Always Watching (15 page)

Chapter 12

A low rumble dragged me out of the
darkness.  There was nothing soothing about it.  Anger,
stubbornness: these were the emotions that clearly sifted through
my weary mind.  My hand fumbled beside me on the bed. 
Cold.

One eye popped open.  Had it been a
nightmare?

Johnny’s voice echoed through the house with
unmistakable ire.  The words were indistinct.  Now
what?

I flipped back the covers and stumbled out
of bed.  A crescendo of bile crested in the back of my
throat.  Not good.  Extremely not good.  I sucked
air through my nose into lungs and exhaled slowly through my
mouth.  The wave abated.

The house was bright, still daylight, a
remarkably sunny day for this city.  I fisted one eye to
remove the sticky crust and padded toward the sound of Johnny’s
voice.  The words became clearer with every step.

“…
moot point, since the
case is solved, wouldn’t you say?  And my people found no
evidence of his involvement whatsoever.”

“
This is far from over,
Commander Orion.  When we come in to work a case, full
cooperation is not optional.  It is compulsory.”

“
Johnny?”  I squinted
at the hulking form blocking the front door to my house.

His neck twisted.

“
Doc, what are you doing
out of bed?”

Another pair of eyes raked
over me. 
Shit.  I’m barely
dressed.
  Using Johnny as a shield
somehow seemed more dignified than scurrying away to hide.  I
plastered myself against him and peeked around for a look at our
visitor.

Black suit.  Crisp white shirt. 
Dull blue necktie.  It screamed only one thing to me, coupled
with the reminder that cooperation is compulsory.  FBI. 
So agent whatshisname was still hanging around. 
Johnny-come-lately arrived way too late.

“
What’s going on?” I
mumbled.

“
Nothing, Helen.  Go
back to bed.”

The agent’s eyes widened. 
“Helen.  As in Dr. Helen Eriksson?”

I nodded.  “And you are?”

“
Special Agent Alfred
Preston, FBI.”

“
Hmm, field office in
Montgomery, right?”  My words garbled out around a bone
cracking yawn.  “The case is solved, Agent Preston.  Baby
is back in mother’s arms.  Guilty parties in custody. 
There’s nothing for the bureau to do here.”

“
Pardon me for
disagreeing,” he sneered.  “But the FBI doesn’t believe that
this case is wrapped up with a neat little bow so easily or
quickly.  We need to talk to Danny Datello.”

“
He’s in custody at the
county jail,” Johnny said.  “And my people ascertained that he
was not involved in this case, had no contact with anyone other
than his attorney yesterday after his court appearance, and
certainly no contact during the time in question.”

“
Doesn’t mean he couldn’t
have plotted this kidnapping long ago,” Preston said.  “I need
to talk to him.  You realize we don’t really require an excuse
or authorization from you.”

My fingers crept into the pocket of Johnny’s
jacket and fumbled for his phone.  “No, but you won’t be able
to see him outside the presence of counsel, and I think it’s a
pretty safe bet that he won’t have a word to say to you.”

“
Oh, he’ll talk,” Preston
said.  “You got him to speak to you yesterday.  Or was
that because it was a family conference?”

Johnny’s back stiffened.  “If you want
to see him, go through the normal channels.  Request a meeting
through his attorney, sir.  I can’t help you.”

“
No, you
won’t
help me,” Preston
said.

My finger poised over the send button, ready
to call David Levine and ask why the FBI was so certain that
Datello would kidnap his own daughter when our evidence pointed
toward a level of corruption that was probably unrelated to him at
all. 

Probably.  Truth was, I had doubts, but
would be damned if the FBI hung around while I figured out what, if
any, Datello’s link to human trafficking might be.  Instead of
using my connections at Quantico, I paused.

“
Agent Preston, if you
have any evidence that points to Datello’s involvement in his
daughter’s kidnapping, perhaps the best way to facilitate
compulsory cooperation here would be to share what you know. 
Give a little, get a little.  Are you familiar with that
concept?”

