The living room door opened to a sight that had Nancy thinking she had entered an ops room for a Special Services team. The furniture had been moved to one side and three sleeping bags were lined up on the floor, with backpacks at the bottom of each one. The boys sat at the dining table, all wearing black fatigues with body armour hung over the backs of their chairs. Strewn across the table were automatic rifles in varying degrees of disassembly.
‘Sick leave tomorrow you, guys. Nancy is onboard. Operation Mary’s a go. We need to start planning,’ Dad said.
Uncle Dave swayed on two legs of his chair, putting the final assembly in place on a semi-automatic-assault rifle he was nursing. A wide mouthed grin spread across his face, revealing two missing front teeth.
‘Bout time,’ Uncle Dave said.
Nancy threw her hands in the air.
‘Whoa, there. What’s all this? You can’t go following me around the streets of LA like some personal army.’
‘No need to follow you, Nance,’ said Uncle Dave. He reached out for a hunting knife on the table and slipped it into a pocket sheath on his pants leg. ‘Just give us the address and we’ll whisk her away to the bunker for interrogation.’ He let out a roar of laughter.
‘Stop, right now. I’m not agreeing to anything.’ She shook her head. ‘You are joshing?’
A loud knocking on the apartment door interrupted them. Heads snapped in the direction of the sound and then to her dad.
‘You expecting anyone?’ Nancy asked her dad, to the sound of metallic clicks as they assembled the weapons left on the table in quick time. She didn’t get an answer. His action told her what she needed to know. Dave tossed him a semi auto and he racked the slide to put a round in the chamber. Her dad barked out an order.
‘Stow everything unlicensed under the sofa. Licensed handguns only and keep quiet. Dave, prepare an exit and flank.’
‘Got ya.’
Dave snatched his backpack from the floor and took out a coiled nylon rope. Nancy followed her dad down the hall, drawing her automatic from her waistband, gripping the butt tight and holding it aloft.
‘Stay back.’
Nancy scowled, continuing to tiptoe behind him. Their visitor knocked long and loud. Dad approached the door and looked through the spy hole. He turned and mouthed a whisper.
‘Some young stiff in a suit.’
He waved his hand as a signal for her to move back, but she stood her ground. Dad stood to one side of the door and called out.
‘Who is it?’
The hairs on Nancy’s neck bristled.
Chapter 66
Too late in the day for a sales rep to be canvassing, and Nancy was sure a pizza delivery guy wouldn’t be wearing a suit. Her fingers grasping the gun tightened. If it was not for the night’s events, she thought their caution verged on the overly melodramatic side.
‘Mr. Roberts… Kyle. I’m Nancy’s friend.’
Kyle? Nancy recognized his voice. She exchanged a questioning look with her dad.
Stepping in front of her dad, she looked through the spy hole. It was like looking into a goldfish bowl. She could just about make out his distorted features and a dark figure appeared behind him.
‘What the…. Oh God. Put the gun away, Dad.’
She lifted the back of her jacket in a hurry, slipped her auto in her waistband and then reached for the lock, snapping the door open in time to see Uncle Dave, who had arrived like some Houdini, as he reached into Kyle’s jacket relieving him of his firearm.
‘It’s okay, Uncle, he’s a detective.’
Uncle Dave handed her Kyle’s gun, with a toothy grin. ‘It’s okay, now.’
Kyle looked bewildered.
‘Hey, I only want a word with Nancy.’
Her dad forced his way between Kyle and Nancy.
‘You’ve got a damned nerve coming here. She saves your worthless skin and then ya turn ya back on her. Some piece a dog shit you are.’
Kyle looked passively down at his shoes, clasping his fingers in front of him and twiddling his thumbs. Her dad on the other hand, seemed to be fastened by an elastic band and it was barely holding him back. His face reddened and the tendons in his neck were taut with rage. Nancy stepped between them, took hold of her dad’s wrist and removed the gun from his grasp.
