Irrevocable Trust (Sasha McCandless Legal Thriller Book 6) (25 page)

Leo patted his waistband.
“
It
’
s on me.
”

“
Good.
”

He felt Sasha
’
s eyes on him but didn
’
t meet her gaze. They could fight about the gun later.

“
Is Maisy okay to stay there?
”
Naya asked, a worried crease wrinkling her forehead.

“
She said the place was empty. I told her to stay outside, just in case. I doubt she searched it thoroughly.
”

Sasha scooped up her keys, phone, and wallet and dumped them all into her bag. Leo noted with relief that her hands were steady now. Then he looked down at his own and willed himself to stop their trembling.

“
You coming?
”
she said.

“
Yes.
”
He stood to follow her.
“
Wait, Naya had an epiphany.
”

Naya waved them toward the door.
“
Never mind that. Good news always keeps. Go.
”

But Will shook his head.
“
No. If you have a theory as to how Bricker found his family, it could be important.
”

“
Critical, even,
”
Hank added.

Sasha paused in the doorway to hear what Naya had to say, but Leo could feel the impatience radiating off her in waves. He gave her what he hoped was a soothing smile.

“
Okay, well, as I was slicing tomatoes for the sandwiches, it dawned on me.
”

“
What dawned on you?
”
Sasha asked, hurrying her along.

“
The seeds. Fly Boy over there mentioned using some of Allison
’
s seeds to start a garden at the new house when the kids move.
”

“
Right, Leah has this stainless steel container full of seeds she brought with her when they moved. I helped her plant some out back because they had to leave their mom
’
s garden behind,
”
Leo volunteered.

Her voice gathered strength and confidence as she went on.
“
Exactly. So I took a look at the seed vault.
”

“
And?
”

“
And remember how I connected Celia Gerig to the preppers?
”
Naya asked professorially.

Suddenly he could imagine her in court, authoritative and convincing, persuading a jury to find for her client. But he couldn
’
t recall the Gerig connection.
“
Sorry, not really.
”

“
I do,
”
Sasha interjected.
“
She was asking about heirloom seeds on some message board.
”

“
Bingo! And who do you think responded with a link to a recommendation? Your girl, Anna Bricker. I pulled up the cached page. The company she told Celia to use is the same one that made the canister in the mudroom.
”

“
How on earth did you remember that?
”
Will asked, impressed but baffled.

“
Hey. Mac
’
s not the only one with a steel trap for a memory.
”

Sasha smiled.
“
So how do you think that leads to Bricker exactly?
”

“
Figure a year and a half has passed. Bricker
’
s behind bars. Allison and the kids have a new life, no one knows where they are. She decides she wants a garden. She knows it
’
s a theoretical risk to order from this survivalist company she
’
s done business with in the past. But their product
’
s superior and the price is right. She rationalizes it and places an order under her new name. When Bricker gets out, he starts trying to track her down. He hits dead end after dead end until he remembers the seed company. He contacts the company and gets a list of everyone who ordered seeds for this planting season. Alphabetical list? Allison Bennett, Anna Bricker? It wouldn
’
t take a genius to connect the dots. And anyway, he sort of is one.
”

“
Okay. Sure, that
’
s plausible. It
’
s a stretch, but Bricker presumably knew her as well as anybody, if not better. If gardening was her thing, he could have predicted her habits.
”
Sasha glanced at Hank.
“
Would it be breaking any WITSEC rules to order from a company that you
’
ve done business with in the past
—
I mean, using the new name?
”

He frowned.
“
Not exactly. But witnesses are encouraged to break ties with their old lives. It wouldn
’
t take much for some overeager junior attorney who heard Naya
’
s theory to chalk Allison
’
s death up to her carelessness.
”

Will twisted his mouth into a sour knot, leaving no room for doubt as to how he felt about such an argument, even in the hypothetical.

After a moment, he smoothed his expression into a smile and reached over to pat Naya on the shoulder.
“
Very nice work, Naya.
”

Leo could have sworn he saw her blush
—
her dark skin turned momentarily dusky.

She ducked her head and said,
“
It was nothing, really. I was just spit balling. I
’
m probably totally off-base. Anyway, I should get these sandwiches into the kids
’
bellies before they get
hangry.
”

Leo laughed. The younger ones, especially, did seem to become extraordinarily cranky if their meals and snacks were spaced too far apart. It kind of reminded him of his bride, to be honest.

