“Sure.” He was talking about the International Liaison Program, an intelligence initiative with the NYPD, formed after 9/11 as a counterterrorism plan. The department recruited officers from within specialized units to be stationed abroad in eleven cities-everywhere from Moscow and Lyons to Tel Aviv and Manila.
“I’m not a likely candidate for intel, am I?” Mike laughed nervously.
“Skip the false modesty, Detective. You’re the smartest guy I know-about some things.”
“Turns out Scully had a plan for me. I mean, the rip could have been just for a week and he would have been satisfied. But he suspended me for three so guys in the department would know I really got stung.”
“Then the vacation?” I asked, still feeling my anxiety over the added separation. “The four-week joyride with your cousin that you tacked on to it?”
“That part never happened, kid.”
“Want to tell me where you were?” I was tapping my fingers against the rusted pipe.
“Look, Scully made me-”
“Where were you?”
“Rhode Island. Newport, Rhode Island,” Mike said, almost sheepishly.
“Damn. I could probably have seen you if I stood on one of the tables at the Bite. A yachting adventure, perhaps?” Steam was more likely to come out of my ears than from the pipes alongside my head.
“The Naval War College. In Newport.”
“Really?”
“The college ran a special program this summer. A monthlong course in counterterrorism techniques. They offered Scully five spots, and I got lucky.”
“And I’m supposed to believe that-?”
“Secrecy was the hallmark of the whole thing. There are only two or three bosses in the entire department who know the names of the participants. The other detectives are the ones doing two-year stints abroad, brought back in from Singapore, Cairo, and Mumbai. Nobody wanted to blow their cover, and connecting me to any of them could have served to do that.”
It was my turn to be sheepish. “I-I wish I had known.”
“Do you understand what a risk Scully was taking? I stepped on my private parts with that psycho judge-all my own doing-and there was the police commissioner himself, wanting to rehabilitate and send me back to learn the most state-of-the-art techniques in fighting the bad guys. I mean the big bad guys.”
“Who better to train than you? So much of it is military, paramilitary stuff. You’re ahead of the curve on that to begin with.”
“We did the first week in Newport,” Mike said. “Then we were each sent out in the field. I was actually in a new office that opened in Kfar Saba.”
“Where’s that?” I felt so petty and small for having held a grudge for the last few weeks.
“It’s a suburb of Tel Aviv. The NYPD has a one-man office there,” he said, lifting my chin with his forefinger to get me to make eye contact with him again. “I’m not kidding you, Coop. That’s why I couldn’t call or write to you. It was a crazy time for everyone involved.”
“I understand that now.”
“There was actually chatter about a threat from Hezbollah, with a very soft target, and I got to work through the entire operation.”
“That must have been great.”
“You know what it’s like to save lives, Coop. Well, I don’t. I always get there too late, you know? Damage done. Bring on the body bags.” Mike was trying to get me to smile, to lighten up. “This time I helped do that, and I gotta tell you it feels better than anything else.”
“So you were successful.”
“And here’s how we knew it. Because nothing happened. Nothing.” Mike paused, grimacing at my forlorn expression. “How’s that for a good day on the job, Coop?”
“It should make you very proud of yourself,” I said. “It makes me proud of you.”
“Then stop sulking.”
“Why’d you choose this moment to tell me?”
“’Cause the last thing I wanted to do the other night was to walk into that crime scene at the Waldorf and find you there. I-I didn’t know what to say in front of everyone else.”
“Your mother’s heart condition kind of rolled off your tongue.”
“Okay, okay. I owe you.”
“You owe me nothing. It just sort of unnerves me that you can be so facile when you lie.”
“I didn’t think I had a choice. I figured you’d call me out ’cause I had no business being at a homicide in Manhattan South. Out of bounds for me. Not my jurisdiction.”
“You tap-danced around that pretty well, too.”
“Scully didn’t want me there because of the dead girl. It’s only that the president is coming to the hotel and he’s going to have me working with the terrorist task force from time to time, whenever he hears there’s new thinking, new methods of policing to bring to the table.”
“This killer,” I said, squirming a bit to get Mike to move back from me, “this Blunt guy, you think he’s involved with terrorists? Is that why you came back to talk to me? Or are you just trying to tie up your string theory? Try and control me like a big puppeteer?”
“No strings on you, Coop,” Mike said, stepping away. “Blunt’s acting more like a crazy man, not that the two are mutually exclusive. But this is the greatest train station in the world, and if his plan is to paralyze this city, he’s going to start that from right here.”
In the narrow hallway beyond the situation room, I was able once again to hear the loudspeaker system from the concourse below.
The lady with the automated voice had been given the night off. Someone from law enforcement had taken control of the microphone.
“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I’d like your attention, please,” the deep baritone greeted evening travelers. “Due to some emergency repairs that need to be made on the tracks this weekend, Grand Central Terminal is going to be cleared earlier than usual.”
“Thanks for coming up to try to make this right,” I said.
Mike held a finger over his lips, telling me not to talk.
“The last train will leave the station at ten P.M. That is ten P.M. We suggest you check schedules for the next train to your destination. Again, please check the schedules. After ten P.M., there will be city buses outside the terminal on the Lexington Avenue side to take passengers to the outer boroughs, where you can pick up your connections. And remember, folks, if you see something, say something.”
“That will make some commuters most unhappy,” I said.
“It’s meant to start them moving and fill the trains without causing a stampede. Nobody wants to alarm them before we need to.”
“Hardly necessary to add any fuel to the fire after today’s headlines and the news about Lydia.”
“Cops are herding people out of the food court already and planning to shut the doors-at least the ones that shut-a little before the clock strikes ten.”
I made an attempt at good cheer. “Thank you-I mean that-for letting me know about the last month, about the great big white lie. It’s for such an important reason that you were gone,” I said. “I should have trusted you.”
“Ladies and gentlemen,” the voice broke in again. “Time to step lively. Your attention, please. Grand Central Terminal will be shutting down at ten P.M. this evening.”
“How about if I throw in some bacon with the eggs?” I asked.
“Crisp. You know the way I like it.” Mike patted down my hair and kissed me on the crown of my head. “I’ll see you on your way home. Thanks for listening.”
“Then you just wait here for him to do something else?”
“Oh, no. We’ve got some messages planned to go out over the loudspeaker shortly after ten o’clock, designed to rattle the cage of Nikolay Blunt, wherever he is in this maze. We need to smoke him out, Coop, and bring him down. His killing spree is over.”
THIRTY-SEVEN