Fallen (40 page)

“Read me the message that came with it.”

Faith read, “ ‘Twelve-thirty at 339 Little John. Bring the cash in a black duffel bag. Do not alert anyone. We are watching you. If you deviate from these instructions, she will be dead and so will you and your family. Remember what I said.’ ”

“Roger Ling.” Amanda’s voice was one of restrained fury. “I knew that bastard was lying. You can’t trust a goddamn word any of them say.” She seemed to realize the greater meaning of her words. Her mouth opened in surprise. “She’s
alive.
” She laughed. “Oh, God, I knew the old girl wouldn’t give up without a fight.” She put her hand to her chest. “How could I think for a minute that …” She shook her head. The smile on her face was so wide that she finally covered it with her hand.

Will asked the more important question. “Why would they want to meet at your mother’s house? It’s not secure. They won’t have the advantage. It doesn’t make sense.”

Faith answered, “It’s familiar. It’s easy to keep an eye on.”

Will said, “But there’s no way that the crime scene’s been released. It’ll take days to process everything.”

Amanda supplied, “The kidnappers must know something we don’t.”

“It could be a test,” Will countered. “If we clear out the forensic team, it’ll be obvious that Faith called the police. Or us.” He told Faith, “You pull up to the house and you’re out in the open. You go inside and you’re walking right into their hands. What’s to stop them from shooting you and taking the money? Especially if we can’t put in a tactical team to secure the area.”

“We can make do,” Amanda insisted. “There are only three routes in and out of that neighborhood. They make a move in either direction and we’ll have pistols at the ready.”

Will ignored the bravado. He opened the drawer by the refrigerator and took out a pen and pad of paper. He held the pen awkwardly in his left hand, resting the barrel between his middle and fourth finger. Sara watched as he covered the page with a large T, then drew two irregularly shaped squares—one on the arm of the T, one at the
base. His spatial recollection was better than Sara would have guessed, but then, he’d probably been to Faith’s house several times.

He explained, “Faith’s house is on the corner here. Evelyn is here on Little John.” He traced an L-shaped line between the two houses. “We’ve got all this open space. They could block the intersection here and take her. They could park a van at the same spot and shoot her from a distance. She could pull into the driveway here, and up comes their black van. Two in the head, just like Castillo at the warehouse, or they could grab her and be on the interstate or Peachtree Road within five minutes. Or they could make it easy and set up here—” He drew an oblong square beside Evelyn’s house. “Roz Levy’s carport. She’s got a knee wall here where they could set up with a rifle. The bathroom window to Evelyn’s house faces Mrs. Levy’s. It’s down an incline. You can see straight through to the kitchen door from Mrs. Levy’s without anyone knowing. Faith comes in the door with the bag of cash and they drop her.”

Amanda took the pen and turned the base of the T into a circle. “Little John loops around. The whole neighborhood folds back on itself.” She drew more arcs. “This is Nottingham. Friar Tuck. Robin Hood. Beverly. Lionel.” She drew large X’s at the end points. “Beverly dumps out onto Peachtree here, where every car in the world eventually passes; the other end throws you back into the infinite loop of Ansley Park. Lionel does the same. They’re bottlenecks. Most of the houses along these routes have on-street parking. We could have ten cars at each point and no one would notice.”

Will said, “I’m not worried about their exit routes. I’m worried about Faith going into that house alone. If they really are watching the place, they’ll know the minute someone shows up who shouldn’t be there. They’ve had almost three full days to get the lay of the neighborhood, possibly more. Even if the CSU guys leave, they’ll be counting the number who go in and the number who go out.”

Amanda turned over the paper. She drew a rough diagram of a house, pointing out the rooms. “Faith comes in through the kitchen. The foyer is here, looking into the living room. Here’s the bookcase
on the left—my left. Takes up the entire wall. Sofa backs up to here. The wingback chair is here on the right. A couple of other chairs are here and here. Stereo console here. Sliding glass doors opposite the foyer.” She tapped the pen to what must’ve been the master bedroom. “They’ll keep Ev in here until Faith comes with the money, then they’ll bring her into the living room. It’s the obvious area for the exchange.”

