Free No Time to Hide by Karen Troxel Page B

his boss, his partner, or the witness who’d sold out to the mob?
    ***
    Saturday, 7:25 P.M.
    Cutter bought prepaid cell phone in a dive on the outskirts of Niagara Falls. It wasn’t completely invisible but it was disposable. Anyone looking would have to find the video of him buying it, then track the cell towers, and that would give time. He wasn’t going to have it that long.
    He called his office. He was taking a risk, but being a lone ranger with a notorious witness was a dead-end street.
    He reached his boss first.
    “Denver, Cutter here.”
    “What the hell happened?” Denver was a man Cutter had always trusted with his life. Although he’d been a paper-pusher and supervisor for over five years, the man still had the instincts of an active field agent.
    “You tell me. All I know is all hell broke loose. I thought that place was supposedly secure.”
    “Yeah, obviously there’s one big hole and we’ve got to plug it.”
    “Not we, you . I’ve got bigger fish to fry.”
    “I’m not going to ask where you’re going,” Denver said.
    Cutter wondered if that was a ploy or if the man was just being cautious.
    “Is there anything you need?”
    Cutter shook his head even though he knew Denver couldn’t see the motion. “No. Transfer me to Johnson if you can. Did he learn anything watching her apartment?”
    “Nothing he reported. But I’ll let you talk to him. He just came in my office.”
    There was a moment of dead air, then Johnson was on the phone.
    “Well, buddy, you sure know how to turn an easy babysitting job into one hell of a blowup.”
    “Johnson, you’ve always had one lousy sense of humor,” Cutter said. “That may be okay when you’re sitting nice and comfy in an office, but out here that bites the big one.”
    “Sorry, buddy.” Johnson’s voice was immediately somber. “Nothing major to report, except two thugs, one of whom matches the description of the man in the mall, visited our little songbird’s place shortly after you guys left the mall. They ransacked it, but I couldn’t tell if they took anything.”
    “Where they the ones in the helicopter?”
    “I don’t think so. But I have no way of knowing if they made or received any calls while they were inside. We know they didn’t use her apartment phone, but they probably have cells.”
    “Damn. What happened to all those high-tech gadgets the tech boys had watching the place?”
    There was a pause as Johnson spoke to Denver. Then the boss came back on the line.
    “Snafu. The techno-geeks got caught in a traffic jam caused by a wreck on the Kensington Expressway. They didn’t get there until after the suspects had left.”
    “Great.” Cutter knew the sarcastic tone of his voice bordered on insubordination. But what the hell was Denver going to do—fire him? That’d be the day. “Well, I’m going under. I’m taking the girl with me. Don’t expect to hear from me until you hear from me.”
    Denver sighed. It was not what he wanted, but Cutter didn’t really give a damn. He looked over at Kerry watching the water boil over the falls. It was now them against the world.
    ***
    Niagara Falls, still a honeymoon destination, was trying desperately to shake off the ravages the area had felt throughout most of the last two decades. People were starting to come back, drawn by casinos and sightseeing, but the factories and mills that had brought high-paying jobs to the region were dead and gone. Some artsy-crafty shops and trendy restaurants couldn’t erase the rundown houses and empty buildings dominating the landscape.
    Kerry stood at the edge of the great river and watched the rapids boiling and churning in the setting sun. She tried not to keep running her hand over where her hair had been only twenty minutes before. They had just emerged from a unisex salon where a beautician, probably on her fiftieth cut in the last seven-and-a-half hours, had chopped without comment. She was also wearing what had to be the worst hat