In Her Tracks (Tracy Crosswhite #8)(98)

“Detective Crosswhite has requested that their medals be bestowed on them by their captain, Johnny Nolasco.”

Nolasco rose from his seat in his blue ceremonial uniform and white gloves. He placed his captain’s hat squarely on his head. Kins glanced over at Tracy and spoke out of the corner of his mouth. “Crosswhite,” he whispered. “You are a vengeful bitch. If I die of laughter on this stage, I am taking you with me.”

Tracy tried not to smile. She was saving it.

Nolasco approached a table draped in blue that contained two black wooden boxes. He opened the first and removed the medal, then walked stiffly to where Kins was doing his best, but failing, to stifle a smile.

“Officer Rowe,” Nolasco said, “for valor beyond the call of duty, the Seattle Police Department awards you the Medal of Valor.” He slipped the blue ribbon with gold trim around Kins’s neck and shook his hand. “Congratulations.”

“Thank you, Captain,” Kins said.

Nolasco stepped back, bent his arm at the elbow, and gave Kins a stiff salute. Kins returned the gesture, which the two men held for several seconds while cameras clicked and whirred.

Nolasco stepped back to the table, opened the second box, and removed the medal. He pivoted and stepped stiffly until he stood in front of Tracy. He pivoted a second time and faced her. Though Nolasco did his best not to show any emotion, Tracy knew her request to Weber that he bestow her medal was killing him. Chief Weber, not cognizant of their dislike of one another, had told Tracy that Nolasco seemed surprised that she had specifically asked that he award her the medal.

Surprised. No doubt.

“Detective Crosswhite,” Nolasco said. “For valor beyond the call of duty, the Seattle Police Department awards you the Medal of Valor.” He stepped forward and slipped the ribbon around Tracy’s neck, looking her in the eye. She smiled.

Nolasco did not. He stepped back and shook her hand. “Congratulations.”

“Thank you, Captain,” Tracy said, maintaining eye contact.

There was a momentary pause, as if Nolasco almost couldn’t bring himself to salute her, but he snapped rigid and did so. Tracy held the salute while the cameras whirred and clicked. She and Nolasco locked eyes. She refused to look away.

After several seconds, Nolasco broke the salute.

At the reception following the ceremony Tracy stepped toward Dan, Daniella, and Therese. She would have taken her daughter, but Vera, Faz’s wife and Daniella’s godmother, held her, and Tracy could tell Vera wasn’t about to let her go.

Dan kissed and congratulated her.

“You looked grand up there in your blue uniform,” Therese said. “Something about a lady in a uniform. Am I right, Mr. O?”

Dan smiled. “You have no idea,” he said.

Therese lowered her voice. “I don’t want to say anything out of turn, but I think your captain held your salute a bit longer than with the other bloke.”

Tracy smiled. “I think you’re right.” She looked at Dan, who knew what she had done. He shook his head, smiling. “All Crosswhite. What am I going to do with you?”

She smiled. “We’ll think of something.”

“Hey, Professor.” Faz approached with a plate of food. He flipped her the middle finger.

“Vic,” Vera said.

“What? That’s an Italian salute. It’s a show of respect.”

Vera rolled her eyes. Tracy and the others laughed. Faz leaned in, lowering his voice. “I took about a thousand pictures so you can document the look on Nolasco’s face. He looked like he was sucking on yellow jackets while someone was giving him a wedgie, and he was wearing a thong.”

Tracy laughed. “TMI, Faz. TMI.”

She walked through the crowd to Kins and his family, greeting Shannah and their three boys. They looked like him. After greetings, Kins took her elbow and they stepped aside. “Did you hear Kucek is retiring end of the year?” Kins asked.

“No.”

“Fernandez has volunteered to take his spot on the B Team. Looks like I’m going to get my partner back.”

Tracy smiled, but she wasn’t sure she’d go back, not right away. Working cold cases gave her an autonomy she’d never had working active cases. As Nunzio had pitched it, she could make her hours, spend more time with her family, and there was certainly something to be said for that. She wasn’t na?ve. She knew, as Nunzio had warned, that you couldn’t let your emotions get too high or too low, but she was certainly enjoying the high.

She’d go see Lisa Walsh again, probably more than once, for those moments when her cases brought her too low, and she’d remember what awaited her when she got home, Dan and Daniella. Like Stephanie Cole, she was lucky. She couldn’t imagine a time when she wouldn’t want to go home to her family.





CHAPTER 43

A week later, Tracy drove her Subaru east on Interstate 90. Evan sat in the passenger seat, a stack of board games in his lap.

Carrol Sprague, upon learning of Franklin’s death, spilled his guts. He told Tracy and Kins in multiple interviews that taking the prostitutes and holding them captive had been Franklin’s idea. Maybe so. But Carrol had been a willing participant, and Donna Jones provided Tracy a statement of the intimate details of Carrol’s mistreatment of her during her months in captivity. At Carrol’s preliminary arraignment, the Superior Court judge denied bail, not because she thought Carrol was a flight risk, but because of the heinous nature of his alleged crimes.