The Forgotten (john puller)

by David Baldacci

  “I’m sure I will.”

  “So long as your educated opinion turns out to be right. Money isn’t everything.”

  Lampert smiled. “I would disagree with you there. Money is everything, because it leads to everything else of value.”

  “Would you like to visit my boat? I have a new submarine. It can hold over thirty people. The marine life here is quite fascinating.”

  “I would like to, but demands here will prevent me.”

  Lampert was thinking, I don’t actually want to become part of the marine life.

  The man rose. “Someone who blows up Bentleys and disappears like a wisp of smoke is someone who is formidable. It was a message.”

  “Yes, it was. Perhaps more directly than you know.”

  “And you have the answer?”

  “Working on it as we speak.”

  “A small measure of advice?”

  Lampert looked up at him expectantly. “I’d love to hear it.”

  “Smoke often evidences a large fire that can burn out of control.” He paused and put out his cigarette on the surface of Lampert’s forty-thou- sand-dollar custom-built desk. “So work faster.” The next moment he was gone.

  Like a wisp of smoke blown out to sea.

  CHAPTER 64

  Mecho lifted his head slightly out of the water and watched the chopper lift off from the helipad and head south out to sea.

  He turned on his back and used small strokes of his hands to propel him closer to the boat.

  There was security on the main deck and two men on the pier holding MP5S. However, they had no one in the water. That was a large breach in security. But then again the sharks would be out now.

  And while Lampert paid well, he apparently didn’t pay that well.

  Mecho drew close enough to the boat to touch its hull on the starboard side. He looked out to sea where the lights of the chopper were still visible.

  From land and with the aid of binoculars he had caught a glimpse of the man who had first climbed off and then climbed back on the bird.

  Mecho had known instantly who he was.

  Stiven Rojas.

  Police around the world would pale at the name.

  There had never been a successful prosecution of Rojas, though many had been attempted. But when witnesses, prosecutors, and even judges are slain during the course of a trial, convictions are exceedingly rare. He had given a whole new definition to the term “ruthless” and would make some of the world’s worst terrorists look innocuous by comparison.

  He had started as an orphan on the streets of Cali and built himself into a cartel chief of near mythic proportions. Despite his modest stature, men twice his size would drop to their knees at his approach. He would kill without warning or provocation. He was not simply a sociopath who happened to be a global criminal.

  He was the sociopath who happened to be a global criminal.

  But something had come along that even Rojas had not anticipated.

  Rojas had watched his hemisphere’s drug pipeline into America move from his native Colombia to Mexico. But then he had adapted to a new business line. He would provide the mules to move the drugs throughout the United States. And along with that he would move other valuable product, namely prostitutes and slaves. Slaves in particular were the new growth market. Forget illegal immigrants. They expected to be free, and paid at least something. Slaves expected nothing. They just hoped not to die. Everything after that was a positive for them-not that there was much that was positive.

  Rojas and Lampert were partners in the largest slave ring in the world. And they were poised to make it even larger.

  Unless they were stopped.

  Still in the water, Mecho moved down the starboard side of the ship. There was a line of portholes low enough for him to see in. He gripped one and pulled himself partially out of the water.

  The room he was looking into was dark. And empty. He lowered himself back into the water and moved to the next window.

  It was on the fourth porthole that he found something other than dark and empty.

  Beatriz was still dressed in her maid’s uniform. She stood in one comer while Lampert sat at a table and ate his dinner. He ate slowly, chewing his food methodically. When he glanced at the bottle of wine within a few inches of his arm, Beatriz shot forward and refilled his glass.

  As she bent slightly forward to do so Lam- pert’s hand slipped to her bottom and grabbed. She didn’t jerk or drop the bottle. She was apparently used to this treatment. She finished pouring the wine and retreated to the corner, her gaze downcast.

  A minute later Lampert glanced at the basket of rolls.

  Beatriz shot forward again, picked up one roll, broke it open, and used a small knife to butter it.

  While she did this Lampert cupped her left breast with his hand and snaked his other hand under her skirt. As she buttered the roll Mecho could see her face. Bubbling just below the surface was anguish, coupled with a hatred that Mecho, in all his life, had rarely seen. He saw her hand tremble ever so slightly with the knife in it. He knew what she wanted to do. Even as Lampert stroked her she wanted to take the blade and stick it into his chest.

  Mecho wondered why she didn’t do so.

  Just do it, Beatrix!

  Then he looked to the right and saw why she didn’t.

  A man stood there with a gun pointed straight at Beatriz’s head.

  She finished buttering the roll, placed it on Lampert’s bread plate, set the knife down, and once more retreated to the corner.

  The man with the gun relaxed his stance and holstered his weapon.

  Mecho sank back into the water.

  Peter J. Lampert was not a man who took chances.

  Mecho let the current pull him away from the yacht. When he was far enough away he struck out with long, powerful strokes.

  And with every stroke he imagined plunging a knife into Lampert’s chest.

  CHAPTER 65

  Puller was driving fast.

  Carson eyed him from the passenger seat.

