The Whole Truth

CHAPTER 88

THERE WERE EIGHT FAMILIES on the St. Albans database that owned black Mercedes S500s, a match with vehicle registration showed. Shaw, Royce, Frank, and Katie sat in a room at the FBI’s northern Virginia office studying this list.

“Two in McLean. One in Great Falls. Three in Potomac. The rest in D.C. Four of them have kids currently enrolled in the school,” an FBI agent rattled off.

Katie broke off staring at the screen and glanced at Shaw. His focus was totally on the list, she could see. As she watched, she saw him mouthing words to himself.

He’s memorizing the names and addresses.

“The smart thing to do,” Frank said, “is split up our assets and hit them all at once.”

“We can actually narrow the list down even more,” the agent said. “The house in Great Falls and the car are registered to a woman; she’s eighty-six. The ones in D.C. are men, Stephen Marshall and Sohan Gupta, but they’re African American and Indian, respectively. You said your guy was a white guy. We can check out those people later just in case someone had access to their cars, but it makes sense to prioritize.”

Frank said, “So that leaves five. Two in McLean, Virginia, and three in Potomac, Maryland.”

“We’ll have to get search warrants executed,” the FBI agent said. “That’ll take some time since the circumstances” – he glanced at Frank – “are a little unusual.”

“How long?” Royce asked.

The agent checked his watch. “We’ll push hard, but tomorrow morning at the earliest.”

“Do it.”

“Should we post surveillance teams at their houses?” Frank asked.

“Might spook them,” Shaw pointed out. “And if we don’t have search warrants in place…”

“Then they could destroy evidence and there’d be nothing we could do about it,” Royce finished for him.

Frank sighed and said to the FBI agent, “Just get ’em as fast as you can.”

Katie glanced over at Shaw in time to see a grim smile cross his face. And then it was gone. “I want to go with you when you do the hits,” he said.

Frank nodded. “But we let the FBI guys lead the way.”

“Absolutely.”

Royce nodded in agreement. “I’m clearly out of my jurisdiction here.”

The meeting broke up and Shaw walked out. Katie quickly followed him. As he reached his car in the parking lot, she put a hand on the car door.

“Don’t do it.”

He eased her hand off the door. “Don’t do what exactly?”

“You know what.”

“I’ll give you a ride to your hotel. You obviously need some sleep. You’re sounding a little punchy.”

She gripped his sleeve. “Shaw, I saw what you were doing back there. You memorized the list. You’re not waiting for a search warrant. You’re going to go to those places tonight. And-”

“And what? Start killing people? Is that what you think?”

“I’m not sure what to think.”

“Good, you can join the club.” He pulled his arm free. “You want that ride?”

“No, I don’t.”

“Suit yourself.”

He drove off. Frank and Royce came out of the building and headed toward her. Frank stared after Shaw’s car. “Your buddy leave you high and dry?”

“No, I just…”

“You want a ride?”

When they got in the car, Frank turned and looked at her.

“Everything okay?”

“Everything’s great.”

Royce gave her a penetrating stare, glanced at Frank, and shrugged.

When Katie got back to the hotel, she stripped off her clothes, took a hot shower, and nearly scrubbed herself raw. She rested her head against the tile wall of the shower and let the water pour over her.

What do I do now? Tell Frank and Royce? Let them follow Shaw? Stop him from killing somebody? From being killed?

That’s what she should do, Katie knew. But it wasn’t that simple. What if she was wrong? What if Shaw found out she’d betrayed him? Yet she hadn’t promised not to tell. He’d never asked her not to reveal her suspicions.

She got out of the shower, dressed, and put on dark clothing. She couldn’t snitch on Shaw. But she also couldn’t just stand by and let him destroy what life he had left.

She called his room. When he answered she hung up. He was still there. Two minutes later she was in the lobby sitting in a high-backed chair waiting for him to come down.

An hour later he did. He headed out. And so did Katie.