by J. D. Robb
Easily, when the skinny, ugly man also had eyes in the back of his head. Summerset had survived the Urban Wars, had worked the streets, run all kinds of cons, and though those times were past, he could still smell cop at a five-block radius.
He also knew when he was being tailed. Ditching that tail was a matter of principle, and had given him a nice warm glow of satisfaction. Though he imagined Eve had set the cops on him, possibly with Roarke’s approval, that didn’t mean he was obliged to comply.
He might have been out of the game, but he certainly wasn’t out of shape. To assume he couldn’t handle himself, defend himself, on a public street was insulting.
As it was his half-day off, he intended to stroll along Madison Avenue, do a bit of personal shopping, perhaps have a light lunch alfresco at one of his favored bistros, then if his mood held, visit a gallery before returning home and to his duties.
A civilized few hours, he thought, that would not be disrupted by the hulking presence of the nosy and pitifully inefficient police.
The fact that he could imagine, with some glee, Eve’s fury and frustration when it was reported to her that the target had vanished, barely entered into it.
Still his thin face held a mildly smug expression as he nipped out a third-story window of a small luxury hotel, engaged the emergency escape, rode quietly down to street level, and strode purposefully to the neighboring building to take the people glide back over to Madison.
Imagine, he thought, anyone believing a couple of clumsy-footed badges could keep up with me.
He paused at a neighborhood market, perused the sidewalk display of fresh fruit, and finding it woefully substandard, made a mental note to order some peaches from one of Roarke’s agri-domes.
There would be peach melba for dessert that evening.
Still, the grapes looked reasonably promising, and he was aware Roarke liked to support local merchants. Perhaps a pound of the mixed green and red, he mused, plucking one of each color from their varitoned stems.
The merchant, a small barrel of a man plugged onto two short legs, scurried out, yipping like a terrier. He was Asian, a fourth-generation grocer. His family had run that same market, in that same spot, for nearly a century.
For the past several years, he and Summerset had gone a round or two, once a week, to their mutual satisfaction.
“You eat it, brother, you buy it!”
“My good man, I am not your brother, nor do I buy pigs in pokes.”
“What pig? Where do you see a pig? Two grapes.” He stuck out his hand. “Twenty credits.”
“Ten credits a grape?” Summerset sniffed with his long nose. “I’m amazed you can make such a statement with a straight face.”
“You ate my grapes, you pay for my grapes. Twenty credits.”
Enjoying himself, Summerset gave a weary sigh. “I may be persuaded to buy a pound of your mediocre grapes, for display purposes only. Consumption is out of the question. I will pay in dollars. One pound, eight dollars.”
“Ha! You’re trying to rob me, as usual.” An event the grocer looked forward to every week. “I’ll call the beat droid. One pound, twelve dollars.”
“If I paid such an exorbitant amount, I would either require psychiatric treatment or I would be forced to sue you for extortion. Then your lovely wife and children would be obliged to visit you in prison. As I don’t want such a responsibility, I will pay you ten dollars, and no more.”
“Ten dollars for a pound of my beautiful grapes? It’s a crime. But I’ll take it because then you’ll go away before your sour face spoils my fruit.”
The grapes were bagged, the money taken, and both men turned away well satisfied.
Summerset tucked the bag in the crook of his arm, and continued his stroll.
New York, he thought, such a city, such marvelous characters everywhere you look. Of all the places he’d traveled, and there had been many, this American city, so full of energy and life and irritability, was by far his favorite.
As he neared the corner he watched a glide-cart operator argue with a customer. The operator’s born-and-bred-in-Brooklyn accent flattened the English language like a sweaty heavyweight flattened an opponent.
A maxibus rumbled to the curb, braked with a wheeze and a belch, and disgorged a flurry of passengers. They came in all sizes and shapes, in a cacophony of languages and a hodgepodge of purposes.
And all, of course, were in a hurry to get somewhere else immediately.
