Nikki Heat: Deadly Heat Part 2

When she turned from the map, Heat caught Ochoa eye-rolling to his partner. "Problem, gentlemen?"

Ochoa said, "I know, like, Rales is your King of All Surveillance Media, and all that. But we're getting spread a little thin. We still have to get back in the field to brace more of the restaurant owners on Conklin's roster."

"You'll have to juggle both," said Heat. "Like we all do." She didn't need to take it further. Nikki could see the impact on all their faces. Every detective in that room knew their squad leader not only juggled these two cases; she did it while someone was actively out to kill her. She adjourned, continuing to ponder the why of that. Heat didn't have the answer yet, but the attempt on her life that morning told her one thing. Something new was up with whatever conspiracy had led to her mom's murder ten years ago. Otherwise, they wouldn't be working this hard to kill her now.

On the drive with Rook to City Island to interview Roy Conklin's widow, Nikki found her eyes on the mirrors a lot more than usual. When you know a professional wants you in the crosshairs, a little extra vigilance may get you a chance to see the next day.

Heat was at risk, and n.o.body would have thought less of her if she bunkered up. Captain Irons was so worried about her safety, he'd even offered her administrative leave or vacation time, if she wanted it. Nikki had stomped out that idea on the spot. The cop in her would never hide in the face of personal danger. That was the gig. But she did feel a healthy nerve jangle. Who wouldn't? So Heat did what Heat did best: She compartmentalized. Experience had taught her that the only way to move forward was to cage the beast-put her fear in a box. Because what was the alternative? To close herself inside her apartment? Run and hide?

Not this detective. This detective would bring the fight to them. And check her mirrors.

The phone rang as they crossed the Pelham Bay Bridge, where the Hutchinson River separated the urban Bronx from the expansive green woods surrounding Turtle Cove. Nikki fished her Jawbone earpiece from the side door pocket and got an earful from her friend Lauren Parry. "Do I need to remind you that I will kill you if you get yourself killed?"

Heat chuckled. "No, you make that pretty clear. Every time."

"See?" Lauren kidded, but sisterly worry came through. "That's why you're still walking G.o.d's earth. Because I will come after you."

Admonishment completed, the medical examiner filled in Heat on Roy Conklin's postmortem. "Hard to call it good news," said Lauren, "but Mr. Conklin was deceased before he went into the oven."

Nikki pictured the body. Envisioned the high-temp bake. "So he didn't suffer?"

"Doubtful. Cause of death was a .22 delivered to the base of the skull." Heat answered Rook's inquiring face by miming a finger pistol while the ME added, "Condition of the body and the small caliber hid the GSW from me on-scene. I found the slug when I opened him up. Ballistics has it now."

"What about my poisoning vic from Starbucks?"

"He's next up."

"Be sure to run a cross-check versus whatever killed Petar," said Nikki, mindful of Salena Kaye's earlier poisoning victim.

"Gee, ya think?" said Lauren. "Leave the autopsies to me. You concentrate on staying alive."

Heat and Rook patiently waited out another round of Olivia Conklin's sobs in the living room of the airy, seash.o.r.e-themed two-bedroom that would never feel the same to her. The apartment, in a complex of neat gray clapboards with bright white trim, sat waterside next to City Island's sailing school in the Bronx. In the distance beyond the balcony, Long Island shimmered under a spring sun. The view back at them from Great Neck might have been Jay Gatsby's when he contemplated the green light shining across the water. But symbols of brightness, beauty, and optimism had no place in that room. It should have been raining.

For Olivia Conklin, still wearing the crumpled business suit after her night flight home from a software training seminar in Orlando, the only solace was that her husband had been shot. When that's the good news, it's all downhill.

Even though Heat despised this part of the job, it was the part she was best at. She connected, having once been in a similar chair filling Kleenex herself. So she navigated the interview gently, yet alert for signs of guilt, lies, and inconsistencies. Unfortunately spouses proved worthy suspects. With delicacy, she probed the marriage, money, vices, mental health, and hints of infidelity.

