She ordered her team to strap on protective gear. Though she didn’t see it as an issue, she wasn’t taking chances. She didn’t want to visit another cop in the hospital.
“You don’t figure the mother’s in on this,” Feeney said as they waited inside the surveillance van.
“No. We got the cord, twenty-yard length of it, delivered to the Fulton Street address five months ago. I’m saying she had some in stock previous to that, and the new supply was ordered by the son. She didn’t have any deliveries listed before that, or after. She always picked up her supplies. I figure she’s dead or incapacitated.”
She shifted to the balls of her feet, back again. Squatted and straightened to be sure the gear didn’t hamper movement. “If he offed her, maybe that’s what set him off on the rest. Maybe she just kicked, and that set him off, but I’m betting he helped her out.”
She looked over at Roarke. “You and I are going in the front, once we’ve determined he’s inside. Feeney and his man in the back. Communications remain open, at all times. I want everyone with a badge, and the civilian consultant, to know where everyone is. Good-sized house,” she commented, studying it through the screened window of the van. “One floor down below street level, two above. Two men take the below, and we go in on my signal. I want every door, every window covered. He moves fast, and he’s not going to fall down and surrender. He’ll run.”
“Team’s in position,” Feeney told her. “Go to Ute?”
“Go.”
She watched Ute zip down from the east corner on a compact jet-bike. He secured it at the curb, bounced off and up to the door with his misdirected package. He rang the bell, bounced his head around as if bopping to the beat of music through headsets.
And she heard, clear as a bell, the answer from the security-com. “What?”
“Delivery, man. You wanna sign. Shit. Starting to rain.”
The first thin drops splat the streets and sidewalks when the door opened.
“Hold positions.”
“You got the wrong place,” Blue said. “This is 803, not 808.”
“Hell, it looks like a three. Are you—” The door slammed in his face. Ute made a business out of turning his back, pointing at his ass, and making a kissing sound before bouncing back to his bike.
“Subject verified. No visible weapons.”
Eve jerked her head, and slipped out the side door of the van with Roarke. He hefted the small battering ram. She crouched behind a parked car as Feeney drove off.
“Gonna get wet,” she murmured. She rolled her shoulders, rocked back and forth on the balls of her feet.
“You know, Lieutenant, I can get through the door nearly as quickly myself as with this ram. And with more finesse, and considerably less noise.”
“Not looking for finesse.” She nodded when Feeney’s voice came through her earpiece. “Move in! Go, go, go!”
Still crouched, she dashed across the street, noting the movements of her team out of the corners of her eyes as she charged up the steps. “Take it down!”
He reared back, slammed it twice, then let it fall as the door crashed open. They were through, weapons drawn.
Every light blared on full, and she could hear the fast and heavy rush of feet. She veered right toward the sound and caught sight of Blue streaking up the stairs.
“Police! Stop where you are.” She was already running up behind him. “You’re surrounded. You’ve got nowhere to go. Stop or I will fire.”
He
swung back, his face red with exertion and what she took as panicked temper. She knew, though she couldn’t see his eyes, she knew in that instant from the stiffening of his body, he recognized her.
And he lunged.
She fired a stream midbody that crossed with the stream Roarke fired. The combination knocked Blue back three staggering steps.
To her amazement, he shook it off like a man hyped on Zeus. Lunged again. “Bitch! You hurt me!”
She didn’t question herself, the need, the motive, but rather than firing on him, she got a running start, pumped her legs, and slashed into a flying kick that landed both feet in his face.
Blood erupted from his nose, spilled out of his mouth, but he was still on his feet when she dropped back to hers. “Don’t fire,” she shouted at Roarke, and whoever was pounding up the steps behind them.