MULTIPLE MOTIVES (The Kate Huntington mystery series Book 1) (12 page)

Despite her exhaustion, Kate once again did not sleep well. Spooked by the fact that the killer had been in their building tonight while they’d been going over files, she tossed and turned, struggling with whether or not she should keep working. She certainly didn’t want to jeopardize this baby, Eddie’s child!

But her clients depended on her. For many of them she was their lifeline to sanity. What the hell would she even tell them? It’s one thing to be out a few days or weeks because your husband died, or your sister’s in the hospital. But she couldn’t tell them she was taking an indefinite leave of absence because somebody was trying to murder her. Wouldn’t exactly be good for their fragile psyches.

Especially old Mr. Phelps with his paranoid personality disorder. She finally had him half convinced that the world
wasn’t
out to get him. Now she’s gonna tell him she can’t meet with him for the foreseeable future because some person, identity unknown, was trying to kill her? Yeah, not!

Kate lay on her back, exhausted. “Oh, Eddie, what am I going to do?” she said to the ceiling.

She was startled when her husband’s soft baritone echoed in her head.
After me, your work’s been your life. Without that, what would you have?

Her eyes welled up. Eddie had always understood how important her work was to her, much more so than his was to him. He enjoyed playing with numbers, and especially enjoyed being paid good money for it. But her work was her passion. He’d respected that, despite the fact that she made less than half what he did in income.

As the tears broke loose and trickled down her cheeks, Kate knew her decision was made. And the father of her baby agreed.

She finally drifted off around two-thirty in the morning.

Less than four hours later, an explosion ripped her from a sound sleep.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Kate grabbed her robe and bolted down the stairs. At the bottom, she froze, staring across the living room. The big bay window Eddie had spent an entire weekend installing two years ago was gone.

“Get down!” Mac shouted.

Kate ducked down behind an armchair. She put a hand over her pounding heart. Her stomach grumbled, then heaved.

Dear God! Bad time for morning sickness.

She swallowed, willing her digestive system to calm down. Then she peeked out.

The dim, gray light of early dawn was seeping around the edges of the drapes on the other windows and through the hole where the bay window had been. Mac stood with his back against the wall beside the gaping hole. He wore nothing but briefs and was holding the biggest handgun Kate had ever seen.

She realized the urge to ask if he always carried a Glock in his jockey shorts was the product of incipient hysteria. Instead, she called across the room, “What happened?”

“Got up, headin’ for the bathroom. Window blew behind me. One second sooner, my butt would’ve been full of buckshot.” Mac flopped onto his stomach and belly-crawled across the floor toward her.

As he got closer, Kate’s heart skipped a beat. “Your back!” she gasped and started to stand up.

“Get down!”

He reached the chair and crouched beside her. “Glass. Don’t feel like it went deep. Probably saw my shadow on the curtain. Thought it was you.”

She looked at his back more closely. There were a dozen or so cuts, but none of them were bleeding heavily.

After they’d been hunkered down for several minutes, she asked, “What are we waiting for?”

“Sirens. Neighbors should’ve called 911.”

After another couple minutes, he grumbled, “Takin’ their good ole sweet time. What’s the matter with these cops anyway?”

“Budget cuts,” Kate guessed. She suspected that was why Phillips was usually accompanied by Officer Hernandez, instead of another detective. Cheaper to have each detective partnered with a uniform so they could work more cases with fewer detectives. Either that or even his fellow detectives found Phillips so obnoxious they refused to work with him.

After another minute, Kate slithered out from behind the chair. Mac made a grab for her but she slipped past him. Staying low, she headed down the hall to the master bedroom and bath. She needed something to clean up Mac’s back. Maybe he didn’t mind that he was dripping blood on her rug, but she did. And she needed clothes. She could now hear sirens in the distance and she wasn’t dealing with the police in her bathrobe if she could help it.

Once again police cars, their lights flashing, were providing entertainment for Kate’s neighbors.

Inside, an officer was asking questions, scribbling in the obligatory notepad, while Kate, now in jeans and a shirt, was trying to clean up Mac’s back. “You need an ambulance, sir?” the cop asked.

