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The first guy is Henderson’s daughter’s ex-boyfriend, Bobby Carston. He’s twenty, some three years older than the daughter, and according to our files, they broke up when he slept with her best friend at their high school prom. I can’t abide cheaters, so we rough up the kid a little as we question him—a move that ensures our last captive, Henderson’s son’s favorite teacher, is cooperative from the start.
In fact, Sam Briars is so verbose in his answers about Jimmy Henderson that we get something we didn’t expect.
A possible lead.
“—and then they vacationed in Thailand five years ago and Jimmy was saying how much they loved the local culture and all the fruit and how they wanted to live there. There was a local family that they really bonded with in Phuket. Not in one of the touristy areas, mind you, but deeper inland, away from all the crowds. Jimmy was telling all his friends in class about it. And then there was Singapore, which Jimmy’s mother always loved because of how clean it is, and there’s Iceland where Jimmy’s parents were going to go for their anniversary, and there’s Maryland where Jimmy’s sister was going to go to school, and I can think of more if you just give me time…”
The teacher is speaking so fast he’s practically babbling, so we let him talk, jotting down notes on the places he mentions so we can check them out later. We’ve looked at most of these locations before, including Thailand, but the Hendersons have been moving around to avoid detection, and we didn’t know about that local family in Phuket.
It’s certainly a lead worth exploring.
Ten minutes pass, and the teacher shows no sign of running out of steam, his verbosity undoubtedly fueled by the wails of the bruised ex-boyfriend. At this point, he’s just repeating himself, going in circles with everything he knows about the Hendersons, so I nod to Ilya and he taps him lightly on the ribs.
“Enough,” I say when Briars starts screaming like that gentle tap broke his ribs. “Tie them up and leave them here. We have to go.”
As we drive to our plane, I watch for signs of pursuit, but we make it there without incident.
The operation is officially a success: we’ve sent Henderson a message and obtained a possible lead in the process.
I should feel good, but as the wheels of the plane lift off the ground, all I can think about is that I’m no closer to getting what I really want.
That I’m still months away from reclaiming Sara.
24
Sara
“He did what?” I stare at Ryson, my palms damp with sweat and my heart hammering. My first reaction—joy that Peter is alive and well—is being quickly replaced by a painful knot in my stomach.
“He assaulted six people in North Carolina,” the agent repeats. “Two are hospitalized with gunshot wounds, and the other four are bruised and traumatized by a violent interrogation. Innocent citizens, all. Anything you can tell us about the incident?”
“I… what?” I shake my head to clear it of the gruesome images. “Why would he do this?”
“According to the victims, he wanted to know the location of an acquaintance of theirs—one Walter Henderson III. He has the misfortune of being on the same list as your late husband.” Ryson crosses his beefy arms. “It seems that Sokolov is resorting to more extreme measures to get to this man. Anything you can tell us about that? About what he’s after?”
I swallow the bile rising in my throat. Over the past couple of months, I’d somehow managed to forget the brutal reality of the man I’ve been missing, to gloss over the darker parts in my memories. “You don’t know?”
“I told you, much of his file is redacted.” Ryson uncrosses his arms and leans in. “Dr. Cobakis, you know as well as I do that this man is lethal. He needs to be stopped before more innocent people get hurt. It’s important that you tell us everything you know about him, so we can have a better idea where he might strike next.”
I stare at him, feeling alternately hot and cold. “He… didn’t tell me much of anything.” That’s what I’ve been telling the agents, and I have to stick with the story, no matter how sick I feel at the knowledge that Peter is hurting innocents in his quest for vengeance.
In any case, even if Ryson knew about the massacre of Peter’s wife and son, it wouldn’t change anything. Peter won’t stop until he finds Henderson and crosses him off his list, and as he vividly demonstrated in North Carolina, the Feds are still no match for him and his crew.
Peter and his men entered the US undetected, assaulted six citizens, and left.
He was in the same country as I, and if Ryson hadn’t decided to question me, I would’ve never known.
