Page 105 of The Children of Eve

“Tell me all of it,” she said.

CHAPTERLXXIX

Early the next morning, Seeley and la Señora were on the move again: north through New York, New Haven, Hartford, Worcester, and circling Boston to end up on 295. They stopped only so that Seeley could use a restroom and buy some snacks. The woman consumed desultorily, mainly sweet things: candy, fragments of doughnut, even the unused sachets of sweetener bagged with Seeley’s takeout coffee. Eating might simply have been a distraction for her, but he didn’t doubt that she liked the taste of sugar.

They crossed the Piscataqua River Bridge into Maine, after which Seeley drove for another half hour until they reached the Kennebunk Service Plaza, where they waited for Acrement to catch up in the van. He did not arrive alone, because three men pulled up behind him in a dark Toyota RAV 4: Blas Urrea’s killers, called into service by Seeley. Triton’s property had been scouted, revealing that the collector might be prepared to fight to keep what was not his, and Seeley was not willing to die for the last child. Urrea’s gunmen got out to stretch their legs and smoke but otherwise kept their distance.

Seeley made the call just as the afternoon sky brightened briefly in a token stand against the darkness to come.

“I count five armed men,” said the woman who answered, “including Riggins. If they aren’t all ex-military, I need my eyesight tested.”

“Riggins is there?”

Seeley was surprised. Riggins must have known that he was as much a target as Triton. Perhaps he believed there was safety in numbers. If so, that illusion was about to be shattered.

“And Riggins’s woman, the artist. She rents an onsite property from Triton, but she’s retreated to the main house. I’ve seen another woman moving around as well. She looks Native American. Triton’s girlfriend was here earlier, but she left before noon and didn’t return.”

“Have they tried to move the child?” asked Seeley.

“Not that I can tell, assuming Triton is keeping it at the house.”

If the child was elsewhere, La Señora would make Triton tell.

“It’s odd,” said Seeley’s contact.

“What is?”

“That they’re waiting for you to descend on them.”

“What would you do in their place?”

“I’d bug out.”

“Really? How far do you think you’d get?”

The contact went quiet.

“I take your point,” she said.

But Seeley’s thoughts had already moved on. Triton, probably guided by Wyatt Riggins, had decided that he didn’t want to pass the rest of his short life in fear, but appreciated that surrendering the child wasn’t an option. He was calculating that if Urrea lost enough men, he might be forced to back off, even as he continued to be weakened by the theft of his talismans. But Triton, like the rest, had no idea of the forces Urrea had unleashed against him. Seeley and a trio of gunmen were the least of them: La Señora was the principal agent of vengeance. But time was against her, just as it was against Urrea, their fates being linked.

Seeley had no illusions about Blas Urrea, and no obligations to him beyond the task he was being paid to perform, but he was experiencing an uncomfortable sense of vocation when it came to La Señora. For her, this was not about money, pride, or the survival of a criminalenterprise. When those four children were laid in the dirt, they had passed into her care, and she would not forsake them. Their offering had been a bargain, a covenant between the weak and the strong. If either party failed to adhere to their side of the agreement, there would be consequences. La Señora’s potency was predicated on belief, and that belief would be weakened if she was deemed to have failed to protect the children. If she couldn’t watch over them, how could she be relied on to safeguard the faithful?

Seeley didn’t bother telling his contact to stay in touch; she knew what was required of her. He hung up and shared the intel with Acrement and the Mexicans, who listened without comment. Only at the end did one of Urrea’s men speak.

“They’re expecting us?” he said. He didn’t display fear. It was purely another variable to be factored into the equation.

“They’re expecting someone,” said Seeley. He gestured toward his car, where La Señora waited. “But not her.”

CHAPTERLXXX

On Cousins Island, two shapes resembling bears in green leisure suits were monitoring the Triton compound.

“What’s that name they give to birdwatchers?” Tony Fulci asked his brother.

“Poindexters,” Paulie replied.

“No, the other name.”

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