Mac shook his head at the same time that Kate nodded. Mac pointed his chin at her. “Nurse Nancy here’ll do.”

“I know you won’t go to the hospital,” she said. “But some of these cuts still have glass in them. That’s beyond my nursing skills. Yes, we need paramedics.”

Mac scowled as the cop spoke into his portable radio. “They’re on the way, ma’am.”

Rob and Phillips arrived at the same time. They stood on her front walk glaring at each other for a long moment.

“Looks like the shoot-out at the OK corral,” Mac muttered, watching them from the open doorway. He was now wearing jeans, the Glock having mysteriously disappeared when the sirens were first detected.

“Get back in here, you eejit!” Kate hissed. “This guy may be crazy enough to try again, even
with
cops all over the place.”

“You’re right, sweet pea. Probably long gone but shouldn’t take no chances. Hey, Rob,” he yelled. “Get your butt in here! You’re a target, too.”

Phillips broke the staring contest off and made an after-you gesture. Rob walked ahead of him up the porch steps.

Once inside, the detective announced, “Well, folks, I think some police protection is in order here.”

“I’ve hired private bodyguards–”

“You can save your money now, Franklin. The taxpayer’s taking over.”

“I was about to say that we’ll take all the protection we can get.”

“You got a bodyguard on
her
too, Franklin?” Phillips sneered, cocking his head in Kate’s direction.

“Oh, come on, Phillips, I thought we’d gotten past that,” Rob said through gritted teeth.

The detective ignored him. He was staring at Mac. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m a friend of the family,” Mac growled back at him. “One of
her
bodyguards.”

“Down, boy,” Kate muttered out of the side of her mouth. She was fairly certain Rob wasn’t going to deck Phillips, but she wasn’t so sure about Mac. Especially now that a paramedic was trying to get him to stand still while she fished slivers of glass out of his back.

“Mac Reilly, Detective Phillips,” she said.

“Pleasure ain’t mine,” Mac growled.

“Charmed. You feed him raw meat, Mrs. Huntington?”

Rob stepped between Mac and Phillips. “Do you and your officers have any more questions, Detective?”

“You all got any different answers yet?”

“No,” Kate answered him.

“Then my officers will be canvassing the neighbors. Looking for clues. You know, doing our jobs,” Phillips said. Turning away, he yelled, “Hernandez, get in here! New assignment.”

An hour later, Kate stood in the middle of her living room rummaging through her briefcase for her schedule book. The crime scene technicians, who’d been removing buckshot from the walls and examining the splintered window frame, had finally left. Only she, Mac, Rob and Officer Hernandez remained.

Kate had no intention of stopping work completely but she knew she wouldn’t be doing her clients justice today. She was too keyed up and yet sleep-deprived. Finding the book, she flipped through the pages. Good, no one she was supposed to see today was in crisis. She was a little concerned about Cheryl, but there was a hole in her schedule Monday. Maybe she could come in then.

Grabbing the phone, she punched in the center’s number. As it rang in her ear, she said to the room in general, “War council. Kitchen. Ten minutes.” She heard the brusqueness in her voice.

I’ve been hanging around Mac too much
.

After working out the re-juggling of her schedule with Pauline, she took Officer Hernandez aside. “Look, I know you’re supposed to stick close to me, but we have some confidential things to discuss. Would you mind sitting out on the porch. It’s very pleasant out there this time of year.”

The officer, a short but sturdy-looking young woman, held her gaze for a moment. There was a hint of suspicion in her chocolate-brown eyes. “Sure,” she finally said. Kate waited until she was out the door, then went over and locked it.

As they took seats around the big oak table in her kitchen, Rob said, “Liz isn’t going to be happy about not being included.”

“Call her on your cell. Put it on speaker,” Mac said. “Poor man’s conference call.”

Rob did as suggested, and Kate leaned in the direction of the cell. “Liz, can you hear us?”

“Sure can,” Liz’s disembodied voice boomed from the center of the table.

“Did Rob fill you in on what’s happened here this morning?”

“Yes. Sounds like this guy’s getting bolder.”

“Or more desperate,” Mac said.

“Or both,” Kate said. “And we’ve got another problem as well. My father told Mac he’s flying back here once they get Mary home. I talked to Pete yesterday. They were in Colorado. I do
not
want my father coming back here and becoming another target.”

