Walking After Midnight (42 page)

„For Corey’s sake…“ Steve cast a glance down at his daughter and looked up at Kendrick again.

„We’ll get your kid’s mother out of this in one piece,“ Larry Kendrick said reassuringly. „I appreciate you calling me in on this, you know. It could be big, very big. By the way, where’s the van?“

„Where’s the van? You mean none of you guys have it? I thought sure you moved it before we got here.“

„The van wasn’t here when we got here. Come on, Steve, don’t play games with me. You know where it is.“

„I don’t. I swear. It was here.“ The two exchanged measuring looks. „On Saturday night, or, rather, Sunday morning when we left it, it was here. Ask Summer, if you don’t believe me.“

Summer nodded agreement.

„Somebody else must have grabbed it.“ Kendrick made an urgent beckoning gesture to one of the other men in suits. He didn’t bother introducing the man who came up but whispered furiously in his ear. The man nodded and walked quickly away.

„When you called me today and sent me over here to stand guard over this van, you
really
thought the thing was here?“ Kendrick asked Steve. „It wasn’t some sort of trick to get us in place to catch the bad guys and save your ass?“

„You called him today and told him the van was here?“ Summer glanced at Steve, surprised. „When?“

„At the grocery store, when I was calling everybody else. You went to the ladies’ room, remember? I decided that I better let somebody know where the van was just in case I didn’t make it out alive from our little rendezvous with destiny. I didn’t want to worry you with that possibility, so I waited till you were out of the way to make the call. The whole way up here in the back of that Lincoln, I was hoping Kendrick and his crew might still be hanging around. When I saw the van was missing, I thought they’d taken it and gone.“

„Plan D?“ Summer cocked a fond eyebrow at him. She would have been a little miffed that he hadn’t confided in her if she hadn’t called Sammy and alerted him to the funeral home scheme while Steve was in the rest room. Clearly neither she nor her beloved believed in leaving much to chance.

Steve grinned. „Yeah.“

„We
didn’t take the van,“ Kendrick said grimly. „If you know where it is, now’s the time to tell me, Steve.“

„Jesus, Larry, do you think I’m playing some kind of game? The van was here. Now I don’t have a clue where it is.“

„Okay. Okay.“ Kendrick held up a calming hand. „It’s important we find it, that’s all.“

„Daddy, there’s Uncle Mitch,“ Corey said suddenly, interrupting.

Following her gaze, Summer watched as a tall, lean, extraordinarily handsome man walked with slow purpose toward them. When she could tear her eyes away from goggling at his blond, blue-eyed splendor, she glanced at Steve. Steve was suddenly narrow-eyed and grim-jawed as he watched his erstwhile best friend approach. Summer wondered if he expected some kind of verbal or physical assault.

Knowing what lay between the two men, Summer felt Steve’s tension as if it were her own.

40

Mitch walked up to them and, to Summer’s surprise, held out his hand to Steve. „Glad you made it,“ he said quietly. He nodded at Larry Kendrick. „Hello, Kendrick.“

„Thanks. I’m glad I did, too,“ Steve answered, clasping Mitch’s hand briefly before releasing it. For a moment, Summer wondered if, knowing men, that was all that was going to be said by these two with so much history between them, but then Mitch smiled at Steve. It was a beautiful smile, Summer had to admit. A beautiful smile on the face of a beautiful man.

„Long time no see, pal.“ He glanced down at Corey. „Hi, squirt.“

„Hi, Uncle Mitch.“ Corey smiled up at him, clearly oblivious to the emotional undercurrents swirling among the adults. „I got kidnapped.“

„So I heard. I was on my way to rescue you, you know.“

„My dad did that.“ Corey glanced down at Muffy, then stood up with coltish grace. She was going to be tall, Summer decided, looking at her, and very pretty one day. „How come you don’t come to see Mom and me much anymore? When Daddy first left, you used to come over all the time. Mom said you guys were dating.“

The expression on Steve’s face at this revelation was a study in contradictions.

