A woman stood beside Amber. Gray hair, medium build, early fifties, a nurse.
“Dr. Bowers,” the nurse said firmly, “you are a fortunate man.”
“Fortunate?” The word was hoarse, didn’t even sound like my voice.
“That tarp probably saved your life.”
Tarp?
“Ellory.” I tried to collect my thoughts. “He was there. The suspect threw him in the river. Did they find Ellory?”
Neither of them spoke.
“He went under the ice,” I said.
“Just rest, Pat-” Amber began, her voice soft, palliative, but I cut her off.
“Where’s Jake?”
“He stepped out of the room to get some coffee. He’ll be back.”
“I need to talk to Tessa, tell her what happened, can I borrow…”
But then, a realization.
When Tessa’s father had died last summer, she’d become more emotionally reliant on me, and if I spoke with her right now, she would certainly hear the weakness in my voice. And finding out I was in a hospital would only make her worry more-especially when she learned that I’d narrowly escaped drowning, not to mention freezing to death. Being stuck in the Cities and unable to see me wouldn’t help matters at all. Right now the last thing I wanted to do was upset her.
Call her later, check in when you’re not so queasy.
“What time is it?” My eyes flicked around the room, found no clock.
“Just past 6:00,” Amber said.
No! That’s too long!
I tried to prop myself up but was too weak to do it. “Tell me, did they catch Chekov?”
“Who?” She shook her head. “I’m not sure who that is.” Then she thought for a moment. “I did overhear Jake on the phone, though, telling someone that the UNSUB was still at large. Is that him?”
That term UNSUB always annoys me. Unlike on TV crime shows, almost no one in the Bureau actually uses the term. Besides in this case, Alexei wasn’t an unknown subject of the investigation, he was known, identified, there was no doubt he was the man who’d killed Bryan Ellory. Amber went on, “They were lucky to find you when they did.”
I felt myself slipping away again, the thick dreamy darkness sweeping over me. “How did they? How did they find me?”
“Anonymous call.”
“Anonymous call,” I echoed softly. There was only one person who knew I was lying beside that river, but why Alexei Chekov would have contacted emergency services to tell them about me, to save my life, was beyond me.
The sense of weariness was overpowering. “Did you give me anything?” I said to the nurse, who had just finished adjusting my IV.
“No. Do you know your condition when we brought you in?”
So sleepy.
“I need to go.” I fumbled with the IV to pull it out of my arm. Failed.
“It’s okay,” Amber said, her hand on mine again. “Relax, Pat.”
“Listen, there was a semitrailer.” I was in a fog. “You have to tell Jake. I only saw it for a few seconds…”
Focus, Pat!
“Peterbilt extended cab.” My voice sounded faint, as if it were coming from someone else. “Maroon. Silver trailer. No distinctive markings, heading west.”
Faintly, I heard the nurse: “He remembers that after seeing it for a few seconds?”
“Yes,” Amber said.
“Have him call it in,” I mumbled just before I felt myself slip away again into a thick and timeless dream.
37
Tessa could feel her stomach churning at the smell of the bar’s greasy, fried meat. Just knowing that those animals had been ruthlessly imprisoned and then barbarously slaughtered just so they could be chopped up, fried, and eaten was disturbing enough, and now she was caught smelling the evidence of all that brutality.
But it was too cold to wait for Sean outside, and Larry had been generously bringing her free root beer and french fries, and he was so nice that she would’ve felt way rude complaining about the meat smell, so she kept quiet.
He started telling her stories about turkey hunting with “that lucky-shot uncle of yours,” and the hunting stories didn’t exactly serve to settle her stomach. She held back from sharing her views about sport hunting.
Tessa was halfway through her second platter of fries when the front door opened and Sean appeared amidst an angry swirl of snow.
He looked her way. “Hey, I’m sorry I was so long.”
“I’m glad you made it.” She stood.
After a quick hello and thanks to Larry, who still refused to let them pay for anything, Sean led her to the truck. “I need to tell you something important about Patrick.”
A tremor of uneasiness. “What is it?”
“Climb in. I’ll explain on the way.”
The money had been at the dead drop, a fact that was a bit perplexing to Alexei, considering the fact that he was evidently being set up. Now he was on the road in a new vehicle, and the duffel bag containing the cash was carefully tucked in the corner of the trunk to make room for the person he was transporting.
He was nearly to the house when he received word from Nikolai.
“The phone number you gave me, it was used to phone the American consulate in Moscow to report that…” But then Nikolai paused and seemed to rethink his decision to share the information with Alexei.
“To report what?”
A blank silence. “The death of your wife.”
“What? How do you know this?”
“We each have our methods, Alexei. But you must trust me. The number, I confirmed it with my sources.”
Alexei let that sink in. Valkyrie reported Tatiana’s murder?
That meant that, even if Valkyrie wasn’t the one to pull the trigger, he-or she-was somehow complicit in the crime.
Alexei felt his anger, his thoughts, spiral in pin-tight. “Anything else?”
“I will let you know if there is.”
“I’ll give you an additional $250,000 if you can get me a name within twenty-four hours.” After offering to transfer half of the amount now, as a sign of good faith, it didn’t take a lot of convincing before Alexei’s contact agreed.
Alexei ended the call. Electronically transferred the funds.
On Wednesday Valkyrie had mentioned his Tanfoglio. Mentioned Italy. Why even bring it up? How had Valkyrie found out about it, anyway? And why leave the remaining $1,000,000 at the dead drop?
Alexei didn’t know, but he couldn’t help but think that Valkyrie had been playing him ever since Tatiana’s murder.
Okay, change of plans.
Becker Hahn had told him to expect a call at 9:00 tomorrow night: “Not a minute before, not a minute after.” Alexei was aware that plans change, but 9:00 was also the time Valkyrie had told him earlier, so it appeared that he had a window of opportunity until then.
Alexei was confident that even if Nikolai came up short, Becker, who’d been so bold as to mention Valkyrie in the meeting earlier today, would have information leading to the intelligencer’s identification or whereabouts. Eco-Tech had something planned, but even more importantly, they were still in this area and they were connected with Valkyrie.
Alexei arrived at the cabin, gently transferred the woman from the car’s trunk to the room at the end of the hall, secured her, then pulled out his computer to review his notes about Becker Hahn and his team.
He was going to find the people who had set him up, and then go through them one by one until they told him who Valkyrie was.
I awoke.
No one else in the hospital room.
Looking around, I found my watch on a small dresser beside the bed and checked the time.
8:02 p.m.
I rubbed my head.
From the time I’d tried to save Bryan Ellory-apart from awakening briefly just after six o’clock-I’d been out more than six hours. I was off the cardiac monitor now, but still had the IV.
I felt bleary and weak and ached all over, either from the aftermath of the hypothermia or from some type of medication they were giving me. Whichever it was, it didn’t matter, my energy was gone.