Maybe it was his patience. Maybe he was just tired of watching her behaving like a man when she should be acting like a lady. Ladies don’t drive their men around. They sit in the passenger’s seat, keep their mouths shut, and let men be men. Not Kate. If he had learned anything about her since the first time he saw her on that pier back in December, it was that Kate always wanted to be in control, but he intended to fix that.
He was tired of watching. It was time Kate learned her place. Starting tonight.
The conversation with Jack took longer than Frankie had expected. His intention had been just to give Jack something to worry over, to keep his focus off Kate for a few more days. That had worked, but Jack had been in no hurry to get back to work. Instead, they’d continued to talk about Kate. The man seemed to have a singular focus.
He was going to be surprised when he found out that Caleb Castille was dead. Had been for more than two months. It took Frankie less time to find out who Internal Affairs was sending and to have him murdered than it did for Jack to move the contents of his desk into the Chief’s office. He’d then spent the next few weeks preparing to be Caleb Castille. He thought he pulled it off pretty well.
The whole plan seemed to be coming together. For a change, Bubba had done exactly what he was told, and since Castille’s body hadn’t been found yet, Frankie assumed Bubba had even done that right. Kate seemed to trust “Caleb,” and Frankie could find no reason to wait any longer. He should probably just kill Jack and get it over with. He’d thought about it. Truth was, he liked the idea that Jack would suffer when he realized that he’d not only been deceived, but that Kate was never coming back to him.
Frankie listened to the phone ring over the Bluetooth in his truck. Bubba picked up on the third ring. “Frankie. Its late, man.”
“It’s time.” Frankie didn’t have to justify what time he called.
“What?” McKenzie sounded exhausted. He hadn’t been called from the charity event when Kate and Caleb were called away, but Frankie had no doubt he’d had his nose into the investigation already, trying to find out what was going on. “Oh. You mean it’s time to move on the chief?”
“Yes. Make it happen. I want him in jail before sunrise.”
The thought made Frankie smile. Kate wasn’t ever going to see Jack again. In a little while, she would be on her way to her new life, and within a few weeks, she wouldn’t even remember who Jack was.
Frankie ended the call a few minutes later and pulled into the parking lot at Kate’s apartment just in time to see her bounce down the stairs and jog across the parking lot, headed toward her car. It all happened so fast Frankie didn’t have time to react. She was gone before he could reason what was happening.
Follow her!
The thought echoed so loudly through his head it made his teeth ache. He clenched his jaw to stop the pain and cranked the steering wheel into a turn. The tires barked on the asphalt when he stomped the accelerator.
When he reached the main road, he glanced left and right.
There!
Kate's taillights disappeared at a turn up the road. He hoped they were Kate’s lights. There were no other cars on the road.
That has to be her.
He gunned the engine and was relieved when he caught up with her and then followed far enough behind that she shouldn't notice him. He glanced in his rear-view mirror, and spotted an older model muscle car a block behind him. When Kate turned, he took a parallel street and the car followed. Frankie cursed. He didn’t know who it was, but he didn’t have time for this right now.
He turned a quick left, sped up, and another right. Then another. The car stayed with him. He tried to head in the same general direction that Kate had been going, but he needed to lose the tail.
Two more left turns, a quick right, and he pulled into a long drive, cut his lights, and took his foot off the break. The truck rolled to a stop just as the car that had been following him, an old model Monte Carlo, sped past. Frankie forced himself to wait for almost a full minute before he started his truck and backed out onto the road.
He sped back toward where he’d last seen Kate, hoping that he could pick her back up. When he got back to the beach road, he cut up to a street that ran parallel and punched it. Each time he passed a road that lead back to the beach or caught a break between the houses, he tried to catch a glimpse of her. When he finally spotted her, he breathed a big sigh of relief, but he waited a few more streets before he turned back toward the beach and pulled onto the road two blocks behind her.
He followed her until she turned onto a road lined with warehouses that Frankie knew dead ended at the water, he drove past the turn. If he followed her there, she would know something was wrong.
He found a place to turn around and drove slowly back to the warehouse road. The roadway was dark, so he cut his lights and turned into the first open parking lot he found. He cut the engine and slipped out into the early morning air.
He crept around the corner of the warehouse and glanced down the street. He could see no one, and nothing moved, so he stepped out from the cover of the building and hurried down the street. This was risky. If she was down there in the shadows waiting on someone she would see him.
He had to take the chance.
Near the end of the street Frankie spotted Kate's car parked next to a silver Prius in front of one of the warehouses. He ducked into the shadows and waited. No one emerged from either car. He was about to move closer when a shadow caught his attention. He glanced at it and it seemed to shift. Frankie looked around. There were lights in the high windows of the warehouse where Kate's car was parked, but even if there had been a breeze tonight, which there was not, he didn't see anything that might throw that moving shadow.
He focused where he had seen the darkness move. It was different than the shadows surrounding it. Less solid. Movement at the edge of his vision caught his attention. He turned to look and this time he saw clearly. Someone was moving toward the warehouse. The person stayed in the shadows and moved with cat-like grace. Who was that? What was he doing sneaking around down here?
