“Do you trust that skank, Lincoln?” Paula asked as they pushed into the detective bureau with the liberated laptop.
“You know she can hear you, right?”
“I don’t care. She knows what she is. How do you know that she didn’t have the FBI cybercrime people mess with your laptop while they had it?”
“As long as Winnow pops up long enough for us to get a bead on him, it doesn’t matter.”
John put the laptop on his desk, plugged it in, and powered it up. Too anxious to sit, he tapped his fingertips on the desktop while the machine booted up.
Paula pulled her chair around to the desk. “What if this doesn’t draw him out?”
“It will,” he said as he brought the web browser up once more. There were multiple windows open on the screen. Lincoln had begun to reconstruct his browsing history and communication with Winnow over the dark web. One window didn’t look familiar, and his breath caught when he read the thread. His hand shot to the mouse and closed the window. “Dammit, Mel, what have you done?”
“What?” Paula asked.
“Nothing—nothing. Lincoln must have erased all my saved passwords. I’m trying to remember where to log in.”
She pointed at one of the open Tor dark web browsers.
He clicked on one of the windows, and it required him to log into the account. “Paula, pull the photo of the tag from Winnow’s briefcase at the ice plant.”
“Got it.” She had the file in her lap, and he sorted through the documents until she found a closeup shot of the tag addressed to her partner.
“Read off the numbers on the bottom of the tag.”
He entered the sequence as she read the numbers, and the screen unlocked as it did the first time John stumbled across the portal.
“I’m beginning communication with Winnow now, Agent Lincoln.”
John spoke as he typed for the benefit of the feds on the other end of the transmitter.
The cursor on the screen blinked at the end of the last letter John typed.
“Maybe he’s not online,” Paula said.
“He is. Remember Layton’s last words? He wants me in exchange for Tommy. He’ll be waiting for this contact.”
“The old man was insane. You can’t believe anything he said.”
The echo of her last word still hung in the air when the cursor began to move.
What if I told you it’s too late? John read the question aloud.
John typed, I’ll kill you if anything happens to Tommy. Then John said aloud, “I know you want me in exchange for my son.”
Paula looked to John and nodded. She understood he was giving Lincoln a different account.
The screen blinked again. I told you I’d release the boy, and I will. “We can work something out,” John said for Lincoln’s benefit.
John tapped the keys. When?
The cursor scrolled out again with Winnow’s response. I have a client who is in a great hurry for my services. Remember when I told you to cooperate? The time for that has come. John tensed and said, “He wants to meet.”
Paula grabbed him by the elbow and raised an eyebrow, a look that asked if he was sure about this course of action.
He patted her hand and then tapped the keyboard.
It’s time we continue this face to face. “I’m asking him to meet.” No embellishment needed this time.
Agreed. Meet me at the place where we first met in one hour. Come alone or the boy dies. No FBI, no Detective Newberry—nobody, or your son will vanish. Understood?
John pushed back from the keyboard for a moment to compose himself. “He wants to meet. He says to meet him at Raley Field in an hour.”
John scooted back to the keyboard and replied. Understood.
The cursor came alive once more. What was your blood type, again?
He shut the laptop down, closed the lid, picked it up with both hands, and slammed the laptop against the edge of the desk. The plastic and glass shattered, sending laptop shrapnel across the floor.
John’s desk phone rang, and Paula grabbed it while he brushed broken laptop pieces into his trash can. She held the phone to him. “Lincoln.”
He flicked a piece of plastic that pierced his palm and took the phone from Paula.
“Yeah.”
“The computer went offline, what happened?” Lincoln asked.
“I dropped it.”
“He said Raley Field in an hour. We’ll have all of our HRT teams in place to take him down. You will stay away while I conduct this operation.”
“Don’t you think he’ll expect to see me?”
“Doesn’t matter. We’ll tighten the noose before he realizes it. We’ll get him.”
“And Tommy?”
“Yes, of course.” An afterthought. “Stay put,” she commanded, then hung up.
Penley ripped the transmitter from his shirt and disconnected the feed. “You were right about Lincoln monitoring the laptop, but she didn’t see what was on the screen, only that we connected with Winnow.”
“You sure this is the right play here? Going in alone against this psycho?”
“I can’t have Lincoln fumbling my only chance at getting Tommy so she can get good press. And I’m not gonna put you in a position where you could end your career because of me.”
“You don’t get to tell me what I can’t do.” She pushed away from the desk and took a stride, only looking back long enough to make eye contact with her partner. “Let’s get your son.”
They rode in silence to the abandoned ice plant off Fifteenth Street. John turned off the headlights as he slid the sedan onto the rough asphalt surface.
Paula spotted it first and pointed at the yellow sports car parked at the entrance.
“The guy drives his ego,” John said.
“Pull up here, on the other side of that dumpster. We’ll have some cover if he gets jumpy.”
John rolled the sedan to a stop. “Paula, stay here. If he comes out with Tommy, take him.”
John stepped from the car and pulled his weapon, stepping to the passenger side of Winnow’s car. Empty. He moved up the metal steps that led to the warehouse door, and the old metal groaned under his weight. The sound was loud enough to announce his arrival. He crossed the threshold, where he had nearly electrocuted himself the last time he’d entered this place.
The spotlight in the center of the building that had once illuminated the remains of the dead hawk now shone down on a child-sized lump sitting in a chair.
John ran to the chair and pulled a pillowcase from over the figure. It was only a rolled-up mattress from one of the homeless people who combed through these buildings after dark.
A strong hand clamped over his mouth, and he felt a sharp jab to his neck. His vision soon narrowed to a pinprick, and his knees gave out. He couldn’t control his movement. His weapon fell from his grip and clattered to the concrete floor. John felt his body moving before everything went black.