as to be unbelievable. Even to you.”
“Exactly. That’s exactly what I thought too.”
Kate rose to go. “Thank you, Mrs. Broome.”
“Please call me Edwina. Funny name, but it’s the only one I have.”
Kate smiled. “After this is all over, Edwina, I … I’d like to come
back and visit if you don’t mind. Talk about things some more.”
“I’d like nothing better. Being old has its good and bad.
Being old and lonely is all bad.”
Kate put on her coat and went to the door. She put the package safely in
her purse.
“That should narrow your search shouldn’t it, Kate?”
Kate turned around. “What?”
“Someone that unbelievable. Can’t be too many of them around I wouldn’t
think.”
THE HOSPrFAL SECURrf-Y GUARD WAS TAU, BEEFY AND UNCOMfortable as hell.
“I don’t exactly know what happened. I was gone maybe two, three minutes
tops.”
“You shouldn’t have been away from your post at all, Monroe.” The
diminutive supervisor was in Monroe’s face and the big man was sweating
hard.
“Like I said, the lady asked for some help with a bag, so I helped her.”
“What lady?”
“I told you, just some lady. Young, good-looking’, dressed real
professional.” The supervisor turned away, disgusted.
He had no way of knowing the lady was Kate Whitney and that she and Seth
Frank were already five blocks away in Kate’s car.
“Does it HURT?” KATE LOOKED AT HIM, WITH NOT MUCH SYMpathy in either her
features or her voice.
Frank gingerly touched the bandages around his head.
“You kidding? My six-year-old hits me harder.” He looked around the
interior of the car. “You got some smokes? Since when the hell are
hospitals nonsmoking?”
She rummaged in her purse and flipped him an open pack.
He lit up and eyed her over the cloud of smoke. “By the way, nice job on
the rent-a-cop. You should be in the movies.”
“Great! I’m in the market for a career change.”
“How’s our boy?”
“Safe. For now. Let’s keep him that way.”
She turned the corner and looked hara at him.
“You know, it wasn’t exactly my plan to let your old man buy it right in
front of me.”
“That’s what Jack said.”
“But you don’t believe him?”
“What does it matter what I believe?”
“It does. It matters to me,. Kate.”
She stopped for a red light. “Okay. Let’s put it this way.
I’m coming around to the idea that you didn’t want it to happen. Is that
good enough?”
“No, but it’ll do for now.”
JACK TURNED THE CORNER AND TRIED TO RELAx. THE LATEst storm front had
finally wearied of the Capital City, but although there no longer was
any pelting icy rain, the thermometer had remained consistently in the
twenties and the wind had returned with a vengeance. He blew on stiff
fingers and rubbed sleep-deprived eyes. Against a drift of black sky, a
sliver of moon hung, soft and luminous. Jack checked his surroundings.
The building across the street was dark and empty.
The structure he was standing in front of had closed its doors a long
time ago. A few passersby braved the inclement conditions, but for large
chunks of time Jack stood alone. Finally he took shelter inside the
doorway of the building and waited.
Three blocks away a rusting cab pulled to the curb, the back door opened
and a pair of low heels touched the cement sidewalk. The cab immediately
pulled off and a moment later the street was silent again. Kate tugged
her coat around her and hurried off. As she passed the next block,
another car, lights out, turned the corner and drifted along in her
wake. Her thoughts focused on the steps that lay ahead of her, Kate did
not look back.
Jack saw her turn the corner. He looked in all directions before moving,
a habit he had quickly cultivated and hoped he would be able to discard
very soon. He moved quickly to meet her. The street was quiet. Neither
Kate nor Jack saw the sedan’s nose as it crept past the corner
building’s front. Inside the driver zeroed in on the couple with a
night-vision device the mail-order catalogue had trumpeted as being the