Amanda's Blue Marine (2 page)

Kelly gazed at her, and Mandy looked back at him neutrally, wondering why he was acting so strangely. She hadn't known what to expect but this extended silence was making her jittery.

He was behaving like a person who didn't want to put his foot wrong.

Kelly looked down at his desk and consulted a computer printout sitting there, then he hit the bar on his laptop and read the screen. He looked back at her and said, "You're AMANDA Redfield?,” placing an emphasis on her first name.

"I think that someone is me," he said dryly. "Could you please excuse me for a few minutes? I'll be right back." He walked out and then stuck his head back in and said, "Do you want anything? Coffee?"

"I'm fine."

"This won't take long." Mandy watched him leave the room. She knew he was assuming this mission personally because he didn't want to have a phone conversation in front of her or leave her sitting in the office while he whispered in the hall. She was a VIP, after all, she thought wryly, and he didn't want to upset Lt. Manning.

When Detective Kelly returned he seemed to fill the small space. He said to her, "Slight misunderstanding there, communications problem. The data entry clerk misread a message and gave me the wrong information."

Mandy smiled inwardly and looked away. He had struck just the right chord there, communicating admiration without insinuation, being careful not to make her feel uncomfortable.

"Sorry for the delay." He resumed his seat behind the desk.

"That's all right."

He nodded. "Okay. I'm a little low on the preparation for this meeting, so bear with me while I review some of the facts with you."

Mandy noted that he had blamed himself for the lack of information, not mentioning his eleventh hour substitution.

"I know you got this case at the last minute when the detective who was supposed to take it was injured. Lt. Manning told me about it," she said to him.

Kelly got up. "Excuse me again," he said to Mandy. He went into the hall with Pat. Mandy could hear their voices but couldn't make out their conversation clearly as they had walked far enough away to ensure privacy.

Mandy rose quickly and hotfooted it shamelessly to the door. If this conversation involved her, as it probably did, she wanted to know about it.

"I am sorry to bother you, Kel," Pat was saying, "but Angela Wilkins is upstairs in the bathroom crying."

"And this concerns me how?" Kelly said testily. His voice was a husky basso that was hard to hear; Mandy was craning her neck to catch his words.

"It has to do with this new case. Manning took Angela's head off when he found out about the Adam/Amanda confusion. Angela came to me and told me about it to ask for my help. She entered the name wrong on the reports she sent to you and Manning didn't see them, or you, before they reached you."

"Tell Angela to dry her tears," Kelly said shortly. "I'll handle it."

Pat lowered her voice further as Mandy struggled to hear her. "You don't get it," Pat said. "Manning is really upset. Angela thinks she's going to be fired. As her supervisor and union rep I'll have to go the union about it."

"Angela can calm down," Kelly said. Mandy couldn't see him rolling his eyes but she could hear the exasperation in his voice. "I'll talk to Manning. He's having a fit because Miss Redfield is the daughter of one of his old friends, some Daddy Warbucks with political connections."

"And this kind of mistake makes us look really bad," Pat supplied, getting the picture.

“Gee, ya think?” Kelly said dryly. "Some moron is threatening his buddy's kid and Manning promises to take care of it. Then when the girl comes here looking for protection first I think she's a guy and then I ditch her in my elegant basement office like she's a tax collector. The situation had better improve from here, Pattycakes, or all three of us will be looking for a job."

Pat was momentarily silenced by the implications of that response. Finally she said, "Can you talk to Manning about how he treats the DE clerks? He's got them all terrorized and I'm having quite enough trouble hanging on to the entry level help as it is."

"I'll do that ONLY if you make sure nobody else gets past my door until after lunch. This Redfield girl is really scared and we're supposed to help her. So far the only impression she's gotten is that we're the reincarnation of the Keystone Kops."

Pat made some reply Mandy couldn't catch as she left and then Kelly headed back to his office. Mandy scooted back to her chair as his footsteps approached.

Mandy thought briefly about what she'd heard. She had assumed that she was appearing calm and controlled. It was a shock to realize that her fear was so obvious to Kelly. It also didn't make her happy to know that she was considered a special case getting special treatment. She wanted help, the kind of help any citizen with her problem would receive, not the deference accorded a spoiled brat whose father demanded white glove service for his precious little girl.

What must Kelly think of her?

"It's amazing that we get anything done around here, isn't it?" Kelly said casually to Mandy, resuming his seat. "No wonder the crime stats are up in Metro."

