The Dark Tide Read online

  The Dark Tide

  Andrew Gross

  Contents

  Part One

  Chapter One

  As the morning sun canted sharply through the bedroom window,…

  Chapter Two

  By eight-thirty Karen was at yoga.

  Chapter Three

  Karen hurried through the glass door and squeezed in front…

  Chapter Four

  Ty Hauck was on his way to work.

  Chapter Five

  Karen didn’t flip out at first. That wasn’t her way.

  Chapter Six

  Her thoughts flashed to Samantha and Alex. Karen realized she…

  Chapter Seven

  When the call came in, Hauck was on the phone…

  Chapter Eight

  Hauck took the guy in the sport jacket, Freddy the…

  Chapter Nine

  I never heard from my husband again. I never knew…

  Chapter Ten

  A few days later—Friday, Saturday, Karen had lost track—a police…

  Chapter Eleven

  The huge gray tanker emerged from the mist and cut…

  Chapter Twelve

  A month later—a few days after they’d finally held a…

  Chapter Thirteen

  Down the street a man hunched in a darkened car,…

  Chapter Fourteen

  One of the things Karen had to deal with in…

  Chapter Fifteen

  It was September, the kids were back in school when…

  Chapter Sixteen

  It took him by surprise that night, Hauck decided as…

  Chapter Seventeen

  Their lives had just begun to get back on some…

  Chapter Eighteen

  It took just minutes, frantic ones, for Karen to get…

  Chapter Nineteen

  It was the second day of field-hockey practice, near the…

  Chapter Twenty

  Karen clung to her daughter on the living-room couch. Samantha…

  Chapter Twenty-One

  The call came in at eleven-thirty that night. The limo…

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Archer and Bey turned out to be phony.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  That night Hauck couldn’t sleep. It was a little after…

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  And then it was a year.

  Part Two

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  The morning was clear and bright, the suburban New Jersey…

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Over the next few days, Karen must have watched that…

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  It took everything Karen had to do it.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Karen held back the urge to retch.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Saul Lennick’s office was close by, on the forty-second floor…

  Chapter Thirty

  Karen was frantic. The next few days, she barely dragged…

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Hauck headed back upstairs to his office from the holding…

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  “Who have you told?”

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  He’d said yes. Hauck went over the scene again.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  The doorbell rang. Barking, Tobey scampered to the door. Alex…

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Gregory Khodoshevsky gunned the engine on his three-wheeled, seventy-thousand-dollar T-Rex…

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  “Mr. Raymond?”

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Pappy Raymond was holding back. Why else would he push…

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Karen went back through all of Charlie’s things as Hauck…

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  The address was 3135 Mountain View Drive, a hilly residential…

  Chapter Forty

  Dock 39 was a dingy, nautical-style bar in the harbor,…

  Chapter Forty-One

  “Mom?”

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Saul Lennick waited on the Charles Bridge in Prague overlooking…

  Chapter Forty-Three

  By morning the welt on Hauck’s face had gone down…

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Vito Collucci could find anything, if the matter was about…

  Chapter Forty-Five

  The man broke through the surface of the glistening turquoise…

  Part Three

  Chapter Forty-Six

  Twice a week, Tuesday and Thursday, Ronald Torbor generally took…

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  Karen rushed to drop Alex off at the Arch Street…

  Chapter Forty-Eight

  On the way home, Hauck rang up Freddy Muñoz.

  Chapter Forty-Nine

  There was a knock on the door the following afternoon,…

  Chapter Fifty

  He had slipped up. Hauck read over his testimony once,…

  Chapter Fifty-One

  Something strange crept through Karen’s thoughts that night. After she…

  Chapter Fifty-Two

  The interstate that ran barely a mile from where Hauck…

  Chapter Fifty-Three

  He watched the house all night. No lights ever went…

  Chapter Fifty-Four

  Hauck’s blood became ice. He went over to the window…

  Chapter Fifty-Five

  His side was on fire.

  Chapter Fifty-Six

  It was the car.

