Flash Point (41 page)

Irv smirked. ‘How'd you know?'

‘Are you kidding me? You should never play poker, Irv. You've got a mean hacking game, but when it comes to cards you hold, you've either gotta work on masking your tells or get yourself some snazzy sunglasses or something,' Yancy said truthfully. ‘That day at the skate park, you might as well have worn a sandwich board advertising your to do list: check up on Yancy, fact-check Yancy's story. Go through Yancy's dirty clothes to check if he bought the expensive laundry detergent without using the coupon you gave him. Toss his garbage for evidence he actually had Chinese for lunch on Friday like he claimed.'

‘Damn, dude! Easy!'

‘OK, OK. I'm just joking,' Yancy said. God, he was dreading this.

Irv leaned forward. ‘So, then, if what you told me you were looking for in that file wasn't true, then what
is
the truth? Just level with me, man. You can trust me.'

If only this was just about me trusting you. I
do
trust you. Like you, even. Which is why I'd rather not give Claudia any reasons to want you dead, like that she finds out you know about our little deal.

But, while he
had
to keep Claudia and her involvement a secret for Irv's own safety, he at least owed him some of the truth. At least, what he could give him.

Yancy sucked in a breath. Man, this would never get easier.

‘I killed a guy, Irv. A cop named Denny Hoffsteader.'

Irv's jaw dropped. Whatever he'd suspected, it hadn't been this. ‘What?!'

Yancy nodded. ‘Remember that girl involved in the Diamond Slayer case last year with the dad who had Alzheimer's? Well, it's a long story, but I was near her house one day when this Denny guy attacked her. Tried to choke her to death.'

‘No way, dude,' Irv said, his voice in disbelief.

Yancy shrugged. ‘I know, right? But the even crazier part of it is, the cop was involved with CiCi because he was a pimp. So not only had I killed a cop, but I'd killed a dirty cop who was a big player in a whole prostitution ring run by dirty cops.'

‘Oh, man,' Irv said, the situation's implications dawning on his face. ‘And they ever find out you killed one of their own …'

‘Yeah,' Yancy said flatly, thinking of the file he'd looked for, of everything he was leaving out.

Irv shook his head over and over before, finally, he said, ‘Uh-uh. Nope. It's just not gonna happen. Not just because, deep down, you're a good guy who was just trying to save a woman who was getting beat on, and not just because Jenna needs you, though God-knows she does. But because …' Irv looked at the floor, shook his head some more, this time seemingly at what he didn't want to say. Finally, he looked back up. ‘But because
I
need you, damn it. More than you know. But you're about to. You're about to get an earful.'

Yancy listened in quiet disbelief as Irv explained to him all the reasons he'd wanted to train him instead of turn him in. Tell Jenna what he'd done when he'd hacked the database. Yancy'd known Irv had his reasons for taking him under his wing, but Yancy could've guessed for days what those reasons were and never come anywhere close to this.

Irv also told him his plan, and now, his idea. They talked over the details, both stopping every few sentences to add a, ‘shit' or a ‘dammit' to the conversation, just to pay homage to the weight of what they were discussing here. What they were
deciding.

‘So that's that, then? We're agreed?' Irv asked.

Yancy nodded. What else
could
he do? ‘I'm in if you're in.'

Irv gave a quick nod. ‘Well, I guess the last thing to decide, then, is do you tell Jenna, or do I?'

‘Where's … O … boe?'

Jenna smiled at Yancy's weak attempt at acting – eyes closed, sensing someone in the room. Knowing it was her.

‘Very funny, Iron Man,' she said, leaning over to kiss him. She grabbed a hard plastic chair from against the wall and pulled it up beside his bed.

‘What happened?' Yancy asked. ‘Did you catch them?'

‘Yancy, you can't keep doing this,' Jenna said, exasperated. ‘As much as I wish you were, you're not part of the team. Besides, you're already skating on the thinnest ice imaginable. What were you thinking?'

‘I was thinking about doing my job, because while I hate to drop this on you, he said I could,' Yancy said.

‘He? Who are you talking about? What are you talking about?'

‘Irv's dying, Jenna.'

It was like a punch in the gut. Whatever she'd expected him to say, it wasn't that.

‘That … that doesn't make any sense,' Jenna said. ‘Irv's fine. I passed him on the way in here. I've been in communication with him all day.'

‘Not that kind of dying,' Yancy said, seeming to search for the right words. ‘He has ALS. I've been working for him, learning from him and helping him from my computer at home. Jenna, he knows about Denny. He caught me trying to …'

Yancy took a long pause. ‘… to dig up a file in the FBI database. Victor and I have tied up almost everything with the CiCi incident, but we were still worried about a few things we had no way of making sure stayed under control,' Yancy blew out a slow breath. ‘Irv's maybe the only person on earth who could make those things go away. For good. And … well, he promised he would. But only if, in return, I take over for him.'

Jenna caught her mouth hanging open. ‘Does Saleda know about this?'

‘She will soon. Irv's gone to tell her right now. He might have months, or he might have years, but we know he won't be able to do the same things he does now for much longer. He wanted to pick his replacement instead of leaving the BAU to fend for itself. I think since he caught me, he sees me as his chance to take care of two problems at once.'

Jenna forced down the questions clamoring to be voiced, forcing herself to remember Yancy was in a hospital bed. If what he was saying was true, she could discuss it at length with Saleda later anyway.

Her face must have softened slightly, because Yancy asked tentatively, ‘So … did you get them?'

‘More or less,' Jenna said. ‘We caught all but three at the mall. One died on the scene. Of the other two, one's been caught, and the other was killed before we could bring her in.'

