Most Wanted

50

THE NEXT MOMENT DAN AND THREE OTHER AGENTS burst into the room, weapons drawn. Dan body-slammed Rommie, who crashed to the floor, a flash of light and a deafening report issuing from the barrel of his gun. Seconds later chunks of plaster rained down from the ceiling.

Dan landed on him and managed to yank the gun from Rommie’s injured hand, throwing it clear. They somersaulted over Slice’s corpse, punching at each other furiously, until Dan ended up on top and smashed Rommie hard with the butt of his own gun. Rommie reeled back, stunned. Dan grabbed Rommie’s arms, wrenching them savagely, flipping him over, and handcuffing him. Rommie exhaled in defeat, his entire body deflating, seeming smaller, as if his very flesh understood it was all over. Two of the agents pulled him to his feet. He staggered between them, his eyes hollow with shock, as they dragged him toward the door. Melanie almost felt sorry for him. The third agent, gun still drawn, went to examine the contents of the secret room.

Dan knelt and checked Slice’s pulse, then stood up and looked at Melanie. Her face and dress were spattered with blood.

“I shot Slice,” she confessed, and started to shake again from head to toe.

“You killed him?” He looked at her with a mix of concern and admiration.

“Yes.” Tears welled and brimmed over, rolling down her cheeks. Dan came over and wiped them away with his fingers.

“First off,” he said, turning over her hands to inspect the duct tape, “you need to understand you did the world a huge favor. That little prick was a stone-cold killer. He wasn’t ever gonna stop. You gotta look at it like what you did saved lives.”

“Okay,” she said, still shaking violently.

“I mean, think about how many murders he had left in him. And if you hadn’ta stopped him tonight, the next one would’ve been you. Hear what I’m saying?”

“Yes.”

He picked at the tape with his fingernail, then tugged. It made a loud ripping sound as he unwound it from her wrists. She shook her hands out, feeling the warm blood rush back into her tingling fingers.

“That brings me to my second point,” Dan said. “You oughta be proud as shit you made it through this alive. I know I’m proud of you. Between this piece of garbage on the floor and that psycho Ramirez, most of the cops and agents I know would’ve folded. But not you. You beat ’em. You know what that makes you?”

“What?” she asked, voice tremulous, looking up at him with huge eyes.

He brushed her hair back off her face. “You’re a survivor. You’re a fucking survivor. That’s what you should carry around with you for the rest of your life. If you ever find yourself in a tight spot again, you think back on today and you say, ‘I took out Slice. A killer with fucking twenty bodies on him, and I took him out. I’m a survivor.’ That’s what you say, you hear me?”

“Yes. I know you’re right, but-”

“No buts. I understand you didn’t sign up for gunplay. That’s supposed to be my end of the operation. But it was life or death in there. You had no choice. Do you hear me?” He grasped her chin, looking intently into her eyes.

“Yes. Thank you. That helps,” she said, taking a deep breath.

He let her go and walked over to where Sophie lay, behind the desk, still unconscious.

“Is she okay?” Melanie asked, rushing to kneel beside him. “She’s my friend. The architect I told you about.”

“Out cold, but her pulse is strong. What happened to her?”

“Apparently they drugged her to get her over here. I don’t know what they gave her, but I’m concerned about an overdose.”

“Don’t worry. When people OD, it happens right away. They foam at the mouth and stop breathing. She’s fine, she’s just knocked out. She’ll wake up with a headache, that’s all.”

The other agent emerged from inside the secret room. “Empty,” he said, “but that’s some fucking trap.”

“Empty?” Dan asked, springing to his feet. “My snitch told me Benson had two hundred keys stashed in there!”

“Apparently Nell Benson stole it,” Melanie explained.

“What?”

“Long story.”

Dan laughed. “You had quite an afternoon. I can’t wait to hear the details.” He turned to the other agent. “Call an ambulance for the woman on the floor, and notify the ME to come get this piece of garbage.”

“Yup, I’m on it,” the agent said.

Melanie stood up. “Where’s Randall?” she asked Dan guardedly, not sure how much he knew.

“I took him over to Internal Affairs and left him there.”

“Oh.” She nodded with understanding.

“You knew?” Dan asked sharply.

“I suspected. Well, yes, after this afternoon, I knew for sure. Rommie confirmed it. I’m really sorry. It must be hard for you,” she said, reading the pain in Dan’s eyes.

“People fucking suck.”

“That’s exactly what I said when I heard about it. But Randall’s a good man at heart. I want him to come out of this okay. What’ll happen next, do you know?”

