Stone cold

63

They set up early Molly and Anthony deAngelo, in jeans and winter coats, arrived at 4:30 and began to shop the mall. Molly made several purchases, and Anthony carried her bags and looked bored. They saw no sign of Tony or Bria

At 6:27, Molly and Anthony came to the food court. They put their bags down and sat at a table. They looked from where they sat at the various food stands, appeared to reach a decision, and Anthony stood up and went to get them some pork fried rice. The food court was nearly filled. Looking at the customers, Molly realized that several of them could be the Lincolns. At 6:48 Molly decided that she couldn’t pretend to eat the rice anymore.

She had

no appetite, and it was clear that neither did Anthony.

“I’ll get us some coffee,” she

said.

“Cream,” Anthony said, “two

sugars.”

At 6:57 Molly took a cell phone out of her purse and called Simpson outside the mall.

“Hello, honey,” she said.

“Molly?”

“Yes. Are you and your brother doing what Nana says?”

“Any sign of action?” Simpson said.

Anthony deAngelo looked like a man whose wife spoke often on the

phone, glancing aimlessly around the food court. Molly smiled.

“No, honey, Daddy and I are having coffee, we’ll be home in a

little while.”

“Do you want me to help you with this?”

Simpson said. “Pretend

I’m your kid?”

“Absolutely not,” Molly said.

“What have you and Nana been

doing?”

“I’ll just sort of hum, then, so

you’ll know the line’s open and

I’m still here.”

“That’s very good,” Molly said.

At seven o’clock Jesse, wearing a navy pea jacket over his

Kevlar vest, walked down the mall with his hands in the pockets and stood in front of the elevator, opposite the entrance to the food court.

“It’s seven o’clock,”

Molly said.

On the phone Suit said, “Jesse there?”

“Un-huh.”

“Anything happening?”

“No, honey, not yet.”

“I kind of like the honey

thing. Will you call me honey

around the station, after this is over?”

“No.”

Behind Jesse the elevator door opened and a man and woman stood

in the door. They were wearing hats and scarves that partly hid their faces.

“Jesse,” the man said.

As Jesse turned toward them they each raised a long-barreled pistol and shot Jesse in the chest. The pistols made only a flat pop that was lost in the hubbub of the mall. Jesse stepped a half step back.

“It’s happening,” Molly said

into the phone and dropped it and

turned with her gun out. DeAngelo was on his feet as well, his handgun leveled.

The elevator door closed and the elevator went back up, taking the man and woman with it. People in the food court area were begi

“There’s an escalator at each

end,” Jesse said, pointing.

“Molly, cover that one. Anthony, stay here.”

Then he turned and ran down the mall, forcing his way through the crowd, his gun held down against his thigh. When he reached the escalator, he slowed and opened his coat so that, as he went up the moving stairs, he could speak into the microphone clipped to his vest.

“Suit?”

“You okay, Jesse?”

“I am. It went down. We’ve got them

somewhere on the second

level now.”

“Shall we come in.”

“No. We’ll try to chase them to

you.”

“We’ll be here.”

“When we saw them they were wearing black watch caps pulled down

over their foreheads, and black or navy scarves wrapped up over their chins, like they were cold. She had on a fur coat. He was wearing a trench coat.”

“We’ll be looking.”

“Make sure everybody gets the message,”

Jesse said. “And they

could change, so don’t lock in on the coats and scarves.”

“Roger, Jesse.”

At the top of the escalator Jesse paused with the gun at his side, looking around. Most people didn’t notice the gun. The ones

that did looked quickly and moved swiftly away. Jesse made sure his badge, clipped to his vest, was visible. Don’t want somebody

calling 911, and end up shooting it out with the local SWAT

team. He looked down to the far end of the mall and saw Molly

standing at the top of her escalator.

On the first level, Anthony stood facing the elevator. His gun was in his hand, held down against his right thigh. The elevator came back down and the doors opened and several men and women got out. One of them was a good-looking woman wearing a paisley yellow silk scarf over her head, and an ankle-length yellow wool coat. She carried a small shopping bag, and smiled at Anthony as she headed past him toward the exit. Anthony was pretty sure she wasn’t the

one. Still, better to play it safe.

“Excuse me, ma’am,” Anthony said.

She turned and took the gun from the shopping bag and shot him in the forehead. As Anthony went down, one of the men from the elevator stepped up and took the woman’s arm. He was wearing a

leather jacket and a long-billed low-crowned baseball hat.

By the time Anthony hit the floor the man and woman were walking

firmly past him and out the front door of the mall. As they reached the parking lot several people pushed past them, ru

64

Jesse sat with Healy in the front seat of Healy’s unmarked

car.

“We found their other clothes in the washrooms,” Healy

said.

“Had the change of clothes in the shopping bags,” Jesse

said.

“Maybe you should have asked for help,”

Healy

said.

“We had all the exits covered,” Jesse said.

“Which means they walked right past one of your guys.”

“Simpson and I were the only ones really knew what they looked

like,” Jesse said.

“If you’d brought us in

…” Healy said.

“You wouldn’t have known what they looked like

either.”

“True, but we might have had more people at the elevator.”

“And your people couldn’t have started shooting,” Jesse said,

“any more than Anthony could. There were eight or ten people coming

off that elevator.”

“And he was probably a little less cautious because it was a

good-looking broad,” Healy said.

Jesse shrugged.

“Whether it would have gone better if you’d invited us in,”

Healy said. “It couldn’t have gone worse.”

“No. One of my guys is dead, and the Lincolns are gone.”

“You’re sure it was them,” Healy

said.

“It was them.”

“You recognized them.”

“It was them.”

Healy nodded and didn’t speak for a moment.

Then he said, “We’re covering their condo.

Their Saab is still

in their parking lot.”

Jesse nodded. “Maybe a rental,” he said.

“We’ll be checking the rental agencies, but it’s,” he glanced at

the digital clock on his dashboard, “two twenty-six in the morning.”

“If they used their own names,” Jesse said.

“Have to show a credit card.”

“These are people who could have had a whole other identity

waiting around in case they needed it,” Jesse said.

“Want to go take a look at their home?”

Healy

said.

“Warrant?” Jesse said.

“Already got that covered,” Healy said.