Animal Instinct Rosenfelt, David (free books to read .TXT) 📖

will start just after eight Eastern. A normal game would end at eleven thirty or so, and Gardener has been sticking it out to the end. Last night, for example, the Mets lost by eight runs, but he watched until the final pitch.”

“DeGrom and Wainwright are pitching,” Andy says. He knows that I am aware that those pitchers mean it will likely be a low-scoring game, and therefore quicker than most.

“When it ends, he leaves,” Laurie says. “By that time the place is just about empty; Marcus thinks they might even keep it open that late because Gardener wants them to. Maybe they’re afraid of him, or maybe he’s a big tipper; either way it doesn’t matter to us.”

“So you grab him when he leaves the bar?” Andy asks.

“Not quite. He parks in a lot about a block and a half from the bar, near the back where there aren’t many cars. He drives a souped-up Mustang, and it’s possible he doesn’t want to take a chance on it getting scuffed up. That works in our favor; it’s dark back there.”

I nod. “As Clemenza put it, there shouldn’t be ‘any pain-in-the-ass innocent bystanders’ around.”

“Right. So we wait by his car,” Laurie says. “When he gets there, we surprise him.”

“I wish there was something I could do,” I say.

“There is. You can watch the Mets game and text me when it’s over.”

“Hell, I can do that,” Andy says. “Let’s talk about how careful you guys are going to be. Pete said that Gardener is dangerous as hell.”

“Marcus,” Laurie says, which usually effectively ends the discussion.

“Let’s not be overconfident,” Andy says. It must be a weird feeling for him to be sending his wife off on this mission, even though she is a competent ex-cop who can handle herself extremely well.

“I agree,” I say. “If you run into any difficulty, just abort.”

“Marcus, can we do this?” Laurie asks.

“Yunhh.”

Once again, Marcus has the last grunt.

LAURIE and Marcus took up their position behind Gardener’s car at ten fifty.

Corey reported that the game was already in the eighth inning. He said something about Andy being right about deGrom and Wainwright, but that was more information than she needed.

The game wound up going ten innings and didn’t end until just after eleven thirty. That was unfortunate in that it caused Laurie and Marcus to have to wait, but fortunate in that it made it even less likely that other people would be around.

Finally, Corey texted and said the game had ended. It took ten minutes from that point for Gardener to approach his car. By that time Laurie was standing there waiting for him. He didn’t see her until he was almost at the car, because of the darkness.

“Hi, I’ve been waiting for you,” Laurie said, making her voice friendly rather than threatening.

“Yeah?” Gardener said, wary but intrigued, just before Marcus body-slammed him into the car, causing his head to put a dent in his Mustang and defeating the purpose of his parking back there. With a practiced maneuver, Marcus quickly frisked him and removed a handgun from his pocket.

Marcus turned him around, and he took a couple of steps away from the car, perhaps contemplating fighting back. But he seemed dazed and ended up just standing there.

Laurie stood to his left and Marcus to his right. They had done this maneuver before; they considered it disorienting to the person they were questioning. Laurie held a handgun on him; Marcus just stood there being Marcus.

“You killed Gerald Kline and Lisa Yates,” she said.

“Who the hell are you?”

“You killed Gerald Kline and Lisa Yates,” she repeated.

“And you two are next. You signed your death certificate tonight.”

“Wow, you’re scary. Either that or you’re a cowardly worm who shoots women from cars.”

Marcus had not done anything or moved a muscle; he was just watching Gardener intently, waiting for any possible move.

“I won’t be shooting you from a car. I’ll be doing it close up.”

“Who paid you to kill those people?”

Gardener just laughed. “I did it for the fun of it. And no one is going to have to pay me to kill you two.”

Just then there was the sound of a car horn, loud and startling in the otherwise silent night. Laurie made the mistake of looking in that direction, dropping her guard momentarily.

Gardener moved with incredible speed, whirling around and coming toward her. Marcus saw it immediately; there was the glint of a blade, which had been hidden in Gardener’s wrist.

He brought it toward the throat of the stunned Laurie and was less than six inches away when his head was crushed by Marcus’s forearm and elbow. Marcus followed up with a second blow as he was going down, but it was thoroughly unnecessary.

Heads are not built to absorb that kind of force; planets are not built to absorb that kind of force. Gardener was dead well before he hit the ground.

Laurie recovered quickly, felt for a pulse on Gardener’s neck, and realized that the next few minutes would be crucial, as they decided what to do. Her cop training told her to call 911, wait there, and tell the police what had happened. What Marcus did was a defensive act, pure and simple. He was saving her life.

But that might not be how it would look to the arriving officers. It might look like they had lain in wait and ambushed Gardener, killing him when he resisted. Marcus could wind up being arrested.

Marcus seemed to understand the situation and had already decided what they had to do. He mentally went through the areas they might have touched while waiting for Gardener, and he wiped away any chance of fingerprints.

Laurie watched him do it and weighed the issues in her head. This was no small decision for her; all her training said to call the police. But her common sense said otherwise, and her allegiance to Marcus did as well, so she realized they had to leave.

Which they did.

Gardener stayed behind and waited to be discovered in