But Sasha stopped Naya in her tracks.

“
Wait. Don
’
t do that.
”

“
Don
’
t feed the kids?
”

“
No. Don
’
t brush off a compliment, ever. But especially don
’
t brush off a compliment about your legal acumen.
”
Sasha
’
s eyes were smiling but her tone was anything but light.

“
Oh-kay?
”

“
Listen, there will be plenty of people who will be more than happy to denigrate or minimize your achievements. Believe me. Eight years working for Prescott taught me that much, if nothing else. Don
’
t help them out by selling yourself short. Will
’
s right. You had a great insight. He recognized it. The proper response is a simple thank you.
”

“
Okay, okay,
”
Naya mumbled.

Sasha stuck a hand on her hip and cocked her head toward Will.

Naya glared for a moment then turned and said,
“
Thank you, Will.
”

“
You
’
re quite welcome.
”
He punctuated the words with a formal little bob of his head.

“
Happy now?
”
she asked Sasha.

“
Yes. Now go feed the wild things before they eat each other up.
”

The two shared some secret woman smile for a second.

Sasha turned to Leo.
“
Come on. Let
’
s go rescue Maisy from the crime scene.
”

“
Ha. Rescue her? She
’
s probably working on her pitch to get the exclusive interview as we speak.
”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Bricker gathered firewood from the forest floor. The only sounds were his labored breathing and the crackle of dry twigs snapping below his feet. He was huffing not from exertion but from irritation.

He shouldn
’
t have lost control like that. It had been sloppy and indulgent, and he prided himself on not making careless mistakes.

Stupid.

He
’
d risked exposure by walking right through the front door of McCandless
’
condo building and jimmying her lock. Ransacking the space she shared with her husband had been satisfying. It had enabled him to release the raw, blinding rage that had been building ever since he learned that Anna had named the lawyer as trustee of her estate. He
’
d enjoyed imagining the shock on their faces when they saw the thorough violation of their home.

But what had he actually accomplished? Not a thing. He hadn
’
t advanced his goals in any way.

It had been a fully wasted day.

He pounded his thigh in frustration. Then he spat in the dirt and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

He needed to regroup. Think. Regain control.

He was so close to his goal, and Pulaski had given him the last piece of information he needed. Tomorrow at ten o
’
clock in the morning, Sasha McCandless was going to walk into the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas to try to sever his ties with his children. Whether she won or lost, he planned to see to it that the last thing she ever did was walk back of out that courthouse.

He reached into his vest pocket and fished out the satellite phone that the head of Westmoreland County prepper unit had given him with a mixture of pride and embarrassment.

He
’
d accepted it with gratitude, but he did think it was an extravagant waste. Not for
him;
he needed a secure, untraceable, reliable way to communicate with like-minded men. But he was on the run in an arguably functional society. His situation was different.

What use would anyone possibly have for a satellite phone when the satellites were all knocked out by an apocalyptic weather event or inoperable because the entities that shared the cost of operating them had all collapsed in an economic disaster? A sat-link was no defense against roving bands of desperate, hungry men. Or a man-made plague. Or terrorists who
’
d seized control of the government.

No matter. Right now, the lack of forethought and good planning on the part of a group of well-intentioned but misguided Western Pennsylvanian comrades was not his problem.

No, his problem was that right now he was in a holding pattern, unable to take any action to move his plans forward until the next day.

As Anna had always said, he wasn
’
t a man who did well with down time.

His hand hovered over the numbers on the phone trying to decide whether it would be productive to call Pulaski again. To what end, though?

A slow grin crossed his face as a better idea crystallized in his mind.

He punched in an old friend
’
s telephone number
—
a friend who prided himself on his ability to procure any weapon, fast, no questions asked.

Twenty minutes and two phone calls later, Bricker was en route to rendezvous with someone named
“
Slim Jim,
”
who would provide him with a clean firearm to replace the one he
’
d been forced to abandon when he
’
d fled the compound in New Mexico.

He had his hunting knife, and his handiwork on Anna had established his ability to improvise. But Bricker was never happier than when he was peering through a rifle scope. Even a hand gun would suffice. He could almost feel the satisfying weight in his hand.

He chuckled to himself. What was that Shakespeare quote?
“
The first thing we do, let
’
s kill all the lawyers.
”
He wasn
’
t much of a literature lover, and he was sure if Anna were alive, she
’
d delight in telling him he had the context wrong, but as far as he was concerned, it was sound advice.