She swam along under the dock as quickly and quietly as she could, praying the men would just go away. Unlikely, Lucy thought as she moved towards the coast.
Maybe if I can just get to the shore, and somehow climb out and run away before they see me. Really, a terrible plan.
But maybe I can make it work.
She paused under the dock. She was close enough to the shore now that she could almost stand, but that also meant she had nowhere else to run—well, swim, –really—without exposing herself. To see if she could hear the men, Lucy turned her head so one ear was above water.
“Where is that stupid bitch?” asked the deeper voice, the older man who had been shouting.
“I don’t know, maybe she got away,” replied the younger, more nervous sounding voice.
Must be Jordan, Lucy realized.
She stood as still as she could in the water, balancing on her tip toes. The men walked directly over her, their heavy footsteps causing little pieces of dirt to fall through the cracks in the dock, showering over her face. It was cold in the river water, and Lucy was starting to shiver.
“Wait, Rudy, hold up. There’s something down there. I think she’s right under us,” Jordan’s voice rang out over Lucy’s head.
‘Rudy’ is the older guy, Lucy realized, committing his name to memory in case she ever got out of this mess alive.
The footsteps stopped, and there was a loud CRACK as something ripped through the boards of the dock next to Lucy. Instinctively she bent her knees, dropping her body below the surface. Lucy pulled herself all the way down to the bottom of the river, praying that bullets couldn’t reach her under four feet of water. She only had so much breath, and she was running out. Slowly, so slowly, she rose back up to the surface, tilting her head so only her mouth would rise above the water. As quietly as possible she breathed out and back in before slipping back under the water. She couldn’t see the two men above her anymore, on the dock, but that didn’t mean they were gone.
Suddenly a new noise filtered through the water. What is that? Lucy wondered. Suddenly, she realized. A siren!
Lucy tilted her ear above the water, listening. There were a lot of footsteps, but she couldn’t quite tell what was happening, hidden under the dock. A voice rang out over her head, one she recognized. “Stop! Don’t move or I will shoot!”
Officer Fitz!
Lucy rose up until her entire head was above the water. Footsteps pounded above her again, this time going in the opposite direction, towards the end of the dock. A lot of footsteps, Officer Fitz must have brought some friends.
Lucy could hear the sounds of a scuffle coming from the end of the dock. She strained to hear what was happening…was Officer Fitz winning? How did he even know where to find her?
A loud splash came from the end of the wharf, and Lucy tensed as she saw someone fall from the dock above her down into the water. The person looked big, like it could have been Rudy. But it was quickly followed by another splash, this time a police officer diving into the water far more gracefully. Within seconds the officer had caught up to Rudy, and was handcuffing him under the water.
Impressive.
The officer swam back over to the dock, Rudy in tow. Lucy watched while a set of hands reached down from above and hauled Rudy out of the water and back up on to the dock. The uniformed officer reached up and pulled himself out of the water.
There was a loud thud from the end of the dock, and Officer Fitz called out again. “Lucy? You can come out now. We’ve got both of them.” Lucy felt the corners of her mouth lifting up in a smile.
She slowly swam out from under the dock, hesitant. It certainly sounded like things were under control, but since she was pretty sure she had just been shot at, Lucy thought it might still be a good idea to take things slowly.
“Come on, Lucy. It’s okay.” Officer Fitz’s voice was right above her now. She turned around and saw him there on the dock, crouching down to offer her his hand. “How did you find me?” she asked, still in the water.
“You told me where you were going. And then when I got here, I heard a shot. It was really pretty simple after that,” he said, smiling. “Now come on, the water is cold.” She reached out and took his hand, letting him help her out of the water as she climbed up.
Down at the end of the dock the two men who had chased her were being loaded into a waiting police car. “Lucy, are these the men who chased you, and fired a weapon at you?” Officer Fitz asked.
“Yes, they are. Check the pockets on the big guy. The kid gave him something while I watched. It sparkled in the sunlight.” The officer holding the handcuffs of the larger man, both of them soaking wet, used his free hand to check the man’s pockets. He came up with the same sparkle that Lucy had seen, only this time it was a lot closer.
“Diamonds. Cut diamonds. Where did these come from, huh?” The officer asked. The man stayed silent. Jordan stared down at his feet.
“And him,” said Lucy, “Check his hat. His name is Jordan. I think the big guy is named Rudy.”
