Heartbreaker Hero: Eddie's Story (Maine Justice Book 4)

by Susan Page Davis

  “I can’t say.”

  “Sure you can,” Joey said and started to step forward again, but Eddie shoved him in the chest.

  “Back off, would ya?” He looked at Silver. “How’s your little sister?”

  “Good. Still in school.”

  “Great. Look, you know it would be a good thing if we put Al back behind bars.”

  “I don’t know, Eddie. I don’t want to end up in the bay.”

  “What do you think will happen if Rooster gets a shot at Chief Browning? I’ll tell you. This town will be turned upside down and set on fire. Every man, woman, and child that looks sideways at us will get hauled in, and half of you won’t see daylight again.”

  “You wouldn’t take me in, Eddie.”

  “You bet I would.”

  “Aw, come on. You’re the guy that saves kiddies’ lives.”

  “I’m also a guy who respects Browning. You get me?”

  “Sure. He’s not a bad chief. He put Al away, didn’t he?”

  “Yeah, he did. And we’ll do it again, with or without your help. It’ll be much better for you if you’re on our side.”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Yes, you do,” Eddie said. “Come on.”

  Silver sighed. “I’m freezing.”

  “Take the jacket.”

  “No, man.”

  “Tell me where to find Al.”

  “You get Rooster, he’s your best bet. He can lead you to Al.”

  “I can’t wait that long,” Eddie said. “Look, I’ll stand you another twenty.”

  Joey made a little sound in his throat, and Eddie held up a hand, watching Silver.

  “I heard he’s got a lady friend in Bayside.”

  “Pretty swanky neighborhood,” Eddie said.

  Silver shrugged. “Al don’t sleep with the swine.”

  “You got an address?”

  “Nope. Woman name of Cynthia, though.”

  “Last name?”

  He shook his head.

  “Okay.” Eddie put his last twenty in his hand. “Get out of here.”

  “Don’t come around again if you’re going to be a TV star.” Silver pointed a finger at him. “And watch your back.” He slid around the corner and was gone.

  Joey stood there staring at Eddie.

  “What?”

  “You gave him sixty bucks.”

  “Silver’s been good to me.”

  “More like, you’ve been good to him. For what? The address of a flophouse where your pal Rooster might or might not be crashing, and a woman named Cynthia.”

  “His intel’s never come up bogus.” Eddie started walking back to his truck.

  Joey fell in beside him. “Well, he’s right about one thing.”

  “What?”

  “You can’t do undercover with your face all over the news.”

  Eddie wanted to say, “If you think it’s bad now, just wait until tomorrow,” but he decided discretion was the better part of undercover work. He was so glad Harvey hadn’t picked Joey for the Priority Unit.

  Chapter 20

  The shift was over, but Eddie reported in to Harvey, and they hashed over his interview with Silver. Harvey decided Silver was right—Eddie shouldn’t show his face tomorrow, especially with Morning Nation scheduled to show it for him. His visit to Misty hadn’t helped much. She’d said she got Kyle to take the pills shortly after Jordy left, and she hadn’t seen him do the cocaine.

  “Tomorrow I’ll send Nate and Jimmy to check out the address Silver gave you for Rooster Bentley.”

  “Really, Harv? They don’t have a lot of training yet, and they could make a mistake and ruin it.”

  He sighed. “Okay, I’ll go with Jimmy. You and Nate stay here and try to get a line on this Cynthia.”

  Eddie didn’t like it, but he guessed it made sense.

  He went home and nuked a frozen dinner, then decided he had time to call Leeanne before going to the midweek service at the church.

  “How was the interview?” was her first question.

  “I think it will be okay,” Eddie said. “Unless they add in something I don’t know about. And, uh, they did interview one woman about the, uh—”

  “The crying thing?” she asked.

  “Yeah. They talked to Sarah.”

  Leeanne was quiet for a moment. “You mean the Sarah you were dating last summer?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Did she bash on you?”

  “No, she didn’t. She could have.”

