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

by Susan Page Davis

  Charlie Doran calling him on a Saturday couldn’t be good.

  Harvey said a word Eddie hadn’t heard him say in almost a year. Jennifer’s eyes widened. He said, “Okay. Right. Eddie’s with me. Thanks.” He looked at Eddie. “Al Hawkins got past the guard and left the hospital on his own.”

  Eddie clenched his fist. “What do we do?”

  “You’re off duty,” Leeanne said.

  “All the on-duty units are out on details or here, and he can’t call anyone else in unless it’s an emergency.” Harvey pushed two buttons on his phone, speed dialing.

  “Hey, Mike, what’s your 20? Okay, did you leave anyone at Bingley? Copy that. Hawkins is loose. Yeah. Got it.”

  He clicked off. Eddie had seen that look before.

  “What?” he asked.

  “The chief’s ten minutes out. He’s got four officers with him, and there are a hundred more here to keep him safe. Charlie’s informing all the sergeants and lieutenants.”

  “So, we go in?” Eddie asked.

  Harvey shook his head. “Hawkins would be stupid to go after him here. But there’s no one left at Mike’s house.”

  “Let’s go,” Eddie said.

  “Do you want us to stay here?” Jennifer asked.

  “No. If Eddie and I aren’t there, no one will notice, but if you show up without me, it will be pointedly obvious I’m not there. Come on, we’ll drop you and Leeanne at our house.”

  “We can take a cab, Harvey.” Jennifer walked briskly beside him, back across the acres of parking lot.

  “I’ll feel better if I see you home.” He opened the door of the Explorer for her. Leeanne and Eddie got in the back.

  As he started the engine, Harvey looked at Eddie in the rearview mirror. “Déjà vu, Eddie?”

  “Yeah. Just like your wedding.”

  “Exactly.”

  “I don’t get it,” Leeanne said.

  “All the cops were in the church,” Eddie said. “Just like today—they’ll be at the funeral. The perfect time for Hawkins to make his move.”

  “Eddie—”

  He put his arm around her and pulled her close. He kissed her temple and whispered, “We’ll take care of each other. We always do. But we need to get this guy. Please don’t worry.”

  “I’ll try.”

  “Good. You stay with Jennifer and pray for us, but don’t cry, and don’t brood.”

  “Okay.”

  He kissed her then, the kiss he’d been wanting to give her, long and meaningful. If Harvey looked in the mirror, he didn’t say anything. Ten minutes later, they pulled in at his house. Eddie squeezed Leeanne and then pulled away.

  “Go on in,” he told her. “I need to get some gear out of my truck.”

  Harvey hurried inside, and Eddie figured he was going for his Kevlar vest. Jennifer lingered for a moment.

  Eddie said, “We’ll be okay, Jennifer.”

  She smiled tremulously. “I believe that. Just watch his back, Eddie. The baby—I don’t think I could stand it now.”

  “I know.” He walked over and squeezed her arm lightly. “I’ll bring him home safe. I promise.”

  “You really think Hawkins will go after Mike again?” she asked.

  “Yeah. He’s determined to finish the job.” Eddie frowned. If he’d finished the job himself Thursday night, they wouldn’t be doing this. He’d taken the best shot he could without possibly hitting Sharon. He almost wished Hawkins had raised the gun again after he fell, giving Eddie a perfect excuse to nail him.

  Leeanne still stood there. “Get inside before we go, and lock the door,” Eddie told her. “Je t’aime.”

  She pulled him down for one more quick kiss, then hurried inside with Jennifer.

  Eddie had kept his vest in the truck since the first time he’d joined Mike’s protective detail. He grabbed it and a couple of extra clips, peeled off his uniform jacket and pulled on the vest. Harvey came out, and Eddie met him by the Explorer.

  “Want me to drive?”

  “Sure.” He gave Eddie the keys. When they pulled out of the driveway, Harvey was already on the phone.

  “Charlie, track us. Detective Thibodeau and I will be in my vehicle to the location. No, not until I ask for it.”

  “No backup?” Eddie said.

  “I can be wrong.”

  “You’re never wrong, Harvey. Not about stuff like this.”