The second officer, holding Jordan by his handcuffs, pulled the baseball cap off of his head and tossed it to Officer Fitz. He offered it to Lucy. She took it and flipped it over, searching for the hidden pocket Jordan had used to hide the diamonds. Her fingers felt something strange in the seam and she dug farther, finding the zipper buried under the fabric. Triumphantly she unzipped the seam, opening up a pocket in the side of the hat. She grinned and showed it to the officers.
“This is it, isn’t it? You’re the one who broke into my restaurant, because you needed the hat back. How was Donovan involved? Why did he have this stupid hat?” Lucy asked Jordan. He kept staring at the ground.
“Answer me!” Lucy started to raise her voice, getting upset. “Tell me how he was involved!” She jabbed the teenaged boy in the chest with the brim of the hat.
“Lucy, step back. He’ll tell us what he knows down at the station,” Officer Fitz cautioned her, putting his hand on her elbow.
“No, tell me! I deserve answers, and you have them.” Lucy looked at Jordan expectantly.
“Don was my cousin. He...I don’t know. I don’t know who this guy is.” Jordan answered nervously.
“Donovan had some deal with him. But he was getting nervous. He left the hat at your restaurant because he thought it would be safe. He told me that if he disappeared, if he had to run away, I needed to get the hat back from Alba. But this guy, he figured out who I was and told me he would kill me too if I didn’t give him the hat. That’s it. I don’t know anything else.” Jordan spoke all in a rush, sliding away from the bigger man as he did so.
“You can tell us everything when we get down to the station,” said Officer Fitz. He gestured at the two other officers, and they put the handcuffed men into the back of the black and white police car.
The two other officers climbed into the front of the car and drove away, leaving Officer Fitz and Lucy alone at the end of the wharf. “Come on, Lucy, my car is over here. I have a blanket,you need to warm up.” He guided her over to a non-descript green sedan and opening up the trunk. “Well, really, it belongs to Detective Carter. I’m not important enough to get a car,” he joked, self-deprecatingly.
Officer Fitz pulled a thick, woolen blanket out of the trunk. “Part of every officer’s travel kit,” he said, unfolding it and wrapping it around Lucy’s shoulders.
“Thank you,” Lucy said, “for everything, Officer Fitz. Thank you for getting my messages and actually showing up and catching them and everything. Thank you.”
“That’s what I’m here for. And, Lucy, don’t you think it’s time you called me by my name? It’s Charlie.”
“Thank you, Charlie,” Lucy said as she looked directly into his eyes and smiled.
Chapter 14
Lucy woke up early the next morning. She had called Ally last night, after everything had happened down at the wharf, explaining briefly, but knew Ally would have so many more questions. After she and Officer Fitz�
�Charlie—had left the wharf, they had gone down to the police station so Lucy could make a statement. She had had to sit, alone, in an empty office and write down everything that happened to her over the last week. After the first page, Lucy just sat and stared at the notebook, until a few minutes later when Charlie had come in, and sat with her to make her laugh. After that, she felt comfortable enough to write everything down. On her way out of the station, she had seen Jordan and the other man being escorted into the interrogation rooms.
Charlie then took her to a burrito place around the corner from the police station. Lucy demolished her entire burrito and part of his, plus the chips and salsa they ordered. She hadn’t eaten anything all day, and was famished.
She had finally gotten home around ten at night, long after dinner service at the restaurant had begun. Skipping the restaurant altogether, Lucy went upstairs to take a long, hot shower and rinse off everything that happened to her. After calling Ally, who at that point had left about ten voicemails on the cell phone that had been destroyed when Lucy dove into the water, Lucy crawled straight into bed and fallen asleep.
And now, it was just after eight in the morning. Lucy was curled up under the blanket on her bed, wishing she could go back to sleep. She could still barely believe that any of it had happened, let alone that she had been chased, and shot at, and had to swim for her life under a dock.
There was a gentle knock on the front door of the apartment. Lucy groaned and pulled the pillow overhead, but there was another knock.
“Lucy?” called a familiar voice, “It’s Officer Fitz. Are you up yet?”
Lucy still didn’t answer. She was too tired to get up.
“I’m sorry it’s so early. I just wanted to make sure you’re okay.”
At that, Lucy rolled out of bed. She grabbed the bathrobe that was tossed on the end of the bed, wrapping it around herself over her pajamas and walked through the living room to open the door. Officer Fitz stood on the other side, wearing a red T-shirt and jeans. It was the first time Lucy had seen him without his uniform.
“Charlie, good morning. What brings you here?” she asked, yawning.
