Stuart hit the button and hung up the phone. “Silas wants the flash drive in exchange for Kaylee.”
The men standing around him weren’t at all surprised. Zander sat on the edge of an unoccupied desk. Basuto ran his hands down his face, and Tate reached over to squeeze the back of his fiancé’s neck. Savannah’s lips pressed into a thin line.
“I’m not qualified for this, but I’m still taking point on a kidnapping involving a woman who works with us.” Basuto stared him down. “We don’t go renegade.” He turned to Tate. “Call the FBI?”
Tate nodded. “Good idea.” He moved away while sliding out his phone, probably to call his brother-in-law.
Basuto spun back to him. “Did he say where?”
“The old train station. I’m supposed to come alone and bring the flash drive. When he verifies its contents, he’ll tell me where to find Kaylee.”
Zander shook his head.
Basuto didn’t look much happier.
Stuart said, “I don’t plan on waiting that long. I want to get her back now.”
Detective Wilcox leaned back in her chair. “Hmm.”
Basuto said, “What are you thinking, Savannah?”
“We could go, set up now. But Nigelson could have eyes on the train station, and maybe that’s why he picked it. So that our commotion would alert him to what’s going on.”
“I like the idea of an ambush.” Basuto asked, “Any indication he’s working with anyone else?”
“Other than Trina?” Stuart asked. “No, and we don’t know that they’re level with each other. Could be she’ll jump to betray him, or she’ll spin us a line that has us chasing our tails, and then we lose Kaylee because we were too late.”
He didn’t like any of those ideas. Zander shot him a commiserating look. Stuart didn’t need camaraderie now, just as he’d never had it before. Brad was his friend and colleague. They had worked together some, but they hadn’t been partners. Stuart never knew what the mission would be. And he never knew if he’d be alone, targeting someone, or working with them.
It was why he’d kept Brad at arm’s length. Until they were captured together, and he started to care about the outcome. For both of them.
Emotions weren’t good. They only compromised his judgment and made him care too much when what he needed was logic. Logic was what would get Kaylee back and enable him to keep hold of the flash drive for the sake of justice. Justice, and making sure both he and Brad—and Kaylee as well—got to live the rest of their lives in peace.
There would be time for emotions later.
“I want to talk to Trina.” Stuart asked Savannah, “Can you take the train station, work with Basuto, and make a plan for grabbing Silas if it comes to that?” He’d rather it didn’t, but if he couldn’t find Kaylee in time, they would need a Plan B.
Basuto didn’t look especially happy but nodded his approval to the detective.
She got up, grabbed her backpack, and strode out.
Stuart turned to Zander. “You and Ted have the flash drive. After I talk to Trina, I’m going to get Kaylee.”
Zander said, “When this is done, we need to sit Ted down and make him talk.”
“Why?”
“Something’s up.” Zander shrugged. “He claims he’s too busy to talk about it.”
“But he’s been using that excuse for three months now.”
Zander nodded.
Basuto shifted his weight. “One problem at a time?” When they both nodded, the sergeant said, “Conroy needs to get back to work as soon as he can.”
Stuart figured the police chief felt the same way, and that was why he didn’t say anything but, “Trina?”
“So long as your conversation is in English.”
Zander said, “I’ll observe with you, Sergeant. If there’s any Russian, I’ll translate.”
Basuto glanced between Stuart and Zander. “Does everyone except me speak Russian?”
Stuart shrugged.
“Let’s go.” Zander pushed off the desk and stood. “I don’t want to leave Ted by himself with those files much longer.”
Basuto had them wait in the observation room while he brought Trina in. She looked like a cat locked in a crate who just knew something horrible was about to happen. In a second, the claws would be out, and she would be slashing away. It was clear Basuto had no intention of getting cut.
When Stuart walked in and shut the door so that it was just the two of them—with Zander and Basuto watching through the glass—he didn’t move to the table. She was cuffed to a ring on the surface. She didn’t look at him. Her hair fell to the sides of her face, disguising her expression.
As he walked to the table, her dark eyes tracked him.
He decided to lean against the wall beside the glass so Zander and Basuto had a clear view of her. The fact it was out of spitting range was a huge bonus.
“They’re outsourcing interrogations now? Seems strange one of my victims is here to take my statement.”
Stuart shook his head. “I’m not here about you terrorizing Kaylee. Though, we’ll be talking about that. Rest assured.”
She flashed a grin of white teeth in her haggard expression. “Can’t wait.”
“You said your dad is Russian.”
“Da.”
“Nice. Really sells it.” He said, “Too bad just any ‘ol person can learn any language on an app. Doesn’t mean your heritage is any different, regardless of how well you sell it.”
He was more interested in the fact she’d told him her dad taught her how to kill. How to hide. That was the information he needed right now. Namely, where Silas would have taken Kaylee to wait out the deal. A place no one would be able to find her.
“Yeah.” Trina shrugged one shoulder. “He’s probably just one of those founders. Not a foreign intelligence agent hiding here for years. Because the fact none of y’all noticed would be pretty shameful, right?”