  Harvey grimaced, but he made another call. A minute later, he told Eddie, “Sergeant Miles is pulling Benoit and her partner. They’ll come out to Bingley in an unmarked car, ETA thirty minutes. They’ll park down the street.”

  “Girls?” Eddie said. “We get two girls?”

  “Can’t be helped,” Harvey said. “Everyone’s going to the chief’s funeral. And they’re women, not girls.”

  “But Sarah’s new partner is as green as your St. Patrick’s Day tie.”

  “I told Miles to make sure they wear body armor. You heard me.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” Eddie turned in on Bingley Lane. “Where do you want me to park?”

  “Around the corner.”

  Eddie frowned at him. “We won’t be able to see the house.”

  “We’re going in. Mike gave me a key and his new security code Thursday night after the shooting incident.”

  “Why didn’t I know this?”

  “You didn’t need to.”

  They strolled down the street and into the driveway. Harvey took out his key ring.

  “Check around the back of the house.”

  Cautiously, Eddie opened the gate and peeked into the back yard. Nothing. He went in and shut the gate. He couldn’t see anything unusual. No fresh footprints leading up to the patio door Hawkins had breached two nights ago.

  He rounded the house, even though he was wearing dress shoes and sank in three inches of snow. He looked around the corner at the front of the building, then went back the way he’d come.

  Harvey had the door unlocked and was standing just inside. The alarm panel wasn’t beeping, so he must have shut it off. He nodded toward the bathroom, and Eddie checked it while Harvey headed into the kitchen. They went through the downstairs quietly but thoroughly. Nothing. They went up the stairs with Eddie leading and checked everything up there. Nothing.

  Harvey holstered his gun in the upstairs hallway. “I’ll check the attic. You get the basement.”

  “Really?”

  “Eddie, it’s not clear if we haven’t checked everything.”

  “Okay, but we beat him here. You know we did.”

  “Basement.” Harvey reached for the pull cord for the attic stairs.

  “Yeah.” Eddie hurried down the stairway, his eyes darting from side to side. He went to the kitchen, where the cellar door opened between the refrigerator and a pantry cupboard. Mike’s basement was all concrete and had small windows at the top of the foundation, two on each side. He had a workbench down there, and an oil furnace. Jars of preserves glistened on a shelf unit. Sharon had made jam that year and canned some green beans. Eddie looked behind the furnace and headed back upstairs.

  Harvey met him in the living room. The drapes were closed. The carpet had been removed on that side of the room.

  “Is Sarah here yet?” Eddie asked.

  “Nope. Twenty more minutes.”

  “So, what now?”

  “We wait.” Harvey sat down on the couch and picked up Mike’s newspaper.

  It was better than sitting outside in a vehicle in the middle of winter. Eddie pulled his gun and sat down in an armchair facing the kitchen and the stairway. He did the check-in with dispatch and told them everything was quiet.

  “I forgot to tell Leeanne I talked to John Russell.” Harvey glanced at the headlines on the front of the paper. “He’ll be at the office tonight if she wants to go over there.”

  “Great,” Eddie said. They sat for five minutes in silence. “I wonder how the funeral’s going.” He got up and went to the kitchen and looked out the window in the front door and th
e one over the sink, facing the back yard, then went back to the living room.

  Harvey stood by the patio door, peeking out between the slats of the built-in blind. “Maybe I should call home.”

  “Do it,” Eddie said. “Tell Leeanne I’ll take her to see Mr. Russell after we get home.”

  Harvey took out his phone and called his house. “Hey, gorgeous.” He always smiled when he talked to Jennifer, and it made Eddie feel confident just to look at him.

  While Harvey talked, Eddie walked to the front window and lifted the edge of the drape with one finger. He couldn’t see the unmarked unit, but he might not be able to, depending on where Sarah parked. Probably still too early for it.

  Harvey ambled a few steps as he talked. “I have a message for Leeanne. Forgot to tell her I spoke to John Russell. He’ll see her tonight around six, if she wants to go over there. Eddie says he’ll take her.”

  Eddie went to the other window and peeked out through the slit where the drapes met.

  “Hey, I’ve got an idea,” Harvey said to Jennifer. “Put her on my computer and tell her to start writing up this little adventure. She can take John a sample of her work tonight. I’ll brief her when I get home, and she can present the Press Herald with an exclusive. Tell her everything I’ve told you about this case. I’ll read it before she takes it in.”

