So why would they wait three years for him to come through? And once he delivered the information wrapped in a bow, why was it still not enough?
None of this made sense.
That had to be why they didn’t want Carter anywhere near the agreement. No attorney in his right mind would let a client take a deal without clear, enforceable terms.
But James was no fool. So why had he cut Carter out of the loop?
“Okay,” Carter said, sounding like he was trying to regroup. “Skeeter’s been gone two hours. Maybe the handler drove in from Memphis or somewhere a couple of hours away. We need to account for travel time.”
“No.” My nerves pinged. “He said the meeting was in Little Rock, thirty minutes after his call. When I asked how it was happening so quickly, he said the handler was in town. The timing would have put the meeting at around five-thirty. The meeting shouldn’t have taken this long. It should have been a simple handover.”
“You said there’s a lot of information. They may be taking their sweet time going through it. Have you tried calling him?”
“Of course,” I snapped. “And texting. He hasn’t answered.” My chest tightened. “Can you see his location through his phone?”
“Give me a minute.” I heard tapping on his end before he said, “He’s turned off his phone. Let me look up his Google Maps timeline.”
His phone was off? I tried not to panic. He might have turned it off before he met the handler, or the handler might have insisted on it.
“Okay,” Carter said. “I see he was at the Morrison Hotel around five-twenty. Then it shows he was at a diner downtown.”
“What’s the name?”
“The Capital Café.”
I knew the place. “That’s a five-minute walk from here.”
“That’s not his last location,” he said. “It shows he was parked on the street near the corner of Asher and University about a half hour later.”
Why had he gone to a second location?
It had to have something to do with the second hard drive.
First, I needed to focus on where he’d gone, otherwise, Carter might sidetrack me after I told him about the other drive.
“Let me see what’s around there.” I pulled up maps on my computer and typed in the intersection. I searched the businesses near the location. “There’s a dry cleaner, a comic book store, a vacuum repair shop, a pawn shop, and another diner.” Why would he go to any of those places, and what was he doing? “When was his phone turned off?”
“His location went dark about an hour and a half ago.”
My mind raced. “There’s a chance he met his handler at the diner and headed somewhere else afterward. Carter, when he left, he took a second hard drive.”
“What second hard drive?” Carter asked, his voice rising.
“We had three hard drives—the original we copied the files onto, then two more. James said the second one was for his handler and the third was for us, to put in his safe. But right before he left, he insisted I take a break to clear my head. He suggested a shower would help. He made sure I was in the bathroom and shut the door.” My pulse kicked up. “When I came out, the second hard drive was missing. He took two.”
I drew a breath, trying to make it make sense. “Was he planning to turn the information over to someone else?”
“I don’t know,” Carter said slowly.
“I’ve been trying to figure it out for the last two hours,” I admitted. “And I don’t like any of the scenarios I’ve come up with.” I swallowed. “Would he blackmail Knox?”
“No,” Carter scoffed. “He doesn’t need the money, and he’d never give Knox a way out.”
“But he might use it as bait to lure Knox out.” My voice turned brittle. “He might tell him that he has my mom’s files too and offer some kind of exchange.”
“Maybe…” Carter sounded distracted. “And I can see him leaving you behind to do it.”
I could too. And that made my blood boil.
