“That was amazing,” she said. “Thank you.”
“I’m glad you liked it. Besides, now I’ll get to go again. From now on, he’ll hope I bring you too.”
“Wow. Your bullshit machine never shuts down. You know what the worst part is?”
“What?”
“I do get fascinated when a grown man goes to the trouble of making this stuff up and saying it out loud. I wonder, ‘What can this man want to accomplish? What’s he hoping for?’”
“I’m a simple guy.”
“You don’t have to hint. You carried my overnight bag in. You were going to get laid if dinner had been sharing a can of tuna,” she said.
“Then I’m glad dinner was a success, so I didn’t change that.”
“It took my mind off dying for a while,” she said. “That’s a gift.”
“People in danger do things to grasp a lot of life all at once. And we instinctively huddle together for strength. If you start to feel you’ve made a mistake, or that it doesn’t work anymore, please don’t think you’re stuck.”
“This bomber does have a way of bringing people together,” she said. “But I know what I’m doing. I’m not just here because you’re older and stronger and know more. Although, come to think of it, I like those things. Yeah, maybe I am doing that, and you’re taking selfish advantage of my innocence and fear.”
“Great,” he said. “I’m glad we cleared that up.”
As they pulled into the driveway and the gate slid open she said, “Why no guards?”
“Guards attract attention. You don’t want a building to look like it’s worth breaking into.”
She looked at him with narrowed eyes. “So there are guards, aren’t there? And they’re armed and hidden somewhere.”
He smiled. “They sit in a comfortable office downstairs and watch the video monitors. If they’re needed, there are a few places where they can come up and out.”
When they got out of the car and climbed his private stairs, he closed the door and locked it. As he turned around, she began to unbutton his shirt. She pulled him into the living room, and then started on her own clothing. In a minute they were both naked, and they made love in the middle of the living room. A while later they lay together on the floor, where she had tossed their clothes, letting their hearts slow down. She said, “I thought we should get started right away if I was going to impress you.”
“You have,” he said. “Almost as though you’d planned it.”
“Premeditation keeps my mind occupied.”
“Any other plans?”
“We need another drink.”
“We do. What kind?”
“The single malt Scotch has been kind of fortifying. Do we still have any?”
He got up, walked to the counter, and lifted the unopened bottle she had brought last night.
“Thank heaven for me.”
He took down two glasses and filled them. He brought the Scotch back with him and they sat on the floor together, leaning against the big couch and sipping their drinks. She leaned on him and he put his arm around her.
He stood up. “Hold on for a second.” He went into the bathroom and came back with two white terry cloth robes. As Diane leaned forward he slipped one robe over her arms and up to her shoulders. Then he put on the other.
“Two bathrobes?” she said. “Why would you have two bathrobes here? If you say it’s for visits from your old granny, I’ll hit you. Are you screwing everybody in the police department?”
“Not yet,” he said. “You told me this morning you were coming over tonight. There’s a linen service here, just like in a hotel. I called and changed my order to two bathrobes. Now you know my secrets.”
“Not enough.” She stared across the room, her eyes focused on something far past the wall.
“Something wrong?”
She sipped her drink. “I’m sorry. I’ve had so much fun tonight, but then our day jobs just drifted back into my mind. I’m really afraid of this guy.”
A moment passed while they sat in silence. Then he said, “Anybody who isn’t scared would be a flat-out idiot. Being scared helps you pay attention and sharpens your focus. But he’ll get stopped, one way or another.”
“How?”
“We’ll do our jobs. Tomorrow we get our first reinforcements from the FBI and ATF. They’ll be competent and well trained, and they’ll bring us almost up to strength. But they won’t know a few important things. They’ll assume the men they’re replacing died because they weren’t any good. We have to make sure they know how good the guys we lost were, so they won’t get overconfident. I asked for people from the LA offices, but I don’t know who we’ll get. Outsiders will have to be taught how to navigate the city the way an LA cop does—how to get to a scene in a city choked with traffic, how to interpret what’s there when they arrive, and recognize signs that something is wrong.”
“I just want to get this guy before he does anything else.”
“Me too,” he said. “But we have to take our time, study everything we see, wait him out.”
“Wait him out?”
“At some point, he’ll make a mistake. In order to finish us, he has to keep trying things we don’t expect. Maybe he’ll stop using stable, practical explosives and reliable commercial detonators, try things that are less familiar and more volatile. He could make home-brewed nitroglycerin, or mix up a peroxide bomb. Either one can blow up spontaneously, even if he doesn’t make a mistake.”
“What do you think he’s doing right now?” she said.
“Right now? He’s thinking about us.”
13
In the morning the alarm on Stahl’s nightstand woke him, and he realized he was instantly alert because he had been dreaming about ways the bomb maker might be devising firing mechanisms. The bomber had not used any mechanical methods yet—no spring-loaded percussion hammers, no pull-out pins, no burning fuses—so Stahl’s mind had been devising some in his sleep. He sat up and saw Diane was already gone from the bed. He heard the shower start, and he got up.
He cooked their breakfast, and this time they sat next to each other at the table to be closer together. He said, “Do you plan to come back tonight?”
“If I’m not taking up the next girl’s turn.”
“Good. I left a spare remote control by your purse over there with your keys, and I put a key to the door on your key chain.”
“You’re so sweet,” she said. “And I promise to return them after I’ve used you up and left you a hollow husk of a man in your lonely condo.”
“Very considerate of you.”
She leaned close and gave him a lingering kiss. “I’d better go. I want to stop at my apartment on the way to work and get some clothes and stuff.”
“All right.” Then he said, “Look, if you want to leave some clothes here, there’s a closet I don’t use.”
“Thanks. I’ll have to think about it,” she said. She picked up her overnight bag, put the remote control into her purse, and went to the door.
“What’s there to think about?”
“What I would need clothes for if I’m over here. I’m always taking them off.” She opened the door and closed it behind her. He heard her put the key in the dead bolt lock and then heard the bolt snap into place.
A few minutes later Stahl went out the same door and headed for police headquarters downtown. On the way he called Almanzo’s office at Homicide Special and asked Almanzo’s assistant whether there had been any developments overnight. But he was told there was nothing new.
When he reached headquarters he spent the first half hour going over the reports filed in the last shift, then listened to Andy explain the details of the temporary transfers of the federal bomb technicians. Andy had worked out their individual schedules and prepared the paperwork for Stahl’s signature.
They were still at it when the new people came in. They were ten men and four women, all in their thirties or forties. Eight of them were on loan from the FBI and six from the ATF. He led them into the large conference room to talk.