Back Track (46 page)

Bishop was already moving. He sprinted past Selina’s prone body and reached Poleina before he even knew what was happening. Stepping on the man’s right wrist, he pulled the Beretta from his grip and tucked it in his waistband.

Poleina clutched his wounded shoulder, moaning softly. A small amount of blood leaked onto the light-coloured carpet underneath. He’d live.

‘Don’t move,’ Bishop said and turned to Selina. She was still lying on the floor a few feet away and looking up at him. Her eyes looked a lot clearer. The short burst of adrenalin must have temporarily counteracted whatever was in her system.

‘Bishop,’ she whispered.

‘It’s me,’ he said, helping her to her feet. ‘Are you okay?’

Instead of answering, Selina suddenly wrapped both arms around him tight and pressed her face against his chest. Bishop could hear muffled sobs and smoothed her hair as she let it all out. She deserved this moment of relief. And if he was honest, so did he. He was dog tired. But holding her in his arms like this, knowing she was physically safe, made everything he’d gone through worth it. And he knew he’d do it all again if he had to.

Bishop let a few moments pass, then said, ‘You want to ease off a little, Selina? I think you just cost me another rib.’

‘Sorry,’ she said and loosened her grip. She used a hand to wipe her eyes and said, ‘I thought I’d never see a friendly face again.’

‘Yeah, well, blame me for not checking in with you regularly. That’s a mistake I won’t make again.’ He pulled away and took the small roll of duct tape from his jacket pocket. ‘But right now, you can do me a big favour and bind this guy’s wrists and feet for me.’

She nodded and went to work while Bishop covered him with the Walther.

Once she was done, Bishop said, ‘Okay, Selina, grab yourself a seat and yell if he moves.’

‘Where are you going?’

‘To persuade our friend in the cockpit to take us back to earth.’

As it turned out, the young pilot didn’t need much persuading and they were on the ground five minutes later. As they were taxiing back, Bishop yawned and looked out the window. He saw two vehicles with flashing red and white lights approaching the airstrip. In the distance, the hangar was totally ablaze, with flames reaching high into the night sky. He spotted at least two fire engines and plenty of other vehicles moving about. No doubt Kate and her photographer were over there, too, getting valuable footage to sell on to the networks.

Bishop glanced at the unconscious Poleina in the seat across the aisle, then at Selina in the seat behind. She was staring out the window without expression, having barely spoken since they’d turned back. Bishop guessed it might be some time before she was back to her old self. She’d probably need some professional help to get rid of the shit Hallaran had put into her head, too. And, of course, he still faced the unenviable task of telling her about her mother’s possible murder. That was something he
really
wasn’t looking forward to.

When the jet finally came to a complete stop, Bishop sighed, got up and went over to the cabin door. He turned the locking bar, lowered it to the ground and saw four uniformed cops in a line. Two were pointing handguns at him. The third held a shotgun. The fourth was the man he’d seen briefly at the station after being arrested. Captain Emery. He was watching Bishop with one hand resting on the gun in his belt holster.

Bishop put his hands up and turned to see Selina watching him. ‘Time to go,’ he said. She silently unbuckled her seat belt, then came over and followed him down the steps.

At the bottom, Emery approached, shaking his head. ‘I should have known
you’d
be at the centre of this,’ he said. ‘Who else is inside?’

Bishop said, ‘Just the pilot and his boss, a Portuguese businessman named Poleina. He’s also got a bullet in his shoulder. This is the woman he was kidnapping. There should also be five more women around here somewhere.’

Emery looked at Selina, then turned back to Bishop. ‘Yeah, we found them climbing out of a hole in the ground, four of them doped up on Christ knows what. Paramedics are looking them over right now. We’re finding a lot of dead bodies, too. You have anything to do with that?’

‘Depends. Am I under arrest again?’

Emery gave him a look, then turned to the uniforms and said, ‘Sienkewicz, Boyd, you two search the plane and bring out whoever you find. Thorson, get on the horn and get another couple of ambulances down here, pronto.’ All three uniforms lowered their guns and went into action. Emery turned back to Bishop and said, ‘So who lit the match?’

