Innocence (37 page)

“Ease up on her,” Kozlowski said. “It’s part of the job.”

“Annoying me is part of the job?”

“I don’t know, you guys still dating?”

“Listen,” Flaherty said sharply, “we’ve been keeping tabs on VDS for three years; these assholes are for real. Our information is that half of the terrorist cells active in the U.S. today have used these guys to enter the country. You call me up at one o’clock in the morning and give me eighteen hours to put together an operation like this on a Saturday three days before Christmas. Well, I’m here, but with me and Seldon and the two FBI teams in the other vans, we’re going in with only six, and that means we’re way understaffed for this kind of a raid, so you’ll excuse me if I keep going over it.”

“Can’t you call in more agents?” Finn asked.

“Not on this schedule. And not when the only information we’re operating on is from a dirty cop who ate his gun last night, a lawyer who’s looking to free an attempted cop killer, and an ex-detective whose only goal appears to be to piss off every law enforcement officer in New England. If my boss finds out that I’m in the field on a lark like this, he’ll put my ass in a sling. As it is, Seldon and the four others in the vans volunteered for this as a personal favor to me.”

Finn kept his eyes on her face as she spoke. She still had the ability to mesmerize him; he felt a rush of excitement just being in her presence.

The fact that she also had the ability to annoy the hell out of him only

made her more alluring.

“You’ve got seven going in,” Kozlowski said.

She looked at him. “What?”

“I’m coming in with you.”

“Eight,” Finn joined in.

Flaherty rolled her eyes. “Koz, you’re not a cop anymore. And you, Finn . . . hell, you’ve never been a cop before. A criminal once, but hey, why should we worry about that.”

“That was when I was a kid,” Finn pointed out.

“Great, I feel so much better. No, you two stay here. This has to be purely a law enforcement operation, which means you two aren’t involved.”

“I’m coming in,” Kozlowski repeated. “You don’t have a choice.”

She frowned at him. “No?” She turned around. “Seldon, give me your radio.” He passed a handheld unit back to her. “Blandis, Grossman, you in place?” she said into the radio.

The unit crackled two “Rogers” back at her.

“Okay, hold your positions. We may be aborting.” She looked at Kozlowski. “Your call, Koz. Either you stay here or I pull our men out right now. What’s it going to be?”

Kozlowski glared at her. Then he dropped his head and spat on the metal flooring of the van. “I guess you’re the boss, boss,” he said. “My, how the world has changed.”

“Got that right,” Finn said.

She picked up the receiver again. “Okay, we’re on. Stand by.” Just then two midsize cargo vans rolled by, through the intersection by the church. “Sit tight,” she said quietly. The vans pulled into the church parking lot and disappeared around the back, down by the garage underneath the rectory. “This is it,” Flaherty said into the radio. “Team two, you approach from the rear of the property; team three, you’ve got the side driveway. Seldon and I will come in from around by the church. Everyone wear your vests and jackets; I don’t want us shooting each other.”

The other teams acknowledged her order, and then the radio went silent. Flaherty looked at Seldon, who had already strapped on a Kevlar vest, and now pulled on a bright orange jacket marked fbi over it. He was holding the shotgun at the ready, and he nodded to her as he opened the door. Flaherty slid out and looked back at Finn and Kozlowski. “I mean it,” she said. “You two keep your asses in the truck, or I’ll have you arrested when this is all over, you understand?”

Kozlowski said nothing.

“Be careful,” Finn replied.

She slammed the door and hurried across the street toward the church.

z

Flaherty moved silently. The church was on a corner lot, bordered in front to the left by a warehouse that ran barbed-wire fencing along the shared property line. At some point in the past, probably in an attempt to soften the industrial feel of the neighborhood, trees had been planted along the fence line, and shrubs had been grown along the front of the property. As a result, much of the church was hidden from the street view.

It made for a difficult approach, but from the information they had, it seemed as though most of the activity took place in back. There was always a chance that a guard would be watching from the front, but it seemed unlikely, given the small number of gang members involved. There was no way to be sure, though, so Flaherty and Seldon ducked through the bushes cautiously.

