'You got orders for me, too?' Mike asked. He was much too wired to slow down.
'The mayor's going to push me too far,' Scully said. 'He wants me to let him know when Rasheed is ready to leave the hospital.'
'What's the problem with that?' Mike asked.
'He doesn't get the point. He wants to do a perp walk. Always looking for the photo op.'
I glanced at Mike and smiled. When he lost his temper and locked up Kiernan Dylan at Ruffles, over my objection, the amateur photograph had captured Troy Rasheed's image. That accidental perp walk undoubtedly saved some women's lives.
'Tell him to check with Coop before he does. You know how I hate to cross her.
FIFTY-NINE
Why aren't you answering your phone, Alex?' Joan Stafford asked. 'Why isn't your machine picking up messages? It was Friday afternoon and I was alone in my apartment. 'I'm being selective, for a change. I turned it off. That's why I'm calling to let you know that I'm okay. Joan had been checking on me every couple of hours after the news of our showdown with Troy Rasheed was made public.
'Just 'okay'?'
'Better than that, Joannie. I promise you I'm better. I was a good soldier all week. Played by all the rules. I've been debriefed and redebriefed. Every inch of me was examined by the doctors. My scratches and bruises were measured and photographed. I came home from the medical appointments the other night dressed in a hospital gown with Scully's trenchcoat covering me, so that my clothes could go to the lab and be cut up and analyzed for body fluids and trace evidence. The commissioner even insisted the department shrink try to have a go at me for a couple of hours.'
'Sounds like everyone except the forensic pathologists had a piece of you, and thankfully they weren't given the chance. So did you tell the shrink anything Nina or I don't know, darling?'
'I have no secrets from you, Joan.'
'Then come spend the weekend with Jim and me. We're driving out to the beach. You can rest there and I'll wait on you hand and foot.'
'I'm happiest in my own cocoon right now, about to get into a steaming hot bath, with scented bubbles up to my nose.'
'Alex, it's ninety-five degrees outside. Haven't you had enough heat?'
'I've got the air-conditioning going full blast, and I'm going to try to soak all the aches out of me.' I felt safe inside my home, after all the turmoil of recent days. I didn't want to leave for any reason.
'You'll starve to death if you're alone all weekend.'
'I think takeout was invented for me, Joan.'
She paused. 'You need this time by yourself, don't you?'
'I wasn't able to sleep for a couple of nights,' I said. 'Nightmares, flashbacks-I didn't even want to close my eyes. About four this morning, I gave in to it. I almost feel human again today. I didn't wake up until eleven. I still haven't gotten dressed. It feels wonderfully decadent.'
'Did you dream, Alex?'
With my left hand I unbuttoned the old shirt I was wearing. 'A very pleasant dream, actually, for the first time in several weeks.'
'In English or French?'
'Nothing that needed translation, Joan. A delightful foreign intrigue, but my lousy accent never got in the way of any action.'
'Then turn your phone back on. I've been running interference for you all day. You're driving your friends crazy with worry. And Luc can't get through. He called me to ask if you received the package he overnighted to you from his home.'
'I wasn't expecting any deliveries today. I asked Vinny not to call up.'
'Luc instructed the valet to leave it right in front of your door. Check while I'm on the line with you.'
I walked through the foyer and unlocked the dead bolt. I peeked out to make sure no one was in the hallway to see me, tousled and barely clothed, and swept up the newspapers and the light cardboard carton on top of them.
'Yes, Joan. There's something here.' I left the papers in the living room-there was no news I wanted to read about-and carried the box with me.
'Good. Take your bath. I'm so happy you're beginning to relax. Then open the gift later. And call Luc, will you?'
'I haven't forgotten all my manners, madame. I'll speak to you tonight, before I go to sleep.'
The bathtub was full. I closed the door and slipped out of my shirt.
'And Mike,' Joan said.
'What about him?'
'He's pretty anxious to talk to you, too. Like right now.'
'Somehow, being naked in a bubble bath doesn't seem like the most appropriate way for me to carry on an investigation, not even with my favorite detective. We had dinner last night with Mercer and Vickee,' I said. 'I'm entirely up to speed on everything I need to know.'
'Well, he sounds pretty desperate going through me just to get to you.'
I dipped my toe in the water but it was too hot to step in. 'Mike's riding high and deserves to be. He flipped Clarita Munoz yesterday. You know, the girl who was trying to get in to see me the day Kerry Hastings and I got rammed in the cab.'
'What did he do?' Joan asked.
'Mike helped with her interrogation. Got her to admit that it was her boyfriend-well, her ex-boyfriend now- Ernesto Abreu, who took the shots at me at Rodman's Neck a week ago. Part of Pablo Posano's posse.'
'But why did Abreu try it there?'
'Just what Mercer thought. The stuff of instant legends in the twisted world of the Latin Princes. What could be more macho than trying to take out the prosecutor Posano hates most at a police shooting range, with scores of cops around? Prove yourself to the man in the black hole. Maybe step up a rank in the organization.'
'Well, I think Mike's worried about you. About letting Rasheed get so close. About what almost happened to you. He was giving me that stuff about getting you right back in the saddle with another case so you don't get too frightened to try again.'
'I'll tell you something I didn't tell the shrink, Joannie. I couldn't even think of doing my work without the relationships I have that keep me grounded-Mike and Mercer, you and Nina, my friends in the office, and now Luc. I think of what Troy Rasheed did to the women whose paths he crossed and I know how blessed I am to be alive, to be unscathed.
'But now I need a few days alone, some time to see if I can ride the horse again without the help of anyone else. I need to test my own fortitude, my own resilience.'
Joan's tone changed. 'I understand, of course. I'm sure Mike will, too.'
'We've spent so much time together since these killings started that Mike's just having separation anxiety,' I said. 'He'll get over it.'
'Sure he will. And you know Jim and I are here for anything you need, Alex.'
'Some of my best thinking happens underwater, Joannie. I'll be fine. Speak to you later tonight.'
I put the portable phone on the sink, tested the temperature again, and lowered myself into the tub. I slid down, rested my neck against one end, and lifted my toes above the bubbles at the other. My thoughts drifted from the horrors of the last ten days to plans I had made for a September weekend on the Vineyard. I soaked for almost an hour, until my fears had lost their edge and the water had cooled enough to remind me to get out and dry off.
I draped a bath sheet around me and went into my bedroom. Luc's package was addressed with stickers that repeated the words
