You Can't Hide (43 page)

She took the papers back and laughed hol owly. “Pain and suffering. Five million dol ars. This won’t stand, but it will still cost me to make it go away.”

“How did they know you gave up the records?”

Tess shook her head. “I don’t know. It wasn’t on the news. Hell. What next?”

And if on cue, her cell phone rang, a local number she didn’t recognize. Tempted not to answer, she wondered if it could be her mother calling from the hotel and answered anyway.

“Ciccotelli.”

“Tess? It’s Rachel.” The girl sounded strange. Detached. “I… I need your help. It’s an emergency.”

Tess listened to her stammered request, then took the stairs at a run. “Hurry, Vito.”

Thursday, March 16, 1:30 P.M.

161

Karen Rose

[Suspense 5]

You Can't Hide

Aidan looked up when the brown bag dropped on his desk. Spinnelli stood looking down, his expression wry. “Congratulations.”

Aidan opened the bag, sniffed. “Baklava. I’m touched, Marc,” he said dryly.

“I’m told it’s your favorite bribe.” His smile was brief, then he sobered. “Your feeling about Bacon was right. And you were also right that my comment earlier was uncal ed for. You’ve shown considerable restraint and focus under the circumstances.”

Aidan’s cheeks warmed. Then he shrugged. “You were partly right anyway. Part of it is my personal interest in this case.” He pointed to a stack of papers. “I haven’t touched the Danny Morris case in two days. His father could be in Mexico by now.”

“He’s not. He’s hiding somewhere. He’ll come out soon enough.”

“You sound sure about that.”

Spinnelli sat on the corner of his desk. “I am. Danny’s father didn’t give a shit about him. He was a possession, a thing to be control ed. He won’t believe anyone else will give a shit, either. But you do and when he comes out of his sewer, you’l be waiting. On your way home tonight, check his haunts. You keep showing up and his friends will get nervous. Somebody will talk.”

“Thanks. That helps.” He’d been feeling guilty for neglecting that precious child’s case. Spinnelli crossed his arms over his chest. “So what do you have, Aidan?”

“When we found Bacon’s hidey-hole empty at his apartment, we called Rick. Rick said a lot of times these guys have backup copies. Murphy’s at Bacon’s storage unit now. We figured both of us didn’t need to be there to search. I came back to start working the connection of David Bacon and Nicole Rivera to our guy.”

“Good work,” Spinnel i said. “Finding the storage unit.”

“It wasn’t rocket science. Once we got the warrant for his mother’s house, we found the receipts for the storage unit in her kitchen drawer.” Aidan sniffed at his sleeve and winced. “I’m never going to get this suit clean.”

Spinnelli chuckled. “I didn’t want to say anything but you might want to go home and change before you pick up Tess tonight.” His gaze sharpened. “So what connections have you made?”

Aidan looked at his stacks of paper in disgust. “None yet. Rivera was an actress and a waitress. Bacon was an ex-con sel ing widgets for a living. I’ve checked their phone records and bank statements and nothing crosses. The only thing they had in common was that they needed money, but Rivera had to leave her old apartment for one in a lousy part of town because she didn’t have enough money to pay the rent. If she was getting cash from our boy on the side, she wasn’t using it for her bills. I’m meeting Rivera’s old roommate later. I’m hoping to get some information out of her.”

“Keep me up to date.”

When Spinnelli was gone, Abe came over, papers in his hand. “I’m finishing the paperwork on Clayborn.” He grinned. “Tess did a number on him, Aidan. He looked like he’d gone a round with the champ.”

Aidan shook his head. “I’m not sure I’ve ever been so scared in my life.”

“That feeling I can understand. Look, Mia and I worked Clayborn for hours last night. He finally admitted why he didn’t want his records shared.” Abe rol ed his eyes. “He’d applied to the police academy and didn’t want his psychiatric history to jeopardize his chances.”

Aidan cringed. “Surely the personality profile would have weeded him out.”

“One can only hope. The other thing we tried to figure out was how he knew Tess was with you at Mom and Dad’s house. Clayborn finally said he’d been called on the phone. Somebody told him to look at your house. Even gave him the address. He wouldn’t say who, but I pul ed his cell and home LUDs. There’s one number that’s a disposable cell and I had a thought. Do you have any of Tess’s LUDs?”

Aidan riffled though his stack of papers until he found her office LUDs. “She only got one call on her home phone-that first night with Cynthia Adams. The other two came on her office phones.” He glared up at Abe. “She wouldn’t let us tap her office line. Patient confidentiality.”