  “So where are we going now?”

  “I need to see my lawyer,” Puller answered cryptically.

  When they reached the street on which Griffin Mason had his law office, Puller parked the Tahoe at the curb about a hundred yards down from it. He reached into his duffel and pulled out his pair of night-vision optics and put them to his eyes. He trained them on Mason’s office.

  Carson followed his gaze.

  “Your lawyer?”

  “Actually, my aunt’s lawyer. He’s handling her estate.”

  “And how is Mason doing handling her estate?”

  “Not so good.”

  Puller eyed the other buildings on the street. They were all dark.

  There was no car in Mason’s driveway. No lights on in the office.

  “How do you feel about a little breaking and entering?” he asked.

  “It’s a felony. That’s how I feel about it.” “Then you can wait here. I’ll be back shortly.” She grabbed his arm. “Puller, think about this. You don’t want to piss away your military career, do you?”

  “What I want is to do right by my aunt. And that includes taking a hard whack at a creep who’s screwing her. And others.”

  Carson sighed. “I’ll come. I can keep lookout.” “It wasn’t fair to ask you. You have a lot bigger career to lose than I do.”

  “So don’t get caught. And if you do I’ll disavow all knowledge.”

  “And I’ll back that statement up one hundred percent.”

  “You’re damn right you will, soldier.”

  A few moments later they were walking down the street. When they got to Mason’s place, Puller hooked a left and entered the man’s backyard. At the fence he told Carson to wait and keep watch.

  “This shouldn’t take too long,” he said.

  “Make sure it doesn’t.”

  Mason had a security system, but one glance through the back-door window told Puller that it was not arme
d. The green light on the panel was lit.

  Puller was surprised by this. Why have a security system if you didn’t use it?

  The door lock was a deadbolt that took Puller only a few seconds to defeat using a pick gun from his duffel.

  He opened the door and penlighted his way to the lawyer’s interior office.

  It took him about thirty minutes to find what he was looking for.

  Mason was meticulous in his recordkeeping.

  A little too meticulous.

  Puller looked at the pages he had brought with him, the inventory list Mason had given him about his aunt’s personal items. He checked it against the inventory list Mason had in the files.

  It matched down to the last item.

  He next searched for and found the inventory list for Cookie’s estate. He ran his gaze down it.

  Puller saw what he knew he would see.

  He put Cookie’s inventory list in his pocket along with his aunt’s. He shut the file drawer and looked around.

  He thought about what the other estates attorney, Sheila Dowdy, had said.

  Mason’s other car was an Aston Martin. He took expensive vacations. He had a big house.

  It was all adding up, the pieces falling into place faster and easier than was normally the case.

  The next moment his phone vibrated.

  He looked at the text.

  Bogie on our six, the text from Carson said.

  Someone had just pulled into the driveway of Mason’s office.

  Now Puller could understand why the security system had not been engaged.

  This also told him that it probably wasn’t Mason coming back to work. He would have armed and then disarmed the system. This was someone whom Mason did not want to give his passcode to.

  And maybe the person wasn’t supposed to be here at all.

  He thumbed a text back to Carson.

  Description?

  Blue subcompact. Young slender woman with blonde hair.

  As Puller read the text he knew they didn’t have to look for Jane Ryon any longer.

  She had come to them.

  CHAPTER 66

  “Taking something or bringing something?”

  Jane Ryon screamed and jumped backward as the light came on.

  Puller stood there staring directly at her.

  When Ryon turned to run, she pitched headlong into Carson, who stepped into the other doorway.

  Ryon bounced off Carson, but before she could move again, Puller had her wrist clamped with his hand. She didn’t even try to tug herself free, understanding that that was impossible.

  “What are you doing here?” asked Puller.

  “I could ask you the same thing,” she said defiantly. “I have permission to be here.” She held up a key. “Mr. Mason gave me this.”

  “And why would Mason give you a key to his office?” asked Carson.

  Ryon looked at her. “Why is that any of your business?”

  “I saw you leaving Cookie’s house last night, Jane,” said Puller. “And then I found Cookie lying in the bottom of his bathtub.”

  Puller watched her intently for any reaction to this.

  “Cookie’s dead?”

  He shook his head sadly. “You’re not a very good poker player, Jane. You knew he was dead,” said Puller. “And the police are looking for you. Where have you been hiding out?”

  “I haven’t been hiding. Why would I hide? Why would I hurt Cookie? I liked him.”

  With his free hand Puller slipped the stapled pieces of paper from his pocket.

  “Inventory list of my aunt’s personal possessions. Mason gave it to me. The only problem is it doesn’t list all of my aunt’s jewelry. There are two rings, three sets of earrings, and a necklace missing. All looked pretty valuable. And a dozen old gold coins are also missing from a coin book she had.”

  “I wouldn’t know anything about that,” said Ryon.

