KISS THE WITCH (22 page)

“
What are you
saying?”

“
I’m saying don’t make me
follow you to cold spots. We are looking for the same thing. Maybe
we can help each other.”

“
No.” I shook my head. “We
are not looking for the same thing. You are looking to sequester
spontaneous biogenic propagation for government rule. I’m looking
for the truth.” I pointed across the room. “Your gun is under the
dining room table. Lock up on your way out.”

I arrived back at the office around noon.
Spinelli saw me stepping out of the elevator and headed me off in
the hall. I could tell from the look on his face he was pissed. I
just didn’t know why.

“
You son of a bitch,” he
spat. “When were you going to tell me?”

“
Tell you what?” I
honestly did not know.

“
You know damn well
what.”

Carlos came out into the hall then. I still
was not sure why Spinelli was so bent out of shape, but I was
getting an idea. “What? Did Carlos say something to you?”

“
You know he did. That’s
because Carlos is a friend. A concept you obviously don’t
understand.”

“
Okay, look. I know why
you’re upset. I should have said something. I didn’t know she was
home. I walked into the bathroom and there she was. In the tub.
What was I supposed to do?”

He looked at me as though I had just told
him I screwed his pooch. “You walked in on Ursula taking a
bath?”

“
Well...yeah, that’s what
you were talking about, isn’t it?”

I looked over at Carlos. He was waving me
off in a silent shout. “Ick-schnay,” he said, or mouthed it.

Spinelli said, “Tony, I’m talking about you
getting a hard-on for my girl. Whatthefuck? Now you tell me you
walked in on her taking a bath?”

“
Dominic. That was an
accident. I swear.” I looked over at Carlos again. “Carlos. Tell
him.”

“
No. Carlos is not going
to tell me. You are going to tell me. What else did you do? Did you
fuck her? Huh? Did you fuck my fiancée?”

“
Fuck her? No! Carlos,
what did you tell him? Dominic, you are blowing this way out of
proportion.”

Spinelli palmed my chest and shoved me into
the wall. “Screw you,” he said, and I swear that if he were not my
second best friend, I would have decked him. “No. Better yet. Screw
Ursula. I know you want to. You can have her. The wedding is
off.”

“
Dominic. Wait. You know I
would never....”

He tore off in a head of steam, slamming
walls and kicking open doors in his wake. I turned to Carlos, who
shrank at the sight of me gritting my teeth and presenting clenched
fists.

“
Tony.” He walled his
hands up to keep me at bay. “I only told him about you getting a
stiffy. I didn’t say anything else to him.”

I unclenched my fists and dropped my hands.
“Okay. You know what? You’re right. I should have been straight up
with Dominic.”

“
Sure. Why not? You were
straight up with Ursula.”

I deflected his joke with a stabbing glare.
“The truth is I had nothing to hide. It was all perfectly
innocent.”

“
What are you going to do
now?”

“
About what?”

He gestured down the hall. “Dominic. He’s
calling the wedding off.”

I looked down the hall almost expecting to
see a trail of residual steam lingering on the carpet. “I don’t
know.” I shook my head and returned to Carlos. “He isn’t going to
call it off. He’s just pissed. Cannot say I blame him. Maybe I
should make myself scarce for a while.”

He looked at his watch. “It is almost
lunch.”

“
Lunch? I can’t eat. My
stomach’s tied up in knots right now.”

He smiled. “Good. I mean, too bad. I’m
buying.” He put his arm around my shoulder and led me to the
elevator. “You want to drive my Vette? That will cheer you up.”

“
You want me to crash it?
That will really cheer me up.”

He thought about it. Seriously, I think. A
good friend will do that. In the end, though, he decided he should
drive, what with the new lights and siren just installed.

At the restaurant, I asked Carlos why he
told Spinelli about Ursula and me. He said Dominic tricked him into
telling him.

“
He tricked
you?”

“
Yes, Tony. You know how
clever he is. He backed me into a corner. I had to tell
him.”

“
How did he back you into
a corner?”

“
He said he would find it
hard to get naked in front of Lilith and Ursula like
that.”

“
Yeah?”

“
I said you found it hard,
too, and Ursula saw it.”

“
You know, Carlos, that is
the last time I tell you anything in confidence.”

“
Tony, please.”

“
I mean it. Last time. You
have a big mouth. And I’m leaving it up to you to make it right
with Spinelli. If he calls off this wedding, Lilith will make my
life miserable. And if I’m miserable, you know who else will be
miserable?”

“
Me?”

“
Yes. You. So you better
begin thinking about what you’re going to say to him.”

Carlos started to come back with a word of
protest, but our server showed up to take our orders. We let the
conversation go at that. After she left us, I told Carlos about my
run-in with the agent from CICU.

“
CICU? Sounds like
military?”

“
It is,” I told him. “It’s
a shadow operation within the DoD, tasked with monitoring CID
activities.”

“
But the CID investigates
criminal activity by the U.S. Army?”

“
That’s right.”

“
So now CICU is
investigating CID?”

“
Yes.”

“
The people investigating
the army are being investigating.”

“
That’s what it looks
like.”

“
Damn, I need a score
card.”

“
Me, too.”

“
So, who were the guys
with the chopper, CICU?”

I shook my head. “He said it wasn’t them. I
don’t know if I believe him. Who else can get away with swooping in
with an attack helicopter in broad daylight and then disappearing
into thin air like that?”

“
With enough money, anyone
can. You remember those men in the lobby at Biocrynetix
Laboratories?”

“
I do.”

“
Remember what they were
wearing?”

“
Nice suits.”

“
Not just any nice suits.
$4000 Caraceni’s.”

