“A man who attacked the student I mentioned fits his description.”
“That’s odd,” said Jankowski. “The only students Big Al is usually interested in are eighth graders.”
I left Jankowski and the Chief planning the next day’s raid on Big Al’s House and drove back to Simon’s. As predicted, he was still up, only now wearing a robe and slippers.
Veronica was curled in one of the easy chairs watching television and sipping whiskey, straight, no ice. She was wearing a chenille robe and her hair was falling around her shoulders. So that’s how it was.
I changed back into my clothes and removed the makeup Veronica had so generously slathered on my face. With my arms full of my boots and handbag, it was hard hugging them goodnight and thanking them again and again. When I finally left, Veronica was back in her chair, Simon perched on the armrest, his head inclined her way and his shoulder touching hers.
Seeing Simon Gorshak happy was almost more than I could comprehend. My mind filled with thoughts of Joe. I touched the cheek he had slapped and started home, trying not to weep as I drove through the dark streets, headed for the highway to Landry.
Joe in a satin shirt and a gold chain. Joe, alive and whole, but tough and distant from me. Joe, who still didn’t know about the child I carried.
Two years ago, he had rescued me from the hands of an enraged professor who tried to kill me. Last fall, he had found me bound and gagged in a strange house and saved me again. My risk-taking had almost broken us up, but not quite.
“It was my turn to rescue you,” I had wanted to say, but there hadn’t been time. It had all gone down so quickly. No time to tell him about my pregnancy. No time to tell him I loved him.
The lights along the highway raced past. I slowed down a bit. No more speeding for me. I touched my cheek and thought of all the nights Joe’s hands had touched me with incredible gentleness. My mind flooded with thoughts of Joe’s mouth on my neck, Joe’s fingers in my hair, Joe inside of me.
I almost missed the turn off to Landry.
The next morning, the Nevada weather turned warm again. The sun shone in through the kitchen window. Charlie danced around his bowl while I prepared his breakfast. “I saw Joe last night, Charlie. He’s alive and okay and I think he might come home soon.”
Charlie danced faster. I’m sure he recognized the word “Joe” and that was all he needed to celebrate.
I poured myself a cup of coffee, telephoned Wynan and confessed. There was a long silence.
“You’re all right?”
“Yes, I’m fine. So is Joe, even if he’s trapped in that house for a few more hours.”
“Now I understand why Joe gets so angry with you. What you did was insane.”
“Dammit, Wynan, it was the only way to get through to Joe without blowing his cover and putting him in danger.”
“It was clever, I’ll say that. But the only way? I doubt I’ll ever think so. And I doubt Joe will ever think so.”
“Well, you two can discuss that when you see him later.” I told Wynan about the plan to raid the house at five thirty.
“I already knew about it,” said Wynan. “I got a call ten minutes ago telling me the Landry force is going to sit tight and let Reno deal with this. They just didn’t tell me about your part in all this.”
“I think we should be there.”
“What? Now I know you’ve gone ’round the bend.”
“No, I mean it, Wynan. I want to see this happen. I want to see Joe as soon as I can. I have something really important to tell him that I couldn’t talk about last night.”
“What’s so important?”
“I can’t tell you yet.”
“You better tell me, or you and I are not going anywhere.”
I caved. “I’m going to have a baby. Joe and I are going to have a baby. He doesn’t know yet. I have to see him and tell him as soon as I can.”
The sound of Wynan’s laughter was so loud over the phone, Charlie heard it and perked up his ears.
“And you want to go to Reno to observe a police raid? Just so you can tell Joe you’re pregnant? Must be the hormones. That’s nuts, Red. What if things don’t go well? What if there’s gunplay? C’mon, lady, get smart.”
“I mean it, Wynan. We can park down the street away from the house. Out of range.”
But Wynan would not bend. “Even if it comes off smoothly, the police will have to arrest Joe along with all the others in the house. They have to maintain his cover. Revealing him as an undercover cop could get him killed later. So you won’t be able to talk to him. You won’t be able to tell him anything. Not until tomorrow or even the next day.”
Wynan would not bend, but neither would I.
“Okay. I wanted to be with you. But if I have to go by myself…”
“Shit. You’re impossible.”
“I’m pregnant, Wynan. I get to be impossible.”
After another fifteen minutes of my being adamant and Wynan being stubborn, he agreed to pick me up at four at the journalism school.
Nell followed me into my office and closed the door.
“Wynan and I have breakfast together, you know. We talk.” Her hands were on her hips, her mouth a straight line. Then a brilliant smile. “A baby. Oh, Red, how wonderful.” My guess was Wynan had not told her the rest of my news or about last night’s adventure.
“I wanted to tell you, but…”
“I know. You haven’t had a chance to tell Joe yet. But you will after this raid is over.”
So Wynan had told her everything.
Her arms went around me. “I think what Joe is doing is heroic and you, my friend, are incredibly courageous. But then, you always have been.” Nell’s enthusiasm got me. I never thought of myself as courageous, because I was usually consumed with self-doubt. But her endorsement went a long way in cheering me up.
