Andrew Gross 3-Book Thriller Collection 2: 15 Seconds, Killing Hour, The Blue Zone. Andrew Gross
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Название: Andrew Gross 3-Book Thriller Collection 2: 15 Seconds, Killing Hour, The Blue Zone
Автор: Andrew Gross
Издательство: HarperCollins
Жанр: Полицейские детективы
isbn: 9780007557530
isbn:
“That too, tiger.” He smiled.
As Emily pulled open the door to the squash club, he shot her a wink, and just for a flash it seemed to have a little of the old Dad in it. The one Emily hadn’t seen for a long time.
“Kick his ass, babe.”
Emily grinned back. “I will.”
Inside, Brad was already waiting on the court, crisply smacking the ball. He had on a T-shirt that read CABO ROCKS.
Emily went into the locker room, put her hair in a ponytail, and changed into her shorts. She came out and stepped onto the court. “Hey.”
“Hey.” Brad nodded. He tried this show-off, behind-the-back “boast” to get her the ball.
Emily rolled her eyes at him, a little skeptically. “You ever even been to Cabo?”
“Yeah. Christmas last year. It was cool. You?”
She started cracking forehands. “Twice.”
They played three games. Brad took a lead on her in the first. He had a wicked cross-court kill and was fast. No slouch. But Emily came back. She tied him at eight, and they alternated game points until she pulled out a win with a perfectly executed corner kill. Brad looked annoyed and bounced his racquet off the floor. He acted like it was a fluke. “Let’s go again.”
She took him the next game, too, 9–6. That was when Brad started walking gingerly on his ankle, as though he had an injury.
“So you gonna play for Bowdoin?” Emily asked him, knowing that Bowdoin was Division I in squash and that he didn’t stand a chance. By the third game, she was sailing. She took it 9–4.
Cleaned his clock.
“Nice match.” Brad shook her hand limply. “You’re good. Next time I won’t hold back.”
“Thanks.” Emily rolled her eyes. “My wrist will probably have healed by then.”
She sat on the bench with a towel over her head and gulped down some bottled water. That’s when it first occurred to her. She looked up at the balcony.
Where the hell is Dad?
He hadn’t come back for her match. He wasn’t sitting where he usually watched her matches. She pressed her lips together in frustration. A little anger, too. It was already after five. She had asked him to be back.
Where the hell is he?
Emily went outside and looked for the Volvo. No sign. Then she went back inside and settled in watching two seniors battle it out for almost another half an hour, doing her math, checking the door, until she was so pissed she couldn’t stand it anymore. She took out her cell and punched in her home number.
“We’re not at home.…” The answering machine came on. This was starting to get annoying. Someone should be there. Where was everybody? She checked the clock. It was going on six. She had work to do. She’d told him that. Emily listened to the message and waited impatiently for the beep.
“Mom, it’s me. I’m still at the club. Dad never showed.”
Twenty-four hours passed. No change.
No change in Tina’s condition the next day either.
The surgeons still couldn’t get anywhere near the bullet. Her brain scans were steady, but the swelling around the wound was massive, the intracranial pressure high, the tissue damage unknown. All they could do was wait for it to recede. They just didn’t know if she’d pull through.
Kate spent most of those next days at the hospital with Ellen and Tom. She told the police how Tina had closed up for her that night. How she wasn’t into drugs or anything illegal. That she was the last person on earth to have a connection to any kind of gang.
The cops claimed they had leads. A man in a red bandanna was seen jumping into a white van down the street from the building and heading up Morris Avenue. Red bandannas were the trademark of the Bloods. It was how they cut their bones, the detective said. Shooting an innocent victim, right on the street. An informer in a rival gang had put the word out that that’s what was going down.
A gang initiation rite. Her friend was lying in a coma. How Kate would have liked to believe that, too.
That second night she and Greg got back to their apartment after 2:00 A.M. Neither of them could sleep. Or even think about sleep. All they could think about was Tina. They just sat on the couch, shell-shocked and stunned.
One day it had to come out, Kate knew. What would she say? Tom and Ellen had the right to know.
“I’ve got to contact Phil Cavetti, Greg,” Kate said. “The WITSEC people have to know.”
Kate understood that once she made that call, everything in their lives would change. They’d have to move. That was for sure. Maybe change their names. Greg was almost finished with his residency. He couldn’t simply leave. They were just starting out their lives.
Was this going to be hanging over their heads forever?
“The police say they have leads,” Greg said, trying his best to be calm and logical. “What if they’re right—and this is just some tragic coincidence?”
“This wasn’t about some gang.” Kate shook her head. “We both know that!”
This was killing her. Her best friend was fighting for her life, not some faceless person on the news.
“We both know that Tina was shot, Greg, because they thought it was me!”
He held her, and Kate tried her hardest to feel secure in his arms. But she knew. Cavetti and Margaret Seymour had warned her. Mercado wasn’t going to let this go away. What was it they had said? That it wasn’t just about revenge? It was deeper than that. They called it “insurance.” Insurance that the next time someone like her father turned against fraternidad, this wouldn’t happen again.
They finally managed to fall asleep there, in each other’s arms, mostly out of sheer exhaustion.
And in the morning they agreed to wait. Only one day longer—maybe two. Just to let the police play out their leads.
But during the night, Kate woke up. She lay there, pressed against Greg, heart beating, her T-shirt drenched in clammy sweat.
They knew.
The premonitions of the past few days had been right. The police could play out all the leads they wanted, but Kate would be able to conceal it only so long.
They had found her. There would be a next time. Of that she was sure. And what would happen then? When they found СКАЧАТЬ