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her company, to feel somehow connected to another person.
Throughout the entire run neither spoke until they reached the point directly across from her town house,
where they parted company with a casual  See ya.
The day turned out to be a calm one. Mary Kate called in a snit because the doctor had still not
de-cided whether or not he would let her go home. Casey listened to her cousin s complaints and finally
man-aged to calm her and promised that if she had to stay in the hospital another day she would stop by
on her way home.
 She picked Dennis up from the hospital a little be-fore noon and drove him to the station house to pick
up his car. He went home and showered, shaved, changed clothes and picked up fresh ones for the next
day, just in case Mary Kate did not get to go home that afternoon.
After lunch Casey and her partner spent most of the day canvassing the rest of the St. Martins
neighborhood and the businesses in the strip mall in which Becky Bel-camp s studio was based. It was
tedious, fruitless work. No one, it seemed, had seen anything.
The next morning Mark again joined her on her run and they again circled the park in silence. Slowing to
a stop across the street from her house, Casey began her cool-down stretches.  I d like to talk& to your
nurse and& your receptionist today, she said, doing forward lunges, first on one leg, then the other.  At
the station house.
 Fine, Mark agreed, running in place beside her.  I can t spare& them both at once& though. I ll send
Mar-tha& this morning and Jolie& after lunch.
 Okay. Thanks.
 No problem. See ya. He waved and took off again along the jogging path, leaving Casey doing slow
side-to-side stretches and staring after him.
An hour and a half later, about twenty minutes be-fore her shift officially started, Casey walked into an
empty squad room. She could hear Keith and his part-ner in the coffee room shooting the breeze with the
night-watch guys, but no one sat at the desks scattered throughout the room.
Casey went into the detective squad s bath-room/dressing room and stowed her purse away in her
locker. When she came out a few minutes later, the rest of the detectives still had not arrived.
She glanced at Lieutenant Bradshaw s office, not surprised to see him already at his desk, talking on the
telephone.
The pressure was on, and the entire squad was feel-ing the heat.
The news media was demanding answers and keep-ing the citizens of Mears stirred up with daily
broad-casts and articles, consisting mostly of speculation and rumors.
Lieutenant Bradshaw was bombarded daily with tele-phone calls and visits from the brass, the mayor,
coun-cilors and every other petty functionary who could talk his way past Monica, who was doing her
best to screen all calls and visitors.
Day by day, the lieutenant grew more brooding and grouchy, like an old grizzly with an impacted tooth.
Casey knew he was probably taking a lot of flack about the lack of progress on the case, though he had
not passed the criticism along.
She felt bad that he was taking all the blame, when it was her case and her task force. Common sense
told her to count her blessings and leave the matter alone, but she was curious about what was being said
and what the sheriff was up to. Knowing now would probably be a good time to talk to him, while the
squad room was all but empty, she went to the door of his office and knocked.  May I talk to you a
minute, boss?
  What is it, O Toole? he growled.  And make it quick. I m busy.
 Well, sir, I& 1 couldn t help but notice that you ve been getting a lot of calls, and the mayor came to
see you yesterday, and Monica told me that the sheriff dropped by, too, while Dennis and I were in the
field.
Actually, what their civilian aide had said was that Sheriff Crawford had stormed into the station house
on Tuesday morning and closeted himself in the task-force room with his two deputies for almost an
hour. After-ward he stomped into Lieutenant Bradshaw s office, and the two men had engaged in a
shouting match.
 So? What s your point?
 It s just that& well& 1 know that you re under a lot of pressure from the brass and others to get this
case solved, and I wondered if there was anything I could do to take the heat off of you? If you want me
to answer their questions or explain what s being done, or offer to step down& 
 Dammit, O Toole! You don t worry about any of that. I told you I had your back, and that s all you
need to know. You just concentrate on catching this scumbag. I ll pick off the snipers and handle the stuff
that rolls downhill. Got it?
 Yes, sir.
 Okay, then. Now get out of here.
Caustic as his words had been, Casey left the lieu-tenant s office feeling marGinnally better about things.
She knew the gruff statement was his way of saying that he had faith in her ability and knew that she d do
all that was humanly possible to capture the killer. And that he d take whatever heat was aimed at her.
Keith was bent over her desk, scribbling on a note-pad, when she walked back into the squad room.
 Hey, beautiful, I was just leaving you a note, he said when he straightened and saw her.
  Morning, Keith. What s up?
 Your phone was ringing when I came in. Evi-dently Monica isn t here yet, so I took a message for you.
Dennis is at the hospital with his wife. He said to tell you that he ll be here as soon as he talks to the
doctor.
Concern marked his handsome face.  I hope your cousin is okay? Dennis didn t give me any
particulars.
 Mary Kate is having difficulty carrying the twins to term, she explained absently, wondering if she
could call and check on her cousin before she started work.  She went into early labor two days ago and
had to be hospi-talized, but the doctor was able to stop the contractions.
 I wonder why he didn t call me on my cell phone? She pulled the instrument out of her blazer pocket
to check it.  Oh, damn. I forgot to turn the darn thing on. Did Dennis seem worried? Did he want me to
call him back?
 No. He seemed his usual self.
  Hmm. Well, 1 guess everything is still all right or he would be calling in the family.
 Yeah, I in sure you re right. That s one of the really great things about your family. You all stick
together. It must be nice to grow up in an atmosphere like that.
Struck by something in his tone, Casey really looked at him, and it occurred to her for the first time that
she knew very little about Keith s background.  It is. I take it you didn t have that? she asked
cautiously.
 Me? Naw. Our mother died when Danny was just a toddler. And our father, well& when he wasn t
working he was drunk. So mostly Danny and I looked after ourselves.
Meaning he looked after Danny, Casey thought. That explained a lot, like the closeness between the two
of them, and Keith s protective attitude toward his handi-capped younger brother. Possibly even Keith s
almost obsessive neatness. That was one thing he could con-trol.  I m sorry. I had no idea.
 Hey, don t worry about us. Danny and I managed fine. It s just that sometimes I think it would be nice
to have a big, close-knit family like yours. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]