What now? I thought, heading back to the Blanchettes’ kitchen. Jacobs had sounded weird, even upset. Well, things had been going so smoothly, maybe something had to give.
I hurried into the kitchen.
And stopped still.
Jacobs was beside the back door, standing over a young guy who was lying on the kitchen floor. I recognized him as another detective, Genelli, from the Nineteenth Precinct.
“Oh, my God,” I said, striding toward them. “What the hell happened to him?” Had somebody bashed him? Was our shooter here after all?
Genelli briefly tried to lift his lolling head, but it thunked back to the floor.
“He’s okay,” Jacobs said. “Dumbass rookie, he got bored out by the pool, started drinking beer and playing quarters with a couple of the college girl guests. Next thing, one of them comes to tell me he passed out. Sorry to be coy, Mike, but I didn’t know what else to do. We don’t get him out of here before the mayor sees him, he’s going to get fired.”
“Him and me both,” I said, grabbing Genelli’s arm. “Open that back door and ring the freight elevator before anybody sees us.”
Chapter 80
MARY CATHERINE WAS DRYING HER HANDS with a dish towel when the back doorbell rang. She assumed it was a delivery that the doorman downstairs had okayed, which happened fairly often. Nobody could get up here without going past him.
But her towel fluttered to the floor as she stared at the man standing there. Her gaze went first to his bloody hand, then flicked to the two evil-looking guns he was holding, then to the wide grin on his face.
“Bennett residence, I presume,” he said, pressing the snub-nosed black barrel of one of the machine pistols to the tip of her nose. Blood streamed down his wrist, within inches of her staring eyes.
Oh, my good Lord, she thought, struggling to stay calm. What to do? Scream? But it might enrage him, and who would hear her, anyway? Sweet Jesus—this man here, and the worst of it was that all the kids were home!
Still smiling, he tucked the threatening gun into his jacket.
“Aren’t you going to invite me in?” he said. She stepped back reluctantly. There was nothing else she could do.
“Thank you,” he said with mocking politeness.
When he spotted Shawna and Chrissy at the kitchen island, he lowered the other gun and hid it behind his leg. Thank God for that, at least. They watched him with mild curiosity. At their age, the sudden appearance of a stranger was just one of thousands of other mysterious things. The flu that had kept so many of the Bennett kids home from school had also wreaked havoc with their bedtimes.
“Hey, who are you?” Chrissy said, sliding off her stool and starting toward him to make friends.
Mary Catherine swallowed, fighting the urge to dive across the kitchen and scoop the child up. Instead, she stepped forward to intercept Chrissy and caught her hand.
“I’m one of your daddy’s friends,” the man said.
“I’m Chrissy. Are you a police officer, too? Why is your hand bleeding? And what’s that behind your leg?”
“Put a sock in the brat,” the Teacher said quietly to Mary Catherine. “This ‘why is the sky blue’ crap is really pissing me off.”
“Go watch the movie now, girls,” she said.
“But I thought you said Harry Potter was too scary,” Shawna said, giving her a distressed look.
“It’ll be okay this once, Shawna. Just do it. Now.”
The little girls scurried away, finally frightened by their nanny’s harsh tone rather than by the man who might kill them.
He lifted a carrot stick off the cutting board and bit into it.
“Get on the phone and tell Mike he needs to get home fast,” he said to Mary Catherine as he chewed. “You won’t be lying if you say it’s a family emergency.”
Chapter 81
“ALL RIGHT, YOUNG MAN, it’s Judgment Day,” Seamus said as he guided Eddie through the Bennetts’ front door.