He wondered how difficult it would be for her to make arrangements for Laney’s care. She must have had to do this a thousand times already, of course, but still-
“Alex, you there?”
“Yes, Dan. Sorry-tell me where I’m headed.”
He wrote down the address on a pad on the dashboard.
“The place belonged to an air freight company that went out of business,” Hogan said, “so everyone thought it was an empty warehouse. You shouldn’t have any trouble finding it. The damned press got wind of it through a radio call-we’ve already reprimanded the deputy-so we’ve had to set up a bigger than usual perimeter to keep the media the hell away. Once we knew that it was one of the ten, we cordoned off the area. But be prepared.”
“Any idea who the victims are?”
“The one with the number on him is Seymour Merton-the sniper who’s been killing doctors.”
“The anti-abortion fanatic?”
“Right. No idea about the other one. There are things worth noting about the scene, but I’m not going to discuss them with you over the phone. I’ll be down there myself soon.”
“You’ve contacted Hamilton from the FBI?”
“He’s my next call after Ciara,” Hogan assured him.
“Okay. See you in a few.”
He hung up. He calculated the distances. He needed to get to the scene in Del Aire as soon as possible, to see it before all the world had tramped through the place. He definitely had to get there before the FBI showed up, or they might use it as an excuse to take control of the scene-Captain Nelson would never forgive him. If the press was already there, Hamilton could have already learned of it, too. No time to go back home. “Chase, I’m sorry-I’ve got to stop by a crime scene. I can’t take you in with me. Do you mind waiting in the car?”
“Oh man! No, I don’t mind.”
Alex laughed. “Trust me, Chase, this will not be exciting for you.”
“I promise I won’t cause any trouble.”
Alex saw one of John’s old friends among the deputies who were keeping the press and onlookers from getting too close. Alex parked the Taurus near where he was standing guard. He brought Chase over to introduce them to each other. “Chase is going to wait in the car for me, but if he should need me for any reason, can I ask you to make sure the message gets relayed to me?”
“No,” the deputy growled. “I’ll personally go in there and I’ll personally drag you out.” He turned to the boy and smiled. “Your uncle John never shuts up about you-but probably only because we told him he’d have to stop bragging about Alex here.”
Chase grinned and dutifully returned to the car.
Inside the building, Alex wondered if they were about to see a change in approach from the killers. One of the members of the Most Wanted list, all right, and with a number three written on his chest-but tied up in a specially constructed cell, shot to death, and not left hanging upside down. He almost questioned whether it was the same group, until he saw the other victim.
“Ricky Calaban,” he said. “One of Adrianos’s bodyguards.”
Kit sat in the rented Jeep Cherokee, waiting until he saw the signs of boredom on the faces of the sheriff’s deputies who were keeping watch on the perimeter of the crime scene. That might not be for a while yet. He watched members of the press attempt to get more information out of the lieutenant who had made a brief statement some minutes ago, but none succeeded.
Kit had been here almost before any of them. He heard the call go out on a scanner-supplied to him by Moriarty. He had been listening nonstop, hoping for a little piece of luck, and he got it.
Getting out of the house hadn’t gone as smoothly. Spooky caught up with him just after he had talked to Meghan. Meghan had been a few steps behind him, and only Moriarty’s quick intervention had prevented Spooky from launching herself at Meghan.
“What did you do to make Kit cry?” she had shouted. Kit couldn’t convince her that Meghan was not to blame, but at least she hadn’t been violent. He made her promise not to start any fires, or hurt Meghan (she nearly wouldn’t give him that one), or rob anyone who was in the house. He remembered to add, “Or on the grounds.”
Meghan had long since retreated to her room. He stood outside her door, not knowing if he should talk to her again or just leave. He had eventually gone into the study and used the phone there to call her on the intercom line-almost every room in the house had a speakerphone that was also part of the intercom system.
Apparently, he startled her, but she said, “Kit? Where are you?”
“I’m down the hall, in the study,” he answered. “I just want to make sure you’re okay.”
“And this is how you do that?”
He didn’t answer.
She opened her door, came down to the study, said, “I’m fine, Kit,” turned around, walked back down the hallway, and closed her door again.
Moriarty, damn him, not only had watched but found amusement in all of this.
By the time Kit left, much later than he had wanted to, it was nearly dark. His plan was to observe Alex Brandon, maybe follow him to the next crime scene. Kit was still unconvinced that Brandon was trustworthy. He had to see that for himself. Too much was at stake. Gabe’s life, for starters.
As he drove down Pacific Coast Highway toward Manhattan Beach, he again felt that sensation of being followed. It was strong enough to make him hesitate to go near Brandon’s house. Moriarty had stressed how important it was not to let anyone else learn Brandon’s address-an unnecessary warning to give Kit, who was fully aware of the perils of drawing anyone else into the net Everett was casting. Kit believed that Everett could get Brandon’s address if he wanted it badly enough, but Kit wasn’t going to be the one to lead him to the detective’s home if he could help it.
Kit would do all he could to keep Brandon safe, even if the detective chose not to be of help. He had even given Brandon some milagros to help ward off danger. A man could never do too much to improve his luck.
So even though he had yet to see whomever it was that shadowed him, even though he was not entirely free of the suspicion that his imagination was getting the best of him, he made a decision when he reached LAX. He parked the Suburban near Terminal Four. He called Moriarty on his cell phone, so that by the time he took a van to the Hertz rental center, EL Enterprises had made arrangements for its representative, Mr. Ed Thomas, to pick up a Jeep there. He showed them his Ed Thomas driver’s license, and was on his way back to where the Suburban was parked. He loaded his equipment into the Jeep and drove away from the airport.
He turned on the scanner and heard a deputy call in a report of a 187-a homicide. Two victims. The deputy was shaken and asked the dispatcher to contact the task force. Within minutes, Kit found his way to the crime scene, but the Lennox Sheriff’s Station had already gone into action to close off the area.
He was already at its edges, though, and watching with binoculars when Alex Brandon arrived with a teenaged boy. That puzzled Kit. The boy’s eyes were the same bright blue as Brandon’s, and there was a resemblance, but he knew that Brandon had no children. He watched as the boy went back to the Taurus and stayed there- occasionally leaning out of the open car window to watch what was going on. The deputy they had spoken to when they first arrived took time to stroll over and talk to him whenever things slowed down a little.
Kit flipped through Moriarty’s notes and saw a reference to a nephew-one that Alex Brandon had supposedly never met, since he had nothing to do with his brother and ex-wife.
He looked up to see Diana Ontora, the reporter from Channel Three, hurrying alongside a young man in an Armani suit. The man in the suit was trying to make his way to the deputy checking the credentials of detectives, evidence technicians, coroner’s office personnel, and all the other people who had a legitimate reason to be on the other side of the yellow tape. He ignored the reporter and left her shouting questions while he signed in. The man seemed familiar to Kit, but he couldn’t recall where he had seen him. The questions indicated the man was an FBI agent.
The agent didn’t enter the building immediately, because Alex Brandon and Ciara Morton walked out, and he met them and spoke with them for a few minutes before going inside. As Kit watched through the binoculars,
