Delta Stevens 2: Storm Shelter (17 page)

Delta reached over and patted Jan’s hand before checking the beeper worn on her belt.

Jan watched Delta’s hand move to the beeper. “Is that for Connie?”

Delta nodded. “In case she comes up with something while we’re out here. I want her to be able to reach me.”

“God, she thinks of everything. That woman is a genius.”

Delta smiled. “Let’s hope so, Jan. Her life depends on that.”

Pulling out of a park popular with the drug dealers, they received a call.

“S1012, you have a possible 240 in progress in the parking lot of 31109 West Twelfth Street. Copy?”

“This is S1012; we copy. How many involved?”

“S1012, no number given. Call came from a payphone.”

Delta turned the lights on and looked over at Jan, who reached for her flashlight. They were seconds away from the parking lot of a bar where they were called. Delta didn’t look forward to intercepting a fight tonight. Some night, she wished onlookers would just let the guys beat each other senseless. After all, when was the last time any cop got a 240 with two women involved? Shaking her head, Delta pulled her baton out and sighed.

As they drove up, Delta saw one man pummelling another on the ground. When they stopped, Delta was frozen by the image in front of her. The man hitting the other man was wearing black gloves.

“Jan, wait! He’s wearing gloves.”

Before Jan could answer, Delta’s feet were on the pavement and running. This time, Delta said to herself as the suspect tossed the beaten man to the ground and ran away, the little bastard wasn’t going to get away.

Winding her way through the parking lot, Delta knew he was heading for the cyclone fence surrounding the car lot next to the bar. If he made that fence, she would lose him.

“Damn it!” she yelled, as he leapt onto the fence. Even petty hoods knew that few cops would risk tearing their hundred-and-twenty dollar wool pants climbing after them. Besides, climbing a fence with close to fifteen extra pounds of gear was no easy task even if one wasn’t wearing wool pants.

Inhaling deeply, Delta pushed with all of her might and made one desperate lunge for him before he could get to the top of the fence.

“Lemme go!” the perp cried, as Delta grabbed one sneakered foot. “I didn’t do nothin’, man.”

Delta ripped him down off of the fence and wrestled him to the ground. Wiry and full of fire, he fought and elbowed and clawed until he saw Delta pull her baton. As she raised her baton to come crashing down across the top of his skull, Delta realized he was just a kid. Her slight hesitation gave him just enough time to buck her off. In the next blink, he scrambled to his feet and was making his way across the grass when she chased him again and came crashing down on him, full-force, and got him in a full-Nelson headlock.

“Lemme go!” the kid yelled.

Holding him up off his feet, Delta whirled him around once before slamming him face first into the hood of a parked car.

“Police brutality, man! I ain’t done nothin’!”

Grabbing him by the hair, Delta forced him to the ground and slapped the handcuffs on him. Then she grabbed him by the collar and yanked him to his feet. “Beating somebody up isn’t `nothing,’ you little punk.”

Unexpectedly, a huge smile lit up the boy’s face. “I dunno whatcher talkin’ about, man.”

Jerking him along by his shirt, Delta soon had him back in the parking lot of the bar. As soon as they rounded the corner, she sensed that something was wrong; something was terribly unfamiliar. Jan was leaning against the front of the patrol car with the trunk wide open and the victim nowhere in sight.

“Uh, Delta . . .”

Delta looked around. “Where is he? What happened?”

Jan motioned with her head to the back of the car. “In the trunk.”

Cocking her head in question, Delta pushed the kid over to Jan. “Stay here, punk,” she growled, pushing him to the car. “Jan, what do you mean, he’s in the trunk?”

The boy snickered.

“See for yourself.”

Peering into the trunk, Delta heard the boy break into near-hysterical laughter. In the trunk was a mannequin dressed like a man. For a moment, Delta said nothing. She just stood there, looking perplexed at the stiff figure laying with painted eyes staring blankly at her.

