Page 106 of Wild Frost

Holden was silent for a moment. "Okay. What about the panties? What do we do about that? I can't do time, bro.”

"There's only one thing to do.”

“What’s that?”

“I know a guy. He can… well, look. You don’t want to know.”

“Great,” he snarked. “That worked out so well last time.”

“It will work out this time. I can’t do time either. I have a wife and a kid. I’m already in deep shit as it is. She’s asking me all kinds of fucking questions. This media circus isn’t helping anything. Trust me, I need this to go away as much as you do.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Stop asking questions you don’t want to know the answers to.”

Holden sighed. “Don’t fuck it up.”

“I’m on my way over now. I’ll pull in the main entrance. Meet me out front with the gun. I’ll take care of it. “

“Call me when you’re pulling in.”

“Will do.” Ian ended the call, then looked at us. “Did you get what you needed?“

The state’s attorney smiled. “When you get the gun, we’ll have everything we need to nail that bastard.”

60

Holden waited under the carport by the valet stand as we pulled into the parking lot in the Revenant. With tinted windows, he couldn’t see inside, but it did draw his attention for a moment. We pulled through the carport and parked near the service entrance.

Erickson and Faulkner hung out in the back seats.

We had wired Ian up with a small button camera and a mic. It relayed everything back to us, and Jack rigged it up to display on his phone via Bluetooth. We watched the screen. The entire interaction was recorded.

Ian pulled under the carport in his Zuffenhausen Motorwerks Vanguard. Jet black metallic with Bordeaux red leather interior, the 4WD had fat knobby tires and handled the snow pretty well. There wasn’t much ice yet.

The valet sat inside, cozy and warm.

Holden moved to the passenger door and leaned in as Ian rolled the window down. Ian had the heater blasting, and the heated seats cranked. It was toasty warm in the car.

Holden didn't carry anything with him.

Ian looked at him with confusion. "Where is it?"

For an instant, I thought Holden was going to pull the pistol from his waistband and just hand it over in broad daylight. But not even Holden was that stupid.

"I got rid of it."

Ian's eyes widened, the plan going astray.

My jaw clenched with disappointment.

"Where is it?"

"Don't worry about it. Nobody is ever going to find it.”

"As long as you feel comfortable with that.”

"I'll sleep better knowing that I took care of it myself."