Page 100 of The House of Cross

She began to cry. Nana Mama went and hugged her. “I know you’re upset. We’re all upset.”

“Tonight’s my dance recital.” Willow sniffled. “Daddy’s supposed to be there.”

“I’ll be there. So will Ali. And I know Jannie wants to come.”

“And Rebecca,” Mahoney said. “I talked to her last night. She said she wouldn’t miss it.”

At the mention of John’s girlfriend, Willow stopped crying and brightened a little.

Mahoney smiled. “Tell you what: I will come back later this afternoon, pick you all up, and take you to the recital and we can meet Rebecca there. And I will make sure I bring my good camera so I can video your dance. That way, your father won’t miss a thing. That’s good, right?”

Willow nodded and wiped her eyes. Mahoney gave her a hug, then asked Nana Mama for a fill-up on his go-cup. While she poured him coffee, he said to Ali, “How’s the storm looking?”

“Big and getting bigger,” Alex’s youngest child said, taking his eyes off the laptop to gaze at Mahoney. “Dad and Bree and John are going to be okay, aren’t they?”

“I would never bet against your father, Bree, or John,” Mahoney said and gently squeezed his neck. “If that storm changes direction, you’ll let me know?”

Ali nodded. “The second I see it happen.”

“Good boy. And thank you, Nana.”

“Anytime, Ned,” Alex’s grandmother said. “You’ll let us know if you hear anything.”

“The second I know it,” he said, and went to get his coat in the front hall.

His cell phone began to ring before he got his coat on. He heard Willow giggle back in the kitchen. He looked at the ID and groaned.She just hung up on me fifteen minutes ago!

Mahoney’s thumb was moving to answer the acting FBI director when Ali called out, “Uncle Ned, are you still here?”

CHAPTER 76

NINETY MINUTES LATER, MAHONEYwas working on a laptop on one of the FBI’s jets. It had just reached cruising altitude and was heading west-northwest.

The supervising special agent in charge had a brightly colored app up on his screen and was studying the pink pin glowing there in the middle of the page. He clicked it for the tenth time since seeing it on Willow Sampson’s iPad.

A smaller screen popped up, noted there wasn’t a constant signal emanating from the Jiobit fob that Willow said she’d put in her father’s pack. It had broadcast its position only twice, both times in the last twenty-four hours, twelve hours apart, for barely ten seconds.

But it was enough. It was—

Mahoney’s phone rang. He looked at caller ID and groaned because he knew the shit was about to hit the proverbial fan.

“Director Hamilton,” he said, trying to sound calm. “How can I be of service?”

“Where the hell do you think you’re going, Mahoney?”

“Kimberley, British Columbia, ma’am,” Ned said.

“With no approval?” she thundered. “Taking a jet?”

“I approved my own requisition of the jet. I have that discretion.”

“Turn around.”

“Respectfully, no, ma’am. You told me to get an arrest in this case before the inauguration. That’s where I’m headed.”

There was a long pause before Hamilton said, “Who are you arresting?”

“I will tell you that when I know.”

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