Yancy breathed a sigh of relief. ‘Good. You got that woman that got away. I was worried …' his voice trailed groggily. He'd been so energetic, itching to talk to her when she came in; it had been easy to forget what he'd been through. That he still had some strong drugs pumping in through his IV.

‘Worried what, Yance?'

‘The woman with the … stroller …' he said, then stopped. Shook his head hard. ‘Whoo, sorry. Gosh, I can't believe I just now remembered her. It was the thing I was most scared of right before I blacked out. I'd seen the woman get off the elevator pushing the big heavy stroller. I can't … I can't remember how I knew, but it was something about how she'd nodded to the others I was sure had to be Black Shadow stationed around the food court. Signaling them somehow, like something was going to happen. And somehow I realized she was the one making the Chinese guy look like he was doing something he wasn't.'

The avocado green of three flashed in, and Jenna thought of the three names that had still been in play. She suddenly realized what had been bothering her all along about the color, and Fai Xiong.

Oh, she'd signaled to them, all right. To move in for a ‘rehearsal attack' that wasn't really happening at the same time she'd set it up to look like Athos was about to detonate a bomb. They followed her signals and got apprehended by the cops, and poor Athos got his head blown off, because, that way, the numbers added up. When they went looking for leftovers not at the mall, they'd only be out for Scarlett and Beo, because ‘Richelieu' had died by cop at the mall.

Her instincts when she'd seen Richelieu on the video had been right. It wasn't the facts being presented that had caused the light khaki color to keep coming up, it was the gender. The real Richelieu was a woman. Fai Xiong had been set up.

But if Flint had set up the whole thing for the others in the group to be captured, why would he let this one woman get away? Set it up so she got away. A sinking suspicion started to form.

‘What did this woman look like?' she asked.

‘Jet black hair, all the way down her back. Piercing green eyes. Probably the most distinctive thing about her, though, were the angles of her face.'

‘Huh?'

‘Her face was the most long, slender oval, only … there was something about the way her high cheekbones drew in toward her chin on either side of her nose, which was like this slim, delicate line that existed only to trace the length of her face in order to accentuate how perfectly symmetrical her cheekbones slanted inward on either side,' Yancy said, his eyes squinted up as though trying to picture her.

‘Son of a bitch,' Jenna hissed.

Yancy's eyes widened, and he shook his head. ‘No, no. I didn't have a crush on her cheekbones or anything. They were just, you know, unusual. Like seeing a guy with a pair of legs that both continue down from the knee.'

‘You're a dork, and that's not what I meant,' Jenna said, her head still spinning too fast to take Yancy's leg joke bait. ‘It's just that … you just described …'

Rose flashed in. Familial love. Flint's sister hadn't died after all. Come to think of it, he'd never said she had, only implied it.

‘Son of a bitch,' she spat again. ‘You just described the picture I saw of Flint Lewis's sister. She's alive. She was in on it. Son of a bitch!'

‘Daughter, if we're getting technical.'

Jenna's smart phone was in her hand before she realized what she was doing. She typed in the Black Shadow website URL.

‘Um, Jenna, that's not really something you want to tweet about.'

‘I'm pulling up the videos of the attacks. I've watched those things a hundred times each, and this is the last connection I was missing. I need to see them once knowing the complete picture.'

The site took an unusually long time to load, then finally filled with an empty green background, with white text in the middle:

TO BE A WOMAN CONDEMNED TO A PAINFUL AND DISGRACEFUL PUNISHMENT IS NO IMPEDIMENT TO BEAUTY, BUT IT IS AN OBSTACLE TO THE RECOVERY OF POWER.

‘What's the matter?' Yancy asked, seeing the puzzled look on her face. He reached out and tilted the phone in his direction. Then, he actually laughed. ‘She took it down. Of course she did.'

‘She's Flint's sister. She would have known every detail of what he did to help us access the site. Taking it down was probably the first thing she did when she got clear of the mall.'

‘Let me see that a second,' Yancy said, gently plucking the phone out of her hand, and opening a new browser tab with his thumb. ‘I don't know much about beauty, but I know a thing or two about being an obstacle.'

‘What are you doing?' Jenna asked.

‘Wait for it,' he said, holding up a finger. ‘It's more fun for me if you wait.'

He finished typing and turned the phone back so she could see it. The browser was now filled with black text on a white background.

‘You want me to read that?' Jenna asked.

Yancy glanced back at the screen, disappointed. ‘Yeah, I guess it is a little underwhelming if you're not into this stuff. Hold on, this will be better.' He went to work on the phone again, but this time continued explaining. ‘I installed a Trojan on the backend of the Black Shadow website. Figured it couldn't hurt. Figured Black Shadow members were smart enough to use the darkweb any time they visited the site, but when someone logs into the c-panel – the thing that lets you manage the content of the website – I have more options to work with. Let me just turn this on and we'll see if— Well, look at that. She left her laptop open.' Once again, he turned the phone around so Jenna could see.

A video loaded, showing them an empty room with a bed and a wide window near what looked like an outside door. No personal effects adorned the furniture. A hotel.

And leaning next to the TV stand was a matching set of butterfly swords.

Jenna's face broke into a wide grin. ‘Is that what I think it is? Irv might have been right about you.'

Yancy smirked. ‘That's her webcam feed, which I can turn on any time. Mic, too. I don't know, but I think this might make catching her a lot easier for you. Want to go through her browsing history with me? She may be smart, but we only needed to fool her once.'

Jenna nodded. ‘Everyone's got a blind spot.'

Isaac walked into the visitor's area. Everything had been leading up to this. You need help from inside the penitentiary.

He settled into the chair, picked up the phone, and looked across the glass at the woman dressed in a nun's habit. You also needed help outside the penitentiary, and not just from little bimbo Lynzee.

Claudia Ramey smiled, picked up the phone, and said, ‘Hello, my son.'