Читать книгу Relentless - Jo Leigh - Страница 6

THE MOTEL WAS AS nondescript as its name. The Sleep Inn had only twenty rooms, and the one she requested was on the second floor, on the end, with windows facing the parking lot and Van Nuys Boulevard. It cost thirty-nine dollars plus tax a night.

She put the cardboard box on the small round table and looked around the room. A double bed with an ugly green bedspread, a TV bolted to a squat dresser. A phone she wouldn’t use. The carpet was worn and seemed recently vacuumed. The sink tile was cracked, but the water pressure wasn’t bad. She’d stayed in worse places. Lots worse.

For the first time since she’d witnessed the murder, she let herself take a moment. In the past two hours she’d packed, loaded her car and gone by several other motels until she’d found this one. It was far enough from her old apartment that she felt relatively safe, but not so far she couldn’t hook up with the others.

Seth and Nate were working on something big, tailing some high-level employee of Omicron—that was when they weren’t trying to earn a living with their private security business. They’d both been surveillance experts in Kosovo. When they’d gotten back, they’d spent every last cent setting up a trauma room in Harper’s basement. Just in case. Not only couldn’t they get regular jobs any longer, they couldn’t do half the things normal people took for granted. Go to a hospital, for example. At least not for the kinds of injuries they were likely to get fighting Omicron. Even she’d had to learn to shoot, and Kate had always hated guns.

Harper worked at the free clinic in Boyle Heights, but she was always on call in case anything happened to any member of the team. They hadn’t had to use her services so far. She had been one of the doctors for the U.N. staff Kate had met in Kosovo. Harper had seen firsthand what Omicron had created in the Balkans. It had been her misfortune to be taken to the remote Serbian village that had been the testing ground for the gas. A nurses’ aide hadn’t been able to reach her family, so she’d asked Harper to drive with her to her home town. Everyone there was dead. Men, women, children. A town full of life, wiped out in one awful morning.

Then Kate had met Tamara, a chemist who thought she’d been working to eliminate biological and chemical weapons, but in truth Omicron had tricked her and a lot of other scientists into creating a chemical agent of unimaginable horror. Tam had rebelled, and now she was one of them. One of the six who were hunted.

But Kate hadn’t talked to either of the women in a long time. She was too busy trying to earn a living and trying to make sense of the poor photocopies from Kosovo. Her days swam by in dread and tedium. The fear never left. Never. It had become her second heartbeat. Now this.

She didn’t have enough horror in her life? She would have screamed her outrage if she thought it would do any good. That poor man in the hotel, to die such an ugly death. She wondered if he’d been married. If he had children.

She got her cell from her purse and dialed Nate’s number. It rang twice.

“Yeah.”

“I’ve got trouble.”

“What?”

“It’s not Omicron. But it’s bad. I witnessed a murder today at the hotel.”

“Shit. Where are you now?”

“At a motel in Reseda. I got out, left the apartment. No one followed.”

“Okay, that’s good.”

“What’s not good is that I saw them. Gangbangers. I can identify them.”

“No, you can’t.”

“Yes, I can. I saw their faces. And the tattoos, and their weapons.”

“Kate, you can’t. The moment you come forward, you’re dead. You know that, right?”

“There has to be a way. I can’t just—”

“There is no way. I’m sorry. I know this sucks, but it’s not just you. It’s all of us. We’re getting close. We can’t afford to be identified. And you have to finish the paper trail.”

She let her head drop down, so weary she could hardly breathe. “It’s not fair.”

“Damn straight it’s not.”

“Okay. Fine. I’ll keep my mouth shut. There’s another problem. I didn’t get my last check. I’m really broke.”

“Damn. We just had a major outlay of cash. Not much left in the coffers. Let me see what I can do.”

“Okay.”

“Can you make it a week?”

“If I have to.”

“Sorry, kiddo. I mean it. I’ll figure something out.”

“I appreciate it. What about getting me a new name?”

“That, I can have for you by tomorrow. Give me a call in the morning.”

“Okay. Thanks.” She turned the phone off but didn’t move. There were clothes to hang up, her files to go through. But first, that shower she’d been aching for. There’d been a time in her life when she’d adored showers and baths. She’d indulged in every kind of ointment and bath goody she could find. She’d had something for every mood.

Now she carried a good soap with her because her face got too dry if she used the cheap stuff. That was it. Good soap. No lotions, no salts, no special conditioning treatments. Most days it didn’t matter. But man, today she’d kill for a lavender bubble bath.

NATE DISCONNECTED and dropped the cell phone on the makeshift table in front of him. He leaned back and closed his eyes, willing himself to relax. He tried to remember how long it had been since he’d had a really good night’s sleep.

