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Leo stopped in the hallway and pointed at the closed door. He twisted a handle and pushed it open, then moved to the side so Alex could look past him. In the room, Drew and Laverne were sitting on the floor, both handcuffed to a metal radiator. They looked tired and haggard. Leo pulled the door closed, leaving the image of Drew and Laverne burned in Alex’s mind.
“Now I just gotta figure out what to do with them,” he said.
Alex attempted to read the big man in front of her. “You can’t hurt them. You know that, right?”
Leo laughed. “Says the girl who tried to put a bullet into each of them.”
“Says the man who delivered the gun to my flat.”
“I was just following orders. The pistol was supposed to make you feel safe. I never figured you’d actually use it. But I should’ve known better. There’s no problem Americans can’t shoot their way out of.”
“I don’t remember much about last night,” Alex said. “I was scared out of my mind and I had no idea what those two were going to do to me. But I’m thinking clearly now. No one gets hurt or I’ll call Garrett.”
“Slow down. No one’s getting hurt. And we need to get this situation under better control before we call Mr. Lancaster. I would’ve let those two go already but I wanted to speak with you first.”
“About what?”
“I can pull some strings on my end, and we both know Garrett Lancaster is a powerful man. But even still, if Bonnie and Clyde decide to go to the police, you’re in a world of trouble, mate.”
“They tried to extort me.”
“He said, she said. And you had the gun, so you’d lose that one. So, before this problem gets out of control, we need to figure things out.”
The enormity of her predicament began to dawn on her. “So what’s the plan?”
Leo rocked his bowling ball head back and forth. “I’ve got a couple ideas. But no matter what we do, those two will be unknown variables. I run my own private investigation firm now, but I used to be Special Forces before I was police. Our most unpredictable informants were useful idiots who reminded me a lot of those two. They were always a crapshoot. They had the ability to get us any information we wanted, but they were volatile at the same time.”
Useful idiots.
Alex’s mind was beginning to wake and fire on all cylinders after twelve hours of sleep. An idea came to her. Bonnie and Clyde, as Leo called them, were exactly what she needed.
CHAPTER 16
Monday, October 5, 2015 London, England 11:22 a.m.
THE SACK OVER DREW ESTES’S HEAD WAS REMOVED WITH A QUICK jerk, a door was opened, and he was pushed into the alleyway. The bright sunlight blinded his dark-adapted eyes, which had seen nothing but blackness for the last several hours. Now, he squinted against the sun as the door closed behind him. He looked around to gain his bearings. He was in an alley between two buildings somewhere in London. He walked out to the street and wandered for a while until he found his way to the train station. He hurried to the ticket counter and purchased a seat back to Zürich. The clock was ticking, the beefy man had told him, and Drew had a deadline to beat.
Two hours later, Drew Estes boarded a train to Paris, where he would transfer to another that would take him back to Switzerland. He had three days to return to London and retrieve Laverne. The beefy man had promised not to hurt her as long as Drew made it back in time, and with the information the man had asked Drew to obtain from his place of employment—the Sparhafen Bank of Zürich.
CHAPTER 17
Thursday, October 8, 2015 London, England 4:20 p.m.
“WOULD YOU LIKE ANOTHER SODA?” LEO ASKED.
Laverne shook her head. They sat at a booth in a mostly empty pub. Leo ate pretzels from a bowl and watched a football match on the television behind the bar. He kept an eye on the front door. When the waiter delivered his pizza, Leo dug in.
“Help yourself,” he said to Laverne.
“I’m not hungry.”
“You should be, you’ve barely eaten all week.”
Ten minutes later, Drew Estes walked into the pub. He hurried over to the booth and sat next to Laverne, kissed her, and took her hand.
“You made it, mate!” Leo said in a jovial voice while holding a half-eaten slice of pizza. “Bonnie wasn’t so sure, but I had faith in you. How was the trip back?” he asked before taking a bite.
No answer.
