Just in Time: Portals of Time (22 page)

“We’re here.” Celeste and Alisha walked in right behind the others with their miracle medical device.

Frowning, Alisha was all business. “Let’s do this now so we can all think clearly.”

“Not a minute too soon for me.”

Leaning over him, she turned on the remote thing she’d used on Jess’s ankle and ran it over his shoulder. Immediately, he felt the pain relief.

“Better?” she asked.

“By about sixty percent.”

“We can use it again tomorrow. Your injury is multi-layered and worse than Jess’s injury. We have to heal it slowly so we don’t overcorrect your muscles.”

“That thing’s amazing.”

“Surgery is unknown in our time. I hope your archaic methods didn’t do more damage than good when they cut into you.”

He rolled his eyes. “Thanks for the encouragement.”

“You should take some pain-relief medicine.” This from Dorian, who was now hovering behind Alisha. She still looked pale.

“I will. I have to talk with the police first.”

“When are they coming?” Dorian asked.

“Any minute now. Helen is waiting for them.” Jess took a seat on a leather side chair adjacent to a small couch, where Alisha and Celeste dropped down on cushions. “I hope this part goes well.”

“We have to stick with as much of the truth as possible.” Though he was still in pain, Luke wanted control of the situation.

Alisha stiffened. “As long as no one reveals who we are.”

Luke couldn’t imagine telling that whopper to his captain. “We have to have our stories straight. Does everybody remember what they’re supposed to say?” Nods all around. “Celeste, especially you?”

“I’ll be fine.” She arched a brow. “Remember, I was the one instrumental in trapping Krueger.”

“Which I’m still angry at you for,” Luke snapped.

The doorbell rang and Dorian said worriedly, “They’re here.”

He grasped her hand. “This will work out. I promise.”

Alisha’s frown turned into a scowl. Dorian left him to sit on one of the straight chairs that had been brought in for this meeting.

Helen, who’d taken a couple of days off from work, ushered his colleagues in. Both were dressed in the dark suits Dorian had worn when she and Luke met the first time. That felt like eons ago, so much had happened.

“Hi, Luke.” This from Ann Thompson, a homicide detective. She’d come because of Luke’s statement in the hospital that the confrontation had occurred because of Krueger’s plans to kill Jess. He’d already given one brief statement to them and ended up turning over the evidence without getting a look at it. But that had been unavoidable.

“Hey, Annie.”

From the corner of his eye, he saw Dorian scowl.

Luke nodded to his captain. “Hi, Al.”

As they took seats, Al asked, “How are you feeling?” His captain studied him. “You look damn good for taking a bullet.”

“I’m in a hell of a lot of pain. I’m just too macho to let on.”

Ann rolled her eyes, and Dorian’s frown deepened.

“We can’t keep him up too long,” Jess said, according to the script they’d rehearsed in order to shorten the interview as much as possible.

“We won’t.” Ann took out an iPad. She read from the notes on it. “In the hospital, you told us you were investigating death threats against Jess.”

“This is the personal matter we discussed, right?” Now Al’s tone was official. Luke knew why. He’d broken protocol by not turning the case over to the department from the beginning.

“Right.”

Ann continued, “You tracked them to Craig Krueger. Then Celeste Hart
got close
to him to try to find evidence.” She scanned the room. “Hello, again, Ms. Hart.”

“Hello, Lieutenant Thompson.”

“That covers it,” Luke said easily.

“Before we talk about what we found in the envelopes,” his captain put in, “I want to know why the hell you didn’t go through channels when the matter first came up.”

This part was going to be tricky.

“It’s because of me.” Helen was still by the door and knew her role, too. She placed her hand on her stomach. “I’m pregnant. Because we’ve been waiting years for this to happen, Jess didn’t want me upset, so he asked Luke to look into the threats on the QT. It’s why he hired a bodyguard.” She nodded to Dorian.

Ann shook her head. “Luke, you know better than to try to pull off that shit alone.”

“Yeah, I guess.” He smiled at Helen. “But I’d also do anything to make my sister-in-law’s dream come true.”

“As a man,” Al put in, “I can understand that. As your captain, I’m going to have to take some action.”

“I know I broke rules. Whatever you decide, I’ll accept without protest.”

