All He Has Left(25)
“Very good. As I mentioned before, the remainder of the money must be wired to my account within twenty-four hours of completion.”
“Yes, if you complete it within the time frame we discussed, it will be there.”
Gervais gave him a half smile. “I can assure you, I will complete it.”
Wyatt looked nervous. Gervais liked that.
“Is there anything else you need at this time?” Wyatt asked.
“No, you can go now.”
Wyatt nodded and backed out of the plane like he was afraid Gervais might shoot him in the back. Gervais found it humorous how people would often act around him—like he was some kind of psycho who ran around and shot everyone in sight. The truth couldn’t be more different. Gervais was just a businessman with a unique skill set and an unusual service to offer. Reaching down beside him, he grabbed his leather backpack and pulled it into his lap. Unzipping it, he lifted his laptop out and then opened it up on a small tabletop in front of him. A few clicks later, he was inside an encrypted website he used for jobs like this one.
The digital file the lawyer had mentioned was in place. Gervais opened it and began to examine the information. There were several photos of his target. He was a handsome everyman type of guy a few years older than himself. There was also a long list of known friends, associates, and other contacts his client thought were important. Gervais would immediately put his covert online skills to work on each of the individuals on the list. If the target reached out to one of them through any of the usual means, Gervais would know and be able to quickly respond. This was how he did his job better than anyone else.
Sitting back, Gervais again studied a photo of the man. He wondered what this poor guy could have possibly done to deserve a meeting with the Ghost. He wasn’t an important politician, government leader, or even a high-profile businessman, like most of his usual targets. What kind of client paid half a million dollars to eliminate a high school football coach?
SEVENTEEN
Dani rolled over in her bed and stared bleary-eyed at the alarm clock going off on her nightstand. Six thirty? She’d been in bed for only about three hours. Why the hell had she set an alarm clock? She reached over and slapped the top of the clock to shut it off, which didn’t work. That’s when she realized it was actually her cell phone continuing to blast away beside it. Someone was incessantly calling her. Pulling herself up, she sighed heavily and then turned on her nightstand lamp. This made Bailey perk up beside her. Great. Now she would have to get up and take the dog out. Dani grabbed her cell phone and squinted at the screen. Special Agent Eric Mitchell.
“Do you ever sleep, Mitchell?” Dani answered.
“As little as possible.”
“This had better be good.”
“You ever heard of a hit man up in New York City they call the Ghost?”
Dani rubbed her face with her free hand. “Uh . . . the Ghost? No . . . wait . . . Is that the guy they suspect took out the deputy mayor there three years ago for the Moraldo family—or something like that?”
“Yep. Same guy. Real name is Logan Gervais.”
“Why are we talking about a ghost at six thirty in the morning?”
“I just got off the phone with New York. They’ve been hunting this guy forever. He works in the shadows and has been nearly impossible to track. But they finally found a crack about twelve hours ago. They said Gervais got on a private plane out of Jersey to Austin during the middle of the night.”
“Do they want us to grab him?”
“No, they don’t want us to touch him. They want the Moraldo family. So they are handling this with incredibly delicate gloves right now to see if they can somehow hack his online network and make a direct connection. But they felt obligated to inform us of his arrival.”
“Why?”
“He’s here for a job, Dani. New York intercepted an encrypted file. You’re never going to guess the proposed target.”
“I’m too tired to guess. Just tell me already.”
“Jake Slater.”
This made Dani pop straight up out of bed. “What?”
“Yeah, exactly. I thought this was worth waking you up.”
“You thought right. So . . . who hired him?”
“We don’t know yet. But I just sent you a link to a security video from a private hangar over at Austin–Bergstrom from about two hours ago.”
“All right, give me a second.” She searched her phone and found the text from Mitchell. The link took her to a secured video source. As Mitchell mentioned, the video looked to be from a security camera in the corner of an oversize airport hangar. “I’m watching now.”
“OK, good. I edited the video to take out blocks of stagnant time. You can keep track from the time stamp in the corner.”
Dani noticed that two vehicles were parked in view inside the hangar: a white Range Rover and a black Ford Taurus. Then a private jet eased into the hangar and parked next to the vehicles. A pilot lowered the stairs and got off the plane. Then a man in a dark suit climbed out of the Range Rover and boarded the jet. Within minutes, he returned to his vehicle and drove off. Ten minutes later, a man she guessed was Logan Gervais exited the plane. He settled into the black Taurus and also drove away. Then the pilot backed the jet out of the hangar and moved out of camera view.