“She wasn’t any help,” Eddie said.
“Oh, yeah? I heard you tossed her condo, and he’s been hiding out ever since.”
“Yeah?” So maybe their little jaunt to Cynthia’s had done some good after all, if it had Hawkins scrambling. “You know where he’s hiding?”
“Me? No.”
He said it so quickly, Eddie had his doubts.
“You also told me Rooster would give me some intel, but he hasn’t lived up to that stellar recommendation.”
“Sorry about that, but I don’t blame him.” Silver shook his head. “You get more information with a little cash than with handcuffs.”
“Is that a hint?”
“Hey, I got nothing for you, Eddie. I’m giving it to you straight.”
Eddie sighed. “You call me if you hear anything about Hawkins.”
Silver nodded.
“Anything,” Eddie said.
“Yeah, yeah. Now, go away.”
Eddie went back to the office. As he emerged from the stairway, Harvey stood up, his desk phone’s receiver clapped to his ear.
“Eddie just came in. We’ll get right over there.”
Eddie checked his stride.
Harvey hung up. “Come with me.”
“What’s up?” Eddie U-turned, and they went quickly down the stairway.
“Sharon Browning found a note on her car’s windshield at the grocery store. That was Mike on the phone. I told him we’d handle it.”
Eddie’s heart pounded. Harvey’s vehicle was closer to the garage door than his, and they jumped into it. Harvey headed for a Shop ’n Save a mile away.
“Didn’t she have the protective detail with her?” Eddie asked.
“Yeah. Ted Marston’s with her. He’s the one who called the chief. They’ve only kept one officer with Sharon after Mike came to work.”
“Probably enough,” Eddie said.
“Let’s see that note before we pass judgment.” Harvey paused at a traffic light and looked over at him. “It was all I could do to keep Mike from racing over there.”
“You think that’s what Hawkins wanted?”
“It wouldn’t surprise me. Mike said he told Marston to get Sharon inside, out of sight.”
Eddie’s chest was tight as they drove into the shopping center’s parking lot and cruised toward the grocery’s front door. He hopped out of the vehicle and strode inside while Harvey parked.
Ted Marston and Sharon were waiting near the service desk, and Eddie hurried over.
“Hey. You all right, Mrs. B.?”
“Yes, I’m fine, Eddie. Thanks for coming.”
He nodded. “Harvey’s outside.” He looked at Marston. “You got the note?”
Ted held out a small slip of paper. Hand printed on one side were the words, “Watch your back Browning.” The paper appeared to have been torn from an envelope. “Where was it?”
“Under the wiper on the driver’s side of Mrs. Browning’s car. I was driving, and I spotted it when we left the store, before I started the engine.”
“Okay. Where’s the car, exactly?”
They stepped with him to the door, and Ted pointed out Sharon’s parked sedan. Harvey walked in to join them. They all stepped to one side, out of the path of shoppers, and Eddie quickly updated Harvey.
He nodded. “Sharon, I’d like you and Ted to stay inside while Eddie and I check your vehicle. If it looks okay, we’ll escort you out. Ted can take you home, and we’ll follow, to make sure you get there safely.” He smiled at her. “We’ll even lug your groceries in for you, after we clear the house.”
Sharon clutched his sleeve. “Thank you, Harvey. You don’t think this is a real threat against me, do you? It seemed like a message to Mike.”
“Hard to say. But we’ll get that note right to the lab and see if they can tell us anything. Ted, take Mrs. Browning over near the service desk, and stay alert. We’ll only be five or ten minutes, but we want to do a thorough check.”
Ted handed Harvey the keys to Sharon’s car and led her away from the entry. Eddie and Harvey went out to the car.
Harvey brought a movers’ blanket and a flashlight from his vehicle, and Eddie went down on his back to do a complete check of the car’s underside. When he was sure nothing odd had been added, Harvey cautiously opened the driver’s door. He popped the hood and did a painstaking examination of the engine compartment. Then they did the same for the trunk, which already held Sharon’s groceries, and the passenger compartment, just to be sure.
