Page 49 of Exit Strategy
‘I hear you. And—’
Strickland’s phone hopped around on the desk and ‘Enter Sandman’ started to play. He checked the screen and said, ‘Speak of the devil. It’s Hewson. I better take it. See you at 09:00.’
Strickland waited for McClaren to step out and close the door, then he hit Answer.
Hewson said, ‘I thought we agreed – no changes.’
Strickland said, ‘What are you talking about?’
‘The contract. We said no changes.’
‘Then don’t think of them as changes. Think of them as corrections. If you had gotten it right—’
‘Don’t be a smart-ass, Morgan. You have no idea how difficult this is at my end. I can’t just give it to any random legal guy to deal with. I have to be discreet. There are only maybe two who—’
‘Fine. I apologize. So how about this. Find someone who can safely make the corrections. Then on Thursday, right after you sign, you can yell at me all you like. Think of it as a free therapy session.’
‘Morgan, I’m being serious.’
‘So am I. We need our working relationship to be in top shape. So let’s do this. Come here at ten, as planned. I’ll push Vardanyan back to noon. That’ll give us time to ourselves.’And time for me to come up with a distraction if she’s not ready to play ball, Strickland thought.
The line was silent for a moment, then Hewson said, ‘Sounds good. See you Thursday.’
Reacher stepped back into Weaver’s office fifteen minutes later. He wished there was somewhere he could get clean. Not because he’d touched anything gross – he hadn’t touched anything at all. Not with his hands. But he felt dirty when he searched someone’s home. He always had, even when he was an MP and it was his job to do it. Even when he knew the person was up to his ass in bad deeds. It was annoying, but there was nothing he could do about it. That was just the way he was wired.
Gilmour was still sitting at the desk. Weaver’s laptop was open in front of him. Two of the phones were to its left, and one was to the right. He said, ‘You find anything?’
Reacher shook his head. ‘You?’
‘I can tell you what kind of porn the guy was into. Who his sports teams were. The last thousand items he ordered from Amazon, and where his favorite vacation spots were. But there was no mention of Kasselwood, and nothing about me or Patten or Arlon James. Actually, there was nothing about any of his blackmail victims past, present, or future. I think he kept that operation completely analogue. Which makes sense in a way. Paper’s impossible to hack. And it’s easy to burn. Unlessyou get shot in the head before you have the chance. In which case I guess the format doesn’t really matter.’
‘So the computer was a bust?’
‘Not entirely. I found one interesting thing. A password-protected document.’
‘That’s interesting?’
‘Usually. Back in Wiesbaden, anytime we had to search a bad guy’s laptop, we always started with those. They’re like safes in hotel rooms. A place where people stash all their valuables, thinking they’re secure, but in reality every housekeeper knows how to open them.’
‘You being one of the housekeepers?’
‘Right. So I broke into the document, and guess what I found? PIN numbers for a list of phones. Not just these. All the ones he’s used, and presumably ditched, for all the past schemes as well. But here’s the strange thing. Only three current ones were listed. One PIN unlocked the Maryland Fashion phone.’ He pointed to the burner on the far left. ‘One unlocked the Safe Harbor phone.’ He pointed to the next phone in line. ‘But when I tried the PIN for the shipment heist phone, it didn’t work.’ He pointed to the phone that was sitting on its own. ‘So I got in the old-fashioned way. And I realized it was a different phone altogether. He was using it to communicate with his wife, Dr Martin, whenever they needed to discuss an ongoing operation or one of their blackmail victims. He asked her about me when the guy he sent to the coffee shop croaked on the way to our meeting.’
‘Okay, so what about a PIN for a fourth phone? For the file Kasselwood must be named in.’
‘There’s no sign of it. They must communicate some other way.’
‘Where’s the shipment heist phone?’
‘It’s not here. We have the PIN, so we know it exists, but we don’t have the phone.’
‘What about the phone I found in Weaver’s pocket?’
Gilmour shook his head. ‘I checked. He used that one for regular stuff. It’s completely innocuous.’
‘Kasselwood must have taken the missing phone. Along with the files.’
‘She must have. But listen, I found one other thing. I don’t know if it’ll help us, but I’ll run it by you, anyway. In this document, as well as the PIN numbers, there were details for some online messaging accounts. It seems like Weaver started using them along with the burner phones about six months ago.’ He pointed to the phones again. ‘See, these are smartphones. You can set them up so that your messages – your texts, if you like – work hand in hand with your computer.’
