“CONFRONT CARTER?”
Carly stared at Potter as she considered the reporter fronting off a cold-blooded killer like Correa. She was dead for sure.
“She loved Dean; what could I say?”
“You’re going to have to come to the station and give a full, taped statement,” Nick told Potter.
“Will I be arrested?”
“For now, yes.”
“Can you get someone to look for Ginny?”
“Where do you think she went?” Carly asked.
Nick stood. “I’m going to call this in. I’ll be out front.”
“Probably to Walt’s,” Potter said as Nick made his way outside. “Maybe to Jarvis’s boat because Jarvis always knew how to get to Carter.”
“Do you know why Jarvis shot the protestor? Is it related to Correa in some way?”
“I’m not sure. I think it was because the guy got too close to Walt’s. Jarvis was very protective of Carter’s stuff.”
“Did you ever see his belongings? Or what was in them?”
“I saw crates; that’s all.”
Carly said nothing else until federal agents arrived to take Potter into custody. By the tone and subject of their questions, clearly their minds were focused on the remaining explosives. But though Potter was still talking, he didn’t seem to know anything about that theft.
As the group moved out into the parking lot, she could tell that Nick wanted to be part of the investigation. It was a no-brainer because she wanted in as well. But as she opened her mouth to protest being left out, something stopped her. She was too close. Emotion had clouded her contact with Dean Barton; she didn’t want it to fog up the investigation into Correa.
“Nick, go. I know you want to. The house is under surveillance. Alex will give me a ride home.”
He argued weakly but finally kissed her and followed the federal car out of the lot.
Carly yawned and looked at Alex. “Ready to chauffeur?”
“Did you believe Potter?”
“I don’t think he shot those three gangsters, but the rest . . . Did
you
believe him? Is anyone that naive?”
“People see what they want to see.” Alex shrugged. “Him as well as Masters. What do you think will happen to him?”
“I don’t know enough about the evidence against him to speculate.” She folded her arms. “Are you going to give me a ride or not?”
“Yeah, but I’m surprised you let Nick go and you weren’t jumping to get in on things.” He opened the passenger door.
“I think I’m too close to things to be an objective investigator.” Her phone buzzed as she sat. She expected Nick’s number, but the number she saw wasn’t familiar.
“Hello?”
“Officer Edwards?”
Carly sat up straight. “Mary Ellen?”
“Yeah, sorry if I woke you, but something has happened I think you should know about. Here’s Londy.”
“Londy? I thought he was in the hospital.”
“I was but they released me,” Londy said. “I’m supposed to take it easy. But I’m not calling about me. It’s about Victor.”
“What about Victor? Does Jonah know the two of you are out at this hour?”
“He knows that we’re looking for Victor because he was upset. Crusher took a bad turn. He’s coming out of it now, but Victor didn’t know that. He left to find a gun. He wants to go shoot Correa. He’s gone, Officer Edwards. I’m afraid he’s going to do something stupid.”
“Where would he get a gun?”
“I’m sure he’d find a Ninja to help him out.”
Carly groaned, knowing that what Londy said was true enough. “Did you call 911?” She was aware of Trejo watching her. He had started the car but hadn’t pulled out of the lot.
“They won’t help because I didn’t see him with the gun. And I can’t say for sure where he went. He won’t trust no other cops but you anyway. Please, Officer Edwards, you have to help us find him and stop him.”
“I’m not sure what I can do, but everyone is looking for Correa, and they haven’t been able to find him. What makes you think Victor will?”
“I guess I just don’t like thinking about him running around with a gun.”
That gave Carly pause. She didn’t like thinking about a distraught ten-year-old running around with a gun either.
“He’ll probably head down to where he saw Crusher meet Correa,” Carly said, half to herself.
“If you send uniform cops, he’ll just hide.”
“Where are you now?”
“With Mary Ellen. We’re at Half Baked. We were going to walk down to the transit mall.”
Carly looked at the clock. Trains had stopped running almost an hour ago. “We’ll meet you there. I’ll be there in about fifteen minutes.”
“Where do you want me to take you in such a hurry?” Trejo asked after she hung up.
“Uh, you don’t—”
“None of that. I’m your chauffeur right now, so where to?”
She told him what Mary Ellen had said, and he began the drive to the transit mall.
Carly phoned Nick and got his voice mail. She left him a message with the details and promised him she’d be careful.
“Ha,” Alex said when she was off the phone again.
“What’s funny?”
“You. You probably have a plan in your head to be anything but careful.”
She ignored him and leaned forward as they turned onto a dead-end street where the train track ended. She saw Londy and Mary Ellen right away.
Alex stopped in the red, and Carly got out to let Londy and Mary Ellen climb in the backseat.
