“What about the girl?”
“Don’t worry about the girl. I know where she is.”
“Why don’t you go get her?”
“Because I know where she is. What I don’t know is who else might be looking for her. What I don’t know is how far this shit pile you’ve blown up has spread.” He shook his head, taking a deep breath. “Don’t worry about why I’m doing what I’m doing. You do your part. I’ll take care of my end. Understood?”
He hung up without waiting for an answer. Pressing his forehead once again into the brick, he puffed out white clouds of breath as he got his temper under control. It wasn’t his problem. At the end of it all, whatever giant the client had poked wasn’t his problem. Booker had spent a lifetime evading grabbier hands than this. To be sure, tangling with the United States government was not something he ever wanted to do, but Booker had plenty of escape plans to fall back on. He could go to ground indefinitely if necessary and he wouldn’t think twice about burning the whole job down around his ears to do so. Fair was fair.
They argued about the best way to approach the station. The Dupont Circle Metro stop was accessed on either end by wide, steep escalators. Anyone coming down would be visible and exposed. Choo-Choo wanted Dani to stay up top until he had gotten to the platform and made contact. The thought of both of them being spotted on the long escalator ride unnerved him. Dani had another idea. She decided to board the train one stop earlier, the smaller-scaled Farragut North. She told him she would text him as her train from Farragut North pulled into the Dupont Circle platform. He would have time to make it down the escalators while she could hide among the crowds of weekend tourists and nighttime partiers.
Just like at the shopping center when he’d gone off to buy phones, Dani felt a smothery panic at watching Choo-Choo walk away. She could see him trying to keep her in his peripheral vision as he bent his head to light a cigarette and she headed into the Farragut North station. They didn’t wave or in any way acknowledge each other. They hadn’t even walked side-by-side a block or two after leaving the hotel. There was no way to know who was watching them or how much they knew. Dani was Choo-Choo’s only ace against the Stringer; Choo-Choo was it for Dani against Tom. They were silent partners in the truest sense of the word.
She fished around in a zippered pocket of her purse for her Metro Pass. That was another argument she’d won, to carry the bags. She’d given in on leaving her nylon bag and clothes at the inn but wouldn’t budge on carrying her purse and the Rasmund pouch. The purse she slung over her shoulder the way messenger bags were meant to be carried. The pouch she’d slipped on between many layers of clothes. She’d given Choo-Choo back his blue flannel and wore her heavy black outer shirt over the pouch. Choo-Choo had made a crack about the added girth but Dani found it hard to worry about her silhouette when there were people with guns looking for her. She’d have worn a barrel if she thought it would keep her safe.
Stepping into the shortest line through the turnstiles, Dani smoothed out a bent edge on the Metro Pass. She kept the card full, renewing it every month because public transportation made life within the Beltway much easier to handle. She knew she was insane for keeping her car; Ben teased her that she spent as much in parking tickets as she did on gas but Dani never could see her way to abandoning her vehicle. Five years she’d lived in the area but she’d never shaken that rural affection for an automobile. She paid her fines and parked on alternate sides of the street and knuckled through the knots of District traffic because she’d never shaken that internalized belief that wheels, like cash, meant freedom. The irony that she now relied on public transportation and an electronic fare card wasn’t lost on her.
To be honest, the Metro had always made her nervous. The crowds could be intimidating, especially in the summer when packs of sweaty tourists strong-armed their way on and off the stops around the Mall and the Capitol. Being short on a subway had little to recommend it, especially in the sweltering D.C. summers. In that sense, the cold weather and heavy bundling made her ride easier, insulating her with personal space. What got to her, as it always did, was the futuristic feel of the subway. These weren’t the grimy trains of Boston or New York. The D.C. Metro looked and sounded like something from a sci-fi movie. Soft chimes and whooshing carriage doors and the shadowy lighting put her in mind of some alternate universe or planned world that Dani couldn’t help feeling she didn’t know the rules to.
