Having had to absorb the shocking news about Shaw, Jordie now suffered another jolt. She listened without comment as Joe Wiley recounted his most recent conversation with Josh.

“He sounded different from when I talked to him night before last,” Wiley said. “He got really spooked when I told him that I had talked to Billy Panella last night.”

Jordie flinched. “What?” The shocks just kept coming.

“I used Bolden’s phone. Same as Kinnard did. Just hit Redial.”

“Panella answered?”

“He expected it to be Kinnard demanding payment for services rendered. I identified myself and told him that his hired gun had been apprehended and that you were alive and well. Plan foiled.”

“What did he say?”

“Garbled some obscenities, then hung up. Now that he knows we have Bolden’s phone, the one he answered is probably in pieces.”

Jordie murmured agreement to that. She was aware of Greg Hickam standing with his back to the wall, watching her intently and gauging her reactions to everything Wiley was telling her. Keeping her expression schooled, she said, “My brother is my main concern. Any indication of where he is, how he is?”

“If I knew where, he’d already be in custody. But I don’t think he’ll keep running much longer. He sounded strung out, jumpy, on the brink of falling apart. He was crying when he hung up.”

“I’m sure he’s scared.”

“I think so, too,” Wiley said. “Told him he should be. But what, in particular, do you think has him scared enough to bawl like a baby?”

“You don’t have to answer,” Adrian Dover said.

Jordie disregarded her. “He’s scared of being recaptured because he knows the punishment he’ll face.”

“Years in prison.”

“Yes, and that will be torture.”

“It isn’t meant to be fun, Ms. Bennett.”

“Of course not. But for Josh, the lack of privacy is his worst nightmare.”

“You’re referring to his scars,” Wiley said quietly.

She nodded and lowered her head sorrowfully. “They’re unsightly, and Josh sees them as being even worse than they are. He’s extremely self-conscious of them. Pathologically so.”

No one said anything for the next several moments, then Jordie raised her head. “I can’t bear the idea of imprisonment for my brother and his being subjected to, well, everything that it entails, but I’ll do the right thing, Agent Wiley. I’ll answer truthfully any questions you put to me.”

Adrian Dover said, “Unless she exercises her constitutional right not to.”

Wiley began, and for approximately an hour they reviewed everything Jordie had already told them about her abduction. She found it almost impossible to speak Shaw’s name without her throat seizing up.

Various aspects of the time he’d held her captive were covered repeatedly, until she said in a cracking voice, “Must we go over this again and again? There’s nothing more I can tell you.”

Then from Hickam, “All right, then tell us about your trip to Costa Rica with Billy Panella.”

The switch in topics was so abrupt it took her aback.

“That’s not a question,” Adrian Dover said.

“Excuse me. I’ll be happy to put it in the form of a question.” Hickam pushed himself away from the wall. “Ms. Bennett, did you accompany Billy Panella to Costa Rica?” He checked his iPad and cited the dates.

“Yes.”

“What was the reason for the trip?”

The lawyer laid her hand on Jordie’s arm and shook her head.

This time Jordie heeded her. “I’ve been advised by counsel not to answer.”

“Did you know that Panella had funds stashed in a bank in San Jose?”

“Not until yesterday when Agent Wiley alleged it.”

“Your brother made the deposit for him.”

“So Agent Wiley alleged.”

“You had no previous knowledge of this?”

“None.”

“You didn’t know about Billy Panella’s plans to flee the U.S.?”

“You don’t have to answer.”

She turned to the lawyer. “I want to answer, Adrian.” Then to Hickam, “I didn’t know Billy Panella’s plans regarding anything. We rarely even spoke.”

“But you spent a long weekend with him.”

She divided a look between the two federal agents, but didn’t say anything because her lawyer was whispering in her ear not to.

Hickam said, “You still claim to have no knowledge of funds in that bank?”

“Correct. I have no knowledge of them.”

Wiley sat forward, clasping his hands on the table and looking at her like the regretful bearer of bad news. “They remember you down there, Ms. Bennett.”

“Who? Where? What are you talking about?”

“The bank employees in San Jose. You paid a visit to it with Panella.”

“Oh. That.” Her shoulders sagged forward. Adrian Dover cautioned her not to say anything, but she held up a hand to silence her. “I want this cleared up, Adrian.”

She glanced at handsome, stoic Hickam, then met Wiley’s sad-looking eyes. “Panella ordered a chauffeur-driven limousine to take us to lunch, a place on the mountainside overlooking the city. On the way there, he asked the driver to stop at a bank, where he said he had some quick business to attend to.

“I told him that I would wait in the car, but he insisted that I go into the bank with him.” She took a deep breath. “He made a spectacle of us. Flirted with the tellers, glad-handed the officers, and cashed a check. I was embarrassed by his grandstanding and couldn’t wait to get out of there.”

She raised her hands. “That was it. I’m not surprised that the bank employees remember us, because it was a disgusting display of affluence. Him with his Armani suit and Patik Philippe watch. But that’s all I know about a bank in San Jose. If Josh made a deposit—”

“He did.” Hickam stepped forward and opened up an e-mail attachment, holding it where she could see it. “One week before Josh agreed to cooperate with us, he opened an account for Billy Panella with half a million dollars.”

She looked at him, but didn’t say anything, unsure of what he expected from her. Wiley said, “The thing is, Ms. Bennett… Show her, Hick.”