“I want that cell phone, Harriet.”
“Forget it. It would do you absolutely no good without the code. Surely you don’t think I’d give that to you?”
“I believe you could be persuaded,” he said softly.
“How nasty. Are you threatening me, Cartland? Remember those documents? On my death, my lawyer will FedEx a copy to Iran. And do you think I brought you here to flaunt this detonator in your face? I know you have no problems with torture. Kevin told me all about you and your friends. He said you were amateurs. That’s why he took the devices away from you.”
“He was a traitor.” His cheeks flushed. “I was glad when I heard he’d been killed.”
“And you all ran for cover.” She smothered the rage she was feeling. Cartland still had his uses. “Think what you like. I know what my son could do.” She took a deep breath. “You’re thinking that you don’t have to know where the nukes are located if you have that detonator. You’re quite right. That’s why you have to deal with me and not my ex-husband. I have the detonator, and I have the code. That gives me all the cards, Cartland. And it puts me in the driver’s seat.” She added, “You’ll like the way I drive. I’m waiting for James to give me the death of the man who butchered my son. Then I’ll personally set off those nukes. You won’t have to do a thing but accept the responsibility. You’ll have no risk. You and your little group can take credit and become big men in Tehran. And I’ll have a red herring that will give me time to go underground. Interested?”
“Maybe,” he said cautiously.
“You’re very interested.”
“You want more money.”
“Yes, one more payment would make me happy. It should be sent to the same bank a week after the explosions take place. I’m taking a chance on you, of course. But I still will have those documents, and I’m sure that you won’t want those politicians in Tehran to know that I’m the one who will be responsible for the explosions. It would be humiliating for you to have them know that you took credit for the work of a lowly woman. I’ll just disappear into the sunset.”
“That would be best,” he said slowly.
“I thought so.”
He was silent. “Just one more payment?”
“And perhaps a favor or two.”
He stiffened. “Favor?”
“Kevin told me that you were a very clever man. You trained at a camp outside Berlin that specialized not only in bomb making but assassination. I’m sure you’ve just gotten better over the years.”
“You want me to kill someone.”
“It would make it safer for me to leave the country. Safer for me to disappear. Safer for you to maintain the reputation I’m going to hand you.”
“Who?”
“No one who should cause you any problem. Just a woman who pushed in where she shouldn’t be. James says that I shouldn’t worry about her, but then James can sometimes be a fool.” She smiled. “Her name is Jane MacGuire.”
“Why do you want her dead?”
“She knows about my son’s journal. That means that she may find out more than I’d like her to know about our project. I’ve no desire for her to suspect that I had anything to do with either your group or the explosions. She may have some kind of connection with a CIA agent, but she had a purely personal reason for hunting me down and harassing me.” Her lips tightened. “And she won’t give up. I saw it in her face, heard it in her voice. No matter where I go or how much time passes she’ll be right behind me. I won’t permit that to happen, Cartland. Take care of it for me.”
“How do I get to her?”
“That’s your problem. Her family lives in Atlanta. She’s the adoptive daughter of Joe Quinn and Eve Duncan. I last saw her in Muncie, Indiana.” She paused. “I want it done quickly. I don’t want to have it hovering over me. Find her. Kill her.”
“I’ll find her.” He smiled grimly. “It shouldn’t take long. The advantage of living in a technical world is that no one can really get away from it. I’ll have Samli run a check on her smartphone. Unless it’s been specially blocked, it should be easy enough. He’s located troubling people for me before. I can probably give you her location down to half a mile or so.”
“You can really do that?”
“Anybody can do that, if they know the right person. A couple hundred bucks to an employee of one of the wireless carriers will tell you exactly which tower Jane MacGuire’s phone is pinging at any given time. No muss, no fuss.”
“And no warrant.”
“Actually, the cops don’t even need a warrant for that. The phone companies have a cozy relationship with most law-enforcement agencies. This isn’t exactly legal, but it’s also no big deal. Any private investigator in any fleabag strip center could do the same thing for you. There are thousands of underpaid telephone employees who are glad to supplement their incomes.”
“But I don’t want a private detective to do it. I want you. How long will it take?”
“I’ll put Samli on it and he’ll be able to narrow down her exact location within five or six hours. Once I have her zeroed in, it’s all over.”
“Excellent.” She closed the safe-deposit box and locked it. “When you tell me that I no longer have to concern myself with her, I’ll be able to concentrate on more important things.”
“When?” Cartland asked bluntly. “How soon will you punch in that code?”
“Don’t nag me. I don’t like it. It’s all coming together.” She turned and headed for the door. “Within two days, you should be a very happy man.” She glanced at him over her shoulder. “And if you take care of the Jane MacGuire matter, I’ll be a very happy woman.”
CHAPTER
14
Seattle
“THE KING STREET STATION TOWER,” Catherine told Gallo. “Margaret said Kendra’s bet was on that clock tower to be the one where Kevin placed one of his nukes.”
“We’ll check it out and see how we can get inside. Though there’s a good chance it’s being watched. We won’t be able to move on it. The last thing we want is to goad Doane and Harriet into a panic.”
“I’m just hoping that we’ll be able to pull all these strings together at the last minute,” she said wearily. “And praying that we won’t be the one in a panic.”
“Not you, Catherine.”
“Don’t count on it. I checked with Langley about any real estate purchased by Kevin here in Seattle, and they haven’t come up with anything. Of course, he probably buried the paperwork under a dozen names or companies. It will take time.” She paused. “But maybe Venable could get it faster. He has more clout. I may have to go that route.”
“You’ll do what you have to do.” He changed the subject. “Joe and I have been to the Marine Museum, and we’ve been talking to the curator about driftwood. We tapped a lot of technical and historical background, but I doubt if it’s going to prove valuable.”
“I went at it from another angle. Tell me about the museum info.”
“Driftwood is any wood that’s been washed onto a shore or beach of a sea or river by the action of winds, tides, waves, or man. It’s a form of marine debris.”
“Anything about a connection between driftwood and graveyards … tombstone … death?”
“No, actually, it’s usually considered beneficial to life. Driftwood provides shelter and food for birds. Fish and other aquatic species as it floats in the ocean. Gribbles, shipworms, and bacteria decompose the wood and gradually turn it into nutrients that are reintroduced into the food chain. The wood can also become the foundation for sand dunes when it comes ashore. On the surface, nothing sinister, Catherine.”
“Eve saw something sinister. Where does the majority of the driftwood come from?”
“Hard to determine exactly because of wave erosion. Most of the driftwood comes from remains of trees washed into the water by storms, flooding, or other disasters. Other causes are logging, cargoes from ships, buildings, ships themselves. There was one hell of a flood of driftwood that came ashore from the Japanese tsunami.”
Catherine recalled seeing the news stories about the tons of horrible ghostly debris that had washed ashore. She had never thought of those huge boats, tools, and fragments ripped from the farms and seaports of Japan as driftwood. Yet evidently they were. “I don’t think that Kevin’s driftwood was from that disaster. The time frame isn’t right. Is there anything else that you found unusual?”