Free White Ghost by Steven Gore

to talk to us.”
    Sylvia and Alex Z remained in the conference room after Gage and Annie left.
    â€œDid he look all right to you?” Sylvia asked.
    â€œA little tired, I guess. Maybe a little distracted. But when he’s really into something, he sometimes shuts out the world for a minute or two until he gets what he’s looking for fixed in his mind.”
    â€œI think it’s more than that. He looks gray. And I know he’s lost weight. In the few months I’ve been here I haven’t gotten to know him well enough to ask him about it.”
    â€œIt isn’t a matter of knowing him well enough. He’s not the kind of guy you ask personal things. And he’s not going to tell you anything about himself unless it affects your work. If it doesn’t, you’ll never know about it.” Alex Z shuddered. “Once he called me from Ukraine to check on something and didn’t even mention that he’d been stabbed in the back an hour earlier.”

CHAPTER 16
    G age’s receptionist beeped him at the end of the day, telling him that Jack Burch and Lucy Sheridan were on the phone. He pressed the blinking button and caught Lucy saying, “My father had to leave for Hong Kong this morning.”
    â€œI thought your mother would join us,” Gage said.
    â€œShe decided it would be simpler if she didn’t, but I don’t understand what she meant. She asked me to pass on how grateful she is that you agreed to help us.”
    â€œHow does it look?” Burch asked.
    â€œIt appears that Ah Ming was involved in something pretty significant recently, but I don’t know if it had anything to do with what happened to Peter.”
    â€œYou mean he’s a criminal,” Burch said, “but maybe not the right criminal.”
    â€œAnd I’m not in the business of playing Lone Ranger. Unless we can connect him to the robbery, there’s no reason to stay with this.”
    â€œWhat did Ah Ming do?” Lucy asked.
    â€œI’d rather not say. My thinking is based too much on assumption and speculation. I’d like to follow up on a couple ofleads. Depending on what we find, we may want to hand it over to the FBI and let them finish it up.”
    â€œWhen will we know?’ Lucy asked.
    â€œLet’s talk in a few days.”
    â€œA few days?”
    Gage sensed the beginnings of frustration in Lucy’s voice.
    â€œThat’s the best we can do. Hang in there.”
    Gage’s cell phone rang moments after he hung up from the conference call. It was Burch.
    â€œSo what did he do?”
    â€œI told you it is mostly speculation.”
    â€œSo speculate. I won’t pass it on to the Sheridans until you say it’s okay.”
    Gage outlined what he learned about Ah Tien.
    â€œThat’s a lot more than speculation.”
    â€œMy guess is that if Peter hadn’t died during the robbery, Ah Ming would have killed him later. The kid was probably chosen for the robbery by mistake, kind of like a clerical error. And that clerical error was his death sentence.”
    â€œAnd you’re thinking it might be better if Lucy and her parents never find out how trivial and inevitable Peter’s death was.”
    â€œThat’s part of it.”
    â€œWhat’s the other part?”
    â€œFaith and I have spent most of our marriage ten time zones apart. I think we’re both tired of living that way. I can see myself lying in a hammock, reading a book in some jungle camp while Faith does her fieldwork. And the only way to do that will be to turn the firm over to my employees.”
    â€œDid you get some medical news you’re not telling me about?”
    â€œNo news at all. And even if there were, it wouldn’t affect what I’m thinking.”
    â€œAnd that means that you’re going to let this Sheridan thing go?”
    â€œMaybe. Maybe not. Taking down Ah Ming wouldn’t be a bad way to end. And I