Whirling around, Delta grabbed the laughing boy by the shirt and rammed him up against the car.

“What in the fuck is this about?” She screamed into his face. The laughter ceased immediately.

“Look, I ain’t done nothin’ illegal. This dude offered me a hundred bucks to put these gloves on and pretend to beat up that stupid doll. It was a hundred bucks, man.”

Delta did not release her iron grip. Inside, her heart raced, her adrenaline pumped, and her lungs heaved. She felt like the seams of her patience were ripping apart. “What guy?”

“I dunno, man. He was wearing a hat and dark glasses. I didn’t ask him no questions, man; I just took the gloves and the dough and split.”

Delta rammed him harder against the car. Every muscle in her body was in fighting mode, and her right hand kept opening and closing as if she were pumping her own blood pressure. “What else did he say, goddamnit?”

“He, he said for me to tell the lady cop . . . let me see . . .”

“Think, damn you!”

“Del . . .” Jan’s voice cut through the night.

If Delta heard Jan, she gave no indication. “What else did he say?”

“He said to be more, more imaginative than that. Yeah, that’s it.

That’s what he said.”

“Is that all?” Delta had lifted the youth off the ground and held him pinned to the car with one arm. The seam inside was slowly tearing.

“Yeah, man, I swear! It was a hundred bucks, man. Easy cash.”

The seam tore completely open. She wanted to bash Elson’s face in and she was beginning to take it out on this trembling boy. She wanted to hit something so the fear and frustration building inside her would be released. She wanted to shake this boy until she could know everything that passed between him and Elson. She wanted . . .

“Del, let him go.”

She did not hear. In the far recesses of her mind, Delta saw herself holding Elson off the ground. He was pleading for his life in one instant and laughing at her the next.

“Let him down, Del.” Jan reached out and touched Delta’s arm.

Looking over at Jan as if seeing her for the first time, Delta stared

blankly.

“Put him down.”

Pulled from her trance, Delta looked from Jan to the scared boy to Jan and back to the boy, who tried grinning.

“Oh,” Delta said, slowly lowering him to his feet. “Yeah, sure.” Releasing him, Delta turned to Jan, who still had her hand on Delta’s arm.

“You okay?”

Delta nodded, feeling her anger subside. Pinching the bridge of her nose, Delta quietly asked Jan, “Take care of him, will you?”

Jan gently squeezed Delta’s arm and silently moved over to take care of the boy, who appeared relieved to have the smaller, quieter cop take over.

After Jan I.D.’d the boy, she took the driver’s seat and watched as Delta slowly climbed in.

“You sure you’re okay? That didn’t look so swell to me.”

Delta turned from her thoughts and nodded. “He’s toying with us. That bastard set us up. It’s as if he’s watching us.” Jan turned the car left onto Tennyson. “That’s a pretty scary thought.”

“Yep. He knows our every move before we do.”

Jan shook her head. “That’s not all, Del. He made us move. Like pawns on a chessboard, he moved us with that little charade. He’s in charge and he knows it.”

Delta nodded. “The message for us isn’t to be more creative. He’s letting us know it’s his game and he’s in control.” Delta pulled some change from her pocket. “Pull over so I can let Connie know of his latest ploy.”

“Maybe it will give her something to go on.”

“Maybe. And maybe it will scare the shit out of her.” Delta glanced over at Jan, who looked more serious than she ever remembered her looking. “Until Connie can come up with something, we’re playing this hand blind. We can’t make a move until she figures that damn game out. God, how I hate this.”

Jan nodded. “I know. Until then, we just ride it out and do the rest of our job, okay? We can’t let it get to us.”

Nodding, Delta stared out the window. It was already getting to her; that was evident by the way she handled the boy. From now on, she would have to be cool and show more control. From now on, she would allow him to move her until she could find her way to the other side of the chessboard. And when she did, she would trade up for a queen.

Then, they would play by her rules.

