While Justice Sleeps(54)
Alarm: 9-1-8-7-4
Safe: 2-5-7-1-1-6-3-8-2 (behind the Caro compendium)
VGC: 3-1-0-7-7-4
Avery folded the sheet and tucked it into her purse, then hefted the keys, toying with them. The cab deposited her in front of Justice Wynn’s town house. Avery entered and disengaged the alarm. Remembering her prior visits, she headed to the study. Books lined built-in shelves and rested on every flat surface. Intent on her task, she walked to the far west wall and scanned the titles there. Carefully, she removed Robert Caro’s weighty biographies and laid them on the hardwood floor.
Soon, the steel frame of the safe came into view. She glanced around herself, then typed in the numbers, reached for the handle, and lifted it to release the lock. Inside, a thick black binder leaned against the safe wall, propped up by a stack of cash. A silver velvet box peeked out from behind the currency, and a slimmer file had been slipped in between the binder and the wall.
Avery reached for the folder first. As she pulled it free, she saw that a black lighter had been taped to the folder’s front. She opened the file, which contained a single sheet of paper with black script. The sheet was flimsy, almost transparent, and she recognized the consistency immediately. Nitrocellulose.
“Very clever, Justice Wynn.” Nitrocellulose, a mixture of nitric acid and sulfuric acid, could be applied to ordinary paper for a simple vanishing trick. Any chemistry student worth her salt had tried the experiment.
She read the note he’d written on what was also known as magician’s flash paper. Scratched across the top were the words BURN UPON REVIEW. Below, a series of letters, numbers, and symbols marched across the page. She stared, committing the garbled text to memory, then, out of an abundance of caution, captured the image with her phone.
e4c5Gf3d6Ob5+Od7Oxd7+Vxd7c4Gc6Gc3Gf600g6d4cxd4Gxd4Og7Gde2Ve6!?Gd5Vxe4Gc7+Rd7Gxa8Vxc4Gb6+axb6Gc3Ha8a4Ge4Gxe4Vxe4Vb3f5Og5Vb4Vf7Oe5h3Hxa4Hxa4Vxa4Vxh7Oxb2Vxg6Ve4Vf7Od4Vb3f4Vf7Oe5h4b5h5Vc4Vf5+Ve6Vxe6+Rxe6g3fxg3fxg3b4Of4Od4+Rh1!b3g4Rd5g5e6h6Ge7Hd1e5Oe3Rc4Oxd4exd4Rg2b2Rf3Rc3h7Gg6Re4Rc2Hh1Rf5b1=VHxb1Rxb1Rxg6d2h8=Vd1=VVh7b5?!Rf6+Rb2Vh2+Ra1Vf4b4?Vxb4Vf3+Rg7d5Vd4+Rb1g6Ve4Vg1+Rb2Vf2+Rc1Rf6d4g71–0
Justice Wynn had typed gibberish onto a piece of paper that he’d demanded be burned upon reading, as though he’d escaped from a John le Carré novel. She held the paper in one hand and pried the lighter free with the other.
The paranoia of his instructions fit the absurdity of the last twenty-four hours. Then the image of Jamie Lewis’s body flashed, and she crumpled the page and flicked the lighter into a flame. She turned and set the paper on the edge of a nearby table and touched it with the fire. In an instant, the code flashed and disappeared.
“First task, done.” Wondering what came next, Avery returned the folder and lighter to the safe, reached for the binder, and opened the plastic cover. Curious, she flipped to the table of contents. A series of company names marched down the page. Hygeia. GenWorks. Advar. Remar Pharmaceuticals. Genei Bioservices. She counted nine names in all. The documents inside had been tabbed and filed first by company name, with plastic tabs for each topic. Financial Statements. Products. Patents. And a last category: Source of Funding. She recognized several of the companies from her research for Justice Wynn, but not all. In the binder, certain files had only one or two pages; others had many more.
Scanning the contents, she cataloged details from habit. Country of origin had been of note to Justice Wynn, and she noted that the companies were American, British, Chinese, and Indian in origin, which explained the disparity in information, she realized. Chinese companies were nearly impenetrable; and despite its open economy, India hadn’t become an open corporate book quite yet.
As she skimmed the dense details, Avery wondered who’d collected the information. Justice Wynn rarely researched for himself. Unless he’d tasked Matt with this, which she doubted, he’d compiled all the information himself. Hundreds of pages, she realized in astonishment as she riffled through pages of dates and numbers.
The sudden swish of air came too quickly for her to react. Before she could utter a sound, her head exploded in a kaleidoscope of colored pains. She felt her knees give way as she collapsed, vaguely aware of being caught by her attacker as she sank into unconsciousness.
Faint words: “Sir, she’s down.”
* * *
—
Minutes later, he entered through the back, out of the sight lines of other homes. Nevertheless, the rest of his team quickly made their way inside, all attired as moving company personnel. He barked out orders to men used to instant compliance: “Continue to monitor the perimeter. Dispatch Castillo to the mother. No mistakes.”
“Yes, sir.” The stocky adjutant replaced his gun.
The man, who had spent his career cleaning up after politicians, reluctantly stepped over Avery’s body and reached for the open safe. The public attention she’d drawn made permanent disposal more difficult. Instead of killing her, he’d decided to follow and observe.
Inside the safe, he found a woman’s diamond ring and matching wedding band in a velvet box, along with a pair of sapphire earrings dripping stones from a platinum setting and a pearl choker gleaming with the luster of authenticity. He shoved the jewelry and the cash into a rucksack brought along for this purpose. An empty folder and lighter rested inside, but a cheap one that seemed to have no value.