Caravan of Thieves Read Online Free PDF Page B

Dan.
    I walked to a spot where I could spy on him. He had a blond woman with him. Naked, too, which was fine until Dan decided to join her. For most of two days I watched them from above; then I took off. I never went back to Albuquerque and didn’t see Dan again until after I had enlisted in the Marines.
    As soon as I could lose Shaw, I was going back to Lake Powell.
    I had directed him toward the Grand Canyon. He kept asking me where we were making for and I avoided answering, so he said, “You just tell me where to turn.” Most people would have gotten irritated or tense, but Shaw stayed as relaxed as a guy with an expense account picking up a dinner check. I assumed he just wanted to show me he could be trusted. After a while, he said, “Why’d you join the Marines?”
    It wasn’t really a question. He wanted to pretend to be friendly. “Same reason you joined the Treasury Department. They said they’d take me.”
    “My father was a cop. And his father.”
    “So you went into the family business.”
    “I tried not to. Joined the Army right out of college. Stayed four years. Intelligence. Listening posts in Germany and Turkey. When I came home, I studied for the CPA exam, passed, got a job, hated the job. Everybody in the family said join the force, but I didn’t want to give them the satisfaction. So I went looking for a job out of town and found the Treasury.”
    It was a believable story. I had never hired an accountant, but I think I would want one who was a little more uptight. Shawwas more like the accountant’s partner who played golf with the clients.
    “Where did all this happen? The family part?”
    “Lexington, Kentucky. So…I ended up the same, only different.”
    “Are you saying I’m the same as Dan?”
    “I asked why you joined the Marines. You could have easily joined a gang.”
    “But the Marines gave me food, clothing, and free guns. And, until now, no cops bothering me.”
    Shaw smiled. He seemed to think I was joking. That was fine. As soon as he turned his eyes back to the road, I slugged him hard with my left. His head slammed against the window and he was out. The SUV shimmied left, then right onto the shoulder. I grabbed the wheel before we went off the road and straightened it out. I pulled his right leg back so his foot came off the accelerator. The car slowed down and I eased onto the shoulder. At ten miles per hour, I yanked the parking brake.
    Shaw was still unconscious. I took his gun and cell phone and pocketed them. I grabbed him under the arms and dragged him out the passenger side. While I was catching my breath, he started to come to. “You’re only twenty miles from Tusayan. You look respectable enough. Someone will pick you up,” I said.
    His eyes focused and he rubbed his jaw. “Just stop and think about what you’re doing. The Marines are already chasing you. Now you’ll have the feds, too. It means jail for sure. You’re ruining your life for him. For him.”
    This wasn’t the moment to stop and explain to Shaw that I was not doing this for Dan. I was doing it because Dan had boxed meinto this position just the way he always did, and this time I was going to change that forever. “If I find the money, I’ll call you. And by the way, Dan would never have slugged you. He’d have talked you into giving him the car.”
    The SUV had GPS installed so I had to ditch it. Shaw would be in touch with the rental company within a couple of hours. Pongo and Perdy were probably already on it. And then there was McColl, who was chasing Dan. Shaw had not wanted a government car because he thought McColl could trace that. So Shaw believed McColl had friends in the Treasury Department. McColl probably had active military friends, too. Why not? What did friends cost? A few drinks and an hour with a whore? Maybe a thousand in cash? They could buy a lot of friends with twenty-five million dollars.

7.
    I drove to Las Vegas and pulled into the first large hotel I saw, the