Close Encounters (2 page)

Matt turned to glance down at her. He paused in putting on his clothes and sat down on the edge of the bed, leaning over her. Slowly he took hold of the comforter and peeled it back until her breasts were exposed. Immediately her nipples puckered into stiff buds again. Matt bent forward to kiss her, partially covering her with the heat of his torso, his skin smooth and firm. His dreadlocks swung forward to tease her skin. His fingers began a rhythmic stimulation of the rigid peaks of her breasts.

Carol felt the hot, liquid pooling of arousal in her groin.

“I had fun, Carol,” he whispered against her lips. His hands slid up her arms, grasping her hands and threading his fingers with hers. He pressed down on her, kissing her with languid enjoyment.

Carol liked his honesty, that he didn’t try to come off cool and aloof. “Me too. How come we didn’t have fun like this when we were married?”

Matt sat up and looked down at her. “I don’t know. Maybe I was too selfish.”

“I was too needy.”

“Bad timing,” he continued.

“Wrong reasons…”

Another low grunt sounded in the background.

He chuckled. “Poor Max. Sounds like he’s not getting any. You want me to stay, don’t you, ol’ man?” In response, the dog lumbered up on all fours and padded heavily over to the edge of the bed, where he rested his snout on Matt’s leg. “See…” Matt turned to Carol. “Even Max wants me to stay.”

Max whined.

“You wish,” Carol murmured. “Besides, you never used to like Max.”

“You’re wrong,” Matt said. “I just wanted you to give me as much attention as you gave him.”

“You can’t be serious, Matt. Max is totally dependent on me. His love is unconditional.”

“And he never cheated on you.”

She watched him dispassionately. “You said it, I didn’t. Anyway, Max is not horny, just old.”

Matt continued to stroke her even as he stood up again. “Okay, I’m leaving. I’ll call you soon.”

She didn’t respond. She didn’t want to encourage him.

Max whined again. His tail thudded softly against the floor. Carol sighed, pushing the covers away and swinging her legs off the bed as she sat up.

“Go back to sleep. It’s not even light yet,” Matt said, pulling on a thick cable-knit sweater and reaching for a pair of boots.

“I know, but I think Max needs to go out.”

“That’s why I don’t own a dog. Too much work.”

“You don’t
own
dogs. You either relate to them as part of your family or you don’t,” she murmured, also beginning the search for her clothes. “It’s not work,” she added thoughtfully. “It’s a responsibility. Like having kids.”

“I repeat… too much work.”

Matt went to use the bathroom while Carol donned underwear and dressed quickly in jeans and a sweater. The dog stood gazing at her adoringly, his rheumy yellow eyes blinking in the unexpected light.

She patted his head briefly and rubbed under his jaw. “I know, Max. It’s too early,” she complained for both of them. “Let’s go and come back, fast.”

The animal headed for the door in apparent understanding. Carol followed, picking up her keys and the leash. She was already in her down parka when Matt caught up to her in the hall. She stood patiently as he got into his own coat.

She was overcome again with a sudden warmth for him because of what they’d once meant to each other. Now he was as she’d first seen him—a tall, handsome black man with a smooth grace. A talented musician, an entertaining companion. A wonderful lover. But she’d married him too soon, thinking she needed someone like Matt who would affirm and validate her own life. Someone who would protect her. Most of all, someone who would love her. She’d married him because her parents had not wanted her to.

Matt stopped to examine a piece of handmade pottery on a bookshelf. He stopped again when he spotted a framed charcoal drawing of himself playing his sax. He glanced at her, pleased and reflective.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen this one,” he said.

“You haven’t.”

“I’ll buy it from you.”

“It’s not for sale,” Carol said firmly, preparing to open the door.

“Does that mean you still love me?”

She shook her head patiently at his persistent baiting. “It means you were a good subject and I think that’s one of my best portraits.” She opened the door.

It was cold outside. The air seemed to penetrate right through to the bone, shooting through her body and exiting as vapor when she breathed. She clipped the leash to Max’s collar even though he was not about to wander from her side. His once rambunctious spirit had given way to colitis, rheumatism, and poor eyesight.

