Amanda's Blue Marine (15 page)

"Let that be a lesson to you, as my grandmother used to say," Kelly recited piously. He pulled out his cell phone and looked at the stack of messages he'd received overnight. "She made that woolen sweater you're wearing," he added, nodding toward her.

Amanda looked down at herself and could feel the color coming up in her cheeks. "I shouldn't have taken this from you," she murmured. “ I think the AC in here is broken, set too high. It makes this room like a tundra. You must have been cold."

"I was fine." He held up the phone and said to her, "I have to call in and you have to get dressed. The forensics team will be arriving in about ten minutes and they are always on time and the experience is not pleasant. Just put up with it while they turn everything over and remind yourself that they are here to help you."

Mandy stood up and pulled his sweater over her head. "And I have to get to work to tie up some loose ends. Not that they really need me. They just ask me questions to fill in the blanks it would take a little longer to fill in themselves. And all the juniors are chomping at the bit to take advantage of the opportunity my absence provides."

He waited, listening.

Mandy sighed. "Rhinegold has extended my compassionate leave but he doesn't like having this circus dragged into his office. He wants the story and me and my problem to go away."

"Maybe you should just accept that," Kelly said reasonably. "Taking the longer leave, I mean."

Mandy nodded. "I know, but that's like giving up, isn't it? Telling Cameron that he's won? He's succeeded in hurting me, in changing my life. I hate that." She folded the sweater and held it out to him mutely.

"Keep it," he said.

Mandy hugged the garment to her chest, her face reflecting that she was touched by the gesture. "Thanks," she said softly.

"And now that we've solved that problem, I think we should work on my baldness cure."

Mandy started laughing and couldn't stop. She went on giggling, feeling like the overstressed people who vault over the ropes at crime scenes or behave badly at funerals. Kelly was grinning down at her, enjoying her hilarity, when there was a knock-knock rap on the door to the hall and it was opened by Lieutenant Manning.

He took in the scene at a glance and said tartly, "I can see that Kelly has everything under control here."

Kelly looked annoyed and Mandy felt as if she had been chastised.

"Your phone is off," Manning announced to Kelly. "Apparently Miss Redfield's house phone is also off. I haven't tried her cell phone but the odds are very good that it's off too." He took a large sip from the paper cup of coffee he was holding and glared at them.

Mandy looked at Kelly once and then headed for her bedroom to change.

"What's going on, Kel?" Manning asked bluntly, without preliminary, when she was gone.

"Nothing. Miss Redfield is okay. She slept through the night and I stayed here to make sure nothing else happened after she found that last …gift. I have the evidence for the team."

"You stayed here on your day off?" Manning asked.

"Yeah. She was …. frightened."

"What about the two cops downstairs in the squad car, the two cops I am paying overtime to make sure she is never alone?" Manning demanded.

“Really? You could have fooled me,” Manning said angrily. “And I would advise you not to get snarky with me, boyo. I am THIS close to putting in my papers over this case, the biggest pain in the ass of my entire career. I've got Commissioner Foster on my back. I've got her father, who owns half of Metro, on my back. She's a wreck and screwing up Rhinegold's office over a past case his people never supervised correctly. He wants her to move to Botswana and take her problem with her. Her fiancé the Congressman calls me every day from wherever the hell he is on the globe, I've got a psycho who likes to send young ladies hate notes running amok in my precinct, and when I deploy my best new detective to stop him that detective starts playing footsie with the target. Are you banging this girl, Brendan?"

“She can’t help herself in this situation, Lieutenant. She’s real smart, a lawyer. But that’s books…you know, school stuff and the sheltered life her parents gave her. You know them, you know what I mean. The closest she has ever gotten to scum like Cameron is standing across from him in court. It will be bad news if he ever corners her.”

Manning was silent, listening.

“She’s getting dead animals now, not just letters, and you know that’s an escalation from Cameron’s previous behavior. The next step is people, and you’ve read all the same cases that I have. The ones who send notes are sometimes just letting off steam, but the dead dogs and cats and rodents mean the perp is getting ready to strike.”

Manning nodded slowly.

“I figured you were just humoring her father when you put me on the case after she got those first notes, but that’s changed now. She senses it too. She’s trying to be brave about all this but I can tell that she’s terrified.”

