“There’s only about six billion reasons,” Battaglia answered.
“One for every person in the world, then.”
“Huh?”
“One for every-oh, never mind,” Sully shook his head. “Just give me some of those reasons, my brother.”
“I will, my brother.” Battaglia held up a finger. “First off, we’re sitting here in the Gray Ghost. Every criminal in River City knows this is a UC vehicle. This car is so burnt, charcoal pieces fall off as we’re driving down the street.”
“True,” Sully conceded. “But this guy probably isn’t your typical doper or thief. He might not know it’s an undercover ride.”
Battaglia snorted. “Everyone knows the Gray Ghost. And even if by some strange chance this maggot didn’t, how hard is it to figure out that two guys sitting in a car like this for any length of time are cops on a stakeout? Even an Irishman could figure it out.”
“Oh, tha’s a fine funny jest,” Sully said in thick brogue. “You’re a laugh fest. So what’s your solution?”
“To the car problem or the two guys problem?”
“Either.” Sully shrugged. “Both.”
Battaglia took a deep breath and let it out. “Well, Tower’s a dick, right?”
“I thought you said he was an asshole.”
“Haw, haw, haw,” Battaglia guffawed. “I meant detective. He’s an investigator.”
“Duh.”
“So, duh, maybe he could talk to his detective buddies over in Narcotics and get us a decent ride that isn’t like driving around a neon sign that says ‘cop’. I mean, come on. Some of those guys are driving Mustangs and BMWs.”
“Not all of them.”
“Bull crap. It’s like frickin’ Miami Vice over there. Plus they’ve got extra cars they’ve seized.”
“Those are the cars they use for undercover buys, right?”
Battaglia shrugged. “So?”
“So I’m sure they don’t want them getting burned off in a patrol operation,” Sully pointed out.
Battaglia’s eyebrows flew up. “A mere patrol operation? Well, I suppose not, but last time I checked, this was an investigative operation, headed up by a detective and commanded by the Major Crimes Lieutenant, so-”
“Okay, okay.” Sully raised his hands in surrender. “Even so, according to you, we’re still going to look like two cops sitting here, no matter what we’re driving.”
“That’s easy.” He pointed toward MacLeod as she emerged from the other side of the treed area. “She’s past the red zone.”
Sully grunted. Maybe Battaglia was right about this being a waste of time.
“So you solve the two guys problem like this,” Battaglia continued. “Get me a woman partner.”
“Oh, I’m sure Rebecca would be totally cool with that happening.”
Battaglia shrugged, a mischievous twinkle in his eye. “Rebecca doesn’t have to know every little thing I do.”
A spark of anger flared in Sully’s stomach. “Now you’re just being an idiot.”
“What? How?”
“You’d step out on your wife? That’s stupid. And with someone here at work? That’s even stupider.”
Battaglia raised his hands in a placating gesture. “Easy, Irish. I’m just saying that if it was a man and a woman sitting here, it might look like a date or something. That’s all.”
“It might look like a couple of folks committing adultery, too.”
Battaglia laughed. “I suppose it might. But either way, Mr. Rapist Asshole isn’t going to pay too much attention, is he?”
Sully scowled. “Not nearly as much, no.”
“When did you get so Ten Commandments, anyway?”
“I’m not. Rebecca’s a good woman, that’s all.”
“I know. I married her.”
“I know. I was there.” Sully pointed to his chest. “Best man, remember?”
“I do,” Battaglia said, “though right now you’re acting more like you were the maid of honor.”
Sully fell silent. He knew Batts loved his wife, but he sometimes thought his partner took her for granted. He hadn’t figured out yet if that was because Battaglia actually did take her for granted or if he himself put Rebecca on too much of a pedestal. He figured it might be some of both. In any event, Battaglia and his wife seemed oblivious to his feelings and he intended to keep them that way.
“Check this out,” Battaglia said in a slightly lower voice.
He pointed, and Sully followed his gesture. A pair of men in dark clothing had appeared out of an alley and walked quickly to the edge of the park. After looking left and right, they turned and strode purposefully in MacLeod’s direction.
“Did Tower say anything about this guy having a partner?” he asked Battaglia.
Battaglia shook his head. “Nope. But what would that asshole know?”
Sully didn’t answer. The pair was less than two blocks away from MacLeod’s location. With both sets of people walking toward each other, the distance closed rapidly.
Battaglia lifted the portable radio to his lips.
2206 hours
“Adam-122 to Ida-409, you seeing this?”
Tower pressed the mike. “Affirmative.”
“You want us to move on them?”
He clicked the mike again. “Negative. Let’s see if they make a move.”
There was a pause, then an abrupt click in response. That was Battaglia’s way of telling him that he and O’Sullivan didn’t agree with his decision. Tower didn’t care. Instead, he focused on Katie’s exercise-walk gait as she rounded the corner of the park and turned to face the oncoming duo.
He wondered briefly if it were somehow possible that there were two rapists. He’d read cases in which rapists had partners, but they were rare. Especially when you factored in that it was a serial situation. Most partner jobs were spontaneous and had a definite alpha male forcing the issue.
Still, the purposeful stride of the two men in dark clothing concerned him. Were they planning to rob her? Or had he and Renee made a colossal error in analyzing the evidence?
He pressed the transmit button on his radio. “-409 to Adam-122.”
“Twenty-two,” came the clipped reply.
“See how close you can get,” he instructed, “but stay darked out.”
2207 hours
“Copy,” Battaglia said, then tossed the radio over to Sully. He put the car in gear and gave the accelerator a light nudge, sending the Gray Ghost rolling forward.
“Flip a U-ie,” Sully told him. “Come in from behind them. Otherwise, they’ll spot us and know something’s up.”
Battaglia waited until they reached the intersection where Howard Street ran into the park. Avoiding the brake pedal, he swung the car in as tight a circle as he could, turning around and facing the other direction. Without hesitating, he accelerated to the far end of the park. He made the turn northbound without braking and without chirping the tires.
“They’re about thirty yards apart,” Sully estimated. He lifted his small binoculars to his face and peered through them. The motion of the car made him jiggle too much to get a clear picture through the glasses.
“You think they’re going to rob her?” Battaglia asked him.
“I don’t know.”
Battaglia grunted in response. He turned west and pointed the Ghost directly at the pair of walking men. He accelerated as gently as possible, easing the car up to speed.
“Get right up on them before they have a chance to attack her,” Sully ordered.
“Tower said to wait-”
“I don’t care,” Sully said. “I’m not waiting until they club her over the head or something.”
Battaglia shook his head. “She sees them. She’ll be fine. Let’s wait until they make a move.”
Sully took a deep breath and let it out. He knew Battaglia was right, but it rankled him to put MacLeod in that kind of danger. Then again, she was a cop. She had to see them approaching, as they were within twenty yards now. Besides that, she had a gun in her fanny pack.