“I will lead you outside,” she said. “Behave and you will be safe.”
• • •
When the twowomen were out the door, Titov said to the people on the floor, “Our car is coming in one minute, maybe two, maybe three. I will be in the glass shelter, watching and waiting. If I see people get up, I will shoot them in the head. Lay there for five more minutes, maybe ten, and we will be gone.” He spoke with a deliberately heavy Russian accent.
A minute later, Abramova waved him out and Titov called to her, so the people inside could hear, “Tell him to hurry. We have been here too long. Tell him to drive faster…” He turned and called inside, “Please use patience. Our vehicle will come soon.” More Russian accent, thinking about the future.
Then he slipped out the door, into the Jeep, and they were rolling silently backward, the engine off, down the sloping driveway to the street. There, he started the engine, and Abramova, looking at a mapon her phone, said, “Go that way…and go that way…” Pointing with a finger, no hints for the doctor lying on the floor of the back seat.
Thirty-odd klicks back to the safe house. They passed one police car as they were passing through a small town. The patrol car was going in the opposite direction in the night; the cop saved his own life by continuing on.
5
White followed Lucas to the pond where the Subaru had been left. A police car was blocking access to the boat ramp. They pulled in, and an Orono cop lit them up with a flashlight. They got out of their cars, identified themselves, and the cop took them back into the ramp, pointing out two different sets of vehicle tracks.
“Nothing’s been down this ramp probably since October. It’s mostly for canoes, the water is about three feet deep,” he said. “Not much in the way of fish.”
“They must have been familiar with the place,” White said. “How would you even know it was here if you weren’t?”
“Could have scouted it with a satellite view,” the cop said.
“They must have done some ground truthing, here, so they must have known where Sokolov was going, probably for days or weeksahead of time. The leak has gotta be in D.C.,” Lucas said to White. To the cop: “Is there blood in the Subaru?”
“Yeah, quite a bit on the back seat, unless somebody spilled ketchup on their home fries,” the cop said. “The car that was parked here was probably empty. Doesn’t seem likely there was another person waiting…”
Lucas: “How’d you figure that out?”
“Well, the word is, there were four people at the motel,” the cop said. He pointed. “You can see the tracks from the incoming Subaru, so the other tracks are from the second vehicle, which was parked here for a while. Long enough for the motor heat to melt the snow underneath. Looking at the short wheelbase, it’s not a pickup, but it has very aggressive tread. I’d say either a Jeep Wrangler or maybe a Bronco. Probably a Jeep Wrangler. Big enough for four, but not for five, not comfortably.”
White: “Why a Wrangler?”
“Because it leaked oil while it was parked here,” the cop said. “I figure that made it more likely a Jeep than a Bronco.”
“You’re a smart guy,” Lucas told the cop.
“Yeah, and I’m looking for a better job,” the cop said. “That was a hint, in case you didn’t get it.”
“We got it,” White said. “I don’t suppose anybody from your department is following the little oil drops to their new location?”
“Very funny,” the cop said. “Anyhooo…”
White: “I’ve got some gloves in my car. We’ll want to take a look inside the Subaru in case there’s anything…”
“Your call,” the cop said. “The BCA crime scene van is supposedly on the way. There are foot tracks around the Subaru, but mostly onthis side, so maybe you’ll want to go around to the other. Only one set of foot tracks over there, besides mine. I used my flash to look inside to see if there were any bodies. Nada.”
• • •
White got glovesfrom her truck. They opened the doors of the Subaru and, using the cop’s flashlight, looked inside without touching anything. There was blood, but no rental papers. Lazy snowflakes were drifting down when they finished. They closed the door and carefully backed away.
Lucas asked the cop if he could hang around until a crime scene crew got there to process the car. “Somebody will. I’ll make sure.”
“Thank you.”
White looked up at the starless sky and said, “Wasn’t supposed to snow.”
“It won’t,” Lucas said, with more confidence than certainty. “That’s just cold flakes, the cold is squeezing out whatever water is left in the air.”
“Hope you’re right,” White said. She was in the winter stance again, and shivering. “We’re outa here, heading home?”