“I’m sorry it’s so early. I just wanted to make sure you were okay after yesterday. An experience like that can hit you really hard the next day. How are you feeling?”
“Come in on. You don’t have to stand out there. I’ll make some coffee.” Lucy stepped away from the door and gestured for Charlie to come inside. “I’m doing alright, I think. Do you know...do we know exactly what happened? Who was that guy, the bigger guy?” The words spilled out as Charlie stepped over the threshold.
She stepped over into the kitchen and switched on the coffee maker. While it burbled softly in the background, Charlie explained just exactly what had happened to Lucy over the past few days.
“So it looks like Donovan was involved in some shady stuff. Obviously. We’re still trying to figure out how long he and the bigger man, Rudy, had been involved. But either way, that guy Rudy is bad news. He has a record a mile long. That boat he and Jordan were standing on belongs to him. He uses it to make runs all over the east coast. It seems like he’s willing to smuggle anything, as long as there’s a customer. This time it was diamonds, from a client here in Boston down to someone in Florida. He was using Donovan to handle the actual pickup, so he wouldn’t be connected. It seems like Donovan tried to hold out on him, asked for more money before he would hand over the diamonds.”
The coffee machine clicked, indicating it was ready. Lucy reached over and poured the two cups while Charlie continued talking.
“Rudy didn’t like it when Donovan tried to get more cash out of him. I’m guessing that Donovan knew that Rudy would try to get to him that night, and panicked. I think he took the steak knife with him when he left Alba, to defend himself. But in the end that turned out to be his downfall. Rudy must have followed him and killed him to try and get the diamonds. But, of course, he had left them in the hat in his locker at Alba. And you heard the rest from Jordan down at the wharf.”
Lucy nodded slowly as she sipped her coffee. “Wow,” she said out loud, “this week has been way more exciting than usual.”
Charlie laughed. “Trust me, I’m on the same page. I usually don’t have to rescue civilians who follow criminals to drop points for smuggled goods,” he said, with a pointed look in Lucy’s direction.
“I know, I know. In retrospect, definitely shouldn’t have followed the scary looking guy through the city. And onto a boat, too. That was...uh, kind of stupid,” Lucy said with a chuckle.
“Yeah, kind of. But it worked out, this time at least.” Charlie took a sip of his coffee.
They stood together in silence for a second, sipping their coffee. Lucy pulled her robe tighter, covering the T-shirt she slept in.
“Hey, I’m sorry to have come by so early. It seems like I woke you up,” Charlie apologized.
“No, no, no problem. I’m glad that you came by,” Lucy said, trailing off.
“There was another reason, too. I wanted to check on you. But I was also wondering, uh, if maybe, uh, you’d like, to maybe, sometime, uh, come out to dinner with me,” Charlie said, his voice lower than normal.
“Oh,” said Lucy. She took a sip of her coffee. Was Officer Fitz really interested in her? He was certainly nice, and he had saved her life the other day. He had shown up when she needed him. And Ally had said that he had a crush on her…could it be true?
“You, uh, you definitely don’t have to. Definitely not,” Charlie said.
“No, I want to. Let’s do it. Are you free on Monday night? That’s my day off.” Lucy smiled up at him. “I really want to. As long as we go somewhere besides my restaurant,” she said, laughing.
“Of course. We’ll go anywhere you want. Anywhere at all,” Charlie said quickly, looking relieved. “And yes, Monday night is perfect. Can I pick you up? Would seven o’clock work?
“Yes, seven o’clock is perfect. And the place is up to you, your choice,” Lucy said.
“Great,” Charlie replied. “I know a place.” He tilted his cup up and finished the rest of his coffee. “But now I have to get to work. I’ll see you on Monday night. I’m looking forward to it.” He smiled at her, putting his empty coffee cup in the sink as he headed towards the door.
Lucy stayed where she was, leaning against the counter. She smiled back at him. “So am I. I’ll see you then.”
Charlie headed out through the door, carefully closing it behind him.
Lucy smiled to herself and took another sip of her coffee. I have a date, she thought. Wow, that’s something new. Ally will be so impressed.
Lucy finished her coffee, but stayed where she was in the kitchen, a smile on her face. She waited until she was sure Officer Fitz was gone, then headed through the front door, not bothering to change out of her pajamas, or even put on shoes. She got to the bottom of the stairs and opened the back door to the restaurant.
“Ally!” Lucy called, seeing Ally’s blonde curls across the kitchen. “Man, do I have a lot to tell you!” Lucy continued, grinning.
Murder at St. Mark's Page 6