“Londy, you look awful. Are you sure you shouldn’t be in the hospital?” One of his eyes was still swollen almost completely shut, and there were scabs on one side of his face.
“They released me.” Londy tipped his head. “My ribs are sore and I can’t see so good out of my left eye, but I’m okay. It’s Victor who needs my help now.”
“Where do you think Victor is? Are you sure he even made it down this far? The train isn’t running.”
“He could have made it on the last train. Maybe he’s at the Bluestone.”
Carly shook her head, realizing that Londy didn’t know that it was probably Walt’s where Victor saw his brother meet with the three white dudes.
“Alex, let’s take a drive down to the construction yard and Walt’s. I have a feeling Victor is headed there.”
Her phone vibrated, showing Nick’s number. She signaled for Alex to wait a minute.
“What are you doing out looking for Victor?” Nick’s tone wasn’t angry as much as it was exasperated.
“Trejo is with me, and so are Londy and Mary Ellen. Look, odds are Correa is long gone. Anyway, isn’t ATF all over the dock?”
“They were, but there was a bomb threat in the harbor. It was called in about the same time we got Potter to the station. The bomb squad is mobilizing to head down there, and there’s only a two-man team watching the old marina. I’d feel a lot better if I knew you were safe at home.”
Carly bit her bottom lip, frowning. “I’ll say that right back at you. Are you mobilizing with ATF?”
“I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
“What’s happening with Ginny Masters?”
“We talked to her boss. Bottom line is there’s no sign of foul play. And if she went to confront Correa, how could she find him? Everybody and their mother is looking for him and coming up empty. There are a lot of holes in Potter’s story.”
“Is he still talking?”
“Yeah, he hasn’t lawyered up. Where are you looking for Victor?”
“Around the Bluestone, the construction yard, and Walt’s. With luck, one of the federal agents down there will see Victor and grab him.”
“Maybe I’ll head down there. I doubt anything is going to happen with Masters because she’s an adult and there’s no proof that she’s in danger. ATF will handle the harbor. Oh, you should also know that Harris plans to serve a search warrant on Jarvis.”
“Now?”
“Soon. He was supposed to surrender himself at midnight. They filed criminal charges for his shooting. His boat is still there, so homicide is going to hit it at dawn if he doesn’t show by then.”
“Hopefully we’ll have found Victor long before that and both of us will be home. We’re starting at the Bluestone if you decide to join us.”
“Be careful.”
She disconnected and turned to find Alex watching her.
“Okay, boss, I take it that’s where you want me to drive?”
“Mush,” Carly said, pointing toward the coast. “We can start at the Bluestone. It’s high ground. From there we’ll walk down toward the old marina.”
A few minutes later, Trejo pulled up to the fence that surrounded the Bluestone. He parked the car and all of them got out. Carly opened the gate, and they walked up to the hotel and around back. She was about to show them the path she’d discovered and ask Londy if Walt’s could be the place Victor was talking about when a bright flash caught her eye. Then the boom of an explosion made her jump.
Something in Sandy Park exploded.
Carly stepped to the edge of the terrace and watched as flames shot into the air from an area densely filled with tents and tent trailers.
“What in the world . . . ?” Trejo voiced the astonishment she felt.
Carly gripped her phone to call Nick. As she waited for him to answer, she could see flames spreading.
“I was on my way to you,” Nick said when he answered. Fire truck sirens sounded in the background. “But something happened in Sandy Park, and I’ve got to see if I can help. Fire and tents, plus all the trash that’s been building up there . . . It’ll be a mess.”
Carly knew he was right and let him go, wanting with all she was worth to help as well, but knowing she had to see to Londy, Mary Ellen, and Victor.
“What do you think blew?” Trejo asked.
Carly paused and thought about the bomb threat in the harbor. Was this explosion accidental or on purpose? “Good question. It could have been a propane tank.”
“The fire department confiscated them all as fire hazards.” Alex’s concentration was on the blaze.
“Well then, it could be anything. I know you want to get down there and cover that.”
“I’m helping you right now.”
She smiled grimly. “Okay, let’s find the trail.”
The sky was bright with fire in the park. Carly could see flames hopping from tent to tent. People were running, but the lights of the first fire trucks were already arriving on scene.
When they reached the hole in the fence, Carly saw that it had been repaired. No one was getting into the construction yard this way. They continued along the fence toward Walt’s until she saw movement.
“Stop,” she hissed, stepping in front of the other three. “Something moved down there.” She squinted into the darkness.
“Let me call,” Londy said. “It might be Victor.”
Carly agreed, but she drew her gun as a precaution.
“Victor! It’s Londy and Mary Ellen. Come out of there, man.”
