Neither of us spoke for fifteen minutes. We watched a bike courier ride up to Dalton’s building. He unhooked a bag attached to his rear bumper with bungee cords, and walked past the doorman.
“Remember when we first met?” Herb asked.
“Not really.”
“Sure you do. It was with that guy…the escort murder guy. Shell.”
“Can we talk about something else?” I didn’t like thinking about Shell.
“Sorry. Didn’t know it was still a soft spot.”
“It’s not,” I lied. “What about it?”
“That was eighteen years ago. We’ve been working together for a long time.”
“Sure have.”
“I’ve probably spent more time with you than I have with my wife.”
My eyes wandered away from the building and over to Herb. “You’re not going to tell me you’re in love with me, are you Herb?”
Herb smirked. “I wouldn’t want to ruin what you’ve got going on with Latham.”
“That’s kind of you, because I’d hate to break up your marriage.”
“Also, and I don’t mean this to be an insult—”
“Translation: here comes the insult.”
“—but you’re a little too much like one of the guys. It would be like sleeping with my brother.”
“You have a brother? And he has boobs?”
“We’re getting off tangent here. What I wanted to say was—”
“I want to hear about your D-cup brother.”
“—we’ve been partners for a long time—”
“Is he my size? Maybe we could swap designer clothes.”
“—and you’re my best friend.”
His words sunk right through my skin, into my bone marrow, where they nestled warmly.
“Really?” I said. “Best friend?”
“Really. I just wanted to say that. And it’s okay if you don’t say it back.”
“Herb, I don’t want to burst your bubble, here—”
“Please don’t hurt my feelings, Jack. I break easily.”
“—but this isn’t the first time you’ve said this to me.”
“Yeah, it is.”
“Herb, you say this whenever we go out and you have more than five drinks.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Seriously?”
“Not the part about your brother with the rack, but the best friend bit.”
“Do not.”
“Do too. Has to be over a dozen times now.” I looked at him. “Have you been hitting the sauce today?”
“Not yet. But I may step out and get a bottle of something to kill my embarrassment.”
“Counterproductive. Halfway into the bottle, you’ll be pouring your heart out to me again, wanting to get matching T-shirts and friendship bracelets.”
We waited some more.
“Jack?” Herb said after a few minutes.
“Yeah?”
“So when I’ve had too many drinks, and I say this to you…”
“Yeah?”
“How do you respond?”
I looked him straight in the eyes. “That you’re my best friend too, and I love you like a sister.”
“You have a sister? And she has a penis?”
“We should set her up with your brother,” I said. “They’d be perfect for each other.”
“They’d probably just wind up being friends. Hey, there’s the Caddy.”
Herb pointed, and sure enough Dalton’s DTS was on the move. He squealed tires, swinging onto the road, fishtailing before rocketing forward.
I threw the car into drive and gunned the engine. Hitting the gas in my Nova was akin to yelling at a mouse on a treadmill in an attempt to make it run faster. There were no squealing tires when I pulled out after him, and the engine made a sound somewhere between a whine of pain and a resigned sigh of defeat. I turned onto Division Street, hoping for a tailwind.
“Remind me again why we take your car,” Herb said.
“Just keep your eye on him.”
“He’s too far ahead. I think he just crossed the border into Pennsylvania.”
My Nova moved noticeably faster when Herb wasn’t in the car, but I didn’t say anything and risk insulting my bestest friend.
“I think he turned,” Herb said.
“Where?”
“Up there, at the Washington Monument.”
“You’re funny, like oral thrush is funny.”
We drove another block.
“Try pressing the accelerator,” Herb suggested.
“I am pressing the accelerator.”
“Do you need me to open the hood, wind the rubber band?”
“It’s not a rubber band,” I said, passing a minivan.
“It’s a mouse on a treadmill.”
“I think your mouse is sleeping. Or dead.”
I tapped the brakes and hit the horn to tell a cabbie what I thought of his driving, but the horn didn’t want to respond. “Where’d he turn?”
“Clybourn. Right.”
“Do you think he’s—?”
“Yeah. I do.”
We were heading straight for Merle’s U-Store-It. Was Dalton trying to clear out his storage locker? What if he did it before we got there?
“Put the cherry on the roof,” I said. A little while back, my antique stick-on police siren had fallen off, and I’d been given a slightly less-antique siren. Instead of a suction cup, this new one had a magnet to keep it attached.
“Where is it?” Herb asked.
“On the floor, behind my seat.”
Herb took a glance at his expansive waistline, then at me. “You’re kidding, right? I can’t reach that.”
“Pretend it’s a big box of cupcakes.”
“What kind of cupcakes?”
The light ahead of me turned red, but I blew through it anyway, narrowly missing a sideswipe by an overeager bus driver.
“Recline your seat,” I told him, swerving around the bus. The Cadillac was long out of sight, but I knew where the storage place was. Worst case, we’d get there two, maybe three minutes behind him.
Herb pulled the lever and his seat immediately snapped backward. “I can see the siren,” he said. “I think I can reach it.”
He made a strange grunting sound, sort of like an elephant trumpeting, as he stretched behind me for the light. I turned into oncoming traffic to pass some idiot driving the speed limit and following the rules of the road.