  “Oh, Eddie, I don’t believe you treated all those women badly. I went and read some of the comments on Delaney’s page, and a lot of them said they’d cried just because you were so sweet and handsome, and you’re out of their reach. Women who’ve been looking for Mr. Right and not finding him. I’ll bet at least half of them are women you’ve never even met.”

  Eddie’s lungs got that giant-squeezed feeling. “I hope you’re right. I don’t want people to hate me. I mean, I always thought a lot of people liked me.”

  “They do.”

  He could think of several who didn’t, and not only people he’d arrested. Joey Bolduc, for instance. But women? He couldn’t think of any who had said they hated him, at least not to his face. Maybe she was right.

  “Abby said she’s going to poll all the women in your Sunday school class and see how many of them adore you and post it on her Facebook page.”

  “What? No! Tell her not to do that.”

  “I can’t wait to see the interview.”

  Eddie swallowed hard. “I’d better get going. Don’t want to miss church.”

  They hung up, and he felt like he should have said more. Like I love you. He wanted to kill Blabby Abby.

  *****

  Eddie went in to work at the normal time on Thursday. The Priority Unit office was full of cops. Absolutely full. At least thirty people were in there, including the chief and the deputy chief, and a flat screen TV was set up on Tony’s desk, facing the room.

  “Twenty minutes, people,” Nate yelled as Eddie walked in the door.

  Mike spotted him. “There he is, the man of the hour.”

  “Hey, Eddie!” Everyone started crowding around and slapping him on the back and shaking his hand. He edged through the crowd to find Harvey.

  “Is this your idea?”

  “Mike’s,” Harvey said. “He thought it would be good for morale. He even had me call Tony last night and tell him to come in and watch it with the rest of us, even though his hearing isn’t until Monday.”

  “Do I have to stay in here?”

  “I don’t think it will kill you.”

  “It might.”

  Harvey shook his head.

  “Hey, Shakespeare.”

  Eddie whirled around to find his erstwhile partner behind him, grinning like a jack-o-lantern.

  “Tony! Hey, how you doing?”

  “Okay. Went skiing at Sugarloaf yesterday with Uncle Bill.”

  Uncle Bill was the governor. Eddie said, “Oh, hobnobbing with the rich and famous.”

  “You ought to talk,” Tony said. “National TV.”

  “If I could have let you do the gig, I woulda.”

  All too soon, the interview came on. Eddie tried to fade to the back of the crowd, but he bumped into someone.

  “Sarah. I’m sorry.”

  “No problem.”

  She had her uniform on, and no makeup, but she still looked pretty good.

  Eddie said, “I—uh—thanks for—you know.”

  Joey Bolduc looked at them and said, “Shh!”

  On screen, Mia introduced the segment.

  “I’m not sure I can watch this,” Eddie whispered to Sarah.

  “Let us be proud of you, Eddie.”

  Was she kidding? He frowned at her, but he stayed.

  You could have heard a foam rubber pin drop as the video of the fiery van played. Eddie had never seen that one, but there he was, throwing the hood open. Backlit by the flames, he doused the fire wit
h his extinguisher. It looked scarier than it had in real life. They switched to the video that had been on YouTube—Eddie weaving between the vehicles with Mason in his arms, heading for an ambulance two lanes over.

  Next was the hospital part. They had cut it down to about fifteen seconds, the highlights being Mason saying “P’wiceman” and hugging him, and Eddie giving him the plastic ambulance. The final shot was of Mason and Eddie, cheek to cheek and smiling. Everybody cheered. Eddie felt pretty good.

  Then came Sarah’s spot. The room went quiet.

  “Wow, is that you, Benoit,” Brad Lyons, the day sergeant called.

  Sarah’s color deepened, but she hiked her chin up and watched the TV. Eddie caught a vibe for a second, but he wasn’t sure what it was. Did she have something against Brad?

  When Sarah said in the video, “whoever takes Eddie Thibodeau to the altar is one lucky woman,” the place erupted with laughs, whistles, and shouts. Mia gave her punchline, and they faded to commercial.

  They had cut the question about superpowers. Eddie was disappointed. That was the part he wanted the world to hear.