Now, with her previous world in shambles, the surreal ambience of the Metro seemed fitting. Hell, she wouldn’t have been a bit surprised to find out Tom carried a ray gun or that the Stringers were cyborg assassins. It’s not like the situation could become any more surreal. She texted Choo-Choo as the train hissed into the Farragut North station and she ducked amid a group of Japanese tourists clutching bags of souvenirs. They’d probably returned from a night tour of the monuments. They were so bundled up they looked like they were planning to sleep outside.
Two girls screamed and laughed at a gang of teenage boys dancing toward the far end of the car, shouting and showing off despite the glares from the other passengers. Dani scanned the faces she could see from her low vantage point. What would it take to stand out on the D.C. Metro? It wasn’t like the hit man, whoever he was, would be slinging an AK-47 over his shoulder. And really, would that even stand out? Nearly midnight on Saturday night at Dupont Circle, just about anything was possible.
She stood close to the door, hoping to stake out a secure position to watch Choo-Choo’s arrival but when the train stopped, she found herself caught up amid the woolen sleeves and puffy coats of the tourist group. There were more people in the group than she’d originally thought and Dani let herself be bumped and herded from the car across the platform to the lighted map where a petite woman in a red parka held a green and yellow striped umbrella far over her head. She spoke in a high tone that managed to ring out over the dings and dongs and whooshes of the train. The tourists huddled in close together, guidebooks held at the ready, listening to whatever the woman was telling them. As happens in cities accustomed to tour groups, the traffic from the train split around them, letting them create an oasis of stillness amid the bedlam of the Metro.
Dani stood shoulder to shoulder with most of the women in the group. She didn’t know how long they planned on standing here or what on earth could be so interesting about a subway stop but she was grateful for the moment of camouflage. She stayed near the rear of the group, nodding and smiling back at the confused look from the tour guide. A train pulled in across the platform, coming in from the other direction, and the noise in the cavernous room rose again. Dani tensed her shoulders against the pressure of the speakers and the lights and the sense of being buried in an enormous ceramic pipe miles below ground. She hated the Metro.
Choo-Choo. There he was. She could see his white-blond hair shining under the artificial light. Even amid the stylish urban fashions preening and posing on display, Choo-Choo stood out. His longish hair, sharp cheekbones, and ridiculously perfect nose couldn’t be dimmed by the loose blue flannel shirt. Dani’s black knit scarf that he had refused to return to her looked artful. Dani used to wonder how long it took Choo-Choo to achieve that casual look of elegant perfection. Now she knew what she had long suspected—you had to be born with it.
She watched him scan the crowd. He didn’t know where she was and the plan was to keep it that way as long as possible. When the Stringer approached him, he wouldn’t be able to give her location away with a gesture, however unconscious it might be. Dani urged him to hurry, urged the mysterious stranger to make his move. The tourists were making moves to continue their trek out of the station and Dani let herself be bumped along toward the back of the herd. If the tourists moved too far, too fast, Dani would find herself exposed.
Choo-Choo headed toward his right, toward the platform where Dani stood. He kept his face neutral, just another bored transit patron, but she could see his eyes moving over the crowd. Choo-Choo, she decided, had a spectacular poker fac
e. Until he didn’t. It only took a second but his eyes widened, his mouth popping open in surprise. She thought he had seen her and worried he would give her presence away. The tourists surged forward and Dani had no choice but to follow behind them. Choo-Choo stared past her, his face still wide open in surprise. Whatever he was staring at was coming closer to her and for half a second she debated turning around to look.
She didn’t need to. A strong hand gripped her elbow, lifting her up onto the balls of her feet. Her breath froze in her throat and all she could do was stare wide-eyed at Choo-Choo, who still moved her way. A breath blew warm across her ear and the hand holding her tightened its grip to the point of pain.
“Well aren’t you two a cute couple? I wouldn’t have thought you were his type.”
At the very feminine pitch of the voice, Dani finally found the nerve to twist her head around to see her captor. She couldn’t reconcile the rough gray wool jacket and heavy boots with the glossy red hair pulled back in a ponytail and the faint traces of lipstick. Even the press of what could only be a gun against her ribs didn’t shatter the veil of disbelief.
