Fade (2005) (25 page)

"And deposit the check," he reminded her.

"Of course. How could I forget the best part?"

He took another sip from his beer and wondered how long they'd have t o be together for him to actually believe that she'd married him.

Sometimes the entire idea that she was his wife terrified him. Whe n she went drinking with the guys from Pearl Jam, or REM." or whoever , he just sent her off with a stomach full of pasta and the admonition t o call him if she drank too much to drive. What a load of crap. Thos e guys were rich and famous and talented, and actually understood he r music. If she ever found out he felt that way, she'd undoubtedly laug h for days. But how could he help it?

"You're not unhappy, are you?" he heard himself say.

"What do you mean? About the Madonna thing?"

"No. I mean in general. About living in the suburbs. About owning a minivan."

"What's going on with you lately, Matt? Of course not. I wouldn'
t change anything. Not a single thing. Though you've got to admit tha t it's kind of funny that I drive a minivan."

"You said you could fit Kali's car seat and a full set of drums," h e reminded her.

"I know what I said. Are you sure you're all right?"

"Yeah. Fine."

There was a short silence and when she spoke again she sounded a littl e hesitant. "What about you? You're not unhappy, are you?"

"Me? Why would I be?"

"I don't know. Because everybody you work with thinks your wife's a nut? You never mentioned it, but I'm guessing that you didn't miss th e fact that my songs have been specifically mentioned in governmen t hearings on rock lyrics. I bet that's a hot topic of conversatio n around the Homeland Security water cooler."

Egan examined a stain on the ceiling that looked like an elephant.

"That's just politicians trying to keep their jobs. The more afrai d they can make people, the easier it is for them to get re-elected."

He heard her let out a long breath. "They're doing a good job."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know. When I was young, everything was so black and white. I f elt so comfortable in my .. . would you call it morality? Philosophy?

I was so confident that I was different. But maybe I was just young.

And now I'm not anymore."

"You just turned thirty-one, Elise. It's not time for the nursing hom e yet."

"You know what I mean. I was watching the news yesterday and it was s o horrible. What if that maniac running around killing women go t Kali? Or what if some Arab who thinks God speaks only to him blew he r up? Or what if some kid who isn't getting enough attention at hom e comes into her school someday and shoots her for no reason?"

"The media's no different than the government, Elise. Everyone has th e impression that America is becoming the most dangerous place in th e world, but it isn't. In some ways, it's actually getting safer. Bu t those twenty-four-hour news stations have to keep people glued to thei r sets so they can sell Pampers or SUVs or whatever. People who thin k they're in danger don't channel surf."

"I know. It's just getting to me lately .. ."

Egan nodded as best the pillow half wrapped around his head woul d allow. "Parenthood tends to make you think in a whole other way."

"I guess. Have you been watching that story about the guy who kille d all those policemen?"

Egan tensed. Fade was gone from his life before he'd met Elise and fo r obvious reasons, Egan had never spoken of him.

"They say he was a Navy SEAL," she continued. "Did you know him?"

"I was in the army, Elise. How's Kali?"

Surprisingly, she let him get away with evading the question.

"She's got a cold and she's convinced that I don't care but if Dadd y were here he'd make it all better. I finally got her to sleep a hal f an hour ago. She's going to be disappointed she missed you."

"Tell her I promise I'll catch her next time. I just haven't had a minute, you know? In fact, I've got to run .. ."

"Wait! You didn't tell me how you're doing. Or when you're going t o be home."

"Okay, and I don't know. Soon."

"Have you been getting out at all? New York's a great town."

"Not really."

"Owl"

"What?"

"Oh, nothing. I'm trying to solder this stupid effects board bac k together again. I've got a show in DC. in a few days."

"Right. I totally forgot. Good luck if I don't talk to you .. ."

Egan polished off his beer while he went through the identities tha t had been created for Fade and poked around the Internet searching fo r the various names. In total there were six, with each including a driver's license, a birth certificate, a social security card, and a passport. Two looked just like him and therefore wouldn't be terribl y practical with his face all over the TV. The third showed him with a long, shaggy beard looking a little too Arab to be practical in a post-9/11 world. Number four was the bespectacled preppy persona th e guy who'd sold him the Cadillac had described. And the last two ha d kind of a blond gay intellectual feel. Egan was prepared to bet goo d money that he was using one of those his own mother wouldn't hav e recognized him.

The phone line he had his laptop plugged into wasn't exactly fast, bu t it had been adequate to pull credit reports on the various identitie s and do a brief background check on each. Not surprisingly, ther e wasn't much there. The addresses were all the same P
. O
. box i n Manassas a place he doubted Fade would visit again and there were n o entries from power or mortgage companies that might hint at th e location of the place he'd taken Karen Manning.

Each persona had two credit cards, but none seemed to have ever bee n used. Egan pulled up each issuer's Web site and found that Fade neve r signed up for Internet access to his accounts, making it possible fo r him to put in his own passwords so he could monitor credit card usag e in close to real time. Beyond that, there wasn't much he could do wit h the information.

He grabbed his phone and dialed Billy Fraiser's cell number, listenin g to it ring as he twisted the top off another beer.

"Hi, honey. Hang on and let me go into my office."

Egan's eyebrows rose. "No problem, sweetie."

He heard a door close and then. "Matt! What the hell's going on?"

"What do you mean?"

"Hillel's saying that you've pretty much lost it that you're ducking u s and going it on your own."

"What's he doing about it?"

No answer.

"Listen to my voice, Billy. Do I sound like I've come unglued? Bu t I'll tell you that there's shit going on behind my back and I'm no t happy about it. In the position I'm in, things I don't know damn wel l can kill me."