He stepped back so as not to be jostled and kept mindful of his pockets. Street thieves were known to pay the bus fare for its easy plucking opportunities.
As he turned, he felt a faint prickle on the back of his neck. Cop? he wondered. Had they picked up his trail again? He shifted slightly, angling himself so that he could use a shop window as a dull mirror to scan the street and sidewalk behind him.
He saw nothing but the busy and the annoyed, and the small flood of tourists who enjoyed gawking at the display of wares on Madison.
But his antenna continued to quiver. Casually, he shifted his bag of grapes, slipped a hand in his pocket, and slid into the crowd.
The glide-cart vendor was still fighting with the language and his customer, passengers were still pushing their way on or off the maxibus. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw his grocer friend hyping his produce to passersby.
There was a soft whirl overhead as a traffic copter made its rounds.
He nearly relaxed, nearly told himself he’d allowed the police tag to make him edgy and foolish. Then he caught the quick flash of movement.
Instinct kicked in. He pivoted. His hand came out of his pocket, and his body was braced and set. For an instant, he was face-to-face with Sylvester Yost.
The pressure syringe skimmed over his ribs, missing its true mark as Summerset continued his pivot. His hand shot up, and the stunner in it scraped along Yost’s shoulder.
As Yost’s arm went dead, the syringe dropped to the sidewalk to be crushed under the feet of rushing commuters. The men were shoved hard together, held there a moment like long-lost lovers, then pushed roughly apart by the stream fighting to pour onto the bus before the doors slammed shut.
Summerset’s vision blurred at the edges, tried to narrow down to a slit. He fought to clear it, to keep his balance, and would certainly have gone down if the press of bodies hadn’t kept him upright.
On rubbery knees he tried to lunge forward. The faint buzzing in his ears was like an awakening nest of hornets. His body moved too slowly, as through syrup, and his hand, still gripping the stunner, missed Yost, took down a shocked and innocent tourist from Utah, and had his terrified wife screaming for the police.
As Summerset stumbled clear, he could do nothing but watch Yost, one arm dangling uselessly, rush for the corner, and disappear.
He managed two steps in pursuit before the world went gray and he went down hard on his knees. When he was hauled to his feet, he struggled weakly.
“Sick? Are you sick?” The grocer dragged him clear, quickly stuffing the illegal stunner back in Summerset’s pocket. “You need to sit down. Walk. You need to walk with me.”
Through the wash of noise in his head, Summerset recognized the familiar voice. “Yes.” His tongue was thick, and the words slurred like a drunk’s. “Yes, thank you.”
The next thing he remembered clearly was sitting in a small room crowded with crates and boxes and smelling like ripe bananas. The grocer’s wife, a pretty woman with smooth golden cheeks, was holding a glass of water to his lips.
He shook his head, tried to take stock of his reaction and pinpoint the kind of tranq Yost had managed to get into him. A small dose, he thought, but powerful enough to cause dizziness, mild nausea, and weakening of the limbs.
“I beg your pardon,” he said as clearly as he could manage. “Could I trouble you for some Wake-Up, or one of the generic brands of its kind? I require a stimulant.”
“You look very ill,” she said kindly. “I’ll call for the MTs.”
“No, no, I don’t require the medical technicians. I have some training. I simply need a stimulant.”
The grocer spoke softly in Korean to his wife. She sighed, passed him the water, and left the room.
“She will get you what you need.” The grocer crouched so that he could study Summerset’s glassy eyes. “I saw the man you fought with. You got him, but not too good. He got you better, I think.”
“I dispute that.” Then on an oath, Summerset was forced to lower his head between his knees.
“You got the bystander best of all. He’s out flat.” Amusement filtered through his voice. “The cops’ll be looking for you. And you ruined my lovely grapes.”
“My grapes. I paid for them.”
Eve shrugged into her jacket, kicked her desk, and tried to decide if she should alert Roarke that Summerset had, as Roarke had predicted, shaken her police tag.