Bishop lowered his hands. ‘A man named Alex Hallaran. He had the whole place booby-trapped. That was his body next to the smashed SUV you passed. Or what’s left of it after he caught fire. I assume Kate McGowan’s clued you in on what’s been going on here.’

‘Just the basics. Hard to believe something like . . .’

Both men turned at the sound of another approaching car, coming from the same direction as Bishop had come.

Bishop had to smile when he spotted the missing front door panel. The vehicle pulled up behind one of the black and whites and Vallejo got out and began walking towards them, holding a cell phone to her ear. Bishop noticed the large bloodstain on her shirt hadn’t gotten any bigger and figured she must have applied a makeshift bandage at some point. But seeing her still upright suddenly put Bishop’s own aches and pains into perspective.

Once she’d closed the distance, she turned to Selina and held out the phone. ‘Got somebody here wants to talk to you.’

Selina glanced at Bishop, then took the phone. ‘Hello? . . . Hello? . . . 
Mom
? Is that really
you
? . . . Oh, Mom, you can’t believe how
good
it is to hear your voice . . .’

She turned away from them, still talking, and Bishop said, ‘You’re kidding.’

Vallejo shrugged. ‘Thought I’d check with the hospital again before you said something you might regret. Turns out the paramedics got to her mother just in time. She’s got a lot of broken bones, but she’s conscious and off the critical list. Doctor said she could be right as rain in a few months.’

Bishop smiled. ‘That’s good news, Vallejo. Real good news.’

Emery said, ‘And just who the hell are
you
?’

Bishop saw Vallejo’s face change and broke in before she said something
she’d
regret. ‘She’s your white knight, Captain,’ he said. ‘Meet Clarissa Vallejo, currently on suspension from the Corvallis Police Department. She’s been after these people for months, on her own time, and long before I came into the picture.’

‘Is that so?’ Emery said, looking thoughtful.

‘And since this is going to be a pretty big deal once the news gets out, I’m thinking the two of you could put your heads together so you both come out of it smelling of roses. That way you can keep me out of it entirely, and everybody gets what they want.’

‘I must be delirious from the pain,’ Vallejo said. ‘What are you talking about?’

Bishop looked at Emery. It was obvious from his expression he was already on the same page. And that he hadn’t reached the rank of captain by missing golden opportunities when they were presented to him.

Emery turned to Vallejo. ‘Why were you suspended?’

‘For slugging my superior officer.’

He gave a slow smile. ‘That’s not too good, but maybe we could work around it.’

‘What do you mean?’

Bishop said, ‘He means you were working off the books for the Saracen PD all along. He’d suspected something like this was going on under his jurisdiction for a while now and decided to enlist an out of town cop to investigate further, incognito so as not to alert the bad guys.’ He turned to Emery. ‘Something like that?’

‘Close enough. We can go over it in detail later if Vallejo here’s agreeable. I could also be persuaded to submit a glowing, personal recommendation to her own captain if she thought it would help her case.’

Vallejo looked at each of them in turn. Then she smiled and said, ‘You won’t find anybody more agreeable than me. Maybe we could come to an arrangement at that.’

‘Good,’ Bishop said and turned to Emery. ‘Now you can do me a favour.’

Emery looked as though he’d just swallowed a spider. ‘Do
you
a favour.’

‘Don’t worry, you’ll get something of equal value in return.’ Bishop pointed to Selina’s back and said, ‘That woman over there’s been through enough hell already. Even before all this. Now I spent a lot of time and effort to give her a new chance at a life without violence, and the only way that’ll ever happen is if she doesn’t get mentioned in your report. So what I need is for you to forget you ever saw her.’

Emery snorted. ‘That’s all? Just falsify a police report? In a major murder investigation? You don’t ask much, do you?’

‘You’re already bending the truth regarding Vallejo here. All I’m asking for is one small omission. Besides, you got four other female victims to work with. What’s one less?’

Seconds passed as Emery frowned at Selina, who still had her back to them. Then he turned to Bishop again. ‘And what do I get out of it?’

‘The jackpot. Names. Dates. Financial details of everybody involved. Details and locations of scores of women who’ve gone missing over the past few years. In addition to details of hundreds of murders that were listed as accidental deaths.’

The cop raised an eyebrow. ‘Are you serious?’

