by L. T. Ryan
“There’s his inhaler. If he dies, it’s on you now.”
She choked back her tears and focused on placing Beans’s arm inside the sling. The man started to retreat through the doorway and closed the door. Debby glanced down, located the inhaler and scooped it up before the room went dark.
“Here’s your inhaler,” she said, searching for Beans’s good hand.
He took it from her. She heard the compressed medicine being shot into his mouth in a puff of air a few seconds later. The wheezing and crackling sound that had accompanied his every breath faded at once. He exhaled with a sound of relief.
She waited a beat, then said, “Beans?”
“Yeah.”
“Did you have anything that could help us in your backpack?”
“Maybe. Why?”
“Because he left it by the door.”
Chapter 31
I’d fussed at Lana at least a dozen times about the fact that her door didn’t have a peephole. With everything I’d seen, it didn’t make sense. She never saw my point. There’s windows there, she’d say. Yeah, there were windows on either side of the door, but she had to slide the curtains over to look through. And it’s not like the glass was tinted. Anyone standing outside could see her. So I had little choice but to take my chances and open the door. I held my pistol in my right hand and cracked the door with my left.
Special Agents Vinson and Braden stood on the porch, side by side. Their Ray-Ban knockoffs shielded their eyes. They’d removed their jackets, exposing holstered weapons. Couldn’t blame them for doing so, either. The heat and humidity demanded it.
Braden robotically said, “FBI. We need to speak with…”
I guessed they didn’t recognize me. I said, “What’s up, guys?”
“What the hell are you doing here?” Vinson said, lifting his sunglasses and pushing them on top of his close-cropped dark hair.
“Who were you expecting?”
“We’re here to question a Lana Suarez? Is she here? You’re not questioning her are you?” Vinson eyed me. “We were told that you were not only off the case, but also suspended. If you’re in here—”
“Who’s side are you guys on?” I asked.
“How do you mean?” Braden said. He looked more relaxed than his partner. Guess every duo needed some balance.
“Mine or theirs?”
“We’re not on any side,” Braden said. “We report to Special Agent Dinapoli. We do what she tells us.”
I tucked my pistol behind my back in my waistband and pulled the door open. The humidity went to war against the frigid air conditioning. I stood in the middle of the battleground. Frozen sweat began to form on my body.
“Is she here?” Vinson said.
“Dinapoli?”
“Lana Suarez.” Vinson maintained that stone-faced look. Couldn’t even get the guy to crack a smile.
“No, she’s not. She’s at the hospital. She was injured when the kids were taken.” I pointed to my leg then head. “Broke her leg and sustained a concussion.”
Vinson said, “How do you know all this? Did you go to interview a witness when protocol forbade you?”
Forbade? Fancy lingo for the FBI guys.
“No, I did nothing I was forbade to do.” I contemplated how much to tell these guys. Since my relationship with Lana wasn’t a secret to Huff and the other detectives, I figured I could mention it to these two. “Lana and I have a relationship. My visit was for personal reasons.”
“Is she still at the hospital?”
I thought about giving the guys the run around and sending them to the other side of the city to Nazareth Hospital. I figured I could convince them she had to be transported there because of the head trauma.
“She’s not here,” I said.
“Where is she?”
I shrugged. “If I’m suspended, I probably shouldn’t help out with the investigation. Don’t want to violate protocol, you know.”
Vinson took a step inside. I squared up to block his path. He didn’t back down. We stood inches from one another.
“We just want to take a look around,” Braden said.
I didn’t move.
“Please, Detective, move,” Vinson said.
I waited a minute. Tension built between us. Two versus one. The odds were probably not in my favor in the confined entryway. Out in the open, that’d be a different story. More room to maneuver.
So after a few more seconds I stepped aside and followed the men around the house. They went into her room. I could have stopped them, but knew they’d find nothing in there. All they were doing was wasting their time. They opened and closed a few drawers, and then checked out the closet. After that, they went to the kitchen. Vinson noted my open beer bottle and shook his head.
