Page 126 of The List

“I want your originals, including the list Hank Reed obtained.”

He realized the only reason Lee was even talking to him was he first needed to retrieve all those items. So he bought more time. “I can go get them.”

“Mr. De Florio will accompany you.”

“Not a chance.”

Lee looked at his watch. “All right. It’s 9:15. I want you back here by 10:00. With everything.”

“I’m not Greene,” he made clear.

“No, apparently you’re not. But I’m no fool either.” Lee passed the second folder to De Florio. “Jon.”

De Florio opened the file. “You live at 328 Live Oak Lane. Yourmother is Catherine, age sixty-six. She likes gardening, does it most mornings for a couple of hours, plays bridge on Thursdays. Sadly, she’s been diagnosed with dementia—”

“Enough.” He shoved back the chair, stood, and moved toward the door. “I get the picture.”

Lee stayed seated. “I hope you do. I expect to hear from you within the next forty-five minutes.”

He left.

LEE STARED AT THE CLOSED DOOR.

“Jon, I don’t think Mr. Walker is going to be as cooperative as he’d like for us to think.”

“There’s no reason for him to trust us, or for him to think you will keep your word.”

“Understandable, considering I won’t.” He paused. “What did he do over the weekend?”

“Yard work on Saturday. Went to an air show with Reed’s daughter and granddaughter on Sunday. He’s been seeing the daughter socially. On the way back they stopped by Reed’s for a few minutes.”

“Were you able to listen in on the conversation?”

“They didn’t talk in the outer office, that’s the only room we have bugged. But they made a call to Greene’s house, looking for him.”

“I bet they were. Any more contact between Reed and Walker?”

“A call this morning. Then they met together in the cafeteria before work. The conversation appeared pleasant and friendly.”

“I can’t help but feel we’re being rocked to sleep.” He thought for a moment. “Mr. Walker is not going to bring us what we want. So there will almost certainly have to be retribution. You said his mother was how old?”

“Sixty-six.”

“And Reed has a daughter and granddaughter?”

De Florio nodded.

He considered the options.

“Let’s be in position to move on Walker’s mother at 10:01. But not a moment before. And make it awful. Crime is running rampant these days. Burglaries and robberies occur all the time. The drug traffic causes such mayhem. That should send an appropriate message to all involved.”

9:20A.M.

BRENT HEADED BACK TOWARD HIS OFFICE.HE ENTEREDBUILDINGB, but instead of climbing the stairs to the general counsel’s office he stayed on the ground floor and slipped into receiving. He desperately needed a phone. De Florio had unnerved him, the message clear.Play ball or we know all about your family.He needed to get in touch with his mother, and fast.

He found a phone in an empty office and dialed his home number, but all he got was the answering machine. Where was she? Even when she was working out in the yard she always toted the cordless with her. He thought hard, then it hit him. She’d mentioned yesterday a dentist appointment to get her teeth cleaned. What he couldn’t recall was the name of her dentist.

Maybe if he saw it he’d recognize it.