“The briefcase is in there,” Stone said, looking from the tracking app on his phone to the door of a women’s restroom.

“She knows what you look like, so I think it best if you and Mr. Coulter leave the station,” Watkins said.

“My team can keep tabs on her.”

“I was really hoping to get a look at her.”

“Me, too,” Jack said.

“You will,” Watkins said.

“Each member of my team has a camera hidden in their clothing. I’ll go up with you. I have a tablet computer from which you can watch everything live.”

“That sounds like a plan.”

Watkins gave instructions to the three team members who’d descended into the station with her, then she, Stone, and Jack returned to street level.

One of the Strategic Services sedans was stopped at the curb, the drivers of the cars behind it honking and cursing as they weaved their vehicles around it.

As Stone and the others jogged over to it, Stone’s borrowed Range Rover swung to the curb in front of the sedan and stopped.

Alicia lowered her window.

“Mr. Bacchetti said you might be in need of my services.”

Over at the sedan, Dino was climbing out of the back seat.

“Trust me,” he said.

“More room in your SUV than there.” He pointed a thumb toward the sedan.

They climbed into the Range Rover, Stone up front, Dino, Jack, and Watkins in the back.

Watkins removed a tablet computer from her shoulder bag and held it so the others could see the screen.

On it were the three feeds from her team.

Watkins tapped one of the feeds, expanding it, while the other two shrank to thumbnails at the bottom.

The larger feed was focused on the door of the women’s restroom from a distance.

“Someone’s coming out,” Dino said as the door started to open.

A woman who was maybe in her late forties exited.

She had one duffel bag slung over her shoulder and a matching one in the hand that also held a briefcase identical to the one Jack had been carrying.

Stone checked the tracking app and confirmed the dot was moving with her.

“That’s our briefcase,” he said.

Watkins relayed the information to her team.

Dino grimaced at the screen.

“What is it?” Stone asked.

“I’m probably imagining things, but there’s something about that woman that’s bugging me.”

“A former girlfriend perhaps?”

“I would remember if she was.”

“You remember all your old girlfriends?”

“Stop bothering me. I’m trying to watch this.”

On the screen, the woman stopped short of the flow of people moving through the station and carefully looked around.

Stone assumed she was checking if he and Jack were still in the area.

A moment later, she headed into the crowd.

All three camera feeds began to move, and soon one was following her from twenty feet behind, while the other two were closer, but off to either side.

The woman took the stairs to the uptown platform, and the others did the same.

There was no train at the platform, but there were several dozen people spread across it, waiting.

The woman kept walking until she neared the platform’s midpoint, where she tucked herself next to a group of tourists.

A number 1 train rushed into the station three minutes later.

When those exiting were out of the way, the woman boarded and took a spot close to the door.

One of the Strategic Services team entered through the same door and took a spot several feet away.

The other two climbed onto the same car but through a different entrance.

“What’s the next stop?” Stone asked.

“Fiftieth on Broadway,” Watkins said.

“Alicia.”

“Understood, sir,” Alicia said and she pulled the Range Rover from the curb.

Rosa held on to the pole as the train accelerated through the tunnel and until it slowed again upon reaching the Fiftieth Street station.

The stop was brief, and soon they were underway again.

That’s when Rosa’s palm began to sweat, her chest tightening.

The next stop was Columbus Circle.

The stop where her brother was waiting.

She made herself take several deep breaths, then closed her eyes until she felt the train slow.

She adjusted her expression to its usual version of disinterest and felt as ready as she’d ever be by the time the train stopped.

The moment she stepped off, she spotted her brother standing against the white tiled wall near the exit, nervously scanning the passengers who’d just arrived.

Toomey was with him, playing with his phone.

She hadn’t expected him to be there, but she didn’t think he’d be a problem.

Rosa made it to within a dozen feet of her brother before he finally saw her.

The relief that washed over him was quickly replaced by an annoyed scowl.

He waved her over.

“Hurry up!”

As soon as she reached him, he grabbed the briefcase and yanked it free.

“This is it?”

“No, Ricky,” she said.

“I carry random briefcases with me wherever I go.”

“You know, you’re not as funny as you think you are,” he said.

“Whatever you say, Ricky.”

He scowled again, and then seemed to notice for the first time that she’d been carrying more than the case.

