“But what if Carol is still alive? What if they’re holding her somewhere?
“Do you really think they would keep her alive?”
Mike’s face brimmed with tears. “What if they go after one of my kids… or my granddaughter…”
“Gimme their numbers,” Frank said. “I can check into that quite easily.”
“How?”
“Leave it to me.” Frank pulled a scrap of paper and a pen from the compartment between the front bucket seats. Mike rattled off two sets of phone numbers for his adult children, both work and home. Frank jotted them down. “Do either of them have Caller ID?”
“I don’t know,” Mike said. He looked haunted. Defeated. “Maybe.”
Frank’s mind was racing. “Let’s find a phone booth. It’ll be better if I place those calls from someplace anonymous. Once I can verify they’re safe, we need to deliver my laptop to Billy and then you and I really need to disappear.”
“Yeah.” Mike’s face was worn. It looked like he’d aged ten years.
Without another word, Frank waited until it was safe, then he pulled back onto the road and headed for a convenience store in search of a phone booth to place the calls.
“DID YOU TALK to them? Are they safe?”
Those were the first words out of Mike when Frank returned to the car. He climbed in and shut the door. Mike immediately began to pepper him with more questions. “You talked to them, right? What did you say? How did you—”
Frank cut him off. “I called Jimmy and your daughter-in-law at work and got their voice mails. I was able to zero out and get a secretary, who told me they were in meetings. So they’re safe.”
“What about Kimberly?” Kimberly was Mike’s granddaughter.
“I called the day care. Cathy dropped Kimberly off this morning. I assume Kimberly, Jimmy, and you and Carol are the only ones who have the authority to pick her up?”
“Yes!” Mike nodded. At the news that Cathy had dropped Kimberly off this morning, Mike looked visibly relieved. “What about Brad?”
“I was able to talk to him,” Frank said. “The minute I verified it was him, I told him I was a telemarketer trying to sell him insurance and he hung up on me.”
Mike rubbed his face. He still looked worried, still appeared scared, but hearing the news that his sons and granddaughter were safe had taken the bulk of the worry out of his mind. “So what do we do now?”
“I tried calling Jimmy and Cathy on their cell phones but my calls went straight to voice mail. Cathy must have a busy schedule. Her secretary said she had a meeting, then had to leave early to take Kimberly to a pediatrician appointment at ten o’clock. She must have left early for that because when I called the day care, they told me Cathy had already picked her up.”
“At least she’s safe,” Mike said. He looked at Frank. “I’m tired and I’m hungry. I know this sounds horrible, but I need something in my stomach. I’m fucking starving.”
Frank started the car. “Let’s grab a quick bite to eat and some coffee. We can lay out a plan over breakfast.”
Five minutes later, shortly after ten o’clock in the morning, they entered a Coco’s restaurant on Talbert Avenue and were escorted by a twenty-something female hostess to a table where they refueled.
And made plans.
Chapter Nineteen
“THE PARTY YOU have called has turned their phone off or is not in the service area. Please try again—”
Goddamn! Frank hit the disconnect button on his cell phone and shot a look at Mike. “Let me try again,” he said.
“What’s the matter?” Mike asked. He was standing near the doorway of the cramped motel room, waiting for Frank to finish collecting his things.
“Vince isn’t answering his goddamn cell phone,” Frank said.
Mike frowned. It was a quarter till one in the afternoon. They’d spent an hour at Coco’s eating breakfast, drinking coffee, and talking in low tones. Mike had called Billy Grecko and given him the Cliff Note’s version of what was happening and made plans to meet at his office at 1:30. Once Mike had a cup of coffee in him and put away half his breakfast—scrambled eggs, hash browns, and pancakes—he became more rational, more level-headed. He agreed with Frank that they couldn’t call the police even though his emotions begged him to simply drop everything and do so. Frank had taken his laptop in the restaurant for safe-keeping and it sat between them in the corner booth he’d requested. Mike had mostly listened as Frank quickly outlined a hasty plan: the first step was to get the laptop to Billy Grecko; the second step was to contact Vince and make coordinated steps to disappear again; the third was subject for debate. Frank needed to gather his things, then make like a leaf and blow. He suggested Mike disappear too. Mike insisted on being dropped off at his home first. “I’ve got to get a few things—”
“We’ll do a drive-by the house first,” Frank had said. “Make sure the police aren’t there. Then we’ll leave.”
That had been the plan. As they’d talked over breakfast, they ruminated over where the course of their actions would take them. Frank was confident that Bill Grecko’s FBI contact would produce results. The agent in question had broken up a large snuff-film ring last year that had been the result of Bill’s own hard work. According to Mike, Billy still didn’t like to talk about it.
Once they’d finished breakfast and paid the bill, they’d headed straight to Billy Grecko’s office in Santa Ana. The drive was made in funereal silence. Mike had placed a call to Billy on the way over and the lawyer had met them in the lobby of the building his law office was housed in. It was the first time Frank had met the lawyer; he appeared to be around Mike’s age, with graying, curling hair that was balding along the crown, with a somewhat slim figure and weathered features that told Frank he was an ex-drinker. They’d shaken hands quickly, and then Billy had escorted them to the elevator and whisked them up to his office.
Where behind closed doors they’d handed the laptop over. Billy had quickly summoned an IT tech into his office who began to promptly image Frank’s hard drive onto another laptop while Billy and Mike made small talk. Frank had sat on the sofa, trying not to fidget. When the IT tech was finished, he left both laptops in Billy’s office and exited the room. Billy nodded. “I take it this is everything?”
“Most of it,” Mike said. He handed Billy the box that contained thirty years of secrets along with the key. “This is the box Vince’s mother kept. I told you about it a few days ago. You should be able to match the clippings and photos with the documents from Frank’s laptop.”
Billy nodded. He held the box, his eyes never leaving Mike’s. “I can’t promise you anything,” he said. “But I know Hank, my Bureau friend, is very eager to see this.”
“Thank God he is.”
“Do either of you need any kind of professional surveillance or security?”
Frank had perked up at this. “Can you help us out in that?”
“I can arrange something. Pull a few strings. It might take me a few hours to get everything lined up.”
“If you can do that, yeah,” Frank said. “That would be great.”
“I’ll make some calls.” Billy looked at Mike. “You haven’t called the police yet?”
“No.” Mike shook his head.
“Don’t call them,” Billy said. “Hank and his team will take over once I get this material to him.”
“What should we do now?” Mike asked.
“I’d prefer if you stay here until I can arrange for you to go into hiding,” Billy said.
“What about Vince and Tracy? We told them to go to the Venice Beach area and wait for our call.”