“Nothing is obvious here.” He grabbed the pen. “We can’t cover the front windows because we don’t know who’s watching the house. We can’t cover the back because the yard is wide open to the neighbors’ and they’ll see movement at any window. We still don’t know how many kids are left on this team. There could be one, there could be a hundred.” He threw down the pen. His tone was firm. “I don’t like it, Faith. You can’t go in there. Not on their terms. We’ll find another way to do this. We’ll suggest another location that we can secure ahead of time so that we can make sure you’re safe.”

Amanda’s tone betrayed her irritation. “Don’t be so fatalistic, Will. We’ve got six hours. All of us know the layout of the house, so that’s our advantage as well as theirs. I know every old broad in that neighborhood. It’s a residential street. We’ve got joggers, delivery-men, cable trucks, meter readers, postal carriers, and afternoon strollers we can tap into. I can dribble in four teams over the next few hours and no one will be the wiser. We’re not a bunch of Keystone Kops. We can figure out a way to do this.”

“I’ll do it,” Will offered, and Sara felt her heart jump into her throat.

“You can hardly pass for Faith.”

“We’ll send them an email to let them know I’m going to make the exchange. Roger Ling knows what I look like. Even if he’s not involved in this, he’s obviously enjoying the show. He knows who these guys are. He can tell them to trust me.”

Sara felt a wave of relief to see Amanda start shaking her head even before he’d finished talking.

He insisted, “It’s safer this way. Safer for Faith.”

As usual, Amanda didn’t hold back. “That’s one of the most idiotic things I’ve ever heard come from your mouth. Think about what we’ve seen over the last couple of days. This is amateur hour. Julia Ling practically laid it out for us. We’re dealing with a bunch of young, stupid boys who think they know how to play cops and robbers. We’ll either have them on the ground or in it before they know what hit them.”

Will wasn’t swayed. “They may be young, but they’re fearless. They’ve killed a lot of people. They’ve taken a lot of stupid risks.”

“None more stupid than sending you in instead of Faith.
That’s
the way to get people killed.” Amanda decided, “We’ll do it my way. We’ll figure out how to strategically place our people. We’ll have eyes on Faith at all times. We’ll wait until the kidnappers show up with Evelyn. Faith will do the swap, and then we’ll nab them when they try to make their escape.”

Will wouldn’t give in. He was adamant. “She can’t do this. She can’t go in there alone. Either let me do it or we’ll find another way.”

Faith said, “If I’m not alone, then my mother is dead.”

Will looked down at the floor. He obviously thought that there was still the real possibility that Evelyn Mitchell was dead. Sara found herself silently agreeing with him. This didn’t sound like a plan to get Evelyn back. It sounded like a plan to get Faith killed. Amanda was so hellbent on saving her friend that she couldn’t see the collateral damage.

Sara had forgotten about the coffee. She kept one for herself, then passed the other mugs to Amanda, then Will.

“Thank you.” Will awkwardly took his. It was as if he was making sure that their hands didn’t touch.

Faith said, “He doesn’t drink coffee. I’ll take it.”

Sara felt her cheeks start to burn. “You probably shouldn’t be drinking caffeine right now.”

Will cleared his throat. “That’s okay. I like it sometimes.” He took a sip from the mug. He practically grimaced as he swallowed.

Sara couldn’t take much more of this. The only way she could be
more out of place would be if she pulled out an accordion and started singing polka tunes. “I should give y’all some privacy.”

Amanda stopped her. “If you don’t mind, Dr. Linton, I’d like a fresh ear on this.”

They were all looking at her. Impossibly, Sara felt even more naked than before. She looked at Will for help, but his blank expression was probably the same one he gave to the woman at the bank or the guy who picked up his recyclables.

There was nothing to be done about it. She sat down beside Faith.

Amanda took the other seat. “All right, let’s go over what we know so we’re all on the same page. Will, run it down for us.”

He put down the coffee mug and started talking. He told Faith about everything that had happened since Evelyn had been taken, detailing the crime scene, their visit with Boyd Spivey at the D&C and his silent ex-colleagues at Valdosta State Prison. Faith’s lips parted in surprise when he told her about Roz Levy’s photographs of Evelyn’s gentleman friend. Still, she kept silent as he detailed Sara’s ordeal at the hospital and the shootout at Julia Ling’s warehouse. Sara felt that familiar tightness in her chest when he got to this last part. The cut on his ear. A bullet had whizzed by, less than an inch from his skull.

