“I met Linda when we were sixteen,” he said, then added a shade defensively, “but we didn’t get married until we were twenty.”
“Yeah, a couple of senior citizens,” Eddie scoffed, turning to his exercise equipment. The argument was a familiar one. Before Luke’s wife was killed, Eddie was the only one he’d confided in about his dissatisfaction with his marriage. Eddie had always maintained that it was because they’d married so young. Luke knew there was more to it than that, but there were some things you didn’t talk about, not even with your partner.
To change the subject, he looked around the room that had been turned into an exercise facility. A top-notch exercise facility, he noticed. The equipment Eddie had was as high-quality as that found in any health club. “Nice setup you have here, Eddie,” he commented.
Eddie grinned at him and continued to lift weights with his legs. “Some of us are still interested in looking good,” he panted. “And you know my motto has always been to buy the best.”
“I remember.” And he did. Eddie had always had champagne taste on a beer budget. Luke felt his stomach begin to roll. Had his ex-partner found a way to finance his bigbudget life-style?
Luke watched as Eddie worked up a sweat on his expensive equipment, then asked a question about the precinct and some people they’d both worked with there. Eddie seemed relieved that the conversation had drifted into impersonal waters, and they talked for a while. When Eddie reached for his towel and began wiping his face, the signal that his workout was over, Luke stood up.
“I guess I’ll get going. Give me a call sometime.”
“I’ll do that.” Eddie flashed him a grin from behind the towel, a grin that told Luke more clearly than any words it would never happen.
He walked to the front door, managing to carry on an innocuous conversation, but once he was back outside and the door to Eddie’s house was closed, he allowed himself to feel the pain. And underneath the pain, buried deep, the rage simmered.
Eddie had been his partner, his best friend. Their relationship had become strained when Eddie had testified against him, but as Eddie had pointed out, there were plenty of witnesses to the beating he’d given that drunken killer and better he have a friend in the inquiry room than an enemy or even a casual observer. And since Luke hadn’t cared about anything in the months after his wife had been killed, he tried not to think about the fact that his best friend and partner had actually betrayed him.
But now he wondered if his best friend had not only betrayed him but had betrayed everything he stood for. Could Eddie really have become one of them, one of the pieces of garbage that infested the sewers of the community? Luke could think of only one explanation for Eddie’s sudden wealth, and it left a foul taste in his mouth.
Getting back into his car, he stared at the house for a few minutes, wondering bitterly if Eddie was on the phone right now, calling his boss in the gang and telling him about Luke’s visit. Turning the ignition key with a savage twist of his wrist, he gunned the engine and roared down the street without looking back.
In spite of Luke’s warning Julia paced in her parents’ living room, pausing every few seconds to peer out the front window. As far as she could tell, no cars had gone by the house more than once and no one sat parked along the curb, but she really didn’t care. All she was looking for was one battered old blue sedan.
“Honey, what’s wrong?” her mother asked for the tenth time.
Julia turned around and went to her, taking her hands. “This is an important case, Mom, and I need to get busy working on it.” She needed to be sure Luke was safe, but she wasn’t about to tell her mother that. Just as she wasn’t about to tell her parents about the cars following them, or the fact that Luke’s office had been blown up and her apartment searched. “I’m just anxious for Luke to get back.”
“Will you bring your young man in this time so I can meet him, too?”
“He’s not my young man, Mom,” she answered, willing herself to look nonchalant. “He’s just an…an associate on this case.”
“That’s not what your brother told us. He said you all had dinner together last night and that the two of you seemed quite cozy.”
She’d forgotten how quickly news flew through the family grapevine. At least Bobby apparently hadn’t told them about the love-at-first-sight remarks. She supposed she should be grateful for that. Sighing, she said, “All of you, Bobby included, are seeing things that aren’t there.”
“We worry about you, Julia, being alone. We just want you to have someone to take care of you.”
“I can take care of myself just fine, Mom.”
“But it’s so much more fun when you don’t have to,” her mother murmured, and Julia looked at her sharply.
Before she could answer, the doorbell rang. Julia practically fell over her feet to get to the door, but remembering Luke’s words of caution she looked through the peephole before wrenching the door open.
“Luke!” she said, too breathlessly. “Come in.”
Something had happened. She recognized those grim lines around his mouth and that tension in his eyes. “What is it?” she asked in a low voice, grabbing his hand.
He looked down at their joined hands for a moment, as if puzzled by the contact, then turned his palm to hold hers with a grip that felt almost desperate. “Nothing,” he answered just as softly. “As far as I know, no one followed me back here.”
That wasn’t what she’d meant and he knew it, but instead of pursuing it she turned to her mother. In spite of the fact that she knew her mother’s gaze was riveted to her and Luke’s joined hands, she couldn’t break the contact.
“Mom, this is Lucas McKinley. Luke, this is my mother, Dolores Carleton.”
Luke murmured pleasantries while he shook her mother’s hand. He couldn’t be unaware of the speculative looks her mother was giving him, but he met her eyes squarely and managed to carry on a normal conversation. After an edgy few minutes, Julia said brightly, “Are you ready to go, Luke? We’ve got a lot to do this afternoon.”
