Curtis felt strange being back in Georgia again. He’d learned a lot on the whirlwind trips to Europe and Florida. A lot about himself. A lot about Alyssia. A lot about how he felt about his home and work life.
He’d also learned a lot about his brother, and felt that after this next move, they’d be closer than ever to finally tracking him down. And Mariana too.
A text came through on Curtis’s phone. Rachel. Just responding to his earlier message to her, telling him she was OK and on her way to the office. She was still staying with Anne and Russ but had decided against hiding away, insisting she carry on her life as ‘normal’. Danny remained close, keeping an eye on her, although he’d seen nothing untoward since the incident outside Curtis’s home.
Alyssia yawned. A big, gaping yawn, as she drove one-handed.
‘Tired?’ Curtis asked her.
‘It’s been a tiring few days,’ she said.
It had. Not just the never-ending traveling but the mental toll of what they were doing too.
‘You didn’t sleep well last night.’ He wasn’t sure if his own words were a statement or a question.
‘No, you didn’t either.’
She looked over at him and smiled. He could look at that smile all day. Except nothing had actually happened last night. They’d shared a room, but separate beds, and had only shared at all because they’d had no other choice at the hotel they’d eventually stopped at, sometime after midnight, as they made the long journey from Miami toward Atlanta.
‘If Charlton’s even still at the same place, I’m sure a police presence will be there too,’ Curtis said.
Alyssia sighed. ‘We’ve both scoured the internet and Charlton hasn’t been seen anywhere public, so there’s a good chance he hasn’t yet moved on.’
‘Agreed,’ Curtis said. ‘But my point was about—’
‘The police. Yes, I know. But you already said you won’t make the same mistake again of being too nice to him. So this time we won’t ask to go in – we’ll just do it.’
‘And if the police find us and arrest us?’
‘Then we tell them everything we know. We’re not the bad guys here. We’ll find someone who will listen. Not everyone in the police, FBI, the press can be corrupt.’
‘No. But perhaps we’ll already have bullets in our heads before we find the good ones.’
She didn’t say anything to that, though he could tell his words had rattled her by the way she fidgeted in her seat.
‘Do you really trust what Victor told us?’ Curtis asked.
‘Enough, yes.’
‘Why?’
‘Because he let us go. And he didn’t have to. That has to mean something.’
Curtis huffed and neither said anything more about it.
* * *
Two police cars remained outside the gates to the ranch house, which suggested Charlton was still there. Not that Curtis and Alyssia intended on going in past them today. Instead, Alyssia drove on, a good mile or so, until she turned onto a single track road that led behind the house. Curtis had done his best to scope out the best alternative approach route using satellite images and they eventually left the car in woodland about half a mile immediately south of the house.
After a hundred or so yards of traipsing through the forest, the land opened out into fields. And then the mud came.
‘You thought this was the best route?’ Alyssia said, as she pulled on her left foot to lift it out of the several inches of thick brown mud with a suck and a squelch.
‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘The pictures…’ Had all been taken during a dry, sunny period, apparently. ‘I didn’t know.’
Still, within a few minutes they made it to the wire fence that separated the main, manicured garden of the house from the fields surrounding it. But not without thick mud caking their shoes and trouser legs.
‘What now?’ Alyssia said, sounding unimpressed.
Curtis looked across the neat lawn that lay ahead of them.
‘This is too exposed,’ she added.
And it did feel like that now. But there were no police on guard at this side. The only people who would spot them was anyone inside, looking out. Why would they be?
‘If we head to the stable block over there first,’ Curtis said, pointing off to the right. ‘Then over the fence to the garage.’
‘Which is closer to the front. We may as well have gone that way to start with.’
‘But we didn’t. And we’re here now.’
She glowered, perhaps because of his snotty tone.
‘Come on,’ he said, not waiting for a further response.
They reached the stables without incident, but by that point the front gates were in view and Curtis knew that to make the dash across the open space and over to the garage and the house they’d be in view of the police officer standing guard at the front door.
Don’t overthink it, he told himself, closing his eyes for a moment.
Then he grabbed Alyssia’s arm. ‘Let’s go,’ he said, and he ran for it.
They went right past the garage without stopping and pulled up against the back corner of the house, out of breath, though mostly from adrenaline, Curtis thought. They stood and waited. Nothing.
He looked at Alyssia and nodded and she kind of nodded back. Then he set off around the house to the back where they found the kitchen door. He turned the handle ever so carefully.
Click.
Not a loud noise. But possibly loud enough. Now or never. He didn’t hesitate another moment and pushed the unlocked door open and stepped inside, intending to be subtle…
Until he saw the figure standing several yards away.
Elliott Charlton.
Curtis rushed forward as Charlton’s face went from surprise to anger to—
Curtis smashed into him as Charlton opened his mouth to shout out. He slammed him up against the wall and clamped a hand to his mouth, then hauled his knee up into the guy’s groin. Charlton squirmed but his moans were muffled.
‘Shout out and I will hurt you,’ Curtis said.
‘And he really will,’ Alyssia said, coming up beside them.
He gave his host a couple of seconds, waiting to see how he’d react. Charlton slumped a little, as though relaxing, as though acquiescing.