“Suspended,” I said. “Remember?”
I presumed they were satisfied when they made their way to the front door. Vinson stopped and turned toward me. “What’s your read on this woman, Tanner? Think she’s involved?”
I said nothing. What the hell kind of question was that to ask her boyfriend? My smile masked my anger over the accusation.
“Seems fishy, you know? Teacher watches and does nothing as two kids are abducted.”
Now, I’d already struck one cop that day. It wouldn’t bother me to hit another. Vinson got this look on his face, like he realized he’d gotten to me. He smiled and gave a quick nod, then he and Braden left. I hooked my finger behind the curtain and pulled it wide. The two agents got inside their government issued black sedan, pulled into the driveway and then backed out. I noted that the chimney repairman’s truck had also left.
I decided to take another look around the place. They’d touched some of her personal effects. The conspiracy nut in me wanted to ensure that they hadn’t planted any evidence. Of course, that could be what they expected me to do, only to have them show up and catch me red handed. For that reason, I slid the dead bolt to the locked position.
Turned out nothing of the sort had occurred, nothing out of the ordinary. No reason to rouse the ghost of J. Edgar.
I went back to the kitchen, finished my beer and said goodbye to Envy the cat. He brushed against my leg, then went back to the rear sliding glass door for a little more time in the sun. Before I left, I adjusted the thermostat to seventy-two. Might as well save Lana a few bucks on her power bill while she was in the hospital.
I’d left my car windows cracked to allow airflow. Instead of being one-ten inside, it was a balmy ninety-five. The air conditioning always blew hot the first few minutes. I waited outside while it kicked in. At least there was a breeze out here. I leaned back against a shade tree and stared out at nothing. The cool breeze was welcomed, and I hoped it meant that a cold front was on the way. After a long hot summer, we needed it.
My cell phone rang, dragging me away from my thoughts concerning the weather. I glanced at the screen. Sam.
“What’s going on, partner?” I said.
“Just checking in to see how you’re holding up,” he said.
“Doing okay, I suppose. Went by to see Lana, but they took her down for a CT scan. So I came by her house to feed Envy the cat. Those two knucklehead Special Agents showed up. Wanted to take a look around. I presume that was on orders of Dinapoli.”
“Not that I’m aware of, Mitch. I’ve been with her since you left. She hasn’t spoken to them.”
“Interesting. They even made a point to say that they took orders from her. Whose back pocket are they in?”
“I’ll bring it up to Bridget when I see her again.”
“You’re not with her now?” I asked
“Nah, she had to leave.”
“Well, don’t trust anyone, Sam. Make sure you keep an eye on all of them.”
“Like I have a choice,” Sam said. “We are one hundred percent done with this case.”
“You sure about that?”
“Ninety-five percent sure.”
I smiled and let out a half laugh. It sounded defeate
d, much like I felt. I’d tell everyone up to the Mayor to kiss my ass, I’m working on this case. But Sam followed orders better than I did. Guess the Army taught him that, too. “Hey, you didn’t happen to get over to Miller’s autopsy did you?”
“Is that still our case?”
“I don’t know. Not mine for sure. Maybe still yours.”
“I’ll call on it in a few and see if I can get the report faxed or emailed over.”
“Sounds good. Try and stop by the house tonight.”
“You got it, Mitch.”
I hung up and walked over to my car. I opened the door and slipped inside. The cold air found its way through my clothes. An icy wave washed over me. Quite enjoyable.
I figured I’d stop by my mother’s and check on her and Ella. The girl had put on her brave face today. By now, she’d be in need of another dose of daddy reinforcement to help her get through the night after the terrifying day at school.
I did twenty through the neighborhood, then turned right onto Marshall. A couple minutes later I noticed the black sedan following five or six car lengths behind. I made a random right turn. So did the other car. I made a left. So did the other car. Finally, I made a u-turn and went back to the main road. The black vehicle followed along every step of the way.
