Watch Your Back (54 page)

Her brain, beginning to function again, grabbed another detail that leaped from the mist of her memory and jumped onto center stage. ‘Why did Robinette drive to Virginia?’

‘Excuse me?’ Joseph asked with a frown.

‘You told us that he crossed the Chesapeake Bay at the northern end, driving from Baltimore to Annapolis and across the Bay Bridge to get to Wight’s Landing and Tanner’s beach house. That’s on the Maryland end of the Eastern Shore.’

‘I get the geography, Stevie,’ Joseph said dryly. ‘Where are you going with this?’

‘I don’t know. Yet. But we do know that, after the shooting at the dock, Robinette escaped by driving south,
four hours
out of his way to the Virginia end of the Eastern Shore. Then he came back across the Bay through the Bay Bridge Tunnel, which would have put him down by Newport News. That meant he had to drive another four hours back up to Baltimore. He went eight hours out of his way. Why?’

‘He was afraid he’d be caught going back over the Bay Bridge,’ Joseph said with a shrug. ‘He barely got away from Tanner’s property before Sheriff Moore’s deputy arrived at the scene, followed closely by Deacon Novak. He didn’t want to risk it. That makes sense to me.’

‘What about it doesn’t make sense to you, Stevie?’ Grayson asked.

Frowning, Stevie walked to the whiteboard on the observation room wall and picked up a red marker, tapping it against her chin. And then she knew what bothered her.

Quickly she sketched a map of the area. ‘You’ve got the Delmarva Peninsula here. It’s separated from Baltimore and Annapolis on the mainland by the Chesapeake Bay, crossable by the Bay Bridge at the top. Delaware and Philly are north, then you’ve got all these little roads going south, cutting through the Maryland part . . .’ she squiggled some lines ‘. . . ending up at the tip of the Virginia part and then back to the mainland via the Bay Bridge Tunnel.’

‘Thus the Del-Mar-Va name,’ Joseph said, shaking his head. ‘What gives, Stevie?’

‘Oh, I see,’ Clay murmured, giving Stevie a nod of approval. ‘Robinette didn’t need to go eight hours out of his way to run from the law yesterday morning.’

‘Exactly,’ Stevie said. ‘He could have gone east across the peninsula, toward the ocean, then north to Delaware. If he took side roads, he could have bypassed the Delaware Turnpike, the Bay Bridge,
and
the Bay Bridge Tunnel. And
all
of their toll cameras. He would have been back in Baltimore by breakfast.’

‘Instead he drives eight hours and risks exposure on another toll camera,’ Joseph said. ‘Okay, I’m with you now. Why would he do that?’

Stevie shrugged. ‘I don’t know. I have to assume he had some reason to go to Virginia. Now, we do know the first intruder into Clay’s house yesterday was shocked to see that Robinette had murdered those two cops. He hightailed it out of there, remember?’

‘And then left the country a few hours later,’ Grayson said. ‘Most of the flights or combinations of flights that would have put him over the Pacific when he called Henderson would have left the East Coast around six
P.M.
Sunday evening.’

Stevie nodded. ‘We also know that Robinette made a lot of phone calls to his phone number on Sunday morning before he arrived at Clay’s and killed the cops.’

‘Like Robinette was getting twitchy about something, maybe,’ Clay said. ‘It sounded like Henderson believed Robinette was out to kill her. Maybe he was twitchy about Intruder One, too. Not crazy about that moniker, though. Just doesn’t have the same ring as Cocksucker.’

Joseph’s lips twitched, then he sobered. ‘That man probably killed Culp and the clerk. Killing Scott Culp, I get. Culp leaked the whereabouts of the safe house to Robinette and once it became clear Hyatt had rigged it to flush the leak out, Culp became a loose end. However, the clerk’s still a mystery.’

Stevie sat down, her leg having begun to ache. ‘Why would Robinette try to kill Henderson? Just because she missed?’

‘Maybe he was afraid she’d get caught,’ Clay said. ‘And then do what she just did – offer to give him up in return for a deal. She became a loose end, like Scott Culp. He had police informants. If he found out I’d shot her, he might have been afraid she’d left blood evidence behind that could ID her. Again, giving her the opportunity to betray him.’

Another detail jumped to the middle of her brain. ‘Joseph, you showed Henderson a photo of her apartment, all burned up. Can I see it?’