“Your boy knows that,” Abe said. “Exploits her ethics.”

162

Karen Rose

[Suspense 5]

You Can't Hide

Aidan compared Clayborn’s LUDs to Tess’s, his pulse hiking up. “One match. This is the call she got about Seward. Nicole Rivera made that call.” He looked up at Abe. “We never found any cell phones in Rivera’s apartment.”

“Her killer took them.”

“Along with the coat and wig. This is the same disposable cell phone number. Sonofabitch. He told Clayborn where she was.”

“We hadn’t released Clayborn’s name to the press, Aidan. It was on the scanner, though. We had an APB out.”

Aidan gritted his teeth. “Then he knows she’s with me. He dangled bloody meat in front of Clayborn. Son of a fucking bitch. He always gets somebody else to do his dirty work.” He dropped his eyes back to the LUDs of Tess’s office phone. And frowned. “I didn’t notice this before. I was so busy looking at calls in, I didn’t look at calls out.”

Abe stood behind him, leaning over his shoulder. “You mean that call to 911?”

“Yeah. Tess got the call about Seward at three fifteen. She said she ran out and told Denise to call 911.”

“Denise is the receptionist?”

“Yeah.” His frown deepening, Aidan found Tess’s cell phone LUDs. “She called me at three twenty-two, seven minutes later.”

Abe straightened. “But Denise didn’t call 911 until ten minutes after Tess hung up.”

Aidan looked up over his shoulder. “Tess said she didn’t know why the cops took so long to get to Seward’s. She hadn’t planned to intervene, but Seward had a gun to his wife’s head. She expected the cops to get there before she did.”

“And they would have if Denise had called as soon as she was supposed to. Why didn’t she cal right away?”

Aidan considered the receptionist in his mind. She had access to all of Tess’s files, to her patients. Not only their histories, but their addresses, phone numbers. She’d been there when the courier had delivered the CD, so she knew about Bacon’s unauthorized films. She hadn’t been able to meet his eyes earlier in the day when he and Murphy had dropped by to tell Tess about Bacon’s murder.

Aidan spread the papers in the stack across his desk, scanning them. “Denise Masterson. I checked her already. She doesn’t have a record.” He quickly scanned the only information he had on Masterson. “She’s worked for them for five years now. Before that she was in col ege. No major debts. She drives a ten-year-old car and shares an apartment with a roommate. That’s all I know.” He puffed out his cheeks. “I’ve got to leave here in an hour to meet with Nicole Rivera’s old roommate. Afterward I’l swing by and talk to Denise’s.”

“You could ask Tess.”

“Ask Tess what?”

Tess watched both men spin around, surprise on their faces. From behind, they looked nearly identical, broad backs in white shirts and black trousers. Identical dark heads, identical shoulder holsters. But Tess thought she’d be able to detect Aidan in a roomful of identical men. She’d run her hands over that back the night before. Now she’d have to give him some very bad news.

Aidan’s eyes narrowed. “What’s wrong?”

“Sit down. Both of you.”

“Tess-”

She held up her hand. “Please.” Aidan sat in the chair, Abe on the desk. Both wore identical wary expressions. “It’s Rachel.” Both jumped to their feet, color draining from their faces. With a silent sigh, she looked up at them. “She’s not injured badly.”

“Where is she?” Aidan’s voice was lethal. “Tess, don’t play games with us.”

“Do I look like I’m playing a damn game?” she asked sharply. “Sit your asses down. This is why she didn’t call you two to start with.” Slowly they sat again. “She’s waiting in the hall with Vito. She cal ed Kristen and her other sister-in-law, but got voice mail. She didn’t want you or

163

Karen Rose

[Suspense 5]

You Can't Hide

your parents to see her the way she is, and I gave her my number last night when I was helping her with her homework. She wanted me to meet her at your house and help her clean up before you saw her.”

Aidan swallowed hard, still pale. “You didn’t, did you? We’l need… evidence.”

“I took her to the ER, not,” she said when they tensed, “because it was that bad. She needed a few stitches, that’s all. I called a cop who took a report and took some pictures. Then I brought her straight here.” She crouched next to Aidan’s chair and took his hand. “Somebody beat her up, tore her clothes. It looks a whole lot worse than it is. They didn’t assault her in any other way. Do you understand me?”

Stiffly he nodded. “Who?”

