Missing: The Body of Evidence (31 page)

Too late in the day for a sales rep to
be canvassing, and Nancy was sure a pizza delivery guy wouldn’t be wearing a
suit. Her fingers grasping the gun tightened. If it was not for the night’s
events, she thought their caution verged on the overly melodramatic side.

‘Mr. Roberts… Kyle. I’m Nancy’s friend.’

Kyle?
Nancy
recognized his voice. She exchanged a questioning look with her dad.

Stepping in front of her dad, she looked
through the spy hole. It was like looking into a goldfish bowl. She could just
about make out his distorted features and a dark figure appeared behind him.

‘What the…. Oh God. Put the gun away, Dad.’

She lifted the back of her jacket in a
hurry, slipped her auto in her waistband and then reached for the lock,
snapping the door open in time to see Uncle Dave, who had arrived like some
Houdini, as he reached into Kyle’s jacket relieving him of his firearm.

‘It’s okay, Uncle, he’s a detective.’

Uncle Dave handed her Kyle’s gun, with a
toothy grin. ‘It’s
okay,
now.’

Kyle looked bewildered.

‘Hey, I only want a word with Nancy.’

Her dad forced his way between Kyle and
Nancy.

‘You’ve got a damned nerve coming here. She
saves your worthless skin and then ya turn ya back on her. Some piece a dog
shit you are.’

Kyle looked passively down at his shoes,
clasping his fingers in front of him and twiddling his thumbs. Her dad on the
other hand, seemed to be fastened by an elastic band and it was barely holding
him back. His face reddened and the tendons in his neck were taut with rage.
Nancy stepped between them, took hold of her dad’s wrist and removed the gun
from his grasp.

‘We don’t want any accidents. Do we?’ She
looked him straight in the eyes, which were glazed and empty. ‘Let him in, Dad,
and let’s see what he has to say. We can talk in my bedroom.’ She threw Kyle a
look. ‘You’d better come in, before you wet yourself.’

Kyle stepped past her and she held out
Dad’s semi-automatic to Uncle Dave.

‘Better empty the round before someone gets
hurt.’

Dave took the gun from her and skirted past
them all and into the living room, closing the door behind him.

‘First right.’ She pointed to her bedroom
door.

Dad grabbed Kyle’s arm and contorted his
face into a growl. ‘I’ll be right outside, so no funny stuff, ya hear?’

‘Yes, sir, I hear.’

Nancy thought Kyle was overplaying the
pacified-obedient captive, but then her dad
had
been overly aggressive.
Added to that, the indignity at having an old guy get the jump on him, and she
guessed if the roles were reversed that she’d have been just as compliant. But
for that, she just revelled in the fact that she held the power over him and
not the other way around.

Nancy pointed for him to sit on the corner
of the bed, thinking that if she remained standing, she would remain top dog in
the situation. She unclipped the rounds, tossed the gun to him and waved the
magazine.

‘You can have that back when you leave.’

He looked puzzled.

‘What, you think I’d shoot you? Give me a
break. Doesn’t our time together mean anything?’ He opened his jacket and
holstered his gun.

‘I don’t think anything where you’re
concerned.’

‘Come on, Nance, you can’t just switch off
like that.’

Nancy held up an arm, pinching her thumb
and finger together.

‘See that? Well the space between my thumb
and finger is what’s left of what I feel for you. Get it?’

‘You’re being stupid.’

‘Arghh, starting with the compliments
already are we? Mommy’s Boy.’

‘Leave my mom out of this.’ He lowered his
voice to a whisper. ‘At least I’m not hiding behind that ape outside.’

‘You wanna tell him that to his face?
Anyway, why are you here?’

‘We need to straighten things out between
us, ’cause you’re jumping to conclusions again. Why do you have to be so pig
brained?’

‘Stupid and pig brained, added to all my
other faults.’

Kyle covered his face with a hand and shook
his head.

‘Look, let’s start again. I’m here because
I messed up in trying to read your mind after you’d signed that contract.
Christ knows, if I only thought like a detective and had no feelings, I’d have
declined your offer to come in and by now, you and your private-body guards
would all be locked up in a SWAT van.’

He looked at her with pleading eyes. Nancy
folded her arms, her mind wavering and her curiosity stirring.

‘I’m listening.’

‘When I heard you’d signed that contract,
it blew my mind to bits. I didn’t have your number and was outta my mind
waiting for you to call me. When Mom visited, I had to twist her arm to get
your number. But once I had it, I couldn’t call, thinking I’d better err on the
safe side and make sure I could work on the inside to clear you. With you not
phoning, I thought that’s what you’d expect.’

His arms outstretched with the palms of his
hands facing her. He tilted his head to one side, Kyle fashion. Nancy fought
the urge to step forward and closed her eyes, searching for how to respond.
Events raced through her mind and the doubts won out over her instinct. She
opened her eyes.