His eyes popped open, and, momentarily panicked, he looked at his watch. Fifteen minutes. He’d lost fifteen minutes.

He stumbled to his feet and took the ten steps to the bathroom. He turned on the cold water and splashed some on his face, then dried and looked at himself in the mirror.

He had to admit he was looking a little gaunt. Who was he kidding? He looked like crap. Would you buy a customized security system from this man?

He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. Several times. He actually picked up the brush and made a moderate effort to look somewhat neat.

Kate. He had to find some way to help Kate.

As refreshed as he was likely to get at the moment, he went back into his living room. Well, there wasn’t much he could cut back on. The only table in the room was a piece of plywood on concrete blocks. He’d gotten the mattress at Goodwill. His phone, like everybody else’s in the team, was prepaid—virtually untraceable. He’d never turned on the gas, doing all his cooking on a camp stove—on his plywood table. The couch had come with the room.

Everything went into equipment and the needs of the team.

He picked up his cell and dialed Seth’s. He knew the number by heart, just as he knew everyone else’s. No little scraps of paper lying about to get found later.

“Hello?”

“Seth. It’s Nate.”

“Something new?”

“Kate’s in trouble.”

Nate could hear movement on the phone.

“Shit. Where is she? I could be there in…”

“Not that kind of trouble. She ran into a situation. She’s got to relocate.”

“A-a-ah. Okay. The usual? Driver’s license, birth certificate…”

“Yeah. Pretty quick, too. And how are you fixed for cash?”

Seth let loose a strangled laugh. “I gave the last of it to you for that surveillance equipment. Maybe in a week.”

Nate sighed. “Don’t sweat it. Just get to work on her new ID, would you?”

“Sure thing. And Nate?”

“Yeah?”

“Get some sleep.”

“WHAT THE FUCK were you thinking?”

Vince looked at Captain Emerson’s red face, and he knew he wasn’t gonna walk out of this smelling like a rose. “He accused Tim of being in bed with drug dealers.”

“So what?”

“It wasn’t true.”

“Since when is that something new? He’s not just putting the assault in the paper, he’s putting it on Channel 5.”

“How much does he want?”

“He says he wants twenty-million. What he really wants is your badge.”

Vince sat back in the wooden chair across from Emerson’s desk. He’d been in here a lot during his years on the force. Mostly to get chewed out. He didn’t blame the Captain for that. He had a department to run. He had people to answer to. The Captain understood, most of the time. He knew Vince did the job.

Most cops who got involved with investigating gangs didn’t last a year. They’d transfer to anything else they could, knowing it was the most dangerous of all the details. Hell, he knew guys who would quit rather than do one day on the streets. And Vince had stuck with it for three years already. “You gonna give it to him?”

The Captain, looking a lot older today than he had yesterday, wiped his face with the flat of his hand. “I gotta suspend you. You know that, right? I can’t just give you a slap on the wrist this time. Goddammit, Vince. You had to hit him in the face?”

“Yeah, Captain. I did.”

“Shit, I suppose so. I’ll do what I can to soothe some feathers, but it’s not gonna be quick. Maybe the time off will do you good.”

Vince leaned forward. “They killed Tim. I’m not gonna let that go.”

“You have no choice.”

He opened his mouth, then shut it before he got in deeper. Instead, he got out his badge and his weapon and put them on the desk. “Call me when I can come back.”

The Captain looked at him for a long moment. “Don’t do anything stupid. Well, stupider. This may not be up to me. You got it?”

Vince nodded as he stood, grateful it was only a suspension. “Thanks.”

“Idiot.”

“Nothing new there.”

The Captain let him go. “Get out of town. Go get drunk. Get laid. Relax.”

“I’ll do my best.”

Emerson was already on the phone when Vince got to the door. The Captain had the press to deal with, and the city council and the mayor. It was all part of a thankless job, and keeping Vince’s badge was way, way down there in terms of importance. But that didn’t change things.

There was no way in hell he was going to let this thing go. He had Kate Rydell’s address in his pocket. He’d find her, question her about what she saw, get her to testify if necessary. If it got him fired, oh, well. It was time for him to leave the job, anyway. He didn’t have the heart for it anymore.

He walked into the squad room and to his desk. He unlocked the bottom drawer and reached far into the back, where he pulled out a black leather case. He didn’t open it until he was outside.

Once he got in his car, he took out a badge. He wasn’t supposed to have it, let alone use it. But it went into his pocket, and the gun under his seat went into his holster. Screw it.

