A Killing Rain (34 page)

They gave him a dark blue windbreaker with POLICE in big yellow letters on the back. He told them he didn’t need it. The rain had stopped and the cold was finally starting to break. But then one of the cops pointed out his sweatshirt was dark with mud and blood.

Louis was wearing the windbreaker when they dropped him off at Lee County General. He endured a quick exam and then went immediately upstairs to the third floor pediatrics wing. But the cop outside Ben’s door said the doctor was in there and to come back later.

He took the elevator up to the fifth floor. Joe’s door was open. She was sitting on the bed, stuffing things into a black tote. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail and she was wearing tennis shoes, gray sweatpants, and a big Miami Dolphins sweatshirt that he recognized as his. The left sleeve hung limp, her heavily bandaged arm secured beneath.

She looked up. His heart gave.

The whole right side of her face was swollen. There was a small butterfly bandage above her eyebrow.

She smiled. “Thought you’d never get here,” she said.

He came in. “How you feeling?”

“Don’t know. They got me pretty doped up. But all things considered, not too bad.” Her gray eyes searched his face. “How about you?”

He shook his head slowly. She didn’t press it

Joe
closed the tote bag. “I’m just waiting for prescriptions, then we can get out of here. Chief Wainwright’s sending a car.”

Louis
sat down next to her on the side of the bed. Joe’s hand closed over his. For a moment they just sat as the sounds of the hospital filtered in through
the open door.

“I heard what happened out there,” she said. “But I want to hear it from you.”

Louis wanted to tell her. But he was so tired and things were such a blur he wasn’t sure where to start

“H
ow did he get Susan’s gun?” Joe asked.

“I gave it to him.”

She slowly pulled her hand away. The question was there in her eyes.

He reached back into his jeans pocket and pulled out her badge. He held it out. “I gave him this, too.”

She took it, running her thumb on the gold embossing. When she looked up at him, the question was still there in her eyes.

“It was
the only way to get to the boy,” Louis said.

“Which boy?”

“Both of them.”

She
was quiet for a moment then opened the tote and put the badge inside. When she looked up, she gave him a small smile. “Where’d you get the windbreaker?”

“Some cop took pity on me,” he said.

“Looks good on you.”

A nurse came in. She gave Joe some prescription slips and had her sign a form on a clipboard. She left and returned pushing a wheelchair.

“I don’t need that” Joe said.

“Sorry, rules,” the nurse said.

Joe looked at Louis, then sat down in the chair with a sigh, clutching her tote. The nurse pushed Joe out to the elevator.

“Can we stop on three? I need to go see Ben before we leave,” he said to Joe. “You mind?”

“Of course not.”

They got off on
pediatrics and the nurse let Louis wheel Joe down the hall. Louis could see the door to Ben’s room standing open, but as they neared, Joe raised a hand.

“Louis, wait a minute.”

They stopped just outside the door. Louis could see in, just the foot of the bed. But he could hear Ben’s voice. Then Susan’s soft voice in response.

And then Austin’s.

A second later, Austin came into view. He sat down in a chair near the foot of the bed. He was dressed in a fresh shirt and slacks. He was smiling, holding a stuffed bear. Suddenly he looked up and saw Louis. His dark eyes narrowed then he looked away.

Louis just stood there, rooted to the floor. He felt a warm hand cover his.

“Louis,” Joe said quietly.

Austin looked back at him for one
second then he rose, disappearing from Louis’s view.

A second later, Louis heard Ben. A tentative laugh.

“Louis, let’s go,” Joe said

Downstairs, he
held the double glass doors open and the nurse pushed Joe’s wheelchair outside. Louis scanned the parking lot for a Sereno Key cruiser. His eyes stopped instead on Mobley, standing in front of a white and green patrol car. But it wasn’t a Lee County Sheriff’s car. The letters on the door read BROWARD COUNTY.

Two men
were talking to Sheriff Mobley. They wore white shirts and ties and dark green windbreakers, Broward County stenciled on the back. Detectives.

The three
started toward the hospital entrance. Mobley spotted Louis and stepped forward.

“Detectives Phil Ward and Fred
Turner, Broward S.O.,” Mobley said. “Guys, this is Louis Kincaid.”

Their expressions told Louis they had heard his name a lot in
the last few hours. One extended a hand and Louis shook it.

“They’re here for Austin Outlaw,” Mobley said
.

“Wh
at are the charges?” Louis asked.

“Conspiracy to commit murder,” Ward said
. “Transporting of illegal aliens and a few more.”

Louis looked up at the hospital
then glanced at Joe. “He’s with his son.”

“We won’t
cuff him inside the room,” Ward said.

“The kid will know you’re cops
and he’ll know what you’re doing,” Louis said “Let me go up and bring Outlaw out.”

Ward hesitated and looked at Mobley. Mobley gave a nod
.

“I’ll be right back,” Louis said to Joe.

She nodded toward a Sereno Key squad car that had just pulled in. “Our ride’s here. We’ll wait for you.”

Louis led the cops back upstairs to Ben
’s room. He knocked, hoping Susan would come to the door. When she didn’t, he knocked again, louder. The door opened a crack and Austin peered out.

“We need you to step out here,” Louis said quietly.

Austin’s eyes flicked from Louis to the three cops behind him but he didn’t move. Susan appeared behind Austin.

