Both Ends Burning (Whistleblower Trilogy Book 3) (2 page)

I ripped my arm free and scooted in my seat, away from him. The lady in the aisle seat tossed a glance at us. In the seats in front and behind, passengers were carrying on conversations, oblivious.

“I could start a scene,” I said in a quiet voice. “Get us both kicked off the plane.”

“Now, why would you want to do that? They would probably detain you, take your fingerprints, make you speak to a Marshall, and that’s not a good idea. Not after all of the havoc you’ve caused across southern Texas over the last few days. I know about the dead people in Three Rivers. I know you left your cell phone there, and your fingerprints are in that garage where they were keeping that poor El Paso sheriff hostage. Nasty business, that was.”

I took a deep breath, then let it out as slowly as possible.

“The body of the one who followed you to Brownsville has been dealt with, and no one has called the cops about Three Rivers,” he said. “Not yet, at least. I could tip them off, or I could have someone go there and retrieve your possessions before we burn that house to the ground. It’s your choice.”

Damn it. Why hadn’t I gone back for my stuff?

I needed some time to think it through. But he was waiting for a response, so I tried to change the subject. “No one has been able to answer this for me,” I said. “Maybe you can: why did IntelliCraft lay off everyone in Denver?”

He waved a hand. “Cost savings. Salaries are a lot cheaper in Dallas. We can get them straight out of college for next-to-nothing.”

“And the customers suffer for it, but you don’t care, as long as you’re hitting your efficiency numbers.”

He strapped on his seatbelt. “Cry me a river, son. It’s just business.”

“How did you get on this flight?” I said. “No one knew where I was.”

“Oh, please. Child’s play. You used your credit card to pay for this flight. I got a notification, bought a ticket, had the seats switched around. It was pretty easy, actually. And convenient for me, since I happened to already be in Brownsville on another matter.”

“What matter is that?”

The flight attendant came through, checking seat belts. From the intercom above, the fuzzy voice of the captain explained how we were first in line for the queue, and would begin taxiing in less than thirty seconds.

Thomason sighed. “We found the body of Stephen Glenning face down near the Rio Grande last night. His neck snapped. Do you know anything about that?”

I stared at him, saying nothing. A few rows back, a baby wailed.

“Glenning was a friend of mine. I personally recruited him to come work for the company, and I’ve spent the last decade mentoring him. Did you know that?”

“He chased down and murdered Omar right in front of me, then he pointed a gun in my face. I wouldn’t care if he was your little brother. I did what had to be done.”

His face darkened under the bill of his cap. “I’m sure you don’t care because you’ve proven yourself to be a heartless sociopath on more than one occasion. I’m sure you felt you were justified in killing Glenning. I don’t want to get into a philosophical discussion with you.”

As the plane started to taxi along the runway, I considered how so many of these IntelliCraft people talked the same way. The lazy, nonchalant way they could ramble about killing people; like how Wyatt Green and Stan Shelton had made a bet about what I would do with Keisha’s body after I’d found her bloodied and bound in the back of my car.

“Why haven’t you people killed me?” I said. “Glenning could have easily done me in, but he pointed his gun at my shoulder. He was only going to wound me, despite what he said. I’m starting to think it was on purpose.”

Something in his eyes changed. They grew softer. “Mine is not to reason why, Candle. I do what I’m told.”

“Just a cog in the wheel, are you?”

“More or less. But, you know, there is one thing we haven’t been able to figure out. You drove the stolen truck to meet that coyote, but you didn’t leave South Point in it. We found it just up the road a ways. I’d guess by those bruises on your temple that someone kicked the crap out of you, so you probably weren’t even capable of driving. So how did you escape?”

His glare cut through me, but I held firm. “I walked.”

Thomason chuckled, highlighting the crow’s feet around his eyes. “Sure. Sure you did. You want to hear my theory?”

I shook my head.

“I’m going to tell you anyway. I think you made contact with Ms. Susan Palenti, and she came and got you. How did I do? Am I close?”

I pursed my lips, trying to keep my poker face front and center.