It was good to see Finn
.

The thought jumped into her head, unbidden and unwelcome. Now was a time when she had to focus all of her attention on the task at hand; her survival, and that of the men she was with, depended on it. It was the wrong time to be thinking about her personal life.

But it was good to see him. She couldn’t help admitting it to herself. She hadn’t realized how much she had missed him until she was near him again, and now all of the feelings she had been suppressing for months came streaming back over her. It made her question her decision to pack up her life and move to D.C. There was more to life than police work, after all.

“You ready?” Seldon whispered.

She shook the thoughts of Finn out of her head. “Let’s do it,” she said. “Left side. Through the playground.”

Then they were moving, keeping low, just inside the shrubs. There was a full moon casting a bright blue light over the unbroken field of white between them and the front of the church. Once they started in toward the buildings, there was no way to avoid being exposed, at least for a moment or two.

Flaherty and Seldon came even with the front of the church, then nodded to each other and turned a right angle, moving as fast as they could toward the corner of the building. Their guns were drawn, and their eyes searched the scene in front of them, looking for any sign that they had been spotted. The place looked and felt deserted, and it took only a few seconds before they were engulfed by the church’s shadow, continuing to kick their way through the snow until their backs were up against the building. Flaherty motioned to Seldon, and the two of them raced along the side of the church, down toward where the troika of buildings met. They still had not seen a soul, and it felt wrong. Very wrong. Still, they had no other options now; they were committed.

Tucked behind the corner of the church, Flaherty nodded to Seldon, and the two of them dashed across the walkway that separated the church from the rectory; then they ducked around the outside of the little house toward the garage below them.

z

“You’re not staying here, are you?” Finn asked.

“No,” Kozlowski replied as he checked his gun and slid it back into his holster.

“I didn’t think so.” Finn pulled out the revolver Kozlowski had given him and looked at it. It had been years since he had fired a gun.

“You can stay here,” Kozlowski said. “I’m a big boy.”

“I’m coming,” Finn said. “And it’s not you I’m worried about.”

“Flaherty?”

“No, Seldon. He seems like a decent guy.”

Kozlowski gave a humorless chuckle. “I didn’t see a ring on his finger. I’m sure you two will be very happy.” He slid the van door open and stepped out into the night.

Finn took a deep breath and followed.

z

Kozlowski followed the tracks that Flaherty and Seldon had left in the snow. He stayed low and moved silently, as they had. Behind him, he heard Finn curse quietly under his breath as he tripped over a rock in the churchyard. When he got to the front of the church, Kozlowski crouched by the side of the building, waiting for Finn to catch up. Finn eventually slid alongside him, his shoulder bumping into the clapboard siding, making Finn groan ever so slightly.

“Your arm still hurting?” Kozlowski asked.

“Only when I’m awake,” Finn replied. “It’s fine. Between the fear and the painkillers I can barely feel it.”

“You stay here,” Kozlowski said to him.

“What?” said Finn. “Why?”

“This is police work, Finn. You’re not a cop.”

“Neither are you,” Finn reminded him.

“Yes, I am,” Kozlowski replied evenly. “Always was; always will be.”

Finn just looked at him. “So you want me to wait out here?”

“You want to do something useful? Check out the church and make sure no one’s in there waiting to ambush us. I don’t want to take care of business around back only to get my ass shot off when I think it’s all over.”

Finn blew out a long breath, watching the steam rise from his lips. “Fine,” he said. “But once I’m sure the church is all clear, I’m coming back there to help you out.”

“Fine,” Kozlowski said. “I’ll be looking for you. Just be careful. You get yourself killed, and I have to find a new office to rent. I don’t like change.”

“You’re all heart,” Finn said.

z

Finn peeled off and scrambled around the corner to the front of the church. There was some truth in what Kozlowski had said; Finn wasn’t a cop and had never been one. This was a law enforcement operation, Finn told himself, and he had no training in that area. He knew he probably would be of little help in the raid and might even get in the way. Still, he didn’t like that Kozlowski had pointed that out to him, and he liked even less the notion that he wouldn’t be able to keep an eye on Linda.