"Roy only had one mistress," she said. "His job. He was so dedicated. I know some people hear civil servant and think laziness. Not my Roy. He never left his work at the office. He took public health personally. He called them his restaurants and never wanted a sickness on his watch."

All this only confirmed the research Heat's team had done so far. Roy Conklin's finances were in line with his pay grade. Roach's restaurant checks revealed a man consistently called tough but fair. Neither his wife nor his colleagues knew him to have any enemies, recent erratic behavior, or new people in his life.

"It just makes no sense," said Olivia Conklin. Then the new widow wailed out the single, heart-crushed word Nikki heard from all grievers after the sudden theft of a life. That word was the beacon that guided Detective Heat in her work: "Why?"

As Heat and Rook walked back to her car, past the tidy row of Sunfish trailered in the sailing school parking lot, Nikki's gaze roamed out to the glistening open water. She imagined the smart pop of Dacron as wind filled her sail and she tacked out into Long Island Sound. Then she pictured Roy Conklin standing right there his last living day and wondered if he'd savored that view or if his heart had felt too heavy with fear or guilt at some horrible secret he kept from his wife-a secret that got him killed and left her asking why. Or, Nikki speculated, did poor Roy never see it coming, either? Then her phone rang and yanked Heat into her other case. Sailing would have to wait. Back to juggling.

The call came from the police in Hastings-on-Hudson, a quaint village about a half hour upriver from New York City. Hastings only employed two detectives in its small department, and Heat maintained regular contact with them, checking for sightings of one of the town's residents she needed to talk to.

Vaja Nikoladze was just one of numerous people Heat had put feelers out to, all seen as persons of interest because her mother tutored piano in their households prior to her murder. Nikoladze, an internationally renowned biochemist who had defected from the former Soviet Republic of Georgia, had been eliminated as a suspect in her mother's case. But since Tyler Wynn frequently booked her mom's piano jobs as CIA spy dates, Heat wanted to know if the Georgian expat had had any recent contact with the fugitive.

But just like the elusive Syrian UN attache and the other prominent clients Heat had reached out to, Nikoladze had been unresponsive, leaving Nikki frustrated, waiting weeks for a chance at contact that could bring a break in that case.

She gave Nikoladze the benefit of the doubt. He had been friendly and cooperative when Heat and Rook first visited him three weeks before. But since that time Vaja had been away showing his prized Georgian shepherds at various out-of-state compet.i.tions. Now the Hastings detective was calling to alert Nikki that her person of interest had just been spotted back in town. Wrenched but resolute not to let it drop, Heat juggled the Conklin ball up in the air and headed north. As she pulled onto the Saw Mill Parkway, a flicker of antic.i.p.ation filled her. She knew better than to get ahead of herself, but Nikki dared to hope she might finally be moving forward after almost a month of relentless disappointment.

Forty minutes later, steam cleaning rubber floor mats outside the kennel on his back pasture, Vaja Nikoladze looked up at the undercover police car pulling off the two-lane that ran between his neighborhood's horse pastures and woodlots. Even from a distance, the small man looked surprised when he heard them crunch the pea gravel of his car park. As they made their way across the vast lawn, deep-throated barks echoed inside the long outbuilding before Nikki even spoke. "Afternoon."

Nikoladze didn't reply, but instead pulled a push broom from a bucket of soapy water and power steamed the foam out of the short bristles. The two of them waited, not even trying to engage over the noisy jet spray of the pressurized nozzle. When he had finished, he cut the steam, leaned the broom against the wall, and draped the thick black rubber mats over the decorative railing to drip dry in the sun. Unlike their cordial visit weeks prior, Vaja gave every sign now that he wanted nothing to do with Detective Heat or her ride-along journalist.

"I have a telephone, you know." After more than twenty years in the US, his Georgian accent remained thick and still sounded Russian to Heat's ears.

"We were kind of in the neighborhood," said Rook, earning a glower in return.

"You have come to get more material on me for your next article, Jameson? Maybe not everyone in United States is eager to be so well known, you think of that?" When Rook had accompanied Nikki last time, he and Vaja got along quite well. Nikoladze had offered refreshments, swapped stories, even given an obedience demonstration of his top show dog. Rook's subsequent write-up of the biochemist in his FirstPress article had been minimal-a couple of lines at the most-mere connective tissue in the story of Nikki's quest to find a killer. Clearly, Vaja took exception to the limelight.