“What are those?”

“What do they look like? They’re bags. I told you I was running some errands.”

“Right, right.” He turned to Toomey.

“Let’s go.”

“You’re done with me, then?” Rosa asked.

“Yeah, go run your errands or whatever you were going to do.”

Rosa watched them until they’d passed through the turnstiles and disappeared up the stairs to the street.

She then headed for the A train platform, a million dollars richer.

By the time the Range Rover reached the Fiftieth Street station, Watkins’s team reported that the woman’s train was already pulling out, with her still on it.

Alicia did everything she could to get them to Columbus Circle as fast as humanly possible, but they were still two blocks away when the train reached the station and the woman exited.

Thankfully, the signal was strong enough that the video came through on Watkins’s tablet glitch-free.

One of the team was just a few paces behind the woman while the other two hung farther back.

At first, it appeared that the woman was heading for the exit, but then she veered toward two men standing off to the side.

The watcher who’d been closely following her continued past and around the corner out of sight so as not to draw undue attention.

But the feeds from the other two caught the moment that the older of the two men glared at the woman and grabbed the briefcase from her.

“They don’t seem to like each other,” Stone observed.

The woman and the older guy said a few things to each other, neither looking happy, then the two men headed for the exit.

“Who do you want us to follow?” Watkins asked.

“Both for now,” Stone said.

“Unless anyone has a better idea.”

“Works for me,” Jack said.

“It’s what I’d do,” Dino said.

As Watkins relayed the orders to her team, Stone checked the tracking app, then looked back at the camera feeds.

“Where’s the guy with the briefcase?”

“Coming up the stairs to the street,” Dino said.

“And the woman?”

Dino pointed at a different feed.

“Still in the station. Looks like she’s heading to a different platform.”

“I’d say our man with the briefcase is going to be in for quite the surprise when he opens it,” Stone said.

“Because the bug is still with her.”

“Now we know what took her so long in the restroom,” Jack said.

Stone looked outside and saw that they were approaching the Eighth Avenue entrance to Columbus Circle.

“Alicia, go around the circle until we know more,” Stone said.

“Yes, sir.”

“Are you recording the video?” Dino asked Watkins.

“We are.”

“Can you play back the part where the briefcase changed hands?”

“A moment.”

She tapped the screen then scrolled through one of the feeds and hit Play .

Just as the man started to pull the briefcase from the woman’s hand, Dino said, “Freeze it there.”

Watkins did so.

Dino looked through his phone, then showed a photo to Stone and Jack.

“That’s the same guy,” Stone said.

The picture on Dino’s screen was a younger version of the man who now had the briefcase.

“Who is it?” Jack asked.

“That is Ricky Gennaro,” Dino said.

“Member of Eduardo Buono’s JFK heist team, and the first one to squeal on him.”

“I remember the name,” Jack said.

“Eduardo had particularly unkind things to say about him.”

“I bet he did,” Stone said.

“He’s also why the woman looked so familiar to me,” Dino said.

“I saw her picture when I was looking through his file.”

“His wife?” Stone asked.

“His sister, Rosa.”

“I think this might be an example of blood not being thicker than water,” Stone said.

“Do you know who the other guy is?”

Dino studied the screen, his lips tight in concentration, then his head cocked slightly.

“I don’t know who he is, but he does fit Fred’s description of one of the guys who jumped you in Chelsea.”

“Is that so?” Stone said, looking at the man with renewed interest.

“Got it,” Watkins said into her comm, then turned to the others.

“Rosa’s on the downtown platform and appears to be waiting for either the A or D train. I’m told an A train is arriving in four minutes.”

“And Gennaro?” Stone asked.

“He and his companion have crossed the street and are now heading south around the circle, walking fast.”

“We can either follow the money or follow the one who thinks he has the money,” Stone said.

“It’s your call, Jack.”

“The latter,” Jack said without hesitating.

“Gennaro has to be the one who ordered the accidents that hurt Hillary and Fred. So, I’d very much like to have a talk with him. Since we have two people on the woman and a bug on the money, we can save her for later.”

“Dino, this might be a good time for you to be somewhere else,” Stone suggested.

“Funny, I was thinking the same thing,” Dino said.

“Alicia, could you please drop me off at your earliest convenience. I have a sudden need to return to my office.”