  “Th-that’s all, folks,” Mike said and clicked the TV off. “Go to work, and watch out for each other.”

  Everybody wanted to touch Eddie—shake his hand, slug his shoulder, rumple his hair. He felt like a punching bag by the time most of them were gone.

  Sarah touched his arm for a second. “Good job, friend.”

  “You, too. Thanks.”

  “I enjoyed it, and I meant every word.” She headed for the stairs.

  Tony stood three feet away. He gave a soft wolf whistle. “I gotta say, she was some classy looking on the tube. Maybe I can convince her to sob over me the next time.”

  “Grow up.”

  Before Eddie could make a dive for the locker room, Harvey called, “Eddie! Can you come over here for a minute, please?”

  The chief and deputy chief were grinning at him.

  “First class work, detective,” Jack Stewart said.

  “Thank you, sir.” Eddie let him shake his hand.

  Mike winked and stuck out his hand. “I never doubted you, kid.”

  “Sure. That’s why you sent in the big guns.”

  “Wasn’t she terrific? I call that a decisive victory for the P.D. Don’t you, Harvey?”

  “I didn’t know it was a war,” Harvey said.

  Mike laughed.

  Harvey shook his head. “I agree it was a success, but now Eddie’s ruined for undercover work, at least for a while.”

  “No, seriously.” Mike laid his paw on Eddie’s shoulder. “You got some intel on Hawkins?”

  “Maybe. We heard the new shooter is a guy named Rooster Bentley.”

  “Sounds familiar. Have you checked his record?”

  “Yeah, I’ll send you his file and his DMV photo, so you can be on the lookout. We’re going to try to run him to ground today.”

  “Good luck. I’m getting tired of the bodyguards. Sharon and I went to the movies last night, and two uniforms went with us.”

  “I hope they enjoyed the picture,” Eddie said.

  “Eh, it was a chick flick. Sharon’s pick.”

  After the brass and Tony left, Nate wheeled the TV into the breakroom and they got down to work. Eddie had some contacts in Bayside—rich people whose art had been stolen a few months earlier. They felt indebted to him and Harvey for getting it back. He started calling and reminding them who he was. The art wouldn’t have mattered, as it turned out. They’d all watched him on TV and recognized him.

  Once they got past the pleasantries, or in Eddie’s case the mortification, he asked them if they knew a woman named Cynthia who lived in the area. On his third call, to a doctor who’d had some good prints stolen off his office walls, Eddie got a hit.

  “Do you mean Cynthia Sheridan?” Dr. Eldred asked.

  “I don’t know,” Eddie said. “Tell me about her.”

  “Her father’s an attorney. She was married to a dentist, but they got divorced. I think she got a pretty good settlement. She’s got a condo in an upscale development.”

  “How old is she?” Eddie asked.

  “Maybe forty.”

  “Good looking?”

  “Oh, yeah, she takes care of herself now,” Dr. Eldred said.

  “What do you mean, now?”

  “Well, I don’t know as I should say. I wasn’t her physician, but...”

  “Hey, Doc, this is between you and me, and it has to do with a felony case.”

  “Hmm. Well, my understanding is that she was into drugs as a youngster. Dropped out of college, and her parents put her in rehab.”

  “No drugs nowadays?” Eddie asked.

  “I don’t really know. I rarely see her, but she doesn’t live far from me. Once in a while she drives by, and I wave. Her father is more in my social circle.”

  “Might she have a live-in boyfriend?”

  “I wouldn’t know.”

  He gave Eddie the approximate address, and he easily found her on the computer, without even dipping into their special law enforcement databases.

  Harvey was elated at this and started planning a raid. He talked to Mike, and it turned out the chief knew a city councilman who lived in the same gated community as Cynthia Sheridan. The councilman agreed to tell the gatekeeper to let in a couple of detectives. Harvey sent Nate and Jimmy out that afternoon to do some reconnaissance on the condo.

  “No offense, Eddie,” he said, “but these people in the leisure class are ones who might stay home and watch morning TV shows.”

  Jimmy and Nate returned after talking to several residents.

