Don't Look Down Read online

  "No shit?"

  "Lucy-" He stopped. "Armstrong called him and told him she was shutting down the film. He insisted on meeting her. Today."

  "Where? When?"

  "We don't know yet. He'll call her back with that."

  Crawford leaned back in his seat. Wilder watched his eyes. They were scanning the room even as he was thinking.

  He didn't just learn that, Wilder thought. Fuck-head's been playing me so I'd be off guard.

  "Okay," Crawford finally said. "Would she be willing to wear a wire and plant a bug?"

  "You don't need to wire her."

  "Why not?"

  "Because I'm going to the meeting with her. And you're not wiring me either. Because you're arresting Finnegan, right?"

  "Wrong."

  "Why not?"

  "Finnegan is just a piece of the puzzle." Crawford began to look less self-possessed. "We have bigger fish to fry."

  Fuck. "You want Letsky. This whole circus is about Letsky."

  "Right."

  Lucy was going to be pissed. Wilder shook his head. "I don't see how-"

  Crawford leaned forward. "Letsky has set up a meeting with Finnegan for midnight. We want that meeting."

  Double fuck-Lucy was going to be really pissed. Not that she wasn't furious already. "Letsky's close by?"

  "Given the timing of the meeting, yes. We suspect he's offshore, in international waters."

  "So why don't you just go to the meeting place and take Letsky down?'

  "We don't know where it is. We know when. Finnegan knows where. Could be anywhere within a couple hours' flying time. That's a big damn circle to cover."

  "Why are they meeting?"

  Crawford drummed his fingers on the table for several moments. "Finnegan owes Letsky and he's going to repay him."

  "Fifty million?" Wilder asked. "Where'd he get that kind of money?"

  "Not money," Crawford said. "Finnegan's giving Letsky the art he originally bought."

  Wilder rubbed his forehead where a headache was beginning to pulse. "How?"

  "Using the chopper in the movie stunt."

  That's why they need the cargo net. But it still made no sense. "I thought the art was seized in Mexico. Where's it at right now?"

  Crawford smiled. "You don't need to worry about that."

  "What do I need to worry about other than you lying to me?"

  "I didn't lie. I just didn't tell you the truth. You didn't have a need to know."

  Wilder wondered how much more was going on that Crawford had determined he didn't have a need to know. Of course there was no point in asking that, because he didn't have a need to know. Spooks and their games.

  Crawford reached under the table and Wilder tensed, but the CIA man pulled out a small metal case and placed it on the worn surface. He paused as the waitress came by and refilled their coffees. Then he opened the lid, revealing several objects set in foam padding.

  " I racking transmitter,' Crawford said, tapping a dime-sized device, fie touched the cigarette-pack-size unit. "Tracking receiver." He pointed at two smaller white pieces. "Extra batteries for the tracker, You shouldn't need them. This will all be over within twenty-four hours." He shut the lid and slid it across the table to Wilder.

  "What or who do you want me to bug?" Wilder asked.

  "Finnegan, of course, since you're going to the meeting and you won't let us wire you. I was going to have you put it on Nash, but we only needed him to lead us to Finnegan. Now that you've got Finnegan…" Crawford shrugged.

  Wilder felt three steps behind and he didn't like it. "What's Nash's role in this?"

  "He's getting Finnegan to the meeting with Letsky."

  Wilder shook his head. "This is a pretty elaborate setup just for a helicopter ride. He could hire anybody for that."

  "Oh, Finnegan is indeed laundering money through the film," Crawford said. "Two birds with one stone. He still has to make a living. He's been paying Letsky enough to keep him off his ass long enough to make restitution. Finnegan needs the helicopter scene for that. Law enforcement tends to get curious about helicopters buzzing bridges and the swamp, but not if it's a movie shoot."

  "So during the last stunt tonight, Nash and Finnegan are going to take the chopper and fly to meet Letsky somewhere?"

  "Right."

  "Why does he need Nash?"

  "It's complicated."

  No shit. "Why don't you just take down Finnegan this afternoon and squeeze him for the location of the meeting?"

  "Because Letsky will disappear if word of the takedown gets to him. You know how dangerous those kinds of ops are. And what if the squeeze doesn't work?"

  Everyone talks if you apply the right amount of pressure. "I don't-"

  "I don't care what you don't, Wilder," Crawford said. "I've already told you more than you need to know. The rest is none of your business."

  Wilder resisted the urge to punch him. Probably get him another check in the column marked problems dealing with authority figures. Although if he showed them Crawford, they'd understand.

  "Do you understand me, Captain Wilder?"

  "None of this is my business," Wilder told him and walked out.

  Chapter 16

  "So you're going to make nice when we go to the meet," Wilder said to Lucy when he'd met her back at the camper and explained it all to her.

  "Why?" Lucy had that stubborn look again. "Why can't I just tell Finnegan it's over? He's not going to be suing me if he's got the Russian mob on his butt. I think it's definitely past time to cut our losses. Stephanie's going to be okay, Bryce didn't get hurt, you didn't get knifed, so I'm thinking we're pushing our luck here if we keep going. Let Finnegan have his stupid helicopter without my people on the bridge. We can put up the lights so the cops think we're shooting and then just leave-"

  Wilder shook his head. "No good. We can't spook them with the change in plans. The stunt has to go off, and then Nash will take Finnegan to Letsky, probably with the jade in the cargo net. Letksy is a bad guy and he needs to go down, Luce. We have to do this."

  Lucy took a deep breath. "I'm having a bad day."

  Wilder nodded. "I need you to play nice when he calls with the meet location. Follow my lead. Do not tell him you're shutting down the movie unless I say that's what you're going to do. Let me handle this." He saw her face flush and added, "It's my mission, Lucy. Tonight it's your movie, but today it's my mission."

  "No," Lucy said. "Tonight it's my movie, but today it's my crew, my cast, my family, my people. I am not sacrificing anybody for the fucking CIA."

  She shifted away from him, and he slid his arm around her and pulled her close, needing her warmth next to him.

  "I'm not the CIA," he said, looking into her eyes. "I'm on your side. You have to trust me."

  "Right," she said. "So about these two ex-wives-"

  Her cell phone rang.

  "That's Finnegan," Wilder said, and let her go. "Answer it."

  Lucy took a deep breath and answered the phone.

  Wilder drove up to the entrance to the Savannah Wildlife Refuge, following the directions Finnegan had given Lucy, and stopped the Jeep.

  '"What's wrong?" Lucy asked.

  What's right? Swamp mixed with forest lay all around. Indian country, his team sergeant would have said-perfect for an ambush. A metal bar was slid off to one side and a sign warned that the refuge closed at dark. Another sign indicated the road through the refuge was one-way. They had passed the exit about a half mile north of here. Bad omens, both of them.

  "J.T.?"

  Wilder tried to give Lucy his "no problem" smile but it was one he couldn't remember using before so he wasn't sure how it went over. "Everything's cool." He wondered if that qualified as lying as he drove down the gravel road that was set on top of a berm with swamp on either side. He slammed on the brakes as the metal bar rattled shut behind them. An even worse omen.

  "Uh, still cool?" Lucy asked, her voice a little higher than usual.

  A tra