He shrugged. “I put in a word for him. I owed him that much, all we been through together, but I don’t give a shit after that. With everything he was into, he’s dead to me,” he said bitterly.

“Come on now, I know you feel let down. But it sounds like Randall was up against a lot. Ramirez had him over a barrel.”

“Don’t make excuses for him,” Dan said, shaking his head with disgust. “So he was worried about his job and his pension. So what? It all comes down to money. Same shit that brought down every dirty cop from the beginning of time. My old man told me from when I was a kid, on this job you face temptation a hundred times a day. If you ever once let it be a question in your mind, you’re fucked.”

“Well, I hope after things calm down, you’ll think it over and maybe give Randall another chance. I have to admit, though, I’m relieved at your attitude. I was having some doubts about you, you know.”

“Me?”

“Yes, you. Things you knew that you shouldn’t have. The way you opened the Road Runner trap in, like, sixty seconds. That struck me as pretty far-fetched.”

“Yeah, you’re right. A guy with my IQ cracking the code that fast? No way.”

“I’m serious.”

“So am I.”

“What are you saying? You didn’t open the trap?”

“Bigga opened it. He found out the code.”

“So you lied to me.”

“You could say that-a white lie, though. Look, Bigga was my snitch. The one you’ve been asking about? That was him. I mean, he was a good snitch back in the day, but then he went south. Participated in a murder. Wouldn’t return my beeps. It didn’t look too good. If you knew I caught him, you would’ve told me to lock him up on the spot, right?”

“Yes,” she admitted.

“Of course. You would’ve been justified, too. Especially after he shot at us, right? But I knew he could take me right to Slice. When I got back to Benson’s estate, I parked down the road and got the jump on him. Wasn’t too hard. He was right inside Benson’s house, talking on his cell phone and eating some Doritos. I had him in cuffs in about ten seconds. I got him to open the trap for me as a showing of good faith, and I sent him back out there. I knew you wouldn’t approve, so I kept it to myself. But, look, he came through with flying colors. He called in the marines when it counted. He saved your life.”

“Him? What did he do? I’m the one who beeped you!” she exclaimed.

“Yeah, I got your beep. It confirmed Bigga’s information for me, but I already knew. Good thing, too, because that extra time was critical. Bigga called me, and I was at fucking IAD with Randall. I had to get here, call for backup, set up on the place. I’m telling you, you owe him big-time.”

“No kidding. All in the guise of going out for Chinese food.”

Dan laughed sheepishly. “Actually, Bigga did grab some Chinese before he made the call. He had it with him when we picked him up. Hope it was enough to last him for a while. He’s sitting outside in a blue-and-white, cuffed up all nice for you, looking for a little time off his sentence for cooperation.”

“Wow. Maybe I should go shake his hand.”

“I wouldn’t go that far,” he said with a laugh as the paramedics arrived to take care of Sophie.

MELANIE EMERGED INTO THE TWILIGHT AND breathed deeply. The air after the rainstorm tasted as sharp and clean as ice water. Patrol cars and ambulances were parked in front of the town house, their flashing lights reflected in the slick black pavement. Home was only a few blocks away, but she had unfinished business here first.

Knowing she needed to give a detailed statement, Melanie headed for the cluster of conferring officers standing by the patrol cars. She glimpsed Rommie handcuffed in the back of one, Bigga in another. As she approached, though, the sea of uniforms parted and Bernadette emerged, dressed in tight jeans, stiletto-heeled boots and blazer. She hurried toward Melanie, arms outstretched.

“Melanie, thank God!” Bernadette yelped, embracing her. “I was so worried about you! Once I stopped being angry, that is, since of course you’re no longer assigned to the Benson case and I don’t know what you thought you were up to.”

“How did you get here?” Melanie asked, immediately extricating herself from Bernadette’s grasp.

“Your husband called me. He was in a panic. He wanted to come find you himself, but I refused to give him the exact address. We don’t need civilians interfering. But he obviously adores you, Melanie. He was practically hysterical,” she said.

Melanie stared at her boss with frosty eyes. Bernadette was not blameless in this fiasco. Her carelessness had allowed Rommie to get to Melanie’s witnesses. Her continuing skepticism, even after Melanie told her of the fingerprint report, had perpetuated the whole conspiracy. If Bernadette had listened sooner, some innocent people might still be alive and the whole ordeal tonight could’ve been avoided.

Bernadette saw Melanie’s stony expression and wilted. “I don’t know what you’re thinking, girlfriend, but please. You have to believe I didn’t know.”

