Amanda's Blue Marine (18 page)

He shrugged. "That's not the way the force sees it. I disregarded a superior's directive and ignored the chain of command. I bolted and acted without orders. I broke a lot of rules and they aren’t happy about it. It’s like the service. It’s all about obedience and respecting your superiors. You flout the protocol, you pay for it.”

Mandy couldn't believe what he was saying. He was going to get into trouble for rescuing her? "So what's going to happen to you?"

“I’ll be fine. I’ve got a PBA attorney to represent me.”

“I should never have contacted you. I should have just let 911 handle it.”

“If you had done that you’d be dead right now. As soon as Cameron got wind of any kind of official response he would have killed you. The only way to handle it was for me to sneak up on him alone.”

“But now you’re in the hot seat. What’s coming next?”

He waved his hand dismissively. "Nothing," he said. "It's all to demonstrate to the rank and file that they're going by the book. I got a call tonight saying that the mayor is awarding me some medal for heroism. They can hardly drape a medal around my neck and can me at the same time." He was grinning.

He looked puzzled. "Congressional Medal of Honor? Pushcart Prize? Chevalier de France? Palme D'Or? Academy Award? Golden Globe?"

"Kelly, be serious. I’m worried about this.”

"Don't give it a thought. The Commissioner has his panties in a bunch because protocol was ignored but on the whole the episode makes the force look good. He'll get over it."

Mandy asked the question she’d been avoiding. “Was anybody else hurt in the fire? Besides Banks?”

“Cameron didn’t see the two cops downstairs so they were okay. There were six people trapped on the lower floor and we got them out in time.”

“How did Cameron get into the building?”

“The building is really old and the basement has passages that run into the sewer system. Cameron worked cleaning the sewers one summer and knew the layout. That’s why he came after you at work, he knew how to get inside the building without being seen.”

“How did you finally get him, Kelly?” Mandy said quietly. She had promised herself that she wouldn’t ask but the question kept nagging her.

Kelly looked at her a few seconds, as if deciding whether he should answer, then said, “I couldn’t carry an arsenal with me if I came alone. I had to come alone because I couldn’t wait for authorization or get anyone else implicated in it with me. I just brought my service pistol, a 9mm Beretta with an eight bullet clip, and I didn’t realize until I got there that the place was on fire. I couldn’t see well enough in that thick smoke haze to get off any clean shots. And Cameron was very skilled at evasion tactics. I could only hope to wound him.”

“He brought plenty of firepower but he was hurt in his shooting arm and off his game, tiring badly and losing a lot of blood. I never would have been able to get close enough to kill him otherwise. I knew that it was going to come down to hand to hand combat so I tracked him down and finished him.”

“I kicked him here,” he said, gesturing to the center spot right under his own chin, “to snap his head back and break his neck. And I chopped him here,” he indicated the side of his throat, “to hit the carotid as he fell.”

“Some waitress he hooked up with at the country club where the MD benefit was held. He was working there as a temp busboy. She wasn’t one of his previous contacts so we didn’t know about her. He was too smart to go back to his old stomping grounds.”

“She’s better off getting away from him. He was a really bad guy, you know that. If she wasn’t aware of what he was doing she’ll be treated leniently.”

“I know that can’t be good for you,” Mandy said slowly. “It means they think you did something wrong, or they’re looking into it.”

“They’re investigating just what I told you,” he said, avoiding her gaze. “The procedural stuff, ignoring orders, taking the car and the ammunition, all the things I said that I did.”

He laughed shortly and shook his head. “Don’t do that, Amanda. They’ve seen you, they’ve seen us together, and they saw what I did in order to get Cameron. They’re not going to believe that there was nothing between us. Manning has already talked to me about it.”

Kelly raised his brows. “I think he knew the answer before he asked the question, he’s been my boss for a while, but he had to mention it because could see that we were…”

“Tell them what you remember of what happened. Answer their questions honestly. The fact is we never slept together. Wanting to isn’t the same thing as doing it or half the population would be under arrest.” He paused and looked down, then up at her. “Just be especially careful what you say to my boss.”

Kelly closed his eyes. “Please don’t tell me that. If you start playing with the facts they’ll know it. They’re interrogation experts, do you understand? Didn’t you learn anything about giving testimony in law school?”

“Your career could be on the line because of what you did for me and I want to help you. Can’t I at least assist your PBA attorney with your case?”

“No, Amanda. I told you, they’re not going to do anything to me. The questioning is just a formality. They will look like idiots if they kick the local hero off the force. Commissioner Foster is a PR genius. He knows just how to play this- he’ll go through the motions of an investigation but he’ll make sure it comes out the way he wants.”

A night nurse stuck her head in the door and said to Kelly, “Should you be here? It’s the middle of the night and Miss Redfield needs her rest.”

"It's not broken," Kelly said. "I talked to your doctor while you were asleep. They took a picture of it with a portable x-ray and he says it's just a bad sprain. You'll need to wear a brace for a few days but after that, nothing."

"I looked it up when I saw it on one of your shirts. Caed is for one hundred and mille is for one thousand. Failte is a greeting, like 'hello'."

He looked at her in the darkened room, his light eyes flashing in his artificially reddened face. "You know a lot of things, Amanda."

"I'm sorry," she said quickly. "I'm heavily drugged and I almost died and I just don't care if I make a fool of myself."

"You're not making a fool of yourself," he replied, breaking his silence.

"Then come over here and hold me." Her voice was quavering.

He got up and lowered the railing at the side of her bed. He climbed over it like a spider monkey and lay down next to her. When he slipped his arm under her shoulders she turned against his chest and closed her eyes.

"Get some rest, Red," he said softly, his free hand caressing her hair. "You've had a tough time of it."

When the floor nurse came back half an hour later she saw them curled up like puppies in the bed, asleep, Kelly's arms around Mandy protectively. The nurse thought about waking them and telling the visitor to get out of the bed.

Then she sighed and left the patient's cup of pills on the nightstand. Taking Mandy's vital signs could wait until later.

The entwined couple were obviously an item and she didn't want to disturb them when they looked so peaceful.

7

“I talked to your mother on the phone last night. She says that you’re fine. Are you really fine, or does that just mean you’re fine enough to fight with her? She seemed somewhat perturbed.”

"The Man of the Hour, the Hero Cop, don't you read the papers?" She indicated the stack of newspapers she held under her arm.