LITMIR.BIZ

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prosecutors is dead, the other could die any moment. And the woman was spirited away by one of the men who foiled the initial attempt on her life. We do not know where he has taken her. Not yet.”

      “Find out,” Vishenko hissed at his men. “Find out where she is and take care of her. Permanently. If she lives to testify, we are all dead.”

      * * *

      Liam’s cell phone shrilled, interrupting his conversation with Cate, and he grabbed it. “Hello?”

      “It’s me,” said Cody Walker, Liam’s brother-in-law. “I spoke with my boss, Nick D’Arcy, in Washington.”

      “Was that necessary?”

      “Not unless I wanted to have a job tomorrow,” Cody said dryly.

      “Sorry,” Liam apologized. “I guess I’m not thinking clearly at the moment.”

      “D’Arcy can be trusted. There are only a few absolutely incorruptible people in the world, people I’d trust with my own life, and Nick D’Arcy is one of them. He’s also one of the most brilliant minds in the business, not to mention eerily omniscient. Didn’t I ever tell you his nickname is Baker Street?”

      “Yeah, you mentioned it once or twice. Keira, too. Sherlock Holmes, right?”

      “Right,” Cody said. “So do you want to hear the plan he came up with, or not?”

      “Let’s have it.”

      “The agency has a safe house in Fairfax, Virginia. Got a pen and paper?”

      “Hold on a sec.” Liam pulled both from an inner jacket pocket, and balanced his cell phone as best he could on his shoulder. “Shoot.”

      “Go to this address first.” Liam jotted down the address Cody gave him, then repeated it back. “Right. Someone from the agency will meet you there and exchange vehicles—just in case they know who you are, just in case they’ve got your license plate number and are tracking you that way.”

      “Make it an SUV, okay? I’m more comfortable with that kind of versatility and power under the hood.”

      “Sure thing. You won’t have any complaints. And he’ll have a new cell phone for you, too. Encrypted. Untraceable. At least I think it’ll be untraceable. Alec had to tell the FBI who you were, so of course they’ve got your cell phone number. They can locate you by triangulating on the cell towers your phone pings off.”

      Liam hadn’t thought of that, hadn’t thought he needed to hide from law enforcement as well as from the men out to kill Cate, but apparently Cody had. “For now, make sure your cell phone is off unless you’re using it. Once you’ve got new wheels and a new phone, go to this safe house.” And Cody recited another address.

      “Okay,” Liam said, after he’d confirmed he had the second address correct. “So we go to the agency’s safe house. Then what?” He looked at Cate as he said this, but her expression gave away nothing of what she was thinking.

      “You stay there with our witness, at least for tonight, while the agency opens an investigation—or rather, reactivates the one we already had going with Trace McKinnon and Alec. You did know the agency had a hand in this case, didn’t you?”

      “I didn’t, but I do now.”

      “Talk to Alec, once you get to the safe house. He’ll bring you up to speed on everything you need to know. Tell him I said the agency trusts him to use his discretion.”

      “Will do.”

      “And, Liam? I know technically you’re on vacation, and maybe I shouldn’t even be asking, but...”

      “But what?”

      “D’Arcy wants to know if you’ll stay on this assignment...at least for the next few days.”

      Puzzled, Liam said, “Sure thing. But why?”

      “There was a case a few years back—before your time—when D’Arcy was working for the US Marshals Service. They were infiltrated by a domestic terrorist organization, and a witness D’Arcy was responsible for was almost killed. Later, your sister discovered the FBI had been infiltrated at the same time, by the same group. A group with ties to the Russian Mafia.”

      “Holy crap.”

      “Yeah. Information was leaked, and three people died when the terrorist organization tried to torture the whereabouts of the witness—a former cop who’d gone undercover for the FBI—out of his partner. The partner would have given the witness up if he’d known where he was—one of those killed was the man’s own baby son, and the other was his wife—but he honestly didn’t know where the witness was, so he was killed too, to send a message. That’s why D’Arcy doesn’t want to take any chances. He doesn’t want the FBI or the US Marshals Service to know where our witness is...at least for now.”

      “He’s dead wrong, at least where those marshals are concerned,” Liam said hotly. “I saw them. They were covering her like a blanket, taking the bullets meant for her. If either of those men betrayed—”

      Cody cut him off. “It wouldn’t necessarily have been one of them. It could have been anyone who knew where she would be, all the way up the line. In the US Marshals Service or the FBI. Hell, it could have been the US Attorney’s Office for all we know. But someone smuggled those guns into the courthouse. And until we know who, D’Arcy wants the agency to play it close to the vest. So are you in?”

      “Sure, but for how long? I’ve only got three weeks.”

      “Hopefully not that long, but the agency will clear things with the DSS either way—you’d better believe D’Arcy has that kind of pull. That’s one of the reasons I wanted him involved. He’ll call in a favor if that’s what it takes—and just about every federal agency owes him one...or a dozen.”

      “Okay. Then I’m in.” He almost disconnected then, but Cody stopped him.

      “One more thing.” Liam could sense Cody’s hesitation before he said, “Do what you need to do to keep Caterina Mateja safe.” Liam glanced at Cate, but again her expression conveyed nothing that gave him a clue to her inner thoughts. “We had another witness in her case,” Cody continued, “one who could corroborate much of her testimony, but she’s dead. It happened over the weekend. Caterina doesn’t know it yet—the prosecutors didn’t want to frighten her, but I got the report last night. It was made to look like a traffic accident, but—and keep this to yourself—she was murdered. Despite the fact she was being guarded by US Marshals, too, same as Caterina.”

      Liam carefully schooled his face so Cate—who was watching him intently—wouldn’t be able to read anything from his expression, and Cody continued with barely a pause. “The FBI is still trying to piece together exactly where the protection on the other witness broke down. The agency was politely told to butt out. But they did confirm it was murder. Just like whoever killed her tried to murder Caterina this morning. Only with Caterina, they weren’t trying to hide anything—and they were willing to take out anyone to get to her.”

      Liam swore under his breath. Just when he thought things couldn’t get worse...they did. “I get it,” he told his brother-in-law. Alec knew the other witness was dead—he had to, Liam thought. “After it all went down Alec said, ‘She dies, this case dies, too.’ That’s pretty much it, isn’t it?”

      “Yeah. In a nutshell. We’ve got other evidence against Vishenko and the conspirators, but nothing like what Caterina has to say. And some of the physical evidence needs Caterina to validate where it came from—it’s useless without her.

      “D’Arcy told me the death of the other witness was the main reason the trial was delayed a day. The prosecution made a motion first thing this morning to use this other witness’s grand jury testimony and her deposition, since she’s no longer alive to testify in person. The defense, of course, fought that tooth and nail, citing the defendants’ rights

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