Storm Prey Part 36

"That's what we did."

"And you're good. If you'd done that in a movie, the grenade would have blown down the door and most of the wall. In real life, you probably won't even punch a hole in a fire door. You won't punch through a concrete block."

WEATHER HEARD only one far-off grenade, which sounded more like a door slamming hard; but not quite like that. She looked up, and then back down. Slowing a little bit, taking twenty seconds for neatness.

Then, "I'm out."

"I'm two minutes out, I think I'm okay," Cooper said. The people up above, in the observation area, were standing now, watching him finish, and Weather realized that everybody in the OR was doing the same.

When he finished, he held his hands up, like a referee signaling a touchdown, and said, "Out."

Up above, in the observation desk, people began to applaud.

SHRAKE SHOWED UP and said to Lucas, "I heard about it. You know what we need?"

"What?"

"We need for Cherries to be open," Shrake said. "If Cherries were open, we could block the place up, and squeeze them, and somebody would know the skinhead's name."

Lucas tapped him on the chest. "Call everybody in the files--the Seed guys. Call the guy down in Cottage Grove, and what's-his-name across the river, in Minneapolis."

"One more thing," Shrake said. "The guy might not have registered the van, but he might have insured it. Remember, Joe Mack told him that he was going to cancel his insurance. If he called it in to his insurance company, with a VIN ..."

"Get somebody to start calling insurance companies. Get Sandy on it."

Shrake left.

VIRGIL CAME UP and said, "The twins are good. They're gonna make it, seventy-five percent. The Frenchman is happy, Weather is happy, they're all happy. They're putting the kids back in the ICU and turning them over to the overnight team, then they're gonna do a press conference, and then they're going to a place called Le Moue and eat frogs."

"Aw, for Christ sakes ..."

"Weather's going with them. I told her you were fine. Should I go?"

"Absolutely ... Tell you the truth, with the doc dead and the skinhead either running or locked up here, she's probably safer eating frogs than she would be here."

Virgil said, "Think what would have happened if that a.s.shole had pitched one of the grenades through the observation window into the OR."

"I think the windows are Lucite," Lucas said. "The grenades probably would have bounced."

"And then would have blown ten thousand Lucite splinters into the OR," Virgil said.

"Maybe not," Lucas said. "Contrary to what most people believe, from looking at movies, grenades aren't all that powerful."

"What the h.e.l.l are you talking about?"

"Think about it ..."

WITH ALL the cops systematically working every hallway, every overhead, every closet, every bin, they found not a thing. A uniformed sergeant from Minneapolis told Lucas, "He might still be here. There are more holes in this place than you can believe. We could search for a hundred years and not find him."

Another sergeant said, "The TV people are calling it a terrorist attack, because of the grenades. Somebody ought to say something, if it's just some cracker shooting up the place."

Lucas called Marcy and told her about the terrorism reports, and she said, "Yeah, we know. I'm going out to talk to them in five minutes. I'll try to pour water on it. You remember his face well enough to do a sketch?"

"Not really--just generic skinhead."

"Yeah, I'm the same. I was looking at Mack, I hardly paid any attention to him. Check. Shrake and Virgil, maybe one of them could do it. I'd like something to throw out there."

"It's gonna be a screamer, isn't it?"

"Yeah. Biggest thing since the bridge fell down. Thing is, you're working for WCCO, and if it's a biker going crazy because of a robbery, it's a local story. If it's some kind of terror attack on a hospital in the middle of a twins separation, you'll go network. Now what are you going to do?"

"What an unhealthy way to look at life," Lucas said. "I'm shocked. Shocked." Shocked."

"Think about this: Shaheen was a Muslim."

"Ah, man ..."

BARAKAT HAD BEEN reading a magazine when the trouble started. He didn't hear any gunfire or grenades, because he was too far away, but then cops started pouring through the doors, and he figured something had happened.

Had Cappy hit Karkinnen? The cops acted like it. He checked out with the OR nurse and headed toward the operating suite; saw a nurse go by, whom he recognized from the separation team, stopped her and asked, "Is it done?"

"They're separate," she said, moving around. "What the heck are these policemen? Did something happen?"

So, whatever it was, it wasn't Karkinnen.

Then the rumors started, and finally, Cappy called.

After that, he sat out the end of the shift, a full hour, afraid to move early, praying that he wouldn't get a last-minute case. He didn't, briefed the night crew, and changed into street clothes. On his way out, he saw the separation crew, or many of them, heading for the door. Maret had been on television a half hour earlier, with the parents: the kids were doing well, and Sara was getting the full heart treatment she'd needed since she was born.