Curtis went to move his hand from Charlton’s mouth but apparently he hadn’t got the point at all. He writhed, trying to get free, opened his mouth again to shout. Curtis didn’t give him the chance. He hit him with his knee again then grabbed him by the arm and kicked his legs out and wrestled him to the ground.
Charlton landed face down on the kitchen tiles with a thud and Curtis pushed the man’s hand up behind his back. The same move he’d seen Alyssia pull on Henning. He pressed a knee into Charlton’s back to help keep him in position on the floor.
‘What did I tell you?’ Curtis said.
‘Please!’ Charlton moaned.
‘Where’s my brother?’ Curtis asked.
‘Who?’
‘Finn Delaney. My brother. Don’t lie to me again, Charlton. You won’t like what happens.’
He pushed the hand further, felt resistance. How much more before he did some damage? He really didn’t want to, but…
‘Where’s Finn!’
‘Curtis,’ Alyssia said, as though prompting him to quieten down a bit. He stopped for a second. No one coming, yet.
‘You and Finn. You both took money from the Europe bank deal for Travers International.’
‘What?’ Charlton said. ‘You have no idea!’
‘Actually we do,’ Curtis said. ‘So what happened? Victor found out you were on the take, so you tried to screw him over?’
‘What? No! It’s Victor. His partners! That’s what—’
‘Expose cash trails. Final funds first,’ Curtis said. ‘Ring any bells?’
Alyssia tapped him on the shoulder ‘Curtis, I—’
‘Wait,’ he said to her, before refocusing on Charlton. ‘That means something to you, doesn’t it?’
He’d noticed a flicker in Charlton’s eyes but he said nothing.
‘I’m not playing!’ Curtis said, pushing harder still on Charlton’s arm. He cried out.
‘Curtis, we can’t—’
‘Where is Finn? Tell me where he is!’
‘I don’t know!’ Charlton shouted. ‘But… all I know… He sent me that. What you said. I got a message from him.’
‘When?’
‘Two days ago. From a new email address. That’s all it said. If you want to find me, expose sash trails, final funds first.’
‘Expose Travers? That’s what it means? That’s what you’re planning to do?’
‘I don’t know what he means!’
‘Curtis!’
He looked up to Alyssia and noted the panic in her eyes. And with good reason, too, because the front door had just opened.
‘In here!’ Charlton shouted out.
‘Go!’ Alyssia shouted to Curtis.
‘Hey!’ came a shout from out in the hall.
Curtis didn’t wait a second longer. He jumped up from Charlton as Alyssia rushed to the door where the police officer appeared. She picked up a pan from the side and cracked it against the officer’s chest. He stumbled back. She tossed the pan at him and ran for the back door. Curtis ran too.
They made it outside. Garage? Stables? No. Straight line.
They sprinted as fast as they could across the lawn. They heard shouting behind them, sirens further away. They didn’t let up. Over the fence, into the fields. Into the mud. Curtis’s feet slid underneath him several times. He had no clue how he stayed up, but he did. Alyssia did too, and they made it back to the car. The sound of sirens still drifted over, but they weren’t getting close; at least, Curtis didn’t think so.
‘You drive,’ he said, when they reached the car.
Alyssia floored it. Both of them checked the mirrors, over and over. No flashing blue lights.
‘They won’t be able to head us off in this direction,’ Curtis said. ‘It’s too wide an arc for them to get around before we get to the next junction.’
If the police were to catch them, it would be from behind.
They made it to the junction still in the clear. Alyssia took a series of quick turns after that. Still no sign of the police.
‘What the hell?’ Alyssia said to him after a few more minutes, as she slowed the pace and some sort of calmness returned to the inside of the car.
‘What?’
‘What was that in there?’
‘My bad cop?’
She looked over at him. He’d expected her to be more impressed.
‘What’s going on?’ she said to him. ‘Victor said Charlton and Finn were planning to screw him, but Charlton seemed to suggest Victor is the bad guy, didn’t he? That Finn is trying to expose Travers. With Charlton’s help?’
‘Everyone’s blaming each other. But for what?’
‘Maybe they’re all lying to us.’
‘Charlton recognized those words from Finn’s notes,’ Curtis said, thinking.
‘He said Finn had sent him a message. An email. Which means they’ve… What? Been working together?’
‘Maybe. But, more to the point, the message had those exact words.’
‘Except it wasn’t exact. Charlton said expose sash trails, didn’t he?’ Alyssia said.
Curtis thought back. He couldn’t be sure, but the more he thought about it…
‘But that makes even less sense,’ he said.
‘Unless he misspoke because you were about to snap his arm.’
‘Wait,’ Curtis said. He pulled out Finn’s papers. Found the one. ‘You know what?’ he said, not sure whether to smile or not.
‘What?’
‘I think we had it wrong all along.’ It wasn’t as though Finn’s scrawl was the clearest. They’d both read it as expose cash trails because that made some kind of sense. Didn’t it?
‘Expose sash trails?’ Alyssia said. ‘But that’s nonsense.’
‘Maybe it isn’t,’ Curtis said, finally allowing the smile, and some relief, to spread.
‘It’s not?’
‘I might be no closer to understanding exactly what my brother was up to, whether he’s a hero or a villain in this, or what any of the other people involved really are either. But I do think I now know how to find him.’