Heat didn't care. She pushed right back. "We're here to follow up on my official police investigation, Mr. Nikoladze. And the reason I didn't call first is that you have been uncommunicative. I have left you too many unreturned messages and e-mails. So ding dong, comrade."

Rook circled off to sightsee the Palisades, visible above the tree line. Vaja set aside his ch.o.r.es and crossed his arms. "I have some pictures I want you to look at," said Heat.

"Yes, so your unending messages have said. I told you last time, I don't know this Tyler Wynn."

As she swiped each image on her smart phone, Nikki said, "Indulge me. I want you to see Tyler Wynn, and also this woman, Salena Kaye, and this man here, Petar Matic."

He barely looked at them. "I cannot help you."

"Does that mean you don't recognize them or you can't help?"

"Both." He stared at her with resolve mixed with petulance. "I must inform you that I have been told not to speak to you, or risk deportation."

Rook circled back around from his sightseeing and made eye contact with Nikki. Then her brow lowered and she took a step closer to Vaja. "Exactly who told you this, Mr. Nikoladze?"

When she heard the name, Nikki fumed.

"Detective Heat, NYPD." She flashed tin and added, "Special Agent Callan is expecting us." The reception officer at the Department of Homeland Security's New York field office cleared his throat in an exaggerated way that pulled Rook's attention from the ceiling. He'd been counting cameras since they stepped from Varick Street into the lobby of the huge government building.

"Oh, sorry. Jameson Rook, model citizen." He handed over his driver's license and whispered to Nikki, "More cameras than a Best Buy at Christmas. Five bucks says Jack Bauer already knows we're here."

"Elevator on your right," said the receptionist, handing them each photo-capture pa.s.ses to wear that read "Floor 6." But when they got on the elevator and pushed six, the doors closed, the lights in the car dimmed, and it descended.

After a brief moment of startled disorientation, Rook said, "Black elevator," and began punching the keypad, which did absolutely nothing to stop their downward movement. He gave up and said, "Sweet."

The doors parted in a high-tech subbas.e.m.e.nt command center. Dozens of plainclothes personnel and military from all branches worked computers and stared at giant LED wall screens. The Jumbo-Trons displayed scores of live security cams and lighted grids, one of which resembled a connect-the-dots of the US Northeast. A waiting pair of agents attired in complementary Joseph A. Banks escorted them along a back wall to a situation room where DHS special agent in charge Bart Callan came around from the head of the empty conference table to meet them at the door.

Last time Heat saw him, it had played like a sixties spy movie. Nikki ate her lunch in solitude on a park bench; Agent Callan materialized out of nowhere and sat beside her to deliver a sales pitch to join his team to help track down Tyler Wynn. She heard him out but declined. Nikki couldn't be certain, but it felt to her like Callan then tried to open the personal flank, sending signals of friendship... and perhaps deeper interest. But Heat had a relationship, and more than that, she needed independence from the feds. Her investigative style didn't lend itself to bureaucracy, politics, and red tape. Now, judging from the smile beaming her way as he approached, Special Agent Callan clearly hadn't given up on Nikki.

"Heat, my G.o.d, I never thought I'd see you down here." He thrust out a hand, and when Nikki shook, he clasped his other one over hers and held it exactly one second past friendly. Bart Callan's face brightened around a corn-fed smile that made her blush. Then he turned and said, "Hey, Rook, welcome to the bunker."

"Thanks. And so nice to visit you under my own power." Rook still smarted from what he called the Great Homeland Carjacking. A few weeks before, when Heat and Rook returned from Paris, an agent posing as a car service driver had locked the doors and steered their limo into an empty warehouse off the Long Island Expressway, where Agent Callan interrogated them both about their activities overseas.

Now Callan clamped an arm around Rook's shoulders as he led them into the Situation Room. "Come on, you're not going to hold a grudge about our little impromptu chat, are you?"

