ZERO HERO (The Kate Huntington Mystery series) (26 page)

            “Yeah, it just ended.” The woman hurried off toward the cars.

            “Now how come you could ask but I couldn’t?” Skip whispered as he opened the door for her.

            “I didn’t ask if it
was
a meeting.”

            Warm air hit them as they entered what looked like a parish hall. Several rows of folding chairs were lined up near the front. A few people were standing around chatting. They approached the two nearest men. Their backs were to them, heads bent, talking low.

            “Excuse me, gentlemen,” Skip said. “We’re looking for a young man, a friend of ours.”

            The two men turned around. One of them was Pete.

            Kate almost cried out in relief.

~~~~~~~~

            The show they’d been watching went to commercial. Rose glanced over at her husband. He’d fallen asleep propped up in the corner at the other end of the sofa. It didn’t look like a very comfortable position, but she opted not to wake him.

            Deciding to make another circuit of the house, she got up carefully.

            As she neared the back of the house, she heard banging in the backyard. Pulling out her .32, she eased into the laundry room and over to the back door. She cautiously looked around the edge of the window in the door. A tree branch was banging against the garage.

            Letting out her breath, Rose leaned down to return her pistol to its holster.

            When she stood up, a man’s face was framed in the window, a gun with a silencer pointed at her.

            She jumped back, letting out an involuntary yelp. Her hand was halfway back to her ankle holster when the end of the silencer rapped sharply against the glass. She froze. The man mouthed, “Open the door.”

            Rose’s mind was racing. There were bars on the window, but the glass wasn’t bulletproof.

            “Don’t make me shoot the lock,” the man called through the glass. “If the kids wake up, I’ll kill them.”

            She didn’t have to fake a look of horror on her face. If she tried to get to her gun, he’d shoot. He might not hit her, but things would get messy from there, and if Maria or the kids came downstairs...

            He was probably assuming she was Maria, an unarmed nanny. Best to let him continue to think that. She made sure the safety chain was on the door and then unlocked the dead bolt and turned the knob. The man pushed against the door. She pushed back.

            “I let you in,
señor
,” she imitated Maria’s accent, “but please no hurt de children.”

            The man smiled and her suspicions were confirmed. Under the dark hair and glasses was the boyish face of David Samuelson.

            “I just want your valuables and then I’ll be on my way.”

            Rose rapidly backed away from the door. “Please no hurt us,
señor
!” she yelled to alert Mac. She dove sideways into the living room. Curling into a ball to reach her ankle holster, she rolled across the floor.

            A crash as Samuelson kicked in the door.

            In the next instant, he was framed in the doorway of the laundry room, gun out in front of him. He pivoted in a half circle, scanning the room for her. She raised her gun to shoot.

            A cannon went off, deafening her.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

            The interior of the Explorer was silent, the atmosphere somewhat tense. Pete and Manny were in the back seat. The other guard was following them in his pick-up truck.

            Skip turned the radio on. Country western music kept them company until they were almost to the Baltimore Beltway.

            A buzzing sound came from the console between the front seats. Skip reached for a button on his steering wheel, that wasn’t there. Damn, he missed his own truck, and especially its Bluetooth that was synchronized with his cell.

            “Could you get that for me?” he asked Kate as he turned the radio off.

            He glanced over. She was looking at the caller ID. Then she said into the phone, “We found Pete. We’re taking him to Rob’s and–”

            When she stopped talking, Skip glanced over again. Kate’s face had gone completely white.

            He went cold inside. “What’s wrong?”

            She turned toward him, her eyes wide. “Samuelson broke into the house. Mac shot him.”

            He swerved across the empty lane to his right and off onto the shoulder. His heart racing, he took the phone from Kate and hit the button for speaker.

            Rose’s voice sounded tinny and far away. “Made a mess of your rug.”

            “Are the kids okay? Was anybody hurt?” Skip yelled.

            “Everybody’s fine,” Rose said. “Well, the kids are a bit shook. Edie more than Billy.”

            Skip pulled onto the highway again and shoved the accelerator to the floor. “We’ll be there in fifteen minutes,” he shouted over the whine of the Explorer’s straining engine and the blood pounding in his ears.

            Manny’s hand landed on his shoulder. “Easy does it, man. The kids need you alive, and I’m kinda fond of my own skin as well.”

