The Plane and the Parade (Veronica Barry Book 3)

by Sophia Martin

  “What a piece of work,” Daniel said, holding her hand.

  “He’s a murderer, and he may not like it, I don’t think he does, but he’s willing to do it, to kill people. For some reason it’s really important to him to come here.”

  She ran a hand through her hair, fingers catching on tangles.

  Daniel said, “And you have no idea what flight he’s coming in on? Because you said he’s coming in at five oh nine—”

  “No, nine oh five. And no, I have no idea. Chances are, the last leg from Dallas to Sac isn’t even a British Airways flight. It’ll be some American domestic flight,” Veronica said.

  “I’m really hating my alarm right now.”

  “Yeah,” Veronica said. She squeezed his hand. “Do you think you could send somebody to the airport? I mean, we could go, but we can’t cover all the exits. I guess there’s probably one main area people come through. Although he’ll have done customs in Dallas.”

  Daniel blew out a breath of air. “I can’t, Ronnie. The lieutenant would have too many questions about why I was using department resources like that. But we could go.”

  She nodded. “We have to, Daniel. You could arrest him. It wouldn’t take long to prove you were justified—the vials in his bag, the stolen passport…”

  “Okay,” Daniel said. “We’ll go to the airport tonight.”

  Chapter 25

  Daniel left for work and Veronica spent the morning walking Harry and doing chores. Later she set up the vase of slightly wilted orange and pink daisies Posey had given her next to the smaller blue one with Daniel’s lilies of the valley, and brought her easel over. She contemplated a blank canvas and even tried drawing some lines, but her mind kept wandering to worry over Leopold Victor and Tim Roeder. Roeder had obviously contacted Victor and warned him, just as Veronica had feared. Victor changed the plan of his trip, and what other changes had they agreed on? Did they even intend to make the parade their target anymore?

  Putting away the canvas, easel, and vases, Veronica ruminated over the possibilities. It was imperative that Daniel arrest Victor at the airport, before he had a chance to find Roeder and their accomplices and put whatever the new plan of action was into play.

  Her cell phone went off just as she was finishing tidying up. The screen said “Eric.”

  “Oh, man, what now?” she murmured, picking it up. “Hello?”

  “Vero! What a pleasure it is to hear your voice,” Eric said.

  “Hi, Eric. How was your trip?”

  “Boring,” he answered. “I am sorry I had to stay longer than I thought I would. Did you get my message?”

  “What message?”

  “On Facebook. I thought perhaps you were angry with me, because you did not respond.”

  “I haven’t looked at Facebook in a few days,” Veronica said. She hadn’t paid much attention to how long Eric had left for, but she didn’t want to be rude and tell him so.

  “What a relief,” Eric said. “I would not like to think you were angry with me.”

  “I’m not,” Veronica said, forcing a smile into her voice. It was hard to talk to Eric with everything going on. She couldn’t balance her fears about Victor and Roeder with the way Eric made her feel, and the possibilities that surrounded him. Eric was for fairytale evenings in Oscar de la Renta gowns and gleeful rides in Mustang convertibles, not for trying to stop terrorist attacks.

  “I was wondering, do you have plans for tomorrow?”

  “Tomorrow? It’s the Fourth of July,” Veronica said stupidly.

  “Mais bien sûr, ma chérie,” he said with a laugh. “My very first American Fourth of July, in fact. I was hoping you could show me the city celebrations.”

  Veronica’s mind froze, and she blinked rapidly, trying to think.

  “I read in the newspaper that there will be vendors in Capitol Park, and a parade, and also fireworks later.”

  “Don’t go to the parade,” Veronica said quickly.

  “Ah, no? Why not? Is it very crowded?”

  “So crowded,” Veronica echoed. “It gets dangerous.”

  Eric chuckled. “I’m sure it’s nothing like Paris on New Year’s Eve.”

  Veronica’s head spun. He was evoking that terrible night, when they’d gone walking through the reveling crowds with Fiona, who was Veronica’s best friend at the time and Eric’s girlfriend. That night had been so confusing. Veronica had wanted Eric so badly, and back then she hated her gift, and when she felt the spirits warning her of danger, she’d ignored it.

