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“I’m your hostage, not your helper.”
“You crossed that line a long time ago,” said Amongus.
“That’s a lie!” said Imani.
“Let’s ask the lawyer what he thinks,” said Amongus. “How ’bout it, Swyteck? Hostage or helper?”
Jack didn’t answer.
“Let me add one more fact to your legal analysis, counselor. When’s the first time you heard the name Tyler McCormick?”
Jack didn’t want to play this game, but he didn’t need another blow to the head. “It was during the civil lawsuit. I got an anonymous phone call. Someone speaking through a voice altering device.”
Amongus repeated the message: “‘Tell Shaky’s lawyer that if hereopens the hearing, you’ll call Shaky back to the witness stand and ask him about Tyler McCormick.’”
“That was you?”
“As if your client didn’t know,” said Amongus.
“Ididn’tknow,” said Imani.
“Who elsecouldit have been?” said Amongus. “The way I see it, we’ve been rowing in the same direction for a long time, Imani. Starting in your civil lawsuit with Shaky. And it just kept right on going in the criminal trial, where the return of the pirate killer could have been your best defense. Lots of reasons for the cops to think you and me were working side by side from the very beginning,” he said, and then he looked at Jack. “Right, Swyteck?”
Jack was silent. Amongus pressed the muzzle of his pistol to Jack’s forehead.
“I said, ‘Right, Swyteck?’”
“Right,” said Jack.
“Let’s go,” said Amongus. “Out the front door.”
At gunpoint, Jack walked down the hallway with Imani at his side. Amongus was behind them. Imani’s car keys were hanging on a hook in the foyer. Amongus grabbed them. Imani opened the front door, and they stepped out into the night. Amongus popped the trunk of Imani’s Mercedes, which was parked in the driveway.
“Get in,” he told Jack, and almost immediately there was another voice in the darkness.
“FBI, freeze!”
Amongus wheeled and fired three quick shots in the direction from which the voice had come. Imani screamed, and Jack dove to the pavement, taking her with him. Two return rounds popped from somewhere in the darkness. Amongus left Jack and Imani where they lay, hurried around the rear bumper to the driver’s side door, and flung it open.
“Freeze!” Jack heard again.
It came from the passenger side, but this time the voice was familiar. Jack couldn’t see Andie, but the next sound was unmistakable.
A shot rang out at very close range.
From his position of cover on the driveway, Jack caught a glimpseof the action in the driver’s side mirror, which unfolded as if in slow motion. The angle was such that he could see into the sedan as the gunman’s head snapped back, unleashing a crimson spray across the interior. His gun flew from his hand and landed in the driveway. His body tumbled backward, like a rag doll, and landed on the pavement. His lifeless eyes were in Jack’s direct line of sight, as if the two men were staring at each other beneath the chassis from just a few feet away.
“Jack, are you hurt?”
It was Andie’s voice.
“I’m fine,” said Jack.
“Me, too,” said Imani.
“Youare under arrest!” Andie told her. “Stay down!”
Andie hurried to her partner, who was still down on the lawn, just off the driveway.
