Bainbridge Island, Washington
“Here it comes,” Gerrit muttered to his partner. “The inquisition has begun.”
Their one-sided gun battle aboard the ferry sparked a police investigation even though they never fired a shot. And internal affairs would be panting in the wings, waiting their turn to roast Gerrit and Taylor, if any procedural irregularities turned up. A paunchy investigator from the Washington State Patrol motioned Gerrit toward a makeshift office inside the terminal.
Gerrit started toward the officer until the man held up a hand, cell phone planted in one ear. The man straightened and glanced toward Gerrit while shaking his head, jaw tightening as he ended the call.
“My boss told me to stand down.” The officer glared at Gerrit. “Said some feds are on their way to talk to you guys.”
Gerrit nodded. “I’m going to step outside for some fresh air.” He gestured at his partner heading toward an exit door and followed Taylor outside.
Earlier, officers from the Washington state police tried to keep the two of them apart until investigators arrived, but in the confusion over supervision and the number of eyewitnesses milling around, Gerrit and Taylor met up and stayed together. Now, the state troopers probably thought they had already worked out their stories, so what’s the point in keeping them sequestered.
He found Taylor standing in the dark a few feet from the doorway. Light from his cigarette illuminated his face as he took a deep drag.
Gerrit stood upwind from the smoke. “Task force heading our way. Probably want to do damage control before WSP gets too far into this investigation. I figure Marilynn just threw around her federal weight at the locals.” Marilynn Summers spearheaded the investigation for the federal prosecutor’s office.
Taylor shook his head, the cigarette bobbing in the dark. “I’ll bet Summers wants to handle this herself. One of our informants almost gets wasted by a hitter right in front of us, then the shooter vanishes off a boat.” He winced, his dark skin and clipped Chicago accent seeming out of place here in Washington. “I hope this doesn’t come out of our paycheck. Brothers always seem to wind up in more trouble than you white guys.” Taylor grinned at him before taking another hit on the cigarette.
Gerrit laughed. “White or black, we’re both in trouble, partner. Don’t play that race card with me. It won’t fly.”
Taylor chuckled. It was a politically incorrect game they played with each other, since they had become tighter than brothers. Taylor knew Gerrit would always have his back. And Taylor always backed his play even when they got into serious jams. “Where’s the snitch?”
“I gave him a few bills and sent him on his way. No use letting him sit around here and give the shooter a second chance. Right now, he has a better chance running on his own than sticking around for police protection.”
Blades from an incoming helicopter beat the air behind them. Gerrit turned just as the craft emerged, rotors whirling through the night like a giant wind machine. The aircraft hovered, slowly settling to roost somewhere behind the terminal building.
“Here they come. Get ready for them to turn up the heat.” Taylor dropped the cigarette butt on the ground, grinding it with his heel. “Well, Einstein, did you tell the state troopers about the evidence you snatched?”
Gerrit shook his head, leaning against a concrete pole, hands thrust in his trouser pockets. Taylor’s self-appointed nickname irked Gerrit. His right hand circled around the thumb drive. “No need to complicate their investigation.”
Taylor snorted, reaching for another cigarette.
A door opened, thrusting shafts of white iridescence from inside the building across the black asphalt. It was the same WSP investigator who had been ordered to wait before interviewing them. He leaned through the doorway, one hand resting on the knob. “They want to see you inside.” He thrust a chin in Gerrit’s direction.
Pushing off the pole, Gerrit glanced at his partner. Taylor returned the look. “Good luck, my man.”
“As far as I’m concerned, no harm, no foul. No one’s dead. No one got hurt.”
“Yeah, but shots were fired and you scared the crap out of everyone on that boat. I’m sure the whole thing will wind up on YouTube before we get interviewed.”
Gerrit shrugged before entering the building behind the trooper. Once inside, he paused for a moment to allow his eyes to adjust. A man and a woman stood at the top of a flight of stairs to his right. The man wore a dark-blue suit and red tie, obviously FBI. The woman-Marilynn Summers-turned and glanced down at him.
“Detective, why don’t you join me up here where we can talk…privately.” She gestured toward a door a few yards away from where she stood. As he climbed the stairs, Marilynn turned toward the FBI agent. “Why don’t you contact the other detective and have him debrief you on the incident. We’ll compare notes after I’m through with Gerrit.”
He tried to mask his irritation while Marilynn and the agent continued chatting. She glanced at him, still conversing with the other man. Her soft blond hair, cut shoulder length, added a certain softness to her navy-blue skirt and black waist-length leather jacket. Any softness coming from this woman was merely a means to an end.
