She sobbed for several more seconds, then said, “Tom said he was shot, he didn’t say any more, only that he was shot...”
“I’m sorry,” Lucas said again.
“Oh, God,” she said. “I gotta go, I gotta...”
“Was that you in the hotel?”
“The hotel... the hotel... I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Wendy said, and she hung up.
She definitely was at the hotel, Lucas thought. All in all, it had been a worthwhile conversation, though it would be a while before he knew that for sure.
27
Lucas was a night owl and exercised at night. Bob and Rae got up early, and because they knew Lucas liked to sleep in, they worked out in the morning. That got the workday nicely coordinated, as Lucas woke up, and Bob and Rae got back from the gym, at the same time, and, a half hour later, they were all at breakfast together.
Chase called while they were looking at menus, though they never ordered anything other than pancakes or waffles.
Claxson, Chase said, would be released on bail that morning, probably before noon. “Bail will be set at four million, all cash, plus his house. His lawyer says he can produce the cash from an investment fund; they agreed on the house. There are some restrictions: he’s not allowed back in his office or house until we finish processing the searches, which are still going on; he’s got to give us the combination for his home safe before release; and he’s got to wear an ankle monitor.”
“If he decides to run, he’ll cut the monitor off, and we’ll never see him again,” Lucas said.
“That’s a possibility,” Chase said. “But we’re willing to take that risk because we know where his resources are and where he’d be likely to run to, and we told him that and we think he believes us. We’ve also done an analysis of his income, and wesuspect he may be hiding assets offshore. Still, giving up four million and his house, which is worth another one and a half or two, would take a big piece out of him. We think he’d be reluctant to forfeit all of that... at least, not yet. And the ankle monitor has a built-in GPS, which means we’ll be able to track him, step-by-step, wherever he goes. We didn’t mention that to him—”
“He certainly knows.”
“Maybe, but this is an FBI special made to look like it’s obsolete, which it isn’t. We’re quite interested to see where he goes and who he talks to. We’ll have a surveillance crew nearby when he makes his move. Not on top of him, but close enough to surveil him without him knowing, see who he might meet with. Close enough that if he cuts that monitor, they can take him.”
“He’s a spy kinda guy. He’ll be looking for the surveillance,” Lucas said.
“But with that GPS monitor, we never have to follow him. We never even have to see him. If we can’t see him, he can’t see us,” Chase said. “Besides, he might not think we’d expend those kinds of resources on him, a full team.”
Lucas said, “Hmm, I guess we’ll see.”
“What’s the Marshals Service going to do?”
“Don’t know,” Lucas said. “I’d like to talk to McCoy again, go back to him about the woman who shot up the hotel. I’d like to know more about her.”
“If you find out anything, tell us,” Chase said.
“And if Claxson moves, please let me know.”
“I normally wouldn’t do that with another service,” Chase said, “but your team has been valuable enough that I will. I’ll connect you up with our surveillance crew—the daytime leader is Andrew Moy. I’ll give him your number. He gets off at eleveno’clock, and I don’t know who the overnight team will be yet, but I’ll let you know about that, too.”
“Thanks. My guys here have a lot of surveillance and tracking experience—basically, that’s what they do. If we don’t have anything else going on, we might hook up with your crew. At least until we put Claxson to bed.”
—
WHEN LUCASgot off the phone, Bob asked, “What are we doing?”
“Mostly waiting,” Lucas said.
He told them what Chase had said, and Rae said, “If I knew we might be pulling surveillance, I’d have gotten a few more magazines last night.”
“We could still do that,” Lucas said. “We could swing by the store, go over to Claxson’s place when they open the safe, then go talk to McCoy.”
“Not gonna be much that the FBI hasn’t gotten,” Rae said. “Claxson wouldn’t give them the combination to the safe if there was something in there that would hang him.”
“I know, but what the hell else have we got to do?”