‘She never blinked when I showed it to her,’ Joseph said, handing Stevie the picture. ‘She already knew he’d burned down her place.’

‘When did this happen?’ she asked.

‘Saturday night, about two hours after she shot at you.’

Stevie nodded. ‘That makes sense. She probably tried to go home Saturday night. If I’d been shot doing a drive-by shooting, I’d try to crawl home, patch myself up. But she couldn’t go home because Robinette already burned it down.’

‘No,’ Joseph said, ‘he had to have had someone do it for him. He was accepting a Humanitarian of the Year award from a civic group when the fire occurred.’

‘May have been Intruder One that did the fire,’ Grayson said. ‘He took care of killing Culp. Sounds like he’s Robinette’s muscle.’

‘What if Henderson went to that hotel, the one where the clerk was found dead?’ Stevie pointed to the photo of the burned-out apartment. ‘She couldn’t go home because it was burned up. She had to go somewhere to get patched up.’

‘And if Intruder One had been sent to follow her . . .’ Clay shrugged. ‘It makes sense.’

She rubbed the back of her neck, then relaxed when Clay took up the task for her. The man had amazing hands. ‘Assuming all that, then at some point Henderson left the Key Hotel and ended up at the free clinic,’ she said, ‘because she stole the doctor’s truck. Between leaving the free clinic and murdering Radcliffe’s cameraman, she gets a call from Intruder One, from somewhere over the Pacific. Fast forward a few hours and she breaks into Clay’s and my room at the Peabody Hotel, armed with a weapon that she is later very surprised to learn had been used in two murders. She felt betrayed. Betrayed enough to give Intruder One up, too.’

‘They were friends,’ Clay said. ‘He calls her, knows she’s in trouble, tells her where to find some weapons. She doesn’t expect him to set her up for the two murders. But why would he do it? He’s on his way to Asia. Why would he call her from the air to give her weapons?’

Clay’s hands had moved from her neck to her shoulders and Stevie had to bite back a moan. ‘She thought Robinette was out to kill her. Maybe Intruder One expected her to go after Robinette and not come after us in the hotel room.’

Joseph shook his head. ‘All of that might be true, but none of it addresses why Robinette went to Virginia, if he did, indeed, go there on purpose.’

Stevie looked at her crudely drawn map again. ‘We know the time at which he crossed the Bay Bridge, here,’ she pointed, ‘from the toll booth records. And we know when he left Tanner’s property – seconds after he finished shooting at the dock. And when he hit the Bay Bridge Tunnel, down here, again, from the toll records. So we can track his path that far. Can you have your agents check for any unusual occurrences along his path during this time period?’

‘The timeline developed by my aide,’ Joseph said, ‘shows that Robinette couldn’t have started for Wight’s Landing until late Sunday night. A news article said that he hosted a dinner party that night at his home at which he agreed to consider a run for public office.’

Stevie’s mouth fell open. ‘You have got to be kidding! That makes me sick.’

‘Agreed,’ Joseph said, ‘but that he’s doing so many events and appearances gives us the ability to track his past movements. My team will know what time to begin and end their search, plus the points in between.’

Clay’s hands stilled on Stevie’s shoulders. ‘You might have just narrowed down the list of soldiers who served with Robinette. We already knew we could search based on his eye color from the security video from my house, shoe size, too. But now we can also filter our search by anyone who has a Virginia address, now or in the past.’

‘Or family in that area,’ Stevie added, grimly following the direction his mind had taken. ‘Robinette was willing to kill Cordelia to draw me out. He was willing to set up his own son for a murder he committed. Maybe he figured he could flush Intruder One out the same way.’ She stood up, having made a decision in that moment. ‘Are we done for now?’

‘You are,’ Joseph said. ‘I have a ton of work to do. Why?’

‘Because my child needs me, and I need her. I’m taking a break for a few hours to spend time with Cordelia.’

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Baltimore, Maryland, Tuesday, March 18, 1.45
A.M.

I
’m dead
, Robinette thought, curling into as tight a ball as he could. He knew he wasn’t really dead, but at this point he sure wanted to be.

Fletch poisoned m
e. There was no other explanation. This was no mild sedative wearing off.
And then Fletch left
and took the formula. I’m ruined. There’s nothing left
.

