Broken Angels

53

Jessica found Byrne in the back room at the diner, a towel around his neck, a steaming cup of coffee in his hand. The rain had turned everything to ice, and the whole city was moving at a crawl. She had been back at the Roundhouse going through mug books with Roland Hannah when the officer-needs-assistance call had come in. All but a handful of detectives had rushed out the door. Whenever a cop was in distress the entire available force headed in their direction. When Jessica pulled up to the diner there had to have been ten sector cars on Eighteenth Street.

Jessica crossed the diner, Byrne stood. They embraced. It wasn't something you were supposed to do, but she couldn't care less. When the call went out, she was convinced she would never see him again. If that ever happened, a piece of her would most certainly have died with him.

They broke the embrace, looked around the diner a little awkwardly. They sat down.

"You okay?" Jessica asked.

Byrne nodded. Jessica wasn't so sure.

"Where did this start?" she asked.

"Up in Shawmont. At the waterworks."

"He followed you up there?"

Byrne nodded. "He must have."

Jessica thought about it. At any given time, any detective on the force might be the subject of a stalker-current investigations, old investigations, crazy people you put away years ago getting out of prison. She thought about Walt Brigham's body on the side of the road. Anything could happen at any time.

"He was going to do it right where his wife was killed," Byrne said. "Me first, then himself."

"Jesus."

"Yeah, well. There's more."

Jessica couldn't imagine what he meant. "What do you mean, more?"

Byrne sipped his coffee. "I saw him."

"You saw him? You saw who?"

"Our doer."

"What? What are you talking about?"

"At the Shawmont site. He was across the river, just watching me."

"How do you know it was him?"

Byrne stared into his coffee for a moment. "The way you know anything in this job. It was him."

"Did you get a good look at him?"

Byrne shook his head. "No. He was on the other side of the river. In the rain."

"What did he do?"

"He didn't do anything. I think he wanted to come back to the scene, and figured the other side of the river would be safe."

Jessica considered this. It was common enough, coming back like that.

"That's why I called Nick to begin with," Byrne said. "If I hadn't…"

Jessica knew what he meant. If he hadn't called it in he might be laying on the floor in the Crystal Diner, ringed by a pool of blood.

"Did we hear from the bird breeders in Delaware yet?" Byrne asked, clearly attempting to shift the focus.

"Nothing yet," Jessica said. "I was thinking we should look into subscription lists to bird breeding magazines. There can't be that many subscribers in-"

"Tony's already on it," Byrne said.

Jessica should have known. Even in the middle of all this Byrne was thinking. He sipped his coffee, turned to her, half smiled. "And how was your day?" he asked.

Jessica smiled back. She hoped it looked genuine. "Far less adventurous, thank God." She related the morning and afternoon at the thrift stores, about meeting Roland Hannah. "I've got him looking at mugs right now. He operates a church thrift store. He might have sold our boy the dresses."

Byrne drained his coffee, stood. "I've got to get out of here," he said. "I mean, I like this place, but not this much."

"The boss wants you to go home."

"I'm fine," Byrne said.

"You sure?"

Byrne didn't answer. A few moments later a uniformed officer crossed the diner, handed Byrne his weapon. Byrne could tell from its heft that the magazine had been replaced. When Nick Palladino had listened to Byrne and Matthew Clarke on Byrne's open cell-phone line, he had dispatched a sector car to the Shawmont site to retrieve the weapon. Philly didn't need another gun on the street.

"Where's our Amish detective?" Byrne asked Jessica.

"Josh is working the bookstores, seeing if anybody remembers selling books on bird breeding, exotic birds and the like."

"He's all right," Byrne said.

Jessica didn't know what to say. Coming from Kevin Byrne, this was high praise.

"What are you going to do now?" Jessica asked.

"Well, I am going to go home, but just to take a hot shower and change clothes. Then I'm going to hit the streets. Maybe somebody else saw this guy standing on the other side of the river. Or saw his car pull over."

"Want some help?" she asked.

"No, I'm good. You stick with the rope and the bird breeders. I'll call you in an hour."