Page 183 of To Die For

“He does. Dassault Falcon. Why?”

“I need you to check to see if it filed a flight plan last night. Ricketts to Seattle.”

“Who is Nick Dawkins, Devine?” asked Braddock.

“One of the money men behind the Termites aka 12/24.”

Campbell made the call and two minutes later he had an answer.

“His jet touched down in Seattle two hours before Glass went missing.”

Devine said, “I overheard Mercedes King saying that they were going to have Betsy call her uncle last night. She was in no condition for me to ask if she had, but I’m assuming Betsy made her plea for her uncle to do what her kidnappers wanted. Then King probably called Glass on the flight here, made the arrangements, and executed the plan,” said Devine.

“What plan?” said an exasperated Hastings.

“Herplan, as opposed to the Termites’ plan.”

“Why would Mercedes King have Glass’s contact info?” asked Saxby.

“Because she’s been feeding Glass inside intel. For her benefit, not his.” Devine turned to the others. “I need your help. And we don’t have much time.”

“Doyouhave a plan?” asked Saxby.

“I do.”

“Do you know where they’ve got Glass?” said Saxby.

“I think so, yeah. But I need to make sure.”

“How do you do that?” asked Braddock.

“I need to talk to someone.”

CHAPTER

85

THE SUV PULLED UP TOthe curb and Devine hopped in.

As Pru Jackson sped off, she said, “You got the girl?”

“Yeah, but yourfriendgot Danny Glass.”

“You told me on the phone that Anne had been leaking intel to Glass.”

“I talked with Betsy. King had her call Glass and plead for him to do what the kidnappers wanted. Betsy said she saw no woman there so King never revealed herself to Betsy, which makes sense. No way for Betsy to ID her later if things went to hell. She could have had someone else put the screws to Betsy and oversee her calling her uncle. Then I think King called Danny shortly thereafter, probably with an offer to help free Betsy. Neither of them knew at the time that Betsy had already been freed. Her henchmen at the house where Betsy was taken have already made statements and implicated King. And when she communicated with them early this morning to check on the status of their ‘prisoner,’ we had them pretend everything was fine.”

“So why would she snatch Glass?”

“She suckered him in, and has probably delivered his ass back to 12/24 for some big payoff. So they must be at the place where you saw the chopper leave from.”

Jackson shook her head. “I don’t think she brought Glass back to 12/24 for a payoff.”

Devine looked startled. “Why not?”

“You need to understand Anne Cassidy. She was alreadyworking with the KKK people, so why expect them to pay her any extra? And when I overheard her and Nick Dawkins talking at the restaurant, she never once mentioned that she had opened a secret communications channel with Glass. She’s playing this op like she played all ops at CIA, strictly close to the vest and for her personal benefit. And that tells us something vital.”

“What?”

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