Apex Predator (26 page)

Finally Grady broke the silence, “You know we are going to have to say something…actually,
I’m
going to say something. It was my call to let him into the investigation.”

Mullins looked truly insulted, “You’re shitting me, right? We both made the call. There’s no way I’m letting you take the rap for this, no way!”

Grady shot back, “Mark, listen, the only reason for us to say something is to bring Loomis in and only one of us needs to say something to make that happen. There’s no reason for both of us to ruin our careers. C’mon, it doesn’t make sense, man. Listen, if it had to be both of us to say something to make a case against him, I could understand, but it doesn’t have to be like that.”

Mullins just stared at Grady. He knew he had a point, but he still felt like shit and there was nothing Robert Grady would be able to say to change that.

Mullins shook his head, “I can’t believe this, you know if we hadn’t let him in he would have done it on his own, and he would have gotten in the way. It was just a no-win deal all along.”

Grady nodded and said, “Yeah, that’s about right, he would have put himself right in the middle of it. But we both know we only got into the warehouse because of him, and sooner or later Riche’s defense lawyers would have looked into that.”

Mullins nodded. Both officers could see that their careers were most likely over and that it was going to be because they let a good man take the embodiment of evil off the face of the earth. Both men knew that in the end they would do the right thing and would provide whatever information they had to in order to make this case.

Grady was the next to speak, “Well, let’s see how the investigation goes. For all we know, he’s telling the truth, it may not have anything to do with Loomis.”

Mullins nodded, “I guess that’s probably the best for now. Damn, just never saw this coming, Loomis or not. I honestly never saw this coming.”

Grady got up and walked to the window, and lied, “Neither did I, Mark, neither did I. Let’s think about what we want to do next. You know that even if we do share everything we know, even if we flat out say it was Loomis, we wouldn’t get very far once he presents his alibi, the video, all of it. And let’s not forget who it is we’re talking about him taking out, a fucking monster.”

Mullins got up and walked to the window next to Grady, “Yeah, I thought about it myself. It would be a hell of a hard case to make, even if we did give up what we know about Loomis and his involvement. The investigation, the trial, everything, it would be a lot of resources to bring him up on charges, that’s if the DA and the grand jury were willing to look past his alibi and all the evidence that he was in that meeting.”

Grady turned to look at Mullins, “Well, that’s why I said let’s think about what we do next.”

Steven Loomis made it to his in-laws’ without incident. On the way there he thought about his family and about what the General had said. There were things he needed to take care of, things he had thought about but which now were not just potential plans but realities.

His family had been expecting him and when he got there it had been his children that had greeted him first. Christopher was too young to know what the situation was, he was just happy to see his daddy and ran to him as soon as he saw him. After picking up his son and giving him a big hug and a kiss, Steven saw his daughter Bethany. Even though she was only nine, she knew what had happened to her sister and what her family was going through. Bethany had always been the more introspective and thoughtful of his children. She had been mature beyond her years from an early age and had tested through the roof on every standardized test she had ever taken. Her parents had refused to have her skip a grade twice because they’d been worried about her growing up too fast. Now looking at her, Steven knew that she might not know exactly what had happened to her sister, but she knew, she felt, how deep it went and could see what it was doing to her family. In these past weeks Steven could see his daughter had grown up far beyond her short years and it broke his heart.

She didn’t run up to her dad, she simply walked over to him and gave him a long hug, “I missed you, Dad. I miss Tracy and I miss all of us being together.”

Steven held her close and took a couple of seconds before responding to her, so she wouldn’t hear his voice cracking, but he failed miserably, “I know, baby, I know. I miss all of that too. But we’re here now,” Steven now held her at arm’s length, “and you know what, we’re going to start making things better, okay? I’ll need your help to do that, though. I need you to try and go back to doing the stuff you’ve always done, talk to your friends, do all that stuff you do on the Internet looking up interesting things from different countries, that stuff.”