He smiled, which made his perfectly-coiffed gray hair jiggle. “Ahh, yep, I think I nailed it. You could help us out a lot if you told us where she is. We can’t seem to locate her.”

“I find that hard to believe.”

“Well, we may be clever, but we’re not omnipotent. She’s been a tricky one. This Susan woman, the one who you think is your ally… would it change your opinion of her if I told you she worked for us until just a short time ago?”

I shrugged, but it sent a pulse through my chest. I didn’t know if Susan was my ally or not. “That doesn’t mean anything to me.”

“Fine, Candle, I can see this isn’t getting us anywhere. I’m just going to lay my cards out on the table, to borrow a cliché. We don’t care about you, or Susan, or any of it, really. There’s only one thing we’re interested in.”

I noticed he didn’t mention my dad. Maybe they still thought he was dead. Maybe I could keep that piece of knowledge for myself, and somehow use it later.

“And what is it you’re interested in?” I said.

“The toy truck.”

I blinked a few times. “The what?”

He grinned. “You can pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about, but we know you have it. Or you had it, at least. We know you met with your dad’s attorney in Dallas, and he gave you a box with a toy truck inside it. And hidden away inside that toy truck was a memory stick.”

“What, like a flash drive? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Then he leaned in close. “If it’s true you don’t know about the memory stick, then that’s unfortunate for you. Because if we don’t get it back, we’re going to rain hellfire down on everyone you know until it materializes. I’ll give you a few days to think about it and get it back from wherever you stashed it, but then you’re going to have to turn it over.”

Just a few hours ago, my dad had smashed that thing in front of me with a glass ashtray.

“Does Susan have it now?” he said.

Now I had to make a choice. Maybe IntelliCraft would let me be, if they thought it was destroyed. Or maybe Thomason wouldn’t believe me, no matter what I said. If I led him to believe I still had it, maybe that would buy me some time.

I chose to say nothing. Reclined my seat, closed my eyes, and tuned out Frank Thomason.

***

When the plane landed, I waited for Thomason to deboard first before I bothered unbuckling my seatbelt. He didn’t say another word to me, but he didn’t have to. He cast one last winning smile at me before he stepped into the jetway, and I averted my eyes.

One option occurred to me: race after him, take him to the ground, and choke the life out of him. He couldn’t do anything to me and Grace if he were dead. But, spending the rest of my life in jail for murdering this asshole wasn’t a great outcome either.

And it’s not as if Thomason was the head of the snake. Someone else would take his place.

I had to warn Grace. I had to get us both out of town and find somewhere safe to hide. But where the hell could we go to remain sheltered from a company that had seemingly endless resources? Where was somewhere they wouldn’t know about?

I was the last person off the plane. I finished reading the article about Jacksonville’s sushi restaurants, trying to calm myself and give Thomason time to leave.

I didn’t have a carry-on since all my belongings were in that house in Three Rivers, so I unbuckled and shuffled off the plane with nothing in my hands.

I half-expected him to be waiting for me at the gate, but he’d cleared out. Or, seemed to have cleared out. Just the thought that he’d be running around Denver, waiting for me to come up with the memory card was enough to unsettle my stomach.

I dialed Grace on the prepaid cell once I was off the jetway.

“Hey baby,” she said in a dreamy voice.

“Did I wake you?”

“Yeah, but that’s okay. Are you back already?” she said, yawning.

The sun was beginning to rise, sending eye-piercing light bombs off every metal surface in range. I hurried through the airport to the moving walkway as fast food joints and souvenir shops rolled up the metal grates in front of their stores and flicked on interior lights. “Yes. Sorry to call so early, but it’s important. Things have changed, again, and we need to act fast.”

“What’s going on? You don’t sound right.”

“It’s not over. I’m so sorry baby, but we have to leave. Pack your things, and we’ll talk about it when I get home.”

CHAPTER THREE

I was surprised to see that Grace’s parents and sister weren’t there when I got home. Dog was so excited to see me that he nearly mauled me when I came through the door. “Down, boy,” I said as I closed the door behind me.

The house felt warm and lived-in again. I smiled at the accumulation of Grace’s shoes near the front door, her wet and muddy boots lined up next to a pair of heels.

