”

“What can I say, I’m a sucker for tall cops.”

“Does that translate as a cry for help?”

“How much do you know?”

“Oliver asked me to dig up stuff on this Bagger guy and I did. It seems Milton and Reuben went to Atlantic City, presumably to the Pompeii Casino. Oliver said they were laying low now. They’re friends of mine too, so if they’re in trouble I’d like to know about it so I can help them while I’m helping you.”

“Is that what you do, run around helping people?”

“That’s what it says in my job description. So tell me about you and Bagger. And why did Oliver go to Maine?”

“You already seem to know everything.”

“Everything and nothing. But if you really want my help you’re going to have to trust me.” He cocked his head as she stared moodily off. “I take it trusting people is not something you do well.”

“That’s a philosophy that’s served me incredibly well over the years.”

“I don’t doubt it. But just so you know, I’ve covered Oliver’s back, more than once. And I’d trust him with my life.”

“I know, he told me. He said he’d go to war with you any day.”

Alex sat back. “There you go. So maybe I can help you, if you can bring yourself to trust me.”

Annabelle took a deep breath. Enlisting Alex’s aid was critical to her father’s plan to get Bagger. Yet even with that goal in mind this was so damn hard for her. She was sitting across from a cop—no, not just a cop, a federal cop! Someone who could bust her in a second if she misspoke. On the drive over it had seemed so simple. Now it appeared impossible.

Come on, Annabelle, you can do this.

With one more deep breath, she decided to do something she almost never did. She swallowed her principles and decided to tell the truth. At least part of it.

She quickly went through the main points. Bagger killing her mother. The fact that he was now in town. That she had teamed with her father to bring him down. Alex already knew that they’d been kidnapped and almost killed by Bagger’s men. She added, “I don’t have evidence of any of this. Nothing that would stand up in court. But it’s the truth.”

“I believe you. But my cop friends were a little pissed when they showed up to arrest the guys and found no one home.”

“No less pissed than I was.”

“Why is Bagger after you now?”

Annabelle went automatically to lie mode. “He knows I’m trying to nail him for my mom’s murder. He found out I went up to Maine where it happened. He doesn’t want me to find something that could put him away for good.”

Alex sipped his coffee and studied her some more. Either she was the best bullshitter he’d ever run across or what she said was legit. “And so you’re teaming with your old man? How exactly do you propose sticking it to Bagger?”

“My dad’s going to pretend to double-cross me with Bagger. Bagger gets me, I get him to confess, and the cops are there to nail him.”

“That’s your plan?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Because it has about a million holes in it, that’s why. And all of them end up with you dead.”

“That’s just the broad concept. It’s all in the details. It’s always in the details.”

“You really think you can make this work?”

“I sort of have a knack for it. My old man’s not that bad either.”

“Uh-huh. I’m going to need a little bit more than that if I’m going to be able to get you the backup you need.”

“I tell you what. We’ll get everything in place, you can take it to your people with a big nice bow, and then you can decide? Then if you say no, I die. That do it for you, big fella?”

“Hey, I’m just trying to be realistic here.”

“No, you’re being a classic bureaucrat. You look at how you can’t do something instead of how you can.”

Alex managed a tight smile. “Actually, the Secret Service is pretty can-do.”

“Good. Show me.”

“Give me a break here. I’m doing you the favor. I’m going out on a really big limb and it’s a long way down.”

Annabelle nervously balled her napkin up. “I know, I’m sorry. It’s just . . .”

“The good news is the Justice Department really wants something to stick on Bagger. If I can dangle a big enough carrot in front of them, we should be able to get some FBI support. Bagger’s been involved in a lot of questionable stuff. Several murders in fact, but the evidence just