Suddenly blown away by the high-tech room, with its flight decksized mahogany table and imposing array of LED screens, Rook said, "Not if you let me meet Dr. Strangelove."

The earnest agent gave him a puzzled look and turned quickly back to Nikki. "Sit, sit." He gestured to the leather high-backed chairs, but she stayed on her feet. Callan sniffed trouble. "OK, not sit-sitting..."

"You told my witness-a person of interest in my mother's case-that he can't speak to me. I demand to know why you are interfering in my investigation."

Callan tugged the knot in his necktie loose. He already had his coat off, and Heat watched his triceps flex against his shirtsleeves. "Nikki, this should be our investigation. All you have to do is come aboard."

"I told you, I want independence, not some federal machine messing with my case."

"Too late," said a woman's voice.

Heat and Rook turned to the door. The woman breezing in carried herself like she was in charge, and knew it. And from Callan's sudden loss of affability, he did, too. Suddenly taut, he said, "Nikki Heat, say h.e.l.lo to-"

But the slender brunette in the tailored black suit jumped in, making her own introduction. "-Agent Yardley Bell, Homeland Security." She gave Heat an appraising look and a strong handshake. Then she turned to Rook, whose face wore an expression Heat had never seen.

"Help me with your name again?" he said, barely able to hide his smile.

And then she said, "Jameson Rook. Holy f.u.c.k." The two moved to shake but, halfway, opted for a hug. Then Yardley Bell surprised Nikki-and Rook-by kissing him. Sure, she planted it on his cheek, not his mouth, but-a kiss.

Heat forgot her DHS beef for a moment.

Yardley Bell pulled back, but not far. She still cupped his shoulders with both hands while she laughed and said, "I'm sorry. That wasn't very professional, was it?" Rook just gaped, speechless for a change. Then Callan, Heat, and Rook sat. Agent Bell chose a spot to lean against the wall behind Callan's chair at the head of the long table. Nikki considered the power message that signaled.

"Detective Heat," she began, "I'm visiting from our team in DC. I came up here to liaise with Special Agent Callan on bringing this Tyler Wynn business you stumbled upon to a happy conclusion. I'm aware of your emotional connection to this case, and you have my deep sympathies." She paused only briefly and rolled onward. "However, make no mistake, this is The Big Show, no lone wolves. We have more of a handle on this than you know, and a big-picture strategy that cannot concern you as an outsider. But-if you choose to smarten up and join the team-you may get an answer to your question. What do you say?"

"Agent Bell, is it?" said Heat. "It's a real pleasure to meet you. But I think my visit is about over. Special Agent Callan, thanks for the tour." She rose. Rook hesitated slightly but got to his feet as well.

They were almost out the door when Bell said, "Don't you want to know about Salena Kaye's phone call from the helicopter?" Nikki hated herself for it, but she stopped and turned. A jumbo LED flat-screen on the wall came to life with a series of animated graphs scanning a map of Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn. Yardley Bell moved beside the giant touch screen and swiped the map with her fingertips to magnify detail of the East River. An oblong box of rolling numbers in the upper right corner time-stamped the grid search.

"This was recorded at the time Kaye escaped from you and borrowed the general aviation chopper." She touched an icon on the side of the gla.s.s, and bright green crosshairs found the middle of the river and blinked steadily. "This is the perp's cellular signal crossing over toward the Brooklyn Navy Yard at twenty-five MPH." Another light flashed on the screen. "This is the cell tower in Red Hook that picked up the call. The trace, as you can see, is bouncing to about eight cellular repeaters in Queens, Staten Island, back to Brooklyn, and so forth." Bell stepped aside while the lights flashed and pinged around the screen like a second-gen video game, then died. "This indicates four things. It wasn't a burner cell. It was an encrypted cell. And it was a sophisticated digital transmission designed to be untraceable, then implode."

"That's only three things," said Heat.

"Oh, right. Number four. You're over your head. You can join us and have access to resources like this, or stay outside and chase your f.u.c.king tail."

