Twisted Prey (Lucas Davenport #28)(55)

“I know that, but this is complicated,” Lucas said. “I asked for you because you can handle it.”

“I could handle it, too,” Flowers said.

Lucas: “Yeah, but I worry that that’s not all you’d handle.”

Letty rolled her eyes, and said, “Oh, Jesus.”

Weather: “Since you haven’t told me anything about what’s going on, why don’t you tell all of us at the same time?”

“It’s crazy,” Letty said. “But then, we’ve all seen crazier.”



* * *



—

LUCAS TOLD THEM, and the two women listened quietly. “You’re saying they almost killed Weather to move you off the job,” Mattson said.

“Yes. Whether they were trying to kill her or only hurt her bad enough to get me back here, I don’t know,” Lucas said.

“They were willing to kill her, like they were Smalls’s girlfriend,” Letty said. “They killed that Last person in cold blood.”

“That’s right,” Lucas said. To Mattson: “That’s why I need somebody good in here. These guys are professionals. They kill for a living.”

“They’ve messed up a few times,” Weather observed. “Missed Smalls, killed his girlfriend. They tried to mug you but failed . . .”

“Would have worked with you, though, if Last’s mother hadn’t come to see me,” Lucas said. “St. Paul cops said it looked for all the world like a suicide. Like he sat there and finished a bottle of vodka and then shot himself. The gun even belonged to his girlfriend, nobody’s prints on it but his.”

“Interesting,” Flowers said.

Letty said, “Yeah. Almost worth staying for.”

“No, no, no,” Weather said. “You get on back to school. And, Lucas, when are you going back to Washington?”

“That depends on you,” Lucas said.

“They’re letting me out of here tomorrow, I think, if I promise to stay in bed for a couple of more days. Catrin can take me around, Helen can handle the house and the kids . . . you need to take care of this.”

“I’ll wait until you’re home,” Lucas said. “But, yeah—I oughta get back. These people need to be put away.”

“These people need to get shot, is what they need,” Letty said. She and Mattson slapped hands. Flowers only raised his eyebrows.



* * *



—

LUCAS TOOK Mattson aside before he left the hospital: “I need to make sure you’re okay with this.”

“Weather’s a good friend. She helped me a lot after my . . . problem,” Mattson said.

“How about a grand a day?” Lucas asked.

“Lucas, that’s not . . .”

“Yes, it is,” Lucas said. “You’ve taken a leave, I’ve got the money. Is that good?”

“That’s better than good,” Mattson said. “I’d do it for free.”

“I know. It’s nice for all of us that you don’t have to.”



* * *



—

SHE WENT BACK to Weather, and Lucas and Letty walked out of the hospital with Flowers. In the parking lot, Flowers said, “You need anything, let me know. Anything. I can always take some undertime. If Catrin needs somebody to spell her . . .”

Letty got a handful of Flowers’s shirt and pulled him in and kissed him on the lips, and let the kiss linger. “Thank you.”

Lucas said, “Hey . . . Hey! The guy’s practically married.”

“He could still fool around,” Letty said. “I mean, God, it’s like you don’t even live in the twenty-first century.”

“Hey!”



* * *



—

LUCAS FINALLY MADE a call to Rae Givens, told her to jack up Bob. “I’m headed back to Washington day after tomorrow.”

“Ooo. We get to shoot somebody?”

“That could happen,” Lucas said. “Try to pretend you’re not happy about it.”



* * *



—

LUCAS GOT Weather settled at home, watched her for a day until she got annoyed—“I’m unhappy enough about this neck brace that I’m going to take it out on you, and I’m too tired to fight, so go to Washington and fix this,” she said.

Lucas and Letty went to the airport together, Lucas headed east, Letty west, and when they’d gotten through security, they sat at Lucas’s gate until it was time for him to board the plane. She gave him a squeeze when he got in line, and said, “Call me every night and tell me what’s happening. In case I have to come out there . . .”

“I’ll be okay,” he said. “I don’t want you out there under any circumstances.”

Letty could be as cold as anyone Lucas had ever known. She stepped back, and said, “There’s only one circumstance that would take me out there. Think about it.”

He thought about it on the plane. She’d be out to Washington if he were killed. She’d bring a gun. In some ways, she was a typical lighthearted college girl; in other ways, she wasn’t.

Not at all.