“So you’re not going to try to talk me out of the trip to Reno this afternoon?”
“I’m not. You deserve to be in on the arrests after the risk you took. You know Joe will give you hell about this when he sees you. But at the very least you should get to hold him in your arms and let him thank God and thank you for finding him.” Nell’s eyes were shining as she released me.
“Wynan’s not sure I’ll even be able to talk to Joe until long after he’s been arrested with the others.”
“At least you’ll know he’s safe.”
Maybe she had been able to reassure her fiancé. Like Joe, Wynan Congers was a traditionalist when it came to following a woman’s lead. Come what may, Nell was ever my champion.
“So, in the meantime, what’s on the schedule between now and when he and I leave for Reno?”
“Not much. You have lunch with Sadie and some young woman named Alexandra Pickering wants to see you at eleven. Says you met her at the Purist house.”
“Yes. The Vice President of Events for the Purists. I’m surprised. We did not part on cordial terms.”
Nonetheless, Alexandra showed up at precisely eleven. I had to hand it to her, she managed to float on four-inch heels better than any other woman I knew, and her skirts must have been specially made of that swingy knit fabric that makes you look like you’re sailing over the floor. She entered with a smile pasted on her face and an invitation in her hand.
“This is for you, Dean Solaris,” she said, extending two elegantly manicured fingers holding an envelope. “We thought you might want to sit in the front section of the tent tonight. That way it will be easier for you to connect with Leader Boerum after she’s finished.”
Alexandra wore the same smug self-confident smile from our first meeting. I marveled at the smoothness of her hair. It was windy outside.
“Thank you, but I may be a bit late to the speech tonight. I have another engagement earlier, so I wouldn’t want to intrude on the front section.”<
br />
“Oh, no problem. I’ll save you a seat on the end of the first row, so you can come in anytime without disturbing anyone. But Speaker Boerum specifically said she wanted to see you again.”
Now my curiosity was piqued. Why would Danica Boerum give a damn about a university dean?
Alexandra read my thought. “She believes you share an affection for freedom of speech.”
“Indeed.”
Alexandra turned, actually pirouetted, on her heel. “See you tonight.”
Chapter 20
Sadie looked up from her book. “Ah, my favorite mother-to-be.” Then, in a move I had not seen before, she was on her feet and hugging me in the middle of Gormley’s at lunch hour. Of late, my usually reserved friends seemed to think I needed more physical affection. Behind the crowd at the bar, Wilson McCarthy waved a greeting.
“I’ve missed you,” I said, hugging her back.
“We had dinner together just the other night.”
“I know, but I still missed you. So much has happened.”
I ordered a cheeseburger from Wilson. My appetite had returned full force since I had seen Joe, alive and uninjured.
“It must have been both frightening and reassuring to see him again in such circumstances,” Sadie’s lined face was filled with sympathy. “Regrettably, no chance to tell him news of the baby.”
“Not yet. But I am feeling better about the whole thing. My state of mind has improved since I saw Joe in person. At least I know where he is and that he’s healthy.”
“Yes, most reassuring.” She smiled. “I wish I could have seen you dressed up like a working girl. That would have made a good photo for your scrapbook.” She paused to pour herself more tea. “And I do want to know more about this Veronica. I’m thinking of writing a short story about the sex trade and she might be a perfect character.”
I chewed aggressively on the cheeseburger. “She would be, but Veronica’s a pretty private person. I doubt she would let you interview her.”
“I’m still amazed at the adventure she took you on. But speaking of strange and unbelievable women, are you braced for Danica Boerum’s appearance this evening?”
“I’ve been so busy looking for Joe, I haven’t had time for the latest campus news. Have you heard any rumblings about trouble?”
“Oh yes. But nowhere near the outrage I expected. I think many of our students today are much too absorbed in their own lives to work up a head of steam over politics. That’s not to say I have stopped worrying about what might happen this evening.”
“Are you going?”
“I was thinking about it, but Wilson has gotten very protective of me lately and he’s not sure we should attend.”
“It could get rough.”
“That’s what he says.”
“Glad to hear the two of you are still an item.” I smiled at Sadie, who tilted her head and gave me roguish grin.
“Indeed. As I said, I think this relationship may soon rival you and Joe for romance of the year.”
“Not really. Wynan and Nell still hold the title for that one.”
“Have you picked out a purple dress?”
“Not yet, but I expect I’ll have to wear a purple smock.”
We lapsed into our familiar conversation about the university and the usual faculty gossip. Fortunately, my faculty was relatively peaceful this year, so my dependence on Sadie’s good advice was less.
“No shootings in the parking lot?” Sadie never let me forget that one of my faculty had shot the other last fall.
“It’s early in the academic year.”
“Have you filled the vacant spots?”
“I have. Two good young teachers.”
“Astonishing how things work out.”
“No, what’s astonishing is how one crisis replaces another. Now I have to worry about Rosie’s attacker and potential violence at tonight’s speech.”