  “You’re right,” she said faintly. “It’s nothing like that.”

  “Don’t worry about me, Vero. I can manage in a crowd. I want to see the parade—how can I miss it? The Fourth of July is like our Bastille Day, and I always love the Bastille Day celebrations.”

  “Okay then, let me go with you.”

  “Of course, that is why I am asking about it,” Eric said. He sounded a little confused, but also pleased. “You don’t have plans with your boyfriend?”

  “He’s working,” she said, which was true. Daniel and everyone involved in the Murphy homicide investigation would be at the parade, watching Roeder, or at least keeping an eye on the crowd. Veronica had planned to be there, too. Daniel could keep an eye out for Scott Haines, but Veronica was the only one who knew what the female accomplice looked like.

  “Fantastic,” Eric said. “So perhaps I should come and pick you up, don’t you think? We might not find each other if we try to meet downtown.”

  Veronica exhaled a long breath, thinking of how Daniel was going to react when he heard that she made plans with Eric, once again. “Fine,” she said. “Come over at ten. The parade starts at ten thirty.”

  ~~~

  Daniel got off work at five and they met at seven at Daniel’s apartment for dinner and planning. As they sat side by side at the counter that separated Daniel’s kitchen from his living room, Veronica told him about Eric’s call about halfway through the butternut ravioli.

  “You said you’d go with him?” Daniel said, his eyebrows raised.

  Veronica shifted uncomfortably in her seat and poked a ravioli with her fork. “Yes, but only because I don’t want him to wander around the parade and happen to pick up a bottle of contaminated water.”

  “They’re targeting the veterans, Ronnie, he’s not going to just pick one of their bottles up by accident.”

  “We don’t know that.”

  “Well, in any case, we’ll catch Victor tonight, and there won’t be any contaminated water.”

  “We don’t know that either.” Veronica took a deep breath and tried to arrange her facial expression to mimic nonchalance. “It’s no big deal, Daniel. I’m not going with him as a date.”

  “Does he know that?”

  She couldn’t honestly say that he did. “What he thinks doesn’t matter. I’m telling you it’s not a date, and nothing is going to happen with him. I’ll be way too busy trying to get visions off bottles and trying to spot Roeder or Scott Haines or that woman in the crowds.”

  Daniel glowered at his ravioli for a few silent minutes, and Veronica pushed hers around her plate, watching him out of the corner of her eye. Then he seemed to make a decision.

  “I know I didn’t handle things very well when he first came to town,” Daniel said in a low voice.

  “Neither did I,” Veronica said.

  Daniel set down his fork and turned to face her. Sensing this was important, Veronica put down her own fork and turned to him. He took her hands. “I trust you,” he said. “I don’t trust Eric, and I probably never will. But I do trust you. I know you wouldn’t lie to me.”

  Because it seemed like there was a question mark lurking in that sentence, Veronica nodded and squeezed his hands. “I will never lie to you, Daniel. I promise.”

  “Okay,” he said.

  “So maybe we should get back to talking about catching Leopold Victor?”

  And so they did.

  Later, as Veronica was doing the d
ishes, Daniel got up to feed his fish. As he sprinkled fish food into the clownfish tanks, he said over his shoulder, “When we spot him, I don’t want you going anywhere near him.”

  Veronica finished drying and putting away the dishes. “Believe me, I don’t want to get within ten feet of that guy.”

  “Seriously, though, Ronnie. I need to know you aren’t going to try to approach him, no matter what.”

  “I know, because you can’t have your attention divided between him and me. I get it. I will stay far, far away.”

  Daniel snapped the cap back on the food. “You nervous?”

  “I don’t know if I’m more nervous about spotting him, or not spotting him,” she said. “I keep thinking, what if I don’t recognize him? Except I’m sure I will. I could tell that guy he killed looked like him, so that’s proof I really do know what he looks like. But part of me just doesn’t trust that I’ll know him when I see him.”

  “Well, I have the photo from the news article, too,” Daniel said.

  “Yeah,” Veronica nodded, and hoped that it would be enough.

  When they got to the airport, the monitors listed a dismaying number of delayed planes, including three from Dallas. Veronica and Daniel exchanged a look, and she hurried over to an information desk. She wasn’t the only one with questions, however, and it took fifteen minutes before the harried airport employee got to her.

  “What’s going on with the delays?” Veronica asked.

  “It’s some big summer storm,” the gray-haired woman said. “East of the Rockies.”

  “A summer storm?” a man next to Veronica said. “How bad can it be?”

  The gray-haired woman frowned and shook her head. “Summer storms are worse than winter storms for the airlines.”

  The man scoffed. “How can that be? You’re telling me some rain is worse than ice and snow?”

  “Winter storms form slowly and they don’t usually cover a big area,” woman said, gesturing with her hands. “The airlines can be proactive and cancel flights ahead of time. But in the summer, thunderstorms just pop up out of nowhere and you don’t know if they’re going to be in any specific area or not.”

  The man grunted and moved on, and Veronica turned back catch sight of Daniel, who was standing with his arms crossed over his chest.

  To the gray-haired woman, she said, “Do you have any idea how long the delays are going to be?”

  The gray-haired woman shook her head. “I wouldn’t want to guess and steer you wrong, hon. It’s my understanding a lot of airports grounded their planes and are waiting until the storm dies down some before giving them the green light. Just keep watching the monitors.”

  Veronica returned to Daniel’s side, giving him the bad news.

  “Well, what do you want to do? We could go home and just keep an eye on the airport’s website. We could pick a flight number—or even all three of the ones from Dallas, and watch for when they say their coming in.”

  What a mess, Veronica thought. “If we go, we might not get back in time. We should wait.”

  Daniel gave her a nod. “Okay. Let’s go find some place to get a cup of coffee.”

