Free The Credulity Nexus by Graham Storrs Page B

and I need to ask you a few
questions about the package your husband received.”
    Brie's eyes
never left Rik's. Her nostrils flared, and he could see her jaw
working behind tight lips. “This is the real reason you're here,
isn't it? You don't give a damn that Blake's probably dying in
there, do you? You just came to find out about the fucking poison
you sent him.” Rik was helpless with pain and guilt. Brie turned
her head and focused on the woman beside him.
    “ As for you... I've told the police
everything. I have no idea what he did with it, and he's in no
state to tell anybody. Go and read the fucking file.”
    Her final
words were for Rik. “And don't come back.”
    “ Brie!”
    But she had
gone, storming into one of the side corridors without a backward
glance.
    Freymann moved
to follow her, but Rik caught her arm and held it. He felt hollow
and shaky, the reality of what he had done to his friends gouging
out his insides.
    “ We should go,” he said.
    “ Are you nuts? We haven't got a clue where
the package is! We can't leave it like this.”
    “ She doesn't know anything. Leave her
alone.”
    “ Like hell I will!”
    Rik tightened
his grip and pulled her closer. “We should go. We'll work it out,
somehow.”
    Freymann's
cold stare told him she was considering her chances of disabling
him, maybe getting to her gun before he broke her arm. It wasn't a
pleasant look. He held her firmly and waited for her to think it
through. When she spoke, her voice was calm.
    “ OK. You're right. She doesn't know
anything. Let's get out of this dump. Hospitals give me the
creeps.”
    By the time
they got to the exit, the limo was waiting for them, having
retrieved itself from the car park. Rik took control of the vehicle
and directed it through a series of complex manoeuvres around the
back streets of LA, just in case they'd picked up a tail.

Chapter 12
     
    “ So what do we know?” Freymann asked as
they made their way east along the Santa Monica Freeway, heading in
the direction of LAPD headquarters.
    Rik had been
making more calls. He looked out at the familiar streets, the
mellow sunshine. It didn't look like home any more. “According to a
guy at the station, Blake turned up fifteen minutes late for his
shift, worked a normal day, and went home at the end of it. He was
shot about half an hour later. They must have been waiting for him.
In Brie's statement, she said the package arrived during breakfast
and Blake took it with him when he left for work. It's still
missing.”
    They both
cogitated in silence as the car negotiated the traffic.
    “ So you think we should retrace his route
to work?” Freymann asked. “That's why you're heading to the
station?”
    Rik sighed.
“It's something. If the package had been at home, in his car, in
his locker, anywhere easy, they'd have found it by now.”
    “ You know the police are looking for you?
And you're heading straight for them?”
    “ What does it matter? Full co-operation,
right? I should probably go turn myself in.” Freymann looked
uncomfortable. Rik eyed her suspiciously. “You got a problem with
that, Company girl?”
    “ Let's just hold off on that for a while,
OK? See if we can get a lead. Once you're in custody, they'll be
questioning you for hours. You can do more good out here. What else
do we know?”
    Rik could see
that the question was meant to distract him, keep him from turning
himself in and putting himself out of her reach. But that didn't
bother him. Freymann was right. Going over his movements ten times
for the LAPD wasn't going to help anyone.
    “ We know that they saw me post the package
in Berlin,” he said. “It's the only way they could have been there
to stake out Blake's house.”
    Freymann shook
her head. “If they were close enough to see the address you put on
the package, they were close enough to snatch it in Berlin and save
themselves a trip. Maybe they knew Blake was the only one you'd
send something like this to.”
    This