C
HAPTER
19
A
n older officer led Deke and Kelly to a room that had once been someone’s office and closed the door after himself when he left. The unused office was furnished with a scratched metal desk and two oak swivel chairs. But it had what Deke had requested: a bulletin board.
He tacked up a Wanted poster. “Work in progress,” he said. “What do you think?”
Kelly didn’t answer right away. She walked closer.
“It’s a composite image of the driver,” Deke said. “But all the witnesses agreed it was a good likeness.”
The poster had been reproduced in color. Kelly looked at the face of the man above the big letters that spelled out
WANTED
. The dark blue birthmark that tinged his skin from his neck to under his jaw was so noticeable that she almost didn’t recognize him at first.
Silently, she confirmed other details. He had a piercing gaze and black hair. His features were coarse. The written description fit, too: He was massively built, tall enough for his head to touch the roof of his car. He had thick fingers and a chunky ring on his left hand. Kelly remembered neither, but then she hadn’t seen his hands.
“Oh my God. I think I saw him at Natalie’s house,” she said in a low voice. “I thought he was the landscaper.”
“What?” Deke was taken aback.
“When I went there after Bach’s memorial service, he showed up outside at one point. She excused herself to go talk to him and left me alone. I didn’t think anything about it—the grounds of her Buckhead house were really overgrown. Then they got into an argument that I could hear through the window.”
“Jesus, Kelly. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t know there was anything to tell. I couldn’t understand what they were saying. Although I did think it was weird when she slapped him.”
Deke seemed to be about to say more, then decided not to interrupt.
“He just stood there and took it. He was huge. This description fits.” Kelly handed the poster back.
“You mean he didn’t react to the slap?”
“I don’t know. His back was to me. Then he turned and happened to see me through the window. I remember not liking the look in his eyes. Natalie came back a little while later.”
“And then what?”
“I left. I didn’t see him around and I didn’t see a third car. It was strange,” she admitted. “But Natalie is just so theatrical—and she treated the house servant like dirt too. I just wanted to get out of there.”
Deke absorbed the information. “That birthmark didn’t make an impression, I take it.”
“He was wearing a scarf.”
“So our suspect knows Natalie Conrad.” Deke leaned against the metal desk. He was both thoughtful and angry. “I’m thinking we should pay a call on her.”
Kelly looked at him doubtfully. “Didn’t she say she was going to Dallas?”
Deke nodded. “Yeah. But not when she was coming back. We gotta get on this.”
Kelly rose and collected her bag. “If you need me to, I could pick him out of a lineup. Count on that.”
Deke straightened. “I meant Hux and someone else when I said
we
. She thinks I’m Russ Thorn.”
“And she thinks you’re my fiancé,” Kelly said firmly. “If you show her that poster, she’s going to know that I connected the dots between her ‘landscaper’ and our car bomber.”
“I don’t have to show it to her, and the poster hasn’t circulated beyond law enforcement yet,” Deke pointed out. “But we do have to talk to her. I’m thinking they should bring along a SWAT team.”
“She might not appreciate that. Try something a little more subtle first.”
Deke went over to her, but she stepped away from him. “Please, not now,” Kelly said. “I’m just not up for it.”
His hands stayed at his sides and he didn’t try to follow her.
“Sorry if it sounded like I was pissed off with you, Kelly. I wasn’t. After the drive-by, I shouldn’t even be surprised.”
“That makes two of us.”
“Come on. I’ll drive you to WBRX. Don’t tell anyone about this.”
Several hours later, Deke called her.
Kelly had thrown herself into work. Her businesslike hello was unemotional. “What’s up?”
“Lieutenant Dwight decided against displaying the Wanted poster for the general public until someone can talk to Natalie. The cops have it, we have it, and everyone’s looking for him.”
“When is she coming back?”
“We picked up her name on the passenger list for a ten
P.M.
flight tonight from Dallas to Atlanta.”
Kelly made a note of it. “You’re not meeting it. Who is?”
“Hux. She doesn’t know him from Adam and he’s not the kind of man she would even look at. But we can’t arrest her. Basically, he just wants to see if she’s traveling with anyone else from our rogue’s gallery.”
