“I need to know about Darko, too. If the child is Darko’s, then my other source is solid. If not, then not, and that business I told you about Darko leaving the country is probably wrong.”

“I’ll check with Interpol. They might have something on Jakovich, but I can already tell you we don’t have the information on Darko. You’re on your own with Darko.”

“Okay. Let me know.”

She said, “Pike?”

Pike waited.

“Don’t get second thoughts about killing him. Don’t make that mistake. Darko is mine.”

Pike said, “Sh.”

He hung up as Cole glanced up from the things he had spread on the table.

Cole said, “I think we have something.”

Pike went to see, thinking he had rules of his own.

Chapter 32

32

Jon Stone

JON STONE DROPPED OFF Pike and his buddy at their cars, then drove back up the hill, but he didn’t return to his observation point. He would in a few minutes, but he wanted to take care of something first.

He parked outside Grebner’s house, noting that half the vehicles at the surrounding homes were Rovers just like his, and that almost all of them were black, also like his. He counted two white Rovers, and a silver, but all the others were black. Parking in this neighborhood was like hiding a tree in the forest.

Jon got out, went around to the rear, and opened the hatch. He dug around in his gearbox, selecting a sweet little nine-millimeter Sig he had rebuilt himself, along with its matching suppressor tube, which he had also built. He screwed the suppressor in place, checked to make sure no one was watching, then closed up his Rover and let himself into Grebner’s house.

Stone figured the three turds Pike described would still be trying to get loose, and, sure enough, there they were, the two outside, and the older turd there in the living room—Grebner.

Grebner was on his feet, stumbling around in a circle as he tried to see his back in a mirror. He had scored a pair of scissors, and was trying to cut the plastic ties binding his wrists.

When Jon walked in, Grebner looked over, saw the Sig, and froze like a stiff.

Jon said, “That guy who was here, with the dark glasses? He’s the nice one.”

Stone stripped the scissors from Grebner’s hand, kicked his legs out from under him, and dropped him to the terrazzo.

Stone said, “Watch.”

The two men outside saw him coming and tried to roll away, over and over like a couple of glowworms. One of them was barking in Serbian, but the other just kept rolling. Jon had to hand it to the guy.