She came to the top of the stairs, draped in a bathrobe. Her hair still wet. An open and empty carry-on bag hung loosely from one hand and tears were streaming down her face.

Without saying anything, I rushed up the stairs and threw my arms around her. The bathroom vent was still on. Had I told her that was where I’d found the mutilated body of my former trainee? Could I ever use that toilet again and not think of the bloody tie hanging around his neck or the blood pooling on our tiled floor?

She let me hug her for a few seconds, sobbing quietly, then pushed me back. She lightly touched the bruise on my head from where Glenning had kicked me. “What happened here?”

“I got in a little fight. It’s nothing.”

She scowled. “You need to talk to me, Tucker. You need to tell me what’s going on with you, because you scared me half to death with that phone call this morning.”

I nodded, deflated. “Where are your parents?”

“They had to fly back last night. My sister is out for a walk.”

“Seems a little early for a walk.”

Grace huffed a sigh. “She’s not sleeping well. But forget about that. Please tell me what’s going on.”

“The people who did this to us, they’re still after me. They think I have some memory card, but I don’t. I gave it to my dad and he smashed it last night.”

Her eyes shot wide open. “You gave it to
who
?”

I forgot I hadn’t told her about that. The events of the last few days had all morphed into an ugly blur. “He faked his death to hide from IntelliCraft. There’s so much I still need to tell you. I don’t know where to begin. Omar is dead. My dad is alive. IntelliCraft is going to kill us all unless they get what they’re after.”

“Can’t you just tell them you don’t have it?”

“I don’t think that would make any difference. They won’t believe me, no matter what I say. If they think I have it, that might buy me some time.”

“Time for what?” she said.

I didn’t answer the question, so she walked back into the bedroom and sat on the edge of the bed. Dog came rushing from downstairs and leaped onto the bed next to her, lapping at her face.

“I see you’ve made a new best friend,” I said.

She smiled through the tears. “He’s very sweet.”

Another suitcase sat open on the bed, and Kitty was sitting in it, staring at me. I lifted her out and set her next to it. “You can’t come, Kitty. You’ll be okay here, though.”

“What are we going to do?” Grace said.

“We need to go somewhere they don’t know about. Somewhere they can’t find us. We can’t fly there, obviously,” I said, pointing at her third-trimester belly. “We can’t leave a paper trail or they’ll know right away. They’re tapped into my credit cards and my phone. Probably yours too.”

“What happened to Omar?”

The corners of my eyes stung. “He didn’t make it. We were almost there, but… they caught him.”

She shook her head. “I’m sorry, baby.”

“That doesn’t matter anymore. All that I care about is our safety, and finding a place to hide.”

“I don’t understand why we can’t call the police,” she said.

“They’ve proven before that they have cops on the payroll. We can’t trust anybody.”

She stroked Dog’s fur for a few seconds, then her eyes lit up. “Rodrick has a timeshare at Keystone, at the base of the main ski lift. It’s perfect, and I do trust him.”

The sudden revelation about her boss’ timeshare seemed off place. How did she even know about that?

I shook my head. “I don’t want to put him in danger. Rodrick helped me the day I found you. I talked to him several times, so they have to know about him. For all I know, they’ve got him under the same surveillance as us.”

“No, that’s the thing. It’s his ex-wife’s condo, but he has control of it, for some reason. It’s in her name. It has no connection to him, he just has a set of keys.”

Dog jumped off the bed and sat in front of me, big drooly grin on his little mutt face. Looked up at me with pleading eyes.

“Do you think he’d let us borrow his car, too?”

***

Grace called Rodrick, and he agreed to come by. Then she and I spent the next few minutes in bed, holding each other. I felt our son move, struggling to burst out of her stomach like the alien in that old movie.

She faced away from me and I spooned her, smelling her hair and remembering again all the reasons I fell in love with her. Her strength. Her intuition. Her ability to stay calm under pressure.

“I’ve been thinking of some names,” she said.

“I have a few in mind, too,” I said, but I didn’t have anything good. Just like Dog, I couldn’t come up with anything I liked, or anything that would meet Grace’s approval standards. Best to let her pick one.