Free One Through the Heart by Kirk Russell Page A

bad people are after her, but they’re not law enforcement types. She has protectors in some agency in Washington that she helped out. The first time I heard about it the city was Berlin and then it was Leningrad, and after that Prague, and now it’s back to Berlin. She got away with some large chunk of somebody’s money. Transferred it and ran and hid and will be hiding for the rest of her life if they don’t find her first. She was a he when she stole the money and had a sex change in Mexico and not because she wanted to. She needed a female body to hide in, but she doesn’t live in it. She lives online and she’s got about a thousand identities and supposedly secret friends in high places.’
    ‘What’s all that mean?’
    ‘That you shouldn’t waste your time with her driver’s license.’ Lindsley smiled a crooked smile.
    ‘And what about John the Baptist? What church would I find him in?’
    Lindsley smiled again. ‘That’s a good one,’ he said. ‘I’ve got another story about Ike that Attis told me. She set up a Spanish language website for doing US tax returns for almost no charge. Then she collected a bunch of names, social security numbers, everything needed, and killed the website. The following January she filed for early returns on something like a thousand names and made up numbers for everything including what they were owed as refund checks. Attis said she collected millions of dollars, and I didn’t believe it, but a couple of days ago I read it’s a big scam out there. The IRS has paid out something like ten billion in phoney claims. No one comes to arrest her. That’s why Attis was stroking her head.’
    ‘Where’s John from?’
    ‘Fuck if I know.’
    ‘But you know about Ike.’
    ‘From Attis, not from her, and John doesn’t talk much, or maybe you didn’t notice. He might have a job in medical engineering. I don’t think Attis works and I’m pretty sure he and John met in the Coryell chat room.’
    ‘How would you find Attis tomorrow?’
    ‘I’d go online.’
    ‘What about a phone number?’
    ‘He won’t give it to me. He calls me on those temporary prepaid phones. Ike got all my personal information and he’s got that. He let me know by telling me I should strengthen my passwords.’
    ‘OK, I’m back to where I started with you. Things are almost believable, but not quite, and you need to really think about that. If they’re planning something, there’s not going to be any gray middle ground later. Attis called me a witness. You’ve got to think about what kind of witness you’d want me to be later in a trial.’
    ‘Whoa, whoa, slow down there, Inspector. You asked me to connect you and I did, and I’m telling you again, right now and here, that I don’t know about anything they’re planning, and if Attis knows anything about this threat the police told the media about this morning, and it sounds like he does, I don’t know anything. I heard the same things you heard and that’s all I know. But you don’t believe me.’
    As he looked at Lindsley he got a bad feeling. Lindsley’s face and features seem to change and shift as he spoke again and for the briefest moment Raveneau wondered if something was slipped into his beer when he was out front.
    ‘I’m being pretty straight with you, Inspector. I’m protecting myself, sure, but I’m not really part of their group. When Ike hacked into my computer I changed all my accounts, passwords, everything, and cut off any contact with any of them. Somehow Ike figured out how to find me again and he did this whole apology thing, but I don’t trust them. I never will, and like you saw, Attis is the dude. The other two are followers. He read the tea leaves, talks to god, and makes the plans.’
    ‘What’s he planning now?’
    ‘You’re back around to that and I don’t have any answers.’
    Lindsley took a sip, and they both shifted fast as there was a loud pop down the wall to their left. Sounded like a shot