Night Watch--A Novel

by Iris Johansen

  He looked at the wreck. “How is he?”

  “Still breathing,” Jessie said. She and Kendra dismounted the cycle. Powers was slumped in his smashed car, partially covered by an airbag. He moaned in pain.

  Jessie reached in and pulled the airbag forward, revealing Powers’s swollen and bloody face. “He’s not going to be winning any beauty contests anytime soon, but he’ll survive.”

  Police sirens wailed in the distance.

  “I called them in,” Lynch said. “They’ll be here in under a minute.”

  Jessie leaned down to face Powers. “Where’s Waldridge?”

  He wrinkled his brow. “Who?”

  “Dr. Charles Waldridge. Thin British guy, late forties. Where is he?”

  “Can’t help you.”

  Jessie jerked her thumb toward Kendra. “Then why did you try to kidnap her the other night?”

  He glanced at Kendra before looking away. “Didn’t … have a choice.”

  “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

  He closed his eyes. “I’m not saying another damn word.”

  Lynch stepped forward and placed his hand gently on Powers’s shoulder. “You’re pretty beat-up. Where does it hurt. Here?”

  “Yeah.”

  Lynch squeezed his shoulder.

  “Aaah!” Powers cried out.

  Lynch squeezed harder. “I suggest you tell these ladies what they need to know.”

  “I … can’t…”

  “Sure you can.” He applied more pressure on the shoulder.

  “Aaah! Shit!”

  Kendra flinched at the sheer agony in his voice. She braced herself, tensed, then leaned in closer. “We know it was you who tried to take me the other night. Why?”

  He gasped. “I can’t say any more.”

  Lynch squeezed his shoulder again.

  “Owww!” Powers grimaced. “Keep it up, and I’m gonna pass out. Then you won’t get anything from me.”

  “We’re not getting anything from you now,” Kendra said. “And I have to say, I’m really enjoying this,” she lied.

  “I’ll bet you are, you b—owww!” He looked up at Lynch. “I’ll have you brought up on police brutality charges.”

  Lynch smiled malevolently. “I’m not the police. Just a concerned citizen who’s extremely annoyed with you for what you did to my friend.” He slowly increased the pressure on Powers’s shoulder. “And if you think you’re hurting now, what do you think of this? It’s all in the fingers…”

  Powers eyes bulged, and he let out a bloodcurdling scream.

  Lynch released his shoulder. “Just a little sample. So tell us why you tried to kidnap my friend here.”

  Sweat rained down Powers’s face. “We weren’t going to hurt her. We just had to bring her there. They told us they needed her. I promise.”

  “Where were you taking her?” Lynch asked.

  He shook his head. “Do whatever you want, but I can’t say any more. My life is at stake here.”

  “Your life?” Kendra said.

  “Yeah.” He was pale and shaking. “Excuse me, if I don’t feel like dying.”

  Kendra’s eyes narrowed on him. “Who are you working for?”

  He stared at her for a long moment. “For your sake, I hope you never have to find out. But you probably will, they want you real bad.”

  “Who? What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Not another word.” He looked at Lynch. “Do whatever you want with me.” He breathed a sigh of relief as he saw squad cars coming down the street. “I’m not talking.”

  “No?” Lynch smiled. “I’d barely started. Those time restraints really hampered me. Oh, well, there will be another time.”

  Behind them, the four squad cars and Metcalf’s car rolled up. The police cars cut their sirens, but the flashers stayed on.

  Lynch called out to them. “Get a paramedic unit out here. This man needs a hospital.”

  Metcalf jumped out of his car and ran up to them. “Is it him?”

  Kendra nodded. “Yes, but he’s not overly talkative. I need to know everything about him we can find out.”

  “We have cops swarming through his house, and we’ll subpoena phone records.”

  “Good.” She turned back to Powers. She tensed, her hands clenching into fists at her sides. “One last question. Is Dr. Waldridge still alive?”

  Powers didn’t answer. He closed his eyes and slowly leaned back against the headrest.

  No use, she realized in frustration as she turned away from him.

  Fifteen minutes later Kendra and Lynch watched the ambulance drive off down the street.

