His face was only inches from hers. "I"m sorry. You deserved a h.e.l.l of a lot better than that."
"I still do."
"I know." She held his gaze."Joe, I"m not sure-"
A sudden strong knock at the door broke into her words. Joe walked over and checked the peephole. Before he could make out who it was, a deep voice boomed,"Are you waiting on a retinal scan, boy?"
Joe unlocked the door, opened it, and was immediately locked in a ma.s.sive bear hug.
He struggled to catch his breath."Hi, Dad."
Cal Bailey drew back. He had a head of thick silver hair, a chiseled face, and a muscular physique that would have been the envy of men half his sixty-eight years. "Why didn"t you call, son?"
Joe gestured for his father to enter. "About what?"
"About the fact that the Hula Hoop is coming back," Cal said sarcastically as he strode into the apartment. He stopped when he saw Suzanne. "h.e.l.lo there. I hope I"m not intruding."
"Of course not," Joe said. "This is Suzanne Morrison. She"s a friend who"s helping me on a case. Suzanne, this is my father."
Suzanne smiled as she shook Cal"s hand. "It"s very nice to meet you. I was just leaving, Mr. Bailey."
"Call me Cal." He turned back to Joe. "If I"m cramping your style, too bad. I hit the road as soon as I heard."
"Heard what?"
"About your visitor, the fingerprints, everything."
Joe checked his watch. "You must have heard about the fingerprints before I did. For you to drive all the way from Savannah ..."
"In case you"ve forgotten, I have connections in the department."
Joe closed the door. It made sense. Dad still had a lot of friends on the force, and it was only natural that someone would have called him."Sorry. I didn"t want to bother you with it."
"Bother? When family members help each other, it"s not a bother. It"s what families do, right?"
"Right."
Suzanne excused herself, motioning for Joe to call her. He closed the door behind her.
Cal smiled."A real looker. I"ll get her story later, but right now I want you to tell me about everything that happened here."
"Do you want to take your coat off first?"
"Later. Tell me what happened."
Joe told him about the strange voice, his intruder, and the fingerprint results, but it was obvious that his father had already heard about them from one of his police buddies.
Cal shook his head. "You"re looking at this the wrong way, boy. Don"t worry so much about how howthey did it. If you can figure out who and why, the rest will follow."
"I haven"t the slightest idea who, who,and I haven"t the foggiest notion why. why."
Cal shrugged."Unless it is a spirit of some kind."
"Come on, Dad." He frowned." You"d better not talk like that when Nikki"s around."
"How"s she doing with this?"
"She doesn"t know about the fingerprints yet. She"s spending the night with a friend. I don"t know what I"m going to say to her."
"Don"t worry so much about Nikki."
"How can I not? She"s just a-"
"-a smart kid who"s more mature than you give her credit for," Cal interjected. "You need to take care of yourself, Joe, or you"ll be no good for her. You look terrible. Have you slept in the past couple of days?"
"Not much."
"Look, I"m going to stick around for a while. I have someone who can look after the theater while I"m gone. I can only imagine what this has been like for you."
"Thanks, Dad. Nikki will be really glad to see you. And-I"mglad too."
Cal stood. "Well, I"ll get out of your hair."
"What do you mean? You"re staying, aren"t you?"
"I got a buddy here in town I"m staying with."
"That"s crazy. It"s late."
"Ah, no problem." Cal walked toward the door.
Joe followed him. "Dad, this couch folds out. Why don"t you just bring in your bags, and-"
Cal opened the door and gave Joe another big hug."I got it covered. See you in the morning, Joe."
"Well, I-"
Cal was gone.
Joe stared at the door for a moment after it swung shut. Typical Dad. The first sign of trouble, and he"d come roaring into town in hero mode. But where in h.e.l.l was he going at this hour?
Haddenfield ran to the end of the hallway and blocked Donna and Paul."What"s going on here?"
Donna shifted her canvas duffel bag from her left shoulder to her right."We quit."
Paul nodded."Outta here, adios, and farewell, Haddenfield."
"You can"t do that."
Donna jerked her thumb toward the small room where they"d been staking out Monica Gaines"s hospital suite. "All your gear is in there. We"re finished. If any other jobs come up in the future, please don"t bother to call us."
Haddenfield held up his hands to stop Donna as she tried to push past him. "Please. Think about this. At least give me time to find replacements for you."
She shot him a frosty look. "You already have to find a replacement for Gary. Just look for two more."
"Is that what this is about? Gary?"
Paul nodded. "He could be dead or dying out there."
"We looked everywhere."
"Not everywhere," Donna said. "The police could have looked everywhere, but you didn"t want to call them. In the meantime, we haven"t seen the guy he was tailing since that night."
"I told you I was handling it. You are both so important right now. Don"t walk out."
"It"s done," Donna said.
Haddenfield"s tone grew desperate. "Do you want more money? It can be arranged. Give me a figure and I"ll see what I can do."
Paul c.o.c.ked an interested eyebrow, but Donna elbowed him in the chest."Don"t be a wh.o.r.e," she said.
Haddenfield leaned closer to him."I can pay cash."
Paul appeared to be thinking about it, but he finally shook his head."Sorry, Haddenfield. I have a real problem working for a.s.sholes. I guess that"s something I need to work on."
He and Donna moved past Haddenfield and started down the stairs.
"s.h.i.t," Haddenfield muttered under his breath. He walked back into the stakeout room and kicked the empty containers of Thai takeout from the night before.
b.a.s.t.a.r.ds.
They could be replaced, of course, but not without attracting even more attention from the higher-ups. They thought he was a world-cla.s.s screwup already, but it would look worse if it appeared that he couldn"t even keep his own team in line.
No use delaying the inevitable. He picked up his phone and punched the number.
Monica Gaines"s condition was obviously deteriorating. As Joe walked into her hospital room, he was immediately hit with how much worse she looked. He"d heard that her infection was spreading, and her swollen red face had rendered her almost unrecognizable.
"She"s heavily sedated," the plump nurse whis-pered."The pain got to be too much."
Joe looked at the nurse, wondering if the disposable camera was still in her locker. The little bloodsucker could probably taste her cash already.
"Is she conscious?" he asked.
"In and out."
Joe walked to Monica"s bedside and spoke softly. "Monica, it"s Joe Bailey."
Her lids fluttered.
Joe turned back to the nurse."Thank you."
"I really should stay here to make sure she doesn"t get too agitated."
"I"ll come get you if there"s a problem."
"I"ll just stand right back-"
"Go. Please."
The nurse gave him an annoyed glance, but left the room.
Joe looked down at Monica. Was she smiling? "Monica, can you understand me?"
She nodded.
"Monica, you"ve occasionally disappeared for weeksat a time. n.o.body knows where you went. Can you tell me?"
She whispered something Joe couldn"t hear.
He leaned closer."What?"
"The crate ...big crate," she slurred.
"A crate?"
She nodded.
"What does that mean?"
She closed her eyes. "Hurts so much. Christ almighty."
"Tell me about the crate, Monica."
"Hmmm?"
"The crate. Did you take a crate with you? Was there something special in the crate?"
"I was there."
"I don"t understand. Explain it to me, Monica."
"Can"t."
"Of course you can."
"No."
"Monica, if there"s something you"re not telling me that has some bearing on what happened to you-"