Amanda took the pen and turned the base of the T into a circle. “Little John loops around. The whole neighborhood folds back on itself.” She drew more arcs. “This is Nottingham. Friar Tuck. Robin Hood. Beverly. Lionel.” She drew large X’s at the end points. “Beverly dumps out onto Peachtree here, where every car in the world eventually passes; the other end throws you back into the infinite loop of Ansley Park. Lionel does the same. They’re bottlenecks. Most of the houses along these routes have on-street parking. We could have ten cars at each point and no one would notice.”

Will said, “I’m not worried about their exit routes. I’m worried about Faith going into that house alone. If they really are watching the place, they’ll know the minute someone shows up who shouldn’t be there. They’ve had almost three full days to get the lay of the neighborhood, possibly more. Even if the CSU guys leave, they’ll be counting the number who go in and the number who go out.”

Amanda turned over the paper. She drew a rough diagram of a house, pointing out the rooms. “Faith comes in through the kitchen. The foyer is here, looking into the living room. Here’s the bookcase on the left—my left. Takes up the entire wall. Sofa backs up to here. The wingback chair is here on the right. A couple of other chairs are here and here. Stereo console here. Sliding glass doors opposite the foyer.” She tapped the pen to what must’ve been the master bedroom. “They’ll keep Ev in here until Faith comes with the money, then they’ll bring her into the living room. It’s the obvious area for the exchange.”

“Nothing is obvious here.” He grabbed the pen. “We can’t cover the front windows because we don’t know who’s watching the house. We can’t cover the back because the yard is wide open to the neighbors’ and they’ll see movement at any window. We still don’t know how many kids are left on this team. There could be one, there could be a hundred.” He threw down the pen. His tone was firm. “I don’t like it, Faith. You can’t go in there. Not on their terms. We’ll find another way to do this. We’ll suggest another location that we can secure ahead of time so that we can make sure you’re safe.”

Amanda’s tone betrayed her irritation. “Don’t be so fatalistic, Will. We’ve got six hours. All of us know the layout of the house, so that’s our advantage as well as theirs. I know every old broad in that neighborhood. It’s a residential street. We’ve got joggers, delivery-men, cable trucks, meter readers, postal carriers, and afternoon strollers we can tap into. I can dribble in four teams over the next few hours and no one will be the wiser. We’re not a bunch of Keystone Kops. We can figure out a way to do this.”

“I’ll do it,” Will offered, and Sara felt her heart jump into her throat.

“You can hardly pass for Faith.”

“We’ll send them an email to let them know I’m going to make the exchange. Roger Ling knows what I look like. Even if he’s not involved in this, he’s obviously enjoying the show. He knows who these guys are. He can tell them to trust me.”

Sara felt a wave of relief to see Amanda start shaking her head even before he’d finished talking.

He insisted, “It’s safer this way. Safer for Faith.”

As usual, Amanda didn’t hold back. “That’s one of the most idiotic things I’ve ever heard come from your mouth. Think about what we’ve seen over the last couple of days. This is amateur hour. Julia Ling practically laid it out for us. We’re dealing with a bunch of young, stupid boys who think they know how to play cops and robbers. We’ll either have them on the ground or in it before they know what hit them.”

Will wasn’t swayed. “They may be young, but they’re fearless. They’ve killed a lot of people. They’ve taken a lot of stupid risks.”

“None more stupid than sending you in instead of Faith. That’s the way to get people killed.” Amanda decided, “We’ll do it my way. We’ll figure out how to strategically place our people. We’ll have eyes on Faith at all times. We’ll wait until the kidnappers show up with Evelyn. Faith will do the swap, and then we’ll nab them when they try to make their escape.”

Will wouldn’t give in. He was adamant. “She can’t do this. She can’t go in there alone. Either let me do it or we’ll find another way.”

Faith said, “If I’m not alone, then my mother is dead.”

Will looked down at the floor. He obviously thought that there was still the real possibility that Evelyn Mitchell was dead. Sara found herself silently agreeing with him. This didn’t sound like a plan to get Evelyn back. It sounded like a plan to get Faith killed. Amanda was so hellbent on saving her friend that she couldn’t see the collateral damage.

Sara had forgotten about the coffee. She kept one for herself, then passed the other mugs to Amanda, then Will.

“Thank you.” Will awkwardly took his. It was as if he was making sure that their hands didn’t touch.

Faith said, “He doesn’t drink coffee. I’ll take it.”

Sara felt her cheeks start to burn. “You probably shouldn’t be drinking caffeine right now.”

Will cleared his throat. “That’s okay. I like it sometimes.” He took a sip from the mug. He practically grimaced as he swallowed.

Sara couldn’t take much more of this. The only way she could be more out of place would be if she pulled out an accordion and started singing polka tunes. “I should give y’all some privacy.”

Amanda stopped her. “If you don’t mind, Dr. Linton, I’d like a fresh ear on this.”

They were all looking at her. Impossibly, Sara felt even more naked than before. She looked at Will for help, but his blank expression was probably the same one he gave to the woman at the bank or the guy who picked up his recyclables.

There was nothing to be done about it. She sat down beside Faith.

Amanda took the other seat. “All right, let’s go over what we know so we’re all on the same page. Will, run it down for us.”

He put down the coffee mug and started talking. He told Faith about everything that had happened since Evelyn had been taken, detailing the crime scene, their visit with Boyd Spivey at the D&C and his silent ex-colleagues at Valdosta State Prison. Faith’s lips parted in surprise when he told her about Roz Levy’s photographs of Evelyn’s gentleman friend. Still, she kept silent as he detailed Sara’s ordeal at the hospital and the shootout at Julia Ling’s warehouse. Sara felt that familiar tightness in her chest when he got to this last part. The cut on his ear. A bullet had whizzed by, less than an inch from his skull.

Will said, “Ricardo Ortiz and Hironobu Kwon knew each other from school. They both went to Westminster. They were most likely working in Ling-Ling’s cabinet shop together. They got it into their heads to start their own business. They obviously pulled together a crew from the other guys working in the shop. Ricardo went to Sweden and picked up some heroin for them to sell. According to Roger Ling, the boys were all bragging about it. Benny Choo, strongarm for the Yellow Rebels, picked up Ricardo and basically beat the crap out of him. He was about to pull the plug, but Ricardo, or maybe Hironobu, told him where they could get some serious money.”