Daylight (Atlee Pine #3)(104)

“Do you really want to know why I’m here?”

“Certainly. Then maybe we can draw this meeting to a close.”

“I can cut you a deal.”

Franklin almost spilled her drink. “A deal? I’m a lawyer, Pine. I’m assuming you’re not. So don’t try to intimidate me. I eat people like you for lunch.”

“You weren’t a criminal lawyer, but I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt. They killed Jeff Sands. They gunned down Tony Vincenzo on a beach in New Jersey. Lindsey Axilrod, or whatever her real name is, was going to stick him with some shit in a syringe before I temporarily rescued him.”

“I know none of those people and you have no proof that I do.”

“By tomorrow the proof will be there. Do you want to be ahead of the curve, or behind it and in a jail cell?”

“The FBI really needs to start hiring higher-caliber personnel. I will be delighted to subpoena you to appear before one of my committees. I will tear you to shreds. You’ll lose your badge and what little dignity you might have left. You can spend the next fifty years in regret.”

“Do I take that as a no?”

“This meeting is over,” snapped Franklin. “Please leave, now. Or I’ll call the police.”

Pine rose. “Okay, then I’ll give Gorman the deal instead. He’ll probably claim you ordered the killings and the kidnapping of an FBI employee and an Air Force lieutenant colonel. SAC Graham doesn’t care where the inside help comes from. He told me it’s full throttle all the way.”

Franklin paled just a bit and her voice changed. “Graham? You spoke to Warren Graham?”

“He is head of the New York Field Office. Who else would be heading up an operation the size and complexity of this one?”

“Operation?”

“Yes, it’s official title is Operation Stars and Stripes.” She looked down at the woman in all her smugness. “But it has an unofficial name, just for the amusement of us FBI types.”

“And what, pray tell, is that?” asked Franklin, giving Pine a cocksure smile.

“Operation Kiss Your Ass Good-bye.”

Pine let herself out of the mansion.





CHAPTER





67





PINE CLIMBED INTO HER CAR and sped off. But she merely drove around the corner and parked. She called the number she had been given by Warren Graham. A woman’s voice immediately answered.

“Okay, Agent Pine, we have the wiretaps on her phones—hardline, cell, and a second cell—and all her email accounts.”

“I put the fear of God in her. She should be calling out to Gorman now. Then we can trace the call.”

“Roger that. I’ll let you know as soon as she initiates contact.”

“There are other people in that house. A maid and a cook. What if she uses their phones or email accounts?”

“We have a digital blanket wrap on that house, Agent Pine. Anything coming from there we can sweep up. The warrant was broad enough to cover that.”

Pine clicked off and then called Puller. She told him what she had done.

“As soon as she makes the call, email, or text we can trace it. These days they don’t have to be on the phone for half an hour. The Bureau can make the connection really fast.”

“Where are you now?”

“Outside of Franklin’s place in Greenwich Village.”

“Give me the exact address so I can relay it to General Pitts.”

She did so and added, “But the FBI will be keeping a short leash on her. She’s not going anywhere.”

“Belt and suspenders, Atlee.”

He clicked off.

And Pine waited. And waited. Forty minutes went by. Then an hour.

She called the number again. The woman said, “Nothing, Agent Pine. She’s made no call or email or text. We got one text coming out of there about twenty minutes ago. A Lily Walker. It apparently was sent to her boyfriend because it had some, well, it would be reasonable to call it sexting.”

Pine’s spirits plummeted. How could that be? After their meeting Pine was sure Franklin would try to contact Gorman to warn him. She might try to go see him, too, but that would be far riskier. She would know she would be followed. Had she figured out that her phones had been tapped? Did she have another email account or a burner phone they weren’t aware of? If so, her plan was not going to work.

She noticed movement on the street and tensed. Someone had turned the corner from Franklin’s residence and was walking toward her. When the person passed under the streetlamp, Pine saw that it was Lily, Franklin’s maid. Was Franklin using her as a messenger somehow?

Going with her gut, Pine got out and quickly crossed the street. The rain had stopped but the air was chilly and the pavement and streets slick.

“Hey.”

Lily pulled up, looking fearful at first, and then, recognizing Pine, she relaxed.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.”

“Oh, that’s okay. What are you still doing around here?”

“I had some other business in the area. I thought you were hitting the sack.”

Lily smiled. “I took a catnap. But I’m heading to meet my boyfriend. There’s a club in SoHo we want to try.”