Melanie glared at her. “I believe you didn’t know. But you should have known. After what I’ve been through tonight, don’t expect me to let you off the hook.”

“I know, I heard all about it. I cannot believe you personally shot Slice! Very impressive. I mean, that guy was a serious player. And look at it this way: If you’d caught Slice and taken him to trial, you would have asked for the death penalty, right? Same result, but you saved yourself years of appeals.”

“Bernadette, this is not a joke.”

“Okay, fine. I see you’re angry. What do you want me to say? That you were right?” Bernadette asked.

“Yes! It would be a start.”

Bernadette tossed her head irritably. “Fine, then. It turns out you were right, and I commend you for astute investigative work. But you have to admit, from where I stood, your theory looked pretty implausible before tonight. I was entitled to trust Romulado, after all. I’m not speaking about our personal relationship, but about his fifteen years’ service.”

“Oh, come on, I pointed out all the warning signs,” Melanie said. “I even told you about the fingerprint report, and you discounted it.”

“In the glare of hindsight, I admit, I made a few errors in judgment. Maybe I didn’t take you seriously enough. Romulado accused you of blind ambition, and there was sufficient truth to it that I let him convince me. I was wrong. You deserved more credit than that. Okay? Satisfied now?”

The stricken expression lying just beneath Bernadette’s bravado took away any pleasure Melanie might have felt in her victory. Ramirez’s treachery was a personal tragedy for Bernadette on a magnitude Melanie hated to think about. Besides, who was she to lecture anyway? Maybe Rommie’s lie was bigger, but Melanie had trusted Steve and been proved wrong. She’d also failed to trust Dan when she should have. Her judgment of men’s character was hardly foolproof.

“Thank you for admitting you were wrong, Bern,” Melanie said, softening. “And now that you explain it, I understand why you trusted Rommie over me. When someone you’re close to lies to your face, it’s natural to believe him.”

“People can fool you, Melanie. That’s one hard lesson I’ve learned in life. You never really know another person the way you think you do.” Bernadette looked wistfully in the direction of the police cruiser where Rommie sat.

“I’m sorry for you, Bern.”

Bernadette drew herself up straighter. “No need to feel sorry for me, hon. I’ll be fine. Anyway, look, I’m gonna call first thing and see if I can get you into that PD posttraumatic-stress counseling. And I want you to take tomorrow off.”

“No way. Too many loose ends to tie up. Like, I have to file a habeas petition to vacate Delvis Diaz’s conviction, since now we know it was Slice who killed the Flatlands Boys. And I have to check on the Securilex case,” Melanie said.

“Oh, yes, that reminds me. Who made you a supervisor, miss? Since when are you empowered to make assignments?” Bernadette asked.

“Ah,” Melanie said with a laugh, “you mean Joe Williams?”

“Yes, that’s exactly what I mean. I just signed off on an arrest warrant for one Dolan Reed that had Joe’s initials on it instead of yours.”

“Man, that was quick! That Joe is a whiz!”

“Apparently a second witness surrendered this afternoon, a young woman from the Reed firm-”

“Sarah van der Vere?”

“Yes, and she had some gruesome story about blackmail and suicide. The Connecticut State Police picked Reed up at his country place a few hours ago, drunk as a skunk and babbling about blowing his brains out.”

“Wow, what a juicy case. Juicy and document-intensive. Joe deserves to work on it, Bern.”

“Did you hear me say no? He can help you out on this one case, but next time I’m disciplining you for insubordination. Understood?” Bernadette’s smile belied her scolding tone.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“All right.” Her smile turned sad, then disappeared entirely. “Listen, I need to go deal with Romulado. He’ll have to plead, of course, but at least I can help him get a decent lawyer. I’ll catch up with you later.”

Bernadette took a deep breath and walked off in the direction of the police cruisers. Melanie watched her retreating figure with some measure of disappointment, leavened by a grudging, but definite, respect. Bernadette would come out of this smelling like a rose. She always did.

MELANIE STOOD SCANNING THE CROWDED BLOCK with a vague sense of urgency and unease. When she spotted Dan O’Reilly talking to one of the cops, the palpable relief she felt told her he was what she’d been searching for, though she hadn’t realized it.

He must have sensed her eyes on him. He looked up immediately and met her gaze, then patted the cop on the arm and excused himself. As he walked toward her, their glances holding the whole way, she felt her heart pounding.

“Hey,” he said, when he reached her. “C’mere.”

