She looked up at him then — studying him. Understanding began to dawn.
“It was the day of the press conference — that evening,” he was saying. “It’s so close to the time he disappeared, I thought it might be important. Or if it isn’t — well, I’d like to know that it isn’t.”
She quickly left his side to put the dogs in the backyard. She turned around, her hands on her hips. “Rachel said the other guys in the department weren’t talking to you today.”
“They weren’t,” he said, apprehensive now.
“Oh, yeah? So why am I hearing an insinuation?”
“What insinuation?”
She folded her arms across her chest. “Don’t fuck with me, Frank.”
“Lower your voice.”
“Answer the question,” she said, twice as loud.
“Let’s go inside. Let’s not have this discussion out here on the front lawn.”
“You started this discussion in the great outdoors, we can finish here.”
“Irene—” he pleaded, glancing at the house next door. “Do you really want Jack and all the other neighbors to have to listen to this?”
“I don’t give a rat’s ass if they pop popcorn to enjoy with the show!”
“Damn it, Irene—”
“You’re wondering if I had dinner with Phil after the press conference. You’re wondering if I’ve — if I’ve what? Cheated on you before we were together? No — no, that’s not it. You aren’t that crazy.” She considered his questions, not one by one, but as a whole, their direction. “You keep talking about the night before he disappeared. You think — you think Phil and I had some kind of secret, right? About what, Seth Randolph?”
He looked away. “I made a mistake.”
“Irene—” He took hold of her arm, but she shook him off angrily. “God damn it,” he said. “Irene, it’s my job.”
“Oh, really? I have a job, too, so I guess I’ll phone in a story—”
“Come on, be reasonable!”
“So now I’m the one being unreasonable? Bullshit! We have rules, Frank, and you’ve broken them. Don’t expect me to shrug that off.”
“Look—”
“No,
Her anger squeezed the breath from her, made the house feel too small. The phone was ringing, Frank’s pager was beeping, and she kept right on walking, kept right on going, until she was out in the backyard, on the damned patio he had built, seeing the damned garden he had planted. She heard him come in through the front door. She needed to get away from him, from this house, this yard. She kept moving, along the side of the house to the gate, then, taking the dogs with her, headed back to the beach.
Deke and Dunk, at first cowed by her anger, now seemed unable to believe their luck.
She couldn’t believe her own.
12
Monday, July 10, 6:20 P.M.
The Sheffield Club
Downtown Las Piernas
Bredloe was parked five blocks away from the Sheffield Club when his cell phone rang. For a moment, he feared it was the anonymous caller, making a last-minute change in arrangements or canceling altogether. But it was one of the sharpshooters.
“We’re in position, Captain.”
“The dogs are out?”
“Yes.”
“I hope the members of the bomb squad were discreet.”
“Yes, sir. Sheriff’s department dog handlers showed up dressed as security guards — even had a van made up. No explosives were found.”
Bredloe mentally reviewed his hasty preparations: The bomb squad had checked for explosives. Tactical officers were in place in key locations outside the building, and two marksmen were positioned within. A helicopter unit was ready to join in on any pursuit. Other units were standing by. And he was wearing his Kevlar vest.
“You weren’t seen?” he asked the marksman.
There was slight hesitation before the SWAT officer answered, “I can’t be one hundred percent certain on that, sir. But no, sir, we don’t think we were seen.”
“I appreciate your honesty, Lieutenant. We’re probably on a wild-goose chase here anyway. Civilians have been cleared from the building?”
