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“And why would you be tasked with finding me, Jackson?”
“My client wishes to speak with you.”
“Client.”
He nodded, glancing around the neighborhood.
“Skip tracer?”
“I’m not a private investigator, if that’s what you’re asking.”
Annja considered the latte again, giving it one final chance to woo her back. Forget it. “You’re an information broker. Hired to get what clients need.”
“That’s more accurate.”
“And who wanted you to find me?”
Jackson glanced at her. “The same people who would now like to have a word with you.”
“They can make an appointment if it’s that important. I’m on vacation, Jackson. If they want a meeting next week, then I’ll be happy to talk to them. Until then, I’m not doing anything unless I distinctly feel like it.”
Jackson took a deep breath through his nose. “Yeah, see, that’s going to be sort of a problem.”
“Not my problem,” Annja said. “I don’t need to see anyone.”
“The truth of the matter is, they don’t have all that much time to wait for you, Miss Creed. They’re in something of a hurry.”
“Look, Jackson—Mike, right?—I don’t go a long way on passive-aggressive behavior. And I don’t like being bullied, either.”
Jackson seemed momentarily taken aback, but then cracked a grin. “If you don’t agree to come with me, the people I work for are going to kill someone.”
“Who?”
“Reginald Fairclough.”
Annja shrugged. “Don’t know him.”
“But he apparently knows you. He’s made his cooperation with my clients conditional on meeting with you.”
“And where is he? In Manhattan?”
“Western Massachusetts.”
Annja looked closely at Jackson. “Did you just hear me say not a minute ago that I am on vacation?”
“I did hear that, yes.”
Annja stood. “I think this meeting is now at an end, Mr. Jackson. When I come back down, I don’t want to see you on my stoop or I’m going to get angry.” She leaned over him. “I’m not sure how much you know about me, but you don’t want to see me get angry.”
Jackson stared at her. Annja finally turned and walked inside, taking the stairs up to her loft. She dumped the remains of the latte in the sink and let the faucet run for a few seconds to wash it down the drain.
Western Massachusetts. She shook her head. Like that was going to happen anytime soon.
“Miss Creed.”
Annja turned. Jackson stood in her living room, with two other men behind him. If Jackson had a slight military bearing, Annja’s instincts told her these two were total danger.
“I thought I told you I don’t like being bullied.”
Jackson nodded over his shoulder. “I apologize, but my clients are quite insistent.”
One of the men stepped out from behind Jackson. “My name is Scott Greene. Have you ever heard of me?”
There was something familiar about that name. Annja racked her memory and then the face clicked. Greene was an environmentalist. But on the lunatic fringe.
Wonderful, she thought. What did he want with her?
“You’re a militant environmentalist,” Annja said. “You here to police my apartment and tell me how I’m destroying the planet?”
Greene sniffed. “I could spend hours yelling at you for using those crummy old-fashioned lightbulbs instead of CFLs.”
Annja nodded. “Yeah, I haven’t had much time lately to reduce my carbon footprint. Speaking of which, if you don’t leave my place immediately, I’m giving serious thought to reducing yours—to nothing.”
Greene didn’t move. “Hear me out.”
“I don’t want to talk to you, Greene. This is me giving you one last chance to get the hell out of my place.”
Greene looked at the third, yet unnamed man and nodded. The guy took out a silenced pistol and leveled it on Jackson’s right temple. As Jackson’s mouth dropped open, Greene said to Annja, “Cooperate, or I can have my associate blow a nice hole in the side of the good Mr. Jackson there.”
Annja shrugged. “He works for you. I just met him. I don’t care if you kill him or not.”
Jackson’s eyes bulged but he didn’t move a muscle.
Greene smirked. “Ah, nice try, Annja. But we’ve done some research on you. And I know for a fact that seeing an innocent man killed—in your apartment, no less—would drive you insane.”
Annja’s heartbeat raced. She could draw the sword and be done with these three idiots before they could even react. She wondered how the cops would view it. Could she argue home invasion? That she’d felt threatened? They did have a silenced pistol, after all. And there were three of them.
But what if they didn’t believe her?
Annja leaned against the sink. “Jackson already told me something about a Reginald Fairclough. I don’t know the name.”
“He’s an antique book dealer. Quite a famous one,” Greene said. “His collection of works is without peer.”
“So, what’s he want with me?”
Greene shook his head. “Old Reggie has something I want—quite badly—and in order to retrieve it, I must first get you to his house. He wants to talk with you.”
“About what?”
Greene looked pained. “I don’t know.”
Annja shrugged. “Listen, I can’t help you. I’m dead tired. You tell Reggie to call me. That’s about the best I’m going to be able to do for you.”
“That’s not good enough, Annja.”
Before Annja could react, she heard the small pop, and Jackson crumpled to the floor beside her love seat.
