Adam’s voice was hard. “Good. That’s good. I’m glad the bastard’s dead.”
Sophie asked, “How would he text you and Dad? Did your phone get stolen?”
“No, not mine, but it’s possible to spoof a phone number, you know that. Kid’s play. If someone broke into Dad’s and got their hands on his cell, they could do it easily.”
He reached out a hand, squeezed hers. “Your hands are like ice.”
“It’s all right, it’s nothing.”
“Don’t shut me out, Sophie. Please. Not again.”
“I’m not.” She began to pace, winding around the vitrine case in the middle of the room. “I’m trying to figure all this out. The two FBI agents are acting really strange, like there’s something they know but aren’t telling me. And they don’t trust me, not that I blame them. I’m not a very good liar. But you know I couldn’t tell them the truth, it’s far too dangerous, and since every cop in the known universe is after you—” She paused, then added, “They showed me a picture of the man who killed Dad.”
“Did you recognize him?”
“No.”
“Well, you know as well as I do there’s lots they aren’t telling you. If they found Dad’s hidden SD card, then it won’t take them long to figure everything out. They haven’t had time yet. I have to get out of here before they come back, see if it’s too late to access Dad’s files remotely and delete them. I already got into his e-mail account. I didn’t see anything unusual, no outgoing messages.”
“Could he have sent an e-mail, then deleted it?”
“Yes, but I’ll have to brea
k into his e-mail client’s server to see what they have, and we’re running out of time. Soph, get me Dad’s phone. Whoever he called, whoever he wrote, that’s who had him killed.” His voice cracked, and suddenly he was a little boy, and she his big sister, there to protect him. “I can’t believe he’s dead.”
Again, she held him close for a moment. Could he, nineteen years old, barely a man, could he fix things? She didn’t know. “Adam, if the Order killed Dad and want you dead as well, then you’re in danger. I don’t want you hurt.”
“You know we can’t stand by and wait to see what they’ll do, Sophie.”
“I know, I know, we have to find out who did this. I’ll see if the FBI will give me Dad’s phone, or at least tell me who he called last. You need to disappear.”
His face was pale in the red-tinged light. “Now that I think about it, I don’t understand why they’d want to kill me, since I’m the only one who knows where the sub is located and could tell them. And they want that sub. Yeah, if they got that info, then I’d no longer be necessary to them, and whack.”
They would kill him, but she didn’t say it aloud, no need. She couldn’t, wouldn’t, lose Adam, too.
“Tell me where the sub is. Exactly.”
“No, no way, not until we figure out what’s happening. You didn’t know yesterday, and you don’t know today. It’s safer that way.”
She saw he wouldn’t budge. He was more stubborn than she was. “Fine. We have to get you out of here. Use the back door, out into the alley. I’ll contact you if I find anything out, and you do the same. But don’t come back here, and don’t go to the house. You hear me? And watch your back.”
He thought for a moment, then nodded. “I’ll be in the Village for a while with Allie. You know how to reach me.” He turned to go, but she grabbed his arm.
“Wait, wait. There is something else. Dad said something before he died, they have it on video. It’s nonsense, really, but maybe it will make sense to you. ‘The key is in the lock.’ Do you know what that means?”
“Well, sure I do, but—”
She heard the voices of the FBI agents and cut him off. “Damn, they’re coming back, you have to go. Now.”
She opened the fire door and waved him away, but he stopped, looked back, and gave her a rakish grin. “‘The key is in the lock’—it’s not what you think, sis.”
“Adam, where’s your wallet? Really?”
“In my shoe.”
Then he was out into the alley, up the stairs, and out into the bustling New York streets.
18