“Let’s deal with that later. First, tell us how you got the envelopes. If the information was obtained illegally, we won’t be able to use it against Krueger.”

Here, they’d decided to doctor the truth. “When he got drunk, Craig Krueger told Celeste about his big plans that were going to make him a star at Petron. She said she didn’t believe him, so he showed her where the key was to the bus locker.”

“Did you take it without his consent, Ms. Hart?” Ann wanted to know.

“No. I pretended to be skeptical, though this was precisely what we were after. I played on his ego, which men have in great quantity, and he was drunk, so he gave me the key and boasted I could go check out the bus-station locker.” She shrugged, totally looking as if she’d done nothing wrong. “So I went.”

Al shook his head. “Something seems off about this.”

“Remember, he’d had several manhattans.” And chemicals Luke wasn’t going to mention. “I think in his alcohol haze, he was trying to impress her to get her in the sack. Then he passed out. Since she was there to get evidence—and he’d told her to—she called me, and we all went together. Apparently, he woke up, found Celeste and the key gone and followed us.”

Al didn’t look convinced.

“She didn’t commit a crime, Al.”

Ann sat forward. “His lawyers will want to go down that path because the evidence in the folders was damning.”

“What was in them?” They were all dying to know.

“Copies of emails from Krueger to and from someone at Petron. All were about your brother. We’re having our techs trace the IP address at Petron. But there was more. There was a notebook with Jess’s research documented.”

Luke nodded. “That’s damning enough.”

“That isn’t all of it, either,” Al said gravely. “Do you happen to remember a problem a few years ago with the fire chief of Hidden Cove?”

“What is Hidden Cove?” Alisha asked.

“A town about an hour from here,” Al explained. “Some people were trying to take the fire chief down. I know the chief of police up there, Will Rossettie. They’re friends. The key to their discovery was a website where a person can go to find people to…eliminate others.”

Dorian and Alisha stayed stone-faced. But Celeste gasped. “I’ve never heard of anything like that. It’s so awful.”

“You can get anything online,” Luke explained. “We all know that. Even snuff sites.”

“The FBI closed down the site discovered in Hidden Cove, but there were others, of course. Like this one.”

“And Krueger kept evidence that he went to one? What an idiot.”

“In some ways, yes. But he hired somebody to kill Jess.”

The captain glanced at Helen, who was seated, with Jess behind her, gripping her shoulders. “I’m sorry, Mrs. Cromwell. This must be hard for you.”

“At least we caught Krueger.” As always, Helen was gracious.

“If Ms. Hart’s story holds up. You can see now why it’s important the evidence was obtained legally.”

Luke tried to look innocent, though he made sure the story they told would indeed be acceptable. “We said it was, Al.”

“And,” Dorian spoke for the first time. “There was no one else there to observe anything different. So, what’s the problem?”

“You’re probably right,” Al said. “Maybe I’m being overly cautious, but when somebody tries to hurt a cop’s brother, I want to make sure he’s put away.”

“Have you found the guy he hired?” Luke asked.

“No. But from what we can tell, no money exchanged hands yet, either. So there shouldn’t be anybody coming after your brother. We’re not going to let up until we find the hired gun, though. And shut down the site.”

“And Krueger will be charged with what?” Luke asked.

“Conspiracy to commit murder.”

“So, is Jess safe?” Helen asked.

“We think so. Once we track the Petron connection, we should have even more information. Meanwhile, I think you—he nodded to Jess—should stay at home, keep your bodyguard with you and retain that private security outside. The police will also be checking your house.”

“For how long?” Alisha asked.

Ann said, “It shouldn’t be more than a few days.”

“What’s going to happen to Lieutenant Cromwell?” Dorian wanted to know. “For ignoring procedures?”

“You’re off work for a while, anyway, Luke,” Al said. “I’ll determine, in conjunction with Internal Affairs, if I want to count that as your suspension.”

“Whatever you say, Captain.” And he meant it. Rules were rules. And he’d never broken any in the department before.

After the cops took official statements from Jess, Celeste, Alisha and Dorian, Al walked out with Helen. Ann stayed back. “For what it’s worth, buddy, I’d have done the same thing for my brother. This’ll work out.” She playfully socked him on his good shoulder and left.

