Lifeguard - James Patterson [30]
“Not a wrinkle in your clothes, just like I promised.” I smiled. “Be sure and tell your partner that.”
Ellie looked at me, with a combination of disappointment and frustration. She slid out of the van.
“Answer me one question,” I said.
“What’s that?” She stood, looking at me.
“How come you weren’t wearing an ankle weapon, if you were in the field?”
“My department,” she said, “it doesn’t call for it.”
“What department is that?” I looked at her, confused.
“Art Theft,” Agent Shurtleff answered. “I was following up on the paintings, Ned.”
I blinked. It was sort of like Marvelous Marvin Hagler had stunned me with a short right to the chin. “I’m about to hand my life over to an FBI agent and she’s in Art Theft? Jesus, Ned, can you ever get it right?”
“You still could,” Ellie said, standing there, looking incredibly sad.
“Good-bye, Ellie Shurtleff,” I told her. “I have to admit, you were pretty damn brave. You never thought I was going to shoot you, did you?”
“No.” Ellie shook her head. I caught her smile. “Your gun. It’s been on safety the whole time.”
Part Three
GACHET
Chapter 34
“I DON’T THINK he did it, George!” Ellie said into the speakerphone. “Not the murders, anyway.”
The FBI Crisis Team in Boston had just debriefed her about her ordeal. Maybe she was a little out of her league, but she told them what she saw. That this Kelly was no killer. Just someone in way over his head who panicked. That until his picture flashed unexpectedly on the TV, she was sure she was about to get him to come in.
Now, in the regional director’s conference room in Boston, she was able to report back to her boss in the Florida office. “You remember how the local police said alarms were going off all over town at the time of the theft, George? That’s what he did. He didn’t kill those people or take the art. He set off the alarms.”
“Sounds like you two got pretty cozy in your time together,” Moretti said.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Ellie asked.
“I don’t know, just that it seems you were able to pick up so much about the guy. Heisted a car together, exchanged life stories.”
Ellie stared at the speaker box. She had just spent eight hours with a gun pointed at her, the most nerve-racking day of her life. “I did mention he had a gun, didn’t I, George?”
“You did—and not a single opportunity presented itself in all the time you were together, including two venue changes, to take it away from him? Or to get out of there, Ellie? I was only thinking, maybe another agent . . .”
“I guess I thought I could bring him in without anyone getting hurt. My read was that it didn’t seem like murder was in the guy’s makeup.”
Moretti sniffed. “You’ll pardon me if I just don’t buy into that, Ellie.”
“Into what?” she asked, hesitating.
“Your read. With all due respect, of course.”
“On the basis of what?” she shot back. The asshole was holding back something from her.
“On the basis that innocent guys don’t abduct federal agents,” Moretti replied.
“I did say he panicked, George.”
“And that we ran the guy’s picture around the Brazilian Court in Palm Beach. He was seen with Tess McAuliffe, Ellie. He had lunch with her. The same afternoon she was killed.”
Chapter 35
I’M PRETTY SURE that night was the longest and loneliest of my life.
It was my third night on the run. I didn’t know whom I could trust, except Dave, and I was determined not to get him involved. Everyone else I would’ve gone to, who would’ve helped me out, was dead.
The worst thing was, some of those people I couldn’t trust had the same last name as I did.
I ditched the minivan and spent the night curled up in an all-night movie theater in Cambridge, watching Lord of the Rings over and over with a bunch of overenthused college students. I was bundled up in my hooded sweatshirt, too scared to let anybody see my face. When the final showing was over, I actually felt as though I’d been reprieved.
About eight the next morning I took a cab out to Watertown, fifteen minutes away. I caught a glimpse of the morning Globe on the