Bennie came out of her reverie. “I’ll cross their blood expert. It’s a matter of logic, not expertise. I can get him to say what I need.”
“Then that’s it,” Mary said. “There’s only twenty-five things left to do, without the blood expert.”
“By tomorrow morning?” Judy asked. Her Dutch-boy haircut had gone greasy from a day of raking it with her fingers, and her face, usually so game and honest, looked wan.
“No, not tonight,” Bennie said. She stood up and gathered her papers. “All of you are going home, including you, Mr. Jacobs. I’m going to look over my notes for tomorrow one more time, then get out of here. None of us can do good work if we’re dead on our feet.”
Lou stood up, too, and shook his khaki pants down to his loafers. “That makes sense. I’ll finish the two neighbors I have left in the morning, then follow up on Lenihan.”
Bennie looked over. “You really think the neighbors will yield anything? If we can work up something on Lenihan, the neighbors won’t matter.”
“You never know, neighbors see a lot.” Lou flattened his tie with an open hand. “I think I got all the scuttlebutt I can on Lenihan.”
“That he’s a loner who likes the ladies? That he’s in the Eleventh and moving up in the department? Then it’s time to follow him. I need to know where he goes and what he does the next few days. Take pictures, too, Lou. I want proof so I can cross him on it when he denies it.”
Judy nodded, pursing her lips. “If he’s smart, he’ll lay low. Take a vacation.”
Lou shook his head. “It ain’t that easy to get vacation time on the force. You have to apply way in advance.”
“Let’s table this for now,” Bennie said suddenly. “We’re all tired, and two of us are very old. Carrier, DiNunzio, leave your stuff here, you can start fresh in the morning. Vamoose!” She waved the associates out of the conference room, and they stood up and shook off their cramped muscles, giddy at being set free.
“Trial fever,” Bennie explained to Lou, who smiled as they got up from the conference table and left the room.
“I woulda guessed PMS,” he said, and Bennie laughed.
“A related syndrome.” She followed the associates into the empty reception area, where they hit the elevator button. The offices were empty except for the hallway. “Lou, hang with me a minute.”
“No problem,” he said, as the elevator arrived and the associates got inside.
“Good night, Mom and Dad,” they chimed, and the elevator closed smoothly, whisking them downward.
“Pieces of work,” Lou said, as the elevator rattled down the shaft. The building was so quiet they could hear the associates laughing on the way down and the ping of the cab when it reached the lobby floor.
“Yeah, they are.” Bennie folded her arms. “So here’s the problem, Lou. You don’t want to take it to Lenihan, do you?”
“I admit, I ain’t in love with it.”
“Fair enough. Then don’t do it. You stay with the neighbors, do as complete a job as possible. I’ve worked with other investigators, I’ll call one of them.”
“I’m just not convinced it’s what you think, is all. I mean, money under a floor?” Lou shrugged, his hands deep in his pockets. “That wouldn’t be enough to charge a cop with nothin’. The only thing you’re goin’ on is Connolly’s word, and she has no credibility in my book. She’s rotten to the core.”
Bennie flashed on Connolly’s confession to the inmate murders. “She sure is, but she didn’t kill Della Porta.”
“I don’t get you, Rosato.” Lou shook his head, exasperated. “You goin’ to all this trouble to save Connolly, and here she is, dressin’ like you, playin’ to the press, the whole nine yards. You’re even willing to smear a cop, work all night, do everything for her. Why? Because you feel like her twin?”
“No, I don’t.” Bennie couldn’t shake her memory of Connolly’s confession at the prison.
“Then what? You’ve been around, you gotta know. Somebody like Connolly, even if she didn’t kill Della Porta, she killed somebody else, and she’ll kill again, sooner or later. She’s scum. She belongs right where she is.”
“That’s not the way it works, Lou. Connolly’s not in jail for being bad, she’s in jail for killing Della Porta. We can’t start putting people away because they’re bad. That’s not justice.”
“Justice?” Lou smirked. “So if she kills three hundred people but not this one, she walks. That’s justice?”
“Sorry to say, yes.”
“Talk to me after the next murder, lady,” he said, and Bennie couldn’t think of an immediate reply.
