make was at the forefront of those. Not that it was much of a decision anymore. As she stared out into the night, where physical objects were shrouded in shadows and darkness, her thoughts had a way of becoming crystal clear, as if in contrast. She realized that when the time came that the case was wrapped up, she would have to tell Cruz about her task of investigating him. She used the time to try to practice what she would say when that day finally came, to memorize the words that would be the least hurtful, the ones that would make him understand. She was coming to the realization that those words didn’t exist.
Her morose thoughts were interrupted by his whisper. “Look up there. A car is coming this way.”
Madeline looked past him and saw a pair of headlights approaching them. She made a grab for the night vision binoculars on the seat between them, but he beat her to them. Raising them, he watched silently for long seconds before saying, “Well, lookee, lookee. Tonight just might be our lucky night.” She heard the click as he switched off the interior light so it wouldn’t shine when he opened the door.
Madeline craned her neck to see what had him so fascinated. The car that had driven past them turned the corner and pulled to a stop in front of the warehouse. Her attention was diverted, however, when he started opening his door.
“Where are you going?” she whispered.
“I’m going closer to see if I recognize anybody.”
Madeline slid across the seat toward him. “Not without me, you aren’t.”
She closed the door quietly behind her and followed his crouched figure across the street. They stopped behind a utility shed, directly across from the warehouse.
The car was a large luxury automobile. Madeline couldn’t imagine Valdez driving such a car, and disappointedly wondered if this, too, would be a dead end. That thought was driven from her mind when, in the next instant, a shadowy figure stepped out of the darkness and approached the automobile. Reaching the passenger side, the man opened the door and got in. She gasped when the interior light went on and revealed the identities of the two inside. The man sliding into the car was none other than Jose Valdez.
The driver was Stephen Andersen.
Neither Cruz nor Madeline spoke a word, peering intently into the darkness. They were unable to see anything until about ten minutes later, when the passenger side of the car opened again. As close to the water as they were, the voices floated to them with crystal precision.
“I’ll meet you about midnight. And for pity’s sake be careful until then. With all the cops asking questions about you, I’m beginning to think you’re a real liability.”
“Wouldn’t be no cops hanging around if you hadn’t wanted me to ice Stover. Told ya he wasn’t no threat. He would have been too scared to talk, anyway.”
“So you said.” Even if she hadn’t seen his face, Madeline would have recognized Andersen’s cultured tones. “Well, he’s not talking now, either. And somehow I feel a lot safer this way.”
Valdez snorted. “Don’t know what you’re worried about, anyway. The cops aren’t sniffing around you.”
“And I don’t want them to, either. If you do your job the way you should, I won’t have to worry, and you’ll continue to get paid well.”
“I’ll be here.”
Valdez slammed the door and started across the street. The car took off. Cruz whispered, “Stay put. I’m going to follow Valdez.” He disappeared into the shadows before Madeline could protest. And protest she would have. She had no intention of meekly waiting for him to return.
She drew her gun and headed for a closer inspection of the warehouse. A high mesh fence, topped by barbed wire, surrounded the building. She found the gate locked. She examined the perimeter but found no other entrance. She also found no sign of a night watchman. In the entire time they had been across the street, and during her explorations, she’d estimate they’d spent thirty minutes. But she’d yet to see a security guard making rounds, and her mind was furiously speculating on what that meant.
She made her way back to the front of the building. The stars didn’t provide much light, and once she stumbled over a crack in the concrete. She’d just gotten to the front gate again when a figure stepped out of the shadows in front of her and ordered, “Don’t move.”
It was amazing that in the darkness where little was visible she had no difficulty at all discerning that she was looking down the barrel of a gun. Her eyes tore away from that sight and looked beyond it.
“Maddy?”
A burst of air escaped her then, the first time she’d realized she’d been holding her breath. “Martinez, you idiot, of course it’s me.”
He holstered his gun. “There’s no ‘of course’ about it. I told you to stay put.”
“You don’t give me orders, Detective,” she said scathingly. “I didn’t hear a discussion about the wisdom of your taking off after Valdez.”
They started back toward the car, still arguing. “Listen, do you want to know what happened to Valdez, or not?”
She was silent for an instant. “Well, since you don’t have him in tow, I assume you lost him.”
“Not exactly.” They reached the car then and got in. “From what we overheard, it sounded like Andersen is in this up to his gelled hair.”
“I can’t think of any other reason he’d be meeting with Valdez,” Madeline agreed. “When I recognized him, everything seemed to jump into place.”
“And hearing them talk about offing Stover didn’t hurt any.”
“Andersen has to be the one bringing in the guns. I don’t know why we didn’t think about this before. They moved their manufacturing overseas, so maybe that’s where the pipeline starts.”
“A shipment comes in from overseas, gets unloaded and stored in the warehouse. We already know that the guns are being sold from the docks.”
Madeline interjected, “The guns must be unassembled, pieces interspersed with the real cargo in each crate.”
“This is it. It has to be,” said Cruz. He looked across the seat at her. “But can we make it stick? The only concrete things we have to go on right now are that we saw the two of them together, and that we overheard about Stover.”
“Something big is going to be breaking soon, that was apparent from their conversation,” she said.
“I’m sure of it.” After a moment of silence he added, “That’s why I let Valdez go.”
“What do you mean, you let him go?” she demanded, startled.
“I didn’t lose him. I followed him down the street to a big truck he had parked there. I took down the license plate, but didn’t confront him. He got in and drove away.” His teeth flashed brightly in the darkness. “I say we go for the big cigar. We wait this thing out and catch them with the guns in their oily little hands. What do you say?”
She never hesitated. “Let’s go for it.”
He laughed softly. “Somehow I knew you’d say that. We’ll play the odds. It may be a risk to wait, but sometimes taking a risk can have a big payoff. You know what I mean?”
The words hit her with another meaning. Did she know anything about taking a risk? She’d had intimate experience with it in the past several days. “Yes, believe it or not, Cruz, I know exactly what you mean.”
He glanced at her. “May as well head out. One thing we’re sure of is that nothing more will be going on here tonight.”
“We can be fairly certain that nothing will happen until the next shipment comes in.”
“Which will be any day now. We’ll be back tomorrow to watch. Want to go home for a while?”
“What do you say, Maddy?” His voice interrupted her thoughts.
“It’s a very attractive offer,” she said, trying to respond normally.
“Is that all that’s attractive to you?” His voice was wheedling.
Madeline couldn’t prevent a smile. “Well, you didn’t shoot me back there. I’ve always found that an attractive quality in a man.”
“Stick with me, kid,” he joked. “I’m full of great qualities.”
Just a few more days, she promised herself as they drove down the dark streets of the city. Surely the case