  “Actually, you know everything about it. Those pieces were in your bag when I ran into you at my aunt’s house. I had told Mason that I was going to my aunt’s house in the morning, but then I changed my mind and went that night. He had sent you to the house to get the jewelry and coins before I would have a chance to go through her things. You had already inventoried the items and then Mason had decided which ones he wanted you to rip off and changed the real inventory list to reflect those subtractions. But you had to get them out before I saw them. Or so he thought. The fact is I had already seen my aunt’s jewelry and coins before you got to the house, only he didn’t know that. When I went back to check later those items were gone. You took them. You did the same thing to Cookie. You took some of his watches. I found the inventory list for Cookie’s property in the file here. It didn’t list the watches that were missing. And I know they were missing because Cookie showed me his collection.

  “You and Mason have a nice scam going. You get inside the houses of elderly people that Mason represents and find out what their valuables are. Then when they die, you take them and Mason alters the inventory list accordingly, fences the items, and the poor heirs aren’t any the wiser. Then Mason can afford his Aston Martin and trips around the world, and I’m betting you’re damn well paid for your part.”

  Ryon’s face had been growing paler with each word spoken by Puller.

  Carson added, “And maybe you help your targets into the hereafter. You kill Cookie and that way you get his property faster.”

  “I didn’t kill Cookie.”

  “But you were in his house.”

  Puller stared at her bag. “Open it.”

  “What?”

  “Open your bag.”

  “You have no right to-”

  Puller grabbed the bag and opened it.

  Wrapped in a silk scarf were four of Cookie’s watches.

  Puller stared down at her. “Say goodbye to your life, Jane.”

  Ryon was crying. “I didn’t kill him. I swear to God I didn’t.”

  “Tell the police that. You just walked into his house, took his property that you could only take after he was dead, and he was coincidentally dead upstairs in the bath. It might give the jury a nice laugh before they sentence you to prison for the rest of your life.”

  “Mason told me to go there and get the watches. So I did.”

  “He told you to do that?”

  “Yes!” she exclaimed.

  “Didn’t you wonder how that was possible with Cookie still being alive?”

  She took a shuddering breath. “Okay, look. He… he told me that Cookie was… was dead,” she said in a trembling voice.

  “And how did he know that?”

  “I don’t know.”

  Carson looked at Puller. “Mason kills him for some reason, then orders her up to get the stuff.” “Why wouldn’t Grif just snag the watches if he was already there?” asked Ryon.

  “So it’s Grif now and not Mr. Mason?” Puller looked at her and shook his head wearily. “And the answer is because he wanted you to take the stuff, not him. That would put you at the scene of the crime. As soon as you found out Cookie was dead, you’d get suspicious. But you’re not going to say anything because you were in the house too. He set you up.”

  “That little son of a bitch,” snarled Ryon, who was no longer crying.

  “But why would he kill Cookie?” asked Carson.

  Puller put his hand on Ryon’s shoulder and gripped. “Any ideas on that?”

  “No. He never mentioned anything to me about it. He would have no reason to kill Cookie.”

  “When did he call you to go over to Cookie’s?” asked Puller.

  “Last night. I was in the area, so it only took me a few minutes to get there.”

  “Would Mason have been at Cookie’s?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe he went over for a drink. Or to get some baked goodies,” she said callously.

  Puller shook her. “An old man is dead. Did you have anything to do with my aunt’s death?”

  “I swear I didn’t
.”

  “Why don’t I believe you?” said Puller.

  “I’m telling the truth,” exclaimed Ryon.

  “Well, a jury will determine that. Now, where is the little son of a bitch?” asked Puller.

  “I don’t know.”

  He shook her again. “Not good enough. Try again.”

  “Is he at his home?” asked Carson.

  “No, I don’t think so.”

  “Why not?” asked Puller.

  “He has another place he goes to. It’s more isolated.”

  “Why does he want isolation?” asked Puller.

  “He just does sometimes.”

  “Does it have to do with the photos of kids he has in his wallet?”

  Ryon looked up at him, stunned. “What are you talking about?”

  “The guy’s a pedophile?” snapped Carson. “Where is this place?” asked Puller sharply. “It’s north of here, up near the bay. Nothing else really around it.”

  “You have the address?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why, do you like kids too?”

  “No, of course not,” shouted Ryon, and she started to cry again.

  Puller squeezed her shoulder once more and cupped her chin and directed her gaze right at him.

  “We’re going to give you a chance to make amends, Jane. But you only get one shot. You blow this, it’s all over. Do you understand?”

  She looked back at him, the fear etched on her face.

  “I understand.”

  CHAPTER 67

  Mecho put his phone away after making the call.

  It was the longest he ever had been on the phone. The man on the other end was critical to the success of Mecho’s task. The man knew this and Mecho knew this.

  It was give-and-take. What the man wanted Mecho would have to give him, if he wanted to succeed. And he had never wanted anything more in his life.

  “You will have to prove that to me, Mecho,” the man had said. “Words are available to anyone with a mouth and half a brain.”

  “It will be done,” Mecho had told him. Now he just had to figure out how.

  He left his room at the Sierra and walked to a diner nearby. He ate lightly for such a massive person. He had never eaten very much for the simple reason that he had never had much available to eat. Over the years one’s stomach and appetite withered.