Until It's You, page 10
She took the first turn she saw and led them up State, toward the park.
“So what happened?” she asked, once they’d been walking for a moment.
Tom shook his head. “I need to see Kristina,” he said, his voice half-crazed and caffeinated fast. “Where is she?”
“Last I saw her, she was talking to an FBI agent.”
His face fell. “What?”
“An FBI agent named Rachel Carter. She hung out in my office until Kristina dropped by. Probably tried Kristina’s first, but she wasn’t in there.”
“Why? What the hell is going on?”
“I thought you might know. Kristina said you disappeared yesterday.”
He took a deep breath and looked around. Anna followed his gaze. They were at the corner of State and Oak. He turned onto Oak.
“There’s a fountain over this way,” he said, walking them toward Dearborn. “And I need to sit down soon.”
“Are you okay?” Anna asked.
“Just tired,” he said, breathing hard. “And probably dehydrated. I haven’t eaten much since yesterday.”
She grimaced sympathetically. Tom wasn't one to deal with hunger very well. “Well let’s get you a bite then.”
They turned north when they got to Dearborn and found an old-fashioned hot dog stand at the edge of the public square. Anna bought Tom a hot dog and Coke. In the middle of the square was an old, marble fountain. Homeless people littered the park, along with a couple of people walking their dogs. No kids, but the pigeons flitting around meant you watched your step anyway.
The two of them found a park bench and sat down. Tom ate the hot dog—Chicago style, with all the fixings—in five bites. Anna counted.
Finally, he washed it down with a long sip of Coke and was ready to talk. “I think Kristina’s wrapped up in something pretty big,” he said.
Anna gave him a quizzical look. “No shit. I just told you the FBI visited.”
But Tom was staring off, seemingly not hearing her or maybe anyone. “I did some research on that pharm in Kristina’s system.”
“The Agent Smith? I thought you had a positive ID.”
He grimaced, and his beady eyes looked around the park before he spoke. Anna watched him curiously.
“That’s the thing," he said finally. "It’s not Agent Smith. I'm not sure what it is, but I'm positive it's not Agent Smith.”
“What? But the text you sent—”
“I know. That’s what’s weird. The computer matched it up as Agent Smith, but when I did some more digging I realized it was wrong.”
“Is that possible?”
“It appears to be, yeah. I was doing some analysis on the pharm in her system and realized it was a double-release dispersal system. Which was wrong, because Agent Smith is just a sustained dispersal pharm.”
“In English please, Tom.”
“It means that the thing they gave Kristina gets released in two stages. The first one takes its course and then the second. But Agent Smith is all at once. So the first stage of whatever they gave Kristina looks close to Agent Smith but who knows what the second stage is.”
“So it could be anything?”
“I guess, but the thing is it looks really close to Agent Smith. The compound used on the inner dispersal unit—”
“Can you keep this to things I don’t need a PhD to understand?”
Tom studied her, nodded and rubbed his eyes. He started again. “Someone messed with the police database to cover up whatever Kristina has. They merged the entry with the entry for Agent Smith and those two should not be merged. They did it that way because anyone who didn't do a lot of checking wouldn't notice. It happened yesterday morning.”
A shiver went down Anna’s spine. “Just before Kristina went to see you.”
“Pretty much.”
“Holy shit.” Anna shook her head, reeling. “Doesn't the department have logs for stuff like that? Changes, I mean.”
Tom sighed again. “Yeah, we do, but the user who changed it got hacked. There’s no way that guy actually changed it.”
“How do you know?”
“Because he’s hiking in Patagonia. I know Jim pretty well. There’s no way he could have made the change.”
“So then...”
“I don’t know. Whoever is behind this has serious reach. You said the FBI is involved?”
“Somehow, yeah.”
“They could get access easy enough, couldn't they?"
"Sure." Anna's head was spinning. She needed to make sure Kristina found out about all of this as soon as possible. “So what did you do then?”
Tom took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes again, then looked off into the distance. After a while, he gave a short laugh. “Well,” he said, turning to Anna. “Then stuff got weird. When I saw the police database was wrong I went through a national database I’d used in grad school. But I ran into a wall there. Pharm’s classified.”
“Like, by the government?”
He nodded. “All I could tell was it came from Atlas Pharmaceuticals. Fordelli’s company, basically. Kristina said she’d been investigating him. You know anything about that?”
Anna bit her lip. “She was investigating, yeah, but it was pretty minor stuff. Nothing anyone would kill over.”
Tom turned to her with a look that said don't be so sure. She shivered.
“Anyway," he said. "About ten minutes of that investigation and my tablet got shut down.”
“You mean turned off?”
“I mean someone shut it down.”
“How can you tell?”
Tom waved his hand, his thick fingers still specked with mustard. “I can tell. That wasn't a normal crash. It freaked me out.”
He licked his lips, a tic his sister also had. It looked so different when he did it, though. Anna fought this thought from her mind and tried to listen carefully.