  He started getting mushy then, and Eddie tried not to listen, but half of him was curious. Harvey was telling her pretty much the same things Eddie had told Leeanne. I love you, we’ll come home safe, don’t worry. Harvey’s eyes were crinkled up at the corners, and he looked happy.

  Eddie walked into the kitchen and looked out into the back yard. He jumped back from the window, his adrenaline surging.

  He stepped back into the living room, taking great care to stay out of the line of vision from the patio door.

  “Harvey,” he whispered.

  Chapter 30

  Harvey was just putting away his phone. Eddie pointed toward the back wall of the house. Harvey took out his gun.

  “How many?”

  “Just one. I think it’s him, but I didn’t get a good look.”

  “I’ll call dispatch. Did he see you?”

  Eddie shook his head.

  Harvey flattened himself against the wall beside a bookcase while he made a very quiet call. Eddie crouched down at the side of the stairs, below where Hawkins’s bullet had hit the wall a couple of nights ago.

  Eddie’s phone vibrated, and he took it out. As he looked at the screen and read “SARAH,” he heard a faint noise from the kitchen. He looked at Harvey.

  Harvey nodded. He’d heard it too.

  Eddie clicked twice to hang up on Sarah and sent her a frantic text. “AH at back door.” He hoped she and the rookie were within striking distance and she hadn’t called to say they’d be late. He pocketed the phone as he heard the back kitchen door swing open.

  The alarm didn’t ring. Eddie looked at Harvey. He gave a thumbs-up. So, he hadn’t rearmed it. Okay.

  Eddie’s heart pounded. He made himself take a slow breath. He and Harvey both aimed their weapons toward the kitchen.

  Before Eddie got a visual, Harvey tensed and aimed his weapon. At the same moment, the front door crashed open and a gun fired.

  Eddie jumped up behind Harvey, aiming toward the kitchen. Hawkins had left the back door open, and the rookie officer charged in through it. Hawkins was in the middle of the kitchen, aiming at the figure in the front doorway. He fired again. Sarah flew backward onto the steps, her arms splayed.

  Harvey was one step ahead, blocking Eddie’s line of fire, but two more shots crashed out almost together.

  Eddie stepped around Harvey. His ears rang. Al Hawkins lay on the kitchen floor. Blood had splattered everywhere.

  Harvey looked at Sarah’s partner, the rookie. “You okay, Officer?”

  The young woman nodded, her face white. Harvey had his phone out.

  Eddie ran past the fallen intruder. Sarah lay on the steps, both hands to her chest, gasping. Her pistol lay beside her, where she’d dropped it.

  “Sarah! You hit?”

  “It’s okay,” she puffed out.

  She had her vest on, and Eddie took a deep breath. He holstered his gun and sat down beside her. “Breathe, mon amie.” He knew it could be serious. Harvey had suffered a similar injury the previous year, when he’d landed hard and cracked some ribs.

  Eddie put his hands on Sarah’s shoulders and looked into her brown eyes. “Ça va? You all right?”

  She nodded, still pulling in fast, shallow breaths.

  “Do you hurt?” Eddie asked.

  She shook her head. She reached up and cupped her hand to his cheek for a moment. “I’m good. Go do your job.”

  Eddie rose slowly. Harvey came to the doorway. “Everything okay? Sarah, do you need medical?”

  “No, Captain. Just had the wind knocked out of me. Thanks.”

  Harvey eyed her critically and nodded. “Okay. I asked for an ambulance, but Hawkins won’t need it. We’ll have the EMTs take a look at you.”

  “How’s Debbie?” Sarah asked.

  “Officer Higgins is fine.”

  Harvey went back inside, and Eddie followed him. What Harvey hadn’t told Sarah was that the rookie was losing her lunch in the kitchen sink. Eddie looked down at the corpse.

  “You both hit him?”

  Harvey gritted his teeth. “Afraid so. I think my bullet got him in the chest.”

  “Natch.” Harvey wouldn’t blow half a guy’s head off. That had to be Higgins’s shot.

  Eddie wished they could clean up the kitchen for Sharon, but they had to leave everything the way it was.

  He went over to stand beside Higgins.

  “Hey, you gonna be all right?”

