“Luckily, we’ve already found it. In the Fourth Ward.”
“The Fourth Ward? But it was out of gas. How did it…” Kevin ran his fingers through his hair, searching for an explanation. “They must have moved it. Did the officers who found it tell you about the bullet holes?”
“Yes, they did. They found exactly zero bullet holes.”
Kevin’s mouth dropped open. “That’s impossible. I know I saw two bullet holes in the door.”
“They also found zero doors on the vehicle. It was totally stripped. Dispatch said it looked like it had the hell beat out of it, too.”
“Detective, believe me. I know this sounds weird, even crazy. But this has something to do with Stein’s…”
“Hamilton, I don’t know what your angle is, and I don’t care. I just want to get the hell out of this hothouse. If you want a copy of the report for your insurance company, fine. Call traffic. I’m through with this shit.”
Kevin heard the phone slam down. He slammed his own receiver in return. Damn! Robley’s probably bitching about Kevin to his friends at this very moment. And since he was the one handling the Stein case, Kevin wouldn’t get help from anyone else trying to connect Ward’s and Stein’s deaths. If Kevin went to the police now, they’d throw him out of the station.
He plodded back to the table and slumped into the bench across from Erica.
She leaned forward. “What’s wrong?”
“They found the Mustang in the Fourth Ward, stripped. No evidence of any wrongdoing. Other than my car being stolen and vandalized. The theft was reported at 9:30 this morning.”
“9:30? But that’s almost two hours ago!”
“These guys have some connections if they can make the police believe something like that. I’m screwed. No, I’m dead. Maybe when Robley finds my body he’ll believe me.”
“Kevin, you’re not dead. This may just be some major screwup. I’m sure if you go down to the police station and explain…”
“Without evidence, I can’t go down there. They’ll just think I’m making it up. And now I can’t go back to my apartment. I can’t even go to your apartment. Neither of us can go home.”
Erica put her hand on his. “Kevin, there has to be a rational explanation for all this. Maybe this
“No, you don’t understand. You didn’t meet these guys. They were smooth. Man, were they smooth. They had to be professionals. Professionals sent to find me and bring me in. If they couldn’t do that, they were definitely going to kill me. I could hear it in their voices. When Barnett talked about killing me, he was cold. No emotion.”
The skepticism was still in Erica’s voice. “Then what are we going to do?”
“Unless we can find out what that code means and get that notebook, I have no idea.” Kevin sat back against the wall, put his leg up on the bench seat, and rubbed his face as he glanced around the sparsely populated restaurant. Two older women were busily chatting, almost talking over one another. A young man, obviously a student, hunched over a text, one of many stacked around him, and sipped a cappuccino. A couple shoveled spaghetti into their mouths, never saying a word. Three thirtysomethings sat…
Kevin’s eyes returned to the student and the stack of books. Most of them were glossy textbooks, with bold, colorful typeface, but a couple of them were old and worn and had white strips of tape across the binding.
Kevin leaped out of the bench, and ignoring Erica’s surprised questions, ran over and grabbed one of the older books off the student’s table.
The student gaped at him, and Kevin said, “Sorry, this’ll just take a second.” He opened the book, but he wasn’t looking for the title. Inside the front cover, he saw it. A stamp saying “Campbell Library.”
“Can I borrow this for a second?” he asked the student and pointed to his table. “I’ll just be right over there.”
The student shook his head, but said “Sure,” with a puzzled look on his face, and Kevin rushed back to Erica, book still in hand. He was smiling.
“What are you doing?” she said. “A second ago you were wallowing in death.”
“I knew I’d seen that code before.” He tapped the note with his finger. “We were looking at it the wrong way. Can I have a pen?”
Erica rooted around in her purse for a few seconds before giving up that method. She pulled handfuls out of the purse and piled odds and ends onto the table: wallet, hospital badge, pager, keys, notepad, torn Lifesaver wrappers. Finally, she found a pen and gave it to him. He quickly scribbled on the message while she repacked her purse. When she was done, he passed the printout to her. Instead of
She read it, then looked up. “So? It still looks like a code to me.”
“That’s because it is. And you and I both know what the code is.” He turned the book binding up so Erica could see it. On the white tape, in small black characters, was “N8107 H12.”
“You mean, he hid the notebook in the library?” Erica said.
“There have got to be over a million books in the university’s library. I bet 90 % of them never get checked out. It’s the perfect hiding place. Let me have your keys. I’ll be back in half an hour.” He started to grab for her purse.
“Wait a minute, bud,” Erica said, sliding the purse off the table and into her lap. “Don’t you think the university campus might be one place they’re looking for you?”
“I thought you didn’t believe me.”
“Let’s just say I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt.”
“Erica, I have to go. If we can get that notebook, it might be the evidence we need to take to the police. I’ll buy a cap for a disguise.”
“With your height, they could spot you from across the quad. You’d lead them right to it.”
“We don’t have a choice. I need to get there before they figure it out, too. Otherwise, we’ll have nothing.”
“You’re overlooking the obvious. I can go.”
Kevin shook his head. “No way. You’re in this as much as you need to be.”
“Now don’t get chauvinistic on me. It’s simple. They know what you look like. They don’t know what I look like.”
“How do you know? What if they traced the call?”
“Then it will take a few hours for them to get a picture of me. Besides they haven’t seen me in person.”
Kevin didn’t like it, but she was right. He would be identified too easily. And they
“All right,” he said grudgingly. “Do you have your mace with you?”
She pulled a cylinder out of her purse. “Armed and ready,” she said with a smile. “Maybe I’ll even get to use what I learned in karate class…”
“Will you stop joking. This is serious.”
“I
“Why are you doing this?” Kevin asked.
“Because you’re in trouble, and I help friends in trouble.”
“Thanks. Be careful.”
Erica gave his hand a squeeze. “I’ll be fine. If I’m not back in an hour, send the cavalry.”
CHAPTER 11
The closest spot Erica could find to South Texas University’s Campbell library was still a quarter of a mile away, and the temperature was inching toward one hundred. She took a barrette from the glove box and clipped her hair into a pony tail before getting out of the car.
She tried to make some sense of Kevin’s story as she hiked through the university’s main entrance. She wanted to believe him, but the idea was just so farfetched, even preposterous. No one wanted to kill a college