“Especially because it was so late," he continued. "You know? I mean I’d only started really investigating after dinner. By the time I got shut down it was coming up on 10 o'clock or so.”
“Of course. So what happened that you ran?”
Another distant look in his eyes, far off past anything she could see. Maybe past any world at all. “Someone came into the building.”
“What do you mean?”
“I saw someone come in on the security camera in the hall.” He shook his head slowly. “I keep it on one screen when I’m working late. Paranoid, I guess.” He gave her a significant look. “Runs in the family, right?”
Anna pursed her lips and nodded. Kristina had told her enough about all that. Most of it came from Kevin, but they all had good reason to be distrustful with the way they'd grown up.
Tom saw her expression, gave a nod himself, then continued. “But when I saw the guy come in it was only a few minutes after the tab I’d been using died and I freaked out.”
“So you ran.”
“I got out of there immediately, yeah. Left my comm in my lab coat but didn’t even realize it for a while. I didn't go back.”
“So do you know if he was coming for you?“
“No idea. I’ve been out since then. Too scared to go to my apartment. Bought a comm at the store but Kevin and Kristina didn’t answer. I spent the rest of the night in the library over at DePaul.”
“I see. Why didn't you call security or the police or someone?”
"Whoever wiped that record...I don't know. I was already in the police building and that wasn't exactly safe, was it?" He rushed his hand through his hair, shook his head. “You need to help me talk to Kristina.”
“I agree.” She pulled out her comm and hovered over Kristina’s ID.
Would she pick up even if she was talking to that bitchy FBI agent?
Anna shrugged. She might. If not, she could just leave a message. She tapped the screen to give her a call and put the comm to her ear.
CHAPTER 9
The institutional gray walls of Carter's office were starting to turn a corner for Kristina. They felt serious in the way the work being done within their walls was serious. They were functional. She was getting somewhere.
Who cared about the walls, anyway? She was getting somewhere. That was what was important.
She was locked in a not entirely unfriendly stare down with Agent Carter when her comm buzzed in her jacket. She tapped it and then cocked a brow up at Carter.
“Do you mind if I take this?” she asked.
Carter considered for a moment, gave a toss of her head. “If it’s important. We aren’t done here, though.”
“Of course."
She took the comm out of her pocket and saw who was calling. It was Anna. A mild flash of annoyance rushed through her. It had been nowhere near two hours.
“Hello,” she answered. "What's up?"
“Kristina, it’s me.”
Kristina stood up and walked toward the door to put some space between her and the agent. “I saw. What’s going on?”
“I found Tom.”
Kristina blinked. Little needles erupted all over her skin, and her heart seemed briefly to be beating through sludge before exploding into a hummingbird buzz.
“Where?” she asked, somewhat steadily.
Her mind screamed in a million directions. Oh my god, she thought. Where.
Carter was staring at her, her green eyes darting around. Kristina turned her back to the agent.
“He was waiting outside our building. You must have just missed him.”
Just missed him. “Is he okay?”
“Yes, he's fine."
Relief echoed through her body. Her shoulders and she realized how tense they had been just seconds earlier.
"But he needs to talk to you.”
“Well I need to talk to him!”
“I know. So how do you want to do it?”
Kristina turned around to Carter, who was still watching her curiously from her desk.
She needed to get away pronto and without being followed if this was going to work.
“Where are you now?” Kristina asked finally.
“A park on Dearborn.”
“North of the river?”
“Yeah.”
She formulated a plan quickly. “Okay, I think I know which one. Tell him to walk around and meet me there in an hour.”
“You okay? I’m still mad about what happened.”
Kristina smiled slightly to herself, still under Carter’s watchful eye. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just tell him to meet me, okay?”
“Okay. Talk to you.”
The call ended, and Kristina put the comm back into her jacket pocket with her heart still pounding. She walked back to the chair she'd been sitting in before the call.
Agent Carter leaned back in her own chair as Kristina approached. The expression flittering across her face was unreadable. Something professional, like she had stopped controlling it for a moment while her mind worried about other things.
Then she regained composure, and it was all fake smiles and cheek bones. “Happy call?” she asked pleasantly.
Kristina shrugged and walked back to her chair. “Sorry about that,” she said as she sat down. “It was important.”
“I’m sure.”
“We were talking about a security problem at Landon’s company.”
“We were talking about helping each other.”
“Okay," Kristina said, her mind turning. "We were talking about that too. You want me to get Landon to talk to you. What are you going to do for me?”
Carter’s brows arched up. “Was that nugget I just gave you about the bureau’s investigation not enough?”
Kristina nodded, though she had to fight her jaw from clenching. This was the delicate bit. She couldn't let the power dynamic shift so that she was the only one who owed something. Her mind scrambled for favors to ask.
“It was good," she said carefully. "Thank you for the heads up. I’m just wondering if you could look into a couple of other things for me?”
A long pause. “Perhaps,” Carter said finally.
Kristina blinked. Of course there were things she could use help with.
“Good. One: a stripper named Rose got murdered in a drive-by last night at The Velvet. You might remember her as the one with pink hair.”
