Long Road to Mercy

Chapter 26

The “buddy’s” condo was in Arlington, Virginia, in an area known as Ballston. Kurt Ferris was a CID investigator in the Army and had been recently deployed overseas for six months to investigate crimes involving those who wore Army green in other countries. Pine had met him when they’d done a joint case together involving a smuggling ring operating out of Fort Belvoir that had international implications.

They’d solved the case and ended on good terms, which had prompted her to contact him about a place to stay in Virginia. Instead, he had offered his apartment up to her, since he wasn’t using it. He swore he would not mention the arrangement to anyone after Pine told him she was working undercover on a Bureau case.

The condo was near the Ballston Mall. The area had been widely renovated and was one of the most popular residential areas for well-educated and well-heeled millennials, who had come here to work and play. Initially, Pine had been surprised that Ferris could afford a place here on his Army pay, but then remembered that his parents had left their only child a fairly substantial inheritance when they’d died in a car accident.

The condos were new, and all doors were operated not by keys but by passcodes. Ferris had given the necessary ones to Pine. That was good, because she didn’t want to have to give her name or show ID to the building personnel.

Blum stowed her bag in her room, keeping everything in the bag in case they had to get away fast, as Pine had advised.

She took a stroll around the three-bedroom condo. It had high ceilings and a small balcony overlooking a rectangle of park. The furnishings were tasteful and plush, and the kitchen was well stocked and equipped with Wolf and Sub-Zero appliances.

After Blum checked out this and the pantry and the various cooking utensils, Pine emerged from her bedroom. Blum said, “Beautiful place. Is your friend single?”

“Yeah, he is.”

Blum picked up a picture from a credenza. It showed a tall, handsome man in his Army dress blues with two older people. “This him?”

“Yeah, that’s Kurt, and his mom and dad.”

“Quite the looker, and definitely a good friend to let you stay here. You two must have a close relationship.”

She looked at Pine expectantly.

“I’m not into girl talk,” said Pine.

“Neither am I, considering neither one of us are girls.”

Pine sighed. “I think Kurt wants to be more than friends. No, he does want to be more than friends. But I don’t think he and I being together would be a good idea.”

“Career in the way. He’s in the east, you’re in the west?”

“That’s partly it, yes.”

“What’s the other part?”

“Maybe I haven’t figured that out yet.”

“Fair enough. Men can be simple, but relationships are not, at least from the woman’s perspective.”

“I did meet, I mean, I... there’s this park ranger.”

“Really, what’s his name?”

“Why, you know a lot of park rangers?”

“Actually, I do.”

“Sam Kettler.”

“Don’t know him.”

“He’s only been at the Canyon a couple years. He was on duty at Phantom when the guy went missing.”

“So that’s how you met and then started dating? Pretty quick.”

“I wouldn’t exactly call it dating. We went out for pizza and beer one time. And then he brought some beers over to my place the night before we left town. We sat out in his Jeep and drank them.”

“You must be intrigued with him.”

“Why do you say that?”

“You just said you went down to his Jeep and drank beer with him right before you were leaving on this trip. You had a lot on your mind. You could have easily declined the offer. Only you didn’t. Pretty simple deduction.”

“Well, I guess I am intrigued with him.”

“Nice guy?”

“Yeah.”

“Where’d you leave it with him?”

“Nowhere, really. I think he’d like to see me again.”

“And you?”

Pine took a breath and rubbed at her mouth. “It’s complicated.”

“And you might be more complicated than most.”

“Why do you say that?” Pine said sharply.

“I know about your past, Agent Pine. When you were a child?”

“That has nothing to do with anything.”

“Are you sure about that? It would have traumatized anyone.”

“I’m not traumatized. I wouldn’t be in the FBI if I were. I would have punted on the psychological testing.”

Blum nodded. “Okay. In the interests of getting it all out there, I also know that you went to ADX Florence to find out some things.”

Pine gazed stonily at the woman. “I told no one about my trip.”

“But you had to get special permission to visit after hours. That request came through the FBI bureaucracy. I saw the trail. Did you find what you needed to?”

“No, I didn’t,” Pine said in a tone that clearly indicated this conversation was over.

Blum put the picture down. “Now what?” she said.

“I’m taking a shower. I still have residue of the three creeps in a women’s toilet on me. I suggest you do the same.”

Pine undressed in the bedroom and caught her image in the vertical mirror hanging from the wall.

She looked first at the scars from her various encounters at the FBI. The bullet wound on the back of her calf that Kettler had noticed. An arrest gone to shit. She’d been lucky to survive it. The wound was small, and ugly. As she had explained to Kettler, the round had never come out of her. A surgeon’s scalpel had later done the trick. That was good, because the exit wound might have blown out an artery. Now, it just looked like a small, blistery melanoma.

The knife slice on her left triceps had been a mistake on the part of an agent she’d been working with when handling a suspect. Fortunately, she’d been able to recover and take him out before she or her partner had paid the ultimate price. The scar looked like a centipede.

She turned around and looked at her lower back. That hadn’t been the Bureau. That had been the weights. Lower back surgery was pretty typical for Olympic-caliber power lifters.

