Busted by Karin Slaughter Page B

pastor’s words. “Wayne Walker is an asshole. Even his ex-wives won’t return our calls because they don’t care whether he lives or dies.”
    Faith got back to brass tacks. “We’ve got no phone calls between Wayne Walker and Gloria Pringle going back six months. No overlapping credit cards. They never even bought gas at the same station or shopped at the same Walmart. They don’t work together. Gloria’s kids didn’t go to his school.”
    “So why would Walker send us here?” Amanda indicated the monitors. “He had to know we’d bring an army. He’s practically put Al Qaeda inside that house. I’ve got a helicopter set up two miles from here. Tell me what Walker is playing at.”
    “I don’t know,” Will said. “I wish I could tell you. This just feels wrong.”
    “Your feelings have always mattered so much to me.” Still, Amanda tapped the mic again. “Major, do you have eyes inside the house?”
    “That’s a negative, ma’am. Shades are all pulled. We hear a television. There’s some interference from a microwave.” He paused a moment as he switched to another channel, then back. “We think the daughter’s upstairs. The son and mother appear to be downstairs. No idea where the girlfriend is. Maybe in the basement.”
    “What’s on TV?”
    If the major thought this was a strange question, he didn’t say. “Sounds like The View. ”
    Amanda sat back in her chair. She steepled her fingers together. It didn’t take her long to form a new plan. She told Will, “Go knock on the door.”
    “What?” Will and Faith said in unison.
    Amanda spoke into the mic. “Major, I’m sending my agent to the front door. Tell your team to drop back.” She looked up at Will. “Don’t worry. They’ll still be there for cover.”
    Will felt a bead of sweat roll down his back. He was pretty sure he was right about this, but he wasn’t sure enough to risk his life.
    “Oh, for godsakes.” Amanda pushed herself up from the chair. She threw open the back door and was down the steps by the time Will managed to jump down from the van. She walked across the yard with her head high, ignoring the twenty men surrounding the house. Two steps up to the porch. Another two steps to the front door.
    Amanda raised her hand and knocked.
    Will waited. He heard laughter inside the house, obviously from the television. A woman’s voice called a jovial, “No, no! Let me get it!”
    The bolt slid back. Then the thumb latch turned. The door opened. An attractive woman in her fifties with long dark hair stood in her bathrobe. She smiled at Amanda. Then she saw Will and Faith and her smile faltered.
    Then she saw the SWAT team surrounding her house and started screaming.

--6--
    “Wayne Walker is a lying asshole.” Gloria Pringle stabbed her cigarette out in the ashtray, only to grab up her pack for another. “Hell no, I never dated him. He should be so lucky.” Her hands shook as she lit a new cigarette. “What were you going to do, bust in here and kill us all?”
    Amanda used her diplomatic voice. “We were told the men who were holding you hostage were trained mercenaries.”
    Gloria laughed out loud. “And you believed that?”
    Will let Amanda handle the question. He glanced around the woman’s kitchen, which was decorated in a strawberry theme. Strawberry wallpaper. Strawberry curtains. Strawberry tablecloth. Even the canisters on the countertop were shaped like strawberries.
    “I don’t even know why he bothers to go to church,” Gloria said. “Not like he’ll get into heaven.”
    Faith came into the kitchen with three surly-looking young adults in tow. “There’s no one else in the house. They all tell the same story. They’ve been here all morning. They have no idea why Wayne Walker would say they were being held hostage.”
    “We could sue you,” the girl said.
    “For?” Amanda asked.
    The girl didn’t have an answer.
    Amanda turned to Gloria. “Why would Wayne target you like this?”
    No one