Ambush (Michael Bennett 11)

I said, “No one would know if you didn’t tell people every ten minutes.”

Before he could answer with a sarcastic comment, Juliana stepped into the room and said, “Mary Catherine says dinner will be ready in about ten minutes.”

Father Alonzo greeted Juliana and tried to make conversation, asking her, “Have you given any thought about where you want to go to college?”

She avoided looking at me when she answered. “I have a lot of options on the table right now. I’ll start to narrow them down near Christmas.” She backed out of the room before I could comment.

Alonzo tried again, asking me, “So have you and Mary Catherine picked a date?”

I looked down at the tile and just shook my head. “You ever been married, Alonzo? I mean, before your marriage to the Church?”

He said, “I was engaged once.”

“What happened?”

“The usual. Who knows? There are thousands of possible answers. The easiest explanation is that she fell in love with another man. A man who could provide her with things I couldn’t. But now I have the Church.”

Seamus clapped him on the shoulder and said, “And you’ve got me.”

Alonzo smiled and said, “Oh, joy.”

That was the hardest I had laughed in months.

Chapter 30

The next day at the office, I wasted no time, walking up to Harry Grissom and telling him some of what I had deduced about the string of killings. These weren’t business-as-usual drug rip-offs and grocery store robberies. There was a pattern to it—I just hadn’t figured out what that pattern was. I needed to keep digging and wanted Grissom’s blessing to start rummaging through old homicide cases.

He pulled me over to a corner near a window where no one in the squad bay would hear us. Then he looked at me with those droopy eyes and said, “What’ve you got?”

I’d known this hardened cop for too long not to come right to the point. “I think the ambush was part of a bigger drug war that’s going on. I don’t know why anyone would want me or Antrole dead, but the way our original suspect was murdered and the tip that came in to us makes it look like it was a setup from the very beginning.”

Grissom just nodded as he considered it.

“I’ve also found two murders of Canadian nationals here in the city in the last week. Both victims had a past involving narcotics and were known to be associated with the Canadian mob. I have intel from a couple of sources that says the Canadians are clashing with a Mexican cartel over control of the synthetic drug market.”

The lieutenant interrupted me. “Are you saying there’s a drug war involving Canadians?”

“Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying.”

“That will be one of the quietest, most polite drug wars in history.” He took a moment to think, then said, “You can keep on your assignment, trying to discover patterns in these homicides. But I don’t want you to start coming up with crazy conspiracy theories. You know as well as I do that the majority of the murders in New York are somehow related to drugs. I want to find Antrole’s killer just as badly as you do. But I don’t want you raising such a fuss that someone asks why you aren’t assigned any current homicides. Is that clear?”

“Crystal.”

“Then I expect you to get on with your assignment. If that assignment happens to lead to viable suspects in Antrole’s murder, then everyone is happy. If not, I wasted my best detective on a foolish assignment. I’ve been accused of worse.”

I watched Grissom as he padded back to his office. I often wondered if he tried to be inspiring or just had a way about him that pushed you to your limits. Suddenly I felt energy. I needed to line up some leads and feel like I was doing something.

That’s how a cop should always feel.

Chapter 31

Alex enjoyed the ride from the ranch up to Bogotá. She and the girls sang songs, then played silly games like “I spy” and “I’m thinking of an animal.” That was Gabriela’s favorite game because she loved animals and it was just twenty yes-or-no questions. Her sister was nice and usually picked a simple animal that Gabby could identify.

Alex’s mother laid a guilt trip on her about being away so much. Alex didn’t bring up the fact that she worked hard to pay the bills, which included her mother’s comfortable condo in the suburbs of Bogotá.

That was all just a prelude for what the real purpose of the day was. She left the girls at her mother’s condo for an hour and drove to Alcalá Park, between the highway and 19th Road.

It was a quiet park with enough trees to make finding a shady spot to sit easy. It also wasn’t a particularly busy park during the week.