Maret and both of the Rayneses cried for the cameras, did a group hug, and then somebody asked, "Do you think this terrorist attack was because of the separation surgery?"

That had ended the press conference.

Now, most of the team went out the door, into the falling snow, Barakat tagging along, a half-block behind. They were all walking, going down the street as a group, Karkinnen with them, and the cowboy cop. Happy, laughing, expansive ... Two blocks down to a French restaurant. Barakat stood outside, hands in his coat pockets, and watched them go up an interior stairs, to a private dining room.

Nothing to do. No way to get at her.

He walked away, heading home.

VIRGIL SAW WEATHER up to the private dining room, then walked back down and around the corner and got two bottles of Sch.e.l.l's Snowstorm beer, got the store guy to crack the caps, put them in his pockets and walked back to Le Moue, and up the stairs. Weather was working on a daiquiri when he slipped in next to her, and a woman said in a French accent, "Do you wish anything to drink?"

Virgil said, "Water would be fine."

Weather: "We got a bunch of finger food coming ..."

Somebody else said, "When Rick was doing that last cut, I flashed on this thing, I mean, we were pulling them apart. Like, if there was some psychic connection between them, what would be going through their brains when we actually finally moved them ... ?"

Virgil took one of the Snowstorms out of his coat pocket, flipped the top off, took a hit, leaned close to Weather and said, quietly, "You heard the doc was killed?"

She turned, said, "What?" a smile dying on her face.

He told her about the discovery of Shaheen. "So he was kind of like an Arab-he was Lebanese, a Muslim, and he did have an accent."

She frowned. "What'd he look like?"

Virgil said, "You know-dark-complected, dark hair, worn a little long, a black mustache."

"Oh my G.o.d," she said. "I saw him. The day of the robbery. He was in an elevator with me, when I was coming down from the parking ramp. I completely forgot about it."

"Huh. Then you got lucky. He didn't know that you'd seen the other guys," Virgil said.

"Oh my G.o.d," she said, hand to her chest. "He was so polite. And good-looking. Like Zorro."

Virgil said, "Good-looking. Like Zorro."

"Yeah, you know. Zorro."

"I went down to take a look at him. He didn't look like Zorro. He looked like Sancho Panza. He was about five-six and chubby."

She said, "Oh. Then he's not the man I saw. The man I saw was more than six feet. As tall as Lucas, but thin. Like you. But dark-complected, black hair, a mustache."

"A doc?"

She nodded. "He was wearing a physician's scrubs. But maybe ... I'm misremembering. I didn't expect to see anybody there at that time in the morning, and we were alone in the elevator. Maybe it was this Shaheen man. Maybe he seemed larger to me."

"And thinner? And better-looking?"

"That doesn't seem likely, does it?"

Virgil stood up. "No, it doesn't. Don't let any of these French people take my beer. I gotta call Lucas."

LUCAS THOUGHT about it for a minute, then said, "Shaheen getting killed was pretty convenient, huh? An Arab-looking doc, who didn't keep any of the good stuff around his apartment, but did keep the cheap stuff and a bunch of packaging."

"That's what I'm thinking," Virgil said.

Lucas told Marcy about it, and she said, "I suppose it's possible. Not likely, though."

"Not likely, but Weather's got a good eye. And that part of the hospital is about empty--it's mostly equipment storage, mechanical systems, all that. Why would a doc be there, in scrubs, at that time in the morning?"

"I'll get some photos of Shaheen; she can check him out. Maybe when she sees a photograph, she'll recognize him."

Lucas sat alone and thought about it. And he thought: If Weather could identify n.o.body but Joe Mack, and if Joe Mack was long gone in Kansas, and if they were going to get him for some involvement with the kidnapping and murder of Jill MacBride--and Lucas still thought they would, when the DNA came back from traces taken from the driver's seat of MacBride's van--then why was somebody still looking for Weather? Weather was no longer Joe Mack's big problem.

And the answer was, Weather had seen the doc.

The doc needed to kill Weather. And he would continue to need to kill her.

SHRAKE CALLED. "Guess what?"

"What?"

"I got something," he said.

"Did you hurt him bad?"

"Who?"

"Whoever you beat up," Lucas said.

"Hey--this was purely brain work. There's a skinhead who used to hang out with Chapman and Haines from time to time," Shrake said. "The guy I talked to said his name is Cappy. At least, that's what people call him. Rides a big BMW, might have come from California. That's all I got, but I think if I go around and hammer on people a little, I might be able to break out more. All we need is a license number, a last name ..."

"Tell you what, I think you got him," Lucas said. "Push it. Something else: I think the doc is still running around loose."

"Whoa."

"Yeah. Take it easy out there."