He squeezed her hand then let it drop. She tried to ignore the feeling of loss, turning to pick up her coat and briefcase. After another few words to her mother, they were down the steps and into the front seat of Luke’s car.
Luke looked around but apparently didn’t see anyone suspicious. Turning the ignition key a little harder than necessary, he shot out of his parking spot and down the street. Out of the corner of her eye, Julia saw her mother standing in the front window of the house, waving goodbye the way she normally did.
But there had been nothing normal about her life for the past two days, Julia thought. Alice and the rabbit hole had nothing on her. In two days one man had managed to turn her world upside down, making her question almost every aspect of her life.
She turned to look at Luke. His face was grim as he stared out the windshield, hands tightly gripping the steering wheel. She wondered if he even saw the street in front of him.
“What happened?” she asked gently.
He tore his gaze away from the street long enough to glance over at her. “I saw Eddie.”
As explanations went, it left a little to be desired. “And…?”
“And you may be right.” His voice was hard and abrupt, but underneath she sensed the anguish.
“What happened to make you change your mind?”
The silence stretched so long that she didn’t think he was going to answer. Finally he shrugged. “Nothing happened. But Eddie’s…changed. Different.”
She sat and watched him, waiting for him to elaborate. He glanced over at her again, and suddenly he rolled his shoulders and sighed.
“Eddie was always a big talker. He was going to get the biggest television they made, the best car, the nicest house. I never paid much attention to him. It was just the way he was. Big-time Eddie. It was a joke around the precinct.”
He glanced over at her again, and she saw the sorrow in his eyes. “He lives in a little house on the northwest side t
hat used to be furnished in typical bachelor style. A couple of cast-off chairs, a couch that should have been retired years ago, that sort of thing.” He paused and his lips tightened. “Things have changed.”
“Has he moved?”
He shook his head. “No, Eddie still lives in the same little dump. The only difference is that now it’s filled with all those expensive things Eddie always talked about getting. The best stereo equipment, a television the size of a station wagon, and an exercise room that’s nicer than the one at my old health club.”
His knuckles whitened on the steering wheel. “Things that a cop’s salary could never pay for.”
“Maybe he used his credit cards to buy all that stuff.” She didn’t think so, but somehow she couldn’t bear to point that out to Luke right now. Not when his pain at his ex-partner’s betrayal was written so plainly on his face.
Luke gave her a look. “Not a chance. He told me he’d made some good investments.” The sound that came from him could only be described as a snort. “Besides, with his credit history, he’s lucky if he can buy lunch with a credit card.”
Julia tried to marshal her thoughts. “Expensive possessions aren’t proof of his guilt. We’ll need more evidence than that.”
This time when Luke looked at her he didn’t try to hide the pain. “Oh, I think we’ll be able to find it. It’s just a matter of time.”
After a long time had passed, she said softly, “I’m sorry.”
He gave her a surprised look. “For what?”
“For Eddie. For you. I know you wanted to believe he hadn’t turned, and I’m sorry that you had to find out otherwise.”
“What I feel isn’t important. The truth is important, and we still don’t know what that is.” He accelerated the car sharply and spun around a corner, then pulled into a parking lot and stopped abruptly. “But we’re going to find out. And soon.”
Julia realized they were back at the motel where they’d spent the night. Before she could ask why, Luke was out of the car and opening her door. “Let’s get our stuff together and check out. Nobody followed us here from your parents’ house, but I don’t want to take any chances.”
They hurried into the building and up to their rooms. It took only a minute for Luke to make sure no one had been in their rooms while they were gone, and just a little longer than that for Julia to pack all her belongings. She could hear Luke through the open connecting door, throwing things into his duffel bag. She wondered if the picture of his wife was the last thing he put in the bag.
“Ready to go?”
Julia looked up at Luke standing in the doorway between their two rooms. Levering herself off the bed, she gripped the handle of her small suitcase and nodded. “All set.”
“I’m going to have you wait in the car while I check out. There’s no reason for the clerk to get a look at both of us.”
“Okay.” She moved toward the door, but stopped instantly at the feel of his hand on her arm. Turning around slowly, she faced him as he snatched his hand away from her.
He studied her face for a long time. Finally he said, “You’re a real trouper, Julia. Thank you.”
“You sound surprised,” she said, a shade defensively.
He shrugged and looked away from her. “I guess I am. I never gave it much thought before, but if I had I would have assumed you’d be a whiner.”
“Why on earth would you assume that?” The hurt stabbed deeply, and she set her suitcase on the floor with a trembling hand.
Jamming his hands into his pockets, he glanced around the room, looking everywhere but at her. “I’ve hated you for two years, Julia,” he said quietly. “There was only one thing I wanted or needed after my wife died, and you took it away from me.” He held up his hand. “Yes, I know, I took it away from myself. But I already had enough guilt on my soul to last a lifetime. I wasn’t ready to take the credit for losing my job, too.”
He watched her for a moment, and she saw his face soften. “But you’re not a whiner, Julia. You’re not a lot of things I thought you were. And I’m glad you hired me to work on this case with you.”
