“Slick,” Livvy said. “Well, we have to think of a way around it. There must be something…”
She took another bite of her energy bar. When it hit her, she quickly swallowed. “You know Williams is out here and that he tagged you because it’s what you would have done. What you did! You did the same to him. When? How?’’
“Two… no three days ago. His shoes. I set it up in a barbed spike – one of Bruno’s toys – near his desk and he obligingly stepped on it.
“It’s one reason I was so sure we should start in Lexington. I should have been able to pick him up in town if he was at any of the other properties you mentioned, although it was always possible that he’d just go home – he lives in Davie – which would put him off the grid as well. Or worn different shoes, I suppose. I just confirmed that Williams, or at least his shoe, is here in Lexington. Which makes us either right on target or on our way into a trap. What are the odds, do you think?”
“Or Williams is here with his shoe and knows we’re coming, but hasn’t told Bedford. We should start an office pool. You tell me, since you’ve known him longer, would keeping it secret from Bedford appeal to him?” Livvy asked. “Perhaps he’s had it with Bedford and his ego.”
“It’s where I’d put my money,” Chris said agreeably. “Playing the wild card. William’s favorite role.”
“I like my poker pure. So we’ve narrowed it down: Bedford knows we’re coming, or doesn’t,” Livvy said. “This will be fun. We’ll need to be quick and pack efficiently.” She pulled a clip belt out of her pack and started putting it on.
“We’ll go in simultaneously from two directions,” Chris said.
“Don’t you think we should stick together? You’ll need some cover.”
“No. It wouldn’t help. They may know I’m coming. I’m also not in any shape to be jumping fences, as you so kindly pointed out,” Chris said. “You’re another matter. You aren’t tagged.”
Livvy sighed. “All right. Give it to me. You know, you’ve had a nice long run but I haven’t a clue how, and I’d really like to know,” Livvy said. “Breathing,” she added when Chris looked at her quizzically.
“You get to stealth your way in the back way, neutralize the guards, and find Jesse. I walk in the front door and distract Bedford and talk to Williams.”
“Uh huh. Like I said.” Livvy folded her arms. “My partner, who is straddling the line between merely gimpy and totally laid up, wants to walk in and confront the people I just salvaged him from. You working on a dare, or do you just have this driving need to haze the LLE rookie? Williams is corrupt, no matter what kind of game he thinks he’s playing. In the end, he knows that unless he kills you, and probably me, his career is over and he goes to prison.”
Chris was silent.
“Doesn’t he?”
“LLE handles things differently.”
“I get it, I do. And I’ll never forget it, as long as I live.”
“And more importantly, at the moment, Williams knows it as well.”
There was a longer silence.
“I know LLE reveres the Laws with a capital ‘L’ but operates one step away from anarchy, in secrecy. I understand that it’s all to save everyone else from chaos. But you guys are still all brainsick. Mickey Bedford and her bodyguard are dead, and Bedford has Jesse, and Williams is definitely a bare-bellied snake,” Livvy said slowly.
“Hutchins. Stowe the outrage, or at least focus it. We can’t know that Williams anticipated Mickey’s murder.”
“No,” Livvy admitted, “we don’t know what he anticipated. Williams might have his head where no head should fit and he only heard about Mickey and Jesse when Enforcement did, and he may not be in on the big plan. But he’s out here now, and we think Jesse is too, don’t we? So he has to realize…”
“As far as Williams is concerned, it may have slipped away from him,” Chris said. “All of this, before Mickey died, could fit in with a rich man’s determination to preserve his personal hotlabs and relationship with Josephson. Even what he did to me could fit in with that. Williams may have some inkling now that it’s much more than an issue of some hotlabs, but feel he’s in too deep. He’s probably feeling like a tiger on a leash. I can fix that.”
“Jackal. That’s jackal on a leash,” Livvy said distractedly. “I know he’s LLE, but you have no idea how Williams will react. He may shoot you, really shoot you, not just with Stingers, on sight.”
“I’ve worked with him ten years.”
“He doesn’t even like you,” Livvy added, meeting his eyes.
“I’m aware. It’s mutual. But I know a little about what matters to him,” Chris said.
“Maybe less than you realize,” Livvy said, with a worried look on her face. “You don’t think like him.”
“Possibly,” Chris said, “but I’ve had a lot of experience trying to communicate with people who don’t think like me. I still need to talk to him. And since we can’t do an all-out two-pronged attack, we need the distraction. If I wasn’t already tagged and in no shape for running I’d flip you for it. Hell, you’re a walking billboard for distraction. Hopefully, we were successful at maintaining some secrecy at the Potomac Falls house and they won’t even be watching for you, even after I show up.”
“Billboard?” Livvy said distastefully, then noticed that Chris appeared to be staring at her chest.
“What?” she asked, annoyed, and looked down at her tunic, which she’d already toggled back to off-white. It should make her less visible than the black she’d used last night.
“I was just thinking. We’re too urban. You really should be in camouflage. I’m going to suggest you spend a few moments rolling in the mud before you get close to the farm,” Chris said. Livvy opened her mouth, but not a word came out.
“If Bedford succeeds, he’ll never let us live,” Chris continued without a pause. “We know too much and I suspect he’ll be unhappy with what happened in his home in the city. For the moment, he still wants to find out where his weaknesses and leaks are. He wants to know what we know and how we know it. For now, that’s leverage. But the longer we wait, the less protection it buys us, because he’ll see that nothing else is happening, and then he’ll realize the only people that may be able to tie anything to him are the two of us. The fact that it is unusable in court won’t matter. He’ll want us dead.”
“I’m beginning to understand,” Livvy said cryptically.
“What?”
“Never mind.”
“Meanwhile, Jesse is in Josephson’s hands,” Chris added as the clincher after a very brief pause.
“All right,” Livvy said. “You drive in and poke at the lion and his dog – jackal – in his own den. I trot in cross-country. Just try to get me within trotting range, please, and don’t get killed until I finish dealing with the hired help.
“And McGregor, some advice,” Livvy added succinctly. “Don’t ever call a woman a walking billboard again, especially when you’re trying to get her to agree to something.”
Livvy was furious. Her feet were soaked. Her 25 year-old-body, normally taken for granted, was sore and exhausted. And there was no one within range at whom she could vent her dissatisfaction. In thirty years experience, she had never faced this sort of ordeal. She was keen to find a target for her fury, and she had three in her figurative sights. Williams. Bedford. Josephson.
She had adroitly – she thought – slipped out of the car when Chris had done a quick stop about two kilometers from Bedford’s horse farm. She had climbed over the white rail fence, rolled in some handy mud, and started resolutely jogging, occasionally slogging, through the orchards and across the pastures. The terrain was soaked with dew and harboring low spots with shallow puddles from an overnight shower.