“If she left you, why bother? You have something you want to say to her, Lee? But would it really matter? After all this time?”
Pine went to the closet and pulled out an envelope from her jacket. She held it up. “I just got this letter. It’s from Mom to Jack Lineberry.”
“What’s it say?”
“I’ll let you read it while I go back down and talk to the agents. I . . . I don’t want them to know about you right now.”
Mercy glared at her. “You said it was all cool for what happened to Joe! He was stabbed. I didn’t do it. I just hit him when he tried to stop me. You said you had Desiree’s confession. Carol told me the same thing. Were you two lying or what?”
“No, it’s the truth, Mercy. But let me handle this. I know the Bureau. Just trust me. I can work this out. I promise.”
“I haven’t trusted anybody my whole life. I don’t think I can start now. I’m sorry, but that’s just the way it is.”
“Okay, I can understand that, so just stay here and read the letter and I’ll be back.”
Mercy took the letter. “We need to find Carol. I like her.”
“We will. I like her too. She’s . . . she’s . . .”
“ . . . like a mother to you?” said Mercy as she watched her twin closely.
Pine didn’t answer. She left, and Mercy sat on the bed and commenced reading the letter.
CHAPTER
58
MCALLISTER WAS STILL SITTING at the same table in the hotel café. He was on the phone when Pine walked in. The man held up a finger for her to wait, then he finished the call and looked up at her.
“What do you got, Pine?”
“Carol Blum is missing. We need to put out an APB.”
“Neil checked video from the parking lot. Blum was earlier seen getting into her vehicle with a tall woman in a hoodie. Any idea who that could be?”
Pine knew this question might be coming and still didn’t have a good answer.
“I’m not sure.”
“Okay,” said McAllister, not looking convinced. “I’ll put out the APB, and then you and I need to talk.”
Pine gave him a description of the Porsche and the plate number.
He left her for a few minutes and then was back with Neil Bertrand in tow. They sat down across from her.
“Coffee?” asked McAllister. “We have an open tab running.”
“Sure, that would be great.”
“You must be hungry, too. I doubt your kidnappers fed you.”
“No, I’m good, but thanks.”
“Coffee black or the works?”
“Black.”
Bertrand went off to fetch it.
McAllister took a sip from his cup and set it down. “You told me to trust you. Okay, I do. But that street runs both ways.” He let that sentence hang out there, and from the looks of the man, Pine knew he wasn’t going to say anything else until she responded. She would have done that too if their positions had been reversed.
Pine waited for her coffee, and when it came she took a long sip of it and plunged in.
“I’ve been on leave from the Bureau to look for my twin sister, Mercy Pine. She was abducted when we were six years old. We traced her to Desiree and Joe Atkins’ home. She had been given the name Rebecca Atkins.”
McAllister’s eyes widened and he started to nod. “Rebecca Atkins? Right, I remember seeing the FBI’s PSA. Damn, she was your sister?”