“Looks okay,” Eddie said as he shut the trunk.
“Yeah.” Harvey took out his phone and called Mike. “The car’s clear, Chief. We’ll see Sharon home.”
He signed off and turned to Eddie. “You watch the car, and I’ll go get Sharon and Ted.” He handed Eddie the flashlight and went inside.
Eddie surveyed the lot and every person moving. Harvey brought Sharon out and put her in the passenger seat. Ted got behind the wheel. Eddie and Harvey got in the Explorer and followed them to Bingley Lane. As promised, they searched the house and carried in the groceries. A second patrolman arrived to help with the vigil, and the two detectives finally went back to the station.
“Start the report, okay?” Harvey said. “I’ll go straight up to Mike and try to scrape him off the ceiling.”
When Eddie got up to the office, Tony was sitting on his desk wearing a suit, drinking Pepsi, and recounting the details of his hearing to Jimmy and Nate.
“Hey, are you cleared?” Eddie asked.
“Yup. I’ll be back to work in the morning.”
“Good.” Eddie wouldn’t have believed it a week earlier, but he’d actually missed the guy.
Tony started pushing buttons on his phone.
“What are you doing?” Eddie asked.
“Ordering pizza. Want some?”
“Sure, I’ll go halves if you’ll proof my report. Mine and the captain’s, that is.”
“You writing for two, Shakespeare?”
“Yeah, Harvey’s holding the chief’s hand. You heard about the note on Sharon’s car?” Briefly, he told Tony, Nate, and Jimmy what had happened. He couldn’t be flippant about it. “Sharon’s really shook up,” he said. “I think she’ll be okay, but this was a big scare. Which is what Hawkins intended. He was hoping Mike would tear out of here with no guards.”
“Okay,” Tony said, “you write that up, and I’ll edit. We’ve got one large pepperoni on the way.”
Eddie got the report done in record time, since he didn’t have to agonize over grammar. He emailed it to Tony.
“Holy Hamlet, Shakespeare, didn’t you ever learn what commas are for?”
“Grammar is not my superpower, Mr. White.”
“Well, I’m sure Clark Kent writes better than this,” Tony said.
“Are you guys living in Metropolis or Elizabethan England?” Nate asked.
“We’ll let you know if we figure it out,” Eddie said.
Paula called across the room, “Detective Winfield, there’s a delivery for you downstairs.”
“I’ll get it,” Eddie said. He figured it was the least he could do, since Tony was correcting his extra-sloppy report, and he wasn’t even on the clock. He hurried downstairs.
“You Winfield?” the delivery girl asked. She looked about sixteen in her uniform and cap, with auburn hair in pigtails.
“No, I’m Thibodeau, but I’ll pay you for the pizza.”
“You’re not grabbing his—” She stared at him. “You’re the rescue guy that everyone cries over, aren’t you?”
Eddie handed her a twenty. “Keep the change.”
The elevator opened, and the deputy chief got out. Eddie grabbed the pizza. Even though he never used the elevator, he zipped into it before the door could close.
Chapter 25
As Eddie got out of his truck in front of his apartment building that evening, his phone rang.
“Hey! I have some news,” Leeanne said. “I couldn’t wait to tell you.”<
br />
“What kind of news?” His pulse picked up, and flashes of apprehension tore through his brain, although she sounded happy.
“I saw my academic counselor today. If I take my internship this summer, I’ll have enough credits to graduate at Christmas. That’s if I stay in the UMaine system and don’t change majors.”
“Next Christmas? You can knock off a whole semester?”
“Yes. Can you believe it? Because I’m taking so many credits now, I can finish early. It will save a ton of money, and I’ll have my degree.”
“That’s fantastic.” Eddie leaned against the door of the truck. They had prayed for a resolution, but this was better than the best scenario he’d imagined. “Thank you. I know you’re not doing this for me exactly, but I feel like God did it for me personally.”
“Maybe he did,” she said. “I’m not looking forward to another year of campus life, but having this goal should make it bearable.”