‘We don’t want any accidents. Do we?’ She looked him straight in the eyes, which were glazed and empty. ‘Let him in, Dad, and let’s see what he has to say. We can talk in my bedroom.’ She threw Kyle a look. ‘You’d better come in, before you wet yourself.’
Kyle stepped past her and she held out Dad’s semi-automatic to Uncle Dave.
‘Better empty the round before someone gets hurt.’
Dave took the gun from her and skirted past them all and into the living room, closing the door behind him.
‘First right.’ She pointed to her bedroom door.
Dad grabbed Kyle’s arm and contorted his face into a growl. ‘I’ll be right outside, so no funny stuff, ya hear?’
‘Yes, sir, I hear.’
Nancy thought Kyle was overplaying the pacified-obedient captive, but then her dad had been overly aggressive. Added to that, the indignity at having an old guy get the jump on him, and she guessed if the roles were reversed that she’d have been just as compliant. But for that, she just revelled in the fact that she held the power over him and not the other way around.
Nancy pointed for him to sit on the corner of the bed, thinking that if she remained standing, she would remain top dog in the situation. She unclipped the rounds, tossed the gun to him and waved the magazine.
‘You can have that back when you leave.’
He looked puzzled.
‘What, you think I’d shoot you? Give me a break. Doesn’t our time together mean anything?’ He opened his jacket and holstered his gun.
‘I don’t think anything where you’re concerned.’
‘Come on, Nance, you can’t just switch off like that.’
Nancy held up an arm, pinching her thumb and finger together.
‘See that? Well the space between my thumb and finger is what’s left of what I feel for you. Get it?’
‘You’re being stupid.’
‘Arghh, starting with the compliments already are we? Mommy’s Boy.’
‘Leave my mom out of this.’ He lowered his voice to a whisper. ‘At least I’m not hiding behind that ape outside.’
‘You wanna tell him that to his face? Anyway, why are you here?’
‘We need to straighten things out between us, ’cause you’re jumping to conclusions again. Why do you have to be so pig brained?’
‘Stupid and pig brained, added to all my other faults.’
Kyle covered his face with a hand and shook his head.
‘Look, let’s start again. I’m here because I messed up in trying to read your mind after you’d signed that contract. Christ knows, if I only thought like a detective and had no feelings, I’d have declined your offer to come in and by now, you and your private-body guards would all be locked up in a SWAT van.’
He looked at her with pleading eyes. Nancy folded her arms, her mind wavering and her curiosity stirring.
‘I’m listening.’
‘When I heard you’d signed that contract, it blew my mind to bits. I didn’t have your number and was outta my mind waiting for you to call me. When Mom visited, I had to twist her arm to get your number. But once I had it, I couldn’t call, thinking I’d better err on the safe side and make sure I could work on the inside to clear you. With you not phoning, I thought that’s what you’d expect.’
His arms outstretched with the palms of his hands facing her. He tilted his head to one side, Kyle fashion. Nancy fought the urge to step forward and closed her eyes, searching for how to respond. Events raced through her mind and the doubts won out over her instinct. She opened her eyes.
‘So what do you want?’
‘Resign and work out a payout from the department. Forget all about this Astral
nonsense and the professor. Then we can go back to what we’d planned.’
‘So, you want me to forget that you wanted to arrest me?’
‘I didn’t want to arrest you and neither did Logan. Hell, we’re all looking out for you. All he wanted was some questions answered, that and to make sure you were safe. If you’d been at home, you could have shown Logan around and there’d have been no need for a search warrant. Remember, we couldn’t contact you at the time? But no, you keep investigating and sticking your nose in against orders. Like visiting Lilly today. He could have you fired for going against your contract for that visit.’
Up to those last words, she had almost weakened. He must have been following her.
‘How is it interfering with a material witness? For Christ’s sake, just like Kelly, Dean is dead. There’s nothing in the contract preventing me from paying respects.’
Kyle ran his hand across his forehead, his shoulders sagged and he sighed. She was concerned that he knew she had visited Dean’s mum. If he knew that, she worried he may have been following her and was somehow a party to the attempt on her life. Her mind went to soup trying to work out his motives. Maybe, she thought, he was attempting one last plea to have her stop investigating the professor’s death and the connection to Astral. The notion struck, that once it had all died down, and she had resigned, after which they had moved in together, that it would be bye, bye Nancy.