~~~~~~~~

            Eighteen minutes later, Skip stopped the Explorer in the middle of Linden Lane. The street was partially blocked by two cruisers and an unmarked police car, lights flashing on all of them. Kate shoved her door open and raced for the front porch.

            She heard Manny yelling behind her. “We’ll get Pete to Rob’s house, Boss.”

            A cop on the porch stepped into her path and put out his arm to block the open doorway. “This is a crime scene, ma’am.”

            Skip growled and started to move around her. The officer tensed. Kate put a restraining hand on Skip’s arm. He looked like he was about to deck the cop.

            Judith Anderson yelled from inside the house. “Let them in, Jackson. They live here.”

            “Yes, ma’am.” The officer stepped aside.

            Kate ran into her living room, then stopped, trying to process the overload of stimulation. Crime scene technicians swarmed around the back section of the L-shaped room. The rug had been partially rolled up, exposing wood floorboards stained with blood. There were some rusty red marks on the walls as well.

            Two uniformed officers stood off to one side. Rose was dictating a statement to a female officer sitting in one of the armchairs, typing on a laptop. Judith Anderson stood in the middle of the semi-chaos, barking out orders and waving her arms, like a conductor trying to control errant parts of a rebellious orchestra.

            “Where are my children?” Kate demanded in a loud voice.

            Rose broke off her dictation. “They’re okay. Maria has them upstairs. She’s reading them a story.”

            Skip took off for the stairs. Kate started to follow, then caught sight of Mac, sitting on the sofa gritting his teeth. His face was gray under his tan. The bottom half of his faded green T-shirt was dark red.

            “Mac! Dear God!” Kate raced to his side.

            “Incision hurts a bit,” Mac wheezed out. “But I’m okay, sweet pea.” His face turned grayer from the effort to talk.

            Rose closed the distance to the sofa in two strides. “The hell you are!”

            Skip nudged both women aside and scooped Mac up in his arms.

            “Out of the way!” Rose yelled at the uniforms, even though they were already scattering to either side of Skip’s path.

            “Jackson, take him in your car!” Judith barked.

~~~~~~~~

            Afterwards, Kate had no memory of how they’d gotten Mac into the back of the police car. Skip had yelled something from the sidewalk about checking on the kids and then following them.

            She was sitting in the cruiser’s front seat praying. Rose knelt on the floor in the back, a bloody towel in her hands, putting pressure on her unconscious husband’s oozing incision.

           
Where’d the towel come from?
Kate had no idea.

            Officer Jackson got them to Greater Baltimore Medical Center in less than six minutes. Judith had apparently radioed ahead. A nurse and porter were waiting with a gurney beside the driveway leading to the ER. They had Mac hooked up to an IV by the time they hit the doors to the entrance.

            Kate and Rose jogged after the gurney. Another nurse stepped into their path. “I need some information.”

            “He was in here last week. Gunshot wound,”  Kate gasped out, as she kept moving forward. “The incision opened up.”

            The nurse backed up in front of them. “Who’s
he
?”

            “Mathias McKenzie Reilly,” Rose barked, as she tried to dodge around the nurse.

            The woman put a hand on Rose’s shoulder. “Was he still breathing in the car?” Her voice was gentle.

            “Yeah.”

            “Then he should be okay. We’ve got him now.”

            Rose and Kate both stopped trying to push past her.

            “How long ago did the incision open up?”

            “An hour maybe,” Rose said. “He shot a guy who was breaking into her house–”

            The nurse held up a hand, then jotted something on a clipboard.

            “He’s going to be okay?” Kate heard the tremor in her voice.

            The nurse didn’t answer her. “Either of you ladies his next of kin?”