‘Very,’ Bishop said. ‘Do we have a deal?’

‘If you can give me that, then we
def
initely have a deal.’

Bishop turned to Vallejo and said, ‘Better hand him that flash drive I gave you.’

She reached into a pocket and passed the stick to Emery.

‘And if I were you,’ Bishop said, ‘I’d send some men over to the Garrick Hospital before word of this gets out. Room 4–25. There are two men in there, Claiborne and Hedaya, who you really want under lock and key, ASAP. Trust me on that.’ Bishop saw no advantage in ruining Emery’s present good mood, so he didn’t bother mentioning Levine’s involvement. Emery would find out himself soon enough. And so would Kate, once he gave her the other flash stick. Or an amended version, at least. After all, he didn’t want her stealing all of Emery’s glory. Or Vallejo’s. There was enough for everyone.

Emery paused, nodded once at Bishop, then went over and started giving Thorson new orders. Bishop turned and saw an ambulance shape silhouetted against the fire in the background. It drove through the gap in the fence and made its way towards them.

‘You two better take that one,’ Emery called out. ‘I’ll speak to you both later at the hospital. We got plenty to talk about.’

Bishop gave a mock salute in response. Selina came over and handed the phone back to Vallejo. Bishop noticed she looked more upbeat. Good news generally had that effect.

‘Your mom okay?’ he asked.

‘She says she will be,’ Selina said, ‘but I’ve got to go back to New Jersey. I know the rules, Bishop, but I just
have
to see her.’

‘I think we can probably arrange something,’ he said, quickly thinking it through. With her new identity still safe, he couldn’t foresee a problem if she wanted to stay near her mother for a short while. Once Michelle was well enough, Selina could then use Addison’s stash to settle wherever she wanted. Maybe even back here in Arizona. It was as good a place as any, despite recent events. He’d even give her the Buick for the cross-country trip.

As for Carl Addison, Bishop felt certain his days were numbered now that Gaspard knew he’d spilled his guts to Bishop. That’s if he wasn’t dead already. He’d have to check once he got back. After which, an anonymous call to the cops advising them to look into Joshua Gaspard for the murder might be a good idea. At the very least, it would place him under the spotlight he’d been avoiding up till now. And if that didn’t work, Bishop would simply try something else. There were always options.

He smiled at Selina and said, ‘In fact, I’m
sure
we can arrange something. I’d drive you myself, but I’ll probably be here for another day, at least. We’re off to check the damage now.’

The ambulance came to a stop behind the police vehicles. A paramedic got out and stood next to the driver’s door, waiting for them.

‘Do you mind if I come with you, then?’ Selina asked. ‘I can wait an extra day or two. I just don’t want to be alone just now.’

‘Hey, the more the merrier,’ Vallejo said.

‘Let’s go, then,’ Bishop said. The three of them began walking back to the ambulance. Another young paramedic already had the rear doors open. He came over and gently helped Vallejo aboard and onto a stretcher. Bishop and Selina followed and sat on a small bench along the other side. Vallejo laid her head back on the pillow and shut her eyes.

Bishop knew how she felt. He yawned as the paramedic went over and shut the rear doors. Once the ambulance finally began to move off, Bishop leaned back and thought he might pay his sister a visit once he got back to the city. Selina’s talk with her mother had reminded him he hadn’t touched base with Amy or the kids for a while. After all, family was important. And while he was at it, he might actually give Equal Aid a call, too. He still had that open offer, along with a contact number for a guy named Giordano. Maybe he’d see what was what. Couldn’t hurt to at least listen.

The ambulance suddenly hit a bump and Bishop felt something sharp dig into his butt. ‘Almost forgot,’ he said and reached into his back pocket. He brought out the pentagram necklace he’d been carrying around all this time and dropped it into Selina’s hand. ‘I figured you might want this back.’

She looked down at it and smiled. ‘I think you might have been right the first time. It’s not really doing its job, is it?’ After a short pause, she leaned forward and affixed the chain around her neck. ‘But maybe I’ll just hang on to it, just in case. Thank you.’

‘Least I could do,’ Bishop said, and closed his eyes, his head swaying gently with the motion of the vehicle.

And within seconds, he was asleep.