Daylight

Chapter 10

Pine took a shower, changed into jeans and a sweater, gunned up, and slipped her badge and creds into a bag, which she slung over her shoulder. She caught her reflection in the mirror.

I do look like my mother.

The mother who had abandoned her. That was not a motherly thing to do. It had tainted everything that Pine felt about her. Yet she still wanted to know where her mother was. Whether she was alive or dead.

She drove to the restaurant, which was in a suburb of Trenton. She had looked it up online. It served Italian cuisine without breaking the budget of two federal stiffs like herself and Puller.

He was already waiting in the small foyer when she got there. He was dressed in jeans, a gray V-neck sweater with a T-shirt underneath, and a windbreaker.

The waiter took them to a back table, something Puller had requested. He sat with his back to the wall, which was something Pine liked to do as well.

The restaurant had the usual decorations for that kind of place. Fake vines growing out of old Chianti bottles, framed prints of yachts and beachgoers on the Mediterranean hanging on the wall, red-and-white-checkered tablecloths, and menus thick enough to be novellas.

They ordered Peroni beer and opted to share a pizza with Greek salad starters. Each of their gazes had already taken in all the patrons in the place, and all possible exits. It was in the DNA. It should be in everyone’s DNA, Pine thought, particularly these days when any building could, at any moment, become a shooting gallery.

“I didn’t ask you before, but how’s your brother and your father?”

“Bobby’s doing great. Running a chunk of the country’s cyber-security now.”

“And your father?”

Puller’s father was “Fighting John” Puller, a legendary Army three-star with more medals than almost anyone. He was now in a VA hospital suffering from dementia.

“Hanging in there” was all Puller would say. “Just hanging in there. How’s Arizona?”

“Hot. And dry. How about you? Are you still in Virginia?”

Puller said, “Yeah, but I spend most days on the road.”

“Our jobs don’t leave much time for pleasure.”

“No they don’t. You still doing the Olympic weightlifting and MMA tournaments?”

In college Pine had competed to be on the women’s weightlifting team for the Olympics but had missed out on a slot by a kilo. She was a black belt in multiple martial arts and had competed in MMA matches.

“I still lift just to stay in shape. I’m getting too old for the MMA stuff, but I can still kick over my head,” she added with a grin.

“I hear you.” He paused. “So, I dug a little into this Moss guy, but I didn’t find much. I don’t think he’s been in the job long.”

“He hasn’t” was Pine’s reply.

He looked up at her. “You scored something?”

She nodded. “Called in some contacts. Up until a year ago he was a bigwig attorney in Manhattan. Then he joined a lobbying firm. He went right from there to working for the Bureau of Prisons. He’s currently the northeast regional director, which puts Fort Dix under his jurisdiction.” She paused. “If you met the guy, didn’t he tell you that? Or wasn’t the title on his office door?”

“No and no. I don’t think it was even his office. There were a bunch of photos on the wall, but he was in none of them. He’s probably not based in Trenton. He was just the closest attack dog they could sic on me.”

“That’s interesting.”

“It’s also informative. And infuriating. He obviously doesn’t hold the military in high regard.”

“Why’d you even bother to meet with him?”

“I got the call and was told to meet with the guy.”

“Who told you to do that?” she asked.

“A guy two levels up from me at CID. He didn’t seem happy about it. I think he was just grudgingly passing the request along. But his tone made it clear I had to go.”

“So Moss ordered you to stand down?”

“Which I told him he had no authority to do.”

“Bureau of Prisons is under DOJ.”

“Still not in my chain of command,” Puller replied.

“But DOJ can make it really hot for you.”

“I haven’t heard any blowback yet from my side, which I take as a good sign. My folks want whoever’s behind this drug ring Tony Vincenzo’s involved in. Like I said, if they’re selling to soldiers, it diminishes their military readiness. If soldiers are selling the drugs, it opens them up to blackmail by enemies of this country. So it ultimately strikes right at America’s national security. If DOJ wants to make the argument to the DoD that something takes precedence over protecting this country, I’d love to be in the room to hear what it is.”

“At the end of the day, politicians do love the military, at least publicly, so you might have both right and might on your side there.”

“Maybe,” Puller said. “Did you find anything else about your mom and your sister?”

She took a few minutes to fill him in on what she had discovered in the box in Evie Vincenzo’s closet and also her conversation with Darren Castor, the man who had worked for Ito at the ice cream shop.

“So Ito did go down to Georgia, abducted your sister, and almost killed you. That seems to be confirmed, or as close as is possible at the moment.”

“Looks to be.”

“In revenge for his brother, Bruno?”

