She stared at me, her mouth half-open. “Then who, Joe? And who, if not Snowden, is framing you now?”
“I don’t know, but I think it all hangs on Rarig.”
As confusing, taxing, and seemingly futile as the night had been, I found for the first time in days that I could sleep soundly. A catharsis had been achieved, like the bursting of a dam, and it had released the almost paralytic pressure I’d been storing up for days. There were no obvious immediate solutions, of course. But where I’d seen only blank canyon walls before, now I was focusing on finding a way out.
My only regret, which clung to me like a dull and chronic pain, was that I couldn’t share any of this with Gail.
Willy called the next morning. “Kidder flew the coop,” he said.
“Around eight.”
“Back to Langley?”
“I think so. I tailed her for a while, but I didn’t want to leave Rarig for too long.”
“He stay put?”
“So far. Sammie’s got him now. Something else, though-there’s been a killing up in Middlebury. Another Russian.”
I straightened, almost dropping the phone. “No shit.”
“Yeah, Just came over the wire. A drive-by. Guy was a prof at the college. Supposedly an old-time dissident immigrant, dating back to the sixties. Got whacked in front of something called the Geonomics Center, on campus.”
“No spook connections?”
“Not yet. No leads anywhere. Like I said, it’s brand new. I’ll dig into it, though, using the Boris case as camouflage. I got a friend in the department up there.”
A beep echoed in my ear, indicating another call coming in. I hung up on Willy and answered.
“It’s Sam,” said the voice at the other end, sounding tense. “I got a bit of a situation here.”
“What?”
There was a rustling sound, and another voice came on. “This is Rarig. We need to talk.”
All semblance of last night’s rambling host was gone. Rarig was clearly on edge. Something, I thought, was moving in the woods.
“I can’t be there for several hours.”
“You get here now.”
“It’ll mean missing my check-in at the barracks. They’ll issue a warrant for my arrest.”
“I can clear you of all that crap. I need you and your two friends, but it’s got to be immediately.”
“We going to Middlebury?”
It was a shot in the dark. I almost heard the thud as he fell.
“How the hell did you know that?”
“Who was the guy?”
“Nobody. They hit the wrong target. I need to save the real one. I can’t reach him by phone, and anyway, I think they found him by tapping my line.”
“Is that why they killed Antonov? To flush out the real quarry?”
“He read about Antonov in the papers. He got nervous and called me. Olivia came up to see what we could do. We thought we had a handle on it till this happened.” His voice suddenly broke. “You’re wasting time, Lieutenant. You coming or not?”
“Not yet, and you’re not moving without backup, so don’t bullshit me. What phone are you on right now?”
“Your partner’s portable. I dug her out of her hiding spot. I can tell you people don’t do this for a living.”
“Don’t be a smartass, John. You need us. Who’s the guy we’re supposed to be saving?”
“He’s a defector. The one I mentioned last night that Angleton locked up for two years ’cause he thought he was a plant.”
“Why not call in the cavalry?” I asked.
“It might be the cavalry that’s hunting him.” Rarig’s exasperation was as clear as his voice was becoming loud.
“You’re not going to give me your ‘Snowden’s-the-bad-guy’ spiel again, are you? I’m a little less gullible today.”
“God damn you, Gunther. I’m asking you to help me save a man’s life. That’s supposed to be what the police are for. I don’t know who’s trying to take him out, and I don’t know why, but I’ve got to do what I can. I’ll get you cleared of your legal problems-I’ve got the evidence you want-but I need you now.”
“Give the phone back to Sammie and walk out of earshot.”
I waited a few moments after Sam got back on. “He a safe distance away?” I asked.
“Yeah. Sorry for the screwup.”
“I don’t care about that. He’s right. Snooping on people isn’t our job. What do you think of all this?”
“That you leave the county? You’d be crazy. This creep’s been lying to us since we met him.”
“He sounds genuine now.”
“He looks genuine, but it could all be cock-and-bull, and you’d pay the price big time.”
“Willy called me about the shooting in Middlebury. That part’s legit. How did it come down at your end?”
“I saw him through the window on the phone ten minutes ago. He was pacing back and forth, waving his arm. Then, all of a sudden, he flies out of the house, makes a beeline for me like I was standing in the middle of a road, and demands to talk to you on my phone. He is seriously worked up.”
“This could be the break we’re looking for, Sam.”
I could almost feel her anxiety. “Jesus. It’s all so tied up in knots, who’s to tell? Willy says they use people like Kleenex. It’s a hell of a risk.”
“My other option looks like a dead certainty. Even if Richard gets me off, my career’s toast.”
She was utterly silent for a moment, before pointing out, “Rarig hasn’t said what he wants yet.”
“Put him back on, then.”
A few moments later, Rarig demanded, “Are you in or not?”
“What’s your plan?”
“My God. I hope to hell you’re not on your department’s SWAT team. All your hostages would die of old age.”
“Sam and I are both on the team, and we’re also alive to prove it. What’s your plan?”
“I don’t know yet,” he conceded. “I need to get up there, find him, and get him to safe ground.”
“You sure he’s still in Middlebury?”
“He should be. When we moved him there, he and I picked out a priest hole he could use in an emergency.”
“Is that where he called you from?”
“It doesn’t have a phone. It has a signaling device he’s supposed to trigger when he gets there, but he either didn’t use it or he never arrived. That’s why I want help.”
“All right,” I finally agreed. “I’ll come, but alone. I won’t jeopardize the other two.”
He barely hesitated. “Fine, just get here.”
Chapter 15
I didn't fly out of the house after Rarig’s call for help. If anything, his impatience slowed me down, making me as careful as he seemed to have become impulsive. I packed a bag with every tactical necessity I could think of, including several weapons, and made sure the house was secure before I left. I longed to leave Gail a note and finally settled for a simple “I love you” on the icebox chalkboard, confident that sooner or later she’d see it.
The reason I knew she’d come by-maybe even move back in-was because I was also aware of how my departure would be received. For the violator of court-ordered condition of release to also be a cop compounds the sin exponentially. Any judge would feel the added insult-Harrowsmith more than most. None of which took into account the predictable howl from Fred Coffin’s publicity machine.
Within a half hour of my no-show at the West Brattleboro barracks, a fugitive arrest warrant would be issued statewide, complete with description, photograph, and known contacts. One accidental sighting by a single cop anywhere in Vermont-and there were hundreds who knew me at a glance-would mean attention unlike any I’d ever received before. If Richard Levay thought he’d had a hard case before, he was about to start feeling like Clarence Darrow at the Scopes trial-assuming he didn’t wash his hands of me altogether.
And yet I felt no real trepidation as I set out toward the Windham Hill Inn. What I’d told Sammie had been the absolute truth. As I saw it, this was my only remaining option. It didn’t matter if Rarig was lying about clearing my name. It didn’t matter if we failed to locate his terrified defector. I wasn’t entirely sure it mattered if nothing turned out as anyone was expecting. The point now was simply to create some random, spontaneous action-a move so utterly against my character that it would fall outside the boundaries imagined by whoever had set me up. As I saw it, I had to knock at least a single support beam to the ground and hope the whole structure followed suit.