Human Sacrifice

By Jeffrey Birch

After Chance Colter receives a disturbing call from Maria Orlov that Anna Partanza's half-sister and ward Bernadette Colliard had been kidnapped in Zurich, Switzerland, Colter leave the next day to help in the child's recovery.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Apr 23, 2019
• ISBN: 9781543970142

Book preview

Italy.

___1___

Incidents can occur without warning in lives that are otherwise patterned, predictable and devoid of cataclysm or even disruption of a milder sort. These incidents can be of great import and emotional upheaval, and command action beyond solace or sympathy. They can also force the surfacing of otherwise safely buried painful memories.

Such was the effect of the call that came on a typical afternoon in late October, the beginning of the season the annual flood of northerners from their summer retreats to the mild winter weather of southwest Florida. Six months here, six there. It was a love- hate relationship for locals with the snowbirds. Streets crammed with cars became more dangerous since many of the snowbirds were seniors. On balance, though the seasonal influx drove the economy of Florida top to bottom that had no major industries headquartered there. The burgeoning year around population of Florida was almost entirely in coastal communities that ringed the long peninsula. A visit to the center of the state revealed an area sparsely populated, dominated by agriculture and cattle ranches.

The call came to the Nouvelle Départ Restaurant and Bar in Venice, Florida and was answered at the bar that was, for the owners, happily busy.

Nouvelle Départ.

Is this Tika?

Tika was the mixed-race beauty with amber-colored skin that seemed to defy aging. She wore her long black hair down to the middle of her back. It wasn’t Asian straight but with a wave along its length.

Speaking.

This is Maria Orlov.

Tika hesitated, working to recall, a frown of concentration mapping her features. From Italy? From Turin? It flooded back. All that had happened all that she knew of Maria Orlov who her husband had known as Irina Petrova rose grudgingly to conscious recollection. Tika remembered, the fog of lost memories receded but her memory for past events had never completely recovered after the brain injury she suffered at the hands of an assassin at their restaurant in Savannah, Georgia, two years before. A bomb planted by Thomas Murray demolished the building. He had been hired to kill her husband. She was, as the saying went, collateral damage."

Yes. From Italy. How are you, Tika?

I’m fine. Tika frowned more deeply. Wait, wait. I need a second to get this straight. The last time we saw you was at that party you threw in the restaurant of your newly found family, the half-sister you hadn’t known you had in Turin. And incidentally, thank you for the Christmas card. I noticed it was postmarked Rome. Tika was yet struggling to put past events together but Maria’s voice was vaguely familiar and that helped.

Maria smiled into the phone. And my brother and my uncle. I still take precautions and I am still under the protection of Don Fanuzzi whom you met and was my mother’s second husband if you recall.

I do. I’m remembering. But Tika was admitting recollections that were vague and unclear. She dissembled. Her brain pieced memories with bits added to complete the memory. Without photos to correct her recollections or her husband’s recollection she had no way to correct a faulty remembrance.

You had a brain injury as I also recall and were vacationing in Italy with the other couple.

Ah…. Chuck and Janice Dumont. I’m better. Thanks for asking, Maria.

That’s right, the Fed.

FBI but retired now with Janice in Omaha. Tika let out a breath. It’s great to hear from you. But Tika doubted the call was purely social. What are you doing with your life since…everything that happened in Italy? Are you here? Tika hadn’t thought of the events in Italy since their return. Her husband, Chance Colter survived, she survived and Maria survived. Chuck and Janice survived – all that mattered. She remembered that much. Tika had buried their time in Italy to a brain place she called: irrelevant. It was challenging enough to keep up with what was presently happening in their lives to struggle with a past that no longer mattered. But abruptly it did matter and that produced a wave of fear that queased her sensitive stomach.

No. I’m in Italy. I don’t have much time. I’d love to catch up later. I’m leaving for Zurich in a few minutes. Is Chance there? I need to speak with him, with you both. It’s important.

He’s in the office. I’ll put you on hold and join him there.

Tika dashed to the office to find Colter on the phone. Hang up, Chance. Now!

He stared quizzically into his wife’s deep brown eyes. Gotta go, Phil. Have to call you back. He replaced the receiver with a confused look on his face. Somebody die?

Tika was a little breathless. Maria Orlov is on the phone. Says it’s important. Wants to speak with both of us.

What? Irina, I mean Maria? Is she here?

