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Casey rose and shrugged into her coat. “I want you to do another background check on Paul Everett,” she said. “I need the results by the time I get out to Westhampton.”
Ryan’s brows drew together. “You need me to go back further? Or dig deeper? I already did a thorough check into his professional background. You want educational details? His college grades? Major?”
“No. I want you to cross-check him with John Morano. You did a cursory search of Morano’s background. Now do an intensive one. Get details. Then see if he and Everett were in any of the same places at the same time—anywhere they might have crossed paths. If you need to go back to their school days, do it. I want to make sure these two didn’t know each other.”
“And that Morano wasn’t part of Everett’s disappearing act.”
“Exactly.”
“Consider it done.” Ryan’s fingers were already flying across the keyboard. “I’ll have answers for you in time for our conference call.”
* * *
The man was parked a few buildings down from the brownstone, his car concealed by a pile of garbage. Dusk had already settled over the city, since the December days were so short. He was dressed in black and between that and the fading light, he was nearly invisible. Still, he wasn’t taking any chances. He ducked down behind the wheel of his car when Casey exited the building. She crossed the street and walked into a garage. A few minutes later, the FI van flew up the ramp, turned left and drove off.
He waited a moment. Then, two.
Quietly shifting into Drive, he pulled away from the curb and followed behind her.
* * *
Claire was sitting cross-legged on her futon, holding the suction-cup heart that Amanda had let her take home. Of all Paul’s personal possessions, this one triggered the strongest reaction. She could feel that binary energy flowing through her like a river. She could visualize Paul and sense his conflicting emotions. Suddenly, she couldn’t visualize him at all, and the emotions she was picking up from the plastic heart dissolved into dust.
The reasons behind it were driving her crazy. She had to clear the cobwebs from her mind and get to the core of her response. In her gut, she knew that when she did she’d have something concrete to draw from.
Claire started as her cell phone rang. She didn’t want to be interrupted in her attempts to figure out Paul Everett’s energy. Whoever it was could call back.
Meanwhile, the ring tone was invading her cerebral space. She leaned over and picked up the phone, fully intending to press Ignore and send the call to voice mail. Then she glanced at the caller ID. Casey. She couldn’t blow off a call from her, not now.
Setting aside her frustration, she punched a button on the phone and put it to her ear. “Hi, Casey.”
“Hi. Sorry to intrude. I know you’re working with the personal items Amanda gave you. But I wanted to keep you posted and ask you to go to the office in a few hours. We’re arranging a full-team conference call so that…”
“Stop.” Claire’s interjection was sharp. “I’m sorry to cut you off. But something’s wrong.”
“Wrong? You mean with the baby?”
“No. I mean with you. That feeling I had. It’s back. Casey, someone’s watching you.” A pause. “Where are you?”
“In the car.”
“Then he’s following you. He’s wearing black. I can’t see his face, just a shadowy form. But his energy is dark. Lock your doors. And don’t drive anywhere remote. Stay in traffic.”
“No worries there,” Casey said drily, searching her rearview mirror for a suspicious-looking vehicle. “I’m in Manhattan. I’m stopping at Sloane Kettering and then driving out to the Hamptons. That’s about as remote as Times Square on New Year’s Eve.” She shifted in her seat. Despite her flippant attitude, she wasn’t happy. “Is he armed?”
“I don’t know.” Claire sounded terribly unnerved. “But he’s only going to follow us and Amanda for so long before he does something. And whatever that something is—it’s ominous. He’s ominous.”
“I hear you.” Casey wished she could figure out which car in the converging traffic was the one. “I’ll make sure I’m not alone. I won’t park in the hospital garage…I’d have to walk through that connecting tunnel to get to the building. I’ll drive to one of the lots on Sixty-ninth between First and Second. That way, I can drop the car off up front and walk, blending in with the crowd. It’s the end of the workday. Everyone will be rushing out of their offices to head for home. I’ll just be another rat in the rat race.”
“Do that. I don’t have a good feeling about that tunnel. You wouldn’t be safe. The hospital’s being watched, too.” Claire pressed her fingers to her temples. “My head is pounding. There’s too much happening at once. And none of it’s good.”
“The baby, too?” Casey asked quickly.
A heartbeat of a pause. “Get to Amanda,” Claire replied, her voice low and tense. “She needs you.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Casey nearly ran from the parking garage to the hospital building. She reached the Pediatric Blood Marrow Transplant Unit in minutes. It was quiet…too quiet. Not just the kind of quiet that went along with the gravity of the unit. The kind that made Casey know that something was wrong.
