The Buried (22 page)

When she finished talking to Gordon, she called the jet company back and reserved a second plane.

__________

“A
BSOLUTELY NOT,” QUINN
said.

They were in the RV, parked in the airport lot next to the private jet terminal. Mr. and Mrs. Vo had taken Garrett out to look at the planes.

“Who else are you going to send?” Orlando argued.

“Daeng can do it.”

Orlando glanced at Daeng. “No offense…”

“Why do I think I’m about to be offended?” Daeng said.

Orlando turned back to Quinn. “Daeng isn’t the best interrogator. He’s too nice.”

“It’s true,” Daeng agreed.

“Besides, we can’t send him in alone,” she added.

“I wasn’t planning on sending him in alone,” Quinn said. “I was planning on getting him some help.”

“Just not me.”

He hesitated before saying, “I was thinking Ananke.”

Orlando threw her arms up. “Oh, that’s just great. You think Ananke is a better interrogator than Daeng? She
kills
people for a living. She doesn’t talk to them.”

“She can handle the job.”

“
I
know what to ask him.
I
know what we need to know.
I
need to be the one who goes.”

“You and Daeng can’t do it on your own.”

“Fine! Then…call Ananke, if you want. She and Daeng can do their thing but I’ll talk to him.”

“Orlando, look at yourself. You’re going to have a baby at any minute.”

“My due date isn’t for two weeks.”

“Nine days.”

“Okay, nine days. That’s still not today.”

Quinn knew she would not let go of the idea. Though he was sure he’d regret it, he said, “All right, all right. Go. But anything dangerous you leave to the others.” He turned and pointed at Daeng. “And you are responsible for anything that happens to her.”

“Me?” Daeng said. “This wasn’t my idea.”

CHAPTER
29

PALM SPRINGS, CALIFORNIA

T
HE JET CARRYING
Orlando and Daeng touched down at Palm Springs International Airport a few minutes before noon local time. Outside the terminal they found Ananke waiting for them.

The assassin smiled at Daeng, looking him up and down as she offered him her hand. “You must be Daeng. I’ve heard so little about you, which is clearly unfortunate.”

“Nice to meet you,” Daeng said, shaking her hand and looking only a bit flustered.

“And Orlando, you look so…big.”

She opened her arms, offering a hug, but Orlando took a step back.

“No, thanks,” she said. “Did you get the car?”

Ananke shook her head. “I only arrived five minutes before you.”

Orlando checked her e-mail and found out where the car she’d arranged for was parked.

“Why doesn’t Quinn trot you out more?” Ananke said to Daeng.

Before Daeng could respond, Orlando said, “Follow me,” and led them to the waiting BMW 535i.

With Daeng as driver, Orlando in the front beside him, and Ananke relegated to the back, they headed west into town.

“So when are you due?” Ananke asked after they’d been on the road for several minutes.

Orlando ignored the question as she tracked their progress on her phone.

“You’re not having twins, are you?”

Orlando looked out the window. “Three more streets and take a left.”

“Got it,” Daeng said.

“Does the father know?” Ananke asked.

Orlando whirled around. “
That
is over the line. Not another word out of you.”

Ananke had veered into the topic that had caused the rift between them—Orlando’s former lover and Garrett’s father, Durrie. Back when Orlando lived with him, Durrie had confessed that Ananke had tried to get him into bed. Orlando never knew if she’d been successful or not, but that the girl tried was enough.

“You’re right,” Ananke said, the playful quality in her voice gone. “I’m sorry.”

Orlando settled back in her seat.

Evert had told her that Tex Winston owned a townhouse near the city center.

“I know for a fact that he was there last night,” Gordon had said after giving her the address. “He called me looking for work.”

“Do you think he’s picked up something by now?” she asked.

“I doubt it. People don’t like working with him. He has a short fuse and no sense of humor. Not a great combo.”

They found the townhouse complex on a wide, quiet street three blocks east of Palm Canyon Drive. They parked out front and entered through the guest gate, the electronic lock no match for even the greenest operative.