It was the cloud of Chanel No. 5 that gave her away.
Dani turned further, letting her arm hang in the woman’s clutches. “Evelyn?”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“Surprised?” The redhead jerked her closer as Choo-Choo approached. “I have to admit, I’m a little surprised myself. I knew you were in the wind. I kind of assumed you were dead.” When Choo-Choo stood before her, his eyes wide and his mouth still hanging open, she pulled Dani to stand in front of her, using her to shield her gun from sight. “Let’s all play nice now, understand?”
Dani watched Choo-Choo’s mouth move, struggling to find words. “I… I don’t… I don’t understand anything apparently. Why are you pointing a gun at her? Why are you even here? How did you get out? You? The message?”
“Let’s not do this here.” She started to drag Dani, who came to her senses enough to resist. There wasn’t any dirt to dig into so Dani did the next best thing: she bent her knees, nearly dropping into a full crouch. Evelyn stood six inches taller and short of actually jerking the shorter woman by the arm, couldn’t get her to budge. “You’re kidding, right? You know this is a gun I’m holding.”
“Yeah, I know it.” Dani wrested her arm free and moved to stand by the still-gawking Choo-Choo. “If you’re going to shoot me, just shoot me already. Otherwise start talking.”
Evelyn regarded Dani with a sharply arched brow. The look lost some of its imperiousness without the normal trappings of her Faces wardrobe. The rough clothes and bare face made her look tough, even dangerous, and Dani wondered if she hadn’t pushed her luck. Choo-Choo offered no help at all, stuck gaping as he was. “We can’t talk here.”
“Well we’re sure as hell not going into some dark alley with you. You texted Choo-Choo and said you needed to talk. So talk.”
“Well aren’t you a power bottom?” The gun she had hidden in the long cuff of her coat until now she slipped into her side pocket. “Judging from the reaction of our pretty boy here, I’m going to guess you’re calling the shots.”
“We’re working together.”
Dani pulled Choo-Choo back as a trio of laughing women hurried past them. “Kind of hard to talk here,” Evelyn said again. “Plus I could use a drink. How about you?””
Choo-Choo recovered from his shock enough to link his arm in Dani’s. “Drinking on the job, Ev?” He made his tone light but Dani could hear the tension. “Doesn’t that impede your unique skill set? After all, Stringers are held to a rather high professional standard.”
“Don’t worry about me,” Ev said, standing calmly as a drunken group of college students charged past them toward the escalators. She didn’t raise her voice but Dani could hear her all too well. “I can kill you from here if necessary. Let’s not make it necessary.”
“Charming,” Choo-Choo said and then looked at Dani. “It looks like Ev could use some style lessons from your boy.”
“Hit men,” Dani said with a snort. “Not all created equal.”
“You two are really adorable.” Ev stepped close enough to kiss Choo-Choo. “Here are your options. I kill you right now and wash my hands of this entire mess. I walk away and let the man looking for you find you—and he will find you. Or you come with me, tell me everything you know, and just maybe we all walk out of this alive. Five seconds. Your choice.”
Booker checked his pockets for cash. He didn’t want to take a cab tonight. The way this operation was disintegrating, the less of a trail he left the better. Cab drivers had an irritating habit of remembering their fares by sight and he didn’t need his movements tracked any more than necessary. Besides he loved the Metro. He loved its cavernous feel, the bright echoing hallways so clean and wide. More than once he’d had to resist the urge to belt out a song as he descended the many magnificent escalators. The whole system was such a bizarre contrast to the low-slung, buttoned-down federalist architecture above ground. It felt like the designers had sat in front of one too many statues of men on horses and Ionic columns and that once they got belowground, they’d run amok.
He wanted to call Dani. He wanted to hear her voice, to hear in her words what she knew about this cover-up. She’d been so calm so far, so clever. Was that just her way or did she know that he’d just hit a hornet’s nest? She had to know. She worked at Rasmund. Then why was she running? If Rasmund had the connections they seemed to have, why would she flee them the way she did? Why not call in to her superiors and have them protect her?
