see her leave that way. But there was a back door off the kitchen that
went down a fire escape. She went over to the door and tried to open
it. It was locked. Deadbolted. The kind you could only open with a
key even from inside. The windows also had key locks. It angered
Faith, being trapped like this, but the truth was she had been trapped
long before Lee Adams popped up in her life.
She continued looking through the apartment. Faith smiled at the
collection of record albums housed in their original covers, and a
framed poster from the movie The Sting She doubted if the man had a CD
player or even cable TV. She opened another door and went into the
room. She started to turn on the light and then paused as a sound
caught her attention. She stepped to the window, inched back the
blinds and looked out. It was fully light outside now, although the
sky was still gray and gloomy. She didn’t see anyone, but that meant
nothing. She could be encircled by an army and she’d never know it.
She turned the light on and looked around, surprised. A desk, file
cabinets, a sophisticated phone system and shelves filled with manuals
surrounded her. There were large pegboards on the wall with memo cards
tacked to them. On the desk were neatly arranged files, a calendar and
the usual desktop accessories. Apparently, Lee’s home also served as
his place of business.
If this was his office, maybe the file on her was here. Lee would
probably be gone for a few more minutes. She started to sift carefully
through the papers on his desk. Then she went through the desk drawers
and then moved on to the file cabinets. Lee was very organized and he
had a lot of clients-mostly businesses and law firms, from the file
labels she was seeing. Defense lawyers, she assumed, since prosecutors
had their own detective force.
The ringing phone made her almost leap out of her shoes. Trembling,
she went over to it. The base unit had an LCD readout. Lee obviously
had caller ID, because the number of the person calling him was
displayed on the readout. It was long distance, with a 215 area code.
Philadelphia, she recalled. Lee’s voice came on and told the caller to
leave a message after the beep. When that person started talking,
Faith froze.
“Where is Faith Lockhart?” asked the voice of Danny Buchanan. Danny
sounded very distressed as he fired more questions: What had Lee found
out? He wanted answers and he wanted them immediately. Buchanan left
a phone number, then hung up. Faith felt herself backing away from the
phone. She stopped and stood still, transfixed by what she had just
heard. A full minute passed as numbing thoughts of betrayal swirled
through her mind like confetti in a parade. Then she heard a sound
behind her and whirled around. Her scream was short, sharp, leaving
her momentarily breathless. Lee was staring at her.
CHAPTER 14
BUCHANAN LOOKED AROUND THE CROWDED AIRPORT. He had taken a risk in
calling Lee Adams directly, but his options now were few. As his eyes
roamed the area, he wondered which of the people it was. The old lady
in the corner with her big purse and hair in a bun? She had been on
Buchanan’s flight. A tall, middle-aged man had been pacing the aisle
while Buchanan had been on the phone. He too had been on the flight
from National.
The truth was Thornhill’s people could be anywhere, anyone. It was
like being attacked by nerve gas. You never saw the enemy. A sense of
profound hopelessness gripped Buchanan.
Buchanan’s greatest fear had been that Thornhill would either try to
get Faith involved in his scheme, or suddenly find her a liability. He
might have pushed Faith away, but would never abandon her. This was
why he had hired Adams to follow her. As the end drew near, he had to
make sure she remained safe.
Buchanan had looked in the phone book, of all places, and used the
simplest logic he could think of. Lee Adams had been the first person