  Chapter Fifty-Seven

  One Police Plaza was the home of the NYPD’s administrative…

  Chapter Fifty-Eight

  After his meeting with Velko, Hauck went to the office…

  Chapter Fifty-Nine

  Michel Issa squinted through the lens over the glittering stone.

  Chapter Sixty

  The first thing that came back was the data from…

  Chapterer Sixty-One

  Karen pulled her Lexus into the driveway. She stopped at…

  Chapter Sixty-Two

  A day later Hauck and Karen arranged to meet. They…

  Chapter Sixty-Three

  The cell call came in just as Hauck was getting…

  Chapter Sixty-Four

  Hauck fixed on the name. Oilman. He knew without needing…

  Chapter Sixty-Five

  The doorbell rang, and when Karen went to answer it,…

  Chapter Sixty-Six

  The house was dark. Karen sat in Charlie’s office. The…

  Chapter Sixty-Seven

  The day finally came for the kids to leave. Karen…

  Chapter Sixty-Eight

  In a spot called Little Water Cay, near the islands…

  Chapter Sixty-Nine

  When the call found him, Saul Lennick had just climbed…

  Chapter Seventy

  Karen waited two days. Charles didn’t reply.

  Chapter Seventy-One

  Charles sat in the corner of a quiet Internet café…

  Chapter Seventy-Two

  Hauck had gone out for an evening run around the…

  Chapter Seventy-Three

  Afterward they lay on the bed, spent, Karen’s body slick…

  Chapter Seventy-Four

  In the morning Hauck put on coffee. He was out…

  Chapter Seventy-Five

  Charles was inside the South Island Bank on St. Lucia…

  Chapter Seventy-Six

  Another day passed while Karen waited for Charles’s instructions. This…

  Chapter Seventy-Seven

  “I’m going alone,” Karen explained to Hauck.

  Chapter Seventy-Eight

  Rick and Paula
were away. As were Karen’s kids. She…

  Part Four

  Chapter Seventy-Nine

  The twelve-seater Island Air Cessna touched down on the remote…

  Chapter Eighty

  There was nothing the next day either. Karen grew increasingly…

  Chapter Eighty-One

  Forty miles away Phil Dietz sipped a black cactus margarita…

  Chapter Eighty-Two

  The morning broke hazy and warm.

  Chapter Eighty-Three

  She did know. Somewhere deep in her heart. It came…

  Chapter Eighty-Four

  Like a ghost, Charles stepped out of the thick, close…

  Chapter Eighty-Five

  “Save him?” A surge of anger flared up in Karen.

  Chapter Eighty-Six

  Anxious, Hauck decided to take a run, leaving the hotel’s…

  Chapter Eighty-Seven

  “Listen, Charles, this is important.” Karen reached out and touched…

  Chapter Eighty-Eight

  Karen didn’t arrive back at the hotel until well into…

  Chapter Eighty-Nine

  Charles Friedman sat alone on the Emberglow, which was now…

  Chapter Ninety

  “Ty, wake up! Look!” Karen stood at the side of…

  Chapter Ninety-One

  A launch of white-uniformed officers from the town of Amysville…

  Chapter Ninety-Two

  Maybe they had been, Karen finally admitted as she went…

  Chapter Ninety-Three

  We led them to him, Karen.

  Chapter Ninety-Four

  Karen brought it into the kitchen. She went through the…

  Chapter Ninety-Five

  Saul Lennick sat in the library of his home on…

  Chapter Ninety-Six

  “I was placed on disciplinary leave,” Hauck said at Arcadia,…

  Chapter Ninety-Seven

  Karen drove home.

  Chapter Ninety-Eight

  Her heart crawled up her throat. She looked back, frozen,…

  Chapter Ninety-Nine

  Hauck headed home from the coffeehouse in Old Greenwich, about…

  Chapter One Hundred

  A blade of fear knifed through Karen as the blood…

  Chapter One Hundred One

  It took just minutes, Hauck’s Bronco speeding down Route 1…

  Chapter One Hundred Two

  Her face was pressed under the surface, breath tightening in…

  Chapter One Hundred Three

  The call came in just as Saul Lennick settled down…

  Chapter One Hundred Four

  Illegal search. Breaking and entering. Unauthorized use of official firearms.

