64
Sitting in the SUV in the bowels of the Armory’s underground garage, re-reading Thorne’s file for perhaps the tenth time and wracking his brains for a strategy to apprehend the man, Cutty suddenly received an emergency notification from Genesis.
There was a possible hit on Thorne.
After they had lost Thorne and his harlot at the Midtown condominium, Cutty had directed Genesis to place wiretaps on the telephone lines of Thorne’s family and friends. At a quarter past eleven o’clock that morning, an unidentified cell phone had called the home in Decatur at which Thorne’s sister and nephew resided.
The mystery phone could have belonged to anyone. But he remembered that Thorne had ditched his cell in a restaurant trash bin in Duluth. Most likely, Thorne had purchased one of those pre-paid gadgets that didn’t require ID or credit authorization—and which would show up as “caller unknown” on a wiretap.
In a revelatory flash that could have only been divinely inspired, a plan instantly formed in his mind.
“The Lord and Prophet are my shepherds,” he whispered, reciting a variation on Psalm 23 that he’d learned during Kingdom Bible study. “They guide me on the path of righteousness for the sake of the Kingdom.”
He called Valdez. At the sound of her soft voice, a shiver trickled down his spine, and he thought of the Prophet’s promise. A man who finds a wife finds a good thing.
“I’ll collect you in five minutes,” he said. “We have a new mission, and the spirit has revealed to me the perfect means to fulfill it.”