Winston’s place was number nineteen and in the back row. A vehicle was in its assigned spot out front, and when Orlando listened at the townhouse’s door, she heard a TV inside.

They had a quick discussion on what tactic to use, then Daeng and Ananke moved to either side of the door. Once they were set, Orlando pushed the doorbell. After a few moments, she heard feet shuffling on the other side. The peephole darkened and a voice called through the door, “What do you want?”

“It’s Deedee,” Orlando said.

“That supposed to mean something to me?”

“It’s
Deedee
. I’m here to—”

Instead of finishing her sentence, she grabbed her stomach, let out a little cry, and bent forward.

Winston let her stay like that for a beat before asking, “What’s wrong with you?”

“Please,” she said. “I need…I need to sit down.”

The door remained closed.

She looked at the peephole, her face straining from the imaginary pain. “Please.”

Nothing for a few seconds, and then the door cracked open. “Are you sick?”

“I’m pregnant. I just need to rest for a minute.”

When he started opening the door wider, Daeng and Ananke shot around the jamb in unison and knocked him back into his house. Not giving him a chance to recover, they grabbed his arm and pushed him against the kitchen counter.

Orlando followed her colleagues in and closed the door.

“Let go of me!” Winston roared. He twisted back and forth, trying to break free.

“I’d stop that if I were you,” Orlando said.

His gaze turned to her, then switched quickly to the gun she was pointing at his chest. His mouth contorted into a snarl. “You wouldn’t shoot me.”

“I wouldn’t challenge her, buddy boy,” Ananke said. “Her hormones aren’t exactly balanced at the moment.”

Winston relaxed and donned a you-got-me look, then suddenly pushed up with his feet and threw his legs into the air, as if to flip onto the counter. It was all very Bruce Lee. The only flaw in his plan was that once he was airborne, Daeng and Ananke let go.

Down he went, the back of his head cracking on the edge of the counter as he fell to the floor.

Daeng toed Winston’s unmoving body.

“Oh, great,” Orlando said. “Please tell me he’s still breathing.”

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS

Q
UINN AND NATE
landed at O’Hare International Airport forty-five minutes after their colleagues reached Palm Springs. Following the signal from Dani’s tracking chip, they headed south until they reached an area of warehouses and small manufacturing facilities in Broadview.

The building Dani’s signal was coming from was set back from the road, behind a ten-foot-high chain-link fence. The building was a long, rectangular structure, two stories tall and made of brick. Attached to the front section of the fence was a sign that read
FOR LEASE
.

“I count three entrances,” Quinn told Nate as they drove by. One in front, and two on the left side—a set of double doors and a large roll-up. “No sign of anyone.”

They continued down the block and pulled into the parking area of a wholesale plumbing-supply business.

“How do you want to handle things?” Nate asked as he killed the engine.

To get to the building, they’d have to go through the fence, but the only gate Quinn had seen would likely be watched. He pulled up a satellite image of the area.

“The lot backs up to a distribution center.” He showed the image to Nate. “If these are still there”—he pointed at several shipping containers near the back of the other business—“we can get in behind them and cut a hole in the fence.”

“Works for me,” Nate said.

Before leaving Spokane, they had equipped themselves from Orlando’s stash in the RV, but had failed to bring along a pair of heavy-duty wire cutters. After a stop at a nearby hardware store, they made their way to the distribution center.

The good news was that the containers were still at the back of the lot. The bad was that the entrance to the facility was guarded so they couldn’t drive on. The property next door, however, did not have the same issue.

The sign on that building read
EPSTEIN SYSTEMS
. Quinn had no idea what they did but apparently it involved only a few people, as there were just four cars parked out front.

Nate drove along the side of the building and turned around the back. As Quinn had hoped, there were no other cars, and no way for anyone inside to know Quinn and Nate were there. At the corner shared with the distribution center, they cut enough of the fence away from the pole to bend it back and slip through.