No. Calling from Italy. Said she was leaving for Zurich in a few minutes. Tika let out a breath of exasperation. Just pick up the damn phone and put it on speaker.

Colter lifted the handset and pushed the speaker button.

Maria. This is a surprise.

I don’t have time for catching up. We can do that in Zurich. My train leaves shortly. I’ll meet you there.

Meet me? What’s going on? Colter said, his voice edging higher. Meet you in Zurich? He repeated.

Bernadette has been kidnapped. Anna is going crazy.

Kidnapped? Who would kidnap a ten-year-old kid? She’s ten now. We got a card from Anna. We sent gifts, said Colter. Offering mundane, unrelated information was often a response to unbelievable information. He needed a mental moment to absorb what Maria had said.

Tika made an astonished face in response to his mirroring expression of incredulity.

We don’t know. Nothing about it makes sense. No reason…except maybe me or…you or I don’t know. Money maybe.

You, me? What do you mean?

The Russians never quit trying to take me but Don Fanuzzi has protected me. It’s possible they took Bernadette to get me. You were a big problem for just about everybody in Italy if you remember, trying to find me.

As I recall, you did the damage to the Russians. He could hear the anguish in Maria’s voice and he was working to put some kind of logic to what he had been told, buying more emotional time. Has there been communication from the kidnappers? Have they made demands?

Anna received a note the day she was taken, yesterday, stating they would be in touch. Nothing since. Anna is as you can imagine an emotional wreck.

This happened yesterday?

Yes. Yesterday when she left school. Anna picks her up but was running a few minutes late. Bernadette would have been waiting outside. She was snatched then.

Have the police been notified?

No…not yet. The note said bringing in the police would mean that Bernadette would be immediately killed. You were a cop, what should she do? She needs you to tell her.

Colter said, So, Bernadette’s alive. Tell Anna not to do anything until I get there. He was privately hoping the reason why she was taken would be known by then – another note stating a demand received. Dealing with a ransom demand seemed…well, it was something to act on. Knowing what the kidnappers wanted would help him decide on a plan, whether to bring in the local cops and when. He’d been abducted in Italy but with a desire to kill him. He’d escaped. His cop experience with kidnapping was zero. A problem was that Switzerland and Europe in general were not like the U.S. Bernadette could already have been taken from the country by car to a place where she couldn’t be found or recovered. Movement between European countries was akin to traveling between states in the U.S.

Based on the note, yes. She’s alive. We have to believe that. I’ll tell her to sit tight. Can you come tomorrow? Maria sighed into the phone. Anna and Bernadette have visited me a few times since you were here. We’ve become friends. I love that child like she’s my own.

Colter could hear Maria’s voice choke. The Maria, Irina he knew never cracked, never broke and never expressed emotion, never appeared capable of love in all the years she operated as a contract assassin in the U.S. before retiring to Italy only to be hunted by the Russians believing she had information they wanted. But in the end they had backed off after Maria eliminated a number of their agents and fled to Turin under Mafia protection.

I’ll check flights as soon as we’re off the phone. Colter frowned. You don’t know this is about you or me. It could be something else. Anna had some very bad relatives in Miami, the Sicilian Mafia, Cosa Nostra. I got tangled up with them when they tried to take over The Yellow Parrot in Key West and murdered my partner but I was able to convince them the price was too high. I sold it and Tika and I moved to Montreal for a while. They were after Anna and I helped her escape to Europe. Could very well be them. Remember also that the Catholic Church in Paris wanted Bernadette with those screwy ideas that she had a pipeline to God. That’s why you drove us, Anna and Bernadette and me out of France in the middle of the night.

Maria said but was remembering that it was in Key West where Colter put a bullet in her shoulder hastening her retirement as he was spiriting Anna Partanza to the airport. But that was ancient history, another life she had left, another she wanted not to remember. She said, If the Mafia is a possibility they could just as easily have taken Anna. Why take her young half-sister? A child. Makes no sense unless they think Anna escaped with buckets of money and wouldn’t crack under duress. Maria thought that the word duress to her meant torture. Upon reflection, threatening Bernadette would force Anna to comply with whatever their demand was. I’d forgotten about the Church in Paris. Possible, I guess. We did go through a lot there.