  “I’m out of here.” Jessie strode toward her bike. “I’ll see you at Powers’s place.” She glanced over her shoulder at Kendra with a mischievous grin. “I suppose you’re going to opt for riding with Lynch in that opulent jalopy, but you’re welcome to come with me. I bet you’d have more fun.”

  “But I wouldn’t,” Lynch said firmly. “I’ve had enough for one day of wondering whether I’m going to have to peel her remains off a truck or light pole.” He took Kendra’s elbow and led her firmly toward the Ferrari. “She might have fun, but it will take me the entire trip to Powers’s to recover.”

  “Poor Lynch. I can see what a delicate creature you are.” Jessie laughed and roared off.

  Lynch waited until they were back on the freeway before he glanced at Kendra. “I didn’t think. Did I offend your precious independence?”

  “If you had, I wouldn’t have let you push me into this car. I was ready for your ‘opulent jalopy.’ I need to get my breath.” She leaned back against the leather headrest. “In more ways than one.”

  He nodded. “That was a wild ride. Jessie is … unique.” His gaze narrowed on her face. “Was it ‘fun?’”

  “Yes. And exciting. And scary. It brought back a lot of memories.”

  “What kind of memories?”

  “Back to the time when I took as many chances as Jessie. In all kinds of ways.” She smiled. “But I was never as good as she is on that motorcycle. Of course, I could go back to it and see if—”

  “No!” He paused. “You’ll do what you please, of course. But I’d appreciate it if you don’t do it around me. It was an experience I prefer not to repeat.” He smiled. “Jessie’s right. I’m such a delicate creature.”

  “Yeah, sure.” She looked away from him. “So delicate that you’re one of the reasons I have to get my breath and recover.”

  “Powers? I had to get the information, and we didn’t have much time.” He paused. “He hurt you. He might have been planning to kill you.”

  “That’s not what he said. But he could have been lying. I don’t know what reason anyone would hire someone to kidnap me.”

  “We’ll find out. What’s important was that I wasn’t there to help you that day. But I was here today.”

  “Oh yes, you were here all right.”

  “Look at me.” When her gaze shifted to meet his own, he said, “You know what I am. What I do. Any way I can. I’ll never say I’m sorry. I’d do it again.”

  “Do you think I’m blaming you? I don’t have the right to ask you to say you’re sorry. I didn’t stop you. I didn’t even try.” She moistened her lips. “I even helped you. What does that make me? There’s so much damn pain in the world. I hate it.”

  “I know you do,” he said quietly. “And I knew there would be a payoff after today. You … surprised me.”

  “He knows where Waldridge is. We have to find him, Lynch.”

  He nodded. “Anything for the good doctor. I could almost envy him.”

  “Envy? We’ll be lucky to find him before they kill him.”

  “I misspoke.” He covered her hand with his own. “We won’t be lucky, we’ll be smart. And we’ll be fast.” He pulled off the freeway. “But right now we’ll stop by Starbucks and pick up a couple of cups of coffee. You could probably use the caffeine now that you don’t have Jessie here to cause your adrenaline to
spike…”

  CHAPTER

  11

  HALF AN HOUR LATER, Kendra, Lynch, and Jessie stood in the living room of Powers’s house watching as the police searched every drawer and surface. Metcalf emerged from a back room with an expression that was far from encouraging.

  “Anything?” Kendra asked.

  “Not yet.” Metcalf shook his head. “No ski mask, no night-vision goggles, nothing that you saw him wearing the other night.”

  “The guy knows how to clean up after himself,” Jessie said.

  Metcalf extended his hand to Jessie. “I’m Special Agent Roland Metcalf. FBI. Your motorcycle makes me think you might be the person who lent a timely assist to Kendra the other night.”

  She shook his hand. “I’m Jessie Mercado. I guess I was just in the right place at the right time.”

  “Uh-huh. Something tells me there’s more to it than that.”

  “There is,” Kendra said. “I’ll explain it to you later, Metcalf.”

  “Sure.” Metcalf’s eyes were narrowed on Jessie’s face. “Have we ever met? I have a nagging feeling that I’ve seen you before.”