‘So what do you want?’

‘Resign and work out a payout from the
department. Forget all about this Astral nonsense and the professor. Then we
can go back to what we’d planned.’

‘So, you want me to forget that you wanted
to arrest me?’

‘I didn’t want to arrest you and neither
did Logan. Hell, we’re all looking out for you. All he wanted was some
questions answered, that and to make sure you were safe. If you’d been at home,
you could have shown Logan around and there’d have been no need for a search
warrant. Remember, we couldn’t contact you at the time? But no, you keep
investigating and sticking your nose in against orders. Like visiting Lilly
today. He could have you fired for going against your contract for that visit.’

Up to those last words, she had almost
weakened. He must have been following her.

‘How is it interfering with a material
witness? For Christ’s sake, just like Kelly, Dean is dead. There’s nothing in
the contract preventing me from paying respects.’

Kyle ran his hand across his forehead, his
shoulders sagged and he sighed. She was concerned that he knew she had visited
Dean’s mum. If he knew that, she worried he may have been following her and was
somehow a party to the attempt on her life. Her mind went to soup trying to
work out his motives. Maybe, she thought, he was attempting one last plea to
have her stop investigating the professor’s death and the connection to Astral.
The notion struck, that once it had all died down, and she had resigned, after
which they had moved in together, that it would be bye, bye Nancy.

Keep your enemy close.
Her dad’s words stuck in her mind.

‘You’re right. I’ll have a word with my
attorney about working out a deal, but I don’t know how long it will take. Who
gives a crap about the professor and astral anyway.’

A smile spread across his face as his lips
curled into a smile. He jumped up off the bed, his arms outstretched and
catching Nancy off guard. As his lips neared hers, she sidestepped his face as
they hugged and she whispered in his ear.

‘Best we don’t have contact until after
I’ve resigned, we’re going to need your salary until I find other work, so we
don’t want internal affairs busting you.’

Dad called out, rescuing the situation. ‘You
okay in there?’

‘Yeah, he’s going now.’

Nancy stepped back and handed him his
magazine.

‘Better not get caught-out like that again.
Don’t worry. I won’t ever talk about it with the guys at the office if you
don’t.’

They both laughed.

‘Don’t you worry, I’d be too embarrassed.’

The door opened. Her dad walked in and said
‘This way, Son, I’ll show you out.’

Nancy didn’t follow them to the door, but
sat on the edge of her bed. Her deliberations felt as though she had tossed
them into a blender and pressed the ON button delivering a gooey mess. Dad
returned.

‘You okay?’

A single tear escaped the duct and ran down
her cheek.

‘I’m fine,’ she lied. ‘Best we start with
the plans for following Mary tomorrow. But hear this. I’ll set the rules.’

‘Yeah, right.’

Nancy stood in front of the full-length
mirror in the bedroom. Sure enough, the image staring back was her, although
something was missing. Kitted out in a black-short-leather jacket, with
matching tight-leather pants and wearing a white blouse, all the trimmings were
there. But looking at her reflection through tired eyes, shrouded in puffiness,
the gaunt features staring back hardly exuded confidence for what may lie
ahead.

It was as if she was looking at a stranger,
devoid of any emotion, or sense of purpose as to which direction her life was
going to turn. Nancy formed her hair into a ponytail and slipped it through the
clasp of her Dodger’s baseball cap, adjusting the peak to shade her eyes. She
gave herself a salute, before she turned, picked her 9 mil from the bed, and
placed it in her shoulder holster.

From the dresser, she picked up the pen Dad
had given her, placing it in her breast pocket. Fishing in her purse, Nancy
took out her car keys and fastened the GPS transmitter to the key ring. The
last thing she wanted was to be caught out again if things went wrong. At the
bedroom door, she stopped, rotated her neck and placed hands on her hips. She
let out a sigh at the stiffening pains in the nape and cursed inside at the bad
night’s sleep that left her with a crick in her neck.

She wondered what would happen if she were
to follow her life by the toss of a coin. At that moment, she had a choice.
Heads and she could turn left, go to her attorney and ask him to come up with a
deal for her to be with Kyle, assuming Kyle wasn’t playing her. Or, tails and
she could turn right into the living room and uncertainty, but with her
self-respect intact. It was a no-brainer as she decided on tails, and slouched
down the hallway to the living room. She reckoned she would never be able to
face Kyle again if the situation left even the smallest doubt where they were
both concerned.

‘Where are Dad and the boys?’ Nancy asked
Uncle Dave.

‘Gone to the lock-up for some equipment.’

‘What, more equipment? I told y’all last
night, I don’t want you lot following me around LA with an arsenal. I’d prefer
to go it alone.’

Uncle Dave shrugged his shoulders.

‘Talk to your dad. There again, you may as
well talk to the hand for all the good it’ll do you. Like father, like
daughter.’

Nancy let the remark pass by.

‘Coffee?’