Colter said, That’s an understatement. You saved Anna and me from certain death at that farm outside of Paris. Somebody wants something from Anna and Bernadette is being held to get it. If the Church took her or had someone take her, she’ll be in Paris by now and hidden. It’s something else. They would have no intention of giving her back. A ransom would be irrelevant.

I know, believe me, I know. I’ve been all though it in my mind. Nothing fits. Maria added, Will you come?

Colter looked at his wife.

Tika shrugged and mouthed the words, pointing at her husband, We can’t close. You have to go.

Colter nodded and repeated, I’ll be on the first flight I can get.

I’ll pick you up. Let Anna know you’re coming. I don’t use a phone much. I’ll be to her well ahead of you.

The call abruptly ended and Maria climbed on a train from Turin to Zurich. It would be a trip of five hours.

After an hour spent on the Internet and the phone to book a flight for the next day to Amsterdam connecting to Zurich, Colter hastily packed with Tika making sure he had the right things for a week. A week? That was a completely arbitrary timeline she thought. Tika shuddered. Children who are abducted often are never found but if she could be recovered, her husband would find her.

As she closed the suitcase, she said, I know you can’t know how long this will take but find her. Find Bernadette. I know she’s alive. I can feel it. If I can get someone trustworthy to watch over the business, I’ll join you. Tika’s memory lapses had been replaced by kind of sixth sense or maybe a heightened sense of circumstances. She didn’t experience it in a supernatural way but she seemed to sense things and she sensed Bernadette was alive. Wishful thinking? Intuition? Did she simply imagine she sensed things others didn’t? She didn’t know but something told her Bernadette was alive. For how long was the question she couldn’t answer.

Try Ben. He could do it if he’s back from cruising the Gulf in his sailboat.

I will. Tika looked thoughtful. You’re right, Ben could watch the place and I know Anna needs us there.

*

Neither Colter nor Tika slept much that night. Colter was up before dawn pacing the floor of their Venice, Florida house. Tika, never the early riser, joined him a short while later. They stood together in the gathering light as a new day broke revealing the quiet waters of the Gulf of Mexico in the distance. It was hurricane season but thus far, quiet on the Gulf side of the narrow peninsula called Florida. The Atlantic side had weathered one storm that clipped Miami and hugged the coast north into the Carolinas.

The restaurant and bar were doing well after a rocky start and they lived in a dream home near the water. Life was everything they wanted. Well, truth be told, Colter got bored but finding Bernadette was not the kind of adventure Tika had in mind for him, for them.

From what she knew of Maria Orlov and what had transpired in France before Italy, they were a formidable team, her husband and Maria Orlov. Truthfully, she harbored some jealously toward the beautiful woman who had been so close to her husband. Was her desire to be in Zurich in some way about that? Tika buried her head deeper into Colter’s shoulder.

He pushed her back at arm’s length. What?

I’m just worried about Bernadette and concerned for Anna, she dissembled and that was true but only partially. Tika added, I know she’s all right. I know it. Find her, Chance. Find her and get her home safe. Tears formed in her eyes. And I’m worried about you. You have to do this but you can’t keep doing it.

I know. Call Anna. Tell her I’m on the way. She can pick me up or Maria can do it if Anna needs to stay close to her home phone.

The brief conversation between Tika and Anna was punctuated with Anna’s almost continual sobs. It’s my fault, Tika. I was a few minutes late to pick her up. She would have been waiting outside the school.

Consolation was useless. Chance is on his way. He’ll know what to do. He’ll get Bernadette back. I’ll come if I can. I’ll let you know.

I hope you can. You both have been there for me since Key West, Anna sobbed. I’m a failure as Bernadette’s mother."

The call ended with Tika struggling to contain her own grief at what had happened. She wasn’t a mother but had been close to her mother at the end and empathized with the pain Anna was feeling.

Chance? How old is Anna?

Ah, I’m gonna say, twenty-two.

She’s very young and has shouldered a lot of responsibility raising her half-sister alone in a foreign country. She feels Bernadette’s abduction was her fault. I don’t want you gone again in another dangerous situation but you have to get Bernadette back.

I know and I will.

Colter had settled in to a life as a restauranteur with his wife and was satisfied. At times he missed the adventurous physicality of the many things he had done, had been forced to do in his mind, but like an aging prize fighter, he knew his best days physically were behind him. He had the memories both good and bad that played behind his eyes like a photo album when he dropped into bed at night.

