Part 23 (2/2)

Paula's voice said, ”He's not our guy. Look at that body language.”

Rainey was looking at the pictures on Mike's phone and becoming increasingly angry. Mike had been taking shots of Rainey since she walked in. He had shots of her talking to Katie and a very compromising looking picture of the buxom redhead whispering in her ear. She began to delete the photos as fast as she could.

”You're just some creep taking pictures, aren't you? What, do you go home and plaster your walls with them? Where do you live? I'm sending a car over there to see just what kind of a pervert you are.”

Rainey thought Mike might wet his pants. He started to cry. ”I live in Wake Forest, but please don't send a car to my house. My mom would kill me. I'm just a photographer, a runner really, for Cookie Kutter. I want to be a journalist. I'm studying at State. Honest, I just take pictures and send them to her.”

Rainey continued to delete the photos, more forcefully now. ”Well, she won't get these pictures.”

Mike wiped his cheek with the back of his hand. ”Don't be mad, okay, but I already sent them. That's what I was doing when you walked up. I'm sorry. Are you going to arrest me?”

Rainey stopped deleting the photos. It was futile, now. Cookie would plaster as many shots of Rainey as she could in a thirty-second sound bite. Katie was not going to like the redhead shot, but maybe she would miss it cowering from the images of her flying on Cookie in a drunken rage. Rainey handed the phone back to Mike.

”Mike, if I see you again, you'll be pulling that phone out of your nether parts. Lose Cookie's number. Find a real reporter to work for. Got it?”

Mike s.n.a.t.c.hed the phone from Rainey's hand and was already moving toward the door, when he said, ”Yes, ma'am.”

Rainey watched him leave the club. ”Scratch that guy off the list,” she said, ”He's probably going to change his pants.”

James answered, ”We're running him anyway, just in case. Danny sent a car to follow him.”

Danny came on. ”We just heard back from Brooks. Howard fits our timeline in San Diego. He moved here eighteen months ago. No criminal record. We're working on his military records.”

Rainey looked out the window, turning her back to the room, so they couldn't see her talking. ”Danny, he knows where Katie is.”

”Already on it. His picture is being circulated to Katie's detail and I've doubled the guards on her room. No one is getting to Katie. You just watch your back.”

Sheila spoke next, ”Rainey, there is a man at the bar. He's been watching you. He hasn't looked away since I spotted him. Blue oxford b.u.t.ton down, brown hair, your six-o'clock.”

Rainey turned, surveying the room. She saw the man leaning on the bar. He had his head back, drinking from a beer bottle. He smiled at the woman beside him and appeared not to even notice Rainey, until he peeked. They always peek. His face slackened, the smile leaving him. He turned back to the bartender, and signaled for another beer. Rainey watched as he paid for the beer, and then left it sitting on the bar. He turned to the woman beside him. Rainey could tell he was asking the woman to watch his beer. She distinctly read the words bathroom on his lips.

Sheila saw it, too. ”He's on the move. Heading into the big room, I believe toward the men's room. Agent Bell is following him. I'm moving... and have eyes on the suspect. Rainey he's five yards in front of you, heading toward the stage.”

The crowd had thickened considerably. Rainey followed what she thought was the back of the guy's head, but the strobe lights, firing rapidly, made keeping track of him almost impossible.

”He's rabbiting,” Rainey said. ”He's not going to the bathroom, he's headed for the southwest exit. Is there anybody on that door?”

Sheila's breathless voice said, ”I'm moving to the fire escape over the rear door.”

Danny's tenseness was clear in his tone. ”Slow down, Rainey. We're moving people into position.”

Rainey pushed her way through the crowd. She could no longer see the suspect. ”I've lost him, Danny. He's too far in front of me.”

Rainey burst from the throng and saw the door just ten feet in front of her, the blue-oxford nowhere in sight. She ran to the bouncer at the door.

”Did a man just leave through this door in a blue b.u.t.ton down s.h.i.+rt?”

The large woman shook her head. ”n.o.body's been out that door in the thirty minutes I've been standing here.”

Rainey pushed the door open, surprised to see Roger standing there. He shrugged. Rainey turned back to the dance floor, quickly.

She shouted now, not worried about someone knowing she was wired, ”Sheila, he backtracked. Find him. He's headed for a different exit.”

Danny called out orders, moving his chess pieces into place. Every exit, out of the dance hall, was immediately covered by the undercover cops on the inside and uniformed cops on the outside. Rainey headed for the lobby. She finally reached the bar where he left his beer in care of the woman. The woman was still there, but the beer was not.

Rainey shouted over the din of voices and music, ”What happened to the guy that was standing here?”

The woman looked puzzled. ”Who? That guy? He just tipped the bartender and left a full beer on the bar. Guess he got what he came for. I saw him leaving with a bunch of girls.”

Rainey picked her way through the throngs of women to the door. ”He left, Danny. He's with a bunch of girls. He used them as a smoke screen. I'm coming out the front door.”

Danny motivated his troops. ”Let's move people. Fan out. Khaki pants, blue oxford s.h.i.+rt, brown hair. Find this guy. Rainey, don't you go off alone.”

Rainey ran out the entrance and into the street, searching the crowd exiting and entering the bar. Two uniformed cops joined her, the description of the suspect loudly blaring out of their walkie-talkies. Rainey pointed west, toward the alley.

”You go that way,” she said to the cops.

Then Rainey turned and ran in the opposite direction. She stopped at the corner of the building, slowly leaning out until she could see the activity in the well-lit parking lot. A woman sat on the hood of a car, smoking a cigarette, while another stood in front of her, hands on her hips, domestic dispute in progress. A couple leaned against the next building, groping each other feverishly. Two cars sat side-by-side, windows down, with a woman in each. They appeared to be having a conversation through the open windows, rather than either giving up their independence and leave her car.

Roger and Curtis walked up the center of the parking lot. Rainey stepped into view.

”Did you see him?” she asked.

”No, he didn't come this way.”

Rainey looked behind her. This guy didn't just vanish. He was here somewhere. She jogged past the entrance to the other side of the building. She found the same results. No one saw which way this guy went.

”Un-f.u.c.king-believable,” Rainey said, in frustration.

Danny found her seated at the bar in the lobby, nursing a shot of bourbon.

”You took your earwig out.”

Rainey looked up at him. ”Yep, needed a moment alone.”

Danny sat on the stool next to her, surveying the room. ”I had no idea there were so many beautiful lesbians. No wonder you jumped s.h.i.+p.”

His attempt at humor fell on deaf ears. ”How did that guy get out of here?” Rainey asked, followed by her knocking back the remainder of the shot.

”I don't think it matters.” Danny stood up. ”Come on, I want to show you something.”

Rainey followed Danny out of the bar to the van. The back doors were open. They stepped up and James turned a monitor toward them.

Danny pointed at the screen. ”Watch this.”

The video started to play. It was Rainey's perspective on discovering Katie in the bar.

<script>