Patterson, James - Womans Murder Club 5 - The 5th Horseman

“Tell him we’re taking you down.”

I was putting on my jacket as Garza fiddled with the tiny buttons on my Nextel, getting it wrong, trying again. I left him in the box with Jacobi.

But before the door swung shut, I heard Garza crying.

Womans Murder Club 5 - The 5th Horseman

Chapter 136

GARZA’S BEAT-UP FACE was still large in my mind as I drove home from the Hall, thinking it was too bad Yuki hadn’t been behind the mirror, watching Garza barf his guts out and cry like a baby.

Was he afraid?

Feeling sorry for himself?

I didn’t care.

I hoped he was in excruciating pain. The bastard was a proven flight risk charged with a homicide. Bail would be set in the millions, but chances were, he’d still be out by Monday morning.

He was going to have a long, humiliating weekend cuffed to a hospital bed, his former colleagues getting a close-up look at Dr. Garza’s dark side.

His weekend would drag by very slowly.

Mine would fly way too fast.

I cruised up Sixteenth Street, turned onto Missouri. I passed the pretty moon-washed Victorian homes on Potrero Hill, thinking about the long shower I would take to rinse the stink off me, and the six blessed hours of sleep, resting up for my weekend with Joe.

I smiled, thinking about the pure pleasure of being with Joe, lying next to him with my head in the crook between his neck and shoulder, our hands clasped, the small, frequent kisses and the deep ones that would leave us dying for more.

I thought about the hours and hours of talking with Joe. I could hardly wait to tell him about this day, for instance, the eighteen hours of nonstop adrenaline rush that had ended with taking the bad guy out of the game.

I parked the Explorer four doors down from my front door, climbed heavily up the hill, and made my way upstairs to my home-sweet-home with its sliver view of the bay.

I talked to Martha through the shower doors, telling her how sorry I was that I didn’t have a life. She talked back, a yappy dialogue between the two of us. If pressed, I’d have to guess she was complaining that her dog-sitter loved her more than I did.

I told her it wasn’t so.

Maybe twenty minutes later, I was naked under the sheets, about to switch off the bedside lamp, when I noticed the flashing light on my answering machine.

I wanted to let it go, but instead I pressed the Play button, knowing that if I didn’t, my sleep would be colored by that damned thing blinking next to my head all night.

“Lindsay, it’s me,” said Joe’s recorded voice. I sighed, calling his face to mind, hearing his disappointment, sensing that mine was only nanoseconds away.

“Honey, I’m sorry. It’s bad news. I caught an earlier flight. I was going to get in early and surprise you, but there was a major flap at the airport, and the runways were closed down for a couple of hours.

“We got detoured, Linds, and now I’ve been reassigned. I’m on a plane to Hong Kong.”

I heard the voice of the pilot in the background telling the passengers to turn off their electronic equipment.

Joe’s voice came back.

“I’ll call you as soon as the wheels touch down. We’ll make a new plan. A bigger one. A better one. Hang with me, Lindsay. I love you.”

There was a click, and then the dial tone cut in.

I pressed Rewind, listened to the message once more, listened to Joe’s voice. The flap at the airport — it would be funny if it wasn’t so damned sad — was me arresting Garza.

Womans Murder Club 5 - The 5th Horseman

Chapter 137

CLAIRE, CINDY, AND I were at Bix that Saturday night, an outrageously wonderful restaurant hidden away on Gold Street, known for its fantastic food and also Art Deco trappings calling to mind the glory days of speakeasies and the glamorous steamships of the thirties and forties. We were draped around the booth we love best on the mezzanine, with its view of the action at the mahogany bar on the floor below.

I’d shut off my cell phone and was drinking a perfect martini. Twenty hours after the arrests of Garza and O’Mara, I was still tired to the bone.

And I was worried about Yuki, who should have been here a half hour ago.

I was leaning against Claire’s shoulder, and she was kidding me.

“How long since you had some vitamin L, girlfriend?”

“I don’t remember. So that must mean it’s been way too long.”

“When’s that man of yours coming to throw you onto the bed?”

I laughed. “We’ve made an unbreakable date for this coming weekend. Nothing short of a terrorist attack can stop us. Are you clairvoyant, Butterfly?”

“Yeah, pretty much,” said Claire. “But I can’t read your mind on what happened with Dr. Garza. We both want to know. Please don’t make us wait for Yuki.”

I saw that I wasn’t going to get out of this.

Cindy and Claire had fixed their eyes on mine, so I took a sip of my martini, put down my glass, and then told the girls about the scary takedown at SFO, and that we’d booked Garza, charged him with everything we had.

“O’Mara went for a deal,” I told them. “Get this. She and Garza were working together on that lawsuit against Municipal. It was all planned out. A scheme. When he took the Fifth—”

“That was planned?” Cindy asked.

“Sure was. Garza did a superfine job of turning the jury against Municipal. O’Mara raked in her cut of the millions and shared it with Garza. Also, she was in love with the guy.”

“Defies logic and reason,” Claire said.

“Doesn’t it, though? But in her deluded mind, they were going to run away together and live happily ever after.”

“But he dumped her?” Cindy guessed.

“Tried to,” I said. “He was packed and ready to fly when Martin Sweet showed up at his house. Mad as hell. We think he took a swing at Garza with a lead-crystal vase to the back of the head.”

“Ouch,” said Cindy.

“Yeah. So then Garza went nuts and wound up killing poor Martin Sweet. How many stab wounds, Butterfly?” I asked Claire.

“Forty-two. Sliced his neck through to the spinal column.”

I nodded, kept talking.

“Maureen says when Garza told her to ‘have a good life,’ she drove over to his house, wanted to change his mind. Instead she caught him stuffing Martin Sweet into the trunk of his car. And that earned her a ticket to Brazil with Garza.”

“He would have killed her down there, I’ll bet,” said Cindy.

“I think so, too. We probably saved her life by getting those two off that plane.”

“What about the button murders?” Cindy asked. “Are you still working on that case?”

“Not officially,” I said. “I have a couple of ideas about the button murders. Maybe even a solid lead.”

I explained that Sonja Engstrom was pulling out the stops. “She’s hired a staff of data-security experts, and they’re turning the computer system inside out.

“It’s only going to get worse for Garza. As for O’Mara, she’ll be disbarred for fraud. Conspiracy. Witness tampering, you name it.”

“You nailed him, honey. You did a spectacular job,” said Claire.

“Unbelievable,” said Cindy, shaking her head, blond curls bobbing around her face. “We’re so proud of you, Lindsay.”

“Come on, guys, I had an awful lot of help. I sure didn’t do this alone.”

“Shut up. You’re a superstar,” said Claire, she and Cindy lifting their glasses to toast me. I was still squirming under their lavish praise when Yuki suddenly appeared and slipped into the booth beside me.

I almost didn’t recognize her.

Womans Murder Club 5 - The 5th Horseman

Chapter 138