He did as the import-export man asked.
“Thank you for coming,” Reynard said.
Ike nodded.
“I assume you thought I wouldn’t find out who told Branson about Polaski.”
When Ike started to speak, he waved him to silence. “You made a mistake. Every man is entitled to one mistake.”
The observation didn’t stop the pounding of his heart.
“But you have a chance to redeem yourself,” Reynard said.
Ike waited to find out what he had to do.
“I want the location of Branson’s cell phone.”
Ike didn’t bother saying that giving out information was against the law. He only said, “Yes sir.”
“I want it by the end of the day,” Reynard clarified. “And when you’ve got it, you’re going to do something else for me.”
Back at the cottage, Craig pushed back his chair and stood up.
“What now?” Stephanie asked.
When he sent her a very explicit picture, she flushed. “Is that all you think about?”
“I’m a guy. When I’m locked in a room with a beautiful woman, I can’t help thinking about making love to her.”
“You’re not locked in.”
“Not technically, but I think we need to stay out of sight. Which means staying here. Do you have a better suggestion for how to use the time?”
“Do you think Dr. Solomon was trying to create telepaths?” she asked.
“I don’t know.”
“It’s kind of a stretch.”
He nodded.
‘So what if he was trying to do something else, and this is what happened?’”
“Work before pleasure. Let’s do more research on the Solomon Clinic and see if we can figure it out.”
“This is the address,” Tommy Ladreau said.
“Like the boss said, it’s a bed and breakfast.” He looked behind him at another car that had pulled up. It was a detective from the New Orleans PD, a guy named Ike Broussard, and Tommy didn’t like having him on the scene. But it had been the boss’s orders.
“We don’t know if they’re in the main house or one of the cottages,” his partner, Marv Strickland, said.
“Go see if you can spot his car.”
Marv climbed out and made his way through the bushes to the main house, checking the cars in the parking spots. WhenBranson’s car wasn’t one of them, he started down the lane that wound through the grounds.
Spotting Branson’s rental, he stopped and then moved into the shrubbery again. His orders were to bring Stephanie Swift back, and if he had to kill Craig Branson to do it, so be it. But Marv was hoping to avoid an outright murder in broad daylight.
He went back to the car and climbed into the passenger side.
