“I didn’t actually hit you,” I pointed out, not for the first time, later.“And it wouldn’t have happened if you’d given me some warning.”
He scowled.“I did give you warning.”
“And that’s why you don’t have a broken nose right now.If you hadn’t said my name, I would have cracked your skull open.”
He glanced at the jagged piece of drawer front, lying next to me on the front steps of the house.“I believe you.”
I was sitting outside, getting debriefed, while a lot of things were going on around us.Mendoza had suggested doing the honors inside, in the living room where Konstantin and Yuri had talked to Rachel and me last night, but I’d told him I’d rather be outside.I’d only been locked in for a few hours, but it had been enough to make me appreciate not being locked in.
Mendoza had rescued Edwina from the Lexus and brought her to me, and I was holding on to her.It was very calming, having her warm weight on my lap while I ran my hand over her short fur.
Konstantin and Yuri had been taken off by immigration officials.So had the girls.I didn’t know what would happen to them after this, but I figured, even if they were returned to Russia, they’d probably be relieved to be out of the life they’d lived for the past several weeks.
An ambulance had shown up, and had taken Rachel to the hospital.She had a spongy lump on the back of her head that they wanted to X-ray, to make sure the skull wasn’t cracked.I asked them to please take her to Southern Hills, so I could visit her and Zachary together once this was over.
At the moment, it was just Mendoza and me out here on the stoop, and half a dozen cops and immigration enforcement types crawling all over the house, looking for information.
“We put a tracer on the car,” Mendoza explained.“Last night, before the whole Arena fiasco, I talked to the folks in vice about Stella’s.They were interested in what we’d seen, and called in ICE.At one point during the evening, an agent went into the parking lot and put a tracer on the black sedan, so we could follow it home.”
“That must have been before Rachel and I got up on the bluff.”
Mendoza’s lips twitched.“The two of you were up there?”
“We talked about what a good vantage point it would be, remember?So after what you call the fiasco at the Arena, when you went home with Diana… did you find anything there, by the way?”
He shook his head.
“When Diana dropped me off at the Apex, I picked up Edwina and met Rachel on the bluff.We kept watch until the last car was gone from the parking lot, except the sedan.Then Rachel took her car down to the McDonald’s parking lot, and waited.I let her know when the sedan began moving, and we took turns following them here.”
“And somewhere along the way, they must have made you.”His lips didn’t twitch this time, but his eyes were dancing.
I made a face.“I guess so.Probably when Rachel stopped in front of the house.Or maybe when I pulled into the driveway down the street.They didn’t actually catch us until we were snooping around in their yard, though.”
Mendoza nodded.“How’s the head?”
“Fine,” I said.“Yuri didn’t hit me as hard as Konstantin hit Rachel.I have a lump and a headache—” I reached up to feel it; the lump, not the headache, like a small bird egg under my fingertips, “but it’s no big deal.Nothing like what Rachel has.”
“How many fingers am I holding up?”
He held up two.
“Four,” I said.“I’m fine.If I needed medical attention, I’d get medical attention.”
His eyebrows drew down.“If you see four fingers…”
“I see two.Index and middle.A nice victory sign.Or are you too young to know what a victory sign is?”
“I’ll be thirty-four in February,” Mendoza said.“I know what a victory sign is.”
And I’d turned forty last July.“Great.”
“It’s not like you’re old enough to remember World War Two yourself, you know, Mrs.Kelly.”
No.Far from it.But hearing that he wasn’t even thirty-four yet, made me feel very old.I petted Edwina some more.At the rate I was going, I’d end up like Mrs.—excuse me, Miss—Grimshaw.Alone, with a pet dog.“If you want me to feel younger, you could stop calling me Mrs.Kelly.Mr.Kelly is dead.I’m not Mrs.Kelly anymore.”
And wouldn’t have been, even if David hadn’t gotten himself murdered.
Maybe I should drop Kelly and just go by my maiden name from now on.
