finding Valdez and stopping the gun supply. Any involvement of a more personal nature is out of the question.”
Cruz turned into the parking lot of the library a little more sharply than necessary.
“All right,” he agreed after a time. “You win.”
She cast a wary glance in his direction. “What do you mean?”
“If you want to believe that this case is the only thing that sent you running from my bed this morning, I’m not going to argue with you anymore.”
“How kind.” Her voice dripped with ice.
“But when the case is over, what excuse will you use then, Maddy? What other reason will you find for us to stay away from each other? Because manufacturing another excuse is a hell of a lot easier for you to deal with than facing what’s between us, isn’t it?”
Without waiting for an answer he opened the door and got out of the car. After a moment Madeline did the same, following him across the parking lot. They walked without a word into the brightly lit library. It took several minutes to find the table where Ricky was seated. He saw them coming and jumped up, leading his little sister away. A few minutes later he came back, and they all sat at the table he’d vacated
His eyes went in the direction he’d taken Rhonda. “I don’t have much time. I don’t want Rhonda to see you again, and there’s no telling how long she’ll sit back there with the book I picked out for her.”
“Just tell us what has you so worried,” Madeline said softly. Her eyes were wide and sincere when she reached across the table with one hand and touched one of his. “We want to help Ramsey, Ricky. If he’s in trouble like you say, we might be the only ones who
“Just trust us, Ricky.” Cruz’s voice was soothing. “Tell us what has you so spooked.”
The boy took a deep breath, then began speaking, his voice low. “That time you came to the apartment, you brought that picture? Well, I asked Ramsey about the man in it, and he got real mean, you know? Started shoving me around and yelling at me.” He stopped here, his voice breaking.
“Where was your mom when this happened?” Cruz asked.
“At work. Anyway, I didn’t say no more then, ‘cause he was real mad at me for even letting you in. But I knew something was wrong. I could tell by the way he was acting. So…” He took a deep breath, “I started following him.”
Cruz and Madeline exchanged a glance. “You went after him when he was with the gang members?”
“Yeah, I could only go when our neighbor could watch Rhonda. I just started hanging out where I might hear them talking.”
“And did you hear anything?” Madeline asked.
“Not until I started following him to Cantoney’s place. I was on the fire escape one day, and I heard the whole plan. Only the guys were talking about Ramsey-he wasn’t there. They’d sent him out to buy beer.” His eyes met theirs, solemn and scared at the same time. “The Lords are gonna get the guy who shot Ramsey. They already have a fancy gun they’re gonna use. I saw Dirk showing it around to the guys. And Cantoney, he’s got the whole thing planned out. He’s gonna get Ramsey’s fingerprints on the gun. If he ever gets caught, he’ll make sure the cops find the gun and Ramsey will get blamed for it. Then he said, like Ramsey’s just a kid and probably wouldn’t serve any hard time.”
Madeline exchanged a grim look with Cruz. But there was more. Ricky went on, “I told Ramsey about it when he got home. He said he knew all about the plan, but I could tell he didn’t, you know? And he got real mad, told me to shut up and that I’d better not follow them anymore, or else he’d tell Dirk about me.” He shook his head. “I never seen him like that before. I really thought he’d hurt me. I asked him to think about what would happen to him if the cops traced the shooting back to him, and he said Dirk would take care of us.” He snorted. “I don’t think Dirk is gonna take care of no one but himself. Or he wouldn’t be mixing Ramsey up in this. And I read about a kid, he was only fourteen, and he shot someone and got tried as an adult.” He raised his scared eyes to theirs. “That could happen to Ramsey, couldn’t it? He could go to prison for a long time, couldn’t he?”
Cruz nodded soberly. “He sure could, Ricky. And the way Dirk has this set up there would be no reason for the police to look any farther for a suspect. They’d have Ramsey, a motive and a murder weapon.”
“All that’s missing is opportunity,” Madeline murmured. “Ricky, did you hear enough to figure out when this is going to happen?”
The boy shook his head.
“All right then.” Cruz smiled at the boy. “You did good, calling us like this. Real good.”
He looked uneasy. “If Ramsey finds out I talked to you, I don’t know what he’ll do to me.”
“We won’t tell him,” Madeline said honestly, “but Ricky, I can’t promise he won’t figure it out. With what you told us, though, we might be able to stop the shooting before it happens. And then Ramsey won’t get into any trouble. Okay?”
Ricky nodded slowly. “Okay.”
“You take Rhonda home soon, and stick close to the apartment until this blows over,” Cruz suggested. “Don’t try to follow your brother anymore. Make him think that you listened to his last warning, and he might never suspect you talked to us.”
“We’ll be in touch,” Madeline promised. They left him sitting at the table, looking very young and uneasy. Once they were outside she spoke. “Where’s the most likely place for Cantoney to keep the weapon?”
“Well, he’d be stupid to keep it at his apartment. A violation of parole like that would send him right back to prison.”
“But he is a control freak,” she reminded him. “What are the chances he would allow one of his men to keep it?” They looked at each other and said simultaneously, “It’s in his apartment.”
“It’s got to be,” Cruz stated with certainty. “I know Cantoney too well to think he’d let someone else hide it. Dirk probably has been milking this plan, getting all the members together and bragging, building himself up.”
“There’s no way of knowing how long Cantoney has had the weapon,” Madeline said. “There’s really no time to lose.”
“Well, we’ve got an eyewitness who can place the gun in Cantoney’s hands, in Cantoney’s apartment, and who heard what he was planning to do with it. We’ve got enough to get a search warrant.”
“Let’s just hope that we’re in time,” Madeline said grimly. “Because if he goes ahead with this plan, all signs will point to Ramsey. Any attempt then to nail Cantoney for it and he’ll make sure that Ramsey is framed.”
The drive back to the district headquarters was made in record time, and still it seemed endless to Madeline. Neither of them spoke, for which she was grateful. The scene with him earlier, before they’d met with Ricky, had been tougher than she’d expected. She knew her argument had seemed in character for her, but his response to it had surprised her.
Outraged ego she could have dealt with. An easy dismissal, that of a man who could have any woman he wanted, would have been expected. But she hadn’t counted on his insights, and she damned them, and him, for hitting so close to home.
Several times Cruz started to speak, but one look at her colorless face, at the mauve shadows beneath her eyes, was enough to make him hold his tongue. He was normally a very patient man, but for some reason patience didn’t enter into his feelings for Maddy. After last night it infuriated him that she’d so quickly thrown up still another wall between them. She hadn’t been an easy person to get close to, but he knew more about her than she thought. He’d suspected that the fire in her hair was matched by an answering flame in her personality, and he’d been proven right. She had a quick wit and a temptingly short fuse. Last night had brought out the flame he’d suspected was there, buried but ready to burst forth, given enough coaxing.
Just the memory of their time together was enough to make his jeans uncomfortably tight. She’d been everything he’d hoped for, everything he could have imagined. And the thought of having to wait as long as this case took to solve before having her again was enough to make him grind his teeth in frustration. But wait he would.
# # # #
Madeline sat at the desk and typed up the search warrant. Cruz sat by her side, playing a little solo drum piece on the desk top.
