Free Phantom Instinct (9780698157132) by Meg Gardiner

wrong.”
    â€œYou didn’t drive all this way to reiterate that.”
    â€œAnd worse, you’re being played. Harper Flynn is not who she claims to be.”
    â€œWhat?”
    Sorenstam looked implacable under the sharp sunlight. “Bartender, veteran, student—yeah. Add convicted felon.”
    Something seemed to fray deep inside him. Some wire that kept him moored. He didn’t move, but he felt as though he had begun to slide across the room.
    â€œProve it,” he said.
    â€œShe’s only walking free because she committed her crimes as a juvenile.”
    â€œWho told you this?”
    â€œFlynn admitted she went to high school with Eddie Azerov. She left out that when she was fifteen, she and Azerov were part of a crew of thieves.”
    Aiden lowered his sore leg to the floor and hung his hands off his knees.
    â€œThey had a modern Fagin’s gang up in China Lake. Tenth graders working for an adult boss. Shoplifting. Pickpocketing. Home burglary. They worked eastern Kern County and the Antelope Valley.”
    She crossed her arms. “It didn’t stop there. She wrecked a car, driving underage without a license. With two bricks of marijuana in the trunk. She’s also suspected of being a money mule—a heist where hackers stole credit card data and sent out a cash crew to withdraw as much as they could from ATMs. The guys running the operation didn’t even have to launder that cash. It came out clean.”
    He looked at the floor.
    She paused, until he looked up. “Eventually, she drove the getaway car for an armed robbery.”
    He stood and walked to the window. Sorenstam followed.
    â€œThey robbed a jewelry store in China Lake. Eddie Azerov and another youth from their after-school crime club went in with sledgehammers. Harper waited at the curb. Somebody called 9-1-1. Harper and the boys fled, but she managed to drive directly into an oncoming police car and get them all captured.”
    Aiden stared at the square of sunlight angling across the floor near the window. “Sure you don’t want that beer?”
    â€œAiden?”
    â€œBecause it’s your last chance. Otherwise, I’ll drink for both of us.”
    He walked to the kitchen, his leg throbbing. He took out two beer bottles, wedged the edge of one cap under the other, and popped it open.
    He turned back to Sorenstam. “How’d you uncover information that should have been sealed?”
    â€œSmall-town cops have excellent memories. The China Lake PD really hated the people involved in this racket. They took pride in busting it. And in reliving the bust.” She walked into the kitchen. “I’m sorry, Aiden.”
    He spoke quietly. “Why did you tell me this?”
    I don’t want you to save me,
he meant.
    â€œYou deserve to know. Letting Flynn run over you would be a piss-poor thing for a former partner to do.”
    â€œThat’s it?”
    She ran her gaze up and down him. “She wasn’t just playing you. She’s still working an angle.”
    â€œYou think she came to me in an effort to get to you? That she wanted to use me as a front, so the department would believe what she was saying?”
    â€œMaybe.”
    â€œThen she’s hardly the criminal genius you’re making her out to be. Only an idiot would think Aiden Garrison is her ticket to believability.”
    She blinked as though he’d spit at her. “I assume she figured she could use you, and thereby use me. She needed an introduction, and you provided it.”
    â€œWhy does she want to use you?” he said.
    â€œDid she tell you what she did in the Navy?”
    He shook his head.
    â€œShe was a translator.”
    â€œSo?”
    â€œRussian,” Sorenstam said. “They sent her to the Defense Language Institute at Monterey. You know why the Navy does that, right? It’s not so they can train swabbies to interpret chit-chat at diplomatic