„Your mom and I were just friends.“ Avoiding Steve’s gaze, Mitch reached out to tug at Muffy’s ears. „Since when did you get a dog, squirt?“

„It’s Summer’s.“ Corey nodded at Summer. „You know Mom doesn’t like dogs. She says they make her sneeze, and they have fleas.“

„Summer, this is Mitch Taylor. Mitch, Summer McAfee,“ Steve belatedly made the introductions. Summer shook hands with Mitch. His clasp was warm, firm. Having heard so much about him, Summer had formed her own image of what he should look like, but her mental picture did not do Mitch justice. Though Steve had told her that Mitch was far handsomer than he, Summer had not expected Mitch to be one of the handsomest men she had ever seen. Wavy blond hair, bright blue eyes, tanned, perfect features, a blindingly white smile. Tall. Muscular but lean. The guy was good-looking enough to be in the movies.

No wonder Steve had lost so many girls to him.

Glancing at the man who still kept firm possession of her heart, Summer surprised a wry look on his face as he watched her eyeing Mitch. She supposed she was looking dazzled. She supposed, too, that Steve had experienced this reaction to Mitch from every woman he had ever introduced his friend to in his life.

She took a step closer to Steve, so that her shoulder just brushed his hard bicep, and smiled into his eyes. She would have taken his hand if Corey had not been present, but instinct told her to go slowly around Corey: Young girls were notoriously jealous of their fathers’ affections.

Steve’s eyes crinkled in response, and Summer knew that for her there was no contest at all. No matter how physically breathtaking Mitch was, he could not, in her estimation, compete with the uncompromising masculinity that Steve exuded. The one man was a beautiful object to be admired; the other exuded raw sex appeal.

Mitch was a young girl’s dream; Steve was a grown woman’s.

Les Carter came up to them and looked at Corey.

„Your mom’s out front in a patrol car. We’re going to put you and her up in a hotel here in town for the night. Are you ready to go?“

„Is my mom okay?“ Corey voiced the question that, from his expression, Steve hadn’t quite dared to put into words.

„She’s fine. Nobody hurt her. She was real worried about you, though. I think once she sees that you’re okay she’ll be as good as new.“

„I’ll walk you out,“ Steve said to Corey, putting his arm around his daughter’s shoulders. He glanced at Summer, „Be back in a minute,“ he mouthed. The three of them, Steve, Corey, and Les Carter, headed outside.

„Oh, I almost forgot.“ Corey pulled away from Steve and ran back to Summer, Muffy cuddled against her chest. „I guess I better give you your dog back.“

Summer looked into Corey’s face. If she tried, she could see traces of Steve’s features, softened and feminized in Corey. „Would you like to keep her for the night? She’s my mother’s really, not mine, and she’d probably be just as happy with you as with me.“

„Oh, could I?“ Corey smiled dazzlingly. „I’ll take good care of her. Thanks, Summer.“

And she ran back to join her father and Les Carter.

Steve sent Summer a look over Corey’s head. Summer grinned at him. At least his ex-wife was a woman. Muffy wouldn’t relieve herself on her foot.

„I’ve got to go see what I can do about locating that van. Are you sure you and Calhoun left it here?“ Kendrick asked Summer.

„One hundred percent positive.“

Shaking his head thoughtfully, Kendrick walked away. Summer was left alone with Mitch. Steve’s Mitch. Deedee’s Mitch. She had heard so much about him, knew so many intimate details about his life, that for one of the few times in her life she found herself tongue-tied. She could not think of one single thing to say.

Mitch solved her dilemma by speaking first. „You and Steve have had yourselves quite an adventure,“ he said, smiling at her. „Suppose we all three go grab a pizza and you all tell me all about it?“

The very thought of a pizza made Summer salivate. She was starving – which, she thought, was getting to be quite a usual state with her. She had just opened her mouth to thank Mitch very much and agree when Sammy and Les Carter rejoined them.

Sammy looked at Summer. „I had to twist their arms, but I finally got Carter here and Kendrick to agree to let you eat and get a good night’s sleep before they start in on you.“

„We’ve got you and Calhoun hotel rooms for the night.“ Les Carter sounded less jovial than Sammy. „In the morning, we’ll want to get your statements.“

„What about supper?“ Summer said plaintively, as Mitch, with a nod at the other two men, seemed to melt away. There went her pizza, she thought, gazing after him.