Matt reached for her hand and squeezed it. “Want some company? You shouldn’t be out here by yourself.”

“I’ll be okay. This will take all of five minutes. I’ll probably only go as far as the corner.”

He hunched his shoulders and put his hands in the pockets of his leather coat. “I’ll call you, okay?”

Carol hesitated. “Matt, I…”

“Come down and hear me some night at the club. I’ve got a new group.” He began backing away.

Carol gave in and waved with a nod. “I’ll try.”

Momentarily distracted, she let Max lead her as his aged girth wobbled along. He sniffed here and there, searching for a spot that suited him. She knew his favorite paths, but sometimes he couldn’t wait that long. And sometimes he just got finicky, like now. They were about three blocks away, in another neighborhood, one through which she rarely passed. At this time of night—no, early morning—the streets were quiet and empty. But this neighborhood had a bad reputation.

She heard a car coming fast down an adjacent street. It raced across her field of vision going south, as if the street were a drag strip. A delivery truck turned at the corner and came toward her. Another car sped by, following the first. The presence of life was actually reassuring, but without a hat and gloves, Carol was cold and eager to get back home.

At the corner Max meandered right. Carol thought to check him, then decided to give him two more blocks before retracing their steps.

Suddenly Max perked up, his sensitive hearing more attuned to sounds than hers was. He slowly began to trot, lengthening the leash from the retractable unit that Carol held, headed for the corner just twenty-five feet away. She quickly pushed a button that prevented the cord from unwinding further.

“No, Max,” Carol commanded when it seemed the dog would take yet another unexpected path.

Max held up for a moment at the sound of her voice, but he was now clearly distracted. Finally, he stopped near the curb, prepared to relieve himself.

“Thank you,” Carol murmured caustically. She waited patiently, forcing herself not to think about how cold she was. Her hands especially were getting stiff and numb.

The dog was hardly done when he let out a halfhearted bark and stood alertly, listening.

“Forget it,” Carol said, tugging gently on the cord. “We’re going home.”

Max had other ideas.

He suddenly lurched forward, pulling Carol with him and straining against the leash.

“I said
no
…”

The dog rounded the corner. Construction scaffolding ran along most of the block, indicating that renovation work was in progress on the facades of the old tenements. While the scaffolding allowed for normal pedestrian traffic beneath it, it produced deep shadows on the sidewalk.

Trying to control the dog claimed Carol’s attention, and it was several seconds before she became aware that they were not alone.

Like phantoms, two men suddenly emerged ahead of them, startling her. They were dressed all in black, in bulky North Face parkas. One wore a knit ski hat, the other a leather baseball cap. Their footsteps were silent in athletic sports shoes. Their faces were almost hidden by the high necks of their coats, and one was talking urgently into a cell phone—fast, and in words she didn’t understand. Max stiffened as they approached, but the two men didn’t even appear to notice them. They made her nervous nonetheless.

Just ahead, a car turned the corner and rolled into the street, its headlights off. Carol pulled on Max’s leash and jumped when she heard what sounded like cap pistols somewhere to her left. The two men were even with her now. Carol tried to pull Max back and turn around. The taller of the two men, the one wearing the baseball cap, looked over his shoulder in the direction of the shots. He saw the car. He reached under his coat and withdrew a gun… and Max began to bark.

Carol froze at the sight of the weapon. Her stomach churned into a tight knot of fear. She felt trapped by the two men, who made no attempt to hide their guns. The first man stared openly at her, his dark eyes and well-shaped mouth devoid of warmth.

“Shut the fuckin’ dog up,” the taller man hissed.

“Forget the bitch…” the other said.

Max barked louder.

The man pointed the gun and something metallic clinked on his wrist near the handle of his weapon. “I said shut him up!”

“Don’t…” Carol pleaded, reaching down to grab Max around the neck as he strained to be let loose and continued to bark.

There was a sudden light pop. Max yelped sharply and his body jerked against her. The man grabbed her and dragged her roughly to him as Max fell motionless to the ground.

