Whoever had planned this for him had timed it to within seconds. He knew immediately that the drop was to be just as perfectly timed, that he would be pushed right to the limit to accommodate the demands.

As it was, he hit the street with the pedal down, built-in grill and window lights pulsing the blinding blue light, clearing traffic.

Eight minutes to go. It would be a miracle, but he just might make it.

Several miles above him, in the cold black void of space, satellites tracked his every turn, and Pahwan Riz-in the steam-cleaning van, with a team of four unmarked vehicles-followed at a distance, never letting Boldt out of his sight.

THE KNOCK ON THE BACK door sounded like a gunshot as it banged off the walls of the kitchen and ran through Liz like a jolt of electricity.

“It’s okay,” said Bobbie Gaynes, a wire in her ear leading from a walkie-talkie. “It’s Officer Foreman, BCI. I’ll get the door. You sit tight.”

Liz had made them both some Red Zinger tea, and she noticed the steam in the light of a lamp as it swirled and tried to follow Gaynes, dissipating a few inches from the cup. She felt this way too-her energy fading the longer Lou stayed away. First the kids, then Lou. She felt as if all the love in this home had lost its way. She blew on her own tea and took a sip and returned the mug to the coaster, noticing that it shook slightly in her grip and wondering how much more of this she could endure.

She heard Danny Foreman’s sonorous voice interspersed with the female chimes of Gaynes’s and, a moment later, the back door thump shut. Foreman entered the living room asking if she had a minute. He carried what looked like a silver Palm Pilot in hand, and kept it in his lap as he sat down. He looked tired and worn. He glanced over at Gaynes’s mug of tea, grabbed hold, and drank from it, savoring the taste. She found his brazenness disturbing and thought it some kind of sign, a signal that she should have interpreted more clearly.

“Where to start?” he asked, peering over the mug as he took a second noisy sip.

“Lou’s not here,” she said.

“I’m up to speed on that.”

“I’m not. Not exactly.”

“He’s busy.”

“Well, that certainly clarifies things.”

“It’s to our benefit he’s occupied.”

“Is it?”

“What I’m about to tell you is strictly confidential. I can only assume that a banker knows all about confidentiality, and I can only hope that despite what I presume to be your loyalty and devotion to your husband, you keep this confidential.”

“Message received.” She made no agreement, extremely careful of her word selection. Lou had warned her to expect such a meeting; how he anticipated such things was beyond her, but she was glad for it now.

“It affects us all, Liz, and is not to be taken lightly.”

“Do you think I’m taking any of this lightly?”

Foreman returned an unsympathetic stare.

“I know how painful the past is for you, Danny. We’re alike in that way, I think. We’re both stuck. And I’ll tell you something, I’m not going to help you, or Lou, or anyone with this investigation for the sake of the investigation. I want to get unstuck. That’s all I care about. So if you’re looking for a helping hand, you’ve picked the wrong time for me.”

“Paul Geiser and I were behind the disappearance of David Hayes.” He threw it out and let it wrap itself around her until she found it hard to breathe. He continued, “We had to get him off the radar of a major player, a guy you don’t need to know about. But it had to be done. Hayes wanted to cut a deal to turn state’s witness-and if you, or Lou, or anyone else questions Paul, I guarantee you he’ll pull a Sergeant Schultz on you. He’ll deny any knowledge of any of this, as well he should. Hayes has agreed to recover the missing money and to implicate the man whose money it was. We’re assuming that you’ve been compromised either by Hayes or this bigger player, and I don’t need you to answer that either way, but the reason Lou is not being included in on this is just that: because we believe you’ve been compromised. Lou is so by-the-book that we didn’t trust he’d agree to let you run this software for Hayes. I’m here to plead with you to do just that. In a very short time Hayes will have the software necessary to pull this off. Once he does, we can assign a government account as the destination account. You can wire that money over to the government instead of risking it disappearing again. Do so, and it’s done. Hayes gets his plea, the player goes away, and your life gets back to normal.” He paused to let her absorb the scenario. “Sunday night, before the reception, you will receive the instructions either here at your home or on your cell. You follow them to the letter, and it’s over.”

Liz wasn’t sure what to make of Danny Foreman. She felt a wild pounding in her chest, like she’d run, or swum underwater a great distance, and only now stopped for a breath.

“We faked a bloody crime scene,” Foreman said.

“And called Lou out to it.”

“Had to be convincing. If it convinced Lou, and I think it did, then we’ve established a perimeter of protection.”

“And you’re telling me this because… ” She fished for the logic behind it, then answered the question herself. “Because regardless of the destination account number I’m given, you want the money wired back to this government account you set up.”

“That’s it exactly.”

“Would you have let Darlene do something like this?”

“If it put you at risk I wouldn’t ask you to do this. You must know that, Liz.”

She snorted involuntarily. “I don’t believe that. I believe you’d do anything necessary to get at this money, whatever your motivation.”

She watched his nostrils flare, saw the effort involved in holding himself in check. He could ill afford to allow his emotions to show, to raise his voice with her. This reserve in him had the odd effect in her of reversing her own sense of helplessness. He needed her. They all needed her. She and her access to the AS/400s were the key to the investigation. Danny Foreman would have tried every way possible to circumvent her participation and thereby risk Lou’s involvement. This was a desperate man in the midst of a desperate act. Liz had seen this situation a hundred times as an executive and had taken advantage of her position more often than not. Only as Foreman contained himself, did she regain her strength.

“Hayes believed you could be trusted. Maybe he was wrong.”

“You can do better than that, Danny.”

“What are you willing to do about this, Liz? How much are you willing to risk?”

His question cut her to the quick. Scandal. Embarrassment. Her job. Her family. She found it her turn to cover what she felt inside, and quickly realized the game of give and take that was under way. A tingling sensation raced up the back of her neck as she realized the power she held over this man, and also what was at stake: the survival of her marriage and her family.

“I don’t know to whom you’re referring. David?”

“It doesn’t matter who we’re talking about,” Foreman said. “It’s what we call ‘the juice’ that counts. What it is they have. The tape.” She felt herself blush. Danny Foreman had certainly viewed the tape, as it had once been in his possession. He’d seen her naked. Doing things. Somehow she’d blocked out this truth, and the sudden realization shook her, even frightened her in a weird kind of way. He had “the juice” on her too. How was he looking at her now? Without her clothes? Engaged? She felt sick to her stomach.

“Thing is,” Foreman continued, “would Lou risk his career to save you? I think he would.” As he said this she saw through cracks in the veneer. Danny Foreman resented Lou, whether because Danny had lost his own wife to cancer, or because Lou had achieved that rare reputation in law enforcement of being one of the best and a decent man at the same time. Danny’s own career had suffered following Darlene’s death.