~~~~~~~~

            It was after two in the morning by the time they got home. Skip thought he might have to carry Kate up the porch steps, she looked so beat.

            A uniformed officer was standing on their front porch. “Detective Anderson assigned me to watch the house tonight, just in case the perp wasn’t acting alone. She said to tell you that he’s stable at St. Joseph’s Hospital.”

            “So’s our friend who shot him,” Kate said.

            “How much damage did Mac do to the bastard?” Skip asked.

            “Took a chunk outta the guy’s left shoulder, but he’s okay.”

            “Damn!” Skip said.

            A corner of the cop’s mouth quirked upward. “I’ll be in my car out front if you need me. Goodnight, folks.”

            Once the officer was down the steps and almost to the street, Kate mumbled, “Ain’t much that’s good about it.”

            Skip gave her a small smile. He was surprised at his lack of guilt over wishing Mac’s aim had been truer. He opened the door and stepped aside, waiting for Kate to enter.

            The living room had been straightened up–no doubt Maria’s doing. The conflicting smells of bleach and lemon oil drifted across the room. He walked over and examined the walls and floorboards. “She got out most of the blood.”

            Kate just nodded. He followed as she stumbled into the kitchen and squinted at a note on the table. “Apparently there’s food in the fridge for us.”

            Skip chuckled softly at her bleary-eyed expression. “You’re not hungry?”

            “Famished, but I’m not sure I can stay awake long enough to eat.”

            “Sit down. I’ll get it.” He put the casserole of meat and beans in the microwave to heat while gathering the rest of the ingredients for burritos. He put together one for Kate first before making one for himself.

            “The last couple days have been a bit more exciting than I care for,” Skip said between bites.

            “Amen to that. I have no clue how I’m going to get through tomorrow, and I’ve got a couple clients scheduled who are in rough shape.”

            Skip glanced at his watch. “We got by on less sleep than this sometimes when Billy was a baby.”

            Kate just made a noise that sounded like “humph,” her mouth full of burrito.

            “I’ve got a meeting with a potential new client tomorrow morning,” Skip said. “But I’m gonna try to come home early and catch a nap. I need to be on my toes on Wednesday.”

            He made himself another burrito and bit into it.

            “You still worried about Dolph?” Kate asked.

            “Yeah. I’ve got a bad feeling about this operation.” As if on cue, his stomach knotted. He put the burrito down on his plate.

            “To paraphrase a very wise man I know,” Kate said. “He’s been doing this for years. He knows how to handle himself.”

            Skip grunted. Those words weren’t all that comforting when he was on the receiving end of them.

            “How are you feeling?” Kate asked.

            She didn’t have to say which feeling she meant. “I guess I’ll get used to being less than brave eventually.”

            “I can’t recall who but somebody famous once said, ‘Courage is the mastery of fear, not the absence of it.’”

            “Mark Twain. My daddy used to quote him a lot. But his favorite quote on the subject was from John Wayne. ‘Courage is being scared to death... and saddlin’ up anyway.’”

            “So you know there’s no shame in being afraid, as long as the fear doesn’t take over.”

            Skip took a bite of his burrito to buy himself a minute to think. “The problem is,” he finally said, “I thought I was feeling fear before, and overcoming it. I didn’t realize that it was more than just a rush of adrenaline and a... a mental sense of caution. It’s a lot harder to push past than I’m used to.”

            “Welcome to normal.”

            “Well, it’s not normal for me. I hope it goes away soon.”

            “Skip, I don’t think it will. I think you’ll just get used to feeling it and doing what you need to do anyway. That’s what the rest of us do.”

            He grimaced. “Was that meant to be a pep talk? If so, it needs work.”

            Kate gave him a tired smile. “Part pep talk, part reality check.”

CHAPTER TWENTY

            The next morning went by in a blur. Kate wasn’t real sure how she stayed upright on such little sleep, much less managed to say anything that made sense to her clients. But no one ran screaming from the room.