“What is that supposed to mean?”
“It means I don’t want to go on another suicide run like the one you did up Park Avenue on Monday.”
“I’ll drive like a little old lady,” she said. “Just like you do.”
She made a U-turn, drove to the top of Harold Avenue, and turned left onto Broad.
“I think you’re right,” I said. “The two guys who took Rachael were waiting at the house before she got home. This is a quiet little town. Liz said she kept checking her rearview, and at three in the morning there’s no way anyone could have followed her without being seen.”
“So how did they know where Rachael was going?”
“It would be easy if they’re real cops.”
“You and I are real cops,” Kylie said. “We didn’t know.”
“But we could have found out easily enough. Just call a friend at corrections or the DA’s office. That has to be where the leak came from.”
“So between the two agencies, how many people do you think knew enough to disclose the undisclosed location?”
“A lot more than I feel like tracking down,” I said, “but right now, it’s the only lead we’ve got.”
My cell rang. “It’s Cates,” I said, and picked it up.
“Where are you?” she said.
I told her.
“I need you and MacDonald ASAP,” she said.
“We can be back in the office in—”
“I’m not in the office,” she said.
She told me where to meet her.
“What’s going on there?” I said.
“Just get here,” she said, and hung up.
“What was that about?” Kylie said. “You didn’t even fill her in on what we just figured out.”
“She didn’t ask. I think she’s got something more important to deal with.”
“Like what?”
“Like she didn’t say. She just wants us to meet her in Queens.”
“What’s in Queens?” Kylie said.
“Silvercup Studios.”
“Are you dicking around, Zach? Because if you are, it’s not—”
I shook my head. “That’s what she said. Meet her at Silvercup Studios.”
“Is it Spence? Is he okay?”
“She didn’t say anything about Spence. She didn’t say anything about anything.”
“Shit, shit, shit,” Kylie said, whacking the palm of her hand on the steering wheel. “Of course it’s about Spence. Why else would she want us at Silvercup?”
She flipped on the flashers and stepped on the gas, and the Batmobile lurched forward.
I buckled up my seat belt. The little old lady behind the wheel had been replaced by a crazy woman.
Chapter 52
We blasted across the lower level of the GW Bridge into Manhattan and down the Harlem River Drive. “Cates is already pissed at me for my little run-in with Damon Parker,” Kylie said as she merged onto the FDR and kicked the Ford up to seventy.
“You flat-out accused the victim’s brother of exploiting her death for his own personal gain,” I said. “I’m not sure the department would classify that as a ‘little run-in.’”
“So if Cates chewed me out for that, what do you think she’ll do now that she knows my husband has a drug problem and wound up in the ER twice in the past three days?”
“Who knows what Cates knows? She didn’t say a word about Spence.”
“She didn’t have to. She told us to drop what we’re doing and meet her where he works.”
She got off the FDR at 53rd Street, turned right onto First Avenue, and shot up the ramp onto the bridge to Queens. We skidded into the parking lot at Silvercup fourteen minutes after Cates called.
A golf cart was waiting for us at the front gate. The man behind the wheel was Bob Reitzfeld, a former NYPD lieutenant who left the department after thirty years, then dodged what he called the “death by retirement” bullet by signing on as a night watchman at Silvercup. Two years later, he was running the entire security team.
“How’s Spence?” Kylie asked as we climbed into the backseat.
“Short term, he’ll be fine,” Reitzfeld said as he navigated a narrow hallway between studios. “They’re sewing him back together in the ER. But long term, your boy’s got a problem, and Shelley can’t cover for him much longer.”
“How long has Shelley known Spence was using?” she asked.
“At least a month. That’s when he first told me. But by now everyone in the cast and crew is aware of it. If he doesn’t get clean soon, his career is going to be in the crapper.”
“His career? How about mine?” Kylie said. “Right now I’m the lead detective on a high-profile murder case. Tomorrow morning Cates may have me hauling in sixth graders for spray-painting their names on schoolyard walls.”