Джеймс Паттерсон - Ambush

Mary Catherine wasn’t swayed. “I want you to let her live her life. At least within reason. Carter seems like a nice enough boy.”

“I wouldn’t have a problem with him if he was a boy. But the fact that he’s closer to thirty than twenty bothers me.”

“Do you really think anyone would try to do anything stupid to any of your daughters after they met you?”

I thought about it. Maybe I did come on a little strong sometimes.

I changed the topic. “Have you thought about a date for us yet? A spring wedding might be nice.”

“No, I haven’t thought about it.”

“I could be sneaky and trick you into it.”

“There’s no need. It’s just that I have so much to keep up with running the house. It’s hard to take time to plan anything. I can’t even think about a wedding right now.”

I said, “It doesn’t have to be big and elaborate.”

“The hell it doesn’t. If I’m going to marry the man I love, it’s going to be way over the top. I mean Barbra-Streisand-as-entertainment big.”

I chuckled as I said, “What do you mean if you’re going to marry me?”

She reached across the table and took my hand in hers. “ When I marry the man I love. But right now I want to focus on Bridget and Fiona as they get ready for their first boy-girl dance. And Trent, the forgotten kid, who never does anything wrong. And Chrissy, who is taking this baby-of-the-family thing a little too far.”

I thought about what she was saying. “I know you end up getting a whole family with me. A giant family. I don’t want to stress you out any more.”

“Oh, you silly, oblivious man. That’s just it. I do get the whole family. The whole fantastic family. It’s not a negative. I get to adopt each of the kids, just like you and Maeve did. It’s thrilling. It’s more than I ever wanted. But right now I have cookies I have to get to Shawna’s class for history day, and then I’m taking Seamus to the eye doctor.”

I leaned close and kissed Mary Catherine. I had never loved her more than I did right then.

By the time I got back to the office I was on fire. I had more information — specifically, that a woman hired the Dominicans to shoot me. I wanted this whole ordeal over as soon as possible.

Some of my ad hoc task force was already there, and I called in Cassie Max and Roddy Huerta.

When we all gathered in a conference room, Roddy was the first to say, “You do realize you’re not my sergeant. You can’t just order me into the office any time you want to talk to me.”

Cassie casually turned toward Roddy and said, “Shut up and maybe learn something.”

I appreciated that kind of support. I hate to admit it, but I got a kick out of seeing Roddy brought down a peg or two.

I said, “I think I have something that’ll change how we look at this case.” I glanced around the table. The detectives and the three forensics people were all staring at me intently.

“I have a tip that a woman hired the Dominican gunmen who tried to shoot me. They describe her as beautiful.”

Roddy shook his head. “You called us in to tell us that? An attractive woman is trying to murder you? Are you bragging?”

“No, numb nuts. I’m telling you this because it’s a lead. I know we’ve all looked through surveillance videos trying to identify a suspect, but I’ve been looking for a man. Not only is that sexist, it’s also the biggest trap a detective can fall into. I got tunnel vision. Now I’m hoping you guys can help me out. If we all start reviewing surveillance videos, we might be able get an image of this woman.”

Roddy said, “And what if she’s just a go-between? Maybe the killer really is a man.”

“I’m not sure how you want me to respond to that, Roddy. Are you saying we should ignore this lead? I think we should run it down, and if we find her, see if we can’t get her to identify who she’s working for. It’s kind of basic police work.

“Also, this fits in with the murder at the hospital. The corrections officers who were guarding the murdered gunman both said they spoke to a woman. They just couldn’t give any description and didn’t know exactly how she was involved. She may have just been a distraction.”

Cassie said, “I have hours of video from businesses around Madison Square Park. I didn’t have any idea what to look for, but I’m willing to give it a shot.”

Roddy said, “That shitty hotel purposely doesn’t want anyone knowing who comes and goes. And there are no businesses at the entrance that would have surveillance. I did grab a tape from an electronics store not far from the rear entrance to the hotel. I looked at it but wrote off the females who were leaving as prostitutes.”

Cassie let out a laugh and said, “Typical.”

I intervened before Roddy got too bent out of shape. “Unless anyone else has anything useful to add, I would recommend we all get to work. There are other pieces of this puzzle that might fall into place.”

As the little meeting broke up, I looked over to my lieutenant. Harry Grissom hadn’t said a word during the meeting as he leaned against the back wall with his arms folded.

Now he looked at me like he was about to speak. Instead he just nodded and grunted something that could’ve been “Good job.”

Alex took advantage of being alone in the Dominicans’ apartment. She didn’t just sit on the couch and wait. She did a good, thorough search of the place, putting everything back where she found it. To Alex, planning was a part of the job she enjoyed. With attention to detail and preparation, she felt ready all the time.

The kitchen drawers gave up something that really interested her. This creep had a photograph of her from the time when they had sat at the White Castle talking about things. It was clear that his friend had taken it somehow when she wasn’t paying attention. They had printed out at least two copies.

From a photographer’s point of view, the picture wasn’t that bad. He had been lucky to catch the light just right, and her hair was over her shoulder, away from her face. It was really quite flattering.

From another point of view, the fact that these men were serious enough about killing her to hand out photographs made her angry. She didn’t know how many were in the group, but it was definitely suffering some serious casualties. And it was only going to get worse.

In the next drawer there was an old-fashioned Smith & Wesson.38 revolver. It was the kind of weapon you used up close, for protection. It was small, simple, and reliable.

She took it out of the drawer and stuck it in her purse. She’d find a way to use it sometime.

The apartment had two bedrooms, and from what she could tell, at least two men lived there. They weren’t particularly tidy, and a nasty odor of stale beer and cigarette smoke hung in the air. She didn’t care for it at all.

She also found the photograph she had given them of Detective Michael Bennett, which she’d found on the Internet, but it was clear and showed the handsome detective’s face in full.

Her recent research on the Internet had turned up quite a bit of information about the detective. Since it was obvious she was the one who was going to finish the contract on him, she wanted to know everything she could.

Alex respected a man who adopted ten children. He’d been very smart and careful not to let any of the children’s photographs appear on the Internet. No news story carried any information about them. Several articles referenced the fact that he had adopted a number of children, but there was no mention of names or descriptions.

It was a shame someone felt that a man like this had to die, whereas no one really cared about incompetent idiots like the men who lived in this apartment. She hated doing something like this for no money, but she couldn’t risk their trying to kill her again. The answer was to send a strong and serious signal that no one should mess with her.