Page 97 of Two Kinds of Stranger

They dropped the envelope to the floor. Logan grabbed Grace, held her, and felt his warm tears trickling across his cold cheek.

Their lips parted, Logan said three words he had never before uttered, nor ever dreamed of speaking in his lifetime.

‘I need you,’ he said.

36

Eddie

I can’t stand those calls.

When your phone rings in the middle of the night, it’s never good news.

Those two calls, just hours ago, were bad. They could’ve been so much worse.

It had been a long, sleepless night.

I got up from my desk and stretched my back. The sun was bleeding the night into morning. Amy was finally asleep in a makeshift bed of blankets and cushions on the floor of my office conference room, Clarence curled up beside her.

Harry had fallen asleep in the chair opposite mine. He was snoring softly.

I left my office and set off for the kitchen. I needed at least two pots of coffee this morning to fire up my brain. Before I got there, I heard footsteps on the stairs: the familiar trudge of Bloch’s boots, slower, more halting this morning. And, behind them, the soft shuffle of Lake’s shoes.

They came in the main door of the office, spotted me and stopped.

‘Jesus, you scared the shit out of me. Both of you,’ I said. ‘You two should still be in the hospital.’

Lake’s left arm was in a sling. He wore a hospital robe under his suit jacket. The robe tucked into his pants. They must’ve cut his shirt off to deal with the bullet wound.

Bloch was a mess. Her face was swollen on the left side. Her eye, now half shut with the swelling, was turning green and purple. Her arms were a circuit board of Band-Aids and bandages.

‘Did you get a CT scan?’ I asked, looking at her.

‘Mild concussion. Three broken ribs, cuts and bruises,’ said Bloch. ‘Nothing that would stop me finding Bruno Mont.’

‘Leave Mont for now. I know you want him. I would too. But there’s a time and a place. You’re still breathing, which means he messed up last night. He’s gonna lay low for a while. He knows you’re going to be on your guard. He’ll wait. Some months at least. Enough time for you to become complacent. We’ll get him before that.’

‘He’s going to wish he died fast, like Cross,’ said Bloch.

‘Did Kate update you all?’

They nodded.

Bloch turned to look at Lake, said, ‘You’re still wearing a hospital shirt. You went back to your apartment and you didn’t put on a fresh shirt?’

‘Didn’t have a clean one. Don’t judge me. I got a lot going on,’ said Lake.

‘You both sure you’re okay to be here?’ I asked.

They just stared at me.

‘Okay, let me grab some coffee and you both go and take a look at the video on Harry’s laptop. I’ve watched it three times. Something’s bugging me. See if you can figure it out.’

They went into my office quietly, so as not to startle Harry. Gently, Bloch put a hand on his shoulder and he opened his eyes. He stood and embraced her. Bloch wasn’t comfortable with human contact. Not really. There were few exceptions. Her childhood friend Kate, and Harry.

Bloch tried to smile, not wanting to worry the old guy. It didn’t work. Harry watched her grimace as she sat down inone of the chairs arranged around my desk. Lake waved away Harry’s concern. I didn’t need to be in the room to know what Lake was saying. It was a flesh wound and he’d had much worse. Just before he left the FBI he stumbled into a drug dealers cash house while working a different case. A lot of heavily armed men died that night at Lake’s hand. Part of Lake died in that house too. He had walked in an FBI agent, and had been carried out by paramedics as a killer. He’d been set up by someone in the Bureau, and had never found out who exactly was responsible.

It was on my list to find out who some day.