Luke noticed Dorian’s face was flushed and she spoke as soon as the police left. “What the hellor was that all about?
Buddy
,
Annie
, the playful touch on your arm? Have you joined with her?”

Luke rolled his eyes. “I’d like some time alone with Dorian.”

Alisha sighed heavily. “I have something to pursue on the computeller. Celeste, you look depleted. You should rest.”

“I’ll rest, too,” Jess said. “With my pregnant wife.”

Luke grabbed Jess’s arm as he turned to leave. “It’s almost over, buddy.”

“I hope so. And I can’t thank you enough for what you did. Your career is going to be affected.” His gaze encompassed all of them. “And you put your lives on the line for me.”

“It was our task,” Alisha said matter-of-factly.

When he and Dorian were alone, Luke patted the mattress. “Come here.”

“I don’t feel like being close to you.” She folded her arms across the chest of that pretty, sleeveless, green top she wore. It made her eyes match the grass outside. “I don’t like this thing called jealousy. Answer my question first.”

God, she was cute when she was mad. “No, I haven’t joined with Annie. We’re good friends is all. Since you didn’t have male friends in the future, you don’t understand what you saw.”

She raised her chin. “I still don’t like it.”

“Welcome to our world, babe. Now come kiss me.”

LATER THAT DAY
, Alisha was in her individual space, working on her new laptop, checking the Internet, when Celeste walked in. “What are you doing?” Alisha asked her friend. “You’re supposed to be resting.”

“I couldn’t sleep. I’m still worried about how Jess’s situation will turn out, though I think the meeting went well with the law-enforcement officials.”

“The best we could hope for. All right, sit down. We have to talk anyway. It’s time to set up our trip to Virginia.”

Celeste’s face brightened. “Finally.” She nodded to the computer. “I know Jess was our first priority. If it took time to find a way into Dr. Lansing’s life, so be it.”

Those were the exact words Alisha had said to Celeste at an earlier time.

“Still, I hope we can do this expeditiously.”

“I recognize now after what’s happened with Jess that we must accomplish our tasks.” Celeste’s tone was sober. Sad, almost.

But Alisha was glad to hear it. “I’ve got a program running that may tell us how we can orchestrate access to him.”

“I’ll wait to hear from you.”

After Celi left, Alisha shook her head. She’d been worried from the beginning about her friend’s ability to pull off her mission with Lansing, but after the turn Dorian took with Luke—sensible, stalwart Dorian—Alisha feared Celeste was a hundred percent more susceptible than Dorian to the charms of men. Could she become close with Lansing in the same way? He was attractive enough, though Alisha preferred the lean build and the arrangement of David Ryan’s face. Hellor, where did that come from? He was a minister, for the godheads sake!

The computeller pinged, ready to recite its findings, and she swiveled her chair to face it. “The woman who gives care to Dr. Lansing’s children is Patricia Mason, seventeen, offspring of Sam and Joe Mason, five siblings, all younger. She’s been at the apex of her class and applied to Johns Hopkins University, where she was accepted to study environmental science.”

An irony, Alisha thought.

She addressed the computeller. “How can she attend an educational institution in a different town and be the Lansing’s caregiver?”

“She is not attending college. She did not receive a scholarship to the educational institution and her parental units do not have enough money to send her.”

It was still unbelievable that people of this society couldn’t get the kind of education they wanted. In Alisha’s time, the system was highly efficient and accessible: those in certain jobs willingly transmitted their areas of expertise to the younger generation and then trained them. She thought of their dwindled population: there weren’t the number of people in the future as there were here, so that fact might have made education easier.

After she turned off the computeller, Alisha clicked into Johns Hopkins University. Their cost was fifty thousand dollars per year, and Alisha knew from her experience of exchanging their diamonds that this was a significant amount.

Sitting back, she stared at the ceiling fan whirring around. Being a caregiver for younglings would be perfect for Celeste. If she was in the Lansing home daily and had access to Dr. Lansing’s computer, the task might not even take very long.

Maybe, just maybe, there was something they could do to Patricia Mason to free up the job. Hmm, maybe she could engineer a minor accident for the girl. A broken leg would prevent her from caring for the children. Alisha would have to travel to Virginia to accomplish this. Though she hated to harm someone, the future of the planet was at stake.