Cat In An Indigo Mood

Chapter 51

Dead Reckoning

It's a terrible thing to drive a dump truck full of righteous rage with no place to dump it all day.

Max's suppressed energy level would have fueled a Titan rocket. but there was very little he could do about confronting Molina until he could get her alone.

First he drove by and into the police headquarters parking garage. The challenge shaved off some of his raw edges, and he was pleased to note her repainted Toyota station wagon wedged between a Datsun and a Chevy.

Dreadful car, but nobody would steal it.

His own car for all of a day, a beige Acura, purred as it idled out of the garage. Nothing like mounting a nefarious expedition at the heart of police headquarters for soothing the savage soul.

He then drove home, went to the computer, and pulled up her home address from the police personnel files. He'd never be a world-class hacker, but his tutors in the underground had made him just competent enough to be a danger to other people, and himself, for that matter.

He liked picturing the drama of confronting her at the Blue Dahlia again, maybe even showing up for the evening's musicale and sitting there like a hanging judge through the whole act . . . but there was no guarantee she'd be slipping out as Carmen tonight, and she'd have to stop at home first anyway.

So, since he couldn't predict her working hours, out the place from four PM. on should work.

The notion of waylaying an officer of the law was satisfying. He wasn't really a renegade, but after all his years of working without a net, he had developed a tinge of contempt for the official detective, bound by rule books and Miranda rights. Breaking and entering for a good cause had always been the best part of his odd avocation.

In fact, he could greet her inside the house; that would catch her off guard. No. Temple had been right. Molina was armed and dangerous, and for all his risky history, he had rarely gone armed; better not to aggravate the dragon inside her cave, where he had less room to maneuver.

He called up a street map of Las Vegas to confirm her house location; very near Our Lady of Guadalupe Church.