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Chapter 9

The gray Beetle pulled to the curb facing the Brooklyn Bridge, but about half a block south. Emmie subconsciously felt for her gun, holstered at her hip, but just slightly to the back. Nicole was no idiot; Emmie was a cop, of course she was going to be armed. But all the same, if she could hide the lump. . . The phrase 'out of sight, out of mind' flicked through her thoughts.

She glanced at the dashboard clock. 10:03. She was three hours early. But if this was really going down, she wanted Nicole to show up after her. She wanted to have the advantage over that psycho bitch, not the other way around.

The shrill ring of her cell phone startled Emmie out of her thoughts. She looked at the caller ID before answering: a private number. It could be her.

"Hello?"

"Emmie, where are you?" It was definitely not her. It was a man.

"Who is this?"

"It's Detective Goren, where are you?"

Oh. Right. Oops.

"Didn't your partner tell you where I was going?"

"Maybe if you'd told her first, she would have," he said. He sounded irritated.

"Oh. Sorry."

"Where are you?" he asked again.

"I'm on Pearl Street, about half a block south of the bridge. Where else would I be?"

"Emmie, we need you here so we can plan a tactical course of action," Goren told her. "Why did you go down there by yourself?"

Now Emmie was beginning to get irritated. "Because I didn't want this bitch showing up early and getting an advantage over me."

"All right. We're coming down there. Don't move."

"Okay, okay, I'll be right here." Emmie closed the phone and tossed it into the passenger seat. She sat back in the seat, arms crossed, taking deep breaths.

Did he really think she was a total idiot like that? Where else would she have gone. They are the detectives, she thought irritably to herself. Shouldn't they have been able to figure it out?

She closed her eyes and took another deep breath, then opened them again. There was no point dwelling on it. She had a job to do.

Eames looked at her watch on their way to the SUV. "It's barely ten o'clock!"

"She thinks she's keeping Nicole from getting an advantage."

Goren slid into the passenger seat as Eames climbed into the driver seat and started the engine.

"Any ideas?" she asked as she floored the gas and took off toward the FDR Drive.

"A couple," Goren said. "She said she's south of the bridge. Make sure you come from the north."

Nicole double checked the back seat, making sure he was still unconscious. He was. She slammed the door and got into the driver's seat, glancing at her watch. Plenty of time. She checked her purse, then put the vehicle in drive and pulled away from the curb.

Emmie changed the radio station. Commercial. She changed it again. Rap. She changed it again. Commercial. She changed it again. Red Hot Chili Peppers. She left it.

Time was moving slower than she ever remembered it moving. The clock read 10:53. Goren and Eames should be pulling up any minute. Hopefully they had a plan because all Emmie had was her Glock.

Outside, coming southbound toward the VW Beetle, a set of headlights was approaching. Emmie squinted to make out the vehicle; the high beams were on. Judging by the height, it was probably an SUV. Should be Goren and Eames' SUV. Emmie took her keys out of the ignition and, checking her weapon one last time, got out of the car as the SUV pulled to a stop in front of her.

As the tinted driver's window began to roll down, Emmie steeled herself for a chastising from the senior officers. But when the window was about halfway down, Emmie realized that the blond driving was too blond…

"You…" she whispered. She reached back for her gun as Nicole raised her hand. Emmie didn't even have time to register what Nicole was holding. She shrieked as her eyes felt like they had suddenly erupted in flames. She rubbed at her face with one hand while still grabbing at her gun. She finally got it out and pointed it blindly as Nicole stepped down from the SUV.

"Now Emmie," Nicole said, attempting a soothing tone. "We don't need that. We don't want anyone to get hurt. Least of all Rick."

"Where is he?" Emmie yelled at the blurred figure in front of her.

"Put the gun down and I'll tell you."

"Not happening," Emmie said thickly, between coughs and gasps. She recognized the side effects immediately, of mace. "Where is—" She was interrupted as she burst into a coughing fit.

Nicole lunged. Emmie stumbled. They both went down on the center line of Pearl Street, Nicole on top. She went straight for the gun. Emmie threw it back toward her car. Nicole jumped up to go after it, but Emmie rolled onto her side and wrapped her arms around Nicole's ankles, bringing her back down. But Nicole reacted, jumping back toward Emmie, who was still being affected by the mace. Emmie saw the fuzzy shape of Nicole coming back to her, and jumped to her knees and threw her shoulder into Nicole, knocking her back, and now jumping on top of her. Emmie flung her fist in a random direction and felt it make contact with Nicole's nose. Right before she felt a sharp prick in her side, and everything got a little fuzzier before going completely black.

A set of headlights approached the little gray Beetle, parked on the side of the street. The SUV cut across and came to stop, bumper to bumper with the Volkswagen.

"Damn it," Goren growled, jumping out before Eames put it in park.

The car was obviously empty, but he went to the driver's side and looked anyway.

Eames had hopped out and was on the passenger side, looking around. With a sigh, she bent down and stood back up, holding the Glock so Goren could see. Frustrated, he looked out at the empty street. She was with Nicole, unarmed… No signs of a stru—Scratch that. Something was glinting in the light in the middle of the street. He walked over to it, pulling a glove from his pocket. He squatted next to it and picked it up.

"Tell me you've found a unique chunk of dirt that is indigenous to a close-by, small area," Eames said walking over. She looked over his shoulder at the empty syringe.

"Great," she muttered. "So now we've got two missing cops, and if she's got them both drugged up, they can't do anything to help themselves."

Goren rose to his full height as he slowly turned to face the car. "Do you think she held on to Delgado?"

Eames followed his gaze to the back hatch of the Beetle.

Goren moved to the rear of the car while Eames went to the driver's door. It was unlocked. She reached down for the trunk release.

Goren lifted the back hatch open and stared down at the unconscious form of Enrique Delgado.

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