Greene hadn’t even hesitated. And Jackson was dead.
Annja watched a thin trail of smoke issue from the end of the suppressor on the pistol Greene had whipped out from his holster, beating his colleague to the punch.
“I think it was a good idea that you see how very serious I am about this, Annja. I don’t like being told I can’t do something.”
“Apparently,” she said.
“You’ll come with us now,” Greene said. “Otherwise I’ll have my associate here shoot you.”
“And how would that help you with Fairclough?”
Greene smirked. “I’d find another way. I always do.”
And somehow Annja didn’t doubt that.
Chapter 2
The body of Jackson sprawled on her floor made Annja acutely aware of her predicament. Greene didn’t need to shoot Annja, despite his threat to do just that. He’d already placed Annja in one hell of a pickle. How was she going to explain the corpse in her home?
The pair could leave her right now and all she’d be able to tell the police was that Greene had been here. But would they believe it?
Greene gave her a moment and then cleared his throat. “I take it you’ve run through all the alternatives before you?”
Annja glanced at him. “You didn’t give me very many to choose from.”
“Why would I? I need you, Annja.” Greene scratched his goatee. “The sooner we’re out of here, the better.”
Annja shook her head. “We can’t just leave Jackson. Eventually, he’ll start to decompose and the smell will bring the cops.”
Greene shrugged. “Don’t worry so much, Annja. I’ve got that handled. I’m not a complete monster.”
“I think I’ll wait before I make up my own mind on that one,” Annja said.
Greene’s associate stepped up and produced what looked like a large garbage bag. He unrolled it and spread it around Jackson’s body. Annja looked up at Greene.
“You knew this was going to happen.”
Greene shrugged. “I believe in planning ahead. I wasn’t sure how receptive you’d be to my request. Jackson was pretty much obsolete as soon as he agreed to track you down for us.”
The other man rolled Jackson into the bag and then zipped it up.
“I’m amazed you’re using a plastic bag for that. Doesn’t that go against everything you stand for?”
“It’s recycled plastic,” Greene said. “And besides, it contains the effluence better than cloth.”
Annja cocked an eyebrow. “You’ve done this before, I take it.”
He laughed. “Many times. Where other environmentalists like to preach wholesome universe nonsense, I prefer to act. I’m not about to sit idly by and watch the planet ravaged by politicians and their corporate masters. Not a chance. I’ll remove whatever threats are dangerous to Mother Earth.”
“Results oriented,” Annja said.
“Results, yes. I firebombed a cosmetics factory that had been testing its products on animals and flushing toxic waste into the drinking supply of a small village in Cambodia. And when that building was reduced to ashes, I went after—and got—the people who owned it.”
“How?” Annja asked, buying time as she tried to think how to extricate herself from this situation.
“I made them drink the poison sludge they’d been spewing for decades into the drinking water. Unfortunately for them, the concentration was so much higher than the water normally held. I guess they came to see that the stuff they used to make cosmetics with wasn’t healthy.”
“And what happened to the people who were employed by the factory? How are they supposed to make a living now?”
Greene shrugged. “They’ll find a way. Their welfare isn’t my concern. If anything, they ought to be thankful to me for cleaning up their water. But they were secondary. The primary goal was to stop the factory from polluting the environment.”
“So you’re not a humanitarian at all.”
Green laughed. “I make no pretense of being a humanitarian, Annja. My goals are simple—wipe the toxicity of the human stain from the planet. Help rebuild the wonder that once was nature.”
Annja frowned as the other man finished hefting Jackson’s body over his shoulder. “What now? Is he just going to walk out of here with the corpse?”
Greene smiled. “You really think anyone is going to ask him questions?”
Greene’s associate must have stood more than six feet two inches and weighed about two hundred and sixty pounds. He was big and muscular. Annja didn’t think any of her neighbors would bother him.
“No,” she said simply.
Greene nodded. “Exactly. Now let’s get going downstairs.” He stopped. “Unless, of course, you’d prefer I let my associate leave the body here and then we call the police?”
Annja sighed. She could argue her way out of the murder; she felt confident of that. Plus, she knew a few of the cops at the local precinct. She’d be able to straighten it out, but was it worth the grief?
I need to install some serious surveillance on this place, she thought. Video cameras would forestall this type of bull.
“Annja?”
She stared at the floor. A tiny residue of blood remained on the hardwood. Greene followed her gaze and chuckled.
“We’ll leave that here as a souvenir.”
“Be hard to clean once I get back,” Annja said. “I’d prefer to clean it up now, if you don’t mind.”
“We don’t have time for this,” Greene said. He studied her for a moment before relenting. “You’ve got thirty seconds to get it done.”
Annja ran for the kitchen and grabbed a sheaf of paper towels, holding them under hot water. Through the window, she saw a cruiser parked on the curb across the street. If she could just get the two cops’ attention…
