sorry I haven’t thanked you before. I’m thanking you now.”
Despite his suspicions, Lee felt his anger slowly receding. Either the
woman was sincere or she was one of the slickest operators he’d come
across. Or maybe it was a little slice of both. This was Washington,
after all.
“Always glad to help a lady,” he said dryly. “Okay, supposing I decide
not to turn you in. What do you have in mind to pass the night
away?”
“I need to get away from here. I need some time to think things
through.”
“The FBI is not going to just let you walk away. I’m assuming you’ve
cut some sort of deal.”
“Not yet. And even if I had, don’t you think I have good grounds to
declare them in default?”
“What about the people who tried to kill you?”
“Once I have some space, I can decide what to do. I’ll probably end up
just going back to the FBI. But I don’t want to die. I don’t want
anyone else associated with me to die.” She stared very deliberately
at him.
“I appreciate your concern, but I can take care of myself. So where do
you plan to run, and how do you plan to get there?”
Faith started to say something and then stopped. She looked down,
suddenly wary.
“If you don’t trust me, Faith, none of this works,” Lee prodded gently.
“If I let you walk, that means I’m going to bat for you big-time. But
I haven’t made that decision yet. A lot depends on what you’re
thinking. If the Feds need you to bring down some powerful people-and
what I’ve seen so far clearly rules out this being shoplifting
material-then I’m going to have to side with the Feds.”
“What if I agreed to come back so long as they could give guarantees as
to my safety?”
“I guess that sounds reasonable. But what guarantee is there that
you’ll come back at all?”
“What if you come with me?” she said quickly.
Lee stiffened so much that he accidentally kicked Max, who came out
from under the table and looked at him pitifully.
Faith rushed on. “It’s probably only a matter of time before they
identify you on the tape. The person you shot, what if he identifies
you to whoever hired him? It’s obvious that you’re in danger too.”
“I’m not sure-”
“Lee,” Faith said excitedly, “did it ever occur to you that the person
who hired you to follow me had you trailed as well? You could very
well have been used to set up the shooting.”
“Well, if they could follow me, they could follow you,” he countered.
“But what if they wanted to frame you for all this somehow?” Lee blew
the air from his cheeks as the hopelessness of his situation set in.
Sonofabitch, what a night. How the hell hadn’t he seen it coming?
Anonymous client. Bag full of cash. Mystery target. Lonely cottage.
Had he been in a frigging coma or what? “I’m listening.”
“I have a safe-deposit box in a bank in D.C. In that box I have cash,
and some pieces of plastic with another name on them that’ll let us go
about as far as we need to. The only problem is they might be watching
my bank. I need your help.”
“I can’t access your safe-deposit box.”
“But you can help me scope the place out, see if anyone’s watching.
You’re obviously better at that than I am. I go in, clean out the box
and get out as fast as possible while you cover me. Anything looks
suspicious, we run like hell.”
“It sounds like were planning to rob the place,” he said angrily.
“I swear to God all the things in that box are mine.”
Lee put a hand through his hair. “Okay, maybe that works. Then
what?”
“Then we head south.”
“South where?”
“The Carolina shore. Outer Banks. I have a place there.”
“Are you listed as the owner? They can check that.”
“I bought it in the name of a corporation and signed the papers under
my other name, as an officer. But what about you? You can’t travel
under your own name.”