Cherry Bomb

CHAPTER 45

NO PHOTO THIS TIME. But the first text message was followed up by:

HE DIES TOMORROW.

I was on the phone with Herb ten seconds later.

“Herb! It’s Jack. I-”

“Jack, I’m absolutely starving,” he interrupted, talking louder than normal. “Why don’t we meet to night at that sushi restaurant you liked? Remember how you went crazy for the maki roll?”

“Enough with the food, Herb. Alex just called me. You’re her next target.”

“Let’s discuss it over raw fish.”

“Did you hear me? I said Alex is coming after you.”

“I’ll be fine. Trust me. And I insist we grab a bite together. If not sushi, how about that seafood place on Halsted?”

“Herb-”

I stopped myself. Herb never met a food he didn’t like, but I’d met several, sushi being one of the biggies. He took me to a place a few years back and the maki roll made me so ill I still can’t eat fish. He knew that.

“Would dinner be just us?” I asked carefully. “Or would we have some friends along?”

“I’m pretty sure the Nicholas Brothers would be there too.”

Cute. The Nicholas Brothers were tap dancers. Herb also could have mentioned drinking draft beer, which was another reference to tap.

The Feds. They were listening in.

“Sounds nice, but I can’t make it. You need-”

“We can have a few draft beers afterward,” Herb said.

“I got it already, Herb. Now listen closely. The message from Alex said that you’ll die tomorrow. I need you to go away for a while. No credit cards, no relatives, don’t tell anyone.”

“I’m pretty sure I’ll be safe here. I have angels watching me.”

Herb isn’t good at subtle.

“Don’t put your faith in angels, buddy. She’s smarter than they are.”

“If we have a chance to catch her by making me bait-”

“No!” I yelled it loud enough that Harry jumped in his seat.

“It’s not your call, Jack. You’d do the same thing.”

“Dammit, Herb-”

“I’ll come out of this okay. I’m not the one you need to worry about.”

“Catching Alex isn’t going to protect me, Herb. You need to protect yourself and your wife. Alex…she killed Alan.”

There was an uncomfortable silence. I shut my eyes, saw Alan’s face, opened them again.

“I’m sorry, Jack. But that’s all the more reason I need to do this.”

“Herb, please-”

“Looking forward to that Turduckinlux. We’ll deep fry that baby when this is all over.”

He hung up on me. I stared at the phone.

“We could kidnap him,” Harry said. “Toss him in back with Slappy.”

“Bad idea.”

“Why? You think he’d eat my monkey?”

“The Feds.” I rubbed my temples. “His phone is being tapped by the Feds. And now that they know Alex is after him, they’ll camp on his front lawn. I won’t be able to get within a mile of him.”

“That’s a good thing. If you can’t get to him, neither can Alex.”

“She has to know that. She told me Herb was the target, which means she has a way to get through them.”

Harry gave me a sideways glance, then narrowed his eyes.

“You didn’t call Fatso on your phone, did you?”

I still had my cell in my hand. Harry made a face.

“Christ, Jackie. I told you the Feds can trace that. Have you been using that a lot?”

“No.” Then I remembered the long conversations with Mom and Dad earlier. “Not much.”

Harry rubbed his eyes, then extended the motion downward, massaging his jaw.

“You need to keep your head in the game, sis. The bond between siblings may be one of the strongest in nature, but those Feebie pricks pretty much guaranteed I’d do time if I help you or Phin.”

I folded my arms, anger creeping up my back and perching on my shoulders.

“So don’t help me, McGlade. Let me out here.”

He sighed. “Sis-”

“And stop calling me sis. There isn’t any proof we’re actually related.”

Harry shook his head. “You don’t know that. What about the DNA test thingy?”

“The lab hasn’t called. But I don’t need a lab to know that I share more DNA with Slappy than I do with you. Hell, McGlade, take a good look at yourself. You actually think we could have the same genes?”

“Mom says I look like my father.”

“Mom has trouble remembering to take her arthritis medication every day. You think she can remember a one-night stand from fifty years ago?”

“You’re just jealous she likes me more.”

“Likes you? No one can stand you, Harry. You’re an obnoxious, irritating, offensive, petty little man.”

“You forgot ugly,” Harry said.

“I’ll also add dirty to the list. Lathering yourself with aftershave is not, nor has it ever been, a substitute for a shower.”

“Wow. I really suck. You must have hated all of that time we were partners.”

I nodded. “I did.”

“And you must really resent that I still keep popping up in your life.”

More nodding. “I do.”

“And you must think I’m a total idiot that I never knew any of this before.”

Really enthusiastic nodding. “You got it in one.”

“Except I’ve known it all along.”

“I-” I squinted at him. “Huh?”

“Remember the Grant Park case?”

Of course I remembered the Grant Park case. An unsolved rape/murder, gone cold. I worked it in my free time, gathering evidence for over a year, building a case, sharing my findings with Harry. He made the collar without me and got all the credit.

“I’ll never forget it, McGlade. You got the promotion, when you didn’t do a damn thing.”

He smiled, the bastard.

“You still think it’s funny that you screwed me?”

“After all these years, you still think I screwed you? No one wanted to work with you, Jackie. You weren’t a team player. All you cared about was proving to the world that you were a good cop. Guess what? Everyone thought you were a single-minded, self-righteous, ball-busting bitch. They respected you. But no one liked you. You think I got a higher rank because of one lousy arrest? I got it because I passed the damn tests, had been there longer than you, and I bowled with the captain on my days off. Maybe you should have been doing the same thing, then you would have gotten promoted sooner. Hell, you might even still be married.”

I made a fist, wondering where I was going to hit him first.

“You stole the credit for that bust,” I said through my teeth.

“Yes. Yes I did. And it was wrong. But maybe if you’d been the least bit cool, and not constantly acting like I was something you wanted to scrape off the bottom of your shoe, maybe I wouldn’t have. But here we are, two de cades later, and you still treat me like shit. You know something, Jackie? I’ve changed. But you haven’t. You’re still the same holier-than-thou supercop, chasing bad guys instead of having a life. Say what ever you want about me. I like myself. Do you like yourself?”

“Stop the car.”

“It’s not a car. It’s a Crim-”

“Stop the fucking car, McGlade!”

He put on his turn signal, then coasted onto the shoulder of the highway.

“Jackie, we’re in the middle of nowhere.”

I needed my backpack, but it was in the motor home section, with Slappy the Psychotic Macaque. I opened the door anyway, ready for a fight.

The monkey was sitting on the sofa, chewing on a remote control. He eyed me when I entered.

“Don’t fuck with me,” I warned him.

He stayed where he was, watching as I grabbed my stuff and opened the side door.

“Jackie, you have to stop pushing away the people trying to help you.”

“Go to hell, McGlade.”

I stepped onto the side of the road.

“Come on. This is stupid.” McGlade, poking his head out. “Come back.”

I spotted a road sign, stating the next exit was two miles ahead. I started to hike.

“It’s cold and dark, Jackie, and there are probably wild animals. I think Wisconsin has wolves and mountain lions. And mad cow disease. At least let me drive you someplace.”

I picked up my pace.

“You can’t take on the whole world by yourself, Jackie!” Harry called after me. “The world always wins!”

Not this time, I swore to myself. This time, I’m going to win one.

But my threat, and my conviction, got lost in the darkness as McGlade pulled away.