Read Online Even by Andrew Grant - Free Book Online Page B

for you. Help you straighten out your situation. I’ll deal. You tell me when to stop.”
    “Stop,” I said.
    He carried on shuffling, then laid the pack facedown on the table.
    “Ready?” he said.
    I didn’t answer.
    “OK, here we go,” he said, turning over the top card. It was the two of clubs. “Lavine and Weston told you about the bodies. We’ve found five, male, near railroad tracks, their necks broken.”
    The second card was the four of diamonds.
    “I assigned Mike after the second one was found,” he said. “It was slow, but he was getting somewhere. He followed the trail to New York City. Set up in here, to stay under the radar while he was undercover.”
    Next was the two of hearts.
    “Yesterday morning, he missed a regular contact.”
    Two of spades.
    “We followed protocol. Spoke to the local police, emergency rooms, everyone else. At midday we heard the NYPD had found Mike’s body.”
    Three of clubs.
    “And they also had his killer in custody.”
    Three of diamonds.
    “With eyewitness testimony on tape.”
    Four of spades.
    “Which indicated a leak inside the bureau.”
    Rosser leaned back and gestured to the line of cards.
    “So, how are we doing?” he said.
    “How should I know?” I said. “I told you. I don’t play.”
    “Just look at the cards. Add them up.”
    “Seven.”
    “Don’t count them,” he said, after a moment. “Add up the values.”
    “Twenty,” I said.
    “Twenty, that’s right. A good hand. Almost unbeatable. The guy who killed an FBI agent, served up on a silver platter. A lot of people would stick with a hand like that.”
    “But you’re not going to.”
    “Maybe. Maybe not. Let’s think about it. Break the puzzle down a little more,” he said, splitting the cards into three piles. “See, I think we actually have three problems here. You follow?”
    “You have a dead agent,” I said. “You have someone killing railway passengers. And you think you have a leak in the bureau.”
    “Good. We’re on the same page. And these problems—separate, or connected?”
    “Can’t say. I don’t know enough about the case to connect them, but if they’re not connected, that would be a pretty big coincidence.”
    “And I guess we both feel the same way about coincidences, right? So let’s start at the beginning. The railroad guys. They weren’t passengers, the victims.”
    “So who where they? Employees? People living near railroad lines?”
    “No. Free riders.”
    “Who?”
    “People who hitch rides on freight trains.”
    “They still do that? I thought leaping onto moving trains went out with the Depression.”
    “Most people think that. It suits us. And we don’t go out of our way to correct them. The fewer know about it, the fewer start doing it.”
    “Maybe. I just wouldn’t have thought it was such a big deal.”
    “It’s not al-Qaeda, granted. But it’s big, and it’s getting bigger. Try this. Right now, this moment, guess how many free riders are out there?”
    “I don’t know. Twelve?”
    “No. Any given time, around two thousand. And a group that size, it needs to be managed.”
    “Really? Sure you’re not exaggerating? There’s not a bit of budget padding going on here?”
    “We’re certain.”
    “How do you know? About the numbers. Do you have people standing on bridges with clipboards, counting?”
    “Not exactly. But we do keep a close eye.”
    “How?”
    “Not your business.”
    “OK. So why do people do it? To save the price of a ticket?”
    “It started that way, years ago. But now it’s a way of life. Bums, with nowhere else to live. Illegal immigrants, sneaking into the country. Vets, from Nam. And lately Iraq, obviously. And Afghanistan. It’s the closest to peace some of those guys are ever going to get, now.”
    “It doesn’t sound very peaceful to me.”
    “I don’t know. Riding around, alone, in an empty boxcar. That rhythm you get, with the wheels on the rails. It lulls crazy people into a kind of