“Kit? You all right?” Luke’s voice came from the hallway.
“Yeah,” Kit called to him, “we’re both all right.”
She would be, Drew thought. As long as he went on holding her, she would be.
Luke shoved a handcuffed man into the room. He had a slighter frame than the felled giant, but he still could have played linebacker for the 49ers. And there was blood staining the bandage that wrapped his shoulder.
Kit dug a set of handcuffs out of his pocket and tossed them at his friend. “Good work.”
“I might say the same.” Luke knelt and slipped the cuffs on the giant. “This guy’s a real bruiser. Mine has a shoulder wound, and it slowed him down some. He may be the one Drew shot.”
“He is,” Drew said. “I remember him now.”
Sirens blared in the distance, and Luke added, “I called it in.” Then he turned back to look at them. “I guess it worked. She got her memory back?”
“Yes,” Drew said. “I remember everything. I have a family. My mom and dad live in Maryland right outside D.C.” She could picture her dad lowering his newspaper to comment on something she and her sister were arguing about. “And I have a sister. She’s Philly’s age, finishing her senior year at Dartmouth.” She was babbling, but she couldn’t seem to stop. “And I live here—” she paused to glance around “—because I wanted to get away from them—from my parents. It’s why I chose Stanford instead of a school back east. I wanted to be on my own. Mom and Dad would have helped me, financed my business, bought me a store, but I wanted to do it on my own.” She tightened her arms around Kit’s neck. “I know who I am. What I’m like.”
The sirens had stopped at some point during her little recitation, Drew realized. There were footsteps in the hall.
“I remember what happened that night in the choir loft.”
“Back here,” Luke called into the hallway. “Everything is under control.”
“Told you so.” Kit managed to give her a quick hard kiss before the cops came in with their guns drawn.
20
KIT PACED BACK AND FORTH in a narrow five-by-ten room in front of a double-glass window. Through it, he could see Drew being interrogated by Captain D. C. Parker.
“You all right?”
He turned as Nik entered the room. “You should see the other guys.”
“I did. You look worse.”
“Thanks,” Kit said. A brother always told you the truth.
“I also talked with Luke Rossi. He said you had a close call.”
Kit shrugged. He didn’t want to think about the fact that he’d very nearly lost Drew. “Is one of those bruisers the guy J.C. saw shoot Father Mike?”
No.” Nik shook his head, a grim expression on his face. “She’s working on a sketch of him with a police artist. Then maybe we can nail his ass, too.”
“How much trouble am I in with your captain?”
“You mean for interfering in a police investigation by harboring a material witness? Parker should have thrown you in a holding cell and be threatening to revoke your license. Instead, he’s allowed you to watch him interrogate the witness. That’s pretty much red-carpet treatment.”
Kit shifted his gaze to the window. Drew was sitting there at a table, her hands folded, her knuckles white. “I want to be in there with her.”
“You shouldn’t even be in here. Hell, I’m not supposed to be in here. J.C. told me to come and check on you.”
“Mind if I join the party?”
Both brothers turned to watch Theo amble into the room with coffee cups in a paper tray. “I brought coffee, the real stuff, not the sludge they serve here.”
Nik elbowed his brother. “What do you think? You know what they say about Greeks bearing gifts.”
“Ouch.” Theo spoke, but both he and Kit winced.
Kit reached for a cup. It never ceased to amaze him that Theo could look elegant even in the most casual of clothes. Nik and he were both wearing jeans, but the seams weren’t pressed the way Theo’s were. All three of them wore summer-weight sport coats, but Nik’s and his never seemed to fit the way Theo’s did. It was little wonder in Kit’s mind that it was Theo who’d made the most eligible bachelor’s list. The man had a way of looking as if he’d just stepped off the cover of G.Q. “I thought you were at the hospital.”
“I was.” Theo eased a hip onto the long table that nearly filled the small room. “But Nik called me about your little adventure, and I thought I’d deliver some good news in person. Roman’s out of surgery. The doctors were able to relieve the swelling at the base of his spine, and they’re quite optimistic that there’ll be no permanent damage.”