  She smiled. “I don’t think so.”

  He was still staring. “I’m pretty sure I have.”

  “I think I just have one of those faces.”

  “No, you don’t. It’ll come to me.”

  She shrugged. “If it does, let me in on the secret. Because I’m sure we haven’t met.”

  “Okay. I’ll think about it.” He pulled his gaze away and finally turned to Kendra. “As for our search of the house, we’ve only come up with one interesting thing so far.”

  “What’s that?”

  He placed a business card on the table in front of them.

  Kendra leaned over and read the card aloud. “Peter Hutchinson, Attorney at Law.”

  Lynch chuckled. “That is interesting.”

  Kendra looked up. “Why? Other than the fact that we’re supposed to be impressed by his willingness to spend big bucks on silk-laminated business cards.”

  “He can afford them,” Jessie said. “Peter Hutchinson is probably the highest-priced lawyer in the city.” She glanced around the living room. “Too high-priced for anyone who lives here, for damned sure.”

  Lynch turned to Kendra. “Does anything here catch your eye?”

  Kendra scanned the foyer, living room, and small kitchen. “Not much. He makes his living as a manual laborer of some kind. There are work boots in the foyer, construction gloves tucked inside. He owns an RV. It’s probably stored in a facility nearby, so it might be worth checking out.”

  “How do you figure that?” Jessie asked.

  Kendra pointed toward a hook in the kitchen where a ring of keys hung. “Fleetwood ignition and rear-compartment keys, plus a Medeco security key cut on a slant that most likely goes to a storage unit.” She glanced at Metcalf. “Did you find any medication?”

  He looked surprised. “Yes, actually. In the bathroom.”

  “Injectable?”

  “How did you know?”

  “There are two sterile syringe wrappers in the waste can next to the computer desk.” She thought for a moment. “Are they prescription?”

  “The vials look commercial, but there wasn’t a prescription label.”

  “Hmm. Let me take a look.”

  Kendra and Metcalf walked back through a messy bedroom to the master bath. Metcalf pointed to two small vials next to the sink. “Here they are. The labels have no product name and no manufacturer name, just a series of numbers. Maybe batch and sorting ID codes.”

  Kendra knelt, and her gaze narrowed on the bottles. “I don’t know what they mean.” She raised her phone and snapped a picture of both labels. “Can you bag these and take them to the lab?”

  “Any special reason?”

  Kendra stood up. “I saw two bottle impressions on a hand towel in Waldridge’s hotel bathroom. They were the exact same size as these. It might mean nothing, but we should check it out.”

  “Oh, I agree.” He smiled. “You’ve been racking up some major lab time. Griffin isn’t going to like it.”

  “He can take it out of my pay.”

  “What pay?”

  “Exactly.” She turned toward the doorway where Lynch and Jessie were standing. “I think we’ve gotten what we can from here for now. What do you say we go to the hospital and continue our conversation with Powers? He should be out of ER by now.”

  * * *

  “THERE WILL BE NO CONVERSATION with Wallace Powers.”

  Kendra, Lynch, and Jessie stood in the hospital corridor, gazing at the tall, broad-chested man blocking their way. He wore a charcoal-gray Brioni twill suit that had to have cost him thousands, Kendra thought.

  The man handed each of them a business card identical to the one they had seen at Powers’s house. “My name is Peter Hutchinson. Any communication you wish to have with Mr. Powers must be conducted through me.”

  “You’re his attorney?” Kendra asked.

  “I am.”

  Lynch pocketed the card. “I just spoke with the officers on duty here. They told me Powers hasn’t made any phone calls.”

  “I’m sure he hasn’t.”

  “Then how did you know he was here?”

  Hutchinson’s plump, pouty, lips smiled. “It’s my job to be attuned to the needs of my clients, Mr.…”

  “Lynch. Adam Lynch. You didn’t answer my question. How did you know he was here?”

  “I’m afraid you’ll have to accept my seemingly glib response, Mr. Lynch. May I ask, what is your official capacity in this matter?”