Bethany, tears streaming down her face, said, “I’ll try, Dad. I’ve been trying, it’s just hard. It’s going to take a long time to just go back to how things were. I’ll be okay, though. Mom needs your help more than I do.”

Steven kissed the top of her head. Yes, regardless of what his or his wife’s wishes were, his daughter had grown much older than her nine years, “I know, sweetie, that’s why I’m here, to try to help her. Will you help me with her too?”

Bethany wiped the tears from her eyes, smiled a small, pained smile and nodded. Steven gave her one last squeeze and let her go.

After greeting his kids outside, he walked through his in-laws’ front door and as he was putting his bags down his father-in-law, Tom Delaney, came out of the kitchen, wiping his hands on a towel. “Hey there. How was your trip?”

Steven walked over to where he was standing and shook the man’s hand, “Uneventful, thankfully.”

They both went into the kitchen where Steven could see Tom had been making himself a sandwich.

“Where are Lucy and Beth?”

Tom finished making his sandwich and offered half to Steven, who only now realized he was starving. He took the half Tom was offering and began to wolf it down.

“Easy there, you’re going to give yourself heartburn. I loaded it with Dijon mustard. They went into town to get some stuff for dinner. Neither one of them was up for making anything nor were they willing to trust my cooking skills.”

Both men sat down at the kitchen table. Tom brought a couple of bottles of cold beer and handed one to Steven.

Steven took two long pulls from the beer, “God, that tastes good.”

Tom nodded, “You must be exhausted. I can’t imagine that you’ve gotten a good night’s sleep while this has been going on.”

Steven confirmed that for him, “You’re right, I haven’t gotten more than two or three hours of consecutive sleep since this all started.”

Tom nodded and both men drank from their beer. They both sat at the table in quiet thought as they finished their beer. Over the years Steven and Tom had enjoyed many such moments. Neither man was the type to have to keep talking when they were alone with each other, something that was rare and which Steven appreciated immensely. Tom Delaney had been the most solid role model Steven had to look to until he met Art Goodman, the General. When Steven had met Marybeth Delaney during his time at the Naval Academy, he had known he would marry her after their first date. A mutual friend had introduced them. Steven had dated some in high school, nothing serious or long-term. He had been focused on sports and on his studies and figured he would think about getting married after he was finished with school, maybe once he was an officer. All of that had gone out the window when he met Beth. They had spent the entire night that first date talking, about life, about their dreams, their pasts, everything. They had started at a restaurant and when the place closed they had gone to an apartment that belonged to a friend of hers near the Academy. They had not realized how long they had been talking until they saw the first rays of sun coming through the window. Steven had driven her home and had walked her to the door. Tom Delaney had been waiting for his daughter and he was not pleased. When she went to open the door, he beat her to it and pulled it open himself. The first thing Steven had thought right then was ‘Why didn’t Beth tell me Charles Bronson is her dad?’ Steven had also learned at that moment that one could project power and intimidation without being boisterous or trying to be tough.

Unlike the Hollywood legend, however, Tom Delaney was the father of the girl he was bringing home at the break of dawn. Beth had been just as startled when her dad pulled open the door. The first thing that came to her mind was to simply introduce the two, ‘Hi, Daddy….uh, this is Steven Loomis.’ Tom had given his daughter a look that said ‘Why can’t I stay mad at you’ and had stretched out his hand. Truth had been that Tom respected the fact that the kid had walked his daughter to the door and stood there to make sure she made it home alright, ‘Tom Delaney. Pleased to meet you, Mr. Loomis.’ If Steven hadn’t been intimidated by Tom’s Charles Bronson looks, he would have been by the man’s grip. It was like a vise.

“How is Beth doing?”

Tom looked at him and shook his head slightly, “She’s still very frail. She blames herself for it.”

Steven hung his head, “I don’t know what I can do to let her know it wasn’t her fault.”