Kit felt the pressure in his chest ease. How long had it been there, he wondered. “He’ll beat you at tennis again.”
Nik snorted, nearly spilling his coffee.
Theo merely raised one eyebrow. “I hope to prevent that.”
“Hope springs eternal,” Nik commented. Then he placed a hand on Theo’s shoulder. “Good to have you here, bro.”
“It’s partly a working visit. I told my intern he could use Dinah’s desk to make some calls.”
“Sure,” Nik said.
Kit glanced at the desk he knew to be Dinah’s and saw the back of a dark-haired slender man who looked to be as well turned-out as Theo. “Have you been able to talk to Roman yet?”
“The doctors are keeping him sedated.”
Nik gave a snort. “They won’t get away with that excuse for much longer.”
“I’ll take every minute I can get,” Theo said. “I’ve got a feeling that there’s more bad news to come.”
“Shit,” Nik said.
Kit felt his stomach clench. Theo’s “feelings” were as almost on the money as his aunt Cass’s. And it only confirmed his own feeling that there was still another shoe to drop.
“As soon as Parker’s done in there, I’m going to see what he’ll tell me,” Theo said, “and then I’m going to lean on an old friend at the D.A.’s office.”
Nik grinned at him. “Good to know you’re on the job.” He jerked his head toward the glass. “While you’re waiting on Parker, you’ll get to hear the wedding-dress designer’s version of what went on at St. Peter’s.”
Kit shifted his attention back to the room where D. C. Parker was just pressing down a button on a tape recorder. “I don’t see why he has to keep going over it.”
“It’s standard interrogation procedure to take someone over their story several times,” Theo said.
“To see if it changes or if something new emerges,” Kit replied. “I know.”
“Or to get a sense of whether or not they’re telling the truth,” Nik added.
Kit whirled on Nik. “She’s telling the truth. I don’t think Drew could tell a lie if she tried.”
Nik raised his hand. “Easy. I’m not saying she’s lying. But she fled from a crime scene with a gun that she admits firing and twenty-thousand dollars in cash.”
“Paulo gave her the gun and the money. She’s not a thief. She was supposed to give the cash to me and ask me to help them get away to safety somewhere. Have you gotten anything out of those two thugs we brought in yet?”
“The one J.C. shot is in the hospital, and he isn’t saying anything yet. The other one has called for his lawyer and clammed up.”
“I’d like to have just ten minutes with one of them.”
Nik’s eyebrows shot up as he shifted his gaze from Kit to Drew and back again. “She’s more than a client to you.”
Kit thrust a hand through his hair. “Yeah. You could say that. I’m in love with her. The forever kind of love, I think, and I don’t know how the hell it happened.”
At the expression on Nik’s face, he set his coffee down, grabbed handfuls of Nik’s shirt and pushed him into the wall. “If you laugh, I swear—”
“Hey.” Theo grabbed his upper arms from behind. “You can’t assault a cop in a squad room.”
Kit dropped his hands. “I’ve got this feeling that she’s not safe yet. Those two thugs were hired help. We still need to find out who’s pulling the strings.” His eyes narrowed. “Drew’s testimony should at least force Parker to consider possibilities other than Roman.”
“Look,” Nik said, “if you want to help solve this thing, you might want to listen to her story one more time, yourself. Aren’t you always saying that the clues are in the details?”
Kit met his brother’s eyes. “I hate it when you’re right.”
Nik grinned. Placing a friendly hand on Kit’s shoulder, he moved with him to the window. “You’ve always hated it. And I’m always right.”
“Don’t push your luck,” Kit said as Theo joined them, and they all turned to watch the interrogation.
D. C. Parker was a tall man with a rangy build in his mid-thirties, with the kind of family connections and wealth that guaranteed he would become the commissioner of police one day. According to Nik, the captain was also a damn good cop, and the political part of his job was the part he liked the least.