“You could lie,” Liz said. “Tell him the burglars have been caught.”

“Or we could let him come,” Rob said. “We could use his help. Can he shoot a gun?”

Mac dipped his head in a half nod. “Yup.”

Kate glared at both of them. She opened her mouth but Rob cut her off. “Look, I’m the father of two daughters, one who’s almost grown and one who thinks she is. I understand the importance of stepping back and not interfering in your child’s life. But if someone was threatening one of my girls, even if she was seventy years old and I was in my nineties, wild horses couldn’t keep me away!”

“He’s got a point, Kate,” Liz said quietly. “It’s what parents do, try to protect their children from harm.”

Her stomach chose that moment to gurgle and heave. She swallowed hard and eyed the box of saltines sitting on the counter. But she didn’t dare go get them. She didn’t want Mac figuring out she was pregnant. He would tell her father, and then there was no way he would stay away.

Rob was still talking, discussing who would be guarding whom. “I’ll put Skip on duty 24/7 for now. Mac, we need you to start investigating suspects. We’ve got two guys for you to track down. Liz found a lead on one of them, some unpaid parking tickets in Pennsylvania.”

“I got mug shots of him, and the other scumbag, too,” Liz said from the phone.

“Can you clean them up so they don’t look like mug shots?” Rob asked. “People may not admit to knowing someone who’s obviously a criminal.”

“Sure. A little strategic cropping should do the trick.”

“Good. Now back to the security set-up. Phillips has one officer on Kate and one on me. I’m going to ask him to put them both on Kate, one inside and one out.”

Kate’s stomach heaved again, then knotted. Afraid to open her mouth for fear she’d throw up, she shook her head vigorously.

Rob held up his hand. “Hear me out. If you think about it, all the incidents, except for the first two, have been directed at you. Either he’s decided he wants you worse–”

“Or he wants her out of the way first,” Liz finished.

“It’s not just that you’re at greater risk,” Rob said, “but if we have more people on you, we might catch this guy in the act next time he tries something.”

You’re slick, buster. You knew that argument would get me
.

Out loud, she said, “Okay, as long as Lou doesn’t let you out of his sight.”

“Amen to that!” came from the cell phone. “How about both Lou and Ben on 24/7 instead of alternating nights, like they have been?”

“Good idea, “ Rob said. “They can take turns, one catching some sleep on the sofa, while the other patrols outside. This guy may decide to set fire to one of our houses.”

“Maybe Kate should stay with us for the duration?” Liz said.

“I think that’s too risky,” Kate said. “With all his targets under one roof, he’d really be tempted to set fire to the house.”

Mac had been too quiet. She suspected he was chewing on the idea that she was the primary target. Now he turned to her. “Sweet pea, you ain’t leavin’–”

“Stop right there!” Her voice was louder than she’d intended. She lowered it but kept the tone firm. “I have seriously considered taking a leave of absence. There is no argument any of you can offer that I haven’t already had with myself. The answer is no. After today, I’m not staying home from work. My life, my decision, period!”

After several seconds of silence, she turned to Rob. “I’ve cleared my schedule for the day. What’s yours look like?”

“Not a damn thing on it that’s more important than catching this bastard.”

“Good. Only problem is, we need my files and I already told Pauline I wouldn’t be in this morning.”

“We’ll figure something out. Let’s go.” Rob stood up.

“Need some plywood. For that hole,” Mac said. “Liz, be there ’bout noon for those pics. That work?”

“Works for me,” said the disembodied voice from the table.

They all jumped when another voice behind them said, “Where we going?” Officer Hernandez was standing in the kitchen doorway.

“How’d you get in here?” Kate asked.

“Through the hole, used to be a window. Heard raised voices,” the officer said in a clipped, matter-of-fact voice.

Kate hid a grin and glanced at Mac.
These two need to get together
.

At their office building, they went up the fire stairs nearest Rob’s office to avoid crossing paths with Pauline or Sally. Kate stopped outside the law firm’s door. “I think I know how to do this. Rob, go check out the center’s waiting room. If Pauline’s at her desk, tell her you’re looking for me.”