Carter maintained a neutral expression, her face a calm sea.
“You might be aware of that,” Kristina prompted.
“I am.”
"Has there been any progress?"
“That’s a Chicago Police Department investigation. Not my jurisdiction.”
“But you could look into it. Maybe talk to a contact in the CPD.”
"You don't have those?"
"Not like you do, I'm sure."
“Perhaps. I would note that Tatum—or Landon, as you insist on calling him—was seen talking to her the night before.”
“He was.”
“Now he's disappeared. That's a potential motive.”
Kristina narrowed her eyes and looked at Carter skeptically. "Are you telling me the CPD is looking for him too?"
Carter shook her head. "No. I was just stating facts."
Kristina breathed in deeply. Carter knew the game being played.
“Okay," she said. "Well if you could look into that and see if they’ve made any progress into who killed her, that would help. If you could also look into my brother Kevin’s security company getting shot up last night, that would also be really terrific.”
Carter's dark blue eyes opened wide. That one had hit. “I’m sorry?”
“Andersen Security. Down in Bridgeport. It got shot up last night.”
Carter shook her head. It looked like she was genuinely surprised.
“I hadn’t heard about that,” she said.
Kristina bristled. “Well, it did."
"Does CPD know?"
"I have no idea. Kevin went underground right after it happened because he got a crazy idea in his head that someone was trying to kill him."
Carter's nostrils flared. "I'll see if it's even been reported," she said diplomatically. "With the gunfire it's very likely."
"Thanks," Kristina said. She hadn't decided on whether she would share this final point until the last moment, but she decided to go with it.
"And lastly," she said. "If you could get a line on a couple of psychos in a black car who chased me down Lakeshore Drive yesterday evening before coming after me with a tranq gun, I would appreciate it. Because that was scary.”
Carter sat up straighter in her chair. “I’m sorry, did you say you were chased?”
“Yes.”
"Down Lakeshore Drive?"
"Going north, yes. I take it you hadn't heard about it."
“Did you report this to the police?”
Kristina shook her head. “I did not.”
“Why not?”
“To be honest, I was knocked out by one of those tranq darts. That’s how I know it was a tranq gun.”
“Well, how did you get to safety?”
Kristina shook her head. “My secret, sorry. If I get you some more ID on the car, can you take a look?”
"That would be impeding a federal investigation—"
"If it becomes a real investigation, I'll talk to you all about how I got to safety. For now, it's my secret."
Carter held her gaze. "This is hard to stomach, Kristina."
"I'm sorry. This whole situation is very sensitive."
Carter shook her head, then sighed. “I can try, but there won’t be much with just a car. What is it with you people and not calling the police?”
“Call it professional skepticism.” Kristina sat back in her chair. “Now, if you don’t mind, I think we both have a lot to do.”
“So you’ll help me?”
“I’ll do what I can. If I see him.”
“You’ll get him to talk,” Carter said. “And keep me in the loop.”
Kristina rose. “Sure,” she said, desperate to get out of there so she could see Tom. “But don’t sneak up on me again, okay?”
Carter shrugged and stood up herself to walk Kristina to the door. “Don’t make me have to.”
CHAPTER 10
Knowing the FBI would probably be keeping tabs on her anyway, Kristina took a bus and then a train to get back to River North from Carter's office. She had time to kill before Tom was in Washington Square Park anyway, so there was no need to rush and take a cab. The journey also gave her time to think before she saw Tom.
Carter had been a lot more forthcoming than expected. Maybe too much to be genuine. It was tough to be sure. If the federal agent was pulling the strings behind this whole mess, she was a good actress, because the chase down Lakeshore had seemed to shock her. Not out of the question for her to be that good. But unlikely.
The investigation into this delayed shipment corroborated some of what Landon had said earlier. How much more there was to the story was what she needed to find out from him next.
After she talked to her brother.
The walk from the station north on Dearborn took her about fifteen minutes. By the time she got to the park, she was sweating under her jacket to the point she was tempted to take it off and carry it. There was enough shade in the park that she decided to keep it on and took a seat on a bench under a particularly thick tree branch instead.
She checked her comm. Twelve minutes early. Finishing up with Carter had taken a lot less time than she’d expected.
Breathing in the authentic scent of the sweet flowers around her—she'd never been good with flower names—she leaned back on the bench and scanned the park. There were maybe a dozen people there, scattered across benches, around the fountain, and under the shade of friendly trees. A pair of dogs played fetch, competing for the same tennis ball and bringing it back repeatedly to a smiling owner.
Kristina smiled herself and then did a double-take, eying someone laying on a bench across the fountain from her. He had a white, canvas bucket hat on and appeared to be sleeping.
She gasped. That looked like Tom, and he was unconscious.
She rushed over to him as inconspicuously as she could manage. Once she got there she shook him by the shoulder.
His eyes snapped open and he looked up at her. “What are you doing?” he slurred.
“Tom,” she said, her heart pounding. “Are you alright?”