Finn pushed on the front door to the church, and to his surprise, it opened with a low, tired creak. Gripping Kozlowski’s backup gun, he stuck his arm through the crack in the door, pointing it around in the darkness. It made little sense; he could see nothing. But somehow it made him feel better to let the gun lead him in.

He slipped into the church and allowed the door to close behind him. He was lost in darkness, swimming in it as he waved his arms about, keeping his back to the door. His eyes began to adjust, and he could make out the shapes, if not the details, of his surroundings. In front of him was a row of what appeared to be heavy drapes, separating the entryway from the church’s main hall. It was pulled fully across the entry, blocking out whatever moonlight might make it through the windows of the church. To his right, he could see a stairway leading up to the balcony at the back of the building.

As he turned to his left, he caught a glimpse of a tall figure against the far end of the wall, his arm raised, a gun pointing directly at Finn’s head. Finn let out a shout and dove to the ground, rolling to his right and coming up on one knee, his own gun aimed instinctively at the man. “Freeze!” he yelled. “Put the gun down!”

The other man didn’t flinch, and the gun remained aimed at Finn. Finn waited no more than a second or two before he squeezed off two quick shots. He was gratified to see that his aim was still good; even in the dark and after all the years, he could tell that the two shots took the other man directly in the chest. The man rocked back and forth twice, still holding his gun out, and then fell stiffly to the floor. As his body hit the ground, the entire church shook with an enormous rumble, and as Finn watched, the man split into three large pieces on the ground.

Confused, Finn stood and moved carefully over to the man he’d shot. Kneeling, he could see a face, etched in stone, its eyes open in an expression of hope and compassion. Around its shoulders, a granite shawl fell to an inscription at his chest. st. jude thaddeus: “he will show himself most willing to give help.” Looking more closely, Finn could see that the statue’s arm had been raised out straight to bestow a blessing on all those who would enter the church.

As Finn knelt over the broken body of the patron saint of lost causes, he whispered to himself, “Shit. That can’t be a good sign.” Within seconds, all hell broke loose in the echoes of gunshots from the rectory behind the church.

Chapter Thirty-seve
n

Linda Flaherty was tucked behind a row of bushes that separated the low-slung day-care center from the rectory, looking out onto the driveway leading into the sunken garage. The greenery that ringed the property combined with the natural landscape to hide the scene from the street, but she had a clear line of sight into the garage doors. A dim light bled softly onto the edge of the driveway, and inside the building, a dozen or so people milled about in tense clusters.

There were three distinct groups she could make out. The first was of least concern to her: three disheveled women, a gaunt young man, and two girls who couldn’t have been over seven or eight years old. They cowered at the back of the garage, watched over casually by a rough-looking man in his mid-twenties with tattoos, wielding an automatic rifle. There was no way to mistake them for anything but what they were: scared and helpless refugees, just arrived in what they assumed was a land of untold riches and opportunity.

The tattoos on the man guarding them placed him solidly in the second group: VDS. She could see five of them, and they were all heavily armed. They moved about with arrogance in the driveway, overseeing the operation. One of them, an older man—thin, wiry, and covered

with tattoos over every inch of visible skin—was ordering them about, and the other four obeyed without question or hesitation.

The third group interested her most. There were four of them, also all male, but not visibly armed. They all had dark olive skin and heavy beards. The tallest one seemed to be the leader, talking with the VDS commander as an equal. His voice, heavily accented from the Middle East, drifted across the driveway. The VDS gang members were not guarding this group the way they were the refugees. Though the VDS men seemed to treat them with the respect of business associates, there was a wariness to the way the two factions interacted.

She glanced over at Seldon, concealed behind the bushes with her, and nodded. This was it. It was what they had been hoping for. She knew that the other four federal agents would be spread out along the perimeter of the property, just out of sight. It was perfect. They had their suspects caught in a cross fire, and more important, they would have the advantage of surprise. From the look of the men loitering about, they had no idea that any sort of raid was imminent, and as long as that didn’t change, the operation would be a success.