Night and Day (Book 2): Bleeding Sky (44 page)

“He
came down to Central to talk to me about a few things after your briefing,”
Daryl said. “Kicked him loose about ten-thirty or so. He said he was coming
back here. He never showed up.”

“You
try his house? Maybe Carolyn had some kind of emergency.”

“We
checked the house, we checked Downtown station. They didn’t see him at all
yesterday or this morning. Checked hospitals. Nothin’. Ain’t nobody seen him
since he left Central station yesterday.”

“So
where the hell is he?”

“I
was kind of hopin’ you might be able to tell me that,” Daryl
said.

My
mind was racing. If Brenner had grabbed or killed Jimmy, he would have said
something about it. Anyway, he’d have no reason to go after a city cop if he
wasn’t going to get anything out of it. So if not Brenner, who?

“I
don’t have an answer for you, Daryl,” I said. “But I’m damn well going to
get one.”

He
nodded and stood. “I got people out beatin’ the bushes for him and I’ll get
more.”

“I’ll
work it from the area government side.”

“Thanks,
CW,” he said. “I got plans for Jimmy and I don’t like
complications.”

As
he walked out of the office, I pointed to her desk and told Martinez. “Sit
down and stay put.” Then I walked to the door and stuck my head out.
Bristow’s desk was empty. I looked at Sgt. Mackey. “Where’s the
captain?”

“Inspecting
defensive positions, sir,” he said. “Last I heard he was at position three,
southeast corner of the square. I can get him back here...”

I
shook my head. ‘No, I’ll track him down. I want you to get on the radio with
the operations center. Tell them that Captain James Mutz, daytime watch
commander, Downtown District, Metro police is missing. We need whatever
assistance they can provide to find him.”

“Yes,
sir,” he said.

I
hit the bottom of the steps and started toward the southeast corner of the
square to talk to Bristow, skirting the dangling black trailer. Jimmy wasn’t
the kind of guy to just wander off. Something had happened to
him.

As
I got past Heymann’s trailer, the phone in my pocket started to ring. I
pulled it out and checked the screen. It was coming from my home number. I
put it to my ear. “Jimmy?”

“Is
this Charlie Welles?” an unfamiliar voice asked. Or maybe not completely
unfamiliar. I had heard it before, but I couldn’t put a face or name to
it.

“This
is Welles,” I said. “Who is this?”

“Got
somebody here who wants to talk to you, Welles,” he said.

I
heard the phone scratching against a face. “Hang up on this cocksucker right
now, Charlie.” It was Jimmy.

Then
the other man was back. He laughed. “Come on, captain,” he said. “You could
at least be polite.” He paused. “If you can’t, maybe I oughta send somebody
over to your house to have a word with your lovely wife.”

“Fuck
you,” I heard in the background.

“Captain
Mutz not a very nice man and I’ve had to listen to his bullshit much too
long,” he said. “If things don’t work out with you and me, I’m going to do
something about that.”

“Who
are you?”

He
laughed softly. “Geez, Welles, after all those mornings we spent together
having breakfast, you don’t remember me?”

I
put a face to the voice. For months, he’d come into Hanritty’s a little
after I did and slid into the booth next to mine. A chicken salad sandwich
and home fries was his standard breakfast.

He
was also in the Resistance, and had known Dick Nedelmann. He revealed that
last fact to me and Jimmy when I was looking for Joshua’s
killers.

“Okay,
I got it,” I said. “What do I call you?”

“How
about John Connor?”

“Funny,”
I said. The name of the Resistance leader in the Terminator
movies.

“I’m
just kidding, Welles,” he said. “Call me Red.”

“Okay,
Red,” I said. “You have Jimmy Mutz. And you want something from
me.”

“Right
on both counts,” he said. “I’d hoped to have this conversation yesterday
afternoon, but I saw you were kind of busy with that skeeter bitch in the
trailer.” He paused. “You hit that? There’s a rumor going around that you
have a taste for skeeter bitches. Nothing like a cold one after a hard day
at work, eh?” He chuckled softly.

