“They’re at two different private airports. Their planes are fueled and ready, but they haven’t filed their flight plans. They don’t appear to be in a hurry to leave.”
Sparrow stood taller. “They’re waiting for a signal.”
My eyes closed.
Mason looked up from the screen of his phone. “Garrett acquired clothes for Ms. Miller.” He looked at me. “It’s not enough to have her change on her own. Man, if there’s a tracker or a microphone in her bra or...concealed in...fuck, you know what I’m saying? She has to be searched.”
“What is going on?” Reid said.
“I’ll do it,” I volunteered. “I’ll question and search her. If anyone else—”
Sparrow nodded. “Answers first.”
I looked at the computer and concentrated on Reid. “The short version is this: you all know that before basic training I lived on the streets of Chicago, and I’d been there since I was young?”
I was only looking at Reid who nodded his response.
“When I was fifteen, I met a girl, also homeless.” A thousand images came to mind. The apple and the police chase. Other stories I didn’t have time to relate. “We became friends, more than friends. She was...” I inhaled. “When I was eighteen and she was seventeen we were befriended by people starting a mission. I wasn’t anxious to get involved, but the more they talked, the more I liked the possibility. They offered housing—a roof, three squares, and even a weekly stipend for incidentals. At the time, it was as if they’d offered us the fucking Ritz.”
I took another breath as my friends remained silent.
“The only catch,” I went on, “was that that girl and I couldn’t live there—living together—if we weren’t married. Neither of us were against marriage. We just hadn’t pushed it, but damn, it made sense, right? Get a piece of paper and get off the streets. The people at the mission helped us get IDs. Then, the day after Madeline turned eighteen, we went to the justice of the peace. And boom, I was married—we were.”
“S-shit...” came from the computer.
I stood and paced to one wall and back. “Yeah, we were all happy and shit, and then one day I came back to the mission and she was gone. The pastor’s wife told me she sent Madeline out for kitchen supplies. I can’t remember her name—Kristen or something. Anyway, she claimed she gave Maddie—Madeline—a hundred dollars in cash. She made it sound as if Maddie had run off with the cash like she’d done when she was younger from a foster home. I didn’t want to believe her.
“It wasn’t that Maddie wouldn’t steal. I’d heard the story about the drunk foster parent too. It was that she wouldn’t have done it from the mission. She was too happy with what we’d done and held hope for our future. For some reason, I even remember that morning she disappeared that she was excited and maybe nervous.”
I sat back in one of the chairs and sighed. “Maybe she had it all planned. Anyway, I spent the next weeks canvassing the city and asking questions. There were rumors about teens disappearing.” I looked around the room. “Trafficking and the like. I couldn’t believe that. We’d both known the dangers. Finally, someone told me they heard she was dead, that her body had shown up at the morgue. I went there. It took all day but I arrived. I had the marriage license. They told me there was a backup of Jane Does, to come back in a month.
“I enlisted the next day. A little over a month later I reported for duty. You know the rest.”
“And you never heard from her?” Mason asked.
I shook my head. “No, I looked occasionally, but in my mind, she was dead. I never mentioned her because…why?”
“Because she showed up,” Sparrow said.
“She did. I knew it was her on Thursday night.”
“And you didn’t think—”
I stood again. “To mention it? Yes. I tried a couple times. Did I think she was involved with Andros Ivanov? No. Did I think she had my daughter sixteen years ago? Fuck no.”
“Wait, what?” Reid asked. “You have a daughter?”
“I don’t know.” I looked at the computer. “Her name is Ruby Miller. I would assume she lives in Detroit. Can you see what you can find?”
“Yeah, I can, but she’s a minor and that name isn’t unique. The search won’t be easy.”
It didn’t matter. I didn’t want my answers from Reid. I wanted them from Maddie.
“She offered to show me a picture,” Mason said, handing a phone my way. “I thought you should be the one to see it.”
I reached for the phone but my gaze went around the room.
Mason spoke first. “So far we’ve determined that the phone isn’t transmitting a signal. The GPS has been disabled, and I did a quick check for spyware. The one I found is not high-tech. We disabled it from making calls and accessing networks for any kind of communication, but that can be easily rectified. You can still access her gallery without the phone transmitting to Ivanov or anyone.”
“What about receiving calls?”
“They’ll go to her voicemail. We’re monitoring it.”
I looked up from the phone to my friends. “I’ve let you all down. I’m sorry.”
Mason continued, “Just because the phone isn’t transmitting doesn’t mean she isn’t. Make sure she isn’t wired. If Ivanov is waiting for a signal from her, he’s not going to get it.”
The idea that she was wearing a wire or a tracking device made my stomach turn. It was one thing to explain to these men that I’d married when I was eighteen. It was something else to admit that she’d returned as a member of a bratva, one who had just declared war on us.
“Where are the clothes?” I asked.
“Garrett has them in the hallway,” Mason said.
I turned back to Sparrow. “What’s going to happen if...” I had trouble vocalizing my thoughts.
“Your wife. Are you still married?” Reid asked from the computer.
“Legally, yes,” I replied. “I still have the license.” Not that the paper made it legal, but it was the documentation from the courthouse.
“And if there’s truly a daughter,” Reid went on, “a paternity test is no biggie. Hell, they sell them at the local drugstores. I can get you one more reliable than that.”
“She’s a member of the Ivanov bratva,” Sparrow said again.
“Boss,” Reid said, “I don’t know this woman. I know Patrick and so do you. I also remember a night when he was the voice of reason about family, about my wife and Mason’s sister.”
“This isn’t the same thing,” Sparrow’s voice rose.
“Family,” Reid repeated.
Sparrow stood taller. “Fucking make sure she’s clean and not relaying any information to Ivanov. Under no circumstances is she going to the tower. We’ll deal with logistics after you question and search her.”
I nodded. “I understand. I wish I was, but honestly, I’m not sure I can trust her.”
“Until you are, she’s not getting near our family,” Sparrow said.
“I also don’t think I can send her back to Ivanov. She said she...” I paused, recalling her declaration to beg forgiveness. “It doesn’t resonate right in my gut. But fuck, if Ruby is out there and she’s mine...”