No answer again, but Egan decided not to fill the silence. Afte r another ten seconds Fraiser spoke again.

"I know what you think of me, Matt. You think I'm just anothe r government slicky-boy. A young Hillel Strand."

"No, I don "

"Sure you do. And hey, I'm not bitching. I play the game, and I'
m pretty good at it. But there's one big difference between me an d Hillel: I know the game's a load of crap."

"I'm not sure what that means," Egan said.

"It means that when the shit hits the fan I'm smart enough to know tha t I want you watching my back. Not Hillel."

Egan propped himself up against the long mirror that passed for a headboard, unsure whether or not to believe what he was hearing.

"If that's true, then start talking."

Egan imagined Fraiser pacing back and forth through his office , twirling that chewed-up pen he liked to play with when he was nervous.

What he couldn't conjure an image of, though, was Strand. Was h e sitting in his office, blissfully ignorant, or was he sitting o n Fraiser's desk, listening?

"Hillel's got Lauren looking for you, but she's pretty much just goin g through the motions. She figures if you don't want to be found, she'
s not going to find you. The cops are spinning their wheels stil l assuming Fade's trying to get out of the country. Which brings us t o the question of whether we're doing ourselves any favors by holding ou t on them."

"I don't know," Egan said. "But the truth is that beyond the APB tha t we've already got out, they can't really do anything we're not doin g already. Besides, if they do manage to corner Fade, they're going t o lose more guys. As things are now, he isn't a danger to anyone but m e and Hillel. Though I know you don't believe that. What else?"

"Everything that's come to you is going through Strand first."

"What's he keeping from me?"

"I don't know. Maybe nothing. If he is censoring your information , I'd be the last person he'd tell."

"You're probably right. Is that it?"

" "Fraid so."

"Okay. Call me if you get anything else. Let me give you a new numbe r you can reach me on .. ."

"Satellite phone," Fraiser said. "Lauren showed me the charge on you r Visa."

"I assumed Strand was watching my cell."

"You assumed right."

He read off the number and was about to hang up, but then changed hi s mind. "Oh, and Billy?"

"Yeah?"

"Try to relax, okay? I don't believe for a second that Fade is goin g to try to hurt you or Lauren, but if he does, it'll be over my dea d body. I mean that."

"I know. That's why we're talking."

Chapter
Thirty-Three.

Hillel Strand forced himself to smile as an ofF-key rendition of "Happ y Birthday" filled the OSPA reception area. Other than Bill and Lauren , no one else in the office knew what was going on though certainly the y knew something was happening. With Egan nowhere to be found and Stran d sleeping in the office with the assistants, it was reasonable to expec t that there would be a fair amount of speculation. Just as a reminder , he'd made a brief speech that morning about the importance o f discretion at Homeland Security and the rather draconian penalties tha t would be suffered by anyone who let something slip.

Threats could only go so far, though. It was critical to maintain a s much of an illusion of normalcy as possible. He joined in the applaus e as Kelly Braith marched out of the copy room holding a large cak e covered in candles.

Karen Manning had been on The O'Reilly Factor the night before and th e memory of her very convincing performance was causing a tightness i n his chest that actually made it difficult for him to take a breath dee p enough to blow out the candles. While she had focused on the detail s of her encounter with al Fayed and the circumstances of he r resignation, there was no denying that this story's foothold in th e national media had become just a bit more solid. Until last night, a l Fayed's complete disappearance and the lack of progress in the polic e investigation had left the press treating the is sue as more a dramati c one-off event than an ongoing story. Combine that with the existenc e of the infinitely more lurid Collector case and coverage was beginnin g to dissipate. Manning had the power to reverse that critical trend , though. An attractive woman in a bitter fight to clear her name, a hint of sexual politics, and a heavily connected father who wa s apparently willing to spend any amount necessary to make sure hi s daughter's face was everywhere. It would only take one goddam n reporter looking for a new angle to cause this thing to implode. A l ittle too much digging into al Fayed's past, a lucky inquiry into th e source of the police's suspicions.. . The only thing that could ensur e his safety was a satisfying and final end to the story. And the onl y thing that could do that was al Fayed's corpse.

To his surprise, he managed to get all the candles out. He put on e hand up to silence the muted cheering and accepted a large slice o f cake with the other. "I'm really feeling it this year. I'm no w officially too old for the workload that's been dumped on us in th e past couple of weeks. I want to say that I appreciate everybody'
s support, particularly the hard work Lauren and Bill have done helpin g me dig myself out, and Matt, who couldn't be here, for all the footwor k he's been doing. Hopefully, we'll get it all wrapped up before I los e my golf swing."

Polite laughter filled the room as he walked over to Kelly's desk an d picked up a fork. "Now, everybody grab some cake. It looks great."

"Matt?" Strand said as Lauren closed the door to his office behin d her.

"Nothing. He made a large withdrawal from his savings account befor e you talked to him and I'm guessing he's using that money "

"I'm not asking you to guess!" he shouted.

She blinked hard and pushed away the damp hair that was stuck to he r cheek. Strand jerked a finger toward the chair in front of his desk , swallowing hard. Stress had been taking its toll on his stomach fo r days but over the last hour it had taken a serious turn for the worse.

The constant burning had been replaced by a weak, quivering sensatio n occasionally broken by increasingly severe cramps.

Lauren sat, a little unsteadily, and continued. "We assume he'
s staying in an independent hotel somewhere in the area, but with ou r limited re it.
s ources and the fact that we have to keep a low profile, our ability ..