Double Cross

Chapter 113

BREE AND I RUSHED back to Kalispell late that evening-only to find that our original flights were still the fastest way home. There weren’t any alternatives, at least not one that we could afford.

So we checked into a motel, where neither of us got much sleep. Not being able to help Sampson during those critical first hours was killing both of us, but especially me. John and I had been best friends since we were kids, and I had a bad feeling about this. Still, I was with Bree, and we slept in each other’s arms.

We finally arrived in DC on Sunday-wired but totally focused. I called Billie Sampson from the gate and told her we’d be at their house in twenty minutes. I checked in with Superintendent Davies on our way to the car. He was overseeing this personally. Davies was a friend of John’s too.

“New development while you were in the air,” Davies told me. “The bastard’s running a Webcast sometime today.”

“What do you mean? What kind of Webcast? What time?”

“We don’t have all the details yet. There was an e-mail around two-same distribution as the last one.” That meant a full media press. “He gave the URL for his site and just said it’d be going live by tonight.”

“Bree and I will be there as soon as we can. We’re going to see Billie Sampson first. It’s more or less on the way. Don’t take it off-line! Let it keep running. We need to see what he’s up to.”

“Already with you on that. It may be our only way to track this.” And by this, we both knew Davies meant Sampson’s murder and the gross public spectacle it was meant to become.

I hung up with Davies just as we got to the car.

“What did he say?” Bree wanted to know.

I didn’t answer right away. I was too busy staring at a package that was tape-mounted to the driver’s door.

White paper, silver duct tape. I’d seen something very much like it before.

“Bree? Listen to me, now. Back away from the car. Come over here with me. Take it very slow, and keep back.”

She came around to look. “Jesus. Is it an explosive?”

“I don’t know what it is.” I took out my Mini Maglite and leaned in for a closer look. “It could be anything.”

But when it toned, we both jumped back real fast.