This was why she bounced him. Pike still didn’t know how they made him at the trailers, but Williams was the break point. A Crip connected to Darko. When Pike reached Williams, Walsh must have realized he had inside help, and triggered the bust. She was with Terrio and Deets on the day they made such a big show telling him about Frank, and now he wondered if she was behind it, and if she had been using him to get inside from the beginning.

Pike thought it through, wondering if someone as far down the food chain as a prostitute would have information about an important deal. It was doubtful, but Rina might be able to find out.

Pike said, “I’ll see.”

Walsh shook her head.

“You don’t understand. We have three thousand automatic weapons coming into this country, so I am not asking you. You will put me together with your informant.”

“I hear what you’re saying, Walsh. This isn’t lost on me.”

“That isn’t the right answer.”

“I told you I would talk to my source. I will, but there’s a risk. I didn’t know about these guns. If I bring it up now, and word gets to Darko, you’re in the weeds.”

Walsh glared, but only for a moment, as Pike went on.

“There are people in the EOC community who know I’m on the hunt, and they know why. They won’t be spooked by a civilian working out a grudge. It’s something they understand.”

Walsh showed her palms, shaking her head to stop him.

“Don’t even think about it, Pike. Don’t go there. I am not going to allow you to murder this man.”

“I suddenly stop, the people who know are left hanging. They want things in this, too. That’s why they’re helping me. If I go back with this gun thing, and tell them I’m talking to you, they’ll disappear as fast as your guns.”

Now Walsh didn’t seem so confident.

“What are you saying?”

“You don’t have someone inside—I do. They’re inside—and they want me to find Darko—badly. Whatever I learn, I will pass back to you, and I can start by giving you something right now—Darko is going back to Europe.”

She stared at him, and now her tanned face paled. Pike read her apprehension in how she shifted, a subtle step to the side as if she felt her own private earthquake. She glanced at her watch as if she wanted to note the time she learned this thing for the official record.

“Is this bullshit?”

“It’s what I was told.”

She shifted again.

“When?”

“ Don’t know.”

“Why is he going back?”

“Don’t know. Maybe his deal is closing. Maybe he wants to go back after it’s finished.”