They waited a long moment. Carly silently counted the seconds. Finally the boy popped up.
“Londy? What happened? What was that noise?” Victor walked toward them, eyes big. Carly figured the explosion had scared him.
“It’s over in Sandy Park. You okay?”
Victor nodded but stopped when he saw Carly.
“It’s okay, Victor. You’re not in trouble. We’re here to take you home.”
He continued forward, weariness in his steps. “I didn’t do nothing. Can’t get through the fence. All the holes been fixed.”
“You carrying?” Londy asked.
Victor looked them over, a sheepish expression on his face. He pulled a pocketknife out of his pocket. “This was all I could get.”
Carly took it and put it in her pocket, then looked at Alex.
When he spoke, she felt as though he’d read her mind. “Let’s get back to the car so I can get everyone home quick.”
ALEX SPED TO VICTOR’S HOUSE.
Carly didn’t protest. She felt as much urgency as he did. When they arrived, Carly got out with Londy and Victor. Over Victor’s complaints, Carly knocked on the door. It was opened quickly by a woman with a frown that turned to relief when she saw Victor.
After she hugged the boy, then admonished him to go inside and get cleaned up for bed, she thanked Londy and Carly and explained that Hector was doing well and would hopefully wake up soon.
“Victor is an interesting kid,” Carly said to Londy as they walked back to the car.
“I was interesting too when I was his age. I just hope he grows out of it.” Londy stopped short of the car. “I can walk from here; my house is only a couple of blocks away.”
Carly peered into his bruised face. “You sure? It’s late.”
Londy nodded. “Yep, I’m good. Thanks for everything.” He bent down and leaned into the car to say good night to Mary Ellen. They made arrangements to talk in the morning. When he straightened, he gave a half wave and turned to walk home. Carly climbed back into the car.
Alex continued the pace to Mary Ellen’s on the far north side of the city. He had a scanner in his car, which Carly turned on. The city was still alive with sirens and emergency vehicles attending to the fire in Sandy Park. But it had already been nearly half an hour; soon all that would be left was mop-up.
Since Nick was a sergeant, Carly knew he’d be supervising. She strained to hear Nick’s voice in the radio traffic but didn’t.
“I know you want to get to Sandy Park,” Carly said after they left Mary Ellen, seeing the light in Alex’s eyes. “Just get me home.”
“Why don’t you come with me?”
“I want to get my equipment. By the time I get there, it will just be cleanup. If I go without the tools to help, I’ll only be in the way.”
“Fair enough.” He made a U-turn and pressed the accelerator, traveling a little bit faster than he should. But again Carly didn’t complain.
When he pulled onto her street, she noted the plain car was gone. It didn’t matter. She didn’t plan on being there long. As Trejo pulled into her driveway, her phone buzzed with a text from Nick.
Carly looked at the picture on her phone and the world
stopped. Her breath caught in her throat; her heart began to pound. It was Nick—bound, blindfolded, and wearing a suicide vest.
How?
Where?
When?
The phone chirped with another text, but it took her a minute before she could move past the photo and read the new message.
He dies unless you do exactly as I say.
“What’s the matter?” Trejo asked, car idling. “You look white as a sheet.”
Carly couldn’t speak. She held the photo up so he could see it.
“Is that a joke?”
Unable to speak, all Carly could do was shake her head as Alex put his car in park.
She waited an agonizing five minutes before the next text came through.
Seaside Point, come alone. Hurry. You have less than 30 minutes.
Carly tried to think, but fear clouded her mind.
“I’ve got to get to the point in less than thirty minutes.” She spoke aloud to get her thought process moving.
“You’re not going down there, are you?” Trejo gripped her arm.
“I have to. It’s Nick. I need—”
“Call the storm troopers. For heaven’s sake, Correa will kill the both of you.”
“He’ll kill Nick if I call the feds. Will you just listen? There’s no time to argue. I need you to help me.” She glared across the car at him, even as a plan formed in her mind. Her brain was sluggish, stuck in shock. It was the Oceans First protestors who gave her an idea.
Alex dragged a hand across his forehead and sighed. “In protest. But I’ll do what you ask.”
“I’m going to Seaside Point, but I’m not going to drive in with a big bull’s-eye on my chest. Think: Correa wouldn’t do that either. It’s one way in. He must be docked there in one of the guest slips.” She paused a beat and watched as the logic sank in with Alex.
“I’ll swim in from the Seal Beach side. I can reach that side quicker and swim to Seaside Point. I can get the drop on Correa and save my husband. But I have to hurry. It’ll take me at least fifteen minutes to dress and get there. I want you to find Fernando. Or call Jacobs and tell him. Just give me some time first.”
“Carly, you’re crazy.”
