“I was supposed to call between three and four o’clock today,” he said. “When you picked me up yesterday, I’d already called for the day.”
“So it’s seven-thirty now. He’s already scrambling his organization?”
Pruitt shook his head and said, “It always takes time for them to get everything going—right now, a lawyer will be looking for me. Doug won’t be sure there’s a problem until the lawyer gets back to him. If the lawyer doesn’t come up with something in a couple of hours, three or four hours, maybe, depending... Sansone is gone. He might be gone already.”
The woman nodded, turned, and left the cell. The marshal backed toward the door, but before he was out, he muttered, “You better hope that none of our guys been killed, or you’re gonna be shit out of luck a lot sooner than the lady expects.”
As she walkeddown the hallway, the woman took out a cell phone and punched in a recall, which was answered on the first ring: “Davenport.”
“Lucas. Pruitt was supposed to call between three and four,” the woman said. “He says they’ll be looking for him, but that Sansone is probably already worried and maybe worse: he could be in the wind.”
“Goddamnit!”
Lucas was backat the task force, and he relayed the information to Orish. She said, “I think we go after them all—right now.”
“Where’s Sansone?”
“At his house,” she said. “We saw him go in, the lights are on... but we haven’t actually seen him since he went inside.”
“And you don’t have a hundred percent coverage, either.”
“Not in that neighborhood. It’s just not possible.”
“Okay. Listen, let’s not hit the car wash yet,” Lucas said. “Everything else, but let’s not go after the guys in the garage. They’ve had four dealers checking in with them this afternoon—that could be eighty or a hundred grand in cash. If Sansone’s in the wind, he might still try to get it. Could reel him in if he’s making a run for it.”
Orish nodded. “Good. We hit everything else.”
“Andres and I will go with the guys who hit his house...”
“Better hurry, then,” Orish said. “I’ve got a SWAT team ready to rock in a half an hour.”
“Slow them down until we get there...”
She looked skeptical and said, “You better hurry.”
They ran. DillonKoch was waiting in the surveillance car and Lucas piled into the backseat while Devlin took the front passenger seat. “Gonna be close,” Koch said. “We’re probably a half hour, forty minutes away, this time of night.”
“Then go, go...”
Koch was anexcellent driver and pushed his Chevrolet through the evening traffic like a slalom skier. Devlin said, “I love this shit.”
After a while, Lucas relaxed and said, “Yeah, it’s not bad, but itis too bad we can’t drive any faster. I could skate over there faster than this.”
“Christ, I’m doing ninety through New York traffic,” Koch said. “Okay, New Jersey traffic now. We’re lucky the state patrol isn’t all over us.”
“What’s that funny smell?” Devlin asked.
“It’s just Elizabeth.”
“Elizabeth?”
“New Jersey. You wanna stop and sniff?” Koch asked.
“Keep going. Faster,” Lucas said.
They were fast for the traffic, but the traffic was tough and they wove their way through a web of freeways between Staten Island and Sansone’s place in South Orange. They were still a few miles out when Orish called and said, “Two things. First, we’re seeing lights go on and off in the house, we’re seeing shadows on the window shades. Second, SWAT is nearly ready to move. They’re still doing some recon, but it’s gonna be soon.”
“We’re five minutes out. Maybe seven minutes. Tell them to hold on...”