‘No, I already have one, but there’s some
fresh in the pot.’

Nancy headed for the kitchen and called
out.

‘Good thing no one phoned it in when you
abseiled out of the window last night. God knows how we’d have explained it!’

‘We’d have just said it was a prank. No
harm done. Better your safe than dead.’

You’re right there
. ‘Still you want to be careful at your age.’

‘Hey, less of that. I could beat you over a
hundred yards any day of the week.’

‘Yeah, right.’

She hadn’t eaten since vomiting the night
before and still couldn’t face breakfast, but she hoped that the coffee would
sustain her. Nancy walked back into the room. Uncle Dave was braving sitting in
Dad’s chair and drinking coffee. He glanced over at Nancy and said. ‘You know
your dad was proud of you when you made detective. Never shut up about it. This
fiasco has hit him hard.’

She almost choked on her sip of coffee at
his revelation and parked her backside on the sofa.

‘You sure about that?’

‘Yeah, I’m sure.’

His words didn’t make her smile inside,
instead they peeved her, leaving her confused as to why her dad would boast on
the one hand to his buddies and leave her in the dark on the other. But then,
she’d long since given up trying to figure him.

‘I’ve been thinking, seeing as how he’s not
here; do you know where Dad knows Bill and Logan from?’

‘Whoa, don’t go there. He said you might
ask. Don’t put me on a spot.’

Nancy purposely flashed her eyes at him and
said in a sweet voice.

‘Come on, it can’t hurt, I won’t tell him.’

‘Damn it, Nance, stop it. Flashing your
eyes might have worked when you were eleven.’ He took a sip of his coffee and
placed the empty mug on the coffee table. ‘Listen, I’m sorry, but I really
can’t betray your dad. It’s all way in the past. Duty to my buddy and the
memory of your mom to protect you is one thing, but don’t ask me to be
disloyal.’

‘Pleeeease, Uncle Dave?’

He showed her the palm of his hand and
shook his head. Nancy huffed and downed her coffee in one swig. Uncle Dave
leaned forward, took hold of her hand, and locked his eyes on hers.

‘I wasn’t joking the other day when I said
there’s always the bunker. The hideaway is well prepped with provisions. This
whole situation stinks. If we don’t get to the bottom of it all, and soon, then
if you take my advice, you’d be better disappearing for a while.’

He released her hand and sat back. Thoughts
of living in the bunker in solitude, like some prepper surviving the aftermath
of a nuclear blast and living off powdered food and warm water made her
shudder. Nancy thought that, just like knowing there was a bomb going to drop
she’d be better off standing on the epicentre, in the same way she’d rather
face whoever was after her rather than hide like some rat in a sewer.

‘Who do you think is behind it all?’

‘I don’t know. Your dad thinks there’s a
cartel operating on the take in the police force. Jim thinks it’s someone
you’ve put away in the past and bearing a grudge. Ben is leaning toward the
Piru gang. He thinks some of the surveillance could be internal affairs. Me, I
think it could be a little of everything, which, when taken together makes it
all appear to be one and the same problem, but mainly I think that it’s
something to do with the government and the Astral business. Then, you know my
politics. Whatever the truth, someone wants you out of the way, big style.’

He was right; she did know his politics.
Everything was the Federal Government’s fault in his eyes. Nancy just couldn’t
accept that she had done anything for the government to want her dead, nor that
they would dirty their hands without due process if she had. It wasn’t as if
she was some female Osama bin Laden.

The door to the apartment opened and her
dad called out. Uncle Dave jumped up to attention from her dad’s chair and
grabbed his backpack off the floor, throwing it over his shoulder.

‘Let’s get this show on the road,’ Dad
said. ‘Jim and Ben are parked east and west along Colorado Boulevard to make
sure no one is following.’ Dad handed her a short wave radio. ‘Emergency only.
And don’t worry, if there’s any trouble we can’t handle, I’ll bypass the police
and phone a contact I have at FBI.’

Uncle Dave rolled his eyes.

‘And you trust the FBI?’

Nancy half-smiled and followed them out of
the door and down the stairway to her car. In daylight, she saw that the fender
of her Ford was only slightly scratched and the taillights intact, but the
trunk was badly dented from the impact of the bull bars. A shiver ran through
her at the recall of the coming together. Dad stood alongside.

‘Worry about it when we take it back. Just
remember, you’ll have three of us alternating behind, and one up front dropping
back and rotating. So just concentrate on what’s upfront. If we have to go on
foot we’ll work to the same pattern.’

‘I
have
done it before. I’m a
detective remember?’

‘Whatever, just concentrate and watch the
side streets up front. We’ll have your back covered.’

Nancy clambered into her car, donned her
Gucci shades and tossed her purse and the radio on the passenger seat. She
could be forgiven for not noticing the battery cover on the radio loosened,
dislodging the battery connection. Nancy was too busy thinking ahead.