Koumbaros and Koufettas

Chapter 38: Loaded for Bear

After a moment's silence, Mike cleared his throat and said, "Lindsay, I'm so sorry. We should have tried harder. We should have forced them to tell us. But we assumed that Dad…"

"Maybe he was trying to keep her safe, too," Danny interrupted. "Maybe he did what he thought was best."

Lindsay smiled at him a little shakily and blinked back tears. Trust Danny, she thought, to try and find the best in anyone. For a tough New York detective, he sure had a soft centre.

Joey snorted, "Yeah, well, miracles could happen, I guess. Anyway, when our brother Ben was shot in a takedown last month, Lindsay saw it in a news report. She phoned my house and left a message. It took some digging, but we found out how to contact her. We didn't, though, because we were still getting warnings about her safety."

Lindsay's hand crept into Danny's, silently asking his forgiveness for not talking to him about the calls she had tried to make to Montana. It had just been too much to deal with. He squeezed her hand back, and smiled. As long as she was talking to him now, he was prepared to forgive anything.

"So," Mac's quiet voice broke in again, "Why are you all here?"

"Strangways. One of Jason's prison contacts heard he was out and on his way to New York. We knew he's been carrying a grudge against Lindsay, and now that we knew where she was, it seemed obvious he was after her. We tried to get Johnston to do something, but all he was willing to do was contact New York to warn you. When we found out that no additional information was being sent, we decided that wasn't good enough." Jason's mouth was firmly set; no one was under any illusion about his ability to cheerfully take down anyone in his way.

"We knew Strangways was obsessed with getting the person who took him down. So we decided to come and find out what the plan was. We didn't know whether he's got here or not yet. We've been two steps behind the whole way. Whatever you do now, we're in on it. Use us," Joey was equally determined.

Mac and Don glanced at each other. More trained men they could count on were always useful, but there was the maverick issue: could they trust these guys to do what they were told and not go off half-cocked? Between Danny and the Gray brothers, the potential for disaster was huge. Mac gave a clipped nod, and Don a half shrug. "Let's talk," said the detective, taking out his notebook. "What can you tell me about Strangways?"

As the discussion got under way, Lindsay felt her cell phone vibrate against her hip. Flipping it open to answer it, she automatically checked the call display, and frowned when she didn't recognize the number. She held up her hand as she answered, and the voices in the room stilled. Don pulled out his phone in readiness.

"Detective Lindsay Messer."

"Detective," the voice purred in her ear, and she nodded sharply to Don, who already had the lab on the phone.

"Who is this?" Her voice was calm and steady.

"Oh, come now, Lindsay. Surely you and all your big city buddies have figured it out by now? After all, you must have been dining off your triumph for years by now. How many country girls can claim they took down nearly an entire police department single-handedly? That must have impressed the big boys in New York no end. I'm a little surprised to find you still in the lab, though. I'd have though IAB was more your style. Disloyalty looks so good on you."

"Who are you?" Lindsay was determined to give him no satisfaction. Although she recognized the voice, she wanted his name on the record.

"Shouldn't that be, 'Who are you, Captain?' Come on, Lindsay, after all we shared, don't tell me you don't know me. After months of working together? Weeks of staring at each other across the courtroom? The least you could do after betraying me is to acknowledge that you know me now." The voice was not so smooth now; a little raw edge had crept in.

Don was motioning her to keep talking: they needed a few more minutes to triangulate the call and figure out where the caller was. He left the room at a run to co-ordinate the search, while Mac took over as liaison on the radio.

"How did you get this number?" Lindsay was damned if she would use his name. She pushed up the volume on her phone so that his voice could just be heard in the room.

"I am an investigator, Lindsay, my dear. I did teach you everything you know. This was not a very difficult job. How was your lunch? I like the burgers at Joe's, and of course the ambience is very nice for a cop like me."

"A cop like you? What kind of cop would that be? A drug-dealing pimp?"

She took his hiss of anger as a minor victory. "What do you want?"

"You. Just you. No other Grays. Yes, I saw the posse come riding to the rescue. Notice Daddy didn't come. No other cops, including that jumped-up little gangster spawn you married. You can't hide in the precinct forever. Eventually you are going to come out, and I'll be waiting."

"Then what? Are you going to kill me? It's not like that will do you any good. Every cop in the city is looking for you already. I'll be dead, but you'll be back in jail, if they don't kill you first. This is New York, Captain," Lindsay infused as much scorn as she possibly could into the word. "The cops here don't have to worry about whose brother you are, or who your daddy was. Shooting to kill is second nature. You're out of your league."

"I'm out of my league? ME? I was born to be in this league. I was the one who ran the precinct. I was the one who trained you, Gray. Who the HELL are you to tell me what league I'm in?"

Strangways' voice was rising as Lindsay deliberately goaded him. She knew from the muttered conversation Mac was having and the frantic activity happening around her that cops were flooding the streets looking for him. If she could just keep him focused on her and unaware of everything else, this could all be over very quickly.

"Sorry, sir, but it seems to me that I spent the past three years training under a real CSI with the best team in the top lab in the country, while you spent the same time in jail. And you know what? That was the best day's work I ever did. Anything I ever do in my life will never feel quite the same as seeing you go away." Her taunts were getting to him, she could tell by his laboured breathing.

She stared at Danny as she spoke. He was watching her with a kind of frustrated pride she recognized; it was hard for her knight in shining armour to stand back and let her take the lead on anything. She loved that it was hard for him. She loved that he did it anyway. She smiled brightly as she prepared to drive the knife deeper into her former mentor.

"You know, Rod, you did okay for a while. You could have probably managed to keep the prostitution under wraps. But you should have known better than to bring drugs into the mix. Kids can't keep quiet when they're hopped up, no matter how much you scare them. They rolled on you like logs in the water. I had more evidence than I could process once they started talking. It was the easiest collar I ever made. You made it even easier by being so cocky. Who knew how little … muscle … you had to back up your boasts?"

This time, everyone in the room heard the howl. "You bitch! You bloody little bitch! You took it all. You took everything from me. I will get you if it is the last thing I ever do…" The voice petered out, and Lindsay could hear Don's voice, "Hands up! New York Police! Put up your hands, Strangways. Get them behind your head!"

Then it was Don's voice on the phone, "Nice work, Detective. He was only a block away, moving towards the precinct. All secure." A moment's pause, and Don said, "What the hell did you say to him, Linds? He's raving here."

"I guess the truth can be hard to hear. Thanks, Don. Thanks for everything."

"See you in a while. We're on our way to Central Booking, aren't we, Strangways?"