Will said, “Ricardo Ortiz and Hironobu Kwon knew each other from school. They both went to Westminster. They were most likely working in Ling-Ling’s cabinet shop together. They got it into their heads to start their own business. They obviously pulled together a crew from the other guys working in the shop. Ricardo went to Sweden and picked up some heroin for them to sell. According to Roger Ling, the boys were all bragging about it. Benny Choo, strongarm for the Yellow Rebels, picked up Ricardo and basically beat the crap out of him. He was about to pull the plug, but Ricardo, or maybe Hironobu, told him where they could get some serious money.”

Faith had been quietly taking all this in, but now she mumbled, “Mom.”

“Right,” Will confirmed. “Chuck Finn and Hironobu Kwon were in the same rehab facility for at least a month. Chuck must’ve told Hironobu about the money. Ricardo was about to die, so Hironobu says, ‘I know where I can get almost a million in cash.’ Benny Choo takes him up on the offer.”

Amanda picked up the story. “That’s what they were looking for at Evelyn’s. They thought she had money at the house. When she didn’t give it up, they took her.”

Sara thought it was convenient that Amanda had skipped over the fact that Hector Ortiz, the cousin of one of the most powerful drug lords in Atlanta, was dead in Evelyn’s trunk. She should’ve kept her mouth shut, but this was her house, they had barged in without notice, and Sara was tired of being polite. “That doesn’t explain why Hector Ortiz was there.”

Amanda raised one eyebrow. “No, it doesn’t, does it?”

Sara didn’t work for this woman. She wasn’t going to walk on eggshells. “You’re not going to answer the question?”

There was a crocodile smile on Amanda’s lips. “The more important issue here is that they did all of this because they want money. We can negotiate with people who want money.”

Will said, “It’s not about money.”

“We don’t have time for your woman’s intuition,” Amanda snapped.

His voice sounded tired, but he didn’t back down. “They’re trying to get Faith trapped in that house for a reason. If we go in without knowing that reason, then it’s not going to end well. Not for any of us.” What he said sounded perfectly reasonable, but Sara could tell Amanda wasn’t buying it. Still, he kept trying. “Look, if it was just about money, they would’ve made a ransom demand the first day. They wouldn’t be doing this back-and-forth through Facebook. They wouldn’t risk meeting Faith face-to-face in the grocery store. It would be a simple transaction. Make the call. Pick up the money. Leave the hostage somewhere, and you’re home free.”

Again, a reasonable assumption. Again, Amanda ignored it.

She said, “There is no secret endgame here. They want cash. We’ll give them cash. We’ll shove it so far down their throats they’ll be shitting paper all the way to prison.”

“He’s right.” Faith had been staring blankly ahead for most of this exchange, but with her hypoglycemia finally leveled out, she was back to thinking like a detective. “What about the bank account?”

Amanda stood up to get more coffee. “The account doesn’t matter.”

Will seemed ready to disagree, but for his own reasons, he kept silent.

Amanda told Faith, “Your father was a gambler.”

Faith shook her head. “That’s not true.”

“He played poker every weekend.”

“For quarters.” She kept shaking her head. “Dad was an insurance salesman. He hated risk.”

“He wasn’t risking anything. He was very careful.” Amanda went back around the kitchen island and sat down by Faith. “How many times did he and Kenny go to Vegas when you were little?”

Faith was still unconvinced. “That was for work conventions.”

“Bill was methodical about it. He was methodical about everything. You know that. He knew how to bluff and he knew when to walk away. Kenny wasn’t as smart, but that’s a story for another time.” She looked at Will. “Bill didn’t pay taxes on the money. That’s why the bank account was a secret.”

Sara could see her own confusion reflected in Will’s face. Past a certain amount, you couldn’t just walk out of a Vegas casino, or any legal casino in America, for that matter, without paying taxes.

Faith didn’t pick up on this. “I can’t see Dad taking that kind of risk. He hated gambling. He was all over Kenny about it.”

“Because Kenny was an idiot with his money,” Amanda countered. The bitter edge to her voice reminded Sara that the two had dated for many years. “For Bill, it was just fun, blowing off steam, and sometimes he won a lot of money, and sometimes he lost a little,
but he always knew when to walk away. It wasn’t an addiction for him. It was sport.”

Will finally spoke up. “Why didn’t Evelyn tell me that when I was investigating her?”