  ~~~

  Numerous airports must have deemed the skies safe again all at once, because after waiting over three hours, suddenly a half a dozen flights arrived at the same time. A half an hour later, several more landed, so the airport was overrun with disembarking passengers.

  Veronica and Daniel hovered at a balcony that overlooked a large escalator heading down into the baggage claim areas.

  “This is hopeless,” Veronica said.

  “Just keep looking for him,” Daniel replied.

  They did, scanning the never-ending crowds that flowed up and down the escalator.

  “Wait,” Veronica said, her whole body stiffening as she caught sight of an almost-white head of hair. The man had a gray beard and mustache, and dark eyes she now realized she would know anywhere. “It’s him!”

  He was headed down the escalator. Grasping Daniel’s forearm with one hand, Veronica pointed with the other. Daniel leaned forward, Victor looked up, and he spotted Veronica pointing.

  “Shit,” she hissed, dropping her arm. But it was too late—he had seen them. Victor began shoving the people in front of him, making his way down the escalator. “He has that vial somewhere on him,” she said to Daniel. “Even if he abandons his suitcase—”

  “I know,” Daniel said, and he bolted for the escalator.

  There was no way to follow him, and Daniel had enough of a hard time pushing through the crowd—she would never manage. He, at least, had his badge, and could shout, “Sacramento Police, SPD, make way!”

  As Daniel disappeared into the throngs of people, Veronica waited anxiously up at the balcony. If he could just catch Victor, they might be able to stop the attack before it started.

  Please, she thought, gripping the cool metal of the railing. Please catch him. Please. She tried to picture Daniel tackling Victor. Creating the scene in her mind, she saw Daniel shoving some passenger aside and seizing Victor by the arm, throwing him down, and cuffing him, reciting his rights. Please.

  Time passed—it seemed like she had been waiting for hours, but she checked her phone, and every time she did, only a few minutes had gone by. Finally, after twenty minutes, she saw Daniel in the crowd at the base of the escalator. He looked up at her, met her eyes, and shook his head.