“Got it.” Herb blew out a big breath. “Whew. Got any Gatorade?”
“Now sit up and attach it to my roof,” I said, inching the Nova up to forty-five.
“Sit what now?”
“Up, Herb. Haven’t you ever watched those shows about those morbidly obese people who haven’t gotten out of bed in five years?”
“Those shows make me hungry.”
Herb had the siren cradled in his prodigious lap. I had ten white knuckles on the steering wheel and couldn’t pull them off to help him.
“Come on, partner,” I urged. “Crank down the window—”
“You have manual windows? When was this car made, during the Depression?”
“—and stick the cherry on my roof. You can do it.”
There was heaving. Grunting. Swearing. And labored, strangled breathing which—if witnessed by a doctor—would have resulted in the crash cart being wheeled over, stat. But somehow Herb managed to get that window open.
“Good work. Now sit up and stick it on the roof.”
“You’re driving too fast. I can’t get the seat up.”
“Come on, Herb. You can do this. Say it. Believe it.”
“Okay.”
“You can do this.”
“I can do this.”
“You got it.”
“I got it.”
“You’re the man.”
“I. Am. The man.”
Herb held the cherry out the window, then immediately dropped it outside. I checked my rearview and watched it bounce off the street, where it splintered in
to a million little red and blue pieces.
“I owe you a siren,” Herb said.
I frowned. “I never even got to try it.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll call Starsky and Hutch and get you a new one.”
I turned onto Fullerton, seeing that Dalton’s Cadillac was already parked across from the storage place. I hit the brakes right next to the building.
“Put in your earpiece,” I told Herb, screwing my Bluetooth into my ear. “Guard the exit unless I call for help.”
Herb managed to sit up and he nodded, reaching for his pocket. I exited the car and ran into the storage building. The same watchman was there, feet up on his small desk, eyeballs sewn onto the TV screen. I banged on his bulletproof glass.
“Police. Buzz me in.”
“Got a warrant?” he asked, not bothering to look at me.
“Open the goddamn door, pinhead!”
He buzzed me in. I hurried to the elevator, saw it was on the third floor. Once again I trudged up the stairs, tugging out my Colt, feeling a weird sort of déjà vu that wasn’t déjà vu at all because I had actually done this before, earlier today.
“Where are you?” Herb, in my ear.
“Coming up on the third floor,” I said, taking the stairs two at a time. “Check out his car. See if there’s anything in it. Be discreet.”
By discreet I meant don’t get caught inside without a warrant.
I stopped at the doorway, crouched, and went through low. First I looked left, and saw John Dalton standing four yards away, hands at his sides, looking at me. His expression was neutral, his stance relaxed. I kept my gun aimed at the floor.
“Hello, Lieutenant,” he said. “I’ve been expecting you.”
I straightened up to my full height, then walked slowly to him. “Open your jacket, Mr. Dalton. Slowly.”
“I just came to clear out my storage locker before leaving the country,” he said, unbuttoning his suit coat and opening it up. Then he turned in a full circle. “I’m unarmed.”
“Coat pocket,” I said. “A bulge. Reach in and take it out with two fingers.”
“As you wish.” He stuck his thumb and index finger into his jacket and slowly removed a microcassette recorder. I could see the tiny wheel turning. “I thought we should record our conversation, for posterity.”
I glanced quickly at Dalton’s right, saw his storage locker, 312, was open. I approached, my weapon still out, my senses all on high alert. As I got nearer, I was able to peer inside his rental unit.
“His car is locked,” Herb said. “Don’t see anything inside. Also, two men just pulled up in a Mercedes.”
“You look a bit high-strung, Lieutenant,” Dalton said. “I assure you, there’s nothing to fear. At least, not at the moment.”
Looking into the storage unit, it appeared empty. No…not empty. There was something small resting in the middle of the bare floor.
“You have my permission to go in and take whatever you want,” Dalton said. “It’s for you anyway. A parting gift, of a sort.”
I took him up on his invitation, walking into the locker. On the floor was a cheap digital watch, the kind with a black plastic band sold in drugstores, and a white envelope. I holstered my gun and dug two latex gloves out of my jacket pocket. Keeping an eye on Dalton, I pulled on the gloves and reached for the watch.
“The men are going into the building, Jack,” Herb said. “Want me to follow?”
“Run their plates,” I said, squinting at the watch display. Instead of showing the time, the gray LCD was counting down from twenty-four hours and thirty-six minutes.
24:36:19…24:36:18…
“What happens when this reaches zero?” I asked.
“Don’t ticking clocks just make everything more dramatic?”
“Answer the question, John.”
“Open the envelope, Jack.”
Inside was a color photograph. It showed a boy, Caucasian, perhaps twelve years old. A close-up, his whole face filling the shot. He had brown hair, brown eyes, and looked like a million other kids. His lips were curled up in a small, private smile, as if he had a joke he wanted to tell.
“Who is this?” I asked, staring over at Dalton.
“What would you do, Lieutenant, if you knew how much time you had left? If you knew, to the very second? What would your final thoughts be before saying goodbye?”
