ZERO HERO (The Kate Huntington Mystery series) (23 page)

            “Do you want me to change careers?” he said after a moment.

            “No, because then the bad guys have won. They’ve made us change our lives, out of fear. Besides, what else would you do?”

            “I don’t know, but the thought crossed my mind, the first few days after Mac was shot. I was pretty shook. Kept wondering if we all are getting too damn old to be chasing bad guys. And I was afraid I’d freeze up in a bad situation and make things worse. Maybe get Dolph or one of my men hurt.”

            “Was. Past tense?”

            “Yeah, well, I thought it was getting better, until today.”

            Shirley stopped by their table. “Soup okay?”

            “Oh, yeah, it’s great.” Kate ate a spoonful.

            “I usually take a break ’bout now, but you all are welcome to stay here. I’ll leave the door unlocked for your friend.”

            “That’s okay,” Skip said. “I’d rather you lock it. We’ll watch for him and let him in.”

            Shirley looked at him funny before turning away. No doubt this was the kind of small town where locking doors was optional.

            Kate put her hand on top of his. “Of course, you were scared today. You were hanging off the side of a cliff, listening to gunshots, with no idea what was going on.” She cocked her head to one side. “You didn’t stay down there out of fear, did you?”

            “Hell no. Every fiber in my being wanted to scramble up that cliff and see what the hell was going on.”

            “That’s what I thought. Why didn’t you come up?”

            “I don’t know.” He scrubbed a hand over his face. “I
was
scared spitless, both that I might fall off that cliff, and I was terrified for you.” He shook his head. “A couple weeks ago, I would have climbed right up there and done whatever it took to protect you.”

            “Well I’m glad you didn’t because then you would’ve been between me and him, and he could’ve had a gun and shot you.”

            “All that occurred to me.”

            Kate ate another spoonful of soup. “So you were scared spitless, but you were still thinking about all the possible scenarios? And thank you for trusting me, that I knew what I was doing, by the way.”

            Skip leaned back in his chair. “I did trust you. That’s something else that’s changed. Not that I didn’t trust you before, but I would’ve assumed you didn’t
know
what to do. Actually I think that shift started last year. We’ve become more of a team, when we’re in a tight spot. Like Rose and I are.”

            “Thank you. That’s the nicest compliment I’ve had in quite awhile.”

            He grinned at her. “Not every woman would consider it a compliment to be compared to Rose.”

            She smiled and scooped up the last of her soup. Then she traded soup spoon for a fork and dug into her pie. She rolled her eyes in pleasure. “I love peach pie.”

            Skip used his coffee spoon to swipe a chunk of peach out from under the flaky crust.

            “Hey, hands off my pie. I thought you weren’t hungry.”

            “My appetite’s improving. Hm, that is good.”

            Kate took another bite. “You know, it’s not just that you and Rose are a team. You actually take turns being in charge, depending on who’s in the best position to know what needs to be done.”

            “Yeah, we do, don’t we? Hey, wait. That’s part of what was going on today. You were in the best position to know what to do, and you sounded confident, like you had a plan. I knew you had a gun, and I’d lost mine.” He snitched another chunk of peach from her pie. “But I don’t know about this fear stuff. It’s a damned uncomfortable feeling.”

            “Welcome to the human race, sweetheart.” Kate took another bite of pie and paused to savor it. “Wait! Wait!” She started bouncing up and down in her chair.

            “What?”

            “I just figured something out.”

            “Who Talbot really is?”

            Her face fell. “No, unfortunately. But I realized why Mac and Rose are so well matched.”

            He chuckled. “You just gotta figure out what makes people tick, don’t you?”

            “Occupational hazard. One of the differences between men and women is that women tend see each other as equals. More ‘we’re all just one big family working together.’ While men tend to be more hierarchal. And if you look back at the tasks men and women did in more primitive times, that makes sense. Women had to work together to tan the hides and preserve food for winter, while men were the hunters and warriors. They needed to have a pecking order of who’s in charge.”

