Stone Cold (Camel Club 3)

Stone sized him up. And came away with a clear impression. He reminds me of me, all those years ago. “If you kill for revenge, you want the victim to know why. So you either send them something ahead of time or give it to them right before you pull the trigger. I think that was done with Cincetti, Bingham and Cole. And it was also done with Carter Gray. And he knew that it was tied to Rayfield Solomon. But of course Gray didn’t die.”

“What!” Lesya screamed and then looked accusingly at her son.

Finn didn’t even blink. “Carter Gray is alive?” he said.

Stone nodded. “And no doubt the man who ran out of here is—”

“Going to get the message to Gray,” Finn finished for him. He grabbed his mother’s bag from under the bed and stuffed her few belongings in it.

“What are you doing?” his mother said.

Finn grabbed her arm. “Let’s go.”

“Where?”

“Out of here,” Stone said.

Finn glanced at him. “Plane?”

Stone shook his head. “No doubt covered by now. They don’t know about me, at least not yet. I’ll rent a car from the airport. That stretch of woods I mentioned? I’ll pick you up there in twenty minutes.”

“You can’t trust him, Harry! He is a killer. He killed your father.” Lesya said this in pure Russian.

Stone answered her in Russian. “Everything you say is true. I led the team that killed your husband. Now I know that he was innocent. I lost my wife and daughter violently because of what I used to do for my country. I have spent the last thirty years of my life trying to make amends. I doubt I have enough years left to settle my debt. I know you have no reason to trust me. But I swear to you that I will sacrifice my life to save both of you.”

“Why? Why would you do this?” Lesya said, though her voice was calmer and now she spoke in English.

“Because I simply followed orders without question. Because I took the life of another human being and I had no right to do it. And because you’ve suffered enough.”

Five minutes later, they left the nursing home by a back entrance. Even with her walker, Lesya managed to keep up a brisk pace. She was not as immobile as she had led people to believe.

Stone left them hidden in the woods, hustled to the airport and rented a car using the credit card Annabelle had given him. He could already see subtle activity all around him that did not bode well for their escape. He drove off with the car, picked the pair up, and with Finn reading a map and guiding, they made their way through a series of back roads to the interstate.

“Where to now?” Finn asked.

“Washington,” Stone answered.

CHAPTER 74

JERRY HAD NEARLY PACED a trench through the rug in his hotel room.

When the phone rang he jumped for it and then immediately calmed. He was Jerry Bagger and the Conroys were shit. Yet he would have to settle for the daughter, because Paddy was off-limits now. The thought made Bagger want to tear his own heart out. He would just take it out on Annabelle, giving her enough pain for two.

“Hello, Jerry,” Paddy said. “You ready to dance with the princess?”

Bagger said, “You got her? Prove it.”

“You’ll see for yourself soon enough.”

“Put her on the phone.”

“Well, she’s a wee bit tied up right now. And duct-taped.”

“Then un-duct-tape her,” Bagger said firmly. “I wanta hear her voice.”

A minute later she said into the phone, in a beaten voice, “I guess you win, Jerry. First Tony, now me.”

Jerry smiled and sat down. “Annabelle, don’t even mention yourself in the same sentence with that screw-up. But I wanted to let you know that I’m really looking forward to seeing you.”

“Go to hell, you prick!”

“Still kicking to the end. It’s a shame, it really is. We could’ve been a great team.”

“No we couldn’t, Jerry. You killed my mother.”

“And you ripped me off for forty million, bitch!” he shouted. “You cost me respect. You cost me everything I’ve worked my whole life for.”

“And it still wasn’t enough for me. All I want is your fat, ugly head on a stick.”

With an immense effort Jerry calmed. “I tell you what. I’ll let that remark slide. People close to death, they say stuff. And I’ll tell you something else. I was going to make you feel pain like you never felt before. But instead I’ll do you fast, not slow. After you tell me where my money is. You know why I’m doing that? Out of respect. For your talent. Your wasted talent. If you’d learned that little concept of respect you might’ve lived longer.”

“Tell me something. How much did you pay my old man to set me up?”

“That’s the best of all. Didn’t cost me a dime. You’re one cheap date.”

“Good-bye, Jerry.”

“No, not good-bye, baby. This is just hello.”

Paddy came back on the phone. “Okay, Jerry, you’ve exchanged your pleasantries. Now it’s time for business.”

“Where and when? And don’t say in front of the White House or the Washington Monument or some Hollywood bullshit like that or the deal’s off. For me agreeing to leave your ass alone I want privacy.”

Paddy said, “They’re building a new ballpark in town near the Anacostia River.”

“So I heard. What’s that got to do with anything?”

“They’re tearing down a bunch of buildings and neighborhoods around there. Lot of abandoned places. At eleven o’clock tonight I’ll call with the address of an old parking garage. There’ll be a white van parked on level two. Inside that van will be Annabelle tucked neatly in a roll of carpet. The keys will be in the van.”

Bagger hung up and looked at his men.

Mike Manson said, “This could be a setup of some kind, boss.”

“Gee, Mike, you think so? Not that I believe for one minute that Paddy Conroy is working for anybody other than Paddy Conroy, but I’m not stupid. He may have a big beef with his daughter about Mom getting killed. And that may be why he’s willing to hand her over to me so I’ll leave him alone. But nothing’s for sure with that son of a bitch.”

“So how do we do it?”

“We wait for the address. Then you guys are going to do the pickup at midnight. Bring her to a place where I’ll be waiting. A place that’s a lot more private than an abandoned parking garage.”

“And we just drive off with her? What if they tail us?”

Bagger smiled and picked up his newspaper. “Says in here there’s a World Bank conference today downtown and then fancy dinners and speeches all over the city. Big muckety-mucks flying in from all over the globe.”

“So?” Mike said.

“So I say that’s some great timing if you got the right exit strategy.”