Chapter 40
Billy, Peter, and Ben were on their way to Damian’s when Billy received a call.
“This is Billy Barnett.”
“Mr. Barnett, this is Jordan Brooks, Strategic Services Palm Springs. I’m on the team keeping an eye on Emma Perez and wanted to give you an update.”
“Please.”
He told Billy about her activities since leaving her office that evening.
“What kind of car did she leave the restaurant in?” Billy asked.
“An older silver Honda Accord.”
That was the same color and make of Ronan’s car.
“Describe the driver.”
The man did, confirming Billy’s suspicions.
“You should also know Dr. Perez was followed to the restaurant by another vehicle,” Brooks said. “We initially thought it was a colleague who was going to the same place she was. Only it drove off as soon as she arrived at the restaurant.”
“What type of vehicle was that?”
“A black BMW M5.”
Marty’s car.
“You haven’t seen it since?” Billy asked.
“No.”
“Where are you now?”
“Just west of Thousand Palms.”
“She’s going home?”
“That would be my guess,” Brooks said.
“How long until she gets there?”
“ETA six minutes.”
“All right, keep me posted,” Billy said and hung up.
“Do we even want to know what that was about?” Peter asked.
“Nothing exciting,” Billy said.
“Why do I have a feeling that’s not true?”
“I haven’t the faintest idea.”
Ben raised a hand like he was in school. “I do. It’s because your personal history would say otherwise.”
Peter chuckled. “That’s the answer I was looking for.”
“I’m merely a boring Hollywood producer, but believe what you will,” Billy said.
“You know,” Peter said. “Maybe I should make a movie about your life.”
“That’s not a bad idea,” Ben said.
“Given what you know about me, I would suggest waiting until I’m no longer on this plane of existence,” Billy said. “Otherwise, you should anticipate being plagued by a myriad of production issues that will prevent any such movie from being created.”
“That sounds like a threat,” Peter said.
“I’m just stating fact.”
“He makes a good point,” Ben said.
“I guess he does,” Peter agreed.
“But consider the film green-lighted as soon as we have news of his demise.”
“Will do!”
“Gentlemen,” Billy said, “I’d appreciate a bit less enthusiasm on this topic.”
“Oh, sorry, Billy,” Ben said. “We forgot you were here.”
—
Marty paused at Emma’s front door, keys in hand, and recited the alarm code twice so that it would be at the forefront of his mind.
Thus prepared, he let himself in.
As expected, the alarm panel began beeping. He hurried to it and punched in 5-9-1-0-2.
The panel beeped twice, and a new message appeared.
Alarm Deactivated
“Yes!” he yelled, pumping his fist.
He then headed straight to Emma’s workshop.
—
An alert popped up on Emma’s phone.
“He just deactivated the alarm,” she said.
Ronan glanced over, nodded, and increased their speed.
—
“Lundstrom’s inside,” Erik told Vladimir over the phone.
“Let me know when he comes out,” Vladimir said.
He disconnected the call and looked down the road.
Though the sun had just set, he could still make out the dot of Emma’s building, half a mile from the gas station, where he was parked.
There were only two ways to get to her place: a long way around through a housing tract that was under construction or the direct route down the road that ran past Vladimir’s location.
If the woman and her friend didn’t drive by in the next ten minutes, then Vladimir would take that as validation of his belief that Marty hadn’t tipped her off to what he was doing and that she’d been going somewhere else.
His phone rang with a call from Grigoriy.
“Where are you?” he asked.
“Three minutes away from you.”
“See you when you get here.”
“Wait, one more thing.”
“Yes?”
“We were told to let you know if we saw a blue Audi SUV.”
Vladimir tensed. “And?”
“There’s one directly in front of us.”
“How many passengers?”
“I see only two, both men.”
“Is there is a silver sedan ahead of it?”
“There are several cars, but I think one might be silver.”
“Stay on the line.”
Vladimir returned his attention to the intersection.
Less than two minutes later, the silver sedan with Perez in the passenger seat pulled into the intersection and turned left onto the road leading to her place.
Vladimir cursed under his breath. His brother had been right to be worried.
“Do you still want us to stop at the gas station?” Grigoriy asked.
“No, keep following and be ready,” Vladimir said as he watched the Audi take the same turn Perez had.
He started his bike and sped onto the road.
—
“That must be Dr. Perez’s place ahead on the left,” Brooks noted.
He was in the front passenger seat of the Strategic Services Audi, his partner, Peter Kline, behind the wheel.
“I see it,” Kline said. “Not a lot of places for us to hide out here.”
There was a wall on one side of the road and, except for Perez’s home, open desert on the other.
“It’s dark enough now that if we go a hundred yards or so past the building, we should still be able to keep an eye on it without being noticed,” Brooks said.
Kline nodded. “Sounds good.”
“I’ll update Mr. Barnett.” Brooks made the call.
“This is Billy Barnett.”
Ahead, Emma and her friend turned off the road and onto the dirt driveway leading to her home.
“Mr. Barnett, Jordan Brooks again. Dr. Perez and her friend are parking at her house as we speak.”
“That was a lot faster than I expected,” Billy said, as the Audi passed Perez’s driveway.
“They seemed to have been in a bit of a hurry.”
“Are there any other vehicles at the house?”
“Hold on.”
Brooks twisted in his seat to look back. His attention was immediately drawn to a motorcycle gaining on them fast.
“I think we have a problem,” he said to his partner.
Kline glanced in the rearview mirror. “Where the hell did he come from?”
Before Brooks could respond, something flashed in the motorcyclist’s hand, and the Audi immediately began to swerve.
“Blowout!” Kline said as he tried to get the vehicle under control.
The motorcycle pulled into the oncoming lane, then started to pass the SUV. Brooks could now see that the driver was holding a gun, which was pointed low at the front of the SUV. The muzzle flashed and the driver’s-side front tire blew apart.
Unfortunately for the two Strategic Services men, the road was rife with cracks and potholes.
The destroyed front tire dipped into a particularly large crater, shifting the vehicle’s momentum sideways and sending the SUV flipping across the road and into the desert.
—
Vladimir pulled to a stop and watched the Audi tumble.
That had not been his plan. He’d meant to force the vehicle to stop, then terminate the occupants with quick, silenced shots to their heads.
Thank God for the darkening night, and especially for the fact that no one lived in the housing tract yet because they definitely would have heard the crash.
If there were any workers still around, they would have heard it, too. So, he needed to operate under the assumption that law enforcement would soon show up.
“Shit, shit, shit!” he yelled as he turned back toward Perez’s house.