“Now,” Ward said
.

Austin came slowly out the door, followed by Susan. Austin looked at Louis as Ward pulled him forward to cuff him.
Louis pulled the door shut.

“This is how you get rid of the competition? You turn me in to the cops?” Austin
said to Louis.

“
I turned you in,” Susan said.

Austin
’s eyes jerked to Susan. “You? How could you do that to me? I’m his father. He needs me. He loves me.”

Ward started moving Austin down the hall.

“He’ll hate you for this, Susan,” Austin yelled.

Susan
gave Louis a long look then opened the door and went back inside. The door closed behind her.

Louis followed the detectives downstairs and watched from the curb as they put Austin into the cruiser. Louis went to Joe, who was waiting in the passenger seat of a
Sereno Key police car. She rolled down the window.

“Can you give me ten
more minutes?” Louis asked. “I just want to see Ben.”

Joe nodded and Louis headed back upstairs. Just outside Ben
’s door, Susan met him, hands raised.

“What’s
the matter?” Louis asked.

“He saw you,” she said “He saw everything
just now, from the window.”

“Shit,” Louis said softly. “Can I talk to him?”

She shook her head “He saw you down there, in that police jacket. He thinks you arrested his father.”

Louis stepped back, his eyes going to the door.
It was ajar and he could hear Ben crying.

“I need to talk to him, Susan.”

“I’ll explain things to him when the time is right
.”

“Susan
--”

“No, Louis,” she said
. “You need to go. Please.”

Louis turned and walked away.

One week later

His suitcase lay open on the bed.
Issy had made a nest in his shirts but he let her stay. He looked around the bedroom. Everything else was already packed.

Joe had left to take one last walk on the beach. She had been taking the walks every day. They helped her heal, she told him. He could tell she was eager to get back to Miami.

So was he. Things had gone well with Major Anderson, and in the series of interviews that followed. There would still be a battery of tests and weeks of certification. But at the end of it all, he would be given a gold badge.

Issy
got up, stretched, and jumped off the bed. Louis closed the suitcase. There was only one thing left to do.

He went to the porch, watching Joe heading away down
the beach. He pushed open the screen and went out into the yard. Kneeling under the gumbo limbo tree, he started scooping out the sand.

It was still there, right where he had buried it over a year ago. He pulled the thick plastic evidence bag out of the hole, brushing off
the sand. He could feel the hard contours of the gun inside.

Back inside the cottage, he left Joe a note saying he’d return in an hour.

When he pulled up in front of the Sereno Key police station, Jewell was just getting out of his car. He was in jeans and a T-shirt, carrying his uniforms in cleaner’s plastic over his shoulder. He recognized Louis’s Mustang and waited, pulling off his sunglasses.

“Hey, Jewell,” Louis said
.

“Good afternoon, sir.”

Louis was looking at the uniforms. “What’s going on?”

Jewell shifted from one foot to the other. “I’m glad I ran into you before you left. I need to tell you something.”

“What is it, Jewell?”

“I
was the one who sent Adam Vargas to your cottage. I told him where Detective Frye was staying.”

“What do you mean?”

“The day he was in the house, he asked where everybody was. I told him she was staying with you on Captiva.”

“Shit, Jewell,” Louis said softly.

“She could’ve been killed and —-”

“She wasn’t.”

Jewell looked toward the station. “I came here to quit, sir.”

Louis’s eyes went to the uniforms slung over Jewell’s shoulder. “Don’t do it, Jewell.”

“Sir...”

“You take that badge off something goes wi
th it, and it’s really hard to get it back,” Louis said.

Jewell looked back at the station then at Louis.

“Don’t let this get to you, Jewell.”

Jewell hesitated. “I don’t want to quit.”

“Then don’t.”

Jewell let out a long breath. Then he nodded and stuck out his hand. “Thank you, sir
.”

Louis watched him walk away, back to his car.

Wainwright was tilted back in his chair, eyes closed, sunlight on his face. Louis closed the door behind him and Wainwright looked up, bringing his feet down off the desk.

“Didn’t expect to see you for a while. I thought you went to Miami.”

“I’m back, wrapping up some things,” Louis said.

“How
’s Detective Frye?”

“Getting better.”

“And the boy?”

“I haven’t seen him.”

Wainwright’s eyes dropped to the plastic evidence bag in Louis’s hand. “What’s that?”

Louis set the bag o
n Wainwright’s desk. “I need you to do something for me, Dan. I need this to be found out on Sereno Key with no connection ever made to me. And after you process it, it needs to find its way to Mobley.”

Wainwright picked up the bag
. “This is a gun,” he said.

“Yes.”

“And what will happen when Mobley gets it?”

“Mobley knows this gun. And he knows it will free an innocent man from prison.”

Wainwright looked up at Louis. “You hid evidence?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

Louis took a moment “I didn’t know how else to get her justice.”

Wainwright was silent, studying Louis’s face. “Why’d you bring it to me?”

“Because you’ve crossed lines, too,” Louis said
. “You know what it’s like.”

Wainwright set the bag on the desk and
leaned back in his chair, staring at it. “And you think doing this will clear your conscience before you take that job in Miami.”

“Something like that,” Louis said.

Wainwright hesitated then opened a desk drawer. He put the gun in and closed it. “I’ll take care of it.”