Since Anne had worked closely with Cassie, she’d quickly become aware her subordinate was very touchy about her looks, doubtful of her own sex appeal. It was a point of vulnerability. Anne began to wonder if this search for David Angola had more than one layer. Interesting, but not important.
After ten minutes, there was a knock at the door. When Cassie nodded, Anne answered it.
Holt was clutching a bag of groceries to his chest with his left hand. His right hand was concealed. He’d come armed.
“You’ll never guess who’s here,” Anne said, standing to one side to give him a clear shot if he wanted to take it. “You remember Cassie Boynton?”
Holt smiled and stepped inside. “I did not expect to see you, Cassie,” he said. “It’s been a long time. What are you doing in this neck of the woods?” Anne quietly shut the door behind Holt.
Cassie held up her gun. “I’m looking for some answers,” she said. “Are you going to try to stop me?”
“I am,” said David, behind her. He’d used Holt’s key to come in the back door.
Cassie whirled, but David wasn’t where she thought he’d be. He’d moved as soon as he’d spoken. Anne, who’d begun moving with “me,” leaped behind Cassie and took her in a chokehold. Cassie clawed at Anne’s arm with her free hand, and tried to bring the gun to bear with her other.
Holt made Cassie release her gun by slamming her hand with the butt of his own. Anne heard a bone crack.
And just that quickly, it was over without a shot fired.
Anne had broken a finger once (or twice) so she knew how painful it was. Cassie did not scream. Fairly impressive.
“You’re unarmed,” David said. “You’re under our control. If this was a training situation, what would you tell yourself?”
Cassie did not speak. Her rage filled the room like a red cloud.
“You’d say, ‘Bang, you’re dead,’ ” David told her. “Did you follow me all this way to try to kill me? Are you trying to prove I stole the money?”
“You did,” Cassie said. Though they were all liars by trade, Cassie believed what she said.
David’s dark face was impassive as he said, “I never took a cent.”
“I didn’t either.” Suddenly Cassie launched herself backward, drawing up her knees to explode forward in a kick that hit David’s chest. He staggered back. Since Cassie’s whole weight was suddenly hanging from Holt’s arm, his hold broke.
With a beautiful precision, Anne pivoted on her left foot and kicked Cassie in the temple with her right. Cassie’s head rocked back, her eyes went strange, and she crumpled.
David had regained his feet by then and he was striving to catch his breath. He held his gun on Cassie, but after a few seconds he was sure she was out. His arm fell to his side, and he sat heavily.
Holt had stepped away from Cassie in case David shot her.
“She sounded like she was telling the truth,” Holt said, after a moment of silence.
“She did, didn’t she?” David looked troubled. “I was so sure it was her.”
“She was sure it was you,” Anne said.
David appeared both confused and angry. “Do you believe I’m an embezzler? Twyla, Greg?”
Twyla said, “Anne,” at the same moment Greg said, “Holt.”
“Does it matter what we think?” Holt continued. “One of you will take the blame. I hope it’s her.”
Anne began to pick up the items that had scattered from the grocery sack. Among them was a knife. Anne smiled. She retrieved her own from her jacket. Then, just in case, she got her gun out of the drawer and put it in a handy spot. After all, everyone else in the room was armed.
She was waiting for the inevitable question. Holt obliged by saying, “What do you want to do with her, David?”
“The options are limited,” David said slowly. “We call Camp East and tell — who, Jay Pargeter, I guess? — to come get her. Or we wait until she wakes up, and we ask her some questions. Or we let her go. Or we kill her now.”
“We’re not part of the system anymore,” Anne told David, pointing from Holt to herself. “We shouldn’t take part in an interrogation.”
“You can’t let her go,” Holt said.
David looked down at Cassie unhappily. “If she was anyone else, I’d put her down. But she’s earned some respect. She’s done a good job since you left, Anne. Until now.”
Holt glanced at Anne and then said, “There’s another choice. You could take Cassie up to Camp East yourself.”
David looked at Holt with narrow eyes. “Why?”
“Enough people know where Anne is already,” Holt said. “Someone had to tell Cassie. If you call from here, at least ten more people will know. Anne, did Cassie say how she found you?”
“Gary Pomeroy in tech support. She also knew you were here, so she figured David might visit.”
“Son of a bitch,” David said, disgusted. “I’ll pay Gary back. Maybe officially. Maybe on my own time.”
“If you don’t, I will,” Anne said. “I don’t want to have to start all over again. It seems to be too easy to pry the information out of Gary. At least we’ll assume it was him.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” David tensed.
“You knew all along where I was. You sent Holt here.”
“You were getting death threats!”
“Like that’s new. I never believed that’s the only reason he came.”
David looked at Holt. “So you’ve never told her why you left?”
“We never talked about it,” Holt said calmly.
“We don’t talk about the past a lot,” Anne said, which was absolutely true.
“Well, Anne, you might be interested to know that Holt here, back when he was Greg Baer, was suspected in the disappearance — and probable murder — of a doctor in Grand Rapids, Michigan,” David said.
“And?” Anne was unconcerned.
“I got tipped off Greg was going to be arrested,” David said. “We couldn’t let the police come to the facility, obviously. They believe it’s a wilderness camp for adults, but if they had a closer look, that wouldn’t fly. I had to drive Greg into town to meet with them. They’d flown in from Michigan.”
“They took me to the local police station and put me through the wringer,” Holt said, smiling. “But considering where I work, it was nothing.”
David stared at him. “Man, they were going to arrest you!”
“Maybe.” Holt didn’t sound worried.
“Oversight voted to hide him, on my strong recommendation,” David told Anne, though he sounded as if he considered that was a mistake, just at the moment. “Otherwise his background might raise a red flag, though I swore to them that Greg wouldn’t talk about the program. His background fit the opening here. He had his ears modified and his tattoos removed. A nose job. I figured you wouldn’t recognize him right away. You two hadn’t actually met, as far as Greg could remember. You could get to know him as Holt.”
“You’re right, I didn’t recognize him.” He’d made her vaguely uneasy, though, and it had explained a lot when he let her know who he’d been.
David nodded, pleased. “Oversight charged me with arranging your identities. No one else knew.”
“Except Gary in tech support,” Holt said in disgust.
“Except him.”
“Thanks, then,” Anne said. She smiled brightly. Holt was going to have some talking to do after this. From his face, he knew that.
David looked from Holt to Anne. “All right, I’ll take Cassie with me. I’ll call Pennsylvania once I’ve gotten a couple of hours under my belt so no one can find out where I started. I disabled the GPS on the rental. It’s a seven-hour drive?”
“Yes,” Anne said. “Thereabouts. One of us could go with you, fly back. You might need help.”