“Why, I haven’t done anything. He’s right here. Would you like to speak with him?”
“Put him on.”
“I will, but you didn’t say please.”
After a slight pause, she heard Kevin’s voice, and she almost cried. “Erica? Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. I got out before they came back.”
“I know. Don’t worry about me, and don’t deal with them. Stick to our plan…”
She heard a scuffle on the other end of the line. Then the Texan was back on the phone.
“That’s too bad. I thought we convinced Kevin of our good intentions. I even offered him $5 million for what my former friend Michael Ward called the Adamas Blueprint. You know what he did? He tried to spit in my face.”
“Good.”
“You two are a pair, aren’t you? Well, it doesn’t matter. Erica, do you want Kevin to live?”
Erica’s breath caught in her throat.
“I said do you want Kevin to live?”
“Yes.”
“Then we’ll have to come to an agreement. Murray Hamilton’s truck should get you to Washington, which will be much more convenient for us. I will have the two men you met earlier take Kevin and meet you behind a warehouse on the Potomac. The address is…”
“No. I haven’t done this before, but I’m not stupid. It has to be someplace public.”
A second’s pause. “All right. Where?”
Erica had lived in Washington during a summer job after her sophomore year in college. She worked downtown, but hadn’t had a car at the time. Instead, she avoided the traffic and the crush of the Metro by biking in each day from her apartment in Arlington, Virginia through the Mall. On her route she had crossed one of the busiest bridges in the Washington area, the Arlington Memorial Bridge, directly across from the Lincoln Memorial. It was almost always busy, especially during rush hour, and the moment she thought of the bridge, she got the inkling of a plan.
“The middle of the Arlington Memorial Bridge, north side. The only ones I want to see there are Kevin and the two I’ve already met. If I see an army of guys out there, I’ll leave and send a copy of Adamas to every newspaper in the country.”
Another pause, probably to discuss the risks of the location. “All right, Erica. The Arlington Memorial bridge tomorrow at noon.”
“It has to be Monday morning,” she said, trying to stall for time.
“Monday? Schedule is important to me, Erica.” Her nerves grated every time the Texan said her name.
“If you want the notebook, you’ll have to wait.” She looked at the backpack with the notebook in it. “I can’t get to where it’s hidden until tomorrow night.”
A sigh. “Seven AM Monday morning. Oh, and there’s something else I want you to bring. A particular videotape that you found. You’ll have access to that as well, I assume?”
“Yes,” Erica said, reluctantly. Although it didn’t show much, it was a link between Kevin and the Adamas process.
“Good. I can’t afford for you to miss this appointment, Erica. If you’re not there, they will never find Kevin’s body. If you don’t have the notebook and the videotape, they will never find Kevin’s body. If you bring the police, yada yada yada. Get it?”
“I get it.”
“I’m glad we got to talk finally. I’m sure you’re just as smart as you are pretty. Don’t make an error in judgment like Michael Ward did.” Then the phone went dead.
She turned it off and dropped it on the seat in revulsion, realizing the Texan had gotten pictures of her from somewhere. There wasn’t time to stew on that. She started the truck, pulled down on the stalk shifter, and floored the gas. She had to get to Washington and see whether her plan might actually work.
CHAPTER 32
“Hey! Hey out there! Franco!” Kevin continued to pound on the bedroom door. “I have a problem in here.”
Kevin stepped back as the door swung inward. Franco, still dressed in his Italian-style gray suit, stepped through.
“I told you dinner wasn’t for another hour.”
“I know,” Kevin said, “but there’s a problem with the bathroom. I think the toilet’s broken.”
Franco came farther into the mansion’s bedroom and closed and locked the door behind him, putting the deadbolt key in his pocket. The room was sparsely furnished with a bed, a nightstand and lamp, a small writing desk, and a cane-backed chair. All decorations had been removed from the room just before his arrival. Darker areas were visible where pictures used to hang. Kevin had tried opening the window earlier, but it was nailed shut. If he broke it and attempted to jump the twenty feet to the ground, the guard posted outside his door would be alerted and capture him before he could climb through. Besides, he had no doubt it was hooked up to the alarm system. A tiny bathroom with a glass-enclosed shower, a sink, and a toilet was separated from the bedroom by a louvered door. As with the bedroom, all of its contents had been removed except for a hand towel.
“Did you take a dump in it?” Franco asked, walking toward the bathroom but never taking his eyes off Kevin.
“No, I just took a piss, and then it started to overflow after I flushed it.”
“Sit down in that chair while I take a look. And I don’t want to see you get up.” Kevin did as he was told. Franco went into the bathroom.
Kevin was somewhat surprised at how good he was at lying, considering he almost never did it. The toilet was stopped up, but Kevin knew exactly why. He had torn a piece of the sheet from the bottom of his bed and stuffed the wad into the toilet so that it couldn’t be seen. Only a plumber’s tool would be able to get at it, and he didn’t know of many plumbers that worked on Saturday nights or Sundays. Of course, if they thought it was an emergency, they could get someone, but Kevin thought they wouldn’t for a problem this minor. All he was hoping was that they would let him use another bathroom.
Franco came out of the bathroom after a minute.
“What’s the problem?” Kevin said.
“Do I look like a fucking plumber? How the hell should I know?”
“What am I supposed to do? I can’t use that toilet. It’s filled to the top with water. If I try to flush it, it’s going to flood the whole room.”
“I thought you college guys were smart. You said you just went. If you have to go, don’t flush. Now don’t bother me again.”
The door slammed shut. Kevin could only wait in the barren room, helpless.
Two hours later, dinner still hadn’t come. Kevin was famished; his lunch was still lying in the Virginia Tech commuter lot. He lay in the bed on top of the covers, staring at the ceiling in the dwindling twilight coming through the window. The events of the last week weighed heavily on him. He’d never experienced so much death and destruction. In fact, the only close person he’d lost up to this point had been his mother.
Now he was just like Erica. No parents. No family.
During the drive to Virginia and the subsequent race to get the experiment completed, he’d thought little about his father. When he did, it was only for seconds at a time. Now that his own death was imminent, he had plenty of time to think about his father’s. He didn’t cry, but he felt an emptiness, a loneliness he didn’t expect. Although he hadn’t been to church in years, he thought about heaven and wondered if his mother and father were there, together. Despite everything his father had done, he hoped so. He surprised himself by soundlessly mouthing a prayer.
Before he could finish, the door swung open. Kevin sat up.
A tray came through, held by Franco. Following him was David Lobec.
“I understand from Mr. Francowiak that you have had some plumbing problems.”
Franco placed the tray on the desk. The only things on it were a paper plate holding a sandwich and potato chips and a paper cup turned upside down.