THE KOSOVO PAPERS on her desk beckoned, but the want ads were more important, at least for the moment. She had two sections, one for jobs and one for furnished apartments. With red pen in hand, she started with the jobs.

The primary criterion was the invisibility factor. Room service had been great for that. She’d also been a waitress, a housekeeper and worked at a copy store. Since she’d returned from Kosovo, the one time she’d tried to do anything close to her qualifications, she’d been forced to quit, leaving the R & D company in a real bind. She wouldn’t do that again.

It had only been a few months since she’d seen the depths to which Omicron would go to stop her and her friends. They’d terrorized Christie, an innocent woman whose only crime was being Nate’s sister. It had come to a bloody end, and if things hadn’t worked out, they could have all been killed.

Despite everything she’d seen, it was still hard for her to grasp that it was the U.S. government after them. The public didn’t know about this side of their government, and wouldn’t, unless she and the others could put together enough hard evidence to prove what they knew beyond doubt was true.

If it had just been Omicron, it would have been easier, but someone—someone very powerful—was making sure the group was funded. It wasn’t enough to lay out the paper trail of deceit and murder. Kate and her friends had to dig deep into the black heart of the organization and find out who was pulling the strings.

One thing at a time. She had to get a job. She needed a place to live. But first, she needed her new name, a new ID, a new license plate for her car.

Nate was handling that. Right now she had to find the job and the apartment. And she had to figure out how to do it damn fast, because her money situation was more dire than she’d imagined.

If only she could use her savings. She had over sixty-thousand dollars in a bank account in Washington, D.C., but she couldn’t touch it. Well, maybe she didn’t have it anymore—now that her family thought she was dead.

So, she had seventy-four dollars to her name. That was it. And one night in this motel was going to eat up half of that. How was she going to get an apartment with no security or first month’s rent? Which meant she was probably going to end up sleeping in her car for a while.

She felt vulnerable enough behind locked doors, but to be on the street? In a rusty old heap of a car? She thought about asking Nate or Harper to take her in, but that could put them in danger, what with the police likely searching for her. There had to be a way to get her check from the hotel. She didn’t want any favors, just what she was owed.

She put her pen down and picked up her cell. There was no way she could go get the check herself. Perhaps there was something she could do.

She had Ellen’s number listed in her phone. Kate had taken the housekeeper to work a few times when her husband hadn’t come home in time for her to get the car. It was six-forty, so the shift was over. It would be safe now to call.

The phone rang so many times that Kate almost hung up, but finally an out-of-breath Ellen answered.

“I’m interrupting,” Kate said.

“No, I was just doing laundry, and I couldn’t get to the phone. Kate?”

“Yeah.”

“Where did you go? I heard you were up in that guy’s room when he was shot.”

“No. I wasn’t. I was down the hall.”

“Oh. The cops think you were there.”

“They’re wrong. I was close enough though to hear the gunfire.”

“Is that why you left like that, in the middle of a shift?”

“Yep. I was scared. I’m sorry to do that to Mr. Tyson, but I couldn’t help it.”

“You should probably call and tell them you didn’t see anything.”

“I will. I promise.” Kate squeezed her eyes shut and crossed her fingers. “Uh, could you do me a favor?”

“If I can.”

“Could you pick up my check for me tomorrow? We could meet for coffee after work. At the Copper Skillet.”

“Oh, sure. No sweat. You’ll have to be there right at six because I have to get the car back to Rick.”

“Absolutely. I’ll be there before six. Thanks, Ell. You’re a doll.”

“It’s nothing. Just don’t forget to tell the boss, you know? And the cops.”

“Right. I’ll do that. Thanks.”

“Sure. See you tomorrow.”

Kate disconnected the phone and closed her eyes, though this time it was with relief. Two weeks pay would get her into an apartment. It was going to be in a lousy part of town, but it beat sleeping in the car. She blessed Ellen in all kinds of ways, mostly for just being nice.

The warm fuzzy feeling lasted about ten seconds, then she turned back to the ads. If she got a job first, she’d know where to find the apartment. No reason she couldn’t get an interview tomorrow afternoon. If Nate came through with her new identity.

She circled every menial job she could find, from the San Fernando Valley to Torrance. With that done and the promise of cash tomorrow, she went to get some dinner. There was a place she knew where they sold burritos, big ones, for a couple of bucks. That would do.

THE APARTMENT WAS completely empty. Not a matchbook, a hairpin or a paper cup. Kate Rydell traveled light and fast. What was she running from? An abusive husband? A criminal warrant? Whatever it was, her behavior told Vince she wasn’t going to answer questions willingly. He’d have to find out more about her so that he could apply pressure. He didn’t give a damn about her reasons, she was going to help him put Tim’s killers behind bars. How hard it was going to be was up to her.

