shot into the car just before the doors closed. Vail didn’t know if he had hit him. He considered looking for the stairs, but by now the building was surrounded. And running around with a gun in his hand didn’t seem like a good idea. More important, Kate needed attention. Her wound hadn’t looked bad, but he had examined it in the dark. He hurried over to her. “He’s gone,” he told her.
Kate stood up, still pressing Vail’s handkerchief to her side. He took the flashlight from her and checked the wound. “Will I live?” she said, forcing a smile.
He dabbed at the wounds analytically and then had her again hold the handkerchief against them. “Unfortunately, deputy assistant directors are not that easy to kill.”
Suddenly the floor shook with an explosion. Vail shined the light over at the elevator. Dust and debris billowed out from the crack between its doors. Kate said, “I guess that was meant for us. Good thing you never pressed the Down button.” She looked for a reaction from Vail, but his mind was once again racing ahead.
TWENTY-TWO
VAIL LEANED ON THE FENDER OF THEIR RENTED CAR AND WATCHED Kate come out of the hotel entrance. Her gait was measured and she listed a little to the left. He opened the passenger door for her. “Did you check your stitches?”
“No more blood on the bandages. How did you make out with LAPD last night?”
“They were pretty decent about it. I was there two, two and a half hours. They want to get your statement today.”
Once she was in the car, Vail went around and got behind the wheel. “How’d you sleep?”
“Off and on. I was pretty wired up,” she said.
“I’m usually the same way when I knife and shoot a guy.”
She tried not to laugh. “How’d you sleep?”
“Fine, until the two a.m. messenger arrived.”
“The two a.m. messenger?”
“It’s when I go to bed with something on my mind. Sometimes my brain does the work and wakes me up, usually at two a.m.”
“With the answer?”
“Always with an answer; sometimes it’s even the right one.”
“Can’t you make your mind do that during daylight hours?”
“Usually not. It has this obstinacy. I know, I know—where could that possibly come from?”
Kate held her side. “Please don’t make me laugh.” She straightened up. “And what problem did it resolve this time? Was it the same one that was bothering you when that elevator exploded last night?”
“Actually, the elevator exploding was my problem.”
“You don’t think that was meant for us?” she asked.
“Only if we survived the shoot-out. I think there’s a high probability it was meant to take out whoever survived. Otherwise, why didn’t it explode on the way up?”
“I don’t understand. I thought it was Radek who was killed in the explosion.”
“The legal agent met me over at LAPD last night so I could give both statements at once. He said that the body was so badly damaged that they might have to go to DNA to identify it. If they can even come up with Radek’s DNA from other sources. He wanted to know if I had any ideas, which I didn’t.”
“So it’ll take a while, so what? It’s not like he’s going anywhere.”
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know what? You don’t think it’s him?”
“We have to consider the possibility. You have to admit he’s no dummy. Why would he get in an elevator knowing once it started down, it was going to blow up?”
“Maybe it was an accident. You shot him twice. Maybe he’s not as smart with a couple of bullets in him.”
“Maybe.”
“Do you ever get the feeling that the two a.m. messenger is just screwing with you?”
“Almost always,” Vail said.
“I got a call first thing this morning,” Kate said. “There’s a briefing in the major-case room at ten a.m. Maybe it’ll put some of your demons to rest.”
“Who called you?” Vail asked.
“Some clerk. It wasn’t Kaulcrick, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“I imagine your boss is not pleased with our lack of sharing.”
“A deputy assistant director wounded in a shoot-out with murderers? He can’t land on me with both feet. Not today anyway.”
“You know what your real sin is? When you guys go back to Washington, you’ll have the better stories at cocktail parties.”
“And all I had to do was get shot.”
“But do I get thanked?”
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. And since you’re being gracious, what do you say I take you out to dinner tonight? Out out, not something that comes in cardboard containers.”
“That depends.”
“On?”
“Do you want to take me to dinner, or