Chapter 32
Turns out the Feds hadn’t gone that far, after all. They gave the impression they had left, and then they’d waited for me to leave. Probably parked across the only entrance and exit to the neighborhood. In a supermarket parking lot, it would have been impossible for most anyone to notice them. They saw me, and then pulled out after I did. Why, though? What did they want from me? Sam had all the information I did. Was this the work of Bridget Dinapoli? If not her, then who? Couldn’t be the Chief or the Mayor. They spent their time fighting involvement from the Feds.
I pulled the zoom back to get a better look at the big picture. There were a few possible angles. I assumed that they were aware of my relationship with Lana. It was common knowledge around the station, after all. Perhaps Sam mentioned it in passing to Bridget and she decided to follow up on it. If someone wanted to start connecting dots, it wasn’t all that far to travel from Roy Miller, a.k.a. Michael Lipsky, to me. Of course, this all depended on them throwing logic out of the window.
I thought it also might be possible that there was someone who wanted to meet with me in an off-the-record kind of way. To do that, they had to involve people who could operate beyond the department’s legal scope. Then it would make sense to send a couple of FBI Special Agents to tail me until they found me in a compromising position, at which time they could take me into custody. Now, who would want that to happen? The Mayor was a strong candidate. The Chief, too. But why? Hadn’t I already determined that there was no way those two groups could co-exist?
Except in an effort to take me down.
There’s that conspiracy nut again.
I hadn’t left Marshall since my series of turns to determine whether or not I was being followed. The car remained seven or eight lengths behind. I led them away from the city. At this time of day, traffic started to pick up. The closer one got to the city, the thicker the congestion. The last thing I wanted was to get stuck in gridlock and provide those two an opportunity to trap me.
I continued another couple of miles, past the land of suburbs, to an area where traffic was light. At that point, I’d had enough. Time to see what these guys really wanted.
Though the traffic light said go, I pulled to a stop just shy of the intersection. I opened my door to a chorus of honks and windows rolling down so drivers and passengers could shout at me or extend a warm greeting with a single finger. Ignoring them, I walked around to the back of the Chevy and climbed up on the trunk lid, then onto the roof.
The Feds came to a stop about forty feet away, behind three other cars. As those vehicles veered to the left or the right to get by me, the FBI agents pulled up another twenty feet, and then stopped.
“Come on,” I shouted. “This is what you wanted, right? Now you got it. Come and get me. I’m sure this is a crime somewhere.”
The sun glared off their front windshield. Through the bright burst of light, I saw the men look at each other, then at me. They spoke, perhaps trying to figure out what to do. Braden was behind the wheel. His hands animated his side of the conversation. He eased the vehicle forward a few more feet. Vinson had his cell phone pressed up to the side of his head. I’d have paid twenty thousand dollars to find out who was on the other end of that call.
Their lights started flashing, small and blue at the corners of the windshield. I figured they were about to come and place me under arrest. Why? No reason other than I was acting like a belligerent jackass. They didn’t need a reason, though.
Instead of coming for me, the car lurched forward then whipped around in a half-circle and took off in the other direction, headed toward the city. Their lights continued to flash and they went right through five red lights before they disappeared from sight.
“Get off your car asshole,” some punk kid said. He’d stuck his head out the window and had a big smile plastered on his freckled face. I pulled my jacket to the side, revealing my pistol. I patted the handle. The kid quickly ducked back inside the cab of the small pickup and rolled up his window. No matter how hard I stared, he didn’t look back at me again.
I waited until the little pickup drove off, then I hopped off my car. I pulled my cell from my pocket and placed a call as I slipped behind the steering wheel. The phone rang five times before she answered.
“Where are you?” my mother asked.
“I’m not going to make it over,” I said.
“Ella is going to be disappointed. Are you sure you can’t come by?”
“It’s not that I can’t. I shouldn’t.”
“What do you mean?”
