‘The Chaser’s Delight.’ Will’s voice came dryly out of the deep gloom by the sumac bush. ‘So helpful that he drove his fishing car.’ Rocking contentedly in his old wooden yard-sale chair, he sipped a beer and watched the moon rise over the bug light.
‘Why did he do that, I wonder?’ Sarah said. ‘Make himself so easy to spot?’
‘I think he’s a quiet polite type and that car helps him get in the mood for mischief,’ Will said.
Sarah said, ‘Did you know right away what you were looking at, Denny?’
‘Oh, I knew the car all right but I wasn’t sure he was following the van. I thought, he’s got just as much right on this street as we have, let’s not get crazy. But there’s so much construction on Grant now … Our driver decided to detour around some of it and when we turned off onto Water Street for a while the blue Dart stuck right with us. A few blocks later we got back onto Grant and he was still there. That’s when I sent you guys the message.’ Despite the hot night, she shivered. ‘Did you get it right away?’
‘Yes,’ Sarah said. ‘But it took a few seconds for me to make myself believe it. You made my day, Will, when I called you and you said you were already on it.’
‘Well, we said we’d never use it to play games and I knew Denny wouldn’t go back on that.’
‘I got scared, though,’ Denny said, ‘when we drove on and on and nothing happened. I guess it wasn’t so long but it felt long.’
‘We about set a new land record for rapid response, actually. That’s some crew you got there, Sarah.’
‘We’ve been over some jumps together so we trust each other. The box went really well, didn’t it? But I suppose it didn’t feel so cut and dried to you, Denny.’
‘Well, I got so nervous, hoping I did the right thing. So when Patty started again with one of her Brady imitations, I was so strung out I really couldn’t stand the distraction so I jumped up and swung my fanny pack at her and yelled, “If you don’t cut that out I’ll break your face!” And just then the van sort of lurched into the curb and stopped, and Ollie jumped on the bus with that cannon in his hands and yelled, “Everybody down on the floor!”
‘After that everything was kind of a blur for a while.’
‘For me too,’ Sarah said. ‘There’s so much to do during an arrest like that and we hadn’t exactly sorted out who was in charge. So I went ahead and read Ames his Miranda rights – somebody had to – and bless those street cops, they all just followed my lead. The arrest van got there fast so I was feeling kind of on a roll till I got that phone call from Sandy.’
Denny said, ‘No kidding. She called you in the middle of all that?’
‘Yup. I’d forgotten all about her and I was letting all my calls go to voicemail while we booked Jack Ames. I activated the phone to tell the station we were coming in with a prisoner because Ames had called a lawyer and was starting to object to everything so I didn’t want any hang-ups with the fingerprints and blood tests.
‘But the minute my phone went live there she was, waiting. Just furious, yelling at me, “You’re in such a freaking hurry for these results so we all work overtime to finish them and now you can’t be bothered to answer your phone. What the hell is it with you?”’
Will said, ‘Was that the DNA report?’
‘Yeah, the one I’d been waiting for all day. She was so mad I was afraid for a while she might hang up without giving it to me. “Even for a detective,” she said to me, “you are exceptionally pushy and inconsiderate, do you know that?”’
‘Why Sarah,’ Aggie said, ‘that’s so unfair.’
‘I thought so too. But I really wanted those test results so I poured apologies and praise over Sandy like syrup on a waffle. And when she finally calmed down she gave me just what I needed to settle all the arguments.’
‘He’s the killer, no question?’
‘No question – a perfect match. It’s sad, in a way. He’s a really nice man, most of the time.’
‘Except when he’s shooting somebody in the ear.’
‘Well, just that one time.’
‘Isn’t it wonderful, though,’ Will said, ‘how proof can shorten the work day?’
‘You can’t help but love it. Soon as he heard what we had, Ames quit protesting and just started justifying everything he did. It was almost comical – I couldn’t get him to stop then. He was really proud of himself for wearing the clown suit.’
‘Well, that was clever.’
‘Yes, it helped him get in and out both. But even though we’d Mirandized him I was trying not to hear any more – didn’t want him to say later he was coerced. I said, “Wait, you better talk to that lawyer before you say any more,” but he said, “No, I want you to understand that I had to punish that monster for what he did to Poppy.” I said, “You didn’t have to shoot at my car, though, did you?” He said, “Well, I’m sorry about that, but I was trying to throw you off my trail.” But just then Delaney came and shut the discussion down. He said, “Let’s let him cool off in a cell overnight and charge him tomorrow.”’
‘So even after a major arrest, you actually got home before dark,’ Aggie said. ‘Would you like another piece of cake?’
In bed that night, Will said, ‘When you write your report of this day’s work, might be just as well if you leave my name out of it, hmm?’
‘Um. I could make that work, I guess. If you think it’s best.’ She had been wondering how to suggest it.
‘Did you get a chance to ask Ames why he was chasing Denny?’
‘We had a minute together while we waited for the intake officer at the jail but I was trying not to talk to him by then. We’ll be doing a full-scale interview tomorrow before we book him and Delaney didn’t want to take the edge off that. But by then Ames wanted to talk; I guess he was beginning to feel the loneliness of the cell. He looked at me and said, “I wasn’t going to hurt her. Just grab her for a few minutes and then let her go.”’
‘Of course he would say that.’
‘Sure. I said, “Why?” And he said, “I wanted you to understand what despair feels like.”’
‘Man, he’s got a nerve, saying that to a cop.’
‘Yes. Well, people don’t know, do they?’ She slid closer and said, ‘Hold me, will you?’
He wrapped his hard arms around her; they both made nesting sounds, and slept.
Denny went back to swim class the next day. She was quiet at dinner – they all were, exhausted from yesterday’s stress, not wanting to talk about it anymore and too tired to think of anything else.
But when Sarah asked her, ‘How was swimming today?’ Denny erupted unexpectedly into giggles.
‘It was good,’ she said. ‘Quiet.’
Sarah raised her eyebrows. ‘Quiet but amusing?’
‘Well … swimming was just OK. But I overheard something before class.’
All three adults were watching her now.
‘That wingnut named Cheryl – she’s one of the MGs, you know? I heard her in the shower whispering to Patty. She said, “What was that all about on the way home yesterday?” And Patty said, “Did you know Denny comes from a whole family of vigilantes? Be careful around her, she’s got this nutty thing about justice. If she sees you do anything she doesn’t approve of she calls her cop friends and starts beating up on people, and they come with guns to see if she needs any help.”’
‘Denny, now come on,’ Sarah said. ‘Are you sure she said that?’
‘She did, honest. And nobody made fun of Brady today.’ Denny folded her napkin and giggled some more. Her braces flashed in the late summer sunshine. ‘I feel sort of like the Caped Crusader.’
Sarah saw the delight in Will’s eyes and sent him a small headshake. ‘Denny,’ she said, ‘we are cops. We are not vigilantes.’
‘Oh, I know that, Aunt Sarah. But you should see how nice it is when Brady gets to swim in peace. She’s finally getting a decent kick in the butterfly.’
‘That is nice, but—’
; ‘Also,’ Aggie said, ‘if the adults in her life had done the right thing, Denny would not have been stuck there alone with all that bad behavior.’
‘You’re right, Ma – you have kind of a thing for justice too, don’t you? But right now I’m trying to make sure Denny doesn’t get the idea that she can make her own law and fix whatever’s wrong with the world by beaning people with her fanny pack.’
‘Why would she ever think that,’ Will said, ‘when we just showed her she can fix everything with her phone?’
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