36Dawna was beside me, whispering into my ear. “Keep him talking long as you can.” She pulled a cell phone out of her jacket pocket, punched in a number.
Telling her people to start a trace, I realized. She had a tap on Bella’s phone.
Bella appeared in her open doorway, yawning and bare-legged.
“Andy,” I said into the phone. My fingertips left wet smears on the white plastic. “Where are you?”
His voice was tired. “I thought you’d go to Bella. Guess you got things figured out. The Stingers, me, everything.”
“Pretty much,” I said. “You and your friends tried damn hard to prevent that.”
“I told them we didn’t have to kill you. Said I’d handle you. Nobody liked my idea much, but I talked them into it. I could never hurt you, you know that.”
“Somebody ordered that hit team to get rid of
