She nodded an understanding. “They’re under my command, I’ll make the call.”

Nathan knew she’d make a fake call and hoped it would sound convincing.

“It’s Grangeland.” She paused. “Yeah, we got him and he’s talking. He said Leonard’s got ten bricks of Semtex and blasting caps.” She paused again. “Where? Okay, don’t approach him until SWAT arrives. Understood? I say again, do not approach him…. All right, good work, I’ll call you in ten minutes.”

Perfect. Nathan couldn’t have played it better himself. Ernie had soaked up every word. Now that he believed his brother was being captured, he’d have no reason to hold back.

Nathan pulled Ernie’s head back again. “Where’s the money?”

“It’s buried near an abandoned ranch in Montana near the Canadian border.”

“Montana’s a big state, that doesn’t tell me squat.” He reached for Ernie’s hand.

“Wait! I got GPS coordinates.”

“Well?” Nathan asked.

Ernie rattled off the numbers. Grangeland pulled a penlight, secured it in her mouth, and wrote the coordinates down on a small pad of paper.

“If you’re lying, we’ll upgrade to a butter knife and use a plumber’s torch to cauterize the stumps. I’ve got fifty-seven more minutes with you, and trust me, I’ll savor every last second.”

“I’m not lying, I swear.”

Nathan got off of Ernie’s legs and stood up. “Harv, keep him company for a minute.”

“No problem.”

“Grangeland, let’s take another walk.” He led her across the sand, working his way through the islands of underbrush. After a hundred feet he stopped and kept his voice low. “We don’t have much time, we need to get going. Like I told Lansing, we have to keep Ernie’s capture under wraps. It’s vital it doesn’t leak. If Leonard believes Ernie escaped, he’ll head for the cash, I’m sure of it. Maybe even wait for him there, for a time.”

She pointed to the orange glow from Pete’s Truck Palace. “There’s no way to keep that under wraps. It’s probably on the news already.”

“Here’s what we’ll do. We leak to the press that all we got from the scene was Ernie’s cell phone and his sniper rifle, that Ernie’s still at large, and that your people are analyzing the call logs.”

“Leonard will think Ernie’s phone has been compromised, so he’ll ditch his. They’ll have no way to communicate.”

“That’s right.”

“What’s next?”

“I’m going to take custody of Ernie until we have his brother.”

“What? That wasn’t part of the deal with Lansing. I—”