Bennie was halfway up Broad Street when she noticed a dark car following her, half a block down the street and in the right lane. It looked a lot like a TransAm, but she wasn’t sure. She drove with her eyes glued to the rearview. She couldn’t make out the car’s driver or its color, either. The only streetlights on Broad Street were old-fashioned and cast almost no light.
The street glistened from the rainstorm and was deserted except for a boxy white delivery van behind Bennie. The van accelerated and filled her entire rearview mirror. It had blacked-out windows in the back, so she couldn’t see through it. The TransAm, if it was the TransAm, slipped into line behind the van.
Bennie cruised to the traffic light in front of City Hall, lit with purplish lighting that cast harsh shadows on its Victorian vaults and arches. Gargoyles screeched silently from the arches, but Bennie hadn’t been spooked by gargoyles for a long time. Tonight it was the cops that worried her. One cop in particular.
The traffic light turned red, and she looked at the outside mirror. Behind the van she could see the slanted grille of the car, but it was still too dark to identify it as a TransAm. Maybe it wasn’t. She’d thought she had seen a black TransAm four times yesterday and had been mistaken each time. She was getting paranoid.
Still, Bennie hit the gas. The white van trailed her at a slow speed and she could see the dark car following close behind, almost tailgating. The three vehicles snaked around City Hall, traveled past the Criminal Justice Center, and headed for the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. Bennie lived in the neighborhood that surrounded the Art Museum at the west end of the parkway. She had chosen the location because it was affordable, unpretentious, and close to the Schuylkill, for rowing; the same reasons Thomas Eakins had picked it much earlier. Though it wasn’t far, Bennie found herself worrying if she’d make it home safely.
She accelerated, and her Ford moved onto the four-lane boulevard that was the Ben Franklin Parkway, slick and wet from the storm. Her tires splashed through a puddle in the gutter, spraying water onto the truck’s siders, and the Ford rumbled under the multicolored flags of all nations that flapped in the wind. NIGERIA, KENYA, TANZANIA, read the labels as Bennie sped past. The white van hung back, and after a moment the dark car popped from behind it and charged aggressively up the right lane, directly under a streetlight. It was a TransAm. Blue or black, Bennie couldn’t tell, but she wasn’t splitting hairs.
Her fingers gripped the steering wheel. The TransAm was thirty yards behind her and coming on strong. Her heart began to pound and she steered her truck around Logan Circle, struggling to remain upright as she whirled around Swann Fountain, which shot illuminated arcs of water into the night. The TransAm sped up, closing the distance between them, and Bennie saw its color as it passed by the lighted fountain. Black. Oh, no. The silhouette behind the wheel was of a man. It had to be Lenihan.
Her chest constricted. She thought fast. She had no weapon but she had a car phone, a hands-free model. Her fingers fumbled for the keyboard and she pressed the coded button for 911.
“Emergency operator,” said a professional voice when the connection crackled to life.
“I need help. I’m being followed, in a car. A black TransAm.” She plowed through another puddle and checked the rearview. It was only her and the TransAm. “I just passed Logan Circle and I’m heading for the Art Museum. What do I do?”
“Are you in your car, miss?”
“Yes! It’s a blue Ford.”
“And this car is following yours?”
“Yes! Yes!” Bennie struggled to steer and shout at the same time.
“What makes you think this car is following you, ma’am?”
The TransAm was closing in. It was twenty yards behind, then fifteen. Bennie stiff-armed the steering wheel. “Take my word for it! He’s a police officer named Lenihan.”
“Did you say a police officer is following your car, miss? Why don’t you flag him if you need help?”
“I need help from him. Put out a bulletin. I’m traveling west, up Ben Franklin Parkway. Should I drive to a station house?” Bennie had no sooner asked the question than she realized she had whizzed past the street that led her to her district’s station house. The TransAm was so close. Then it switched into her lane. Right behind her.
“Help!” Bennie shouted. She trounced on the gas pedal and the Ford rocketed forward, careening up the parkway. The streetlights blurred to bright lines. The flags were streaks of color. It was all Bennie could do to keep the truck stable. She aimed right for the Art Museum.
“Miss, are you there? Miss?”