She could not bring herself to look at the delt tats: Gemini and Mercury.

She did lift her arms to show the words “No Mercy” on each.

No, not the words. The name.

She took a shower, letting the hot water and soap wash away the remnants of their encounter at the rest stop. She toweled off, put on fresh clothes, and then finger-dried her hair.

She walked into the kitchen to see Blum sautéing some vegetables on the cooktop.

“What are you doing?”

“We both need a home-cooked meal. And your buddy left a well-stocked fridge. I’m assuming it’s okay if we use it?”

“He said it was. I’ll leave him a check for the food we use. So, you cook?”

“I had six kids to feed. What do you think? Although, actually, when they were growing up, it was more Hamburger Helper and mac and cheese. Six kids meant I didn’t have time to spend hours on cooking a meal. And I worked too, outside the house. Did your mother cook?”

Pine didn’t answer the question. She sat down at the kitchen table and took out her laptop.

“Still working?” said Blum as she peppered the vegetables. “We just drove across the country. You could take a break for an hour.”

Pine typed in some information and waited for the search results to come back. “Actually, best sleep I’ve had in a long time, snoozing while you drove,” she said.

“It is a beautiful car. My ex had one sort of like it. It wasn’t nearly as nice. He knew nothing about cars, unfortunately. It finally had to be junked.”

“The guy who owned it was pretty special. He helped me out a lot in my early days at the Bureau. I wouldn’t be nearly so outgoing but for him.”

Pine tacked on a very brief smile to this statement, as though trying to make fact what was really nothing more than speculation for most people who knew her.

“Hallelujah for friends,” said Blum.

“What are you making?” Pine asked.

“Chicken Milanese. I do it pretty well, if I do say so myself. He’s got some ciabatta dinner rolls I’m going to warm in the oven, too. You want to do a salad? The fixings are in the fridge. Don’t use the arugula, that’s for the chicken.”

Pine rose, washed her hands, and dried them off on a dish towel. She grabbed a large bowl from one of the cabinets, then opened the fridge and pulled out the necessary ingredients.

Blum said, “I have to say, I never imagined us preparing a meal together on the East Coast, or anywhere, actually.”

“Life is unpredictable,” said Pine as she sliced up a tomato and then a cucumber on a cutting board she’d taken from a drawer.

Blum prepped the chicken breast cutlets, dredging them in plain Greek yogurt and then dressing the meat in bread crumbs together with oregano, basil, and thyme. She coated a pan with extra virgin olive oil and cooked the cutlets for three minutes on each side.

After finishing the salad, Pine set the dining room table, then put the bowl of greens on the table.

Blum squeezed a sliced lemon over the cooked chicken cutlets and plated them over beds of arugula. She took the rolls out of the oven and put them in a basket that she had lined with a cloth napkin.

“I see your friend has a wine chiller,” said Blum, pointing to the appliance under the kitchen counter. “I’m more of a red person, but a Chardonnay or even better a Pinot Grigio would go well with the chicken. You want to check while I carry the plates and rolls in?”

A minute later Pine came in carrying an uncorked bottle of Pinot and a wineglass in one hand, and a Fat Tire Belgian ale in the other.

“My idea of a nice white,” said Pine, holding up the beer.

She poured the wine into the glass and set it in front of Blum before taking her seat.

Blum clinked her wineglass against Pine’s bottle of beer.

They ate in silence until Pine said, “This is really good.”

“I can show you how to make it.”

Pine didn’t respond to this at first. “You know, that might be nice. I’m, uh, I’m not that much of a cook.”

“Simple is best. And fresh ingredients.”

“Right. So, um, maybe you can teach me a few dishes.” She glanced away and took a quick swig of her beer.

Blum looked at Pine closely. “For Sam Kettler?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Oh, come on, Agent Pine. I’m too old to be manipulated.”

Pine smiled. “Okay, I do like him. We seemed to connect.”

“Well, thank God, there’s no law against that. You said he likes you, and after what you told me, I agree. And whether you think it’s complicated or not, I think you should see him when we get back.”

“If we get back,” said Pine, turning serious once more.

“I stand corrected. So what’s our next step?”

Pine put her fork and knife down and picked up her beer. “His brother gave me Ben Priest’s home address. It’s in Old Town Alexandria. I would expect the place is being watched, so we’re going to watch the watchers and do some recon at the same time.”

“Okay.”

“Then there’s Ed Priest’s family. I need to contact them without anyone knowing.”

“Aren’t they still in protective custody?”

“I don’t know. I couldn’t get them into an actual safe house. But I had uniformed FBI looking after them. That might have been pulled after the call Dobbs got from the DD.”

“And then we have the men in the chopper who took away the Priest brothers. Any idea who they might be?”

“I can make some deductions.”

Blum took a sip of her wine and looked across the table thoughtfully at her boss. “What are they? And, more importantly, what are they based on?”

“I recognized the type of chopper.”

“What was it?”

“A UH-72A Lakota. I’ve actually ridden on them.”

“Who uses it?”

“Mostly, the United States Army.”