‘Todd?’ Lisa pushed his office door open because Fletch had left it unlocked. ‘Are you all right?’ she demanded. Then, abruptly, concern became contempt. ‘You’re drunk.’

‘No. Not drunk.’

‘Then what’s this?’ From the corner of his eye he could see she held an empty liquor bottle.

‘Not mine.’ Fletch had left it.
To get me in trouble with Lisa
. It was a final slap in the face.

‘Don’t lie to me, Todd. What scandal’s about to hit the paper and ruin your political career before you even have one? I barely fixed that last bar fight. Goddammit, I’m sick of you.’

She hadn’t fixed anything. Brenda Lee had made that lawsuit go away. ‘Same goes.’

She grabbed his injured arm and yanked, trying to pull him to feet. He groaned and vomited. All over her new Manolos. So there was some justice in the world.

‘You did that on purpose,’ she hissed. ‘If you’re so sick of me, why did you call me?’

‘No one left,’ he said, his mind roiling. On some level he knew he should stop talking but he couldn’t stop himself. ‘All gone except for Brenda Lee. She can’t carry me.’

There was a long moment of silence. ‘I hate you,’ Lisa said, her voice breaking.

He’d made her cry. Good. He’d do worse when he woke up. If he lived.

‘Just get me home.’ The cavalry would be there soon enough. He’d called Brenda Lee before he’d called Lisa. She’d meet him at his house and would take him someplace he could sleep this off in safety. Brenda Lee was the last one he trusted.

Hunt Valley, Maryland, Tuesday, March 18, 11.45
A.M.

‘Do you want the good news or the bad?’ Stevie asked as she hung up her cell phone and reached across the console to hold his hand. They’d been halfway to Daphne’s farm when the call had come in from Lieutenant Hyatt. From the sound of the call it was mostly bad news.

Although it was hard to be truly upset at the moment. Stevie sat next to him, inviting his touch. They were finally on their path together when he’d almost given up hope.

‘Good news first,’ he murmured.

‘Joseph’s agents connected Robinette’s travel path through Virginia to his past. A Newport News home burned down mid-morning on Monday. It belonged to a Michael and Winnifred Westmoreland. They weren’t home, but had they been, firefighters were doubtful they would have made it out alive. Mrs Westmoreland is disabled and uses a wheelchair.’

‘Cold. But not a surprise. What’s the connection?’

‘Michael Westmoreland, Jr. He wasn’t an MP with Robinette, but was stationed in the same camp at the same time. He’s a computer guru, apparently, and the head of security at Filbert Pharmaceutical Lab. His eye color matches Intruder One’s. So now he has a name.’

‘Have they matched Westmoreland to a flight itinerary yet?’

‘They’re still working on it. But that Robinette tried to kill his parents would be motive for helping Henderson take him down.’

‘True enough. What’s the bad news?’

‘Robinette’s cigarette butt is missing.’

Clay shot her a quick, surprised glance. ‘What? How?’

‘Nobody knows. It’s just not there. I suppose it could have just been lost, especially since I went on leave at that time and the case had been closed. I doubt the lab would have pitched it. Either it was deliberately removed from the evidence room or it got mislaid.’

‘Shit.’

‘I know. But I’m sure Robinette has plenty of DNA left for us to procure with less-than-honorable methods.’

‘And if that requires tooth extraction by blunt force?’

‘I said I’d hit him with the frying pan, didn’t I?’

Clay chuckled. ‘You did. Although your cane seems to work pretty well, too.’ Never complacent, he glanced into the rearview mirror, pausing when something else caught his eye.

Somebody was following them. Somebody in addition to the person that was supposed to be. Joseph had sent Deacon Novak to watch their backs until Clay got Stevie safely within the farm’s gates. Deacon’s red SUV was clearly noticeable two cars behind them.

This new car was a small sedan. Hyundai, silver four-door, at least seven or eight years old.

‘What is it?’ Stevie asked, picking up on his changed mood.

‘We have a visitor. Do me a favor and stay down. Please?’

She glared at him, but slunk down in her seat – while she drew her gun. ‘Far enough?’

‘No. Sao Paulo isn’t far enough, but it’ll have to do. Call Novak. Tell him to fall back a quarter-mile or so. We’re going to get off at this next exit in a hurry. Hopefully the Hyundai won’t be able to follow, but I want Deacon with us either way.’