“Good enough,” Kelly said.
She fiddled with her pencil. If Natalie was tangled up with the bomber, she must have had something to do with the drive-by. The thought made her feel sick. Especially when she remembered Natalie’s hovering concern after the fact, when Kelly had stayed in the car amid broken glass and bullets, with only Deke to run interference.
He was there when she needed him, in ways she never could have imagined. As far as what else Natalie might have done or was planning to do, he was definitely not paranoid.
“Saw your broadcast, by the way.” Deke’s calm voice interrupted her racing thoughts. “You seem to have recovered.”
“I’m a nervous wreck.”
Deke didn’t get into it. Kelly was grateful. “The hotline graphic looked good,” was all he said. “Anybody call or e-mail yet?”
“Lots of people. Coral and Fred are sorting through the replies. No telling what’s valid and what’s not at this point.”
“Keep us posted. What else is going on over there?”
Kelly shook her head. “I hate to say it, but Monroe could hardly contain his excitement, once he was sure I was okay and no one else beside the guard was hurt. He personally donated a chunk of money toward the medical bills.”
“Decent.”
“You can’t keep a car bombing off the news, Deke. It’s a huge story.”
“Is that because it involves you?”
She frowned. “Yes. And you. You’re a hero around the newsroom.”
“Just don’t mention my name on the air.”
“Never have, never would.” A sudden thought struck her hard. “Deke, if the bomber saw you and he knows Natalie, your cover is totally blown. Russ Thorn has to disappear.”
“I know,” he said. “Nothing I can do about it.”
Kelly had a glass of wine once she was home. She fell asleep on the couch with her clothes on, waking after midnight when she finally heard her smartphone ringing inside her purse. She squinted at the screen. Three missed calls, one after another. Deke.
He hadn’t left a text or a voicemail.
She called him back. “I know it’s important,” she said.
“Yeah. A highway cop just pulled over some monster guy who fits our description.”
Someone was talking in the background. Deke talked back. “What? Say that again? Got it. Silver car, different plates,” he said to Kelly. “Driving erratically, may be drunk. The officer got him cuffed and he’s waiting for backup.”
“Deke—”
“This could be it, Kelly. Just wanted you to know.”
Someone else called to him. Deke hung up. She knew next to nothing and she wasn’t in the game. For once, Kelly didn’t mind. But she wasn’t going back to sleep.
The line of speeding cruisers ate up the highway, turning off onto a parallel road that wasn’t lit. For his own safety, Deke was in the passenger seat of the third car back. The laptop mounted on the dash gave off a faint blue glow that illuminated his face.
Lieutenant Dwight was at the wheel. “Hope this doesn’t turn bad.”
“Who’s the officer?”
“Good guy, from what I heard, but still wet behind the ears.”
“A rookie?”
“Not quite. But not that experienced either.” Lieutenant Dwight slowed when the first two cars pulled over and flanked the highway patrol car. Their doors opened and more cops in tactical gear scrambled out.
Ahead, parked crookedly on the wide shoulder of the road, was a silver, late-model luxury car that fit the Wanted poster description in every detail except for the plates.
A huge, black-haired man lay facedown on the gravel by the rear bumper, motionless, his thick arms behind his back. His wrists barely met. The cuffs were taut.
“I count four guns pointing at his head. I think he got the idea,” Deke said.
“Let’s hope so,” was the lieutenant’s terse answer.
The arresting officer came over when he and Deke got out of the car. His dark uniform showed the signs of a scuffle when he moved through the beams of several sets of headlights.
“You guys can take it from here. He almost had me.”
“How’d you get him down?”
The officer held up a nearly empty bottle of vodka with a long straw in it. “This helped. It’s why I pulled him over—I saw him drinking it. He got out like a good boy and then he went for me.”
Methodically, Dwight walked around the prone man, his shoes crunching in the gravel. “Lost his balance, did he?”
“Yup. He fell just like that. I made my move.”
“Any ID on him?”
“I was going to look in his pockets when I saw you guys coming down the road. Have at.”
