The number stopped Pike. He tried to read if she was lying, but decided she was telling the truth.

“Three thousand.”

“Full-auto combat rigs that pirates stole from the North Koreans. So if Darko sends his killers to murder a man who used to be a professional mercenary, and who probably knows how to buy and sell weapons anywhere in the world, pardon me if I see a connection.”

Pike took a breath. A new element had entered the field, and now Pike felt a stab of doubt. He felt bad for having it, as if he were betraying Frank’s memory.

“Frank wouldn’t do that.”

“Tell you what? Let me figure out whether he would, since that happens to be my job. Here’s what’s more important-you’re going to help me get those guns.”

Walsh moved for the first time. She leaned forward, resting her hands on the table.

“Darko works for Jakovich, but he’s trying to take over the deal, pick his own buyer, and force a regime change. Old school out, new school in. That buys me time to find the guns, but if you keep dogging this guy, and he feels the heat-”

She snapped her fingers.

“Poof! The guns disappear, and they could be anywhere-Miami, Chi cago, Brooklyn. So-first-you’re going to drop your search-and-destroy.”

She didn’t give Pike time to respond, but pushed on, leaning even closer.

“These East European sets, if these bastards didn’t know you in the old country, they don’t talk to you, and they haven’t been in this country long enough for us to develop informants. My guy died trying to bust that lock, Pike, but you-I think you have someone inside with the Serbs. So-second-I want your contact.”

This was why she bounced him. Pike still didn’t know how they made him at the trailers, but Williams was the break point. A Crip connected to Darko. When Pike reached Williams, Walsh must have realized he had inside help, and triggered the bust. She was with Terrio and Deets on the day they made such a big show telling him about Frank, and now he wondered if she was behind it, and if she had been using him to get inside from the beginning.

Pike thought it through, wondering if someone as far down the food chain as a prostitute would have information about an important deal. It was doubtful, but Rina might be able to find out.

Pike said, “I’ll see.”

Walsh shook her head.

“You don’t understand. We have three thousand automatic weapons coming into this country, so I am not asking you. You will put me together with your informant.”

“I hear what you’re saying, Walsh. This isn’t lost on me.”

“That isn’t the right answer.”

“I told you I would talk to my source. I will, but there’s a risk. I didn’t know about these guns. If I bring it up now, and word gets to Darko, you’re in the weeds.”

Walsh glared, but only for a moment, as Pike went on.

“There are people in the EOC community who know I’m on the hunt, and they know why. They won’t be spooked by a civilian working out a grudge. It’s something they understand.”

Walsh showed her palms, shaking her head to stop him.

“Don’t even think about it, Pike. Don’t go there. I am not going to allow you to murder this man.”

“I suddenly stop, the people who know are left hanging. They want things in this, too. That’s why they’re helping me. If I go back with this gun thing, and tell them I’m talking to you, they’ll disappear as fast as your guns.”

Now Walsh didn’t seem so confident.

“What are you saying?”

“You don’t have someone inside-I do. They’re inside-and they want me to find Darko-badly. Whatever I learn, I will pass back to you, and I can start by giving you something right now-Darko is going back to Europe.”

She stared at him, and now her tanned face paled. Pike read her apprehension in how she shifted, a subtle step to the side as if she felt her own private earthquake. She glanced at her watch as if she wanted to note the time she learned this thing for the official record.

“Is this bullshit?”

“It’s what I was told.”

She shifted again.

“When?”

“ Don’t know.”

“Why is he going back?”

“Don’t know. Maybe his deal is closing. Maybe he wants to go back after it’s finished.”

Pike decided he could not mention the child, or Rina, or the true reason Darko sent his killers to Frank Meyer’s home. Not without Rina’s permission.

Walsh’s face hardened as she struggled with the new information. She stared through him as she wrestled with her options, not liking any of them. When she spoke again, her voice was soft.

“I can take you out of the play. You don’t want that.”

“No. I want Darko.”

Her eyes refocused. On him.

“I’ve got three thousand weapons being brought into this country by a foreign national. That’s a terrorist act. By the law as written in the Home-land Security Act, I could make you disappear. No trial, no lawyers, no bail-just gone. Look me in the eye, Pike-”

She stared at him, letting him see.

“If I lose those weapons because I couldn’t find them, I can live with it, but I am not going to trade the guns for Darko. Do you understand that?”

“Yes.”

“I want him, but on my terms, not yours, alive, so I can testify against him in open court. So Jordie Brant’s wife can sit in the front row, and watch this piece of shit squirm. So she can take the stand during sentencing, and tell this piece of shit how much he hurt her, and how much he took from their child. I want that, Pike, just like you want what you want, and I will have it. Guns or not, the only way you’re leaving here is if you agree.”

Pike studied her face, and knew she meant it. He nodded.

“Okay.”

“You agree? Darko is mine?”

“Yes.”

She put out her hand, he took it, and, for a moment, she did not let go.

She said, “If you kill him, I swear to God I will devote the rest of my life to putting you in jail.”

“I won’t kill him.”

She walked him downstairs herself. His Jeep was waiting. So were his weapons.

23

PIKE TURNED OFF HIS CELL PHONE as soon as he was alone. He stopped at the first large shopping mall he reached, cruised up to the top floor of the parking structure, then down, looking for tails. He found none, but he had found none before. He still didn’t understand how they followed him.

Pike left the parking lot the way he entered, and backtracked three blocks. He reversed course again, clocking the cars he passed, but found nothing suspicious.

Returning to the mall, he parked on the second floor of the parking structure, then inspected the underside of the Jeep. He found nothing, but still wasn’t satisfied.

He cleaned himself as best he could, then went into the mall. He bought a throwaway cell phone, extra batteries, and a prepaid calling card good for two hours. Seated on a bench outside a kitchen store, Pike spent ten minutes activating the phone and loading the prepaid calling time, then called Elvis Cole.

Cole’s phone rang four times, a long time for Cole because he didn’t recognize the incoming number.

“Elvis Cole.”

“It’s me. Where’s Rina?”

“With Yanni. I brought her back after our tour.”

“Do me a favor, and go get them. The ATF knows I was at their building, and suspects I was seeing a source. They want the source.”

Cole made a soft whistle.

“How do you know?”

“I just spent three hours with them.”

Pike sketched out what he found at Willowbrook, what happened when Walsh had him picked him up, and the information she gave him about Darko.

“This is no longer about some gangster murdering people in their homes-they’re bringing three thousand Kalashnikovs into the country. That’s why the Feds are involved.”

Cole said, “I’ll get them. You want me to bring them to my place?”

“For now. I’ll have a place for them by the time I get there.”