taken off. That’s classic too-stupid-to-live rookie bullshit. Don’t trust anybody, especially someone who’s got more to lose than you do. Makes me want to puke every time I see crap like that on TV.”
“Sorry you made the trip for nothing,” Kate said.
“You kidding? Nobody died. That’s a good day. You ever want to do this again the right way, call me,” he said, handing her a business card.
He patted her on the cheek and climbed out of the ambulance, nodding at me as I took his place alongside Kate. The superintendent and Nardelli joined us, standing outside the ambulance.
“Is that guy a cop?” I asked Nardelli.
“No. He’s freelance.”
“A freelance hostage negotiator? How does that happen?”
“Budget cuts,” she said. “We had two negotiators. One retired, the other had a nervous breakdown, and now there’s a hiring freeze.”
“Are you telling me there are enough hostage situations in Kansas City that a guy can make a living as a negotiator?”
“That’s not all Quinn does, and he doesn’t just do it around here.”
“What else is there?”
“He calls himself a conflict specialist. You got a problem with somebody and you aren’t too particular how it gets handled, you call a number, leave a message, and hope he shows up.”
“Hard times makes for hard choices,” I said. “Kate, you feel like talking about what happened?”
A rose blush crept into her cheeks. “It’s my fault,” she said. “I completely misread Jimmy. I didn’t see this coming.”
To their credit, the superintendent didn’t say I told you so, and Nardelli didn’t crack wise about the vagaries of micro facial expressions.
“How did he fool you?”
“He didn’t fool me. I fooled me. He knew what I wanted, and he gave it to me: a smile, a friendly, open face. There was no hint of aggression or violence until the instant before he hit the guard. By then, it was too late.”
“He knew we were coming, so he must have planned it,” Nardelli said.
“I don’t think so,” I said. “He couldn’t have known you would ask to have his restraints taken off. I’d say it was a spur-of-the-moment decision. He saw an opportunity and took it.”
“That’s how a lot of escape attempts happen,” the superintendent said.
“Except I don’t think he was trying to escape,” Kate said. “He knew he had no real chance of getting away. I think he just wanted out of the Farm.”
“What makes you say that?” I asked.
“It’s what he told me, in so many words, anyway. Once we were out in the hall and you gave us some space, I asked him why he was doing this, and he said, ‘Why do you think?’ I said it was pretty obvious that he wanted to break out of jail, and he said, ‘Yeah, right, like how far am I going to get armed with a toilet bowl brush.’”
“Are you saying he beat up a guard and took you hostage and risked getting shot just so he could get a transfer?” Nardelli asked.
“Yes. When the SWAT team came through the door, his body went limp like he’d put down a heavy weight, and then he let me go.”
“But you stayed to talk to him. What was that about?” I asked.
“I was waiting to tell him what Adam had said about seeing him take the kids from Peggy’s house until I could watch his reaction. That’s when I told him.”
“Did he deny Adam’s story?”
“No. It was weird. He smiled, almost like he was glad.”
“What did he say?”
“Just one thing. He said, ‘Please find my kids.’ He’s not acting like a man who killed his kids.”
“He’s playing you,” Lucy said. “Just like he did with the restraints. Why would he ask you to find Evan and Cara when we know he took them? He knows where there are, and he knows what happened to them.”
“And, first chance he got, he beat up an officer and stuck you with a shiv,” Nardelli said.
“But he gave up,” Kate said.
“When he was about to get shot,” Lucy said. “Give me a break.”
The superintendent’s cell phone rang. She held her hand up, asking us to wait, listening and thanking the caller.
“I had my assistant check the records on visitors and new admissions. It will take longer to get you the names of his visitors, but I can tell you that we’ve had seventeen since Jimmy got here, ten women and seven men, all but one of them regulars, repeat offenders who show up here three or four times a year.”
“Who’s the new kid on the block?” I asked.
“A kid named Ricky Suarez. He came in yesterday, ten days for drunk and disorderly, his first time on the Farm.”
Chapter Fifty-two
“You think there’s a connection between Jimmy Martin and Ricky Suarez?” Nardelli asked.
“If Kate is right, somebody spooked him,” I said.
“How does a blue-collar construction worker like Jimmy get involved with a probable gangbanger?” Kate asked.
“It’s not so much the gangbanger as it is the gang,” I said.
Nardelli explained. “There are two Hispanic gangs in town. The Cholos work the southwest side of town along Southwest Boulevard, and Nuestra Familia operates in Northeast.”
“Which is where Jimmy lives,” I said. “Cesar Mendez runs Nuestra. Suarez probably belongs to him.”
“Most likely scenario,” Nardelli said, “Jimmy bought drugs from Mendez and stiffed him. Mendez finds out that Jimmy is at the Farm and sends Ricky to deliver a message, maybe even kill him.”
“A message, maybe, but kill him, I doubt it. This isn’t the state penitentiary where a guy can walk into the shower and come out on a slab and no one knows anything about it. And, with all the open spaces, Ricky couldn’t touch him without half a dozen correction officers coming down on him.”
“So Mendez sacrifices Ricky. He’s got a dozen more just like him,” Nardelli said.
“The price is too high on a hit like that. Mendez can’t take the chance that Ricky would make a deal and trade his life for Mendez’s life.”
“What then?”
“I don’t know. Let’s ask Ricky,” I said.
I stepped down from the ambulance, my knees giving out as my feet hit the ground. I descended slowly, like I was melting, eyes clenched and my head floating in brain fog until my knees and hands touched the ground. My body was playing out the fundamental law of physics that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. I’d pushed far enough and hard enough that it pushed back, calling an all stop.
“Or not,” Lucy said.
They talked about me as if I weren’t there, Nardelli asking questions, Lucy and Kate explaining, Nardelli saying “Hell of a thing” and “He’s no use to anybody like this,” Kate volunteering to take me home, and Lucy saying she didn’t think so. There was nothing I could do, no point in trying to get up until the moment passed, no reason for Lucy and Kate to help me until I could stand on my own.
“Okay,” I said when I could open my eyes and my head began to clear.
Lucy hooked her arm under mine, and I made it to my feet. “Welcome back.”
“Good to be back. Let’s go see Suarez,” I said, the words fighting to get out of my mouth, one syllable crashing into the next.
“That train has left the station, and Nardelli and the superintendent are the only ones on it,” Lucy said. “I’m taking you home.”
My legs were still equal parts jelly and jam, and the rest of me was doing a slow-motion version of twist and