            “That explains why police departments are so hierarchal.”

            “Yeah, and it’s not wrong unless it’s too rigid. As Rose said one time, you can’t stop and hold a committee meeting when you’re in a tight spot.”

            Skip laughed.

            “Actually Rose is a lot more macho than many men I know,” Kate said.

            “Me too,” he agreed.

            “The only guy in the world who could snag her was one who was tough enough she’d respect him, but he’d better not try to boss her around. Meanwhile, Mac’s a total male chauvinist. His first two wives wanted to be treated as his equal, but he saw them as subordinates and ordered them around.”

            “But Rose orders
him
around. She’s his boss.” Skip scratched his head, knocking loose a fine cloud of dirt that drifted to the tabletop.

            “Yeah. See most men don’t necessarily have to be at the top of the hierarchy. They just need to know where they stand. Mac doesn’t get the concept of men and women as equals,
except
in the context of comrades-in-arms.”

            “Ah, so Rose is his equal as a comrade-in-arms. And he’s okay with her being his superior at work ’cause that’s how the hierarchy works.”

            “Yeah, both of those set-ups make sense to him. It’s like what you said earlier. When he got shot, he was just doing his job, defending you, his commanding officer. If you’d expressed guilt about him getting hurt, he’d have been pissed because you’d be violating the hierarchy.”

            “I guess that’s what I got instinctively, without really knowing why it would piss him off.”

            “Of course you get it instinctively. You’re a guy.”

            “So how come you two get along? You’re not one to suffer sexist men gladly.”

            “Oh, there’s no way Mac and I would be friends if we hadn’t grown up together. I’m essentially his younger sister. So I’m in a different category than other women.”

            He grinned at her. “You’re the only person I know who gets excited over figuring out what makes somebody tick.”

            “Of course I get excited about that. It’s what I do.”

            Skip sat back. That had struck an interesting chord inside of him. “So it’s okay that I get excited when I’m in a dangerous situation?”

            “Sure it is. You’re not a thrill seeker. You don’t go looking for danger. But when it happens, that excitement gets the adrenaline pumping. It makes you good at your job.”

            He smiled across the table at his wife. That made all kinds of sense.

~~~~~~~~

            Dave Samuelson’s mind was scrambling for a course of action as he drove back toward Baltimore on I-70. He needed to ditch this car. Unfortunately, he was out in the middle of nowhere, with only small towns as a source for a new stolen car. Towns where everyone knew each other and he would stick out like a sore thumb on a Sunday afternoon. He’d have to take his chances that the state trooper hadn’t caught his plate number.

            Having made that decision, he moved on to the next. He figured he had maybe forty-eight hours before his employer realized he hadn’t gotten the job done. There really wasn’t any way to salvage the situation. Any additional attempts on the Canfields, even if they looked accidental, would be viewed with suspicion, and might just bring more scrutiny down on Frederico’s operation. That would not make his boss happy.

            It was definitely time for him to resign without notice. He really didn’t want to take Nell and that squalling brat of hers with him. Was it worth the risk to go back to Scranton to clean out his bank accounts? Probably not. He could withdraw some of the money from an ATM, just before he took off. Might as well leave the rest for Nell.

            Besides, he’d been socking away money in the Cayman Islands for the last three years. It was enough to live off of for awhile. He’d have to change his identity again, but that wasn’t a big problem.

            Where to go? South. He was tired of winter. Maybe Central America or the Caribbean.

            And what would he do for a living? Hire on with the local thugs?

            Dave shook his head. He let the idea that had been percolating in the back of his mind for a couple months bubble to the surface. He’d go solo, hire out as a hit man. Good money, minimal risk. You come in from out of town. Nobody knows you. You’ve got no connection to the target. Do a little research. Do the job. Get out. One hit a month would allow him to live in style.

            Dave grinned. This whole debacle might end up being a blessing in disguise.

            His mind came back around to Canfield and his wife. The bitch could identify him. Having no mug shots on file had served him well. It would continue to be an asset in his new career.

            Yet another good reason to get shuck of Tony Donati. It was only a matter of time before the idiot’s operation came to light, and then he, Dave, would be a “known associate.” Oh, yes, this decision was feeling so right.

            But what to do about the Canfield woman? Was it worth the risk to try again to get rid of her?

            Dave blew out air, then shook his head. He’d get his escape south planned out and then see what he could pull off just before he left town.

            There was also the matter of the prostitute Frederico had sent to his hotel room a couple times. Yet another loose end. That one should be easy enough to fix.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

            On the way back to Towson in Rob’s car, Kate and Skip made calls to fill everyone in on what had happened. Rose offered to pick up the kids and Maria from her parents’ house and bring them home.

            “That’d be a big help,” Kate said, “if you don’t mind leaving Mac alone.”

            Rose snorted, then lowered her voice. “He’s the world’s worst patient. If I don’t get out of here for awhile, I’m gonna kill him.” She disconnected.

            Kate grinned at the phone.

            Her smile faded as Skip repeated what Dolph had told him. “Tyrell Cooper’s been talking some more with the feds. They sent him some pictures of guys they’ve seen coming and going at Donati’s in Scranton. One of them looks like our guy. Tyrell wants to do a photo line-up.”

            “When?”

            “Now.”

            “Now?” Kate heard the whine in her voice.

            “Yeah. He’s coming out to Judith’s precinct. Wants us to meet him there in half an hour.”

            “Pizza or Chinese carry-out for dinner?” Rob asked from the driver’s seat.

            Kate just leaned her head back against her headrest and groaned.

