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“Call. Get them here. Now.”
I already had the cell out. I asked Lindsey to bring Sharon and meet us back at Seventh and Dunlap.
He walked out into the darkness, kicking the hard ground, thinking.
“Thoughts? Ideas?” It was as if he were talking to the mountains as much as to me.
I moved toward him, wondering if Dowd was watching with night vision. He could take us out right here with a sniper rifle.
“We can’t stay on Cypress.” I stated the obvious through a scratchy throat. “Your place in Dreamy Draw is more secure but not secure enough. It’s also dangerously isolated.”
I had only gotten Lindsey back. Sure, she had left me twice before, but for now it was sweet. The idea of putting her at risk was intolerable, a rocket into my brain. Dowd knew we had defrauded him with the flash drive. He would come to kill us all. And he was the kind of man who would seek out Lindsey first, so my agony would be under way well before he got to me. I would have been responsible for losing them both, Robin and Lindsey.
I said,“You know we’ve got to find him ourselves. Get him first. You know this, right?”
He nodded.
“But for now,” he said, “we need to get out of the Valley. How about San Diego?”
It sounded smart. But one other thing bothered me.
“How many Claymores did they find here?”
“Ten.”
“You’re sure?”
He shook his head and cursed. He could do the arithmetic as easily as I: a dozen stolen, one used on me in Ocean Beach, ten seized tonight.
One Claymore was still missing and I wagered it was with Dowd.
36
The call came a little after eight p.m. Only one person had called me on the cheap phone I had bought in El Centro.
“Time’s up, Doctor Mapstone.”
“For you,” I said. “You escaped once, you won’t again.”
“Did you ever serve in the military? In combat?”
“No.”
“Then you don’t understand anything. I gave you a chance to serve your country by giving me the list of Scarlett’s clients. I appealed to your patriotism. I appealed to your intellectual side. But, no. You refused to obey my orders. You refused to negotiate.”
“I’m really sorry about that.”
“If you had served in combat, you would know that a soldier can’t let his rage get the better of him. It can overwhelm discipline and training. Effectiveness. So I have to push you with some clearer incentives. I’ve researched you, Doctor Mapstone. I’m going to kill everyone you love. Then I’m going to kill you. And then I’m going to bring the war where it belongs, right here to America.”
“Keep talking, General,” I said. “The trace is working.”
There was no trace.
He laughed as if a private joke had been shared between friends.
“I’m going to start with your first wife, Patricia.” He read out an address in La Jolla. It was Patty’s address. “I know you’re in San Diego. If you come alone and bring the client list, then I’ll let her live. I might even be willing to let you live. But you have to come within the next hour. You won’t find her there. If I’m satisfied you’re alone, I’ll call and give you instructions. No cops. No bullshit. This is your last chance to negotiate.”
Then I was only holding a useless plastic object to my ear, hearing nothing.