The pain in her heart eased just a little. Rubbing her hands on her jeans, she asked slowly, “Does that mean you don’t hate me anymore?” It was just an academic question, she told herself. His answer didn’t really matter to her.
“What do you think?” His eyes darkened and he leaned closer. “Last night, did it feel like I hated you?”
“Last night it felt like you wanted my body,” she answered flatly. The pain stirred again, stabbing through her chest. She tried to tell herself that Lucas McKinley’s opinion mattered less than nothing to her. This was just another case, after all. But some stubborn part of her insisted that Luke was more than just a case and had been for the past two years.
“Last night I made several mistakes, and the biggest one was forgetting that all we have is a business relationship. It won’t happen again.” He shuttered his eyes again as he stooped to pick up her suitcase, but not before she’d seen the longing he tried to hide. Shifting her hand on her briefcase, she followed him out the door.
Fifteen minutes later Luke pulled into a gas station and stopped at the public telephone. Parking his car, he gave Julia a reassuring smile as he slid out of his seat. “This should only take a minute.” He quickly dialed a number from memory. After only two rings, he heard Raul’s voice at the other end of the line.
“Raul, this is Luke. Could you meet me for lunch?”
There was dead silence. Finally Raul said, delicately, “You sound agitated, my friend.”
“You’re damn right I’m agitated. Can you get down to the Loop in—” he looked at his watch “—an hour?”
“I can be there,” Raul promised. “At the usual place?”
“No. Too many people seem to know too much about me. Meet me at the Golden Coin,” he said, giving Raul the address. It was a greasy spoon on the outskirts of the Loop that he’d never patronized before. Unless they were followed, and Luke would make damn sure they weren’t, no one would look for him there.
“I’ll be there,” Raul answered, breaking the connection.
Luke hung up the phone and focused on the car, thinking. After a minute, he pulled out his wallet and fished out a card. It was creased and worn, the result of sitting in his wallet for the past few years. But just because the card was old didn’t mean it wasn’t useful. Taking a breath, he dialed the number and waited for a voice to answer. Turning away from the car, he licked his lips and started to speak.
He slid back into the car several minutes later. “We’re all set. Raul is going to meet us in a little less than an hour. Maybe he’ll know where the next meeting is going to be.”
“If he knew that, wouldn’t he have told us yesterday?”
She was sharp, he thought. “Yeah, you’d think so. But Raul knows me too well. He knew that yesterday I wasn’t ready to listen to him. He knows how to play me like a violin. He gave me enough information to make me wonder about Eddie and the others. Today, I have more specific information I want from him.”
“But if he’s not a part of the gang, how would he know that?”
He shrugged, concentrating on the car next to them that was determined to cut over a lane. “I don’t know how Raul gets his information and I don’t want to know. He hates them as much as I do, and he manages to find out about them. That’s all I care about.”
“Is there a reason besides the obvious why he hates the gang so much?”
He looked over at her. She had one leg curled under her and was leaning against the door. Her dark red hair was smooth and tamed, framing her face neatly. He wondered again how it would look if she allowed it to curl freely. A car honked, and he jerked his attention back to the road. Just like he needed to keep his attention on this case, he told himself grimly.
“You mean besides the fact that they’ve infected his neighborhood and are doing their best to destroy it?” he asked, his voice sardonic. When he looked ove
r at her and saw her wince, he immediately regretted his words. “They killed his sister,” he added more gently. “A drive-by shooting. The gunman was never caught. I was the investigating officer, and Raul and I got to be friends.” He shrugged again. “The rest, as they say, is history.”
He maneuvered the car into a parking spot next to the curb and underneath the elevated train tracks on the western edge of the Loop. The business center of Chicago was only blocks away, but this part of the city had a seedy, neglected air about it that contrasted sharply with the gleaming skyscrapers that dotted the skyline.
“Come on,” he said as they made their way to the Golden Coin. “We’re early, but we can have a cup of coffee and make sure nobody is interested in us.”
A half hour later Raul strolled through the door. Spotting them at a booth in the back of the restaurant, he slid in across from them.
“Hello, Ms. Carleton,” he said to Julia, then looked at Luke. “What has happened, my friend?”
Luke quickly described everything that had happened since Julia had hired him, ending with his visit to Eddie’s house. “Now I have to assume she’s on to something. Eddie’s getting money somewhere, and I want to know where that is. Can you find out when the gang is meeting again?”
Raul’s gaze flickered between the two of them. “Assuming that I can find this out, what will you do?”
“We’ll find a way to see what’s going on, of course,” Luke answered impatiently. “I’ve got to get this case sewn up. I don’t want anyone hurting Julia.”
Raul’s dark eyes shifted to Julia, and he shook his head. “No. That cannot happen.” Luke saw the pain in his eyes and knew he was thinking about his sister. “I will find out for you.” His words were a statement of fact, and Luke knew that he would. “Where can I call you?”
“We’re between motels right now. I thought it was best to move every night.”
Raul nodded. “Very wise. They have a long reach.”
“Aren’t you two going overboard a little?” Julia spoke for the first time. “This is just a street gang. It’s not as if they’re omnipotent.”
An Honorable Man Page 14