Moments after they I.D.’d the boy, Delta’s beeper went off. “Pull over Jan. I just got a buzz from Connie.” Jumping to a payphone, Delta called Connie at her desk. “It’s me. Whatcha got?”

“It’s a good thing we started over. We were way off.”

“How so?”

“I’ve been fighting this one-horned creature I walked away from the first time I played.”

“You mean a unicorn?” Delta watched a prostitute cross the street to an awaiting car.

“I don’t think so. This thing is ugly. I mean, it’s hairy and huge and doesn’t look a thing like a unicorn. It’s gross. Anyway, I’ve done everything I can, but I can’t beat it using the gloves. I don’t think he intends on beating his next victim to death. I’m not even sure he plans on using the gloves as a weapon.”

“Because?”

“Elson wouldn’t need gloves to beat someone to death. He has a black belt in karate. He could kill a man without even using his hands.”

“Great.”

“Don’t worry on that end. I could kick the shit out of him even with his black belt. How’s your night so far?”

Delta replayed the parking lot scene for Connie.

“So he really is watching us.”

Delta nodded. “Yep. Appears that way. Not only is he watching us, he’s got us going out to calls.”

“Don’t be surprised if you find a bug in your truck or on any of your equipment. Elson is an electronics whiz, and it wouldn’t be difficult at all for him to be patched right in to your radio.”

“That’s a comforting thought.” Delta peered around the corner of the phone booth and got the chills thinking about him watching her now.

“He knows we’ve started on the disk for real. His little stunt tonight was just to let us know that he knows.”

Delta squinted into the darkness. She had been trying to shake the gut feelings bubbling like a witch’s cauldron inside her. Emotions lingered, thoughts paused, images flashed through her like she was viewing two different movie screens. “Con, I get these strange vibes whenever I think he’s near. It’s as if, as if I can sense his evil, his insanity. It’s scary.”

“I’m sure it is. You’ve always been an extremely empathic individual, Del. Maybe you tune in on some strange level.”

“Well, I wish I didn’t. It’s invasive.” Delta inhaled slowly and waved to Jan, who was motioning for her to hurry up. “Con, what baffles me is the fact that this guy has so much to offer, yet he would rather ruin lives for some sort of vengeance.”

“That’s why he’s so menacing, Del. He’s willing to throw everything else aside in order to prove the one thing he couldn’t prove twenty years ago. There’s a lot of anger inside Elson Zuckerman, Delta, and that rage makes him very, very dangerous.”

“Dangerous is an understatement. He sees us, hears us, manipulates us, and we don’t even know where he is. I feel like we’re looking for a certain flea in a room full of dogs.”

“Don’t go getting all negative on me, Storm. We’ve uncovered a few more clues tonight. That’s why I beeped.”

Delta watched a man walking his dog down the street. Until Connie’s college pictures of him came from the Institute, everyone on the street was Elson Zuckerman. “I’m listening.”

“Okay, so far, he’s only hit while you’re on duty.”

“As far as we know, yes.”

“His pattern is to strike every third day, and he’s only covered five blocks of your beat.”

“Give the man credit. He’s done his homework.”

“Yes, he has. Enough to include you in nearly every facet of the game. I move Dori on the screen, and you move in real life. It’s as if you’re his creation personified.”

“Well, we’re going to have to find a way to use that to our advantage, won’t we?”

“Exactly. You’ve got one more hour left of your shift. I’ll be surprised if he kills tonight. Another pattern of his is to strike between ten and one. You know, he’s such a head case, he’s probably into the `witching hour’and all that crap.”

Delta checked her watch. “It’s one-fifteen now.”

“Looks like he’s giving you the night off.”

“Good. Are we doing an all-nighter tonight?”

“I’ve been pounding down the coffee.”

“Great. I’ll meet you at your place around four-thirty.”

“You bringing Megan?”

Delta thought about this a moment. “She’s at her place tonight. I’ll stop by and see if she wants to come out and play. But I’ll tell you, these exams are really tiring her out.”