Maybe I’ll talk to Max about it. Over theyears we’ve hypothesized about the brothers’ split, but we’ve nevercome up with anything solid. I’ll call her over the weekend tocheck on her, but use this as my entrée to see how she’s doing.
Melrose, MA
Ethan
North
The FBI’s Boston office covers Massachusettsand the states due north. Although there are ten satellite officesin the four-state area, the Boston headquarters runs the show. As Ilie awake replaying the three o’clock conference call in my head,it’s bothering the fuck out of me that not one other JTTF has alead or anything we can tie to our operation. Then I think aboutMaine, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island and decide we need to getthose satellite offices involved in this investigation. I figureGeorge Randall has thought the same thing, but since he didn’t sayanything during our one-hour team strategizing session, I’ll reachout to Skip to set up another call to run this by him.
Luke’s supposed to rotate in on Saturday.After he gets settled, I’ll go over to Saugus, do some shopping,and pick up my mail.
I’m in bed staring at the ceiling, wonderingif Theresa sleeps soundly or if the shooting invades her dreams. Ihope it’s the former, but if it’s not, that I can’t be there tohold her to make her feel safe is fucking with me. I need to lendher my strength to absorb whatever residual effects she’s sufferingdue to yet another POS who thought it was okay to shoot his ex.
These thoughts are not helping. I close myeyes and it takes a while, but I’m able to find that peaceful placeI’ve been in before: the backyard with the trees and flower beds. Ipicture myself lying on a lounger in the middle of that green spaceand finally, I begin to drift. As I do, I swear I can smellTheresa’s skin.
***
Skip is receptive to getting the satelliteoffices involved, and we expect to hear back from him and Rashad bythis afternoon. I’m putting the breakfast mess in the dishwasherwhen there’s a knock on the front door.
Fernando is at the top of the stairs, andAdam comes out of his bedroom, but doesn’t move down the hall. Bothof them have their weapons drawn. I move to the door, but stand tothe side, my back against the wall when I shout, “Yeah. What’sup?”
“It’s Ed from next door.”
I see Fernando move off, and I hear Adam walkaway. Then I open the door and step outside. “Hey, Ed. Somethingyou need?” I walk down the steps to about halfway down the walkway,forcing Ed to move away from the house to talk to me. Which hedoes.
“Actually, it’s something you and Drew mightneed.” Ed’s looking up at me, and his expression saysI knowsomething you don’t know.
“And that is?”
His voice drops and he dips his head. “Thehouse across the street. Three doors down…don’t look, but they’vebeen watching your house.”
Jesus fuck. We know that, but how does Ed?“Why would you think that?”
Ed glances up at me but keeps his voice low.“A few days ago, I was out front trimming the rhododendron whenthis flash hits my eyes. I look up and don’t see anything, and,frankly, I wrote it off to a passing car’s reflection.” He stops,and I nod for him to continue. Clearly the dude is all worked up toget tothe good part. “Yesterday, when I was weeding aroundthe weeping cherry trees, the same thing happened. I didn’t look upuntil a few minutes later, then it happened again, and I saw theflash coming from…that house.” He’s talking faster now. “Thismorning, after the missus went to get her hair done, I went up tothe attic and brought my binoculars with me. Good ones. I belong toa bird-watching club.” I give him myI’m impressedface tokeep him going. “I went to the front of the house, and using mybinoculars, I was able to see across the street through the slatsin the vent. Sure enough, after a few minutes, I see the flashagain. But this time, I can see a bit of a tube, like a telescope,parting the curtains in one of the upstairs rooms.” He looks at mewith wide eyes. “What do you make of that?”
Uh…that those assholes don’t seem to be goodat anything they do, which makes it that much more frustrating thatwe can’t shut them down. “Perhaps they’re bird-watchers likeyourself.”
He scrunches up his jowly face and says, “Ihadn’t thought of that, but it seems unlikely.”
I’ve gotta get him to move off this. “Don’tknow much about bird-watching, but there sure are a lot of birdsaround here.”
“True,” he says, but seems reluctant toagree. “Butrealbird-watchers place themselves in thebirds’ natural habitat so we can see them in their environment.Almost all of the birds around here come for nest-making materialand food.”
“But some make their nests here. We removed acouple from under the eaves last weekend.” We hadn’t, but my fatherused to pull down one or two every autumn when he cleaned thegutters, so I knew it was plausible. “Maybe the folks across thestreet are watching the locals. You know, birds that made theirhomes here.” I shrug. “Or maybe they’re amateurs, and they’re juststarting out.”
Ed sighs a couple of times. “You might beright.”
“I’m sure it’s innocuous. They might bestargazers and that’s where they leave the telescope during theday.” I dip my head to make Ed feel like we’re in on this together.“Could be lots of things, but I’m thinking, in this neighborhood,it’s innocent.”
Ed’s expression changes to resolute. “Icertainly hope so. We’ve lived here for twenty-six
years, and the worst thing that’s happenedsince we moved in was about ten years back when the McGillicuddytwins toilet-papered everyone’s trees and cars on gate night.”
I would’ve paid good money to see Ed’s facethat morning when he was leaving his house to go to work and cameout to that mess. Trask and I used to do that shit. Total fun.
“I’m glad to hear it’s as safe here as Drewand I had hoped.” I point to the house. “Gotta get back to it, Ed,but thank you for looking out for us. We appreciate having such agood neighbor.” Cop 101: When community policing, make the peopleyou’re talking to feel empowered by their actions to keep theirneighborhood safe even if it’s misguided. Remember, it’s theofficer’s job to steer civilians to the right path when watchingout for each other.
Yep. That puffed him up. “You’re welcome,Nick. Happy to help.” Off he goes, and I hope to hell he stays outof the attic with those fucking binoculars.