“
Hmm, I see what you
mean.”

“
What was your agent at
Dwyer’s place wearing?”

“
Cheap
polyester.”

“
And he was looking for
Howard Snow?”

“
That’s why he followed
me. Thought maybe I would find him first.”

“
You think he wants to
kill him?’

“
He says no. Says Snow
blew up his own car to bury his tracks.”

“
Oh right, and bury his
old roommate, too. I don’t believe that. You know what I
think?”

“
Tell me.”

“
I think the agents have
the compound. I think they want to kill everyone associated with
QE647 so that the guys in suits don’t get their hands on it. We
know those other deaths were not coincidence.”

“
I believe that, Carlos.
These guys have been one step ahead of us from the
beginning.”

“
Know what
else?”

“
What’s that?”

“
I think someone has
bugged our office.”

“
Really?”

“
Think about it. Wherever
we go, these suits show up. They seem to know where we are heading
at any given time. If we find Howard Snow, I think they will be
right there to kill him.”

“
So, let’s flush `em
out.”

“
Howard?”

“
No, whoever bugged our
office.”

“
How do we do
that?”

“
We plant a decoy. You
know that manikin cop they set up in a patrol car sometimes on the
side of the road to make drivers think they are in a radar check
zone?”

“
Sure, Officer
Dummy.”

“
Well, let’s dress him up
to look like Howard Snow, put him in your Vette and plant him out
front of Dwyer’s house. Then we’ll call Spinelli from your cell and
tell him we spotted Howard Snow and that we need back
up.”

“
Oh, I see. And then when
the suits arrive, we pop out of hiding and nab them.”

“
Exactly. If they are not
CID or CICU, we can at least hold them until we figure out who they
are.”

“
All right. Let’s do
it.”

After breakfast, Carlos and I requisitioned
Officer Dummy from the equipment room at the precinct. We dressed
him in civilian clothes and stuck him behind the wheel of Carlos’
Corvette outside the Dwyer residence. Then Carlos called Spinelli
and told him we had Howard Snow under surveillance outside the
house.”

“
Really?” said Spinelli.
We had not clued him in on the plan, as we desired a genuine
reaction from him over the phone.

“
That’s right,” Carlos
answered. “We’re watching him now. Snow is sitting in a red
Corvette in front of Dwyer’s house. Looks like he’s waiting for
someone, a contact maybe.”

“
A red Corvette? But you
drive––”

“
Dominic. Listen. Please.
Just make sure no patrol units run through the neighborhood for the
next thirty minutes. We don’t want to spook him. You
understand?”

“
Sure, but I think you
might––”

“
No. Nothing. Wait until I
call you back for further instructions. Okay?”

Spinelli hesitated, no doubt resisting his
police instincts to suggest we set up a perimeter to prevent Snow’s
escape.

“
Dominic? Did you hear
me?”

He came back. “All right. I hear you. I’ll
wait for further instructions.”

“
Thank you. Good
bye.”

Carlos hung up the phone and said to me. “I
don’t like lying to him.”

“
Ha. Now you know how I
feel. Sucks, don’t it?”

He acknowledged that with a nod, and then we
both sank low in our seats. We were sitting in an unmarked cruiser
parked at the end of the street where we could keep an eye on
Carlos’ car and remain inconspicuous. A light sprinkle moments
earlier had chased what few neighbors were out and about back into
their homes. That proved to be our only lucky break of the day.

Exactly four minutes after Carlos called
Spinelli, a black van sporting tinted windows, chrome wheels and a
satellite antenna on the roof, tore around the corner in a blur.
The side door slid open as it passed our cruiser, and when it
stopped in front of Carlos’ car, all hell broke loose. Two men with
automatic assault rifles opened fire on the Vette, turning it into
Swiss cheese.

“
My car!” Carlos cried,
pointing out the windshield. “They’re shooting my car!”

After what seemed like a hundred rounds
fired, the two men jumped out of the van. One of them reached in
the broken-out window, grabbed the dummy by its splintered neck and
shouted, “It’s a set-up!”

Carlos and I sprang from the cruiser, drew
our weapons, leveled them at the shooters from a crouch behind the
doors and ordered them to stand down. The two looked at us, at each
other and at us again. The next thing I knew we were ducking a hail
of bullets that were punching holes in our car the size of
quarters. Carlos and I dove headfirst back into the cruiser,
curling up like worms on the seat and floorboards and making
ourselves small as possible.

I heard the windshield pop first, the bullet
passing through the car and taking out the back window as well. A
quick secession of pings and pangs riddled the fender before the
front tires blew. Some of the bullets ricocheted off the street,
hitting other cars parked nearby. The radiator went next. The
hissing from it sounded like an angry snake, though not as angry as
Carlos and me.

When the shooting stopped, the squeal of
tires on pavement told us the van was peeling out. Carlos and I
unfolded ourselves from the wreckage and returned fire, hitting the
van, blowing out the back tinted windows and taking out the
satellite antenna on the roof. It rounded the far corner and
disappeared into the neighborhood.

“
You all right?” I
asked.

He slammed his gun down on the roof of the
car. “Look what they did, Tony. They shot it all up. Why did they
have to go and do that?”

“
Don’t worry,” I said.
“The department is covered for it.”

“
Tony.” he pointed at his
car with his weapon. “I’m talking about my Corvette. It’s shot to
shit. I’m not covered for something like this.”

“
What, you can’t say it
was vandalism?”

“
Vandalism?” He blinked
back in dull surprise. “Can I claim that?”

I shook my head. “Call Spinelli. Tell him to
put an APB out on that van and to send some units out here. We have
a shitload of evidence to collect.”