Lee screeched his cruiser to a stop, and he and Barbara jumped out. They found the rest of the undercover team in action and rushed forward, prepared to join them if necessary. Squad cars had been positioned to block off vehicular entry and exit from the area. A SWAT team in full gear was already inside the staked-out building, and more police carefully searched the perimeters. High-beam headlights crisscrossed in eerie brilliance, making the street look like a landing field for alien craft.

Lee and Barbara were approached by several undercover officers.

“Where’s our man?” Lee asked briskly.

“Tino’s out and okay. Minor injuries. He held his own before we came in. The ghost was right on the money. Came up with two of Willey’s posse before they broke…”

“Gunshot exchange?”

“Some, but all for show. They just wanted to get the fuck out.”

“What about Willey?”

“We’re not sure yet. He might have slipped out. A lot of what we got are minor players. All the young ones we’re not going to be able to hold for long.”

“I’m not surprised,” Lee said, glancing around to appraise the situation.

“Was Mario anywhere?” Barbara asked.

The team leader shook his head. “Not that we could tell.”

“Okay, where are we now?” Lee interrupted.

He listened to the officer’s account of what had gone down, but he was more concerned with why. In the almost twenty years that he’d been in undercover, nine of them active on the streets, only a handful of operations had gone wrong. In all that time they’d lost only three officers. Three too many, but that was part of the job and part of the risk.

Barbara confirmed that no one had seen their informant, Mario. Suddenly they all heard gunfire. Everyone responded reflexively by pulling out their semiautomatics, ready to take cover.

An officer shouted from the sidewalk. “Out the back! We think we got him cornered.”

Barbara rushed over to Lee. “Let’s take a look.”

Lee hesitated. “No, let the others go. Willey’s not dumb. He wouldn’t do something so obvious. I say let’s check out the opposite direction.”

Barbara got back into the car next to him, her impatience showing as she shook her head. “He might still be inside. He knows we’re not going to take a chance ’cause there’re families in the building.”

“Right. But I don’t think he’s going to hang around to find out. Willey’s out of there.”

“What about Mario?”

“We’ll figure out what went wrong later, Barb.”

Lee maneuvered his vehicle around several cars and headed down the street. As he neared the corner he and Barbara heard police action to their left, and the barking of a dog to their right.

“Willey’s got pit bulls,” Barbara reminded him.

“I know, but…” Lee let it hang.

He turned the corner, moving slowly, headlights off. The dog continued to bark, but Lee couldn’t tell where the animal was. Then there was an angry command, followed several seconds later by a pop and a short yelp. The barking stopped.

“I see something,” Barbara said, pointing toward the corner.

Lee squinted in the direction she indicated. He nodded. “Yeah, I see…”

When they were almost to the far corner, the shadows began to move. Quickly Lee got on the speaker system.

“Police… step forward…”

He stopped the car and waited. He knew there were two people standing under a construction canopy. Barbara released the security strap on her automatic and cautiously opened her door.

“Take it easy…” Lee said, about to open his own door.

Suddenly there were two shots. One splintered the glass on the passenger side of the car.

“Dammit!” Barbara uttered, trying to duck back inside the car and half falling to the ground behind the still-open door.

Two more shots followed, creating bursts of sparks on the sidewalk where the gunmen stood. As Lee also took cover, one of the shrouded figures broke and ran for the corner. There was no opportunity to get off even a warning shot as the fleeing figure quickly disappeared.

“Police! Put the gun
down
!”

Two more pops pierced the night.

Another police car turned onto the street behind them. Lee got out his weapon. Standing between the door and the frame of his car, he leveled his gun at the assailant in the dark and fired. There was a return of fire yet again, and Barbara joined in. A moment later a body fell forward, slumping to the ground. Another figure raced out of the darkness and rushed for the corner. Several officers took off on foot after the fleeing figure, while Lee and Barbara stayed focused on the fallen victim. With guns drawn and pointed, shouting commands and with backup behind them, Lee and Barbara approached the suspect.

Barbara reached the sidewalk first, but her attention was diverted to another form on the ground. “It’s a dog,” she said. “It’s dead.”

Lee lowered his gun and squatted next to the bleeding body. The victim’s hands were empty, and instinct told him that he would not find a weapon nearby.