Frankie zeroed in on the movement. It shifted in and out of the shadows. A ghost moving like a wisp of smoke. He pulled a 9 mm semi-auto from his waistband. The shadow solidified. A woman glanced up the street in his direction and then disappeared into the warehouse.
Enough. Frankie couldn’t sit any longer. He needed to go see who that was and what was going on inside that warehouse.
THIRTY-FIVE
Ryan turned the Monte Carlo onto the beach road and stomped the accelerator. This time of night, the road was almost empty and the car cruised along. The warm air from the Gulf of Mexico rushed past his open window, making the interior of the car sticky. He loved that feeling. He loved living on the coast, but since coming to Biloxi. He questioned more than once if he’d made the right choices all those years ago. He’d learned more about Kate’s life in Biloxi. She was struggling with the department, and now with her relationship with Jack Roe. If what he learned was true, how much responsibility did he have in all that? How much did he owe her?
Ryan thought about the events that led up to the last time he saw Kate. As he closed his eyes, she’d been staring at him, a terrified expression on her pale face. He wanted to take it all back. The artificial distrust that led up to the whole event, and the deception that made Kate believe he had died.
When the DEA approached him, Ryan thought he and Kate would be working the case together. That misconception was quickly corrected.
“We don’t need her,” the DEA recruiter said. “We need you. With her background, we don’t even trust her to keep her mouth shut about your involvement. This has to be a covert transition.”
After that first conversation. Ryan left with questions. The DEA recruiter gave him a background file on Kate that contained more about her past than she had ever shared, including a scandal she’d been involved in during the academy. A group of recruiters was caught trafficking drugs and
arranging for criminals to “escape.” Kate had been cleared of any charges, but the fact she’d never mentioned it caused Ryan to doubt her.
The DEA recruiter fed that doubt. He created a plan for Ryan to “die” in a firefight. He used deep cover agents to ensure everything went off without any snags.
The date was arranged and Ryan was fitted with the same kind of special effects that are used during shooting scenes in movies. He would be “hit” six times. All in the chest, and there would be enough blood to convince Kate he’d died.
DEA controlled EMS would handle the details and transport Ryan to a drop off location where he would be prepped and trained for his role in Locos Mamoncetes. It all happened so fast. Ryan didn’t have time to think about what would happen to Kate or how it would affect her. Then he saw the look on her face, and wished he could tell her. He wished he could stop it all. By then he was in too deep.
Regret wriggled in Ryan’s chest. It took his breath away. How could things have been different for them both? How would Kate be different if he’d made different choices? Would her life have been better? Or worse?
Ryan shook his head and sucked in a deep breath. Now was not the time for regret. He could deal with that when he found Frankie Deveaux. Right now, he needed to see what happened to Greg Harrington. Was Frankie involved in that, too?
One of the Mamoncetes had informed Ryan about Greg’s murder. He was at the dock to receive a shipment when all the cops showed up. He hung around, out of sight, long enough to find out what was going on, then called Ryan.
There were two murders, but the security guard was an unknown. Greg Harrington worked for Mamoncetes and Maestro would want to know who killed him and why. La Raza was scrambling. With Beth Martin and Greg Harrington both dead, he had to find someone to orchestrate the incoming shipments.
Ryan eased his foot off the accelerator as he approached Ingram Logistics. Red and blue lights still bounced off the buildings creating a confusing kaleidoscope of color. Ryan drove past, maintaining a normal speed. He scanned the horizon ahead for a place to sit and wait. Someplace that had a good view of the Ingram logistics warehouses. An unusual orange glow lit the night. Ryan slowed again as he got closer. One word echoed through his brain. “Fire.”
He pressed the accelerator again and sped toward the fire. A sharp left bounced the Monte Carlo and caused the tail-end to skid. Ryan fought the wheel and overcorrected. A pickup truck flew past and skidded onto the beach road. Ryan barely caught a glimpse of it as he tried to keep the Monte Carlo from slamming into a concrete barrier blocking the entrance to a warehouse. By the time he got control of the car, the truck was gone.
At the end of the street, a fire raged in a warehouse. Ryan noticed an open door on the side of the building as he squealed to a stop a safe distance from the fire. Without thought, he dialed 911 as he rushed toward the building.
A woman lay on the ground just outside the door. No two women. He reported everything he saw to the 911 operator and tossed the phone aside, then picked up a woman and carried her to the parking lot next to the Monte Carlo. She was unconscious, and when he looked at her face as he laid her limp body onto the pavement, he recognized her. Conner Antosz.
She was a little older, but it was definitely her. What was she doing in Biloxi, he wondered as he rushed back to move the other woman. Had Conner followed Kate? He knew they were friends. Conner had been around when he and Kate were partners. She’d gotten into trouble in Memphis, and Kate helped her get control of her life.
By the time he carried the other woman away from the building, Conner had started coughing. She was leaned up on her elbows as if she was trying to get up. Ryan laid the second woman carefully on the ground and had to fight with a messenger bag she had slung over her shoulder. He pulled it over her head and dropped it to the ground, then rushed to Conner’s side. He helped her sit up.