  “No you may not. But you can ask me,” Kendra said. “My official capacity is victim. Your client attacked me.”

  “Allegedly. We have slander laws in this state, Miss…”

  “If you want her name, ask your client,” Lynch said. “He knows. And while you’re at it, ask him why he did it. Unless you know already.”

  “Why would I have knowledge of such a thing?”

  Kendra smiled. “Whoever is paying you may have told you. By the way, who is paying you? I have a feeling it isn’t Powers.”

  “Financial matters are between me and my client.”

  “Right.” Jessie stepped forward. “But are you really representing Powers’s best interests? We already have some rock-solid evidence against him, so unless he gets cooperative very soon, he’s going to jail. That may be okay with whoever’s paying your bills, but I have a hunch it won’t be okay with the man in that room. Even if he isn’t willing to talk, you can’t keep a cop from coming and telling what is or is not his best interest.”

  “They’re certainly welcome. But I’m willing to put my powers of persuasion against those of a local police detective, any day of the week.”

  “Maybe they’ll let me in the room,” Lynch said. “I’ve been known to be very persuasive.”

  Hutchinson smiled. “Ah. So you can get in a few more licks on an injured man? Trust me, I’ll do everything in my power to make sure you stay as far from him as possible.”

  Time to throw out another bit of bait and see if he’d take it. “Your client may be involved in another abduction,” Kendra said. “A man named Dr. Charles Waldridge.”

  He didn’t change expression. “Your proof?”

  “We’ll have it. I promise you, if anything happens to him, we’ll find all the proof we need to nail everyone responsible.”

  Lynch added softly, “Everyone.”

  “More threats, Mr. Lynch.”

  “Call it a warning. In my line of work, I’ve always found threats a waste of time. You just make a decision, then you act.”

  “Call it whatever you like. I’ve instructed my client not to speak to anyone about this case. Go look elsewhere for your proof.”

  Hutchinson crossed his arms in front of him, assuming the pose of a thuggish bouncer guarding the door of a college-town bar. Something that didn’t quite work in this setting, Kendra thought. Maybe it was the six-thou
sand-dollar suit.

  “Oh, we will,” Kendra said as she turned away. “But expect us to be back.”

  * * *

  AS THEY STEPPED OUT of the hospital parking garage, Jessie held up Hutchinson’s business card and snapped a picture of it.

  “Think you can get his client list?” Kendra asked.

  Jessie put away her phone. “Maybe. I can search some databases and scan online court records for filings. But good attorneys usually keep their clients from going anywhere near a courtroom.”

  “I’ll look into it, too,” Lynch said. “It would help if we could find out who’s paying for Powers’s defense.”

  Jessie had stopped at her motorcycle. “I’ll look into it right now.” She looked at Kendra and slowly nodded in approval. “By the way, you handled yourself pretty well on the back of this bike.”

  “I’ve ridden a few motorcycles in my time.” Kendra smiled. “But tell me, do you always travel with a pocket full of ball bearings?”

  Jessie smiled back at her and pulled a few of the little silver balls from her pocket. “Pretty much. I got the idea a few years ago, when smash-and-grab thieves were using them to break car windows and steal purses on passenger seats. No one thinks of these as weapons, so even if I’m searched, I can go anywhere with them. I’ve gotten very accurate, and can inflict pretty heavy damage if the occasion demands it.”

  “How accurate?” she asked curiously.

  In response, Jessie swung her arm in a lightning arc and released one of the ball bearings. The motion was followed by a metallic ting behind them.

  Kendra whirled around. “What did you do?”

  Lynch chuckled. “I’ll show you what she did.” He walked twenty feet to a steel lamppost, where a cardboard sign advertising a local band had been taped. Lynch tore off the sign and brought it back to Kendra.

  She took the sign. A hole had been punched cleanly through the head of the band’s lead singer.

  “Wow,” Kendra said. “Very good. Are you some kind of ninja?”

  Jessie gave her a peculiar look. “What makes you say that?”

  “I’m just … impressed. You nailed this all the way from over here.”

  “Oh. Well, I’m no ninja. I’ve just picked up a few things along the way.”