Night Watch (Kendra Michaels #4)(76)
“Yeah, I know. I had a few buddies who came back from Afghanistan with wounds that could be healed except the ones in their minds.”
“How about you? You said you’d done two tours in Afghanistan.”
“I had my own nightmares.” She held out her hand. “So can I drive?”
Kendra dropped the car keys into her palm. “No roaring.”
“Okay.” She jumped into the driver’s seat. “This car isn’t suited for roaring anyway. Too sedate. Now if I had Lynch’s Ferrari…”
*
FORTY-FIVE MINUTES LATER, Kendra and Jessie approached the police officer standing watch outside Powers’s hospital room. The cop held up his beefy hands to stop them.
“Whoa. Can I help you?”
Kendra took the lead. “I hope you can. We’re here to see Wallace Powers.”
“Sorry, ladies. He’s in police custody.”
“I’m Kendra Michaels. I’m on the list.”
The cop pointed to a clipboard hanging on the wall. “It’s a very short list, and you’re not on it.”
“It’s been updated.”
“Since when?”
“Since a few minutes ago. Call and check.”
The cop frowned with annoyance as he pulled out his phone and called his station. After a minute or so of conversation, he pocketed his phone. “I’ll be damned. You’re on it.”
Kendra uttered a silent thanks to Griffin for so speedily greasing those wheels for her.
The cop had obviously done hospital prisoner duty before. He easily slipped into his rote visitor speech. He informed them that no purses, bags, or packages would be allowed in the room, even though neither of them were carrying anything other than Bill’s rolled-up sketch. No weapons of any kind were allowed in the room, and a quick frisk was necessary. “If you request it, I can have a female officer come here and conduct the search,” he said.
“How long would that take?” Jessie asked.
“Anywhere from ten minutes to two hours.”
Jessie raised her arms. “Just curious. Knock yourself out.”
The cop did a perfunctory frisk that Kendra thought would have allowed them to smuggle Uzis under their jackets without his detecting them. Then he opened the door. “For the protection of you and the prisoner, I must be present at all times during your visit. But I have to tell you, he hasn’t been seeing anyone without his attorney present.”
Jessie smiled. “You couldn’t have told us that before you frisked us?”
The cop became momentarily tongue-tied.
Jessie waved him off. “Just giving you a little grief. Let’s go inside and see what happens.”
The officer preceded them into the room. At first, Kendra wasn’t sure they were looking at the right person. Powers’s face was now several shades of purple and swollen in ways that didn’t seem physically possible.
His puffy eyes widened at the sight of Kendra and Jessie. “What in the hell are you doing here?” His speech wasn’t altogether clear.
“You’re slurring your words,” Jessie said. “Is it your swollen tongue or is it the painkillers? Or both?”
“I’m not talking to you,” he said. “You got something to say, talk to my lawyer.”
“We already have,” Jessie said. “He’ll be billing you for that five-minute conversation, I’m sure. It’s more than you make in a week.”
“How do you know what I make?”
“We do our homework,” Kendra said. “Enough to know that someone else is paying for that lawyer. The question is, how much do you trust whoever is paying the bill?”
“I’m not saying shit.”
“Then just listen,” Jessie said. “That lawyer told you not to talk. Who do you think that advice helps more, you or the people paying him?”
Powers didn’t respond.
Kendra stepped toward him. “If it’s a question of incriminating yourself, that train has left the station. We have your DNA, which puts you there. It was under my fingernails.”
“And in the pee in the carpet,” Jessie said. “I’ve Tased a lot of guys in my time, but I’ve never seen anyone piss his pants like that. That was a new one.”
Powers lunged angrily toward her, but the handcuff held him to the bed rail.
Jessie smiled. “Aw, come on. Was I being indelicate? No reason to be embarrassed. You’re among friends here. And you need all the friends you can get right now.”
“You’re not my friends.”
“You’re right,” Kendra said. “Especially considering how we met. But we can help each other.”
“Still not talking…”
“Which is exactly what that lawyer and his employer want. But if we already have all the evidence we need to put you away for assault, battery, and attempted kidnapping, what good is your silence really doing for you?”
Powers’s jaw clenched, and he looked away.
Jessie moved closer. “Maybe you’re thinking your lawyer is some kind of miracle worker, that he can magically make all this disappear. He’s good, but he can’t make DNA evidence vanish. But maybe that isn’t his concern. Maybe he just wants to protect whoever is paying him. Maybe to protect whoever paid you to grab my friend here. Don’t you think that’s more likely? Do you really feel so valued that you think that lawyer is on the case for you?”