“Help!” Bennie shouted, her own cry reverberating in her ears. She checked her rearview mirror and squinted against the light. The TransAm blasted its high beams into the Ford. The black car was right on her bumper. She could see the face behind the wheel. His expression, grim. His hair, blond. Lenihan.
A bolt of fear shot through Bennie’s body. The Ford barreled down the slick boulevard. Eakins Oval, the rotary in front of the Art Museum, lay just ahead. The traffic light turned red at the cross street but Bennie roared through it. She held tight to the steering wheel and took the curve around the Oval at speed. Light filled her truck and the TransAm jolted the Ford from behind. Bennie hung on to the steering wheel for dear life.
“Miss? Miss?” the operator asked. “Did you say the police are there?”
“No! Help!” Bennie cried, then gave up. The Art Museum loomed dead ahead, looking like an amber-colored temple to the ancient Greeks. Lights at its base set it glowing gold in the night and it stood high atop a promontory. A huge set of stairs led to its columned entrance. They gave Bennie an idea. She had to go where Lenihan couldn’t. She drove a truck; Lenihan had a TransAm. It was no contest.
Suddenly Bennie cranked the steering wheel hard to the right and the Ford skidded left. Its back end fishtailed, throwing her against the driver’s side door. The impact sent an arc of pain through her left shoulder but she hung on to the steering wheel, frantic. The Ford ended up facing the direction it came from. Bennie spotted the TransAm. It screeched into a full three-sixty, spraying water from its tires like a pinwheel. It would take Lenihan time to recover.
Bennie slammed on the gas and twisted the Ford onto the sidewalk. Her back wheels churned in grit and rainwater. She pointed the Ford at the steps of the Art Museum. There was nowhere to go but up. If Rocky could do it, so could Rosato.
She engaged her four-wheel drive and the Ford bounded onto the pavement and charged up the granite staircase. She bounced in the driver’s seat despite her shoulder harness, taking each step to the landing, then racing skyward. Fountains flanking the Art Museum steps spurted water into the air, misting onto the truck. Cast iron gaslights lit her way.
Bennie hit the gas. The truck bobbled like it was racing over railroad tracks. Its suspension squeaked in protest. Her jaw rattled in her skull. Her front tooth sliced through her lower lip. She felt her own warm blood bubble into her mouth. The truck hit the next landing and lurched forward.
Bennie checked the rearview. The TransAm had recovered from its spinout and tore onto the sidewalk after her, but it stalled at the bottom of the staircase. It took three steps up, then lost traction and slid backward. Bennie’s heart leapt with relief. She kept the gas flowing and the Ford climbed the next set of steps. Only one set to go to the plaza and the huge circular fountain in front of the museum. The Corinthian columns of its façade stretched before her, five stories high, bathed in golden light. At the top of the tiled roof, Greek gods and goddesses gazed with serene indifference into the dark sky.
The Ford surged forward. Bennie lost sight of the TransAm. She was five steps from the museum plaza. Around the back of the museum was a route she used to run on her way to the Schuylkill, which flowed on the far side of the museum. She wasn’t far from Boathouse Row, home of her own fiberglass scull. This was Bennie’s turf. She was nearly home free.
She took another jolt as the Ford climbed onto the granite flagstone of the plaza. The lighted fountain misted the Ford’s windshield. The Art Museum blazed before her. Bennie careened right, almost crashing into the stanchions that kept traffic from the plaza, then turned left onto the narrow road around the back of the museum. It led to a parking lot and a cobblestone road that returned to the parkway. She’d take the parkway to the nearest police station, back at Twenty-second Street. The voice of the 911 operator sounded far away.
Bennie glanced in her rearview. The TransAm was nowhere in sight. Then she realized it could come around the back. She had to get away before Lenihan came after her. She navigated the narrow road between the museum and a low stone wall. Cast-iron lamps lined the road and Bennie spotted a security camera mounted under one. She prayed museum security would come.
Out of nowhere, Bennie heard the roar of an engine. Her windshield filled with light. She threw up her hands. There was a deafening crash that drove her back into the seat, then snapped her body forward into the shoulder harness. Dazed, she opened her eyes.