“Get
to the point.”

“Sure,”
he replied. “Meet me here at your apartment in twenty minutes. Alone, of
course. My people see anybody but you, Mutz dies and then we go after...what
are your secretary’s names, Sara and Cynthia? Then we work our way out and
kill every friend you have.”

“What
do you want from me?”

“We’ll
discuss that when you get here,” Red said.

“You
want me unarmed?”

He
laughed. “I don’t give a shit if you’re packing or not,” he said. “You go
for that Glock on your hip, Mutz dies and you die.” He paused. “Then
everybody else I mentioned dies. If you’re thinking of some lame sacrifice
play, I want you to think about that.”
 

“I’ll
be there.”

“That’s
what I wanted to hear. Seeya soon.” He disconnected.

I
put the phone back in my pocket. If they wanted me dead, they could do that
anytime, so that wasn’t it. Then what? Information that would help them in
an attack on Heymann? Takeda’s location so they could take her and A Company
out? Something they thought I knew?

Whatever
it was, I’d have to play it by ear. And when it came time to decide what I
was going to do, what would I have to give up?

I
turned and went back to the command trailer. Lita was at her desk, and
Mackey was in there with her.

Mackey
turned as she spotted me and said, “Mackey was just telling me about a
similar wound he suffered.” She smiled.

“Caught
a round from some bandits last year, sir,” he said. “Cut a groove across my
right ass cheek.”

“He
was about to give me a peek,” Martinez said. “Guess that will have to
wait.”

I
nodded and looked to Mackey. “Listen, let Bristow know that I have to go off
the grid for an hour or so. No calls unless it’s an absolute
emergency.”

“Yes,
sir,” he said.

Martinez
pushed herself to her feet. “Where are we going, sir?” she asked.

I
shook my head. “You’re not going anywhere,” I said. “You stay right here.
And that’s an order, sergeant. I need you to keep an eye on the shop while
I’m gone.”

She
didn’t speak for a moment, then muttered, “Yes, sir.”

I
eased the Jeep to curb in front of my apartment. There was a youngish guy
sitting on the steps of another apartment across the street, tossing a ball
into the air and catching it, over and over. Another leaning against a light
pole just down the block. They’d be the ones I was supposed to see. Others
would be out of sight.

When
I reached the apartment door, I tried the knob. Unlocked. I pushed it
open.

The
man from Hanritty’s who called himself Red was sitting on the couch. He
smiled when he saw me. “Sixteen minutes,” he said. “Well done.”

“Where’s
Jimmy?” I asked.

“Billy,”
he called. “Bring Captain Mutz to the door so Welles can see
him.”

My
bedroom door opened and Jimmy was pushed into the open doorway. A gloved
hand holding a pistol followed. The pistol pressed against the back of
Jimmy’s head.

Jimmy
looked none the worse for wear. His uniform was rumpled and I could see what
looked like a bruise on the side of his face, below his left eye. But he
didn’t seem to have any major injuries.

“Shoot
both of these pencil dicks,” he said.

Red
grinned. “I think that’s enough of Captain Mutz for now,” he
said.

The
man inside the bedroom grabbed the back of Jimmy’s shirt and pulled him
back. The door closed.

“Like
I said, not a very nice man,” Red said. “I’m hoping you won’t be as
unpleasant as your friend.”

“That
depends on what you want,” I said. Jimmy had given me a very valuable piece
of information. There were only two of them in the apartment. The one who
called himself Red and the one Red had called Billy. Red seemed to be in
charge. Maybe if I shot him, Billy would hesitate for a few seconds before
he killed Jimmy. Maybe.

“I
don’t want much, Welles. Little talk, a little favor. Have a
seat.”

I
started for the chair opposite him when the bedroom door flew open. “Got an
SF Humvee making the turn onto Bacon,” Billy said.

