End Game (Will Robie #5)(128)

Fitzsimmons kept screaming.

And Robie kept walking.





CHAPTER





78


“You have done a great service to your country.”

Rachel Cassidy finished speaking and sat back in her office at Langley.

Robie and Reel sat opposite the director.

“We wouldn’t be here without your intervention, Director,” pointed out Reel. “Agent Sanders told me that you dialed up the FBI director and that he sent Sanders looking for us. Luckily, they spotted Fitzsimmons’s jeep near the door into the silo and came in for a closer look. If you hadn’t done that, there was no way Blue Man was going to make it.”

“But he did make it. And so did Sheriff Malloy.”

Robie looked at her. “And Fitzsimmons?”

“Need to know, Robie,” she said, her eyes twinkling. “I do have a status report on Fitzsimmons. Do you by chance read Hebrew? I know you’ve been to Israel quite often.” Her eyes twinkled even more.

“No, I don’t, Director, but I think you answered my question.”

Her gaze swept over them. “So another mission successfully accomplished. After completing arduous missions before that.” She tapped her fingertips together.

Robie glanced at Reel, but by her look she was as puzzled by the director’s words as was Robie.

“I think you two need a little time off, but I have a suggestion as to where you should go.”

“Where?” said Reel warily.

“I’d like you to accompany an old friend to eastern Colorado.”

“Blue Man wants to go back?” said Robie incredulously. “There?”

“Well, it is his hometown. And there is someone there he needs to talk to. About something important. Will you go with him?”

Robie and Reel didn’t need to look at each other.

They both said “Yes” at the same time.

*

“It was so good of you both to come.”

Blue Man was thin and drawn. It was the result of being in a hospital for nearly a month recovering from his various wounds. He was sitting across a table from Robie and Reel.

As the Agency jet descended into the airspace over Colorado, Blue Man’s hand flicked to his necktie. He was dressed as he always had been at the Agency: conservative dark suit, striped tie, and crisp white shirt, along with black wingtips. He next moved a strand of hair back into place.

“You look very handsome,” said Reel as she observed his movements.

He seemed embarrassed by her comment, turning slightly red. “Being shot does not do much for one’s appearance.”

“What are you going to say to her?” asked Reel.

“I’ve been thinking about it every day. And I’m still not sure. I’ve never been this indecisive in my life. If I did my work with this much uncertainty, I wouldn’t last a minute in the job.”

“This is different,” Robie pointed out. “This isn’t a job.”

Reel said, “We went by your old home. We know what happened there and were puzzled that you decided to keep it.”

Blue Man nodded. “I was perhaps puzzled myself. But in the end it came down to this: I had many happy memories there, and one single awful memory can’t be allowed to erase that from my life. Keeping the house and some of my old memorabilia there was a way for me to remember it.”

The plane landed, and an SUV was waiting for them.

As soon as they stepped into the vehicle and buckled up, the driver set off. He apparently knew the address, because he asked for no instructions.

When they arrived at the house, Blue Man said, “It might be better if you wait out here.”

“Are you sure?” asked Reel.

“No, but I still think I need to do this alone.”

“Are you going to tell her . . . about what happened to Patti?” asked Robie.

“I think now is the time to tell the absolute truth,” replied Blue Man.

He closed the door behind him and walked slowly up the drive to Claire Bender’s home.

They watched as he knocked. A few moments later the door opened and there was Claire.

Even from this distance Robie and Reel could see that the woman looked like she had aged ten years.

She stepped back for Blue Man to enter and shut the door behind them.

She had glanced once in the direction of the SUV, but the tinted windows prevented her from seeing inside.

Robie said, “You want to take a stroll?”

They crossed the road and walked across a field. The air was nippy and Reel stuck her hands in her jacket pockets.

“What’s up?” she asked.

“I met with Malloy.”

Reel looked taken aback for a moment. “Where?”

“Brooklyn. She moved back there after she got out of the hospital.”

“I can understand that. No reason for her to come back here.”

“None,” said Robie. “I did tell her that I got Fitzsimmons. I sent her a picture of him all duct-taped.”

“I’m sure she appreciated what you did, Robie, but I wish they could have found her sister’s body.”

“They did.”

Reel gave him a sharp glance. “What?”

“It was in the same place they found Derrick Bender’s. The quarry. They drained it two weeks ago. It was a graveyard. They’re still counting corpses.”