She sounded sincere, and Jack wanted to believe her. But somehow he couldn’t help wondering if she was speaking from the heart or saying what she thought he wanted to hear. Theo’s telephone rang. It was across the room on the countertop, and the answering machine picked up.Theo liked to screen his calls, so the message played loud enough for Jack and Rene to hear every word as it was being recorded. “Yo,Theo! Where the fug’ are you, man?” Jack didn’t recognize the voice immediately, and even though he knew he shouldn’t listen, he couldn’t close his ears. “Answer me, Knight! I know you got my message. So where are you, dude? I been waitin’ here almost half an hour for you.” Jack hadn’t heard Isaac Reems’s voice in years, and they’d had only one telephone conversation. But he was dead certain that Theo’s machine was recording the message of a fugitive. “Dude, here’s the deal,” said Reems. “Two thousand bucks. That’s all it takes. I’m sure you think I don’t know what I’m talkin’ about.
