He took a slow deep breath, looked at her and then Kano, who shrugged.
“Let’s go,” Kano said. “We’re wasting time.”
*
Garret didn’t know how he felt about bringing Astra again. She was here, and she was safe at the moment, but she was right. If Amy were there, it could get difficult. At the same time, he didn’t really want Astra to see any more of the ugliness of the seedier side of life. As they grabbed up jackets, he warned her, “You may not like what you see.”
“I never like what I see in my job,” she said, with all seriousness.
He thought about the work she did and nodded. “At least there’s a sense of satisfaction at the end of the day.”
“Only on the good days,” she said. “Some of these cases take years.”
“I know,” he said. “Some of ours do too. They’re just—” And he stopped. He wrapped an arm around her shoulder and led her through to the other apartment. “We’re going out a different way,” he said. “Nobody uses the front door.”
“Is that why it’s got the alarm set?”
“Charles sets the alarms anytime he’s inside or when he leaves,” he said. “He’s been caught off guard once too many times for peace of mind.”
“It’s also very difficult,” she murmured. “He takes it so easily.”
“He’s very good at what he does, and he’s been doing this for a very long time.”
“I can imagine,” she said. “It’s still a surprise though.”
“Of course it is. You don’t expect anybody in his generation to be active in this. But you know? He’s been doing it for so long, I’m not sure he could stop.”
“He should be sitting in front of a fireplace, with a partner,” she said. “Having tea and cookies.”
“Don’t write him off. He’s not that old,” Garret warned. “He’d be insulted if you thought he was past his prime.”
She chuckled. “There’s nothing past prime about him,” she said. “He’s heading into a wonderful age group, and he’s so very graceful.”
“He also has some of the best self-defense moves you’ve ever seen,” he said. “Like I said, don’t think you know him. There’s a reason he does the work he does.”
She nodded slowly. “So easy to place people into little boxes that fit what we think they are, isn’t it?”
“That’s one of the biggest lessons about the work we do,” Kano said. “Learning not to pigeonhole people but to open up your mind and see what people really are like. Whether it’s what you want to see them as or not. And that’s kind of hard too because, seeing those people, and what they can do to others, it’s just disgusting.”
“It is,” Garret said. “That’s another reason why it’s so important that we take as many of these guys off the streets as we can.”
“We don’t get many of them off though, do we?” she asked, as he led her downstairs and into the vehicle. “It seems like all we end up with is more slime.”
“I’d like to think we’re winning the war,” he said. “Technology’s made that both easier and harder because a lot of the scumbags out there are techies as well.”
“Yeah,” she said. “That’s where we come in.”
“So you know exactly what I’m talking about.” He helped her into the back of the vehicle and said, “Now let’s go.”
She sighed, buckled up, and said, “Don’t write me off either. I might not have the skills that you guys have, but I have a lot of common sense.”
“Glad you got that, but not your sister,” he said, “because I don’t know what she’s thinking.”
“I suspect she saw Rick as a friend, somebody she could go out with and spend a few hours in a pub,” she said quietly. “Of course that’s the opposite of what he is, but Amy wouldn’t have seen an enemy coming. She’s just not the kind of person to see it.”
“Is she stupid?” Kano asked.
“Not stupid, per se, but naive,” Astra said, “definitely naive.” She was seated in the back, with both Garret and Kano in the front, Kano driving, while Garret brought up the addresses they were heading to. Jonas remained at Charles’s house, tidying things up about the murders. The car ride to the potential country residences, where Gregg could be held, was silent for twenty minutes, until they came close to the first house in question. Lights were on, and several vehicles were parked in front. Loud laughter came from inside.
She leaned forward and said, “That doesn’t look likely.”
“Why is that?” Garret asked, interested to hear her response.
“Well, surely it wouldn’t be party time, if something like a kidnapping was going on, would it?”
“Well, it’s a great way to hide what’s going on in the deep dark recesses of a house. Nobody would hear him screaming.”
“Oh, God,” she said and sank back.
He wasn’t sorry he’d said that because absolutely nothing was clean, neat, or tidy about this business. It was quite possible to stage such a gathering, if somebody wanted something from Gregg and if he were being tortured in an attempt to get it. Garret looked at Kano. “I suggest you leave me here, and you and Astra go drive past the other address and check that out.”
“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking,” he said. “You okay alone?”
“No, he’s not,” she said.
“I’m okay,” Garret replied, and, without giving her a chance to say anything, he slipped from the vehicle and morphed into the shadows.
*
Garret lived in the shadows, and it seemed he loved the shadows in a way. It’s where he was comfortable, and an awful lot could be accomplished there, as long as he had a bit of room to work. He knew she didn’t like it one bit, but that was just too bad. It was one of the things that she must get used to, if or when they ever decided to see each other on a less formal basis. Certainly that relationship was something he wanted to pursue, but he wasn’t so sure about her. He kept catching something in her gaze every once in a while, and he wasn’t sure what that was all about.
He knew Charles had made a point earlier and then had nodded at him a couple times, as if to say, “Come on, boy. Step up.” But Garret wasn’t sure what was supposed to happen with that either. His wasn’t an easy business to be in and to also have a relationship. He’d tried it with Amy and had to admit that it had been a really shitty decision on his part. He couldn’t blame her for that, but, at the same time, it wasn’t exactly a decision made with much intelligence.
That was sad too, because Amy had deserved more than he’d given. Apparently she needed a lot more, and he just hadn’t known. It still burned him to think of what she and his brother did, but it no longer bothered him with the same intensity. He could now clearly see Amy as completely unsuited for him and realized that, as much as he didn’t want her, he probably should thank his brother for taking her off his hands.
As he walked to the house, he saw a woman in the kitchen. She answered a phone call, put it down, and then proceeded to fill a tray with food. He wondered if she was taking that to a prisoner, in which case, that would make for an awesome opportunity for Garret. He followed her movements, as she picked up the tray and headed out to the room up above the garage. But, as soon as a man let her in, she put down the tray, turned around, and threw her arms around him. It was obvious that her visit had been for something completely different than checking up on a prisoner. Unless his brother was the prisoner. As he studied the man’s frame, which was taller and skinnier than his brother, Garret knew he was going in the wrong direction there.