She wore a white T-shirt and light cotton pants with a drawstring. The shirt was damp, revealing the shape of her breasts, the tightened nipples.
She glanced at Thorn, shot him a forced smile, got up, walked across to Wally, and looked over his shoulder at the scrolling code on his screen. “You still inside Turkey Point?”
“Finished it yesterday. I’m just poking around inside another system.”
“What system?”
“South Florida Water Management. These idiots, their security is so out-of-date, it wouldn’t protect a taco stand.”
Her phone vibrated on the shelf, crawling sideways like a wingless bee.
“How long has this been ringing?”
“Hell if I know,” Wally said. “I’m nobody’s secretary.”
“The last hour,” Thorn said. “Ever since you started pumping iron.”
“And nobody told me?”
“I thought you were ignoring it,” said Thorn.
Fiddling with her phone, Leslie slid her finger across the screen, moving through her text messages. She stiffened. Then she drifted off to a corner of the tent and tapped in a number and pressed the phone to her ear. But she’d left the speaker on, and when the connection was made, Thorn heard Flynn speaking. His voice-mail message.
“Hi, listen, I’m going away for a while. Taking a hiatus from the show, I’m not sure when I’ll be back. If this is Mom…”
Leslie fumbled with the phone, switched off the speaker.
Flynn was watching her, his eyes dimming with dread.
Beside the weight bench Prince was doing more curls, oblivious. Pauly stared intently up at nothing while his brother continued to type and type.
Leslie turned her back to them and brought the phone to her ear again. In a minute when she was done, her shoulders sagged and she bowed her head, nodding several times as though counting off sufficient time to gain control of herself.
She stepped behind the dressing curtain that hung before her bed, and Thorn heard her rustling through her knapsack. When she slid the curtain aside, her smile was strained, a failed attempt to hide the distress in her eyes.
“Flynn.” She motioned for him to follow. “We need a minute.”
She took one of the battery lanterns from the storage shelf and headed toward the exit. As she passed by Thorn, she angled her body away from him, but Thorn spotted it anyway. Hidden beneath the tail of her shirt was a hard, angular bulge wedged into the waistband of her cotton pants. Over the years he’d seen far too many of those bulges and knew the grim results they usually signaled.
He let a moment pass before he followed them out of the tent. Staying several yards behind as Leslie led the way, holding up the LED lantern, which sent a cone of harsh light around the two of them.
Stars blazed in a cloudless patch of sky, and a breathless wind was sifting through the mangroves bringing with it the electric scent of rain from out in the Atlantic. He heard the uncertain trill of an owl and the drone of mosquitoes circling in. In the east, muted by the clouds, lightning throbbed like an erratic pulse.
When she reached the climbing wall, she stopped, turned to Flynn, lifted the lantern to his face. He raised his hand to block the glare, but Leslie stepped closer and kept him blinded.
“I heard some disturbing news. What I want to know from you, Flynn, is where you’ve hidden your cell phone.”
Flynn opened his mouth, then shut it.
“I know it’s here. Don’t lie to me.”
He shook his head and sighed in frustration.
Leslie swung the lantern to her left and found Thorn standing at the edge of the sand pit.
“Step over here.” She had the pistol out but held it loose in her hand, pointing at the ground. A stainless-steel revolver. “That’s close enough. Right there. I’d hate like hell to hurt either of you. But if I have to, I will. Make a move, there’ll be no hesitation. So get it out of your mind, Thorn. All your tricks.”
“Leslie, Leslie, Leslie.” A lament.
“Now, where’s the phone?”
Flynn stared at the ground and shook his head once more. He blew out a breath, glanced at Thorn, then lifted an arm and pointed to his left. “Buried in the sand, below the balance beam.”
“Go get it, bring it back.”
While he was digging, Thorn said, “If you try to hurt Flynn, you’re going to have to kill me. You know that, right?”
Leslie was silent, the lantern steady. “Step forward where I can see you better. One step, that’s enough.”
“What’s this about, Leslie? What the hell happened?”
Flynn returned with a phone and presented it to her.
Leslie waved it off. “Turn it on. Go to recent calls.”