Page 92 of Code 6

“Well done, sir,” the driver said. He motored away, leaving Kate alone with Peel and whoever was inside the towers launching the clay pigeons.

Peel switched on the safety and opened his break-action shotgun,releasing the spent cartridges. He left the chamber open, muzzle pointed at the ground, as he walked toward Kate.

“Sorry to interrupt your shoot, Mr. Peel.”

“Please, I think it’s time you started to call me Jeremy.”

That wasn’t going to be easy. It was like shaking the “Baby Patrick” habit. “All right, Jeremy.”

“Since this was too important for you to discuss on the phone, I’m guessing it has to do with the kidnapping.”

“I’ll get to that. First I wanted to ask you about Sandra Levy.”

He fished a couple of fresh cartridges from his ammunition pouch. “Not my favorite subject. What do you want to know?”

It was a perfect setup for the question she’d come toseehim answer, face-to-face, so she could gauge his reaction—the question that had been burning since her visit to FCP Alderson.

“Why do you think Sandra did it?”

Peel’s gaze drifted off toward the woods, and then he looked back at Kate. “The only way to knowwhyshe did it is to pinpoint exactlywhenshe made the decision to do it.”

Kate had hoped her question would lead to a discussion of what “it” was—what Sandra meant by her remark that she did “it” for her daughter. But Peel’s response had thrown her.

“I’m not sure I follow you,” said Kate.

“It’s simple. Did Sandra decide to steal code and then sleep with your father toward that end? Or did she sleep with your father, see an opportunity, and then decide to steal code?”

“And what if the premise baked into your questions is false?”

“You’re a good daughter, Kate. But you’re kidding yourself if you think your father wasn’t sleeping with Sandra Levy.”

“How can you be so sure?”

His expression turned very serious. “Your mother told me.”

The predictable response would have been that her mother was an alcoholic and said a lot of things that weren’t true. But she hadn’tjourneyed all the way out to this country estate to replow old ground. “Is it somethingshetoldyou? Or thatyoutoldher?”

“Are you asking if I called your mother and ratted out your father?”

“‘Ratted him out’ isn’t exactly what I was suggesting. I was thinking more along the lines of putting ideas in my mother’s head.”

“The idea was already firmly in your mother’s head when she called me.”

“And you confirmed her worst fears, without any proof.”

“You make it sound like I went out of my way to hurt your old man. Why would I do that?”

A gust of wind whipped between the towers, and Kate felt the chill. “The same reason you overruled my father on paying Patrick Battle’s ransom.”

“Buck shouldn’t pay a ransom. The reasons I gave are all valid.”

“They sounded like BS to me.”

“Fortunately, you don’t run the company.”

“And neither does my father. Wasn’t that the point you and Mr. Walker were making when you put on the dog and pony show for me?”

“Excuse me?”

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