Her windshield was a network of broken glass. Her hood had buckled in the middle. The TransAm had slammed into the Ford and sat facing her, its hood crumpled and leaking steam. A split second later, Lenihan staggered out of the car. In his hand was a black nightstick.
Oh, God. Bennie tried her ignition but the Ford was dead. She looked around wildly. The phone was out. Lenihan was coming at the truck. He would kill her. She screamed, the sound thundering in her head. Her vision went foggy.
A cracking sound shattered her driver’s side window. Bennie looked over in terror. Lenihan was pounding the glass with the baton. His face was bloodied, contorted with a lethal fury. Oh my God.
Bennie stopped screaming. She had to act, to go. To run. She snapped off her shoulder harness and scrambled to the passenger side of the truck. She wrenched open the door and almost fell onto the wet flagstone. She hadn’t hit the ground before she heard heavy footsteps behind her. Lenihan was upon her.
“You fucking bitch!” the cop bellowed. Lenihan grabbed Bennie by the neck from behind and jammed the nightstick under her chin, cutting off her windpipe. Her throat exploded in pain. Her eyes filled with tears. She clawed the nightstick, struggling to wrench it off.
“You’re dead, bitch!” Lenihan dragged her to the edge of the stone wall. A panel of lights at the foot of the wall blinded her. She gasped for breath. She tore at his hands, then his nylon windbreaker.
“Get over there!” Lenihan shouted, then slammed Bennie onto the hard edge of the stone wall. The rough stone scraped her cheek. Her ribs seared in agony. She dangled over the wall. She could barely see for the pain and the darkness. It was fifty feet down to a concrete delivery ramp. “Get over the wall!”
Bennie forced herself to think, but she was losing consciousness. She couldn’t breathe. Lenihan shoved her higher onto the wide wall and tried to push her over the side. No, God. Her head flopped over the other side of the wall. A ballpoint pen from her blazer pocket rolled onto the wall. That was it!
With her last breath, Bennie grabbed the pen and stabbed blindly backward. Lenihan’s surprised gurgle told her that she had hit something. The nightstick eased at her throat. Her body shuddered as her lungs gulped air. There was no time to lose.
“Aaargh!” Lenihan cried. He dropped his nightstick and it clattered to the asphalt.
Bennie torqued in his grasp. T
he ballpoint hung from the base of Lenihan’s neck and he yanked it out. Blood spurted from the wound. His eyes blazed with renewed fury. He grabbed Bennie by the throat and slammed her back against the wall, banging her head against hard rock. She fought back on the edge of consciousness, hanging on his shirt so as not to fall over the side.
They struggled up and onto the wall, their shadows commingling in a grotesque lover’s dance, their silhouettes magnified in the lights. Lenihan’s blood drenched them both. Bennie felt its hot spray on her cheek. Its primal smell filled her nostrils. Her nails raked Lenihan’s windbreaker as he rolled her to the edge of the wall. The sky went black around her.
“Hey, you! Hey, cut that out!” came a shout, and Bennie felt Lenihan’s grip release her throat. She coughed for breath and opened her eyes long enough to see a museum security guard running toward them both. “Cut that out, you two!” the guard yelled.
Lenihan startled at the sight, then wobbled, losing his balance at the wall’s edge.
“No!” Bennie cried, and reached for him. His wind-breaker brushed her fingertips, but she closed her fist too late. Lenihan slipped from her fingers, his eyes sick with terror as he dropped over the side of the wall. The last sound Bennie heard before she collapsed was Lenihan’s final shriek, joined by the screams of approaching police sirens.
65
Bennie hadn’t realized how much the police hated her until she walked into Two Squad that night, after Lenihan’s death. The squad room was a dirty light blue, crammed with battered gray desks, lined with dented file cabinets, and encircled by water-stained curtains. It seemed to Bennie that everyone was on the night tour as she walked through their silent ranks and was led into the interview room for questioning. It wouldn’t help to tell them that she was sorry. It wouldn’t help to tell them she felt worse than they did. Nor would it help to tell them that Lenihan was trying to kill her. Bennie Rosato, who had built a career suing the department, had now killed one of their own. That was all that mattered to them.
Mistaken Identity Page 30