Turns out the Feds hadn’t gone that far, after all. They gave the impression they had left, and then they’d waited for me to leave. Probably parked across the only entrance and exit to the neighborhood. In a supermarket parking lot, it would have been impossible for most anyone to notice them. They saw me, and then pulled out after I did. Why, though? What did they want from me? Sam had all the information I did. Was this the work of Bridget Dinapoli? If not her, then who? Couldn’t be the Chief or the Mayor. They spent their time fighting involvement from the Feds.
I pulled the zoom back to get a better look at the big picture. There were a few possible angles. I assumed that they were aware of my relationship with Lana. It was common knowledge around the station, after all. Perhaps Sam mentioned it in passing to Bridget and she decided to follow up on it. If someone wanted to start connecting dots, it wasn’t all that far to travel from Roy Miller, a.k.a. Michael Lipsky, to me. Of course, this all depended on them throwing logic out of the window.
I thought it also might be possible that there was someone who wanted to meet with me in an off-the-record kind of way. To do that, they had to involve people who could operate beyond the department’s legal scope. Then it would make sense to send a couple of FBI Special Agents to tail me until they found me in a compromising position, at which time they could take me into custody. Now, who would want that to happen? The Mayor was a strong candidate. The Chief, too. But why? Hadn’t I already determined that there was no way those two groups could co-exist?
Except in an effort to take me down.
There’s that conspiracy nut again.
I hadn’t left Marshall since my series of turns to determine whether or not I was being followed. The car remained seven or eight lengths behind. I led them away from the city. At this time of day, traffic started to pick up. The closer one got to the city, the thicker the congestion. The last thing I wanted was to get stuck in gridlock and provide those two an opportunity to trap me.
I continued another couple of miles, past the land of suburbs, to an area where traffic was light. At that point, I’d had enough. Time to see what these guys really wanted.
Though the traffic light said go, I pulled to a stop just shy of the intersection. I opened my door to a chorus of honks and windows rolling down so drivers and passengers could shout at me or extend a warm greeting with a single finger. Ignoring them, I walked around to the back of the Chevy and climbed up on the trunk lid, then onto the roof.
The Feds came to a stop about forty feet away, behind three other cars. As those vehicles veered to the left or the right to get by me, the FBI agents pulled up another twenty feet, and then stopped.
“Come on,” I shouted. “This is what you wanted, right? Now you got it. Come and get me. I’m sure this is a crime somewhere.”
The sun glared off their front windshield. Through the bright burst of light, I saw the men look at each other, then at me. They spoke, perhaps trying to figure out what to do. Braden was behind the wheel. His hands animated his side of the conversation. He eased the vehicle forward a few more feet. Vinson had his cell phone pressed up to the side of his head. I’d have paid twenty thousand dollars to find out who was on the other end of that call.
Their lights started flashing, small and blue at the corners of the windshield. I figured they were about to come and place me under arrest. Why? No reason other than I was acting like a belligerent jackass. They didn’t need a reason, though.
Instead of coming for me, the car lurched forward then whipped around in a half-circle and took off in the other direction, headed toward the city. Their lights continued to flash and they went right through five red lights before they disappeared from sight.
“Get off your car asshole,” some punk kid said. He’d stuck his head out the window and had a big smile plastered on his freckled face. I pulled my jacket to the side, revealing my pistol. I patted the handle. The kid quickly ducked back inside the cab of the small pickup and rolled up his window. No matter how hard I stared, he didn’t look back at me again.
I waited until the little pickup drove off, then I hopped off my car. I pulled my cell from my pocket and placed a call as I slipped behind the steering wheel. The phone rang five times before she answered.
“Where are you?” my mother asked.
“I’m not going to make it over,” I said.
“Ella is going to be disappointed. Are you sure you can’t come by?”
“It’s not that I can’t. I shouldn’t.”
“What do you mean?”
“I really can’t get into it, Momma. A lot’s happened today, most of which I can’t tell you. I’m suspended, pending appeal.”
“What did you do?”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“Hope it was worth it.”
“He had it coming.”
She made a disapproving noise, but said nothing.