“Do you have to live in the dorm?” he asked.
“Well, it’s pretty hard driving down to the early classes in winter.”
“Next fall, you could—don’t they offer the classes you need down here?”
“I asked the counselor,” Leeanne said. “She thinks I could do it.”
“Finish at USM, you mean?” His pulse leaped.
“Yes. If we still want to do that when the time comes, I could take my last semester in Portland.”
“Why wouldn’t we?” She was talking about the future in the plural. The future in Portland in the plural.
“Well, if for some reason it became awkward. I mean, Harvey is your best friend, and he’s your boss now. I wouldn’t want to be right in your face all the time—at church and everything—if things didn’t go well between us.”
“Don’t even think like that,” Eddie said. “This is long term.” He wanted to say forever, but he wanted to be in the same county with her when he said that.
“I’m selling the goats,” she said.
“Really? It’s definite?”
“Yes, I’ve decided to let them all go. The boy and his father are bringing a cattle truck to get them tomorrow. The next time I go home, the barn will be empty.”
“You okay with that? You’ve had them a long time.”
“It will be a relief to the family,” she said. “They have to take care of them while I’m at school. And it will be a relief to me, too. I’ll miss them a little, especially the babies.”
“Come down here at the end of the school year, and you can play with Jennifer’s kid,” he quipped.
Leeanne laughed. “I just might do that. We’ll have to talk this weekend, you and Harvey and Jennifer and me. And Abby. She’s in the mix, too.”
“Yeah. I think Abby and I understand each other now.”
Eddie told her about the pizza girl and was able to laugh about it with her. He told her again that he loved her, and she said softly, “I love you, too.” It was a pretty good ending for a chaotic day.
*****
Eddie got up very early Tuesday—three-thirty in the morning—and drove to Mike’s. Aaron O’Heir and Allison Crocker had been on watch since midnight. Jimmy Cook joined him, and they took turns sitting in the truck out front and checking the perimeter. Jimmy had brought a thermos of coffee, and it wasn’t too bad.
Mike was up by six and offered them breakfast. Jimmy went in first and ate eggs and toast while Eddie kept his eyes open for people who didn’t belong. Then Jimmy came out, and Eddie had breakfast while Mike got dressed for work.
Sharon brought the coffeepot over to the table. “Refill, Eddie?”
“No, thanks, I’ve had enough to keep me awake all week.”
She smiled. “We really appreciate you guys doing this on your own time.”
“No more notes?” he asked.
“Nothing.”
“Well, that’s good. The lab couldn’t get anything off the one from your car, though.”
Bill Theriault and Sarah showed up at seven-thirty. They stayed at the house, and Jimmy and Eddie drove to the station, keeping an eye on Mike’s vehicle. They walked into the building with him and separated on the stairway. That was the most excitement they had all day, except that Tony returned to work.
They tried to drum up something substantial in the case, but every lead seemed to peter out. Things were calm at five o’clock, but all the men were frustrated by the lack of progress.
“Time to go home, Eddie,” Harvey said, packing up his briefcase.
“It’s your baby night, isn’t it?”
“Yes, we get the hospital tour tonight. They postponed it.” Harvey actually sounded eager.
“Guess it’s sort of like a date for you and Jennifer.”
He laughed. “Oh, yeah. Dating. Don’t remind me.”
Eddie followed him to the locker room. “Leeanne gave me some news last night,” he told Harvey as they opened their lockers.
“What’s that?”
“She can graduate from the University of Maine next Christmas with her journalism degree.”
“No kidding?” Harvey asked. “I’m impressed. She’s a bright girl.”
“She’ll need to do her internship this summer, and she could finish down here in the fall.”
“That so? Might be good for Jennifer.”
“How do you mean?”
“You never know—we might lose Abby by then.”
Eddie frowned at him. “Do you really think so?”
“She’s still unsettled. I wish she’d take a page out of your book and come up with a goal.”
“I have goals?” Eddie asked.
“Well, Leeanne.”
“Oh, absolutely.”