It was with no small measure of trepidation – an unfamiliar feeling, that he considered what he might face to find and save Bernadette. Tika knew he was slowing down, saw it every day in subtle ways. She was approaching forty but hadn’t suffered the physical damage her husband had through the years. He had scars on scars. Colter knew she saw it – the inexorable effects of time and healed injuries – the achiness and stiffness in the morning, but she loved Bernadette as he did and encouraged him to make the trip to Zurich and find the child. No one else could do it. No one else knew how to do it, she thought. He had always been so incredibly competent. Would he prevail again, this last time? Or was she sending him to his death? No, she thought, he will succeed as he always has and come back to me in one piece and not in a box.

*

Colter hated flying, always had. He was a big guy and his legs seemed to tie up more with every passing year in the cramped seats. He usually ended up standing with the flight attendants in back until they shooed him back to his seat. Flights to Europe were particularly onerous. The flight from Venice, Florida took him to Atlanta with a short layover and then to JFK and another flight to Amsterdam with yet another short flight to Zurich. Traveling east meant time was later, about seven hours later, but the flights consumed fifteen hours in total.

Forced to retake his seat by the busy flight attendants, he sat, unable to sleep. He rarely let his mind travel back to his childhood but the mission he was on prompted him to revisit that horrible time. The memory was buried deep but surfaced like an unsummoned wraith and played like a movie behind his eyes. After what happened he believed in neither God, Satan or sin. Belief was beaten out of him and never returned. He did believe in evil and evil had happened to his best friend.

Colter had been raised a Presbyterian until age eleven when it happened to Tommy, Tomaso Angelo who lived next door. Tommy was Catholic and sometimes they discussed the different versions of God they were being taught. The boys were classmates and inseparable. Tommy’s parents had wanted to send him to a Catholic school but he had refused that alleviated the guilt his parents felt since they couldn’t afford the parochial school tuition.

The word that came first in Colter’s mind, always the same word, was horror. Tommy had suffered unspeakable acts evidenced in his tortured body found six months later in a shallow grave near a wooded area not far from their homes. Colter had found him and many times later wished he hadn’t. Colter had been searching though, the entire time and part of him had always believed he was meant to find his friend and end the unendurable suffering of Tommy’s parents for not knowing what happened to their only child. Everyone had been searching in those first weeks but failed to find him. The searchers had failed, the dogs had failed, everyone had failed before the organized search ceased. He somehow sensed Tommy was near calling out to be found and justice delivered to his abductor but while he had found Tommy’s remains, the kidnapper and murderer was not apprehended until years later. He was discovered already in jail for a similar crime and admitted the murder of Tommy Angelo on his deathbed. Closure but too late to help him or Tommy’s parents.

The body had been buried beneath a compost heap in another neighbor’s backyard that abutted the small woods. It was later felt that the odor of the decaying compost confused the sensitive noses of the dogs. For whatever reason, all had missed Tommy’s rotting body until that afternoon when months after Tommy’s disappearance, Colter had been in the woods, their favorite place to play and wandered to the pile. He had not been allowed to accompany the searchers fearing the worst and fearing the discovery of Tommy’s body would adversely affect the mind of an eleven-year-old boy. And that it had.

Colter kicked at the loose soil below the mound of rotting vegetation without clear conviction but implored to investigate. The neighbor, Mr. Wilkinson periodically claimed the fertile soil the mound produced but from its other side facing the house. The back side abutting the woodland had been untouched.

In the days and weeks following Tommy’s disappearance authorities hoped publicly that the boy would be found alive. News conferences were held but with time it became increasingly clear that the boy was likely dead.

During those tense first days, young Chance Colter was repeatedly interviewed. He came to know the investigators and observed how they worked. He found the world of police investigation fascinating despite its failure to find his friend. Later, after college he joined their ranks.

Without a body the case remained open. Tommy’s parents had no sense of closure just unending sorrow, hope and worry. Colter’s father had died the year before of a heart attack at the young age of forty prompted by the results of untreated rheumatic fever. He lived with his mother Harriet Colter, an accountant for a Minneapolis company. She was a devout Presbyterian but Colter never reclaimed his faith despite finding its Scottish origins fascinating. Who could not be interested in kilted bagpipe player at a church service.

Feeling something soft with his shoe, he kicked again and again. In seconds, he saw the pants leg and recognized the cuffed jeans the way Tommy always wore them. He had found Tommy and ran home. He had wanted to find the body of his friend but doing so brought sadness. Not knowing had left hope.

