Red Flags by Lisa Black

Author:Lisa Black [Black, Lisa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington Books
Published: 2022-06-08T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 21

9:11 p.m.

Ellie entered the kitchen to see Michael Tyler and Luis Alvarez, still as professional as ever, though Ellie thought the ties had been loosened by at least an eighth of an inch. “Tara said the Chase manager was super cooperative,” Hunter had been saying as Ellie entered. “I got three hundred from our two money markets there.”

“But we’ve got—” Becca said. Both of them seemed about to drop. The lines on Hunter’s face had grown exponentially in the past few hours and Becca swayed on her feet.

“Way more than that in our accounts, yes, but you know the difference between money on paper and actual cash.”

“Yes, yes.”

Of course a bank wouldn’t have that much cash on hand.

“She can get the rest in the morning. Barclays and AIG—managers will be meeting her. She’ll bring it here then?”

“Yes,” the shorter of the two agents, Luis Alvarez, spoke. “We have the black duffel bag with the trackers in the lining. That way the money will look clean, and that’s always what they check first.”

“Won’t they . . .” Ellie began, then stopped—not to avoid ticking off the agents, but to avoid distressing Becca.

The other agent, Michael Tyler, did not hesitate. “Won’t they dump the money into another container for just that reason? They might. They should, if they’re thinking, but it’s worth a try. And that’s why we’ll put additional trackers in the bands around the money. Completely imperceptible without an XF detector.”

Becca rubbed her face, stretching the skin over the high cheekbones. “But if they do, they might hurt Mason.”

“That’s not likely,” Luis said, but gave no support for the statement. Because, Ellie thought, there was no support for the statement. They had no reason to believe Mason was still alive, with no proof of life.

“They didn’t even tell us how to get him back, once they do have the money,” Becca muttered.

Hunter said, speaking almost absently, “That makes sense, though. If they named a location, the agents would have it staked out in advance to catch them. They could leave Mason someplace safe—”

“What’s safe?” his wife cried.

“A fire department, a hospital, an urgent-care center. There’s a million possibilities.” He put his arm around her shoulders. “Then they’re long gone by the time the place calls the cops and they connect him to us. But he’ll be taken care of in the meantime.”

It was a nice picture, baby Mason surrounded by nurses or buff firemen, cooing over the adorable infant. Ellie found herself praying with more force than she’d prayed for anything in her life, for that mirage to become reality.

Michael Tyler stayed brisk, part of the ongoing struggle to keep the parents motivated and calm. “We’ll be back here by nine a.m. tomorrow with the duffel and the surveillance equipment. Gabriel Haller will be here as well. We can go over the plan with him once more. There’s nothing anyone can do until then. I know it must seem impossible, but you all need to get as much sleep as you can.

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