“I really can’t get into it, Momma. A lot’s happened today, most of which I can’t tell you. I’m suspended, pending appeal.”
“What did you do?”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“Hope it was worth it.”
“He had it coming.”
She made a disapproving noise, but said nothing.
“I just spent fifteen minutes with a couple of Feds following me. Don’t know what it means, but I don’t feel safe leading them to you and Ella.”
“What if they already know about us?”
“I’m working on that. You can expect Sam to come by at some point. Worst case, I’ll send Jerry over to get Ella and bring her to his place. They won’t bother him.”
“And you’d leave me here by myself?”
“Any man crazy enough to mess with you will get what he deserves.”
She laughed and said, “Damn right.”
“The language,” I said.
She said nothing.
“Okay, look, I’m going to give Sam a call now. Make sure all the doors and windows are locked, and don’t leave the house. Not even for a carton of milk. You got it?”
“I know, I know.”
We said our goodbyes and I hung up. The light turned green. I hit the accelerator and placed a call to Sam after I’d leveled out my speed.
“What’s going on, Mitch?”
“Crazy day,” I said.
“Tell me about it.”
“Vinson and Braden were following me.”
“Say what?”
“After I left Lana’s place. I’d say it was maybe ten minutes after they left. Should have been in the city by then, but apparently they waited across from the neighborhood in the shopping center parking lot.”
“Sure it was them?”
“Yeah, I’m sure. I made a couple crazy turns and they stuck with me the whole time. Kept a good distance back. Pros, you know. They followed me for another fifteen minutes or so until I stopped and got out of the car. Made like the roof of the Chevy was a stage on Broadway.”
“Intriguing,” Sam said. “I’ll have to check online for video footage
.”
“Isn’t it?” I paused a beat, wondering if anyone had filmed the encounter. “Anyone there give any indication that they wanted to have a word with me?”
“Lots of people, but nothing that demanded immediate attention. You sure it was them?”
“They got close enough I could see the razor burn on their necks.”
“I’ll feel some people out and call in some favors.”
“That’s why I’m calling, Sam. I need a favor from you.”
“Anything.”
“Go by Momma’s and either stay there or bring Ella and maybe even Momma over to your place. Those Feds got me spooked. I don’t know what they know about me, and I don’t want either of the girls to be placed in danger. Maybe it’s my paranoid side working overtime, but I think that they, someone, thinks that I’m involved in this mess. Now, if they want to show up at my place at two in the morning, so be it. As long as Ella isn’t there.”
“Okay, Mitch,” Sam said. “I agree, it’s probably a bit paranoid, but better to not take chances. I’ll take care of Ella and let you know.”
“Just let me know when, not where. Probably best that I don’t know in case this heads in the wrong direction.”
After I hung up with Sam, I pulled off onto a side road and took quite possibly the longest way home I could think of. Lots of turns and back roads. Less traffic back there. It made it easier to see if someone tailed me. And since I didn’t have Lana or Ella to get home to, an hour-and-a-half drive didn’t bother me.
The temperature readout on the dash said it had dropped below eighty degrees outside. Some fresh air would be nice. I rolled down all four windows and turned the radio up. The baseball game was on. I didn’t pay attention. I let it act as background noise to drown out my thoughts.
By the time I reached my neighborhood, the sun was deep in the west, behind the trees. The sky faded from deep red, to a light pink, to dark blue to the east. I pulled up to the curb and stopped a few houses down from mine. I waited there for fifteen minutes while watching the shadows.
What a day, I thought as I opened the door and stood. I crossed the street to the sidewalk, cut across my front yard and then opened the door to the screened porch. A nice breeze blew through. Mosquitoes hummed from the other side of the protective netting. Best investment I ever made, screening in this porch. Before sticking my key into the doorknob, I made sure it was still locked. It was. I righted that situation and stepped inside. After a quick search, I heated up some leftover pizza and finished off the five stray beers that had once been part of a twelve pack.