Police descended on the scene. Colter led them. Tommy’s badly decayed body was revealed, excavated and put into a body bag. Colter saw it all. Tommy’s head was crushed. Whoever had taken him had tortured his friend before killing him. Tommy’s parents came. His mother cried in sobs. His father held her with a stony face. At least a funeral could be held, Colter thought. He hoped they could recover. But they hadn’t recovered. Tommy was their only child and in a few months they had moved away. Later, Colter learned the had divorced. There was no closure just unremitting agony over their lost child.

It was knowing the pain Tommy’s death had caused everyone that Colter knew finding Bernadette was the most important thing in his life. She’d been gone two days. Perhaps the kidnappers had communicated with Anna again. He hoped so but feared an outcome like Tommy. With effort he forced that conclusion deep and replaced it with one of hope. She’s alive, he murmured. And I will find her. But he knew that whether Bernadette was alive or dead depended entirely on why she was taken.

Colter arrived in Zurich the middle of the next day. Maria had agreed to pick him up at the airport. Colter knew she was exposing herself outside of her safe life in the North of Italy under the protection of Don Fanuzzi. With his suitcase and carryon, he stood at the curb, not knowing what to expect.

Colter had met the old man, a Mafia Don the previous year at the party at his daughter’s restaurant, Ristorante di Francesca in Turin, known in Italy as Torino, the little bull for a reason he had never discovered. The daughter was Maria’s half-sister but that was a much longer story he chased from his mind.

A black Mercedes pulled to a stop next to him. The window powered down. The blonde and still beautiful Maria Orlov who he had known as Irina Petrova, her last alias before reclaiming her real name was behind the wheel.

Get in. Good to see you, Colter. You haven’t changed much.

You haven’t changed at all. You look rested. My eyes must be bleeding. I don’t sleep well on planes.

Poor baby. You can grab a little sleep at Anna’s place but not much.

How is she doing?

Maria let out a breath. She’s a mess. Feels if she hadn’t been a few minutes late Bernadette wouldn’t have been snatched.

You know as well as I that whoever took her would have gotten her anyway. Many ways to abduct a kid from a mother who is not expecting it.

I know but I’m not sure I wouldn’t be carrying the same guilt if I were in her place. I can’t help worrying that our becoming friends and visiting me is somehow behind this.

We don’t know that. I don’t see a connection.

The Russians might have taken her to get to me.

Colter glanced at the passing neat streets of Zurich. Everything and just about everybody in Switzerland was neat and tidy. Anal-retentive were the words that came to mind but it was an educated and patriotic populace – a law and order country. Kidnapping a child would be despicable in their eyes. Good cops and good bankers, he thought. But cops were not involved – yet. He’d soon have a sense of where things stood. He shuddered.

Maria glanced at him seeing his tremor. You cold, Colter? No. You’re not cold. I know. It has me scared to death, too.

Maria wove through traffic like the trained driver she was. Colter said, You haven’t forgotten how to drive.

Evasive driving has saved my life more than once.

And mine, and Anna’s and Bernadette’s, said Colter.

Maria smirked. We all have our talents. As I recall, you can handle a car pretty well yourself.

Cop training long ago. My life now is pretty tame.

How’s Tika? She didn’t mention the obvious struggle with memory she had heard on the phone with Colter’s wife.

Talking seriously about his wife to Maria seemed odd somehow and feeling that puzzled him. Nothing was likely hidden behind the question like: How’s your marriage going? If she can get someone to cover the business, she’ll join us. Sensing Maria was probing though, Colter added, She’ll never get the brain back she had but she’s doing all right. I’ll carry the guilt of that forever. It’s hard for her to not remember and saying don’t worry about it is of little help. Imagine an itch you can’t scratch. Colter sighed. "It’s a little like that I guess.

Maria nodded and said matter-of-factly, I hope she can come. Anna would like that. So would I. We’re her family, Colter, Anna’s. You don’t see her but I’ve seen her and Bernadette as I mentioned. Maria turned to him. We have to get Bernadette back, Colter. We can’t fail.

We won’t. We’ll get her back…and put some hurt on her abductors.

Maria smirked. That sounds like the Colter I remember.

But the lingering fear hung unspoken between them. Kidnappings of children often didn’t turn out well as Colter knew. Falling into despondency accomplished nothing and certainly wouldn’t help Anna’s frayed emotions.