"I know you're busy," Mandy mumbled inanely as he watched him tap the computer keys again.

"Let's try this once more," he said. He scanned the computer screen quickly and said, "You're an Assistant District Attorney and you've been getting threatening letters."

"Notes," Mandy said. "One liners."

"I see some samples here, " Kelly said thoughtfully, looking at his screen again. “The forensics guys are testing the actual notes for evidence."

"‘I'm coming for you,’" he read aloud. “And ‘You'll be sorry you put me away.’ Also, let's see, ‘You'll never know I'm even near you until I get you.’"

"You've been an ADA for three years? You must have been involved in the conviction of quite a few people during that period."

Mandy nodded.

"Yet this bozo is singling you out from the whole group."

"I guess. In any case we handle there are several lawyers working on the prosecution, depending on how big a deal it is. Why would he pick on me? I do backup research, I’m always the least visible lawyer on the team.”

“That doesn’t mean he didn’t see you. And remember you.”

Amanda sighed, then said, “And you refer to him as 'he'. How do we know this person is a man?"

"We know from profiling that women don't generally do this sort of thing. It happens, but it's quite rare. And I see here that out of all the convictions you've been credited with only two of the defendants were women. So the odds are overwhelming that the perp is male."

"I'm serious. The losers who do this sort of thing have major problems with all aspects of life, not just the crime you are prosecuting them for at the moment. He thinks you have power over him because of your job and he resents a woman being in that position. He thinks women should be subservient and it drove him mad to have you making him answer for his behavior. He has a crush on you because he saw you in court during his trial and thinks he has an actual relationship with you.”

“He saw me maybe a few times, if even that. In any case we prosecute I’m either invisible to the defendant or my role is very low profile. That’s why I don’t understand this whole thing.”

“Don’t expect it to make sense,” Kelly said, echoing Manning. “Who knows what’s going through this guy’s head? Somebody who does this is crazy right out of the gate, we just have to assume that and work from there. "

"You make him sound delightful," Mandy said wearily.

Kelly leaned back in his chair and surveyed her. "He ain't Mahatma Gandhi, that's for sure."

Mandy couldn't conceal her concern. Kelly got up from his chair and came around to lean against his desk a few feet away from her. He bent forward in a pose that she would learn was characteristic of him, closed fists on hips, expression alert and watchful.

"Don't worry, we'll get him. We can lock him up for threats and intimidation and any number of other things, keep him in the can until your buddies in the D.A.'s office put him away again."

"You have to find him first," she said worriedly.

"We'll find him. I think this guy just got out of jail and that's why the notes started up suddenly and have continued. He was in the clink before that so we're doing a cross reference for anybody you prosecuted who was released recently. That’s where we’ll begin, anyway. If that doesn’t yield results we’ll widen the search until we locate him.”

"Somebody dumb enough to do this is usually easy to catch. The smart criminals are all out committing crimes successfully. Jails are full of stupid people and this guy seems like a real brain surgeon. There’s the occasional off kilter sharp article who’s just so flaked out he doesn’t care if he gets caught as long as does the damage, but that’s unusual. We’ll get him.”

"What happens to me in the meantime?"

"I watch you," he said evenly, his light eyes unreadable. "And we put tails on the likely candidates once we get the warrants."

He nodded. “A blind squad car with officers in plain clothes will shadow you every day. You check in with me about where you're going and what you're doing."

"You'll be around all the time?" she asked anxiously.

"Another officer will fill in for me when I'm off," he said evenly. "And we'll provide protection when you need it."

"We?" she said doubtfully. "When I need it?"

"My boss, Lt. Manning, makes those decisions," he said.

Mandy thought about that in silence. To appease her father Ted Manning would probably tie her to a tree and then guard the tree. Continuously.

Kelly was watching her expression closely. "This guy is a bully and all bullies are cowards. He just wants to frighten you."

"I'm frightened," Mandy said.

"Don't be. We'll get him."

Mandy felt absurdly comforted. She didn't know Kelly at all but the confidence he exuded was catching. She could see why Manning had selected him for the assignment.

"I think you've given me enough to go on for today," Kelly said. "I'll get together a list of the convictions you've been involved in and we'll be able to work from there to narrow down the possibilities."

"Do you think it could be somebody else?"

"It could be, but we have to start somewhere and it's best to begin with the most likely prospects first. Can you come back here tomorrow to go over the list with me?"