He took her hand and pulled her into the shadows near the basement entrance, away from the crowd, where they wouldn’t be seen. She didn’t protest. Hardly. Her eyes closed and her lips parted of their own accord as he drew her into his arms, up against his chest, which felt solid and unyielding as steel. His mouth on hers was sweet and demanding at the same time. When he set her down after a moment, she was utterly breathless.

“I’m not gonna lie to you,” he said grimly. “I’m falling for you so hard, Melanie. I don’t know how to handle it.”

“You say it like it’s a curse.”

“It is a curse. You’re married.”

“You’re right,” she conceded, sighing. He wasn’t letting himself forget the complications. She shouldn’t either.

“What can we do?” he asked, taking her by the shoulders and looking down into her eyes. Mira, what was it about this man? The rough caress of his voice, the clarity of his gaze, his magnificent height? She was actually trembling at his touch. She tried to tell herself it was accumulated stress, but she didn’t think so.

“I know what I should do,” she said. “I should tell you I can’t see you right now. That I need to sort things out with my husband.”

“But he doesn’t treat you right,” he protested. “I saw it in your eyes the second we met. I said to myself, Something is screwed up here. This girl needs me. And come to find out, it was true.”

“It’s not so simple,” she said, in a small voice. “It’s not just myself I have to think about here-it’s my daughter. Divorce is really tough on kids. Believe me, I know that firsthand.”

“Oh. You never mentioned that before,” he said.

“Yes. My parents split. My father lives in Puerto Rico. He has a new wife, a second family. I never see him.”

“Jeez, I’m sorry.”

“It’s sort of ancient history, and yet it’s not. It affects me in a lot of ways. It definitely makes me think long and hard about whether to end my marriage.”

“I understand. I respect that. You take commitment seriously. But a bad marriage isn’t good for kids either. Besides, what about this? I mean, what about…about…us? Isn’t this-I mean, don’t you-”

She reached up and touched her fingertips to his lips to silence him. “This? This is a powerful thing, Dan O’Reilly. Like nothing I’ve ever felt before.”

He took her hand from his lips and kissed it, looking into her eyes with barely suppressed exultation. “No problem, then. I’ll wait. I can be very patient.”

“Even if I’m not sure how long it’ll take? Or what the outcome will be? I want to be completely honest with you.”

“Don’t you know me by now? I don’t scare, and I don’t give up. You do what you have to do. I’m not going anywhere.”

She shook her head in confusion. “I’m not even sure whether we should see each other while I’m trying to work this through.”

“We can see each other as much or as little as you want. How about I bring you a good case? Terrorism, maybe? Lotta shit going on down on Atlantic Avenue these days. We can work together, hang out, maybe grab lunch or a drink now and then.”

“Maybe.” She hesitated. “But I don’t want to put you in a difficult position.”

“Hey, sweetheart, you’re talking to Mr. Self-Discipline here. I’m the king of cold showers. I can keep my hands to myself if we’re working a case.”

“Maybe you can, but I’m not sure I can,” she said. After all, in her thoughts, hadn’t she already imagined it? Weren’t they already amantes? She knew herself, and, more than that, she knew how much she wanted him.

“Come on, say we can at least work together,” he said. “Think about all the good we could do. The honest citizens out there counting on us to keep the streets safe. And think about how much fun we’d have, the two of us, locking up the bad guys together.”

She laughed. “Now, how am I supposed to say no to something like that?”

“You’re not.”

“Okay, but listen. For the foreseeable future, we’re the greatest team in law enforcement and nothing else. You got that? Anything else remains to be seen.”

“Yes, ma’am. You got yourself a deal.” His eyes were fixed on hers. She could tell he wanted to touch her, but he wouldn’t let himself. He took a step backward. “But I like a challenge. So don’t think this is over. It’s just getting started. And you’ll be hearing from me, like, first thing in the morning.”

He turned and walked away, smiling, his step confident, not looking back.

ONE OF THE PARAMEDICS WHO CAME FOR SOPHIE looked in Melanie’s eyes with a flashlight and told her she didn’t need to go to the hospital. So she spent some time giving her statement to a detective and headed for home.

Madison Avenue was bustling, the rain-soaked darkness made glamorous by the lavish displays in the shop windows and the expensively dressed people walking by. Her head still throbbed, yet when she breathed the night air, she felt a sense of clarity and anticipation. In a strange way, this case had cleared her mind. She was ready to move on to the next phase in her life. She would work hard, be a good mother to her daughter, and figure out what the future held for her battered heart. But Dan was right. She was a survivor. And that was a joyous thing to be.