“What do you make of Detective Harvey?” she said.
Joe shrugged as his guilt tightened in his chest.
“I think he’s being terribly polite and accommodating,” she continued. “It’s as if he’s going to lower the boom, like he has something terrible he wants from me.”
Joe stared at her. Uncanny. Amazing. He was in deep shit. Those were the thoughts that rushed through his head as he decided what to say.
Hell, who was he kidding? He was deciding when and how to tell hereverything. And he knew he had to tell her not to go along with the detective’s scheme.
“Mae, you’re right about Harvey. I don’t know how you read him, but—”
Joe cut off his words when he saw Harvey’s reflection in the glass.
“That was quick,” he said as Harvey sat in his executive desk chair.
“High speed copier. This place has every techno advancement you can think of and probably some you wouldn’t imagine.” He gave Joe an evil smile. Then he changed his focus to Mae and it was like watching Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde at work.
“Here’s your copy of the love letters, Ms. Monday.”
“Call me Mae.”
Joe wanted to get out of this place with its potentially evil techno advances as fast as possible. To move things along, he reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out the key—Mae’s key.
“Something else for you to check into,” Joe said. “Mae found this in the same jacket she found the love letters. I have no idea what it’s for, but you with all your techno advances here might be able to find out.” Joe dropped the key into Harvey’s outstretched palm and the man immediately took to examining it with a squint.
“You going to make us a copy of that too?” Joe asked
“That would be great if you could,” Mae said. “I’ve taken to wearing it around my neck on a chain. It’s become kind of a special piece of jewelry for me.”
Joe knew whatever wiseass comment Harvey might have made to shoot down Joe’s request died in his throat once Mae seconded his request. Instead he looked up from the key and nodded at Mae.
“Sure. We can arrange that. Follow me.” He stood. Joe and Mae stood. “We’ll go over to fingerprinting and I’ll have the key copied for you.”
Harvey took them back to the elevator and down to a basement level and left them with the techs in fingerprinting along with the explanation that the printing was to eliminate them from prints in evidence. Mae handled it with a determined air and it was over within two minutes.
A uniformed officer met them in the empty corridor outside when they were finished.
“My instructions are to take you to an interview room. Follow me.” The man’s eyes were on Mae when he spoke. The change of venue meant Harvey would be getting down to business. This was where he’d cajole or bully Mae into playing the bait so he could catch his prize.
They went back up in the elevator to the main floor and down another long colorless corridor and into a door markedInterview Room C. The officer opened the door for them, but he didn’t go inside.
“Detective Harvey will be with you shortly.” Then he closed the door with an ominous click. Joe knew they were locked in. He looked around as he sat next to Mae at a table with two empty chairs on the other side. He felt her lean toward him.
“I don’t think I like this room,” she said.
Joe spoke softly in her ear, well aware of the possibility that the room was recorded in video and audio. He let his instincts have the run of his mouth. He couldn’t let the detective drop his plan on her without warning, without letting her know what he really thought, deep down. His professional self screamed at him, but he found it surprisingly easy to ignore.
“Listen, I need to tell you something. Harvey has a plan. It’s a bad plan and I don’t want you to go along with it. He can’t force you—”
“What is it?” Alarm registered on her face as she whispered back, bombarding him with sensations of her soft breath, intoxicating scent, giving more urgency to his words.
“He wants you to be a lure, to put you out there to trap Sal. Don’t let him intimidate you into going along with it. They can find another way to get Sal and his thugs. They could use a policewoman—shit they could dress up a small male officer if it came down to it.”
“You’re leaving something out, aren’t you?”
He was surprised. He should have known better. She’d already proven once today that she was smart and canny. He hadn’t known Mae for long, but they’d had some telling tests in the short time they’d been together. Danger was a very effective incubator for intimacy. He’d known this from his experience. After all, that’s what made the Zero Go Team tick. The unbreakable bonds formed under threat of ultimate destruction, death. It got rid of all the detritus in the way of knowing the real person.
He realized Mae had been real with him from the moment they’d met. He also realized he’d been taken with her from the start. And in spite of all his best efforts to keep his professional distance, working one-on-one with her, having her completely vulnerable to him in every way, had made it impossible for him to not respond in kind.