At the sound of a hot b.u.t.ton getting pressed, Bart Callan got to his feet and injected himself into the conversation. "That's not about you personally." He stood close to Nikki, giving her his most conciliatory smile. For a military type he had true warmth, and it had a calming effect.

Heat held the brake on her anger. "What's it about then?"

"a.s.sets, plain and simple. We have the infrastructure, the team, and the experience to do this right. What I'd like personally...?" He paused and pressed his palm against his chest. "Is for you to join us and give us the benefit of your insights and, frankly, remarkable skills, Detective Heat."

Callan held her eyes with his, and a small, involuntary flutter rose in Nikki's chest again. She turned to Rook, wondering if he'd read it. Then she looked over at the striking agent across the room, who seemed just to be waiting the whole thing out, and wondered if this was a good agent/bad agent soft sell/hard sell or if Yardley was just a plain a.s.shole. Heat returned Callan's pleasant smile. "This has been very helpful, Bart. I do have to say that I have changed my mind. I came here all p.i.s.sed off to ask you why you were interfering in my investigation, and now..." He looked at her with antic.i.p.ation. "And now I am telling you to stay the h.e.l.l out of it."

Callan insisted on riding topside with his two visitors so he could put in his bid for another meeting, giving Nikki time to cool off and reconsider. When Heat and Rook stepped out into the DHS lobby he stayed on the elevator, holding the door open with his hand. "And don't be put off by Agent Bell's brusque style. I went through an adjustment myself. Kinda had to cinch up my jock when she swooped in on my case."

"Aren't you the ranking officer?"

"I am."

Heat said, "Looks more to me like you're working for her, Special Agent. And now you want me to jump into that political dysfunction?"

"Let's be pros. Let's get past the p.i.s.sing on trees we just saw down there. Agent Bell has an amazing track record in counterintelligence. Just ask your friend here." His reference carried a whiff of animosity that made Rook avert his gaze and threw Nikki off balance as she processed his prior relationship with Yardley. But Nikki regained her footing and pushed back.

"I still want an answer to my question. Vaja Nikoladze."

"OK," said Callan, "I'll give you this one as a gesture of good faith. The Georgian is an informant. We'd like to keep it that way." He cast a buffalo eye at Rook. "I'd go on, but I don't want to be quoted in the media."

Rook said, "Hey, you carjack a journalist and an NYPD detective on the LIE, you're going to buy a paragraph in my article."

Callan didn't respond. He asked Nikki to think it over, then released the door for his descent.

First thing back in the car, Heat said, "OK, spit it out. Who is Yardley Bell?"

"She is a force, isn't she?"

"Rook, she kissed you. Start talking."

"We met in the Caucasus five years ago," he began. "That was when my early reporting on the Chechen rebels began making noise."

"Stick to Yardley Bell, Rook," she said. "I know all about your reporting."

"OK, so I'm in-country, sitting in the cafe next door to my hostel, tapping a dispatch into my laptop, when this woman sits across from me and introduces herself as a field producer for public radio. She said she'd been reading my stuff and wanted to tag along to do advance work for a doc.u.mentary. I thought about it and figured, why not?"

"Because she was hot?"

"Because I'm a sucker for All Things Considered. And because someone who spoke English-let alone was an American-was something I hadn't encountered in six weeks riding with the rebels." Then he shrugged, admitting, "All right, and she was hot."

"How long until you figured out she was CIA?"

"That night. I woke up and caught her going through my laptop and Moleskines."

"In the middle of the night," said Nikki.

"Yes."

"The first night."

"Let's review. Six weeks, American, hot."

"Got it."

"I had my journalistic ethics, though. I wouldn't travel as cover for a spy. And I sure wasn't going to burn the cred I'd established with the warlords. So I sent her off the next morning-OK, next night-and that was that."

Heat made a turn north along the Hudson and said, "No it's not. Rook, I interrogate liars for a living, don't snow me. Not about this."

"Let me finish. I thought that was that-until six months later when I got kidnapped on a mountain trail by a splinter group that accused me of working for the Russians. They beat the s.h.i.t out of me for a week in their caves. And guess who found me and led the rescue mission?"

"Susan Stamberg."