NYPD Red 6 - James Patterson Page 0,28

us?” I said.

“Damn straight I asked for you. I read the papers, Detective Jordan. You’re the rock-star cops in the elite unit. These two sons of bitches are smart. It’s not easy getting past the guards at the gate, but they came up with the perfect scam. I need cops that are smarter than they are, and that’s you.”

“Okay,” Kylie said, “this was not a random hit. They targeted you, which means it may be someone you know. So let’s start with a question: Who is Maurice?”

“Oh, shit. Who told you about Maurice? Eddie the doorman? Maurice is Lydia’s brother. He’s a minister. He comes here once a week, and we drink tea while I bitch and moan about politics and sports and how this city is going into the crapper. And Maurice, who has the voice of an angel and the soul of a philosopher, talks me down off the ledge, and I’m good for another week. Finding him is one of the best things that ever happened to me, so please go back downstairs and tell the doorman to come up with a white suspect, because the black guy didn’t have anything to do with it.”

“Can we get an itemized list of all the jewelry that was taken?” I asked.

“With pictures,” Ogden said. “I’ll have my insurance agent messenger it to your office.”

“Don’t forget about my money,” Lydia said.

“He took your money too?” I said.

“No, not really mine. My purse was on the table, but they didn’t touch it. The family leaves me two thousand dollars a month for expenses that might come up where I have to pay cash. There was sixteen hundred and eighty-four dollars left in the envelope. They took that.”

“Was that in the safe too?” Kylie asked.

“No. It was in a drawer in the dining room,” Lydia said. “But it’s like they knew. The white guy said, ‘Where’s the cash they leave for you to take care of the old lady?’ I wasn’t going to say, but Mrs. O., she told him where it was. Cursed up a storm while she’s telling him. They laughed, tied us up, and put tape on our mouths.”

My phone rang, and I stepped out of the bedroom to take the call.

“Detective Zach Jordan?” the voice on the other end said.

“Yes. Who’s this?”

“It doesn’t matter who this is. What matters is I have something you want. Erin Easton. And if you want to see her alive, you have half an hour to get your cell phone to her husband.”

“Who is this?” I repeated. I had a pretty good idea, but I didn’t want Dodd to know that we’d ID’d him.

“The time is now eleven forty-two, Detective. You have thirty minutes.”

The line went dead.

CHAPTER 24

I WENT BACK into the bedroom, stepped behind Kylie, and poked her three times—code for Let’s get out of here. “You’ve both been very helpful,” I said, giving Mrs. Ogden and her nurse my card. “Call us if you think of anything else.”

“You’ve been through a lot,” Kylie said, handing over her card as well. “Are you sure you don’t need any medical attention?”

“Positive,” Ogden said. “Besides, I think Lydia, the doorman, and I have seen all the EMTs we can handle for one day.”

We laughed at her joke, politely declined her offer to stay for tea, and promised her we’d be in touch. As soon as we were in the hallway Kylie pounced. “What’s going on?”

“Bobby Dodd just called me.”

“He called you? At the office?”

“No! On my personal cell phone.”

“Well, somebody’s popular. First the governor asks for you, now Bobby. What did he want?”

“He’s calling back in thirty minutes, at which point he wants my phone in Jamie Gibbs’s hand, or else.”

We got in the elevator, and I called Benny Diaz at TARU, explained what happened, and told him to trace the last call that came in to my cell. Then I called Rich Koprowski, one of the cops assigned to sit on Jamie Gibbs.

“Rich, it’s Zach. Where’s Gibbs right now?”

“His apartment, on Riverside, just south of Ninety-Fifth. He’s in apartment ten E. I’m outside in the command post.”

“Get up there and prep him one more time. He’s got a ransom call coming in … ” I looked at my watch. “In twenty-five minutes.”

“We’re ready for him,” Koprowski said. “We’ve got every one of his phones covered.”

“Too bad you didn’t have mine covered. That’s the one the kidnapper called.”

“Damn,” Koprowski said. “He had a key to the back door of the dressing room, he set