The hell with it, she thought. She had to get into the field. She was dumping the problem of Summerset into Roarke’s lap.
Even as she stepped toward the ’link, the problem walked into her office.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
“Believe me, Lieutenant, this visit is every bit as distasteful for me as it is for you.” Summerset glanced around her cramped office, skimmed his elegant gaze over her stingy window, her lumpy chair. Sniffed. “No, I see it could never be as distasteful for you.”
She walked around him, shut her door with a bad-tempered slam. “You ditched my men.”
“I may have to live under the same roof as a cop, but I certainly am not obliged to have them following me around on my free time.” He sneered, feeling much more like himself again. “They were inept and obvious. If you were going to insult me, the least you could have done was engage adequately trained individuals.”
She wasn’t going to argue. She’d plucked two of the best available trackers. And both of them had already taken a lashing from the sharpest edge of her tongue. “If you’re here to file a citizen’s complaint, see the desk sergeant. I’m busy.”
“I’m here, against my best judgment, to give a statement. I prefer discussing this with you, under the circumstances. I don’t wish to trouble Roarke.”
“Trouble him?” Her gut clenched. “What happened?”
He glanced at the choice of seats again, sighed, then opted to give his statement standing.
He had to give her credit. After one explosive oath, she fell silent. She listened, her eyes narrowed, flat as a shark’s and just as ruthless.
When he was done giving what he felt was an admirably concise and thorough statement, she hammered him with questions over points he’d never considered.
Yes, he habitually stopped at that market, at that time, on his half-day. He most often observed the maxibus stop there as he enjoyed the rough ballet, so to speak, of passengers.
Yost had come up behind him, slightly to the left side. Yes, he himself was right-handed.
Yost had been wearing a sandy wig, a brush cut, military style, and a pearl gray overcoat. Light material, though it had been warm enough to go without a topcoat. The stunner had brushed Yost on his right shoulder, causing him to drop the syringe before the full dose could be administered.
It had, apparently, caught the bystander midchest, but he was recovering well from that and the minor scrapes and bruises received on his trip down to the sidewalk.
“Does anyone know you were carrying an illegal weapon?”
“The grocer. Otherwise, I told the beat droid Yost had the stunner, and had attempted to attack me with it and hit the unfortunate man from Utah instead. I did, however, give the man’s wife my card so that all medical expenses could be sent to me. It was the least I could do.”
“The least you could have done was let me and my men do our jobs. If you hadn’t ditched the tag, we might have nabbed him when he went for you.”
“Perhaps,” Summerset said evenly, “if you had been courteous enough to discuss your plans that involved me with me, rather than sneak behind my back, I might have cooperated.”
“My ass.”
“Quite correct, but we never explored the possibility. As it is, I managed to defend myself quite satisfactorily, made him extremely uncomfortable. It cost me some minor embarrassment and ten dollars’ worth of overpriced grapes.”
“You think this is a joke? Is this a fucking joke?”
His jaw tightened. “No, Lieutenant, I don’t. If I found it even marginally amusing, I would not be in a police station. But I am here, voluntarily, and have given you a statement in the hopes this information may in some way assist you in your investigation.”
“You can assist me in my investigation by sitting your tight ass down until I arrange for a black-and-white to take you home.”
“I will not ride in a police vehicle.”
“You damn well will. You’re a known target. I’ve got enough to worry about without having you dance around the city with a bull’s-eye on your butt. From this moment on, you’ll do exactly what I tell you, or I’ll—”
She broke off as her door opened and Roarke came in.
“Oh yeah, come right in, don’t bother to knock. It’s old home week.”
“Eve” was all he said, brushing a hand over her arm. But his eyes were riveted to Summerset’s face. “Are you all right?”
“Yes, of course.” Should have known, Summerset thought with a vicious tug of guilt. He should have known Roarke would learn of the incident almost before it was over. “I’ve just given the lieutenant my statement of the events. I intended to contact you when I returned home.”