~~~~~~~~

            On the table in an interview room at the Baltimore County Police Department were eight photos, turned face down. “I’m going to turn these over one at a time, Mrs. Huntington-Canfield.” Tyrell used her full formal name for the benefit of the recorder. “Look at each one carefully. Take your time. Only identify one of them if you are sure he is the man who assaulted you.”

            As the third photo was turned over, Kate’s stomach heaved. For a moment, she thought she would lose the piece of pizza she’d eaten before they’d started. “That’s him.”

            “Wait. Let me turn the rest of them over,” Tyrell said.

            Kate dutifully looked at the other five, then pointed to the third photo again. “That’s still him.”

            “Are you sure?”

            “Absolutely.”

            “Let the record show that Mrs. Huntington-Canfield has identified a photo provided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation of a known associate of Antonio Donati of Scranton, Pennsylvania. The man in the photo is known as David Samuelson, also of Scranton, Pennsylvania.”

            Tyrell reached over and pushed the off button on the recorder. “Good job, Kate.”

            “So what happens now?”

            “Judith can get an arrest warrant for assault and attempted kidnapping. And we update the BOLO with his alleged name and this picture instead of just a sketch.” Tyrell made a come-on-in gesture at the one-way mirror behind Kate’s chair.

            Judith, Skip and Rob piled into the room. Tyrell handed Judith the photo. “As good an ID as you’re gonna get from a photo line-up. He’s Donati’s man.”

            Judith grinned. “Not for long. Soon his ass is gonna belong to me.” She left the room to update the BOLO and write up the warrant request.

            “I’ll call the feds. See if I can find out anything more about him,” Tyrell called after her.

            She waved the photo in the air by way of acknowledgment.

            “Can I go home now?” Kate asked. “I’m wiped.”

            “Sure,” Tyrell said. “Once we pick him up, we’ll need you to do a live line-up.”

            “Not a problem.” Kate stood up.

            Skip took her hand as they walked across the police station parking lot with Rob. “Judith’s gonna have a couple patrol cars outside our house, until after the sting on Wednesday.”

            “Good. That’ll make it easier to sleep tonight.”

~~~~~~~~

            Kate was drinking her first cup of coffee and trying to get awake. She hadn’t slept well. She’d had one of the dreams again, only this time the man carrying her over his shoulder had a face–that of the man in the photo line-up, David Samuelson.