Two hours later, just as I was leaving the rehab centre, my cellphone buzzed in the inside pocket of my leather jacket. As I pulled it out, I checked the display and saw the number for Parker’s office line.
‘Boss,’ I said, hanging my bike helmet on the mirror of the Buell while I dug for my keys. ‘Any news?’
‘Our new clients are fools of the highest order,’ he said, and even filtered through layers of traffic in the background and the deficiencies of the phone’s tiny speaker, I heard the anger tightly compressed into his voice.
I stilled, a cold pool forming at the base of my skull.
‘What have they done?’
‘The … vendors just called them about the sale,’ Parker said, knowing I would catch exactly what he meant and highly sensitive to electronic eavesdropping on an open line. We could have been talking about anything from property to shares in a racehorse. ‘They agreed to pay the asking price.’
‘Shit,’ I muttered. ‘In full? Just like that?’
‘Apparently, things got a little heated during the negotiations, and there was some screaming and shouting down the phone,’ Parker said in a matter-of-fact tone that made all the hairs riffle along my arms. I could guess exactly what kind of screaming he was talking about. ‘They reckoned they couldn’t afford to lose the sale, so … they caved.’
‘That’s … unfortunate,’ I said, struggling to stick to the same neutral language. Completely on autopilot, I stuck the Buell’s key in the ignition, turned it far enough to release the steering lock. ‘Where does it leave us?’
He sighed. ‘They went directly against my advice, Charlie, and put the whole deal in mortal jeopardy. I had no choice but to withdraw the agency’s services.’ I heard the forced lightness in his voice. ‘Can’t win ’em all, I guess.’
‘Oh,’ I murmured. Mortal jeopardy. Not words chosen lightly, I knew, and I could feel his anger and anguish at the risks they were taking with Torquil’s life.
‘My gut tells me this whole thing is gonna fall apart real fast,’ he said. ‘And when it does we can’t afford to be anywhere near it if they’re not prepared to work with us.’
‘I do understand – completely,’ I said. ‘All they want you to do is stick around to take the blame for their cock-ups. I suppose I would have made the same decision, for what it’s worth.’
‘Thanks, Charlie, I appreciate that.’
‘What about … taking this further?’ I asked carefully, knowing Parker would realise I meant the authorities, the police and FBI.
I could almost hear his head shake. ‘Considering the direction things are moving, nothing would make me happier, but you know as well as I do that we can’t betray confidentiality like that.’ He paused. ‘I do need you to stop by the office on your way back, though,’ he said, apparently casual, but there was something off in his voice that caught at my senses.
‘Of course. Problem?’ Even as I spoke I knew, with a rising sense of dread, what he was going to say.
Oh, you have to be kidding me …
‘They still want for you to handle the … exchange of contracts,’ he said, ‘but it’s been arranged for tomorrow morning. I have explained to them you may not be available at that notice—’
‘No, I’ll do it.’
Another sigh, a long pause, anguish. ‘They don’t deserve such loyalty, Charlie. Like you just said, all they want is a scapegoat.’
‘Yeah, I know,’ I agreed. ‘But I’m not doing it for them.’
As I snapped the phone shut, I checked my watch. It was two-thirty in the afternoon. Torquil had been at his kidnappers’ tender mercies for twenty-nine hours.