Page 87 of Crosshairs
Her smile was contagious. So were her giggles. Then we laughed and hugged and I had to say a quick prayer of thanks.
CHAPTER 111
WHEN I WOKE up the next morning, it felt like a new age had dawned. We were having a baby. I wanted to gently shake Mary Catherine awake and shout that we were having a baby.
We were having a baby, my nightmare case was over, and Jane was speaking at Columbia University. I wanted to pinch myself. Just to make sure I wasn’t dreaming.
As I flipped pancakes, Fiona shuffled into the kitchen wearing big pink bunny-shaped slippers that Seamus had bought her. She looked at me and said, “What are you smiling about?”
I turned and kissed her on the forehead. “You’d be smiling too if you had kids like mine.”
Fiona screwed her face up and said, “You’re weird.”
“But happy.” I put a little singsong in my voice.
Fiona shook her head and shuffled out of the kitchen.
I took the kids to school. We even made it on time. I gave aquick wave to Sister Sheilah. Oddly, for all of my ups and downs with Holy Name’s senior nun, whom I had known since my own first day of kindergarten, I badly wanted to tell her about Mary Catherine’s pregnancy. But I restrained myself.
Forty minutes later, I strolled into the Manhattan North Homicide office still in a phenomenally good mood.
Rob Trilling was at his desk. He looked up and right away said, “What put that smile on your face today?”
“Just the way things are rolling.” We chatted for a few minutes, then I went over some notes from the case with him.
Trilling looked at me and said, “Robert Lincoln called me from the FBI. He said I could come back on the fugitive task force whenever I wanted.”
“You don’t like it here? I understand if you don’t like the way the sniper investigation unfolded.”
Trilling shook his head. “I already told you. I understand what it’s like to do your duty no matter what. You did what you had to do. That’s not the issue.” He had an agitated expression on his face that I couldn’t interpret. Finally he said, “I have a problem I need your help with.”
Coming from Rob Trilling, that made me nervous. When a guy like Trilling says he has a problem, the chances are it’s fairly serious. It could be anything. I nodded and said, “All right, what’s bothering you?”
“I need to show you in person. Can you take a quick ride with me?”
I nodded and followed Trilling out of the office. It was a new adventure.
CHAPTER 112
I QUICKLY REALIZED that we were headed toward Rob Trilling’s apartment, but I didn’t ask any more questions about the “problem.” If he wanted to show me something, I’d see it first before I made any comments.
Instead, as we drove, I came clean to him about my earlier visit to his apartment and speaking with the building’s super. I also told him about going through the security tapes, looking for when he left the building during one of the shootings.
At a stoplight, Trilling turned to look at me and said, “You snuck into my apartment building and tried to get George to rat me out?”
I instantly felt like a shithead. I hated that Trilling interpreted it that way. I started to say,I just wanted to verify that you werenotthe sniper.
That’s when Trilling started to laugh. Maybe the first time I’dheard him really laugh out loud. He said, “Relax. I appreciate how you went about the case. I’m just messing with you.”
Now I was shocked speechless. I heard Rob Trilling laughandhe pranked me, all in the same day? Unbelievable.
When we arrived at the building and walked up the stairs to his second-floor apartment, Trilling turned to me and said, “I’m a little surprised you haven’t figured out my problem already, if you looked through those security videos.”
He opened the door to his apartment and ushered me inside. I heard low murmurs and conversation as the door opened, but it all stopped the instant I stepped into the darkened apartment.
A TV mounted on the wall was playing some kind of kids’ program that spelled out simple words like “cat” and “run.”
Five women all turned and stared at me at the same time. One was in the kitchen, two were watching the TV show, and the other two appeared to be doing yoga. They were all in their twenties with dark hair and features. I recognized one of the women. She’d walked past us while Trilling and I were outside the building speaking by his car.