He turned to the super who’d let him in. “She was here last night?”

“I told ya. She was here this morning, too.”

“You didn’t see her leave?”

The man shook his head, which made his jowls quiver. “No. I musta been showing an apartment.”

“She didn’t leave a forwarding address? A note? A number?”

“Nah, nothing. Too bad. She always paid in cash, on time, and she never made any trouble.”

Vince thanked the man, and as he went back to his car he realized the only option he had left was to find Kate’s friend Ellen. No way in hell he was letting his only witness get away.

KATE SAT IN THE LAST booth against the back wall at the Copper Skillet. She kept her eyes on the door, even though it would be at least five more minutes before Ellen could conceivably get there.

The day had been long and tense. Nate had arranged a new identity for her, but he couldn’t get his hands on the paperwork until tomorrow morning. Her new name would be Kate Hogan. She was glad he’d remembered to use Kate again. She’d used it now for four different identities. It was simply too difficult for her to change her first name over and over. She needed to react quickly, seamlessly, and always being a Kate helped.

She had to get through tonight, then go to Gino’s tomorrow to pick up her new ID. She’d only been to the pizza parlor once. It wasn’t only a pizzeria. It was also an emergency meeting place. The phone there was always monitored, via a nifty computer program Seth had written, and Gino, an ex-Delta Force sharpshooter, had given them a safe place to hide. There, she’d change the license plates on her car, then she’d start in on the interviews. That part wouldn’t be too bad. Nate, bless his heart, had provided references for Kate Hogan, and she had several places lined up. Of course, she couldn’t do much of anything until she cashed her check.

It was almost six, and she sipped her coffee, watching every person who walked into the restaurant. Four minutes later, she sighed with relief when Ellen entered, still wearing her uniform. Ellen had a rough life, especially with her four kids to feed. Her husband was an undocumented worker in the garment district, and they had to pay for childcare, as well as all the other expenses. Kate had no idea how they got by.

“Hey,” Ellen said as she slipped into the booth. “You didn’t call Tyson.”

“I know. I will.”

“The cops came to see me.”

Kate’s heart froze. “What did you tell them?”

“Nothing. Except that you didn’t see the murder.”

“Did you tell them you were meeting me here?”

“Hell, no. I don’t tell cops my business. I figured you’d call them when you were ready, but jeez, Kate. Give me a break. I don’t need that.”

“I know. You’re right. I’ll have it straightened out by tomorrow. I promise.”

“You better. Shit, can you imagine if they come to the house?”

“No, no, they won’t. I’ll call. They won’t bother you again.”

Ellen pushed her brittle blond hair behind her ears, then she opened her purse. It was all Kate could do not to snatch the pay envelope from her hand. “Mr. Tyson was pissed you quit without telling him. I said it was a personal thing.”

“What did he say?”

Ellen smiled. “That you were ungrateful and downright rude.”

Kate grinned. That was Mr. Tyson all right.

“I have to go or Ricky’s gonna kill me. He’s got a job tonight.”

“Okay, thanks, Ellen. You have no idea how much this helped.”

“Hey, we’re friends, right? Let me know when this whole cop thing is over with, huh?”

“You bet,” Kate said, knowing it was a lie. She hated so much about her life now, but this…This was hell. She’d never betrayed a friend before Kosovo. Not ever. And now, it was becoming second nature.

VINCE WATCHED ELLEN leave the parking lot, and his gaze turned back to the Copper Skillet entrance. He knew Kate was inside, but he wasn’t going to approach her in such a public place.

He sipped his cold coffee, waiting. He was good at that. God knew he’d had enough practice. The longer he sat, the more he thought about Tim and the pricks who’d killed him.

He’d gone to see Tim’s wife that afternoon, and for a man who’d been involved with death for more years than he cared to remember, it had ripped his heart out to see her, weeping like a child at the loss of her husband. Vince had tried to find the right words, but Tim’s death was so wrong there was nothing at all that he could say. Except that he wouldn’t rest until justice was served.

There she was. Kate Rydell, walking out of the restaurant, her head low, almost hidden in her big coat. When she got to her car, she looked in the back seat, then all around her before she slipped the key in the door.

He waited until she drove past him to start his pursuit. This was something else he was good at. Following without being seen.

She drove carefully, never over the speed limit. All surface streets, with a hell of a lot of turns. Finally, she got to a dive motel in Reseda, and he waited and watched as she walked up the stairs to the far unit on the second floor.

It was showtime.