“I just spent fifteen minutes with a couple of Feds following me. Don’t know what it means, but I don’t feel safe leading them to you and Ella.”
“What if they already know about us?”
“I’m working on that. You can expect Sam to come by at some point. Worst case, I’ll send Jerry over to get Ella and bring her to his place. They won’t bother him.”
“And you’d leave me here by myself?”
“Any man crazy enough to mess with you will get what he deserves.”
She laughed and said, “Damn right.”
“The language,” I said.
She said nothing.
“Okay, look, I’m going to give Sam a call now. Make sure all the doors and windows are locked, and don’t leave the house. Not even for a carton of milk. You got it?”
“I know, I know.”
We said our goodbyes and I hung up. The light turned green. I hit the accelerator and placed a call to Sam after I’d leveled out my speed.
“What’s going on, Mitch?”
“Crazy day,” I said.
“Tell me about it.”
“Vinson and Braden were following me.”
“Say what?”
“After I left Lana’s place. I’d say it was maybe ten minutes after they left. Should have been in the city by then, but apparently they waited across from the neighborhood in the shopping center parking lot.”
“Sure it was them?”
“Yeah, I’m sure. I made a couple crazy turns and they stuck with me the whole time. Kept a good distance back. Pros, you know. They followed me for another fifteen minutes or so until I stopped and got out of the car. Made like the roof of the Chevy was a stage on Broadway.”
“Intriguing,” Sam said. “I’ll have to check online for video footage.”
“Isn’t it?” I paused a beat, wondering if anyone had filmed the encounter. “Anyone there give any indication that they wanted to have a word with me?”
“Lots of people, but nothing that demanded immediate attention. You sure it was them?”
“They got close enough I could see the razor burn on their necks.”
“I’ll feel some people out and call in some favors.”
“That’s why I’m calling, Sam. I need a favor from you.”
“Anything.”
“Go by Momma’s and either stay there or bring Ella and maybe even Momma over to your place. Those Feds got me spooked. I don’t know what they know about me, and I don’t want either of the girls to be placed in danger. Maybe it’s my paranoid side working overtime, but I think that they, someone, thinks that I’m involved in this mess. Now, if they want to show up at my place at two in the morning, so be it. As long as Ella isn’t there.”
“Okay, Mitch,” Sam said. “I agree, it’s probably a bit paranoid, but better to not take chances. I’ll take care of Ella and let you know.”
“Just let me know when, not where. Probably best that I don’t know in case this heads in the wrong direction.”
After I hung up with Sam, I pulled off onto a side road and took quite possibly the longest way home I could think of. Lots of turns and back roads. Less traffic back there. It made it easier to see if someone tailed me. And since I didn’t have Lana or Ella to get home to, an hour-and-a-half drive didn’t bother me.
The temperature readout on the dash said it had dropped below eighty degrees outside. Some fresh air would be nice. I rolled down all four windows and turned the radio up. The baseball game was on. I didn’t pay attention. I let it act as background noise to drown out my thoughts.
By the time I reached my neighborhood, the sun was deep in the west, behind the trees. The sky faded from deep red, to a light pink, to dark blue to the east. I pulled up to the curb and stopped a few houses down from mine. I waited there for fifteen minutes while watching the shadows.
What a day, I thought as I opened the door and stood. I crossed the street to the sidewalk, cut across my front yard and then opened the door to the screened porch. A nice breeze blew through. Mosquitoes hummed from the other side of the protective netting. Best investment I ever made, screening in this porch. Before sticking my key into the doorknob, I made sure it was still locked. It was. I righted that situation and stepped inside. After a quick search, I heated up some leftover pizza and finished off the five stray beers that had once been part of a twelve pack.
Dinner was good. The beer dessert had been better. During my meal, Sam called to let me know he’d picked up Ella and my mother and had them safely at his house. Confident they were okay for the night, I settled in on the couch for a little TV time.
I’m not sure what time I fell asleep. I hadn’t made it to Letterman. Hadn’t even seen the late news. Probably better. That stuff can be depressing. I knew it was two in the morning when the doorbell rang, though. The cable box said so.