“I’m going, Alex. Pray for me. Pray for us both.” She opened the car door.
He stopped her with a hand on her arm. “Please reconsider.”
She turned and pulled her arm from his grip. “I have to do this,” she said and ran into the house.
Checking the clock, she had twenty-five minutes left. She grabbed her swimsuit and her summer wetsuit as she undressed, then hurriedly slipped them on. She picked up
her weight belt and removed the weights before strapping it on.
The picture of Nick flashed in her mind.
Where is he?
Inside somewhere, but the only place he could be inside on the point was the bathrooms. They were all stone and gray stainless steel.
Next she pulled Nick’s Koga kit from beneath the bed. She opened it and dumped it on the bed, sifting through the stuff he used for training. He’d gathered an assortment of illegal weapons—most easily concealable and dangerous—that he could use during search training. The belt knife, a small blade that was easily hidden, caught her eye. She grabbed it and hooked it on the inside of her belt.
Looking at the picture again, she saw that Nick was handcuffed. And she saw a bit of white. A small sink.
Not the point bathroom. But where?
Closing the phone, she found a pen that could be used as a handcuff key and jammed it up her sleeve. Nick also had a waterproof bag for a handgun and she put hers in it, along with her phone, and hooked it on her belt as well. Grabbing her keys, feeling time bleed away, she ran for her car.
•••
When Carly reached the Seal Beach jetty, she had fifteen minutes to get to Seaside Point. The jetties formed the mouth of the flood control channel that carried water miles from the foothills to the Pacific Ocean. The south jetty wall was in
Seal Beach. Across the flood control channel, the north jetty wall was the Las Playas border. The north side extended farther than the south wall because of the Las Playas marina. It curved around to Seaside Point and had a paved road while the Seal Beach jetty gave way to a sandy beach. In the daytime, fishermen on the south side and those at Seaside Point could holler back and forth. Swimming out to the point would be quick in the water calmed by jetties. She could see lights outside the bathroom, which was clearly visible to Seal Beach, but she couldn’t see people.
Scurrying across the sand, she slid into the dark water and began her swim to the guest boat slips on the far side of Seaside Point, closer to the marina.
One thing gnawed. The guest slips were for small craft, dinghies. Correa couldn’t tie his thirty-six-footer there.
Swimming freestyle as rapidly as she could, she slowed as she neared the slips. There was a Zodiac tied up but no one in it. From the water she couldn’t see if anyone was on the point. For a minute she treaded water and prayed for Nick, that she was correct to choose a water approach and that Correa would be caught and brought to justice.
Pressing the light on her watch, she saw six minutes gone. She moved to the slip and put a hand up to steady herself in the gentle swells. Then she heard voices.
“She’s not coming.”
Jarvis!
He was here, which meant the police hadn’t taken him in yet.
He’s working with Correa.
Carly almost felt defeat. She’d imagined confronting Correa alone. Now what?
“There’s no way she could tell where that picture was taken. She’ll come.”
With a jolt, Carly recognized Mario Correa’s voice. She remembered that voice toasting his crimes the night Jeff was murdered.
“Look, we’re boxed in here. What if she calls the Coast Guard? We’ll never get back to the
Tango
.”
Correa cursed. From the tone and their conversation, Carly realized Nick wasn’t here. They wanted to lure her here, but where would he be?
She tuned them out and slipped away from the Zodiac, trying to see the picture of Nick again in her mind’s eye. A small white sink in a boat bathroom.
The
Tango
.
Correa is here. His boat has to be here.
Without checking her watch because she knew she didn’t have much time, Carly took off for the empty slip Alex had shown her. She prayed that the
Tango
was there now and that Nick was on it.
She swam hard, knowing that if Correa and Jarvis got in the Zodiac, she could never outswim them. Dock 15 was the last one and she had to hurry.
When she turned to find slip 22, she paused, breathing hard, straining to hear anything, afraid she’d hear the motor of the Zodiac bearing down on her.
All she heard was the beating of her own heart.
Then fear struck. What if he’d tied the
Tango
up somewhere else?
“Oh, Lord, please.” She bent her head and allowed herself a couple of seconds to pray, now doubting the wisdom of her decision to swim here and doubting her instincts. Pulling herself together, she started toward slip 22, the water here smelling like diesel fuel and feeling oily.
Finally she was close enough to see that the slip wasn’t empty.
Yes,
she thought,
the boat’s here.
She made her way through the murky water and came up at the back of the boat. There on the stern was the name
Tango
. Correa’s boat.
Placing her hands on the yacht’s swim platform, she started to pull herself up.
Suddenly an explosion rent the air.
Looking over her shoulder at where she’d just been, she saw a ball of fire explode into the air above Seaside Point.