Manning digested that, taken aback by the speech, which was a miniseries coming from the usually taciturn Kelly.

“I see,” Manning finally said. “So I assume if I remove you that you’ll be watching and second guessing the unfortunate sub who takes over for you, and of course you’ll be no good to me elsewhere. Is that about the size of it?”

Kelly didn’t argue with him.

"Well, I'm not blind and I know something is going on. She looks at you like you're Lancelot and you're behaving like you are too." He sighed elaborately. “I need to know something. No malarkey now. Both of our careers could depend on it. Her father is connected and anything that happens with her will be high profile. If I leave you on this case can you keep it in your pants?”

Manning moved a step closer to him and stuck his finger under Kelly's nose. "You are back on duty as of 8AM today, which is now, and I want that phone ON. In fact, I want that phone on permanently, I don't care if you're on a sailboat in Tahiti, I want to be able to get in touch with you. Do you understand me?"

Manning nodded. "I thought so." He sighed. "Look, kid, I know she's pretty. I’ve known Amanda her whole life and she’s…fetching. You're both young. These situations can get out of hand quickly and that's why I assigned a vet like Donatelli to the case in the first place." He looked up to heaven. "But of course he cracks up his leg the day before he's supposed to start and so I chose you because you're smart." He glanced at Kelly again. "At least, I thought you were smart. Did I make a mistake?"

“So what? If he wants to keep her he should be here supporting her when she’s in trouble instead of trotting the globe making business deals while you hold her hand.” Manning dumped his empty cup in Mandy’s wastebasket. He looked at Kelly appraisingly. “I’ve got eyes and I know people from 35 years on this job. That little girl wants you. Whatever was in place with Henderson before she met you, that’s over. And don’t worry about how much money her father has or what her society mama says or any of that other meaningless garbage. If she wants you, that’s the main thing.” Manning paused. “It’s the only thing.”

“It’s not that. She’s really not like that, not at all, but…” Kelly stopped as he realized he was saying too much and the impossibility of an explanation overwhelmed him. “It’s complicated,” he finished lamely.

“It must be,” Manning said.

“I don’t know if it will last,” Kelly said quietly. “I don’t know if it’s just the circumstances making this happen now. How will she feel when this has ended?” He stopped and then added, “When she’s safe again she won’t need me.”

“And she’ll do what her daddy tells her to make his business deal go through? She’ll go back to her former life as Henderson’s arm candy?” Manning suggested.

Kelly looked dismal.

“She’s a grown woman and she has a choice to make,” Manning said. “Amanda is a lot tougher than she looks or she wouldn’t still be here refusing to let this slimeball send her into hiding.”

Kelly’s expression changed, became more hopeful.

“She has enough money to go to the south of France and rent a villa or cruise the Caribbean for a year until we finally catch Cameron. You heard her father when he came to my office. She hasn’t done that. Probably because she doesn’t want to leave you, no matter what speeches she makes about not letting Cameron drive her out of town,” Manning said, folding his arms and studying Kelly’s listening expression. Manning had always liked Kelly. The kid came from bad circumstances and instead of winding up in jail he had risen above his background and now made his living enforcing the law. Much like Manning himself.

“This whole thing is driving me crazy,” Kelly admitted to his boss.

“Just make sure you don’t lose your job over it before she decides what to do,” Manning said. He pulled out his cell phone and scanned the messages.

"The rabbits are downstairs," Manning said to Kelly, referring to the forensics team. He looked at Mandy. "May I tell them to come up?"

"Don't worry," Manning said. "I don't think Cameron was ever here. It sounds to me like he slipped that stuff into your handbag when you were out of this building."

Mandy nodded again. "Will Detective Kelly take me to my office?" she asked hopefully.

"No," Manning replied shortly. "One of the uniformed officers will drive you there. I need Detective Kelly here."

Mandy exchanged one glance with Kelly and then marched into the hall as Manning called the cop in the parking lot to come up and get her.

6

The District Attorney’s offices emptied out like a factory at the end of a shift once the courts closed and the staff there left. Mandy listened to the doors shutting and the drawers sliding closed in cubbyholes as she made the final notes on her laptop. She nodded and waved to her departing co-workers as they moved along the corridor. It had been a long time since she’d seen some of them and this rare visit had given her a chance to catch up with them.