Tulips had started to bloom in a bed next to the path back to the school of journalism. The mild Nevada winter had not dimmed their vigor, and I smiled at the bright heads as I sat on a bench. I needed a breather before my drive to Reno, and I wanted to consider exactly how I was going to tell Joe about the pregnancy.
My mind went to an evening in January. It had been a dry winter until that night, but then the snow arrived, thick and soft around my house. Joe and I lit a fire and I opened a particularly good bottle of Cabernet.
“I’ve been saving this for a special occasion, and I think the first snow of the year qualifies.”
“Every day with you is a special occasion,” Joe had said, and it startled me. My rugged detective lover liked to recite other people’s poetry but was not given to expressing sentiments of his own.
“Thank you.”
“No, thank you for inviting me into your life, not to mention your home.”
“Our home now. Remember, your old apartment was too small for both of us.”
We were sitting close on the couch and he leaned back and his hand went to my hair.
“Not just my apartment. My life was too small,” he said, staring into the fire. “But you expanded it. Not only with your love but with your reasoning. You’ve helped me get past the sadness I felt after my parents died and the anger when my best friend killed himself.”
“I thought Charlie died in an accident. His death wasn’t a suicide.”
“I know. And I think I’ve come to see that now. He was a great guy who drank and drove anyway, and then he died.” Joe turned to me. “And I’m glad we named your dog after him.”
“Our dog.” Charlie snoozed quietly on the hearthrug in front of the fire.
Joe loosened the clip that held back my hair and buried his face in it. Then his head moved down and his lips covered mine. His hand moved under my skirt and began a gentle stroking against my thigh.
“I never thought I could love like this,” he said, his breath warm on my neck.
I raised his head and traced the lines around his mouth with my fingers. “I never thought I could either.”
Looking back, I reckoned that must have been the night we had conceived the child. Urgency had overtaken us and later, lying together on the couch, we both felt an unusual peacefulness, a bliss that lasted until the next morning.
My doctor was mistaken. I hadn’t forgotten birth control. Biology had trumped chemistry.
Wynan and I left for Reno late that afternoon. For the first time since Joe had gone undercover, I remembered why I usually enjoyed going to Reno. As we drove past the ranches that separated Landry from its more famous neighbor, I remembered spending days at the Artown festival that overtakes the city in the summer. Joe and I had walked for hours along the Truckee River that cuts through downtown, listening to the music coming from the park and stopping to watch a dance group practicing for a later session. We had bought our first piece of art together, a delicate watercolor by a local painter we found at an outdoor exhibit.
A sudden stop brought me back to the reality of my mission. We were in the middle of downtown and the pedestrian traffic from the hotel casinos was active.
I patted Wynan’s strong hand on the steering wheel. “Thank you for coming with me. I know you think it’s stupid and Joe’s going to be angry with you for aiding and abetting me twice now.”
His handsome face flirted with a smile. “In for a penny, in for a pound. Besides, I’d like to see how this story ends too.”
“Did Nell persuade you that I would be all right doing this?”
“Nell told me you were the strongest woman she ever knew, that you had taken defense courses and how effectively you worked with Joe on the previous cases. Of course, I knew that from the time you helped save my granddaughter. But by the time Nell had finished lecturing me about what a heroine you are, I was convinced I wanted to see this adventure through.”
; “And you wanted to keep me safe.”
“And I wanted to keep you safe.”
A little past four thirty in the afternoon, we arrived at the neighborhood where Simon lived. Wynan circled the block around Big Al’s house, checking to see the locations where he expected the police would be when the raid began.
“You didn’t tell the Reno Chief we were coming, did you?”
Wynan gave me a condescending look. “No ma’am, I most certainly did not. And if we stay far enough away, neither the Reno PD nor anyone in Big Al’s crew will ever know we were here.”
He parked in front of a vacant lot under one of the rare trees that grew through the sidewalk across the street. We were far enough away from Big Al’s house to go unnoticed but close enough to keep an eye on whatever happened. I sat in the backseat wearing dark glasses. My red hair was concealed under a boy’s cap and a video game was on my lap braced on a backpack. Wynan wore a baseball cap with the visor low on his face. He leaned back in his driver’s seat. Anyone passing by might think he was napping. I was supposed to be a teenager, sitting in back playing a game. One might think both of us were waiting for someone.
At five fifteen, a black van drove into Big Al’s driveway and disappeared behind the house. “Heads up.” Wynan focused on the house and I leaned forward.
Ten minutes later, a car moved slowly down the street. I could see four men in the car, all in dark windbreakers. The car stopped two houses away from Big Al’s and the four men got out. Two were carrying automatic weapons and the others checked their handguns as they moved. The four split up. Two went up to the porch of the house next door to Al’s and were admitted by someone I could not see.
“Those two are going to try to get to the back of Al’s house,” said Wynan, anticipating my question. That would mean climbing over the six-foot-high chain-link fence that separated Al’s House from his neighbor. I silently wished them luck.
Red Solaris Mystery Series Boxed Set: Books 1-3 Page 61
