Page 43 of Witness 8

Sergeant Ben Gray stepped out of his patrol car and marched toward me, a look of undiluted fury on his face. Bloch looked at me over her shoulder. She could step in and stop him.

I shook my head, walked out onto the road to meet him.

His lips curled into a snarl as he got right into my face. He was trembling. Panting. Eyes fierce and lips drawn over his teeth. His nose almost touched mine.

I smiled and he put two hands on my chest and pushed me.

I stumbled back a couple of yards.

‘Look, I’ve been two steps ahead of you the whole time. Even in court I was four moves in front. Call this shit off, right now.’

He glanced to his left, the four cops who’d arrived were all focused on the pick-up. They wouldn’t hear him.

‘I’m not calling anything off,’ he said. ‘Now you’ve embarrassed me in front of my brothers. I’m gonna watch you die.’

‘Careful,’ I said. ‘Everyone who has ever come after me made a bad decision.’

He laughed, said, ‘What? You sued them, lawyer man? You’re gonna tell me they regretted it?’

‘Hard to tell. They’re all dead.’

His expression changed, but just for a second. A flash of ice in his veins before the adrenalin and anger trampled it back down.

‘Next time you won’t see them coming for you.’

‘I’m going to give you a choice. Call this off and walk away, and I’ll forget about it. If you don’t, I’m coming after you,’ I said.

He turned his back on me, said over his shoulder, ‘And what you gonna do? You don’t know me.’

I took his wallet from my jacket pocket. I’d lifted it when he came close, just half a second before he pushed me.

He had two hundred bucks in the wallet, give or take, a bunch of credit cards and loyalty cards, and something else.

‘212 North Baker,’ I said.

He stopped, swiveled around on his heel. I put his driver’s license back in his wallet and tossed it to him.

‘Here,’ I said. ‘You dropped this.’

The wallet hit the street, and his partner grabbed a hold of him before he could take a run at me. He was still screaming at me when I got into the back of Bloch’s car, beside Harry. Lake sat in front of Harry in the passenger seat, Bloch got in, turned on the engine and pulled away.

‘I don’t think that was smart,’ said Lake. ‘Goading him like that.’

‘Probably not,’ I said. ‘But it felt good.’

‘What if he’s right?’ asked Harry.

‘Right about what?’ asked Lake.

Harry said, ‘What if next time we don’t see them coming?’

Lake looked at Bloch. Bloch said nothing.

I felt the weight of Harry’s words on my chest. There was nothing else I could do.

15

Mr. Christmas