I felt myself going from jittery to cold. “What are you telling me?”
“I’m saying that we can only be here for so long. For some, it could be years before we leave. For others, it could be just over twenty-four and a half hours.”
I turned the photo over. On the back, in black marker, was written:
“What have you done here, John?”
“I’m leaving the country tomorrow. There are over one thousand storage facilities in Chicago, and another thousand in the surrounding suburbs. Good hunting, Jack.”
The elevator dinged behind me. Two men in suits got out. I put my hand on my holster.
“Who are these guys, Herb?”
“Still checking their plates,” he answered.
I watched the men spot us and begin to walk over. Their suits were tailored, expensive. They didn’t seem to be carrying.
“Are you saying, John, that this child only has twenty-four hours left to live?” I asked, watching the new arrivals.
“My client is saying no such thing,” one of the men said.
“Car belongs to a lawyer, Jack,” Herb buzzed in my ear. “Name is Simon Bradstreet.”
I knew of Simon Bradstreet. He defended all the big mobsters in Chicago.
“I invited Mr. Bradstreet here to make sure my rights and personal freedoms weren’t violated,” Dalton said. “The Chicago Police Department has a nasty reputation for coercion. I know you aren’t the type to beat a confession out of a suspect, Lieutenant, but one never knows how do-gooders will react when children are involved.”
“Want me to come up, Jack?” Herb said.
I thought it through. Dalton hadn’t actually said he’d abducted a child, or that the child was in danger. He’d carefully chosen his words, and he’d recorded our entire exchange. I had no evidence to arrest him, and I couldn’t question him without his consent.
But at the same time, I couldn’t let this bastard leave if he had a child locked in a storage facility somewhere. What I needed was to stall.
“It’s great of you coming out to this part of town at the request of a client,” I said. “But this isn’t the best neighborhood. Both of you are driving such nice cars. I’d hate to see them vandalized. Tires slashed. That sort of thing.”
“Are you threatening to slash our tires?” Bradstreet said. He barked a fake laugh, his chubby face jiggling.
“I’m doing no such thing,” I said, speaking slowly. “And how could I, since I’m here talking to you? All I’m saying is it would be unfortunate if it happened.”
“Are we done here?” Bradstreet said.
“I have a question for your client, before you go.”
“Mr. Dalton isn’t answering any questions.”
“I think he’ll want to answer this one.” I turned to Dalton. “Do you believe in evil, John?”
“I said, Mr. Dalton is not—”
Dalton held up his hand, shushing his lawyer. “Evil, Jack? In what sense do you mean?”
“I had this question posed to me years ago, when I was a cadet. Which is true evil? Someone who enjoys committing evil acts? Or someone who commits evil acts for monetary gain?”
Dalton made a steeple out of his fingers. “Let me tell you a story. About two men. They both worked for…let’s call it a company. One of these men enjoyed committing evil acts. He enjoyed it a great deal. So much so that the only way to ever stop him from doing it was to put him away forever, or kill him. The other man, he learned early in life that killing was something he was good at. But he never had any passion for it. In fact, he never had much passion for anything. This lack of emotion, howeve
r, made him very good at what he did. Smart. Careful. Deliberate. Because he knew that once emotion got involved, mistakes could be made.”
“What happened to these two men?” I asked.
“You know what happened to the first one. As for the second one, we won’t truly know what happens for at least twenty-four more hours.”
He turned to leave. “But which one is more evil, John?”
Dalton glanced at me over his shoulder. “There’s no good or evil, Jack. Each of us is the hero in the movie of our life. The only difference is that some of us are better at justifying our actions to ourselves, while others beat themselves up for every mistake they make.”
The trio walked away. And there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it.
Present day
2010, August 10
He stares at the iPhone screen. It’s much easier to see Jack Daniels now that the lights are on. That green night vision was blurry and didn’t allow for much detail.
But now, the details are perfect. Crystal clear. He even has controls to zoom in. To pan. To tilt. It’s amazing how far technology has come, and it’s thrilling for him to see this woman, his nemesis, bound and gagged and waiting for the pain to begin.
She’s sleeping. Or pretending to.
Rest now, he thinks. Enjoy unconsciousness while you can, whore.
Then he slips his hand inside his underwear and watches, a line of drool dripping down his chin, waiting for Jack to wake up.
Twenty-one years ago
1989, August 16
“Jack?”
“Alan!” I quickly pulled away from Shell, wondering if my boyfriend had seen us kissing. “Hi!”
Alan’s face screwed up in confusion. He wore the standard Alan outfit: acid-washed jeans, a blue iZod shirt, the pennies in his loafers nice and coppery bright. His thick, wavy blond hair was long in the back, the bangs short and hugging his tan forehead. In his hand he had a dozen roses, which made me feel positively awful.
“Did I…come at…a bad time?” Alan said, sizing up Shell.
“Is this your boyfriend?”
Shell asked.
“Uh, yeah.”
Shell put on a big smile and stuck out his hand, walking over to Alan. “Pleased to meet you, Alan. Shell Compton. Officer Streng is going to be working undercover in my business.”
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