Alex Cross, Run (Alex Cross 20)
Marti took a deep breath and looked at Bree before she answered. They both knew something I didn’t.
“There was nothing on him, Alex,” she said. “Just ID, cash, and his camera.”
“Well, he must have ditched the needle,” I said. “I’m telling you—”
She cut me off. “Everything we found was on you. Including this.” Huizenga held up a brown pharmacy bottle. “These were in your pocket when we got here. And his prints aren’t on the bottle, either.”
“What?”
“Guidice is claiming you were on drugs—which you were, one way or the other. Also, that you attacked him for no reason. If he stuck you, Alex, nobody saw it.”
“Oh my God.”
I lay back again. The full twisted reality of it all started to sink in. Huizenga wasn’t done, either.
“He’s also filing assault charges against you. A restraining order, too. He says you’ve been out to get him ever since he started writing about you.”
I looked up into Huizenga’s eyes. “I’m being set up here, Marti. Jesus—do you even believe me? You know the history on this guy, right?”
She stood back from the bed, hating every second of this, I could tell.
“I don’t want to say too much, Alex. Not until we know more. But I am going to need your gun, badge, and ID.” She took another deep breath. “And I’m going to have to take you in when we’re done here.”
“Like hell you are!” Bree stepped in now. “You heard the man. He was attacked. Are you seriously questioning his word on this? He’s one of the best cops in DC.”
“I’m not questioning anything,” Huizenga told Bree. “But the department’s circling the wagons. We’ve got a whole city screaming for police accountability these days, and the fact of the matter is that—for whatever reason—Alex assaulted this guy.”
“I don’t believe this,” Bree said. “You people have lost your minds!”
For the first time, Huizenga raised her voice.
“Bree, you’re here as a professional courtesy, and I am your superior officer. You got that? Now dial it the hell back down, or I’m going to ask you to leave.”
“Ask all you like,” Bree said. “He’s coming home with me.”
“I can also have you removed, if necessary,” Huizenga countered.
I couldn’t believe everything I was hearing. Everything that Guidice seemed to be getting away with here.
“Marti, what do you mean—take me in?” I said.
It could have gone one of two ways. Either they needed to talk to me back at the office, or she was actually putting me under arrest.
Huizenga ducked her chin and answered without answering.
“I’ll give you two a few minutes alone,” she said.
In other words, I wasn’t coming home that night.
CHAPTER
59
I WASN’T PRIVY TO THE CONVERSATIONS HAPPENING BACK AT HEADQUARTERS, but by the time I got released from the hospital, word had been handed down. There would be no special treatment in this case. The department couldn’t afford it. Not in the current environment. It was a game of political football, and right now, I was the ball.
Huizenga took me straight to headquarters. She bypassed the press gathered outside on Indiana and pulled into the parking garage without either of us talking about it. From the garage it’s a straight shot down on the freight elevator to Central Cell Block in the basement.
The looks on the booking officers’ faces when we got there were somewhere between dumbstruck and fascinated. I don’t think they knew what I was doing there, but they certainly knew who I was. I’d brought hundreds of arrestees through that facility over the years.