Long After Midnight by Iris Johansen Read Free Book Online Page B

“You still have time.”
    He shook his head. “I’ll stay with you.”
    God, she was tired of being noble. Why couldn’t Michael fight his own battles? One more try. “It’s really okay with me if—”
    She was knocked against the Honda with bone-cracking force.
    “Mom!”
    “I’m okay.” She reached out blindly to steady herself against the hood, then turned around toward Joshua, who was picking himself up off the ground. “Are you hurt? I don’t know what happ—”
    The door of Michael’s car was lying on the grass only a few feet from where they stood. The car itself was a mass of flames.
    “Michael?” she whispered.
    Joshua was looking at the flaming wreckage in bewilderment. “But where’s Dad . . .”
    And then Joshua screamed.
             
    “How you doing?”
    Kate looked up to see Alan Eblund climbing the bleacher steps. She drew Joshua closer and wrapped the blanket tighter around both of them. Cold. She couldn’t seem to get warm, but the blanket helped. Someone had given the blanket to them, she remembered dully. That’s right, Rory’s mother. She had gotten it out of her trunk. Kind. Everyone had been kind.
    Alan sat down beside her and said heavily, “You know how I feel, Kate.”
    Yes, Alan would feel as if he’d lost a brother. “Joshua needs to go home. The police wouldn’t let us leave.”
    “I know.”
    “He needs to go home.”
    “I brought Betty, she’s waiting in the car. We’ll take him home with us.”
    Her arm tightened around Joshua. “No.”
    “Listen, Kate, you’re almost in shock and so is Joshua. You can’t take care of him.” He paused. “And he shouldn’t be there when you tell Phyliss.”
    Phyliss. Oh God, she had to go home and tell Phyliss her son was dead.
    Michael was dead. Fresh pain washed over her, raw and piercing through the shock.
    Alan turned to Joshua. “I know you want to be with your mom, but she needs to be alone with your grandmother for a while. Betty’s waiting outside the gate. Will you let her take you to my house?”
    “No.” Joshua’s arms tightened around her. “I’ve got to stay with Mom.”
    Alan looked at Kate.
    She wanted to keep on holding Joshua, to try to make everything all right. But how did you go about making the sight of your father being blown to pieces go away? Joshua would need her more when the numbness wore off. She nodded. “I’ll be okay, Joshua. Please go. I’ll pick you up in a few hours.”
    “But what if—” He reluctantly released her, stood up, and started down the steps. He stopped and whirled on Alan. He said fiercely, “You take care of her.”
    “You bet,” Alan said gravely.
    They both watched him as he descended the stairs.
    “He saw it?” Alan asked.
    She nodded. “We were both in the parking lot.”
    “He’s taking it well.”
    “The hell he is. He couldn’t stop shaking for an hour.” She shivered. “And neither could I. What happened, Alan?”
    “We think it was a car bomb wired to the ignition.” He put his arm around her. “He started the car and . . . boom.”
    “A car bomb,” she repeated. “Who?”
    “Michael was a narcotics detective. You know the risks. We were closing in on a big operation. The Bochak combine had made threats to both of us.” He shrugged wearily. “Or maybe it was someone he fingered in the past. I’ll look into both possibilities. I hope we’ll know more when the lab boys get through going over the car.”
    She felt sick as she remembered that blazing funeral pyre. “I don’t see how there could be anything left to go over.”
    “You’d be surprised. Michael came to these games every Tuesday?”
    She nodded. “And Saturday.”
    “So, he had a routine going? Someone watching him would know he was going to be here?”
    “I guess so.” She shook her head dazedly. “It seems impossible. At a Little League game? It shouldn’t have happened here. How did they plant the bomb? There were people coming and going all the