STEVENS CALLED NANCY while he and Windermere waited to hear back from T-Mobile. He’d talked to his wife earlier, asked her to take the kids to the FBI building in Brooklyn Center, and now he wanted to check in again, make sure they’d made it to safety. Couldn’t explain why, really; maybe it was that he’d already been shot once on this case, or maybe he just wanted to make sure his own family was all right, one more time. This case had been a dangerous game. High stress. And Stevens was pretty sure the toughest part was yet to come.
“It’s me,” he said when Nancy picked up her phone.
“It’s you,” she said. “Where are you?”
“New Jersey. FBI office in Newark.” He stared out the window at the night beyond. “Just had a big storm here.”
“Oh yeah?” Nancy paused. “It’s been sunny here. Hot. You know.”
“Yeah,” Stevens said.
Another pause. “What’s up, Kirk? You calling to chat about the weather, or what?”
“Just wanted to say hi,” he said. “See how you guys are doing. Check in, that kind of thing.”
“Bull,” Nancy said. “Why are you really calling?”
Stevens caught his reflection in the glass, had to smile. It was a foolish man who tried to put one over on his wife. “Yeah,” he said. “Okay, you got me. This case is coming down to the wire, Nancy.”
“You’re getting close?”
“I think tonight’s the night,” he said. “I just wanted to hear your voice before it all goes down, in case—”
“Shut up,” she said. “Don’t even, Kirk. Go take these guys down and come home tomorrow. This FBI imprisonment thing is getting old.”
“It’s for your own good, though,” he said.
“Yeah, well, it sucks,” Nancy said. “You want to say hi to the kids?”
He talked to his son, asked about baseball, asked about Triceratops (“He ate nine and a half muffins from the FBI kitchen, Dad”), and then JJ put Andrea on the phone.
“Hey, Dad.”
“Hey, kiddo,” he said. “How’re you doing?”
A beat. A sigh. “I’m good.”
“How’s your day?”
“It’s okay,” she said. “Boring. How long do we have to stay here?”
“Just until I finish this case,” he said. “Another day or two, maybe. I just want to make sure the guys we’re chasing don’t try anything crazy, you know?”
She sighed again. “I guess.”
He stared out the window and felt like he was trying to hog-tie an eel, the way the conversation was going. “How’s your day?”
“I said already. Boring. Mom won’t even let me—” She stopped herself. “Not like it’s much different from real life, anyway. Now that you guys chased Calvin away.”
Stevens let his breath out. “We’ll talk about Calvin when I get home, Andrea.”
“Whatever,” she said. “Here’s Mom.”
“Wait,” he said. “Andrea—”
But she was already gone. A beat of silence, muffled voices, and then Nancy came back. “Sorry about that,” she said. “She’s been a terror lately.”
“I’ll be home soon,” he told her. “I’ll set her straight.”
“You’d better,” Nancy said. “I’m about out of ideas. Solve this thing and get your ass back here, mister. I’m lonely.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Stevens laughed. “I’ll talk to you later.”
He ended the call. Saw Windermere pacing the hallway. She stopped when she noticed him. “Everything cool?”
“Mostly,” he said. “They’re safe, anyway. Andrea’s still mad about the whole boyfriend thing. I think she hates me.”
Windermere cast a wry smile at him. “Maybe,” she said. “Probably she has a beef with a life sentence of parental-enforced celibacy.”
“Don’t you start,” he said. “She’s too young to date. She’s sure as hell too young to be fooling around in the living room.”
“Better than the backseat.”
“Carla.” He looked at her. She nodded an apology, and he sank back in his seat. “Anyway. Sorry. You talk to Mathers lately?”
Windermere’s eyes were impassive. “Nah,” she said, and started pacing again. “It’s not like I need to screw that situation up any more than it already is.”