Harvey looked at him with speculation. “Where do you see yourself in five years, Eddie?”
“What is this, my evaluation?”
“No, I’m just curious, man to man.”
“Right here, I guess. I like this unit. I intend to stay with Priority as long as the city will fund it.”
“And?”
“And married, I hope. Maybe going to Lamaze classes, like you.”
Harvey laughed and cuffed him on the shoulder.
Eddie stopped at the Burger King for supper, then went home and called Leeanne. She was at the dormitory.
“Can’t keep myself from calling you,” he said.
“That’s okay.”
“Do you like your classes?”
“So far,” she said. “My counselor’s going to try to help me get an internship for the summer.”
“I was hoping you’d be down here, but I guess it’s good to get that out of the way.”
“Yeah. She said I might be able to get on in Waterville, Augusta, Lewiston, or Portland. Or Bangor, but that’s farther north.”
“Any of those other towns would be closer than you are now.”
“Yeah, but if I can’t get on this summer, I’ll have to wait and do it in the fall. I put down Portland as my first choice, but if that’s out of the question, then I guess I’ll take it wherever I can.”
“Harvey knows John Russell, the managing editor at the Press Herald,” Eddie said. “Maybe he’d put a word in for you.”
“Wouldn’t hurt, I guess.”
The more Eddie thought about it, the more he liked the idea. “Call him.”
“Okay.”
“Oh, wait until nine o’clock or so. He and Jennifer have their baby lesson tonight.”
“You’re so funny.”
“Well, I guess I’ve got to get over this,” Eddie said. “My sister Lisa’s expecting again, too. I should be used to being around … pregnant women. Okay, I can say the word.”
She laughed. “It will be different when it’s yours.”
“That’s what Harvey says.” Eddie didn’t voice his own thought, that he hoped she’d be the one in Lamaze class with him. “Je te manque?” he asked. Miss me?
“Oui, tu me manques beaucoup, but … I know I’ll see you soon. That makes it easier.”
Harvey and Eddie ran in the frosty air Wednesday morning. It was barely twenty degrees, but they opted for nature, not the track. Harvey was gasping when they finished at the park.
“I dunno about this,” he said. “My lungs are old.”
“You okay?” Eddie had forgotten Harvey’s partially collapsed lung the summer before.
“I will be. Let’s pray at my house. Go change and come for breakfast.” Harvey got in his Explorer and drove off.
When Eddie got there, Jennifer was making coffee and toast.
“You look nice, Eddie,” she said when he took off his jacket.
“Thanks. Court today.”
“Leeanne called last night when we got home from the hospital.”
“Yeah?”
“She asked Harvey to speak to John Russell about an internship for her next summer. I guess you knew about that.”
Eddie smiled. “Yup.”
She smiled, too. “We think it would be terrific.”
“I’m glad.” He doctored his coffee and took a sip. “Was Harvey okay when he got home this morning?”
“I think so, why?” Jennifer arched her eyebrows at him.
“It was pretty cold out. I thought maybe he had a twinge in his lung.”
She stood with a plate of toast in midair, staring at him.
“He’ll be fine,” Eddie said.
She set the plate down. “Do you think he should see Carl?”
“No, it’s nothing, I’m sure. We should have gone to the track, is all.”
Harvey came in from the sunroom dressed for work. His hair was wet and curly. Jennifer kissed him and put coffee and toast in front of him. “I’ll make you some oatmeal,” she told him.
“No, just give me the Wheaties,” he said.
“It’s cold today. You need a hot breakfast.” She didn’t look at Eddie while she made the quick oatmeal and brought orange juice and a bottle of vitamins.
She watched Harvey while he got the vitamin out and swallowed it.
“What?” he said.
“Nothing. I’m just trying to keep you healthy. You’ll need to get up in the middle of the night and change diapers soon.”
He pushed his chair out and tugged her toward him. She put her arms around his neck and let him pull her onto his lap.
Heartbreaker Hero: Eddie's Story (Maine Justice Book 4) Page 26