“Oh,
Welles,” Red said a theatrical sigh. “I told you to come alone. How many
troopers in it, Billy?”

I
could make out the faint crackle of a voice on the radio and Billy said,
“One. A woman.”

“Hold
it,” I said. “I think it’s my aide.” I paused. “I told her to stay in the
trailer, but sometimes she doesn’t listen.”

Red
studied me for a moment, then said, “Billy, if she parks, have them take
her, inside the car or outside, and bring her in. Low key. We don’t want to
frighten the neighbors.”

“Right,”
Billy called.

“I
have to say that this is a disappointing development, Welles,” he said. “But
what the hell. It just gives us another hostage, right?” He tilted his head,
his eyes on mine. “Now if another Humvee comes around the corner, I think
everybody has to die. You understand, of course.”

“She’s
alone,” I said.

“Guess
we’ll find that out soon enough.”

We
waited, me standing behind the chair, him on the couch. I don’t know what he
was waiting for, but I was listening for a gunshot. If I heard one, my gun
was coming out and Red would be the next one to die.

The
front door opened and Lita was pushed into the room. She almost stumbled,
but stayed on her feet. The guy with the ball from across the street was
behind her. He stepped inside and closed the door.

“I
told you to stay in my office, sergeant,” I said.

“You
looked upset when you left, sir,” she said, staring at Red. “Thought I’d
follow, see if there was anything I could do.”

“I
appreciate the concern, Martinez.”

Red
looked past her at the man behind her. “Put her in the bedroom with Mutz,
and stay there with her,” he said.

“Move,”
the man said, giving Lita a shove. She stumbled forward and looked over her
shoulder at him. “Keep your fucking hands to yourself,
pendejo
.”

“You
just surround yourself with unpleasant people, don’t you, Welles?” Red
looked at Lita. “Keep your mouth shut if you don’t want your brains on the
wall,
panocha
.”

She
gave him a hard stare, then walked to the bedroom door, opened it, and went
inside. The man followed her and closed the door.

“Well,”
he said. “Like I said before we were interrupted, have a seat.”

I
sat down in the chair opposite him, making sure my pistol wasn’t jammed in
the upholstery. Not that it mattered. Lita’s arrival and the extra man in
the bedroom had pretty much made that play irrelevant.

“So,”
Red said. “Here we are.”

“What
do you want?” I asked.

He
smiled. “You know, Welles, for months you were just a guy in a cheap suit
who ate breakfast at the same place I did. I knew you had a skeeter partner,
that your business catered to skeeters as well as humans. I just figured you
for just another collaborator, somebody who’d dance at the end of a rope
when the skeeters were gone.”

He
paused. “It was Dick Nedelmann who told me you were an okay guy. You
remember Dick, right? A good cop, a good human being that you dragged into
your crusade to find your skeeter partner’s killers. And he got himself
killed helping you.”

“Yeah,
I remember Dick,” I said. The thing I remembered most was putting a gun to
his chest and pulling the trigger. He was in the process of being turned. It
didn’t make it any easier, doing it or thinking about it now, but I knew he
wouldn’t have wanted to live life as a Vee. “Of course, I don’t think Dick
would appreciate you taking Jimmy Mutz hostage.”

“Yeah,
well, thanks to you, he’s not here to voice his objections,” Red said. “But
he made us look a little closer at you, Welles. You just don’t give a fuck
who you’re up against, do you? Skeeter or human, you always keep your eye on
the ball.”

“That’s
what I’m paid for,” I said. “You know, this is all real interesting. But why
am I here and what do you want from me?”

“Okay,”
he said. “We can always talk about you another time, right? You’re not going
anywhere.”

I
stared at him silently.

“You
have unlimited access inside the Security Force perimeter in Jackson Square,
you can come and go as you please, and nobody is going to search you,” Red
said. “Am I right?”