  Chapter 26

  “Vero! You look lovely,” Eric said as he crossed her lawn. Veronica hurried out of her duplex to meet him. She wore denim Bermuda shorts and a red tee-shirt with a ruffle around the collar—nothing special, and she wondered if Eric was just flattering her. Still, she enjoyed the compliment, and the way his eyes sparkled as he looked at her.

  He was dressed in off-white linen slacks and white “I hella ‘heart’ Sacramento” tee. The heart was an American flag.

  “Cute,” she said, poking the heart lightly.

  “You like? I found it yesterday. I thought I should look like a good American. The French are not always appreciated here.”

  Veronica shrugged one shoulder. “They forget that without the help of the French, they’d all still be British.”

  “How terrible that would be, n’est pas? The food,” he said, wrinkling his nose.

  “Well, you’re about to experience some real American food, my friend,” Veronica said as she sat in the passenger seat of the convertible. She was trying not to acknowledge the little part of herself that was thrilled to be riding in it again. “Hot dogs, corn dogs, cheeseburgers…”

  “The cheeseburgers are okay,” Eric said. “I have no interest in the corn dogs.” He said “corn dogs” like he was saying “excrement.” “Besides, I thought Sacramento was a multicultural city, is it not? Perhaps there will be other possibilities.”

  “I’m sure there will be,” Veronica said, and sighed as they pulled away from the curb.

  ~~~

  Veronica wandered along beside Eric as he checked out the stands in Capitol Park. Every time she saw a bottle that no one was paying attention to—or in two cases, stacks of bottled Nestle Water—she touched it. Nothing came to her. The sun was already hot, and the parade was already underway. She knew that Daniel and other SPD detectives, as well as plenty of uniformed officers, were out in force, combing the crowds. He’d ordered a tail on Roeder, but she was willing to bet they’d lost sight of him by now, because there were tens of thousands of people out. The city had cut off at least a half a dozen streets, making them temporarily pedestrian, and it seemed like she’d never seen so many people out in Sacramento on any holiday before. But it was probably a function of her anxiety—she was doing her best not to let Eric see it, but she was so nervous she was having trouble stringing coherent sentences together to answer him when he spoke to her.

  After the third time she had to start over trying to say something that wasn’t nonsensical, Eric asked, “Are you okay, Vero?”

  Forcing a smile, she said, “Sure
. I’m sorry, I’m just a little distracted. I thought I saw a friend over there, but I didn’t.” Just as she gestured, glancing over to the left, she caught sight of the woman from Murphy’s house. Shit, she thought. “Actually, there she is,” she said aloud.

  Eric craned his neck.

  “The woman in the beige T-shirt,” Veronica said. “I wonder where she’s going?”

  She could feel Eric give her a curious look, but she didn’t want to take her eyes off Ms. Accomplice, whom she started to refer to in her mind as Ms. A. There were so many people around, most of them wearing red or blue, that Ms. A in her beige shirt and khaki shorts with her mousy hair actually stood out a bit. Veronica began to follow her, a part of her mind worrying over what Eric was going to make of this, and the rest of her not caring.

  Holding a large shoulder bag close, Ms. A seemed to be scanning the crowds just as Veronica had been. The best Veronica could guess was that she was acting as a reconnaisance agent for the others. Probably taking note of where the uniforms were, and maybe even trying to spot the plain clothes cops. Ms. A made her way through Capitol Park, dodging kids running with ice cream cones and people dressed in American flag prints walking on stilts. She turned north on 13th, which bisected the park. Veronica picked up her pace a little; she didn’t want to lose sight of her.

  “Vero, what are we doing?” Eric asked, somewhat breathlessly.

  Glancing at him, she felt her cheeks growing hot. “I have to follow her,” Veronica said, hoping he wouldn’t push for a reason.

  But of course he did. “But why?”

  “You don’t have to come with me,” she said.

  “Vero, I don’t understand.”

  Her eyes never leaving Ms. A, Veronica sighed and said, “It’s for Daniel. I’m helping him with a case.”

  She felt rather than saw the expression of incredulity on Eric’s face. “A police case?”

  “Yes,” she answered. “Like I said, you don’t have to come with me. Stay and enjoy the celebration.”