Booker studied the lighted Metro map, seeing the orange line he was looking for but not letting it register. Was she running? Or was she out there as bait? The unpleasant sensation of heat on his skin flushed over him. He was doubting himself. Booker never doubted himself. Doubts led to hesitations and hesitations made a person vulnerable. He reminded himself that he had gotten this far, had developed the reputation he had, by trusting his instincts and his instincts had told him that Dani was truly on the run. And if she was on the run, whatever power or influence Rasmund had, they couldn’t reach her. Or maybe they didn’t offer their unique brand of shelter to their grunts. The thought of some shadowy figure throwing Dani to the wolves like a bone irritated Booker. Yes, he’d been hired to kill her but he wasn’t her employer. She didn’t trust him. Maybe she didn’t trust them either.
Booker wanted to hear it for himself. From Dani.
Ev led them into a little Ethiopian restaurant Dani knew by smell more than by name. She knew they served killer doro wat but it looked like the business of the night was drinking. As one of the few restaurants on the block open at this hour, business was good. Around the low woven tables, older men huddled together over glasses of sweet wine and tea while college students and young professionals toasted each other with bottles of Coke or beer.
“I like this place,” Dani said, nodding to the old woman perched behind the cash register. “Their berbere sauce can make your eyes water.”
“I know,” Ev said, settling onto a low-slung chair. “I mean I know you like it. I have no idea what kind of sauce you’re talking about. It smells heinous in here.”
“Are you kidding?” Dani eyed a nearly empty platter at the table beside them. “This food is delicious. As a matter of fact, we should each order a meal. Do you know how it works here?”
Ev watched Choo-Choo consider the low armless seat before sliding down into a graceful recline. She scowled at his artfulness. “Dinner? Let me guess. They bring us food. We eat it and the last one to die of food poisoning wins?”
Choo-Choo snorted. “I bet you’re fun at Christmas.”
“Maybe with you, Ev, the chance of dying is high,” Dani said, “but in Ethiopia the custom is that everyone eats off of the same plate. All the meals are served on one huge platter. The idea is that if you eat off the same plate with someone, you’ll never betray each other.”
“A little late for that, isn’t it? Maybe we sh
ould have had them cater a luncheon for us.”
Choo-Choo leaned in. “You think we betrayed you? How the hell do you figure that?”
“Well someone betrayed me.” Ev settled her elbows on top of her knees and let her head sink down.
“And you think Choo-Choo and I did this? Orchestrated this?”
She shook her head, her red ponytail slipping over her shoulder and curling under her chin. “I don’t. But I need to blame someone and you’re the closest two.” When she looked back up, her eyes shone with held-back tears.
“You look tired.”
“Fuck you, Dani. You look like you always do—like a hobbit.” She sighed and dropped her head back down. “Don’t pay any attention to me.”
“That’s kind of hard under the circumstances.”
Choo-Choo pulled his very crumpled box of cigarettes from his shirt pocket and dropped it on the table with a sigh. “And just when you think it can’t get any worse, I’m out of cigarettes. Since this night shows no sign of ever ending, I’m going to buy another pack from the machine out there. Assuming it works.” He rose and stretched his back. “And if it does, I’m going out to smoke. Don’t talk about anything interesting while I’m gone and don’t kill each other.”
Ev smirked at him. “What if the machine doesn’t work?”
“I’ll kill all of you and then myself. It seems only right.”
Ev leaned back to let his long legs step over the seat she crouched on and she watched him glide through the low tables. When he moved to the register to get change, she shook her head and turned back to Dani. “Unbelievable. Of all the people to make it out of Rasmund, it’s you two. Snow White and Dumpy, the eighth dwarf.”
Dani took off her purse and lay back against the cushions. Unlike her two long-legged companions, she found the low chairs and tables of the Ethiopian joint to be perfectly comfortable. She considered pulling out the Rasmund pouch from under her heavy shirts but decided she couldn’t bear to go through all that disrobing. “Is this what we’re going to do all night, Ev? Listen to you talk tough to us? Because I have a few other more pressing issues at hand.”
The Widow File Page 15