“Is there anyone else inside?” He had to ask Conner twice, because she was coughing so hard. She needed oxygen. Where was the ambulance?
Coughs wracked Conner’s small frame. She gasped for air and tried to speak. More coughing. “Kate,” she finally managed to get out.
Kate was here?
Ryan rushed back towards the warehouse. If Kate was still inside, was she alive? What was she doing here? His mind raced.
He approached the open door near where Conner and the other woman had been laying, but flames consumed the warehouse. The heat was so intense he couldn’t get through the doorway.
Maybe there was another way in? He sprinted around the building. There’d been a doorway on the backside of the building, but it was engulfed in flames.
Fire trucks and ambulances roared up as Ryan circled back around the building. There was no way he was going to get inside. There was no way Kate could have survived the intensity of the fire.
THIRTY-SIX
Ryan approached the back of the ambulance were Conner sat clutching the bag he’d removed from the other woman. The woman had been taken away by ambulance. Conner sat with an oxygen mask strapped over her face. Her eyes were clear and alert. She seemed to take in every movement on the scene.
Ryan hesitated. What would he say to Conner? She thought he was dead, too. She’d probably even gone to his funeral with Kate. Would she even recognize him? And Kate? Grief seized his breath. Kate. If she was still in that building… He shook his head. He didn’t want to think about that.
The fire department was still trying to get the fire under control. Because of the homicides at Ingram, police presence was still thin. They hadn’t had a chance to talk to Conner yet. Ryan wanted to find out what happened. Which meant he had to talk to Conner. It was probably just as well that there were fewer cops around. That would make it easier for him to get to her.
He took a deep breath and approached from the side. “Conner” he said when he got close enough for her to hear over the commotion from the fire.
Her head rotated slowly in the direction of his voice. Her gaze pierced his soul. “I knew you weren’t dead.”
Ryan stood for a minute before he spoke. How should he respond to that? Did she really know he hadn’t died? “I promise to tell you everything when this is over, but right now I need to know what happened.”
“Did they find Kate?” Conner’s voice was rough and from the look on her face. Ryan thought it was probably painful for her to speak. He moved closer to her.
“Not in the stairwell, but the fire is too much for them to search the interior.” His heart clenched again. Kate.
“She would have been…” Conner trailed off as coughs wracked her body. Ryan placed the oxygen mask back over her face.
“Just breathe.”
Conner shook her head and pushed his hand away. “In the stairwell,” she continued. “She was helping me and Tiffany out. She was outside.”
Ryan’s breath caught as the implications of what Conner said sunk through the layers of grief. Kate was alive?
“Did you see where she went?” Ryan’s voice was much calmer than he felt. “Would she have gone back inside for something?”
Conner put the oxygen mask back over her nose and inhaled deeply. She shook her head.
If Kate got out, Ryan reasoned, she wouldn’t have left Conner and the other woman so close to the burning building. It wouldn’t have been safe. Could she have gone back inside? Why would she have gone back inside? He asked Conner again.
Conner dropped the oxygen mask from her face. This time her voice sounded a little clearer. Less rough. “No. Everything is here.” She held up the messenger bag. “Everything she needed is in here.”
Ryan wondered about the bag. But right now, Kate was the most important thing. Where was she? He thought about the truck.
“Someone started the fire.” Conner’s words were barely loud enough to hear over the commotion of the scene.
Ryan wasn’t sure he’d heard her correctly. “What?”
Conner repeated herself.
“Are you sure?”
/> Conner held up a small black box she’d yanked from the computer. Wires still dangled from the box. Everything is on here.”
THIRTY-SEVEN
Red and blue lights bounced off every surface, making a kaleidoscope of color that made Jack wish he had his sunglasses on even though it was still hours before dawn would break. He pulled toward the curb, out of the way as an ambulance sped past, sirens blaring.
Conner? What happened? Was she okay? Nothing made sense to Jack about this yet. While he was still at Ingram Logistics, he’d gotten the call that there was a fire at Conner’s warehouse. The dispatcher knew that Jack and Kate had worked with Conner in the past, and he thought the Captain might want to know.
Concern bunched Jack’s brow as he tried to make sense of the shapes distorted by the flashing lights. Conner was checking out a computer for Kate, and he’d recommended that Caleb reach out to her. Did either of those things have anything to do with what was going on here?
Jack felt a momentary twinge of guilt. He should be more thoughtful of Conner. He was concerned. He just couldn’t turn off the part of him that was a cop. He needed to know what happened and why. If Conner had found something that made her a target, how much responsibility did he hold? What about Kate? How would this affect her?
The car inched forward after the ambulance passed until Jack found an empty spot closer to the smoldering warehouse. He climbed out and headed straight for a knot of firefighters that seemed to be carrying on an animated conversation near one of the large pump trucks.
“Man, I’m telling you, the Saints are gonna take the Super Bowl this year.” The speaker could easily have been a linebacker for the New Orleans Saints football team. His broad shoulders and thick arms would have fit in just as well in a locker room as they did out here with other, equally fit firefighters.
Biloxi Blue (The Biloxi Series Book 2) Page 21