Exit Strategy (Nadia Stafford 1)

As the doors opened, I could feel him watching me. We stepped on.

"Tomorrow?" he said. "You want to jog? I'll follow."

"You run?"

"Only if someone's chasing. I'll drive."

Over breakfast, Jack told us what he'd been doing earlier--checking his messages. And he'd had one, from Shadow. It seemed Sid, his twin brother, had indee

d been taken into custody. Now Shadow had decided to make like his namesake and gone to ground, wanting nothing more to do with the investigation. He was in such a hurry that Jack didn't get a chance to ask whether they'd uncovered any leads or even what angle they'd been investigating.

Then came Quinn's news: the FBI was investigating Benjamin Moreland but not considering him a viable suspect. What did interest them was the killer's possible link to Moreland--how he'd gotten that hair.

After we discussed that, we moved on to our own investigation. Jack had me tell Quinn and Felix our progress to date.

"Not great," I said. "So far, they all feel like dead-ends."

"Shit," Quinn said. "At least you've got something to look into. With the Moreland lead gone, so's our investigation. How about we take some of yours?"

Jack shrugged. "Suppose so. Vigilantism. You want that?"

Quinn's lips tightened, but Jack only sipped his coffee.

"We'll take it," Felix said. "I'll also see what I can do to verify Baron's death. Damned shame, that. He was a good man once."

Jack nodded.

Since we were back to wearing our biker-duo outfits, Jack must have thought we needed to get in the right mind-set. After only an hour on the road, he stopped at the kind of place that gives the word "dive" a bad name. It wasn't even noon, and there was already someone lying on the floor. Probably passed out drunk, but in this place you could keel over dead and not be noticed until the flies started feasting.

There were a half-dozen men in the diner/bar, but only one even looked our way, and just to ogle me as we passed. At a sharp look from Jack, the man returned to staring at the empty chair across the table, and lifted his coffee mug, taking so deep a swig I suspected it wasn't filled with java, which would explain why I couldn't smell fresh brewed coffee despite the mugs at every man's table. For that matter, I couldn't smell much of anything, just a faint whiff of mildew, as if the customers--even more disheveled and shabby than the tavern--were too well pickled to give off any odor.

Without so much as a glance around, Jack navigated to the darkened back hall.

"You've been here before, I take it," I whispered. "Please tell me it was on business."

"Yeah. Order a burger for a mark? Chef does your job for you."

The hall was nearly pitch-black. An exit sign at the end gave off the only light. After my eyes adjusted, I could see a chain on the rear door. The management must have been more worried about customers escaping without paying than escaping a fire. Although, from what I'd seen, I doubted they'd go anywhere even if the chairs under them were ablaze.

Jack led me to a phone booth, picked up the receiver and held it to my ear. Guess that meant I was doing the talking. I presumed he was holding it because he was wearing gloves and I wasn't, but I was glad of it for any reason. The receiver was so filthy I could barely bring my lips close enough to it to talk.

He dialed. Evelyn picked up on the third ring.

"Hey, Auntie E," I said, cranking my voice up a few octaves. "It's me!"

Not so much as a beat-pause. "Deedee, why hello, dear. So good of you to call. And how's Jackie? Taking good care of you, I hope."

I looked around at the grunge-streaked walls. "You bet. He takes me to all the best places. So, auntie, remember how we were going to visit cousin Will? Before that thing came up? Well, Jackie and I thought we'd pay him a visit. But first, we wanted to see whether you wanted to join us, since it was your idea."

"Oh, that's very sweet of you, dear, but you kids don't want to travel all the way over here to pick me up. Go and see Will, and give him my love. Then you can stop here on the way back. I'd love to see you."

I glanced at Jack, who'd been listening in. "I'm not sure--"

"Really, I must insist." Her voice was still light, but her tone had taken on a steel core. "We have so much catching up to do."

Jack hesitated, then nodded. I told Evelyn we'd be there late this afternoon, then signed off.

"Jackie?" Jack said.