Eddie nodded, imitating her. “Pretty much.” He turned to the detective. “I am not very good at nonverbal forms of communication, but that is something Skylar has been trying to teach me. We walked to nowhere in particular.”
“How long did it take you to get there?”
Skylar stifled a smile as Eddie answered, “I don’t know. We didn’t time it.”
Butler waited for him to get the joke, which, of course, he didn’t. Skylar jumped in. “I think he was teasing you, Eddie.”
The detective corrected her. “No, I really want to know how long it took.”
Eddie made his BUZZER sound.
Skylar explained, “If you say something that isn’t true, he does that.”
Butler’s eyes widened. “Every time?”
She nodded. “Every time.”
Butler shook his head. Just what he needed. He texted the detective in the bar: They still out there?
His friend nodded toward the security camera, then nodded toward the entrance.
Butler typed: Distract them.
His NYPD brother nodded again, then turned to the off-duty officers around him.
Sitting alone in his government-issued vehicle, Lutz grew increasingly impatient as he waited outside Red’s. It had been over an hour. Hirsch was around the corner, standing in the alley behind the bar, watching the only other exit. He checked in with his partner in the car. “Anything?”
“Nada.”
“How soon do you want to make a move?”
“Soon as boss man says so.” Lutz hung up and listened to sirens passing as he dialed Michael Barnes. Some were far off in the distance, others within a few blocks. Maintaining sanity in Queens meant learning to tune out the erratic but never-ending urban cacophony.
Barnes answered the phone in his office on the first ring. “Any change?”
“Negative. They’re still inside.”
“Continue holding your position. I want this thing contained.”
“Copy that.” Lutz clicked off the phone, still ignoring one of the approaching sirens, until the New York City Fire Department ambulance pulled up right alongside his car and parked, blocking him in. Two paramedics hopped out and opened the rear doors to remove a gurney. They quickly wheeled it toward the entrance to Red’s.
Lutz stepped out of his vehicle, speaking loudly. “What the hell?”
The ambulance driver glanced over briefly. “Medical emergency.” He continued into Red’s.
Lutz speed-dialed his counterpart in the alley. “We have a situation.”
“You want company?”
“Stay there.” He walked briskly inside Red’s, moving toward the crowd circled around someone lying on the peanut-shell-covered floor. It was one of the off-duty officers, who was being tended to by the two paramedics. “What happened?”
One of the more senior detectives turned toward Lutz. “None of your business.”
The former intelligence operative stared him down. “I can make it my business.”
Red stepped toward him, baseball bat in hand. “You sure you want to do that?”
One of the paramedics screamed rather convincingly as he worked on the fallen cop. “He’s having a heart attack!”
The escalating drama was visible on the security monitors inside the private office. Lutz could not see that, behind him, the detective who’d arranged the whole thing was quietly exiting the bar.
Eddie turned to Skylar. “Why did you give that man your phone and keys?”
Outside the bar, the detective unlocked Skylar’s Honda and got into the driver’s seat. He put her phone on the passenger’s seat and took off quickly.
Lutz could not see the car speeding down the street. His cell phone rang. It was Barnes. “Yes, sir.”
“Why aren’t you following them?”
“They’re still here.”
On the electronic map inside Barnes’s office, Skylar’s car was speeding away from the bar. “No, they’re not.”
Lutz glanced out the window to see that the Honda was gone. Determination filled his voice. “They won’t get far.” He bolted out of the bar and jumped into his car, which was still blocked in by the ambulance. But not for long. Wham! He slammed into the car parked in front of him, pushing it forward a foot. Wham! Then he did the same thing to the car behind.
Hearing the collisions, Hirsch came barreling out of the alley as Lutz maneuvered onto the sidewalk. Hirsch jumped into the passenger’s seat. “What the hell?”
Lutz motioned to the empty space where Skylar’s car had been parked.
“How’d they get out?”
“Fuck if I know.” He punched the gas, and the car screeched back onto the street as they resumed their pursuit of Skylar’s vehicle.
Inside the bar, one of the cops who’d been acting concerned over his fallen comrade tapped one of the paramedics on the shoulder. “Show’s over.”
The guy who’d been faking the heart attack opened his eyes and started dusting the peanut shells off his flannel shirt. “If my car is one of the ones that prick just rammed, he’s gonna be awful sorry.”
Red moved to the office door and knocked twice. McHenry opened the door, giving a nod of appreciation to all in the room. No words were exchanged.
Skylar and Eddie followed him out of the office. They carried the laptop and the echo box with them. Eddie paused, staring blankly at the paramedics. “Why did you pretend to help him if you knew he wasn’t having a real heart attack?”
The paramedic clearly did not appreciate Eddie’s lack of gratitude. “As I understand it, we were saving your ass.”
Eddie looked behind himself, trying to see his own backside.
Skylar apologized to the paramedics. “Eddie, just say thank you to these nice men for helping us.”
Eddie did so. The paramedic turned to McHenry. “This guy for real?”
Eddie chimed in. “I am flesh and blood and teeth and bones and—”
Skylar jumped in. “They were only acting, Eddie.”
“Acting is pretending, and pretending is lying, and lying is not something paramedics should do because they are like doctors and doctors shouldn’t lie.”
“I’m a doctor, and sometimes I lie.”
Eddie seemed genuinely shocked. “You do?”
“Everybody has to lie sometimes.”
“I don’t.”
“If you spend enough time outside Harmony House, you will, trust me.”
Butler could feel his colleagues’ frustration rising. “Dr. Drummond, we need to get your patient out of here before one of my guys kills him.”
She and Eddie followed the detective out the door. “Skylar, have you ever lied to me?”
“No, Eddie, I haven’t. And I hope I never have to.”
“Why would you have to?”
“Because things get complicated.”
“Why?”
“They just do.”
Crossing the street toward Butler’s Chevy Tahoe, Eddie remained extremely cautious. He looked both ways, then took a step. Then looked both ways again. He was doing everything he could to avoid another near miss.
Butler turned to Eddie in disbelief. “You mind speeding it up a little?”
Eddie continued moving along with incredible caution. “I don’t like it here at all.”
The detective was quickly reaching his threshold, Skylar recognized. “Eddie, the sooner we get out of here, the sooner you can hear your mother’s voice.”
Eddie jumped into the back seat of Butler’s SUV. Skylar buckled him in and got in the front passenger’s seat. Butler punched the gas, SCREECHING out of the parking space. Eddie covered his ears. “This car hurts my ears.”
Skylar turned to Butler. “Where are we going?”
“My precinct. I want my lieutenant to hear what—”
Eddie interrupted. “Skylar, I’m hungry. Is it time for afternoon snack yet?”
She checked her watch: 1:07 p.m. Afternoon snack at Harmony House had been served seven minutes ago. “Yes, it is, Eddie. We’ll get you something at the police station.”
“Saturday-afternoon snack is graham crackers and milk.”
Skylar knew the answer to the question she was about to ask the detective, but went ahead anyway. “They wouldn’t happen to have graham crackers and milk at your station, would they?”
“You’re kidding, right?”
Eddie imitated him. “You’re kidding, right?”
Butler managed to contain himself. “No, there aren’t any graham crackers and milk.”
Skylar tried to be helpful. “There must be some kind of snack.”