The 6th Target

Chapter 98

IT WAS JOE. It was Joe.

There was no one in the world I wanted to see more.

"How many times have I told you…" I said, heart racing, getting out of my car on the street side, slamming the door.

"Don't sneak up on an armed police officer?"

"Right. You've got something against telephones? Some kind of phobia?"

Joe gri

"Ya think?"

I didn't feel tough, though. I felt depleted, vulnerable, close to tears, but I was determined not to show any of that. I scowled as I drummed my fingers on the hood of my car, but I couldn't help noticing how great Joe looked.

"I'm sorry. I took a chance," he said, his smile absolutely wi

"Never better," I lied. "You know. Busy."

"Sure, I know. You're all over the newspapers, Wonder Woman."

"More like, wonder if I'm ever going to solve a case," I said, laughing in spite of myself. "And you?" I said, warming up to Joe through and through. I stopped drumming my fingers and leaned a little bit toward him. "How's it going with you?"

"I've been busy, too."

"Well, I guess we're both keeping out of trouble." I locked the car, but I still didn't take a step toward him. I liked having that big hunk of metal between us. My Explorer as chaperone. Giving me a chance to think through what to do with Joe.

Joe gri

What was that? What had he just said?

My heart lurched and my knees started to give. I had a flash of insight – Joe looked and sounded great because he'd fallen in love with someone else. He'd dropped by because he couldn't tell me the news on the phone.

"I haven't wanted to call you until it was final," he said, his words dragging me back to the moment, "but I can't move the damned request through the system fast enough."

"What are you talking about?"

"I put in for a transfer to San Francisco, Lindsay."

Relief overwhelmed me. Tears filled my eyes to the brim as I stared at Joe. Images flashed, nothing I could help or stop, snatches of our months of high-flying romance, but it wasn't the romantic part that I remembered most. It was those homey moments, with Joe singing in the shower, me sneaking a peek in the mirror at his receding hairline when he didn't know I was looking. And the way he crouched over his cereal bowl as if someone might take it from him because he'd grown up in a house with six brothers and sisters, and none of them had the exclusive rights to anything. I thought about how Joe was the only person in my life who would just let me talk myself out and didn't expect me to be the strong one all the time. And okay, yeah, I flashed on the way he handled my body when we made love, making me seem small and weightless, and how safe I used to feel when I fell asleep in his arms.

"I've been given assurances but nothing definite…" His voice trailed off as he stared at me. "God, Lindsay," he said, "you have no idea how much I've missed you."

The wind coming off the bay blew the tears off my cheeks, and I was filled with gratitude for the unexpected gift of his visit and the night ahead. I still had an unopened bottle of Courvoisier in the liquor cabinet. And massage oil in the nightstand… I thought about the delicious coolness of the air and how much heat Joe and I could turn up just lying together, before even reaching out our hands to touch.

"Why don't you come upstairs?" I finally said. "We don't have to talk on the street."

Something dark crossed his features as he came toward me and gently, deliberately, encircled my shoulders with his large hands.

"I want to come in," he said, "but I'll miss my flight. I just had to tell you, don't give up on me. Please."

Joe put his arms around me and pulled me to him. Instinctively, I stiffened, folded my arms over my chest, dropped my chin.

I didn't want to look up into his face. Didn't want to be charmed or swayed, because inside of three minutes, I'd ridden the entire Joe Molinari roller coaster.

Just over a week ago I'd steeled myself to break away from him because of this damned magic trick of his – now he's here, now he's not.

Nothing had changed!

I was furious. And I couldn't let Joe open me up only to let me down again. I looked at his face for the last time, and I pushed away from him.

"I'm sorry. Really. For a moment I thought you were someone else. You'd better go now," I sputtered. "Have a safe flight."

He was calling my name as I ran as fast as I could up the front steps of my building. I put my key in the lock and turned the knob in one movement. Then I slammed the door behind me and continued to run up the stairs. When I walked into my apartment, I had to go to the window, though.

I parted the curtain – just in time to see Joe's car drive away.

Chapter 99

MY PHONE STARTED RINGING before I dropped the curtain back across the glass. I knew Joe was calling from the car, and I had nothing to say to him.

I showered for a good long time, fifteen or twenty minutes under the spray. When I got out of the shower, the phone was still ringing. I ignored this call, too. Ditto the furiously blinking light on my answering machine and the ti

I tossed my di

I grabbed it out of my jacket pocket, growled, "Boxer," fully prepared to say, "Joe, leave me alone, okay?" I felt an inexplicable letdown when the voice in my ear was my partner's.

Rich said, "What's it take to get you to answer the phone, Lindsay?" He was a

"I was in the shower," I said. "As far as I know, that's still allowed. What's up?"

"There was another attack at the Blakely Arms."

The air went out of me.

"A homicide?"

"I'll let you know when I get there. I'm a couple of blocks away."

"Lock down the building. Every exit," I said. "No one leaves."

"I'm on it, Sergeant."

That's when I remembered the treadmill victim. How could I have forgotten about him?

"Rich, we forgot to check on Ben Wyatt."

"No, we didn't."

"You called the hospital?"

"Yeah."

"Is Wyatt awake?"

"He died two hours ago."

I told Rich I'd see him shortly and called Cindy – no answer. I snapped my phone closed, slapped it down on the kitchen counter so that I wouldn't throw it through a window. The microwave binged five times, telling me that di

"I'm going to lose my mind!" I shouted at the timer. "Going to fricking lose it."

Screw everything! I left the brandy untouched on the counter and my di

Then I headed out to Townsend and Third.

By the time I strode into the lobby of the Blakely Arms, I was imagining my next conversation with Cindy. I wasn't going to take any guff from her, either.

She was going to move in with me until she had somewhere safe to live.