„We’ll provide that, too.“ Les Carter relaxed enough to smile at her. „Miss McAfee, are you
sure
that this is the place where you all left that van?“

„Yes,“ Summer said, growing tired of the whole topic. The location of the van did not interest her very much at the moment. Supper and a bed did.

„I told you, you’re going to have to wait and badger her in the morning,“ Sammy said firmly. „Come on, Summer, I’ll treat you and Calhoun to supper and drop you off at the hotel. We’ve got all of y’all separate rooms.“

Sammy’s slight emphasis on
separate
was not lost on Summer, but she hoped it went over Les Carter’s head.

They met Steve coming back in on their way out, and the three of them went out to dinner, just making it past the TV crew that had pulled up with a screech of brakes. A young black woman jumped out of the WTES van, and Steve dodged behind Sammy.

As Sammy said, tomorrow would be soon enough to give a statement to the press.

At nine-thirty at night, in the small town of Cedar Lake, there wasn’t a huge choice of restaurants. It was just getting full dark, and Summer was glad. She looked a mess, she knew, and Steve was positively disreputable. But she was so hungry, she didn’t much care how she looked, and she had a hunch Steve felt the same way.

Steve was strangely preoccupied all through supper. They ate at Sally’s Diner, which was, from the looks of it, a chain restaurant such as a Frisch’s or a Jerry’s that had fallen on hard times and been purchased by a local entrepreneur. At any rate, except for a pizza carry-out it was the only restaurant open in town. Seated on a carved wooden bench in front of a large plate-glass window, Summer tucked into an inch-thick charcoal-grilled sirloin steak, baked potato bursting with butter and sour cream, and salad loaded with croutons and Italian dressing, and tried not to mind that Steve spent most of the meal staring abstractedly out into the firefly-lit night beyond the window. She gave Sammy a heavily censored account of what had befallen her and Steve, leaving out pertinent details such as Steve’s state of undress when they met and exacdy how close they had subsequently grown. Sammy listened, puffing on his cigar and shooting occasional shrewd glances at her from under bushy white brows. She had a feeling that there was little he didn’t know.

„It’s a ring of rogue cops,“ Sammy said to Steve as the three sipped coffee after the meal. „We’ve identified about a dozen – six of them my boys. There are more, but we’re not sure how many, or who they are. We’re working on that. It’s a drug network, and it’s not just in this state, by the way. It stretches all across the South through Georgia and the Carolinas and Florida, and it involves politicians and businessmen as well as cops. We’ll find out who they are, too. It’s just a matter of doing some grunt work now. From what we’ve been able to piece together, a drug cartel out of Colombia provides the drugs – cocaine, mostly – and it gets to this country any which way it can: private planes, couriers bringing it through customs, illegal runs across the Mexican border, you name it. Haiti’s a big jumping-off point right now. That’s where the bodies in that lost van of yours were headed, by the way: Haiti. Apparendy the ring had a deal with Harmon Brothers to store drugs in their vaults and to provide them with bodies when needed. From what I’ve been told, it’s easy to get drugs into this country. It’s hard to get cash out. So, when necessary, bodies and coffins were provided by Harmon Brothers, stuffed with cash and sent home to their ‘grieving relatives’ in other countries. Customs never looks too hard at corpses, apparendy.“

„So Harmon Brothers knew what was going on.“ Summer cast a sideways look at Steve, who was frowning down at his coffee. She had never, in the admittedly brief but intense time she had known him, seen him so morose.

„They knew. At least, some of the higher-ups in the company knew. Exactly who was involved and how deeply, I couldn’t tell you at this point. It’s getting kind of murky the deeper we get into it, but we’ll get it sorted out.“

„I suppose you know that there are DEA and CIA fingerprints all over this thing.“ Steve looked up at last. „I caught on to that when I was investigating three years ago. I just never got the chance to pinpoint the details.“

„Had a little interruption in your career, didn’t you?“ Sammy gave a sympathetic chuckle. „So what exactly did you find out?“