As he reached the top landing, she gave him one more look. “Okay, Detective. Follow me and let’s get this over with.”
“Yes, sir.”
Marilynn seemed oblivious to his comment as she opened the office door and gestured him inside. Gerrit strode into the room and leaned against the only desk, a gray metallic bruiser positioned dead center in a large, vacuous office.
She closed and locked the door from inside. A slow smile emerged as she advanced toward him. “Well, honey. I wish we could make good use of this private office. Door’s locked and the window shades are drawn.” She pulled off her jacket and flung it across the desk, pushing herself against him. Her arms encircled his waist as she moved in close. “Can’t wait to get you home.”
Gerrit raised himself up, grasping her shoulders. “Get a grip, Marilynn. I almost lost an informant out there, and I know my boss will be planting his boot up my butt over this. We need to get our stories straight.”
“ Our stories? Don’t draw me into this. You and your partner wanna play cowboy and meet an informant without backup knowing Nico’s lurking out there…well, that’s your problem. Not mine.”
He eased away, putting distance between them. Since when did she start playing it safe? Her willingness to take chances, to walk a fine line between the law and the lawless, to get the job done had been the magnet that drew them together. Gerrit never stomached unnecessary rules. Even worse, he hated rule makers sitting behind a desk and coming up with reasons why the job couldn’t get done. Impatience always drove Gerrit to scale these obstacles any way he could.
He thought he’d found a kindred spirit in Marilynn, whose job as a federal prosecutor gave her many more rules to bend or break. Sometimes, she seemed willing to go a lot further than Gerrit. Lately, he began to have second thoughts.
And now, she wanted to distance herself from this incident. Why?
“Come on, Marilynn. We haven’t much time before the suits show up to figure out who gets to tear into me first.” He eyed her for a moment before continuing. “Just because your old man is a senator doesn’t protect the rest of us when things go sideways. I’ve got to be careful. Can’t afford any more mistakes.”
“Okay. Have it your way.” She brushed a strand of blond hair from her brown eyes giving him an irritated look. “Did you salvage anything from this screw-up with our informant?”
He circled the desk, trying to gain control. This woman seemed to know how to set him off. Spending time with Marilynn was like throwing a lighted match into a pool of gasoline. Someone always got scorched. He should have stopped this relationship a long time ago. Tonight was not the right time.
“ Our informant?” he said. “ I’m the one who recruited him months ago while working undercover. Remember? A bottle of vodka, a sympathetic ear, and a promise of a better life earned me fresh eyes and ears into Petrosky’s organization. Mark and I-with Gregori’s help-turned up leads to Nico’s criminal enterprise. Smuggling. Narcotics. Call girls. Even stolen gasoline sold on the black market tax free.”
And one bombing in Seattle. But he would never reveal that to anyone. They might question why he focused on the Russian in the first place.
“Old news,” Marilynn said, her face turning red.
“I’m reminding you of this because the guy who made this case almost got killed. Because I pushed, Gregori discovered Nico stepped up to the big time. Selling technology on the black market. More money. Less exposure. The guy taking all the chances,” Gerrit said, “has a name. Gregori Vasiliyevich Pyotor.”
“Now, there’s a mouthful.” She smirked. “In any event, he survived.”
Gerrit paused, clenching his teeth. “I almost got him killed because I missed something. And now the suits will want to crucify me for all this bad publicity. Wild shots on a ferryboat full of passengers. Almost getting my informant wasted. Letting the gunman slip away. Violating protocol-although whoever made up these rules never worked out in the field.”
“That’s why you always wind up in trouble. Making it an ‘us against them’ thing. That just sets people off, Gerrit-including me.” She folded her arms, giving him her prosecutorial stare as if cross-examining a hostile witness. “ Your informant has been exposed because you screwed up. Because you did not follow the rules.” She let that hang for a moment. “Let’s just hope you can salvage something out of this mess that’ll make my boss happy. Otherwise…”
He withdrew the thumb drive from his pocket. “This ought to make him jump for joy. Gregori pulled this off Nico’s own computer before my guy got cold feet and started running. Nico must have gotten suspicious and had his people watching us to see if Gregori showed up. Taylor and I didn’t see the tail until it was too late.”
A smile softened the hard lines around Marilynn’s eyes as she reached for the drive. “Well, this gadget changes everything, sweetheart. This just might buy you a ticket out of the doghouse.”
Gerrit tightened his jaw. Gregori’s sacrifice seemed lost on her. “Yeah. My ticket almost cost another man his life.” He saw a sudden coldness enter her eyes, a look he couldn’t define. It flickered for a second, and then it was gone as quick as if she batted an eyelash.