The arrogance exuded more than a little
chagrin.  “As you well know, it’s policy to make sure that
kidnapping is not a matter of custodial interference.”

“
And you think that
Datello had his daughter removed from Saint Mary’s so that what
exactly?  He could raise her somewhere unknown to the woman he
loves when he beats the murder and attempted murder charges against
him in court next week?”

Johnny’s arm curled around me for a quick
hug.  It was his version of a smirk without yanking the scowl
off his face. 

“
I simply want to sit down
with the man for a few minutes, Dr. Eriksson.  What’s the harm
in that?  It’ll help me close the case from our perspective
and get out of your hair faster.”

I didn’t buy it, but my curiosity was piqued
enough to offer a compromise.  “Fine,” I said.  “I’ll
facilitate the conversation on one condition.”

He eyed me with frank suspicion.  “The
FBI does not negotiate, doctor.”

“
You will if you want to
chat with him.”  I shrugged one shoulder.  “We may be a
little on the estranged side, but then again, that was before I
rescued his daughter from her kidnappers today.  Family ties
and all that.”

Johnny almost choked.  He stared at me
with unbridled amusement.

“
What’s your
condition?”

“
You cannot talk to him
alone.  Someone from OSI is present for this chat, preferably
me.”

“
Am I mistaken, or did you
not retire from law enforcement two months ago?”

My hand slid around Johnny’s waist in a slow
caress.  “We’ve got a consulting arrangement on a case by case
basis.  Do you doubt it?  Open your eyes, Agent
Preston.  The man in charge of the most powerful branch of law
enforcement in this state answered my door when you came calling,
and well, I’m not exactly dressed for business.”

His eyes gave me another once over,
lingering a little too long on my legs.  Made my skin crawl,
but I didn’t back down.

“
All right.  You can
be there – but not in the room when I question him.  I’d
prefer a neutral party, say personnel from your jail for
instance.”

“
Deal,” I said. 
“Give me a couple hours and I’ll meet you over there.”

“
No deal, Dr.
Eriksson.  I understand that another child was found dead in
Darkwater Bay last night.  You’ll meet me at the medical
examiner’s office first.  I believe that will expedite the
questions I have for Dr. Winslow about this girl’s cause of
death.  Two hours.”  He eye raped me a third time. 
“Don’t be late.”

Johnny slammed the door in his face and
turned to me.  “Are you out of your mind?  And what’s
this about a child being found dead last night?”

I scrubbed one hand over my face. 
“Maybe it would be easier if you went out to OSI and got the
official report from Devlin and Crevan.”

Fingers bisected my
arms.  “I would not like to get
anything
from Detective Mackenzie
right now or anytime in the future,” he growled.  “Or was I
mistaken that the son of a bitch was hitting on you? 
Again.”

“
You still haven’t learned
the difference between comfort and lust.”

At the spark of anger in my eyes, Johnny
backed down.  “Yes, I get the difference.  I’m
sorry.  Tempers were running high this morning.”

The grip on my arms evolved into a
caress.

“
Johnny, there are so many
things that we need to talk about.  Unfortunately, this isn’t
the right time.”

“
I only need one answer,
Helen,” he said softly. 

“
I still love you, and I’m
sorry for the things I said today.  Sometimes, when something
hurts as much as the past few hours did, I go into self-protection
mode.  I shouldn’t have been vicious and tried to push you
away like that, but the picture was pretty damning.  On top of
that, you showed up and tried to protect Melissa Sherman this
morning.”

“
All I wanted was
answers.  And I didn’t want the tiny inroads I made at that
stupid party undone because somebody jumped the gun with
her.”  He paused and cupped my chin.  “While I’m
delighted that you still love me and that you’re as sorry about
this morning as I am, that isn’t the answer I wanted to
hear.”