Tom went back to looking out the window at his grandchildren, “Nothing you can do or say that’s going to do that. She has to work it out on her own and you have to let her. I keep saying the same thing to her mother, but she gets upset every time I do. Says she needs us now.”

Steven, now also looking out at his children, nodded, “She’s her mom, Tom, and she’s watching her little girl suffering. Of course she’s going to want to be there, to do something, anything, to make it better.”

Tom turned to look at him, “I know that, Steven, she’s my daughter too, but sometimes the best thing you can do is to let the people you love find the strength and courage to accept things and to move on from them on their own. It’s the only way they will truly get better and move on.

“If you really love her as much as I believe you do, you’ll let Beth work through this without trying to prop her up, without trying to do the suffering for her, because as much as you want to, that’s something you’ll never be able to do. What Beth needs now is to know that you’ll be there when she’s ready, when she needs the help.”

Steven had always thought that his father-in-law was one of the smartest people he knew. It wasn’t that the man was Princeton educated or that he’d made partner at his law firm at 29 that made him believe that, it was that Tom never, not ever, said anything without thinking.

He had never given Steven bad advice, not even when he had to take the side opposite of his daughter, and it was no different now. He was right, of course, but the hardest part for Steven was not being able to do anything for Beth and even harder was going to be just standing by, waiting for her to find her footing. That’s the part that would really test him.

“How are
you
doing?”

Steven turned to face him, “I’m alright. You know, I’m going through it in bits and pieces I guess. It’s like I have little periods when I feel like I don’t have to be a husband, a dad to Chris and Bethany, an ex-SEAL, when I can just be a human being. It’s those times when it hits me the hardest, when I let it pour out. It’s the only way I know how to do it Tom, the only way.”

Steven did just that at that moment, he just let it pour out and sobbed softly, his head in his hands. Tom nodded and his face and eyes softened. He walked around the table, stood behind Steven and massaged his shoulders gently, “I know, son, I know. Let it come, it has to at some point. I know you and the kind of man you have been to my daughter and my grandchildren and the kind of officer you were when you were active. This isn’t an op. You’re allowed to just grieve. We’re here for you and for Beth and for the kids, so just deal with it as it comes.”

They remained like that for some time, Steven allowing all of the pent-up anger, sadness, helplessness to just come pouring out. That and all of the tension and focus from the last couple of days made it that much more intense. This was the first time he’d had the time and was with someone that he trusted completely and felt comfortable being this vulnerable in front of. The only other people he felt that way about were his mother-in-law, the General and, of course, his wife. Right now it was his father-in-law, right here, right now, that was there for him, like he’d been there many times before after tough ops, nightmares, things he couldn’t talk to his wife about. Today, as he mourned the loss of his own daughter, Tom Delaney went from being his father-in law to just being his father, and for that he was immensely thankful.

Drew Willis had just finished the third 14-hour day in a row. With the Riche shooting, the court had been a mess for the 48 hours right after the shooting. The disruption caused cases in almost all of the criminal courts to get backed up.

Trying to get around the investigative teams and the media covering the case had been a real pain in the ass for the past four days. On the upside, however, Drew had gotten some deals for his clients that he might not have gotten had any of the regular ADAs been in the courtroom. Both Farris and Logan were both MIA, probably dealing with whatever the implications of the shooting were for David Neill and the DA’s office.

Most of the seasoned criminal defense attorneys had seen the opening the second they saw the green, young attorneys with the big stacks of files. So, even though the last three days had been a marathon, he’d done well for his clients. He was finishing up his day, long after his other associate and all the paralegals were gone, and packing the things he wanted to take home with him when his cell phone rang. He chuckled and hung his head, “Really?”

He didn’t recognize the number and debated not picking up the phone, but at this time it could only be one of his big clients, the clients that had him on retainer.

He decided to answer, “Hello?”

He was surprised by the voice on the other end of the phone, “Hey, kid. I bet you’re still at the office, aren’t you?”