Keep your enemy close. Her dad’s words stuck in her mind.
‘You’re right. I’ll have a word with my attorney about working out a deal, but I don’t know how long it will take. Who gives a crap about the professor and astral anyway.’
A smile spread across his face as his lips curled into a smile. He jumped up off the bed, his arms outstretched and catching Nancy off guard. As his lips neared hers, she sidestepped his face as they hugged and she whispered in his ear.
‘Best we don’t have contact until after I’ve resigned, we’re going to need your salary until I find other work, so we don’t want internal affairs busting you.’
Dad called out, rescuing the situation. ‘You okay in there?’
‘Yeah, he’s going now.’
Nancy stepped back and handed him his magazine.
‘Better not get caught-out like that again. Don’t worry. I won’t ever talk about it with the guys at the office if you don’t.’
They both laughed.
‘Don’t you worry, I’d be too embarrassed.’
The door opened. Her dad walked in and said ‘This way, Son, I’ll show you out.’
Nancy didn’t follow them to the door, but sat on the edge of her bed. Her deliberations felt as though she had tossed them into a blender and pressed the ON button delivering a gooey mess. Dad returned.
‘You okay?’
A single tear escaped the duct and ran down her cheek.
‘I’m fine,’ she lied. ‘Best we start with the plans for following Mary tomorrow. But hear this. I’ll set the rules.’
‘Yeah, right.’
Chapter 67
Nancy stood in front of the full-length mirror in the bedroom. Sure enough, the image staring back was her, although something was missing. Kitted out in a black-short-leather jacket, with matching tight-leather pants and wearing a white blouse, all the trimmings were there. But looking at her reflection through tired eyes, shrouded in puffiness, the gaunt features staring back hardly exuded confidence for what may lie ahead.
It was as if she was looking at a stranger, devoid of any emotion, or sense of purpose as to which direction her life was going to turn. Nancy formed her hair into a ponytail and slipped it through the clasp of her Dodger’s baseball cap, adjusting the peak to shade her eyes. She gave herself a salute, before she turned, picked her 9 mil from the bed, and placed it in her shoulder holster.
From the dresser, she picked up the pen Dad had given her, placing it in her breast pocket. Fishing in her purse, Nancy took out her car keys and fastened the GPS transmitter to the key ring. The last thing she wanted was to be caught out again if things went wrong. At the bedroom door, she stopped, rotated her neck and placed hands on her hips. She let out a sigh at the stiffening pains in the nape and cursed inside at the bad night’s sleep that left her with a crick in her neck.
She wondered what would happen if she were to follow her life by the toss of a coin. At that moment, she had a choice. Heads and she could turn left, go to her attorney and ask him to come up with a deal for her to be with Kyle, assuming Kyle wasn’t playing her. Or, tails and she could turn right into the living room and uncertainty, but with her self-respect intact. It was a no-brainer as she decided on tails, and slouched down the hallway to the living room. She reckoned she would never be able to face Kyle again if the situation left even the smallest doubt where they were both concerned.
‘Where are Dad and the boys?’ Nancy asked Uncle Dave.
‘Gone to the lock-up for some equipment.’
‘What, more equipment? I told y’all last night, I don’t want you lot following me around LA with an arsenal. I’d prefer to go it alone.’
Uncle Dave shrugged his shoulders.
‘Talk to your dad. There again, you may as well talk to the hand for all the good it’ll do you. Like father, like daughter.’
Nancy let the remark pass by.
‘Coffee?’
‘No, I already have one, but there’s some fresh in the pot.’
Nancy headed for the kitchen and called out.
‘Good thing no one phoned it in when you abseiled out of the window last night. God knows how we’d have explained it!’
‘We’d have just said it was a prank. No harm done. Better your safe than dead.’
You’re right there. ‘Still you want to be careful at your age.’