Hux and Deke were sitting with Kelly in a quiet restaurant in Atlanta a few days later. “His name is Konstantin,” Hux said. “That’s it. First and last. No driver’s license and no passport or other ID, but he says he’s Russian. Been in the city for about a year. Doing odd jobs.”
Kelly glanced at Deke. “Like landscaping?” she asked Hux.
“I don’t think so. Even though he looks like he could pull a tree out of the ground with his bare hands.”
“How’d you get him to talk?” Deke wanted to know.
“Konstantin hasn’t said much yet. But he wants to. His attorney isn’t against it.”
“He’s lawyered up already? That was fast,” Deke said. “Remind me not to ask for a business card. If I ever need a criminal lawyer, I’m pleading the Fifth.”
“They’re angling for a plea bargain. Apparently Konstantin doesn’t want to be deported at the end of his sentence.”
“If he lives that long,” Kelly interjected.
Hux acknowledged that.
“What did Interpol say?” Deke asked.
“He’s a wanted man in Russia. They don’t fool around over there. He evidently prefers an American prison, a shorter sentence, and a ticket to a nice, warm country at the end of it.”
“So much for justice,” Deke muttered.
Hux shrugged. “It is what it is. He’s facing a charge of attempted murder, since it looks like the guard is going to make a full recovery.”
“Don’t forget aggravated assault and vehicular assault and the bombing,” Deke pointed out. “And there may be more than one killing we don’t know about.”
“Which all has to be proved,” Hux said. “Just as a side note, Konstantin may have done some enforcing for the money-laundering ring around Atlanta. And did I tell you that truck got stolen, Deke?”
“No.”
“Dallas has the hijackers under lock and key,” Hux said.
“More power to them. This is bigger.”
“Yeah, looks like,” Hux said casually. “The DA will add it all up when the time comes.”
Kelly twirled a french fry in a small pool of ketchup. “You know Natalie Conrad is paying his attorney, right?”
“Someone has to,” Hux said.
He didn’t bother to ask how she knew that, and Kelly didn’t explain that she’d heard it from Monroe Capp. If the crime wasn’t too heinous, her boss made a point of befriending criminal lawyers who needed to put a positive spin on cases they were handling. In this case, he must have called in a big favor to get the information.
“We’ll get something out of it. Lieutenant Dwight is going to be on the other side of the table. By the way, Kelly, he said you could watch through the two-way glass.”
“Seriously?” Her green eyes lit up with excitement.
Deke shook his head at Hux.
“There are two conditions,” Hux went on. “That you don’t reveal any information until and if Dwight clears it for release. And that you tell no one about being in on this.”
“I keep hearing that. The answer is always yes. I consider myself sworn to secrecy in advance.”
“Dwight wants that in writing.” Hux smiled blandly. “He said you’d understand.”
“Okay to that too.”
“Why is he even allowing her to be there?” Deke asked.
Hux looked at him and then at Kelly. “I think you should ask him yourself, pal. I’m just the messenger. Please don’t shoot me.”
They had a day to decompress before Konstantin’s interrogation. Only Lieutenant Dwight wasn’t calling it that, now that there was a lawyer involved.
At the appointed time, Kelly showed up at the police station early, going in the back way, through a metal detector. She signed in and followed the crew-cut officer who was waiting to escort her upstairs.
He found her a seat in the room behind the two-way mirrored glass. She made herself comfortable, assuming she wouldn’t be alone there. But for a while, she was.
Kelly watched Konstantin enter, guided by an officer and followed by his high-powered attorney. The interview would be taped. She kept an eye on the TV monitor as well.
The lawyer was in his sixties, fit and well-dressed. His heavy-set client was wearing an orange jumpsuit that was a little too big for him despite his size. The blue birthmark seemed darker and more obvious under fluorescent lights.
He was handcuffed. As a courtesy, not behind his back. But a chain extended from the wrist cuffs to a heavier cuff on his leg.
Shackled, Konstantin still exuded menace. His steady gaze moved over the bare room and then fixed on the camera. Kelly shifted in her seat, unable to shake the feeling that he was looking directly at her.