He swept me off my feet
and carried me back to the bedroom.  Johnny put me on the bed,
the edge and knelt in front of me.  “I know I’ve probably
fucked this up completely, Helen.  But I wasn’t just trying to
convince you not to throw me out when I asked.  I
do
love you.  I
think I always have.  When I think about not being with you… ”
hard swallow, “I guess I get a little crazy.  Don’t you know
yet how much I need you?  It hasn’t lessened from the moment I
met you.  I feel it more every day.  Being away from you
for a single night just about killed me.  I can’t imagine that
forever would be long enough with you.”

Love. 
Need.
 
Forever. 
His garbled words
echoed in my mind.  “Johnny, maybe we should finish talking
about the overlap in our cases first –”

“
Marry me
Helen.”

“
Johnny I –”

“
I know you still love
me.  If you didn’t, what you think you saw wouldn’t have hurt
at all.  We’re so good together.  I can’t… ”

“
I’ll think about
it.”

His eyes impaled me.  “You will?”

My turn for a dry swallow.  “Yes, but
not right now.  I need to talk to Maya about the autopsy on
the child that washed up on the beach last night.”

“
Washed up where,
exactly?”

“
Pier 20, but that’s
probably a meaningless detail.  Whoever dumped her couldn’t
direct the current.”

“
No, but eleven through
thirty are used exclusively by Datello’s fishing
enterprise.”

My heart sank.  “No.”

“
Doc, the FBI might be
onto something bigger than you could imagine here.  Maybe we
should be cooperating with Agent Preston.”

“
I already know the root
of this case.  It’s bigger than one abducted infant. 
Like I said earlier, I’m not convinced that Datello’s hands are
completely clean either, even though I really doubt that he was
responsible for the baby’s kidnapping.  He could be involved –
with a number of other people – in the rest of it.”

“
The rest of what,
exactly?”

I gnawed on my lower lip. 

“
Helen …” Not a plea, a
warning in that single word.

“
Human trafficking,” I
said.  “The woman who was actually responsible for removing
that baby from Saint Mary’s yesterday afternoon, she’s a wreck
Johnny.  The first thing she said when your men picked her up
was that she only did what her owner told her to do.”

“
Let me guess,” his hand
smothered his goatee.  “She is related to the Sherman
household somehow.”

“
Yes,” I said.  “And
if Sherman played a role in your investigation in Montgomery, and
he was somehow linked to illegal financing in a campaign of someone
Datello chose to beat Collangelo …”

“
It stands to reason that
this thing could be very ugly for Sanderfield if the truth is
exposed in a manner that we don’t control very
carefully.”

“
Yes,” I said. 
“Which is why cooperation with the Montgomery field office could be
disastrous.  Who knows what kind of influence or relationship
Sanderfield – or Sherman for that matter – had with the
FBI?”

“
You’re suggesting that
the bureau would cover up a human trafficking ring?”

“
No,” I said.  “But
if Preston is convinced that the buck stops with Datello, it would
shut down the deeper investigation into the people who are really
involved in this, Johnny.  Florence Payette, the nurse who
took Sofia Datello from the nursery yesterday, told us that she
gave the baby to a man, to some friend of Mr. Sherman.  We
have yet to identify him.  Even though we have Melissa Sherman
in custody, nobody has interviewed her yet as far as I
know.”

“
Crevan said she invoked
her right to counsel.  She’s not talking, Doc.”

“
This is very dicey. 
One wrong step, and we might never uncover the deeper truth behind
what happened to a very young child who died under suspicious
circumstances and was dumped in the bay, discarded like day old
bait.  Please let me do this my way.  I know how to deal
with the FBI.  I know how to get Preston out of here with the
illusion of cooperation.  Believe me, if Danny Datello is part
of this crime, he’ll never talk to the bureau about it.”

“
You think you can get him
to talk to you?”

“
I’m not sure,” I
said.  “His wife is a different story.  She owes me
now.”

“
What’re you
thinking?”

“
His fishing
business.  The young girl we found last night who happened to
wash onto shore in the middle of piers that his business uses
exclusively, had an unusual mark on her arm.”