“Did you?” Roarke murmured. “One of the MTs called to the scene recognized you when you checked on an injured man. He managed to pass the word up to me before you did.”
“I’m sorry. I had hoped to reassure you that there was no harm done. As you can see, I was unhurt.”
“Do you think I’m going to tolerate this?” Roarke spoke softly, in a tone that warned Eve the teeth of temper were ready to snap and bite.
“There’s nothing to tolerate. It’s done and over.”
Her eyebrows went up. It was the voice of a patient father chastising a son. Her gaze cut to Roarke, saw the temper shimmer.
“All right, over and done. I’ve made arrangements for you to have a holiday. You have the next two weeks off. I suggest you use the chalet in Switzerland. It’s one of your favorites.”
“It’s not convenient for me to holiday at the moment. Thank you all the same.”
“Pack what you need. Your transpo will be ready in two hours.”
“I’m not leaving.”
“I want you out of the city, and now. If the chalet doesn’t suit you, go where you like. But you will go.”
“I have no intention of going anywhere.”
“Fuck it. You’re fired.”
“Very well. I will remove my belongings and book a hotel until—”
“Oh, shut up. Both of you shut the hell up.” She fisted her hands in her hair, yanked fiercely. “Just my luck, you finally say the words I’ve been waiting over a year to hear and I can’t do my happy dance. You expect him to put his tail between his skinny legs and hide?” she demanded of Roarke. “You think when you’re in the middle of this kind of mess he’s just going to bop over to Switzerland and yodel, or whatever the hell they do there?”
“You of all people should understand why it’s necessary to remove him from immediate danger. Yost missed. He’ll be angry, his pride in his work will be damaged. He’ll come in again, and harder.”
“Which is why Summerset will be escorted home to that fortress we live in, and stay there, in protective custody, until I say different.”
“I will not agree to such—”
“I said shut up!” She rounded on Summerset, taking one step that put her directly between both furious men. She could all but feel the bullets of heat and rage shooting out of each of them. “Do you want him sick with worry over you? Do you want him griev
ing if you make a mistake and something happens to you? Maybe your pride’s too big for you to swallow comfortably, pal, but it’s not too big for me to shove down your throat. You’re both going to do what I tell you, or I’m charging you”—she drilled a finger into Summerset’s chest—“with carrying a concealed. And you”—she whipped around to Roarke and gave him the same treatment—“with interfering with a police procedure. I’ll toss you in a cage together and let you fight it out while I finish the damn job. But what I won’t do is stand here and listen to the pair of you bicker like a couple of kids.”
Roarke gripped her arm, fingers digging in like vises before he found some tattered threads of control. Saying nothing, he turned and walked out.
“Well, wasn’t that fun?”
“Lieutenant.”
“Shut up, just shut the hell up a minute.” She stalked to her window, stared out hard. “You’re the only thing he brought with him from the past that he values.”
Emotion wavered over Summerset’s face. Suddenly, even his bones felt weary. He lowered himself into her chair. “I’ll give you my full cooperation, Lieutenant. Shall I wait here while you arrange my transportation?”
“Here’s fine.”
“Lieutenant,” he said before she reached the door. Their eyes met. “It isn’t just pride. I can’t leave him. He’s . . . he’s mine.”
“I know it.” She let out a sigh. “I’ll get a couple of guys in soft clothes in an unmarked to take you home. That should take some of the sting out of it.” She opened the door, and turned back with a sneer to steady them both. “Next time he fires you, pal, I’m doing laps in champagne.”
chapter nineteen
Eve dealt with the transportation, assigned a couple of uniforms to head over to Madison and interview shopkeepers who might have seen Yost flee the scene. Though she didn’t put out much hope it would lead to anything, she ordered them to hunt up the maxibus driver for a statement.
Then she gathered up Peabody and went down to the garage.
“He’ll stay put? Summerset?”