"And you managed to get your hands under it? Excellent reflexes. However, it does beg the question..."
"Who the hell tried to garrote you?" Quinn said as he crouched and took my hand.
Jack waved him aside and took his place, then unrolled the bandage.
"Wilkes," he said when I was slow to answer.
"Wilkes attacked you?" Felix said as he sat in a chair. "So he knows we're in pursuit? That could lead to some difficulty--"
"Doesn't know," Jack said. "Picked Dee as a victim. She--" A hard look my way. "Lured him in."
Before anyone could comment, Evelyn walked from the other room. As Felix and Quinn greeted her, Jack inspected the cleaned wounds.
"So you decided to join the hunt," Quinn said, flashed a smile at Evelyn. "Getting a little too exciting to ignore? I bet--Ah, wait. The anonymous 'concerned party' who's paying our wages. Guess I should say thank you."
Evelyn said nothing, but from the look that crossed her face, she had no idea what Quinn was talking about. I'd never suspected Evelyn was the person funding the job--she wouldn't hire a group of hitmen for a nonprofit expedition. But if it wasn't her...
"Stop squirming," Jack said. "Gotta get this fastened."
Quinn sat on the sofa. "So Dee lured Wilkes into a showdown?" He grinned my way. "Way to go."
Jack shot him a look, but Quinn continued, "You went mano a mano with the infamous Helter Skelter killer. The first victim who fought back. Did he say anything? Too busy getting his heart out of his throat, I bet."
Jack scooped up the bloodied cloths, wrapped them in the empty bag for later disposal and took them back to his room. I crouched to clean up the first-aid supplies. Quinn slid down beside me to help. As he leaned over for the scissors he whispered, "I'm jealous." I laughed. We both reached for the spare tape roll. I got to it first, but he pretended not to notice and grabbed for it, ending up with my wrist instead. A quick grin and quicker squeeze, and he released me.
"You'll have to tell me all about it later," he said.
I smiled. "We'll see."
As I straightened, I caught Evelyn watching us.
"When Jack called us in, he said you have a plan," Felix said. "Care to share?"
Felix liked the plan. Quinn wasn't so sure. I understood his reticence. What he and I knew, and the others didn't, was that we were expecting a federal agent to do something no agent should ever consider. However often one might see movie cops playing lone cowboys, it didn't work that way in real life. You're trained to be a team player, and there are plenty of checks and balances to make sure you stay that way--like Quinn having to provide a hotel name and phone number while on vacation.
But, as Quinn conceded, if there was a guy who might go for this, it was Martin Dubois. He amended the plan somewhat, building in protections that might sway Dubois, make him feel safer. Even then he warned that we were taking a chance--that Dubois wouldn't agree, would double-cross us, would back out at the last moment. But we knew that. All we could do was guard against it.
Quinn left to set his part into motion. While he was gone, Evelyn, Jack and Felix compared notes on Wilkes, as they remembered him. Not a conversation I could join, so after twenty minutes I wandered off to the other side of the room to check out the room service menu. Last thing I'd eaten was a sub on the drive to the parade.
"Hungry?" asked a voice at my shoulder. Quinn. "I'll bet you are. Confront the man the whole country is searching for, and no one even buys you dinner."
"Did everything go okay?" I asked.
"It's started. Now we have to wait for a response. Don't worry. If what I hear about Dubois is right, he'll at least hear us out."
"Good."
Quinn glanced over at Evelyn, Jack and Felix.
"They're talking about Wil
kes," I said. "I can't help them there."
"Me neither." He took the menu from me. "We can order from this if you'd like, but I saw a place down the road. What do you say I buy you dinner?"
"Sure," I said.
I grabbed my wallet, shoes and jacket. As I got ready, I glanced Jack's way, waiting for him to notice I was leaving, but he was engrossed in the conversation.