____2____

The drive to Anna’s apartment consumed thirty minutes but would have taken forty with anyone else driving. With his suitcase and carryon in hand Maria and he climbed the steps and entered the building. Anna’s apartment was on the third floor overlooking the street. He was happy for the elevator. The day was spent; he was tired. Night was fast approaching and he needed sleep.

Anna met them at the door, her eyes red and swollen from crying. She flung her arms around his neck. Bernadette’s beloved little white dog, Rufus hovered at her ankles knowing as dogs did that something was amiss: Bernadette was missing.

Oh, Chance. Thank you for coming. I am so worried. It’s my fault, all my fault. Her tears fell onto his shoulder. Rufus sensing her emotion, dropped to the floor, head between paws.

Colter gently pushed Anna back to look into her eyes. Listen to me. It was not your fault. They, whoever they are wanted her for some reason. They would have gotten to her some other way.

Anna hugged Maria. Thank you for coming, Maria. Bernadette loves you so much.

Maria whispered to Anna, We’ll get her back. She will be fine. We’ll find her.

Colter and Maria moved into the apartment. Anna directed Colter to a spare bedroom that Anna used as an office but that had a bed. Maria would sleep in Bernadette’s room with its elaborate decorations of a ten-year-old. With everyone settled, Colter said, Show me the note you received when this happened. Two days, right? I lose track of time crossing the Atlantic.

Anna nodded. Yes. Two days without another word. Three tomorrow morning.

He studied the cryptic message crafted in Swiss French from magazine and newspaper words and letters. My French isn’t good enough. He handed the sheet back to Anna who read it to him.

Not much there except they would get back with further instructions and not to involve the police. Not getting the authorities involved was the point of the message. They need time for some reason. Colter frowned. That part I don’t get. They could have expressed their demand and didn’t. Colter stood to pace the room. It may be they want to ratchet up the desperation here. It could just be that but if her abduction was for…something else no note would have been delivered. That is very good news.

But why? Anna lamented. Why take her? What could they possibly want that a ten year old child could get them?

Anna handed the sheet to Maria who read it again with a furled brow and said, They want something. This isn’t about taking a kid for the white slave trade. She’s too young and this isn’t Thailand. It’s not about sexual predation. They want something but haven’t disclosed what yet. Maria let out a breath. It certainly does increase the anxiety on this end. You’re right about that, Colter. Privately, Maria wasn’t sure that some perverted psyche wasn’t involved but if whoever took her wanted her, there would have been no note as Colter had said.

Colter added. Has to be money. They have to believe you have it or can get it.

Anna said, She was taken for ransom?

That is the best reason. Money can be negotiated and getting it can take time.

Anna stared at Colter. You think we can negotiate Bernadette’s release?

We need to hear from them again. We need to know their demand.

Colter moved to the landline phone on a small table near the door. He quickly disassembled it, saying, Anna can I have your mobile phone?

What are you doing? Anna said as she retrieved her cell phone from a pocket and handed it to him with a questioning face. Colter removed the back. See here. This is a bug, a listening device and one here on the landline handset. Does Bernadette have a phone?

Anna gasped. My God, they’ve been listening to our conversations.

That’s probably how they knew you were running late to pick up Bernadette. Does she have a phone? Did you call her at school?

Anna nodded, shocked at what had been revealed.

For a month. She begged until I gave in. Everyone has phones here. Many of her classmates have them. It’s how parents and children communicate.

Colter wasn’t up on kids with phones in the States but assumed it was probably much the same."

I assume you called her number once she was taken.

Anna said through a sigh, choking back sobs, A million times.

They took out the SIM card and the battery or maybe just destroyed the phone. They know how to reach you.

Take them out, cried Anna.

Colter shook his head. No, we don’t want them to know we found them. You’ll use the phones when we want them to know something. Tomorrow, buy a burner.

Anna blinked. What’s a burner?

Ah, sorry, a disposable phone that has prepaid minutes. You’ll use that instead.

Anna nodded. I see. How did you know to look?

They had to know things about you to pull this off. It just made sense. They’ve been watching, too, I’ll wager. He turned to Maria. "Would you take a walk outside? He held up Anna’s cell phone. These transmitters are good up to about two hundred feet without some type of satellite intel that the CIA, MI6 and others have. Unless a government like