Middle Of Nowhere

   "Lofgrin will measure the height of the rear bumper against those scratches as you fellows arrived, and then he'll compare that to the height of the same bumper upon your departure less than ten minutes later." He stopped to win Pendegrass's attention. "What you should have done . . ." Boldt advised the man, ". . . was take the assault rifles, but leave the military shipping cases. But that would have taken more time, right? That's what I'm thinking: You were in a hurry. The guns don't weigh much at all. But those military shipping cases add up. Lofgrin can measure the height of that bumper going in and coming out. He will prove that when you left that garage ten minutes later, you were carrying over two hundred extra pounds in the trunk. A dead body? I don't think so. Given the missing videotape recorded on that same night, and at least one missing weapon, what do you think I.I. is going to make of your visit?"

   "Circumstantial bullshit. You won't get to square one with this."

   This was the sticking point of Boldt's argument. The evidence on the tape was circumstantial—and only cir cumstantial—but Boldt needed Pendegrass to believe otherwise. "Might be," Boldt agreed. "How do you think I.I. will look at it? About all they ever deal with is circumstantial evidence. People are going to get questioned about this. People working in the boneyard. You. The others. Deals will be offered to one of you. Chapman will be subpoenaed to turn over that other tape. The best laid plans. . . . A cop was shot at with one of those stolen weapons. This cop!" Boldt said defiantly. He walked over to the VCR and took the tape back. "You guys talk it over. My offer's on the table for tonight and tonight only."

   Pendegrass stood there like a statue.

   Boldt said, "Once Bernie Lofgrin gets this, it's out of my hands."

   Pendegrass tried to sound convincing. "It don't mean nothing."

   Boldt stopped at the front door. "Then you've got nothing to worry about."

C H A P T E R

66

Boldt's plan came down to the next few hours. If he was to turn circumstantial evidence into incriminating evidence, he believed it would happen before morning.

   He lived twenty minutes from Pendegrass, and he spent much of the time with his eyes trained on his rearview mirror and his right hand gently touching the videotape in the seat beside him. He couldn't be sure, but he believed the same car that had been following him all night—to Chapman's, downtown, and to Pendegrass's—was still back there: a narrow set of headlights with a blue cast to the light itself.

   Riorden and Smythe lived the closest to him, and he assumed one of them would be awaiting his return home. Either there would be an offer to trade tapes, or violence. He doubted any call would be placed to his home with an offer—even Property cops knew better than to leave a paper trail.

   As he pulled into his driveway, a Seattle mist filled the air, fog passing so low to the earth that it gently rinsed everything, everyone, in its path. He ran his wipers even though it wasn't completely necessary: He didn't want any surprises.

   He turned off the car, that dreaded sense of foreboding enveloping him, as well as a deepening sadness that cops were involved. He loved the uniform. He loved the department and what it stood for. It was as simple as that.

   He picked up the video and slid it beneath the seat as he and LaMoia had planned. Once outside the car, he used the remote to lock all doors at once. He slipped the bulky keys into his pocket, wondering what felt so wrong. After three or four thoughtful steps he realized what it was.

   The silence.

   The neighbor's dog did not bark at him, did not scratch at the fence. If Pendegrass, Riorden and Smythe had been the three men who had assaulted him a week earlier—which he now believed—then they knew well enough about that dog. Its silence became all the more frightening.

   Pendegrass had taken the bait.

   "Hello?" Boldt called, lugging that walking cast along with him. His hand sought out his weapon. The back door to his house suddenly seemed extremely far away.

   He reached the bottom of the back steps. It was dark up there on the porch. There wasn't a light on in the kitchen or the back of the house, which was not the way Liz would have left it. Someone had shorted the circuit, blown a fuse. He didn't want to go up there, but didn't want to drag the cast around to the front door, even though there would be street light there, and neighbors who might see him or hear him if he called out.

   He heard a car door thump shut behind him. One street away. Connected, or coincidence? he asked himself. Adrenaline filled him, for he'd been here before in nearly this exact situation. Only now there was no dog to come to his rescue. Now he carried this cast on his leg.