She did as he asked and he gauged the distance to the next exit. Waiting until the last moment, Clay yanked the car onto the exit ramp, earning him some blaring horns – and a look at the Hyundai’s back license plate as it zipped past, missing the exit. Novak’s red SUV took the exit at a more normal pace.

‘We lost him,’ Clay said, satisfied. ‘You can sit up now.’

With a little wince she did so. ‘Did you get the license plate?’

If he told her, she’d feel obligated to track down the driver and Clay wanted her out of the game.
Safe
. At least until she was a hundred percent healed. And he wanted her to have this time with Cordelia, unconflicted by all the things she ‘should be doing’.

So he lied. ‘Not enough of it to be useful. You winced a second ago. Are you all right?’

Stevie shot him a sharp look that said his abrupt topic change hadn’t fooled her. ‘My shoulder hit the car door when we took the exit. I’ll be fine. How far are we from the farm?’

‘Twenty minutes. Put your seat back and rest.’

Another sharp look. ‘I’m not a flower, Clay. I don’t need you to protect me.’

‘I know,’ he said quietly. ‘But
I
need to protect you. I hate seeing you hurt.’

‘I hate seeing you hurt, too. But what if I manage to get this leg working again so that I get my old job back? What if I’m on active duty? Will you be able to deal with that?’

‘I’ve dealt with it for the last two years.’ He glanced at her, found her eyes narrowed in concern. ‘I would never ask you not to be a cop, Stevie. It’s who you are.’

Her face relaxed and he returned his gaze to the road.

‘Why aren’t you?’ she asked, genuine curiosity in her voice. ‘I mean, why isn’t it who you are anymore? What changed? Why did you leave DCPD?’

He shrugged. ‘I’d served for years with Marines who would’ve died for me and I for them. I came back and immediately applied for the police academy. I’d been raised by a good, decent cop. Dad’s friends were good, decent cops. I knew there were bad apples out there, but never expected to work for one. Not right away.’

‘Your boss was corrupt?’

He nodded once. ‘A real bastard. I couldn’t look the other way.’

‘So you left?’

The words
just like that
didn’t leave her mouth, but he heard them anyway. ‘Not exactly.’

‘Then you went to IA?’

‘Not at first, but later I had to. Conversations with IA have a way of getting out and my dad was still on the force, coming up on retirement. My boss had made friends in high places and I didn’t want to ruin anything for my father. I put it off until I had proof.’

‘What did you do?’

‘I followed my boss, got photographic proof that he was accepting bribes from businesses who were on the shady side. That wasn’t a surprise, because that’s what I knew he was doing. I was surprised to find him working with a local drug dealer. The pictures, in addition to the time and place for a major drug deal, got IA’s attention. My boss got caught. Did a little time.’

‘And then you quit?’

‘Not at first. No clean cop wants dirty cops around, but nobody really trusts you after you’ve been talking to IA.’

‘I know about that,’ she murmured and he sighed.

‘I know you do. But I stuck it out – until another dirty cop stepped in to fill the void my boss had left. As a patrol cop, I couldn’t do anything to stop the corruption and I didn’t know who was trustworthy. And nobody trusted me. At that point I didn’t have anyone to watch my back and it got dicey a few times. So I quit and went into the private sector. I’ve got rich clients, but I take on a helluva lot of ones that can’t pay, too.’ He heard the defensiveness in his voice. ‘That’s all.’

‘You chose your battles,’ she said quietly. ‘You’re able to achieve a similar goal now as you did wearing a uniform. To serve and protect. There’s nothing wrong with that.’

He exhaled, unaware he’d been so tense until that moment. Unaware he’d been so afraid of her response. ‘Thank you,’ he said and from the corner of his eye, saw her smile sadly.

‘You might even have chosen the wiser path,’ she murmured.

He frowned. ‘I never said that.’

‘I know. But we are going to see my daughter who I’ve hidden away for her own safety and we did just have to exit the highway in a less than safe fashion because I’m being followed. Again. So whether you said it or not, doesn’t change the facts.’

He opened his mouth to reply, but she shifted her body so that she stared out the window, deep in thought. He let her think in peace, saying no more until they arrived at Daphne’s farm.

