HEN THEY RETURNED to the farmhouse, Vance called in to the FBI and got an earful from her superior for going off grid without authorization. After the man finished his tirade Vance was able to ask him to trace the phone call Gabriel Siegel had received at the bank.

He called back twenty minutes later with the answer.

Disposable phone, dead end. He ordered Vance to come in to the office, right that instant.

Robie overheard this part of the conversation. When Vance started to refuse he grabbed her arm and said, “Go, and take Julie with you.”

His gaze went upward where Julie had gone to use the bathroom.

“What?” said Vance.

“Things are going to get really hairy very shortly.”

Vance put her hand over the phone. “How do you know that?”

“I just do.”

“All the more reason for us to stick together.”

“But not Julie. We can’t have her in the middle of this. Take her to WFO and surround her with firepower. Then you can come back and hook up with me.”

She studied him warily, distrust in her eyes.

The voice squawked from the phone.

“Yes, sir,” said Vance into the phone. “I’ll be in directly. And I’ll be bringing Julie Getty with me. I hope we can do a better job of protecting her than we did last time.”

She clicked off and gazed at Robie with a searching look. “If you’re screwing with me…”

“Why would I do that?”

“Because you seem to have a propensity for it. If you have this noble idea that you’re the only one in the world who can tackle this thing. Or that you’re somehow protecting me from danger—”

“You’re an FBI agent. You signed up for this. I have no noble thoughts in my head. All I’ve ever tried to do is my job and then survive. If I engage in any sort of fantasy it’s that I keep on believing those goals are not mutually exclusive.”

“Don’t try to confuse the issue.”

“Take your car and take Julie. Get her settled and then come back here.”

“And you’ll just be here waiting for me?” she said skeptically.

“If I’m not here you have my phone number.”

“I don’t believe this, Robie. You’re shutting me out at the very moment—”

Robie turned and walked away.

“Is that your answer? Ignoring me? Walking away again?” she called after him.

“What’s going on?” Julie peered over the stair rail at them.

Vance looked at Robie and then sighed. “Come on, Julie. We need to get out of here.”

“Where are we going?”

“To run down a lead.”

“What’s Will going to do?”

“Run down another lead.”

“Why are we splitting up?”

“Because our fearless leader wants it that way. Don’t you, Robie?” she added in a louder voice.

He was in the next room now and said nothing in response.

Robie watched as the Beemer with the cracked windshield and shattered rear window backed away from the house. Vance slammed it into drive and did a doughnut in the dirt and gravel before careening down the road away from him.

Robie took a deep, cleansing breath. He had never played well with others. For the last dozen years he had worked in almost total isolation. He preferred it that way. He was better alone than with a team. That’s just how he was built.

He felt an immediate freedom. A washing away of responsibility.

He drove from his mind the promise that he had made to Julie to let her help find out what had happened to her parents. It was a false promise anyway. He’d had no business making it. Fulfilling it, he told himself, would only end up getting the girl killed.

Yet it didn’t really matter one way or another to Robie. He kept telling himself that as he prepared to finish what he had started.

His mind had not changed on one thing. This was about him. Despite their detour down to the squad Curtis Getty had been in.

This is about me. And it’s also about something bigger.

Now he had to find out what that was.

This was once more a chess match. The other side had just made a move.

Robie had to decide if it was a legitimate move or something else.

He gunned up and set out to do just that.