Minotaur

32

“I’ll have to get back to you, sir,” Chapel said. He heard the director signing off, and Angel coming back on the line, but all of his attention was focused on Favorov’s wife.

Chapel didn’t think Fiona was armed. She wasn’t going to get anywhere in that car, either. At the least she was a witness to crimes committed in the house, at worst an accessory—and that didn’t even include the fact she’d struck a federal agent (assault and battery with a potentially deadly weapon, to wit, a bottle of wine to the back of the head). There were way too many people who still wanted to talk to her, who would want her in a cell where they could keep an eye on her.

“Get in,” she said again. “We don’t have much time.”

Even while she sat there gunning her engine, waiting for Chapel to respond, a legion of cops were descending on the Bentley, weapons drawn. Overhead a helicopter chewed up the air, its spotlight drooping toward the stopped car. When the light bounced off the shining hood it was enough to make Chapel wince and cover his eyes. No, Fiona wasn’t going anywhere. She was lucky she wasn’t in handcuffs already.

Chapel ducked around the front of the car and opened the passenger side door. Climbing in, he heard something move behind him. Expecting an assassin to come lurching out of the backseat, he spun around and started to draw a weapon.

But it was just the boys, Daniel and Ryan. They were curled up in the backseat, holding each other. They looked terrified.

“I’m sorry,” he told them. Daniel—who had stabbed Chapel twice with a pocketknife—met his eye with a glare of defiance that didn’t quite cover up the way he was shivering in fear. It was enough to make Chapel’s heart throb with guilt. The kids didn’t deserve what had happened to them, to their family, their life.

Chapel turned to look at Fiona. “If you surrender to me right now I can try to help, a little. I can at least make sure they get wherever you want them to go,” he said, nodding at the boys. “Do you have any family in the area, or—”

“I’m not surrendering. I’m going to drive out through the gate in a second and nobody is going to arrest me.” She didn’t look like it was a suggestion.

“Really?” Chapel asked.

“Yes, really. I’m going to leave here and not come back. I don’t want to be followed, or harassed, or questioned. My boys need me, not some nice policewoman with a blanket and maybe a chocolate bar. They need their mother. I had to work very hard to get these two, and I’m not giving them up now.”

Chapel kept his mouth shut. He guessed there was more.

“I have something to offer in exchange,” she said.

“Okay, I’m listening,” Chapel said, though he doubted it would be enough. Law enforcement didn’t make the kind of deals she was asking for.

“I can tell you everything I know. It may not answer all your questions, but I assure you—Jim—that in the years I’ve been married to Ygor, I heard more things than he thought I did. Far more than he would have wanted me to hear. So there’s that.”

“It’s not enough,” Chapel said.

She nodded. Her hands were still on the steering wheel, as if she was going to start driving at any second and needed to be ready. It also meant they stayed in plain view so none of the police around her would think she was reaching for a weapon. Chapel had known she was smarter than Favorov gave her credit for. She stared out through the windshield at the road ahead. At freedom, and safety.

“Okay,” she said. “Okay.”

Chapel waited patiently.

“I’ve been a loyal wife. I’ve done everything he asked of me, right from the start. I know my place in the world, Jim. I know what people think I am, and I tried to prove I was better than that. I’m not just a trophy wife. I was a partner to him. For years. I never betrayed him.”

“That’s admirable,” Chapel said.

“My boys, though. They come first.” Fiona wouldn’t meet his eyes. “You let us go, you give me what I asked for, and I’ll take you to him. I’ll take you right to Ygor, right now.”