They’d tried to kill me in a dozen other places, but that was business — nothing personal.
“You think this has to do with Zella Grisham and the heist?” Kit asked.
“If it does, I can’t imagine how.”
That was a grievous understatement of my imagination. Stumpy Brown had given my name to his torturers. When he saw that there was no way out he threw the dice, hoping they were telling the truth when they said that they’d let him live for just a name.
I wondered if his corpse had been recovered.
“You’re the one who called me, LT,” Carson said.
“I called nine-one-one. They called you.”
“I represent the police, when it comes to you. I will protect you just as well as any innocent citizen. But you have to let me in.”
A thought came to my mind, a very disturbing notion.
“Look,” I said, “if this attack has anything to do with Zella or the heist, I don’t know how. I mean, if I expected armed assassins in my home, do you think I’d let my wife be here?”
Among other things, Kitteridge was a human lie detector. He could quantify any emotion in his mind. That’s why, even though I felt pressed to act, I chose my words carefully. In his own way the police captain was as dangerous as the hit man Hush.
“I’m going to have to take you down for a statement,” he said.
“Come on, man. You’ve seen my wife. I can’t just leave her.”
“You killed two men,” he said. “They’d bust my ass down to desk clerk if I didn’t follow the numbers on this.”
There was no way out of a trip to the police station. Most other times it wouldn’t have bothered me. Part of the dance is getting close to the fire without being burned.
“Okay,” I said. “All right. But give me a few minutes alone with Katrina. Let me talk to her a minute before you take me away.”
Kit heard something in my tone. He knew there was more to it than what I said. But he also knew that I could be very uncooperative when feeling pressed.
“And then you come with me and give what you got?” he asked.
I nodded.
He walked me back down to the dining room and asked kind-faced Officer Palmer to come outside with him.
Alone in the room with my wife was almost a solitary experience. She was in the same position, mouthing what might well have been the same words. I was concerned about her, but there were other, more urgent things to worry about.
I called Breland Lewis on his home phone.
“Hello,” he said, sleep still in his voice.
“Two men broke in my house and tried to kill me.”
“How’s Katrina and the kids?”
“Fine. It has to be the Rutgers thing. You are a possible target. Get your wife and the kids and go somewhere where no one will be able to track you.”
“Okay.”
“You still got that phone Bug sent?”
“Yes.”
“Bring it with you.”
My next call was to Twill.
“Hey, Pops,” he said on the first ring.
He was wide awake, getting into mischief no doubt, but I didn’t have time to question him. Instead I told him what had happened and that I wanted him to gather up his mother and take her down to Mr. Arnold’s — where she would be safe.
Twill promised to call his brother and sister on the way up from wherever he was.
That settled, I pulled a chair up to Katrina’s side.
“Katrina.”
To my surprise she sat upright and turned toward me.
“I am not leaving my house,” she said with conviction.
“But, baby, these men were pros. You need protection.”
“I will not leave. This is my home and I intend to stay.”
“Twill’s coming to get you.”
“He is welcome here but I will not go.”
I had come up against this blockade before. There was no moving Katrina once her mind was made up.
So I went out into the hallway to meet my official nemesis.
“Katrina won’t leave,” I told him. “The kids will all be here in an hour or so. Can you put a cop on watch at least until tomorrow tonight?”
“You gonna answer my questions, right?”
“I’ll try my best.”
The shade of a smile across Kit’s lips spoke of admiration if not friendship. I was his toughest nut but he never doubted that I’d crack one day.
“Okay,” he said. “I can have guys downstairs for a few days at least.”
36
We rode side by side in Kit’s unmarked dark green Ford sedan. I expected him to take me to the 20th Precinct near my home but instead he drove all the way down to the 5th on Elizabeth Street.
It was fairly empty at that hour. Kit led me to a subterranean office. When we got there I remembered that he was always on the lookout for an office where he could smoke.
This was more like a converted storeroom. There wasn’t even a proper desk; just a seven-foot-long folding table and six or seven walnut chairs.
He lit up a Marlboro.
“Can I have one’a those?” I asked.
“I thought you quit.”
“I did but I slipped earlier tonight, and whenever I do that I give myself twenty-four hours to quit again.”
We sat on the same side of the table facing each other, puffing away. If it wasn’t for the person or persons unknown trying to kill me, it would have been almost pleasant down there.
“Let’s have it, LT.”
“First you tell me the names of the men trying to slaughter me and my family.”
“No IDs,” he said. “No receipts, documents, passports, not even any scars. The cigarettes they were smoking are European but none of my people could even tell what language was on the packs. These guys were not only professional, they were expensive. Imported, probably from Eastern Europe, like smelly cheese.”
Damn.
“So?” he nudged.
“You realize that I don’t trust the police,” I stated.
“I’m not trying to trick you,” Kit replied.
“I know that. I know. But that’s not what I’m sayin’. There are holes in your security. Anything I say to you is safe, but the minute it goes past you lives will be on the line.”
Kit shook his pack of Marlboros at me. I took the offering.
He lit me up and tapped his left foot — slowly.
“What do you want?” he asked after a spate of silence and smoke.
“Captain Clarence is right about Zella Grisham,” I said. “She doesn’t know a thing about the Rutgers heist. I don’t know anything about the robbery either.”
“Okay.”
“Somebody thinks I do, obviously. I don’t know who it is. If I did, I’d tell you or else I wouldn’t say a word.” This last phrase meant that if I did know, I might have killed them myself.
“Okay.”
“So I will cooperate with you as far as I can, but I don’t have any raw data, no evidence, that’s not already in your possession.”
“But you think Zella getting released has caused this violence?” Kit asked.
“She’s innocent and should have been set free.”
“What aren’t you telling me, LT?”
“There’s nothing I know that could lead to an arrest,” I said. “That’s a fact.”
“Except maybe yours.”
“Come on, now, man. You know I can’t sit here and incriminate myself. I did not have anything to do with the robbery. I have no idea who sent those men to kill me.”
“Lethford wants to talk to you.”
“I’d be happy to meet with him... any time you say.”
Kit watched me for a few moments before saying, “That was some impressive killing you did. Naked too.”