And that might be where?
Did she have a choice? Shed let him tag along, she decided, until she could figure this thing out. South on Second. The corner of Bainbridge. I rent space in a garage on Bainbridge for the van. Its called Luckys.
Not tonight its not.
Kate made a strangled sound.
She went around to the drivers side of the van. When she got behind the wheel he tapped on the passenger side window. Kate ground her teeth together. She shot the key into the ignition and let the big engine rumble. See you on Willings, she muttered. Then she put the van in gear and rolled off, resisting the urge to look at him in the mirror.
Raphael jogged through the town house and out the front door onto Willings Alley. Until this night, until this very moment, he hadnt known there could be so many facets to his temper. He felt reasonably sure that in the last hour hed experienced all of them. The little fool! Shed driven around to the main alley by herself like there was no possibility whatsoever that someone could have waited on the corner for her, to end it then and there.
His Explorer waited for him. Raphael jumped behind the wheel with a second to spare before her atrocity of a vehicle lumbered into the alley. She beeped at him and kept on driving. Raphael swore and made an illegal U-turn to follow her. She was the most irritating, stiff-spined, starched, tsking, hardheaded, cop-show-watching, nosy fool hed met in his fourteen years on this job. And shed sat on Allegra.
Raphael grabbed the radio handset from his dashboard. Whos got Allegra? he demanded when he got reception and was patched through to the watch commander.
Vince Mandeleone, said a disembodied voice.
Mandeleone. Foxs rookie partner for the month. He wasnt a rookie to the department, but to the Robbery Homicide Unit. Im back with Fox in two hours. Even Raphael thought he sounded like a jealous lover.
Yeah, thats the word, came the voice soothingly.
So how come theyre not sending Mandeleone back down?
He did some good stuff this last month. Theyre keeping him up.
That was okay. Raphael didnt want to hurt the kid, he just wanted his own space back. But something stuck in his craw.
Theyre letting him question Allegra?
Hell, no. I thought you meant who was making sure she doesnt get whacked over this. Fox is going to spend some time with her first before Mandeleone takes her home and bunks on her sofa.
Thatll last one night.
The voice cackled. They all knew Allegra, by reputation if not by experience.
Anyway, Fox said to tell you to keep your cell phone with you. Hell touch base as soon as hes finished with Allegra.
Will do. Raphael signed off.
He was beginning to get a feel for things here. When Plattsmier had assigned him to the caterer, all hed heard was his own blood rushing in his ears. But now he could see how things would play out.
In two hours, he and Fox were legit again. They would be running this investigation. Raphael was just going to have to do his part with the rigid little brunette in tow.
She was going to be his personal albatross for a while. There was no getting around that. The commissioner wasnt going to let bygones be bygones quite yet. But Plattsmier, damn him, had accommodated them allRaphael and the commish and himself as well. The commissioner would get his extra ounce of Raphaels blood by saddling him with the witness. And Raphael was on the case so it had a prayer of getting solved.
The panel van tucked into the driveway of a garage just ahead of him. He stopped the Explorer in front of the entrance. A moment later, he saw her heading up the tunnel again, coming toward him on foot. Her head was down and too much of that crazy hair spilled forward to hide her features. Not bad features, he thought grudgingly, as he remembered them. Small, almost delicate. Then his eyes narrowed. For the first time he realized that she was towing a small red wagon behind her, and it was loaded.
Raphael drove a shoulder against the Explorers door and flung it open. He left the SUV idling in the street and jogged around it to meet her.
Whatever he had been about to say died in his throat when she looked at him. Her eyes were huge and bleak. They were indigo, he realized, more blue than blank.
I dont even know your name. She whispered it as though it were the saddest thing in the world.
Montiel. His voice was hoarse. Probably, he thought, with the restraint it took not to try to comfort her again. Dont touch me. He never made the same mistake twice.
No, I meant your first name.
Oh. Raphael. Rafell be fine. Then it struck him. He hadnt questioned her yetthat was by design. Once hed gotten the lay of the land from Plattsmier, hed known hed do better to wait until midnight. But he hadnt even asked her name. He opened his mouth, and she cut him off as though reading his mind.
Its Kate. Kate Mulhern.
Kate. It was pretty. It made him think of sunflowers and Kansas. Oh, hell, maybe she wasnt that bad.
She waited for him to offer to take the wagon from her. It was heavy and hard to pull. It would be an overture, she thought, an olive branch of sorts so maybe they could get through this night somewhat amicably until his superiors let him leave her alone again. But he only watched her.