Page 62 of The Number of Love
The words didn’t ease the tension. The voice ... Did he know it? Or was he still just starting at shadows, prey to his own thoughts? “Yes it is.”
“Good.” The chuckle that thrummed over the line made a chill crawl up Drake’s spine. “You will pay. Know that. Not quite yet, but youwillpay. Know I am here.”
“Jaeger.” His hand went so tight around the telephone that he feared he’d crack it. It had to be. He’d never heard him speaking in English before, and his voice was distorted a bit over the phone lines, but he still recognized it from the train. He moved as far toward the window as the cord would allow, but he couldn’t see down to the street below.
No answer came, just silence. Drake waited for a moment, then put the receiver back in the cradle. He stared at it for a moment, filtering through the questions in his head.
Had it been Jaeger? Yes. He recognized his voice, and he’d said the same words he had on the train. That Drake would pay.
Where washere? England, obviously—he couldn’t have made a telephone call from outside the country. London? Possibly, though he couldn’t be sure at the moment. That was surely something Hall could help him discover. How did he learn Dot’s phone number, though? Did he also know where she lived? Was he watching them?
He strode back to the window now, too fast for his side. But he didn’t care about the pain.
The man in the grey overcoat was gone.
It didn’t mean anything. He knew it didn’t. He’d already convinced himself it wasn’t Jaeger out there. But it could have been someone he hired to watch the window, couldn’t it? To let Jaeger know that Drake was in.
Had he been the one to call before and hang up when someone else answered? Like Dot or Red?
Drake spun back to the telephone. A minute later he’d been patched through to Hall’s line and had explained the situation to his superior.
DID’s silence was sharp as a hammer’s rap. “Impossible. He cannot be in country.”
It didn’t sound like an accusation of lying. Just like denial. Drake eased down onto the hard wooden chair by the telephone table. “It was him on the line, Admiral. I recognized his voice. He couldn’t have called from anywhere else, could he?”
“No. Blast.” Something hit something else in the background. “Someone has missed something. Rest assured, I shall find out who and what. And we’ll determine from where that call was placed and through what switchboards it went. In the meantime, I’ll gather anything I can find on Jaeger. Perhaps there will be a clue somewhere in his history that could help us locate him now.”
“Perhaps.” He turned to face the window again, though from his seat, he could see nothing but the windows of the building across the street. “Do you think ... What if he comes after my sister, Admiral?”
Another beat of silence, this one not quite so sharp. “For now,Lieutenant, comfort yourself in the likelihood that those other callswerehim, and that it was only you with whom he wanted to engage. That suggests he will only target you, and perhaps your work—since it washiswork, not his person, with which you interfered. I find it highly unlikely that he would react to your having foiled a sugar shipment by attacking your family. That would be too emotional a response for a man who is clearly a professional in matters of espionage.”
The band around Drake’s chest loosened. “Excellent point, sir. Thank you.”
“While I have you here and we are speaking of sugar—have you found anything yet to corroborate Margot’s suspicions about her mother?”
Drake glanced at the second stack of papers he’d been plodding through, which contained every mention they could find over the last year of anthrax or sugar or grain. “Nothing, sir. Only about the shipment in Spain, and more in South America. I trust you’ve already seen to those?”
“We are investigating, though the German agent in South Am is as slippery as they come. But nothing that mentions us here?”
“No. Not yet.” He’d been through most of the material already, somehow both hoping and dreading that he’d find something. “Though there’s a bit of a difference in tracking tons versus a few ounces of the stuff.”
“But if it were truly an attack on us here, then an agent would have had to either enter our borders or contact someone already here.Thatwould leave a trail.”
“It would. But thus far, nothing.” And the more he read, the more he didn’t think hewouldfind anything. All intelligence they’d intercepted pointed only to infecting animals with the anthrax and glanders. Not people. Surely if an order had been sent out with such instructions, it would have garnered a response, a reply to that, and so on. “It would be outside their usual instructions, that much has become clear.”
“Mm. Well, I put nothing past the huns, in general. But my instinctsays Margot’s suspicions are unfounded in this case.” A pause, and the sound of something tapping. “Finish going through what I’ve already sent, but after that, if we’ve nothing to warrant further attention, I’m going to call that investigation complete. Your attention ought to be focused on Jaeger.”
Drake didn’t dare contradict the admiral. And didn’t really want to ... for his own sake. For logic’s sake. But for Margot’s? “Sir ... Margot...” He didn’t even know what to say. How could he, when he knew her so little?
But Hall obviously knew her quite well, given his long sigh. “Leave her to me, Elton. You just focus on what I’ve given you—and on recuperating. We need you back in the field, and we need Jaegeroutof it.”
“Yes, sir.” What else could he say?
But when he hung up, he just stared at the stack of work for a long moment. He didn’t think he’d find anything in there to tell him that someone had killed her mother with anthrax. But how could he stop until he had answers for her?
On the other hand, if there were no answers to be found, how long could he really keep searching for them?
He passed a hand through his hair and glanced at the clock. He had hours yet before Dot would be home. Time aplenty to finish his work for Hall for the day. For now, while he was alone, he’d put a bit of effort into his other mission.
