The FBI Thrillers Collection Books 6-10 - Catherine Coulter [625]
“I’m really sorry about your mother, Claudia. You said she was a schoolteacher?”
“Yeah, a math teacher, and she was real smart. I was sorry when she died, I really was. I mean, she could have flushed me down the john, right? But she didn’t. You hear me, bitch?”
“You’re screaming so of course I hear you. You’re out of control, like a little kid throwing a tantrum. Why would she have flushed you? Where was your daddy?”
“My mama slept with this jerk who left her. There wasn’t any daddy.”
“Where’d you learn to talk so dirty, Claudia? From your mama or from that saliva-dripping old man you’re with now?”
“My mama didn’t cuss!”
“After she died, what did you do?”
“I took off. I wasn’t going to let those freak social service people take me. And I picked up Moses, not the other way around. He was standing over this filthy old tramp, blood all over his hands and his old army fatigues, and those black boots he wears, and he was laughing his head off. I asked him why he beat the bum like that, and he told me the guy wouldn’t share his Ripple. I figured someone like that could protect me, so I offered him some of my bourbon. All I remember is waking up in a motel room in the morning.”
“What were you doing in Atlanta, Claudia? Running from juvie?”
“Nah, it wasn’t Atlanta, but what do you care? I’m going to hurt you, lady, more now for dissing me and my mama.”
Sherlock laughed. “Sure you are, Claudia. You sound like one of those playground bullies who’s all mouth. Why don’t you tell me where you are, and we can get together and talk things over before Moses gets you killed, or you end up in a state prison until your hair turns gray?”
“Next time we get together, I’m going to pull your tongue out.”
“Now there’s a real grown-up threat. You’re young enough to still have a chance, Claudia. Stay out there and you’ll end up a drugged-out hooker. All that booze will make you look as old as Moses in a few years. Is that what you want for yourself?”
“I’ll tell you what I want, bitch. I’ll tell Moses to do you first, to do whatever he wants, just for me. And I’ll be there to watch.”
Sherlock heard a man’s voice, and a scuffle. “What are you doing, Claudia? Who is that?”
“Don’t you hit me, Moses!”
There was a crackling sound, and the phone went dead.
Savich looked at her, watched her punch off the phone. “I’m going to call the Hoover Building, see if they’ve located these two specimens.”
“I heard noise in the background. Lots of voices. Maybe they were in a restaurant.”
Savich nodded. He was talking with the communications chief a few seconds later. “We did much better this time, Savich. It was a third-party provider, using a wireless prepaid card, but Sprint was able to track down the directory number and get us a location about twenty seconds before you lost the connection. It was a good, fixed signal from a GPS-equipped phone, so we have his location within ten meters. It’s a Denny’s on Atherton Street in Milltown, Maryland. Units should be there any minute.”
Savich punched off the phone. “Cops are on their way to Moses’s location. You were right, it is a restaurant, a Denny’s. We’ll know soon if they arrived in time. It sounded like Moses didn’t know she was using his new phone. You can bet they headed right out.” Savich sighed.
Sherlock gave him a long look. “You didn’t tell me Claudia plans to screw your brains out.”
“She’s certifiable, and what makes it worse is that she’s so young. Why would I tell you something that disturbing?”
“Marlin Jones was disturbing, Tyler McBride was disturbing, Günter Grass was disturbing. But Claudia? I feel sorry for her, because of her age. But you should have told me.”
“You feel sorry? She and Moses dug out Elsa Bender’s eyes, Sherlock. She helped pose Pinky’s body over that skeleton at Arlington National Cemetery. She’s a psychopath. The thought of her anywhere near you scares the sin out of me. There was no reason to tell you about their ridiculous fantasies.