The Rescue(69)

“You think he faked his death?” said Decker. “The police found their bodies.”

“The police found bodies. I hired one of our more discreet Mexican private investigators to do a little digging, because Aleman was the only member of our team to escape the FBI dragnet and truly vanish.”

Decker nodded. That much was true. Call sign GRAVEYARD, Kurt Aleman had been overwatch for the teams rescuing the children at the Bratva house. Nobody heard from him again after the house exploded. Oddly enough, Decker hadn’t given it a second thought. He figured Aleman had quickly put two and two together on the ridge overlooking the destroyed house—and took his family on the run.

“Without getting himself killed, the investigator got a few police officers to talk off the record,” said Pierce. “The Alemans didn’t die in Mexico.”

“How did he determine that?”

“Here’s how he put it,” said Pierce. “None of the heads floating around in the hot tub had blond hair.”

“Jesus.”

“Yeah,” said Pierce. “Aleman took faking his death to the next level.”

“How do we find him? If he went to that kind of trouble to throw everyone off his trail, he’s long gone by now.”

“Maybe not.”

“Sounds like we have a lot to talk about over breakfast.”





CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

Harlow disconnected the call with Decker and turned to Sophie, who had listened to the conversation on speakerphone.

“What do you think?” said Harlow.

“We’re not paying for a second helicopter,” she said. “They’re on their own with this.”

“That was my first thought, but I’m glad it worked out the way it did. The thought of Pierce betraying him made me sick. The two of them go back to the Naval Academy, more than twenty years ago.”

“Sounds like you did a term paper on them,” said Sophie, smirking.

“Funny,” said Harlow, opening her laptop to check for the incoming email promised by Pierce.

“I’m being serious—sort of. You seem a little too attached to this.”

“It’s hard not to get attached to a case like this,” said Harlow. “It goes beyond Decker and his crew getting framed. Whoever was behind the Steele kidnapping crossed the line. Repeatedly. They moved fifteen kids into that house right before the raid, knowing they’d all be killed. Not to mention what they did to World Recovery Group’s families.”

“That’s not what I’m talking about,” said Sophie. “I think you’re too attached to Decker, and I’m not the only one that feels that way.”

“Is there something wrong with that?”

“What would you say if I got too attached to one of our clients?”

“Decker isn’t a client.”

“That’s an entirely different conversation we’ll need to have if this drags on any longer,” said Sophie.

“Drags on?” said Harlow. “What’s going on here?”

“Nothing. I’m just worried that you’re sinking too much into this for the wrong reason.”

“I’m doing this for the right reason,” said Harlow. “I thought we were all on the same page with that.”

“We are, as long as there’s a path forward. Which it appears there is, but it’s kind of out of our hands at this point—and we’re trapped here until the situation is resolved. We’re completely relying on Decker right now, which leaves me with an uncomfortable feeling. I thought it would be the other way around.”

“I did, too, but things have changed,” said Harlow. “We got him on his feet, running strong. If he convinces Pierce to join him, they’ll be a force to be reckoned with on the ground, but they’ll still need our support. Without it, Decker can only go so far. The team we’ve assembled here will be the deciding factor in the end. I’m convinced of it.”

“It’s just hard to see right now,” said Sophie. “Decker is swinging from one loose thread to another. If this Texas lead doesn’t pan out, I’m not sure where we go from here.”

“True enough. The only idea I have left is to dangle him in public as bait to get the fish biting again. All we’d have to do is drive him around for a while. City cameras would do the rest of the work,” said Harlow. “I imagine he wouldn’t be very keen about painting a bull’s-eye on his forehead.”

“You might be surprised what he’s willing to do to get at these people. It’s actually not a bad idea.”

“If we can control most of the variables,” said Harlow. “Which we can’t.”

“I don’t know. Katie is pretty good at stacking the deck in our favor.”

“She is, but this Gunther Ross guy isn’t going to make the same mistakes twice. We burned him pretty badly—both times. He won’t underestimate us.”

Sophie took a sip of her orange juice. “What else can we do?”

“Keep running surveillance. Hope Ross screws up.”

“No. I mean . . . what haven’t we looked into yet?” said Sophie. “So much has come to light over the past twenty-four hours. We need to work backward from what we know and connect some more dots. I guarantee we’ve missed something.”