‘Hey, less of that. I could beat you over a hundred yards any day of the week.’
‘Yeah, right.’
She hadn’t eaten since vomiting the night before and still couldn’t face breakfast, but she hoped that the coffee would sustain her. Nancy walked back into the room. Uncle Dave was braving sitting in Dad’s chair and drinking coffee. He glanced over at Nancy and said. ‘You know your dad was proud of you when you made detective. Never shut up about it. This fiasco has hit him hard.’
She almost choked on her sip of coffee at his revelation and parked her backside on the sofa.
‘You sure about that?’
‘Yeah, I’m sure.’
His words didn’t make her smile inside, instead they peeved her, leaving her confused as to why her dad would boast on the one hand to his buddies and leave her in the dark on the other. But then, she’d long since given up trying to figure him.
‘I’ve been thinking, seeing as how he’s not here; do you know where Dad knows Bill and Logan from?’
‘Whoa, don’t go there. He said you might ask. Don’t put me on a spot.’
Nancy purposely flashed her eyes at him and said in a sweet voice.
‘Come on, it can’t hurt, I won’t tell him.’
‘Damn it, Nance, stop it. Flashing your eyes might have worked when you were eleven.’ He took a sip of his coffee and placed the empty mug on the coffee table. ‘Listen, I’m sorry, but I really can’t betray your dad. It’s all way in the past. Duty to my buddy and the memory of your mom to protect you is one thing, but don’t ask me to be disloyal.’
‘Pleeeease, Uncle Dave?’
He showed her the palm of his hand and shook his head. Nancy huffed and downed her coffee in one swig. Uncle Dave leaned forward, took hold of her hand, and locked his eyes on hers.
‘I wasn’t joking the other day when I said there’s always the bunker. The hideaway is well prepped with provisions. This whole situation stinks. If we don’t get to the bottom of it all, and soon, then if you take my advice, you’d be better disappearing for a while.’
He released her hand and sat back. Thoughts of living in the bunker in solitude, like some prepper surviving the aftermath of a nuclear blast
and living off powdered food and warm water made her shudder. Nancy thought that, just like knowing there was a bomb going to drop she’d be better off standing on the epicentre, in the same way she’d rather face whoever was after her rather than hide like some rat in a sewer.
‘Who do you think is behind it all?’
‘I don’t know. Your dad thinks there’s a cartel operating on the take in the police force. Jim thinks it’s someone you’ve put away in the past and bearing a grudge. Ben is leaning toward the Piru gang. He thinks some of the surveillance could be internal affairs. Me, I think it could be a little of everything, which, when taken together makes it all appear to be one and the same problem, but mainly I think that it’s something to do with the government and the Astral business. Then, you know my politics. Whatever the truth, someone wants you out of the way, big style.’
He was right; she did know his politics. Everything was the Federal Government’s fault in his eyes. Nancy just couldn’t accept that she had done anything for the government to want her dead, nor that they would dirty their hands without due process if she had. It wasn’t as if she was some female Osama bin Laden.
The door to the apartment opened and her dad called out. Uncle Dave jumped up to attention from her dad’s chair and grabbed his backpack off the floor, throwing it over his shoulder.
‘Let’s get this show on the road,’ Dad said. ‘Jim and Ben are parked east and west along Colorado Boulevard to make sure no one is following.’ Dad handed her a short wave radio. ‘Emergency only. And don’t worry, if there’s any trouble we can’t handle, I’ll bypass the police and phone a contact I have at FBI.’
Uncle Dave rolled his eyes.
‘And you trust the FBI?’
Nancy half-smiled and followed them out of the door and down the stairway to her car. In daylight, she saw that the fender of her Ford was only slightly scratched and the taillights intact, but the trunk was badly dented from the impact of the bull bars. A shiver ran through her at the recall of the coming together. Dad stood alongside.
‘Worry about it when we take it back. Just remember, you’ll have three of us alternating behind, and one up front dropping back and rotating. So just concentrate on what’s upfront. If we have to go on foot we’ll work to the same pattern.’
Missing: The Body of Evidence Page 28