  She snatched a paper towel from the rack beside the sink and blotted her face. “Yeah. Thanks.”

  Within minutes, a dozen more cops arrived.

  Harvey took a call from Charlie Doran, then one from Mike.

  “What did the chief say?” Eddie asked when he’d hung up.

  “He wanted to know what you were up to, when he told you to stay off field work until your hearing.”

  Eddie’s jaw dropped. “We couldn’t help it.”

  Harvey smiled and clapped him on the shoulder. “He knows that. Just be glad you didn’t have to shoot Hawkins again.”

  Eddie went outside and found Sarah sitting on the back of the ambulance. Jeff Wainthrop was inside, handing a bottle of water down to his partner. Mark Johnson, stethoscope in hand, gave it to Sarah.

  “Okay, rest up tonight,” Mark said to her. “You’ve got some bruises, and you’ll probably feel like garbage in the morning. Take some ibuprofen as needed. Are you on duty tomorrow?”

  Sarah shook her head.

  “Okay. Take it easy.”

  Sarah glanced up and saw Eddie. She reached to fasten the top two buttons of her uniform.

  “Stand up slow,” Mark said. “You might be a little wobbly.”

  Sarah stood and smiled. “I’m fine now.”

  “Her partner is the one who’s probably wobbly,” Eddie said.

  “Debbie shot the creep, didn’t she?” Sarah asked.

  Eddie made a face. “Yeah, she and Harvey both. A bit of overkill. She tossed her cookies after.”

  “I did too, my first time. I’d better go find her,” Sarah said.

  “Why don’t you stay out here? I’ll bring her outside. You don’t need to go back in there.”

  Sarah hesitated then nodded. “Thanks, Eddie. Guess we should protect the scene.”

  “Right.” He went to the front door and met Harvey coming out with his hand on Debbie Higgins’s arm.

  “Okay?” Harvey asked her. “Just hold the railing and go slow down the steps.”

  “Hey,” Eddie said. “Mark and Jeff will take a look at her.”

  “Good.” Harvey gave Debbie a reassuring smile. “Let’s have the EMTs give you a quick check, Officer.”
r />   “I—I’m okay, Captain.”

  “I know you are, but people can have a delayed reaction the first time. I don’t want you folding up on me when the chief gets here.”

  “He’s coming now?” Debbie’s eyes darted about in panic.

  “Well, this is his house,” Eddie said.

  Harvey patted her shoulder. “I asked the sergeant to have the protective detail keep Mr. and Mrs. Browning away for a couple of hours, but I know the chief pretty well, and I’ll be surprised if they can keep him caged that long.”

  They were nearly to the ambulance. Harvey nodded at his brother-in-law. “Hi, Jeff. This is officer Higgins. She’s just gone through her first shooting, and I thought maybe you guys could give her a place to sit and some juice or something.”

  “Sure,” Jeff said.

  Sarah came to her. “You did good, Debbie. Isn’t that right, Captain Larson?”

  Harvey nodded. “She sure did.”

  Jeff and Sarah led Debbie toward the ambulance.

  “Did she really?” Eddie asked softly.

  “Yeah.”

  “She could have hit you.”

  “No, I wasn’t in her line of fire,” Harvey said.

  “She didn’t exactly hit the central body mass.”

  “No, but everything was moving pretty fast, and she saw Hawkins let one off on Sarah.”

  Eddie nodded, wondering what he’d have done in Debbie’s place. His shot would have been cleaner, but just as sure.

  “Poor Sharon.”

  Harvey pulled in a deep breath. “Yeah, it’s a mess. And it looks like we both get to chat with Dr. Slidell next week. Us and Debbie Higgins.”

  *****

  Eddie drove to the police station while Harvey talked on the phone. After telling Jennifer they were safe and that he loved her immensely, he talked to Leeanne almost the whole trip, giving her details to work into her story about the take-down of Al Hawkins. He gave most of the credit to Higgins.

  When they got to the office, Harvey went into overdrive. Briefing, evidence, paperwork. He hardly took a breath for over an hour, but went from one task to another, seemingly by instinct, knowing what had to be done next.

  At four o’clock Eddie told him, “You need to read Leeanne’s story before I take her to the paper.”

  “Have her upload it to me here.”