Marilynn edged closer. “Did I ever tell you how much you turn me on when-”
A fist beat on the door. “Gerrit, you in there? Open up. Now.”
He pushed Marilynn away, working his way toward the door. He recognized that voice. Trouble just seemed to follow him today. He unlocked the door and grasped the handle.
Lieutenant Stan Cromwell launched himself into the room, first glancing at Gerrit, then eyeing Marilynn’s jacket still draped across the desk. “What the…?” He wheeled around to face Gerrit. “Taylor tells me you guys are being questioned by…these feds?” Each word doused with a heavy dose of contempt.
“Now, see here, Lieutenant. Gerrit’s assigned-”
“I’m not speaking to you right now, Summers. You’ll get your chance to flap your gums in a minute. Right now I wanna hear from my detective.” Thirty-five years on the street weathered Cromwell’s face like a desert sun beating down on parched land. He seemed to carry the weight of the department on his shoulder, broad muscular limbs matching his thick neck, fists the size of footballs strong enough to send an all-pro linebacker crashing to the turf but gentle enough to comfort a frightened child. Right know, the lieutenant did not look comforting. His neck swelled over his tight collar, veins pulsating a warning sign to anyone close enough to see.
Marilynn paused, thin lips pressing back a retort.
Gerrit faced his boss and filled him in.
“Where was your backup?”
Gerrit rested against the desk, his momentary silence making Cromwell’s face turn even more threatening. “We wanted to low-key this. It was just supposed to be a simple meet and talk.”
“A simple meet? Your informant almost gets blasted, the would-be killer and a couple other bad guys disappear, shots fired into a crowd…and you call this simple?”
“How were we to-?”
“You’re expected to think these operations through, O’Rourke. No more of your lone cowboy stuff. That’s what keeps getting you in trouble. It’s why I warned them about letting you…” He stopped, as if suddenly realizing they were not alone.
Putting on her jacket, Marilynn faced Cromwell. “We picked Gerrit because of his…special abilities.”
Cromwell watched as she buttoned up the jacket. “He’s special, all right. A special pain in the ass.”
Marilynn crossed her arms. “You know what I’m talking about, Lieutenant. His language skills, his MIT background. That’s why we went to your chief to ask he be assigned to us. And besides, he and his partner were already working on Nico.”
Gerrit shifted his feet. “Hey, I’m standing right here.”
The lieutenant peeled his attention away from Marilynn. “I know you have a lot to offer, O’Rourke. That’s why I let them talk me into creating this specialized unit. But if I feel things are starting to come unglued, I’m pulling the plug. I don’t care how many high-value targets you guys take down. I won’t jeopardize the department, even for you.”
Almost imperceptibly, Cromwell’s craggy face softened. All the officers knew Cromwell’s rise in rank came at the direction of the chief; each rise up the ladder had been forced on this man. Cromwell just wanted to work cases, to work the street. Respect from the rank and file allowed him to lash out at his officers when they screwed up, where other supervisors might have wound up in the hospital with a broken nose. It was why Gerrit kept his mouth shut right now.
Cromwell seemed to relax for the first time since entering the room. “You’re the best we have, O’Rourke. I know that. But I can’t have you going off the reservation and taking matters into your own hands. That’s how you’ll wind up dead, and maybe take your partner down with you. Understand?”
Gerrit nodded.
“You’re like a son to me.”
Gerrit smiled.
A look of irritation flashed across Cromwell’s face. “What’s so funny?”
“You’re fifty-four. You’re only ten years older than I am-if that.”
“That’s not how I feel at the moment.” His features relaxed until he glanced at Marilynn. He turned as if to ignore her, his voice lowering. “I know why you do what you do. That’s why I have my eye on you.”
Marilynn glanced at Cromwell with a puzzled look.
“I understand, Lieutenant. I never thought we’d have to call out the cavalry on this.”
“Let’s just get you through this mess. I hope something good can come out of it. Were you able to get anything from the snitch?”
Gerrit told him about the computer drive.
“Well, start using that brain of yours and get this Russian crook behind bars.” Cromwell turned to face Marilynn. “Get this guy cleared as soon as possible. I’ll handle the details on my end. And bring this case to a close before I’m forced to pull the plug on our participation. Understand?”
Marilynn nodded, giving him a look that said he just made an enemy. “I understand perfectly. So, if you will excuse us, Gerrit and I need to finish our conversation.”
Cromwell glared at her, then glanced over at Gerrit. Without saying another word, the lieutenant wheeled around and marched out of the room.