They walked fast across the thirty feet of open space between the fence and the containers, without anyone back at the main building noticing them. When they were in position, they studied the back of the building Dani was in. No doors, just a strip of long, narrow windows running across the building a few feet below the roofline.

Quinn pointed at an old Dumpster sitting to the side. “If we move that over to those pipes, we can scale up.”

The pipes were a set of four electrical conduit tubes running up to the roof, each no more than an inch in diameter. They weren’t optimum but Quinn and Nate had climbed walls using less.

Nate cut a flap in the fence, held it out of the way so Quinn could pass through, and then he followed. Moving the Dumpster was tricky. It had a bad wheel that wanted to squeak with every turn. Quinn had to lift the corner off the ground while Nate pushed.

“Why don’t you stay down here,” Quinn suggested when he noticed Nate rubbing his bruised ribs. “I’ll go up and scout around.”

“No way,” Nate said.

He pulled himself onto the Dumpster and started up the skinny pipes to the roof. Quinn waited until Nate was finished before making his own way to the top.

The roof was massive. Scattered across it were several old air-con units, dozens of pipe vents, and several other items that made up the building’s systems. Quinn had hoped to find a stairwell entrance but didn’t see any.

“Are those hatches?” Nate asked a few moments later, nodding toward the far end.

It was hard to tell from where they were. To get a better look, they stuck to the edges, where their steps had less chance of being heard, and headed over. One of the metal plates was indeed a hatch, while the other was some kind of vent.

They knelt beside the former. Quinn ran his fingers underneath the lip until he found a release lever. He had to push hard to get it to move, and when it finally slid to the open position, it did so with a much louder
click
than he would have liked. He and Nate froze. When no one came to check out the noise, Quinn grabbed the lip again and lifted.

The hatch moved up four inches before it was stopped by something inside. Leaning down, he discovered a rod, one end attached to the hatch and the other running down below the frame, out of sight. He moved his hand through the opening and felt around. The problem was a hook on the bottom, and the only way to dislodge it was to lower the hatch.

“I need something thin but strong,” he whispered to Nate. “At least a foot long.”

With a nod, Nate crept back to the edge of the roof and soon returned with several twigs, none more than an eighth of an inch in diameter.

Quinn chose one, notched a V into the end, and slipped it through the opening, placing it so that the cut cradled the rod. He then lowered the hatch until there was just enough space for the twig. With a push of the stick, the hook swung out of its mooring point, allowing him to open the hatch all the way.

He leaned through the hole. An empty hallway, the only illumination coming from the sunlight streaming past Quinn.

He lowered Nate in first, and then slipped into the opening. Nate grabbed on to him as Quinn hung from the frame and helped him down without making any noise.

Nate winced as he straightened up, but Quinn acted like he hadn’t noticed.

There were several more doors along the corridor, but the one at the very end interested Quinn the most. He was sure it would lead them farther into the building.

It opened with a slight squeak. Again, they paused.

Though they heard no one heading their way, they did hear a voice.

PALM SPRINGS, CALIFORNIA

W
INSTON’S TOWNHOUSE WAS
an end unit, designed so that the master suite didn’t share a wall with anyone else. Perfect for their needs.

Daeng and Ananke brought two dining room chairs up to the master bathroom. One they placed in the large Jacuzzi tub, then dumped Winston onto it and tied him up. The other was placed just outside the tub for Orlando.

“Daeng, if you will,” Orlando said, when everything was ready.

Daeng picked up a bucket of ice water they’d prepared downstairs and began pouring it over Winston’s head. The man woke with a jolt, gasping for breath.

Orlando let Daeng douse him for a few more seconds before saying, “Enough, I think.”

Daeng tipped the bucket back.

“What the hell, man?” Winston said between pants. “Who are you?”

“We have a few questions for you, Mr. Winston, and would appreciate your cooperation,” Orlando said.

“Fuck you!”

Orlando glanced at Daeng and tilted her head ever so slightly. He stepped forward again and dumped the remaining water over the man’s head.

Winston sputtered and started panting again. With a shiver in his voice, he said, “You think that’s going to make me talk?”