  Chapter One Hundred Five

  Hauck drove his Bronco up to the large stone gate.

  Epilogue

  “Flesh becomes dust and ash. Our ashes return to the…

  Acknowledgments

  Excerpt from RECKLESS

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  About the Author

  Other Books by Andrew Gross

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  PART ONE

  CHAPTER ONE

  6:10 A.M.

  As the morning sun canted sharply through the bedroom window, Charles Friedman dropped the baton.

  He hadn’t had the dream in years, yet there he was, gangly, twelve years old, running the third leg of the relay in the track meet at summer camp, the battle between the Blue and the Gray squarely on the line. The sky was a brilliant blue, the crowd jumping up and down—crew-cut, red-cheeked faces he would never see again, except here. His teammate, Kyle Bregman, running the preceding leg, was bearing down on him, holding on to a slim lead, cheeks puffing with everything he had.

  Reach….

  Charles readied himself, set to take off at the touch of the baton. He felt his fingers twitch, awaiting the slap of the stick in his palm.

  There it was! Now! He took off.

  Suddenly there was a crushing groan.

  Charles stopped, looked down in horror. The baton lay on the ground. The Gray Team completed the exchange, sprinting past him to an improbable victory, their supporters jumping in glee. Cheers of jubilation mixed with jeers of disappointment echoed in Charles’s ears.

  That’s when he woke up. As he always did. Breathing heavily, sheets damp with sweat. Charles glanced at his hands—empty. He patted the covers as if the baton were somehow still there, after thirty years.

  But it was only Tobey, their white West Highland terrier, staring wide-eyed and expectantly, straddled turkey-legged on his chest.

  Charles let his head fall back with a sigh.

  He glanced at the clock: 6:10 A.M. Ten minutes before the alarm. His wife, Karen, lay curled up next to him. He hadn’t slept much at all. He’d been wide awake from 3:00 to 4:00 A.M., staring at the World’s Strongest Female Championship on ESPN2 without the sound, not wanting to disturb her. Something was weighing heavily on Charles’s mind.

  Maybe it was the large position he had taken in Canadian oil sands last Thursday and had kept through the weekend—highly risky with the price of oil leaking the other way. Or how he had bet up the six-month natural-gas contracts, at the same time going short against the one-years. Friday the energy index had continued to decline. He was scared to get out of bed, scared to look at the screen this morning and see what he’d find.

  Or was it Sasha?

  For the past ten years, Charles had run his own energy hedge fund in Manhattan, leveraged up eight to one. On the outside—his sandy brown hair, the horn-rim glasses, his bookish calm—he seemed more the estate-planner type or a tax consultant than someone whose bowels (and now his dreams as well!) attested to the fact that he was living in high-beta hell.

  Charles pushed himself up in his boxers and paused, elbows on knees. Tobey leaped off the bed ahead of him, scratching feverishly at the door.

  “Let him out.” Karen stirred, rolling over, yanking the covers over her head.

  “You’re sure?” Charles checked out the dog, ears pinned back, tail quivering, jumping on his hind legs in anticipation, as if he could turn the knob with his teeth. “You know what’s going to happen.”

  “C’mon, Charlie, it’s your turn this morning. Just let the little bastard out.”

  “Famous last words…”

  Charles got up and opened the door leading to their fenced-in half-acre yard, a block from the sound in Old Greenwich. In a flash Tobey bolted out onto the patio, his nose fixed to the scent of some unsuspecting rabbit or squirrel.

  Immediately the dog began his high-pitched yelp.

  Karen scrunched the pillow over her head and growled. “Rrrrggg…”

  That’s how every day began, Charles trudging into the kitchen, turning on CNN and a pot of coffee, the dog barking outside. Then going into his study and checking the European spots online before hopping into the shower.

  That morning the spots didn’t offer much cheer—$72.10. They had continued to decline. Charles did a quick calculation in his head. Three more contracts he’d be forced to sell out. Another couple of million—gone. It was a little after 6:00 A.M., and he was already underwater.