“Not if he’s good.” Stuart would be irritated he hadn’t noticed something about the old man, but it wasn’t like he’d have guessed, “Russian sleeper agent.” If that was what Silas really was. He said, “I wasn’t looking for him. In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve got kind of a lot on my plate right now.”
“Poor you. Least you’re not in jail.”
“They offer you a deal yet—some kind of break in sentencing in exchange for cooperation?”
“Why? You gonna do that?”
“I have no authorization to do so.” He figured Basuto was freaking out behind the glass. “I’m not a cop or a prosecutor. I’m just a guy who needs information, and you’re a woman with nothing to lose who needs to look good in front of the judge.”
“Maybe I’ll go for the insanity defense. I could pull off crazy.”
Stuart winced just thinking about it. “Not a good long-term plan. Unlike telling me what I want to know. That could get you clout with the judge, right?”
“Cause you’re the upstanding citizen who’s going to put in a good word for me?” She huffed. “You’re as bad as him. Pretending to be someone you’re not, trying to fool everyone. Guess what? He does it better.”
“And he taught you everything he knows?”
“Doubtful,” she scoffed. “No one could learn all that. The way he fooled them all in Vietnam, got in with that squad as one of them. A Last Chance boy. Came back here and helped them set up the town. No one even knew who he was.”
“So why is he still here? And why does he want the flash drive.”
Trina sniffed. “Who cares? That was like…decades ago? It’s a new millennium. No one cares about the Cold War or Russian agents. Everyone’s like, dead and stuff.” She shrugged. “Is it even a thing anymore? I don’t know.” She shot him a look, as though she doubted his intelligence.
“You’d be surprised what I know.”
“Then why are you asking me questions, Mr. Know-It-All.”
“Because you have the chance to be helpful,” he said. “And the chance to repair some of the damage you did to Kaylee. Maybe even find a way to get her to forgive you for destroying her sense of safety.”
Trina shook her head.
“You don’t want to know why I’m asking?”
She said nothing.
“What does he want the flash drive for? Why is he so desperate to get it?”
She studied him. “What did he do?”
“Tell me why he’d need the flash drive. You said he’s been here since the beginning of Last Chance. One of the founders, right?”
She nodded.
“That means he hasn’t worked in covert intelligence that whole time, or his absence would have been noted.” There was nothing in town he could have been reporting back on. Vietnam, Stuart believed. But now the Russian sleeper agent was nothing but an old man. “What does he want?”
“Retirement.”
“He doesn’t have enough money from the bank? I figured he was loaded.”
“He wants to retire.” Trina leaned forward across the table. “To not be stuck here in this small-town dump, wasting his life away with stupid work no one cares about.”
“He wants to go home.” Stuart said, “And he’s taking you with him?”
She shrugged. “As great as Russia sounds, I’d rather take the money and move to LA. Or New York. Somewhere better than here.”
“Cross your fingers. You could get a federal sentence that lands you in a California prison.”
She blinked, lighting up a fraction. As though that sounded preferable to living as a free woman in Last Chance.
Stuart did not understand women. He figured he never would.
He put the pieces together. “He’s out of favor, and the flash drive will buy him a way back into Russia so he can live out his days in the motherland.”
“Da.”
Stuart switched to Russian, saying, “Where would he stash Kaylee while he made the deal with me to trade her for the flash drive?”
She swallowed, her throat bobbing. Now she was going to feel bad that a good woman was in danger?
“We both know she doesn’t deserve this. You dragged her in anyway, and it was sloppy work. Now you’re here. You think Dad is going to come for you when he buys his freedom? You’ve been scraped off. A loose end he no longer has to worry about.”
“Like it’s going to work?” She rolled her eyes, using English again to say, “Stupid old man with his stupid plan. Everyone he worked with is dead by now. There’s no one left.”
Stuart moved to lean his hip on the table, switching back to English as well. “Where would he keep Kaylee?”
“What an idiot, right? He drags me into this, tells me we can make millions and get out from under this mountain of debt. Maybe I’m the idiot for believing him. This was probably his plan all along.”
“Trina.”
“What?”
“Focus. I don’t have much time.”
She said, “What do I care what he’s doing? I’ve been scraped off. Remember?”
“Where would he keep Kaylee?”
She huffed.
Stuart grabbed the back of her head, turned it, and slammed her cheek on the table, holding her head there so she couldn’t move. He leaned close. “Where. Would. He. Keep. Kaylee, Trina? Tell me now or this situation you’re in will start to look like Christmas morning in comparison to what will happen next.”
One way or another, he was going to get an answer. She didn’t want to look as though she’d given anything up? That was fine with him. But he was going to rescue Kaylee.
Finally, she whispered to him.
“Let her go.” Basuto pulled him away from Trina. He shoved Stuart toward the door, where he, in turn, slammed into Zander. “Get out of here. You’re done.”
“Fine.” Stuart strode to the door, pulling out his phone so he could look up the address Trina had just given him.