“So it deals with lots of cash,” Bill said quietly. “So it has money-laundering capability and would be able to spread lots of cash around easily.”
“That’s right,” Travers agreed, gesturing at Troy. “That’s what we thought, too.”
“Did you run any lines on Gadanz?”
“Not yet.”
“Do it,” Bill ordered. “Immediately. Sounds like you’re on to something there.”
“Please tell me,” the man whispered compassionately. “I don’t want to hurt you. Just tell me where it is.”
Nancy Carlson gazed forlornly at the ski-masked man, her mouth dry from the nasty-tasting gag he’d stuffed in there hours ago. In the end, Roger had told her where only one of the two documents was hidden. He’d told her there were two, but he hadn’t told her the hiding place of the other one. She was terrified this man would be furious when he realized that she only knew of the whereabouts of the one document and he’d go into an insane rage. She’d been worried about this day coming for forty years, but her worry had grown to terror the moment she’d found Roger slumped over the steering wheel of his car outside the townhouse in Georgetown. She’d cried for him when she’d realized he was dead — and then for herself. She’d considered leaving immediately, but she’d put it off. Now she was regretting that decision.
Her eyes flickered around the dimly lit room. She didn’t know where she was now, but she knew it wasn’t Georgetown. He’d stashed her in the trunk of his car, and the frigid drive had to have been at least thirty minutes long.
She finally nodded to him, and he removed the gag. “I only know where one of them is,” she whispered, “and that’s all I know. I don’t even know what the document is. I swear I don’t.”
“It’s okay,” he whispered back, smiling through the hole in the ski mask as he patted her shoulder comfortingly. “That’s all I need. I’m keeping you here until I get it. When I get back I’ll let you go. I promise I will. I just have to make sure you’re telling me the truth.” It seemed silly to say that. She was obviously so scared out of her mind she wasn’t going to lie. But he had no choice. “Okay?”
She nodded back. “Okay.”
CHAPTER 30
Troy stepped into a large room of the mansion’s basement. In one corner was a prison cell. It reminded him of the cell in North Carolina, though it was bigger and didn’t have that Inquisition-like ring hanging from a chain bolted to the wall. But the steel bars were the same — vertical, black, and cold-looking.
The Jensen family had moved to this house in the countryside outside Greenwich twenty years ago, when Troy was eight. But he and Jack had never been allowed into this section of the massive basement while they were growing up. They’d tried getting in many times when they were left alone. But the thick, metal door was always triple-locked, and there was an alarm — which they’d tripped twice and paid the price on each occasion, the second time dearly, when Troy was eleven and Jack thirteen. It had been the summer, and for two weeks they’d been allowed out of their rooms only long enough to use the bathroom. They’d even taken meals in their rooms.
Troy had found out what was in here only after he became a member of Red Cell Seven. As far as he knew, Jack had died never knowing.
As he looked around, he wondered whether this room had been used not just to hold human beings but to interrogate them as well. He’d made his peace with the need for RCS interrogations to be thorough — rough, even — but for some reason it would bother him to know that torture had occurred in the house where he’d grown up. Which didn’t make much sense, he realized. You were either in or out when it came to the tough calls in life — and he was all-in when it came to RCS agents using any means necessary to protect the United States.
Still…
The cell was unoccupied tonight — which wasn’t a good sign, and there could only be one explanation for that, only one person who could have allowed the prisoner to go free.
Karen had called Troy to tell him that Maddux was locked in the cell, but she wouldn’t say exactly how he’d gotten there. She was an ex-cop, but she couldn’t possibly have gotten him in there by herself. Troy wasn’t sure he could have taken in Maddux alone. So he’d pressed her on what had happened several times. But she wouldn’t divulge anything more about the help she’d received — she wouldn’t even confirm that she had — though she’d apologized three times for being circumspect.
It had to be Charlie Banks, Troy figured. That had to be the person who’d rescued her at the cemetery and helped her bring Maddux to the house. Charlie must have survived being thrown from the Arctic Fire as well, and then laid low all this time. His body had never been found. It was the only possible explanation. She’d sounded happy when they’d spoken. That was a tip-off, too.
Charlie must have realized Karen had found happiness with Jack and not interfered, not made contact with Karen until after Jack was gone. Charlie was a good man. Troy looked forward to that reunion. He just wished it could have been Jack. It was a terrible thing to think, but he couldn’t help it.
“What are you doing in here?”
Troy turned around quickly. “I think you know, Dad,” he answered when he’d calmed down after the voice coming from nowhere had startled him.
“How did you…?” Bill’s voice trailed off.
“Karen called me. She said she was visiting Jack’s grave last night when Maddux confronted her. She said he tried finding out where Travers was, and assaulted her when she couldn’t tell him. He figured she was holding out, but she wasn’t. At least, that’s what she told me.” Troy shrugged. “Why was Shane looking for Major Travers?”
“He figured Travers knew where Kaashif was. You were right, son. Maddux is a patriot. He wanted his turn at Kaashif. He figured he could break the young man even if Travers couldn’t. He figured he could find out who was behind the attacks. As you are aware, he’s very confident in his ability to extract information from anyone.”
“Did you tell him where Kaashif was?”
“I gave Shane the address to the house in Philadelphia where Kaashif lives.”
“Any possibility there was another reason Maddux was looking for Travers?” Troy asked.
“Not that I’m aware of. Why?”
“Just wondering.”
“Troy, if you know anything at all, you must—”
“I don’t.” Troy nodded at the empty holding cell. “What happened? Why isn’t Maddux in there?”
“I let him go,” Bill admitted.
“Why?”
“I had to.”
“What do you mean?”
Bill stared at Troy hard for several moments. But his gaze dropped to the floor when his son wouldn’t look away. “He…he had leverage on me,” Bill finally said in a faltering delivery.
“What does that mean, Dad?”
“It means if I hadn’t let him go, he would have released something about me that I could not have released. It was something that would have hurt your mother very badly. I couldn’t have that.” Bill grimaced as he finished. “There, I said it.”
His father’s voice was shaking, and that was unnerving for Troy. The rock of the family was disintegrating right in front of him. “What is it?” It seemed to Troy that whatever Maddux had on his father, his father was more concerned about himself than anyone else. “What does Shane have on you?”
Bill said nothing, just looked away.
This was a shot in the dark, but Troy figured he’d take it. “Dr. Harrison, the man who was taking care of Jennie Perez.”