  “There’s been a man staying with Cynthia for a few weeks,” Nate told them. He gave them the descriptions they’d gotten. They all agreed, it could be Hawkins without the beard on his six-year-old driver’s license.

  “Why would a rich woman like that take up with a criminal?” Jimmy asked.

  “Maybe she doesn’t know he’s an ex-con,” Nate said.

  “And maybe she likes his product,” Harvey added. “Don’t forget, she was in rehab fifteen years ago.”

  He had gotten into her medical records and found the rehab sessions—two of them, one when she was twenty-one and one five years later.

  “The chances are pretty high that she’s relapsed,” Nate said, frowning.

  Jimmy didn’t think anyone was in Cynthia’s condo at the time they observed it, but they had no way to be sure. A neighbor had seen Cynthia drive out around eleven that morning. Al could be inside sleeping or supervising his business by phone or computer.

  “Our best bet is to catch him at night,” Harvey said. He’d gotten a blueprint of the condominium complex from the city planning office, and they worked over it for an hour, planning their nocturnal visit. At two o’clock, he told the men to go home and come back at ten.

  “We’ll focus on Hawkins and hope that Bentley gives up his mission when we get his boss,” Harvey said.

  Eddie hung around his apartment and tried to take a nap, but it was no good. He felt like an animal was pacing inside him, and it was hard to sit still. Finally, he called Leeanne. When he heard her voice, the critter inside him settled down.

  “We saw you on TV,” she said.

  “Oh, yeah?”

  “Yeah. My mom was swooning. She adores you now.”

  “I hope that’s a good thing.”

  “For sure.”

  She didn’t say anything about Sarah. Eddie was afraid to say any more about the interview.

  “You did great,” Leeanne said after a pause. “Are you on a break?”

  “No, I got sent home early.”

  “Did something happen?”

  “No. We’re going to work tonight.”

  “Oh.” Neither of them spoke for a moment. He wasn’t sure if she understood or not. Jennifer would know immediately what was up when they worked a split shift, but Leeanne wasn’t used to the way detectives worked. Best to change the subject.


  “You going back to school Monday?”

  “Yeah. I’ll probably go back to the dorm Sunday. I miss your church down there. I really like it.”

  “It’s a good church,” Eddie said. They talked for a few more minutes, but he had so many off-limits things to not talk about, the conversation started to stress him. “Hey, I’ll see you Saturday, all right?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Okay. Leeanne...”

  “Yeah?”

  He took a breath and felt like he was only getting half the air he should. “I love you.”

  After they hung up, he felt all twitchy. Maybe he should have just told her about tonight’s plans. Was it better for her to be prepared, or for Harvey to call and tell her something happened to him? He remembered the day Mike went and got Jennifer and drove her to the hospital for Harvey. Lord, don’t let that happen.

  Rain pattered on the window. Terrific. They were in for another icy night.

  His phone rang. He looked at the screen but didn’t recognize the number.

  “Hello?” he said cautiously.

  “Eddie Thibodeau?” a woman said.

  “Who wants to know?” He had a sudden vision of Al Hawkins diverting him with a phone call while his henchman got into position to kill him.

  “This is Stacy Plourde. Do you remember me?”

  “Uh...”

  “Stacy. From the nightclub.”

  Nightclub. Which one? Eddie didn’t want to know.

  “Sorry, I guess not. Gotta go.” He clicked off, feeling guilty for being rude, but he certainly didn’t want to talk to any Stacy he’d met in a nightclub. How did she get his cell number, anyway?

  His phone rang again. He almost threw it across the room, but fortunately he looked at the screen first. Leeanne. He pushed the button and held the phone to his ear.

  “Ma chérie?”

  “Eddie, I told Randy what you said. He’s really smart, you know.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “He said you’re probably going on a raid tonight. Is that true?”

  He hesitated. Her youngest brother wanted to be a cop. And she was right—Randy was smart.

  “Yeah. I wasn’t sure I should tell you, but I needed to hear your voice.”

  “Oh, Eddie!”

  He was afraid she was going to cry and become Woman-Two-Hundred-and-Whatever, but her next words surprised him.