“Two boys from her school. Now she’s been through hell this afternoon. Do not make it worse. Wipe that look off your face.” She looked up at Abe. “You, too. You both look like you’re going to kill. She’s afraid you’ll lose your cool and get in trouble and lose your jobs.”

Abe drew a breath and forced his face to relax. “Go get her.”

Realizing she was making it worse, Tess hurried back to where Rachel waited with Vito, Tess’s new coat around her shoulders, the col ar pul ed up around her ears. “They’re as prepared as they’re gonna be, kid,” she said. “Let’s get this over with.”

“They’re going to be so mad,” Rachel whispered, her lips trembling.

“Of course they are. They have a right to be mad, but they’re good men. They won’t do anything stupid.” She took Rachel’s arm and led her into the bul pen where both stood, waiting. One look at her face had their fists clenched.

Rachel tried to smile. “It’s really not as bad as it looks.” And thanks to a little ice and some basic first aid, she didn’t look nearly as bad as she had. Aidan forced a tight smile. “I don’t know, squirt. You look pretty bad.” He rol ed his chair away from his desk. “Sit down.” She did, gingerly. “Talk to us.”

“I got caught up in a rush in one of the stairwells at school. Looking back, I think they planned it, because all of a sudden the bell rang and the crowd scattered. They grabbed me from behind and covered my eyes. I fought, but they were a lot bigger.”

Both Aidan and Abe grew even paler and Rachel shuddered. “I thought they would do to me what they did to Marie, but they didn’t. They stuffed a rag in my mouth and hit me. Ripped my shirt and smashed my face against a brick wal . Then told me to count to fifty before getting up. I didn’t go to the office because they would have called Mom and Dad and I didn’t want them to worry. So I slipped out the emergency exit and started walking.”

Aidan wiped his palms on his pants legs. “Didn’t the alarm go off?”

“It’s rigged. Kids use it for skipping all the time.”

“Did they say anything, Rachel?” Abe asked.

She shrugged. “That I should have kept my mouth shut. Called me names.”

Abe gently lifted her chin. “Do you think you could identify them?”

“Yeah.” Rachel nodded grimly. “I do, because later I saw them. When you catch them, I’l do the lineup.”

“She gave the names to the cop who took the report,” Tess said. “The boys are being picked up by squad cars as we speak.”

Aidan’s smile was unsteady. “That’s my girl.” He touched his finger to the edge of the bandage over her eyebrow. “How many stitches, kid?”

“Only three.”

“Hell, you got more than that ice-skating last year. That was, what, nine?”

“Eleven.” She blew out a relieved breath. “You’re calmer than I thought you’d be.”

Aidan’s smile dimmed. “I’m a damned good actor, squirt.”

“Why didn’t you call us, honey?” Abe asked.

She looked at Abe, then back at Aidan. “Because it looked a whole lot worse. I didn’t want to make Mom and Dad upset so I started walking to your house.” She looked away. “I know it was stupid to walk by myself, but I wasn’t thinking too clearly.”

164

Karen Rose

[Suspense 5]

You Can't Hide

“It’s okay,” Aidan said. “Happens to the best of us. When did you see them?”

“I looked back and saw them fol owing me and that’s when I got really scared.” Her smile was grim. “I think they thought I was going to talk and they freaked. They chased me but I ran fast. I got to your house and released the hound.” The last was said in a cultured affectation that was meant to make them smile, but it fell flat in the gravity of the situation. “Dol y scared the shit out them,” she finished. “It was very cool.”

Aidan’s smile was feral. “Did she get either of them?”

“No.” Rachel’s lips curved and a smile rose to her eyes. “But one of them had to go home and change his pants. Dol y was amazing. I tried calling Kristen and Ruth, but got their voice mail. Tess gave me her number for homework questions last night, so I called her. She’s a doctor. I figured she’d know what to do.”

“How did you get her stitched up without a parent?” Abe asked. “She’s a minor.”

Tess glanced down at Rachel. “I stitched her up myself. Before Tuesday I had privileges at County, so I have a badge and nobody asked any questions. And I did a rotation in the ER there during my internship, so I know where things are kept. The hospital isn’t responsible. Only me.”

She gave Rachel a wink. “But if your folks decide to sue me, they’l have to stand in line.”

Aidan frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Three of my patients are suing me personally for pain and suffering for having their records released to you.” Her lips quirked humorlessly. “If I had money before, Aidan, I got none now.”