“It seems the case, yes.”

“And Ito told his employee that he was shocked by what he had done?”

“I don’t know if that refers to almost killing a six-year-old girl, me. Or...” Pine could not bring herself to say it: Or murdering my sister.

Puller, obviously sensing her distress, gripped her hand and said, “One thing I’ve learned over the years, you have to hope for the best, and plan for the worst. But it’s also true that until we know everything we really know nothing. There is no evidence that conclusively shows your sister was killed, correct?”

“Correct,” said Pine, finally meeting his eye after twice trying and failing. She felt her adrenaline spike and tried to hide the fact that she was taking deep breaths to keep her nerves from running away from her. The last thing she wanted to show to Puller was that she was not in control. The man would be understanding, but his confidence in her would also be lessened.

“Okay, then we have to proceed in the belief that she’s still alive.”

She said, “The odds are not with that assumption, you know that.”

“I also know how many times the facts have proved my best assumptions wrong. There are a number of things that Ito could have done with her. And from everything you’ve learned about the guy, he was not a violent criminal, not like his brother. He owned an ice cream shop.”

“Everyone I talked to pretty much described him as being nice and kind... and normal.”

Puller slowly let go of her hand. “It’s hard to kill someone, Atlee. We both know that. It’s harder still to kill a child.”

Pine touched her head where Ito had struck and shattered her skull. “He managed to nearly kill me.”

“And maybe that’s what could conceivably have saved your sister. He could have killed you, easily. But he hit you and then fled without knowing whether you were dead or not.”

Pine slowly lowered her hand.

Puller continued. “And the nursery rhyme he used, presumably to choose between you two? You asked Teddy about that to see whether it was good or bad for your sister, but his answer cut both ways.”

“Yes, it did.”

“But that could have been a guy out of his depth who’s stalling for time before he has to do something he doesn’t really want to do.”

“You’re not just trying to make me feel better?”

“I would never do that in a situation like this. That would be crueler than anything else I could think of.” He paused and fingered his beer. “The fact is, a guy going there to do what he ultimately did, why choose at all? Why not kill both of you right then and there? He took Mercy when he didn’t have to. Getting out of town with a small child? Then transporting her to some other place? What could be harder than that?”

Pine shook her head, looking unconvinced. “He wanted to make my father suffer. He got into a fight with him, accused him of attacking his own daughter and killing the other daughter.”

“But I thought it was presumably your mother Bruno had the beef with, not your father.”

“My mother was at the hospital with me. Maybe my dad was the only one he could reach at the time.”

“Maybe.”

“And then, years later, my father, probably suffering from overwhelming guilt, took his own life, on my birthday.”

“Damn, I didn’t know that,” said Puller.

“I haven’t told many people.”

He took her hand again. “I’m really, really sorry, Atlee.”

Their salads and pizza came, and they ate in silence for a few minutes.

They each ordered a second beer and took their time drinking it as the restaurant emptied out of customers.

“You like it out there in Arizona?” asked Puller.

“I like it fine.”

“Only fed for miles around?”

“No, the DEA has an office in my building. But the closest FBI agents are in Flagstaff. Then we have offices in Tucson, Lake Havasu, and of course Phoenix, among others. But for day-to-day stuff in the Grand Canyon area, it’s just me.”

“You have any support?”

“I have the best admin in the Bureau, Carol Blum. She’s traveling with me and helping me on this.” She put down her fork. “So what’s our next move?”

“I’m running Tony down and I haven’t given up on Teddy yet, either. He obviously knows stuff that’s relevant. And he may know more about Ito and where he might be.”

“How are you going to take a run at him?”

“Carefully. Like you said, the DOJ can make my life miserable.”

“I’d like to know why any other agency even cares about this.”

“It only takes one bureaucrat, Atlee.”

They paid their bill, splitting it down the middle despite Puller’s trying to pay for it all.

“It’s the least I can do, Atlee.”

“I blew your collar. I should pay for all your meals for the next month.”

“You’re the real deal, all right,” he said with a smile.

He couldn’t have paid her a higher compliment, thought Pine.

They walked outside.

“Where are you staying?” she asked.

“Motel a few miles from here. We’re limited on vehicles so Ed McElroy dropped me off and he’s coming to pick me up.”

“I can drive you back,” said Pine.

Puller pointed to a green sedan with government plates parked at the curb a few feet away, with McElroy leaning against the front fender.

“He’s already here.”

They walked over to McElroy.

“How was the food?” he asked, pushing off the fender and walking toward them.

Before Puller could answer, the bullet slammed into McElroy’s back, dropping him right where he had stood alive and well a second before.