Stopping to check in with the agents Joseph had stationed at the property entrance, Clay drove up the private drive, briefly veering off the paved road to get around the area marked off with crime scene tape, a grim reminder of the two agents who’d lost their lives the night before. There was more crime scene tape in the trees bordering the fence where Alec had fired on the shooter, most likely Robinette.

‘Two agents,’ Stevie murmured. ‘Gone.’

‘I know,’ Clay murmured back. ‘Alec and Ethan would have been next.’

And then Robinette would have tried to get through the gate. To Cordelia. He didn’t say it out loud. He didn’t have to. It was written all over Stevie’s face.

She straightened in her seat, lifting her chin. ‘But they weren’t and neither was Cordelia. She’s fine because everyone did their jobs and because you planned this security very well.’

Warmth spread in his chest, dispelling the ice that had started to form at the thought of what might have happened. Reaching through the window, he punched a code into a keypad, then drove through the gate when it opened for him. Agent Novak remained outside, parking diagonally across the drive as he had at the beach house.

Clay stopped in front of the barn and turned off the engine, taking in the grounds, the new cameras. The splashes of yellow from the daffodils that still bloomed. It seemed like they should have died long ago, that it had been weeks since he’d seen them.

That it had been only three days seemed impossible. ‘This is it.’

Stevie looked around, nodding. ‘Gates, fence, cameras, private drive. It’s as well-protected as you said it would be.’ She got out of the vehicle and drew a deep breath. And listened.

‘What do you hear?’ Clay asked her.

‘Nothing.’ She turned to smile at him. ‘It’s quiet and peaceful.’

And then a shriek shattered the quiet. ‘Mama!’ Cordelia came running out of the barn as fast as her legs would carry her and threw her arms around Stevie’s waist, nearly knocking her over. ‘I told them to tell you that you didn’t need to come, but I was wrong. I wanted you here.’

Stevie lifted her chin. ‘What’s this? Uncle Joseph never told me you said that.’

‘I told him that I was
fine
.’ Her lip quivered. ‘But I wasn’t, really,’ she confessed.

Stevie’s eyes shattered and the breath she drew was ragged. ‘Oh, baby. I didn’t know.’

‘I know, Mama.’ Cordelia hugged her. ‘Then Aunt Emma told Uncle Grayson to bring Grandpa and Grandma and Aunt Izzy back here. He did, early this morning before he went to court, but I still wished you were here.’ Cordelia’s face broke into a sunny smile. ‘Now you are!’

Stevie smiled back at her, smoothing Cordelia’s disheveled hair off her forehead. ‘I’m here. Not all night, because I have to work later, but we have several hours, okay?’

‘Okay. Come on.’ She tugged Stevie’s hand. ‘I want to show you Gracie. She’s mine.’

‘Yours? Really?’ Stevie allowed herself to be led toward the barn.

‘Really. Miss Maggie said if you said it was okay, I could have her. For my own.’

‘That’s something we’ll need to talk about, honey. A horse is a big responsibility.’

‘That means no.’

‘No, it means we’ll talk. Show me this horse. I can’t wait to meet her.’

Clay watched them walk away, then turned toward the house to talk to Alec and Ethan, only to find them coming down the hill to meet him.

Ethan looked calm. Unrushed. It was a good sign.

But Alec . . . Clay had expected the boy who’d become like his own son to have his head high, his shoulders back. Last night he’d done what none of them had managed to do – he’d actually hit Robinette with a bullet. Alec had stopped him. Momentarily, yes, but he had stopped him. But Alec didn’t look proud. He looked angry.

Angry, but unharmed. Breathing a quiet prayer of thanks, Clay wrapped his arms around Alec’s shoulders and squeezed hard. ‘You’re okay,’ he said quietly, as he stepped back, searching Alec’s face.

‘Yeah,’ Alec muttered. ‘I’m fine.’

‘He’s been playing Monday morning quarterback with himself all day,’ Ethan said mildly.

Clay met Alec’s eyes. ‘Which part are you replaying?’

‘All of it.’ Alec rolled his eyes. ‘But mostly the part where I was aiming for the bastard’s heart and hit his arm.’

‘The bastard
was
moving,’ Clay pointed out. ‘We’ve only practiced with stationary targets. We’ll train with moving targets in the future. You’ll figure it out.’